Tokyo Shopping Hauls

Been wanting to write about this post for a while now but kept making up excuses lol. It is the middle of March and I am blogging about my trip back in January wtf.

Going there, I did not really have a list in mind about things to buy, well except for Emoda as I have read about it prior in Fourfeetnine and Cheeserland blogs.

I am quite shocked (and guilty wtf) about how much I have spend but there is also a huge sense of satisfaction when I see my loot from Japan.

Took me a long time to arrange all my buys so I can take a "group" pic. After I finish clearing up everything, I realized I forgot to insert my MUJI pillow inside so sad ok TT______TT.

First pic: Actually these are not my buys from Japan lol. They are souvenirs from HK by Suzy M. The pouch is real handy to store all my important belongings when I go for my lunch breaks :) 

Assortment of souvenirs from Asakusa and also pins from gatcha-gatcha that we spun at Tokyo, Hakone and also Kyoto.

Japan 2013 (A-5-5 Edition): Tokyo & Kyoto Travel Itinerary

I feel like blogging a summary of my Japan/Kyoto 2013 trip. Perhaps it will be easier for me to backtrack later on (if I ever needed to lol).

***

DAY 1: ARRIVE AT TOKYO

• Took an airport limousine from Haneda Airport to Shinjuku
• Purchase Tokyo Metro Open Pass (980 yen)
• Check in to Hotel Rose Garden Shinjuku
• Exchange our JR Pass at Shinjuku Station

#1: Shinjuku: Had breakfast at Yoshinoya, visited Kabukicho and Don Quijote.

Shinjuku

Exchange JR pass at Shinjuku Station

#2: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office: Amazing view of Tokyo from both North and South observatories for free :)

View of Tokyo

#3: Harajuku: Ate mille crepes and shop at Takeshita Dori.

#4: Tokyo Tower: View of Tokyo at night for 820 yen.

***

DAY 2: EXPLORING TOKYO

#5: Tsukiji Market: Queued for 3 hours to eat sushi at Sushi Dai. Best and freshest sushi ever.

#6: Asakusa Sensoji Temple and Nakamise Dori: Famous temple and its shopping street.

#7: Odaiba: Paid 620 yen to take the Yurikamome Line to Odaiba and had a night view of Rainbow bridge.

***

DAY 3: FUJI AND HAKONE

• Took a 1 day tour from Japanican.com to bring us to Mt Fuji and Hakone.
• We departed by bus from Washington Hotel Shinjuku.

#8: Mount Fuji first station: Due to weather conditions, only managed to go up to first station. We had lunch at Fuji Highland Resort and afterwards a cruise along Lake Kawaguchi.

#9: Owakudani Valley, Hakone: Had the famous sulphur longevity eggs here before the bus dropped us off at Hakone-Yumoto train station. We then took a bus to our ryokan guesthouse - Fuji Hakone Guesthouse.

***

DAY 4: FROM HAKONE TO KYOTO

• Took a shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto from Odawara Station using our JR Pass
• Arrived at Kyoto Station and then took JR Nara train to Fushimi Inari.

#10: Fusimi Inari Shrine: Rows and rows of red Torii gates makes a picturesque view.

#11: Kyoto Station: Worth visiting for its numerous shops and nearby underground malls.

#12: Gion District: To spot geishas and to see Kyoto at night.

***

DAY 5: TOURING KYOTO

• Bought the 1 day bus pass from Kyoto Station for unlimited rides on Kyoto Buses.

#13: Kiyomizu Dera: UNESCO Heritage Site and also visited nearby Jishu Shrine for the love stone.

#14: Kinkaku-ji: Also known as The Golden Pavilion, amazing scenery.

#15: Ginkaku-ji: It is called The Silver Pavilion, but not made from silver.

***

DAY 6: FROM KYOTO TO TOKYO

•  Visited one last place at Kyoto before taking our shinkansen back to Tokyo.
• Check in to Shibuya Granbell Hotel for our last night at Tokyo.

#16: Nishiki Market: To look at Kyoto's fresh produce and try their snacks.

#17: Meiji Jingu Shrine: Returned to Tokyo and visted the shrine dedicated to First Emperor of Modern Japan.

#18: Shibuya: Visited Hachiko dog statue and Shibuya crossing nearby Shibuya Station. Spend our last night shopping at Shibuya 109 mall, the 5-storeys H&M as well as Forever 21. Also had our Starbucks at Tsutaya building overlooking Shibuya Crossing.

***

DAY 7: LAST DAY AT TOKYO

#19:Tokyo Station: Had our transit here en route to Disneyland via JR Keiyo Line.

#20: Tokyo Disneyland: Took snapshots nearby the main entrance and shop for souvenirs here.

#21: Akihabara: Did some shopping for all kinds of electronic gadgets and products.

