These are our MUST-DO activities around Tokyo Japan!!

Here are some of our favorite things to do when we go to Japan! I tried listing everything no matter how small or obscure. We’ve been a few times now so we have a pretty good idea where we like to go. Hopefully you can take inspiration and use some of these ideas and recommendations in your own upcoming trip!

Chapters
0:00 – Intro
0:53 – Calbee+
1:08 – Don Quijote
1:21 – Scramble Crossing
1:35 – Akihabara
1:40 – Random figure stores
2:20 – N/DOLL pop up
2:10 – Themed cafes – karaoke pasela
2:22 – Akiharabara used electronics
2:58 – Gyudon chains, yoshinoya, sukiya, matsuya
3:25 – Shopping in Ginza
3:19 – Ginza six
3:22 – Uniqlo flagship
3:30 – Orena Grand Table
3:40 – Sushiya-no Uokin
4:33 – Asakusa
5:33 – Shibuya
5:41 – Shibuya 109
5:56 – Harajuku
7:10 – Mt Fuji
7:31 – Lake Kawaguchiko
8:21 – Lake kawaguchiko boat ride
8:53 – Kamakura
9:07 – Glanta Work Shop
9:40 – Yokohama
10:09 – 7/11 Smoothies
10:31 – Tsukiji Fish Market
11:00 – Fake Food Making – need the name
11:57 – Miyashita Park
12:57 – Kabukicho
13:13 – Kabukicho Tower – need the airbnb guys name – kenji?
13:42 – Ohayo Milk Pudding
14:00 – Melon Pan
14:23 – Outro

Whenever I go to new places, I always like to ask people who have been there before, what is the first thing you would do when you step off the plane if you were to go back. For this trip to Japan, It’s one of the places we’ve actually already been.

We spent about three weeks there five years ago, so this trip was super fun for us. We got to relive our favorite experiences and go back and visit things we passed over the first time. And some of them are dumb little things. Like for me, first thing I’m doing right when I land,

I’m taking a train into Tokyo Station, wandering around that basement with all the restaurants and going to the Calbee plus. If you don’t know, Calbee makes these freeze dried potato stick snack things, almost like potato chips. But at this Calbee plus store, they make them fresh. So you’re eating like fresh French fries

With the seasoning they use for this potato chip. And it’s so good. It’s the one thing I miss the most. You have to try em. And once we left the station, the first place we actually went is the Don Quixote. These Don Quixote stores are insane and chaotic.

We went to the one right by scramble crossing. So it’s also so crowded. If you never been to scramble crossing, it’s one of the coolest places, basically right in the center of a lot of transit in Tokyo. There’s a lot of things to do in the area.

So you get to this crosswalk and there’s seriously thousands of people crossing all different directions. And the funny thing now is everyone’s filming themselves as they cross so it’s a major tourist attraction. Okay, So we landed in Japan, we hit up some of the spots

That are on the way back to our hotel. But first, full day in Japan. Where do we go? Akihabara This area is so cool. I don’t know what I can say that hasn’t already been said, but we just love wandering around, going in all the different figure stores, seeing what’s available.

You can spend a fortune here picking up stuff. You think it’s cool, but fortunately for us, we only have a limited bag room, so we just pick and choose a couple of things. So many videos and so much information on Akihabara. I won’t go into too much detail,

But if you’re like anime culture stuff, you just got to keep an eye out for Ami Ami A Stop, Akiba Culture Zone and other random figure shops that you walk around. And also you say you also just find random stuff like there was this pop up we walked into, called N Doll.

I don’t really know what it was for, but it had a bunch of really cool art and character designs. And also in Akihabara they have a bunch of themed cafes that we thought about popping into, but we didn’t. But we walked past Monster Hunter Cafe’s Final Fantasy Cafe, Dragon Quest Cafes.

But one of the greatest parts about Akihabara is really kind of its core, its roots. It’s known as Electric Town because it’s the place you go to buy used electronics like this is maybe less talked about. Now, Japanese used electronics are really great prices and they have a culture of really

Taking care of and respecting their products. So everything is in such good condition. I bought a PlayStation Vita for $100 back in 2015 and it was seriously in perfect condition is way cheaper than anything I could find in the US, and it’s kind of become a collectible now.

