(Japan Jan 2015) Day 8: Kinugawa onsen to Tokyo. Visit Tokyo. Stay at Tokyo.

Day 8 (30/1): Kinugawa onsen to Tokyo. Visit Tokyo. Stay at Tokyo.

 This day's itinerary:
(Day 7 of our 14 days JR Railpass)
0800-0900 Breakfast at ryokan
0925-0940 (est) Took bus from ryokan to Kinugawa onsen station
0944-1004 Kinugawa onsen to Shimo-Imaichi via Tobu Kinugawa line (20mins, 250yen)
Took a short 3mins taxi ride from Shimo-Imaichi station to Imaichi station, then played with snowballs and snow outside Imaichi station while waiting for our train.
1045-1120 Imaichi station to Utsunomiya station via JR Nikko line
1134-1218 Utsunomiya station to Ueno station via Shinkansen
Went hotel for check in, while waiting for my cousin R and her bf PW to arrive Tokyo to join us.
1315-1400 Lunch at Ueno Park
Ueno to Shibuya via JR Yamanote Loop line (about 30mins)
Visit Shibuya (Disney shop, One Piece store, Pokemon cafe, Tokyu Hands store)
Shibuya to Ueno via JR Yamanote Loop line (about 30mins)

We woke up early in the morning, and it was snowing!! It was apparently snowing in Tokyo as well, but the snow would have already melted by the time we arrive at Tokyo in a couple hours' time.

Before leaving our hotel (ryokan), we had a set course Breakfast first.

After we checked out from the hotel, we took a short 15mins bus ride (which was delayed, so we arrived at the train station later than expected) to Kinugawa station with just about 3mins to spare to catch our train to Shimo-Imaichi station.  

Since the trains along this line runs infrequently, so it is recommended that you check the train timings (use hyperdia website) when you are planning your trip to visit places with infrequent train departure timings.

Arrival at Kinugawa onsen station, only barely had time to snap this pic before having to rush off again to catch our train.

Kinugawa onsen station.

Yey, managed to catch our train. 

Arrival at Shimo-Imaichi station.

 It is actually possible to walk from Shimo-Imaichi station to Imaichi station, but since there's 3 of us with our luggages, so we decided to just take a short 3mins cab ride from Shimo-Imaichi station to Imaichi station.

 There's about 40mins to spare while waiting for our next train at Imaichi station, so we dumped our bags, and started entertaining ourselves by playing with the snow and snowballs just outside Imaichi station. :)

At Imaichi station waiting for the train.

 We then took the JR Nikko line train from Imaichi station to Utsunomiya station where we then transferred to the Shinkansen (bullet train) to reach Tokyo's Ueno station where our hotel for the night is located at.  Trains along JR Nikko line runs infrequent departure timings too.

It was around 12noon by the time we arrived at Ueno. There were still remnants of snow from the morning snowfall but they have started to melt, thus the floors were really wet and slippery. Saw a guy slipped and fall, and I skidded a couple times as well.

We didn't had to wait for long till my cousin R and her bf PW arrived at the hotel to meet up with us. 

After dumping our luggages into our hotel rooms, we headed out for lunch at a panda cafe at Ueno zoo where I've previously visited back in Mar 2013.  It is located near JR Ueno station's Park exit. 

After lunch, we headed for Shibuya. 

Rainy day at Shibuya

We visited Disney shop, One Piece store, Pokemon cafe (only opened from Jan 2015 to Feb 2015), and Tokyu Hands store while we were at Shibuya.

Disney store

Then we went to Shibuya Parco for Pokemon cafe and One Piece store.

Queue is 2 and half hours.

While us girls were shopping at the Pokemon store, my hubby's out here catching a snooze. -_-

Since I've signed up for the Pokemon cafe queue via my email, so they will send an email alert to me once it's our turn, so we didn't had to physically stand in the queue while waiting for the 2hrs. 

Therefore we went 1 level down to visit the One Piece Mugiwara store.

This is their website (http://www.mugiwara-store.com/)

 They sell a variety of various One Piece merchandise over here, so I easily spent around 1hr ++ over here.

Ok, received an email alert, the Pokemon cafe is calling us! It's time!

Hehe...poor guys got roped in together with us to wear the Pikachu headbands.   :p

Noticed a Pikachu reading the menu in this pic?

Pancake

Saw these cute stickers for wall sockets, so of course I bought some. :)

Since I've visited Tokyu Hands multiple times on my previous trips, so I didn't really take any photos of my visit there this time. 

Time to head back to our hotel...

Go to previous blog entry: Day 7 Tokyo to Kinugawa onsen / 
Go to next blog entry: Day 9 Tokyo to Hakodate (Hokkaido).