15 TOP things to do in TOKYO (Tokyo travel guide)

15 TOP things to do in TOKYO (Tokyo travel guide)

We’re going to cross these off. Where is it? Oh my gosh. Shabuya Scramble. We’re just walking into a crowd of people. Welcome to Tokyo, Japan’s iconic, electric, and totally overwhelming bucket list city. We had just 48 hours to see all of the top things to do in Tokyo. But this isn’t a city you can tackle without a plan. I really have no idea where we’re going. So, we made a map this way. Wrote a list, checked it twice, and hit the streets. From iconic shrines to delicious and unique foods, peaceful park escapes, and the busiest crosswalk in the world, we ended the whole 48 hours with one of the most unforgettable sunsets of our lives. Oh, and if you’re planning a trip to Tokyo, you can grab our free map in the description. Let’s go to Tokyo. Is that right? Look at the camera, not yourself. But I’m so handsome. Good morning from our first full day in Tokyo, Japan. We have made a list of 15 things we want to do while we’re here and over the next 48 hours, we’re going to check off as many as we can. We’re staying in the Asakusa region of Tokyo, which means our first stop is in walking distance. [Music] Yeah. Wow. That’s not what we saw yesterday. No, we saw like the outskirts of it, but not that. Literally like around the corner from where we’re staying. That’s crazy. First stop is very busy and I feel like it is just a sign of things to come. We are in the most popular city in the entire world. So, can’t really expect anything [Music] different. Literally a 5minute walk from where we’re staying is Senzo Gi and this is Tokyo’s oldest temple. It’s a Buddhist temple and was built in, let me confirm, was built in 645 CE. I don’t even know what that is. What CE? The craziest fact that I read about this temple is that that massive red lantern at the ca at the gate weighs 700 kilos. Isn’t that bonkers? It is beautiful here. It’s free entry. It seems to be quite spread across things. So, there’s the main Seno G temple and then some other things to look at. Plus, you can get a 100red yen fortune, which I think we should do. Heck yeah. Let’s go. First vending machine purchase. We needed change for a fortune. So, I got some water from Mount Fuji. Okay. 100 in to donate. Mhm. Then we shake this until a stick comes out. Oh no. Now we need to do 200. Okay. Do you have 200? Yeah. You have another 200. Okay. Now we’ve got to match this. And that’s your fortune. Oh, that’s tough. Yeah. It’s numbers. Oh, mine definitely starts with a window like this. Window plus three. That’s a match, right? That’s a match. Now, a lot of it is obviously in Japanese, which we can’t read, but there is a small section in English. Mine says number 43. A crescent moon will be grad will be full gradually. So you should wait the chance. It is so hard to get a chance in fortune like to hunt deer in a deep valley. But with the with the of a great person with honor, the deer will be shot and given to you. Then everything start going so well. You can get a the job and income later. Social fame together. Wow. Subscribe. To start a trip is all safe. Marriage and employment are both well. Oh my goodness. Clear and concise. Coming fortune in future depends on all what you have done at past. If you behave, if you behave your best to others, you can be rich and get honor by people. Your request will be granted. The lost article will be found. The person you wait for will come. Building a new house and removal are both good. That’s nice. So, we got good ones. Apparently, there are bad ones in there that you can draw. That’s so rough. Pay money for someone to be like, “You’re fucked.” But if you draw a bad one to get rid of the evil spirits, you tie it up on one of the racks that are on the side of where you draw them, and that gets rid of your evil spirits. So, either way, it works out positively. All right. [Music] Crazy. I don’t even know how much does the elephant weigh. I wanted to cut this part of the video out, but Jordan found it funny. And I guess it’s a little insight into how my mind works. I knew that this red lantern weighed 700 kilos, and I guess I wanted context for that in elephants. Turns out it’s not even close to the weight of one elephant. All right, back to the video. I have four things to say. It’s very busy. I don’t know, but I want to know what the smoke thing is, like cleansing ritual. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Same goes for the drinking water out of dragon’s mouths cuz that was I didn’t see that. Yeah, it was just a little bit further on. I went around and got some B- roll of it. Um, let’s go back and see. Seemed like a luck thing. And also the throwing coins inside in the temple. I think it’s like a wishing well thing, but yeah, it was like split up. So, like maybe dependent on when you where it landed, something different happened. But we can officially cross one off the list. Cross. Boom. One down. And I know of another one that we can cross off pretty quickly. That’s right around the corner. Love that. We’ve heard this is the place for noodles. Noodles. This should be quite the unique experience. to be waiting until we can sit next to each other. I think so. There’s like a seating chart of what’s available and what’s not. Looks like it’s just booked all the time. They’ve literally opened an hour ago and it’s full. Yeah, it’s like breakfast time. But these are like the super famous single seat ramen places. Apparently, it’s meant to be pretty mid-level ramen, but you got to come here. It’s going to be our first ramen in Japan. So, it’s my own little cubicle. They just put the curtain down on me and assuming this is where the magic happens and then the curtain will come up and I’ll be fed my spicy ramen. I think it’s like 10 to 12 Australian dollars per bowl and chopsticks. If you didn’t order enough, you can order extra here. Thank you. I love it. I think it’s really good. All the reviews saying the noodles are mid. Get out of here. Going to build the perfect bite. Little bit of noodle pork, green onion. Cheers. I love it. As if people say this is me. Although it is our first ramen in Japan, but I think it’s great. I’m really impressed. This is so much fun. I love it. I went for all of the recommended options when I ordered and I think it’s perfect. It’s just the right spiciness for me. The broth is so flavorful. I don’t understand how people say this is mid-level ramen. I know we haven’t had anything else, but this is so good. Plus, it’s just such a fun experience. Like, it shouldn’t be as fun as it is. Like, we’re still technically sitting next to each other and can talk to each other, but it’s so fun. It got a lot spicier towards the end, but it was really good. Wow. Wow. Sorry. Jeez Louise. Sorry. Sorry. I think we timed that well. I cannot believe how well we timed that. The line is huge now. And we walked straight in. I think we waited for 5 minutes so we could get seats together. The line literally goes down the stairs. Bonkers. So, that place was called Ichun and highly, highly recommend it. I do believe it’s a chain. We just came to the one that’s literally around the corner from where we’re staying. If you like spicy, I challenge you to get the spicy. It does get hotter and hotter as you eat it, but it’s absolutely worth it. And now on to the next stop. [Music] This is cool. Well, there’s a zoo. Let’s walk in and around. You’re welcome. Oh, where’s she going? Park. This is nice. The next thing on our list was a park. And this one was actually told to us by our Instagram followers. So, if you’re not following us on Instagram yet, get on there because we need your recommendations. This one’s a winner. Look at this. Wow. Looks like a maybe a market’s on as well. I also just think time of year is hard to be beat because all of the leaves are like bright yellow, proper golden, like sun shining through the yellow leaves and the bright blue sky. How’d we get so lucky, man? Love an autumn park. Very like Central Park vibes. Extremely Central Park vibes. Don’t love it. [Music] Don’t know where Emily’s gone. You can see in the Osmo that I did connect to her microphone, but I don’t know where she [Music] is. Not only is it beautiful and just packed with people having picnics and enjoying the weather, behind me is a zoo. Behind Jordan is two museums and a theater, let alone all of the cafes and restaurants and stuff. What an epic park. I love it. Knock up out of nowhere. The sweetest old man. We were standing enjoying the yellow leaves and how beautiful it is. I was just standing there. Jordan was getting some shots on the camera and all of a sudden I just heard from beside me, “Oh, it’s very beautiful.” And it was the sweetest old Japanese man. We chatted for a while and then he asked someone to take our photo together. It was very nice. It was so wholesome. He had his little what like $40 camera he said it was. We all took a happy snap. He was so sweet. Very sweet. So this is Ununo Park. Very hard. Wow. Someone just started playing the accordion. This place has everything including an accordion. But there is also a zoo. heaps of the cherry blossoms here. So, in spring, it becomes incredibly popular. But even today, with all the leaves changing colors and falling, it’s also incredibly