Day Thirteen - Lazy Day in Shibuya and Night visit To Shibuya Sky And A Huge Shock
The end of the trip is in sight now, we have got our last full day tomorrow and that is in another part of the city mostly, and then fly home on day 15.
We woke late and slobbed around in the room and did most of the packing, and our fears were realised when we worked out we had to get another case due to what we had bought - in my defence about 80% of it (baring the Uniqlo spend) was for other people. We did a wash and dry of clothes at the hotel laundry and it was about 12 when we left the room. We would have to get another case but a cheap one from anywhere would be fine, it did not need to be huge and our allowance was 2 cases of 32kg each and we has one case each when we arrived.
So we left the hotel and made the 10 minute walk, down the side of Miya≈≈≈≈a Park (that will not get through the Dibb naughty word filter!) and arrived at the crossing, next to the famous Shibuya crossing and entered the lowest floor of the Shibuya Hikarie building, next to the Shibuya Scramble building and went up to the top floor in the lift to work our way down. We had planned to take photos from a viewing area, up there, down onto the crossing areas below. However, when we got there, it was closed off for reservations, so just started to head down floor my floor on the escalators, stopping to look on each floor if anything took our fancy.
These floors are not really a department store, just lots of shops on each floor.
We stopped and looked at the Le Creuset area, nice Disney themed items I thought, and some Pokemon ones too and then next to them, well blow me Lovot robots had a stand, and unlike the other places had them dressed in merch for a tie up to commemorate some anniversary of Pac-Man. We spent 30minutes playing with the robots again, sigh…..
On another floor is most of the places to eat, including a Disney Harvest Market that has a restaurant and food to buy (mostly dry things like dry pasta etc, some bottled sauces, and kitchen related pottery etc.) that I like to look at but have never eaten there. Themed cafe food tends to look Instagram friendly, but taste so so at best and is not cheap - so I skipped. One thing we did miss there was they had removed their Mickey Mouse themed Lovot robots we saw there last time
We crossed the walkway to the Shibuya Scramble building and went to the lower levels we have never done before, to find some amazing looking food stores, super pricey but they looked so good. There was a “craft” cola store that had loads of interesting drinks, but was not going to pay those prices to try and the woman behind the counter appeared to be ignoring us, so we looked and left.
We nipped upstairs to the Diptyque fragrance area as my sister had asked how much a scent was in Japan, it was about £40 cheaper (lower price plus 10% off sales tax refund) so messaged her back and was surprised to hear she had changed her mind and to skip it - it was quite a saving!
We then walked across to the Sakura stage Building next door, just to see if the Mickey I as after had come back into stock in the Square Enix store (it had not) and took a few more pics of the stage area.
By this time we had only been out about 2 hours but headed back to hotel as we had a evening meal and visit to the roof of Shibuya Scramble at night to look forward to. We bought a late combini lunch to eat in the hotel once we got back.
About 18:30 we headed back out and at the far end of Miya≈≈≈≈a Park in a small alley is MONKA, a Japanese restaurant that makes Okonomiyaki, a savory Japanese cabbage pancake “grilled as you like it“ with your choice of protein and tasty condiments and toppings. We found this place on our first trip, Derek bullied me into trying it (am not good trying new foods) and we both loved it. Plus it is 95% locals so it must be good.
When you arrive, there is a long line of stools outside you queue on to wait, and at the front a ticket machine to book a party in, and get a number. When we arrived the place was busy, one side of the restaurant has large doors the fold out of the way to open it up a bit. We wanted to eat here and would have queued quite a long time, but there was only 6 people in front of us, which was good, as by time we left all 30 or so stalls were full.
We got called in and shown to our table, the seating is a box with a very thin cushion on, that lifts up so you can pop your bags in there out of the way. In front of you is a huge hot plate where the cooking take place. When we visited before, the English menu was very worn out, the cover melted where people had put it on the hot plate etc - but this time it was a new one that did not look so tatty.
The options you can pick are numerous, but we went with the safe pork variant, ordered a coke zero eat and sat back looking around the place. It was packed as ever.
