Japan 2025, July 28

The midnight boarding all went smoothly and I thought I was going to be next to an empty seat, only for someone to show up at the last minute. The supper meal finally had an edible vegetable biryani as one of the default options. After the meals were cleared I focused on trying to sleep and somehow got several periods of short sleep.

By the time the lights came on six hours out of eight were done, just before serving breakfast. The breakfast options weren't great, so I just had the side meals, then spent the rest of the time counting down the minutes.

Finally we arrived and didn't get stuck waiting for permission to land. The smart gates were empty, but then the luggage took like 40 minutes to arrive following that, with the usual crowding around the carousel. There was only one person looking at all of the declaration forms, so that took a while too.

After all these years they've only just added a digital board at the Skybus stand to say when the next bus is expected. The bus and train trip went the same as usual, slow but reliable. Everything in my luggage looked to have survived the journey when I got around to unpacking.

For the afternoon I got out for a 7.5 kilometre run in the cold for a quick run, but wasn't even running any faster than the Tokyo heat.

Some of my spending totals were:

• Activities - $100 + prepaid tickets
• Food - $400 or about $25 per day
• Magnets - $75
• Shopping - $60
• Trains - $175 + shinkansen

Steps = 10,546 with 7.5 kilometres running

Japan 2025, July 27

This was going to be a bit of a wasted day since the hotel check-out was 11am and the flight wasn't until 4pm. Thanks to efficient and regular trains, I could be at the airport in under an hour.

This is the usual travel trade off between arriving in Melbourne late at night with no public transport (except Friday or Saturday night) or arriving during the day. The corresponding departure time depends on where you're travelling from and how long the flight is, and the time zone changes involved. Sadly it often means travelling through the night so you can arrive during the day - exhausted with no sleep.

Another bad part that I couldn't avoid was another 3-4 hours waiting at Hong Kong late at night for the connecting flight. Trying to stay awake until you board your flight is never fun.

Since I had nothing to do for the day except sit around I managed my longest run at 12.5 kilometres. Even with a small bit of cloud cover it was still challenging most of time. Back to the hotel and checkout was before 11am, but the flight wasn't until 4pm.

I was thinking of getting some basic headphones so I could watch something on my laptop at the airport, so decided to checkout and leave my luggage at the hotel. Since Akihabara was only a 15 minute trip away I planned a quick visit to there and back to buy some headphones and waste a bit of time.

One of the station exits comes out at Yodobashi Camera so I spent my time in there, listening to their Akiharaba store melody on repeat. There was quite a range of in-ear wired headphones to choose from, but I didn't need anything special so settled for a $10 pair. The demonstration pair looked purple, but it turned out to be a lot more pink that I was hoping for.

On another level was computers, video games, and related merchandise. They had a range of things from Nintendo, Pokemon, Sega, and Square, some of the items I'd seen at their specialty stores. The amount of items was much less, but you could have easily done most of your shopping across all the brands just here, with a lot less hassle.

Then I was back to the hotel to pick up my suitcase and walk about one kilometre to the station which goes direct to Haneda airport, in about an hour. There was almost no shade along the way so I was sweating a lot thanks to wearing a backpack.

The train to the airport was surprisingly full but I managed a seat for most of the trip. I could barely get off the train at the international terminal as most people were staying on for the domestic terminal. I got to the departure area just before the 3 hour bag drop time was due to open, so didn't have to wait long for the queue to open. The line moved a bit slow thanks to a few people with a large pile of luggage, but not too bad. The security line was also good enough, then I was through to the departure gates. The food options were a bit limited, but I did manage to find a great Family Mart branded vending machine with some food snacks.

By the time I walked down to my gate I still had a bit over an hour until boarding was due to commence. With 4 GB still left on my mobile data account I created a mobile hotspot and watched some Twitch for a while. Normally I have no energy at the airport and spend the whole time resting, but it was only 3pm so I wasn't too tired yet. Watching Twitch for 30 minutes used surprisingly little data, only 300 MB.

The first flight was 4 hours 40 minutes and I had the front row of premium economy next to the window. When I booked it there was nobody seated next to me, but I didn't expect that would remain, and I think the whole section was full in the end

The boarding process was a little strange as we had to get on a bus and drive out onto the runway to the plane. The overhead cabins in premium economy were also strange, those roller suitcases everyone loves weren't fitting long ways, so had to be put in width ways. I'm guessing the same problem occurred down in economy, as they had lots of people bring their suitcases up into business class.

After we took off we got a meal served after about an hour. The options were fish with rice or lamb with vegetables. I asked for fish but somehow got lamb instead. The fish came with a good serving of rice on the side which would have been good, but the vegetables with lamb had some lentils, so was still alright. We must have sat in front of our trays for close to an hour before they finally came back and collected them. I got a little bit of rest in the first half of the flight but the final hour really seemed to drag on.

We arrived approximately on time, which didn't matter to me as I had four hours to waste. At the transfer gate it was another cycle of passport, boarding pass, and bag check, but this time I had no problems with my passport thankfully.

The Hong Kong international airport is huge but has surprisingly few food and drink options, and no vending machines at all. After getting on a shuttle train towards my gate I found a Hungry Jack's open for some fries, then had to walk close to ten minutes to find a place selling drinks. My gate was at the very end of one wing, so it was a very long walk back and forth, that you wouldn't want to repeat more than once.

The closest travelator was making a constant beeping sound every few seconds, which was going to make me go crazy, so I had to move as far away as possible. By the time I was ready to sit down I still had about two hours to wait for boarding to commence near midnight Hong Kong time, or 1am Japan time.

My computer still had 75% battery charge remaining and I had the Optus $5 daily roaming for the day, so I could watch some more Twitch to pass the time. I had no plug for the Hong Kong power points, so my battery would have to last. I watched Twitch until about 11pm, but it was hard to enjoy it while being tired and watching the clock.

