Japan

#New experiences #EDM # culture #history #solotravel

Hitachi Koen/Edo Museum/Kawagoe/Tokyo

September 2016
3 weeks
$45/day (excludes accommodation and flight)

Flowers in Hitachi Koen

Learn about the old homes in HItachi Koen

Fun little plants and a nice ferris wheel in Hitachi Koen make for a fun day

The brochure for Hitachi Koen shows you the map and explains the different seasonal flowers. The park is huge, so manage your time so you see a lot.

Displays at Edo Museum in Tokyo showing Tokyo’s history.

Close-up of the miniature scene depicting old Tokyo

Kawagoe is a town that is dated back to the Edo period

Left: Sit down and enjoy snacks . Right: Walk on the path of stones to massage your feet, if you can bear it

Left: Noodles from Kanetsuki Udon Kincho in Kawagoe Right: Decorative chopstick holders displayed colorfully

Scenery and matcha mochi from Kawagoe

Girls wearing kimonos and a shrine in Kawagoe

Posing in the kimono, rice cracker store, and street scene fromKawagoe

Left and middle: More street scenes in Kawagoe. Right: Train in Japan

Left: Japanese kimono with a Halloween motif. Middle and right: Ultra Japan EDM concert

EDM fun, Gundma statue in Odiaba Park, and the crowds at Ultra Japan.

Things to do

Hitachi Koen

• This is somewhat of a family theme park and floral garden combined. Their flowers change seasonally so you can see different blooms throughout the year. It’s s cute place with lots of land to cover.
• Take the little train that travels around the park to cover ground. It will be too much to walk it all.
• Have some tasty lunch or snacks at the food stations they have. There are benches out in the open and under trees for you to enjoy your food.
• There is a historical building that explains how the homes and cooking areas used to look. There are examples of old cook ware, a fir pit, a grinding stone and vast open wooden floors where people would meet to eat or converse.

Edo Museum

• This museum is located in the Ryogoku district about a 5–10 minute walk from the Ryogoku train station. It is an interactive museum that showcases the history of Tokyo from the Edo period to somewhat recent times.
• There are model buildings and home sets, miniature of old Tokyo, an old car and passenger carriage. Walk around and explore what it felt like in various time periods and wee what life was like in the past.
• The miniature scenery is quite extensive and very well done. There are endless things to look at and photograph.
• Near the Edo Museum is the Kokugikan, which is the current sumo stadium. There are various sumo related attractions here as well as the matches and it’s quite interesting. If you’re lucky like I was, you’ll get to see the sumo wrestlers walking out of the stadium.

Kawagoe

• This city is about a 30 minute train ride from central Tokyo and can easily be enjoyed for a day trip. It is a portion of town that is left as the old Edo period with dark clay-walled buildings.
• This is a strolling, eating and window shopping part of town. Take in the old ambience, try delicious foods and snacks, browse the stores and buy some gifts (for friends and yourself!), explore the shrines and of course, take lots of photos.
• Try the stone walking path with the small stones on the way to town. The challenge is to be able to walk on the path barefoot all the way. Supposedly it’s also a foot massage but for me it hurt and I was laughing while I winced in pain trying to walk the path!
• You can rent a kimono and wear it for the day. I thought I was seeing some Japanese girls dressed up in traditional garb but I realized they were tourists dressing up and doing photo shoots for the day.

