A 23-day adventure by Shahnavaz Read more
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  • Day 3

    Acclimatising

    October 5 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We slept in until 12! I guess not so surprising. We had absolutely no plans so what better way to start the day than with a gigantic bowl of Ramen from Ramen Nagi in Shinjuku Golden Gai. For those that know me well, yes I am a devoted vegan but I've always said if it's for health or cultural travel I would absolutely break it and Japan iabsolutely meets that criteria. So back to the ramen... It was recommended so we did have to queue for about half an hour but it was absolutely worth it. We went up a very steep and narrow stair case to a tiny 10 person seated restaurant, ordered our meal through a vending machine and sat at the bar infront of the chef. Wow what a Ratatouille moment of umami it was. It was a creamy, miso, pork and anchovies tasting broth with a slice of pork with two types of slurpy noodles. What a way to start our food journey. 

    We then went back into the rain and walked to the famous Shibuya Crossing, which is the world's busiest crossing with over 3,000 people crossing at one time. When crossing although yes it felt busy I don't think we really appreciated it. So we went to a Starbucks at the top of a nearby shopping centre and wow, now you can really take in the epic view! It was getting very late now so we wandered down Shibuya Nonbei Yokocho also known as Drunkards Alley and found a tiny wooden bar, which seated 8 people for a Sapporo beer. Gosh it was good to get out the rain and sit for a while! We finished the day just wondering round taking in the small streets until we found a small sushi conveyer belt restaurant. I must admit I loved the mackerel and crab but I've not had anything that is the texture of slimy but chewy raw squid and octopus for a while so they were not my favourite! We then wandered all the way back home and hoped for another good night sleep. Hoped...
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  • Day 4

    Always Wanted To Be A Ninja

    October 6 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Major jetlag hit us both over night. I was pretty ill at night and then insomnia hit. We had agreed that we would get into a wake up routine to ensure we battle jetlag. After what felt like zero sleep and finally nodding off at 7am let's just say I was not happy when Will woke me at 9am!! On the plus side I did use the time awake at night wisely by doing endless research and planning for the days ahead.

    Today we were going to explore the Asakusa area. Now most people would go straight to the ancient Buddhist temple Sensō-ji, but we went to find and explore the hidden underground passageways instead. To be honest there wasn't much going on, so we went for lunch at Zen'ya to try Tokyo's version of Okonomoyaki, Monjayaki. We popped our names on the wait list and eagerly awaited while browsing the menu. We picked the mixed seafood and the pork and kimchi Monjayaki. I know I keep saying wow everytime I eat but Wow! What an experience of flavour and live cooking! We then rolled ourselves out of the restaurant to walk off the enormous meal by wandering to the temple, down the many streets around and then booking the Samurai and Ninja Museum for 2 hours later. So in the meantime we wandered to a viewing platform and down the river.

    As a kid I must have watched the Last Samurai endless times, so much so that I broke my VHS tape! So I was very excited for the interactive museum. First we got to dress as Samurai, then had a tour about the history of Samurai and Ninja's, ending with throwing shuriken (ninja stars) which was a lot more difficult than expected but I got my star in on the last try!

    Exhausted we wandered to Hoppy Street for a beer and snack of edamame and grilled horse mackerel. We also tried the local drink Hoppy which was a non alcoholic beer poured into kōrui shōchū, a Japanese liqueur distilled from brown sugar. After sating our hunger and quenching our thirst we went for ramen again.

    As everyone knows, Japan is famous for it's karaoke and we sat dithering about whether we were being party poopers for starting our 1 hour journey back home to bed. Through all this dithering I got more and more exhausted and we decided home is the sensible option. So we headed back to the station. On the way Will said "oo we are passing a ninja bar, shall we just pop our heads in?". Even I couldn't resist that! It was hidden in the underground passageways and we had the most spontaneous night of drinking and karaoke with the locals and a few other adventurous explorers. They were so excited and honoured that we chose Japan for our honeymoon and after singing Valerie they treated me like a rock star and chose songs for me to sing haha. Now, I need to add, the reason we chose to base ourselves on Shinjuku was for ease of getting home after a late night as this was generally seen as the place to visit in the evenings. We were over an hour away and the metro stops at midnight. It was 11:45am and we sprinted for the metro. What an incredible night. Gosh I love and have missed Asia so much. Everyone is so kind and humble. Whenever we were unsure at the metro or on the streets someone would quickly come to guide us and help. It was about 1am when we got back, scoffed down a 7-11 onigiri (rice triangle) and noodle bowl, watched a bit of Attack on Titan and soon passed out. What a day!
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  • Day 5

    Finally some warmth!

