First day in TOKYO, JAPAN! 🇯🇵 Off the beaten path!

First day in TOKYO, JAPAN! 🇯🇵 Off the beaten path!

[Music] Hey. Hey guys, and welcome to Mo and KT’s Japan travel vlog. First up, we have me who planned the entire trip. And of course, on the other hand, we do have KT who’s coming along for the trip as well. But let us take you guys to Tokyo. Here’s a checklist of some things that are very important to me before the flight. And of course, I can’t stress the importance of an eim because internet is very important when you reach Tokyo to stay connected and to get around as well. We took Zip Air from Singapore to Tokyo around 6 hours. But don’t forget this super helpful tip for your pillows on every single airline. [Music] The plan is to not buy a check-in luggage at all for the airline so that we can save on a lot of money when we’re going there. It saves up to $60 per person, so it’s really good. And of course, we’re getting a check-in baggage on the way back. Ziper does have Wi-Fi, but it’s a little bit slow, so make sure you have entertainment on your phone. Uh, in the meantime, make sure to do your Visit Japan web QR code for an easier time at immigration when you go into Tokyo. The seats are not the best, as expected of a budget airline, but the leg room is ample, and I’m not too short of a person either. Please like and subscribe because I need subscribers, and you can help me out. Thank you. Finally, touching down in Japan, of course, don’t forget your QR code and activate your eSIM, especially if you have it right now. Another helpful tip is to buy your IC card, sweet card, or passmo card online before you reach Tokyo and then collect it at Narita Airport. But of course, if you don’t want to, you don’t need to because you can actually buy it from over there as well. [Music] Stop recording. Welcome to Have a nice trip. If you ordered anything online through cloak to collect a Narita airport, their pickup counter looks something like this. Please make sure you have a Suika IC or a Pasmo card before you leave the Narita airport because this card will be a lifesaver every time you need to take the train, the bus or use the vending machine even. Let’s go. There are many ways to leave Narita Airport, but my personal favorite is the Ka Skyliner. I would recommend it to anyone who is going to Tokyo as it is the fastest form of transport and it has very nice reserve seats with very good room for baggage as well. The convenience stores in Japan are of a different breed. They are so convenient. They have food. They have clothes. They have everything. And of course, I chance by some Family Mart socks that I didn’t know whether I should get, but you’ll find out at the end of the trip whether I actually got it or not. For our KSA Skyliner, we actually booked uh online through Cluke. So, uh, it was a very easy process where we just had to scan the QR code on the machine that I showed you guys before and then we got our tickets and we just left Narita Airport. Let’s go. [Music] Train will be cleaned. Please wait on the platform. We bought some onigiri that we managed to get from a convenience store and we consumed it on the train. But of course, you have to settle your own rubbish. But the good thing about the KA Skylliner is they have toilets between cabins and they have trash cans between cabins as well. But I did not realize that until later on. Once again, I can’t stress how luxurious this uh Skyliner is. It costs around maybe around $20 per person to get to the city to Nepori or to Ueno, whichever station that you choose to disembark from. But it is one of the premium options available and I would get it every single time because it just solves a lot of problems here. But here is me just not realizing that there’s a dust bin around. And yeah, [Music] the Skylliner is super fast as well. I think it travels at around 160 km an hour. So we managed to reach Nepori within 40 minutes, which is very very fast. Regarding transport, if you need to get anywhere within Japan, I would say Google Maps is your best friend. You can use it to go to anywhere within Japan and they will just show you the way, right? Regarding which train to take, regarding how much it costs and which transfers you have to take as well. The main train stations can get a bit crazy. They have a lot of exits. Don’t get me started on Shinjuku, but of course, if you’re using Google Maps, they will have the exact platform numbers which you need to get off from and which you need to get on the trains on. So, they are colorcoded as well. So, it’s very helpful. Make sure to open Google Maps at all times and just make sure you are on track. [Music] Once you’re done navigating that, of course, it’s time to go to your destination, wherever your accommodation is. And for us, it was on the Yamanote line. We needed to go to Sugamo and then switch over another train on the Toe Mita line all the way to Nishidai. And it was quite a far away place. But we chose this place. And you’ll find out a little bit later on why we chose this place, but it was the best accommodations I would say I’ve ever had in Japan. It was very spacious and it was extremely good. We entered in a section of the train where it was the priority seating where uh you shouldn’t sit on them unless you’re elderly, pregnant, or handicapped. So, you shouldn’t sit on them even if you’re a foreigner. But, of course, uh if you really need to, just go ahead. I think they would understand. But, uh