The drinks arrived an a minute later the bowls with the ingredients appeared (you have to buy one each, no sharing here) and soon after a young lady appeared, putting the bacon on the grill, adding eggs to the veg bowl and mixing it all up, then put that on the hot plate and cooked, slice, mixed, cooked more - on the hot plate, adding the bacon into the mix once that was cooked. Finally, she adds various sauces, mayo and spices etc on the top, along with a fried egg - and finally tells you it is all done and ready to be eaten - and it was delicious! You cut a chuck off with the tiny spatula and move it only your plate to eat with chopsticks, and despite being poor with the chopsticks I managed to eat it quite easily.
Once finished we head across the road, back to the Shibuya Sky building for our 21:00 booking on the roof, in the bar and nibbles area - I had booked 2 weeks ago, the day before we traveled as they only allow bookings now, for 2 weeks in advance. From the ground level lift, we went up to something like 12 floor to where the ticket and main entrance booths are, and had to wait a few minutes until they allowed our time slot to move past the barriers and into the main lifts. The number off people who had done no panning and turned up to buy a ticket (which were sold out) surprised me, in the short time there there must have been 50 or so people in groups that just turned up and were disappointed.
Our slot was called so we went through and entered the next lift that takes up unto the roof, once there left large items in a free locker and went onto the lower roof level and up the escalator to the roof. It was a wonderful night, warm and just a hint of a breeze - pretty perfect time and the views are stunning, we walked around the outside , looking through the glass and taking the views. One disappointment was the huge searchlights on the roof, that put on a show with music every so often, we closed for maintenance - poo.
Walking around could see the thin shaped Miya≈≈≈≈a Park - our hotel is just out of shot in top right of the picture
Also the Shibuya Crossing
And some great views around the area.
Derek said “lets go get official photo taken” and I replied “Really? It is pretty poor!” But he insisted. Now one corner of the roof is cordoned off and you queue to have a picture taken by a photographer, but you do not have to buy it on the way out, and you also get a minute to take a pic or two with your own camera if you want. The floor in that corner is lit, but the colour changes, so you can get a picture bathed in nice white light, or in red / green light where you can’t make yourself out. Anyway we got in a short queue and the couple in front of us went up and the man went down on one knee and asked the woman to marry him. She said yes and the cows applauded - but the photography hurried them along - sort of ruined it a bit I thought. We had ours done, it was white light and we checked it at the store on way out, but it was not good and again we skipped.
By now it was time for our drinks and nibbles so we checked in at the bar, and unlike last time where things went very wrong and we nearly missed our slot, the guy spoke vey good American English and checked us in, and gave us a holder with drinks and nibbles in, and made our way through a rope barrier (with security guard) round the corner of the roof to the lines of sofas and picked one to sit at.
Derek had a mini bottle of champagne, I had poured out some fizzy fruit juice drink into my glass (I do not drink booze) and we sis cheers and took a sip, looking out over the city in front of us.
“Can I ask you something” Derek said “Will you marry me?”
To say I was surprised was an understatement - my jaw dropped as I looked at him and came to my sense and said “Yes, of course!”
We had a quick kiss - been together 15 years and only 3rd time any sort of affection in public) and asked him what made him do it? We had talked about marrying in the first year or two after meeting but they sort of stopped talking about it, I was very happy as we have been, but Derek said that he had been planing it for a year! He knew it was going to be in Japan where he popped the question, at first thought it would be at Disney, at which I said I would have been mortified if he had done it so public, but then decided on the roof here was perfect, and it was. He thought the man who popped the question a few minutes earlier might steal his thunder, bless.
I then had a little cry, thinking how happy my parents would have been (I lost them both during covid) and then we ate our nibbles and drank the drinks, and talked about how neither of us wanted big ceremony, how it would be us and witness at registry office and a meal with some friends at a later date, but we have not talked dates for it to happen yet. We have not put it out on anything like Facebook yet, but told family / friends it is going to happen.
After a while we had finished the food and drink, chilled enough and left to head to the hotel. However, I said lets go to Donki now to get the case, it is sort of on the way back to the hotel and it was gone 10pm at night so should be quiet.
How wrong I was……..
It was rammed, never seen it so busy, and Donki is not my fav place to buy as it is so small, so busy, so noisy etc - but we found the suitcases and while it took longer for Derek to pick one than I expected, so left the store with case in hand, got back to the hotel, and bed.
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