The Life of Shannon Arielle

Day 3 in Tokyo started out with another delicious breakfast. I had a salad, bread, rice, and other various fruits and vegetables. They did not have miso soup available like on the first day, so I skipped out of the soup.

Vanida wanted to go to a big Buddha Statues somewhere outside of Tokyo (and off the subway map). We asked the hotel staff for subway route directions, and they told us to take the Ginza line down to a certain stop before transferring to a different line. I got us as far as the stop and we asked a worker at the station how we transferred to get to our destination. Somehow we failed to get on the correct line. We later discovered there are two JR lines, but we took the wrong one. By the time we realized we were on the wrong line, we decided to just go back to Ueno and head to Ueno Park. When I look back now, I would have liked it if we had pursued going to the Buddha statue more than we had, but I’ve said before that jetlag is not a joke. We were tired and fancied riding the subway back to Ueno more than pursuing an unknown destination and getting lost.

We managed to make our way to Ueno Park after asking some of the Ueno Station workers how to get there. The park was stunning, even on a hot summer afternoon. There were a few temples and exhibits. Be cautious that the exhibits are temporary and cost money to enter. The exhibits we saw were not crowded while there, but I would recommend buying your tickets ahead of time, just to be on the safe side. The views of the nature inside the park had me hypnotized. I am a lover of mother nature, especially trees. This is a tourist destination, so it is difficult to take pictures without people being in the background. It is possible to get some good shots though.

After the park, we went to a nearby restaurant and ate a Japanese version of a pizza along with a Japanese salad and dessert. I liked that all the restaurants we went to, as well as many others, had menus in English. It made my life easier than just pointing at pictures, like I’ve had to do sometimes since arriving to Thailand.

Our flight was at 6:20PM, so at this point we went back to the hotel to get our luggage and make the 1 ½ hour journey back to Narita Airport. Going back to the airport was a lot easier than going into the city, as I expected it would be. I liked having the opportunity to see more of Japan through the subway windows on the way back to the airport.

We made our way to our gate and still had a couple of hours to kill. Vanida did some shopping in a Japanese candy and sweets store in the airport while I manned our cart. At this point, I was pretty much our of Japanese yen, and I didn’t want to convert anymore of my money, so I didn’t get anything. Once done shopping, we went to our gate and waited to make our journey to Bangkok!

I hope you guys enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it! Next week I will start to post about my many adventures in Thailand! See you next week!

Shannon

Check out my previous post here.

Check out my other Tokyo posts here, here, and here.

Hi, everyone! I hope you are enjoying my Tokyo posts so far! I’ve had a lot of fun going through all of the sightseeing pictures I took on my trip and picking the best ones for my posts.

Day 2 was our only full day in Tokyo. Breakfast was served between 7 and 9. The food was laid out buffet style, similarly to how it is in hotels in the US. What was different was the food served. Instead of the typical American breakfast food (waffles, cereal, bacon, orange juice, etc), we had many vegetable dishes to choose from, chicken, and soup. There were also different kinds of bread that you could toast if you wanted to. The bread I ate had pink swirls in it. Turns out it was strawberry flavored, and delicious. I also ate a bunch of vegetables and a cup of miso soup (my absolute favorite!).

After breakfast, we headed back to the subway and towards Asakusa. When you get to Asakusa, you pass through Kaminarimon Gate, which is guarded by two protective deities, Fujin and Raijin. Keep in mind that you want to get here early if you want to get pictures with as few tourists as possible in front of the gate. We got there around 7:45 in the morning and there were already many tourists present.

Past the gate is the Asakusa Nakamise Shopping Street (ANSS). Since we were there so early, many of the shops were still closed or were just starting to set up for the day. All of the shops should be open by the time you are done sightseeing at the Senso-ji Temple. ANSS has plenty of small souvenirs for those who don’t have a lot of room in their suitcases. I bought a keychain of the Kaminarimon Gate. There are also plenty of shops with bags and other larger souvenirs. If you are ready for a snack by the time you are making your way back towards ANSS, I suggest trying a few different flavors of hot bean buns. I’ll insert a few pictures of the shop we stopped by. Vanida and I ate the flavors “Standard” and “Monja”. Both were delicious!

Once you get past ANSS there are a few other sights to see, including the second gate and the water statue. I’m not sure of its technical name. At the water statue, you can fill up a cup with water and make a wish while pouring the water onto your hands. I was also told the water brings you good luck.

Senso-ji Temple sits beyond the water statue. The temple was absolutely beautiful. The paintings on the ceiling were my favorite part. I tried to capture all of them as best I could. You are not supposed to take pictures of the innermost part of the temple, but of course, I didn’t see the sign until after I had taken 10 pictures. Oops.

There is a smaller temple past the Senso-ji Temple. If you walk behind the main temple towards the bathroom, you should have no problem finding it or any of the other sights.

