Tokyo 東京, Japan Trip (Day 2)

5th March 2017, Sunday

Shibuya

Today, we woke up @ 8 am and met up at the hotel lobby. My friends were bringing me to Shibuya to try Ichiran Ramen for breakfast. So we took the JR Line down to Shibuya, most of the shops were not opened yet. When we reached Ichiran ramen resturant, we were greeted with a self-ordering machine where we ordered 3 bowls of ramen from it. After which, we went in to find our seats. The interior was partitioned to cater for individual seating, however, the wooden partition can be folded away. And the staff will serve the ramen through the front window, you can also see the opposite row of table. When the ramen was served, the staff drew down the curtain so that the diners can enjoy the ramen with no disturbance.

The ramen was niceeee!!....the soup was with so much flavor and it combined very well with fresh green onion. You can also choose to add more noodles, green or white spring onion and with chilli. We had a very nice breakfast, after that, we went separate ways as i needed to travel to another place to buy origami books for my brother while my friends went shopping on their own. However, we had arranged to meet up again in Sunshine City to go to Pokemon Centre during lunchtime. I reached Hakusan station at about 10 plus and saw a small shop selling coffee beans, but not able to make out the flavors of the coffee beans as the signs were writing in Japanese....kekee...
Managed to buy the books and proceeded to meet my friends for lunch. However, they needed more time to shop. So i headed first to Ikebukuro and went there to see see look look while waiting for them to arrive.

Fruits

Mini Cakes

More mini cakes....

There were many beautiful cakes and chocolates in one of the major shopping mall when i arrived at Ikebukuro station. It appeared they were selling to prepare for their white day, which was on 14th March. All the cakes and chocolates look so tasty from their displays, there were many people shopping too. It took me some time to figure out how to exit from the correct exit, plus, it was crowded too. Finally, i managed to exit out from the station and got up to the street level. I then made my way slowly to Sunshine City, bought my new jacket with Mickey Mouse design for $54 sgd at the biggest uniqlo store there. It was 6-storey high and with alot of varieties to choose from. Along the Sunshine City walking street, there were many shops such as cinema, gaming arcade, uniqlo, food restaurants and bowling centre. There were many youngsters shopping there too.

Largest Uniqlo Building

Shopped around the different shops there and was so hungry. By the time i met up with them, it was almost 2 pm. Then we walked around the shopping area nearest to the station and ended up in Coco Curry House. It was not so crowded, probably it was over lunch time. Don't find the curry rice nice to eat. After eating, we made our way to Pokemon Centre, which was located in Sunshine City. The store was quite big, but it was SUPER crowded. There were some statues of the different pokemons and many stuffs that you can buy (Warning: The toys are super cute and you will want to buy them all... :P ). There were gashapon machines located at the entrance of the shop too. I managed to buy two can badges as it was too crowded to be able to see the stuffs slowly too.

Charizard

Mew

After that, we headed down to Harajuku area. But when we arrived there, it was crowded too. We weren't sure which direction to walk, so we just choose Meji Shrine to visit as it looked like it was walkable distance away. However, after we started to walk in the direction, we saw a super busy street (Takeshita Street) on the opposite side. So we headed towards the busy street to explore and it was really crowded. The shops were mostly for younger generation and there were multiple of crepes shops around too. We saw some people buying a giant size candy floss with multiple colours, it was interesting. We wanted to buy one too, however, the queue was so long until a queue number was required and had to come back after like 1 or 2 hours later. So we walked further down the streets to explore other shops. We went in to Calbee snacks house, it was two-storey high and bought 2 different flavors (Spicy and Chocolate) to try. One was too sweet and the other was too salty...hahaha....

Entrance

Calbee Spicy & Chocolate Chips

Brown's room

Croquant Chou Zakuzaku

After which, we continued to walk to the end of the streets where the big brand buildings (like Nike, Line, Forever 21) were located.We went over to check the Line building opposite the street. There was a giant Brown statue where you can take photo with. There were snacks with Corny, Brown, the yellow duck printed and there was a small showroom for Brown's bedroom. After that, we made our way back to Akihabara for dinner. We tried a nutty cream biscuits along the way, it was coated with chocolate and nuts and long-shaped. It had milky cream as the fitting.

Sushi Set

Fried Ebi

We went to eat in Ginzo Restaurant for sushi when we arrived at Akihabara and ordered a sushi set for sharing. The dinner was not bad and we made our way back to the hotel as it was getting late. We also bought a baked sweet potato at the 7-11 shop near our hotel. It was hot and soft, nice to eat in cold weather. It was then sleeping time....

Tomorrow will be another adventure in kyoto.... "Soba Soba, here i come!"

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel Kodenmacho-Ekimae