Tokyo 2 nights 3 days, traveling together to Tohoku by domestic flight in Japan~! (feat. Conquering Japan's Towers)

Tuesday, the 169th Japan trip is a 2-night, 3-day schedule to Tokyo. On the first day, we only use the airport in Tokyo. We stay overnight in Akita on day 1 and Chiba on day 2. The theme of this trip is conquering 20 Japanese towers. We will visit the last two remaining towers.

-Statistics-
Japan's Tallest Tower Ranking

1. Tokyo Skytree 634m, Sumida-ku, Tokyo ⭕️
2. Tokyo Tower 332.6m, Minato-ku, Tokyo ⭕️
3. Fukuoka Tower 234m, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture ⭕️
4. Nagoya TV Tower 180m, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture ⭕️
5. Gold Tower 158m, Utazu Town, Ayauta District, Kagawa Prefecture ⭕️
6. Kaikyo Yume Tower 153m, Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture ⭕️
7. Sapporo TV Tower 147.2m, Sapporo City, Hokkaido ⭕️
8. Akita City Port Tower 143m, Akita City, Akita Prefecture ❌️
9. Twin Arch 138 138m, Ichinomiya City, Aichi Prefecture ⭕️
10. Higashiyama Sky Tower 134m, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture ⭕️
11. Seto Ohashi Tower 132m, Sakaide City, Kagawa Prefecture ⭕️
12. Kyoto Tower 131m, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture ⭕️
13. Chiba Port Tower 125m, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture ⭕️
14. Global Tower 125m, Beppu City, Oita Prefecture ⭕️
15. Crossland Tower 118m, Oyabe City, Toyama Prefecture ⭕️
16. Kobe Port Tower 108m, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture ⭕️
17. Goryokaku Tower 107m, Hakodate City, Hokkaido ⭕️
18. Yokohama Marine Tower 106m, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture ❌️
19. Tsutenkaku 103m, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture ⭕️
20. Beppu Tower 90m, Beppu City, Oita Prefecture ⭕️

(⭕️ = Observatory accessible ❌️ = Not visited yet)

Yokohama Marine Tower and Akita Port Tower Serion. Also, for the Japan airport tour, we use Odate Noshiro Airport and Shonai Airport. Last month, we visited Fukushima Airport, so we have now covered all airports in Tohoku.

The Japan airport tour continues. On day 1, we arrive in Tokyo at 10 AM and have a transfer gap until 4 PM. During that time, we plan to go to Yokohama to enjoy activities like collecting manhole cards, having afternoon tea, and visiting Marine Tower. We will return to Haneda by 3 PM.

At Terminal 1, we will try a massage service available with the PP card instead of the lounge. Then we return to Terminal 2 and head to Odate Noshiro Airport in Akita Prefecture. We will explore Noshiro City, Akita Prefecture, which inspired the Slam Dunk Sannoh team, at night.

Since the Sannoh basketball court and manhole cards are only available during the day, we will skip those and capture the surrounding atmosphere and actual manholes. After a light meal, we will head to Akita for accommodation at 10 PM. Since it’s late, the hotel is booked inside Akita Station.

On day 2, after breakfast, we visit Akita Castle. Visiting Akita Castle marks the 100th Japanese King Castle I have visited. 👏👏👏 Since these are my footprints on the 100 King Castles, some castles may not overlap with those who collect stamps. 🏯🤗

The King 100 Castles will be updated and posted later. For the last of the 20 towers, we climb Akita Port Tower Serion. This observatory is part of a roadside station and is operated free of charge. Pokémon manholes and manhole cards are all gathered in one place.

We will finish everything within 7 minutes and run or take a taxi for 20 minutes over 1.8 kilometers. If there is a taxi, we will comfortably take it for 1000 yen to a nearby station to collect the Ogashi manhole card. If it rains or no taxi is available, plan B is to go directly to Akita Station.

At noon, we take a local train from Akita to Sakata in Yamagata Prefecture, which takes 2 hours. This section has only two limited express trains per day and is a less developed area, so we take a local train. At Sakata Station, we only collect the manhole card and then move to Tsuruoka Station.

Tsuruoka offers two manhole cards, but due to time constraints, we only visit one place near the station. We also stop by Starbucks. Then we go to Shonai Airport to enjoy the No.1 pork cutlet in Japan for the 4th time. (Branches are in Yamagata, Tsuruoka, Sendai, Tokyo, etc.)

We arrive at Haneda at 7 PM and go to a hotel in Chiba by 8 PM to check in. A Japanese friend living in Tokyo comes over, and we spend a long second day together with drinks, saying good day and good night. On day 3, after breakfast, we go to Sawara in Katori City, Chiba Prefecture.

We only visit about two Pokémon manholes near the station. We give up on the far ones since we are on foot. Then we collect manhole cards in Chiba City and Ichikawa City before heading back to Tokyo. We also get the Monchhichi and Tomica manhole cards that we missed last year due to oversleeping.

For the last schedule, we join the Kitty-chan afternoon tea near Hibiya Park in Tokyo. Thanks to an introduction from Japan’s No.1 afternoon tea Instagram friend, I was able to make a reservation for one person. I enjoy the last dance with Kitty and then head to Haneda 80 minutes before departure to return home. Thank you.