11 days in Tokyo: an itinerary In Bullet Points
Picture this: it’s pre-spring in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and I’ve recently returned from an eleven-day whirlwind of a trip to Tokyo, Japan. I did so many things, went so many places, and they’re all just spinning around in my little brain. How do I even begin to encapsulate this massive thing in words? Plus, its not like my life has stopped in the interim – my family is visiting, my suitcases need unpacking, my mail has piled up – but I want to get it all out of my head before the details start to fade. So what do I do?
I just start writing it all down. I go day-by-day, using the bazillions of pictures I took to help make sure I don’t leave anything out. Primarily, my purpose is to record everything we did, what we ate, where we went. As it starts to flow, more memories are added, the thoughts and the feelings that went along with the snapshots. You can already see this trip in images in my Tokyo Gallery, and read more composed thoughts in my Tokyo Top Ten, but this is the raw data from whence that all came.
So here ya go, all the things we did in Tokyo, spring of 2025!
Please Note: I am adding links to everything as fast as I can, but it takes foooorrreeeeeverrrrrr… so check back or reach out if you can’t find something!
Day 1 – March 16, Sunday – We Arrive in Tokyo
- Arrive, deal with lost bags (thank god this country is so friendly and efficient!), take Limo Bus from airport to hotel (Shinjuku Hotel Washington)
- Wander East through Shinjuku for Conveyor Belt Sushi at Himawari Sushi
- Settle in, unpack, go to sleep!
Day 2 – March 17, Monday – Wander Till We Drop
- Breakfast at Hotel Buffet with a View (on the 42nd floor) – try everything, decide on our favorites (curry bread, udon, cherry blossom treats, tempura only when it comes out fresh, Japanese pepper, beef curry…)
- Wander South (past random statues and the Bunka Costume Museum in Nishi-Shinjuku) to Yoyogi Park – see the Giant Torri, Sake & Wine Barrels, big trees and a small gift shop, and a cool street performer just outside, playing some sort of steel drum with jingle bells on his ankles
- Harujuku – Takashita Street, Noa Café for waffle & ice cream snacks, Togo-Jinja Shrine & Garden – fun contradiction between youth culture bustle and serene natural space
- Break Time – Conbini Snacks (Nori Chips & Melon Bun) at the hotel
- Wander East and North to Omoide Yokocho –
- Eat scallops, chicken skin, and shiitake yakitori from an izakaya
- Recognize the street from my previous trip – the Eel Restaurant at the corner (long lines so we don’t go in, but I remember eating every part of the eel)
- Head towards Kabukicho – stop at Don Quijote, get overwhelmed, leave with nail clippers and not much else
- Wander Kabukicho – Godzilla Head and Neon everywhere. Don’t venture into Golden Gai, we’re too tired and hungry for more adventures!
- Eat at Hanbey – fail to understand “yoyaku” (reservation) when it’s said to me, even though I know the word, enjoy the retro atmosphere of mainly locals, try some overly fried foods (but tasty) and have fun with google translating signs
- The lost bag has arrived! Morals of this story: when something goes wrong in Japan, it is rectified with alacrity; you cannot “check a bag through” on a two part journey where you have two separate tickets.
Day 3 – March 18, Tuesday – More Wandering, But With Purpose
- Wander south, again, but determined to see Meiji-Jingu (I put into my map this time so we don’t walk right past it through Yoyogi Park!)
- Stick to main streets, see a wee graveyard, Taicho-ji Temple, Tokyo Toilet Nishisando, our first cherry blossoms, and many fun random things
- Meiji Jingu and the Meiji Jingu Garden, including Kakuuntei (Meiji’s wife’s house)
- Mori No Terrace – coffee and strawberry / cherry blossom desserts outside the park
- Take the metro to Shibuya Station – stop for snacks at Strawberry Mania (first Tanghulu! Is there anything better than strawberries coated in hard-crack sugar?)
- See Shibuya Crossing, run into someone bodily while trying to cross and video at the same time, have a wander about the area and take fun photos in a random photo booth we come across
- Metro to Sangenjaya Station – too early for Suzuran Street (Sankaku Chitai? Yokocho area) so we find a random little pasta place with no English spoken and have a delightful meal that I don’t take pictures of and will never find again.
- Take the Retro Street Tram from the other Sangenjaya Station (on my map it has the same name, but is North-West of the main station) – stop at the tourist info center first, they spoke english and were very friendly!
- Shoin-Jinjamae Stop: wander up the road (north) lined with little shops and things, very residential, to Shoin-Jinja Shrine & Mausoleum of Taro Katsura.
