Tokyo - Finally

We are at the destination we both have been waiting for the most - Japan. There are many reasons Japan is a fascinating and interesting country to visit. We are here for history, culture, food (sushi) and to visit our friends.  

Tokyo is the world's second best shopping destination (ranked by CNN travel) so if we didn't have our backpacks already full we'd definitely fill them up here.

Our first impression of Japan came up to our expectations. People are extremely friendly and polite even though they don't speak English. It's clean and neat everywhere even in the subway and public restrooms. Sushi is fresh and delicious and you can get it for decent price if you know where to go.

These cool looking vending machines are all over Tokyo.

For the first night we had booked a hotel which included a free shuttle from Narita Airport to the hotel. After almost a 10-hour flight both of us were ready for shower and bed which was luxury after 8 nights in a car in Hawaii.

We bought some weird/cool looking stuff to eat for breakfast.

FRIDAY JANUARY 20TH

Next day we headed to Shibuya where we met Emmi's friend Niki and had a delicious late lunch with him in a kaiten-zushi place. The prices were from 108¥ - 500¥ per plate which is a decent amount to pay fresh sushi.

There was Hello Kitty tourist information at Shibuya station where we went to ask about internet and manga cafes since most of the websites are in Japanese so it's a struggle to us to try to find one ourselves since neither of us is able to speak or read Japanese.

Hello Kitty tourist information train cart at Shibuya station.

Henkka at the tourist info. Tokyo, Japan

Internet / manga cafes are one of the traditional Japanese things you should experience. The clerk at the information desk told we should go to Shinjuku which was 3 train stops away from Shibuya since she said there wouldn't be any cafes near by. We took a train to Shinjuku and asked about the cafes where we planned to spend that night since they are open 24/7. We got one address (Media Cafe Popeye) which was near the station and once we got there we were surprised about high prices because we read online that it would be cheap to stay at those cafes. Apparently the prices are much higher at weekends and the hour deals they offer are worse during the weekend than week. The price is also per person not per booth/room.

There was a computer, tv and two pillows at the room we got and unfortunately the operating system on the computer was in Japanese and the staff couldn't  chance it in English so Henkka had to play poker on our own tab for the first time since Jamaica.

Emmi in our little booth at the internet cafe.

The experience was ok but for that price we wouldn't go to Manga Cafe Popeye again. Restrooms were clean and it was nice to get unlimited soft drinks, coffee and tea which was included in the price. We should have payed extra for using shower and it felt unfair the staff didn't explain us what is included in the rip off price we paid for. That might be because they didn't speak much English but when Emmi asked how does this all work she got an instruction file in English which had some info about the Cafe.

At least the drinks were free.

Henkka at the internet cafe.

Time to get up and leave.

At first we booked a booth for 9 hours for 1900¥ and because wasn't enough we booked the same small booth for 5 more hours for 1700¥. The prices are for one person.

We don't want this to be our only internet cafe experience since we are sure there are better and cheaper places to visit so you'll hear more about these cafes in the future.

Countlessmilesandsmiles rates Manga Cafe Popeye 2/5. 

SATURDAY JANUARY 21ST

We found a place to stay for 3 nights on couchsurfing which is 45 min walk from Shibuya station.

Our host turned out to be awesome and he requested us to stay longer because we got along so well. It seems we are staying in Tokyo until 24th and then we head to Nagoya with our Japanese friend Natsuka.

We walked to Shibuya and went to eat at Genki Sushi which we tried first time in Hawaii.

Henkka in front of Genki Sushi. Tokyo, Japan

Done for now. Genki Sushi, Tokyo, Japan

Genki Sushi is a Japanese kaiten-zushi chain restaurant which has decent prices. surprisingly there were two internet / manga cafes next to it even though the clerk at the tourist info had sent us to another city center the night before because she said there were no internet cafes in Shibuya. These cafes located 150m from the tourist info spot she was working at.

Internet cafes in Shibuya.

The yellow thing behind is called Gudetama which is a very lazy egg yolk.

Real life Mario Kart. Only in Japan.

After a nice day in Shibuya we walked back to our hosts place and slept a good night sleep. Henkka got up at 4am to play poker because the best tournaments start around that time here in Japan. 

Thanks for reading! 

Emmi & Henkka