Notes From Japan Part 4: Last Day and Lost Luggage

Our last full day in Japan was filled with delicious food that I, sadly, can’t recreate in my own kitchen or purchase near me. I can only dream about it until my next trip! Also, remember that bad fortune I got at the temple on our first day…well that decided to rear its ugly head as we made our way to the airport. Things were a going a little too smoothly after all…

On our last full day in Tokyo, we worked to squeeze in the rest of the recommendations that we hadn’t been able to do on our first two days. Our breakfast was a spontaneous pick located just a couple of minutes from our hotel. Fuglen is a Norwegian coffee and cocktail bar that serves some of the best waffles you could hope for. Tom and I each ordered a signature heart-shaped thin waffle. Tom’s had smoked salmon and cream cheese (under $11), and mine had brown cheese, sour cream, and mixed berry jam (under $9). Fuglen is the only place to get these waffles in Tokyo, and they are very much worth the wait in line. I also got honey milk (under $4) to drink, and it was the coziest drink I’ve had in a long time. There’s a clear difference between cheap and higher quality milk, and this rich, warm milk with honey tasted like crawling into a freshly made bed in the winter. The view of the busy street from the second floor was endlessly entertaining. 

We couldn’t get Glitch Coffee off of our minds, so we stopped by for more. I only ordered a cup of the “fruit basket” coffee because it was my clear favorite, and Tom opted to do another flight to keep sampling more. I know that Glitch Coffee will be our first stop during our next trip. 

We then took an Uber to Pizza Studio Tamaki Higashi Azabu, one of the most highly regarded pizzerias in Tokyo. This came highly recommended by one of Tom’s coworkers, and because of the limited seating available inside, we decided to try for lunch instead of dinner. We got one of the last remaining tables outside, and we had a tranquil view of a small park filled with children playing together. We started with the fresh burrata caprese and each got a pizza to split. The crust is charred and a distinctly different texture than the thin, NY style slices I’m used to on Long Island, but everything was clearly fresh and made with care. It's obvious why it's such a popular spot!

We were very full after our three delicious stops that day, so we walked in the direction of Tokyo Tower to try and purchase day-of tickets. We were surprised to find a bustling event right outside the tower, so we stopped to see what it was. We ended up stumbling upon a lively fish auction, and even though we couldn’t understand a word that was being said, we still were entertained by the high energy sales and bidding. Vendors from across Tokyo were selling different food products, and if we weren’t so full, we would have sampled a lot. As we walked closer to the tower, we saw a series of food trucks set up for a Christmas market with plenty of Christmas decorations for photo opportunities. We loved being able to find events like these and getting to have that spontaneous fun! As much as I love having a solid plan, the downtime where we were free to wander gave us some of the most memorable moments from the trip.

We were able to get an evening ticket for Tokyo Tower, but I would recommend booking ahead of time on Klook to get your preferred time. While we waited, we went to the Times Square of Tokyo: Shibuya Scramble. Along the way, we passed a group dressed in Mario onesie pajamas driving go karts in the road. It looked like a ton of fun, but I don’t know about driving along those busy roads in a go kart! Maybe next time I'll work up the courage and purchase a ticket.

Shibuya Scramble is so famous because it is where multiple intersections converge and cross at the same time, and there can be well over 1,000 people crossing the road at once. While many visitors like to grab a coffee and watch the action from a few floors up, we decided to get in on the action ourselves. If you've been to Times Square before, you’ve had the same kind of experience. Every inch of this section of the city is plastered with lights and shops and a hustling hum of activity. Tom had souvenir shopping to do, so we set our sights on the Mega Don Quijote that was a whopping eight floors of every kind of souvenir imaginable. It’s super crowded and honestly pretty overwhelming as you wander through row after row and floor after floor of merchandise and tourists. We picked up a shopping basket of items, and wow was that tax-free line long. The perk is nice for tourists, but it definitely makes for crowded lines. We stopped on the way to see the famous dog statue, and it was…just a statue of a dog. The history behind it is really touching, but if you’re pressed for time, it’s an easy tourist attraction to skip (and that’s coming from a big dog lover).

We had to really hurry to get back to Tokyo Tower for our reservation, and we made it just in the nick of time. Something that impressed me about Tokyo Tower was that it felt less commercialized and more historical than Tokyo Skytree. Yes, the ground floor is one giant shop, but the observation deck itself felt more focused on the view, the history of the tower, and the history of the city. We enjoyed watching the video about the history of Tokyo, and I was surprised by how emotional it was. The big focus was on the city’s culture of resilience and innovations, and it made me interested to learn more about Japanese history. Tokyo Tower was also smaller and less crowded, so I thought it made for a quieter and more romantic viewing experience. As we rode to the very top floor, we were offered a beverage, which was a nice touch. 

Tom wanted to get a good view of the design, so we took the many, many flights of stairs back down to the shops. Many, many, many stairs. My legs were shaking by the time we finally made it to the bottom, but it definitely made me hungry for the hotel’s free bowl of ramen. Now, this was advertised as being a half-sized serving, but we were easily satisfied with it. I didn’t get a chance to take advantage of it, but we also received free beverage coupons for each night of our stay that could be redeemed for things like green tea downstairs. The amenities at this hotel really made it such a bargain! 

