Reset search
Nikki MillerNikki Miller
SatelliteEdit route
Joined May 19, 2023 Read more
  • Japan
    1
    Day 6

    Day 6

    May 22, 2023 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    Today was more of a relaxing one. We made lunch reservations at a Wagyu Yakiniku restaurant where you grill it yourselves at your table. It was sooooooo good. And for both of us plus drinks it only came to $35 which is super cheap for the amount and type of steak we had.

    After lunch, we took the train to Okachimachi and did some shopping. They have a 6 story toy store there that has all the anime, cartoons, etc you can think of.

    The whole day, the radar showed storms coming at 5, so we thought we’d go to the nice brewery (Hitachino Brewing Lab) to have a couple beers to ride out the storm. 3 beers later, and still not a drop of rain… Oh well - the beer was good and the location was pretty, so it was fine.

    We were in Akihabara again, and checked out some more electronic stores. It started to sprinkle and got really windy, so we grabbed a quick dinner and headed back to the hotel. Now to pack as we leave Tokyo tomorrow!

    Steps finished with - 14,404    Read more

  • Japan
    11122
    Day 5

    Day 5

    May 21, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today was Sumo Day!

    We woke up, did a quick load of laundry, then headed to Ryōgoku Kokugikan Sumo Hall for the Sumo tournament. The walk there was super hot (as was the whole day). We were there around noon, so it was still more of the novice wrestlers, but it was super entertaining. Some of the guys are actually pretty fit, while some are XXXXL. When we had our cooking class, she told us they get so fat because they eat a veggie and meat soup and then go to sleep hahaha you can’t tell me they’re not downing McDonalds and bags of chips all day to get the size some of them are haha Ole got a bento box for lunch at the tournament, which is a normal lunch or travel food here filled with a variety of foods. He thought it was tasty!

    We eventually left to walk to Nakamise-dori Street, which was supposed to be a nice street food / souvenir shopping area, but when we got there, the streets were packed. It turns out the Sanja Matsuri Festival was happening. It’s a Buddhist festival, and one of Tokyo’s biggest shrines is in this area. That was something to see. They all had short robes on, and many men didn’t have anything underneath haha

    After making our way around there, we were really craving the big fluffy pancakes you always see on Instagram. We found the chain, Happy Pancake, in Ikebukuro. We had to wait about half and hour, but they were so worth it. They were melt-in-your-mouth good.

    We walked around that area, and ended up in Sunshine City, a huge mall. There are 4 floors of shopping and restaurants - kind of like a more compact Mall of America. Our favorite part? The world’s largest capsule toys arcade, with over 3,000 machines to buy shitty little toys that come in balls. They also had crane games where Ole finally won something…. A horse for Brewski!! He’s going to be so happy haha

    We ended the night with a quick dinner by our hotel, but it was nothing special.

    Steps finished with - 21,429    Read more

  • Japan
    1
    Day 4

    Day 4

    May 20, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Today was a bit nicer than yesterday, but still a bit cool. We decided to walk 20 minutes to Hamarikyū-Park, which was super nice. It’s a huge green space surrounded by tall buildings and water. Afterwards, we walked to Hibiya Park, where Ole surprised me with the Tokyo Oktoberfest hahah it was actually full of imported German beers, and Maisel and Friends and BRLO were there…we even paid $11 per Maisel beer haha

    We walked a bit further to the Imperial Palace, ended up seeing the changing of the guards, then headed to the train station to head back to Shinjuku as we didn’t spend much time there on Thursday. We grabbed a quick Okonomiyaki (a Japanese “pancake” with egg and topped with sauce and mayo) before exploring the area. Since it was Saturday, it was absolutely packed. We of course spent time in more of the arcades, and I bought myself a little naked mole rat friend haha We also walked down the Golden Gai alleyway full of tiny restaurants all smelling like charcoal grill. It was super cool to see.

    Ole wanted to go to a Pokémon and Nintendo store, so we headed over to Shibuya to the department store, Parco. The stores were really disappointing and small, and Ole didn’t find anything he liked.

    We were hungry and walked forever to try and find a restaurant that had space. We stumbled upon Ottotto Brewery, so we grabbed a beer in hopes of finding a restaurant online. No luck was had, so we just headed back to our hotel area to eat. We luckily found an open table, and had some delicious Yakitori (grilled meat on skewers).

