Oh for goodness sake, I failed my driving test for the fourth time. Pedestrians, if you see an learners car near a test centre, please don’t walk in front of them. They could be doing their test. Just one silly fault that’s cost me. Grrrrrrr. 

And now back to Japan… ^_^

Tuesday 2nd April 2019

After two heavy long days of walking around Tokyo, I decided to keep things light for this day. I finally received a message from the reception desk that my package for my JR Pass arrived, so I where to the desk first before breakfast.

This time I had a lighter breakfast. Normally in London I would hardly eat breakfast this big in the morning, but it seems my appetite got bigger after arriving in Japan. ^_^

They made some special mochi for this day (and the day before, they made a fluffy cake). Yummy. Inside was some sweet red beans. Umai!

Because I think the coffee cups are particularly small for breakfast, I had bought some DIY drip coffee sachets from the convenient store the day before. So I actually drank some decent coffee… with some mini Kit Kat’s. 

Question to Nestlé: Why can’t we have decent Kit Kat flavours in the UK? Or innovative Kit Kat ideas like the Japanese in the UK?

I guess I’m a big Kit Kat fan (see previous posts on this blog). I haven’t checked out the recent flavours here in the UK because unfortunately our local tuck shop/newsagents is closed down – not even sure why… Maybe they’re planning to knock the building down.

So these two Kit Kat sizes in Japan are genuinely new. The first one here is the Ruby Chocolate flavour. What is Ruby chocolate anyway? There wasn’t much, so I ate them all. ¬_¬””

And this one is the Milk Chocolate flavour. I think I liked the Ruby one. It was much sweeter than this one.

Ikebukuro is in the north west of Central Tokyo, it’s a bit out of the centre, but so easy to get to take the Yamanote Line using your JR Pass/Suica/Pasmo card – whatever you’ve got. A lot of Japanese flock here, not sure why, maybe because of the small shopping area. It’s like a smaller version of Akihabara.

As it was before 10am, I had to walk fairly slowly before the shops weren’t opened. Most of the shops in Japan don’t open until 10am or possibly 11am. I think it’s because they open till late – and possibly for workers to avoid coming in during rush hour, which is usually between 7am and roughly around 10am (or earlier).

First shop I went into was Tokyo Hands, which is like a department store with many floors. I liked all the things there, especially the bags and stationery, but I honestly resisted as I had spent so much on stationery in China last year, there was no point in me spending on anymore. Hehehehe. So I only bought food-related things such as a chopstick case and a food bag. I really needed those as the MUJI in London don’t supply the sizes I want, and they don’t sell drawstring bento bags anymore!

I went into a few stores after this, like a secondhand bookstore, which is a few doors before Tokyo Hands. Ahhh, if only I can read Japanese fluently, I would have bought many books as they are so small. Sometimes I wished the UK could make their books more pocket sized. I know the font would be compromised but Japanese people seem to be able to manage it, (even Chinese people manage too).

Anyway, one reason I think people come to Ikebukuro is because of this SEGA store, I didn’t go in, but I think you can play arcade games there. 

I think Uniqlo (pronounced uni-klo) was doing a Gundam special. I love the large figurines in the window. There was one episode or movie I had watched as a child and I really loved one of the songs, but I’ve forgotten which one it was… I’ll have to ask Mr Stingy. He’ll remember. (Edit before posting: I liked Macross Do You Remember Love, the Cantonese version, not Gundam! Thanks Mr Stingy!).

After this mini shopping spree, I actually walked down south – as in walked the other way from the hotel to see what other things were there… To be honest, there wasn’t much to see, just a few independent shops, some restaurants including a Coco Ichibanya and a small supermarket that I ventured into. I purchased my lunch in the supermarket, and walked slowly back the other way.

I ended up eating in the park behind the hotel.

Ah man, I really like Japanese fried food. I had a potato croquette and egg sandwich, lemon tea and freshly made skewers of fried pork and egg that wrapped around the pork. The skewers were very crunchy. Too loud for the park, but I ate them all in one sitting. ¬_¬”” They were amazingly tasty.

After lunch, I went around the back streets and then onto a main street. Shopped in the clothing section of MUJI. I bought a couple of skirts, which thankfully fit!