After Asakusa, we went to the infamous Skytree. I was really excited for this because I love birdseye pictures of cities. Seeing a city captured from this angle always amazes me, because it shows you just how small us humans are in this big world. To get to Skytree fast, you can buy a ticket for what I believe is just called the “Skytree Line”. The ticket costs less than $1 and takes you right up to the Skytree building itself. The signs to the ticket counter are very easy to follow if you can read Japanese or English (or just follow the arrows). Vanida and I opted to only buy a ticket for the lower deck, called Tembo.

You take a quick elevator ride up to Tembo Deck. Be warned that if you go during the day, the deck will be very bright. I wore my sunglasses most of the time we were there. Tembo Deck is completely indoors. We got there around 10:15AM and it was already crowded. Be prepared to be patient and to wait your turn to get pictures with the views. Tembo deck does have photography areas set up where a worker will take your picture for free.

After you explore Tembo Deck, do not take the elevator. Follow the stairs down and explore each level before you take the elevator down the rest of the way. My favorite area of Skytree was down a couple of levels. Like in many famous sightseeing buildings in major US cities, Skytree has a small area of glass flooring where you can see down to the streets of Tokyo. I tried to take good pictures, but they don’t do the experience any justice. This area can get crowded, so wait patiently for it to clear up and you can take your time getting the best pictures possible.

We ate Korean food for lunch and did some more exploring of the city, a few stops down in Tsukiji. We had heard from one of Vanida’s friend that there was a large fish market we should check out. Naturally, I didn’t get any pictures at the market, but I did get some pictures around the area.

After exploring, we ate more food and headed back to our hotel. We were tired and jetlagged, so we had to call it an early night, even though we didn’t want to.

I hope you enjoyed this post! I will see you guys next week with Day 3 in Tokyo!

Shannon

Check out my previous post here.

Check out my other Japan posts here, here, and here as they are posted.

I woke up at six am on Sunday. My fan was slowly blowing cold air on my face, my soft mattress hugged the curves of my body, and I wasn't wearing any pants. It was one of those moments where you recognize every sensation around you. This was the last time I would experience waking up exactly like this for a year. I wasn't scared. I wasn't sad. I felt calm. A feeling of serenity came over me as I rolled myself out of my bed one last time, making sure to trip over everything as I put on my pj pants. I opened my bedroom door and looked down the stairs to see if my mom was awake. This always determined how quiet I had to be in the morning. I showered, ate, finished last minute packing, and put everything in the car. And then we left the house that had been my home for the past twenty years. As I shut the garage door, it felt like the end of a chapter in my life. I had experienced so many of them in the past year alone that I almost didn't recognize it.

Everything at the airport went well until I hugged my dad goodbye. He told me that he loved me. This is a phrase he doesn't use that often. Hearing those words brought tears to my eyes, but I pulled myself together as quickly as it took the tears to come and raced off towards my dream. This was where I was meant to be in this moment. I had been working towards my dreams for years, and they were finally becoming a reality. I wasn't about to let anything stop me.

I must've showed my passport to every person I came in contact with at the airport that day. It was an interesting experience to say the least. When we finally found our seats on the plane, I was in awe of the number of seats per row, and of course, the tv. All I ever wanted was to track my international flights on one of these tvs. After seeing travel bloggers and vloggers post photos and videos featuring this moment and dreaming of doing it myself, I instantly turned on my tv and found a map. Seeing that I was still on the East Coast bummed me out, but following the path to Tokyo made me instantly smile.

I probably should've mentioned by now that I have been traveling with my friend, Vanida. She is from Thailand, but I met her at my brother's temple. We were supposed to sit in a row of four seats with two other people. Much to our delight, those two people never showed up, so we got the whole row to ourselves for the fourteen hour flight. Things have a way of working out for those who do their best every day, and treat everyone and everything around them with kindness and love.

I kept the tv in front of the aisle seat on the Time Zone Map the whole flight. I had always dreamed of the day I went to a different time zone, and I was going to make sure I was looking the second I reached it. I kept my eye on this map for the majority of the flight. I smiled when we were above Canada (I've been to Niagara Falls, but only on the US side, much to my dismay) and almost jumped out of my seat screaming when the clock on the screen was finally an hour behind EST.

We had two meals and a couple snacks while on the plane. The food was good for plane food. There isn't much else to say about it. I watched a few movies and episodes of TV shows. I got into Gotham during the flight, but stopped after three episodes so I wouldn't become hooked.

I stayed awake for the entire flight. I did try to sleep on multiple occasions, but I've been in the same time zone my entire life. I was used to be awake during this time. I was never bored while on the plane. Friends and family told me I would be, but I told them I am very good at keeping myself busy for long periods of time.

Well, it's time to wrap this post up. We are going to board our flight to Bangkok in ten minutes, so I have to make sure my water bottle is filled up. I also need to walk around for a bit before sitting for another six and a half hours.

I'll see you all next time with Day 1 in Tokyo, Japan.

Shannon

Check out my previous post here.