Hello, our very patient fans and followers! It is finally time for the Japan trip halfway recap!! (just coming to you a little over halfway lol). If you manage to read all of this, you’re so awesome and cool…just keep that in mind. (Also, P.S.A., we will be switching perspectives often, maybe mid-paragraph, so good luck!)

The first day of travel began on May 20th, when we met up in the MSP airport and boarded our flight to LAX. It was so great to finally be reunited again, and we were so excited to be heading back to Japan. We were graciously gifted a free night at a very nice Marriott in LA by Merrick’s dad, which had a pool and provided free breakfast. Pictured above as well is Merrick and I trying to see how bad our posture is on the plane…no wonder i have crippling low back pain.

The flight to Tokyo was seamless, but very long. Neither Conner nor I could sleep a wink (Conner claims he caught me sleeping twice, but I don’t believe him). Once we landed, we went through customs and, not wanting to deal with our suitcases and bags on the train, took a taxi to our hotel. Checking back into Sakura Fleur sent us right back to the feeling of our first trip. Our spirits were high even though our energy was low. We mustered the strength to meet Helena and Clark at a very popular sushi train restaurant among locals and alike called Sushiro. It’s also super “first day in Japan friendly” as you order on screens and have limited interactions with native speakers. Additionally, we know from last time that Sushiro is Conner's allergy-approved! Or we were just really lucky! Dinner vibes were very low as the four of us were exhausted and probably spoke less than unhappy married couples. After some food, we gained a little energy and decided to walk through the mall by Shibuya crossing that has a One Piece store that Clark was very keen on seeing, a record and CD shop, and a big pop mart section. I got some cool CDs, but it was mostly window shopping. Once we left the mall, we wandered over to a bar near our hotel called INC. It was down a random staircase and smelled a little like cigars, so we had high expectations, and it didn’t disappoint. A record player in the corner of the room had soft jazz playing in the background, with gentle conversation creating the ideal environment. Conners was definitely more interested in the music than anything else, but we had a wonderful time. After a drink each, we went our separate ways to get plenty of sleep to take on our next day!

Today was our official first day in Tokyo, and we had big plans! We started the day by walking to Yoyogi Park to run, which was only about a 20-minute walk from our hotel. Once there, we walked around for a little bit, taking in some of the natural beauty of the park before taking off running at Olympic pace (aka 9 min/mile :/). We were quickly humbled by the older Japanese people running in the parks. Seriously, I think they could go pro…Grandpas and Grandmas were lapping us left and right. We kept our spirits high even though our dignity was lost and ran around 2 miles before our feet almost killed us (we were planning on buying running shoes later that day, but wanted to run in the morning still). Now with our feet near implosion, we limped back those 20 minutes to the hotel…which was not cool. A quick shower and we were as good as new (or so we tried convincing ourselves) and went out to Harajuku to complete our most anticipated purchase of the trip, Margiela Tabis! I have been in search of these (highly controversial, due to the hoof resemblance) shoes for around 3 years now, but could never justify the price tag. All who know me know that flats are my go-to shoe of choice, and these are a more playful and elevated version with the excellent craftsmanship that Marigela is known for. In my obsession with these shoes over the past few years, Conner had also gained an interest and was looking for a sleek black leather shoe, so he got a pair as well! After we picked up the tabis, we went to a shopping mall nearby in hunt for Ashley Williams, a brand that would become the “white whale” of this trip. Although we did find this super cute bunny print shoulder bag (and a ton of Sandy Liang stuff all the way across the world), the price was not in the cards. Foolishly, in our desperation for food, we left the mall before exploring any of the other floors and would end up coming back here 3 more times over the trip in a hunt for the ever elusive “white whale”. Neither of us remembers where we got food during the day, but with a new lease on life, we went on our last hunt for running shoes. We stopped in Nike and some other shoe stores like Japan’s version of Foot Locker, but couldn’t find anything that looked cool and comfortable. Until Mer suggested we check out Salomon. Salomon turned out to be our holy grail with tons of good running shoe options. We picked out a pair and they quickly became lifesavers throughout this trip. These Salomons are one of a few things we’ve bought on this trip that truly altered our time here. Like, how were we even functioning before these shoes?? After we finished shopping and exploring Harajuku, we set off to grab some ramen and then went back to Sakura Fleur for the night.