- Somewhere in here, I had the most lovely espresso, served through a window while I sat outside and smoked, by a very nice young man. It was delightful.
- Wandered West to Gotokuji Temple (the beckoning cat) through neighborhoods with flowers blooming and very interesting architecture. I think there were approximately one bazillion beckoning cats, but I couldn’t buy one (they were sold out). The rest of the grounds were so beautiful and much more typical, a funny contrast to the pop culture-y cats.
- Headed south towards Kamimachi Station, with a stop at Setagaya Joshui Park to see the Castle Ruins from the 14th century
- There are no pictures, but I think this is the day we go to the Isetan Shinjuku Departo to check out the Depachika. We are exhausted and it is confusing, Joyce ends up with some gyoza and I end up with a sampler of onigiri (which I almost walk away with without paying… I thought it was central paying, not at each counter! You pay for each thing at the counter from which you get it). We eat it on the roof in the garden and feel a bit better about life.
- I eat late night Egg Sandos from the Lawsons, and Melon Buns from the Family Mart, in the hotel basement.
Day 4 – March 19, Wednesday – Rest, and Ryogoku, and a Refined Repast
- It Snows – we sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast at the buffet, watching the snow. Then we take a nap. We are not made for 20,000 steps a day.
- Head to Ryogoku Station, then walk to the Sumida Hokusai Museum. Learn about his incredible life and the Ukiyo-e process, see The Wave and risque drawing manuals.
- Walk back to Ryogoku Edo Noren, a cultural center with sumo ring in the middle, gift shop, and several restaurants – we eat ramen (Noodle Shop Tadokoro Shoten) and chat with a local tour guide who brings his guests here.
- Wandering North, we pass the Ryogoku Kokugikan (sumo arena), walk through Former Yasuda Garden, and stop to admire the Tokyo Ireido in Yokoamicho Park, before crossing the Sumida River on the Kuramae-Bashi Bridge (with its fun ironwork sumo art).
- Now in the artists district of Kuramae, we realize that it’s too late in the day for a lot of the shops/studios to be open, but we stop at Kakimori (a stationary store with free beautiful map of the neighborhood in Japanese) and Dandelion Chocolate for Hot Cocoa and chocolate snacks (a smores thing and the chocolate of the day)
- Tuckered out, we take an Uber to Suigian Restaurant to eat Tofu-Centric omakase, watch a performance of Noh Theater, and participate in a tea ceremony. We also admire the Fukutoku-Jinja Shrine in the little park next to the restaurant.
Day 5 – March 20, Thursday – Street Food and Swankiness
- We start our day with a cup of coffee at Komeda’s Coffee across the street from the hotel – it is probs the best coffee I have in all of Japan.
- Then we hop on the metro to Tsukiji Outer Market, where we eat Grilled Scallops & Eel; Raw Oysters, Tuna, Salmon, & Cod Roe; BBQ Black Cod; Wagyu Yakitori; Luxury White Strawberries; and an excess of raw Scallop, Sweet Shrimp, and Uni. A whole box of uni!
- Next we walk a bit in Ginza, past the Kabukiza Theater, and then have a whole kerfuffle in the metro getting money added to my Suica Card (the nicest, most patient people in the world.) on our way to Nihombashi.
- We go to the Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store, the first departo in Japan, where we have tea and coffee and cake and tea sandwiches at the tea shop in the depachiku in the basement.
- We walk across the Nihonbashi Bridge to see the Zero Mile Marker from which all roads start, and then make our way to Tokyo Station in search of Ekibenya Matsuri. We finally find it with a lot of help, and they’re sold out of almost everything, so we head home. Pooped and a bit cranky.
- Joyce goes to bed immediately. I eat Pizza in the hotel basement at Capricciosa
Day 6 – March 21, Friday – Hop On, Hop Off, Eat Amazing Udon
- Original plan here was a day trip to Mt Fuji, but we need any easier day than that! I’ll have to save the plans for another trip.
- After breakfast (we barely make the buffet), we head to the closest bus stop for the hop-on-hop-off bus, which has three routes in Tokyo. Because I didn’t pay enough attention, we get to the stop 25 min after the bus passes, and it wont be back for 2 hours.
- With time to kill, we go to the Sompo Museum of Art, in which we take an hour to see everything (including Van Gough’s Sunflower painting), then get a sweet snack and a matcha latte at Excelsior Caffe.
- We spend three hours riding two of the three lines of the bus, eschewing the blue line that covers the waterfront areas. I take 10,000 videos.