Public transport = 1019 yen

Steps = 15,800 with 12.5 kilometres running (at Haneda airport)

Steps = 20,346 (at Hong Kong airport)

Japan 2025, July 26

None of the parkruns in Tokyo are in particularly good locations, but at least the one closest to Asakusa could be accessed by just a single train trip. Actually the train line changes into two or three other services, but depending on the service you get it's possible to remain on the same train the whole way. Still it was going to be an earlier start than usual due to the distance involved.

The parkrun was at Shibamata Koen Kadan, which roughly means Shibamata park flowerbed, about 11 kilometres away if walking. The train options were:

• 6:47 to 7:09
• 7:06 to 7:30
• 7:28 to 7:45

And the trip also required a 1.2 kilometre walk from the station to the start area. I took the middle option and reach the station in Asakusa with about five minutes to spare. The train had to wait for about 5 minutes at one point for an airport service coming the other way, but arrived about on schedule so that must have been a planned delay.

At the other end I had a quick look at the Google Maps view and took the road nearby which looked like it went almost all the way to the river area. Just doing the 1.25 kilometre jog it was already extremely hot, so it was lucky there was a drink tap right near the start.

The main briefing occurred quite early, then they had the first time briefing after that, took some photos, then had five minutes more to wait in the shade of some trees. Once we got started there was no shade at all on the route though.

It was incredibly hot running along the paved path, with only a couple of seconds of shade when going under three small bridges each lap that did not help at all. One guy took off pretty fast at the start, and then I was clearly in second. I checked my watch near 1 kilometre and I was over 4:00/km so tried to speed up slightly, although it was very hard to go any faster.

By the second lap I was really fighting the heat, but actually managed to increase my time each kilometre to finish around 19:30. It was a good small event, and all the local people were very friendly and supportive, it was just the hottest parkrun I can ever remember doing.

Checking the schedule I would just be able to make the next train back to Asakusa if I hurried, and made it with about two minutes to spare. Even with the air conditioning in the train I was sweating a lot for a few stops, so lucky it wasn't too packed.

Finally back at the hotel and down to breakfast at about 9:30, which runs from 7:00 to 10:30. I thought they'd be nearly empty and packing up, but there was people everywhere. I don't know why they all have breakfast so late.

A bit of a later start to the day due to parkrun, and I'd left my last day free of any scheduled activities to see what came up. Since Tokyo Skytree was only two stops away I started there and had a look at some shops I only hurried through last time. Surprisingly the Pokemon Centre wasn't too busy for a weekend during school holidays, so I finally decided on buying a medium size Pikachu "sleep version". I'm not sure what the reason behind the sleep range is, but there was a similar range at the Sega store for Sonic, so I figured the two purchases would go well together.

After that was done I took the long trip back to Shibuya, having to change trains once along the way. Since I was a bit more familiar I was able to find the area where the Square Enix Garden store should be. It wasn't clear the name of the building it was in since Google hadn't translated the Japanese, and likewise the floor level, but I was lucky to find it without too much effort.

Like usual there was way too much of the generic Dragon Quest slimes, and then a lot of Final Fantasy products. I would have been amazed if there was some Parasite Eve or Vagrant Story products too, but sadly there was not. One of the small Chocobo toys looked good, so I got that to make the trip worthwhile. There was also a bunch of small music boxes for different Final Fantasy games, although I hadn't memorised all the songs. I was hoping for a good Final Fantasy 8 tune, but there was only one and I don't think it's the best one. So I just settled for the Final Fantasy 7 main theme and hopefully it's alright.

On my way back towards the central Shibuya area there was a small popup store celebrating two years of the Pokemon "sleep" range. There was a big queue that lead into a back area, so I couldn't even tell what they were wating for, maybe some special photo opportunity.

At the Shibuya scramble crossing it was much busier so I hardly made it across due to all of the people going in different directions. It's also funny when cars end up stuck in the middle of the crossing trying to beat the red light.

Again I was just adding or revisiting some shopping from earlier in the week, except I decided to skip a return to Parco. I went through the Ikea, Loft, and Muji stores but didn't find many gifts or unique items in any of them, at least none that would fit in my suitcase.

As it was already 2pm I found a local Taco Bell to try them out. I got a veggie burrito with guacamole which was a little small but otherwise great.

After a bit more walking I got back onto a train for Asakusa before it got too late. The first reason was to pack up for tomorrow. The second reason was tonight was a major fireworks in Asakusa where up to one million people show up. The fireworks didn't start until 7pm but people queue for hours to get a good spot along the river once they close the roads and then open up the whole area to pedestrians only.

After dropping off all my shopping at the hotel I had time to look at the local Uniqlo which was in the same building as the hotel. I got a good "dry fit" style casual t-shirt for only $13 reduced from $19. Also close by was the major Don Quijote store with so many snacks, and so many flavours of kit kat. I didn't want to deal with declaring food for a few snacks that might taste good or terrible, so didn't buy anything in the end.

I got my reminder to do the online check-in for my flight, but since I had premium economy and chosen seats already there wasn't much to do. I changed to normal meal instead of vegetarian lacto-ovo since:

• Getting served first means you're stuck with a tray for much longer
• The food served on the previous two flights weren't very good
• The second flight is at midnight so I don't care much about food at that time anyway

The streets were already starting to get a bit crowded, and I didn't want to try and battle my way through a sea of people for a limited view of the fireworks.

