Fifteen years. That's how long it had been since I was last in Asia. We were supposed to go to Vietnam in summer 2020 for my nephew's college graduation... but... COVID. Five years later, in May 2025, we finally made the big family trip happen.
This time around, we decided to spend more time in Tokyo, instead of the quick three-day layover we did in 2010. Since there were 10 of us going, everyone came at different times. My nephew, Alex, and his boyf Shawn, arrived mid-May so they could go to explore other parts of Japan. My cousin, who came in on his own after his wife told him to go hang out with us, also arrived at the same time to hang out with his friend. Micah and I arrived on May 23 and my sister and her tribe of five came the next day.
We flew Air Canada from AUS-->YVR-->NRT. Micah's RT was $850, my one-way flight (since I was headed to Vietnam afterwards) was $562.
In 2010, we stayed in the Shinjuku area but opted to stay in Ueno since Shinjuku was a lot more expensive this time around, additionally Ueno has a direct train to Narita airport via the Keisei Skyliner—which is super convenient. I discovered the Ueno area through Only in Japan Go's YouTube channel. The content creator, John Daub, had several walk through videos of the Ueno area and the Ameyoko showed it was such a fun and cool area with a great nightlife.
Hotel: APA hotel (Ueno Ekimae)
All of us stayed at the APA hotel except for Linda and her family (they stayed a block over at Minn Ueno, which has family rooms) since the rooms at APA are only for two people. APA hotels have popped up everywhere in Japan and they're very affordable. For our 7 nights it was $780. Yes, the rooms are tiny, as expected, but they were well furnished and was perfectly good for us. Beds were comfortable, fridge was helpful and they always brought new towels and robes. What was the funniest thing about this hotel? There was free porn on the TVs! We thought you had to pay, but nope, it was free 99. What a treat.
The best thing about this hotel was the onsen!! Knowing that they had an onsen and tattoos are frowned upon in an onsen, I made sure to pack large bandaids to cover my shoulder tattoo. The hotel gave you robes and slippers for the onsen and there are separate ones for men and women. I would go here at night as part of my shower routine sometimes, because the area was so much larger than our room. I could sit in the onsen hot tubs, shower afterwards and then use all their fun lotions in the locker room area. It was great.
When we arrived that afternoon, we got settled in and made a beeline for conveyor belt sushi. We found Sushi Oedo a short walk away. We actually ate at this place a couple of times during the trip because it was good and easy.
We then went to This Brewing to check out some of their beers, which were solid but a bit pricey. They definitely have more breweries than the last time we visited.
We also discovered aosora, an adorable wine bar where we proceeded to have a nice little tasting with delicious local cheeses.
On our first full day, we put on our comfortable shoes and trekked 3 miles to the Ginza area to find this pop-up KitKat store Alex wanted to check out, only to find out it didn't exist.
We found beer instead. The Hitachino Brewing Lab Kanda Manseibashi is a cool place since it's on the Kanda river. Their beers are the ones with the owl which you see a lot of. Surprisingly, the gin they make is also good!
That evening, Linda and her family arrived and my niece was excited to be in Tokyo.
The following day, I started my day with a jog through Ueno Park, Tokyo's oldest park.
It's a large and beautiful park that is also home to the Ueno Zoo. Since there isn't a gym at the hotel, a girl has to get a workout in somehow.
Micah and I then ate breakfast at Egg Baby cafe -- one of the few times we found hot eggs for breakfast in Tokyo. It was very good! We got there before it opened and there was a line, but once the doors opened, the line moved quickly. Micah was on the struggle bus finding breakfast food he could eat that had enough protein. Onigiri was not going to cut it for him.
We also tried the flagship Kura sushi in the Asakusa area, where Linda, her husband Eric and the kids were having lunch with Eric's Japanese coworker. I didn't love this kaiten sushi, thought the flavor was lacking, but I've liked the Kura one that has opened near us in Austin, ironically. While Linda and her family roamed around, we went to the Nihonbashi area to check out some interesting brews.
Heiwa Doburoku Kabutocho Brewery is a place that specializes in Doburoku (濁酒) is a traditional, unrefined Japanese alcoholic drink brewed from fermented rice, koji, water and yeast. It's basically a cloudy sake. These were delicious and very interesting!
On Days 4 we did more of the touristy things.
🎨 Immersive and interactive space at Teamlabs Borderless. Very cool and immersive experience! A highlight of Borderless was the draw your own design aquarium. Once you draw your design, they scan it and it drops into the 'aquarium' room. I would highly suggest this to anyone visiting. They also have the Teamlabs Planets.
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| Karting Krew |
We played real life Mario Kart around Shibuya with Street Kart while my cousin and nephew watched the munchkins.
