(Japan Sep 2018) Day 3: Visit Kichijoji and Overnight bus from Tokyo to Sendai

Day 3 (17 Sep 2018) : Visit Kichijoji. 

Overnight bus from Tokyo to Sendai.

After checking out from our capsule hotel at Shinjuku, we brought our luggage with us and deposited it at coin lockers near the Bus Terminal side of Shinjuku station so that it will be more convenient for us to retrieve it later in the night just before we had to board the overnight bus near midnight.

We then arrived at the Shinjuku Takashimaya about 5 mins before the mall opens for business.

There was already a neat line outside the main doors by the time we arrived, and their staffs were offering small cups of drinks and sweets to all of us who were in the queue.  

This is what I love about Japan.  Top notched Customer Service! 

My shopping basket :)

Lunch at Ichiran Ramen

We spent a couple hours at Tokyu Hands and Disney store inside the Takashimaya dept store before going to my favourite Tokyo neighbourhood, Kichijoji.

From Kichijoji station, it's just a short 5-10mins walk to our destination, which is a hammock themed cafe. 

Time flies, and by the time we left the hammock cafe, the sky was turning dark. We strolled through the shopping streets near Kichijoji station.  

Unexpectedly, we came across a Kiddyland outlet, and there went another hour of shopping.

While on our way to look for dinner, we spotted this from across the road.

SHAUN THE SHEEP!! My husband loves this sheep! 

I grabbed Sandy and we crossed the road and headed straight to the cafe at 4th floor (remember, we just came out from the hammock cafe not too long ago) and ended up having cakes and drinks here.

We were led to this table at a corner, where there's a "friend" in halloween costume waiting for us. :)

I had chocolate cake.

After our 2nd consecutive cafe visit of the day, we walked back to Kichijoji station, and took a train back to Shinjuku station, since we still have an overnight bus to catch later in the night.

Remember the Tigger that we tried to catch but couldn't managed to catch on Day 1 of our trip?  

Well, we came across another machine that has that same Tigger too.  

And this time round, Sandy was adament that she really REALLY wants this Tigger.  

And so this time round, our strategy plan was that she feeds the coins to the machine, and I do the catching. :)

After about 1500yen, I finally managed to catch this for her! 

I actually took a photo of her happily hugging the Tigger, but she will probably kill me if I had posted that pic here. Heh.

Since we still had a couple hours to spare until we had to pick up our luggage and catch our overnight bus, so we went to a manga cafe for about 2 hours, and ate the Katsudon that we bought from the convenience store in our room here.

I love Manga cafes. But, since the staffs don't usually speak English (since they deal with mainly Japanese local customers instead of foreign tourists), so I would advise you to have some sort of basic Japanese knowledge before you visit one.

Manga cafes are walk-ins only, and you cannot make reservations beforehand.  There are many chains of Manga cafes, with the cheaper ones that are just seats in lounge or semi-enclosed cabins with board partitions, or there are the more expensive ones that has your own private sound-proof enclosed room.  Some outlets even have karaoke in the rooms too!

This particular one that we went have private soundproof rooms, so it is a tad more expensive than the usual, and instead of free flow drinks, they only offer us a 1 free drink coupon that we can use with their vending machine.

My late dinner early supper of Katsudon, bought from the convenience store next to the Manga cafe.

 After the manga cafe, we walked back to Shinjuku station to pick up our luggage from the coin lockers, and then went to the nearby Shinjuku Bus Terminal to wait to board our Overnight bus to Sendai.

This is actually my first time taking an overnight bus in Japan. 

Although I booked this bus from the WillerExpress website, but this particular bus that I am taking is not operated by WillerExpress.  

There are many overnight bus options, but for me, I would definitely want to have a toilet on the bus itself, so my choices were more limited than others who are not that picky.

There are many websites where you can book overnight buses in Japan, but if you only know English, then WillerExpress's website is probably a good place to start off with since the site is quite user friendly. 

The bus we are taking to Sendai

My seat.  There's a power outlet at every seat, so I could charge my devices while I sleep.

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(Japan Sep 2018) Day 2: Visit Harajuku and Shinjuku.

 Day 2 (16 Sep 2018) : Visit Harajuku and Shinjuku.  Stay at Tokyo. 

 This is the 1st out of a total of 3 visits to Harajuku during this entire trip.

Why so many visits? Well, that's because both of us wanted to visit the Johnny's Shop (official shop of Jpop Johnny's groups such as Arashi, Kinki Kids, Hey! Say! JUMP...etc...) at Harajuku.  

On this 1st visit, we arrived Harajuku too late and all of the queue tickets to enter the shop on this day have already been issued.  

 On our 2nd Harajuku visit, we were issued a 4pm admission queue ticket, even though we arrived before 10am, and so we left because we already had plans for later that day.

On our 3rd visit, we were issued a 3pm admission queue ticket, and we finally entered the shop close to 4pm, but inside the shop, the queue for the cashiers takes another 3 hours!!  

So we left without buying anything...  sigh...

Since most of the shops weren't even open yet by the time we arrived at Harajuku, so we went in search for breakfast.

Happened to come across this cafe in an alley between Takeshita dori and Omotesando, and I LOVED THEIR PANCAKES!!

Since we were early, there weren't a queue when we arrived, although a long queue had already formed by the time we were done with our breakfast. 

Our breakfast.

 After breakfast, we went to Kiddyland along Omotesando.

Kiddyland is a large toy store that spans across a few levels. 

Disney characters, Snoopy, Sanrio, Miffy, Totoro...and many more!

After Kiddyland, we headed back to Takeshita Dori opposite Harajuku station.

There's no way I am visiting Harajuku again on a weekend again!!

IT WAS SOOOOO CROWDED!!

We were so tired of the crowd (and also in need of a restroom that doesn't involve super long queue) by this time, so we stopped by a cafe in an alley off Takeshita Dori for a nice glass of Iced Cocoa.

After taking a 1 hour break at the cafe, it's time for us to head back out to join the crazy crowd again.

This time, the crowd seemed to get even worse (if possible)!  

There were even police in the crowd using loud hailers to try to divert the crowd off Takeshita Dori!

Harajuku station.

Hello NEWS! (another Japan idol group)

 There's a limited-time promotional cafe at Shinjuku that features Winnie the Pooh.  

We didn't eat at the cafe, but we did spent some time doing some Winnie the Pooh merchandise shopping though.  Hehe.

Check out all these cute items!!

Even though this is just the 1st full day of our trip, but we were both really tired out by this time (thanks to Harajuku) as well as really famished.

So, we splurged a little on our dinner at a Tonkatsu restaurant before returning back to our capsule hotel at Shinjuku for the night.

Shinjuku on a weekend evening.

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