Tokyo day 4 (Shibuya and Ikebukuro)

Time flew by so fast when one is overseas, before we knew it, it's almost the end of our trip.

Today we decided to explore Shibuya, which is only 3 stops away from the Shinjuku JR station. We made our way to Hachiko exit to visit the iconic Hachiko statue, the famous loyal dog who keep waiting for her owner even though the owner passed away. There were many tourists there waiting to take a picture though it's Tuesday.

Reached Shibuya 

Hachiko, the loyal dog

There was a nice tourist info counter in the form of a bus near the Hachiko statue. The customer service lady spoke really good English and she knew right away I was from Singapore.i asked where was the Fujiya Peko-Chan Milky restaurant. She was nice enough to even help me check whether there was any discount coupon for it, but sadly the promotion ended yesterday. But we are still looking for forward to going there. The decor was really cute but food was so-so.

Stairs to Fujiya restaurant

Cute interior design

Cute apron for Tin

Udon Mee for Tin

My lunch!

Dessert for Tin

While J was eating dessert with Tin, I sneaked off for some shopping on my own, Shibuya 109.

Shibuya 109, every woman's paradise

Due to limited time, I only explored level 1, B1 and B2, which was a good choice I think as prices in B1 and B2 are quite friendly. I bought a dress and a off-shoulder top. There's also Aimer Feel shop with very nice designs. I bought the famous Leanani eyeliner and other cosmetics from one of the shop in B2. I finished off my shopping at Samantha Thavasa. Shiok! Bought some socks on the way back to meet Tin and J who's shopping at Addidas which is located opposite of 109.

Cosmetics fm Shibuya 109

My new bag!

Cute socks!

After that we went back to Shinjuku Isetan to let Tin see toys. There's quite a number of small play areas for children there, hehe. 

Lego play area

Wooden blocks play area

After that we went to have some sushi at Itamae Sushi near our hotel before going back to rest. The salmon sushi was so-so, no wow.

Different types of salmon sushi 

Big sushi and yummy chawanmushi

Close up of the BIG sushi

In the evening we proceeded to Ikebukuro station which is about 5 stops away from Shinjuku using Metro. After alighting at Ikebukuro station, we had a Long walk via the underpass towards Sunshine City. There's a stretch of Sunshine Road ( I think) with loud music bustling with people. A big Uniqlo shop is also along the road. Finally we saw Sunshine city but it's already past 8pm and only restaurants are open. We went inside a random Sukiyaki (Japanese steamboat) which turned out to be really good. 

The menu!

One slightly spicy soup base for us and one non-spicy soup base for Tin

After that we went out onto the streets again to look for the grocery shop, seiyu. It's quite difficult to navigate so I went to approach a Japanese uniform Uncle (policeman) who's really helpful but speak little English. With my limited Jap, it took me quite some time to understand him, haha. 

J looking at the guidebook trying to find Seiyu

Finally we found Seiyu, it's a very local grocery shop with 2 levels. I was expecting a variety of KitKat and different snacks but the tidbit section was quite limited. I only managed to buy the sake KitKat, couple of biscuits and assorted nuts. It did not have the famous cheeza snacks. Other than that, I bought dried scallops (individually packed), maggi Mee cups and slices of cakes for our supper.

Sake KitKat, nuts and Meiji/ chococo biscuits from Seiyu (the small packs of kitkats and cheeza were bought from airport)

It was already 10pm plus when we finished grocery shopping, the night was very cold. We hurried back to our hotel to pack our luggage. It's going to be a looooong night.

Tokyo Day 3 (Disneyland)

Woke up relatively early at 8.30 as we wanna try to catch the bus ride to Disneyland from Shinjuku station. We thought taking the hotel bus shuttle will help us save time but the receptionist suggest us to walk there as traffic will be heavy on Monday morning. We reached the Shinjuku bus terminal at 9.30am but to our dismay, the tickets for the 9.50am Disneyland bus had been sold out. Oh well, we decided to have a good breakfast at Dean and Deluca before taking the train. The smoked salmon sandwich was delish.

Tin eating some cream bun

My breakfast at dean & Deluca 

we were trying to figure out how to buy the train ticket as going to Disneyland require one transfer to another line. Luckily a Chinese speaking lady behind us in the queue helped us, she asked us to just enter the fare amount of our transfer station first, which is Tokyo. After alighting at our destination (Maihaima station), we just need to go to the 'fare adjust' counter which will automatically help us calculate the top up money needed. Cool!

Tin can sleep anywhere (on train ride to Disneyland)

From Maihaima station, there was a ten minute walk to Disneyland. Nice scenery/photo-friendly pillars and Disneyland gates and displays made the walk enjoyable. The weather today was however quite hot and sunny, which is a contrast to past 2 days. 

Once we entered Disneyland, it's literally fairyland! The Japanese were very onz and dressed up in nice costumes, from princesses to zootopia to 101 Dalmatian evil queen. I think I'm more excited than Tin. My parents brought me to the same Disneyland when I was 5 and till this day I still rem the it's a small world boat ride. It's how amazing Disneyland is to kids, and I hope that I can create such memories for Tin, grinz. 

Mandatory shot outside the souvenir shop

Spot the pumpkin decor, very Halloween-nish!

First thing we did was get a map and highlight the show times. We went to the first show Minnie's party, then proceeded to take the railway ride. Spoiler alert: for those with younger kids, there's a part on the railway ride which is complete darkness, even tin got scared. 

Tin's Favourite railway ride

After railway ride, we were hungry and tin wanted udon Mee, as usual. There's only ONE Jap restaurant in Disneyland, when we got there, we were asked whether we made any reservations. We said no and they issued us a coupon with a specific time. As we were really hungry, we decided to give it a miss and grabbed hotdogs. The hotdogs were delish!

