"Wherever you go, go with all your heart"
-Confucius
Tokyo- The NYC of Japan
From anime to technology, Tokyo has it all! We have always wanted to experience Harajuku and Shibuya Crossing so when we decided on a trip to Asia, going to Tokyo was not even in question. We flew Korean Air from Seoul, South Korea to Narita airport in Tokyo, Japan. We were grateful to have a direct flight that was only 2 hours and 20 minutes long. The cost of our one-way ticket was $153.00, which included one free checked bag, one free carry-on, and one free personal item (we highly recommend Korean Air). After arriving to the airport in Tokyo, we caught a 1 hour 10 minute train to our hotel.
The Pod Life
Accommodations in Tokyo were rather expensive so we opted for a 2-night stay in a hotel and our final night stay in a pod.
The hotel that we selected was The B Hotel in Shimbashi. This hotel was in a central location as it was about a five-minute walk from the subway station with plenty of restaurants and convenience stores in the surrounding area. The hotel was very clean and the staff were nice however, the room itself was very small for two people and virtually no room to get dressed without bumping into one another. If the small space is not an issue for you, we do recommend this hotel. The cost for our stay was $194 total for 2 nights.
Capsule hotels or pods, are very prominent in Japan so we decided to spend our last night in a pod at The Bay Hotel Muromachi. Girls, let me tell you, we should have stayed here the entire time. We highly recommend this place. We were a bit nervous at first being that it is a small sleeping space and there are community showers and restrooms however, our concerns were immediately eliminated upon arrival. As we entered the hotel, we had to take off our shoes and stick them in a locker (Japanese tradition when walking into a house). The staff warmly welcomed us and began the check-in process. We were provided with security tap bracelets that allowed you to navigate throughout the building and to the floor and rooms assigned to you. Since men and women separated each floor on the hotel, this was an amazing safety feature. The sleeping rooms contained about 30 pods but were so quiet; it felt like you were in the room by yourself. The common showers, dressing rooms, and toilets were immaculate. We were also provided with private lockers to store out things while we slept. We paid $31pp for a one-night stay.
Oh Tokyo, You're so fun!
We decided to do the famous Maricart tour while in Tokyo because, how could you not?! We pre-booked our excursion through the business’ website and arrived about 15 minutes before our time slot to meet our tour guide and debrief. After debriefing, we were able to select a costume and hit the road. We tore through the streets of Japan on our Maricarts and we were able to snag tons of views and pictures. This excursion was absolutely fun and highly recommended. We did the H-S course (Shibuya Crossing, Harajuku, and Omotesando). The cost for two carts + insurance (optional) was $147USD.
We visited a digital art museum called Team Lab Borderless. The museum is huge and full of different digital and interactive exhibits perfect for photos so be sure to dress cute ladies! TIP: this museum is always sold out and the line is super long, I’m talking about Walmart on Black Friday long so make sure that you book your tickets ahead of time. You can only book two months out and tickets are $30USD. This is another highly recommended place to visit.
We visited a free bamboo forest in Tokyo. Although we cannot recall the name of the forest, there are plenty to visit and can be found with a quick google search. Here are a few to kick start your search:
A few places that we had on our itinerary but did not get to visit were:
Tokyo Sky Tree
Tokyo Tower
Senso-ji Temple
Meiji Jingo Shrine
Sanrio Puroland (indoor Theme Park)
Chow Time
A Happy Pancake
Chun Shui Tang Venus Fort Shop
7th floor of Magnet in Shibuya Crossing
The Choo Choo Train
Tokyo has many means of transportation including taxi and bus. However, we took advantage of their easy to use train system to get around. The train systems offer several different options for traveling. We opted to purchase our tickets per destination. Discover what ticket option may work best for your trip.
Big Yen
We used AAA to exchange our U.S. Dollars for Japanese Yen and since we were exchanging over 250USD total, the fee was waived. You can also exchange money through your bank. The exchange rate was 100 yen =0.92 USD. We budgeted for $228USD for three days to cover food and fun! We budgeted for $326USD and did not spend nearly as much but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
