After having a great day visiting Ueno Park and Tokyo Zoo (and having several beers), it took us a LONG time to get motivated the next day. Since the weather was gross (hot and rainy), we popped over to Tokyo Skytree for some hangover food, a bit of shopping, and a walk around the Tanabata Festival.
The view from my front door – Tokyo Skytree!
Tokyo Skytree is a very cool complex, with lots of shopping and dining options. We chose not to go up to the observation decks, but spent a couple hours checking out the souvenir shops and deciding what we wanted to buy on our subsequent visit.
It didn’t take us too long before we found some energy and decided to go back to Asakusa and find the Tanabata Festival. It was a very cool street festival; we got to see a traditional performance and eat some local street food. My buddy got tried takoyaki for the first time (not from the best place) and we enjoyed the festive atmosphere.
By time the festival was closing, our energy had left us completely. En route back to the BnB, we stumbled upon a small hole in the wall place for dinner, and I had a fantastic chicken tonkatsu.
I’m very glad we took it easy today; we have a long day of pounding the pavement tomorrow as we head out Haranjuku and Yoyogi Park.
*Check out my first few days in Tokyo: Asakusa & Akihabara / Asakusa & Shibuya / Ueno Park and Tokyo Zoo!
I wish I was lucky enough to have 10 days in Tokyo. Such an amazing city! The Sky Tree looks crazy cool – Next time right!
Yep! Next time ^^ I made it to Tokyo Tower which wasn’t nearly as high up, but had some awesome views 🙂
Ohhhh I would LOVE to explore Tokyo. One of my must visit places
Although I personally prefer the Osaka/Kyoto area, Tokyo is definitely one cool city!
Great blog and never heard of this tower before (as I dont really know much about Tokyo). Putting this on my bucket list 🙂
Awesome! It’s definitely worth checking out… even if you don’t go up, it’s a great way to spend a couple hours on a rainy day – there’s even an aquarium on the premises 🙂
Tokyo is one of my favorite cities in Asia! Great post and video, thanks for sharing. Happy travels 🙂
Thank you ^^
Did you guys visit Hello Kitty land??? I’m serious. I really want to go. And that food looks incredible!!!
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Hiya! Nope, we didn’t make it there – but I’m sure it’ll be awesome when you do! I could go back just for the food 🙂
We really enjoyed the view of Tokyo Skytree from all over Tokyo! We stayed near Shinjuku and had a cool view of it from our place too, but not as close as yours! We regret not making it to Ueno Park. We already want to go back to Tokyo to see more! That’s really cool that you got to see that festival in Asakusa too!
Oh awesome! Glad you made it up the tree! It was super cloudy most days and we were on a tight budget – next time!!
The Tokyo Skytree looks magnificent!
The chicken tonkatsu and beer look enticing and I am reading your post at 2am hahaha! I will have to wait for dinner, probably! without forgetting the beer.
I never really considered chicken tonkatsu – but Tokyo definitely won me over in that respect. Never forget the beer 😉
It seems that you got only good things during that day! 🙂
We did our very best!! 🙂
Ah, yes Tokyo, as place i am yet to visit, but a place I only ever hear good things about. Really enjoyed reading this!
Thanks for reading! Nothing really negative to say at all (other than it can get expensive ^^)
Tokyo looks awesome, I’d love to go some day!
You should if you can! I’ve only been to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe but have love ALL of my time in Japan 🙂
Tokyo!!!! I hope I will get there soon! I can’t wait to see their festivals! 🙂
We were super lucky that someone told us about the festival or we might have missed it 🙂 Definitely very cool to experience a local festival 🙂
We also didnt go up the observation platform, but enjoyed wandering around the stores below! What a gorgeous view from your front door!
I enjoyed the view at Tokyo Tower for about 1/3 the cost haha! Too rich for my budget 🙂 The view from the door was one of the highlights of the BnB – we were amazed every single day!
Seems like we had similar experiences visiting Tokyo! It was during June and completely poured the entire 4 days I was there. Unfortunately you just have to make do with your time, right? That’s great you were able to catch a festival during your visit, looks like a blast!
Thanks for reading! The weather was either super hot or super rainy haha – such is life! Yep-we had a great time 🙂
I have several friends who have been to Tokyo. My first trip to Japan was this Chuseok. I went to Fukuoka from Busan because the flight was cheaper. I loved Japan. I’d love to visit Tokyo one day.
It really is worth a visit! I prefer Osaka and Kyoto personally, but Tokyo is definitely a great city 🙂
I love the cool little festival. Its neat to see the different festivals in other places. Cant wait for the chance to go to Tokyo myself
Yeah, they really do make the trip that much more special 🙂
Hey! Your trip looks lovely. I’m happy to hear you were able to soak up some culture from the street festival. I’ve yet to make it to Japan but I’m looking forward to it, whenever that happens.
I hope you can someday – it really is a wonderful country!
This is so awesome! Those people in kimonos brought me back to my Rurouni Kenshin days haha. I hope I catch the festival one day!
I hope so too! I feel really lucky that we were able to catch a glimpse of something traditional in such a modern city 🙂
I know how it feels when you are in a vacation but the weather is hot and rainy because that’s exactly the same weather when I went to Jeju Island. But hey, you got to enjoy the Tanabata Festival though, not bad. The Tokyo Skytree looks interesting, it looks like the Lotte Tower in Jamsil in South Korea.
Yeah, we had a great time regardless! I’ve been thinking of trying out the E-World Tower in Daegu, South Korea but haven’t gotten around to it yet 🙂
I’m super excited for Tokyo! I’m planning on heading there for my winter vacation! Do you know how the weather is at that time of year? I have no other time to go since I’m leaving Korea in March! I’ll be reading all your tokyo posts to start planning 🙂
Awesome!! I expect the weather will be pretty much like Korea (wish it’d be warmer for you!!). You’ll have a great time in Tokyo! Look in to an Air BnB if you are going with a group – you may find a great deal!
I would do exactly the opposite at the Tokyo Skytree: skip the shopping and run for the observation deck. THe view must be magnificent. I would be there all day taking pictures.
After reading your latest blog post – I can definitely see why!! We opted for the Tokyo Tower (about 1/3 of the cost) – didn’t have an open observation deck, but it was a beautiful view of the city! Thanks for reading 🙂