There are many delicious snacks, meals, and desserts to be had at Tokyo DisneySea! Michelle did some research, made a list, and here’s what we tried!

Tokyo DisneySea is unlike any other Disney park. This is mainly due to the fact that it is not owned by Disney at all, but rather the Oriental Land Company who licenses the use of Disney themes and characters. The license allows the park to feature many different Disney properties and use their own as well. The mascot of Tokyo DisneySea is Duffy, the Disney bear. Although Mickey and other Disney characters are seen around the park, the real star is Duffy. There’s dedicated stores, viewpoints, and more around the park that allow the visitors to show their love of Duffy.

There are many delicious snacks, meals, and desserts to be had at Tokyo Disneyland! Michelle did some research, made a list, and here’s what we tried!

Disneyland is magical. Even in the midst of the crowds and lines and heat of the day, it still transports you to a series of fantastic, intricately designed “lands” where worries do not exist and dreams definitely do come true. From Fantasyland to Tomorrowland to Adventureland, there’s so much to do, eat, and enjoy. Now, Tokyo Disneyland is honestly very similar to California Disneyland, though there are a few differences that we’d like to point out.

Although in actuality it is a classic Japanese garden, Rikugien Gardens felt like a gorgeous neighborhood park. It features walking paths, hills, and a pond system, and is a great example of a daimyo’s garden from the Edo era. It seemed less touristy than other parks we visited, though some parts of the park were still on the crowded side.

We first heard about this cat cafe from Simon and Martina, a YouTubing couple who live in Japan and chronicle their adventures for the enjoyment of the rest of us. It looked like a magical place with adorable cats, so we decided to check it out! Michelle LOVES cats. She was BEYOND excited to go to her first cat cafe.

We have enjoyed visiting many beautiful gardens on our trips to Japan, and Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is one of the largest and most diverse that we’ve visited. Its 144 acres of park space includes three distinct areas: a landscape garden, a Japanese traditional garden, and a formal garden. The paths through the park wend their way through these different gardens with many lovely highlights to enjoy along the way.

The neighborhood of Tsukiji is home to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market which is renowned for its tuna auctions and seafood wholesalers that took place within the Inner Market. As of October 6th, 2018 the Inner Market was shut down and relocated to Toyosu. Fortunately, the outer market around Tsukiji remained and still has much to offer.

On our first trip to Tokyo we got reservations at Sushi Tokami, a Michelin star restaurant in Ginza, where we were introduced to high end sushi. With the last day of our trip, we wanted to cap our time in Japan with a truly great meal. We managed to get reservations at Sushi Tokami after a recommendation and some help from the concierge at the Park Hotel.

We couldn’t visit Japan without trying some of its famous wagyu beef. We managed to get reservations for Shima Steak and were treated to the best steaks and sandwiches we’ve ever had.

Whenever we’re visiting Tokyo we stay at the Park Hotel. The Park Hotel is a western-style hotel that features three restaurants, a cocktail lounge, bakery, business center, and has some great views of the city from the lobby and rooms.

As much as we love going to gardens, temples, and shrines throughout Japan, we wanted to see something different. Fortunately, we found out about an innovative interactive art exhibit called teamLab: Borderless, which is set up in Odaiba. All throughout the world teamLab has set up exhibits and shows. The permanent ones are in Asia, but other limited shows are popping up around the world from time to time.

Have you ever wanted to ride in a Cat Bus? Live with a wizard in a mechanical traveling castle? Take part in a battle between the forces of nature and the encroaching, destructive reach of industrialization? Help sumo-wrestling mice gain weight and prestige? If this sounds like you, you might enjoy watching Studio Ghibli films and visiting the Ghibli Museum!

Ringo is a chain of small bakery shops that serve one delicious treat: small custard cream apple pies! The location we visited was in a large shopping mall in the Tokyo Midtown Hibiya building in Chiyoda City. When we approached the bakery, we could already see the line that wrapped around the side of the store.

