Woke up, washed up (and used the Japanese high tech toilet LOL, you know those with a lot button where you can choose to wash your butt etc etc) and we headed down to the restaurant at 1st floor for our buffet breakfast! At Tokyo Metropolitan Hotel, there's two restaurants you can have breakfast at, one is like the usual buffet breakfast you get at any other hotel and another one is Japanese-styled which is only opened on weekends. Since it's still weekday, we had the usual.
I had second servings LOL.
After a heavy breakfast (gluttons), we went back up to our room to prepare since shops only open at 10am but instead we fell asleep wtf. We only woke up at around 12pm and headed out at around 1pm.. totally forgetting about our lunch.
Walked around and we entered a 7-11 and I tell ya, the Japanese think of everything. Everything.
Can you find this in Singapore? Nope.
Hehehehe.
The first stop of our day was Harajuku for the Meiji Shrine and Takeshita Dori (the shopping street) and we headed for the shrine first because it close early. Saw a live performance by Usagi.. and the vocalist voice is so powerful omg.
Just a short walk from the station and we arrive at the Meiji bridge and park leading to the shrine.
#ootd
The park leading to the shrine is sooooooooooooo long and its pebbled so it's rather hard for my mum to walk on and we were complaining all the way LOL.
Another selfie with the mum.
Continued with our journey to the west ER WAIT I MEAN TO THE SHRINE.
Before coming to Japan, I've seen on videos and TV shows that you can to cleanse yourself with the water and I was actually very eager to try it out. It was actually quite an experience just that the water was freezing cold due to the weather.. my hand totally froze and numb.
Mum definitely not losing out to me in terms of photo taking.
Getting to the shrine after a long walk yet we couldn't get in because by the time we reached and done with all the photos, they restricted entry wtf. Time wasted but at least we managed to see the surrounding and take some photos so it's still okay. We had to take the tortuous walk back to the station and cross the street to the Takeshita Dori for shopping!
Actually from the start I did not really expect myself to shop much because of my experience in Taipei during 2012 Fall in which I couldn't get much as all the clothes were long sleeved or thick due to the weather. This happened in this trip as well and all the clothes I see were long sleeve that were totally not suitable for Singapore's weather. But I can't say I never get anything also because I bought a skirt (a thick one though) here which was also my only clothing haul of the trip.
Here in Takeshita Dori there's also a huge ass Daiso and it's freaking cheap compared to Singapore because after conversion, it's like only $1.30 including tax! But we didn't shop much in Daiso because we didn't want to carry too much around seeing that we still have another place to go!
When at Harajuku Takeshita Dori, you cannot forget about the crepes right? There's a lot of shops selling crepes but the more famous ones at the Angel Heart and Marion Crepes that you will usually see on videos and TV shows.. and most of the time, they won't be able to tell you which one is better but to get from the store with the shortest queue then.
Following the advice, we got our crepes from Angel Heart.
Best crepe I've tasted in my life.
Did not spent much time in Takeshita Dori since we know that all the shops would be selling long sleeved stuff so we just moved on to our next destination, Shibuya.
In Shibuya, there's two things to look out for:
1. Hachiko statue (from the movie).
2. The famous crossing.
And so we did.
With the Hachiko.
Not just the crossing, even when you just step out of the station (the hachiko area), there are already a lot of people in groups either talking or smoking.
The famous crossing is the first crossing when you stepped out of the station. It's not just four crossing you see in Singapore, it's like 6 or even more and all lights turn green at the same time meaning all the crossings are accessed at the same time which means CHAOS. Ok joking but can you imagine the crowd? You needa watch my day 2 vlog once I uploaded to really see the amount of people. Actually in my vlog the crowd is not even at it's maximum because we only start to cross after awhile but if you ever come Tokyo you should just witness the crossing for yourself LOL. Our orchard road or little india cannot even be compared to!
Exploring time.
Didn't do much at Shibuya as well because all the clothings are, once again, all long sleeved so we just kinda walk around and see all the necessary things before heading back to Ikebukuro.
Given the chance to visit Japan again, which I will definitely for the sakura if I go to polytechnic instead of JC, I will come back to Harajuku and Shibuya for the shopping because I know it's gonna be awesome when the clothes are suitable for Singapore's weather.
Headed back to Ikebukuro and we thought we should have a proper Japanese meal since we're in Japan and after searching around (most restaurants were closed as it was already pass 10pm), we settled for this shop that was only left with sushi plates and this was one of them.
They are not bad actually, just that it's quite expensive.. after tax it's about $23.
I was still thinking, "Aiya no choice what nothing to eat already so have to pay the price lor." until we explored further into Ikebukuro out of curiosity after the meal and realised this entire area with all the restaurants opened until like 4am wtf. Furthermore they were super cheap okay. We were so tempted to eat again or come down again in the middle of the night to eat again but we didn't because there's still buffet breakfast the next day.
Walked back to our hotel and ended the day productively, and also with this sexy Sho kun looking right back at me.
Here's day 2 vlog.
Cheers.