Day 2 started with more of the same, another walk to Yoyogi Park, another run, this time a full 5k, and a slightly less painful walk back in our new running shoes. The hunt for the white whale continued, taking us into Shinjuku, which we realized we had unintentionally avoided on our last trip. Our first stop, Chicks, was so cute and gave us hope we’d find something at the other locations. After Chicks, we wandered to Golden Gai to determine if we wanted to come back for drinks later. Golden Gai is a very famous and very popular alley of bars. No joke, this 2-3 block radius had over 100 izakayas (traditional Japanese bars). However, because of this, everyone said it was often full of tourists and not exactly the good kind. We decided we wouldn’t regret missing it and found another bar to head to for the night.

I (Mer) found this bar on Reddit, and it did not disappoint. It is a 3-story bar (though we only saw/went to 2 floors of it) with a different vibe on each floor. It was pouring rain, and we were still battling jet lag, so Conner was not super keen on the idea of waiting in the line to get into the bar, but I worked my magic and stayed super excited and positive, and it did not disappoint.

Before getting in, they asked us to slide into this bench outside the bar, and they offered us a drink while we waited for the main floor to be open. I read that the main floor was a good mix of tourists and locals, but the other floors were usually more filled with locals and harder to get into without a reservation. Finally, after sipping our drinks outside, we got called in for standing room on the main floor of the bar. We finished our drinks in the standing area of the bar, but I had asked the hosts if there were any seats open on the other levels, and she told me she would have to wait and see. Sure enough, like 30 minutes later, she said we could sneak down for a quick drink before it was reserved for the evening. The downstairs energy was much more our vibe and had a completely different menu than the main floor; it was only 6 tables and a very cozy atmosphere. Conner ordered a drink that was inspired by sushi, a soy sauce rimmed, wasabi whiskey, and I ordered a martini that came in this a canteen-looking thing that had a bunch of flowers and spices in it. Super fun and unique flavors. The larger reservation ended up coming, and we were allowed to stay for longer than the host originally said, so we got to order another fun drink. I got this apple pie-inspired martini, which you’d think would be too sweet, but it was honestly fresh and had a really nice spiced flavor, and Conner got a “wine” that was actually a mix of liquors that mimicked the taste of wine. We truly had the best time and would definitely go back if given the opportunity.

The next day, we were feeling the drinks from the night before, but made our way to this breakfast spot that we had saved for a while. Turns out, the restaurant was right above the photo that has been my phone wallpaper for the past year, but we never knew it existed the last time we were here. Looks like we need to work on our observation skills.

The restaurant was called Garden House Crafts, and it was this sort of open concept elevated deck with wonderful outdoor and indoor seating, a lot of different pastries to try, and of course, strawberry pancakes that Conner could not refuse. After a slow breakfast, we just walked around Diakanyama and Nakameguro. Conner found this menswear store he wanted to go to, where a house was converted into a retail store. The craftsmanship of the house was amazing and a beautiful experience, even though we didn’t buy anything. After walking along the Meguro River for the remainder of the day, we headed to Miyashita Park for dinner. We originally planned on going to Omoide Yokocho for dinner, but upon further research, we learned that it has kinda been overrun by tourists and that Miyashita Park was more of how it used to be before it became super popular with travelers. Conveniently for us, it was closer to our hotel anyway. We both had kimchi beef and a beer and called it a night!

The next day, we headed to the Tsukiji fish market in search of the tuna nigiri we had when we were here last year. It truly is some of the best fish we have ever had and did not disappoint the second time around. Also, the strawberries in Japan are incredible, so we had to get some of those as well. After bopping around the market for a bit, we headed to Team Labs to see their new exhibit! That’s when disaster struck… Merrick was pickpocketed!!