Tokyo - 8 out of 10

• Good
• Crowds not as bad as expected
• Range of activities
• Running options - river and parks
• Shopping
• Weather - very hot
• Bad
• Ate too many convenience store snacks
• Long train trips sometimes
• Long walks between train platforms
• Shopping in Akihabara
• Standing on trains
• Missed Out
• Disney World
• Ikebukuro
• Meiji Jingu shrine
• Shibuya cat street
• Shinjuku
• Takeshita street - only hurried through it

Japan - 8 out of 10

• Good
• No issues with speaking English and understanding minimal Japanese
• Trains between cities - doesn't even have to be shinkansen sometimes
• Weather
• Bad
• Didn't get to explore more running routes
• Need to eat better food - maybe can skip breakfast buffets
• Running out of ideas for other cities to visit
• Standing and walking all day
• Wasted time cleaning clothes and doing laundry - better than winter though
• Missed Out
• Fukuoka
• Kanazawa
• Nintendo museum in Kyoto
• Other cities

Public transport = 1807 yen (535 Shimabata each way)

Steps = 21,127 with 7.45 kilometres running

Japan 2025, July 25

I had another early start with my second Teamlab event, this time Borderless starting at 10am again. The venue was in Minato which is south of the Ginza and Tokyo area, but still about 40 minutes from the hotel to the destination by train. I thought I might not make it with much time to spare, but arrived nearly 30 minutes early. They didn't seem that busy as there was no queue forming, so I got in about 15 minutes before my planned time.

This museum was a bit more of an art maze, most rooms had changing images and patterns displaying on them in a rotation. There was also a few special rooms, like the rows of vertical lights similar to Planets, one with cubes, and one with small orbs. It was quite dark and there was no specific route, so it was a bit of a puzzle working out if you'd found every room and avoiding going back to the same places again. There was a large middle room with a small mound that was just displaying art, and all the young kids were just going crazy running and sliding, despite the instructions saying not to do that.

I spent nearly 90 minutes looking around, then left and walked to nearby Tokyo Tower to see it up close. I'd already been to two observation decks in Tokyo, so figured I didn't need a third. It was extremely hot out in the sun today, with the forecasts being over 35 degrees every day.

There was just enough time if I was quick to get a short train to Shimbashi to see the Ghibli Glock at 12pm. The large strange looking clock is always on display, but only a few times a day do all the pieces come alive. It actually started a few minutes before 12pm so lucky I was there a little earlier, with a crowd of about 20 other people.

I was a bit unsure what I wanted to do next and as I had a few possible things in different directions, but nothing too important. Since I was only a couple of stops away from a large Pokemon Centre I had a quick look in there. It was hard to find since you had to go to the 8th floor of one building, then connect to another building which somehow became the 5th floor. The range of products looked similar, and there was quite a large queue, so I didn't stay long. At least it was only about a 15 minute detour.

Next I got back on the same train line to Ueno, heading back in the hotel direction. There's quite a few things in the park like a gallery, a museum, and a zoo. I chose the zoo but had read some mixed reviews about the animal living conditions, so was interested to find out for myself.

However before heading off I found a local Wendy's First Kitchen and made an attempt at an order. They don't have a vegetarian burger at all, so I tried fries, mini pancakes, and an ice cream soda float. The fries were as expected, the pancake sauce had a strange taste, and the soda tasted good but was half full of ice between the soda and the ice cream layers.

Continuing on the zoo, my initial impression was it was rather quiet for a big city zoo, although the range of animals was ok. I had a hard time finding a few animals - the polar bear was finished for the day, and the gorilla and tigers weren't in sight. Some of the animal enclosures were a bit of the small side, but that's probably true with many other zoos.

It is not great to see the animals going around in small circles or not moving a lot though. The lines for the two giant pandas was 20-30 minutes so I didn't wait for that, but did see the red pandas instead. Overall I guess I wasn't horrified, but improvements could be made for sure. For example, I don't know if penguins are supposed to be outdoors, even with access to water, in the middle of a Japan summer.

I didn't feel like making any more trips for the day in the heat, so headed back to the hotel for a late afternoon finish.

Public transport = 921 yen

Steps = 23,775 with 8.35 kilometres running

Japan 2025, July 24

The same breakfast again, then off for a longer 10.75 kilometre run as I'm getting to know the paths a bit better now.

For the trip to Yokohama I had to walk to the furthest of the many Asakusa stations, which has at least three different stations servicing four major train lines. The train I boarded was only two stops from the end of the line but was already standing room only. The same train changed service and continued all the way to Yokohama, so I got a seat later on once the Tokyo locals departed.

From Yokohama station it was straight into an underground mall, but I had a better idea of my orientation and the right direction to head in. Soon I found the entrance to the Nissan global headquarters gallery, which had a free showroom on the ground floor. I figured you couldn't touch any of the cars but then people were getting in most of them to try it out, even the Skyline GTR and such. They had quite a lot of things in the gift shop including a Datsun range but nothing I found worth buying.

Instead of continuing to walk I got the train for one stop to Minato Mirai, although it was so far underground it was almost the same effort. It was already nearly lunch time so I stopped at another Shack Shake. On my way out I was able to get some photos of the tallest building in the city, Yokohama landmark tower.

My next stop was a combined ticket for Yokohama port museum and Nippon Maru museum ship. I went to the port museum first, but you aren't allowed to take photos inside for most sections, for whatever reason. There was some interesting history of the port with English translations included - dealing with an earthquake, a war, and land reclamation projects.

There was a fun little gantry simulator game, but the best part was a five minute video in a room with a 180 screen, including a bit of the side wall, floor and ceiling. On the way out I got the best available magnet at the gift shop. The second part of my ticket was a walk around the ship next, it was alright but pretty standard.

Back out in the sun I walked along Kishamichi Promenade to Yokohama World Porters, which is a three level shopping building. There was some cable cars going overheard to the same destination, but the trip was only about 500 metres. I decided to run to be able to record a Yokohama exercise activity on my watch, but was already sweating by the end, so needed to quickly get inside with air conditioning.

There was a lot of character merchandise yet again, including a Marvel pop up store but it had nothing good, mostly the new Fantastic Four stuff. Outside one exit of the building was the Cosmo World amusement park. It's free to enter but then you have to pay for rides individually, however I didn't think I had time to spend there.

