Day Two – 1/01/2024 – New Years Day!

• First full day in Japan, and two goals for Jan 1 – fukubukuru and hatsumode!
• Fukubukuru, or lucky bags, is something my wife has been excited about for years and is one of the three main reasons we planned our honeymoon for the start of the year (alongside loving winter and Wrestle Kingdom 18).
• Hit up the local FamiMart for some cheap and cheerful breakfast, including one of my traditional items from previous trips – hot corn in a can.
• We got our Japan navigation legs back under us by travelling to Shinjuku to visit Sekaido, which was at the top of her list for fukubukuro hunting locations.

• Unfortunately….. they were closed. Somehow in all our planning, we’d overlooked that detail. We decided to pivot into finding more coffee and making sure they’d be open tomorrow.
• Unfortunately…. all the local coffee shops were also closed. We eventually found a Doutor that was open and filled with foreigners who all looked as confused as we were.

• Luckily, the next item on our agenda was certainly open on the 1st, as we headed to Meiji Jingu to check out the flocks of people celebrating hatsumode, or the traditional first visit to a shrine or temple following the new year.
• The closer we got to the shrine, the more the crowds swelled and intensified – people of all ages, some in formal kimono or yukata, some groups of friends laughing together, a smattering of tourists taking photos of everything and everyone. We joined the latter to get some shots.

• Eventually, the crowds grew too intense for our casual visit, and we decided to call it a day and find some lunch.
• We walked back through Sangubashi towards Yoyogi through some residential backstreets, which took us across the train tracks a few times, back and forth. Another nice walk in the winter sun.

• Found a nice-looking yakiniku place near Yoyogi station for lunch; they were booked solid, but one of the staff took us on a local tour to their second location, which was tucked down a side street and much less packed. In a new twist for us, the staff cooked our food for us, but at our table like normal yakiniku. It was a cool experience chatting with our personal chef (in his pretty good English and my pretty terrible broken Japanese) and enjoying some giant beers and wagyu outside steaks.
• Full and happy, we headed back to the hotel for a nap and to digest our happy bellies.

• Around 4 pm – EARTHQUAKE
• As it was our first earthquake (and we were already in bed at the time), it took a few seconds to realise it wasn’t construction happening on the building – everything was shaking and swaying.
• Luckily, we didn’t have it too bad in Ueno, but the Noto earthquake struck Ishikawa at a magnitude 7.6 and caused horrific devastation to the surrounding area.
• For the first (and actually, might have been the last?) time this trip, we turned on the TV and found a news channel, paired with some of the English-language Japanese-centric subreddits.
• We decided we’d need to make some decisions sooner or later about how the earthquake and recovery efforts would force changes to our travel plans; the last thing we wanted was to be in the way by being clueless tourists in the region.
• The thing that eventually snapped us out of our stunned state was the hotel room starting to heat up again as the air conditioning prepared for nightfall. This prompted a quick solo trip to Yodabashi Ueno to find a desk fan for better air circulation.
• I love Yodabashi Ueno, so decided against looking at the floor directory; I would go for a wander-through and find it myself. Of course, the section I needed was on the eighth floor, of eight. I paid for a slightly fancier one than I would have normally picked up, figuring it would get used constantly throughout the next month and likely pay for itself in increased comfort and better quality sleep.
• Ventured into Ameyoko for dinner, and walked past our favourite Izakaya (it was closed), but we’ll be back!