Scaredy Cat Travels

Tokyo – Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya or How To Have Fun With Diabetes In A Foreign Country

Fun Fact: The rumors about Tokyo’s freakishly early sunrise are true.

Despite my previous strongly-worded statements about not checking to see if the sun really starts rising at 4:30 am in Tokyo, I was able to confirm it on our very first morning. That’s because we left our windows open in the bedroom in part, because we were tired and in part, because the night views of the city were beautiful. I also usually choose to leave my windows open preferring to have the morning light help wake me up. But that’s assuming the sun comes up at some more humane time.

So thanks to a little jetlag and a lot of 5 am sun, we were all awake bright and early Saturday morning.

I will say that my plan to ward off jetlag was mostly successful. I used the same strategy a few years ago going to Europe – stop keeping a good bedtime schedule a few days before the trip (an easy task for me anyway) and then being as busy as possible once we get to our destination – hoping we’ll become so exhausted that we’ll happily go to bed at the right time in our new place. No more witnessing Stonehenge through slits masquerading as eyeballs! In Europe, we walked around Paris immediately after our flight then went to a BTS concert in the evening. By the time we got back from the concert, we were wiped. And my sister had been introduced to the wonders of k-pop.

Who can have jet lag in the middle of a BTS concert? Not even my sister! The proof of her joy is at the very end of the video.

I wasn’t sure the same idea would work going the opposite direction but a couple of days before the trip I stopped encouraging the kids to deny their inner vampires. My late nights were a given anyway in final panicked preparation for the trip. Once we made it to Japan, I kept the first couple of days full of activities that didn’t allow a lot of sitting down – which leads us to Day 4 and the death of my feet.

Ok – maybe it didn’t completely work. Because this is Michelle the next day at a rooftop restaurant. The Eiffel Tower is right there in front of her big ole fast asleep face.

Fun Fact – just last year BTS’ Jimin and JHope went to this same restaurant and sat in the same chairs we did and took almost the exact same picture of the Eiffel Tower that I did. JIMIN SAT IN MY SEAT.

Plans: Thanks to our early start, we had plenty of time to fight over the bathroom. Rowan is the slowest and somehow Jackson and I always forget. But we made it down for the free breakfast included in the Platinum AMEX package at The Conrad. We were on time by US standards, arriving at 9:15 am for a breakfast that runs until 10:00 am and is mostly a buffet. But our breakfast arrival times were a repeated concern throughout Japan and Korea for the staff. We were warned soooooooo many times that “breakfast ends at 10:00” or “last call is 10:30”.

This highlights a difference between both countries and the US. In our experience, when something there closes at 10:00. It closes at 10:00. Or maybe a little before. Most restaurants stop taking orders 30 minutes prior to closing, and I was shooed out of a couple of shops while browsing a good 15 minutes prior to posted closing. In the US, when I worked in the restaurant business, if we closed at 10:00 that meant we accepted new customers until that time. Were we happy when a new table arrived at 9:55 pm? Hell, no and we’d definitely start closing down the restaurant around them, but we served them.

Despite the dire warnings, we had plenty of time to eat. We didn’t steal bacon as originally planned; I just ended up paying for mine which was around $50 US. For that price, you got an extensive buffet with American and Asian choices as well as a choice of one of several plated options which included a Lobster Omelette, Crab Eggs Benedict, Matcha Pancakes with Red Bean Paste, and a French Toast. There was also a taco station. We saw this at another breakfast buffet in Korea and were more than a little baffled by it. The restaurant itself was beautiful with large windows overlooking the bay in one of the dining areas.

The Collage Restaurant at The Conrad Tokyo

While $50 is expensive for breakfast, I felt it was, in that environment, a good deal for what we got. Easier to say when I was only paying for one though. Not as easy to comprehend was my $8 Coke Zero. Yes. I drank a Coke Zero. And paid $8 for the horror.