• Spend the rest of the day doing last minute shopping at Shibuya and Harajuku before taking the airport limousine to Haneda Airport for our flight back to KL.

***

BACK TO KL

• With numerous buys, photos and memories. Japan was awesome!

Day 7: The end of a beautiful and wonderful trip

Our last day in Japan. Quite sad because it would mean we have to return to our reality working life. The morning started with breakfast in the hotel. There were 4 choices of breakfast set meal.

Mine was Western

Clara chose Japanese

For our last day, we only have one sightseeing to do and then it was going to be a shopping day. We planned to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

Using JR Pass, we went to Tokyo Station to transfer to JR Keiyo Line and stop at Maihama, where Tokyo Disneyland is. The journey there was quite far. And there were many people aboard the train since it was a weekend, some clad in Disney-inspired accessories lol.

But before that, we took some pics in front of Tokyo Station. It is a really beautiful building with wonderful architecture. Reminded me of those colonial-style mansions.

Japan Day 6: Back to Tokyo

Today is Day 6 of CNY. Pretty soon will have to start work. Le sigh. Next public holiday in May. Y we no have public holidays every month lol *troll face*. 

Today went to watch "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters". Freakin' awesome movie love it! Jeremy Renner is also so awesome. Love him since I saw him in Avengers. If you don't mind gory scenes, then you have got to watch it.

***

Coincidentally, it is also Day 6 of Japan trip lol. In the morning, we decided to visit one last destination at Kyoto before heading for the train station. It was between Nijo Castle or Nishiki Market. In the end, we chose the latter.

Unique shop signboard

Since our train was leaving at 10am, we left really early to walk to Nishiki Market which usually opens at 9am. We actually got lost but a very kind passer-by taught us the directions although her English was not that fluent. Luckily, we managed to find it in the end.

The entrance to Nishiki Market

We actually arrived there before 9am so many of the shops had yet to open. But we just walked around and snapped some pics.

Unagi

Japan Day 5: Kiyomizu-Dera, Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji

Continuing on my posts about Japan 2013 while I am still in the spirit of blogging. Maybe coz I am still on my CNY leave from work. Most people are starting work on Monday but I took one more extra day, up to Tuesday. I am still debating if I had done the right thing. Lol. Even taking leave also makes me in a dilemma T__T.

***

Waking up to a beautiful morning from a good sleep at Kyoto Royal, we had our breakfast at a noodles shop. Cannot remember the name but it was a small shop with a vending machine that was supposed to take your orders. We had to select our menu which was written on the buttons, placed our money and then a ticket would come out. So, we have to hand this ticket to the person in charge who will then prepare our meals. But because we could not read the Japanese names on the buttons, the person in charge asked us to just choose from the menu and she will take down the orders for us lol.

 

My beef soup udon only 390 yen (~RM14). Nothing beats the feeling of eating a hot bowl of noodles during the cold winter.

Our first stop of the day is to Kiyomizu-Dera temple, part of UNESCO Heritage Site. I have seen pictures of this temple in many blogs and websites so I was quite excited to see it.

But first, we had to figure out how to get there. It was quite easy from the map given, we knew which buses we had to take and transfer but the flaw with the map was it didn't tell us which bus stop on which side of the road we have to go to. So, the first bus we took went in the opposite direction that we thought it will go. Although eventually we did reach our destination but it took us much longer than expected.

 

To go to Kiyomizu-Dera, we have to walk up a sloping hill. This really tested our stamina. Along the slope, we noticed a really pretty and quaint Japanese traditional house with an equally beautiful garden.

And this shop was selling all sorts of crafts with little monks theme like these statues outside the shop.

Japan Day 4: Journey to Kyoto

Day 4 at Japan started with us waking up to this wonderful view outside our guesthouse:

Yes, it was so cold outside but such a beautiful view, no? I think it would look even better during summer. Behind the bamboo fence lies the outdoor onsen that we had the privilege of enjoying the night before.

We decided to change our plans and to leave for Kyoto that very morning. Initially, I had planned for us to go sightseeing for Hakone but seeing how weather can be so erratic I didn't think it would be a good idea. If you would like to visit Hakone, it is advisable to get the Hakone pass which gives you free access to all modes of transportation within Hakone area. I think the 2-day pass costs 3900 yen.

We went to the Sengokyoro-mae bus stop and waited in the freezing cold for the public bus that would take us to Odawara station. No joke, it was so freaking cold just standing and waiting. When you are walking, you do not feel as cold but if you are just standing there...wtf. I think we waited for half and hour or so but it felt like hours.

At Odawara station, we changed our JR train tickets and opted for an earlier train to Kyoto. Hungry, we decided to have breakfast at Beck's Cafe.

