My birthday trip. Well, the year before was Maldives..... This year was the land of food & all things kawaii.
YES.
JAPAN!
Honestly, I'm not the cold country kind of girl, I love my beach holidays, my sun, sand, sea and waves. To pile on thick woolly clothing is just NOT my thang.
Japan changed my perspective on this :)
How can anyone not love Japan? I will cover about this in the later part of the post.
By the way, if you were to ask me if 5D4N is enough for Tokyo, Japan alone, I'd say hell no!
There's so much to explore in Tokyo, Japan and places that we included in our itinerary but we didn't get to go due to a lack of time/unforeseen circumstances :(
So please, do yourself a favour and book a week long's holiday to Japan :)
We went in November 2015, when it was starting to get kinda cold, about 9-15 celcius? Definitely not your uncomfortable type of cold. :)
We took Malaysia Airlines from Singapore to KL and to Tokyo, and as usual, MAS had a delay while we were at KL. We reached Japan about 1 hour later than expected, but all was good till...................
THEY TOLD US OUR LUGGAGES WERE STILL IN KL. -_-
Omg. How can they not bring out luggages together?! My camera, my uniqlo heat tech inner wear, my clothes, my MAKEUP (this is the most freaking important ever - I can't live without my makeup!), toiletries and everything.
Okay, so decided to be really optimistic about the entire situation. After all, we were in Japan! They've got everything, right? ;) Plus we were too much in a holiday mood to care about anything else.
Upon arrival at the airport, we took an express train to the main train station - Shibuya (or Shinjuku.. I can't remember, but you can check with the train master while at the airport! Everyone's super helpful and nice ;))
From there onwards, we navigated our way through. It was quite a feat because there were SO MANY TRAIN LINES. Ohmygod. And it was their peak hour so everyone was just rushing here and there.
Super loving the fact that they offer hot bottled drinks as well :)
Check out our lovely neighbourhood! :)
Waiting for the lights to turn green before we get to cross. That continued for everyday for 5D4N!
Without wifi or anything, we managed to figure our way through and got the keys from the locker, as our airbnb host already informed us beforehand :)
To our horror, the apartment wasn't cleaned up (yet) as the cleaner was only coming in about 11am. There were like used tissues and litter everywhere in the apartment. Decided to venture out for some sight-seeing after settling down with our bags. (No luggage unfortunately. sigh)
Our neighbourhood :)
1st Stop was Meiji Shrine.
"Located in Shibuya, Tokyo, is the Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. The shrine does not contain the emperor's grave, which is located at Fushimi-momoyama south of Kyoto."
Such a beautiful history to it. Japan is tooooo beautiful guys!
Entrance to the Meiji Shrine - Covered with autumn leaves :)
The walk was indeed beautiful. Felt like we were transported back to the old times, and the trees were SUPER tall!
Apparently there was a wedding going on, thus explains the crowd. :) A good mix of tourists and locals!
Huge vegetables as offerings to the gods.
Went to the temple to get my fortune told. Picked out my message and it seems like I've gotta start being grateful with all the simple things in my life :)
Tree of wishes~
Such a beautiful culture! Many tourists were snapping photos of them, I wonder if they actually feel awkward :P
Just nearby Meiji Shrine is Yoyogi Park.
Lots of outdoor eateries just right outside the park. Omg I can fully entrust my stomach to Japanese street stalls' food, because they are soooo clean.
We had the fried noodle. It was really good.
Made freshly right in front of us.
I guess the whole trip was just stuffing ourselves silly with food.
Perhaps we came at the right day, it was a weekend and there was this group of hippies who were decked out in elvis presley style clothes!
At first glance, I thought they were gangsters but turns out to be some sort of flashmob.
Lots of interesting sights at Yoyogi Park, including this busker
Everywhere's so pretty. I was telling myself if I were to stay in Japan and had to walk past this park everyday, I totally would!!!
There were so many activities to do, and families were just out there spending the weekend with their family members, while some were hanging out with school mates and doing all sorts of fun stuffs.
I LOVE JAPAN ALREADY!