We’re both fans of Mario Kart and thought it would be fun to experience the game in VR. So we traveled to Shinjuku to try it out at VR Zone Shinjuku.

After seeing many scrumptious-looking photos of elaborate Japanese parfait desserts, we were determined to try some for ourselves. We chose to try them at Fruits de Saison, a cute cafe on a quiet side street in Akihabara. We were led to a table on the second floor, as the tables on the first floor had already filled with patrons.

Tokyo Tower is one of the most iconic landmarks in the city, and we plan to ascend to the top eventually even though it can be quite busy. On a recent trip, rather than go to the tower itself, we opted to go to the Sky Lounge Stellar Garden, which has a wonderful view of it instead.

Unagi is one of our favorite Japanese foods, and we’ve had plenty of it from many restaurants both in Japan and outside of it. While in Tokyo, we wanted to go to a high-quality unagi restaurant and came across a Michelin-star rated unagi restaurant called Nodaiwa. We were not surprised that a restaurant that was established in 1850 would earn such a prestigious accolade.

After we had finished walking through the beautiful Hamarikyu Gardens, we went to a small pier at the eastern end of the garden and purchased tickets to ride a waterbus up to Asakusa.

The Hamarikyu Gardens sits in the heart of Tokyo; nestled between Tsukiji, Ginza, Tokyo Tower, and Tokyo Bay. Though this peaceful park is located in the middle of the city, it’s large enough to be immersive. You don’t feel like you’re in the middle of a city - until you look up and notice the skyscrapers.

Instead of having a traditional Japanese breakfast, we opted to have a sushi breakfast at Sushi Zanmai. We’d never had sushi for breakfast and thought we should definitely experience it.

While in Tokyo, we wanted to have kushikatsu again, and when trying to find a restaurant we managed to come across Shinjuku Tatsukichi. Our first experience with kushikatsu was an inexpensive restaurant with a menu of about 20 different options. The food there was still amazing, but we wanted to try out what a higher end kushikatsu restaurant would be like. Shinjuku Tatsukichi is a moderately priced kushikatsu restaurant and the meal we had was one of the best we had our entire time in Tokyo.

Down a side street off Chou Dori and in the basement beneath a ninja cafe is Roast Beef Ohno. This unique restaurant specializes in creating wagyu roast beef mountains that are supposed to resemble Mount Fuji. It might look weird, but it is definitely worth checking out if you want to eat something unique.

Between the chic shopping district of Ginza and the cultural parks and university district of Ueno lies the mecca of anime geek culture in Japan: Akihabara.

Okonomiyaki is a savory pancake where the batter is mixed with whatever veggies or meat you like! It’s highly customizable, and great comfort food. We went to Sometaro, an okonomiyaki restaurant near Senso-Ji Temple in Asakusa. The restaurant is in a very old wood building sandwiched in between newer buildings.

At the heart of Asakusa lies the most famous temple in Japan: Senso-Ji. Originally built in 645 AD, Senso-Ji is the oldest temple in Tokyo. In 1945 it was destroyed during a bombing raid on March 10th and was later rebuilt as a symbol of peace and the rebirth of the Japanese people. Now Senso-Ji is the most visited spiritual site in the world.

When visiting Senso-Ji, it’s hard to miss walking through the Nakamise Shopping Street. Stretching from the Kaminarion Gate to the Hozoman Gate, the Nakamise Shopping Street is lined with various small shops and food vendors.

We’ve been to many traditional and modern styled restaurants in Japan, so we thought we should go to a fun themed restaurant. We decided to eat at Itamae Sushi Edo, where we had some great sushi while enjoying the atmosphere.

After walking around Sensoji and the Nakamise Shopping Street, we were quite hungry. We weren’t quite sure what we wanted to eat since we wanted to pretty much eat everything we had seen since we got in the country. Fortunately, there was a shabu shabu and sukiyaki restaurant nestled behind a few stores near the end of the Nakamise Shopping Street.

We visited the Tokyo temple where the legend of the maneki neko originated!