What an awesome first day in Tokyo! We couldn’t have asked for a better place to make our headquarters while in the city. This Airbnb offered easy access to the various trains in the Shinjuku area making it easy to go out and explore. Today we take the Yamanote Line train to Shinagawa to check out the Nikon Museum.

Experiencing the train in the middle of rush hour was quite an interesting encounter. We stood on the end of the platform for the longest time. I think a total of five trains went by, each of them more packed than the last. We weren’t really sure how to proceed. Do we keep standing on the end of the platform, hoping a train would come by that has enough room for the four of us? Do we just pick a train and force our way through to squeeze into it? Eventually that was the only choice. Squeeze into the train with the locals, with our backpacks on for the day, and feeling like we’re taking up way too much room. This ended up splitting us up into two groups with two of us entering through the doors on one side and two on the other. Although we were on the same car, we couldn’t see each other all the way on the other side. We also didn’t realize that this train didn’t go all the way to Shinagawa. So after 20 minutes of swaying back and forth with everyone else with each rock of the train car, we ended up at our final station. Not our destination which was Shinagawa. We stopped at a station called Osaki which was one station away from Shinagawa. As soon as we stopped, everyone got off and waited on the same platform to squeeze into the next train. Many of them like us just went down one additional stop. Which had me thinking… Why doesn’t this train go all the way around? Isn’t this line a circle?

We finally made it to Shinagawa where we got off and wandered around in the rain until we found the Nikon Museum. Finding the building was one thing, figuring out how to get to the actual museum was a whole different story. The museum is located in a large building full of other businesses, and finding the entrance to the museum was a task. The museum was quite small but full of Nikon cameras, lenses and other imaging equipment. For folks who aren’t photographically inclined, they even have an exhibit to teach you about how images are created and how the different elements of lenses affect the image being taken.

The part of this museum that fascinated me the most was the history of Nikon and how it was there for major moments in world history. Nikon invented a fax device for photographers to get their film negatives to the news papers. This is how Nikon was able to position themselves at the center of major world events.

As we finished up at the museum, we picked up a couple of souvenirs by making a selection at a vending machine, then the museum staff brought the items out for me. Japan loves their vending machines and the Nikon Museum was no exception. We left the museum and headed toward the station again to hop on a different train and go to Kichijoji station. The station that brought us to another museum – Studio Ghibli Museum.

Before heading to the famous museum, we had some time to kill and decided to take a stroll through a park. The park we stumbled upon is way bigger than we could imagine, big enough that it didn’t feel like we were in a city at all. The park was called Inokashira Onshi Park. It was large enough that it was full of scenic trails, a pond, a temple and a small zoo. We strolled through the park for some time, taking photos along the way and eventually we made to a staircase that led up to a downtown area and took us back towards the station. Having realized we inadvertently made a giant circle we decided we should get some food as there was still over an hour before our reservation at the museum. We came a cross a hometown favorite: Original Pancake House.

Who would have thought we’d run into an American pancake house in Japan? Aside from the dishes that were specific to Japan, we noticed much of the menu was exactly as it is back home! But since we only had one more full day in Tokyo, we decided this would be where we try the infamous Japanese Soufflé Pancakes. They were just as delicious as I imagined they would be, only I wish we had taken the time to find a more specialized shop to try them for the first time. I imagine the flavor would have been even better. That’s not to say that these were a bad example, as I devoured my plate without leaving a single piece behind. Clearly they were amazing.

Once we finished eating we started to make our way back through the small street with the stair case taking us back into the beautiful park. We continued along a different trail as we meandered towards the museum. Then as it got closer to our reservation time, we started to favor the sidewalk which we knew would take us straight to the museum.

The Studio Ghibli Museum was so well hidden behind bushes, if not for the small opening and sign which had people lining up to take pictures, we never would have found it! We finally made it. Snapped a couple of pictures then proceeded to wait in line to get checked into the museum. This was easily one of the most interesting buildings I have seen. It’s style was quite interesting, and many of the surfaces had bushes growing up the sides. Almost as if to hide the museum. Its very quirky design, I imagine was quite intentional since this was an animation studio. Once in the museum it was strictly camera free. Sorry guys! They had exhibits showing how they animate their films, and entire spinning displays showing the different aspects of stop motion animation for beloved films like My Neighbor Totoro. This was such an impressive thing to see. The entire display spun like a merry go round and then they would add in a strobe light to allow you to see each motion captured.

After the museum it was definitely time to eat. We headed back towards the train station knowing we could find food nearby. Walking the long distance down the street toward the station certainly did not help with the fact that we were all hungry. To make matters worse we could not decide on anything to eat. Eventually we made it all the way back to the train station and we managed to find a good ramen chain that satisfied all of our desires. While Ippudo did not look like the many hole in the wall ramen shops we researched before our trip, it definitely tasted amazing. And after a full day in the cold rain it really hit the spot.

Stay tuned for the next blog post that will feature Harajuku and Akihabara!