Bucket List or Bust! - Tokyo & Shanghai - November 2016 - Day 8

[Hannikins]

Bucket List or Bust! - Tokyo & Shanghai - November 2016 - Day 8


Today was our final day in Tokyo and we were hoping to cover off the west side of the city.

I was glad to see that the rain had moved on and we had a glorious day to finish off our time in the city. I mean it was even warm for once, it was the first day I wasn’t wearing fleece lined leggings under my jeans!



We headed first to Harajuku station. On seeing the station name Adam asked if we were going to a cat cafe, it was something we’d discussed previously but dismissed. However he seemed genuinely sad we weren’t visiting one, so we started to plan a detour to visit Mocha Cat Cafe. Not a massive detour, it’s literally across the road from the station!

Before heading in we checked opening times and tariffs and noticed that feeding time took place at 10.30am (see wifi on the go, very useful!), it was now 10am so we headed on over.

On entering they ask you want you want, we opted for entry and the refill drink option as you couldn’t buy individual ones. They then give you a locker key and slippers which you have to change into. Adam wasn’t quite on the ball and tried to walk to his locker still in his shoes, he was very quickly told that’s not on!

It’s important to note that your time starts as soon as they print off your request so don’t take too long sorting out your lockers and drinks, kitties await!

Reviews at this place were a mix and the main issue seemed to be the cats not being very friendly, but then they are free to go where they want… and they're cats! so I’m not quite sure what some people expected...

We didn’t have this problem though, being that cats are also greedy they were all VERY much out and waiting, crowding round the door ready for noms noms!







well, some of them were



When the lady came in with the food she lined them all up and spent time constantly moving the greedy ones away as they tried to hoover up everyone else's food hehe!

It was chaos at first





but she soon sorted them out







Once finished they didn’t all head off, most seemed pretty happy to stick around. I sat on the cat tree stroking a few



before a head appeared in the Christmas presents next to me.



He came out, gave a little chirrup and sat on my lap, I so wanted to keep him!



Unfortunately, we only managed to have a brief cuddle as our thirty minutes were up. We could have stayed longer of course, but we thought 30 mins (10 was the minimum), was enough.

Cost in total came to 1700 yen + tax

Again on the way out factor in getting sorted to leave, it all counts on your time and if you’re over, you pay for the next 10 mins.

I’m making it out like they were strict on time, I have no idea, I just have a paranoia about things like that so I’m always uber cautious!

Cuddles over we headed outside, I’m not ashamed to say it, but I had a little cry, I was really starting to miss my little furbabies back home.

[Hannikins]

Next we made our way over to Meiji Temple, which was just across the street.



This was a beautiful area and as it was a monday it was a little quieter (I’ve heard it’s packed at the weekend along with most of Harijuku!)



Here we spent some time exploring the grounds and the temple.






There were a few ceremonies on as there were lots of people standing around in ceremonial dress. I heard a tour guide explain that the bride was likely there with her parents to make an offering before the big day which would likely be in a few days time. I liked that people had come out with her to do this and had dressed for the occasion as well.



While here I also made a wish/question to the gods and popped a little offering in the envelop in the hope I’d be heard.



We then performed the ceremony, rang the bell and dropped our offering into the box, fingers crossed, time will tell if it comes to pass or not!

Next up the plan was to head further into Harajuku so we made our way to Take≈≈≈≈a Street. This place was busy in parts, I dread to think what weekends looked like!



Adam wanted to buy a Tokyo magnet at some point and we found a small area full of tat, which we thought might be a good place to start (the tackier the magnet the better for our collection!)

While browsing I spotted a bank of Gatchapon machines (I literally checked everyone we found for a cat sushi keyring but no luck…) and a few Purikura machines. This was one of my “must do’s” They are usually “themed” so I let Adam pick.

He went with this one *rolls eyes*



Basically you head into the booth and have some photos taken against a green screen, pretty much like the UK versions up to that point.

Then you hurry round to a booth on the side and “customise” your photos. Adding words, accessories, backgrounds, anything really. They also optimise your features to Japanese tastes, which to westerners sometimes looks a little scary, or in Adam’s case, feminin

Here’s our end result



I think Adam was a little bemused by the whole experience but I loved it, we’d definitely be doing another one later

We then visited a few of the shops, they were great to explore and there were loads of really cool disney bits and pieces but nothing I really wanted so I ended up with nothing, again! I’m really not great at this shopping malarkey!







These sticks of candy floss were popular!

[Hannikins]

In the area there were several “must eats” for me, not since New York had I dragged Adam to so many places in one go.

First stop was to beat the lunchtime rush at Sakura-Tei for Okonomiyaki. It was VERY difficult to find, and once you find the entrance you weave through roof terraces before you finally reach the restaurant, it’s well hidden and certainly not somewhere to stumble across.