A very small portion of The Conrad breakfast buffet

While I was excited about our scheduled visit to the Yayoi Kusama Museum that morning, I was a little concerned about it kicking off our first full day in Tokyo.

There were plenty of mixed reviews online – people complaining it was too hard to find, too far off the beaten path, too small, etc, etc. It does require a couple of subway transfers (probably from no matter where you’re coming from) and a little walking through what is mostly a residential neighborhood and it is small. But we had no issues finding it, and we all really enjoyed it. Again, for our family, with the exception of me, museums are best in smaller doses. The best compliments I can give are – the kids took lots of pictures where allowed and, on their own, were reading the informational plaques.

Fair warning if you’re sensitive, Kusama was a big part of the 60’s drug scene so some of her earlier works are NSFW.

In an answer to my prayers, there was a gift shop on site. However, let this be a reminder that we should all be very specific in what we pray for. I prayed that there would be a gift shop. I also prayed that there would be a tiny replica of a Kusama pumpkin for sale in said gift shop. I forgot to pray that it wouldn’t be super expensive. I shed a little polka-dotted tear and bought some postcards instead.

I’ll share more specific details about the museum in its own post.

Feed me Seymour!

Since the Yayoi Kusama Museum is in Shinjuku, I planned to spend time in that part of the city before heading down to Harajuku then Shibuya in the general direction of our hotel. This is basically what we ended up doing but other than that, the day did not go as planned.

After the museum, we took a train over to the proper tourist area of Shinjuku. While at Shinjuku Station we took a moment to go ahead and purchase our Hakone/Fuji Tourism Passes and reserve our seats on the Romancecar Train for Thursday morning. I had hoped to book the panoramic view seats available on some of the trains but was told those sell out at least a month in advance. I highly recommend reserving any longer distance train travel at least a couple of days in advance when you can. Slight foreshadowing for the future.

Spoiler Alert: The kids would have slept through it anyway.

Immediately after leaving the subway station, we were able to check one of our “must do” boxes which was to see one of Tokyo’s famous 3D billboards. The animation of the cat and even the ads that pop up are really entertaining to watch. So entertaining that I forgot to take a picture.

From there it was a quick walk to our next destination – Godzilla. Godzilla is perched on top of the Toho Cinema. The view of him down the busy Tokyo street is truly iconic. If you want to see him up close, don’t go through the cinema, take the elevator to the lobby of the attached Hotel Gracery. There are signs to guide you if you go the wrong direction like we did.

In general, the entire trip, you can assume we went the wrong direction or picked the wrong door or took the wrong subway exit first then turned around.

That Acting degree is really paying off.

We were already hungry again so we stopped for a snack and drink at the Cafe that looks out at Godzilla in the Gracery lobby. Rowan ordered a Japanese Craft Soda and Jackson ordered the “Cake Set” with Banana Cake and a Grapefruit Juice. I can’t remember what I got but no one really liked what they ordered, and it was expensive.

Of course Human was on the trip too! And made a new friend at the cafe.

Here we learned a couple of important “dining in Japan” lessons – 1. As in Europe, you often have to flag down your server if you need something. 2. Most of the time, you will pay your bill at the front.

While I wouldn’t make a repeat visit to the cafe, the visit to see Godzilla was well worth it and free. Every half hour Godzilla comes to life spitting smoke and roaring over the crowds. There’s also a panel tucked towards the back of him that makes him roar if you press it.

After Godzilla, the kids wanted to shop for souvenirs and look for gachapon machines so we went to Animate, one of many stores in Japan specializing in all things anime, gaming and manga. The location in Shinjuku was only one floor and required a pretty sizable detour. In hindsight, we should have gone to one of the larger locations. Despite it being only one floor, we managed to spend a long time and a decent amount of money there.

Rows of gachapon machines are everywhere in Japan. For between $1-$4, you get a ball with a surprise toy inside related to the theme of the machine you choose. Themes can be well-known characters like Pokemon, anime like Chainsaw Man or even Disney princesses. Or they can be nonsense like the flan with faces theme below. Or the “Pancake Sea Creatures” Jackson bought.

