If you asked me what was the coolest city in the world, I would not hesitate to say that it is Tokyo. I think whether or not you have been, Tokyo is a city which we all imagine to be the capital of ‘coolness’. I was lucky enough to have the ability to test this out myself late last year. When I came back, my opinion of Tokyo was that it was even cooler than I had thought, and I left with the hopes of returning very soon and with many places still left unexplored.
Below is a list of things that I believe everyone visiting Tokyo for the first time must do, to truly appreciate the magic of this city.
1. Shopping in Ginza
Ginza is one of the trendiest and most sophisticated areas in Tokyo. Surrounded by huge shopping malls which sell designer clothes, it is difficult not to have the urge to go shopping as soon as you arrive here.
We stayed close by in the area, in The Gate Hotel, if you are interested you can find out more about it here. It is a nice hotel with views of the city, nice breakfast and of course with the Japanese toilets installed in every room. However the best thing about it is the location.
When you step out, you are immediately greeted with the big city lights, people everywhere and excitement floating in the air. You want to go, explore, discover every single shop, every building, buy everything, and fill up your suitcase full of souvenirs.
Apart from trendy clothes, I would recommend buying personalised chopsticks. You can personalise them so that they are engraved for you with anyone’s name – this can be done in English, Japanese or both. These make a great souvenir as you can own personalised chopsticks from Japan!
2. Drink coffee with your face on it
Have you ever been excited by a cool drawing on your coffee, or when the barista wrote your name? Well, the Crossing cafe in Tokyo takes coffee drawing to a whole new level.
They utilise a simple iPad and some printing technology that allows them to take a picture of you right there and then, and then print it onto your coffee. Here is how my coffee looked below:
Needless to say, this is a very fun experience and I recommend it – where else are you going to drink a coffee which looks like you?
3. Eat the famous Japanese fluffy pancakes
I am sure that you have heard of the fluffy Japanese pancakes even if you have never been to Japan. If I told you that they taste as amazing as they look, would you believe me?
Well, surprise, they do! The consistency is not too thin, it is just right so that they disappear in your mouth. They are also thick enough to feel like the ‘real’ pancakes that we are used to.
They come with many different toppings and the choice is pretty difficult to make. I had the ones with just maple syrup and they tasted heavenly without anything extra added on top.
‘A Happy Pancake’ is where you should go to try these. There are multiple locations of it throughout the city, including Ginza, so you can go to the one closest to where you are staying.
The best part, however, is seeing how they are being made through a transparent glass. And let me tell you, it is nowhere near as easy as they make it seem!
4. Visit the famous Shibuya crossing
The Shibuya Crossing is famous with the amount of people which frequent it every day. The number is estimated to be 2.4 million each day. Can you imagine that many people on one crossing?
Visiting this crossing is a must as it will give you the feeling that you are in the centre of all the action. The constant movement makes you think how many people there really are in the world, and makes you question how it is possible that this many people are in one place at the same time. When the lights change, the cars go by, more people gather on the sidewalks. Then it happens again – thousands of people cross from different sides at the same time.
In order to best take in the view, I recommend going to the McDonald’s which overlooks the crossing directly. From there you can film a very cool time lapse video while enjoying a Japanese Big Mac.
5. Visit the most remarkable digital art museum in the world
TeamLab Borderless was one of the many reasons that I wanted to go to Japan. Even prior to booking the trip, I would check for tickets for this museum because it was an absolute dream to actually go here. When I saw that Kim Kardashian herself had come here, I knew that I HAD to visit. So I forced my parents to book tickets and after queuing up for hours, we finally made it inside.
The museum is even more magical than you would expect. The room pictured above is the one you enter into, and you are immediately swallowed up into a world of wonders. The best thing to do here is to wander around and take in the surroundings.
The museum gives you so many surprises on the way. You may think that you have seen it all already on Instagram, but I can reassure you that this is not the case at all. As you walk through, the lights dance around you, projections of animals walking around illuminate the space. You become amazed how some lights can make you feel like you are in a different dimension entirely.
It is no surprise that the biggest queue is for the room pictured above – the one with the lanterns. It is in fact stunning as the lanterns reflect in the mirror and change colours occasionally, putting on a show. However, I did not find this room to be the best room in the whole exhibition, particularly since you are only allowed in there for a couple minutes. There are many others that are just as impressive if not more. For example, one room had virtual butterflies floating from one plant to the other. Another one had virtual animals following you around and lights that move away when you step on them.
Tip: since there are many rooms and the museum is very big, it is easy to miss some or to skip them if you don’t have hours to spend inside. I would recommend going into the room with the projections of the dancing animals, visiting the moving lights room and queuing up for the lanterns room. These were my top three highlights which I took away by spending hours in the museum.
6. Take the scenic train
Tokyo has a scenic train which goes through the city and overlooks it from above. It is one of the tube lines and cuts through the city as you can see below:
This is fun to do if you want to get a better sense of the city as a whole. At first the city can seem overwhelming due to its size. However taking a train like this one can give you a better idea of where to go.
If these reasons are not enough to convince you, taking the train is also an interesting experience on its own. You can observe the Japanese men making their way to work dressed up in suits, or make fun of the names of stations when they are announced.
7. Look at the city from above
The Tokyo Skytree is the best place to go if you are obsessed with views like me. Tokyo is very interesting to look at from above. The tall buildings create very symmetrical views and makes you realise how ordered the city looks. Almost as if someone had thought through the placement of every building.
We visited the Skytree at night, so we could see all the lights in the illuminated city. Yet it could also be interesting to visit during the day, when you can see all the landmarks and point out your hotel from above.
8. Drink sake in a local restaurant
The small restaurants scattered around Tokyo give the city cool vibes. There are people sitting outside, chatting, eating sushi, and it creates an exciting nightlife vibe.
The best part about eating here is that wherever you go, you are guaranteed to have high quality Japanese food. Near our hotel in Ginza there were thousands of restaurants which we wanted to visit, but we didn’t have time to visit even half of them.
Something that might surprise you is that every restaurants is small. There are no big and fancy restaurants which we tend to find in Europe.
The waitresses who sere you are girls wearing Kimonos, which makes it impossible to forget that you are in Japan. I would definitely recommend getting a couple bottles of sake. This rice drink not only compliments the food that you are eating, but also puts you in a euphoria to the point that you are transported into a different world.
Even if you are not a big alcohol drinker, sake must be tried in Japan – it really does taste different!
9. Eat the best sushi of your life
Of course this one is not a surprise. When you are in Japan you must try their sushi, and your mind will be blown. Because you will realise that all the sushi you have eaten up to then is fake sushi.
There are plenty of places to try sushi in Tokyo, and I am sure that every one of them offers very fresh and very delicious sushi. We visited a sushi restaurant called Sushizanmai. It is a chain but is known to have some of the best sushi in Tokyo.
Walking in, this place is bustling with people as everyone wants to get a taste. It is a small cafeteria-like restaurant and does not show itself as anything special. That is until you try their sushi. The salmon is so fresh that it tastes and even looks different, and the tuna is out of this world. There are no words that can describe the taste of these ingredients.
If you don’t want to go to a restaurant, then the trip to the fish market is a must. It is here that you will try sushi which will melt in your mouth. It will also make you want to move to Japan just so you can eat this every day.
The best thing to do here is to walk around and see the market, and then choose one of the small restaurants to eat sushi. If you order the sashimi, it will give you the best taste and flavour as you will be able to taste the freshness of the fish. In fact, you will even be able to find the fish itself in the market and see how it has been cut up to serve you. This really proves how fresh the fish is.
10. Immerse in the strange local culture
On our last day in Tokyo, right before we left for the airport, we wanted to do something cool to leave with a good impression of Japan. We were recommended the Robot Show by everyone, and saw adverts of it everywhere in the city. This made us come to a decision that this was where we were going to go, to watch the highly rated Robot Show.
Entering it looks interesting, with futuristic-type decorations and two rows of audience facing each other. I didn’t know what to expect – perhaps a show, a story, a beautiful romance?
What I saw was none of those things. When intense loud music played and people riding robot horses came out, I knew that this show was going to be strange. And it was, oh so strange, so loud, but so weird, that we couldn’t stop watching.
If you are looking for things to do that are very Japanese and alternative, perhaps this show is for you. It didn’t have a story but it had a big show and robots. Robots are a big part of Japanese culture and being there you really start to understand how advanced everything is. This show has a good way of showing that, because in a way The Robot Show is also an exhibit of elaborate robots which humans manipulate.
Have you been to Tokyo? Have you visited any of these places? What did you think? Let me know below!
