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We ♥ Japan Day 2 - 日本の旅行

Woah! It has been a blink of an eye since 53 days ago I was living my vacation trip in Japan. I know I have been a really slow *poke* in updating about my vacation trip here. Apologies! But don’t worry, I will definitely finish blogging about the entire trip. Nothing less :P So  stay tuned!

29 December 2011 Itinerary 

• [Sight Seeing] Tsukiji Market: Salmon Don, Tea
• [Store Visiting] Ginza: Apple flagship store, A&F, Muji, Uniqlo
• [Shopping] Harajuku: Takeshita Doori, Uniqlo UT, Harajuku Station

Waking up to a brand new day of exploration! ^^ This was the view from inside of my hotel window before the sun rises. It was a really blissful feeling waking up to the first dawn in a country I had  am still dreaming of.

On the second day of our Japan vacation trip, we had planned mainly to go shopping and sight-seeing around famous places in Tokyo (Refer to the bullet points above for details).

On our way to Tsukiji Market from Ikebukuro

Being a salmon lover (more for Chris lol), we had always thought of how different would the taste of the salmon in Japan compare to the usual imported ones we eat in Singapore so visiting the Tsukiji Market was definitely on our itinerary. I read online about how packed and crowded Tsukiji Market restaurants could get and so we decided to set off really early on that day. 

This is the Ikebukuro street near our hotel which we passed by to get to the train station.

It was really nice to witness the orderly morning crowd for the first time. The weather was great and I was adapting alright to the single digit weather.

And here we were at Ikebukuro Station.

Hello! Sometimes the underground tunnel can get super windy in Japan. There he was wearing my H&M floppy hat! :P Travelling with him is always FUN!

Getting to Tsukiji Market for breakfast

We reached Tsukiji Station and made our way to the Tsukiji Market by relying on his mobile phone’s GPS and Google map.

And we reached!

About Tsukiji Fish Market: The Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market (東京都中央卸売市場 Tōkyō-to Chūō Oroshiuri Shijō^?), commonly known as the Tsukiji Market (築地市場 Tsukiji shijō^?), is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind. The market is located in Tsukiji in central Tokyo, and is a major attraction for foreign visitors. (Source: Wikipedia)

Look at the crowd!

Of course there were seafood everywhere.

We seemed to walk into the lane where people were busying loading their products.

And after exploring the area, we went around to search for a Japanese restaurant for a salmon feast. 

Here is the lane where we saw some promising restaurants and one of the restaurants(I think it is Sushi Dai) was so popular with its queue stretched all the way to the road! Of course we didn’t join in the queue because we didn’t want to wait.

And guess what I saw outside of the super long queue restaurant? It was a photograph of Nat Ho, a Singaporean actor, who was featured as one of their celebrity customers! Seriously, it makes me wonder how on earth did they get to know who Nat Ho was?! You mean Japanese do watch Singapore TV shows? #mystery unsolved 

Anyway… We decided on this restaurant, Dontaku, and this was my first cultural shock encounter which still remains very vivid in my mind LOL!

Stressful moment eating inside a traditional Japanese restaurant

About Dontaku Restaurant: Dontaku is a small sushi restaurant located in the inner market area of Tsukiji Fish Market. Primarily serving chirashi-sushi, this small restaurant seats no more than 10 people. They have a limited menu of 15 types of chirashi-sushi, while supplies last. Prices are affordable from 1000yen to 2500yen, and always depend on the type of fish in the dish. (Higher quality fish will always bring up the prices.) Friendly staff and chef run this sushi bar. They speak little English, but are well-accustomed to tourists as it is in the tourist are aof Tsukiji Fish Market, and only a few doors down to the more well-known sushi bar, Sushi Dai, with a long line and waiting time of more than 90 minutes. (Source: ellechic @Travbuddy)

There was no queue when we went into Dontaku Restaurant so we got our seats immediately. Here is how Dontaku Restaurant looked like from inside at 8.38 a.m.

What you are seeing above is the whole of the restaurant. It was really small and could accommodate less than 10 people at a time but I am not complaining because it was such a unique dining experience! I liked how polite these chefs were for greeting customers who came in.  

Anyway just a tip, if you completely foreign to Japanese language, just order Salmon Don and you will be alright. Remember not to order Sashimi Don though it may be called as that in your local Japanese restaurant because it literally translates into raw fish rice bowl and you are not doing them a favor by telling them exactly the type of fish you want in your rice bowl.

This is what I ordered, Salmon Don. It was quite nice. Honestly, I do not think there is any difference between the salmon sold in Japan and the usual Japanese restaurants I go to in Singapore. 

And the moment of cultural shock! Everything went on smoothly, from ordering food till waiting for our food to be served, until!!!! The moment when the crowd started streaming in. 

The restaurant seats started getting filled up real fast and eventually got full house with a crowd forming behind of us (we were seated directly with our back facing the slide door). Around say 15 minutes into our breakfast, a few customers who came after us had already left the restaurant with amazingly fast eating speed and the pressure to leave the restaurant asap for waiting customers was freaking REAL! I swear I was FREAKED OUT! Having the luxury of space and time to savoring food in Singapore restaurant ain’t preparing me for this. I tried as fast as possible to quicken my eating speed. I need to brush up on my eating speed lol! It was truly a very memorable dining experience. People were really considerate to fasten their eating speed for waiting customers and waiting patiently for their turns to get seated.