So I swear it’s like gone up in value since I bought it. But Japan is the king of use, electronics, camera lenses, etc. so anything on your list in that kind of vein, you’ll be able to find it here in the shop. People are super nice and I bought my vita.

They even help me change the language to English and you probably get a tax free. So a lot of benefits. I really recommend this area in another part of Japan I really miss was the fast food, which sounds kind of dumb, but they have a couple of chains you got to try.

They make these donburi bowls, which are basically like a marinated meat and onion served over some rice. And that’s all with a bunch of other toppings too. But they’re so cheap and they’re so delicious and they’re so fast. Never any shame popping in one of these changed for a quick meal.

So our hotel was in the Ginza area, which was an area we’d never been to before. Ginza is kind of like the shopping district of Tokyo I guess, so You know, we went to the famous Ginza six mall with all the luxury brands.

We also bought a bunch of stuff at the Uniqlo World headquarters because I love Uniqlo, and everything is way cheaper here. Ginza is pretty centrally located, so it’s not a bad place for a hotel. And there’s a ton of restaurants that are kind of off street level that are really delicious.

It’s a really different vibe from the rest of Tokyo. I would describe it as maybe a bit more upscale. And one thing I wanted to do this time around, Tiffany doesn’t eat fish, so we never had sushi last time I was here, but this time I really want to try some.

So I got some takeout sushi from this restaurant in Ginza. It’s like a little sushi counter on, like, the fifth floor of some building. And even though the streets of Ginza seemed relatively deserted, you know, for Tokyo standards, I went up there

And the place was packed when I went to pick up my order. And by the way, the sushi was amazing. Like, best sushi I’ve ever eaten. All right, I throw in a couple more weird recommendations.

We got back to the hotel after a day in IKEA and Ginza, and we threw on the TV. You can buy some crazy stuff. Here’s a channel where they film this cat while news scroll across the screen. And I’m also going to sprinkle in my convenience store recommendations.

The first one is this pizza bun. I love these things. I was going to try when I go back. It’s never bad time for some pizza, sausage, some cheese and delicious bun. Everybody knows about the convenience store, our fried chicken, which is also delicious.

And you should try it. But sometimes for the hot food, you just want a little pizza bun on the next day. We just had to go to the exact same area. We never went last time for one main reason. Last time we had a J.R pass and it gives you somewhat limited access

To the subway system and Ginza and Asakusa are kind of not really on any j.r lines. You really need to take a Tokyo metro train, which is a different brand. It sounds confusing, but it’s really not as long as you know, ahead of time.

Some stations are j.r. Some of them are Tokyo metro. They both use the same suica card payment. But the Tokyo metro trains don’t use the jr pass. Anyway. We decided to get to s Oxford early that morning because we heard it gets crowded, so we beat the crowds a little bit

And it has a cool vibe, very picturesque and scenic and tons of good pictures you can get with a mix of kind of old and new Tokyo architecture and kind of the last district we wanted to revisit in Tokyo itself is like the Shinjuku Shibuya hard you go area.

These are all clustered together, so it’s kind of perfect. I want them all together and these are some of the most populated areas in Tokyo at a shopping and restaurants and bars and venues in these areas. I just talked about scramble crossing, but there’s kind of an iconic building

You’ll see in every photo from Animal Crossing. This should be one of nine. It’s filled with all these little boutiques with some of the coolest the most unique fashion we’ve seen. It’s mostly women’s clothes, but it’s one of the only malls. I’ll never get bored walking around in the style so unique

And all the shop staff are walking around wearing the clothes. It’s really a sight to behold. Tiffany’s always tempted to buy something from here. Now, as far as hard Uku goes, last time we came to Tokyo we had really great memories of hard UK.

We came here almost every day, and that’s because the Corby Plus store that’s in Tokyo Station now used to be right in the center of our UK. Plus like the first Cat cafe ever went to isn’t hard Uku it’s right by Meiji Shrine, which is another crazy area.

You’ll feel like you’re in the middle of a forest even though you’re in one of those tent cities in the world. But anyway, this time, to me, hard uku felt a little disappointing. I feel like maybe COVID hit place really hard.

It felt so crowded, but I did find it was novelty and anymore maybe the fresh eyes. This place will still have its appeal, but unfortunately we didn’t know if much to do there. The last areas to Duku and this in Shibuya are kind of the nightlife hotspots. So we did a Airbnb photoshoot.