My breakfast set that costs 610 yen (~RM21) but man, I was seriously craving for coffee

It felt awesome to have some western breakfast instead of always having onigiri. All the patrons were so disciplined even in the cafe. After eating, you are supposed to place all your cutleries and plates and whatever rubbish on the tray to be handed to a waiter standing behind the counter. 

After our hearty breakfast, we did some shopping at Odawara station before searching for our train platform. Actually, we got a little lost inside the station and by the time we reached our platform we were about 2 - 3 minutes late. To our disappointment, our train has already left. We were all like WTF? So we learned a lesson here: Japanese trains are very very very punctual!

We went back to the JR ticket counter and purchased another set of tickets to Kyoto. Lucky for JR pass if not we will have to fork out another amount of money (or no need? I also don't know). Fortunately, shinkansen to Kyoto runs quite often and within half an hour, there is another train so we didn't have to wait for long.

This also meant we had more time to camwhore at the train station wtf.

Japan Day 3: Mt Fuji and Owakudani

After spending two awesome days at the metropolis, it was time to head outside of Tokyo as we embarked on our journey towards Mount Fuji area, situated in Kanagawa prefecture.

We booked a one-day tour to Mount Fuji and Hakone via Japanican.com. They picked us up from Shinjuku Washington Hotel which then took us to the bus station at Daimon where a bus was ready to take us to Mount Fuji. There were a lot of foreigners inside the bus, that was the first thing I noticed lol.We also had a tour guide, Take-san, who started telling us an introduction about Tokyo and its culture as well as attractions.

Tokyo Tower during the day

Umbrellas

After having such good weather for 2 days, on our 3rd day we encountered a rainy morning. A rainy day at Tokyo meant that it was snowing at Mount Fuji and despite our excitement that we may see snow, our guide informed us that the roads may be in icy conditions and therefore the bus may not be able to take us up the road to Mt Fuji.

So excited to see the huge amounts of snow

The bus dropped us at Mount Fuji 1st station. It was supposed to take us up to the 5th station but as expected the road leading up Mt Fuji was closed so this was as far as the bus could take us. In total, there are 10 stations leading towards the peak of Mount Fuji. Take-san informed us that he has climbed Mt Fuji 8 times! Like wow!

Japan Day 2: sushi, temple and bridge

Moving on to our 2nd day at Japan. Because our Tokyo Metro pass was still valid today, we wanted to fully utilize it at Tokyo.

Btw around 5am that morning, we experienced a minor earthquake. I was actually still asleep but I could feel the bed shaking. It only lasted for a few minutes. I still did not get up from the bed even after the earthquake was over. I know =.=''

Our first activity of the day was to eat sushi at Tsukiji Fish Market. This is definitely the place to go if you are craving for sushi as they serve the freshest sushi ever! Around 5am, there is usually the tuna auction event and it is opened to public, but in limited number of people. Because we were all so exhausted from the day before, we did not managed to wake up early. In fact, by the time we reached Tsukiji it was already around 9am.

To go here, nearest station is Tsukiji-shijo which is on Toei-Oedo line. So again, we had to pay the fare which was 260 yen. You can take the Tokyo Metro line but will take around 10mins walk (according to Google Maps, which we know measures athletes' speed of walking lol).

PCK style

Walking towards the sushi restaurants, we saw lots of things selling at the market, including these cool fisherman boots lol.

Dorayaki

Doesn't this bring you back to your childhood? I still remember those times reading Doraemon comic books. Who doesn't love that magical cat with awesome magic pocket?

Japan Day 1: Tokyo is Love

This must be the first time I am actually blogging about a trip so soon. I miss Japan so much. It was so much fun and also to get to experience the winter (although it gave me flu and left me with dry skin and lips). Anyway, I am feeling spirited to blog about Japan so here goes. Lots of pics too, might take a while to load...

We arrived late Saturday night. Actually our flight arrived earlier than expected. First time for me, even flights to Japan are efficient like that. We debated for a while if we should go and explore Tokyo or just stay inside the aiport. Finally, we decided on the latter. Besides, Haneda airport has free wifi, so we weren't exactly bored the whole night either.

Illuminated lights at Haneda airport

Our first meal upon arrival at the airport

It was my first time staying overnight at an airport. It was unfortunate because I had flu even before coming to Japan and the anti-histamines I took made me so sleepy. So, I was able to catch some sleep at the departure hall. Turns out we weren't the only ones sleeping at the airport, it took us some time to find some empty rows of seats as most were already occupied.

Getting around Tokyo and Kyoto

Just came back from Land of the Rising Sun and I am so excited that I feel like blogging about it. I absolutely love Japan, the people are so friendly, the place is clean and just everything Japan is awesome except...the language barrier. Gosh, I should try learning some Japanese (or Korean first? *sigh*).

