Welcome To JAPAN – Explore My First Days In TOKYO with@TheCountryCollectors

Welcome To JAPAN – Explore My First Days In TOKYO with@TheCountryCollectors

Well, I’m welcome to Tokyo. [Music] All righty, fellow travelers. Welcome back to Adventures of a Traveling Dawn. And today we are here in Tokyo, Japan. This is the beginning of a brand new series, and I am super excited about this because this has been on my bucket list for years. You do not realize how long I have wanted to come to Japan. And we are here. So, we’re going to be here for a full month. It’s going to be about like nine days in uh Tokyo, 9 days in Osaka and 9 days in Kyoto before we head off to South Korea for the next journey. But we’re going to start off here. We are staying in the Shinbasi uh district and we are going to be starting off here at Tokyo Tower, one of the most iconic buildings here in Tokyo. So, let’s head on up and check things out. So, before we head up to Tokyo Tower, I wanted to kind of go over how we got to this point. So, we flew over from Seattle to Tokyo at Haneda Airport with ANA. Awesome. number one airline. Absolutely fantastic. And of course, we went through Haneda airport. If you’re coming in through Haneda, because there’s two major airports, there’s Narita and Haneda. If you’re coming in through Haneda, uh, and you’re heading to like the Shambashi district, whether to transfer to a different line or just you staying in Shimashi like we are, you’re going to take the Montreal up to a certain point. I think it’s Hama Hamatsucho uh station is the last one on that line, but the Montreal is fantastic. Highly recommend taking that. gives you kind of like a bird’s eye view of that south part in Manado City uh running from the Haneda airport all the way up to uh Shimashi. Really, really nice. Definitely recommend taking the Montreal just in general when you are here. Um also, if you’re looking for a couple places to stay, uh the first night that we stayed as just kind of like a layover night before we switched to our main place here in Tokyo was the ANA Holiday Inn on Tennu Island. Fantastic spot. They’ve got this thing called the library lounge, which is like one of the coolest looking like library/caf I think I’ve ever seen. Awesome. Awesome spot. And then the hotel that we’re staying at for the entire period that we’re here in Tokyo is a place called Laf L, excuse me, Laugh Hotel, LF Hotel. Uh it’s a chain uh but we’re in the one called Laf Shimashi and it’s just kind of in the middle of Shimashi area. It’s like uh 8 minutes from the uh Onadyan station, like 15 minutes walk from the Shimbashi station, and it’s literally about like 15 minutes walk from here at uh Tokyo Tower as well. So, you’re kind of in the center of Manado City on that south part of the downtown part of Tokyo. So, it’s a great kind of spot. Really didn’t cost a whole lot. I think for the 9 days total, it was about in US dollars, it was like about 1,200 bucks. So, for Tokyo, not too bad. And if you’re looking for any kind of place to stay, I definitely recommend checking out planin.com. I am a both a member and a content creator for them. It is a booking site like booking a god, things like that. I think they partner with them as well, but you can definitely go on there, check them out, and of course get our recommendations and follow some of our travel guides as well. Just make sure you look me up on planet.com. All right, let’s get up Tokyo Tower. [Music] All right, so we have officially made it to the top of Tokyo Tower. tower and this is awesome. So when you come to Tokyo Tower, you’re basically going to check in if you want and I highly recommend this anywhere you go in Japan if it is major attractions. Use the Cluke app. It’s a K L O K. It is a great app for anything that you want to do when it comes to attractions here in Tokyo and I think across the major cities in Japan. But this is absolutely phenomenal. So, you have a few different types of um tickets and admissions. The main observation deck, which is uh kind of like a little under like halfway up the tower, uh I believe that is about it’s about $11 US worth. Uh I think it’s like 15 or like 16,700 yen, something like that. To come up here to the top is basically about uh $22 as of 2025 when I’m here in September. And it is a fantastic view from even like the the basic one gives you great views of the surrounding city. But when you get up here to the top, this is like you can see all of Tokyo. I know. I think