Riding the Shinkansen back to Tokyo during the daytime was a much easier than our initial nighttime journey to Kyoto.
Who knew that being well-rested and having some idea of what you’re doing can really add a lot to an experience?
After arriving at Shinjuku Station our main goal was to head directly to our hotel. My idea was to use Uber and it was going a while for the car to arrive. Becca just wanted to get moving so I impatiently just began walking because it didn’t seem like it was very far away, which ended up being a terrible impulse. Especially with a baby, stroller, luggage and when it lightly rains for the entire 25 minute walk.
Taxis definitely became our friends from that point on.
We met up with our friends in the morning (who arrived late the previous night), said our hellos, ate breakfast, and got walking with Harajuku and Shibuya as our main destinations.
Becca and I took turns wearing Linnea in the carrier – which was a much better idea than taking the stroller as the streets were packed and navigating would have been awful.
Other than the heat and general sweatiness factor, carrying ended up being the easiest method of baby transportation in Tokyo. The stroller was comically large and it didn’t fit well in elevators, hallways, restaurants, or stores. It was kind of like driving the largest imaginable old Buick around in an alley or crowded street.
One of our favorite restaurant experiences was in Shibuya at a place called Ichiran (which was literally underground) where you put in your order at a vending machine, make some customizations to the order such as richness, garlic, spiciness, and then sit at a small booth and wait for your food to be given to you through a small window in front of you.
Was it the best and most ramen in existence? No idea, but I’m pretty sure we just searched for ramen shops nearby on TripAdvisor which is the digital equivalent to romantically stumbling across something memorable.
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We had spent part of a day earlier wandering around Ginza and ended up staying there for a few nights at the end of the trip.
I can’t really remember having any specific activities in mind other than visiting the famous Tsukiji Fish Market.
It was definitely amazing to see how much seafood passes through the market on a daily basis. For some reason I imagined it was going to be something like Pike Place Fish Market (uber-touristy), but it was much more like a big fish warehouse with forklifts buzzing around and people just trying to get their work done.
Our original plan was to get sushi at one of the restaurants at the market, but the long lines made buying prepared foods and snacks at a convenience store much more appealing.
After a bus ride to the airport and a quick skip through security – the benefits of children! – we were on the plane for our last flight which we assumed would be terrible, but Linnea ended up sleeping for 7 of the 9 hours. You might expect that we would have tried to sleep, but we just binge watched movies