yeah, KT was still looking a bit clueless here. For this trip, we decided to stay very far away from Tokyo because I would wanted to experience what a local lifestyle is. really uh immerse myself in the local culture, do things that a normal tourist wouldn’t do. But of course, since KT was new to Japan, it’s her second time here, we still had some tourist activities within these days that we are here. But for main stay, we chose to stay very far away from Tokyo. And you can see the pros and cons right here. As with all Japanese train stations, there are a lot of amenities nearby. There will always be something close to dues, a lot of convenience stores as well. But something that uh really was a bit of a quirky thing for me this trip was the Choco Zap that we found out. And I later found out it was a gym. And Choco Zap meaning you want to zap the chocolates away, which is yeah, kind of apt given its name and something that I might really need later on after this Japan trip because I’ve been eating so much. Our [Music] accommodations were around a 10-minute walk away from the station. And I saw some trees that might look like Sakura, and I thought they were Sakura trees, but they weren’t because we were in late September. So, uh, they were actually uh crepe myrtle trees, which bloomed like Sakura, and they were pink flowers, and they look really nice in the neighborhood as well. Our accommodations is actually an area that is up for rental, but there are two hotel rooms that they actually let out to tourists as well. So, room 2011 and 202 are actually meant for tourists. And yeah, it was a great accommodations. The toilets were spacious. It had a washing machine, which did not need a coin or money to use at all. And it costed me uh less than $500 Singapore dollars for um nine nights in that place, which is around maybe 50 Singapore dollars a night as well. So the place was spacious. It had a living room. It had a balcony as well. [Music] [Music] Very quiet street, very windy. Moto. It’s a It’s a It’s a takeaway. It’s a thing store. Oh my gosh. Somebody dropped his one. Hey, this is a pet shop, right? Is this a pet shop? Oh, is it about the same? About the same. Now that you can see what I’ve been dealing with for the entire trip, uh we are headed out for lunch to find something nice to eat. And luckily for us, we managed to find a nice little sushi place down the street. As always, you can’t go wrong with Japanese sushi. It is from Japan. It is the best in Japan. And I feel that any sushi chain that you go to has very very good sushi no matter what. They have a minimum standard there. And the minimum standard is way above any standard of sushi that is in the rest of the world. So this place that we went to and it was our first meal of the day, our first full meal of the day. It literally blew our minds, right? The chtoro was so good. The food that came was so great. And overall, it wasn’t even that expensive. Sushi is way cheaper in Japan than it is ever will be in Singapore and I feel that yeah, it is a great experience every time we’re having sushi there. I was live streaming this as well on my Tik Tok channel. So, of course, do drop me a follow on my Tik Tok, on my Instagram, whatever. I use the same handle for all my social media. And yeah, for those of you guys that are already followed, have already watched this live. Uh, I always try to stream content like this, especially when I’m out overseas doing something interesting, doing something out of the ordinary as well. Of course, I do try to document everything down. So, yeah, enjoy us eating a little bit for our mukbang session. The location of this place is of course on the top side of this video. And for all the other food places that we’ll be visiting in the rest of the following videos, I will put the locations on the top or the videos uh whenever possible. [Music] Next up, we headed to the local 7-Eleven for some drinks and some, you know, light snacks after lunch. Uh, yeah. But what we found very interesting over there was the rear tea, which my girlfriend KT really really liked, but we don’t have it in Singapore. And you can see from her face that she’s just sad that we don’t have it here. Later on in the night, we headed out to the Don Kyote that is nearby. And of course, if you don’t know what Donyote is, it is one of the biggest departmental stores in the whole of Japan. They do have chains here in Singapore in the form of Don Donkey, but the Donkeyote there is completely different. It’s on a wider scale than you will ever see in any other country. It is like the Japanese Costco. I mean, they do have a Costco over there, but it I feel that it’s still way better than Costco. And I feel that this is one of the perks of living in a area where it’s so far away from the rest of the main tourist areas that is in Tokyo, right? When you stay away from the main tourist areas, you can see that the train stations are definitely a bit more less packed, less people to deal with. There’s less contesting about space. You don’t have to fight with tourists about tax-free incentives and all these things. And even when we head on into the cashiers or when we are shopping, there’s just so much space to work with. [Music] I think there’s also a clear distinct difference between a mega donyote and a standard donyote that is in Tokyo, Japan, right? Where you can see that the standard dawn kyote is the one that you’ve been to in Akiabara Shinjuku. They’re extremely