Next up, we walked around the main area of Tokyo and there were lots of huge brands all around - Uniqlo, Topshop, Nike and many more!Spotted Birkenstock and we bought slippers too! Hehe. Chio & affordable as well :)
Ichiran Ramen was nearby, so we joined in the queue during lunch time!
Thankfully, the queue wasn't too long and we took turns to queue up. There was a hipster store nearby selling really cool gadgets and lifestyle accessories, was so caught up in the store coz there was so many cameras and polaroids - my favourite!
Basically, one has to order their ramen through the vending machine, before you are issued a seat. How cool is that?! Omg Japan I love you la. We ended up ordering a lot more, since it was so fun to play with the machine. Lol.
Check out the queue! We only waited approximately 20 mins in the cold. But so worth it :')
Once ordered, we were ushered in and WE HAD OUR OWN ROOM!!
Lol, most of them were ushered in to squeeze with the rest and basically, couples can't sit with one another. We were just really lucky to have our own room and the orders even came in through a small little window.
The ramen came in through a small window just like that! Haha, super cute.
The pork slices were so juicy and the soup was so flavourful, no wonder given the title of the "Best Ramen" in Japan! :)
Each bowl wasn't too expensive too, servings are extremely generous as well.
Service staffs are very courteous and attentive too! And that's what everyone loves about Japan isn't it? Good service and awesome food :)
We shopped around the area - and ended up buying so many stuffs! Birkenstocks, luggage and bags at Tokyo hands, and ate so much we could hardly breathe. Haha. But when you're here, EAT!
We then explored Harajuku!
Yummy sweet crepes. A lot of dessert shops everywhere.
Omg and everyone was queuing up for this Doner Kebab!!! We joined in the queue too.
And of course, everyone had these shoe string long fries in their hands.. We ordered one as well, drizzled with mentaiko sauce. Was just okay~
Line stuffs everywhere~
And many more pretty boutique shops as well..
Calbee's store! Omg, they have the widest range of potato chips here as well. So cute please. Omg I need to marry a Japanese man. :x
Ended our night with a dessert. Abit expensive, but it was really good! Heh.
DAY 2
We woke up really early to make our way to Hakone! :)
Not much information is found about Hakone online, so I was kinda assuming that it wasn't so popular, but I was wrong.
We took the Love Express Train to Hakone. It's about an hour's ride from Tokyo, and along the way we saw so many traditional Japanese houses :) So beautiful.
YES. I am wearing the same clothes because we haven't received our luggages -_-
Selling mostly egg custards and egg cheese cake as well!
We got ourselves one cute little egg custard ball, and IT WAS SOOOO GOOD!
While waiting for our bus to come, had a dessert, but I forgot what this was. :(
Hakone is such a beautiful place! A nice getaway if you're tired of the city life. We took this chance to destress by going for their hot springs.
Name of the hot spring we went.
Hahaha. I forgot the name again, but there're plenty of hot springs in japan! Just google it. We took the bus from Hakone station, and it costed us only about $2. And the bus drivers are friendly as well :)
I was really shy the first time when we had to stripped everything off and be bare naked in front of strangers, but after awhile i got used to it. I prolly was the tannest there, lol.
Couldn't take photos coz i guess nobody took photos inside as well.
After soaking in the hot spring, showered and there's makeup tables for ladies!!
Our hot spring has a library and a resting area as well! Definitely R&R over here :)
By the way, the view is just crazy beautiful.
Was famished by the time we finished, so we headed to their hot spring's restaurant since we saw the poster featuring their Unagi Don. Omg just look at it below:
That's why right.. hahaha.
I didn't order the Unagi don, coz I was too tempted by the beef hotpot!
Chawanmushi was soooo good.
And we dined with the loveliest view :) So cooling and the hot pot was soooo good.
I can't wait to be back in Hakone again. Preferred Hakone to Tokyo anytime, any day! Wahahaha. There's lots of stuffs to shop near Hakone's train station, so don't forget to stock up on your Japan goodies, and they do give out free teas to keep you warm in the chilly weather too!
Read Day 3 here.