Okonomiyaki is a savoury pancake that you make yourself on a hotplate. You usually get all the ingredients in a bowl, ours was veggies, shrimp and squid, that you then mix up together with the batter and pop it onto the hotplate.





Once cooked you add the bacon and then flip it over and add the egg on top and the special sauce and mayo they give you.







They give you a little leaflet to explain what to do, which was helpful as I only had a very rough idea!



I liked it a lot more than Adam did, the squid was a little chewy but tentacles often are. Adam hates cabbage so I kinda lost him there as there was a fair bit of it! You can pick what you want though, they have plenty of options, even veggie ones if that suited you more.

total for one meal and two drinks came to 1790 yen, so about £13

We’d intentionally shared one so we could try some other dishes elsewhere and we were soon heading out to settle our stomachs.

Next to here is Harajuku lane, an “older”, slightly cooler version of Taka≈≈≈≈a street. Here is the home of the 20/30 somethings and lots of independent clothes stores, it’s a bit like their version of soho in some respects, but on a much smaller scale.

Over the main road took us to Kiddieland.



LOVED this shop, the disney items were great, some were better than we found in Disney itself later in the trip. It was expensive though and despite eyeing up a new phone case and a frilly disney princess umbrella I didn’t get either.

I knew our next stop was very close to Kiddieland, we were searching for Harajuku Gyoza-ro and the queue found us before we found the store.

It was huge! Luckily with a bit of sign language we managed to work out that half the queue was for Luke’s Lobster across the road (seemed VERY popular) and the other was for Harajuku Gyoza-ro.

We had a short wait before we were ushered into a seat at the bar by a rather grumpy chef.

Well he seemed grumpy, on placing my order in broken Japanese it earned me a big grin and a huge thumbs up.

We were served with tea and waited for our Gyoza. I’ve order the steamed and the fried to share



I’d heard great things about this particular venue on food blogs and I wasn’t disappointed, they really were delicious. and a bargain 626 yen for everything so about £4.50 for all those gyoza!

Next it was time to find dessert! and in Harajuku there’s really only one option…



CREPES!

I ordered a nice and easy banana, cream and nutella one, Adam went mental and had something with a big wedge of cheesecake in it!



They were amazing though. Unfortunately I can’t find a receipt as Adam paid for them in cash, in fact I’m not even sure we got one! they weren’t insanely expensive though, they ranged from 400-600 yen each before tax.

we now decided to head back down Take≈≈≈≈a Street to visit a few more shops on the way back to the train station.

We passed this on the way



Adam couldn’t get his head around it. Thinking back we so should have gone in for a nosey

[Hannikins]

On the way back I saw a sign for Purikura and as I really wanted another go I dragged Adam downstairs.



Well, I don’t think either of us will recover from the experience anytime soon. It’s CRAZY!

It’s basically a basement FULL of purikura booths, this basically:



except currently it’s RAMMED with schoolgirls



and they take this stuff VERY seriously!

There are lockers for your stuff, big mirror areas where you can do your makeup first and then big queues for the booths.

Adam was terrified and at risk of looking like a complete pervert (his words, not mine) he made a hasty exit. I, on the other hand, continued with my plan, found a prince charming booth and did my stuff!

This was a little trickier and I had to ask some girls to help me print my photo but in the end, I managed it. Unfortunately, I can’t find it to scan it in for you to laugh at lol

Adam had clearly been scarred for life, as I found him at the end of the street watching a woman with a beatbox singing as she went. I say she…. it may have been a man..



She’s pretty famous, you see her in lots of youtube videos

By now it was early afternoon and I wanted to use the time to mop up some of the things we’d missed. Our choices were the Tokyo Tower or Nakano broadway. Now I was kinda “towered” out. The fact I live right next door to one in Blackpool doesn’t increase it’s appeal either so instead, we took the train to Nakano.

Nakano Broadway is at the end of a long mall, easy to find from the metro





If you like Disney, anime or video games this is basically the mecca of geekdom.

and guns and army surplus…. if you like those, they are here as well…



It’s a really old school building and we had fun looking in all the shops at the displays. Alas, I didn’t buy anything. I had grand hopes for robot robot having stalked their stock on Instagram but it’s pot luck if they have anything interesting and it wasn’t to be.

I did find a tsum tsum machine in one of the shops though so I just HAD to have a go.

I love that you get a tsum tsum first, which you then put on the base in front of the game, it recognises your character and you then play as them



I got Alice. I was a bit bummed it wasn’t mickey, minnie or ariel but at 300 yen a pop I wasn’t shelling out for a second go.

It was nearly rush-hour by the time we finished so we decided to get some dinner, heading back to Shibuya and the crossing.