By a bus seat… yep, somehow on our way to teamlabs, the bus seat grew arms and stole her phone right out of her pocket! It seems unbelievable, but you just had to be there! To make matters worse, we didn’t realize her phone had fallen…. been stolen until we were inside the teamlabs exhibit. So we had no choice but to walk through the whole exhibit before our hunt began. Problem number one was that Merrick’s phone plan is a daily charge, so to live a little frugally, her cellular has been turned off most of the time, and we’ve been using mine. That said, her phone wasn’t updating its location, so we had no clue where it was. I had tracked down the phone number for the Toei bus company, which owned the bus we believe her phone was on, and gathered information on what bus we rode, where it departed from, and at what time, etc. After getting hold of an English customer service representative, I handed the phone over to merrick so she could submit a lost item report. The lady on the phone was incredibly helpful and directed us to the Toei bus headquarters, which was a 27-minute walk away. The operator said they have a phone, but she can’t guarantee it’s hers. A quick note about the Japanese public transportation system, in case any of you have forgotten since last year, is that you can get a reloadable metro card for your Apple Wallet called a Suica card. This card allows virtually seamless access to bus routes, train lines, and various other things like taxis and even claw machines. However, reliance on this card solely as we learned, can come back to bite you. We typically carry cash on us, which would’ve worked for the trains and buses as well, but I had given all or coins away. Which means without Mer’s phone, we would’ve had to book an hour-long Uber for like 80 dollars to get back to our hotel, or walk 3 hours. Despite this, we kept false hope that it would be her phone. As we moved farther and farther away from the hustle and bustle of inner Tokyo (since teamlabs is already on the outskirts of Tokyo), English as well began to disappear. I kid you not, we were probably the first foreigners many of the people we passed had seen in that area for months, since it was so family-oriented. After our walk, we finally found ourselves at the headquarters and saw a sign on the door that said lost items. Once inside, Mer asked one of the employees in Japanese if they could speak English. He said “little bit.” We said to him Wait a moment, please in Japanese, and began translating the words for lost phone and showed him the reference number. The shock that came over both of us when we saw her Sandy Liang case in his hands was truly immeasurable. We are so grateful and lucky that the phone was turned in and not stolen!

With Mers’ phone recovered, we decided to keep our plans for the day and wandered over to Roppongi Hills to check out the modern art museum. This was by far the weirdest museum either of us had ever been in. It was centered around AI and virtual art in some of the weirdest ways. From generated images of creatures from 2000 years in the future after the world plunged into economical and environmental chaos that were then sculpted out, to virtual games were you can hug each other designed during covid to cure loneliness, and a game where you play checkers with a computer but bombs are going off around you emphasizing the instability that is life for people in war torn territories. It was quite shocking the amount of emotion and meaning such simple ideas/renders could showcase. It was also quite shocking how little emotion could be delivered by an art piece as you sit down and watch two AI language models debate having sex. Regardless, definitely a one-of-a-kind experience that made us happy, sad, regretful, and even dreadful for a future 2000 years away.

After our wild goose chase the day prior and the rainy weather, we were in for a chill day. We started our day getting some pork sandos at this little brunch restaurant that had excellent espresso and tatami seating. Today was Conner’s big bouldering day at this bouldering gym called B-Pump, which is known as the most sandbagged gym in the world (meaning it’s very hard in comparison to other climbing gyms), and it 100% lived up to it. Japan is known for producing some of the best climbers, and all gyms here are hard but not quite like B-Pump. B-Pump is so hard and its comp section so well regarded, that it’s quite common to run into the Olympic-level climbers training here. We weren’t so lucky… instead, we ran into someone else from Minnesota… how great. In actuality, he was a nice guy, and after a quick chat, we went our separate ways. The climbs were super tricky with Conner, who would probably consider himself a V7 climber, getting stuck around the V3-V4 grade.

Towards the end of our session, Conner started working on this V3-V4 red climb that he’d been eyeing the whole time. It was full of fun, dynamic moves, and big pockets, which are two of his favorite things. Shortly after he started attempting the climb, another Japanese climber joined him. These two slowly became best friends. From both rooting for the other quietly to discussing the climb with gestures and very simple Japanese like muzukashi, which means difficult, and numbers to talk about how many fingers they used for each pocket, their relationship blossomed. Every time Conner or his friend got to the crux of the climb, they’d yell ganba to each other, which roughly translates to do your best. Together, they got a little over halfway through the climb before we ran out of strength and had to leave. The overall experience was a 10/10.

