Day 3 - 30May2014
We woke up really early, around 530am and took the airport limousine to Incheon airport. We reached 3hours early!! So we got breakfast from Paris Baguette (whose model is the gorgeous Jeon Ji Hyun) before starting on our long journey to our gate, which included taking the concourse and walking a lot. We took a budget flight on Eastar Jet that cost us about $300 for a round trip. While checking in, I left my handphone on the latch and walked off without it. Luckily, one of the service staff ran after me to return it, otherwise my whole vacation would have been ruined!
The journey to Narita airport took about 2hours. We had to walk a really long distance to get to the customs area again since these airports are huge. We consulted the tourist information center for the cheapest way to get to Shinjuku which is the city center and where our hotel is located, and bought discounted tickets on the Narita express which is a train that specially connects places in Japan to the Narita airport. There is even a space to put your luggage so the 2h ride was really comfortable.
We stayed at Hotel Century Southern Tower, which is just a 5min walk from JR Shinjuku station, so very very convenient. We chose it because it is the top rated hotel for that area on tripadvisor and my sister has stayed there before and recommended it.
We quickly checked in and headed out to explore Tokyo! The equivalent of the ezlink card in Tokyo is called Suica, which is quite easily bought at the station. Our first destination was Shibuya, 3 stations from Shinjuku.The famous Shibuya crossing:
We were famished since we skipped lunch (no meals on budget airlines!) so we had dinner at a hole-in-the-wall ramen shop, where you place orders via a vending machine, then get a coupon which you pass to the person at the counter.
And then we just walked around Shibuya like typical tourists. They have the typical brands you can find in Singapore like Forever21, H&M and Bershka. We also went to the famous Shibuya109, but decided it did not suit our style at all. The sales assistants were dressed really fancifully - blue eye contacts, blonde hair, 15cm high heels, cosplay outfits.
We then headed back to our hotel and proceeded to get out through the wrong exit which led to us walking 30min just to get back to the correct side of the station. Moral of the story: always get out of the correct exit!!
And then we grabbed dessert in the form of some Krispy Kreme donuts from the outlet just outside the hotel.
Day 4 - 31May2014
We skipped breakfast and walked to the Metropolitan Government Building Observatories for this aerial view of sprawling Tokyo:
We then headed to the Odakyu deparmental stores at Shinjuku station to hunt for lunch, where I ordered my first Bento set in Japan.
We then took a really long time to get to Lumine Est as I wanted to buy some albums from the HMV there. My loot cost upwards of a hundred bucks :O
We then proceeded to explore the rest of the Shinjuku area, like Kinokuniya building, Flags, Lumine 1, Lumine 2 and the Takashimaya Times Square right opposite our hotel where we had dinner, which was just some sushi and tonktsu from the basement food floor of Takashimaya. We didn't really shop much in these malls as the stuff are quite expensive and we already spent a bomb on our rather expensive hotels. I went to the Tower Records at Flags though, since we don't have that in Singapore. We also wanted to visit the Shinjuku National Gyoen Garden but it was closed :(
Day 5 - 1June2014
We had breakfast at this French bakery cafe near our hotel. I can't remember its name but I will definitely go there again if I visit Tokyo in the future because their chocolate croissants are THE BEST.
We took the subway to Harajuku, just 2 stations from Shinjuku. Our first destination was the Meiji Shrine. It is a long walk in but there is some information lining the pathway to read so I found it pretty interesting. And got the obligatory souvenirs from the store there.
We then headed to Takeshita Dori, the shopping street of Harajuku. It is just one street but full of stores selling clothes of the latest trends so lots of stuff to buy! Unfortunately because stuff in Japan is so expensive, I had to pick and choose what to buy instead of just buying everything and anything like in Korea. This place is quite famous for crepes so we each had 1 for lunch. The skin was abit soft in my opinion, but it still tasted great. Beware, the queues are really long though.
Also, we chose to go to Harajuku on a Sunday since that is apparently when there are cosplayers but we didn't manage to spot many.
