Family in Tokyo - a 10 day itinerary (Part 1.) Shinnjuku, Meiji Shrine, Odaiba, Skytree

Day 1: Arrival in Tokyo and First Steps in Shinjuku

Ten years ago, when I first came to Japan for a study exchange, my parents and sister visited me. Now, they decided to embark on this adventure once again. This time, they also brought along my aunt and cousin, making it a small family expedition. (I'll also make a short note here that my sister is a wheelchair user, so we adjusted a lot of our plans to be wheelchair accessible. Will write another article about barrier free travel in Japan)

So, on Friday September 5th, I took a day off from work and went to the airport to meet the family. After a joyful reunion awe found our taxi driver who took us to the hotel. We all gathered in one room, had a traditional Slovak “welcome drink,” and began planning our 10-day trip. By the way, I highly recommend planning your trip to Japan well in advance to ensure you get reservations and tickets to all the places you want to visit, and have a bit more stress-free travel without having to figure things out on the go.

Once we had a rough plan together, we set off for an evening walk around Shinjuku, one of Tokyo's 23 districts, most well known for its nightlife. After about 15 minutes of walking, we found ourselves in the heart of it all, weaving between tourists and locals, as it was Friday night and everyone was out to have a good time. And then, unsurprisingly, hunger struck.

Finding a place for six people, without a reservation, and wheelchair-accessible on a Friday evening wasn’t easy, but we eventually found a great izakaya – a Japanese pub serving food and alcohol. We ate a lot, tried out gyoza, edamame, yakitori, horse meat, cod roe potato salad and more, had our first beer in Japan, and then headed back out into the streets.

A few steps later, we stumbled upon one of Tokyo’s attractions – a Godzilla peeking out from behind a hotel building, looking down at the people below. We also stopped at one of the game centers to try our luck with UFO catchers, but didn’t win anything, so we moved on to the new Kabukicho Tower. There, we enjoyed a stunning (and FREE) view of nighttime Tokyo from the 17th floor and ended the evening with some drinks in Bar JAM17 on the same floor.

Hakata Gekijo (izakaya): https://hakatagekijo.com/shoplist/

Kabukicho Tower: https://www.gotokyo.org/en/spot/1855/index.html

Bar JAM17: https://www.hotelgroove.jp/en/jam17/

Day 2: A Train Adventure, Meiji Shrine and a Seaside View from Odaiba

It was time we had our first Tokyo train experience, and what better place to start than the world’s largest train station – Shinjuku Station. We were heading just two stops on the famous Yamanote Line, which connects Tokyo’s main stations. It would have been an ideal first train ride, except… the train was delayed. On the Yamanote Line, a train comes about every three minutes, but this one was delayed by ten. Ten minutes may not sound like much, but on this station, the platform fills up quickly and the 35-degree heat didn’t help the situation. When the train finally arrived, everyone was determined to squeeze in, and we ended up in a train so packed, it was bursting at the seams. Luckily, it was just two stops, though getting out was a challenge. Well, at least I could show my family what it was like when I used to commute to work on these trains every day.

Our first stop was the Meiji Shrine. I hoped the shade from the trees would make the heat more bearable. It did help a little, and the large shrine area allowed the crowds to spread out so we did not feel like we are in a packed city. We enjoyed the walk through the shrine grounds and sat down in a café for some matcha ice cream and green tea.

Originally, we planned to stroll around the streets of Harajuku and enjoy crapes and shopping, but in this heat, we decided a different plan would be better. Getting out of the most crowded areas also became a priority, so we boarded another train and headed to Odaiba, a shopping and entertainment complex built on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay. We had a delicious lunch with beer at TGI Fridays and headed out to explore the surroundings.

We could not miss the Tokyo Statue of Liberty, the giant Gundam statue and some of us even dipped their toes in the Japanese sea. From the Odaiba beach we enjoyed a beautiful sunset with a view of the Tokyo skyline. For dinner, we found a lovely Italian restaurant in the Aqua City complex where we enjoyed pizza and drinks on the terrace, overlooking the Odaiba seaside and the lit-up Rainbow Bridge.

Lesson from day two? Tokyo is still hot in September... very hot. And crowded... very crowded, especially on weekends.

Meiji Shrine: https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/en/

Cafe Mori no Terrace: https://www.meijikinenkan.gr.jp/forestterrace-en/facility/moricafe.html

Odaiba: https://www.gotokyo.org/en/destinations/southern-tokyo/odaiba/index.html

TGI Fridays: https://tgifrydays-odaiba.com/en/

Day 3: Up in the Clouds – Tokyo Skytree

Just a few minutes’ walk from our hotel was the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. It has two towers offering free observation decks with amazing views of the city. After visiting the Northern tower, and enjoying the view, we headed towards another place to view Tokyo from the sky. This time, we decided to try a new mode of transportation and called a premium taxi service. We were pleasantly surprised by a car that could easily fit six passengers and a wheelchair. The car ride offered us a unique chance to view the city as we made our way to Tokyo Skytree.

Tokyo Skytree is currently Japan’s tallest structure. It is actually a broadcasting tower that was built when the Tokyo Tower became surrounded by too many tall buildings to function properly.

Its height of 634 meters isn’t a coincidence. In Japanese, the numbers 6 (mu), 3 (sa(n)), and 4 (shi) form the name of the area it’s located in – Musashi. The tower’s name was chosen in a national vote with 110,000 participants. Apart from “Tokyo Skytree,” other names were also considered, such as "Rising Tower" or "Tower of the future/Mirai Tower".

We bought our tickets for 5 p.m. so we could catch the sunset at 6 p.m. and enjoy views of the city both by day and by night. That meant we had quite a lot of time to spare until the entry.

Luckily, the Tokyo Solamachi shopping and restaurant complex is just next to the tower and has more than enough places to spend the time. After sitting at the outside terrace for a while, we got a little bit hungry and found the perfect place for our lunch - The World Beer museum. This place offered dozens of types of beers from all over the world and food and snacks that went very well with it.

As we headed towards the Skytree when our entry time got closer, we also noticed the large number of various shops that were in the area - shopping can also be a very good past time here. Once we got to the entrance, we were boarded on a high-speed elevator and made our way to the observation deck. The views were stunning, it was like having the whole Tokyo at the palm of your hand.

We enjoyed the change in scenery, as the sun was slowly setting and the city lights slowly stared flickering on in the city below us. Tokyo spread as far as eye could see and we easily spent about 2 hours taking in the views.

For our dinner we opted for sushi. Before we entered the Skytree, I actually went to take a time-ticket for one of my favorite sushi chains in the world - Toriton Sushi. The brand originally comes from Hokkaido, where I first had the chance to try it and I was ecstatic to learn that they have restaurants in Tokyo as well. When I took the ticket, there were 121 groups waiting in line - that added up to 2 hours, so when we got off of the Skytree, they were just about to call our number - Perfect Timing! We did struggle with the chopsticks at first, but enjoyed the delicious and fresh sushi and were ready to call it a night.

Tokyo Metropolitan building: https://www.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/english/offices/observat.html

Tokyo Skytree: https://www.tokyo-skytree.jp/en/

World Beer Museum: https://www.zato.co.jp/restaurant/worldbeermuseum/worldbeermuseum_tokyo/

Toriton Sushi: https://toriton-kita1.jp/english/