Day 3, 4 and 5 in Tokyo - Akihabara, Harajuku, Shinjuku and Shibuya
As my previous post have mentioned, I'll be combining a few days into a post.
On the next day after my Ikebukuro trip, I was initially planning to visit Sensoji and Atago shrine, but it unfortunately snowed in the morning and I find it too cold for me to head out. I felt sick immediately after 5 minutes away from my room so I stayed indoors and wrapped myself like a burrito until 4pm.
Which means, I was initially planning to drop by Asakusa and earlier of day 3 I was planning to have a short visit to Budoukan but SNOW Y U DO DIS TO MY BODY
Anyways here is a video of the snow outside my room in the afternoon. It isn't the heavy type of snow in Ikebukuro, but in central Tokyo the snow piled up quite a bit and the trains have significant delays to either clear the snow off, or to perform safety checks. It's because it usually does not snow in Tokyo during November for the past 54 years. So I guess I had a fortune strike in a way too.
Anyways by the time I got to Akihabara, the sky has already turned dark and once again I lost like almost the entire day's worth of photo and videos except for that few photos that I uploaded on my personal Facebook account OTL I deeply apologize about it.
The first thing that I see when I got out from the train to Akihabara was nothing but a ton of gachapon machines! Right in the station itself! It was insane to see so many people trying their luck in gacha and I'm just staying around, contemplating on whether I should give it a try, which in the end, I didn't.
Later on I see huge banners of B-project everywhere and they are also having a display of illustrations in one of the SEGA arcades so I headed in right away because I like Nome from this series coughs \o/
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| B-project poster outside SEGA, Akihabara |
SEGA has a few floors of machines from crane machines to music games and even KanColle arcades! I walked around to find myself staring at this guy who has like super high accuracy and no-miss in the music game and I'm just gasping over how good he is. Later on I dropped by Matsumoto Kiyoshi to grab some heat pads because I stupidly forgot to buy them when I was in Ikebukuro, then wandered around different anime stores and grabbed a few things for my university classmate's birthday.
I spent a few hours taking photos around but eventually lost all of them. I also looked outside of AKB48 cafe and the Gundam cafe that is right beside it before heading back to Itabashi to have a nice bath and good night's sleep, because on the following day, I'll be moving to Shinjuku!
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| AKB48 Cafe in Akihabara |
And you have NO IDEA on how excited I was when I see FFXV posters EVERYWHERE in Akiba. \o/
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| Final Fantasy XV poster in Atre 1, Akihabara |
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On day 4, I checked out at 10am and moved to Shinjuku. My host's place is about 8 minutes of walk from the JR Shinjuku station. Upon checking in, I also took my time to make breakfast and chit-chatting with my housemate from China. Later on when I've finished unpacking, I have another housemate from Mexico moved in, so we had udon together at Shin's Udon. Their udon are handmade and are very smooth! I ordered the simplest menu item (with only egg and sauce) and it's already very delicious!
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| Udon in Shin's Udon |
After our lunch, we went onto separate ways. I visited Meiji Jingu, then walked all my way to Harajuku! Meiji Jingu is so huge and very beautiful that I've spent hours walking around. Before going further, I bought an omamori for good luck. And right after my purchase, as I turned around I witnessed a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony and I felt really lucky on that day!
Besides buying an omamori, I also attempted omikuji in hopes to receive a guidance for my future career. However, the omikuji from Meiji Jingu does not tell you what kind of luck you obtain. It gives you a phrase and you'll be the one trying to understand it, so whether it's a good or a bad one, it depends on how you think about it. I was advised to learn the philosophy of water, where I shall learn to be flexible depending on various situations (like how liquids takes the form of its containers), and also have the strength to make a crack on stones. My friend does not think that I got something good, but I find the advice very helpful and being someone flexible has been what I wished to become. :)
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| The Torii near Yoyogi entrance of Meiji Jingu |
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| Japanese Traditional Wedding Ceremony in Meiji Jingu Shrine |
Besides, it's also the time for shichi-go-san (7-5-3) which is actually some celebration for children of the age 3, 5 and 7. The kids will usually be dressed in pretty kimono (for the girls) and hakama (for the boys) and are accompanied by their parents and/or grandparents to shrines for prayers and receiving blessings.
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| Chrysanthemum exhibition in Meiji Jingu |
Besides, I also made it to see their chrysanthemum exhibition and their flowers are so huge! Unlike the ones I've seen in my hometown, the sizes of the flowers in Japan are just incredibly huge that I was surprised. The exhibition was for a limited period of time and it's almost ending when I was in Meiji Jingu, so I snapped a few photos before I get out from the Harajuku station exit. I took some rest before continued walking and reached the famous Takeshita street of Harajuku!
