Japan, July 2026 Part 1

After flying overnight from Thailand and waiting in Shanghai airport for 6 hours, I arrived, exhausted, at Haneda airport, Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, July 29th.  

Airplane food

Haneda airport is so cool - surrounded by water.

The bathrooms are something to boast about. Immaculate, beautiful, and equipped with every button you could need. 😄

My sister-friend Wing so kindly waited for me at the airport. She had just moved back to Japan from the U.S. about a week or two before, and I'm extremely grateful she wanted to explore Japan together. We took the subway directly from the airport to the exit which was only a short walk to our capsule hotel.  9 Hours.

After dropping our luggage off, we walked to a ramen shop. 

It's really set up well, especially for singles. Each singular spot has a little screen to order on. 

You can get water yourself from the water/tea station.

Noodle soup and gyoza. 

Japan's streets are as immaculate as the bathrooms. No trash anywhere, no cigarettes on the ground, and no public trash cans either. If you have trash, you carry it around. You're not supposed to throw it at a random place if you didn't buy something from there. 

Picked up breakfast for the next day at 7-11. 

Wing had made us a reservation at 10 am on Thursday to dress up in Yukata, the traditional Japanese clothes. 

The ladies helped us get dressed, then gave us a few hair styles to pick from.

Hair pieces 

My hairstyle

I thought this looked a little beachy.

Found an American-looking bag to carry. :)

We wore borrowed wooden shoes and left. We had to be back at least by 5pm to return the Yukata.

Note: If you wear wooden shoes, tape your toes to prevent blisters. We had a blast wandering down Nakamise Street.  It wasn't embarrassing wearing the traditional outfits in public because many others were doing it too. Japan's public atmosphere is very calm and peaceful. 

Kaminarimon Gate, 1 of 2 gates leading to Sensō-ji Temple.

This is Denbōin-dōri, which preserves the feeling of an Edo-period (1603–1868) town street, with old-style shop fronts and traditional architecture.

The day was gorgeous and we were sweating and desiring something cold to drink, so we bought strawberry milk shakes from this shop.

The people really love cats here. 

Pulled rickshaw

Taiyaki 

Must try this snack if you find yourself in Japan. 

The level of heel in shoes is something else. 😅

A cool fact about Japanese restaurants is that they have a food/drink display conveniently located right outside containing their menu items, so guests don't even have to go inside. 

We saw this Gusto restaurant and decided to try it out.

Once again, guests order on a screen, and a robot brought us the food. 

This is Sensō-ji Temple. 

Separated bench

We craved another cold drink after a couple more hours of walking, so we stopped by Kotobukiseian Matcha. 

I tried strawberry matcha drink for the first time and I really like it. The strawberry flavor gave it just enough sweetness and the matcha gave a perfect balance.

Needless to say, we drank ALOT this day. 😄Wing never drank watermelon juice, so of course we had to grab one. This was so pure and good. Watermelon juice with watermelon chunks. 😋

Lovely fans

We returned the clothes and decided to walk (instead of ride the subway) to Tokyo Skytree. 

We crossed the Sumida River. 

The amber/golden building is the Asahi Group Headquarters, designed to resemble a mug of beer with foam. 

The short black building is the Super Dry Hall with the Asahi "Golden Flame" (Flamme d' Or) on top.

Next post will be part 2 of this day. :)