On the opposite side was a short walk to the old red brick warehouse building. This building has some historical significance with the port, but now has a lot of craft and souvenir shops, however I didn't find a better magnet. Continuing along I got some photos outside of the Osanbashi pier and the Yokohama bay bridge in the distance.

My feet were getting sore so I only kept walking a bit further, but ended at a good spot. I made it to Yamashita park which had a good view of the Yokohama marine tower in the background. There was also another ship named Hikawa Maru docked in the water.

I also had Nogeyama zoological gardens left on the list for the day. It is a free small zoo, but there wasn't a good public transport route there from my current location. A bit more time could have also been spent around the Chinatown area where I ended up at, but I had nothing to specific to see there. Instead of any of that I got the subway back to Yokohama station and then a train all the way back to Asakusa, the reverse of the morning journey. Since Yokohama was close to the start of the journey I actually got a seat for the whole trip for once.

Finally I had a bit more time in the afternoon to have a look along Nakamise shopping street and at Senso-ji temple when I got back to Asakusa There was a great selection of magnets in the shops but I didn't think I needed any more, although perhaps an overall Japan one.

It was about 5pm but I didn't have any good ideas for dinner, I looked at the Denny's menu but the only real option was grilled cheese and a bowl of rice. They had better options in the dessert menu though, like French toast, but I wasn't sure if they'd serve everything at once. I actually had a decent sized lunch so wasn't that hungry anyway, mostly just thirsty as per usual.

Yokohama - 6 out of 10

• Good
• Not as busy as Tokyo
• Bad
• Only spent half a day there
• Some other activities were further from the city centre
• Missed Out
• Chinatown - Hakurankan market
• Chinatown - Motomachi shopping street
• Cup Noodles museum - not much use for vegetarians
• Mitsui outlet park
• Nogeyama zoological gardens

Public transport = 1655 yen (620 Yokohama each way)

Steps = 25,205 with 11.25 kilometres running

Japan 2025, July 23

The breakfast choices were almost the same as yesterday, with tiny bowls for cereal and fruit, and the custard taiyaki were back, but would have been much better if they were warm.

Today's conditions for running were much more bearable than yesterday so I went over 10 kilometres. I ran across a bridge to the other side of the river but came across some weird one way signs taped on the ground. Firstly people were ignoring the signs and going the wrong way, and secondly the arrow directions just changed half way along the path, not at any intersection. I waited for traffic at a bridge crossing and got a lot further north this time, the path is more spacious and less confusing as it goes on.

I had a bit of a later start since I didn't need to be at Shibuya Sky until 11am, getting a single train all the way from Asakusa. Getting out at Shibuya station was just as confusing as I expected, with so many different exits, different levels, and different buildings. Even the station entrances are spread out in many unconnected locations.

I had about 30 minutes remaining still to go before my scheduled time, so I could have tried to find the Square Enix Garden merchandise store but didn't want to risk getting lost. After just having a look around nearby I went up the entrance lift just as they were putting out a sign that the outdoor level was cancelled. I'm guessing it was because of the temperature already, but it's quite disappointing you can't even go outside for a minute.

With the same weather conditions every day these cancellations must be occurring almost every day  in summer until sunset. There is an option to get a full refund, but then you've missed out completely. They should really give a 25-50% discount instead and let you continue on. Since I was there already I just continued on, and they were much better views that Tokyo Skytree is the full 360 degrees. After getting some good views and photos it became more of a shame the outdoor area couldn't have been enjoyed too. It was also amazing to see how much greenery there was close by around Yoyogi Park, maybe four times as much as I expected to see there. I got a Shibuya magnet from the gift shop then headed down and it was almost 12pm already.

I wasn't quite sure where I was but followed the crowd and ended up at the famous Shibuya crossing quickly. The intersection actually wasn't that busy, so my photos weren't very special. This whole Shibuya area is lots of narrow streets, running at weird angles, and not much traffic to worry about. The first thing I saw was Asahi beer advertising everywhere, featuring the four girls from Black Pink including Mook from The White Lotus.

I spent a while just walking around a few streets then ended up in Loft which I remembered having good gifts last time. On one of the floors they had some interesting video game items, most related to Sony. There was a really nice looking bag made to look like a PlayStation One console for about $70. It wasn't big enough for a laptop though, so I didn't think I would have much use for it. Instead I got a PlayStation towel and some other small gifts.

Next I found my way to Parco which again has a whole level dedicated to merchandise, and a new Sega store just opened up. The Sega store was small so they were handing out tickets for designated time when you were allowed to go in. It was about 12:30pm and I got a ticket for 2:30pm, a bit awkward as I'd have preferred sooner or later, not in the middle of the afternoon.

I had a quick look in Nintendo also, which has busy and seemed a bit worse than the Osaka store overall. The Capcom store had nothing again, and the Pokemon store had a crazy queue. I had to decide what do to between now and 2:30pm, and if I was even going to bother coming back just for the Sega store. I settled on walking up towards Yoyogi Park near Harajuku, and the surrounding area, then see how I was going for time and energy.

It actually took longer than expected to get to Yoyogi Park, and then parts of it were closed off anyway, so there was nothing much special to look at. It was getting close to 1:30pm so I planned to speed through a bit of Harajuku then get the train one stop back to Shibuya. I thought I might even have time to go to Meiji Jingu shrine, but definitely didn't, particularly since it's not accessible directly via Yoyogi Park either.

A Nike store was in sight so I went in with no expectations. Instead I found a good purple running shirt and risked getting the large size again, although I hadn't tried on the Asics shirt yet. Next it was down the hill to Takeshita Street which was very crowded as usual. I saw a Capcom capsule store but didn't have time to investigate. Maybe they have something rare Final Fight or Ghosts And Goblins items, but I doubt it. There was some other interesting things along the way like a Micro Pig cafe, but mostly it was tourist stuff. After a very quick walk to the other end of the street was an Asics store, so I got another large running shirt since it was on sale for about half price.