This is where you find people wearing lolita dresses and have incredible sense of fashion. There are also stores that sell various kinds of food, snacks, anime products and innerwear. Sales of winter apparel are also ongoing everywhere as I walked as well.
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| Takeshita Dori, Harajuku |
And when we are speaking about Harajuku, of course we aren't going to miss talking about purikura! Currently, there's a collaboration of various companies with purikura that is named Cinderella Time where you will be escorted by one out of 3 princes (more coming soon, apparently)! I was in Harajuku alone so I felt weird for doing it myself and my friend planned to do it with me later when I arrive Osaka so I left the purikura shop and headed for more food.
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| Cinderella Time Purikura |
Right after, I headed to Marion Crepes and Angel's Heart for some crepes. I was being really, really indecisive on whether which shop I should go. They have SO MUCH on their menu and I was walking between these two shops to pick a favorite but I really couldn't as I see people making orders I started to freak out like
HOW DO YOU GUYS MAKE A DECISION SO QUICK THEY ALL LOOK SO GOOD
I initially thought of getting two crepes, one from each store, but I don't think I could manage to finish them so in the end... I went with Angel's Heart because they have THIS:
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| Menu item #9 at Angel's Hearts |
Like daaaayum gurl, who would resist it when there's matcha ice cream AND matcha cheesecake in the same menu item and why didn't I pick it earlier right away OMG and so I did, it costed me a little lesser than 600 yen but it tastes SO GOOD. The sweet and salty flavor between the ice-cream and the cheesecake are heavenly that I'd eat the same menu item again when I get back to Harajuku in the future. Angel's Heart has stolen my heart with this menu item. \ o /
I walked to the end of the Takeshita Dori and was hoping to find Design Festa Gallery, but I feel really tired so I dropped by Starbucks to find out that my Malaysian Starbucks Card could not be used in Japan. MALAYSIA WHY. JAPAN WHY.
And found out that the pricing in Japan is actually higher than Malaysia and I deeply appreciate for being born in Malaysia where food items are cheaper compared to Japan (though it's actually increasingly expensive thanks to taxes and exploitations) :'D
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| My Order with Starbucks Harajuku |
I gave up finding Design Festa Gallery because it's also almost reaching the closing hours (40 mins before closing to be exact) so I walked back through the Takeshita Dori to find many shops are starting to close as well.
Mind: JAPAN Y U CLOSE YOUR STORES SO EARLY???
And because Yoyogi park is open 24/7 since they are everyone's park, so I decided to walk inside and sit around when I get tired. As I go around I see many little groups of people practicing their dance moves or skateboarding and they are so cool! I feel shy to walk up to them and give compliments so I watched their practices from afar. Then as I continue walking I realized that I no longer have an idea on where I was, so I had to stop a few runners and ask for directions to the exit so that I can walk to Sangubashi station and walk home.
And because Yoyogi park is open 24/7 since they are everyone's park, so I decided to walk inside and sit around when I get tired. As I go around I see many little groups of people practicing their dance moves or skateboarding and they are so cool! I feel shy to walk up to them and give compliments so I watched their practices from afar. Then as I continue walking I realized that I no longer have an idea on where I was, so I had to stop a few runners and ask for directions to the exit so that I can walk to Sangubashi station and walk home.
However, apparently, many of the runners are telling me that the Harajuku station exit is actually a lot closer because I told them I wanted to return to Shinjuku. I didn't want to take the train, so I insisted that I wanted to go to the Sangubashi station and they pointed me the direction anyways.
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| Yoyogi Park |
It took me about 45 minutes to walk home because I missed a few intersections, but I arrived my room before 10:50 pm and found two new housemates from Australia and Philippines. As for my Mexican housemate, he asked me if I wanted to go to Roppongi to club and he hasn't been back until the following day. LOL.
I bought some bathing salt and used them to soak in the hot tub for hours and had a really nice sleep. Apparently, according to my Australian housemate, I might get veins on my legs if I do that but I didn't really care. After my bath I didn't see any veins that are obviously shown on my feet so... meh.