So I want to talk about this area later when I talk about that, because it’s really a totally different place at night now. One of my favorite parts of Tokyo is actually leaving the city and going into the countryside, having it’s very

Easily doable just due to how the trains are so efficient and easy to use. And this time to Japan. We had a couple of day trips on our way. The big one was Mt. Fuji. We never went to Mt. Fuji. Last time we went to the Hakone area.

I think we might be able to see it, but we really couldn’t. You really need to go to one of these lakes. They’re called the Seven Lake. I actually really want to do that Mt. Fuji hiking experience where you wake up early, you hike to the top

And you get to see the sunrise over Tokyo from the fortunate island. It’s only doing certain parts of the year. And when we went was like just at the end of the season. So we decided to go to Lake Kawaguchi Koh instead.

I think some trains run there, but we opted to take like a coach bus, like a sleeper bus, and it’s a scenic bus ride. It’s kind of an experience of its own, like driving through Tokyo on those highways or driving through the hills of the countryside.

So I was thinking, Yeah, Mount Fuji is an iconic mountain, but you know, at the end of the day, it’s just a mountain. I’ve seen plenty of mountains, but we’re driving through all these hills. It’s like a kind of mountainous, hilly area.

I thought I had maybe one of these mountains is Mt. Fuji. I don’t really see it, but all of a sudden everything clears out. It’s totally flat. And we finally see Mt. Fuji. And it is the most picturesque mountain I’ve ever seen. It completely dwarfs every mountain around it.

I really didn’t expect much from this. I just wanted to take another box off. But this mountain has, like, the perfect gradient. It’s the perfect mountain. You see why it’s so well known? We didn’t get to see it with any snowcapped peaks, but regardless, it is still a sight to behold.

So we went around this lake Kawaguchi KO area for the afternoon. One thing I really recommend is a little boat tour. You can get really great views and photos from it. We went right at sunset and of course is this famous Laos

And everybody takes a picture in front of I can get a good one because there are just so many people taking the photo. But yeah, we took our photos eight some. So the noodles wandered around the town and it was time to go home. Definitely recommend this trip.

The second day trip, we took us to Kamakura. There’s another one we skipped the first time around, but all of these little day trips are just so magical. Last time we did another countryside visit to Nikko, which has, like, a bridge and some beautiful mountains, we tried Dango for the first time.

Kamakura has similar vibes, the big draw out of the little town is the Big Buddha or Daihatsu, and this thing is obviously very scenic. We went straight here and took all our photos, but there’s something so charming about this little suburb. They always have the Dango. The people are always so friendly.

We got some handmade meat for lunch, and then we walk down this little shopping street right by the train station. And as an unplanned souvenir, we decide to do this ring making thing. It was honestly so cute. Me and Tiffany made each other rings. One, two, three. And she made me this one.

And yeah, I highly recommend this. Stop. It’s hard to put into words just how magical these little Japanese side trips are. You just have to see it for yourself. On the way back, we got off our train at Yokohama, which is a place we stopped off at last time.

We were in Japan and we fell in love with it. It had that cute, like Christmas lights at the time. It was lit up all the way to the famous little amusement park and Ferris wheel on the pier there. We had fond memories, so we stopped off again,

But we just kind of stuck to the main area. This time we did really do anything of note, but Yokohama has a certain little charm to it, so I thought I’d mention it. Okay, I’ll break up the pace a little bit here. Another convenience store, the 7-Eleven, smoothies, certain 7-Eleven

Have these little smoothie machines you buy like a cup of frozen fruit, pay for it, scan the barcode on the cup with the machine, stick it in the machine, it’ll add some water, blend it up, and bam, you got a delicious smoothie.

It’s so fresh, so simple, so genius. I was drinking these things every day. Okay, one final day, and then I’ll give you my number one recommendation for convenience store food. So stay tuned. Our last day was just more taking off boxes, things we never did

The first time we came to Japan, starting off early at Tsukiji Fish Market. Tiffany’s favorite place is someone who doesn’t eat any fish. So this is an area where all the like the fishermen and the restaurants gather and they negotiate prices on the day’s catches. It’s legendary

For having all the freshest fish that all the Michelin star restaurants in the area buy their fish from. You can walk around and see these giant tunas and even buy a little sample plates of the raw fish. It’s so fresh and delicious. It’s a great early morning stop to start your day.