Tom wanted to visit a sake bar before we left, so we visited Sake no Daimasu Kaminarimon Branch for a couple of glasses and another bite to eat. I have never been a big fan of sake because I had not sampled any with complex and nuanced flavor. If you go to most sushi restaurants in the States, the sake tastes like hot rice water. Sake is like wine; the cheapest stuff never tastes good, but the higher quality product is worth the purchase. I was surprised by how sweet and fruity mine tasted. There is a huge variety of bottled sake available for purchasing in the retail section of the space, and the staff was really helpful in guiding our selections that night. 

On our way back to the hotel, we ran into the owner of Not Suspicious and one of the customers we had met the previous night. We were invited to be in a big group photo in front of the Thunder Gate, and it felt like such a small world moment. 

We made it back to the hotel and got ourselves packed and ready to go for our travel day. We could not have expected how stressful it would end up being.

We had two options to get to the airport: take the metro and a train or take an Uber. We didn’t want to drag our bags through the streets of the temple and the metro, so we opted for an Uber thinking it would be the more convenient option. We wanted to take our time that morning and get a little sleep after our late night. We ordered our Uber without a problem and met our driver outside of the hotel. The driver loaded our bags into the back of the car, and we sat back, relaxed, and enjoyed our unexpected view of Mount Fuji on the nearly hour long drive. 

We arrived at the airport a couple of hours before our flight. This gave us plenty of time to get ourselves checked in and through security without feeling frazzled. However, as the driver unloaded our luggage from the back of the car, my suitcase was missing. Our driver was not fluent in English, and we certainly were not fluent in Japanese, so with the help of Google Translate, we were able to communicate that my bag was missing. The driver thought he had all of the bags, but I had handed him my suitcase before he had taken Tom’s. Tom recalled hearing something drop before we left, but he thought the driver had picked up whatever had fallen. Turns out, he hadn’t. Now, being from New York, I figured my suitcase and everything in it was probably long gone. We asked our driver to call our hotel (the front desk receptionists did not speak fluent English), and we used Google Translate to ask him to ask the hotel’s front desk if they had the bag. Trying to describe our situation to someone through a translator app to have them translate over the phone to someone to have them relay the message back to us was not the easiest process, but we came to learn that they seemed to have my bag. However, they did not confirm that my name was on the bag, but my flight number was on it. While Tom went inside to see if we could change our flights, I stayed with the driver to see if the hotel would ship my bag or if I would need to go back myself to retrieve it. The hotel said I would have to come in person to pick up my bag, but with a 2 hour round trip ahead of us and a security line to get through, there was no way we would make our scheduled flight. We both had to be at work the next morning, so waiting until the next day for a flight wouldn't be an option. We knew there was a flight that got in close to 10PM and a flight that got in around 4AM. We were really hoping we wouldn't end up on the 4AM arrival flight because it would make for a very, very rough Monday.

I went inside to meet Tom, and he was so calm as he worked with the very helpful and patient ticketing agent to rebook our flight. Tom was able to guarantee me a seat home, and he was originally going to be on standby, but before we left to drive back to the hotel, we were both confirmed on the same evening flight. And we were able to get the 10PM arrival rather than the 4AM arrival. Victory! I was so grateful for Tom’s cool head while I inwardly panicked about this major bump in the road.

We met our driver and he took us back to the hotel, and I worried the whole way that they didn’t have my bag. When we got to the lobby, I didn't see my bag with the other assembled bags from the luggage service. My heart sank that this trip back to the city was all for nothing. With our driver’s help to translate, I was able to show my identification to the front desk, and, lo and behold, they brought out my bag from the back room. Somehow, after being left unattended for two hours, it was completely undamaged and not a single item was stolen or disturbed. I can’t imagine that happening in a city like New York. In such a busy tourist hub, it was a miracle that someone saw the bag lying in the middle of the street and brought it into the hotel. That culture of respect and hospitality in Japan really can’t be beat!

The Uber ride quickly added up (especially because we had to pay in cash for the ride back to the hotel), so we decided to take the metro and the train to the airport. With our bags in hand, we navigated the temple’s busy streets and picked up a couple of snacks along the way. We purchased tickets for the train on Klook (it seriously has tickets for everything) and were able to redeem them at the train station. The train was spotlessly clean, and the ride was so quick and efficient with easy storage for our bags. In hindsight, I wish we had picked this option to begin with! The trains and subways of Tokyo never disappointed us and actually exceeded our expectations.

All in all, I loved our experience in Tokyo and can’t wait to visit it again for a longer trip. Three full days was much too short to take it all in; you need at least a week to fully see the city. The food was consistently so fresh and so well prepared, everyone we met was friendly and helpful, and the streets and subway cars were so shockingly clean and safe for a city of that size. I felt myself filled with awe and wonder more than once at this ancient and thoroughly modern city that never, ever seems to sleep. My goal is to visit during the Cherry Blossom season and to schedule time for cities like Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, and more.