Day 6: Tokyo, Asakusa, Ikebukuro, Kabukicho

Of cos, i couldnt trust B to have the patience to complete the rest of the trip blogs, since it took him one month to complete one post. lol.

It has been 4 mths! I tot i had better finish it up before i forget the details. ^^

Our lunch place was at this famous Tempura place in Shinjuku, call Tsunahachi. There are other branches in Japan, but i heard this is the most famous one.

To get there:

from Shinjuku-dori, go down the small street to the left of Mitsukoshi - bento.com

We had a hard time looking for it. It better be good, we thought.

To be honest, i have never thought a Tempura set can be sold at this pricing? (One Tempura Zen is about SGD 31!) I was really skeptical but since we are already there, we have to try it.

The menu was quite limited. It was about lunch time at 1pm, first level of the restaurant was full so we were led to the second floor, which was pretty empty.

Level 2

I think we ordered a Hiru Zen and a Tempura Zen set. The tip is to go during lunch time for their lunch set, i m pretty sure the dinner pricing will be even more amazing.

Different flavour salts for your tempuras. Pepper, Wasabi and normal salt. Interesting.

The concept is that, they will first serve you soup and rice. And you will have this empty plate in front of you. They will start frying your tempuras, tong them to you when done, and after you finsih those pieces, they will send you another batch.

This way, the tempuras will all be very crispy instead of soggy as we go along. well done.

The food was really really awesome. But its still beyond me to pay so much for tempuras. =X Prob wont be gg back again. But if its your first time, i highly recommend this place for experience. :)

This is the remains of the bowl of miso soup. Look at the amount of clams they put in the soup, its no wonder its so sweet.

Some fancy tonic thingy, the obasan say its only for men. i am not sure how true. initially we tot its some kind dip. =X

**

Our first destination for today is my favourite place in Japan - Asakusa!

I have no idea why i am so excited about this place, prob because this is the only place i remember from my first trip to japan 12 yrs ago.

Subway to Asakusabashi & change to Asakusa line.

Directions for train changing

Asakusa rox!

Exit the station at A5 exit & 5 mins walk we arrived at the destination!

A must-take picture when we are there. The Japanese are very helpful when it comes to taking picture for us tourist. thumbs up!

The shopping street leading to Sensoji, the place i have been thinking about. I remembered there were loads of local snacks and it didnt disappoint :)

Our first snack - Red bean mochi w peanut powder. ~150Yen. Q and not too sweet. very yums.

oops.

My favourite Senbai aka roasted rice crackers! You know the wang wang crackers? These are the fresh ones. Gotta buy one of those when u are there. Theres a few shops there, pricing may differ, so better to compare first.

I bought one pc individually pack at 80Yen.

Handmade ones are slightly more expensive. 100Yen per piece.

Sakura still can be seen in Tokyo.

smthing tt caught my eye

Got the blueberry cream flavour. Nothing to shout about, just a nice icecream with waffle biscuit. 300Yen.

As we approach Sensoji, we were drawn by this sweet aroma. smell of freshly baked bread. so we followed the smell and found this really neat bakery tuck at the corner of the street, its called 花月堂

And so, i was researching on this place right now, apparently it is a really old traditional bakery that existed way back in the 1940s and the melon bun we had was the 名物， aka their most famous dish.

Tip: In Japan, if you see the 名物 in the signboard, it would means that it will be worth a try. But of cos, there will be lots of replicates of the most famous one around. so, go with your sense of smell and it will never go wrong!

And so back to the melon bun, altho we were quite full from all the snacks, baby is a big fan of melon bread, so we cant possibly miss it.

As we didnt know that the melon bread is the famous amos, we had to struggle between the apple pie (on top) or the melon bread (below). instinct told us to go w the bread. haha. and i m glad we did.

The eating area inside the bakery. Theres Q outside for takeout, inside is surpringly empty.

200 Yen for apple pie. gotta admit it looks great too. definitely gg back for tt.

baby say a good food pic must always be taken against a background of the place. oh there, the website is printed on the package.

Anticipating face.

Its awesome. really. like the inside is warm and fluffy while the outside is crispy and not too sweet. and e aroma of the melon makes it so irresistable!

Main hall of Sensoji. A stone throw away from the bakery.
Decided to draw a omikuji (written fortune) for myself.

Lot 62!
And it says a good fortune for work!

These pple are using the smoke from incense to "cleanse" for better fortune.

You may drink from this spring.

Looks like plastic but its real
Female carrying rickshaw, gotta be kidding.

After sensoji, B and i went seperate ways. i went to get my keychain omiyages while he continue food hunting.

Beef croquette.

supposedly famous.
When i got to eat this, it was already cold. but i remember it was quite tough.

Next destination, Ikebukuro
Got distracted by the sweets market in the train underpass towards Tokyu Hands.

Main street of Ikebukuro

People giving away free tissue packs.
For hello kitty fans

Not hard to locate the place.

Giant Takopachi stall. We passed for the last day at Harajuku which B said is nice.
Went to visit this cat's playland located at the top level of Tokyu Hands - Nekobukuro Cat's Playhouse

Basically, its a playhouse whereby you pay a fee of (1000Yen per person, or 1600 Yen for a couple) and u can play w all the cats in there.

All i can say is, the cats are all quite 'old' and unlike kittens they are not curious when u take toys to play w them. so basically they just keep hiding and refused to let us carry them :((( So its actually quite a waste of time.

After a disappointing one hour at the playhouse, i find myself being a bit giddy, tot i got tired from chasing all the cats then B reminded me tt we didnt have a proper lunch tt day~

Sweet him decided to buy me a terriyaki chicken burger at BK! haha.
Its quite yumz :) but tasted especially good when i m feeling hungry.

Then we headed to Namja town in Sunshine Plaza! Theres a link from Tokyu hands tt leads to SP.

Namco Namja Town is an indoor theme park that consists of theme dining, haunted house & other adventures.

Think we paid 2,500Yen each for the night passport since we went in after 5 PM. Usual price for adult is 3,900 Yen. This will cover all the attractions and rides within the theme park.

Gyoza street. You can find all kind of gyozas in here.
This is from the stall thats supposed to be No. 1! but nothing fantastic.

We ordered the meitaiko one (u cant go wrong w mentaiko) and it was yummy!

Would you eat those buns?

Can 4 pax really finish those?
Thirsty? Some old school ice sticks for u? :)

Bumped into one of the mascots on our way up to the ice cream museum! And they have really funky flavours..

from all these exotic flavours, we chose the Wasabi flavour & its nice! i m amazed. haha

We had a lot of fun at Namja town! But cos we went late, everything seem a bit rush =/

Dinner after Namja town was at this place where we tried looking for it the day before at shinjuku station, we heard theres alot of outlet, but we just couldnt find it.

His fav C&C curry (Shinjuku)
How nice can curry be right? i tot to myself. and i was so so wrong. this was rated as one of my most fav dish during e trip.

The pickles are yummy! i nv eat anything of those in sg. taste so diff The katsu is so crispy but not oily. curry is flavourful! YUM! 590 Yen

initally he will have this tot that two of us shouldnt share a meal, cos u know like everywhere is so crowded? But there are just too many things to eat, and if i were to eat a portion by myself, i prob will stuff myself to death.

so there are a few times, i suggested sharing, and i realise the waiters wouldnt give you a weird look, in fact, when they see that we only ordered one, he/she will pass us another set of utensils. so nice rite. i bet u cant do it in sg.

A leisure stroll to Kabukicho & Don quijote before heading back to hotel.
this drugstore sells really cheap SKII.
More on this Gindaco on the next entry. :)