A couple months have passed since we left Japan and we’re already on the road again – in Bulgaria! But I want to finish these last few posts of the last leg before I get into our adventures here. 

After eight weeks in Vietnam, we returned to Japan for seven weeks. Like we did in February with our weeklong trip that included Nagano, we book-ended our time with several days in Tokyo, since that is the easiest city to enter and exit the country. And a city we know we love. 

Tokyo 1 – Asakusa in April

We arrived back in Tokyo on April 15 and chose the Asakusa neighborhood for our two-night stay, staying in another APA hotel paid with credit card points (review below). The location was great, next to the Sumida River and a couple blocks from the Nakamise Shopping Street that leads to Sensō-ji Temple (which we visited on our first trip to Tokyo in 2019). The neighborhood was full of bars and restaurants, some of which were kind of touristic but many that felt very local.

We arrived in the afternoon and didn’t have time to do much on our first day besides checking out our neighborhood and going out to dinner at a fantastic ramen restaurant called Fuji Ramen, where I got a soy ramen and Chad got a spicy miso ramen. Both were top-notch.

For our first and only full day in Tokyo during this visit, we walked to the Shitamachi Museum in Ueno Park. Shitamachi was the area of Tokyo where the lower classes lived, and included the area that is now Asakusa. The museum has replicas of buildings from the early twentieth century and exhibits explaining daily life and events during that time. After a devastating earthquake in 1923, Shitamachi was modernized to look more like the rest of Tokyo. The museum was very interesting and just the right size. 

After our visit there, we walked around Ueno Park and got to see many pretty cherry blossom trees still in bloom. We walked back to our neighborhood for some conveyor belt sushi followed by a visit to Sumida Park, which had more cherry blossoms. 

After a rest, we went to a dog cafe, another part of our Christmas gift to each other that I explained in my prior Tokyo post. The photos make it look lovely and fun, but we really didn’t enjoy our brief time there. All the dogs cared about were the treats we purchased to give them. If you didn’t have food, they mostly ignored you. And a couple of dogs were big jumpers and would just try to jump up and take the food. We decided that would be our last animal cafe visit. We were already a little iffy on the concept (though the mini-pigs seemed very happy with their human interaction) and there weren’t any other types of animals that seemed ethical to us (owl cafes and hedgehog cafes are also popular but by most accounts are not very good for the animals). 

One thing we wanted to try while in Asakusa was hoppy, a non-alcoholic beer-like drink that the locals mix with the Japanese liquor shochu to create a substitute for beer. I can’t remember if we found the answer to “why,” but I think it had something to do with post-WWII economics. There are many bars and izakayas (essentially Japanese tapas bars) selling hoppy in Asakusa, which includes a street known as Hoppy Street. We chose an izakaya with great reviews and a good view of the street called Yamaka Sakaba. We ordered our hoppy and shochu and a few small plates. It was fun to try hoppy once, but not something we’d get again. Beer is easier and tastes better if that’s the flavor profile you’re looking for. Why drink hoppy and shochu when you can just get an Asahi?

We wrapped up our evening by going to a monjayaki restaurant called Zen’ya. It was our first time trying monjayaki, which is kind of like okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) but with a looser, gooier batter. We ordered one monjayaki with seafood, which we cooked ourselves on the griddle to experience it slightly changing textures as it cooked. We also got an okonomiyaki, which we definitely liked better. Still, it was another fun thing to try. Japan seems to have a never-ending supply of interesting foods. 

The next day, we took a morning train to Hakone. 

Tokyo 2 – Shibuya in late May

We returned to Tokyo following Hakone, Atami, Kyoto, and our wonderful month in Osaka (including the World Expo) just in time for Chad’s birthday. At his request, we stayed in the Shibuya neighborhood, which is very cool but very touristy. Although we wouldn’t choose Shibuya again due to the crowds and high prices, we had a very nice few days there and liked our stay in the Shibuya Tobu Hotel (review below), again paid with credit card points. 

One reason we chose our hotel was because of its proximity to Yoyogi Park, one of our favorites from our 2019 visit. After checking in, we walked right up to the park and discovered it was hosting a couple of festivals – a night market and a festival celebrating Laos (a country that is high on our list for the future). After walking around the park, we came back to the festival and enjoyed trying some street food and beer. Unfortunately, none of the Laos food appealed to us, but we had a great a great IPA from Bia Lao, a brand we remembered from our prior trip to Asia. At the night market we enjoyed a cherry blossom sour, a meat-wrapped onigiri (rice) on a stick, grilled corn, and a sakura strawberry hazy IPA. It was a heavy snack but we still managed to get ourselves out for soba later. 

The next day was Chad’s birthday and he had decided his ideal activity would be to take in another Japanese baseball game. So we got tickets to the Chiba Lotte Marines, whose stadium is a little over an hour by train from Tokyo. We had a phenomenal time at the game once again, trying lots of food, learning lots of new songs, and just soaking up the atmosphere. Our favorite song was for Dominican player Gregory Palanco whose nickname (from childhood) is El Coffee. It went “El Coffee, El Coffee, El Coffee Home Run, El Coffee Home Run.” Sadly, he did not hit a home run and the Marines lost (badly).

After the game we walked down to the beach near the stadium then did a little shopping at the big Aeon Mall next door before returning to Tokyo for a tasty (though kind of overpriced) izakaya dinner in Shibuya. 

For our final day in Japan, we spent the morning working then had a picnic lunch in Yoyogi Park.  Later we wandered around the city some, and ended up having dinner at a delightful ramen restaurant across the street from our hotel. It was a pleasant, chill way to end our time in Asia.

Summary

We managed four short visits to Tokyo during this leg in Asia, staying in a different neighborhood each time. I have to say, after experiencing the different places, I’m still partial to Ginza, though our other February neighborhood, Nippori, worked out well for us too. Our two spring choices were more touristy, though fun, and I don’t think we’d choose them again (though Asakusa has its good points). All of our visits to Tokyo cemented it as one of our very favorite cities in the world and we look forward to spending more time there in the future.

Lodging Reviews

APA Asakusa Ekimae – Clean, compact room by the river – We had a great two-night stay here. Our room was clean, compact, and thoughtfully organized — very typical of an APA. We liked that our room had a partial view of the Sumida River. Great location for walking to many sights and using public transit for others.

Tobu Shibuya Hotel – Nice-sized clean room next to Yoyogi Park – We arrived right at check-in time and there was a long line but they had several people working at the front desk and moved the people through efficiently. Our double room was clean and a good size. The hotel is so convenient to Yoyogi Park and nice to be out of the Shibuya hubbub while adjacent to it. It is up a big hill from Shibuya station, but worth the walk. We especially enjoyed the small ramen restaurant across the street.