On our way home from the bouldering gym, the search for the white whale continued at this adorable store called Itimi. We found the Ashley Williams holy grail. My dream dress (way out of my price range, an XXS, and not practical at all, but a girl can dream). They also had the matching trash flats to this dress, which are what I have truly been searching for (that and anything in her custom bunny print that I can get my hands on), but they were a 39 shoe instead of a 40! So close!!!

The next morning, we went to our favorite breakfast of the whole trip. With a newfound stress about Conner’s shellfish allergy, eating has been a little bit tricky due to the language barrier and stress about cross-contamination, so breakfast has been our holy grain meal since we can’t be as adventurous as we would like to be. The restaurant we went to for breakfast was called Nova, and I cannot properly describe how good the pancakes are at this place. Genuinely, the best pancakes I have had in my entire life. After breakfast, we headed to this book town called Jimbocho, a long strip of only book stores where they have a treasure trove of vintage magazines, books, movies, etc. It felt endless and so cool to get a glimpse into what people were inspired by, reading, watching, etc. After wandering around Jimbocho for a few hours, we headed to the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, which I was super excited for. Upon arrival, we saw that they were having a large exhibit for a Swedish artist, which was super interesting, but we were more excited to see the Japanese art. Nonetheless, we thought it would be good to read about and see the Swedish artist’s exhibit while we were there. It took us on a journey on how this woman’s art style evolved as she became increasingly spiritual and started taking drugs in the 1800s??? The further into her spiritual journey she got, the more abstract her pieces got. That is where we lost Conner. He decided that he was going to submit some of his personal pieces to the gallery if the watercolor squares were accepted for the installation, lol. Her more realistic work was extremely impressive, and it was cool to watch her artistic evolution. After that, we headed to the Japanese art (their permanent installations), which was much more our style. It was very historical, political, and informative. Highly recommend.

After several hours at the museum, we were starved, so we walked to Family Mart nearby for a quick snack before heading to the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately, when we got to the imperial palace, we realized it was closing in 45 minutes, so we did not get as much time as we would have liked to hang out in there, but it was beyond breathtaking. The greenery all over Tokyo is truly one of my favorite things about the city, and it was such a scenic way to end the day.

The following day started with another run in Yoyogi park, such a nice way to get some movement and feel energized for the day to come. After our run, we went to went back to Garden House Crafts for lunch and then headed to Shinjuku to walk around and continue the search for the white whale. During our search, we stumbled across this random shrine that we walked around for a while. The day was relatively chill, and we did not have a ton of plans other than our Shibuya Sky Tree reservation we had later in the evening, around sunset. This year, Tokyo generally seemed to have a lot more people than last year, Shibuya Sky being no exception. Regardless, we still had a great time. The view is beyond incredible, and finishing off with drinks in the lounge area was the perfect way to wrap up our evening.

The following morning, we went to Nova again so we could try the omurice. It was a rainy day, and the vibes in Nova are so elite that it has cemented itself as our favorite. Today, they left the sliding doors open and just let the rain sounds harmonize with the soft indie music they were playing. The workers were so kind and spoke Japanese with us to the extent that we could. I ordered the pancakes again, and Merrick got the omurice, but we ended up just sharing both. Personally, I’m not a big runny egg fan and prefer to “overcook” my eggs, but these mixed with the rice and homemade ketchup help mask the texture, and it was delicious.

After this, we were supposed to go outdoor bouldering in Miyatake, but the rain had been relentless, and you can’t climb before or after it rains because you don’t want to damage the rock. Instead, we went back to Daikanyama and sat in a park discussing our hopes and dreams. Following that, we sat in a bookstore for a while, drinking tea and planning the next parts of our trip.

