Tokyo, finally. My first day in the capital of Japan

Tokyo. I was finally there. Landed on a rainy Saturday evening, after just over 20 hours of travelling. Was I exhausted? Yes. But oh boy, was I excited? Unbelievably so.

My hotel was in Nippori – Almont Hotel, which I highly recommend. Nippori – known as the fabric district of Tokyo – is a quiet neighbourhood with a residential feel and amazing connections – the  Yamanote Line and direct access to Narita Airport, where I was flying to.

Usually after a massive time zone jump, I struggle the first few nights to sleep. But not this time. In my first night in Tokyo, my body and mind gave up their stubbornness and allowed me to slide to a deep slumber.

My trip to Japan was a dream of childhood and it had been in the works since 2019, when I booked my flights for 2020 and was excitingly researching and planning my entire trip. Of course, if you haven’t guessed it from the mention to 2020 already, this was all cancelled, a heart break I was never able to heal fully.

Finally in Tokyo, I felt an eerie closure… more than that, a culmination. A long-promised, awaited moment finally arrived. Japan wasn’t just in my imagination any longer – it was real. And with that, I closed my eyes and slept for twelve hours straight.

When I travel, it’s always never about me. Not about self-discovery, or becoming the main character of an adventure. But Japan felt strangely personal, and I am still processing a lot of it. I have been back for just over a month, and it took me a while to finally sit down and start writing – not because I don’t have things to say, but because it was difficult to reconcile what I experienced in those two weeks and what I have experienced in my real life since being back – insane work hours, a heavy workload, and dealing with stuff that is quite frankly just part of life, a far cry from what I experienced in my holiday. And while this is usually the case with any longer break I take… it never impacted me at this level.

But I have a lot to say, a lot to write. I’m sure so much of it will be just strange, and likely messy a bit all over… yet I think that can be enchanting. It’s the most authentic way I can describe my trip to the land of the rising sun. It poked at different parts of me that I had somehow forgotten that existed or simply had forsaken. So I will write about the quietude of temples, the softness of Nature, the electrical cities, the visually loud nights… the moments where I let myself shop for my inner child. The moments when I felt I couldn’t even take the credit for how beautiful my photos turned out to be, because it was not me… it was Japan.

But let’s stop this. The next day was Sunday. My first day exploring Tokyo.  

Early start in Asakusa

I started with a 40 minute walk to Senso-ji temple in Asakusa. I was there early to avoid the worst of the crowds, but in places like this you won’t be the only one going earlier… but it still pays off.

Senso-ji is Tokyo’s oldest temple, far older than the city itself. According to legend, in AD 628 two fishermen brothers pulled out a golden image of Kannon – the Bodhisattva of compassion from the nearby Sumida river. Senso-ji was built to enshrine it.

This is where I got my treasured goshuincho – a temple stamp book. This ended up being my most cherished (and expensive) souvenir. Each temple has its own goshuin, which is – for the most part – handwritten in stunning calligraphy in your goshuincho. Some places have limited edition ones – since it was Autumn, I ended up getting some of these – which I sold in a separate leaf you can then glue to your stamp book.

I was in need of breakfast and also small change so I could get 100 yen to get my fortune taken – in Senso-ji this is done by shaking a cilindrical wooden box from which you pull a stick with a number – you then open the drawer with that number and you get your fortune. If it’s bad fortune, you should tie it to the wires available. If good fortune, you can take with you, unless you want to leave that behind (why would you?). Of course I got a fortune that only left me confused… it was good fortune, but in the future? Shall I leave it behind or take it with me? Well… good fortune in the future is better than ever, so I did take it with me.

I have to mention that I loved my little breakfast just on a little café called Carib, on the side streets of Senso-ji. It was a small place, and their toast was exactly the way we do it in Portugal and I so often crave in the UK… very thick slices of white bread with butter. A classic.

Leading to Senso-ji there is the famous Nakamise-Dori shopping street. I was there too early so most stalls were still closed. They sell mostly souvenirs and street food – I wasn’t too gutted about it as I knew it was going to be crowded very soon… and after getting my goshuin, my breakfast and my fortune, I headed to the Asakusa Tourist Culture Information Centre. I didn’t need a map or information… but I knew that from its top you get access to a great view of Senso-ji and the Skytree, and the entrance is free. It’s a great place to sit and relax if you need a little break, plus if you carry a stamp book (not the goshuincho I mentioned earlier) you have a couple of souvenir stamps. And yes, I’m a sucker for these things, a stationary lover and a collector at heart.

From there I kept walking, the mode of transportation that I always prioritise in my travels whenever possible. By walking, I’m noticing it things, people, the architecture… turning to side streets where Tokyo feels old. Observing the locals cycling slowly in a Sunday morning, spotting a Tori gate and behind it a tiny shrine. Without walking, I would have missed the quiet of Tokyo.

