Day 9: Shinjuku, Harajuku, Kabukicho

:( the week went back in a flash, we had so much fun, lucky for us, our flight home was at 11+pm, that means we have the full whole day in Tokyo still! :)

Our aim was to eat as much (variety) as possible today!

First destination was Takashimaya, where we had our yummy katsu ytd.

Comparing to ytd, its a much much better weather today.

charges of a hair cut in a salon near our hotel.

the pigeons in japan are all UBER FAT. haha. i bet they eat well too ^^

Chanced upon this Disney store in one of the shopping malls, IOIO, selling Toysfield Usagi.

Not a fan of this toy, but looks like alot of pple collect them. they have special editions of the toy and the most expensive i saw was about 1000 SGD! (59K yen)

and guess wat i found!

duffy bear!

If you have read my pre-trip post, you should know that i have been toying w the idea of visiting Disneyland Tokyo. However, as B is not a fan of such things (and the ticket being so expensive) i decided to pass.

And one of those things that i always dream of getting when i m there, will be Duffy bear!

dont ask me why i love duffy. its just cute. maybe because everyone have one, so i want one. lol.

more toysfield

look at the price tag. this cost a hefty sum of 59K yen. amazing.

Limited to 30 pieces. love this!

duffy!

B bought me a duffy bear for my super belated birthday present. Love it to bits. Its supposed to be a wristlet (with a super small zip compartment that can prob hold .. erm.. 3 coins) but i cant bear to bring it out!

So its been living on my bed since. :)

Here we are once again at Takashimaya's basement. Like i mentioned earlier, if you want variety, this is the place to go.

Tu。日限定品 means Limited to Saturday & Sunday only.
All sorts of grilled stuff. yums.
woah.. $10 a stick.
Bean croquette

Black pork katsu. also limited to sat & sun. I guess, it will be a good idea to visit on weekends then :)

Melon bun! Just want to see if this is better than the one we had at Asakusu which was mind blowing.

Itadakimasu!
Verdict - A big con of eating at the basement is that, the food are mostly cold :(

I guess its because locals will buy the food back and heat it up first. So, although the katsu we bought was nice and tender, but it tasted oily cos it is cold already.

Expensive juices. Very tempting tho.


And the melon bun at asakusa taste better than the one we bought today. Because the filling for this one is too sweet and artificial.

some very nice prawn crackers we brought back as souvenir. yums.



In search for Airport Limo counter in Shinjuku.

It is located at Shinjuku Station West Exit, operating from 4.30 AM to 11PM.

The boarding point of the limo is very near to the ticketing counter as well.

The website accepts online reservation but most of them are in Japanese. Otherwise, you can make reservation via phone. Better still, if you are staying in a few hotels that they are liasing with, you can book your ticket with your hotel & they will even pick u up from there!

schedule of the limo
takes about 40 mins to reach haneda airport.

1200 yen per ticket. Less than 20SGD. Pick up location is just outside takashimaya.

Settled the ticket for tonight, a load off our chest, we headed again to Harajuku!

spotted a really kawaii girl doing photoshoot. B had to take a pic of her to answer to his buddies in SG.

crowded on a sunday afternoon. so different from sat night.
beware of touting by these men standing along the road. they can be really aggressive. just say no politely if u are not interested in what they are offering. And try not to speak to them in English, if they know you can speak their language, they will bug you more.

there's a long q here. just wat are they queing for?

bakudantei giant takopachi! one of my favourite japanese snack!

but, will a jumbo one be nice? *dubious* u know how some pple use the 'XXL' as the selling point but taste is compromised. but B swears by it.

another kawaii girl that he had to take picture of. -.- so disrespectful to me. =/

I bought a lot of nice and affordable accessories from here.
argh.. ok.

alot of bonito flakes!

the size of it is prob larger than a baseball. It is very flavourful, and with each bite, it surprise me, cos there's so much ingredients in this jumbo ball!

See the picture above.

Very yummy! definitely a must try! It can be quite a wait, we waited for about 15 mins but we like it fresh. :)

Lots of cosplay shops.

Many crepes shops too.

Where the budget pple should go. Can get plenty of trinklets.

even the staff of the budget store is so fashionable

i wonder do they dress up like this in summer too.
this guy was dancing in one of the store. how cool is that?

B taking photos of girls again.
Try the small lanes behind the main harajuku area (aka opp. topshop stretch) you may be able to get some surprise finds in the boutiques.

The loots here are not necessary cheaper, but they are more unique and exclusive, so prepare to pay.

funky!

As we stroll along the lanes, we found a hidden gem. Saw a small queue outside this shop in a quiet lane.

巴文 大判焼. Selling freshly made japanese pancake with fillings.

Sakura flavour costs 180 Yen- i wonder how does it taste.

walked away w 2 flavours, custard & macha with red bean.
makes a really good afternoon tea snack. generous and mushy filling of red bean in a warm,chewy pancake.

gooey custard.

i think i prefer the conventional red bean more. :)

down it with a suntory apple juice from a vending machine nearby.

this.is.life.

after this tea break. its time for some shopping! no pictures until dinner time back in Shinjuku.

Finally patronised this Sushi shop (sorry, forgot the name of this place, its call Tsukiji something) that we pass by almost everyday.

Take note: Unlike in Singapore where most of the prices on the menu is for a pair of sushi, the price on the menu for quite a no. of restaurants in Japan is for one piece only.

I think in sg, this only happens for more up-scale and authentic sushi restaurants.

anyway, we just wanted to try and see how good is it. So we ordered one each.

Not fair to judge the place based on 4 piece of sushi, but we were very satisfied at the quality of the sashimi. =D

Another place that we pass by everyday in Kabukicho which hypes up B, who has this soft spot for such "good deal"

u know why? This place above claims to serve Chirashi don for 390 yen.

having tried the best food for the past 8 days, and on the last night, i had to eat smthing that, hmm.. to be honest looks v dubious, i was actually quite relucant. but ok, since its 390 yen.

this was how it looks like. and for once, the food didnt exceed my expectation.

THIS IS BAD. BAD FOOD IS SIN. The ingredients are not fresh. enough said.

The honest opinion of B is that, its not too bad but because we had so much good food just before we came for this, it definitely stands to lose out. But still.

I don remember finishing this.

**

Enough for sushi/sashimi for the night! Dying for some Japanese curry before we leave~

We decided to be adventurous to try out this Curry House when there is not a single customer inside, located in the dark alley of Kabukicho.

it says, AUTHENTIC Japanese Curry.

usual suspects.

Its a cosy little shop that can house up to 10 pax at the same time.

We ordered a pork katsu curry to share. We were quite full already.

But this is good :)

makes my tummy happy after the somewhat disappointing "Chirashi don"

***

This marks the last bit of our 9D8N amazing Japan. :(

This was my first long trip, FnE. Thanks to B who made so much effort to plot his google maps, upload the maps into his phone for navigation, we almost didnt get lost.

Thanks to him, i had a worryfree trip, i can leech on to him to bring me to take the correct train, correct exit at the confusing train station. T.T

I am a lucky girl!

Back for more than 6 months, the scenaries of the temples,the breeze, taste and smell of the food is still vivid in my head. everyday i hope to wake up in Japan.

We will definitely go back to Japan again, because i m sure they are still loads and loads of thing we have yet to see in such a beautiful country!

Till then. ..