claustrophobic. They’re so tight in spaces. But if you take a look at where we’re shopping in Mega Don Kyote, it is huge. There’s enough space for you to walk around, carry a basket, and not really hit another person at all. And they have a wide selection of clothes available as well on the second floor where they have brands like Champion, Adidas, and even their own house brands over there as well for you to shop as much as you want to your heart’s content. Wow. [Music] All right, let’s go. Finally, after we were done shopping at Don Kyote, we stumbled upon the best hidden gem that we have found in Tokyo so far. This is Uoharu and Izzizakaya that has been serving great fish since the start. It is owned by a fishmonger, so he knows his fish and of course the sashimi and everything that he serves up. It is so fresh. It is so good and he’s so generous with it as well. I can’t believe what I’m about to say. I I just came back here multiple times eating at this place despite the fact that we have limited days here in Japan. And we wanted to try new things, but it was just that good. And I just kept coming back because this place, it was amazing. And you can’t even find it on Google Maps if you type it in English. You have to type it in Japanese. The words over there, I will probably put it on top of this video here. If you can type it out, of course, do type it out. Do check this place out. It is a family-owned restaurant and they do open until 10:30 in the night as well, but they are closed on certain days. I believe Google Maps is correct on when they’re open and closed, but man, this was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. [Music] Some of their must order items include the sashimi moria, which is a secret menu item. It is not on the menu, but of course, do order it. It is by far the most worth it for any amount of people that you’re coming with. We got the twoerson platter. It It was extremely filling. It was a great platter of sashimi as well. Just a note, the sashimi morio is uh very different every single day. It depends on what the fish munger had caught the day before. So, uh the fish is very very fresh and it arrives early in the morning. He starts preparing it. The restaurant is only open from like 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. So, he’s preparing all the ingredients in the morning and by the night when it’s sold out, it’s sold out. And yeah, the next day the fish changes as well. So, the next time that we came back, the sashimi moria was completely different fish from what we had the first time as well. [Music] Of course, we ordered the grilled sari as well, the sari fish. It was so good. The fish was flaky. It was fresh. It has that sweet flavor of that saltwater fish as well. It was so good. I can’t believe I ate the entire thing. KT was a bit full, so she couldn’t eat the rest. But luckily, there was me. So, more for me. And I was extremely happy that she couldn’t eat the rest because the sour was that good and I just couldn’t stop eating. Also, this place is cash only. So, do take note of that and make sure that you have enough cash on hand when you are making pay. [Music] [Music] And if you’re feeling adventurous like me, you can try out the eel inards, which is the liver and the intestines. It is uh also known as the unagi ankimo yakitori which is they grill it with a sweet tare sauce and then they serve it to you yakitori style but it is actually eel inards which is the intestines and the liver of the eel and it was so good. It was not fishy at all. It had a great smell and yeah it was extremely fresh. We should get a basket. Right. Finally, to end up the day, we headed to the local grocery store, which is very close to our place, also known as the Big A, which is open all the way till midnight. And uh we were there just to shop for just last minute supplies, last minute necessities as well as food for the next morning and also something like some yogurt, some supplements and maybe some cereals as well in case nothing was open in the morning. Also, just another note, grocery stores are way cheaper than convenience stores in Japan by a heavy margin. Right? For example, if you’re paying like total cost $20 for your groceries in the convenience store, uh in the grocery store, it might cost you maybe $15. You save up to 20% more. So, overall, if you’re there for a longer trip, you might want to shop at a grocery store instead of a convenience store. [Music] What? You keep showing up perfect. It’s funny. You look like a gremlin because I made a mistake. [Music] Another side note uh is to make sure that you do have an overseas exchange card, something like Wise. UTIP or Revolute to use on um any of the card machines available as well. It does help a ton when you’re in Japan, especially when the place accepts card, right? Because you don’t want to use up your remaining cash. Also, we came during late September season, which is the typhoon period. So, do take note of rain. Luckily, the weather has been nice to us, but sadly when we were leaving, it started to rain and luckily for us, it was very nearby to our accommodations. This was just day one of our 9-day trip series. So, of course, do stay tuned for more. Like and subscribe, and I’ll see you guys in the next one.

Spending our first 24 hours in Japan! Learn some tips and tricks on getting out of Narita and watch us stay in Tokyo but not Tokyo!

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