TRIP REPORT: Day 9 Tokyo Day 1 – Sunday 29th September

[NatsyNoo]

I was so excited for today, so getting up at 7.30am wasn’t difficult! We got up and headed out at about 8am, via the hotel desk to buy our Tokyo Disneyland Passports for later in the trip, just so we knew we had them in hand. The four day passport was Y42,000 for both of us. We opted for Disneyland day 1, Disney SEA day 2, and then the final two days were open for hopping.

We caught the shuttle bus over to the station (it’s literally a 2 minute walk but the buses are so awesome, I wanted to ride it once) and then we caught the resort line to Maihama (we felt the resort line quite expensive compared to the city itself, it was Y260/£1.87 for two brief stops.

From Maihama, we used our pre-purchased Suica cards (I had bought them in advance from the Japan Rail website) to take us via the Keiyo line to Tokyo Station, then the Yamamote to Harajuku. We arrived at 10am at our first stop – the Meiji Jingu shrine.

We enjoyed a wander around and even saw snippets of a traditional Japanese wedding which was a treat. I loved seeing the guests in traditional dress. We enjoyed the temple, but you’ll see tomorrow that Senso-Ji really captured me.

Naturally, our next stop would be Take≈≈≈≈a-Dori which is what Harajuku is most famed for. We gazed at the various sights (mostly weird shops) but I was most excited to see the Disney Store! I couldn’t believe the things they had in the 50% off sale – I bought highlighters, pens, post its, a fan, Donald & Daisy plush Japanese-dressed keychains (for the Christmas tree) and a Lotso retractable pencil for Y3429/£24.57 which was brilliant!

We then wanted to get a potato tornado and found someone – we ordered a longest (the biggest) with BBQ seasoning, and that cost Y800/£5.73, and it was super yummy! We wished we had ordered one each!

We got to the end of Take≈≈≈≈a-Dori and then went onto Omotesando, the more upmarket shopping district. I had one goal here, and that was to visit Kiddyland. I was very excited in here too – I bought 2 packs of stickers for Y200/£1.43 each, a pack of 3 pairs of Stitch chopsticks (given Matt’s new skills) for Y500/£3.58, a Chip & Dale contact lens holder for my friend Roseanne (Y380/£2.72), and when I paid, I was gifted a canvas bag, which was lovely. I could have gone nuts in here, but this was just the third stop of the trip so I needed to calm down lol.

We also stopped in the Oriental Bazaar which is a lovely tourist store selling typical Japanese wares but not tacky like in other areas, but we didn’t buy anything.

I wanted to find the Olympic Stadium next, so we walked in the direction of Yoyogi Park and found the Yoyogi Stadium. There is a lot of building work going on, naturally, but it was important for me to see it so we can see ‘we’ve been there’ next summer when the Olympics are on!

Next, since we were so close, we went for a little wander around Yoyogi Park. We were thirsty so we stopped by a hut for some drinks. I got a Mickey water and Matt got a Coke Zero for Y310/£2.22.

We had a lot of ground to cover today, so we needed to head off to our next stop now – we got the subway from Harajuku to Tokyo, and then walked over in the direction of the Imperial Gardens. The station itself is lovely.

On the way, we saw this awesome Rugby World Cup signage.

The Gardens were not very far away, and we enjoyed a wander around. The architecture is just gorgeous. We saw the Nijubashi Bridge, the Palace, and the Statue of Kusanoki Masashige. Since we got home, the new Emperor was sworn in and it was great seeing one of the news correspondents reporting from the spot where we ourselves had taken some photos!

We were hungry by now so it was time for lunch. We wandered around the area but struggled to find what I was looking for. I wanted traditional Japanese food but everywhere was either very upmarket or not Japanese. I suggested we try Shinjuku instead, so we got the metro over there.

Shinjuku is the world’s busiest train station, so naturally, we were going to get lost. We headed out of the station and worked out fairly quickly that were not walking in the right direction, so we backtracked and found a bit more ‘life’ in the opposite direction. That being said, we still struggled. Matt is a relatively fussy eater, so not having sight of an English menu wasn’t an option in case he ended up with something fishy, for example. We just couldn’t find anywhere, and I was gutted. However, into a positive, we popped into the 7/11, and found the Pizza Steamed Bun! We ordered one of those, and a pork one (Y120/86p each), plus some Pocky Y150/£1/07, Hi Chews Y95/68p x2, and two waters Y100/71p each. That Pizza Steamed Bun…wow!

Since we were in the vicinity, we went to find the LOVE sign, since we’d visited the one in New York in the past.

On our way back through Shinjuku Station, we saw a Daiso. This is like a £ shop here at home, so I wanted to pop in. Wow, what a treasure trove! I didn’t go too crazy, but I got two packs of stickers, and two sets of Mickey clothing pegs, for Y108/77p each. Brilliant!