Last Day in Tokyo

Can't believe it's my last day in Tokyo already!!! Our flight is in the noon, hence we have the morning for one last of feasting and last minute shopping. So we went back to one of our favorite ramen store at Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane), Shinjuku. Blogged about this store on my first day in Tokyo, can check it out at http://lifewithjacee.blogspot.sg/2014/07/tokyo-day-1-2.html.

Signature Roast Pork Ramen

 This time round I tried their signature dish, the roast pork ramen! Was so satisfied with their roast pork the other time we were here, so i decided to have a bowl full of their signature roast pork this time round! The whole bowl of goodness only cost 890 Yen and I was super satisfied and full! :D

After which, we then took the train down to Harajuku for last round of shopping, and of course not forgetting my favorite crepe topped with ice cream! Harajuku is filled with stores selling crepes and every store sells great crepes around Tokyo, so you can just pop by any store and get nice desserts anytime of the day. I personally prefer soft crepes and I was so elated when I can just get them easily everywhere around Tokyo! I had almost 1 every day *guilty max*

Did some shopping in daiso and bought some cosmetics before taking the subway back to hotel and packed our stuffs. Ended up having a fully stuffed luggage and also had to hand carry some stuffs back cause we bought too much stuffs!! Took the express train to the airport, got our suica card refunded and went on to check in our luggage. As we got some spare time, we then shopped around the airport and ended up getting more food and souvenirs (packed ramen, royce chocolates, kit kat, biscuits etc) before settling down at their food court for lunch. There's really a lot of shops in the airport and if you had no time or have forgotten to get souvenirs for your friends and family, you can do it at the airport!

Slowly made our way to our gates with such nice view along the way! As I'm blogging now, I'm missing Tokyo soo much!! Can't wait to plan our next trip there again~ Till the next trip, I'll miss you Tokyo!!

If you guys have any recommendations on where to visit next in Japan, do let me know! (:

Tokyo Day 4

Woke up pretty early today to visit the Tsukiji Fish Market. Tsukiji Market (Tsukiji Shijo) is a large wholesale market for fish, fruits and vegetables in central Tokyo. It is the most famous wholesale market that handles the distribution of fish, meat and produce in metropolitan Tokyo. The market is also best konw as one of the world's largest fish markets as many have seen on news or travel variety shows.

We took the JR line and dropped off at Shimbashi and reached the market within 15 to 20 mins of walk from the station. The first sight of the market was overwhelming as it was really HUGE! People and trolleys were moving around and everyone was so busy. Kind of like our local Singapore wet market but 20 times the size of it with much more fish stocks and bigger in sizes too! The market is being sectioned into different areas, mainly the inner market (for whole sale business and tuna auctions which are restricted to authorized personnel only) and the outer market (where retail shops and restaurants are located and opened to the public). The whole market was so lively and busy and everywhere you turn you can see boxes and boxes of fishes. We wanted to try out at one of the restaurants for fresh sushi and sashimi, but the queue outside each shop was horrifying! Even so early in the morning, the place is already filled with tourists! We decided to walk around and buy some snacks along the way instead.

 Have no idea what this is called, but it's just a mixture of seafood grilled in a clam shell. The seafood was so fresh and it tasted so delicious!

 All seafood are freshly captured from the sea, prepared and grilled on the day itself!

 Steam egg! We bought one and finished within seconds and couldn't resist to get another one! The steam egg was so smooth and bouncy and it tasted just right, especially with it just freshly out from the steamer~

Fresh fish roe for sale!

Dried squid to go with beer~

Beef parts sold in one big chunk! :O

 Decided to stop by one of the shops outside the market to have Ebi Tempura Udon! You can choose what ingredients you want and also if you wanted udon or soba. We were lucky to get seats at the counter as some people after us had to stand to have their food. But I guess it's part of the local culture as it seems quite common for the locals to stand and have their food.