    October 7 in Japan ⋅ 🌬 29 °C

    Today was a scorcher! We visited Meiji Temple surrounded in a beautiful and appreciated cool woodland. We then wandered to Yoyogi Gardens, sat in the baking heat entranced by the number of beautifusl butterflies. Then wandered to the famous cosplay fashion street Takeshira in Harajuku were I wolfed down a delicious vegan ramen and copious amounts of oolong tea before wandering the endless narrow streets in the area. Every individual building was different and it was fascinating to walk round. Exhausted, yes this will be a theme, we stopped at what looked like someone's garage for a delicious caramel latte on a sofa. Luxury! It was 5pm and extremely late for a coffee but it was just what we needed to perk us up to carry on.

    Next we headed to the Galaxy Samsung store which had 6 floors of events/ experiences including a Ryugu Castle themed floor and a cross collaboration with team labs for an interactive undersea experience. After completing all the levels we won food snacks through their Gachapon, capsule vending machine.

    Next on my bucket list was to explore the Pokémon, Nintendo and Disney store and this is when I realised I'm so old and behind the times. Unbeknown to me Pokémon has gone through endless generations and the store barely had any items from the original Pokémon from my childhood. I was very excited when the original Super Mario theme tune came on in the Nintendo shop so that made me happier. Then we headed to the Flagship Disney store and again I wasn't as overwhelmed as expected. I remember the first time I went into a Disney shop when visiting London as a kid and it was just magical!! This was far too organised and minimalist in décor. Where's the vibrant colour and huge pile of teddies?? Oh well! Finishing the evening in Omode Yokocho we shared a sake, beer, kiwi sour, grilled tofu, veggies and ataku mackerel. Yum! On our way back we wandered down the tiny alleys in Golden Gai but were happy to get home and in bed.
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  • Day 6

    When it rains it pours!

    October 8 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 19 °C

    My sleep is all over the place at the moment. I guess drinking and not having a sleep routine certainly doesn't help! I woke up at 6am and finally completed my blog up to-date to the sound of the rain outside. It's been a long morning already. Today we need to pack and check out as we will stay at the airport tonight before our very early flight to Ishigaki Island. I am so unbelievably excited for some sun and swimming. Normally I go swimming twice a week but I've not been for a month! Eek!

    Today is our last full day in Tokyo before some well deserved island R&R. It was pouring down, but when have we let that stop us before. First stop, Akasaka Palace. We decided to just wander round the gardens, which we ok but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to visit! Next we wandered around the streets. We tried our first coffee in a can,came upon a Parsi Zoroastrian Carpet Shop and Will gave in to buying a brolly. Next we came upon the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child theatre with various portraits, a time turner and the house flags decorating the area around.

    Next stop lunch with Will's colleague. As well as having a great time chatting over lunch the food was particularly delicious! We went to a small tempura restaurant with just two items on the menu. We tried both, eel and prawns. Sooo delicious! Another tick off the food bucket list. Still nattering we then went round the corner for the the slowest served coffee ever. We all ordered oat cafe lattes. The first time it took over 20 mins, but they used cows milk and then waited another 20 mins. Thankfully we weren't in a rush and just enjoyed have a catch-up with Hannah. Sadly she then had to go back to work.

    Still raining we decided to jump on the subway and see two new areas Kanda and Akihabara. In Kanda I had one of the most fulfilling and wholesome experiences ever. We went to Dawn Avatar Robot Cafe. t's not just any Robot cafe... It's for those that have accessibility issues and are unable to leave their house due to both physical or mental health. So the voices are actual people behind the robots and giving them a chance to work and socialise to avoid isolation. I would absolutely love to bring this concept to the UK 🥹 So we just sat and chatted to a few of the robots, one of whom had Chronic Fatigue, while having our coffee. It was just beautiful 🥰

    Next we wandered on to Akihabara which is the tech epicentre of Tokyo, we ate curry and rice, went to comic stores and watched people play on the arcades. I tried to win a mario karting Luiji but failed 3 times so Will cut me off haha

    It was 8pm and we had to make our way to our hotel at the airport with an aim to be in bed for 9:30pm. We were very confident the journey would be straightforward as it was last time. Obviously it wasn't... We picked our bags up from the locker and it went downhill from there. Every minute we checked Google maps it gave a completely different route and for some reason it was taking twice as long as last time. We jumped on the first train and Will was getting very frustrated as his maps refreshed and was given a different route. Thankfully I still had mine. However, I completely doubted myself and we jumped off a stop early. Waiting for the next train on this line would then miss our connection and cause a 1 hour wait. In hindsight maybe this was the right thing to do. Instead we changed our route. This next train got us part of the way but again we needed to change. We decided to wait 25 mins at the next station but be 100% sure it was the right one. We arrived and checked in after 11pm. Exhausted and grumpy we finally got to bed after midnight with our alarms set for 4:45am.
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  • Day 7

    Ishigaki Island here we come!

    October 9 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Bleeeeep, ahhhh, alarm!!!! I jumped out of bed completely discombobulated, thanked the night before Shahna for staying up a tiny bit longer to pack the bag, and rushed out to get our 5am shuttle to the airport, then the second shuttle to our terminal. This time we prempted something to go wrong so left with plenty of time. Obviously nothing went wrong and we were even too early to collect our tickets and for any shop to be open. We were flying with Peach airways, who like Air Asia, are notoriously strict with a baggage a total weight of 7kg for cabin baggage. We are absolute pros since our previous travels and have our handy luggage weigher. Our pockets were full and I had my liquids pack sneakily tied to my belt loop. Woohoo got through to airside with zero issues. We bought ourselves spam, egg and plum sauce wrapped in rice and nori and another with chicken, spam and mayonnaise. I know it sounds odd but they are delicious, even the spam one haha And yes I really mean SPAM!

    I just slept the whole flight. Bliss!

    Ishigaki is the second biggest of the Okinawan islands. It only takes about 1 hour from North to South so it's perfect for the 3 nights we booked it for. On arrival we picked up our car, stopped at Maesato Beach and headed to the supermarket to pick up supplies for the apartment. The island is so small that all the supermarkets and shops are only in the south in the main town. We had so much fun deciding what to buy for breakfast, lunch and dinners each day. It was sooo cheap to buy the products compared to in the UK so I'm determined to bring a suitcase full of food if I can! We began to flag massively after shopping. Next we went to the town centre where we had hoped to go to Bonnie Blue on Hannah's recommendation which is owned by her friend who has a pop up van selling Fish and Chips Japanese style, but unfortunately it was closed so we grabbed a coffee and sat for a while to try and perk up. Then we grabbed some lunch from the local mall and then visited Fusaki Beach before heading to our apartment.

    Oh my goodness I was in heaven when I arrived. I cannot wait to see it in the morning!! Shizuka, our lovely host walked us round our gorgeous room, terrace, kitchen and bathroom with a walk in shower. We quickly had some dinner, had a shower and sat in bed watching a Japanese animé called Orb while snacking on what I can only describe wotsit style salted caramel puffs. Not sure how I felt about them but we ate the whole bag in no time.
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  • Day 8

    Drive, swim, snorkel, sleep

    October 10 in Japan ⋅ 🌬 27 °C

    I slept like a log. I woke up on my own and when leaving the bedroom I found Will prepping breakfast for me as a treat ☺️ We had Alpro milk coffee, jasmine tea, grapes and miso soup. Shizuka gave us fresh pineapple, jasmine tea and dough balls in golden syrup. It was a feast! Yum!

    Rested, full and ready for an adventure we went beach hopping around the west of the island. First to Osaki Beach and the nearby Lighthouse were we sat and enjoyed the views with our delicious omlette and rice crackers for lunch.