Then I headed back to the hotel room and had a long nap… zzzzzzz (my body said I needed it).

It was around 6pm or some time afterwards when I woke up. I really didn’t want to go out, but I needed to eat my dinner.

I passed this ramen bar a couple of times, and I thought I’ll try it. To translate, this place is called “Yokohama Family Ramen” 横浜家系ラーメン.

I decided to have the one with everything, medium bowl size.

The ramen reminded me of the time Miss Pinky and I tried to finish that massive bowl of ramen that was filled with veggies. Heheheheh. Don’t worry, I finished this but didn’t finished the soup. A bit too salty.

Forgot the cost, but it was under ¥1000 (less than £7).

Address: 1 Chome-22-14 Higashiikebukuro, Toshima City, Tokyo 170-0013, Japan

Went back to the hotel with a few drinks and my breakfast for the next day. It was going to be an early start!

Edit: I did have two puddings before I went to bed! The cake ring was left for breakfast!

Back to sleep I go, heheheheh.

End of Day 4.

This post is quite a long one… I’ve been procrastinating to write it… ^_^

Monday 1st April 2019

Happy April Fool’s Day! Well it’s not that big in Japan but it’s actually a very serious day for every Japanese student and job hunters – my Japanese uni friend explained to me that evening.

Refreshed (kind of) and ready to go (kind of). I actually woke up around 2am to go to the loo, and I think around 5am because of jet lag. Well, at least I slept.

I decided to have the breakfast… and since I was up so early, I thought I’ll go just after 7am – people were there already! The hotel breakfast wasn’t bad – apart from having a really soft hamburger in the morning… weren’t sure about that! The coffee cups are really small, so I needed another coffee to wake me up!  

The rubbish is sorted into different sections, so you have to be quite careful where you throw your rubbish.

Didn’t think I was full, so I went to the convenient store on the first floor (ground floor) next to the hotel. 

Ate the filling curry bread. It’s filled to the brim with curry filling. Yummy!!

Cold coffee in Asia is always the best, and they always have them in bigger bottles. 

CoCo Curry House even have their own crisp out in Japan – I didn’t eat these until much later. There’s actually too much in the pack, and the crisps are too hard and crunchy making it impossible to finish in one go. 

Before heading out, I needed to sort out my data sim card which I had pre-bought online from www.simcardgeek.com. Ideally buy your sim card beforehand if you don’t want to go to the hassle and getting it from the airport or somewhere in Japan. This is the best link I found online: https://pretraveller.com/best-prepaid-data-sim-card-in-japan-for-tourists/. Unfortunately my mobile phone wouldn’t take it because it’s not unlocked, and the wi-fi hotspot modem, which I bought, didn’t work with the sim card – resulting in me having to reset the frigging modem! Thankfully, with some clever thinking, I took my unlocked iPhone 6  with me on holiday (yes, I have an iPhone – mainly for the apps, as my mini iPad doesn’t have the capacity) and placed the sim card inside. ^_^ I had to use a sewing needle I had brought along to open the card slot bit (learnt my lesson from last year to bring a sewing kit for emergency circumstances!). And finally I had a hotspot I could use!! Woohoo!!

Now onto the day’s trip!

Last time I went to Ueno, Miss Pinky and I only made it to the train station – not even sure which entrance we had came out at the time… However, this time, I really, really wanted to go to the park as well as the zoo! 

Inside the station there’s a massive panda welcoming the spring.

Not sure which route I took to the park, but I had turned right, straight down a road, crossed over and up some stairs. Followed Google Maps all the way until I saw the the cherry blossom park trail… sugoi ne!! They weren’t in full bloom yet, but it was so nice to see. There was a crowd there already, so I had to walk, and keep walking.

When I reached the end of the trail, there’s a section where all the food stands are, and a temple at the very end of those food stands.

I decided to head out to Nezu Shrine at this point. Just be careful going down the stairs at the park as the steps are quite wide. It’s about a 20-30 minute walk from the park and as I was following Google Maps, it probably took a little longer. For some strange reason, Google Maps likes you to go through some back streets… maybe it wants me to explore.

