Typically, mid-August is Obon season in Japan, and I believe this year Obon was actually on August 16th. What exactly is Obon? I’ve heard that it’s like “Japanese Halloween”, not in the costume and candy aspect, but more so in the “dead” part – Obon is a celebration to honor dead ancestors, and typically Japanese people will return home for the weekend to spend time with family, or take part in a festival called Bon Odori (there were a few happening around my area, and I actually came home to a mini one being held at the local station).
Weirdly enough it’s a huge phenomenon in Japan, but I think it’s more of a cultural holiday than anything. It’s not an official public holiday, so I don’t get an official day off, but a lot of workplaces give the days around Obon weekend off so people can go home. If not that, some allot you a few special days off during summer that’s supposed to be used for Obon, but when you use it it’s up to your discretion. Mine’s the latter; I found out from my friend that the BoE allows us 3 days of paid holiday that is only valid from July to September, but that I could use it whenever (a little odd since it’s not stated specifically in my contract, but I do get the summer days). I wasn’t sure if I could use it for my family trip, and by that point I already officially used my normal paid time off for it. I didn’t to waste these three days since they’re only valid during the summer, so I ended up using them coincidentally on the three days my school is closed. I would have needed to go desk-warm at the BoE if I didn’t, and I really wanted to avoid that, and I suppose traveling during Obon weekend was inevitable at that point. What ended up happening was I took the 10th, 14th, and 15th off, and the 11th also just happened to be a public holiday, specifically Mountain Day, so I spent a total of 6 days in Tokyo, along with my boyfriend.
Now, with that said, do beware of the Obon travel season around August, including airplane ticket prices, human traffic, and lodging availability. August is also very hot and humid in Tokyo, and although I do not normally recommend Japan during the summer, please stay hydrated and find all the AC you can! We also unfortunately happened to go to Tokyo right when the typhoon was nearing (it didn’t hit Tokyo though, so thank goodness), and did catch some rain…
Now, I will preface this by saying that we are a couple of nerds/weebs, and this was very much a trip catered to our preferences, but feel free to use this as a sample August Tokyo itinerary (or any of my posts, really)!
August 9th: I actually left my house on August 9th, because we booked a 7:50 am flight on the 10th from New Chitose. We mainly got the early flight because it was the cheapest on the 10th, and we wanted to maximize our time in Tokyo anyway. I was able to leave work early, and I rode the 3:30 bus to Sapporo. We did book a hotel for the night.
My boyfriend really likes yakitori, so I found a yakitori place near our hotel that supposedly does 100 yen (tax included price would be 110) skewers! Well, starting at that price anyway. I don’t think menu pictures are updated on Google or Tabelog or their site, because when we arrived, while they did have 110 yen skewers, there was only a few, and most of them actually costed more, around 200 or so. Menu pictures I saw had much more availability in the 100 yen section…
They had a one drink policy, and so I got a ginger ale (it was ok). The skewers were nice, though some didn’t come out super fresh, because I think they were waiting to bundle everything we ordered together on one plate instead of bringing them out one at a time as they were made. I’m also like 75% sure they forgot one of our items too, either the wagyu skewer or the tongue one. When we got the order I thought it would come, but then I realized that was it. I thought I was crazy when our plates first came, and I even looked back at my photos, since I took pictures anyway because, well, food pictures. I’m pretty sure the beef stick we got was the tongue one, because texturally it felt like tongue, but I don’t think we got the wagyu…I even asked our server at the end if we got it and he convinced me, telling me it came in our first round of order. I didn’t want to cause a scene and complain too much, so I just accepted it, but looking back, and I think we got scammed out of our wagyu…The vibes were cool, but I’m not sure if the whole 100 thing was worth the hype.
I wanted to get ice cream post-dinner, and what better than Klim, the evening ice cream bar down the street? They’re only open in the evenings, so better to take advantage of it while I can. I opted for the chocolate one this time around, because I love chocolate.
It was very good, and chocolate forward! With the sauce on top, to cocoa powder on the ice cream, I liked it a whole lot. Brownie bites were nice, the ice cream was very creamy and milky, and it was very satisfying.
We headed back to our hotel, and crashed early for the night, because we neede to wake up early the next morning…
August 10: Time to fly to Tokyo!
For our 7:50am flight, we woke up at 4:30, to check out of our hotel at 5, and then take a local bus from Susukino to the airport. It’s an alternative to walking all the way to Sapporo station to take the JR train, as I found a airport bus stop closer to our hotel. It’s just slightly cheaper, and it takes slightly longer, but overall, it ended up being more convenient.