Adam loves this photo



There are lots of great food options in this area



But we decided on Genki Sushi as there wasn’t a queue when we arrived



We were sat right by the kitchen so we could sometimes peek in and see them prepping the dishes



I let Adam fiddle with the menu for a bit before showing him the English setting



He wants to install on of these at home



First I ordered some crab cake sushi with some mayo prawns



They were both nice but the crab cake on rice was a bit of an odd texture

Next I ordered one with onions on top



I love the little conveyer belt your order arrives on and the noise it makes on arrival



We liked watching them fly passed, trying to figure out what it was



We also ordered some fried chicken to share as we’d seen some fly passed and it looked nice.



we aren’t big sushi fans so this was inevitable!

I did get a tuna nori roll though



Adam not so much, he ordered a cheeseburger sushi



they were... interesting :P

These I cannot remember what meat it was…. probably for the best



but it was tasty!

After a few orders the menu prompts you to participate in a game of rock paper scissors, we did but we never won…

We were stuffed by this point but we still decided to order desserts.

I had a green tea mousse. Which doesn’t sound, or even look great, but it was soooooo yummy!



Adam had an ice cream sundae… with cornflakes :/



Total cost was 2,520 yen (about £18) which we thought was amazing for the amount of food we ate and Adam’s beer.

[Hannikins]

We then made our way back to the station.



Over the crossing, which was now PACKED!





When we reached Akihabara we decided to wait a little until the trains were quieter, and so we walked down to the main street, stopping at all the gatchapon machines to find cat sushi as we went!



We had some coins left so we both had a go on various ones

Adam really wanted this one



and he got the dispenser! he’ll never be caught short again

No cat sushi for me though



We also bought some chopsticks and some sake cups from a nearby shop before making our way back to collect the luggage.

Unlike in Shanghai where we took a taxi to and from Disney, the train was really our only viable/affordable option to get to Disney without spending a fortune. It did mean one train change at Tokyo station but we took it slowly, using the app, which was a godsend to show when the next train was and more importantly, which platform we needed. Finally, we made it



This was all very exciting!

We didn’t want to bother with the monorail tonight as I wanted to get day passes tomorrow, so instead, I’d read that the Hilton offered a shuttle bus and we opted for that instead. This was a bit of a pain to manage with luggage, not the bus, the driver was very kind and insisted on lifting all our luggage into place and off again when we arrived. It was more getting to the stop from the station, two flights of stairs appeared to be unavoidable, we managed though



On arriving at the hotel we headed to check in, I’m a member so we had our own desk, it didn’t matter though as there was no queue, typical. That always happens when I’m allowed to use the posh queue

I’d ordered a special room here but as usual, I hadn’t told Adam, I wanted him to see for himself.

The room was so fun, I mean look at it



And considering the box disguised as a hotel room we’d been in for the last few days, it was HUGE!

That wasn’t the surprise though. It was the PARK VIEW!



So pretty and Adam loved it. As it was a sale room I hadn’t paid much more for it either.



He didn’t need to know that though :P

We had an early start tomorrow so I took advance of the bath I’d missed for the last week and headed straight to bed, BIG day tomorrow, bucket list completion!

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Tremendous trip
Report again
I had forgotten about condonmania! I had to look twice when I saw it on the corner
The sushi place was great too

Thanks for posting

[Guest]

Ahhhh what a day! I can't wait to go in a photobooth! That sushi looks good! That hotel view too 😁😁😁

[hornetgirl]

Another great day. Someone recommended that same cat café to me recently, it's definitely on our to do list.

[Twentyyears]

Wow, just caught up on all this, what a fabulous trip. I am not sure we could cope with all the transport, I am like you so would freak me out but you appear to have managed really well.
Looking forward to some more.
Thank you for doing this, it really help those that come long afterwards, I know how much time it takes to write up.

[Hannikins]

Originally Posted by kevin_cambs_uk

Tremendous trip
Report again
I had forgotten about condonmania! I had to look twice when I saw it on the corner
The sushi place was great too

Thanks for posting

See more...

thanks

Originally Posted by princess_chazy

Ahhhh what a day! I can't wait to go in a photobooth! That sushi looks good! That hotel view too 😁😁😁

See more...

lol doooo it!

Originally Posted by hornetgirl

Another great day. Someone recommended that same cat café to me recently, it's definitely on our to do list.

See more...

there's another one opened in Harajuku further down as well now apparently

Originally Posted by Twentyyears

Wow, just caught up on all this, what a fabulous trip. I am not sure we could cope with all the transport, I am like you so would freak me out but you appear to have managed really well.
Looking forward to some more.
Thank you for doing this, it really help those that come long afterwards, I know how much time it takes to write up.

See more...

thanks for reading