Ultra Japan

• OK, so I am typically a nature girl, but I do love to dance. I had seen my friends go to EDMs and it looked fun. I don’t know why, but for some reason when I was going to Japan, I thought, “Hey, I should see if there is a concert going on while I am there.” There was! Wow. So, my very first EDM concert ever was in Japan — yay. To date, it is also the only EDM concert I’ve been to but I hope to change that soon. This was the only part of my trip to Japan that was solo travel.
• This concert ran for three days, but I bought a ticket for just one day. It’s best to buy your tickets in advance. I met up with other couchsurfers the day before to get acquainted and we discussed meeting up the next day at the big Gundam statue in Odaiba park. Yes, there is 65 foot (19.7 meter) Gundam statue in the park, it’s pretty fun. If you plan to meet someone around there, tell them to meet you at the Gundam statue.
• Odaiba park is a quiet park area with shops, hot springs and venue spaces for, well, huge concerts. 120,000 people attended Ultra Japan, even though it was raining part of the time.
• Go early as you can to catch the artists, take a backpack with your necessities for the day. Watch all the artists and dance your day away. People are dressed up for the concert so there are lots of fun photo and observing opportunities.
• It will be packed, so be prepared for it to take time to get around. It took me 20 minutes to get to the bathroom because I had to weave through so many people. Wear comfortable shoes, clothes, and stay hydrated!
• There is a shopping mall, Aqua City, with food and drink nearby so take breaks during the day to ensure you don’t lose your hearing completely.

To interact with this map please click on the little arrow on top left of the map.

Eat & Drink

• T’s Tan Tan Vegan Ramen in Tokyo.
• Seven Eleven — Yup, you read it correctly. The 7–11s in Japan have delicious snacks that are not only healthier than the American 7–11, but they are tasty too. Load up on to-go foods if you want a quick bite, or snacks and drinks.
• Matcha green tea and sweet potato are the specialty foods in Kawagoe and there are endless options of foods and snacks to try.
• Kanetsuki Udon Kincho in Kawagoe has plain somen noodles you can eat for the vegans.

Transportation

• Trains will get you around the quickest. Use the train app Hyperdia to figure out train schedules and how to get around. Navitime is also popular.
• Walk everywhere. It’s the best way to get around. In less urban areas you can ride your bike and you’ll be among many who use their bikes for getting around. Just remember that traffic in Japan is opposite of the States, the same as in the UK.

Culture and Etiquette

• People in Japan are very polite, so show them the same courtesy.
• Streets in Tokyo can be very crowded and you’ll constantly be bumping into people. Don’t worry about it. They are used to it and they will keep going. It’s just too crowded to stop all the time to say “Sorry”, unless it was a major run-in.

Health and Safety

• The trains in Tokyo stop running at 1 AM. If you plan to get back to wherever you are staying, start thinking about your train around 12:30 pm. Be prepared for a massive swarm of people buzzing like bees, er running, to get to their last train home. It’s really a frenzy.
• If you don’t take the train, you can catch a taxi but it will be expensive. The other option is to stay in a capsule hotel for the night. Note that some hotels are for men only, and that there are men/women floors in others.
• If you don’t do any of these then you must have decided to stay out all night. Tokyo itself is open 24 hours, so you’ll have plenty to do.
• There are women-only train cars that you can get on if you are concerned. You wouldn’t be mistaken to be so either. Commute time trains will be jam packed with people and you’ll be smashed up against strangers and packed in tight. I am not exaggerating in the least bit.
• If you go in the summer, use the drink machines on corners to stay hydrated. The heat in Japan combined with the humidity can really wear you down.
• In Tokyo and the greater general area, all the train signs are written in English as well so it will be easy to see where you are. When you get out of Tokyo there will be less help so use your map.

Memorable moments

Well, the EDM concert was probably the most memorable for me because it was such a departure of what I usually do in Japan and in my travels. It was fun chatting with people, taking photos with them, dancing, and just having a fun experience. I saw a funny image online about what the EDM concerts are like. On one side it showed two lovely girls meeting up with each other and smiling with the sun shining in the back. On the top it said, “What people think EDMs are like.” On the other side it showed a photo of a series of text messages that read like this: “I’m at the entrance. Where r u? — I’m inside to the left. I don’t see you. — Really? I see the left side and don’t see you. Where r u now? — I had to move cuz of all the people. Where are you now?” And on the top it said, “What EDM concerts are really like.” This made me laugh because it was so true. We did not have lovely sun all day and I spent a good hour trying to find the other couchsurfers. Eventually I stopped looking for the other couchsurfers, danced where I was and ran across them later naturally. Nothing like going with the flow!

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