After the walk, I found Nezu Shrine. Not many tourists come to this shrine as it seems out of sync with everywhere else, and it is a long walk from the park. It’s a really pretty shrine – it’s like a mini version of the one in Kyoto.

After looking at the shrine and the koi fish for a bit, I headed back to Ueno Park…

And had a small snack of squid, (I was still full from breakfast). It’s amazing how big these squid rings are!!

I really wanted to go to Ueno Zoo – surprisingly it was opened on this day, as it’s usually closed on Mondays. The single adult ticket is ¥600 (~£4.13), it’s really cheap compared to the prices in London, and the zoo is much bigger! However the queues for certain areas is long… The queue to see the pandas was a 40-50 minute wait, I don’t think I had the patience to wait that long.

I actually saw a real Secretary Bird. I watch the anime Aggretsuko a lot, because it reminded me of myself being in a company and having to do a lot of work. The secretary bird in the anime is a good friend of Aggretsuko’s… Didn’t realise they are so big!!

Finally, on my way trying to find the way out (you actually have to go back near the front entrance), I managed to see a panda just lying there… Hahahaha! Thanks to the people already standing around – I just had to wait for them to move before I could take this picture. ^_^

After exiting, I took a few more pics of the park again…

At Ueno Station, I just had to take a pic of this game advert.

My next destination was to find the Government Building’s Observatory Tower in Shinjuku. The afternoon suddenly became cold and windy, so I had to put my jacket on. It was really cold!

The Observatory Tower is free to enter but there is a security check before you’re able to enter the lift. If you want to save money, and don’t want to go all the way to Asakusa to see the Sky Tree, then come to this building! The most you’ll probably spend up there is half-an-hour before you have to queue again to go back down.

If you hover around the 2nd floor (1st floor) you get to see the Olympics and World Rugby stuff… it seems they’re counting down to the Rugby! ^_^

It was time to head back to the hotel and rest for a little bit, so I bought a very light lunch… Sandwich and cold tea. 

I have no idea what these strip sweets are. I took these back to London and finished them off.

So it was around 5.30pm when I left the hotel, I had to go back to Shinjuku to meet my old uni friend, who is almost like Mrs Travels’ other best friend in uni… we were all good friends to each other really!

The trip to Shinjuku was a bit ugh to me. Very busy, Very crowded. That’s a no-no for me. It took my friend and I a long time to find each other, I had used a lot of text messages to let him know where I am. Shinkjuku is one of those nightmare stations with too many exits. Even my uni friend said he’s not familiar from this station…. Ahhhhhhh! People were a bit surprised when we conversed in English – they probably didn’t think I was foreign. LOL!! I remembered him as tall and skinny with glasses – but it looks like he may have shrunk, or I may have got taller. ^_^ He said his glasses were not prescription ones, it was for fashion! Whaaaaaa~~~~! All this time Mrs Travels and I thought he wore prescription glasses.

So it took him a while to decide where we should go. I said I wanted to eat ramen. Japanese ramen… so we went to Ore no Sora Shinjuku. It took me a while to find the name of this place online as I forgot to take a pic of the outside, and I didn’t want to bother my friend afterwards… ¬_¬”” The ramen here was awesome! The meat looks like duck meat, but it’s definitely pork. The soup is of pork and fish base. You can actually taste a bit of the fishiness. The waiters didn’t seem to understand why we were talking in English.

Good choice uni friend!!

Address: Japan, 〒160-0023 Tokyo, Shinjuku City, Nishishinjuku, 1 Chome−3−13 Ｉ＆Ｋビル

Was afraid my uni friend’s wife would tell him off for going home late, but he says it’s fine as he hasn’t seen me for 16 years! So we moved onto Café Bon, which is about a 5-10 minute walk from the ramen place, it’s in a basement and they serve drip coffee, tea and cake. The teacups look quite old-fashioned, and it seems each tea cup has their own story. Coffee was great! Cake was ok.

Address: 3 Chome-23-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku City, Tokyo 160-0022, Japan

After having a long catch up with my friend about life, work and realisations, (and lots of personal juicy gossip which I can’t talk about in this blog – that’s a shame, I know), it was time to head back to the hotel.

It was a long, long day… snore!

End of Day 3.

