Japan 2025: Day 0-1 / Tokyo Station

Yes, yes, y’all. We are heading back! Versu and I have been planning this trip for the past few months, and we were so excited to celebrate it as a birthday trip for me. It came at a good time, with ticket prices affordable and just before our busy season at work.

Unfortunately I didn’t write anything in my notes regarding Day 0, but perhaps because nothing really happened… which is always a good thing, right? To be honest, nothing “bad” or unfortunate happened during our two-week trip at all (aside from our first hotel going through renovations, which really was so minor). We felt so lucky and grateful that the weather was beautiful, our multi-city itinerary experienced no issues, and so many times we marveled at how serendipitously everything panned out. It was a truly beautiful time spent together.

Usually I take photos of the clouds during a flight, but this is the only photo I have for some reason… I 100% blame being half-asleep for this blurry and unappetizing shot of our airplane meal.

We landed safely at Haneda Airport in the evening, local time. Got through the security checkpoints with no issue, picked up our luggage, and made our way to Yamato Transport to schedule our luggage delivery to our Kyoto accommodations. While waiting in line, there was a kid running in and out of the elevator pressing all of the buttons and laughing. No matter where you are in the world, kids will be (mischievous) kids.

After reserving two tickets with one of the Airport Limousine buses, we headed to our stay for the night, the Hyatt Regency Tokyo (again!).

The sky really has such a unique feel to it, but maybe that’s just the travel bug.

As soon as we got to the hotel, it was very apparent that it was undergoing heavy renovations. We were escorted to a small room that functioned as their temporary lobby, filled by what we assumed to be a large group of skiers.

After checking in, we pretty much just slept the whole rest of the evening away lol!

The next morning was a sleepy and slow-paced walk around Tokyo Station. But first, breakfast! I was excited to show Versu the Hyatt Regency’s Lounge where my mom and I had breakfast before, but that was also undergoing heavy renovations. Gyah! The food did not disappoint, though! It was still plenty delicious.

After breakfast, we headed to Tokyo Station.

Doing some lighting test shots before we continued. Versu began humming one of the background tracks from Persona 5.

We killed some time at the Marunouchi OAZO Building and window-shopped a bit. I was on the hunt to find souvenirs for my friends, as well as some other miscellaneous things.

We then walked across the street and headed towards the Traveler’s Factory in Tokyo Station.

Even entering from the nearest Station entrance, the Traveler’s Factory store can be a bit confusing to find. I was explaining to Versu how my 2023 venture almost brought me to tears because of how large Tokyo Station is, and how difficult it was to find my way there. Thankfully, we found it after only getting lost a little bit.

It was so exciting introducing Versu to a beloved hobby. We pored through all the different ways you can customize a Traveler’s notebook and decided on a colorful assortment of inserts inside a sage green cover.

We bought some snacks and drinks at 7-Eleven! Similar to my previous trip, we decided to fly into HND and then take the shinkansen to Kyoto.

Goodbye, Hyatt Regency Tokyo! It was a pleasure, as always.

Using the GoPro my mom and Versu got me for my birthday! The tripod we brought with us was terrible and the extra batteries I bought didn’t fit LOL! (Didn’t I say earlier that nothing bad or unfortunate happen? Whoops…)

It was a bright, cloudless day, so we enjoyed the scenery as much as possible. Every time we tried to take photos, however, we would end up going through a tunnel (our timing was so bad almost every single time lol!) The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, and we safely made it to our hotel (The Hyatt Place Kyoto again!) for the next few days.

Thank you for reading!