After which, we then took the subway down to Shibuya to shop around the big departmental stores.

 And a little break in between to rest our feet and enjoy the scenery from the tall building!

 

The view from the toilet inside Takashimaya building!

By far the best ramen I had throughout the trip!! I finished the whole bowl of ramen, even every single drop of the soup!! We stumbled upon this shop as the pictures got our attention, turns out it is my favorite ramen place now!

 

 

The shop is rather small so during peak hours do prepare to share table with others or have to eat separately with your friends. As usual, you choose and pay for your food from the vending machine and the prices of the ramen ranges from 770 yen to 990 yen. The noodles are freshly made and the soup is filled with pork flavour but not the porky smell in it. The broth is so rich and delicious especially matched together with the soft and bouncy noodles, I just can't get enough of it!

And of course gyozas to go with the noodles! The gyozas tasted quite good too, it was crispy in the outer and juicy meat in the inside!

Kindenmaru Ramen Restaurant 金伝丸

Shibuya 2-9-2 Dogenzaka 

It is located less than 100m from the Shibuya crossing, proximately 5 mins walk from the station.

Definitely would recommend my friends to go visit this shop if they are within the area! By far the best ramen soup base that I had! Too bad I only chanced upon this store on my last night in Tokyo, if not I would visit this place at least 2-3 times. Haha!

After dinner, we continued to shop around the area before taking the subway back to hotel and back our luggage.

Will do a short update on my last day in Tokyo before flying back home. Stay tune! (:

Tokyo Day 3

Woke up early and took the subway down to Asakusa to visit the Sensō-ji Temple, also known as Asakusa Kannon Temple. It is one of Tokyo's most colourful and popular temple. It is also Tokyo's oldest temple, and one of its most significant.

Kaminarimon Gate

When approaching the temple, you'll be able to see the Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate), which is decorated with a big lantern in the middle and statues by the side. It is the outer gate of Sensoji Temple and also the symbol of Asakusa.

Symbol of Asakusa

Nakamise Shopping Street

 Between the first and second entrance gate before the temple, there is a 200m shopping street called Nakamise which sells a lot of souvenirs and local traditional snacks. The price of the items sold there are quite pricey as it is mainly targeted at tourist.

The second entrance gate

After walking through the 200m shopping street and passing these two entrance gate, you'll be able to see the temple.

After walking through the gate, you'll be able to see the temple's main hall and this five storey pagoda.

Tying my bad lot for remediation

Around the temple you can pray and draw divination sticks. All you have to do is drop 100 Yen and make a wish before drawing a divination stick. There are explanations for each lot beside and all lots are written in Japanese, English and Chinese. As we were roaming around, we saw some people tying their lots on this board and we were curious about their actions. Luckily we managed to meet a primary school teacher there and he explained to us that if we were to get a bad lot (不吉/下签) then you can tie your lot on this board so that it will not come true. If you got a good lot then you should keep it so that you can bring the good luck back!

Skytree Tower

 If you have the time or wants to enjoy the whole Tokyo scenery, you can visit the Tokyo Skytree which is just a short walk from the temple. We had plans for other programs hence we gave it a miss. (Do leave a comment and let me know how was the experience if you guys have been there before!)

We randomly stopped by a restaurant that serves sushi on a conveyer belt which apparently is a form of fast food sushi and is very common in Japan. We had a few plates of sushi and sashimi before resuming our shopping.

A picture speaks a thousand words

 After leaving Asakusa, we then took the subway down to Ueno to visit the Ameya-Yokochō market. Ameya-Yokocho is an open-air market next to Ueno station which sells fresh fruits, dried food, clothes, bags, cosmetics etc. It is a long stretch of shopping street and is very packed with people even on a normal day.

Look how huge their fruits are!!

And huge fresh seafood!

 There's many stores along the street that sells delicious food! We couldn't resist temptations and sat down at one of the stores and had some fresh seafood.

