Hi everyone!
I’ve finally made it to Tokyo! The total travel time took more than 20 hours, and the immigration process at Haneda Airport was very rigorous. So, when I finally arrived at my Airbnb late on Monday night, I immediately went to bed. To be honest, I slept for most of Tuesday as well 😅
I woke up around 5 PM in the afternoon and spent an hour or so unpacking my luggage before heading out to explore the nearby town. My Airbnb is located in Kita City which is in the Northern part of Tokyo. Even though it is a relatively quiet neighborhood, I think that it will be easy to explore other parts of the capital as there are 3 train stations within walking distance. I ended up having dinner at a hole in the wall restaurant. When I walked in, none of the employees spoke English, and they didn’t have an English menu.
However, I got to try 2 different types of yakitori (a skewered chicken) thanks to the help of another customer! He happened to speak a bit of English and gave me some recommendations. I lucked out because even though I wasn’t completely sure what I was eating, the food was delicious!
On my way back, I stopped at the 7/11 in the neighborhood. I have to take a moment to talk about the convenience stores here – they are incredible! They have the most amazing array of snacks, ranging from different rice balls to pastries to ice cream to chips… I was still feeling a bit hungry, so I had one of their fried chickens and a tuna-mayonnaise rice ball as dinner part 2.
I am really excited to begin exploring this city!
Wednesday (Day 3): I spent most of the morning today at a local cafe doing some work and preparing for my research in Japan. Japan was actually one of the countries that I struggled the most with finding people to interview. So, I spent some time reaching out to contacts that I’ve already established to ask for referrals.
After doing some work, I took the subway to Ginza from my Airbnb. Here are 3 things that I found really fascinating about the transportation system in Japan:
- Even though there are so MANY people using the subway, everyone is extremely organized. For example, even though there are many people who are trying to exit the subway station, everybody lines up to climb the stairs and stays on one side of the staircase out of consideration for the people coming down. I was also surprised at how everybody stood in a single file line as they waited to board the subway – this was definitely something that I haven’t experienced in Chicago.
- The subway system is really simple! All of the stops and signs are written in English and Korean in addition to Japanese. Moreover, each subway line is color coded, so you know exactly which train you have to take. Because of these factors, I think that riding the subway in Tokyo is fairly easy to navigate as a foreigner.
- It is so clean everywhere! In all of my walking around today (not just in the subway station but also on the crowded streets), I saw absolutely NO trash anywhere on the ground. In addition, it is insanely difficult to find a trash can in Japan. I spent most of the day carrying around my empty green tea bottle because I couldn’t find a place to throw it away anywhere!
Anyways, I had a really good time exploring the Ginza area! I got to see the flagship Uniqlo store, which is 12 stories tall, and do some window shopping at a variety of cool stationary stores. I also tried to see the Tsukiji Fish Market, but unfortunately, I got there too late and all of the vendors had closed their shops for the day. Still, I got to eat some of the most amazing sushi I’ve ever had in my life in the area! So, all in all, it was a great 1st day of exploration 😁
Thanks for reading 🤍