This time around I went to Japan with my former housemates of A-5-5 Plaza Prima Setapak. The last time we all went on a trip together was back in June 2011 to Taiwan. I was pretty excited since I have never been to Japan before but I have heard that visiting there is fun but confusing. So, initially when the group decided not to join any travel agencies but rather to walk on our own, I was pretty worried. But in the end I am glad we did decided to venture on our own. Of course, we had our own share of problems such as bringing our heavy luggage across train stations, getting lost when it came to searching directions of the places that we want to go and not knowing what to eat.

I took up the challenge of planning our itinerary in Tokyo and that means first and foremost I had to learn about the Tokyo subway lines.

***Here, I want to thank Stephy so much for helping to answer my enquiries about Tokyo since she went there in Oct 2012***

When I first saw it, my mind went blank and I ignored procrastinated it for a few days before finally taking up the courage to finally learn it. Omg, how can anyone understand this confusing map? 

Anyway from what I gathered, there are mainly 3 operating subway lines that me and my friends used. Tokyo subway is divided into the 2 main lines (and different companies) - Tokyo Metro and Toei-Oedo plus few private subway lines. Tokyo Metro consists of 9 lines - Ginza (G), Marunouchi (M), Hibiya (H), Tozai (T), Chiyoda (C), Yurakucho (Y), Hanzomon (Z), Namboku (N) and Fukutoshin (F) whilst Toei-Oedo consists of 4 lines - Asakusa (A), Oedo (E), Mita (M) and Shinjuku (S). There are also private lines such as Yurikamome and Rinkai which brings you to Odaiba (which is one of the main attractions that we visited).

We bought the Tokyo Metro 2-day Open Pass which costs 980 yen (~RM34) which allowed us access on any of the 9 Tokyo Metro Lines but not on the 4 Toei-Oedo Lines and also not for any lines owned by private companies. There is also the Tokyo Open Subway Pass which actually allowed access on all 13 lines but it is only for one day and costs 1000 yen (~RM35). Buying our 2-day pass meant that we had to pay fares to places which can only be reached by Toei-Oedo Lines such as Tokyo Metropolitan Govt Office observatories, Tsukiji Fish Market and Asakusa Sensoji Temple.

Another famous thing I have heard from many travellers to Japan is the JR Pass. It gives you access to any JR lines which are usually long distance trains. So, if you are planning to go to places such as Kyoto, Osaka, Hokkaido, Iwate, etc. it is advisable to get one of these. However, there are 6 types of JR Passes - the JR Central, JR Shihoku, JR Hokkaido, JR East, JR West and JR Kyushu. It is good to first look up which places do these passes covered before deciding which pass to get. We bought the main JR Pass as we were going to Kyoto. It costs 28300 yen (~RM1047) for the ordinary pass for a minimum of duration of 7 days.

You cannot buy the JR Pass in Japan. You have to purchase the exchange order first at your own country. But to do so, means you also have to do your visa first as they required a copy of it. After getting your exchange order you may then exchange it for JR Passes at any JR Exchange Offices located in main subway stations across Tokyo. We exchanged ours at Shinjuku station. Read more here: http://www.japanrailpass.net/

Besides travelling long distance across Japan, JR pass can also be used within Tokyo. The JR Yamanote line links several main stations such as Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Ikebukuro, Hamamatsucho, etc. At Hamamatsucho station, you can also use JR Pass to take Tokyo Monorail to Haneda Airport.

Navigating through the subway stations is actually pretty simple if you know beforehand which station you want to go. There are clear signboards (written in English too!) all over the stations. The only problem for us was knowing which exit to go to in order to reach the place of attraction. For that, you may need a Tokyo Map. If you don't have one, I highly recommend you pick up a Tokyo Handy Guide at the Japan Tourism Information Centre at Haneda Airport (the book in orange). It has a simple map of each major areas of Tokyo.

Also, in order to know the best transfer routes, you should definitely download iphone apps (I forgot which one my friend used, sorry!) that teaches you which lines you should transfer to get from one station to another. I used this website http://www.tokyo-subway.net/english/index.html which was so helpful for me in planning our subway routes.

That is mainly about our transportation in Tokyo. For Kyoto, we bought the All Day Kyoto Bus Pass which costs 500 yen (~RM18) that allowed us on any Kyoto buses within a certain area of coverage. However that area covers mainly all the famous tourist attractions so it is also a good idea to get one considering that you have to pay 220 yen each time you get into a Kyoto bus. If you don't like waiting around for buses, Kyoto has 2 subway lines - Tozai and Karasuma. You can also use JR Pass to access JR Nara Line that brings you to Fushimi Inari Shrine. Read more in here: http://www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/access/transport.html. 

When you purchase the bus pass, they will also provide a bus route map for you which will teach you which buses are available for you to transfer. But the problem we had with the map was it did not teach you which bus stop on which side of the road were we supposed to wait for =.=

Okay, that is all I know about transportation in Japan. Going to start my resolution to blog more ;)