We spent 2.5 weeks exploring Tokyo, Kyoto & Osaka. Here’s how we spent 6 days in Japan’s capital (plus, what NOT to do!)
From tasting some of Japan’s unique delicacies, to visiting some very quirky(!) attractions, to wandering some of the most colourful and renowned streets in the world, this in-depth and extensive episode follows our exact route across Japan’s biggest and busiest city, Tokyo, as well as featuring some traveller top tips, important advice and fun facts.
TIME STAMP GUIDE:
00:00 – Introduction
01:09 – Day 1 (Tokyo Imperial Palace, Akihabara)
11:44 – Day 2 (Nakamise-Dori, Senso-Ji, Shinjuku Gyoen, Ichiran)
21:48 – Day 3 (Harry Potter World, Shibuya Sky Deck, Shibuya)
31:02 – Day 4 (Harajuku, Takeshita-Dori, Micropig Cafe, Meiji Shrine)
36:59 – Day 5 (Tokyo Tower, Zozo-Ji, Ueno Zoo, Toshogu Shrine)
47:07 – Day 6 (Jonathan’s Restaurant, Muscle Girl Bar)
52:30 – Overview
FILMING:
Filmed with: Sony A6500
Dates of filming: 20th October-4th November 2023
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we started our journey in the exciting and colorful capital city of Tokyo where we spent 5 days before catching the shingen bullet train past Mount Fuji and over to Kyoto Japan’s former capital whilst in Kyoto we also did a day trip to Nara home of the Bowing deer from Kyoto we moved on to the third biggest city Osaka before then returning to Tokyo for one final day ready to catch our flight home [Music] that’s what we need that’s where we’re going we get three multiple tickets it’s worth noting that Japan surprised us with just how much of the country still relies on the use of cash we took a bit of cash with us and a currency card but honestly we use the currency card very little most places including a lot of train stations don’t accept card so be sure to take cash with you it’s also worth noting that if you plan on doing a lot of train Journeys during your stay it might be worth investing in an IC card for500 Yen which basically acts as a prepaid transport card to save you having to buy tickets each [Music] time today which way does it go in [Music] ask at the desk maybe the amount from this station to your destination how do I know how much it costs um oh here H English at the top where are we this station and then we’re going on oh you’re gu there 150 sorted okay so we’re all going to need to put our monal tickets just a little heads up what’s going on here these machines are called Fair adjustment machines if you need to do a change over at another train station during your journey or take a different route than you initially planned or you get off a later stop the exit gates at that train station will reject your original ticket and not let you leave unless you pay the correct fair look for a fair adjustment machine they usually yellow and are sign posted in English then simply put in your existing train ticket input the details of your onward journey and receive a fresh ticket which you can now use to get through the exit gates some machines like these ones work on a price list only rather than a destination list above the machines is usually always a map simply look for the name of the stop you need on the map and it will have the price number beside it if you’re traveling via an IC card chances are you won’t need to use a fair adjustment machine as your payment will automatically be processed when you scan your travel card at the exit gate please stand behind the yellow [Music] line your attention please oh oh job [Applause] nice wow P down I don’t want to sit on it and press massage because it’s fineing jet on my ass seem to be working I don’t know try the bday one I’ve tried them all but oh maybe you have got to sit on it I think yeah I think you’ve got to be in the danger zone for it to work right if I just do that if I do that so I’m sat on it and covering it right get your face out the way who man look at [Laughter] this wow so oh my God Al that’s a whole bit [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] right well we didn’t do our research Tokyo Imperial Palace is not open to the public and it’s also not very visible to the public either but the grounds leading up to it are very beautiful and are a very lovely break from the high-rise building surrounding [Music] it hello [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] feel just walking [Music] [Applause] [Music] the arcade games say sensory over it’s all like music [Music] stuff cross the road down to the end then it’s on the left [Music] [Music] I don’t know maybe we can walk past another okay I need to explain the food situation to you if you’re a firsttime to Japanese culture like we were the meal times may appear a little confusing on our first day we queued outside this restaurant for 45 minutes and the queue didn’t even go down an inch we presumed the restaurant just might not have been open yet so we headed to another restaurant where we also queued outside for another 45 minutes turns out they were actually just very popular restaurants whilst in the queue for the second restaurant a lady brought out some menus for everyone in the queue the menu was three pages long with all three items listed being almost exactly the same dish they obviously do it right this is for who needs to some lesson number one restaurants in Japan tend to focus on one or two particular dishes unlike Western Restaurants where it isn’t uncommon to get a menu with 30 different options lesson number two more often than not you actually place your order while still in the queue and then continue queuing or join another