- Back in Shinjuku, we bee line straight for Udon Shin, very close to the hotel and called out in the Tokyo Michelin Guide. The queing system is a bit confusing, but we figure it out and it is absolutely worth the wait! Joyce gets the cold soy sauce udon with hot spring egg and cod roe. I get the warm Carbonara Udon, with raw egg, parmesan, butter, pepper, and tempura bacon. We share assorted tempura.
- We leave so freakin happy with ourselves – we went in cranky as shit.
Day 7 – March 22, Saturday – Culture Old & New in Ginza
- After breakfast, we head back to Ginza for the Kabukiza Theater. We arrive early and take pictures of the building and the Kabuki Inari-jinja Shrine, and then head into the basement to check out the craft-fair-style market before watching the show. At the break after the first two acts, which were so delightful (especially with the English translations and explinations), we get snacks and sandwiches from the vendors and eat in our seats.
- After the longest, most still and silent funereal scene in the history of theater, during which about 70% of the audience falls asleep, we slip out quietly (and probably quite rudely). We go back downstairs for a pee and a smoke, and are going to check out the rooftop garden, but Joyce has forgotten her purse under her chair. I have a funny exchange with the lady at the door, and we get the purse back, and everything is fine!
- Next up is the Art Aquarium inside Mitsukoshi Ginza. I take 10,000 more pictures.
- We go to the basement depachiku with slightly more confidence. First we eat warm Madeleines that are divine (we probs weren’t supposed to eat them there, but we did). Then we grab some sushi and head to the roof to eat it.
- We walk back to the hotel from the metro at sunset and it is beautiful; Joyce immediately goes to bed, I get a feast from the Conbinis and make videos.
Day 8 – March 23, Sunday – 20,000 Steps in Ueno Park
- Woke up at 5am to head to Ueno Park and try to get pictures of the few Cherry Blossom trees that were blooming before the crowd. Day was perfect; walked around the entire park taking pictures.
- Breakfast snack at Starbucks – iced matcha latte and some sort of yummy wrap.
- After more wandering photography, the vendors were opening – ate Mochi Mentai Monjya (fried soba noodles, spicy cod roe, and cheese) with a sparkling cider; Sakura Taiyaki (fish shaped pastry filled with red bean paste); Mitarashi Dango (grilled mochi balls with sweet & savory soy glaze) with Sakura Cider; Takoyaki
- Singers took the stage, things were getting crowded and warm. Got Kakigori (Japanese shaved ice) where the syrups were self serve.
- A youth orchestra was playing near the food vendors.
- Joyce hadn’t been feeling well, but Ubered over just in time for the free tour (Tokyo Free Walking Tour) of the park. Highlights:
- History of the park – was a battle field, turned into first western style park in Japan after the war
- Rodin Sculptures outside National Museum of Western Art (Thinker, Gates of Hell, and another of a bunch of guys that I can’t find the name of)
- Kiyomizu Kannondo – modeled after famous temple in Kyoto, including Tsuki no Matsu (moon tree, shaped as it grows into a circle)
- Tenkai Sojo Mohatsu Tower – memorial thing? I can’t remember the story
- Saigo Takamori Statue – one of the last samuri (from the movie), his wife said it didn’t look like him and he wouldn’t be out in public dressed so casually (it was a time before pictures, so based on his brother)
- Ueno Toilet Museum – one of the Tokyo Toilet Project, featuring the digestive tracts of various animals and animal poop shaped tiles
- Rinnoji Temple; Hongaku-in Temple; Kaneji Temple (We didn’t see these up close – part of Tokyo National Museum campus, which we only saw from afar)
- Hideyo Noguchi Statue – famous doc that worked to treat VDs
- Kuromon – late Edo Daimyo Mansion gates (~1800), 1 of 2 surviving
- Memorial of General Grants Tree Planting – he planted a cyprus, standing by the godfather Sakura Tree, from which most of the others in the park were cloned
- Totem Pole – from the Lion’s Club?? We never got that story.
- Ueno Great Buddha – only the face remains, touch it for luck.
- The Bell of Time – one of a series of 10 bells that kept time in the Edo period
- Hanazono Inari Shrine, Kanei-ji Temple, and Gojoten-jinja Shrine (series of red torii gates, beautiful cherry tree)
- After the tour, we went back to the food vendors near The Five Storied Pagoda of the Former Kan’ei-ji Temple and Karamon Shrine. Ate Gyoza wrapped in Chicken Skin (instead of the dumpling wrapper) and Okonomiyaki and Strawberry Tanghulu (rock sugar coated fruit that breaks like glass).