you can see Mount Fuji on clear days. We don’t have a clear day right now, but you can see Soji Temple. You can see the entire surrounding Tokyo metropolitan. And is absolutely fantastic and definitely worth it. That extra little bit as well to come up here. here and gives you like a little bit of like a history of Tokyo Tower. You get to kind of see like stills and photographs of um the different phases of when it was made and some of the events that they’ve had here. Uh like this this tower has been around since like 1958 and it is about 333 m high or about 1,000 to 93 1,093 ft I believe to the top of the antenna. But really really cool. Definitely worth the price of admission. And also, if you take this um the top deck tour, you do get a little drink. So, they’ll do a uh photo shoot for you. You get kind of like a free small one. Um and then it’s like I think 2,000 yen for like the bigger one. And then, of course, you also get like a small little drink. You can get like a green tea, apple juice, or they also have like a small little red or white wine. It’s kind of a nice refresher. But yeah, definitely worth it. [Music] [Music] Okay, so we’re done with Tokyo Tower and now we’re off to Soju Temple. [Music] So when you are going from Tokyo Tower to Soji Temple or vice versa, you’re probably going to pass through the Mumiji Dan and I highly recommend cutting through it just to basically walk around. It’s absolutely gorgeous little park. It’s got the mumiji uh taki which is basically a little waterfall that kind of runs and it’s a great shot. It’s the waterfall and then you look up through the trees and you’ve got a great sight of Tokyo Tower with the waterfall. It’s kind of the foreground. It is absolutely gorgeous. And I am here honestly a couple of months too early because I’m here in the middle and end of September in Tokyo and it’s not yet fall here which is to me it’s a little odd because you know I come from places like Maine and Alaska where I spend my summers and you know the early to midfalls sometimes and I’m used to seeing some leaf changes by end of September. Usually you got some good colors going on, but here in Tokyo it’s not yet summer’s not yet over. It has cooled down compared to what it is during July and August, but it’s still like, you know, in Fahrenheit. I think today it gets up to about 83 84. I think on tomorrow on Sunday, uh cuz I’m filming this on a Saturday. This I think it’s going to be like 90. It cools down by the end of the uh month to like 80s and upper 70s, but it’s still kind of like it’s still muggy. It’s still warm. You barely see some of the trees, some of the trees have just the tintest bit of the beginnings of change color, but I’m here a couple of months too early for the beautiful fall colors, particularly in a place called the Maple Valley where these are all different types of maple trees. So, but I do have one day at the end of my trip when we’re back here mid November before we head home. I might come back and see if I can uh see hopefully they’ve got some color change by then. But even still, even during the summer time, green and absolutely beautiful. [Music] So, we’ve now made it to Sojo Temple and of course then we got the main temple behind me which we’ll go visit in a minute. Unfortunately, the Datsuman Gate uh kind of like the big main uh gate that you walk through uh is very very iconic. It is under reconstruction as of right now in September 25. I’m not sure when that’ll be done. Hopefully soon. So, when you guys come, you can actually see it. But behind me, what’s really cool is once you come in the gate, right to your right, is this huge uh massive I think it is a Himalayan cedar tree. And it was actually um planted here by the uh by President Ulissiz S. Grant, I think back in like 1879 or something like that when he was here on a state visit. Really kind of cool because it was once a sapling back in 1879. And now as you can see how tall that bad boy is. So, but anyway, let’s go ahead and check out this temple because it is absolutely fantastic looking. [Music] [Music] So the Soji temple was built I believe in 1393 was when it was finished. So at the end of the 14th century and what you see here now is no longer any of the original buildings. Those have over the centuries been burned down quakes um just a myriad of things and of course the uh the air raid bombings during World War II. So, it has of course been rebuilt to the specifications as close as you can get, but it is