Tokyo Day 3: Family Mart Breakfast, Skytree, and Afternoon Tea

Breakfast on Day 3 was courtesy of Family Mart. Spicy cod roe with mayo, dumplings, glass noodle soup, and a hot milk tea — all of it for just over five dollars. The attendant asked if I wanted my soup warmed up; I had been planning to take it back to the room and boil some water to rehydrate it myself. Turns out there was already soup inside. He just microwaved it. I could have been doing this wrong the entire time.

The night before we’d eaten at Kura Revolving Sushi again, and I’ll keep saying it: the Japan version is in a completely different league. More variety, better quality, more affordable. The US locations are fine. The Japan locations are the reason you keep coming back.

Shibuya Pop-Up: Vanguard Store

After breakfast we were out in Shibuya with no real agenda — which is usually when the best stuff happens. We spotted a pop-up in the basement of a building and went down to check it out. It was a Vanguard store, full of collectibles, toys, novelties, and the kind of stuff that’s impossible to describe until you’re standing in front of it. Japan-exclusive figures, things you’ve never seen before, items that would be two or three times the price back home — if you could even find them. Most of it was tax-free for tourists.

I didn’t need any of it. I bought some of it anyway.

Tokyo Subway: Suica Card and the Art of Tapping Out

From Shibuya we took the subway over to Tokyo Skytree. I’ll say it again: the Tokyo subway is something else. Business day, packed with commuters, and still perfectly organized. Everyone knows where to stand, how to board, how to exit. You just ride along with it.

We’ve been using a Suica card loaded into Apple Pay, and it makes the whole thing completely seamless. I loaded 1,000 yen — around $6 or $7 — and we’ve been running on that for two days. Fares range from about a dollar to maybe $3 or $4 depending on how far you go. The way it works: you tap your phone when you enter the station, and you’re not charged immediately. The system just registers where you boarded. Tap out when you exit, and then it calculates the fare based on your trip. Kind of like how toll roads work, but for trains, and significantly less frustrating.

In California when you take the Metro or BART, they charge you a flat fee upfront. Here it charges you exactly what you used. I prefer this.

Tokyo Skytree Town: It’s a Mall, but Vertical

Everyone’s mental image is the tower — and yes, Tokyo Skytree is a tower, the tallest structure in Japan, with observation decks and the whole experience. But the base of it is essentially a massive shopping mall called Skytree Town, which is where we spent most of our time.

The difference from American malls is immediately obvious: instead of spreading out horizontally across a parking lot, this thing goes up. Multiple floors of stores stacked inside the footprint of a broadcasting tower. We’d visited in the summer too, and it’s worth coming back to — the shops change and there’s always something new.

Afternoon Tea

By mid-afternoon we found a place called Afternoon Tea — a chain, but that didn’t make it any less good. I tried their fruit tea with an Earl Grey base and some kind of salted caramel something. When I ran the Japanese text through my translator, it came back looking like it was in French. I gave up trying to figure it out and just drank it.

Very good. Would order again without knowing what it’s called.

This is exactly the kind of moment that makes Tokyo feel effortless: you wander into somewhere, order something you can’t fully read, and it turns out to be delicious. You don’t need to have a plan. You just need to be here.

Takeaways

• Family Mart (and 7-Eleven and Lawson) are legitimate meal options in Japan — the hot food section is real food, not gas station food
• Load Suica to your Apple Pay or Google Wallet before you arrive — one tap covers every train ride in Tokyo, no paper tickets, no coins
• Tokyo Skytree Town is the whole footprint, not just the tower — budget a couple of hours if you plan to explore
• No-agenda days in Shibuya tend to produce the best finds

Day 3 in Tokyo done. If you’re catching up on the series, start from the beginning with flying ANA from LAX to Haneda, or jump back to Day 1 at Hotel Indigo Shibuya or Harajuku thrifting on Day 2.