And now it was tattoo day for Tiffany, which left me to kind of wander around. She got a small one this time and only took a couple of hours. But the tattoo studio is right by Tokyo Tower. So your tower is kind of an infamous like beat spot.

And you can see why, like with the Navy use it’s all lit up and kind of couple of we like there’s a nice park in front of it so it’s a little sad. The one place I went without Tiffany is the famous couple spot in Tokyo,

But it is nice and serene and kind of scenic. We did one more small experience. The first time we came to Japan. Tiffany became obsessed with these fake food displays outside of every Japanese restaurant or in addition to the menus. They basically have like a display case

Where you can kind of preview what the food’s going to look like. We booked an experience where you make the fake food is in the Ikebukuro area. They teach you how to make the food. They teach you about the art of making fake food, why I became so widespread, etc.

And of course you get to make your own. They have a couple different options you make like a parfait. We made a ramen noodle and the cute little souvenir is a fun time and the people are so nice. It’s just a small little business. A couple of guys. Okay.

And the last thing we like to do, we always like to book some kind of, like local photographer or food tour. Photographers are especially fun because they really know the area. They know all the coolest spots. You get some really cool knowledge about the place

And find some spot that most people don’t know about. Like, for example, he brought us this beautiful little alley. It’s called Miyashita Park, right under the Shibuya station, and it’s filled with tiny little icicles and soft lighting. I couldn’t find anyone recommending the place or really even finding a good pictures online.

And it is such a cool area. Apparently used to be like a rundown skate park, but it was all redone as part of renovations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But those Olympics were all done in a quarantine. So like, nobody really got to come and, like, see all this stuff.

We got some great photos of us scramble crossing, you know, in front of us. Sure you want oh nine and even or Moira Yoko or Memory Lane. It’s got its name because it’s kind of supposed to resemble Old Tokyo. And by that I mean like in Japan you have a restaurant

And then smaller than that, you have like an izakaya, which is kind of like a bar slash restaurant. And then below that you have something even smaller. It’s like a bar with four seats at it. And this little alley just filled with these little bars with seats

That it’s so tight in there and everyone’s kind of eating and drinking at super intimate. And memory Lane is full of these little restaurant. There’s a few other similar places like Golden Guy, but it’s just so cool to walk through these areas, so scenic and unique. And the last stop on our photography

Tour was Kabukicho, which is the red light district. Some really unsafe, but definitely a little sketchy. You’ll see some stuff going on that’s like a little off and there’s like some scams going on, but just walking around is pretty safe. And again, it’s a beautiful area.

So yeah, like I said, we took my photos there. Once it was over, we asked the photographer if he had any food recommendations in the area and he recommended this brand new complex called Kabukicho Tower. Again, this is one of those things I didn’t see on any lists, but it was

It was so crazy inside with all the lights and music playing is really overstimulating, honestly, by those brand new. It had all this food. It was super cool inside. And again, it’s like one of those things you never see on any list. Our booking. These photographer is always a good experience.

You get great shots to all your friend, you get great insights on the area and that’s pretty much all we did in Japan. Now, I promised one more convenience store recommendation, Ashleigh. The best one for last money literally couldn’t go a day without eating one of these. It’s these little Ohio milk pudding.

I don’t really know how to describe them, but she made me learn how to make them at home. They’re pretty straightforward. It’s kind of like milk and gelatin and sugar, and you bite into them and it’s like kind of creamy and like the flavor is milk, but it’s also kind of sweet.

I don’t know how to describe it. You have to try it. It’s so delicious. And one bonus racket. I mentioned the milk pudding. I got to also talk about the melon pon. It’s almost like a bread roll, but it has like a sugar cookie on top and it’s all baked together.

And you eat it almost like a muffin, maybe. You definitely got to try those. So that’s my personal favorite convenience store item. And those are the highlights of our Tokyo trip. My cat has decided this video is over, if you like that, definitely check out our video on Korea.

We’ve got a few more upcoming videos. We just got back from Hong Kong. That was such a fun trip. I can’t wait to share until next time. No, he’s.