It has long been a dream for me to be able to visit the country that has strongly influenced my lifestyle since childhood till present; but now, I can happily say that that dream has finally been fulfilled! Words cannot even express how happy and blessed I felt to finally have been able to visit Japan. And, I feel like if I had a past life, Japan would have probably been my mother country in that lifetime. I don’t know why–I just really feel some really strong sentimental connection with that country.
For a bit of a back story on how this trip happened: originally, the trip to Japan was just supposed to be a solo adventure trip for me alone, but I think my mom, aside from also wanting to take a trip to Japan again, also got a bit worried about me going alone and decided to book herself and my two sisters for the trip as well! haha! I’m happy either way, though! I know that both of my sisters have never been to Japan too, so I’m glad that I got the chance to share a first time experience in Japan with them as well.
Going on about planning our trip ..as with our trip to Korea, I was once I again given the responsibility of fixing our itinerary for our entire trip. This is actually task that I am very happy to take since I’m quite used to the process and the necessary information to research on. Aside from that, I also get a more in-depth ‘teaser’ experience of the trip, since I get a bit more of the background knowledge needed to know what to expect in the country.
This was how our seven-day itinerary generally set out as:
Day 1 – Arrival in Japan, Ueno, Odaiba
Day 2 – Meiji Jingu, Harajuku/Omotesando, Ginza
Day 3 – Shinjuku, Harajuku/Omotesando, Shibuya
Day 4 – Tokyo Disneysea
Day 5 – Akihabara
Day 6 – Tsukiji, Asakusa, Namikase Dori, Shibuya
Day 7 – Departure from Japan
Since there will be a lot to talk about regarding this trip, I will be dividing the information according to day. As much as possible, I will also try to post a vlog entry after each Day post (or at least after the complete blog posts), so please look out for that as well in me and my sister’s relatively fresh youtube channel (shall post the link next time)!
Our flight was scheduled at around 05:45am, so we were pretty haggard when we arrived at NAIA Airport at around 03:30am. We had a quick breakfast there, then left for our five-hour flight.
I’m not really used to eating according to a time that’s different from my body clock’s, so I felt really sick while I was on the plane bound for Japan. 🙁 It was my first time to experience some sort of difficulty breathing in a plane due to some sort of ..I actually don’t know what. I should get myself checked. :S I’m guessing that it could be from eating on a different time, apart from deciding to stay up late till the time to head to the airport. In addition, we also experienced prolonged turbulence in the plane, since it was the rainy season in Japan at that time, so I also ended up getting really dizzy. At any rate, enduring the five-hour long uncomfortable flight was well worth it, since ..well, I was headed to Japan, a.k.a. my dream country! ♥
On a walkalator in Narita Airport
Instead of taking a bus, we decided to take the Keisei Skyliner, since it was a bit faster. It cost us 2,470 yen per person for a one-way trip. We also decided to do this since the Skyliner is always bound for Ueno. We already had it planned in our itinerary to explore Ueno first before heading to our hotel in Ebisu, since check-in time was still at around 3:00pm, and we would have arrived in Ueno by around 12:15pm already with some time to kill. Along with purchasing a ticket for the Keisei Skyliner, we automatically purchased a three-day unlimited subway pass in the airport, since it was being sold at a discounted price, and we already knew that we would end up using our passes frequently upon arriving in Tokyo.
Riding the Keisei Skyliner headed for Ueno
Sight-seeing in Ueno, while trying to spot to eat lunch in at the same time.
Okay, my sister and I automatically looked at each other with an “about to laugh” face when we both saw this store at the same time. We just HAD to take a photo of it cause TEE-HEE. lol!
We actually passed by and entered a ramen restaurant before spotting Choco Cro, but we were too culture shocked and confused on how people order and actually dine in local restaurants, so we backed out and decided to go with a more familiar establishment first for us to kind of orient ourselves with the country. Not exactly the most adventurous decision–and we were starving (!)–but, it was enough of a place to go to for replenishing our energy for the afternoon.
I decided to order a matcha latte, a choco cro, and ..I forgot the name of the other bread (sorry!) for “lunch.”
Spotted a sushi UFO catcher while strolling around Ueno!
After lunch, we headed to the shopping street called Ameyoko afterwards to kill a bit more time before leaving for our hotel. Ameyoko, which located beneath the train tracks of the JR line, is a popular shopping street in Ueno known for having stalls selling various goods ranging from clothes, snacks, bags, dried goods, fresh goods, or even just some random interesting trinkets! I’ve read that it was once a black market during World War II. I guess it just sustained as an area known for shopping, and just continued to develop into the market area it is today.
ABC-Mart = ♥
If you plan to buy less expensive authentic sports shoes, I highly suggest you try shopping at ABC-Mart. They sell authentic brands like, Nike, Adidas, Skechers, Vans, Convers, etc. for a cheaper price, as compared to here in the Philippines.