popular. Plus, it serves another purpose because there’s a subway station. And from here, we’re about to spend an hour on the subway. A mercy. Stressful being in charge. I really have no idea where we’re going. There are so many different arrows and we can see what we need on the sign, but the arrow points in the same direction as a bunch of other things and then our insignia kind of disappears. Okay, it’s busy. Japanese trains are very quiet. Freedom this way. So, we’ve made some changes to our plans. Our plans for the day are basically just check off as many as we can off of our list as possible. And we were going to head to Shabuya next and get some food, but I’m not super hungry yet because we just had Ichiran Ichiran. So instead, I’ve made some quick decisions and we have come to Ginsa for food, but it’s smaller food that we can share. So that’s a better decision. This way in summation, we got off the train to Shabuya early because we weren’t hungry so that we could eat some food. Emily logic. My plan is that that food that we were going to get now that’s bigger and like we would each have a bowl of noodles, we’ll save that for tomorrow for lunchtime and this is like a little snack that we can get one and share. Okay, so actually it does make more sense. We’ll see. And tomorrow we want to go to that temple anyway which is near the other food. So it makes sense to do them at the same time. Guess you’re going to have to keep watching to see what we mean by tomorrow. Logical. [Music] Hello. What’s your favorite flavor? Favorite? Yeah. And two. Oh, the strawberry one. Choco strawberry. And then there. Yeah. Yes. And spicy and egg start. Ooh. And kimak curry. Yes. They’re your favorites. And teriyaki. You like all of them. And my favorite matcha. Matcha. Oh, good choice. Awesome. Thank you. Strawberry. Surprise me. Strawberry. What What kind of milkshake do I like to get? Strawberry. Surprise me. Sounds like you don’t want what I’m going to get you. So, tell me what you want. Don’t know what the options are. There’s regular. Use your knowledge of knowing me. I actually don’t even know what these are. So, it’s a fried sandwich. I’m pretty sure it’s ice cream in the middle. Is that chocolate? There’s chocolate strawberry. Chocolate banana. Use your knowledge. You got this. I don’t know where to go. Age three is a viral sensation. You’ve probably seen it all over Tik Tok and Instagram. Oh my gosh. From what I understand, it is a fried bit of white bread that is then sliced open and stuff is shoved in. I went for the original whipped cream flavor, which sounds odd. And I got Jordan banana chocolate cream. She knows me well. There’s also savory option, so like spicy noodles or egg salad. I saw that. And to start with, I was like, “Oh, that seems odd.” Because I knew the viral one was this whipped cream flavor, but really it’s a bit of bread. So, it’s like a toasty, like an egg toasty. And it is shoulderto-shoulder in that shop. like one singular line you go up to order and then a second singular line you go up to collect it, but they almost don’t let you order until there’s room for you to go over and collect it. Like they deliberately keep it really slow. I like that. And there’s like a a guy monitoring the line out the front as well, which helps a lot. Yeah. So, this is what we got sidetracked for. Wa! Holy moly. First bite. You ready? Oh my lord. Cheers. Cheers. Get your chocolate on me. Wow, your mouth is covered in chocolate. [Music] Very confusing. It’s like mine’s like um that cheap, not cheap, but like the original chocolate topping you get on ice cream spread over like a chocolate mousse. Oh, yours is too much. Can I try the original? Mhm. Just a little bite. Yours isn’t enough. I prefer it. The bread is fried to an inch of its life. Yeah. Yum. Which is great. It’s funny. There’s a park right next door and everyone’s grabbed it and come in here. I did think there would be a way longer line than there was. I think I was in line for what, 10 minutes? The line did get bigger after you went in. We’ve done that so many times. I also think it used to be that um people would wait on the road and now they have very particular line monitors making sure people don’t wait on the road and eat on the road because I would dare say that there’s been some accidents cuz it’s kind of like a blind corner. That’s true. Let’s find somewhere to sit finish this. Not bad. Very good. All right, we got to get back on the train. Christ. Oh my god, it’s another one all in a row. That’s so weird. So weird. We did not do this in any order at all. And yet, four in a row. Oh my god. And that’s where we’re going. What is