Thumbs up for hotdog!

After that we watched the iconic Disneyland parade. So good! 

My fave part: happiness parade!

As tin was pestering us to bring him to playground, we decided to bring him to Toon Land. He enjoyed it loads. 

Toon Land!

Little playground at Toon Land

Going to Goofy's shooting house

Treehouse! 

Donald's ship

Inside the ship

After that we were lucky to be in season to watch special Halloween parade as its last day of October.  

Halloween parade!

After the Halloween parade, we Chiong to Meiji Sweets shop to get Disney character buns and mochi. Wah the green alien mochi is the best!! Tin loves the the chocolate cup thingy! 

The mochi aliens were so yummy!

Thumbs up for the chocolate pudding!

After that, we went to shop for souvenirs. 

My loot from the souvenir shops!

We then made our way to the train station. It's only 4 plus but sky is getting dark and it's getting chilly. Brr..

Bye bye Disneyland!

Tips on Disneyland:

-if you are getting the bus shuttle to Disneyland, please go very very early to make reservations! 

-if you are interested in eating their famous restaurant, go get a reservation coupon once you enter, so you can go back at the specified time

- the public toilets are located at some far corner and quite difficult to find. But you can go to any nearby restaurant to use their toilets without having to eat there, hehe

-if you are spending the whole day there, please bring sufficient clothes as the autumn weather can change quite drastically. For our case, it was hot and sunny in the early afternoon but after 4pm, it became really chilly!!

-do dress up as Disney character to upz the fun factor. Everybody, I mean 80%, dresses up there!!

Tokyo Day 2 (Meiji Shrine, Takeshita street and Alice Restaurant)

Woke up bright and cheery to make our way to Harajuku, just 2 stations away from Shinjuku. Both metro and JR are able to reach there. Once out of the station, we were greeted by Takeshita street. Already crowded on a Sun morning. Decided to grab breakfast at Hoshino Coffee where Tin had Chocolat cake, J had seafood sandwich and myself had some pancake/sponge cake thingy and good old tea.

Breakfast at Hoshino coffee

This weird looking pancake/sponge cake thingy with ice cream is really good!

Then we proceed to Meiji Shrine. There's a very nice Long walk into the shrine surrounded with greenery, macam a forest. Nice leisurely stroll for adults while children are seen running around. The nice cool weather really up the experience. we also see Japanese, esp children, dressing in traditional costumes, think they are attending wedding lunch at the shrine. Very kawaii. We were lucky to run into a wedding ceremony at the shrine, very majestical and glam. 

Tip: suggest to browse website to see tips/ rules on visiting the shrine, such as how to cleanse oneself at the entrance using the wooden ladle, how to do proper praying in Jap way and also note that photography is not allowed in the shrine (outside the praying area ok)

At the entrance of Meiji shrine

Beautiful wine barrels

Some flower exhibition outside the shrine

Tin intrigued by a traditional toy at the shrine souvenir shop.

My loot from the souvenir shop

After that we walked through the busy Takeshita street to Kiddyland at Harajuku. It was a Long walk but along the way, there's a Halloween parade on the road! Btw Japanese are very onz in dressing up for Halloween, but theirs are more of the cutesy cosplay version. Kiddyland is a 6 storey toy shop but the tomica/train selection is quite limited. They have more of the Disney/soft toy/stationery stuff. 

We proceed to Luke Lobster for lunch but the queue for its lobster roll was freaking Long so we gave up. In fact, every restaurant was crowded, maybe cos it's a Sunday and there's a Halloween parade earlier. We finally found a relatively short queue for a ramen store at a quiet corner. We had to order via a vending machine which was challenging. I unknowingly ordered cold udon Mee that comes with hot soup. Erm, not to my liking. 

Spot the vending machine on the left to order our ramen for lunch 

We walked back to Takeshita street to do some shopping and grab some snacks but it's awfully crowded on a sun afternoon. I so wanna try the beautiful big candy floss in a 2nd level shop at the middle of the street but queue was too Long, so 没缘分。I only managed to grab some Calbee potato chips and sticks. I thought the Calbee potato chips with soft serve was really good. The potato sticks were so-so.

Tip: might be better idea to go Takeshita street and try Luke Lobster on a weekday. Sunday there was crazily crowded.

Calbee potato sticks and to-die-for potato chips with soft serve

My loot from Calbee!!

After a tiring afternoon, we went back to hotel to take a break. Our legs were almost going to break.

At night we proceeded to the Magic of Alice theme restaurant. It was SO hard to find the place, which was somewhere near Shinjuku west station. While J was busy figuring out the map, I brought Tin to drugstore to look look see see.

Eye mask(regret buying cos Sg also sell) and DHC lip balms ( recommended by some blogger)

Finally reached the magic of Alice restaurant. Although it was 8pm plus, we still had to wait for 20min as we did not make reservation. Nevertheless we were still excited as it was our first time at theme restaurant. When we got in,we saw that the guests, mostly ladies, were dressed in Alice's costumes. Damn pretty la. The waitresses were also wearing Alice costumes and they were really pretty. Definitely a feast for eyes for J. We realised later one can rent costumes from the restaurant for a fee.btw the meal was quite costly.

Tip: Do make reservations for theme or famous restaurants.

Tin with bear ears

My Bunny ears

Nice fairy land design inside the restaurant

Our mock tails and complimentary bread. The bread was really good!

Our appetiser, which is also bread, haha

The pizza was damn good

The prawn Spaghetti was erm, not to our liking.

Cat-looking ice cream dessert 

Free teabags that came with the bill

That's all for the day!