I soon came across Kappabashi Street. This is the street lined up with shops where you can get anything and everything for your kitchen, for restaurants, cafes… from the sharpest Japanese knife, to pans and saucers, cutlery of all kinds, ceramics and even those incredible realistic plastic made foods that make your mouth water just by looking at them.

On my list there was another shrine – and oh boy was this busy! Nezu Shrine had a whole market and little festival going on… it can be that it happens every Sunday. There were families and groups of schoolchildren dancing, and doing athletics… so it ended up not being the most pleasant experience… until I spotted the corridor of Tori gates, a sample of what I would experience later on my trip in Tokyo when visiting the famous Fushimi Inari. And when I crossed through that tunnel of vermillion, things quieted down and I came to a shrine guarded by foxes… an animal so many city folks despise, but I personally love. Their agility, the fire in their coats, the brightness in their small dark eyes. I always thought they are unfairly judged and prejudiced against, pretty much like the pigeons… but in Shinto tradition, foxes – kitsune – are in fact messages of Inari, the spirit associated with rice, fertility and prosperity. Basically what keeps the community alive. And it was indeed – in the distance, I was hearing the laugher, the chanting, the music of locals.

Something special about Nezu are the little windmill charms – they’re meant to catch the breeze and spin away misfortune. You can get one at the shrine’s shop.

Just by Ueno Park, I found the most amazing greenery of lotus flowers in Shinobazu Pond. Sadly the flowers were no longer in sight, but the size of the leaves were most impressive, covering the extensive body of water completely, to a point that it took me a moment to realise it was all indeed a lake.

And there is another small temple here as well.

My next stop was the Tokyo National Museum a place that I highly recommend a visit if you are into culture, history and art. I was impressed how apparently, they change their permanent exhibition quite often and, at the time of my visit, the theme was of course Autum.

From stunning kimonos in Autumnal prints and colours, ceramics depicticting the fall, even pieces of furniture made to be aligned with the season of change. Autumn is my favourite season, so I couldn’t help but feeling aligned with all I was seeing, and completely loving the way the Japanese lean into their seasons… they support the unavoidable connection with the cycles of nature, and it is something I’ve always felt I did too. I even change the décor of my tiny flat a little based on the seasons… and the Japanese take it into a different level, even changing their permanent exhibitions in one is probably one of the most important national museums of the country!

Soon enough it was time for lunch, and I ended up in a small local restaurant where they didn’t even have an English menu… but the good thing about restaurants in Japan is that most times there are pictures… and in our modern days, you have Google Translate, one of my best friends in Japan. Do not forget getting a data plan – I found it essential to have access to the Internet at any time – I recommend Truly, they kindly gifted me with 5 days of data and I had such a fantastic experience that I ended up extending my e-sim to the remaining of the trip. With them, you get unlimited data, so you don’t have to worry about running out of data when trying to find your way in Shibuya.

But back to the food – I went for a platter of sushi, and the price was just ridiculous… not even £4 for all of that. This place was near my hotel, as I was about to visit Yanaka Ginza, this is an old street lined up with small eateries and quirky shops… but it was so busy! Perhaps in part because it was Sunday, and it was around lunch time… felt a little claustrophobic. However, it is still a place I would love to go back when I am eventually back in Tokyo.

And I still managed to fit a couple more things in, a wonderful contrast to finish off the day – the peaceful and yet emblematic Kanda Myojin shrine and the loud, energy charged Akihabara.

Kanda Myojin is dedicated to three main deities – Daikokuten (god of good harvest and commerce, Ebisu (god of fishermen and luck, also associated to business prosperity) and Taira no Masakado the latter an actual historical figure, a samurai rebel deified over time. This makes the shrine popular amongst businesspeople, looking to pray for prosperity and success… but because it’s so close to Akihabara, it also became a shrine for tech enthusiasts and gamers. And since I was so close to this world famous district, even though I was tired, I stepped into it… and oh my.

The gigantic light signs, the representation of oversexualised anime, the big bright tech logos…the gachapon shops – of which I immediately became a fanatic – and the many shops selling incredibly figurines – and I even got myself a small Luna figurine from Sailor Moon’s 25^th birthday anniversary because I just could not stop myself… I was overwhelmed, but still fuelled by excitement, by adrenaline. It was all so fascinating, so different and new, sometimes disturbing yes (the sex business here is really everywhere) but overall I wanted to explore even more. This is indeed Electric Town.

And this was my first day in Tokyo. And yet I was already in love with it.

Love, Nic

P.S. Some links in this post are affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission if you decide to urchase or book anything through these links. None of it is sponsored. All my recommendations are based on my lived experience.

Hotel Almont Nippori: https://agoda.tpo.lv/maZXxi6c

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