going on? This is so cool. The world’s busiest pedestrian crossing. During rush hour, 3,000 people cross at once. So that what we just did, 3,000 people. That’s insane. I’ve never seen so many cameras and camera phones and like selfie sticks. Yeah. Ready? We’re going to cross these off. Where is it? Oh my gosh. Shaboo scramble. We’re just walking into a crowded Oh my goodness. Oh lordy. There’s so many viewpoints you can do this from, but this has to be the best way to experience it from down here in the crowd. There’s a lot of people crossing again and again and again, and I feel like two is enough for us. Can you imagine if this was just like actually on your route every day? Yeah, it’d be so annoying. [Music] I did have a fun fact about the crossing. The Starbucks there has become insanely popular because it has an epic view of the scramble crossing. And apparently that was the first ever stand Starbucks in Japan as well. Spot for it. Yeah. Quite cheekily, we have added Shabuya like a neighborhood as a destination just because walking around here is so much fun. There are so many people. It’s very overwhelming, but also like everyone’s being really polite and courteous. And we’re just going to continue walking through to our final stop of the day. By the end of the day, we should have checked off seven out of the 15 things that we want to do. There is one on here that, if I’m being really honest, we should just X out or delete somehow. Everyone told us to get tickets to Team Lab and we just didn’t book it in time. I think they sell out like a month in advance. We didn’t book our accommodation until like two days ago. [Music] [Music] [Music] That one was amazing. We have checked off almost half of our list already. It’s actually a fair effort because Tokyo is so big and there is so much on there to get half of them done. Yeah, we actually ended the night last night by going to a little bar called Grandfathers. And if you are coming to Tokyo, you need to check it out. It is such a vibe. And I hate saying that, but it is. It’s this old It’s a tiny little bar with this grandpa that plays music from vinyl records, chain smoking like nobody’s business. He’s the owner and literally the DJ. Like, he has two turntables there and he switches between them and then whichever song’s playing, he takes the album, the vinyl album cover, and puts it on the wall. So, you know who you’re listening to. I know. It’s just perfect. Probably one of the best bars I’ve ever been to, I’m going to say. And the cocktails weren’t that expensive. Anyway, we are in day two now and we know the best way to start. Yes, I think it’s this way. You know, my favorite move is to ask the person what their favorite option is and then just order that. And that is a rocher latte. I thought we could share. So, that’s really good. Yeah. So, we came to this place because I saw it online somewhere. And their brulee cheesecake is viral. Insta famous. And truthfully, that was enough for me to book a train here. It’s pretty good. I thought it would taste different because I saw the photo of it before I knew what it was really, but I thought it was going to be more like sponge cakey, but it’s more a cheesecake. Yeah. More cheesy. I guess I thought it was going to be like cake. Yeah. Look, this isn’t a cheap stop. Two small coffees and a cheesecake to share was $21 Australian. But this is on the way to a lot of things that we want to do today. Yeah. And what a cool coffee shop. Great excuse, babe. It was on the way. It was. There’s no other coffee place. Two trains. Who needs money anyway? Really? Useless resource. We’ve reached that point in the trip where it doesn’t matter anymore. Yeah, very much. On to the next stop. 20 minute walk. It’s gonna be nice. There is one major thing to see in the Shinjjuku area and Jordan has no idea what it is. So, walk this corner and get your reaction to what you see. All right. This feels really weird. It’s Godzilla. It’s the Godzilla building. I honestly have no idea about it. I’m pretty sure it’s a hotel somehow. Like you can stay in the Godzilla in its place. I think so. What? This area is bonkers. There is so many people here. And it’s actually home to the world’s busiest metro station. Yeah. 3.5 million people per day. Had no idea. Makes sense, though. Take care. Crazy. Let’s take it off. It’s a cat. It’s actually really good. That’s the second billboard we’ve seen that has like a 3D effect to it. And I think that one’s better than the one we saw in China. That one is definitely better. I don’t know whether it’s just cuz of the video that’s playing is better, but yeah, I really like it. I like