    We got back, Ole tried the public bath (he lasted 5 minutes before he said it was way too hot) and then we went to bed!

    Steps finished with - 30,665    Read more

  • Japan
    Day 3

    Day 3

    May 19, 2023 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 21 °C

    Ole forgot to set an alarm today, but we still ended up waking up at 9, which was perfect. The rain was supposed to start after 12, so we wanted to go to the nice gardens by our hotel, but as soon as we walked outside, we realized going to the fish market was the better idea.

    We walked 10 minutes to the market, which was absolutely crazy with the 5 million options. I ended up finding a crab “restaurant” aka an old guy grilling king crab legs on a tiny coal grill for 28 euro/leg 😳 but it’s vacation, right? Haha

    We walked further through the market and found a small sushi restaurant where we were ushered to the basement by a nice little grandma. The sushi was good, but since we started with the absolute best last night, nothing will taste as good.

    We ate, then walked to the train to head to Akihabara - the electronics and gaming area. First stop was the equivalent of Mediamarkt or Best Buy times 1 million. The sensory overload was way too much. The colors, sounds, signs, etc. were so overwhelming. And it was 6 floors of anything you could think of. From anime figures to toenail clippers, they had it all. They also had a million different vending machines (Gashapon in Japanese) for small toys that come out in plastic. Eventually we’ll buy some.

    We moved on to the arcades which were also overwhelming with music and lights. We tried to win a small stuffed horse to enable Brewski’s horse fetish, but unfortunately lost. Due to the downpour outside, we went to the old gaming store full of old Gameboy and Super Nintendo games (plus a shit ton of Japanese and anime porn haha)

    We then had a private cooking class at the home of Emi, who is probably 85 but looks 60, which was sooooo good. We had fried chicken thighs with skin, miso soup, and a tomato sesame salad and watermelon for dessert. We watched funny Shiba Inu dog videos during dinner with her haha She even brought us to the grocery store afterwards to show us the soy sauce and cooking sake, as well as all the flavors of chips.

    Afterwards, we made our way to Spring Valley Brewing in Daikan-Yama which was so pretty. The area is also super gentrified, but nice.

    We decided to walk 10 minutes to Shibuya, and it was completely full as the last train is at 12 and it was 11:45. We saw the crossing from above, but it wasn’t as impressive as the amount of people in the station trying to catch the last train home (which we wish we would’ve gotten a video of - Talk about rush hour..).

    Then we stopped by the British pub by us for a Heineken and made our Family Mart stop for some beer and snacks to enjoy in the lobby hotel :)

    Steps finished with - 19,063    Read more

  • Japan
    11
    Day 2

    Day 2

    May 18, 2023 in Japan ⋅ 🌬 30 °C

    Woke up, had amazing coffee and pancakes filled with maple syrup and butter from Family Mart and then went to Shinjuku where we had a quick lunch at Tokyo Kabukicho. We walked to the Government Building to get views of the city from the 45th floor, which was impressive.

    After, we walked to Yoyogi-Park to see the Meiji-Shrine and finished the long walk with a beer at the small cafe there. We also saw a snake that thankfully a local got off of the path before we got there.

    We made our way through Harajuku to Shibuya where we experienced the world-famous crossing, saw all the pop music trucks and shopped quickly at Don Quijote where we had the popular TikTok cheese coin (which tasted like nothing).

    We headed back to the hotel to shower and change, and then met Tom (Ole’s boss’ husband) for a super nice sushi dinner. It’s like the beginning of a bad joke - A Frenchman, a German and an American go into a Japanese sushi bar… The place fit 8 people and the chefs were right in front of us preparing all the sushi (which in Japan is just raw fish over rice). We ate 10 different types of fish, and almost puked after the sea eel and sea urchin, but the rest were pretty good.

    We left back to the hotel, with a mandatory stop at 7-11 on the way home for snacks and water.

    Steps finished with - 26,430    Read more

  • Japan
    Day 1

    Day 1

    May 17, 2023 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Arrived late in Tokyo via Doha. Pre-registration to enter Japan made our life easier, and we didn't have to fill out any paperwork. Immigration, baggage claim and customs went smooth. Took the Narita Express to Tokyo and walked to the Square Hotel Ginza. Had a beer at the hotel, then grabbed some snacks at 7-11 to eat before sleeping.Read more

Join us:

FindPenguins for iOSFindPenguins for Android

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English