Spoiler Alert: Jackson got the turtle.

At this point, I felt it was already getting late so we decided to skip the rest of Shinjuku and go ahead to Harajuku with plans to find some real food once we got there, so we walked back to Shinjuku Station and caught the next subway.

As we got off the train, I heard a little “huh” out of Jackson. When I asked, Jackson was surprised because their blood sugar was low despite having at least a little of the banana cake and part of a soda not too long ago. We argued amongst ourselves about what to do, as per usual, and as per Jackson’s usual desire not to cave to their disease, but ultimately decided to take a quick break in the subway station and grab some ice cream from one of the vending machines. It was the right choice because Jackson’s blood sugar continued to drop and, in the end, they needed the time to be still, eat and recover.

This is what a blood glucose level of 50 and dropping looks like.

After about 30 minutes, we headed out of the station to the Harajuku area. Because Jackson’s blood sugar was still low even after ice cream and juice, we decided to get a real meal and stopped at the first seemingly easy place we saw, Mos Burger, a well-liked Japanese burger chain. Still not the Japanese meal I had been dreaming of but low blood sugar beggars can’t be choosers.

Mos Burger is a quick-service restaurant where you order from the counter, and they give you a pager that alerts you when your meal is ready similar to Panera Bread here. We wanted to be very sure of our order before approaching the counter unsure if they would speak English so spent quite a long time using Google or Papago to translate the menu and making our choices. In the end, we ordered a Teriyaki Burger, a Shrimp Burger and one other burger I can’t remember. All with fries and a sad iced Oolong tea. I was already missing diet coke badly. We were fortunate to get seats at the bench along the window on the second floor (after me grabbing the one empty seat and sort of shaming the two people hogging the seats next to me despite being done with their food for at least 15 minutes). The kids liked the regular burgers a lot. Rowan loved my shrimp burger too. But I was underwhelmed. The best part for me was the view of the street below. It was great people watching. But again, no picture.

Teriyaki Burger at Mos Burger. We’ve got to work on our food shots.

With Jackson’s blood sugar finally really in check, we finally set out to do some real Tokyo shopping.

Spoiler alert: It wasn’t.

Because we were really short on time at this point, we went straight to Harajuku’s famous Takeshita Street. This is where the day took a (another?) turn. We went to Daiso first – mainly for Jackson who loves Daiso in a way that is inexplicable to both me and Rowan.

By now, Jackson was feeling pressured and frustrated about their blood sugar; I was feeling pressured about the schedule and that we’d hardly accomplished anything plus my feet were killing me; and Rowan had lost what little interest/patience he had in anything we were doing. Adding insult to injury, Takeshita Street was incredibly crowded and too touristy even for us. The stores were kitschy and not in a good way; the gachapon store had 1000 machines and somehow nothing we were interested in. Somewhere between the Cat Cafe and the Long Longer Longest shop, we had a family meltdown in the middle of the street arguing loudly about whether or not we had time to go back to the hotel before our Shibuya Sky reservation (we didn’t).

Even the delicious strawberries dipped in a sugar candy coating from Strawberry Fetish couldn’t save the afternoon. Rowan liked this particular treat enough though that he sought it out repeatedly on our trip.

Strawberry & Grapes stick from Strawberry Fetish

Pro Tip: Don’t get the grapes.

At this point I conceded defeat, mainly so I could stop walking. I literally felt as if my feet had been reduced to throbbing nerve stumps. So we ended up at McDonalds. I have never been so glad to see a Coke Zero in my life. We sat, a sad, sad sight, in the Takeshita Street McDonalds until it was time to take the train to Shibuya for our reservation.

Instead of taking time to see the famous Scramble Crossing or even the Hachiko the dog statue, we went straight to Shibuya Sky, getting there a little early hoping they might let us up before the sun set too much but, as usual, the Japanese did not alter from the preordained schedule.

