Over the New Years Holiday (Christmas isn't really that big of a deal over here apart from marketing gimmicks) my older brother and my cousin traveled from Canada to Japan to visit me. I had such a fabulous time being a tourist again for two whole weeks. We got up to some pretty cool shenanigans and fortunately, my brother was able to capture more of our misadventures on his new GoPro!
Click on the videos below and join in on our Tokyo times~!
多摩川 (Tamagawa River) is just one street away from my apartment complex. From here, you can have a clear view of Mount Fuji. There are also lots of little parks and running tracks scattered around the river bank making it an awesome place to chill on the weekends.
Genki Sushi is probably my favourite foreigner friendly sushi joint in Shibuya. You get the amazing combination of delicious food and a fun order and delivery service! There are always some really crazy sushi combos on the menu as well as illustrated by my brother eating a samon and natto roll (ew).
Here is the most famous spot in all of Shibuya! The scramble crossing. We went on a particularly empty day, but this crossing can be absolute madness during certain times. On certain holidays, I've had to wait for about 10 minutes to cross this bad boy.
My brother and cousin were sweethearts and they took me out to see the new Star Wars movie in 3D at the one and only TOHO Cinemas in Shinjuku! We decided to go to the top floor and say a nice Howdy-Ho to Godzilla first!
We decided to be super nerds and make a special trip up to the Pokemon Center. The plushies were certainly cute but I was kind of disappointed that it was only merchandise.
This was my second visit to the Kawaii Monster Cafe in Harajuku and it certainly won't be my last visit. I absolutely adore this place. It's so kooky and cute at the same time. The food is a bit on the pricey side but that's to be expected when the cafe looks this cool. I love going around the cafe and posing with the "monstrosities" that work there.
Ahh New Years... The time of the year when you put that whole "out with the old, in with the new" motto on repeat. For Japan, it's quite literal. Stores go into crazy mode and sell everything at crazy low prices. They also do this amazing thing where they pack all of their old merch into bags, slap a 10$ sticker on them and sell them to the masses. I love the mystery of these happy bags!!
The Emperor only makes public appearances on his birthday and on New Years. As such, we were lucky enough to go and hear him address the public on the second! The crowds were insane and when the emperor came out the crowd went absolutely wild. There were flags and many "BANZAI"s to be had.
Want to melt your eardrums and eyeballs at the same time? Go to the Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku! It is such a crazy mashup of scantly clad women, wacky robots, bad engrish, exploding lights, and hilarious plot lines. If you're looking to experience the weird underbelly of Tokyo, this is definitely where you should head to. It's great for a laugh.
At the end of the day, I'm just so grateful that my bro and my cuz spent 14 hours on a plane to come visit crazy ol' me. With them here, I've been able to see many new and curious parts of Tokyo that I hadn't explored before. I'm definitely going to miss annoying the heck out of them (as a proper little sister should do), but I look forward to the next family gathering whether that's in Canada or Japan!
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