Traveling To Tokyo in 2023

Traveling the Entire Summer, A Mini-Series

This is my first time coming to Japan 🇯🇵. I never dreamed of coming here, but I heard great things from everyone. Now I’m here, so I’m head over heels for Japan! Japan has so much to offer, that is unlike anything else in the world.

Even my daughter, who used to consider Paris her favorite city, has told us Paris is not her favorite anymore because of Tokyo!

We hit up many places and did many things in Tokyo. In this post, I will try my best to write down the different pieces of this city that impressed me the most.

Local Walking Tour

We booked a free 3-hour walking tour that covered both New and Old Tokyo, including its food, culture, history, and religion. It was a great opportunity to learn about the two main religions in Japan, Buddhism and Shintoism. Our tour guide took us to representative places for these two religions: Kanda Myojin Shrine (神田明神) for Shintoism and Yushima Seidō (湯島聖堂) for Buddhism.

Yushima Seidō is a Confucian temple that was built in the 17th century. It is significant in Japanese education and has the largest Confucius statue inside the temple.

When we entered Kanda Myojin, the tour guide taught us how to clean our hands and mouth with the water at the purification fountain, a common practice in Shintoism.