Shibuya Sky is on top of that building right there.

Even though it was dark by the time we got to the top, it was not disappointing. The views are truly amazing. Given the time, I would have gone back during the day to get both perspectives (or planned ahead more and scheduled the late afternoon so we could get both in one trip).

Again, I’ll detail Shibuya Sky in its own post but I will say, there are lots of things to go up in in Tokyo and look around – Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Skytree, several buildings have overlooks but I can’t imagine them being better than Shibuya Sky.

My sister captioned this one, “Are you the keymaster?”

Just as we got in line for the iconic photo spot above and Rowan’s mood had improved, Jackson’s blood sugar dropped again. We were able to make it through the line but then immediately looked for sustenance. One negative to Shibuya Sky’s rooftop is the lack of food options except for the bar area. We ended up getting bar snacks and a cocktail out of desperation but then Rowan wasn’t allowed into the lounge area and had to wait it out by himself. This went over about how you would have expected. Once I felt Jackson was out of the woods, I went and found Ro and spent some time with him.

Cocktails with Tokyo Tower in the background

Reunited on the Shibuya Sky hammock

Despite not dosing any insulin for the cocktail and popcorn, Jackson went low again just 30-45 minutes later while waiting for the train back to our hotel. I wanted to find something to eat immediately. Jackson argued with me and we ended up holding out until we got to the hotel and ordered room service.

So somehow I found myself in Tokyo ordering the same $35 club sandwich and $15 fries as I had the night before. But this time Rowan fell asleep without eating it.

Before you get too worried about Jackson, I can explain it now. It is normal to experience difficulties managing blood sugar in a foreign place – you’re guessing at carbs in the food and drink so basically guessing at insulin needs. You’re nervous, stressed and often more active. All of these things – even the weather – affect how your body processes glucose. But this was really unusual. Once back at the hotel, we finally figured it out.

My kids both have the amazing ability to walk, talk and apparently do their nighttime insulin all while fully asleep. When we got to the hotel the night before, Jackson zonked out immediately, so I woke them up around 11 pm and prompted them to do their Lantus. We had a full conversation about it. At 2 am, Jackson woke up not remembering any of that and did it again.

Lantus is a long-acting insulin that forms the base of blood sugar control. It helps lower blood sugar overall for 24 hours. Fiasp, Jackson’s other insulin, is short-acting. It’s what they take right before each meal. Messing up Lantus dosage messes up an entire day. If we had realized earlier, we could have taken steps to avoid the lows and actually I am thankful they weren’t worse.

Jackson should always carry a snack with them for these situations but that would have only resolved one of the lows and surprisingly we found it harder to find convenient convenience stores in Tokyo than we expected to replenish the snacks once we used them.

Scaredy Cat Rating: I originally rated today at zero paws but I’ll bump it up to two paws only because of the anxiety about Jackson. Honestly, being a mom of a Type 1 kid, it’s always a minimum of a two paw day.

Shibuya Sky, although very, very high in the air, was not scary. I think even if a fear of heights is your thing, there’s plenty of room up there. Because it’s the entire rooftop, you can stay 150 feet from the edge if you want and have great views of the city unlike most observation decks that have a fairly narrow area to walk around.

The $$$: For food, we spent a little over $100 at The Conrad but almost all of that was credited back using the rest of the $125 Food & Beverage that came with the Platinum AMEX program. Mos Burger was around $25. The drinks and cake at the Godzilla Cafe were about $25. The cocktails and snacks at Shibuya Sky were $25. Other snacks like the strawberries and the vending machine ice cream were less than $3 each.

The Kusama Musuem was under $10 per person. Shibuya Sky was around $18 for Jackson and me and about $14 for Rowan though Klook. Japan often gives discounts to high school and sometimes even college-age students in addition to the usual youth pricing.

Souvenirs were postcards and gachapon so around $2-$3 each. But I still miss you, $200 pumpkin that would have been perfect for my bedroom shelves.

I think I broke them.