Rushing back to Harajuku station was hard with the crowds, and everyone had their umbrellas out to protect from the sun. I just missed a train but only had to wait four minutes for the next, and still made it back to Shibuya Parco from the station with 10 minutes to spare.

Inside the Sega store was a bit too much Sonic, which was predictable. I would have like to see some other unusual stuff, like Alex Kidd, Ecco The Dolphin, or whatever other brands they have. A lot of stuff was either plush toys or things I couldn't really figure out what they were for, like hard plastic coasters of different sizes. I couldn't buy the largest Sonic as it probably wouldn't fit in my suitcase, so I settled for a medium size one. I also got a small Sega pillow and a small Tails plush toy to go with my one from the short lived Sega World Sydney.

Once that was done I didn't make another attempt at Nintendo or Pokemon and headed back to the station. The Ginza line entrance was a long walk that was separate to the rest of the station entrances, I ended up scanning my IC card in the wrong entry and had to go back out again.

Back at the hotel I tried on all three Asics and Nike shirts and they fit well. Maybe they are marginally longer in length, but the overall fit in similar to my usual US medium. Even though it was a bit of a shorter day and had less specific activities, it still ended up close to 25,000 steps. I had a little more planning to do than usual with a whole day trip to Yokohama on a combination of local Tokyo and local Yokohama trains coming up.

Public transport = 650 yen

Steps = 24,984 with 10.5 kilometres running

Japan 2025, July 22

My timed entry for Teamlab Planets was between 10am and 10:30am. It looked like the entire trip, across two train lines and some walking before, during, and after would take about 45 minutes. I didn't want to risk missing out, so planned to be there close to 10am, meaning I'd have to leave the hotel by about 9am.

That timeline didn't leave a lot remaining for 7am breakfast, some running, and getting ready to leave. The running route I planned by the river was less than a kilometre away and some of that was on roads without traffic, which helped too.

This definitely felt like the hottest day yet while out running in the morning. I ran for about 2.5 kilometres up the Sumida River along a boardwalk section which had a bit of shade at least. When I got to a street crossing I decided to turn back and see what the other direction was like. I went down on the path next to the river instead, in the sun, but eventually hit a dead end before even getting back to my starting point. Turning around and returning to the boardwalk section I was able to go a bit further south, but was about to reach another road and decided to finish up. There was also a pedestrian bridge going across to the other side of the river, so there's plenty more routes to try.

After getting ready to leave it was close to 9am so I was cutting it a bit close for a 10am arrival. I didn't have any problems catching the two trains and was down to my last walking by 9:30am. The problem was there's two station with the same name and so many exits, so it was hard to work out where to go. Thanks to Google Maps with GPS location it was solved easily enough when getting out to the street level, and I just had the last 750 metres to walk.

I got to the Teamlab Planets entrance a bit before 10am but there was already a queue. I figured these were late arrivals for the 9:30 time slot, but people kept rolling in as late as 9:55am. Surely that many people couldn't be leaving it until the last minute, so I went to investigate and the sign was up for both 9:30am and 10:00am entries.

I quickly jumped in a line but with no shade we were baking for at least 10 minutes until finally getting to an undercover section. While in line I realised I'd done all my planning for the day but not emailed it through to my phone. I remembered most of the content, but not the exact order and nearest train stations to each stop. More than 15 minutes went by until I was finally at the front of the line and able to scan my ticket. Next we got some generic introduction that nobody really listened to, and we were told there was four sections to explore in any order.

Most people went to Water since it was the closest, so I went to Forest instead. The other name for this was Athletic Forest and it was like a combination of art, very bright colours, and small fitness games. One had these rubber ball shapes you had to stand on and try to follow the same colours to the end. The balls were quite squishy so it was a bit hard to keep your balance. A similar area had small foam squares instead, which you had to make your way across, with simulated water beneath if you fell off a square. A few other rooms were more artistic than interactive but had some different slopes and surfaces to walk around. I thought this was a good zone, although maybe needed a few more activities.

The next section I went to was Garden. This was just one big room full of plants attached to strings that were going up and down. You had to wait for them to go up to before you could move through, and even then it wasn't clear with path to take. It would have been better if there was a range of flowers instead of all being the same at least.

The third section I went to was Water, where you had to put shoes, socks, and bags into lockers before starting. It started with walking up a slope while water was running down, then they immediately had towels to dry your feet at the top. There was a big room next with all these colour changing lights hanging from the roof, which was a nice effect.

Back walking through water again, this time was a big room containing about shin deep water. The water had images of fish and colourful patterns displayed on them as you walked through. After drying off my feet again it was a room full of big air filled balloons, that you weren't meant to push around though. This had changing room colours too, which was interesting. The final room was just where you could sit down and view some images displayed on the dome roof, such as sunflowers. The water section was definitely the most artistic and clever of those three sections.

The last section was Open Air which wasn't really a section at all, just the outdoor area leading to some food places and the exit. In summary it had some really good ideas, although I just hoped for slightly more content wise. I tried to take my time going through and was finished in around 1.5 hours.

With that adventure over it was back to the train station to try and recount my afternoon activities. I got the train back to Ginza where I'd swapped lines earlier, and had a quick stop of Shake Shack for lunch. Then it was time for bit of local shopping.

My first stop was the Nike Ginza store which had one good shirt, but no medium. After a few minutes I remembered Asian sizes are different, so I would be buying a large instead. I had a closer look at the shirt but it seemed more like a training shirt than a running short, but a good reminder for sizing later.

There was two Asics stores nearby, but I didn't want to go too far in the opposite direction so only went to one. The one I chose was Asics Run Tokyo store, which as the name suggests is focused on their running products. A strange thing I found in the store is you could rent out shoes and clothes for a few dollars, actually a good idea in particular for shoes you're not sure about. I found one good shirt to buy and guessed on a large, but didn't find any good shorts or socks.

Heading back below ground I tried to make my way through Tokyo station. I was very thirsty from being out in the sun for most of the day, and had never gone so long without seeing a convenience store until finally coming across one. 