Finally, to end our night, we had a reservation for a restaurant called SG Low, the sister restaurant to the SG club we were at earlier in the trip. The door should’ve been the biggest indicator that we were in for quite the night. This place not only had some of the most tasty sounding dishes but also boasted an enormous lemon sour menu with over 20 different variations. The most shocking part of the night was that our waiter used to live and work in NY for 10 years, and happened to live on the same street and cross street that Mer does now! We got a bunch of appetizers and loved them all, but to no one’s surprise, the lemon sours were truly the stars of the show. We tried their house special lemon sour (regular but with some extra flair), the jalapeno sour (which was Mer’s favorite), the extra sour lemon sour (which was my favorite), and a Sichuan sour (which was just ok). However, the night was still young and apparently a lot younger than we were expecting because one of the guys who got sat next to us started talking to us and asking where we were from. This is when the night began to take turns we definitely weren’t expecting. Through some small talk, we learned that the two guys are best friends, Rozz (pictures below) was born in Australia and still lives there in Melbourne, and he’s an investment banker. San, who was possibly in love with Conner, was born in New Zealand, lived in Australia for most of his life, but recently moved to Korea. We also learned that they were at SG low earlier for free flow drinks and tried all 20 lemon sours….so that could explain their boldness (or San’s shyness). Regardless, they loved the fact that we were born in Minnesota, saying “that’s so wholesome” when we told them. Eventually, San asked how long we had been dating, and we were given another “that’s so wholesome” after we answered almost 5 years. Conner also had the line of the night when San said, “What’s your favorite thing about her?” to which he responded, “Well, how can I pick just one thing?” Which caused lots of props from San and Rozz. Conner and San’s bromance began when San got up to go to the bathroom and hugged him before he left. Similarly, on our way out, they convinced us to get a drink with them from the seven-eleven and asked what our names were, and when San heard Conner say his name, he flipped out, saying he knew it and just had a feeling that it was his name. San was by far our favorite of the two, especially because he kept asking if we were okay when Rozz was trying to get us to go out with them. But after a while, standing outside chatting, Rozz took a call, and San told us to run while we still could. We took the opportunity to leave with a happy, interesting story to share.

san (left) and rozz (right) both 28 years old

After the craziness of our dinner from the night before, we had to get up bright and early to head to my tattoo appointment. I have been following this tattoo artist I am obsessed with for around 8 months, who lives part-time in Korea and part-time in Japan. She happened to be in Tokyo during the time we were in Japan, so I knew I had to book an appointment. Her tattoos literally look like stickers, and her fine line work is so good. The tattoo studio was pretty far from our hotel, and it was rainy, so we were kind of scrambling to get there, but I was her only appointment for the day since mine took around 3.5 hours, and the studio was in a house that was converted into an art studio. It was so cool- she did amazing, I’m so happy with it.

The following day we were meant to take a day trip to Nikko, which we planned to do extremely last minute and it was kind of complicated to get to, so we ended up scrapping it since we were meant to leave for Shimoda the following day and did not want to have a situation where we couldn’t get back to our hotel for the night. Regardless, we decided to have a big walking day around Yoyogi Park. We had been running in the park almost every day, but around a running loop at the bottom of the park, when there was so much more the park had to offer. We had a couple of snacks, walked around the park, and just absorbed the greenery and silence in the wooded area. Eventually, we found this lush, hilly opening in the trees where families were having picnics, couples were lying in the grass, and kids were running around. We grabbed a spot on the grass and ate our snacks, talked, and watched packs of older women leaving the dojo that was in the park with their Yumi bows (I implore you to look them up, they are so cool). After lying in the grass for a while, we headed to Shinjuku National Gardens, where they have a rose garden, super old buildings with original architecture, places to lie out, and Conner was able to take photos on his film camera since it was so sunny.

Sadly, it was time to leave Tokyo, so the next morning we hopped on the train to head to Shimoda. Shimoda is a tiny beach town that is not super popular for tourists (at least where we were), and it took two subways, a shinkansen, and a bus to get to. We had a perfect travel day, other than missing our bus stop by one, but it was our last piece of our travel day, so it was no big deal. We knew we would have quite the travel day, so we did not bring our big suitcases, we just packed my duffel bag and conners new backpack (which thank god he bought because otherwise we would’ve only had like two outfits) and shipped our big suitcases (another reason Japan is so wonderful and convenient) Shimoda is VERY hilly, so there was quite the uphill trek to our hotel, but Conner so sweetly insisted on carrying my bag for me which helped. At our hotel, no one other than the hotel manager spoke English (and even that was very minimal), but we were able to navigate it and successfully got checked in. Our room had tatami flooring, futon bedding, an incredible view, and the cherry on top was the private onsen on our covered deck.

