«» Travel Notes 028: Tokyo
Splurging on supermarket discounts, drinking with locals, and finding peace
HELLO. I’m Atom, and you’ve received my Travel Notes:
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This August, I spent 8 days in Tokyo, my longest trip of the year.
Unsurprisingly, this post has also taken the longest for me to write because of the sheer amount of experiences I accumulated over those 8 days.
So, rather than try to connect disparate things, I’m going with the list approach. Here are 10 things to do in Tokyo!
#1 Save money with discounted supermarket food
If you’re looking for a cheap meal, pass by a supermarket just before closing time. On our first night, ready-made food such as salads, bento boxes, and sushi was sold at a 30% discount, while later on in the week, green and red stickers were stacked up until they displayed kanji characters 半額 (hangaku), which means half-price.
It’s not just supermarkets too; the same goes for the food courts in the basement floors of department stores. If you’re in the Ginza area, you can check out the Mitsukoshi department store, where Brian and I had our first lunch in Tokyo (it’s affordable, even without discounts).
Our nightly routine was to drop by a Bunkado supermarket near us to stock up on food for the next day’s breakfast and sometimes lunch. For P350, I could bring home a salmon don, salmon steak, and seaweed salad.
#2 Take a nap in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Taking a nap will never come up in your Google search for things to do in Tokyo. In fact, it was never even in our plan to do so, but I think that’s what made it so great.
We were an hour behind our schedule when we arrived at the Shinjuku Gyeon National Garden, so we found ourselves rushing, sweating, and beelining our way through each Japanese Garden. We managed to cover 1/3 of the garden within half an hour.
Reluctantly, we decided to rest on a bench as the heat, combined with our aching feet, became intolerable. What was meant to be a quick break became ten indulgent minutes as we observed the garden unfold around us. In decreasing our sense of urgency, it seemed as though we had increased our sense of appreciation.
Later, in the center of the garden, we came across a huge field where people were sitting and lying down.
So we did too.
Instead of completing the garden within our allocated 2 hours, we took off our shoes and watched the clouds until we drifted off to sleep.
Never mind that we don’t get to see it all.
#3 Pick up this map in a Tokyo Subway Station office
I had to work on the morning of our third day, so Brian and I split up.
When I finished work, I used Google to look for things to do, but I quickly found myself with a headache from both analysis paralysis and the act of looking at a screen for so long.
In a moment of frustration, I shut down my laptop, picked up the map Brian left me, and walked to a train station. I decided to let my map lead me.
In the end, I chose to get off at Korakuen station on the Oedo Line to visit The Koishikawa Korakuen Garden and the Tokyo Dome. I found the Rikugien Gardens, Kyo Furukawa Gardens, and Ueno Park interesting, so I chose to add them to my list for the day.
#4 Give yourself a massage in Ueno Park
Let me tell you: there is absolutely nothing better than coming across this playground in Ueno Park after a long day of walking.
First, the chair on the bottom left picture. You sit down, put your hands overhead, then lean back for the wildest back stretch in your life. My back cracked like it had never before.
Then you remove your shoes and walk across the ridged tile in the bottom center picture. They hit muscles in the sole of my foot that I didn’t even know I had. Alternatively, you can use the parallel bars for pushups or dips, like I noticed some locals doing.
There were pull-up bars in the playground too, so I decided to get some sets and reps in. Just like when we rested in the Shinjuku National Gyeon Garden, it was when I was resting between sets that I noticed my surroundings. I observed tourists passing by with their purposeful gait, I observed locals jogging around and doing pull-ups like I was doing, and I observed how colors changed over the city as the sun set.
#5 My favorite food street: Ameyoko Shopping District
I can’t say much more about it except it has the widest variety of (affordable!!!) food I’ve encountered in Tokyo—my guess is this is the case because Ueno is frequented by students from the University of Tokyo.
Skip Tsukiji. Skip Shinjuku. Skip Shibuya. Here’s a list of restaurants to try out in Ameyoko:
Minatoya: seafood bowls and takyoaki, try their Tokumori-don (only P300 for a full bowl and P180 for a half bowl)
Tentenraku: Chinese streetfood, try their fried soup dumplings (P160 for 4 pieces)
Cha-no-Kiminoen: matcha ice cream (a bit pricey at P120 for a cone but its definitely worth it)
三浦三崎港 上野店: conveyor belt sushi, “overflowing” gunkan sushi (P140 for unagi gunkan, P40 for tuna gunkan)
東京堂ビル: grilled seafood (P240 for their famous kani miso crab, P260 for two pieces of grilled clam)
#6 Explore Tokyo’s neighboring Prefectures with a day trip
In my eyes, the effect of Japan is akin to the effect of the Lotus Hotel and Casino on Percy Jackson and his friends. With so much to do, time seems to stand still.
On our 4th day, we visited the small city of Nikko in Japan’s Tochigi Prefecture.
Nikko is home to Kegon Falls, one of Japan’s three most beautiful waterfalls, and the Three Wise Monkeys, which embodies the principle of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."
Unfortunately, this also makes it the temporary home of many, many tourists, including local ones. Traffic here was as bad as EDSA on rush hour. Nevertheless, it was a nice experience.
#7 Grab some yakitori and beers in Omeide Yokocho or Asakusa
They funny! The old man in a gray shirt exclaimed to us after observing the Izakaya waitress take our order.
No, we funny! Benedict jokingly returned.
I funny! The old man continued.
Our food and drinks had not arrived yet, and we were already laughing with the customers and staff of Yasubei, a standing bar izakaya in Asakusa.
I found the place through a YouTube video before verifying what I watched by checking Google Reviews. For example…
Pointing, smiling, and bowing didn’t work so well for us, though, as our order arrived in the form of fat. Pork fat, chicken fat, and beef fat. Fat and a half liter of beer.
Still, we enjoyed ourselves. There was something about the energy of Yasubei that got us feeling really good. The waiters seemed happy to be serving us, English-speaking tourists, while the other customers treated us in a kindhearted and friendly way.
Alternatively, if you’re in the Shinjuku area, you can check out the street of Omeide Yokocho. Kanpai!
#8 Catch a baseball game
We didn’t actually get to watch the game because tickets were sold out, but the energy outside Meiji Jingu Stadium was amazing!
If you have the time, I would imagine spending 1000-2000 yen on a baseball game would be an incredible experience. Please tell me about it.
#9 Start your day at a cafe
Oddly enough, one of my favorite memories from this Tokyo trip was starting every other day of my trip from the same cafe just 100 meters from our hotel. I would come in, order two freshly made onigiri with some black tea, and then get some work done. Afterward, I would bring out my map and plan out my route for the day, all under the backdrop of soft jazz music and a cozy ambiance
In retrospect, I realized doing so set the tone for an intentional day. I’m not sure if it is Japanese cafes in general or an aspect of this specific cafe I visited, but being in a cafe put me in a more patient and relaxed mood. I felt more conscious and less rushed.
I can’t help but be reminded of something Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, said to his students when they asked for guidance on their practice. With a little smile, he offered: “You should get up a little later each morning . . . and you should smile more.”
Tokyo is an amazing city filled with endless things to entertain. Yet, this facet that captures the world’s attention is its own bane: there’s always something to do, something to rush to, something better to do.
There's always somewhere to be, somewhere other than where you are.
It helps when you choose to stop moving, to sit under a tree to watch the clouds, or to sit on a bench to watch the crowds.
Allow yourself to pause.
Allow yourself to savor.
In this way, I found peace in my days around Tokyo. Never mind that I don’t get to see it all.
#10 “Get up a little later each morning… and smile more…”
Until next week,
Atom
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