Welcome to our coverage of Sam Mac and the Sunrise team as they visit the Land of the Rising Sun with TripADeal!
TripADeal’s Asia expert Teige will provide behind the scenes content for Sunrise and TripADeal followers. Click here for more
DAY 1 – Tokyo Old & New
Sam Mac greeted us with a warm ‘ohayo gozaimasu!‘ (Japanese for ‘good morning!”) on a very cold Tokyo Monday.
TripADeal tour guide Soya joined Sam Mac to suggest the best landmarks to check in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Soya said Aussies are “friendly and funny” and his experience after an Aussie “shoey”.
Today, we visited the streets of Nakano Kitaguchi Showa Shindo, with its retro shopfronts dating back to the 1960s.
We spent the early hours (4am!) checking out the izakayas (a small, intimate bar) and karaoke bars, where the locals aren’t shy in front of a microphone. One of the bars had a cat called Suchen looking after it and Sam Mac got to feed it.
Over the weekend, the team checked out a digital art museum, TeamLab, a mix of art exhibition and multi-sensorial experience. The team entered an area with water to their shins where koi fish created with light roamed around. Sam Mac could only say “YOLO” (You Only Live Once) while admiring and interacting with the colourful displays.
Sam Mac faced off a Japanese wrestler during a sumo experience. He tried the dishes the Sumo eat during training, before taking to the ring with an actual wrestler… and ending up on the floor.
We also visited Shibuya, an area that is familiar to TripADeal travellers, to see the famous Shibuya Scramble Crossing, where up to 3,000 people cross at every light change. Sam Mac braved the snowy weather to run across, only to be heckled by a fellow Aussie as he attempted to take a selfie.
TripADeal Tips – Eating etiquette
• Japan’s Hara Hachi Bu (“80% rule”) promotes health and longevity by encouraging people to stop eating when 80% full.
• When sharing food, always use serving chopsticks (toribashi), not your own.
• Do not eat or drink while walking; on trains, it is frowned upon except during long-distance travel.
