Japan. YAASS.

I've been wanting to go Japan again so badly (because who can remember much of what they did during their trips when they are only 3 years old) and now that I got to visit my dreamland, I'M SO HAPPY I have no other words to describe.

Feeling very excited.

A selfie with my mum on the plane.

The flight we took to Haneda Airport in Tokyo was empty and our seats were 3 seaters with a stranger beside. So this air stewardess came over and asked us if we want to move behind so we can have the 3 seats to ourselves and of course we agreed because why sit with others when you can use it to put your bags and make yourselves comfortable?

Airplane food was not bad!

Was flipping through the JAL magazine and that fangirl moment when you see your idols on it. Actually it shouldn't be surprising as Arashi endorse for JAL?
Watching a movie instead of sleeping which is much needed because we would land in the morning.

- Say "I love you".
Reached Haneda Aiport at around 6am and took the limousine bus to our hotel where we left our luggages. Since the check-in time for our hotel was 3pm we had no choice but to keep ourselves occupied.. by sleeping in the lobby and only getting out at around 11am because that's when most shops are opened and we were really tired. I am sure we were so unglam (my mouth was open wtf) but whatever, since no one knows us.

I was wearing a thin normal outerwear I would wear in SG that wouldn't make me sweat like a pig and I only packed one thick outerwear which was in my luggage. It was because when I was doing my research before the trip, I see many girls just wearing knitted sweaters and SHORTS so I thought "aiya it won't be so cold one la just pack light".

WRONG.

IT WAS SO COLD WHEN WE STEPPED OUT. The weather was already cold, and there was cold wind blowing at us (there wasn't much tall building around to "block" the wind) so we were like freezing omg. I wanted to visit the 7-11 store nearby because it was highly raved but we just went straight into the nearest shopping mall that was opposite the hotel because we just cannot take it anymore.

We used the underground passage of the train station to get to another mall with uniqlo and my mum bought a coat while I made the most use out of a scarf which was supposed to be used by my mum.

Selfie with da mum.

Explored around the area where our hotel is - Ikebukuro. To be more accurate, our hotel was on the west side and the more 'happening' area is at the east side so we tried to get there using the underground passage which was soooo confusing because:

1. There's too much people.
2. There's exit for North, South, East, West, Centre East, Centre West etc.
3. There's two department store called Seibu and Tobu and the Kanji characters for them had west and east respectively. What is confusing is that Seibu, being having the west word, is at the east and Tobu, having the east word, is at the west so it was kind of confusing when following the signpost.

When we finally got to the right exit it was getting dark, at around 4pm meaning we can check in already so we just went to Don Quijote (pronounced as donki hote) since I've heard about it being cheap and having almost everything.


Didn't stay there for long because we were really tired from all the walking so we went back to the hotel to check in which took very long because I've rented a pocket wifi router online from japan-wireless.com which would be mailed to the hotel but the staff didn't understand me so it took a while for him to finally understand what I want and went to search for the mail. We also had to pre-book our limousine bus to get us to Narita airport on the last day of our trip and that took us awhile too.

Speaking about the pocket wifi router, you should definitely rent one if you were to visit Japan because not all hotel would provide wifi in your hotel rooms and having internet is handy when you're out visiting places so you can check the map or information online when you get lost or don't know the way, which happens A LOT. I'll be talking more about this service in another blogpost where I'll be sharing tips and recommendations for visiting Japan, Tokyo in particular.

I'm always stressed about hotel rooms because my mum cannot tolerate small rooms and small toilets and all those shits and starts complaining every single day when we stay in the hotel which makes me super annoyed but this time, the hotel was great so everything is well!


Act act abit heh.



Our plan was to visit Shinjuku with the remaining time we had so we went to the train station and tap in to the wrong type of train station wtf.

There are JR east and subway which each have many different lines, and also Tokyo Metro, making my first train taking experience in Tokyo very miserable LOL. I tapped into the Tokyo Metro when I'm supposed to be taking the JR east and unlike in SG, you can't just tap out so we had to ask the counter to let us out. But subsequently I got better and I could get to places using the different trains and subway smoothly!

I just had to.

Got to Shinjuku and we had no idea which exit to head for so we thought we should just follow where most of the crowd had to but it failed because there were just too many people heading for each exit. So I checked the map which didn't do much so we spent quite awhile in the station looking for the right exit.

Saw Starbucks and my mum wanted some coffee so I took the chance and bought one for myself as well hehe. The staffs were so friendly!





Since it was quite late already, we just went to Uniqlo (they are everywhere oh gosh) to find something and came out not long after because they were closing as well. However we discovered, after going there for the second time in the day, that Shinjuku is actually a really 'happening' area with lots of shops, department stores, shopping malls, and also Takashimaya and Isetan so you can spend one whole day just exploring and shopping in Shinjuku! We wanted our hotel to be in Shinjuku initially but we were afraid that the standard was too low (y'know, my mum) so we settled for Ikebukuro which was not bad as well but Shinjuku would definitely be better because of the large shopping area!

Realised that we haven't eat anything since the meal on plane which was like 12am so we were looking around and settled for CoCo Curry House! I'm aware there's a brunch in Singapore but trust me, the standard is waaaaay better here and the experience is definitely more authentic hehe.