queue to wait for a table to become available and your food to be cooked your food will be serve to you immediately upon being seated but being seated depends on how long it takes the previous customers to finish their meal first lesson number three the window for meal times are much stricter than in the UK a lot of restaurants only seem to open at certain times here’s a quick snippet I took of one restaurant’s timetable just to give you an idea [Music] [Music] [Applause] sorry har I’m going to have to leave DBL you got different ones what is in that I don’t know oh that is not how I expected it to feels nice I hope you’re not to put your cook these that’s so weird it feels so strange what’s it like it’s like refreshing texture is really weird it’s like gooey it’s almost like uncooked dough but it tastes nice it’s nice and sweet thank you [Music] it’s roughly like a tennery [Music] you want to [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so you draw a stick and the stick matches a draw and you get your fortune from there and if it’s good you keep it and if it’s bad you tie it on there and you leave your look in the Shine That’s people’s bad look that they’ve left behind so it’s good either way trip trip it looks like that one Good Fortune repent what you’ve done so far and you should poke again oh no I’ve got a bad one what have I no bad fortune lack well let you work hard your family bu will not yet be prosperous your mindset what was your say Misfortune happens to you repeatedly just like a fire burns your house yeah but that’s okay because now you tie it up and you leave it here and then it won’t happen oh look they’re doing fire here there there a you got to Yellow [Music] did you just chck it in go [Music] [Music] [Music] back back on that street we were on before is a kimono place just off the street here’s a load of food corn on the CB are they bananas look at the cool bananas monest bananas I’ve ever seen wow oh is this is that what are you getting should there I should have broken my Chopsticks first how do you eat something like this with ch I have got no clue mate wow that has so many flavors all at once oh man that’s weird but like nice [Music] spe station yeah go so it’s going to these two places the one we need is that o they look nice ice cream we’re going to get anyway what is that advertising does oh that’s one of the walks you can do you are here there there’s no pets in [Music] that look all this beautiful view feing the wow look at him [Music] no guy [Music] [Music] what is this this one sh this is your you order preference what’s richness or what’s getting nice and Rich heat you go in and you have your own little sort of Boo and it’s almost like interaction so we put our preferences and our order on the table and someone I think they’re kind of behind the screen they come and take it away and just bring you your food and you have your own little area to like like introvert Paradise [Music] basically me to go M on the [Music] table babe one for you oh [Music] yeah thank you [Applause] [Music] nice this says it’s the AO line that saying it’s the toy line but it’s got the e it’s just confusing it’s all in all got different names it says a wo line e to is that not the name of the Subway because that says toy Subway this is right just they hear it on Google Maps says to this it’s right so we hope it is confusing so on that one toway line to the it’s got three possible different ways in which they describe this particular where are we going Harry poter we made another boo boo we had zero look on this day foolishly we didn’t buy our tickets in advance and were solely relying on the handful of tickets they keep available for purchase on the day but when we reached the ticket booth they told us they’d sold out immediately upon opening when we asked to buy tickets for another day both the Harry Potter studio tour and the Sky Deck in shabuya which we headed to next had no availability for weeks so if there’s something you really want to see whilst in Tokyo buy your tickets well in [Music] advance spirit [Music] with no more plans for the day we decided to explore the big several story shopping center that the Sky Deck was in whilst the sky deck may take you up to the 46th floor you can still get some great views of shabuya and the famous shabuya Crossing from the 14th floor which is the highest public floor you can access for free we actually stuck around for a few hours and call a beautiful sunset and watch the city come to life at night watching shabuya Crossing from above is the most mesmerizing thing as we’d come straight from the Harry Potter Studios to the Sky Deck we’d Miss lunch and as I mentioned earlier in the video this left us in a bit of a pickle because almost every single eery was closed since lunchtime was Tex technically finished excluding a Starbucks which just had mainly biscuits and cakes on offer for time reference it was about 3 or 4 p.m. at this point we managed to find only a couple of eies in the whole building that were open and serving at this time so we picked the coolest looking we have no idea what we were eating nor what on Earth we needed to do but it was an interesting experience let me show you so do we cook that then at our own Leisure I I don’t know I think so I guess do we put all the rest on what do we do I have no oh do we just pour it all on yeah I maybe’s coming back down there you go are [Music] [Music] fu it’s like an omelet oh wow [Music] [Music] [Music] yeah oh wow so cool we just eat it on here no we put it on our little plates