And after our breakfast, we explored the other lanes and was very surprised to see interesting stalls like this bookshop.

Saw some interesting toy too like this! Tap Tap Tap!

And there he was at a pottery shop buying gifts for our parents. 

Be careful when you walk around these areas!

Done exploring Tsukiji Market and on our way out, we saw this visitor notice.

And something funny we spotted here! All restrictions were represented with an icon except one which is a drunkard! Makes me wonder why didn’t they illustrate a drunkard. Perhaps it is offensive?! Hmm 

Cute billboard we saw.

Off we go to the next stop via train.

And I noticed there were mirror stands and water tap inside the station! Cool!

And there was kiosk next to the station platform! How cool is that to be able to eat inside the train (against law in Singapore MRT stations)?! 

Off to Ginza for shopping

Both of us wanted to visit the home outlet of several Japanese brands we know of and Ginza houses most of them.

Ginza feels much more modern and westernized to me as compared to Ikebukuro area given that it is more upscale. 

We were definitely early with most boutiques closing at this timing so we walked around to explore the street. Saw this really cool street clock which tells time and date. It was also cool to see Japan flag hung everywhere along this lane. According to Chris, the flags were there to celebrate New Year.

And off to Apple flagship store. 

It was my first time visiting a Apple flagship store since Singapore doesn’t have one. Quite an eye-opener. Let’s hear what he has to say about this flagship store :D

And next stop, Uniqlo at Ginza! 

We also visited the Muji Ginza outlet!

We also went into A&F but didn’t take any picture as it was not permitted.

Ah, the loud music, low lighting and strong A&F perfume smell was making me very uncomfortable. Done with shopping with A&F and he bought a shirt.

Then we noticed that this pathway was separated into 2 lanes for cyclist and pedestrians. Such a systematic arrangement to ensure the safety of its citizen. Oh, he is demonstrating! :P

And that is pretty much it for Ginza shopping trip.

Next stop is none other than Harajuku!

Shopping at Takeshita Dori, Harajuku

Gorgeous Gorgeous Gorgeous Harajuku station!!!

View of the Harajuku street. On our way to Takeshita Dori~

Finally Takeshita Dori! I love this place!!!!! Look at how cute the Takeshita Dori street sign is.

This street sign will be redecorated according to festival and here we are seeing Xmas deco. And as you can see, it was quite crowded when we got there.

The very first shop you will see is AKB48 shop! They are everywhere :O

Crepes! I heard a lot about Takeshita Dori crepes and had been planning for this day to try one myself! I picked Sweet Box crepes and recommend you to go there!

Look at the flavours they have here! At this point in time, I realised there was a lot of young teenagers around the street.

Finally after some struggling(serious!), I decided to go for Tiramisu Crepe. 

It was topped with whipped cream. Can’t wait to try it!

The Tiramisu crepe was really delicious! There is really a tiramisu cake stuffed inside the crepe and I loved it! Yum yum! I decided that it was too inconvenient and inconsiderate to eat and shop at the same time so I sat at a corner to finish this crepe up before moving on to shop. Right where I was seated at is a super interesting spot where everywhere I look I see something I love!

Very near to where I rested was SBY Happy Room. I love SBY Happy Room!!!! And these shop staffs were preparing the Fukubukuro bags! So interesting!

And I think I spotted this shop staff wearing Loveswig X Kumiki wig! It wouldn’t be a surprise since SBY carries Loveswig! And I love her dressing style!

And right where I am seated in front is a shop selling contact lenses. I went in and man, those lenses are pricey but I am sure they are authentic.

In front of me is a shop selling…….

WIGS!

Wigs! Peach Bee wigs.

Nothing that really caught my eyes though. It was interesting experience for me to visit a Japanese wig shop.

And we spent some time shopping around Takeshita Dori and I got the chance to visit boutiques I read on magazine like WEGO. Will definitely go back there in my next trip.

Next we went to UT Uniqlo at Harajuku along Meji Dori. That’s the only Uniqlo store where you can buy tees inside plastic canisters!

Notice the all-English words running on the ticker? It really makes me wonder it was intentional to bring up the image of uniqlo by westernising the brand because I really doubt most Japanese can understand it.

It looks really cool from the shop front. The interior is just as cool! :D

After shopping, we decided to go back to Ikebukuro for dinner. On our way back, I saw Japanese cosmetic Kiss Me Heroine mobile advertisement.

And a really funky guy with his 2 dogs on the street.

Back to Ikebukuro where we were looking for a Japanese ramen restaurant.

We decided on Ganko Ramen at Ikebukuro. You see the bone and black tarp? It is their trademark! Looks scary though eh?

There we were making order via the vending machine.

This ramen restaurant is sure popular with celebrities like Kenny G and Martha Stewart visiting.

We ordered the Shoyu ramen, I think.

It was quite delicious ~ 

Lastly, I went to Ikebukuro Parco to visit….

Emoda outlet! This outlet has items which Shibuya 109 was running out.

Went back to my hotel after this.

Last picture before ending this post. I am wearing Loveswig x Kumicky Mode wig and love its quality. If you are interested, you can get it here. 

Watch out for my day 3 update. I hope I get to do it soon!

Love Japan. And the fun continues~~~