And on my last day in Tokyo, which is day 5, my Airbnb host allowed me to check out late so I was allowed to leave my luggage in the room until I get on the night bus to Nagoya. So in the morning, I had onigiri as breakfast, a raw uni don (sea urchin, tasted horrible to my taste buds) and walked around Shinjuku station. Although my first stop was actually Sekaido, I spent my time shopping in OIOI (Marui) shopping mall in Shinjuku because they had this Harry Potter exhibition and I spent about 3,300 yen on the goodies, mainly on clear files and washi tapes. I bought a Hedwig clear file and the rest of my clear files are actually on Fantastic Beasts. As for my washi tapes, 3 of them are from Fantastic beasts and the rest are from the original HP series where they scream STUPEFY and I bought them immediately lol. I was also entitled to a lucky draw upon spending above 3,000 yen and won myself a Harry Potter postcard. If I were lucky enough I could win either 3 or 10 postcards but shucks, my luck was just bad.
I also spent a good two hours in Sekaido afterwards to buy art supplies for my siblings and I don't wish to declare the amount of money spent here lol. There were actually clear files of Mona Lisa so I had a good laugh with my brother over a video call. And later on, I walked to Shinjuku Gyoen and I was amazed by the amount of people here at 3pm. I walked around the park and admired over their gardens (especially their Japanese garden). There were children running around and families having picnic too.
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| A small part of the Shinjuku Gyoen |
There's also this sakura tree called Fuyu Sakura that bloomed and I was lucky to be able to snap a photo of it. I showed it to my friend Komori and he seemed rather surprised and also very amused over the fact that such tree exists. His reaction was golden.
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| Fuyu Sakura in Shinjuku Gyoen |
Another reason why I liked Shinjuku Gyoen is that, when I stepped into this place I feel that I have left my stress behind me upon seeing the beautiful trees and scenery. Many of the trees are turning orange-red (though there are also green ones) so the view was really great. I also wanted to come to this place because there was a person told me that if the world is ever going to end, Shinjuku Gyoen would be the place that he wished to spend his last minutes of life. I figured that the place must be beautiful, that's why I came and it IS indeed beautiful.
After finally finding a spot to sit and roll around the grass (yes I actually did that) the announcer was like "Thank you everyone for visiting our garden. It is now 4pm and the gates will be closed at 4:30 pm". Because the spot I found was actually 5 minutes of walk from the exit, I stayed in the park until 4:15pm and used their washroom before leaving lolololol
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| Was definitely not very glad that the announcement happened |
Since I still have quite some time to spare before my night bus, I went to Shibuya to look at the Hachiko statue as well as the insanely-crowded cross road. I have also sat around Hachiko statue to look at the people around, as well as sitting in front of the JR Shibuya station and watch advertisements on the giant LCD screens. There was GRANRODEO promoting their new album and I got so happy that I've been sitting there just to wait for their advertisement to be played again!
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| In Shibuya's TSUTAYA |
I also crossed the super crowded crossing to walk to TSUTAYA to look for some CDs for my friend, as well as getting an iTunes card for my iPad. Somehow, their system had an error that one of their CDs are seemingly in stock in their database, but they could not find any in the store. You can also drink Starbucks while looking at the people crossing the busy roads but the window seats were all taken on the day too. :(
So after spending an hour in Tsutaya, I went back to Shinjuku via JR line and had my dinner in Hanamaru. I bought the usual food that I'd eat in Malaysia - Warm Ontama Udon with fried chikuwa. I also bought two additional onigiris to eat in the bus just in case I got a gastric on my way to Nagoya. After that, I got back to my room, packed the stuff that I bought together in a single luggage and slowly walked back to the Shinjuku station. On my way, I also bought a bottle of vitamin C drink to prevent myself from falling sick.
These illumination are just right beside my express bus terminal! I spent a few minutes staring at the pink lights, and went up to finding my bus platform. I arrived about 30 minutes earlier than the boarding time so I was really, really bored. Thankfully I brought enough of powerbanks (yes, with an s. I have three of those. lol) to charge up my pocket wifi and my phone so I was able to play games and talk to my friends until I boarded the bus.
My travel to Nagoya was via a night bus with Willer Express, costed me about 4,550 yen. The trip took about 7 hours and we arrive around 6.15 in the morning. Due to some traffic conditions, the bus was late for 15 minutes but all is well. Between the earlier hours the bus also stopped for everyone that needed to use the public restroom or grab some drinks from the vending machine, but I was too tired to even get off the bus, nor using any of the washroom either. Initially, the trip was a little bumpy but I eventually slept through from 2am to 6am. The bus also had a charging port for each passenger, so I also managed to charge up my pocket wifi and my phone throughout my trip.
That's all for my Tokyo trip! I'll talk about my day in Nagoya in the next post!
Meanwhile, if you are interested in reading my previous posts, I'll drop the links below:
>>> Summary
>>> Day 1 and 2
Until next time!