    We then snorkelled on a hidden beach opposite Hirari island. It was really beautiful but I was exhausted by this point and went onshore after half an hour and watched my new favourite animal the Hermit Crabs. They are so unbelievably fascinating! They look like shells and then all of a sudden the ground is alive with movement! I watched one inspect a new shell and then move into it for a new home. Fascinating! Will swam further to the reef and had a great time too! He saw lots of trigger fish, parrot fish, sea snakes and one fish with big teeth! We sat and watched the start of sunset and then headed home. We did the same as yesterday once we got home, but this time we were given silken Tofu in a peanut soy sauce and seaweed and a rice wine for starters from Shizuka who was very excited to have us for our honeymoon. So we ate our feast, showered, ate chocolate pretzels in bed while watching Orb. On the way out to brush our teeth Will sadly got bitten by a fire ant which was very sad but thankfully the room was prepped with antihistamines and insect bite cream, but we then thoroughly checked the bed again before going to sleep!
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  • Day 9

    Hike and Swim Day

    October 11 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    We got up a bit earlier, had a similar breakfast but this time with Star Fruit from Shizuka. We had a leisurely morning researching the next part of our trip in the hammock while drinking delicious jasmine teathen headed off to climb Nosokodake for the 360 degree view of the island. It was a very humid and steep 30 mins walk using ropes at times, with a slight bouldering to reach the top and it was worth every minute. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!! We had our deep fried seaweed snacks at the top. On the way down I was so proud of myself as normally this would be really difficult and destroy my knees but I did really well until the last few steps. I was holding onto a rope when I stepped forward and pulled me shoulder out. I screamed with pain, couldn't put it back in so had to very slowly carry on the descent in agony and feeling very light headed. Thankfully I didn't have far and I was soon on flat ground and able to sort myself out and then drugged up!

    Will then drove us to Mintao beach and we had our omelette and rice crackers lunch. Incredibly I then snorkelled for over an hour in and out of caves watching all the fish come inland for their dinner. By the end my shoulder was beginning to throb but it was worth the pain. We depleted all our remaining snacks and rushed home in an attempt to catch sunset at the beach next to the house. Why we haven't swam here yet I don't know but ah well, hopefully we will tomorrow. Shizuka joined us with Po her pet goat and she insisted on taking photos of us all and I'm glad she did as they are lovely!

    Unfortunately it was our last night so we were low on remaining food and were praying Shizuka would come with some additional treats. She didn't let us down! She brought pickled seaweed, tempura fish and nori sheets. We devoured it all, went for a shower and were in bed asleep by 9pm! What an amazing day of fun. To be honest by this point I'd forgotten about my shoulder and was just beaming from the seeing such beautiful creatures and nature. I hope the pictures help portray the spectacular natural beauty we were witnessing.
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  • Day 10

    Sayonara Ishigaki and Konbanwa Osaka

    October 12 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    I slept well, so woke easily at 7am but I was a bit groggy because of my shoulder. Will was still fast asleep so I thought I'd get up, start packing and rustled up the remaining breakfast which wouldn't sate us for long! We walked down to our local again for a dip. It was lush! Not so many fish this early in the morning but it was very refreshing. We popped back to the house to shower and pick up the car and headed to Nasoko Malolo for lunch. While waiting for a table we grabbed a coffee in a can, grape Fanta and drank them on the beach. The food in the restaurant was delicious and although we ordered too much with 2 mains and a starters it was just what we needed as who knows when we will be eating next.

    We then headed to Hirakubo Beach for a final swim and then to the most northerly point Hirakubozaki Lighthouse. We had a quick coffee in a can top up at Akaishi Beach, enjoyed the views of the eastern side of the island at Tamatorizaki Observation Platform and finally sipped pineapple juice near Tozato Beach while watching the planes pass overhead.

    Ishigaki has just been incredible. I've never heard so much noise from nature constantly, whether it be the birds, the cassadas, the sea, the trees. On the way to the airport we saw a Crested Serpent Eagle! Absolutely stunning! I wish we'd stayed longer!

    Check-in and passing through security went smoothly and we were soon taking off from Ishigaki and landing in Osaka. Not sure if I've mentioned this on previous blog footprints but everytime I see the "Nothing to Declare" signs when exiting I always sing Phantom of the Operas Point of No Return. The train ride from the airport went smoothly. We were probably quite delirious again as Will played hookaduck with his umbrella and the hand holds on the train (see pick) and I was very thankful to be in our new Airbnb bed. It's going to be a very different feeling waking up in the city again after tranquil island life.
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