For photos and videos, check out the LivingHiloStyle Instagram for the Reels of this trip. I’ll be working on posting soon.

Star Wars Celebration happened in Chiba. One of my good friends is a Star Wars super fan. This made for the perfect time to tag along and take a trip to Japan with friends. Upon our arrival in Honolulu, we headed to the Plumeria lounge. The lounge no longer has a partnership with Priority Pass. However, we had enough platinum members to bring in everyone. Note: Lounge can be accessed with a Pualani Platinum membership with an international ticket. FYI: If you haven’t been in the lounge recently, the menu has been updated. Go check it out.

We arrived in Haneda with all our bags. I stayed at the Villa Fontaine Shiodome for the first time. It is within walking distance to Ginza, Nihonbashi, Tsukiji, and the lively Shimbashi. It also has access to many convenient train lines. You can find other hotels much closer to restaurants and shopping. One of my favorites is the Royal Park Shiodome but it was unavailable for our dates. One fun thing about the Villa Fontaine is their happy hour from 5-7 p.m. each afternoon. During these two hours, guests have free drinks (wine and sake) and snacks. We even brought some of our own snacks that we wanted to try.

Immigration was smooth for us, and we were on our way in about 30 minutes. After checking into the hotel, we met and went off to get some food and drinks. We found a bar (Danke in Caretta) that closed at 11 p.m. After we closed Danke down, we headed to Shimbashi at Ichiro’s bar. If you visit Ichiro, tell him you know us and he will take care of you too! We visit him every time we are in the area. We stayed at Ichiro’s until after the trains stopped running for the night. The station was closed down. Our preferred path back to the hotel went through the station. Luckily we were close and just had to find our way back around the train station.

Day 1: As expected, I woke up at 4 a.m. on this first morning. I went exploring with Kerri, Dave, and Myra at 6:30 a.m. We didn’t see anywhere open that we wanted to stop at, so we visited Family Mart. We got the crispy chicken (famichiki) and the steamed pancake package to make the viral pancake chicken sandwich. I’ll post a Reel on my Instagram so you can see what I am talking about. After breakfast, it was time to head to Tsukiji with the larger group at 7:30 a.m. before it got crowded. We snacked on strawberries, mochi, and tamagoyaki and bought furikake, dried ika, and pretty toothpicks. After the Tsukiji stop, we left for a one-hour trip to Chiba to get our Star Wars badges. We easily found Makuhari Messe and quickly got our entry badges. Next, we headed to Aeon mall and had sushi for lunch. We visited nearby Costco and found that it looked very similar to US Costco. But this one wasn’t as busy as Kona and had awesome Japanese beauty products and food. I wish I could have bought more but we had to carry purchases on the train so I held back. We got back to Tokyo and headed straight to free drinks at happy hour at the Villa Fontaine Hotel. We had walked 10 miles so far that day and we weren’t done yet. My feet were telling me that my walking shoes didn’t fit me well. Luckily, there was a shoe pop-up shop in the train station. I found a pair of Nike sneakers on the way to dinner and drinks in Shimbashi.

Day 2: STAR WARS Day: After waking up at 4:30 a.m. and catching up on emails and sharing photos, we headed to Tsukiji for a sushi breakfast. After breakfast we met Caroline and Tom at Tokyo Station and headed to Chiba for the Star Wars Celebration. We purposely went late so as not to stand in lines to enter the event. It was a good move on our part. We saw that the line to get Star Wars merch was four hours long! On this day, over 30 K Star Wars lovers were excited and happy to be there. We took photos with cosplay characters before having soba lunch at a nearby restaurant. After lunch, we headed back to Star Wars Celebration. We met up with our friends and took more photos. We drank in the excitement of the day. After the Star Wars Fun, we returned to Tokyo. First stop were to various antenna shops in Yurakucho for regional goods. There are many antenna shops to check out. If you have a favorite Japan region and treasure, you might find your specialty at their antenna shop. After antenna store shopping, we made it to the hotel for more free happy hour drinks. After drinks, we went to the Chinese restaurant next to the Royal Park Shiodome. My husband loved the scallion chicken there and has plans to eat it again on his next trip. After dinner, we headed to the 46th floor of the Caretta building for drinks and an amazing view. As usual, this group decided to go to one more spot for nightcaps. We went back to Shimbashi for more drinks at Ichiro’s place.

