Day 24 & 25 - Harajuku and move to Hakodate

September 14, 2023 - Day 24

Hello hello everyone,

Today is our last full day in Tokyo. We actually had a lot of plans for Tokyo that we could do here, but somehow we didn't have the motivation to go through with it as much as we did in Osaka, for example. So today we slept in again, did some laundry and got ready very slowly so that we didn't leave the hotel until around 3 p.m.

The plan for today was actually just to visit the Tokyo Tower, walk around a bit and then drive to Harajuku in the evening. First of all we had to go to the train station because we needed a seat on the Shinkansen for our trip to Hakodate tomorrow.

So we headed to Shinjuku Station to get our seat reservations ready. When I got there, I (Jule) realized that you couldn't make seat reservations here because there was no ticket office. So we had to go to another station, Tokyo Central Station, and get a ticket there.

We found the ticket office at the main train station straight away and went to the counter. Since we were, as always, very late to reserve a seat, there were no seats left next to each other for us. Overall, we were apparently happy that we still had seats at all, as some trains, for example, were already completely full. Luckily we had two seats in a row, which was better than nothing for us.

After collecting our seat tickets, we moved on to take a train to Tokyo Tower. The way to the tower was very tiring again, especially for me because today I was wearing a skirt with one of Moritz's pants underneath, which was really very warm.

When we arrive at the tower, we sit down and look at the area. Of course I also took my obligatory pictures, why else would you go here (just kidding of course).

A short visit to the temple was also a must. It was another Buddhist temple, which was very large and beautiful. We also arrived at a convenient time as a monk was offering a prayer in the hall.

There was also a small square where many small statues were beautifully decorated with wind turbines and other colorful things. It was really, really nice here and I would have liked to stay a little longer, but I soon noticed that I was very thirsty. In addition to the thirst, there was also dizziness and headaches, which is why we soon set off to look for a shop.

We got a bottle of water at the convenience store and tried the iced tea. The iced tea here is not like ours, here it is really just brewed tea, cold, without sugar or anything else. We also enjoyed it very much.

After we both finally had something to drink, we continued on to Harajuku. But since we were both very hungry, we hoped to find something to eat there straight away. But of course that wasn't the case as always.

It was again a very big challenge, especially for Moritz, as the streets here were again completely full and colorful. Everyone was running around, it was loud everywhere and you never really knew where to go. In addition, there was no restaurant nearby where we would have liked to get something to eat.

After the mood almost threatened to change again, but really only almost, we discovered a ramen shop where we simply went in.

We have found that the first choice is often the best choice.

There we once again ordered our food from a vending machine. With the help of a friendly employee we managed it very well and had our food in front of us in a short time. We both had dipping ramen, Jule with salty broth and Moritz with chili broth. This was again very tasty and it was really an advantage that the nice waitress gave Moritz a bib before eating, as Moritz was once again cleverly wearing a white T-shirt. Unfortunately, he still spilled some sauce on his pants and the stain is still on them.

After we had finished eating, we strolled through the streets and looked at the shops, where there were great things everywhere. Especially lots of cute plush toys that I've been trying to win on slot machines for days, but keep failing. I think I'll just leave it...

We decided to then drive on to Shibuya, the very well-known district where the nightlife is very strong.

There we wanted to move from arcade to arcade again.

We just looked around in the first two arcades because we were already familiar with the games and most of the gripping machines. In the third Spielo we found some pool tables on the sixth floor that caught our attention.

So we thought, “Let’s try something new today” and played billiards for 30 minutes. Of course Moritz won every round. But I didn't expect anything else. That was a lot of fun for both of us.

When we left the arcade and actually wanted to go to another arcade, it all became a bit much for us. Especially in Shibuya, there are many neon signs, screens, or other billboards everywhere that sing, talk to you, or make other noises. Everything was loud and there were people everywhere. We also walked 20,000 steps again, even though we actually wanted to have a quieter day today. But I didn't even know where these 20,000 steps came from. In any case, we were just broken.

So we went back to the hotel at 9 p.m. But that's not so bad, because we had to go to bed a little earlier today because we had to get up at eight tomorrow.

Tomorrow we're going to Hakodate. All the hustle and bustle of Tokyo life has taken its toll on both of us and we're just happy that things should be quieter again starting tomorrow.

Of course, we didn't do any more packing and tidying up the room that evening; we wanted to do that tomorrow morning before checkout.

September 15, 2023 - Day 25

Day 25 of our Japan trip was once again a moving day. This time it was supposed to go from Tokyo to Hakodate, which is in the south of the northern Hokkaido peninsula. Our alarm went off, which meant we had to go out and pack our things to check out of our hotel on time. Once again, everything worked wonderfully and we soon arrived at the main train station. Once again we had to take the subway fully packed, which is always very unpleasant for both of us. If people didn't already recognize us as tourists, they would know now at the latest. Whatever.

We still had plenty of time at the main station until our train arrived. So after a long search, we got a small meal there, once again in a convenience store, as there was no space in the restaurants. After we ate and waited, we walked to our platform as our train was leaving soon. This time our train wasn't a Shinkansen, but a Hayabusa train that can travel 400 km per hour. Unfortunately, this time we couldn't sit next to each other because we were too late to find the seats. As always, the journey was quite unspectacular. However, it was very relaxed and we had enough time over the 4 hours to write a bit on our blog.

Once we arrived in Shin-Hakodate, we had to drive about three quarters of an hour to Hakodate. Hakodate is a place that is just bigger than Erfurt. There are only trams there and not subways as we used to know. The trams, however, are about a fifth the size of those in Erfurt and are usually overcrowded. So you can imagine the looks we received with all our luggage. Luckily we didn't have to travel too far with the tram. We soon arrived at our holiday home, which has by far the most space we have had so far. This time we have an entire house, with two floors, completely to ourselves. After we unloaded our luggage, we took a rest. We really like our accommodation.

Towards the evening we went to a supermarket again to get groceries because we have a fully equipped kitchen and wanted to cook for ourselves.

In the supermarket we crammed haphazardly through the shelves looking for ingredients that we could use in a soup. However, since I couldn't read most of the labels, this presented a bit of a challenge. I (Moritz) still think we handled it well. Google Translate takes care of everything. We also heard a song in the supermarket that we thought was really great, but still haven't found it until the day I'm writing this post. The only thing we have left is a short video recording and the catchy tune, which persists. When we found everything we needed, we walked back to the holiday apartment fully loaded with groceries and cooked our soup there. It tasted really delicious and we can safely say that our culinary horizons were broadened by this trip.

After dinner we went out again and walked to our nearest convenience store. We then got ice cream and a beer there. Armed with this, we ran to the water and spent a while by the sea listening to the waves. Soon we went back to the holiday apartment. We then spent the rest of the evening recovering a little before going to bed. As always, we would like to thank you all for still seeming to be interested in our experiences and send us kind regards back home. Your Jule and your Moritz.