After a little searching I finally found the character street I was looking for, in the basement level of one of the shopping malls. This was similar to some places in Osaka where they sell a range of different character merchandise, and even had a popup Star Wars store, but with nothing good. There was also a small Pokemon store instead of the larger Pokemon centres, I just got one small plush that I think is named Gengar. My feet were quite sore so I headed straight to Tokyo Skytree station next so I could rest a bit before my 5pm entry for the observation deck.

In the lower levels of Tokyo Skytree I came across a popup Labubu store and was curious so went and had a closer look. There was a line of people but a sign said only lottery winners were being accepted today. There was yet another Pokemon centre here, where I found a good bigger version of Gengar as a complement to my earlier purchase, but maybe too big for my suitcase. I still haven't found any magnets in any of the Pokemon stores.

I had nearly 30 minutes to rest and then went up to the top of Tokyo Skytree. The observation levels had good views showing how large Tokyo city extends in every direction. There's no way Melbourne could come close to that growth without like 10 extra train lines and all of the other infrastructure. The top level was Toy Story themed for some reason, and I found an exclusive magnet at their store before leaving.

After heading back down to the normal gift shop at the exit I found a regular Tokyo magnet too, in the same style as the other set I got in Osaka. Then I was off to pick up some food and drinks for the trip home to the hotel, concluding another long day with two main activities.

A visit to the Imperial Palace east gardens was also on my list for the afternoon, but I was a bit too tired and short on time for that. By the time I'd had some dinner, written up my notes, and just begun planning for tomorrow it was already 8:30pm.

Public transport = 830 yen

Steps = 25,427 with 7.8 kilometres running

Japan 2025, July 21

The hotel check-in times have been at 2pm instead of 3pm which is good. Combined with a check-out at either 11am or 12pm it allows the right amount of time to travel from one hotel to the next. Since I researched all of the steps for Tokyo, I just had to navigate my way out of the Tokyo shinkansen station and on to a local train line nearby, then a short walk to the hotel.

After another basic breakfast I went for a final run up to Nagoya Castle. I included a lap of the parkrun course as well, but forgot to turn off and ended up doing two laps, for a total of 10 kilometres. Returning to pack up only took another ten minutes so I had lots of time to spare. My suitcase feels like it keeps getting heavier, although I have hardly purchased anything, and only very small lightweight items.

I left the hotel at about 10:30am in order to have a bit of spare time to get the shinkansen in case any problems came up. Thanks to yesterday it was an easy trip and I was through to the platforms by about 10:45am. As I was running low on supply I picked up some Japanese brand sunscreen to try.

The train showed up on time at 11:20am and reached the main Tokyo station around 1:00pm, it went a bit slower once it got close to the city. Straight off the train I found the station exit sign I was looking for and made it from the street to the next subway station with no trouble. The subway train was not too crowded, so I didn't have any problems taking up all the space with a suitcase and backpack.

Getting off the train one stop before Asakusa I also managed to head in the right direction and made it to the hotel well before 2pm. Before even getting to the main part of Asakusa I was amazed by how many tourists there were on the main street. I'd hardly seen any foreigners for the first week and now it seemed like every second person was a visitor, so not an ideal start for Tokyo. I'm a bit more worried what places like Shibuya and Shinjuku are going to look like compared to this.

I dropped off my suitcase before check-in and went for a quick half hour walk around the area. With the sun out and not much shade it was incredibly hot, it has been 35 degrees every day according to Google weather. I came to the main entrance of Senso-ji temple, which was quite crowded, so only took a couple of photos and then headed back to the hotel.

One of the staff showed me to an automated check-in machine, but then waited around to help anyway. It took two attempts to scan my passport, but that may have been a machine fault as the staff had to do the standard "previous screen, next screen" trick to retry.

Surprisingly the room wasn't as small as I expected it to be, with enough room to spread out my luggage and still move around easily. My window was facing the opposite direction of Tokyo Skytree, and I was only on the 8th floor, so it probably would have been blocked by other buildings anyway. Some floors have two laundry machines, and the TV displays the current progress of each of them so you don't have to keep going around to check. The TV also had a section to choose your room cleaning option for the next day.

It was already 3pm and I didn't have much planned for the day, originally I had just intended to stay nearby around Asakusa. Having a bit more time than expected I had a look at Google maps and my itinerary of nearby locations. There was a train line very close by that I'd passed which is only two stops from Akihabara so I went there for a quick visit instead.

Getting out of the station it still felt very similar to what I remember from 15 years ago. Along the main street was several tall narrow buildings completely fitted out by one tenant, selling a different category of products on each floor. Meanwhile lots of the smaller places around had anime, capsule toys, and skill tester games. I didn't see many selling video games or related merchandise, particularly retro items. And finally just off the main street was a lot of very bored maids trying to advertise their maid cafes to people walking past.

I only went in to a couple of store near the main streets, and stayed on the street level since I didn't want to spend hours navigating floors and escalators yet. Soon after I was back on the same train line to Asakusa, getting some bakery and drinks along the way. It was a relief to find out it wasn't nearly as hot after 5pm as I was heading back towards the hotel. Overall this was a pretty quiet day compared to the rest, but every other day I expect to be busy.

Public transport = 598 yen

Steps = 17,845 with 10 kilometres running

Japan 2025, July 20

Down at 7am for breakfast this time, and it wasn't too crowded. The variety hadn't really changed so I just went with cereal, yoghurt and some orange juice in tiny drinking glasses. I was feeling a little tired after the very high step count yesterday, and a lot of running with parkrun included. Due to these factors I only planned to run up to Nagoya Castle, similar to the route to parkrun, and straight back. Towards the end I actually started feeling better, so could have gone longer than the short 6.5 kilometres I ended up with.