we scoop it you maybe use your use the big ones and cut it cut it with those ones I think I don’t know what exactly that okay probably fine [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] it’s want of venure you can share try [Music] ppy oh smell that yeah he making fresh donuts [Music] oh you look you look [Music] great I’ve never bought some Pringles and cookie Cris B good oh nicely color matched they look very [Music] comy yeah she look really cute in that like an alien okay 3 2 1 go oh nice cute are you ready no my god oh you look hot man why did you come alive wearing that is there’s a cat [Music] [Music] cafe very nice it’s just a full piece of cheesecake shoved down the side the cheese let good how long do we have oh no 60 Minutes 2860 right on [Music] and we slumbering [Music] all I wanted to go and get us a drink think I’m getting get chance okay SC she’s giving that one to my [Music] [Music] [Music] we H that every year [Applause] [Applause] I’m com do that are these fortunes again I know it’s a poem says in this world of ours we shall always fall behind if we do not move when we could be advancing so then rest composed by Emperor m spirit is enshrined in that’s the the way it’s written the spacious Sky spans Serene and clear so blue above oh that our soul would grow to become so open a oh that’s nice very nice let’s see the other side the trees [Music] you let me name on this yeah we needing so we need number five I think this side asending numb going up Direction [Music] don’t think we’ll see Fuji today from up there it looks a bit cloudy hello [Music] 1958 this is 65 we soon at the main de which is 150 M this main please have a nice time quick o trippy this I don’t think she’s a serious [Music] witch another go [Music] I’m all time over the reviews you the location [Music] oh there’s a monkey there’s a monkey over there is he on the lead there’s a few monkeys monkeys a what just jumped on him wow oh there’s the zoo left oh there’s still people going in now by the time we finally made it to the zoo at 300 p.m. we were really worried we were going to be too late to get in look we saw other people still arriving and the gates were still open the zoo giant Pander exhibit Closing Time [Music] 3:00 let’s get on map one said three one said four so we need to run oh it’s here is that it the Giant Panda House it’s closed giant pandas are exhibited in the west garden no the West Garden’s this way this is the west garden Panda Forest right can we run run very [Music] dist [Music] REM you with that fu [Music] on [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] can good to [Music] [Music] speee [Music] can you not do directions [Laughter] look oh my goodness if you happen to stumble upon a butter Butler store whilst in to Tokyo you have to try them they’re a little expensive but they were absolutely delicious they’re a type of financio which is a small baked cake biscuit style treat they’re very sweet they’re very buttery and they’re very tasty [Applause] yeah you’re [Music] oh take a seat wherever you like don’t have to put it in on the iPad today my favorite new place Jonathan’s morning soup wow oh pancakes aren’t on there they are sorry oh are they was that blue fin chuna Sashimi rice B wow oh there’s pancakes o pancake and softboiled EG okay you’re it’s so [Applause] cool I think so [Music] for spee [Music] [Music] nice here how you doing [Laughter] are are you recording [Applause] yeah this was the muscle girl bar activity menu that we were given when we arrived arrived you could either purchase muscle dollars or earn them by doing various activities such as the chest press which you’ll see shortly you could then trade these muscle dollars in for anything on the menu and as you can see the menu offered everything from a group photo with the girls right through to a book kick 39 40 50 more 42 good job good job 9 50 five more 1 2 easy too easy just nailed let’s go let’s go 3 4 5 available to slap I mean I can do it let’s go go thank you all right God you ready I’m ready [Music] [Laughter] let’s go hi hi are you ready I my all right now attention to the center please in here you can exchange 10 muscle dollars for 1,000 yen that’s our currency here we uh you can use them to tip any gu you’d like or take part in the muscle activities listed on your Venue and the tip you give out to us will be used for a je feet so please get them it’ll make us bigger [Music] hey hey hey he [Music] [Applause] he meet you you’re amazing give me your hand oh gosh okay 3 2 1 [Laughter] muscle so to recap here is an overview of our full itinerary of Tokyo on day one which was our arrival day so it’s a little shorter than the other days we visited Tokyo Imperial Palace and akih Haba on day two we took a trip to nakam Dori sensui Temple Shinjuku guen Gardens and finished our day with a visit to an ichiran restaurant on day three we attempted Harry Potter World shabuya Sky Deck shabuya Crossing and Center guy on day four we headed to Harajuku teashi Dori the micro pig Cafe and the Magi Shrine day five took us to Tokyo Tower zooji Temple Tokyo zoo and toshogu Shrine day six was another shorter day since we were traveling home but we visited Jonathan’s restaurant and the muscle girl bar P.S apologies for any of my terrible pronunciations there coming up in my next videos I’ll take you through Kyoto and Osaka stay tuned thanks for watching [Music] [Music] each
3 Comments
Great video and editing, very informative as well x
This is a great video, thank you for sharing!
May I know which hotel did you stay at?