Spotted kaizoku Luffy! ♥
After a bit of window shopping, we decided to head back to the station to go to our hotel. While walking back, we were able to pass by WHOLESOME Bread, which is known for selling really delicious cute-shaped bread! ♥ I was able to find out about this cute store through the guides in Our Kawaii Tokyo (thanks so much, Ashley and Kaila!).
Turtle melon bread!!! I adore you! 🙁
We finally headed for our hotel in Ebisu, and decided to take about an hour and a half break before heading to Odaiba for an evening tour. Upon settling and recharging ourselves at the hotel, we finally decided to set out for Odaiba. To get there, we had to take the subway line, and then transfer to a private line (which is the only line you can take to get to Odaiba–it’s a special line).
Rainbow Bridge on the Sumida River
Fuji TV Building
The night breeze was really cool by the river, and being near the ocean really gave off a fresh feeling. After about nearly an hour of walking around and taking photos, we decided to go into a mall to find a place to have dinner. (But, good thing we researched beforehand!) We headed into Diver City Mall to search for the maidreamin cafe that we noted in our itinerary!
I have heard lots of things about themed cafes in Japan, and maid cafes, I believe, are one of the most popular ones. I just knew that I’d have to try it out (even if a lot of people say it’s tourist bait! haha!)!
Magical Kitchen! 😀
Bottom (mine): Curry Rice + Melon Soda; Top (my sister’s): Omurice (bonus: Hello Kitty! ketchup drawing) + (I forgot the drink! Gomen!)
Cue: “Moe Moe Kyuuun~!” (Yes, we had to do that! lol!)
You can opt to wear animal ears when you dine in their cafe.
I’d have to say, the food here isn’t exactly off the charts, but it was okay enough to satisfy our hunger. It’s a bit pricey (about 1,600 yen per person) for the quality of the food, but I guess it’s well worth the new and unique experience (only in Japan!), and we were really really hungry, so yeah.
Spotted this glorious store stack of Rainbow Pocky while walking around Diver City Mall after dinner at maidreamin!!
A tour in Odaiba would never be complete without having seen the large-scale Gundam figure outside Diver City Mall! So, still without having checked that off our list, we set out to look for the true-to-scale Gundam after having had our dinner in the mall.
I guess you can say we were a bit lucky when we spotted it, cause we came just in time to watch the show. To explain better, the show is pretty much just a light show where different lighting effects are used to highlight the Gundam while background music is playing and an anime is being projected onto two big screens behind the Gundam. Occasionally, the head of the Gundam would rotate towards either the left or the right. It might sound simple, but it was already a grand enough show for a geeky anime fan like me! (simple joys! :() ♥
Bask in its glory.
I swear, I took a really long time taking photos of this in several angles, so as not to miss any moment of savoring its beauty. (cue: tears)
After taking the time to take several photos of the Gundam, we strolled around the nearby plaza a bit and spotted a Gundam Cafe (we didn’t get to go in, though), as well as a Gundam merchandise store.
Soon after, we decided it was time to head back as it was getting a bit late. We were all very tired as well from the flight and all the walking throughout the entire day. We take the same route back: private line + subway line; then, we discovered that there were actually “women only” cars for the subway trains! (gasp!) Ironically, some men were also lined up in the “women only” car entrance, so it defeated the purpose anyway..
Well, it was just a bit of trivia to share to you guys, but that was pretty much what we did for the whole day. After, we just headed back to our hotel and had a good night’s rest to prep us for what tomorrow had in store!
Tokyo, Japan (June, 2015) Day One: http://www.armaineyapyuco.com/2015/07/tokyo-japan-june-2015-day-one-narita-airport-ueno-odaiba/
Tokyo, Japan (June, 2015) Day Two: http://www.armaineyapyuco.com/2015/07/tokyo-japan-june-2015-day-two-meiji-jingu-harajukuomotesando-ebisu-ginza/
Tokyo, Japan (June, 2015) Day Three: http://www.armaineyapyuco.com/2015/10/tokyo-japan-june-2015-day-three-shinjuku-harajukuomotesando-shibuya/
Tokyo, Japan (June, 2015) Day Four and Five: http://www.armaineyapyuco.com/2015/12/tokyo-japan-june-2015-day-fourfive-tokyo-disneysea/
Tokyo, Japan (June, 2015) Day Six: http://www.armaineyapyuco.com/2016/01/tokyo-japan-june-2015-day-six-tsukiji-asakusa-shibuya/
Nostalgia to the max! Ueno is actually a cool place for shopping. I usually bought my trainers at ABC mart. 🙂
Nagareboshi9
Glad it brought back memories! 😀 We didn't get to shop much at Ueno, but I agree that ABC-Mart is definitely the best place for buying trainers! 😀 Thanks for dropping by!
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