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Our Last Day in Tokyo
This blog post is about our final full day in Tokyo before we hop on our first Shinkansen (bullet train) and head across the country for the next leg of our Japan trip. If you have missed any of our posts about Japan, all the links are below!
By this point in our adventure, Mark and I had fully adjusted to the time change, but our bodies were feeling the strain of our ambitious itinerary. Walking up to 20 miles a day was taking its toll, but that didn’t deter us from making our last full day in Tokyo a memorable one!
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What is an Eki Stamp?
We set out that morning to see a few of the most significant sites around Tokyo. As we entered the train station that morning, we finally spotted something we had hoped to find throughout our trip. We found our first Eki Stamp.
An Eki Stamp (train station stamp) is a free collectible rubber ink stamp found at many train stations in Japan. Their designs typically feature imagery emblematic of the station’s associated city or surrounding area, such as landmarks, mascots, etc. We purchased simple unlined spiral notebooks from Amazon and decorated them with stickers we bought during our trip. Buy on here.
Up to this point, things had been too chaotic in the train stations that we just never located any. But we finally had a good grasp on the transportation, so it was much easier to slow down and look around, and BOOM—there they were!
These collectible stamps are typically located near ticket offices but can be found everywhere, including major landmarks and airports. It’s an actual scavenger hunt because there are over 9,000 train stations across Japan, and they are never in the same spot from station to station or place to place.
We loved the idea of collecting these stamps to document our journey, and it’s a beautiful keepsake. We highly recommend taking a book with you as you might find stamps at the airport the moment you arrive! This souvenir is one of our favorites, and we can’t wait to return someday and continue to fill our stamp books!
Tokyo Tower
Our first stop of the day was to get a closer view of the Iconic Tokyo Tower. The Tokyo Tower, or Japan Radio Tower, is a communications and observation tower built in 1958. At 332.9 meters (1,092 ft), it was the tallest tower in Japan until the construction of Tokyo Skytree in 2012.
FootTown, a four-story building directly under the tower, houses museums, restaurants, and shops. Since we had already visited Shibuya Sky on Day Two, I didn’t want to go to the top to see the city view from the tower. Instead, I wanted to see this Tokyo Icon from different views around the city, so we strolled the surrounding streets and visited several shrines in the area. I loved the quiet and lovely view from the small Shinko-in shrine, just a few blocks to the southwest of Tokyo Tower.
Zōjō-ji Temple
We also walked a few blocks to the east to visit Zōjō-ji Temple and finally got our first view of the first Sakura (cherry blossom) blooms.
We were too early to see Sakura’s full bloom, but we felt lucky to see them at all because it was still so cold. Throughout the trip, we continued to see more blooms, but I loved seeing some of the first blooms in the area. Also, There were so many Shibu dogs in clothes; it was too cute!
Zōjō-ji is notable for its relationship with the Tokugawa clan, the rulers of Japan during the Edo period. Six Tokugawa shōguns are buried in the Taitoku-in Mausoleum on the temple grounds.
Also, the temple’s Sangedatsumon (main gate) is the oldest wooden building in Tokyo, dating from 1622. The original buildings, temples, mausoleums, and cathedral were destroyed by fire, natural disasters, or air raids during World War II. It is, therefore, the oldest wooden building in Tokyo.The temple’s only original structure to survive the Second World War was designated an Important Cultural Property.
Tokyo Imperial Palace
After standing in complete awe of this area, we hopped on another train and headed to the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the primary residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda district of Tokyo. It contains several buildings, including the Fukiage Palace (吹上御所, Fukiage gosho), where the Emperor has his living quarters, the main palace (宮殿, Kyūden), where various ceremonies and receptions take place, some residences of the Imperial Family, an archive, museums and administrative offices. Japan’s Washington D.C!
The innermost grounds of the palace are generally not open to the public except for guided tours and special holidays. Unfortunately, we could only explore the outer gardens since it was a Sunday. The gardens were starting to bud, and you could feel that spring was in the air and about to burst, but sadly, we would miss it in this beautiful place because it was time to move on; we had a dining reservation to get to.