After we got to our room, we were super hungry, but the restaurant options at the hotel did not open for 4 hours, and they seemed to offer mostly shellfish. The hotel was surrounded by pretty much nothing (within a 30-minute walk), which was great because it made for such a peaceful stay, but made the food situation a bit tricky. Also, our hotel did not allow people to bring in outside food, but it was looking like we were going to be a bit stuck without food for our shellfish allergy cherub if we did not take the fierce trek to a 7/11, 40 minutes walk away and sneak snacks into the hotel in our backpacks lol. Our only other savior was that our hotel had a ramen restaurant that opened at 8 pm.

Every ounce of learning, studying, and conversing had been in preparation for this very ramen restaurant. For starters, we showed up promptly at 8:15 pm, just in case they weren’t ready exactly at 8, and we found the place completely empty. Only a quite old man sat behind the counter in the kitchen, seemingly not expecting any visitors. Knowing he probably didn’t speak any English, we said hello and asked if we could sit at the table in Japanese. He seemed a little startled by our appearance, but for the most part was excited to have people to serve. We ordered our drinks and food in Japanese and thanked him for the meal when it came. The ramen was not the best we’ve ever had, but the meat was tender and the broth light, making it a solid 8/10. He then brought over some fries on the house, which we thanked him for, and continued to inhale our ramen. In Japan, servers don’t often check on you; instead, you need to call them over to order and get the bill. We had been practicing this for a while and felt fairly confident yelling excuse me and asking for the bill. When he brought it, he told us to fill in our room number, sign, and then said the two words every foreigner in Japan wants to hear, Nihongo jouzu. Which means your Japanese is good! While some might be insulted by that, we were essentially beaming with excitement since we aren’t super confident with our speaking ability. Especially coming from that sweet old man, even if he was just encouraging our efforts, we will take it!

The only problem with this was that we ended up going back to the ramen shop two other nights, and each night he tested us further. The first day was mostly basic ordering in Japanese, but on day two, he went off script. He asked us if we wanted edamame, and thankfully, our semester of Japanese one taught us the verb for eat, and edamame remains unchanged, so we realized he was asking if we wanted something. We said yes, please, and enjoyed our meal and exchanged pleasantries. The following day at breakfast, the hotel manager who spoke English approached us and asked, “Can you speak Japanese?” We were honest and said a little, but we excel in food situations. He said that makes sense and that the ramen guy says we speak it very well. So not only was he complimenting us, but they are also gossiping as well! Day 3 was more of the same. He asked if we wanted 2 chashu bowls again, and we thankfully understood enough words to say yes confidently. Yet again, he gave us free edamame and a free salad with the ramen. Then, just as we thought we were safe, he asked if we were heading to Osaka or Tokyo, and we said Osaka and then wished him a good night. Overall, this ramen shop experience might make the top 5 for Conner and I.

The next day was pouring rain, so we just relaxed, played cards/switch, and read our books on our covered porch. This trip has been so nice for us to unplug, stay off our phones, and just be together.

For our first beach day, we wandered down to the beach right next to our hotel (like legit 7 minutes away). The ocean was completely clear and unbelievably blue, but the beach left much to be admired. The sand was stiff, and the beach wasn’t super wide, so the remnants of high tide were right in front of us. Which included the carcass of a dead pufferfish, no more than 10 feet away. Despite this, we remained for a few hours while Conner researched where the other beach was from our location. It was only a 30-minute walk, so we took off, stopping at a shrine dedicated to good health, and a safe charter across the sea along the way. The Shirahama beach was much nicer, a wide landscape, surfers all over, and even a 7/11 across the street to get some meals to smuggle back into our hotel!

After our day at the scary beach, we had one final day at Shirahama, mostly avoiding the sun because, in classic Conner fashion, he only applied sunscreen once and accidentally torched his back watching One Piece…

And just like that, our trip is halfway over, and we are headed to Osaka. I cannot believe it is going by so quickly. Our hearts are so full, and we are feeling so lucky to have this experience and have this time with one another. Stay tuned for the second half of our trip!

if any of you actually made it this far you are amazing and get a gold star! thank you for reading:)))))

all blog posts are written by Merrick Bearson and Conner Couture<3

a month in japan part 1: tokyo and shimoda

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