a beautiful temple inside. It’s got a bunch of kind of like great Buddhist statues. Uh, and it is just absolutely phenomenal. Um, they do ask you when during times of when they do do ceremonies in there to not take any pictures or videos, but you’re allowed to uh um outside of any of that. And of course, it’s just beautiful grounds. It connects into uh Prince I think it’s Shibi Shibuya Shiba Park something like that. Um and it’s just it’s got the backdrop of Tokyo Tower with this. If you add Soji Temple and of course Tokyo Tower, these are probably the two top places to visit during uh your stay here in the Manato City Shinashi area. But absolutely beautiful, beautiful temple and uh the first one of many to visit while I’m here in Japan. [Music] Okay, now these behind me are actually really kind of cool. These are little guardians. I think there’s supposed to be a guardians for kids and I think the symbiization is the red hat uh the red kind of like scarf and then the windmills and it was basically to protect children uh as um basically like a guardian deity to make sure that they grow up safe and healthy. But it is really really kind of cool like just like their almonds like rows and rows of rose. Absolutely phenomenal. [Music] So, I had to try on mic, so excuse me if the volume’s a little different right now. Um, but we’re at a place called Itamay Sushi, and this is Edomi style sushi. And I’m super super excited to be having this. So, it’s we basically got the all blue fin tuna um setup. So, it’s going to be five pieces of traditional tuna. So, we’ll have that real quick right there. And just do a little bit of soy sauce on there. Absolutely fantastic. So this whole thing is about I think it’s about um just under 5,500 yen. So it’s about like 37 $38 and you get basically about 10 pieces of sush sushi including two fatty tuna two three medium uh fatty tuna and then your traditional blue fin plus you get a u or one small tuna roll miso soup salad and then also um this as well. So, we’re going to try the medium. I think this is chutoro. I could be wrong, but I think I got that right. So, we’ll go ahead and try that one this time. Come on. That is ridiculous. Absolutely amazing. And then of course the piston resistance the fatty tuna the fattiest of fattiness. Oh, that’s just melt in your mouth. That is absolutely phenomenal. My god. That is really really good too. Okay, so I got to say that was fantastic as my first sushi experience in Japan. Very good. Uh we’ll see as we go forward. Next time I won’t do just tuna, but it seemed to be kind of like they had a full like two pages uh basically dedicated to it. So I figured I got to try that. And of course, you know, Bluefin tuna is what Japan is known for specifically when it comes to uh sushi. But man, that was delicious. A couple of other places I highly recommend particularly if you’re looking for uh either breakfast or dinner. So you would think this was lunch for sushi. Uh breakfast there is if you’re particularly if you’re staying in this area of Shimbashi uh near L hotel, there’s a place called Maruchi Bagel which is fantastic. I think they get the wheats for the bagels from Hokkaido and it is a fantastic little bagel shop. We had one with cream cheese with uh smoked Norwegian salmon which was just off the charts. It was fantastic. And then of course uh if you’re looking for a great dinner spot, you have of course uh sheibanu. No, she numa. Sorry about that. Shiba numa was amazing. It was kind of like beautiful little small hole-in-the-wall Japanese spot. And we had sukiyaki which was absolutely fantastic. I also had like uh little lamb skewers and we had some sashimi appetizer, but the sukiyaki was really really good and had a little bit of Japanese whiskey was just fantastic. So, highly recommend those two places as well when you’re eating here in the Shimashi area near Loft Hotel. [Music] So, a little challenge I’m going to do for you guys and something I challenged you to do whenever you come here to Shimashi. And these are the success steps that go to the top of Mount Atago. There is a shrine up there that we’re going to go to, but it’s 86 very steep looking steps to get all the way up. And apparently the u the history behind it is there was a famous samurai in the Edeto period that rode his horse his horse up and down those steps. And ever since he did that, he had success in his life. So everybody honors his memory and his horse’s sacrifice in memory, too, by climbing