Dream Then Roam

Friday, December 20, 2013

Tokyo Day 4 - The Happiest Place on Earth

Tokyo Day 3 - Ueno Zoo and Electric City

Our third day in Tokyo was spent a the Ueno Zoo. With an entry fee of only 600¥ which is 6 Australian dollars it was a pretty great day. They had every animal imaginable - My favorite being the Slow Loris. It's hard the believe that they are #1 on the 'cute animals that will kill you' list, but they really do live up to their name. I am not kidding you, they are just as slow as garden snails! The other animals included your typical monkeys, lions, gorillas but a few I saw for the first time were pandas and a massive brown bear.. The cutest thing was when I said 'konichiwa' to a little monkey and his eyes lit up as if he understood what I was saying. After a few hours of venturing around the zoo, which you need a lot of time to see because it was massive, we ventured back outside the zoo and near the entrance point they had some street markets and Ninja's performing!

After the zoo and street markets we hopped on a train and went to Akihabara, otherwise known as 'Electric City' which is a district of Tokyo completely full of electronic stores selling just about all of the same things. We looked around there for a few hours and then headed back to our apartments to get ready for dinner as we were meeting up with a Japanese guy, Masaki who was taking us out for dinner and drinks. We ended up at a traditional Japanese seafood restaurant where I tried raw seafood for the first (and last) time. I stomached it but certainly didn't enjoy it and won't be eating it again in a hurry but it was a great experience being out of my comfort zone and trying something I otherwise wouldn't have.. ever.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Tokyo, Day 2 - Observatory and Yoyogi Park

Our second day in Tokyo was and probably will be the only relaxed day that we've had. Nathan and I started the day by going to the Tokyo Government Buildings that are just across the road from where we are staying to view the City from the observatory on the 41st level. It's pretty incredible. You get a 360 view and it even stretches as far as being able to see Mount Fuji, although it was too foggy on the day we went to see it clearly.

1. Tokyo Sky Tree in the distance, 2. Yoyogi Park, 3. Outskirts of Tokyo 4. Looking into Tokyo CBD, 5. Blimp

After finishing at the observatory we ventured to Yoyogi Park in the Harajuku/Shibuya district with Madi and Nick so we could see a more 'traditional' side of Japan. Although, parks are fun for about 10 minutes and as beautiful as it is, that is about as long as we lasted. We were planning to go back on Sunday afternoon as the park is where Japanese Rockabilly folk meet to rock and roll dance but it completely slipped our minds. Next time!

Once finishing at the park we had a second venture down Takeshita St in Harajuku as it was just across the road and we wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything. The day before once we walked Takeshita St. we headed into Shibuya, but this time the Harajuku St sign across the road caught our attention and thankfully it did because we walked into shopping heaven. So many incredible clothes stores that aren't as cute and girly as the ones in Takeshita and Vintage shopping galore! We walked around for a while browsing the stores, eventually settling for lunch at a Chinese influenced restaurant and after that got straight back into looking in the Vintage shops. I didn't buy anything but it was certainly fun looking - Japanese style, and even their op shop clothes is amazing.

Once finishing up there, we headed to a bar in Shibuya called The British Hub and had a few drinks and chilled out. Madi and I did a spot of shopping at Forever 21 (like we have to every time we walk past a F21 store) and eventually headed home and had an early night to prepare for Ueno Zoo!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Tokyo Day 1 - Harajuku and Shibuya

After a tedious 9 hour flight from Gold Coast to Tokyo, we finally arrived on the night of December 5th. We flew JetStar Economy which was less than fabulous but we got here in one piece which is all the matters.. and now Tokyo has stolen our hearts.

We are staying in Shinjuku in an apartment we found on AirBnB. It is super tiny but great for all we need it for and is in the perfect location. Not long after arriving and getting to our apartment we started our adventures by looking for some dinner. It didn't go to plan and we ended up getting packet noodles from the 7/11 because we are using MasterCard Travel Cards and unfortunately they aren't accepted at most ATM's in Japan (which we didn't know about before arriving) and most dinner places are cash only. The ONE ATM we found that we could use was down for maintenance.. Just my luck. Either way it was great to see what we were close to and exciting to get into exploring as soon as we got here.

After a good sleep, day one consisted of exploring more of Shinjuku as well as Shibuya and Harajuku. We did a little spot of shopping at Forever 21, H&M and TOPSHOP in Shinjuku before walking to Harajuku and from there to Shibuya. I was in charge of maps and kept reassuring everyone "Oh it's only a 5 minute walk from here!" until a lot longer after 5 minutes of walking did we realise my Maps were set to 'car' mode and not walk and realistically it took around 45. But it was fun to walk and see things that way. When we eventually got to Harajuku it was colourful mayhem. So crowded and shops filled to the brim with everything KAWAII! But disappointedly there were no Harajuku girls anywhere! Maybe we were looking in the wrong spot.

In Harajuku, Takeshita St with a Chocolate Sauce, Banana and Cream crepe... Not very yummy)

(Takeshita St, Harajuku)

(Entrace to Takeshita St, Harajuku)

(Angel Heart Crepes)

(Madi and I at the top of Takeshita St, Harajuku)

(Nathan and Nick at the top of Takeshita St, Harajuku)

From Harajuku we walked to Shibuya to see the famous crossing and everything else this awesome part of Tokyo has to offer. Definitely a Japanese version of New York City's Time Square but actually a lot more bearable which I loved about it. We spent a few hours looking around the streets and shops and from there headed back to our apartments, got ready and went out for dinner and drinks. For dinner we ended up in a Gyoza restaurant in Shinjuku which was delicious and then afterwards we wanted to go to the New York Bar at the top of the Park Hyatt Hotel, but after arriving, seeing the view (which is amazing) and then realising just to get a seat was 2200¥ per person and drinks were around 2000-3000¥ each we quickly ended up at the Golden Gai, a club/bar district at the karaoke bar. That lead us the midnight snacks at McDonald's and bed soon followed.