Sunday 31st March 2019

So I arrived in Haneda Airport around 7.30am. Thought it would be easier to get from Haneda Airport to the hotel in a very short space of time with the transfer…

However, when I passed security, my transfer wasn’t even there!! I waited around for half-an-hour before making an executive decision, in the meantime I had emailed Bamba Experience, tried calling the emergency contacts – but the numbers weren’t even working! Ugh. Luckily I had my old Pasmo Card from five years ago, so I got that topped up at the tourist stand as I couldn’t top up at the airport machines… I made my own way to the hotel in Ikebukuro.

I arrived in Ikebukuro before 10am, but because there are so many exits in this station (like with all major Japanese stations), it took me a while to find the right way. I went out the West exit, but should have really gone out the East exit. But anyway, it was nice to look around.

Finally arrived at my hotel Ikebukuro Keio Presso Inn, it’s not far from the station, but it really felt far as I had a suitcase with me. As check in time was not unti 3pm, I was left to do go out and do whatever for 5 hours.

So, the first place to go to was a Mos Burger place – suggested by a friend from my Japanese class. I used Google Maps and data roaming from my phone to find the nearest one near the hotel… So this one is at the end of one long street. About a 10-15 minute walk (depending on fast you walk).

The Japanese have already thought I was Japanese from the first glance (I truly do not look Japanese), but I ordered in mixed English and Japanese. Then the waiter thought I might be from Mainland China, and so ended up saying xiexie (thank you). LOL! I speak Cantonese peeps. My Mandarin speaking is not great at all.

This is what I had… Cream Cheese Teriyaki Burger, a normal Teriyaki Burger and a Melon soda. Total cost came to ¥1000 (~£6-7). Mega cheap.

The cream cheese one was awesome! The teriyaki sauce was salty and sweet but was toned down by the cream cheese.

The normal teriyaki one was too salty – but it was so much better than the BA meals!

Address: 1 Chome-32-5 Higashiikebukuro, Toshima City, Tokyo 170-0013, Japan

After sitting around for a little while, which was what some people were doing when I got there, I moved off back to Ikebukuro Station, and headed off to one of the famous streets in Harajuku! The easiest way to get there is to take the Yamanote Line and get off at Harajuku. Straight in front of you is Takeshita Street.

You would think Oxford Street and Regent Street was worse in London, but this was quite terrifying. You’re practically pushed and squeezed because of the amount of tourists and locals who were there – plus it was a Sunday, and many Japanese take that day off from work!

I didn’t like the crowds, so I swiftly walked away, looked at Google Maps to go to my next destination. Shibuya.

I followed Google Maps for the next half-an-hour and found myself snapping away…

The main reason why I wanted to come back to Shibuya after all these years was because I missed out on finding the Hachiko Statue outside Shibuya Station. Lots of tourists around this spot too!

Next stop was Tokyo Station. I love seeing this station!

Especially the basement for their shopping… Didn’t buy much, so swiftly moved onto my next destination.

I was defo tired and sleepy at this point, but I really needed to push myself.

And I promised Mr Games that I would fine the Square Enix Café in Japan, so I went to the one in Akihabara. Snap, snap, snap, took my pictures, and moved back to the hotel!

It was almost 3pm, but I think the people who were already there including myself were able to check in. Hoorah!! So tired!! But I didn’t take a nap… All I did was bath and changed clothes.

Before I missed the moment, I went to one of my favourite Japanese restaurants – Nakau. The machines have English instructions but I think I had to try twice, because I think I ordered wrongly. ^_^”” Total came to ¥980 (~£6.75). I’ve missed the flavoursome chicken, and the super soft purin!! Aaaaaahhhhhh~~~~ I was in Heaven! I ate it all even when I was full to the brim I chowed down all of it!

Address: Japan, 〒170-0013 Tokyo, Toshima City, Higashiikebukuro, 1 Chome−28−1

I made sure I relaxed that evening and went to bed ASAP – Didn’t sleep in those 24 hours! I really don’t know how or where I got the energy from – maybe because I took a week off before going on holiday, and slept as much as I could. LOL!!

p.s. I really like this lemon super chu-hi… I need to find this in London!!

End of Day 2.