We spent quite a lot of time shopping, and also walked around Omotesando, so we had takoyakis for a snack. OMG SO GOOD!!!! It's a must try in Japan.
3 days in, we still hadn't managed to find a supermarket to buy all the Japanese snacks since there isn't a proper one in the city center. So we asked a friendly looking Japanese lady and to our luck, she could speak some English and was super helpful, even checking her GPS and asking her friend for help. She directed us to Don Quixote, which is not a supermarket but sells all kinds of things including food, and in Shinjuku! So that's where we headed where I proceeded to buy the whole food section. 60bucks worth of snacks!! (My family was pretty horrified when I sent them this picture haha.)
Managed to find another hole-in-the-wall ramen shop that served really good ramen. And got some soft serve ice cream from the convenience store for dessert!
Day 6 - 2June2014
We spent the whole day at Disneysea. To get there, we took the subway to Maihama station. It was a pretty long ride so we entertained ourselves with random made up games.
And bought tickets for the super cute Disney Resort Line Train to Disneysea station. The other option was to walk, which we did to go out.
Ticket to Disneysea were 6400JPY, which is about 80SGD. The whole park is gorgeous but quite small.
The park is split into several sections with different themes. I can't quite remember them but this is the Aladdin themed one:
You can get fast passes at Disney theme parks so we got one for Journey to the Center of the Earth which looks deceivingly scary, and I got another one for Raging Spirits which goes 360degrees but it is the slowest 360degrees ride I have ever taken!
Fire from the Journey mountain:
The first ride we took was Indiana Jones which was quite fun and my favourite in the whole park. All the rides aren't super exhilarating since this is a family resort, but were still quite enjoyable.
We had lunch in the park. I can't remember the name of the place but the food was quite nice. We also got some cute Mickey & Minnie ice bars, and chanced upon a roadshow:
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I wanted to buy a popcorn bucket but they only sell the designs I wanted in Disneyland :( I even resorted to ambushing kids and their parents asking where they got their popcorn buckets from.
I took a Sindbad boat ride to relax after walking so much, then met up with my friend who was watching a musical and headed to take 20,000 leagues under the sea, and a simulator ride called Storm Rider. There was water spraying and we got wet so we were really cold when we stepped back out since it was almost night time.
Then went for a slow but fun ride in a bumper boat thing that follows tracks. The night breeze is really cooling and enjoyable.
While walking towards the dining area for dinner, we managed to catch the gorgeous night show and fireworks display.
I ordered way too much for dinner and subsequently became quite broke haha. Japan is expensive so change a lot of Yen! Unfortunately I didn't get to take Tower of Terror as it was quite late and we wanted to get souvenirs. By the time we returned to our hotel room, it was almost 1am!
Day 7 - 3June2014
We woke up late since we slept so late the previous night. We were headed to Odaiba this day. Needed to change line a few times, and there was a special line that was 4bucks for a few stations! The train took us through the famous Rainbow Bridge which only turns rainbow at night, unfortunately.
We saw a supermarket, and proceed to buy more stuff!!
We also stopped by a mall with Legoland and a new Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, and opposite that mall is Fuji Broadcasting Station.
Saw this gorgeous fountain in one of the malls at Odaiba.
Also chanced upon an exhibition of vintage cars which I love.
This is the famous ferris wheel in Odaiba, but we didn't manage to take it as it only opens at 5pm.
And passed Zepp Tokyo, a famous concert arena.
After that, my friend and I headed our separate ways. I took the train from Tokyo Teleport Station to Shibuya, and the journey only took 20minutes! Teleport indeed.
I wanted to go back to Shibuya because we missed the Tokyu Food Show on the first day. Managed to get some really nice taiyaki as well.
Then went to the famous Shibuya Tower Records. I spent nearly an hour there, just exploring the large 7 floor building.
I then went hunting for a proper sushi bar since we hadn't had any and managed to find one which served really really good sushi that is prepared right in front of you!
And then headed back to the hotel for the last night in Tokyo as we were heading back to Seoul the next day, which will be documented in Part 3.