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| babysitting in tokyo |
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In hindsight, I should've booked us on karts that were electric, since the four stroke ones were a bit stinky and Micah's stalled out one time! And Linda got cut off by a driver--our tour guide got out of his kart and even bitched out the driver. Such a highlight of the trip! If you plan on doing this, make sure you get your international drivers permit before you get into the country.
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| Ice cream shop in the shinjuku area |
That evening, we roamed around Ameyoko and stopped at an izakaya joint where our waitress was Vietnamese. A lot of Viets come to Japan and Korea to work, actually. My cousin treated us to a bottle of Japanese whiskey, which the four of us polished off with no issue.
On Day 5 we ventured out on our own while the rest of the group visited Disney Sea.
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| Koto City area |
Micah found Fukagawa Winery, a natural winery in east Tokyo (Koto City area). The owners were really nice and the wines were good and interesting. We bought a bottle to share with the rest of the group.
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| Yummy takoyaki |
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| Delicious uni!! |
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| Tomioka Hachiman Shrine |
After wine o'clock, we roamed around the area, had takoyaki, Magurobito sushi and visited another shrine.
Last two days in Tokyo!
Micah finally found a hot egg for breakfast... at McDonalds. Japanese folks really don't do hot eggs for breakfast -hardboiled and cold, yes, but nothing else.
Tsukiji fish market (no longer a fish market, just overpriced food stalls). When we went in 2010, it was much more fun and it still is, but it's lost a little something now that it's not a fish market anymore.
We went into a very locals "brewpub" and thought the owner was going to charge each person a full beer/food set even though we only wanted beer, we avoided any issues. Ended walking to Tokyo station and got Yebisu beer instead.
Birthday wishes with the best fam, just hanging out and drinking at Linda's hotel room. Thanks to Alex and Linda for the yummy cakes! We always tend to travel around my birthday, which is the way I like to spend my birthday.
AYCE meats for my birthday dinner, the tongue was one of the best cuts! Micah had to go find sushi for dinner since he doesn't eat red meat.
Dragged Micah to Tokyo National Museum for my birthday.
Delish katsu at Isen Honten, but the soup was actually the star for me.
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| Last night and birthday drinks. |
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| gin and tonic for the nightcap |
Ended the last night back on Ameyoko street izakaya hopping with Eric's coworker who lives in Tokyo.
My cousin didn't want his last night to end, so he stayed in the streets and captured some hilarious encounters.
You know how Japanese are so orderly and clean? They even do that when they party hard. We saw one guy who was throwing up and his friends made sure he did it into the drain.
Tips:
1. When you land at the airport, go to a JR shop and get yourself a Welcome Suica Card with $30 loaded on it. You can always add more, but it's basically a card you can add money to for transportation or you can use it at convenience stores as well. So whatever money you have left, just spend it. Card expires after a month. Easy to jump on a metro or train.
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| Ueno Station area |
2. I really liked staying next to the Ueno station. It was easy to take the Skyliner from Narita airport to Keisei Ueno and easy access to train/subway lines.
3. Ameyoko street in Ueno is hopping. Yes, it's busy, but when we were there, it was mainly locals partying at night.
4. In Tokyo, we ate at several kaiten sushi joints, one of our faves being Sushi Oedo close to our hotel in Ueno.
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| Fish soup at a kaiten sushi place. |
5. Get the fish bone soup at sushi joints. The soups are so delicious and flavorful.
6. Had ramen twice. Aoshima syokudo Akihabara was the place where we waited an hour for soy sauce ramen. It was very good, but come during a less busy time (all locals).
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| These sandals went with black pants and shorts! |
7. Pack comfortable shoes. You'll walk a lot. My best purchase in 2025 ahead of this trip was this pair of Teva Women's Hurricane XLT 2 Sport Sandal. Since I was headed to a boat trip in Vietnam immediately after Japan, I needed sandals that would be good in water as well for kayaking, etc. These turned out to be my favorite sandals since they velcro on and you don't slip and slide everywhere. My feet pronate, so these also provide great support. I was happy to have them in Vietnam! I now use them for supping, boating, walking when it's hot, you get the idea.
8. Airalo for an e-sim. So cheap and easy. I'm shocked when people say they just pay the $10/day via their provider for international data service. I got 5GB and it was plenty for what I needed, in addition to wifi when available. Use my code to get $3 off your purchase: CALILY6032
9. Google Lens is so great! How did we survive when we came in 2010 without smartphones?! Snap and translate on the spot.
10. 7-11 has great snacks. Everybody knows this. Get the egg salad sando. The make your own smoothie is also great.
Kit Kat Rankings
- My ranking: Dark chocolate was the best. The milk tea was terrible. Strawberry, ok. Matcha meh.
- My sister's ranking: The best one was the salted caramel. Then the dark chocolate and then the strawberry.
- Alex: Salted Caramel > Dark Chocolate > Hojimatcha > everything else > Peach
- Shawn: The Sakura and roasted soybean powder were his faves.
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