these 86 very steep steps. So, let’s get on with it. [Music] These are actually very, very steep steps. Holy crap. [Music] Whose god damn idea was it to make steps this steep? Holy crap. It’s only 86 of them. But God damn. Holy moly. That was particularly in this humidity right now. Sweating. It’s a good workout though. It is a good workout and honestly beautiful looking shrine. So it is worth it. Let’s go check it out. [Music] So, I got to say this Mount Tago shrine is absolutely phenomenal. um you talk about I think Mount Tago right here is the highest land point not the buildings or anything but actual land point in the Tokyo area. It’s I think about 26 m high you know it’s not you know a big mountain but it is kind of an isolated spot in the middle of this huge city. Absolutely amazing. The shrine is gorgeous and it’s just h the grounds are fantastic and like I said, it is a little bit of like a solitary place. Not too many people come up here. Number one, you got to climb the damn stairs to get all the way up here, but it is really kind of cool. And it’s finally cooling off a little bit with the rain going on. So, this feels so nice. [Music] So, of course, it starts to rain as you guys just saw, and of course, I don’t have an umbrella at the time. I go to 7-Eleven, get myself an umbrella, and guess what? It stops raining. That’s all you have to do, apparently. Anyway, it is a fantastic place that we are at. And this is Hamario Gardens. And this is one of the larger gardens, I believe, on this southside. I think it is the largest garden in the Manato City area. Uh this actually used to be part of the Tokugawa uh Shogunut estate and the Tokugawa Shogunut Shoguns would basically kind of you have all of these uh recreated tea houses that uh had existed for a long time of course during earthquakes and World War II and things like that. You know, they got damaged, burnt down, but they have been restored. Beautiful, beautiful kind of like old style houses uh and tea place, tea shops. And they have one that is active, which is fantastic. It’s about um if you do the combo, which is a little snack with the matcha tea, it’s you know, freshmade matcha. It’s about a,000 uh yen, but it is well worth that. And it’s just absolutely delicious. I got like a doriyaki, which um it’s kind of like two pancakes and they stuff in the middle. Uh it’s kind of like a sweet bean paste. Mine was a chestnut, which was fantastic. And then of course um the matcha tea. So, highly recommend coming here. It is well worth it. It’s a beautiful huge gardens. Um I think they it used to be a I don’t know if it still is, but uh this used to be where the shogun would duck hunt as well. And it’s a unique spot because it is connected out to the ocean. So, you almost kind of get like a like it’s not huge, but almost like a small tidal effect um throughout the pond here. Very unique. Very cool. Um, I not sure if this water here is fresh or brackish, maybe. I’m not entirely sure how that all works. I’m just going off of what I read on the sign, but it’s still beautiful, massive garden. It’s about 300 yen to uh for admission, and it’s great to just walk around and enjoy the nature. [Music] All right, guys. So, while we’re surrounded by Tokyo Bay and the Hamaru Gardens, I thought I’d do a quick couple of shoutouts. Actually, a few shout outs because this trip has been a long time in the making. Even before I started doing YouTube back in 2021, I was supposed to come to Japan in April of 2020 for the soccer festival. And we all know what happened. And by the time Japan reopened, I had already moved on to doing other stuff. But now I am finally here in September of 2025. and a few people that have been great inspirations not just in YouTube by itself but in Japan YouTube it’s uh specifically and that is of course Chris Broad from the Abroad in Japan channel, Charlotte uh from the Charmeleon channel. Those two are fantastic power couple. If you guys haven’t seen any of their stuff definitely check I’ll leave links in the description for their channels. I just wanted to give them a shout out in this first particular video here in Japan because their dedication to what they do really made me want to get into number one, it really kind of wanted me to get into YouTube along with Mark Wis and a few others, but really I’ve been watching them since like 2018 when I was kind of ramping myself up for a 2020 trip and it’s just h I’m so excited to be here. Um, definitely going over to