Asakusa

The next day, we would visit one of the older areas of Tokyo called Asakusa. We took a taxi this time, no more subways until I would make my way to Busan a month later, but I am getting ahead of myself. We had a great breakfast, and we left at a good time between 9 and 10, so we made it to the front of the gate a little before 10 am.

Just about every location we visited was packed full of people. We made our way around the market and courtyard, taking some pictures here and there while admiring what the people we saw were doing. Many YouTubers have their vlogs showing this area in addition to where we were in Shinjuku and Shibuya.

There was much to see once we entered the middle of the courtyard in front of this temple. It looked like a Buddhist temple, but I could be wrong on this. Many people waited in line to pray; most of them looked Japanese. The whole area felt like we were in a mini park, but it was so heavily touristed. I mean, the three of us were tourists, so we did as tourists do when they go to Japan. My mom never imagined she would go to Japan, but because of my brother and me, here she is in the large island nation with her two sons!

We walked around the area, leaving the garden and going outside to the streets. We saw a few open and closed stores. There were just so many streets, I remember that after walking for a bit, I told my brother and mom we should head back one way, but it was a completely different street than the one we had taken. I think I was thirsty, and I told them let’s find a place. The one place was closed, and they didn’t open until 11 am. One thing I would notice in Japan and later see on a few occasions in Korea is that they close early and open late. The places you would go to get food would open and close at late hours to us, at least.

We ended up finding a cool retro gaming store, which was awesome. There was also this cool little museum we stumbled upon. The coolest store was a Uniquelo I found, which had some great clothes that I bought and would later use for my time in Korea. We walked and walked, finding one store where they could make custom-sized rings with whatever you wanted engraved on them. We found a lot of cool places today, honestly.

The Skytree

I forgot if we planned this, but, since the second day (now it was our third), we could see in sight this large tower. They call it the “Tokyo Skytree.” We walked and walked some more. We ended up walking towards it, finally checking it out. We bought our tickets, and the place was packed! We got some food in the downstairs cafeteria, but boywas the place packed. There were people from all over the world. In all honesty, I saw way fewer Japanese people here than at any other place we had visited. The only Japanese people we really saw were a few families and those attending to us inside the building.

The wait was so long, but it was totally worth it. They had the Skytree themed with Toy Story. I’m not sure how that partnership worked exactly, but you could see it in some of the pictures I am sharing on here. As someone who was born in Mexico City, seeing across the city in the horizon of Tokyo and just seeing how wide and massive the city is, that was life-changing. I had thought I’d seen the largest a city could offer, but nope, Tokyo was another giant city so much bigger than anything I had ever seen.

We headed back to the hotel and ate there again. I don’t recall too much of the rest of the day, but we were all truly amazed by what Japan is and what it had to offer.

Day 4 Cruise

My mom had checked out some of the activities and areas to check out in Tokyo from what Mari had told her, and the map she gave us. She wanted to take this boat across the Sumida River in this area of Tokyo near where we were the day before actually. This area was not Asakusa but it was called Odaiba. We ate breakfast, and we headed out to the one park we had seen on our way back some of these days. We took some great pictures, and the day was so beautiful. Our whole time in Japan, the weather was just so lovely. The people, the food, the culture, we truly enjoyed the whole experience. The boat in and of itself was very awesome as well.

I remember seeing on here once again people from other parts of the world. I could hear some people speaking what sounded like a mix between Spanish and French. My curiosity got the best of me, and finally I went up to speak to them. They did not want to speak Spanish but English. The dad spoke to me; he was with his wife and kids. They were very tall. They told me they are from Barcelona. They had to have heard me and my mom speaking Spanish.

It was here once again I saw myself getting exposed to the nationalistic pride these people have, where they want nothing to do with Spain, so far as to not even speak the language of Castilian. Anyways, we ended up in this cool little aquatic area with a huge shopping mall. We even ended up finding a miniature fake statue of liberty. Much of the conversations the three of us had shared escape me at the moment. I guess the most important moments had been shared between the three of us, more so as the time to go to Korea was approaching.

Narita Airport to Gimpo Airport

Our time in Japan had come to an end. The main thing I remember my mom out of the three of us really wanting to do was to go to Mt. Fuji. That would be really cool. There are a lot of places to see in Japan outside of Tokyo. Maybe one day we will go back together. We ate breakfast in the hotel one last time and checked out our bags. Mari wished me good luck in Korea, as did some of the other hotel staff. They were so lovely. Getting to the airport took a bit, but we were all settled in and well as we had to wait a few hours until our flight.

The sapphire lounge was available here, but we liked the one in Boston way more. It was just bigger and had more food options. Sorry Narita. We were here for a bit, and we flew with Japan Airlines once again. The flight was quick, no 14 hours this time. The biggest change we noticed from the Japanese to the Koreans right away was that as soon as we landed, they all got up instantly. They were in such a hurried rush to get out of the plane. A few of them bumped into my brother, which annoyed him. Not a good first impression for the three of us as we arrived. I immediately thought back to how those people in Peru were, yikes.

Well, we didn’t see too much more of that, thankfully. Man, but Koreans have absolutely no patience. It’s good, as I would come to find out during my time in Korea, because that means you get serviced fast and efficiently. These people were also quite polite, but maybe not as friendly as the Japanese were. When we got off the plane, we went through the regular customs line of customs. I remember looking at the one TSA (or whatever they call them outside of the states) security guard as he approved my Visa for Korea. I wonder what he was thinking, but unlike the other people I had met before coming to Korea, he did not seem to be amused.

He’s just doing his job, so I guess it was just another form of paperwork for him. Some of the people we saw in the line were dressed so well and looked quite like anime characters. That’s the thing, when we were in Japan, especially, my brother said all of this just likes look an anime. They make things look so cute and pretty in both Korea and Japan.

We got through customs, and we needed to find a ride to our hotel. It was evening time, but not too late. We found one “taxi driver” using his van as a form of transportation. My mom wasn’t sure about this person because he didn’t look like a registered driver, but my brother insisted it was okay, and we headed to the hotel anyway. We stayed in what looked like Seoul’s version of Times Square in the Hilton hotel.