Prior to getting on our bus, we picked up a couple salmon onigiris freshly made from the local 24-hour onigiri stand, Nigirimeshi. I’ve been meaning to try it for a while, since I love onigiris, and this place also has a ton of flavors. I say that, but we both went with a basic salmon one, choosing salt over the soy sauce rice. It took a few minutes, since they freshly make it in the back, but even though the price is a bit steep, I think it’s pretty worth it if you’re an onigiri person. We did save them to eat for breakfast at the airport, but man, it was very good. The rice was soft, chewy, almost mochi-like, and the salmon was a decently sized salted chunk. I think it was slightly over-salted, but otherwise, I loved it as a whole and would definitely go back. (360 each)
Our flight went smoothly without any problems, and after an hour or so, we landed at Narita airport. Yes, we went to Narita, because our low-cost airline doesn’t go to Haneda. Sad…after waiting a bit for my suitcase to come out, we got on the train to Asakusa!
Right next to Asakusa station is HatCoffee, where the 3D latte art stand is (if you stick around you’ll remember I got a Kirby with my family a month ago). My boyfriend expressed interest in going, so this time around I got a Snorlax per my mom’s request, and he requested a recreation of his cat persona.
The milk tea last time was not very good, so I opted for the chocolate milk, since the matcha milk was still unavailable. I have to say, I preferred the chocolate milk, mainly because the flavor was much stronger, and it was a nice chocolate and sweet flavor balance. I can’t say anything about their coffee selection though because I don’t drink coffee…
After that, we headed over to our wifi rental place to pick up our wifi router for the trip. Since the store is in Asakusa, and our Airbnb is in Asakusa, I figured it’d be more convenient to go pick up in person and save the $8 shipping fee. If anyone wants the company name, let me know; they’re a pretty good deal and I’ve used them quite a few times now!
At that point, we were pretty hungry and needed lunch, so I found a seafood ramen place pretty close by. I thought the concept seemed cool and unique, and they also happened to have a tsukemen version on the menu, and my boyfriend wanted to eat tsukemen during the trip. I was going to get the tsukemen too, until I saw the sign outside that said they had cold ramen for the summer, and since it’s really hot out, I really wanted something cold and refreshing. I ordered the special cold clam ramen (special as in it comes with all the toppings).
I have to say, for the items included and the uniqueness, it was pretty worth it. The broth came out cold (duh), which for some reason was a bit surprising at first, but with the first spoonful of broth, it was very refreshing! A bit oily, yet light at the same time, the broth was very seafood forward. I really liked the thin noodles that it came with (I think my boyfriend’s tsukemen had a slightly thicker noodle), and they were springy and chewy and went very well with the soup! Finally, all the toppings on the ramen were amazing, from the very ham-forward, not too fatty chashu, the abundance of clams, the seaweed, the small scallops, and even the raw baby scallops I found hidden under the chashu. I’d definitely go back.
Since we weren’t supposed to check in to our Airbnb until 4, we hung out at a local department store so my boyfriend could get some short for the summer at GU (I actually came to this exact GU a month ago, and actually saw a YouTuber there, ha!). After shopping, the Airbnb host actually messaged us that we could check in already, so we dropped off our excess baggage, and headed off to otaku town, aka Akihabara. It’s probably my boyfriend’s favorite place in Japan, and we also made our dinner reservation at Akiba for the day anyway.
We spent the rest of the afternon going around to various shops and merchandise buildings, browsing, doing some impromptu money spending, and killing time before dinner. Speaking of, I took my boyfriend to the all-you-can-eat wagyu yakiniku I brought my family back in July. This time around I made the reservation for 5:30.
Meat was all very good, though I think I prefer the cuts that were available the first time I was there. It might have been the earlier reservation time, or the pretty filling lunch, but I felt like I wasn’t as hungry, and probably ate a little less. We both left very full and satisfied though.
When we came back to Asakusa, we decided to get boba…I wanted to try this place out sometime while we were here, since Google reviews made it sound pretty good, and I didn’t want it earlier in the day before the all you can eat…They’re open until 11pm, so it did make a perfect post-dinner drink, ha! Read about my boba here!
We stopped by a drugstore to buy some soap (our Airbnb bathroom didn’t have soap…), then a local grocery store on the way back to buy a bottle of water, and then went to bed for the night.
August 11: This day was the highlight of our short trip, as we were both getting very needed haircuts, and then seeing a stage play later in the evening. Specifically, the stage play adaptation of the recent hit manga/anime Bocchi the Rock, which my boyfriend is a huge fan of (I mean, I like it too, but he’s hte bigger fan). The play was being held coincidentally the weekend we would be in Tokyo, so the timing was pretty nice.
Our hair appointments were both at 10:30 at a salon in Tokyo I’ve been wanting to go to for a while. The trip would take about 40 minutes from Asakusa, since the salon was in Omotesando. We left around 8:30, a bit early, so we could grab something to eat at a cafe in the area before our appointment. Omotesando is known for having very cute and trendy cafes, and I found one down the street from the salon that looked pretty good and opened early (a rarity in Japan).
Bread and Espresso seems to be a bakery/cafe chain, but I believe their main store is the Omotesando one. They have a small bakery section with freshly baked goods, but also a sit-in cafe, which we opted for. My boyfriend got the current seasonal melon french toast and added the lemon mint tea, and I got a Panini Set with the prosciutto and mozzarella panini with an iced hojicha latte. I was very much tempted by their toast set, but the panini sounded really good…
I appreciated the healthy-ness of the meal. The broccoli salad thing was cute (I wish there was more…) and lightly seasoned, and the carrot thing was good, though a bit too acidic at times. The panini came out warm, and the bread was crispy! I’ll be honest, I got the hojicha latte because I knew I wanted a matcha drink later…
A little before 10:30, we headed back down the street to our hair salon. They were super nice and friendly, and even offered me a drink when I sat down, so I opted for an iced oolong tea. There was also a small bowl of snacks on the table, but I wasn’t sure if I were allowed them…I only got a cut, but it came with shampoo and a mini massage along with the cut. I highly recommend Nalu76 salon if anyone is looking for an English friendly salon in Tokyo!
We were done around 11:30, but weren’t super hungry, so I took my boyfriend to Takeshita Street, in case he wanted any street food from there. We only ended up getting boba from Xing Fu Tang, which I’m not mad about, and was actually looking forward to boba from there, ha! Read about my boba here!
It was much hot, and there were many lines (whichis to be expected), so we left without buying anything else, and walked over to Shibuya. I may have stopped by the Sailor Moon Store along the way and picked up a few things…My boyfriend mainly wanted to go to Shibuya to see the crossing (thankfully wasn’t that busy, but is that a good or bad thing?) and then go visit the Animate in Shibuya. It was decently sized, and I think I liked this one better than the Akiba one. For whatever reason the Akiba one felt a bit lacking when I went this time around.
For lunch, we decided to go to Boiling Point, since we were missing some ingredients you can only get at a Chinese hot pot place, but if I take a step back to think about it, the whole situation is a bit bizarre. First hot pot on a hot day isn’t the weirdest thing (at least the building was air conditioned!), but Boiling Point is a California-founded Taiwanese-style hot pot chain. I’ve never actually been to one before despite living very close to one, and I found it funny the poster outside was advertising “From LA!”. Nevertheless, we walked in, and I ordered the beef pot, not spicy.
We were greeted in Japanese when we sat down, and I noticed a lot of the customers were Chinese, with a few English-speakers and Japanese people mixed in. At some point I went to the bathroom, and the part-time job ad in the bathroom was basically all in Chinese. I guess that makes sense because it seems like most of the employees were Chinese, but I found that funny, Now when our food came out, the waitress spoke to us in Chinese, and also proceeded to explain their sauce recommendation in Chinese. It was a bit of a surprise at first, but I just switched over to Chinese mode at that point.
Anyway, I really liked mine, the size was just right, and I ate all the ingredients that came in it. It had a bit of spice to it, even though I got not spicy. Very full, but indeed sweaty when we finished.
We just hung out nearby for a bit at some local bookstores, and then made our way to the Tokyo Kabukicho Tower, where the stage play would be. I’m pretty sure this is a newly built entertainment complex, and we just explored the tower while waiting for reception to open. It was pretty cool! There was an entire gacha/crane game/entertainment floor (which only took cashless payments), a wellness bar, a kind of virtual reality Sword Art Online game thing, and a huge food court area that had like a nighttime street vibe.
When reception opened, we followed everyone else up to the 6th floor, and they were taking merchandise orders, blue-ray preorders, and they also gave us a free drink voucher that we used at the drink area. I opted for a Coke, and we got to choose a free drink pouch holder thing. Out of three colors, I got the purple one.
We made our way to our seats, which were actually pretty good. We were on the third floor at the very top, but in the very middle, so I’d say we had pretty good seats, given we bought the second of two tiers and seats were randomized. I ended up liking the show a whole lot more than I thought I would!
The show started at 6, and it lasted for 2.5 hours. At that point we were hungry, so for something quick and still open late, we went to a nearby 24 hour Coco Curry at my boyfriend’s request. As a disclaimer, I do not personally like curry, and only started eating the one we get for lunch at school. I suppose I’ll eat it if I have to…For my first Coco Curry experience, I got a miso katsu curry with pork sauce.
I highly contemplated ust getting a salad, since curry would be wasted on me, but I decided to just get one since I wanted a protein and rice. The katsu itself was fine, a little odd it came with two small ones instead of one large one. I finished off the rice, but left most of the roux…I also found it really weird because my roux was so runny and not as thick as I usually imagine curry.
We ate, got on a train, and headed home for the night.
And that’s Part 1! Part 2 is here.
Japan Excursions 
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