I was ready to leave the hotel and bit earlier than usual today, before 9am, and set off for Nagoya station via the underground. There was a lot going on at Nagoya station:

• Above ground train from Nagoya station - the one I was getting to Gifu and beyond
• Above ground train from Nagoya station but a separate line - to another area near Nagoya port, but not the aquarium
• Above ground train from a second Nagoya station nearby, with a different name
• Shinkansen
• Subway

Once again this was good practice for the shinkansen tomorrow, so it's probably worth considering a trial run like this on future holidays too.

Eventually I made it to the right station for the Gifu rapid express just before it was due to leave. Of course this meant I was at the back of the line waiting to board, so had to stand for about 20 minutes once onboard, not a good start to the day.

At Gifu station I just made before a bus was going to depart, but that meant I was standing again for 15 minutes. Every "N" bus goes past Gifu Park apparently, so I just got the first one I saw. After a quick drink at the destination stop I headed straight for the ropeway station to reach the top of Mt Kinka, since I wanted to get up and down as soon as possible.

There was one cable car just preparing to leave but I easily made it on the next one. Since I wasn't one of the first to board I didn't have a good window view going up though. Some guy was filming the whole four minute trip on his phone, which seemed pointless.

It was short walk from the top to reach Gifu Castle, but with lots of steps so it was a bit tiring. Finally I made it to a very small castle on the top of the mountain, it had four levels but that was just enough room for stairs and very little else. After a bit of a look around I started to make my way back down to the ropeway station.

Along the way there was a restaurant with a good panoramic viewing area on the roof, but I couldn't tell which direction was the city and the ropeway. My conclusion was the greater Gifu area looks nice, with a large river running along the city. I decided not to stop in at the squirrel village as I'm not sure if there's anything to do besides paying to feed them.

Again I was able to get the second ropeway car back down, so an efficient round trip. At the gift shop at the bottom I had a look for a magnet but found no good options, none even said Gifu. I didn't want to repeat my mistake of Himeji however, so I left but only to visit the other nearby stores, some which were selling a combination food and gifts.

Finding no other magnets I quickly went back to the ropeway to buy whatever I could, and at least it had a castle on it. By the time I had made it back to the ropeway entrance the queue had multiplied, with probably close to an hour wait by now. I was feeling lucky that I got there much earlier, it wouldn't have been worth the wait otherwise.

Before getting back on a bus I walked over to the old Kawara-machi historical street, but there wasn't much happening. I also got a view of the river, which might still be used for local traditional fishing.

A bus was just leaving Gifu Park so I jumped on board. For the opposite trip every "E" bus goes back to the train station, but I remembered seeing a "G" bus number also in my research, so got on that bus and it still went to the right place. Near the city bus stop I found the Oda Nobunaga gold statue in front of a water feature. He is the legendary figure from this area from centuries ago.

Before leaving I checked this tourist information centre but again it had no magnets. After some drinks and snacks I was back to standing on another train back to Nagoya. For the afternoon I had to choose either:

• Central Japan railway museum
• Toyota museum of industry and technology

They both had good ratings, but the Toyota museum was closer so went with that. The entry was only paid in person, it was 10,000 yen entry but they accepted credit cards at least.

Checking the schedule of events I saw the robot playing violin was starting soon, so quickly ate lunch and headed over. For once I made sure to be a few minutes early as per Japanese custom. The demonstration only went for five minutes, it played some Toyota theme and then a bit of Pomp And Circumstance.

Out of the two options I went to the automotive section first, which progresses through from the Toyota beginnings as a car manufacturer to more current times. They had a lot of large machines, some with moving parts although not doing real manufacturing. The modern day information showed how they design their cars, like environmental standards, safety features, technology improvements etc. Overall there was a good amount of content to see and interact with, everything had a least an English title but often not the full description.

The textile section was the other half, and it wasn't as good. It contained a complete history of their machinery, mostly cotton looms, however the current machines looked very advanced and impressive. The gift shop didn't have any good unique items as I'd hoped, all I came away with was a Yaris magnet.

My feet were very tired from all of the standing and walking so I didn't add any other things to the day. A quick train trip back to Nagoya and then a short walk to the hotel to conclude by Nagoya activities across two and a half days. My phone battery has getting down to 50% by the end of some days, mostly due to Google Maps and having location enabled in new places like Gifu today.

I wasn't feeling too hungry but thought I might regret it later if I didn't eat anything. I also wanted to have some energy for a bit of a longer run tomorrow morning before leaving. Since it was close and easy I went to CoCo Ichibanya again for another vegetable curry.

Since arriving I hadn't totally unpacked everything for three nights, so the packing looked slightly easier this time around. Because of running and getting changed in the morning I have to wait until then to finish arranging the suitcase. The good thing about heading to my final hotel is there's not as much organising left to do, and I've deleted half of my itinerary notes. The bad thing of course is that it means the end of my trip is fast approaching.

Gifu - 5 out of 10

• Good
• A bit more nature just outside the city
• Easily accessible from Nagoya in just 20 minutes express, otherwise 30 minutes
• Not getting stuck in a big queue at the ropeway
• Bad
• Choice of magnets
• Not much for tourists besides the Gifu Park area
• Missed Out
• Kogane shrine
• Squirrel Village at Mt Kinka

Nagoya - 8 out of 10

• Good
• Could have added another day at least with more activities
• Good subway network
• No rain
• Bad
• Hard to navigate underground areas
• Pokemon Store queue
• Running options still limited, but quiet back streets on the weekend at least
• Missed Out
• Central Japan railway museum
• Ghibli park - further away and would require most of a day
• Mitsui outlet park - further away, near the amusement park
• Nagashima Spa Land - amusement park
• Noritake garden
• Osu Kannon temple
• Osu Shotengai shopping street
• Sealife Nagoya
• Tokugawa art museum

Public transport = 1810 yen (710 Gifu each way with train and bus)

Steps = 21,316 with 6.5 kilometres running

Japan 2025, July 19

I made a quick plan on Friday night to get to the morning parkrun at Meijo Koen, which translates to Meijo park, at the usual time of 8am. The venue was about 3 kilometres away, so it hardly seemed worth walking to a station and then getting two different trains, perhaps for the return trip if I was tired.

I also spent at least another hour trying to find out how to reserve Lawson tickets online, then actually redeem the physical tickets from a vending machine in a store. Finally before bed I had yet another long nose bleed in the shower, just when I thought they might be over.

The Google maps walking estimate to parkrun was 3 kilometres and 45 minutes with traffic light delays accounted for. I estimated 20-25 minutes for the trip with jogging, so left at about 7:10am and was there by 7:35 at the latest. I didn't think to have anything to drink before leaving so I was already very thirsty when I arrived, but found a water tap nearby at least.

The run director did their announcement in Japanese although most people were talking in groups, and there was some really loud insects chirping as well. From the race start one guy went off quickly then I was in about fourth with a few people close ahead and behind. There was also a lot of people using this small park for their exercise so it was hard to tell for sure what was going on. The course was a mix of gravel and paved, and it often wasn't possible to take the best route due to all the other groups of people.

Later in the first lap one more person went past, but I slowly caught a couple of others, and I could also hear someone sitting right behind me the whole way. By about the third 1.25 kilometre lap I was feeling more dehydrated and it was getting a bit more challenging, but my lap times were still good. In the final lap I put in a bit more speed and dropped the guy behind me, and just caught someone else before the end for third overall.

The course came in over 5.1 kilometres due to the wide route taken, and I was happy to come in under 20 minutes considering that. The barcode scanners were in a bit of a panic thinking I was going to disappear with the finish token, but I was just standing around trying to cool down. After another drink to recover I decided to jog back to the hotel and got nearly a perfect run with the usuually very slow pedestrian crossings.

I was just able to get changed and down to breakfast before the 9:30 entry cut off. The selection was alright, but because it's a smaller hotel didn't have the same range as Osaka.

Before leaving I tried to go through the procedure of purchasing a ticket from the Lawson website for the Capcom exhibit at the Nagoya City art museum. I got it to work eventually and it even gave a QR code, which was meant to automate some steps on the machines inside the stores.

I decided to change the order for the day as I had to walk to a Lawson store somewhere to determine if I could get this ticket or not. There was a Lawson between the hotel and the museum so I went there first. The hardest part in the end was trying to get the QR code to scan off my phone. Using the gallery and photo apps the code kept rotating or showing another menu over the top of it, since I hadn't turned off auto rotate. Finally it worked and then I just had to enter a name, and from watching a video online I knew how to switch to the English alphanumeric input. After I got a receipt I just handed it to the man and paid with credit card and I was finally done.

The walk continuing to the museum was a little over one kilometre, just past the science museum. The science museum has very mixed reviews, and more negative due to having little to no English provided anywhere. Therefore I just went straight to the art museum and entered the Capcom exhibit with my Lawson ticket. They had a good collection of information, artwork and videos, although a lot of the newer games I wasn't too interested in. There was a good amount of Mega Man and Street Fighter, but not as much for Final Fight, Ghosts and Goblins, and Resident Evil (or Biohazard).

It was probably a bit overpriced for $25 but not too bad for an hour or two as a unique temporary event. I just got a magnet and some kind of towel from the gift shop before leaving.

I had a bit of walk from the museum to the closest train station, but there was also a Parco with another Pokemon store along the way. This trip was an immediate failure as the store was overloaded, there was even some ticketing system just to enter the store. It was only a five minute detour for my day at least, so no energy wasted. I also went to the large Animate store while I was there, but had no idea what I was looking at.

Next on the list then was Nagoya Castle. I knew you couldn't go inside so I figured this would be a quick trip, but involved much more walking than I expected. The ticket cost 500 yen (cash only) which provides access to the inner grounds, and the main feature was a walk around the Honmaru Palace rooms. The palace had lots of display rooms, with nice artwork on the walls and it was very gold paint themed. I managed to find a Nagoya magnet (cash only again) which was the same style as the Kyoto, Nara, Osaka set I got previously - if only Himeji had one of the same.

The rest of the castle visit was just walking around the grounds and then coming out at a different exit. It was a bit of a walk back to the station where I came from, and then just one stop to Hisayaodori where I was yesterday. I was overdue for lunch so got some food at the convenience store and sat down outside the TV tower, but it didn't look there was anything else to see there. Since I was running a bit low on cash I got another 10,000 yen which should last at least a few days I hope.

My next stop was a longer train journey to Nagoyako at the end of the line, meaning Nagoya port. I already purchased a ticket for the port aquarium, not knowing if I'd be going to the one is Osaka too. This aquarium was a bit different at least, there was some orca pool at the entrance and then a big main pool for dolphin shows. It seemed like I came just towards the end of a show as the outside seating area was all full, and within a few minutes everyone was leaving again.

There was a separate second building which had more of a variety of fish, and a large room full of penguins at the end of the route. Overall maybe not quite as good as Osaka, although I missed the whole dolphin show, but it did have a few different things too.

My step count was dangerously high at close to 25,000 and both feet were sore so I didn't want to push it much further. I had one "probably" and one "maybe" activity still on my list but decided to postpone both and see what happens tomorrow.

It took a while to get back to the hotel and required at least one train line change, plus more walking at the end. Getting off at the main Nagoya station I was at least able to find a bakery and some convenience stores, and a convenient exit leading towards the hotel. The Lawson store finally had a bit of drink variety - a Fanta mello yello and some Fanta collaboration that was described as white grape, milk, and sour - so I skipped that one.

Back to the hotel a little early before 6pm again, but I needed the recovery time with possibly another big final day in Nagoya tomorrow. I had to spend some time as usual organising a trip to Gifu and back, and anything else to do if there was time left over.

Public transport = 960 yen

Steps = 26,769 with 10.6 kilometres running