Octopus Balls

 After finishing eating and shopping at Ameya-Yokochō, we then head down to Akihabara where it is an area famous for its many electronic malls. Once you walk out of the station, you'll be surrounded by many tall shopping malls and all kinds of gadgets and electronic items. We started walking around to search for cheap deals and accessories for our gadgets and finally stopped for dinner after 3 hours in the malls.

At the top floor of Yodobashi-Akiba, it is filled with lots of restaurants and food stalls. Unfortunately we clashed into their rush hours where people just ended their work and are out for dinner. Hence everywhere was soo packed and waiting time is super long. We managed to get seats at Chabuton and quickly sat down and ordered our food.

Extra Spicy Seafood Tomyum Ramen

Gyozas!

Was pretty satisfied with the food as it really tasted quite nice and is very affordable! After filling our stomach, we then finally ended our day and took the subway back to hotel and had a good onsen in the hotel before crashing into bed!

Hakone Day 2!

Woke up to a nice weather and we were able to see Mt Fuji from the balcony of our hotel! It was covered by the clouds yesterday when we arrived. The view is so magnificent and I could just spend the whole day looking at it. And me in my sleepy mode (STILL) just happily enjoyed the view and forgot to take any photos of it! We then checked out of the hotel and waited for the bus right in front of our hotel to Gotemba Premium Outlet. The bus will stop right at the entrance of the premium outlet and the journey from our hotel took about an hour. However you can enjoy great scenery along the way as it goes up the mountain. And of course closer and clearer view of Mt Fuji which totally awed all of us as everyone in the bus was screaming and pointing outside.

Gotemba Premium Outlet

Mt Fuji from Gotemba Premium Outlet

Mt Fuji showing her beauty!

The design and concept is the same as the Johor Bahru Premium Outlet Mall but definitely there is more stores here! The weather was just nice and every store was having big sales that we got a bit out of control!!

After an hour or so of shopping, we decided to stop by the food court to have lunch. The food court is very spacious and filled with many variety of food.

Pork Ramen

Grilled Beef with rice!

 Though we were all full from the ramen, we just had to order this XL Grilled Beef! It smelled so nice when we walked past the store and there was a long queue. You can choose the size of the beef and we took the XL one to share. The beef is so tender and well marinated! Would definitely have this again if I were to come back!

We finished walking the whole place and finally ended our trip at the premium outlet after close to 5 hours of shopping! At the end of our shopping, everyone was happily filled with loots and grinning because of all the good deals we got. We waited at the same spot for the bus to Gora Station where we will be taking the Tozan Train back to Hakone-Yumoto Sation and then changing to the Odakyu Express Train back to Tokyo.

Hakone-Yumoto

Seafood Claypot Udon

As it was still early, we decided to check out the area and also find some food to fill up our stomach after using up all our energy shopping earlier. Randomly went into a restaurant and ordered some food as many of the shops are either closed or preparing to close as it was going to 6pm.

Romancecar

As we were all worn out from a whole day of traveling and shopping, we decided to top up for the Romance Limited Express where we can enjoy a comfy seat all the way back to Shinjuku station! We each topped up 890 yen and got allocated a seat each. Totally enjoyed the journey back as the seats are so comfy with huge leg space and the whole train cabin was so quiet (probably because everyone was soundly asleep too). I slept like a baby throughout the 1hr plus journey back and because the limited express stops at fewer stations, there is less disturbance of people boarding and alighting. Would totally recommend the Romancecar if you are traveling to Hakone!

After alighting at Shinjuku, we then took the subway back to the hotel. We checked in back to the same hotel we booked earlier before we left for Hakone. (Can check back on my earlier post if you're interested to know more about the hotel -> http://lifewithjacee.blogspot.sg/2014/07/tokyo-day-1-2.html)

As we were all tired, we just went to a nearby restaurant and grab some food before crashing in bed!

More updates on my remaining trip in Tokyo, so do stay tune! (: