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The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/Dumbidiot1323 on 2024-05-20 17:15:19+00:00.
Welcome to another report of my one year stay in Japan from mid 2022 to mid 2023! If everything goes according to plan, I'll post the final part on May 27, which would be exactly one year after I returned from Japan! With that being said, after spending a month with a couple of friends in February 2023, enjoying the snow in Hokkaido and early sakura around the Izu peninsula, it was time to face one of the busiest seasons in Japan - proper sakura season in March/April. My mother would join me in late March on her first trip to Japan ever and she was hellbent on seeing some sakura and me being the tour guide. This came with the benefit of her paying for all expenses during our travels, which was very nice of her!
You can find the other reports down below.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
Tokyo
Picking up where I left off in the previous report, I decided to show everyone what a "typical" Airbnb I'd stay in during my time in Japan looked like. When my friends left, I booked a very cheap Airbnb in Kunitachi, which is in west Tokyo, about 40 minutes away from Shinjuku on the Chuo line. As I mentioned in some of my earlier reports, I quite enjoyed staying out of central Tokyo and exploring areas that I'd otherwise never go to on a normal vacation. This place had a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. Looks pretty barebones but it was more than enough to satisfy my needs and the internet in Airbnbs was usually very good.
Since it was the beginning of March, I decided to go back to Yushima Tenjin to check the status of the plum blossoms there and they were beautiful at the time. One train stop away from Kunitachi is Kokubunji, which I went to because I saw a couple interesting spots on Google maps to check out. One of which was the small Tonogayato Garden, which was alright for a short visit. More interestingly, there's a small path called Otaka no michi, which looks very cute and goes along a few shrines and another small garden along the way.
Having seen Kawazu sakura a two weeks prior, I checked where I could find early blooming sakura in Tokyo and was happy to find that near my next Airbnb's location (Ojima in the east of Tokyo), a park close to Arakawa river had a few trees so of course I made my way there and it was the perfect time to see them too. One of the many reasons why I enjoy staying in eastern Tokyo is that the further I went out, the more relaxed I felt. It's so far removed from the central and west, where you have tens of thousands of people converging in several spots while here, there is just a wide open park, families and friends just hanging out in what felt like a more accurate represenation of what the average Tokyoite did in their daily lives. I think I went here a few times every evening because it put me at ease and I miss spending time there. And as always, plenty of small mom and pop shops serving all kinds of food, like this wonton soup with a side of fried rice.
Another garden I visited was Kiyosumi! It's in Koto, so again a bit out of the way but definitely worth a visit if you somehow find yourself in the area or just want to see something new if it's your Xth visit to Japan. Bonus pic from when I walked back "home"; sunsets in Tokyo in those side streets with rivers running through the city are particularly great.
The week leading up to my mom's arrival was spent with me visiting a bunch of parks in Tokyo to see how the sakura were going considering my mother wanted to see them. This was a tad stressful because it was supposed to rain for a few days before my mother arrived and in 2023, sakura season started super early so I was scared the rain and wind might kill em off before she even got there. That being said, Shinjuku Gyoen, Yoyogi park, the Kanda river, Chidorigafuchi and Ueno park were going strong! I switched Airbnbs one more time before my mom arrived, staying in Asaka - in Saitama. I had a couple more sakura trees right next door, which was great.
And then, the day had come! My mom arrived at around 7pm, I picked her up from Narita airport and let me tell you, it was an incredibly weird feeling riding back into that airport. Around 10 months earlier, I flew in and it was practically deserted due to the pandemic but now it was back to somewhat normal and I was hit with a weird sort of nostalgia! My mom was surprisingly fit and didn't seem jetlagged at all, demanding me to show her around Ueno park at like 10pm still. We got her her own Suica, her first konbini visit and then just went to the hotel and slept.
My mother had a couple of things she absolutely wanted to see and aside that, I was basically a tour guide who just showed her around spots I decided on on the day. The first thing my mom wanted to see was TeamLabs. Not something I personally had much interest in and the experience was pretty meh overall to be honest but she enjoyed it. Following that we headed to Tokyo station and went to Sushiro because my mom wanted to try Sushi and was keen on trying the "conveyor belt" one she saw on social media. Since it was nearby, we then walked to Chidorigafuchi and the Imperial Palace Gardens, giving my mom her first proper sakura experience. We spent quite a while walking around and it soon got dark so we took a train towards Tokyo Tower. Tokyo Tower looks great at night, especially with some sakura in front of it. We finished the day with a CoCo ichi meal before walking around the pond near Ueno park.
The following day, my mother wanted to check out Akiba to my surprise. She's not into anime or video games at all but she thoroughly enjoyed seeing just how many figures and plushies of everything exists. A visit to nearby Kanda shrine was of course obligatory. Gotta love the ema people put up there due to its close proximity to Akiba. Before going to Sky Tree in the evening, we went to Hamarikyu Gardens, which are way nicer looking in sakura season than in February, when I went there with my friend. Now, Sky Tree was an experience. Having been there just a few weeks earlier with my friends and there being no lines whatsoever, this time around, things were different. We had to wait for around an hour to get tickets and the observation decks were packed. If it was that bad in 2023, I can't imagine how it is now.
On the third day, the jetlag or just general fatigue hit my mother and she slept past noon so we had a more relaxed day without as much walking as the two before. Took a train to Kichijoji in hopes to show my mom Inokashira park with its famous sakura around the pond and we were not disappointed! My mom wanted to shop and since I am the least knowledgeable person when it comes to this, I simply took her to Ikebukuro's Sunshine City and hoped she'd find stuff there and she actually did buy a bunch of "fluffy" dresses!
The final day in Tokyo was a bit more packed again in terms of things to do. First on the agenda was a visit at Cafe Reissue, which my mom of course saw on Instagram. Since you can't reserve, they take your name and give you a time to come back at, which meant we had about an hour and a half to do something else. This was when we headed to Shibuya Sky. I had never been there because I didn't really want to spend 2000 yen on another observation deck but this one is actually good. In my opinion, if you could only pick ONE observation deck in Tokyo, this should be it. Nice, open views in a far better location than Sky Tree for example. Afterwads we headed back to the cafe and got our latte/hot chocolate art. I'm a bit of a hot chocolate snob so I'd say the drink itself was alright, the art is pretty nice and...
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