After a long 12-hour flight from Los Angeles, we landed in Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND). Haneda is conveniently located within the city, unlike Narita (NRT) which is an hour outside of the city. Very jetlagged, we were tasked with finding our hostel. We took a short bus ride into town and found it very easily thanks to the incredible generosity of the manager of the bus stop who wrote out detailed directions in both English and Japanese so we could show shop owners along the route if we needed help.

We were staying at Oak Hostel Cabin for the first couple nights of our trip and it was fantastic. The super friendly staff and it’s very unique layout, put it high on our list of places to stay again in the future. It was a capsule hostel, which means your bed is a mattress inside of a pod that goes into the wall, so basically like enclosed bunk beds. It was surprisingly more spacious than the pictures lead it to be believed.

We knew we only had a day and a half to see as much of the city as possible before we went to Disney, so we had to hit the ground running. We changed out of our airplane clothes and took the subway to Shibuya, but not before buying a Boss Coffee out of the vending machines. The vending machines are possibly the best thing about Japan, I mean…it dispenses a can of hot coffee, can’t get any more perfect than that.

The Tokyo subway system is also one of the best parts of Tokyo, and one of the easiest to navigate with each stop having it’s own fare written next to the name.

We made sure to get these ridiculously cute and delicious donuts from a shop called Siretoco Donuts. We found this little shop last year in Tokyo Station and made it a point to find it again this year because we loved them that much.

Shibuya is known for its famous crosswalk (I never thought that would be a thing but the Japanese have figured out how to do it) and its flashy lights. It’s very similar to New York’s Times Square, just smaller and without people dressed like Elmo. We stopped by the Starbucks to watch the crosswalk in all its glory.

We had a few things we wanted to do when we got to Shibuya, and that was the see the Hachiko  Statue (the most loyal dog EVER – please look up his story), get some ramen, and go to the Disney Store.

The Disney Store was a very unique experience to all the other Disney Stores around the world, in that its façade is a castle and the inside is a multi floor shop with each floor themed to a different Disney movie (our favorite was the Peter Pan room). You can read about our experience and things we bought there in a separate merchandise blog post soon.

After Shibuya, we walked over to the Meiji Shrine, which is one of the more sacred (yet touristy) temples in Tokyo.  You have to walk along a long dirt path, that started to get a little muddy since it started raining as we got to the shrine. We grabbed some snacks and walked through a little outdoor festival and beautiful park on our way to the shrine.

After the temple, we found a cat café nearby. If you don’t know what a cat café is, it is a place where you can drink coffee and pet cats at the same time. So probably the most perfect place ever.

The last stop on our list, was Akihabara, the famous neighborhood of Anime and video games. Akihabara is recognized by its neon lights, massive arcades, and its many Anime and electronics shops.

At this point, we were up for 26 hours and needed to get some much needed rest for our Disneyland and DisneySea days.