Day One in Tokyo - Hello Shinjuku!

The honeymoon is finally here - after months of meticulous planning and saving Instagram videos and TikToks to build out itinerary, it’s time for some newlyweds in Nippon!

We were married in November, and waited until April to take this trip. It was just out of cherry blossom season, but before their summer season, so we were able to take advantage of a brief off peak season. But we got very lucky that the cherry blossom season ended up being later than they thought, and still got to catch plenty of trees!

We flew out of Newark, and I of course overpacked. The husband was a smart man to pack for three weeks in his carry on, and then pack that inside a full sized suitcase so that we had an extra one for any souvenirs we purchased. My backpack from Amazon was a total life saver as my carry on - it fit an impressive amount of stuff!

In an attempt to avoid jet lag, and because we miiiight have procrastinated packing, we stayed up the night before. Our flight was at 10:30am, and while it was a struggle getting through security, it worked out well. 10:30am EST was 11:30pm in Japan, and it helped immensely in getting us acclimated to a different time zone as soon as possible. Our 14 hour flight passed quickly with lots of naps, and Mario Parties. We found the best mount for all electronics. It could hold our phones, iPad and the Nintendo Switch, and clipped easily to the seat tray so that both my husband and I could enjoy things together to pass the time.

We flew into Haneda to minimize our travel into Tokyo. Once we arrived, we had to pick up our JR Pass and our pocket WiFi from the airport. The JR Passs took a long time for us to get, as it’s a small office and so many travelers are picking it up. We should have budgeted more time for us to do this, and I recommend if you are going to Japan to give yourself an ample amount of airport time to get all these necessities down. Once we are all set, we took the Monorail into the city - it’s got a great view and we saw our first cherry blossoms!

We ended up booking Hotel Bali-An for our first stint in Tokyo for 3 nights. It’s an adults only hotel, which sounded weird to me when booking, but really means it’s more of a resort style hotel for romantic getaways. The amenities were incredible - the entire lobby is full of free food, free drinks, including a free bar, and more free toiletries than I could ever imagine. The room was large with a soaking tub and massage chair, and our stay came with a free bottle of champagne.

Once checked in and changed, we went out into the city to explore! We have a friend who is Japanese, and she gave us some local recommendations. After a long flight, we were feeling peckish and stopped at a small Yakitori spot called Hajimeya she recommended to get a snack and our first saké! Fun fact: you’re not supposed to pour your own saké. You should be pouring saké for your guests, and they should be pouring it for you. But you both can say kanpai - cheers!

Yakitori is grilled meat skewers. I’ve been a vegetarian for 18 years, but I decided to loosen up and eat more freely in Japan. I stuck mostly to seafood and vegetables, but if there was a particular local cuisine, I was gonna try it. I ended up with some grilled vegetables on a stick. I was surprised by the lack of seafood options but the mushrooms were delicious, and my husband loved his as well. This was our first time experiencing otoshi. Most places in Japan have a cover charge or table charge while dining. It’s not typically very expensive, we saw mostly 300-1000Y, and in exchange, you’ll be served a small little appetizer as thanks. This place gives us small slices of proscuttio. I’ve never missed red meat in the last two decades, but this was salty deliciousness. It gave me a slight pause to remember I’m usually a vegetarian!

We only had a skewer each at Hajimeya, as we were off to enjoy conveyor belt sushi! Along the walk, we popped into some stores and took in the sights. Sushiro was crowded when we arrived, and we had a bit of a wait, but man, was it worth. They have counter and table seatings, but either way, you order strictly through the screen at your seat. It’s bright, colorful and musical, and reminded me of the slots at a casino. Every 15 points, you get to play a game and win prizes! The prices are cheap (like, $1 a piece cheap!) and there are non sushi options as well. We stayed too long and ordered too much to be able to play games - we ended up winning some washi tape and a sticker, but lost a few rounds too.

After dinner, we went to explore Omoide Yokocho or Memory Lane. Originally a Black Market post-WWII, it turned into over 60 restaurants and bars crammed into little tiny alleys behind Uniglo. Everything smelled amazing and it was incredible to see places with just 4-6 seats right on top of each other. The lanes are small, and the place was packed, so we enjoyed walking through and people watching, but after our 20+ plate conveyor belt sushi dinner, we were pretty stuffed.

We started to meander back to our hotel, and came across Godzilla! I’m a huge fan of the 1998 Godzilla with Matthew Broderick and Hank Azaria. I watched it every night before bed when I was younger, and when I found out they had a life sized Godzilla from this particular version, we had to see it. It’s part of a hotel we *almost* booked, and booking there is the only way to actually see it eye to eye. I thought it would be super visible still, so we didn’t stress booking their hotel. However, we walked by it on the way to get yakitori, and it was really underwhelming. Turns out we were coming at it from the wrong angle, and walking home we accidentally discovered Godzilla road and got to see my favorite monster in all his glory!

While going down Kabuki Central Road, we saw an Irish pub with outdoor seating. My husband loves his Irish heritage (Ireland was almost a honeymoon destination for us), and finding an Irish pub was on his must-do list for Japan. Lo and behold, two of our favorite things in one place! We stopped for him to get a Guinness and for my to get my first Japanese Whisky, a glass of Fuji Gotemba Distillery Single Malt. Did you know, as a general rule of thumb, if the country’s name as an ‘e’ in it, then they spell it whiskey, but if it there is no ‘e’ in the country, there is no ‘e’ in whisky!

We made our way to our final stop of the night, passing yet another Godzilla homage on our way to Kabukicho Tower. Kabukicho is a ‘red light’ district in Japan, but it gave me more Times Square vibes with the bright lights, crowds and entertainment. Kabukicho Tower is a massive, entertainment tower with multiple floors of bars, restaurants, arcades, theatres and more. Claw machines are everywhere in Tokyo. There are full stores of nothing but crane machines or gachapons (think of the quarter machines in grocery stories were you get a random prize — that’s a gachapon). I swear the crane games in Tokyo were harder than any arcade game I’ve played in the states, and yet there were so many people who were ridiculously skilled and racking up giant stuffed animals, packages of food and snacks, and more. We were lucky enough to win Mewtwo on our first try, and then never won anything else again, even after spending an embarrassing amount of money at the tower on crane machines. There was also an AI DJ concert going on within the tower that was packed with young people going crazy. I couldn’t believe it was AI, people were so into it.

We’d been up for so many hours, and couldn’t believe how much exploring we got done in just our first few hours. But it was time to head back to our hotel for a free nightcap, popcorn and mini desserts before getting some sleep for our first full day in Tokyo in the morning!