it, too. Shinjuku, baby. Shinjuku, baby. First impressions of the mage meni I don’t know how to pronounce it nor do I is this area is way bigger than I thought. I think it’s 170 hectares. I read it online. Lots of trees stuffing in his piles. Um but I only saw really pictures of the main area with the barrel things. Not this beautiful area. Yeah. We’re trying to get to the barrels, right? Yeah. Sure that’ll be up here. [Music] We saw a bunch of people coming to this before entering the temple. And then I read a little plaque that says there’s purification etiquette. So you wash your hands, rinse your mouth, and wash your hands again. And then you have purified yourself. Women can enter the temple. [Music] So, like a 20-minute walk away from the cat billboard is this Shinto shrine. I forget the name of it, but it is definitely one of the things you need to see when you’re in Tokyo. It’s free entry, and it’s epic. It’s a lot of like quiet places. Like, there’s a lot of security guards holding signs that say quiet, please, which I think is amazing and quite cute. But it’s it’s truly epic. I don’t know whether these gates are like going to be all over Japan, but I hope so. There is one other part to this kind of shrine complex that we want to see and I I think it’s this way. This is honestly the main picture I had seen about the Meni Temple and now we’ve been here. I see why. It is beautiful. They are all old sake barrels that have been wrapped in straw and from what I understand every year one gets added as an offering to someone. It’s only a 15-minute walk to food. Yes, sure. We’re taking an intentional detour down an incredibly busy street just so we can take one more thing off. I think it’s worth it. That puts us close to finishing this list. [Music] I don’t think we have long enough to wait in this line. It did look really good though. That’s what’s annoying. Yeah, we’ll have to come back to Japan. Okay, so there’s a very viral udon carbonara place that we came all the way out to go to. Uh but the line 50 minutes 50 minutes long and we’ve actually booked one of the things on the list we had to book and that time is quickly approaching. So we literally don’t have enough time to get it. So instead, something else, something else. I’m glad we couldn’t go to the other place. You know, they say like don’t just follow the path, forge your own, but just go somewhere viral. Go somewhere else and make that place viral. And if this place tastes any good, we’ll let you know. Viral. New York pastrami sandwich. If the viral carbonara udon place is way too busy, this is a pretty good consolation pri consolation prize. I’m tired. We really still need to hustle. We have an hour train journey to get where we need to go. And I think we need to be there in exactly an hour. Cross say almost done. Nice. 1 hour later, we have made it to our final stop of 48 hours in Tokyo. Tokyo Skytree. We’re going up there. Definitely get your tickets before you get here. It is a lot easier than lining up and hoping to get something. Thank you. Wow, what a view. We ended up booking the 4:00 tickets to the Sky Tree because the sun sets around 4:30 and that way we get to see it now when it’s all golden and at night time. Turns out you can buy two types of tickets sort of like to the first level or the second. We just got the cheapest ones to the first level. I think the benefit of potentially buying the ones that go to both is less people would be up there. Like this would be the most popular ticket. You would think so. Yeah. Yeah. Because it’s cheaper. Cheaper. But it also seems like they completely sell out every time. So, especially at sunset. Yeah. We make a point of not going to observation decks because we always think they’re a bit overpriced. But if you’re going to go to one in the world so far, this is the one. This is the one. It’s so pretty. I just wish we could see Fuji. Really? No. A Don’t do that. What a way to end Tokyo, though. This is such a good spot for sunset. Feel like we only missed a couple of things on our list. Yeah. Let’s get a list out. Not bad. Nice ticket. That is bloody close. We missed two things. Three. Team Lab, Tokyo Tower, and the Carbonara. Yeah, that’s not bad, though. Let us know if that means we have to come back. Missing those three things in particular, is it worth a trip back to Japan? Next time you see us, we’ll be doing something that’s been on my bucket list personally for a very long time. [Music] [Music]

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15 TOP things to do in TOKYO (Tokyo travel guide)

Episode 254 | Country 54/100 | Japan

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