Harry Potter Cafe in Tokyo
As I’ve mentioned, we didn’t overdo it by making too many reservations and preferred to wing it. However, Japan is known for having incredible themed cafes, and if you don’t book them in advance, you have almost no chance of dining there, especially during Cherry Blossom season or Golden Week. Unfortunately, some of the themed cafes we were interested in were already sold out before we could book them, but luckily, one of the themes I love the most is Harry Potter, and we snagged one of the last available time slots!
We made our way by train to Asakusa for our lunch reservation at the Harry Potter Cafe. Even though Harry Potter has no origin in Japan, they are obsessed with it just like the rest of the world. They have cafes, stores, shows, train themes, and experiences dedicated to this magical world. Tokyo staged an Asian production of ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ with a Japanese cast. For the play’s opening at the Akasaka ACT Theater, a small section of Akasaka near the theatre was transformed into a Harry Potter-themed plaza.
Harry Potter Plaza
The magic begins as soon as you arrive at Akasaka Station. When you step off the train, you can hear Harry Potter-themed music all around you. As you make your way to the station exit, you realize you are fully immersed in the wizarding world, as the steps leading out of the station have been transformed into the moving staircases of Hogwarts.
As you make your way up the stairs there is a sculpture of the Time-Turner from ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’, the passageway is decorated with 42 portraits of famous witches and wizards along with other iconic characters making an appearance.
Harry Potter Plaza offers fun photo opportunities and wonderful nods to the books, movies, and play. As someone who has been reading and rereading these books since 2000, I was in heaven! The Harry Potter Cafe is located just outside the train station exit inside Akasaka Biz Tower.
Harry Potter Cafe was so much fun! The cafe offers Instagram-worthy food and drinks inspired by the beloved franchise. Dining reservations are limited to 100 minutes, and it runs like clockwork.
The food was magic!
Upon entering, they check your confirmation for your reservation, sit you very quickly, and hand you an iPad to select your language. From this magical iPad, you place your food, drink, and dessert orders, and then the clock starts ticking to show you how much time you have to enjoy the food before your reservation is over. Check out the menu!
We had more than enough time and ordered lots of unique items, including Greenhouse salads, Golden Snitch with Avocado Shrimp, Blacklake Fish & Chips, Dragon’s Smoke Sparerib, Hogwarts Sunday Roast, Hedwig Cake, and several libations, including a delicious pitcher of sangria!
The cafe is beautifully decorated to the theme and surprisingly smaller than I expected. It makes perfect sense that these reservations sell out so quickly. The service was incredible, and the ambiance gave me all the good feels. We loved this experience and were completely stuffed for the rest of the day!
Harry Potter Store
After our magical lunch, we had to go to the Harry Potter store just next door and buy unique Harry Potter merchandise that you can’t buy anywhere else in the world. The Harry Potter Mahodokoro shop had all sorts of unique memorabilia dedicated to the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts franchises. It was very cool, and we were glad we brought our biggest suitcase!
Senso-ji Temple
Somehow, we still had energy, so we took a train to Senso-ji Temple, explored the shrine and surrounding streets, and caught a glimpse of the world’s tallest tower—Tokyo Skytree.
Sensō-ji is an ancient Buddhist temple in Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan. The temple is dedicated to Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion. (In Buddhism, a bodhisattva or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi or Buddhahood).
The temple was destroyed during a firebombing air raid on Tokyo during World War II. The main hall was rebuilt in the 1950s. Dominating the entrance to the temple is the Kaminarimon or “Thunder Gate”. This imposing Buddhist structure features a massive paper lantern dramatically painted in vivid red-and-black tones to suggest thunderclouds and lightning.
It is Tokyo’s oldest established temple and one of its most significant. Beyond the Kaminarimon is Nakamise-dori with its shops, followed by the Hōzōmon or “Treasure House Gate”, which provides the entrance to the inner complex. Within the precincts stand a stately five-story pagoda and the main hall, devoted to Kannon.
It is the most widely visited religious site in the world, with over 30 million visitors annually. And guess what? It was BUSY! We decided to check out the shops along the Nakamise-dōri, and even though it was one of the busiest places we walked through, most people were so polite, and it didn’t even bother us.
The Nakamise-dōri
The Nakamise-dōri (仲見世通り) is a street on the approach to the temple. It is said to have come about in the early 18th century, when neighbors of Sensō-ji were granted permission to set up shops on the approach to the temple. However, in May 1885, the government of Tokyo ordered all shop owners to leave. The area was reconstructed in Western-style brick in December of that same year. During the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, many of the shops were destroyed, then rebuilt in 1925 using concrete, only to be destroyed again during the bombings of World War II.
The street contains around 89 shops and food vendors. This historic shopping street led me to one of my favorite souvenirs of the trip—a Lucifer Cat (from Cinderella) Japanese cinch backpack!
Omikuji
Once we approached the temple, there were o-mikuji stalls. For a suggested donation of 100 yen (65 cents), visitors can consult the oracle and divine answers to their questions. Guests shake labeled sticks from enclosed metal containers and read the corresponding answers they retrieve from one of 100 possible drawers. Omikuji are always fun to get when visiting a temple; for those who cannot read Japanese, the staff or Google Lens can help by telling you if you received a good (大吉) or bad (大凶) fortune.
If it’s good, you keep it. If not, you can tie the fortune to a tree branch near or outside the reception area and leave your bad luck behind. Mark received a good fortune, and I left my bad luck behind, LOL!
Tokyo Skytree
After we explored the temple grounds, we decided we wanted a better look at one more Tokyo and World Icon.
This is another one of those instances where we should have quit while we were ahead and ventured back to the hotel to rest, but instead, we wanted to utilize every second we had left in Tokyo. So, against our better judgment, we decided to walk towards Sumida Park along the Sumida River for a good view of the tallest tower in the world – the Tokyo Skytree.
Tokyo Skytree is a broadcasting and observation tower that became the tallest tower in Japan in 2010and reached its full height of 634 meters (2,080 ft) in 2011, making it the tallest tower in the world. The Tokyo Skytree has seismic proofing, including a central shaft made of reinforced concrete. According to the designers, the dampers can absorb 50 percent of the energy from an earthquake, which is essential in Japan. The exterior lattice is painted a color officially called “Skytree White,” an original color based on a bluish-white traditional Japanese color called aijiro. It is awe-inspiring, and I loved that bit of trivia!
Lost in the rain in Tokyo
As we walked toward this unbelievable structure, it started raining, and our Google Maps began to throw a fit and take us off course for a bit, so we just kept walking toward the tower.
Soaked and tired, we decided to check out the Solamachi Shotengai Shopping District, a Multilevel retail complex with 300+ stores and restaurants located in the Tokyo Skytree Tower. It was overwhelming with so much to look at, and our feet and brains said it was time to return to the hotel. By this time, the weather was getting worse, and it was getting dark. Luckily, we stuck around just long enough to see the beginning of the nightly LED illuminations on the Skytree before heading back for the last night.
McDonald’s In Shinjuku Japan
We were exhausted and finally a little hungry again, so we decided to see what eating at a McDonald’s in Japan would be like. Luckily, a McDonald’s was right next to Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku! The items we ordered (spicy chicken & cheeseburgers with fries) tasted exactly like in the US – YUM. However, they did have many unique choices like teriyaki burgers, edamame & corn, melon mc floats, and many options for matcha and green tea flavors. We kept it simple, and I barely remember eating before I immediately fell asleep!
Goodbye Tokyo
What a day and what an unbelievable, mind-blowing, epic, and life-changing adventure it was to visit Tokyo at the beginning of our two-week trip. Tokyo is one of those legendary cities that is nearly impossible to describe in words. Take New York City and give it steroids plus a massive language barrier, and there you have it. At times, it was almost too overwhelming to take; other times, it was so magical that I could cry just thinking about it.
Since coming home, Mark and I have spent a lot of time reminiscing about this part of our trip. We hope to return someday now that we have a better understanding of the culture, transportation, language, and customs of one of the most populated cities in the world. Thanks for reading about blogs about Tokyo—stay tuned as we move on to Osaka!!
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What an amazing last day in Tokyo! How did the Harry Potter Cafe compare to the themed restaurants at Universal Studios in FL?
It was themed really well, but the restaurants in Universal are a little more like real life movie theme – whereas this was just pretty and magical with much better food!