Reid Main

Unfortunately we were not able to book our favourite Airbnb for the entirety of our trip and had to switch over to another one today. We woke up at 7am, showered, ate breakfast and finished packing just in time for our hosts to arrive at 10am and check us out. If you are considering vacationing in Tokyo I would highly recommend you look at the Happy Home Tokyo Airbnb listing. Nico & Ken are quintessential hosts always looking to help out and the apartment is in prime location for sight seeing.

Our next Airbnb wouldn't be able to check us in until 3pm so we made use of the JR East Travel Service Center Luggage Storage at Tokyo Station on the first floor by the Marunouchi North Gate exit. For ¥600 per piece of luggage they will store it for you for same day pick up until 8:30pm. This was a godsend for us because we had brought an extra large piece of luggage for all of our shopping and could not lug that around with us while we waited for our Airbnb to become available. If you are flying out of Narita International Airport considering giving this service a shot because it can make your final day in Japan much easier if you don't have to drag your luggage around and then can quickly pick it up and catch the Narita Express train at Tokyo Station.

To pass the time we took a train out to Shibuya and met up with a friend of Elsie's who has been living in Japan for the past couple years. It was interesting to hear the first hand experiences of a foreigner who had found work in Japan and the issues they have run in to. When you are vacationing it is easy to have blinders on and think "this place would be great to live!" when you don't have any of the responsibilities that a normal life would bring.

After coffee we went back to Tokyo Station to pick up our luggage and headed to the Chiyoda ward where our next Airbnb was. I have to say, I have been absolutely floored by the quality of the Airbnbs we have had in Tokyo. Our new host spoke near perfect English, the apartment was clean and spacious with lots of amenities, it was within ten minutes of seven different subway lines and hundreds of amazing places to eat.

After settling in we decided it was time to rest and watched some more sumo wrestling where we saw Hakuhō Shō continue his dominance at the Kyūshū Basho. Just watch his match and tell me you're not a fan of sumo wrestling now. It was absolutely thrilling live. With day 13 of the tournament in the bag we headed out to find some food. Our Airbnb host had recommended the 8th floor of the Yodobashi Akiba building where we found Steak & Wine Block and had our first wagyu of the trip. I had honestly forgotten how melt in your mouth that kind of beef was.

Once we came back to reality we spent some time wandering around Yodobashi gawking at all of the electronics and games before heading back to the Airbnb to write this blog post and finally get some much needed rest after a long day.