Day 3: ERIC CLAPTON CONCERT night: We started the day with ramen breakfast at Tsukiji. The ramen hit the spot after the late and FUN night last night. This Tsukiji ramen shop has only one thing on the menu. No issues with making decisions on what to order. After Tsukiji, we walked to Donki in Ginza for more shopping. After shopping, Aaron and I had an Italian lunch in Caretta building close to our hotel. After lunch, we met Naomi at the Imperial Hotel and had some refreshments at their champagne bar. The big event on this day’s itinerary was to see Eric Clapton in concert at Budokan. I am so grateful that we were blessed to have gotten tickets to see this legend. I wish he played more of the songs I was familiar with but it was still an amazing show. After the concert, we had enough time to visit Yasukuni Jinja. This was my first time there and reveled in the serenity of the area. It is so amazing to find this quiet space in the middle of a bustling city. We ended the evening at a tempura and wine bar.

Day 4: Breakfast was at Yoshinoya where I got natto and raw egg to eat with my salmon. I checked two full suitcases in with the Airporter delivery service. We sent the bags to the airport. The pick-up location is just steps away from the Hawaiian Air check-in counter. It was only 4840 yen for both bags and that included insurance of the bags for 200 yen each. At that day’s exchange rate, that was only $34.03 for both bags. Well worth the reasonable price. I did more pantry shopping at the grocery store and at Donki. After shopping, we met up with the group and headed to Omotesando, Harajuku, and Yoyogi. We saw sumotori, bought some Labubu, ate at Mos Burger, and saw the dancing Rockabillies. That evening, I met my cousin and her husband at the Morita-ya sukiyaki restaurant at Mitsukoshi Ginza. We had a wonderful meal. We also enjoyed more amazing time chatting and catching up.

Day 5: Aaron and I did more pantry and beauty product shopping at the grocery store and at Donki. We also picked up some food from Family Mart for us to eat for breakfast. After breakfast, we headed to Kappabashi for kitchen items. We bought toothpicks, tongs, cutting boards and lots of other fun (for me) kitchen stuff. We then headed to Asakusa to get Melon Pan from Kagetsudo. They have a new location just off the entrance gate if you haven’t been in a while. By then, we were hungry for lunch so we stopped at a tonkatsu restaurant that didn’t have a line. I even got to have a shiso sour that was so refreshing. That evening, we had reservations for an all-you-can-drink sake tasting at Mirai in Shibuya at the Parco department store. Find Parco near the station and this Kubota sake bar is on the basement level. They have yummy snacks too. Thanks to Ryan from Kadota Liquor, we had a special host (Eriko) who guided us through the tasting. After all-you-can-drink-sake, we still had lots of energy. We ended up at Izakaya Wan where we had a private room for our final evening of snacks and drinks. I recall singing the Hilo High alma mater and hearing the Waiakea alumni sing their alumni. So much fun and laughter.

Day 6/Home: On our last day, I finally got to visit Hama Rikyu Gardens that I’ve walked past many times. This was another oasis in the city that I enjoyed. It must have been beautiful during the sakura season. The wisteria were starting to bloom during our visit. I will definitely be back to this garden. It is only 300 yen to enter. Seniors are only 150 yen! After that, we had lunch, packed up and headed to Haneda Airport. We relaxed in the Sakura Lounge with nama beer and curry rice and chatted about the fun memories we made. Water, Ukon no Chikara, sunscreen, and lots of laughs helped make this Star Wars, Eric Clapton, friends Japan trip an awesome one. Living Hilo Style in Tokyo.