- Back to the hotel for more conbini food videos.
Day 9 – March 24, Monday – More Rest, More Wandering (in Asakusa)
- Woke up, had breakfast, went back to bed for several hours. Headed for Asakusa
- Walked north from the Kurame Station – amuse from Doughnut Mori
- Lucked out with easy seats at Kukurihime Coffee where we had a Sakura Cream Soda, Wedding Strawberry & Pistachio Parfait (with the Japanese bride in mind), and a thick slice of amazing bread with mochi and ice cream and fresh berries
- Places I wanted to try nearby: Tokyo Curry Pan (breaded, fried, cheesy), Asakusa Strawberry Daifuku, Anshinya (Taiwanese fried chicken as big as your head), Asakusa Unana (eel), Asakusa Kagetsudo (bakery – melonpan soft serve sandwich), IMO Pippi (sweet potato deserts)
- Stopped at Kaminari-mon Gate with its giant lantern
- Walked down Asakusa Nakamise shopping street – touristy and kitschy, but still great fun and lots of souvenirs. Ate a fresh rice cracker from a cart. Loved it all.
- Senso-ji Temple: more giant gates and lanterns, a five-story pagoda, and an overall beautiful and breathtaking place. Would have been amazing at dawn. Walked around and behind the temple to see other shrines and temples and gardens, less crowded and very peaceful. Could have kept going West through Okuyama Gate (or any direction, really).
- Next Trip – spend a lot more time wandering around Asakusa!!
- Went East and walked down Demboin-dori, with funny ninja statues on buildings
- Found Asakusa Hanakawado Funachu, an 77yo Unagi Restaurant. We had the Eel Tempura over Rice, and Unaju of Gold (entire eel, broiled, over rice). We drank the dashi broth, which was delicious but I now realize was meant to be poured over the dishes if desired. Served with a pickle relish and Sichuan pepper.
- Heading back to Shinjuku, Joyce was done with the day. I went back to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building – free Observation Deck (great view of lit up Tokyo at night, but glare off the windows made pictures hard. Little café and souvenir shop in the middle) and Tokyo Night & Lightlaser projection onto building.
Day 10 – March 25, Tuesday – Miro, Yokocho, Knives, and More Udon
- Had our last breakfast buffet. We are now over it.
- Headed to Ueno Park to see the Miro Exhibit at the Tokyo Metro Art Museum
- Had amazing farm to table lunch at Everyone’s Café – fried vegetables (I’ve reached the point of travel where I just want lettuce) and puffy pancakes (orange-caramel-nut and strawberry-sakura-mochi) and herb lemonade / tea.
- Crossed the street to Ameya Yokocho shopping street. Bustling and interesting, but cheep souvenirs and electronics and luggage. Had Grape Tanghulu.
- Took the subway to Capybara Street (jk, Kappabashi). Had fun browsing shops full of kitchen related things – bought a new knife and some pottery.
- Saw random temples/shrines on our wander back to the subway – Higashi Hongan-ji Temple, and a little red one with fox guardians that contained a mound where comic scripts were stored during WWII when they were banned by the government.
- Went back to Udon Shin for dinner – Joyce had cold udon with soy sauce, cod roe, and iso-nori seaweed. I had warm shoyu soba with butter, pepper, cod roe, and a hot springs egg.
Day 11 – March 26, Wednesday – Our Final Foray: Gardens & Sushi & Time Travel
- After packing up and storing our luggage, and grabbing a quick coffee and toast with butter and Oguraan (azuki bean jam) from Komeda Coffee, we walked East.
- We got to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden just after opening, and thus moved through the ticket lines quickly. They were set up for some crowds. The garden was beautiful and included a Japanese Traditional Garden and a Sakura Area. We didn’t see the French Formal Garden, Greenhouse, or Museum.
- For lunch, we headed to Sushiro Shinjuku Higashiguchi Shop – tricky to find, as it was on an upper floor of a building with only Japanese signs. Amazing conveyor belt sushi though! And it was in an area below the East side of Shinjuku Station, which we had not seen before (we always crossed over above).
- Then it was time to retrieve our luggage, mail postcards at the front desk, and take the Airport Limo Bus back to Haneda Airport.
- At approximately 5:30pm on Wednesday, March 26, we took off from Haneda Airport. At approximately 3:30pm on Wednesday, March 26, we landed at the Minneapolis – Saint Paul Airport. We time traveled.