Lost Bar and Shabuya. I don’t know if I’ll run into them. Hopefully I do. If not, either way, I gotta give it up to them. And of course, Connor, Sea Dog, VA, Premier Pete 2, uh, Trash Chase, Natsky, you know, Natsky, uh, awesome character. Um, Riatro. So, all those people that are part of that community here, you guys have inspired me when it comes to coming to Japan. I want to thank you guys very much. And I’ve got one more to thank, but I think he’s actually on his way. We’re going to meet up and I’ll thank him in person. [Music] So, while I head back to my hotel room to prep for pretty much the what’s going to be the finale of this video and our special guest, there is another garden that you want to check out when you are in the Manado City area, and that is the Kioa Rio Gardens. I went to there yesterday. So, here we go. Check it out while I head back and get ready for the finale. Heat. Heat. [Music] Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. [Music] All righty, guys. It’s October Fest time and that secret person I was telling you was about to join me is Mr. Adam from the country collectors here in Japan. Kichi guys, if you guys are looking for travel content, he’s also in Japan. You’ve done Thailand, Mexico, South America, Central America. You’re looking at it. Check out Country Collectors. Link will be in the description. Already got to you guys. [Music] October. That’s nice. In Tokyo. Who is that? [Music] All right. I’ve had a full beer already. And uh I asked for a half. They gave me a full. But uh so great on that. We got some chicken skewers. Oh, yummy. Yummy. And then Mr. Adam, what you got, brother? I got the triple sausage with cheese and some sauerkraut as well as a highball. A little Japanese whiskey and soda. It’s not what the picture looks like. I’m a little bit disappointed, but I’m sure it will be just looks like a regular hot dog. Looks pretty good. Not too bad. All right. And then of course I got myself another amber. I’m going to be drinking ambers all night to come by and fro to you guys. Oh, so good. [Music] All righty, guys. So, that was October Fest in Tokyo. What’ you think, Adam? I mean, who would have thought in the first place, but the music was great. The food was good and the beer was amazing. Absolutely fantastic. And of course, I hope you guys enjoy this sort of This is my first impressions of Tokyo as you guys see this first video. This is the Shimashi area. It’s not even full of Monado City. So, definitely looking forward to the rest of Tokyo. If you guys haven’t seen Adam’s video on Tokyo, definitely check out that plus all of his stuff in Japan going forward and what he’s done so far, definitely check it out. And of course, if you like the video, give it a big old thumbs up and subscribe to the channel. And of course, Adam, what do you say? Clinging ling bell for any notifications. Thank you very much, guys. I’m Ting again. Peace out. Have a great night. [Music]

Hey there fellow Travel Dons and welcome to Japan! Join me on the first video of what will be an epic journey across Japan. In this adventure I showcase my first couple days in Tokyo. Where to stay, what I ate and of course some local sites to see.

From the majestic Tokyo Tower and its phenomenal views to the tranquility of Zojo-ji Temple. Come with me as I dine on sushi, sukiyaki and so much more. After that we will burn off the calories by exploring Mt Atago and two of Tokyo’s beautiful Local Gardens.

The cap off will be meeting up with Adam from @TheCountryCollectors channel for an Oktoberfest Celebration in Shiba Park. That’s right, they do Oktoberfest here in Japan!
———————————————————————————————————————-
Make sure to check out Adam over at: @TheCountryCollectors
For more videos on Japan and many more countries.

Other YouTubers to watch for Japan content:
Abroad In Japan: @AbroadinJapan
Sharmeleon: @sharlainjapan
CdawgVA: @CDawgVA
Trash Taste: @TrashTaste
———————————————————————————————————————–
For early access to my videos along with exclusive Travel Don merch, become a member at: https://www.patreon.com/c/AdventuresofaTravelingDon

You can also support the channel at: https://buymeacoffee.com/traveldon
Your support is greatly appreciated.
———————————————————————————————————————–
Looking for a place to stay in Tokyo? Sign up at Plannin for recommendations and travel guides from fellow travel content creators: https://plannin.com/en/profile/TravelingDon?refId=TravelingDon
———————————————————————————————————————-