Once we collected our luggage, we went to find the counter for hotel limousine bus where we exchanged the cfm letter into bus tickets. J also bought 3 day pass for Metro train which was a bad move, see tip below. There's a wifi egg counter near the bus counter so you may consider getting it there if u have not gotten fm Sg.
Tip: For train transport in Japan, we did not know then that there are different trains in Toyko, other than Metro, there's also JR. So it's better to buy single trip tix. Also there are different tix counters in train station, use the Suica counter and key in the fare base on the journey distance, eg 140 yen. We spent so much time figuring this out and there's not much help available from the train staffs. Moreover, train lines are really complicated, do expect a lot of walking within the stations.
On board the bus limousine to Shinjuku.
Tip: Do check out whether your hotel has bus shuttle to and fro train station. Although it's only 15mim from Shinjuku to Hotel Gracery, it seemed like ages when u don't know the direction, have a kid and 3 luggages.and the hotel bus is only 100 yen per trip.
Finally reached Hotel Gracery at 10am but it's too early to check in, so we decided to walk around and get some food.
Most of the restaurants are still closed, they open at 11am. We chanced upon this traditional looking ramen stall 博多天神， it was later that we found out it's famous and was featured in J's Japan guidebook. I thought the ramen was quite bland, maybe it's healthier version, grinz
DoAfter that we walked to Takashimaya. It's pretty far, should have taken the hotel bus shuttle... On the way we went inside GAP which is having 50% discount! but it's most winter clothes so did not buy anything. Taka is huge, there's like 9 levels or more and Tokyu hands is inside it as well. The children toy section is at level 9 and there are enough play areas to keep children entertained.
Tip. Proceed to Taka customer service counter to get a nice hello kitty card for tourist with 5% discount. If you have a Sg Taka credit card, do bring along to get 10% discount. I forgot mine, aargh. There's crest wood blue label(Burberry) and Samantha Thavasa in Taka, so these card discounts are very useful!
My loot from Tokyu hands! LuLuLun masks, supposed to be good. The white box is for whitening and red box for anti-Ageing.
There was a small crepe stall as we were walking back to hotel where we paid using a machine. The Choco banana ice cream crepe was yummy!
Spot the paying machines above the crepes.
Finally checked into our room. J was Super disappointed by the small size while Tin was unaffected. He loves any hotel room as he is 宅男！
All of us took our Long awaited afternoon nap. When we woke up, it's already 6pm plus and night has fallen. We decided to explore Shinjuku.
Godzilla road on a crowded sat
Our dinner at 三国一udon restaurant
We walked to Lumine east to get some bake cheese tarts. There was a queue. After my eager wait, I tasted my first Bake tart and erm, thought the tarts were not that wow...
We then walked further to Lumine 2 shopping centre. I was really excited to see that there's Peach John shop there.
We crossed the road to NEWoMan but it's pretty upmarket stuff for the rich, not for us. Then we decided to head back to our hotel. Midway, we stopped by 100 yen shop, it's pretty small, nothing much inside.
100 yen shop
Decided to buy some takoyaki balls from Gindaiko below our hotel for supper.
Ending off with the guidebook that J bought in Sg. Was quite useful for the trip.
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