Sunday, July 23, 2017

(Japan Oct 2016) Day 12: Visit Tokyo

Day 12 (11 Oct 2016): Visit Tokyo. Stay Tokyo

Somehow, after visiting Tokyo so many times, I've still yet to visit Meiji Shrine.  Therefore, we decided to squeeze in a short visit to Meiji shrine in the morning before meeting my friend to go shopping at Harajuku.

One of the entrances to the long pathway to Meiji Shrine is located just a short walk away from Harajuku station. 
From there, it is about 10mins walk along the pathway to reach the shrine itself.









After about 10-15mins stroll, we reached the shrine.






After a short visit at Meiji Shrine, we started heading out towards Harajuku station where I'm supposed to meet my friend.



Harajuku station's train platform

Just across Harajuku station is Takeshita Dori.  

After meeting up with friend, we decided to go Yoshinoya for a quick lunch before going crazy in all those Johnny's related shops along Takeshita Dori.


Ok, lunch's over.  



Here's kinda when I left my hubby to walk around on his own while he went to catch Pokemon and taking down PokeGyms...and my friend and I went to the various Johnny's related shops.

You can see this shop selling tees, there's this tee of the dog which Takaki (from Hey! Say! JUMP) drew on Itajump as well as the Durian mascot for Little Tokyo Life tv program. Heh.

Here's 1 of the many shops selling un-official photos of the various Johnny's groups.  




This shop sells uchiwa accessories

 We also went to the official Johnny's store at Harajuku. 

The skies were dark by the time we were done with shopping.
Then I met up with my hubby after saying goodbye to my friend.





 This store along Takeshita Dori sells 1 of our fav snacks.  
The outside is crispy, while the inside filling is creamy custard. 
There's usually a queue outside the shop for this.





 After we are done with Harajuku, we headed back to Shinjuku, where we bought some food back to our hotel room to eat. 
Shinjuku

my dinner

Go next to Day 13: Visit Tokyo (Harajuku + Kichijoji)

Thursday, July 13, 2017

(Japan Oct 2016) Day 11: Visit Tokyo

Day 11 (10 Oct 2016): Visit Tokyo. Stay Tokyo.

From our hotel at Tsurumi (somewhere between Kawasaki and Yokohama), we shifted to a hotel at Tokyo Shinjuku where we will be staying for the next few nights.

Our hotel is a APA hotel located in the Kabukicho area of Shinjuku.  

After we deposited our luggage at the hotel, we slowly made our way through Kabukicho area while walking towards Seibu-Shinjuku station






Kabukicho

The building where Seibu-Shinjuku station is located at.  Seibu-Shinjuku station is slightly nearer to our hotel than Shinjuku station.




From Seibu-Shinjuku station, we took the train to Nihombashi station (with a transit at Takadanobaba station) to try to have lunch at a popular Omurice restaurant near Nihombashi station.

The place is called Taimeikan, and is famous for their Tanpopo omurice.  
From what I understand, if you don't want to queue, you can also have the omurice at their restaurant on the 2nd floor, but the prices on 2nd floor is more expensive than their restaurant on 1st floor.  



There was already a long queue outside the restaurant by the time we arrived in early noon.  
It took us around 45mins-1hr before we were finally seated inside the restaurant.





Tampopo omurice


There were still a long queue by the time we finished our lunch.

From Taimeikan, it is a short 5-10mins stroll to reach Tokyo station.

Along the way, we came across an interactive robot at a electronics store.


At Tokyo station, we spent some time at the Character street, shopping through the many cute shops.

















mezamashi-kun





































After we are done shopping at Tokyo station, we took the train back to Shinjuku station.












Hello Chinen




Hi Sho-kun!  Initially thought the product was sanitary pads, but it turned out to be eye masks. lol.



Hello Godzilla!
 Finally checked in to our hotel room when we arrived back at the hotel in the evening.