If you are looking to travel to Tokyo, and wondering what to do there, these are some great ideas of how to spend your time in Tokyo. I just got back from Five Great Days in Tokyo and here is what I did. I have to admit, I was really overwhelmed at visiting this metropolis, the world’s most populated city, with around 40 million population! But quite frankly, the neighborhoods in Tokyo, with their tree lined stone streets, and the blooming hydrangeas everywhere made it feel very cozy and small, like San Francisco or Paris.
TRAVEL DAY – Arrival to Tokyo Haneda Airport in the afternoon. Overnight at the Villa Fontaine Grand Hotel.
Highly recommended. It’s right in the international airport terminal at Tokyo Haneda Airport, and you do not even need to go outside, nor take any transportation. I walked over to the hotel from my arrival gate. Gotta love that! And the walk over there was amazing. I passed one after another cute, neat, clean, colorful and interesting shops along the way! It was culture shock joy and appreciation!
Pics here…
The hotel room was perfect for me! I just got the standard room, not the fancy animae rooms, which looked super cool on the website before I left San Diego. My standard room included a spa or Onsen ticket for each day, and a breakfast buffet for each morning. Both were excellent experiences and the room was well-appointed. I gave a room tour here, and the bathroom included a perfect temperature bathtub to soak away the stress of travel.
Video here…
That’s what I did the first night, and I slept like a baby. I felt like I was in a cocoon, the room was so quiet, cozy and clean.
Wednesday June 5, 2024
TOKYO DAY ONE:
A stay at Villa Fontaine Grand Hotel in Tokyo Haneda Airport also includes their free shuttle service to several major areas in Tokyo. This was amazing. The shuttle itself, is like brand new, clean, huge, and comfortable. And for me, it was very private. In fact I was the only person on it coming back, and going there was only one other lady with her 16 year old daughter, from Atlanta. That’s all. It was like having my own private motor coach. I loved it! Pics here.
I took the shuttle to the furthest stop, and located a wonderful sushi bar. Where I had hand served sushi at… look up on receipt…
Then I ventured over to the Artesian shops at Aki Oka. I fell in love with a top, which I did not buy, although I even met the woman artist who made it. The shops here are a bit pricy, but in retrospect, I wish I would have purchased the top.
Japan Art Bridge was next on my agenda for the day. It’s a lovely old train station converted into cafe and art galleries. It was a surprising enjoyable time I spent here, nearly empty being in a bustling city of 37 million people, there were less than a dozen people here. It was very cool. You can see a couple of Spain flags in the photo. I noticed quite a few Spanish restaurants, pastry shops, and other Spanish references in Tokyo. We also met a college student from Spain and it was interesting to hear what she had to say about living as a foreign student in Tokyo.
Pics and video here
I wanted to visit the _____Shrine in Tokyo city center and I came across it via a back entrance climbing up stone steps, and in fact, I was not even sure what I would find at the top of the steps, however it was a side entrance to the shrine, and I first came across some farm animals. That was very cool too…
Pics here.
These good luck charms, beckoned to me, and I purchased several as gifts to take home to the martial arts students in San Diego.
After a bit more exploring and loads of walking, I was determined to get to the shuttle stop early for my return back to the Villa Fontaine Grand Hotel. On my way back to the shuttle stop location, I happened across this amazing place, a Live Owl Cafe in Tokyo! Owl 🦉 cafe takes good care of their owls, a fellow traveler from Australia who had researched it, informed me.
In the meantime, waiting for my awesome shuttle back to the hotel, I had time to relax in this cafe, people watching and sipping a cold delicious beverage.
For dinner, I explored the food court underneath the hotel. I saw many delicious looking displays including a Kobe beef.
Food court near hotel wonderful tempura 🍤 made just for me, where I had perfect shrimp Tempura. The best shrimp tempura I ever had.
Onsen Experience and Aroma therapy sauna at Villa Fontaine Grand Hotel, which I wrote about in further detail here in a separate post.
Thursday, June 6, 2024
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TOKYO DAY TWO:
Today I met my travel friend at the domestic terminal in Haneda Airport. It ends up we had to get back over to the International Terminal to purchase our PASMO tickets for the Tokyo Metro. After a few false starts, we transferred to Nihombashi area via Tokyo Metro with our Pasmo tickets we purchased at Haneda terminal three international terminal.
It was a walking day! We walked about 19,000 steps this day! Pop up shrines we saw popped up all over the city neighborhoods. It was so neat! We found out that we were there on the weekend of the 500 Years Old Sanno Festival in Tokyo. That was amazing.
We spent part of the afternoon sitting along the moat at the Tokyo Imperial Palace Gardens. The gardens were closed for entrance but open for walking around along the moat.
On the way to the Imperial Gardens we stopped at the Palace Hotel underground pastry shop where I loved looking at all the amazing pastries.
For dinner that evening, we selected this three floor box restaurant and I wrote about our experience there.
One of the dishes we ordered was a maceral fish, which I thought would be cooked, however it arrived at our table raw and with the skin on. Now I am not an “eat the fish skin” kind of diner. Much to my amazement, it was so buttery and delicious, not fishy tasting at all. It was served with a thinly sliced either onion or ginger, I am not sure. I think it was actually something that I saw in the Japanese market on Convoy upon my return home. Overall an excellent dinner – surprisingly delicious and perfect pairing of presentation.
Friday, June 7, 2024
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TOKYO DAY THREE:
Lemon 🍋 espresso ☕️ coffee at
Wasa bike Tour
Sumo meal
Personal hot pot lunch
Edo Town replica
Temple with Glass buddhas
Skewer restaurant loved the tiny quail 🥚 eggs wrapped in prosciutto type of
Lemon 🍋 Sours all over town
Parade locals coming in to eat dinner and we heard the Sanno shrines parading past the restaurant
Saturday, June 8, 2024
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TOKYO DAY FOUR:
Sanno Festival
7-11 smoothie experience and candy shopping
Iced coffee
Imperial palace grounds audio tour
Hotel Niwa lunch reservations 1:30
Close at 3:00 will collect the check then
And you can still sit there
Sunday, June 9, 2024
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TOKYO DAY FIVE:
Chocolate pastry shop
Marron cake
Near Mitsubishi building start point
Hop on hop off bus
Blue first because it fills up later in the day
Red
Then Green
Gyoen Garden closed Monday
Alice in wonderland restaurant
Audio guide
Scramble crossing
Best sushi 🍣 restaurant
Tuna
Squid 🦑 tender
Egg again for dessert
Monday, June 10, 2024
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TRAVEL DAY BACK HOME TO SAN DIEGO
Getting from the Nihombashi area where we stayed back to Haneda International Airport by bus, is easy. There are no transfers involved. Once you get the hang of the Tokyo Metro, it is really easy and organized! Not to mention efficient, and of course punctual!
In order of lowest to highest cost and niceness, I would rate these hotels as follows:
Hotel Smile – least expensive and least nice, but great base to stay at and sleep, while out exploring Tokyo every day!
Hotel Niwa – Very nice and pretty, centrally located. The restaurant rocks, we did the five course lunch there, and I would go there again. We did not see the actual rooms, but I imagine they are fairly luxurious.
Villa Fontaine – Highly recommend for the value of all things considered. Right in the Haneda airport terminal, included breakfast buffet, spa ticket included for the onsen experience, and added bonus of a free shuttle into Tokyo! I would definitely stay here next time too.
Imperial palace hotel – If cost is not an issue, please stay here if you can. It looks amazing and the location overlooks the Imperial Palace Gardens and moat, it has the luxurious feel to it, and the pastry shop downstairs I highly recommend.
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
