tokyo Archives - The Wifey's Corner

May 29, 2018May 28, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 15

And finally we are here: the last full day of our 2017 Japan trip! On Day 15 we went to Tsukiji Market and spent the rest of the day shopping and packing. 15-day is far from enough for this trip, but we had really great time and enjoyed Japan much these past two weeks dearly!

Day 15 – 16

The first place we went to this morning was Tsukiji Market, is well-known as one of the world’s largest fish market. Note that the inner market, where the wholesale fish market and tuna auctions take place will close on 6 October 2018 and move to a new location at Toyosu from 11 October 2018. The outer market, where the retails and restaurants are open to public will remain at Tsukiji. For more information, please read here.

One of the alleys at Outer Tsukiji Market

We did not come that early to watch the tuna auction, so when we came around 9am, the market had already packed. The lines outside all those famous restaurants were already very long. We walked through all the alleys of the outer market and finally decided to join one of the shorter line. Perhaps it was not the best in the market, but we still had a great meal. But, would I come back and queue up early for the most famous restaurant there? Probably not, just because we feel the restaurants there mainly sell the same dish and being in the market, most likely they all use fresh ingredients anyway. So, yes we were content with what we had at Tsukiji.

The restaurant where we had our sashimi rice bowls 🙂

From here, we went to Tokyo station next. Originally planned to walk to Tokyo Castle, but ditched that plan due to shopping being in the higher priority. I will not bore you about how that went in the post 🙂

That’s pretty much covers our Japan trip! I always praise how good their public transport is and how punctual they are, etc. Wait until the last day when we travelled to Haneda Airport: the train actually delayed! And it was not for just 5 minutes, stopped at Shinjuku for about 10 minutes, another 6 minutes at Shibuya and we gave up. We ended up took a taxi to Shinagawa station then took another train to Haneda airport. And that drama with train literally wraps up our holiday at Japan just before we headed back 😀

What we ate on Day 15

We got this sweet tamago roll from Tsukiji Market while deciding which restaurant we should queue up. The tamago roll is slightly sweet in taste and very fluffy. Yummy!

Looks like they specialize in tamago rolls and pudding (or egg products :P). Sadly, we did not try their puddings.

And, these were our sashimi bowls and grilled tuna. Delicious and super fresh sashimi!

Sashimi salmon, tuna, (steamed or boiled) crab leg, scallop and sea urchin – ¥3,500

Sashimi salmon, tuna, (steamed or boiled) crab leg, scallop, and fatty tuna – ¥3,500

And, we thought since we had not tried Japanese curry since we arrived and it’s our last day, we should go for this. We went into this curry restaurant after shopping at Akihabara. It was not a wrong choice, great tasting curry – mind you they were really hot!!! Cannot recall the exact amount these costed us, but pretty sure it was under ¥2,000.

Bacon curry rice, very nice and tender bacon pieces

May 18, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 14

Day 14, the second last day of our Japan trip, we have scheduled for a visit to Fujiko F Fujio museum then Akihabara and lastly, the Michelin-starred eel restaurant in Bunkyo. Doraemon is a pretty well-known manga character we grew up with, and mostly everyone in Indonesia would know, right? Whether or not the younger generations these days aware of this awesome cartoon, I don’t know. Anyway, when I mentioned Doraemon to my friends who grew up in Sydney, they had no idea at all. Seriously, Doraemon rocks with his amazing pocket and all the futuristic gadgets! If you could have one item from Doraemon, what would that be? I would love the magic anywhere door that will take me literally anywhere I wish 🙂 What could be better than that, eh?

Day 14

The day started with a train ride to Mukogaoka-Yuen station and approximately 15 minutes walk to the museum which is located in Kawasaki area. Alternatively, you could get off at Noborito Station and take the shuttle bus which runs every 10 minutes for ¥210. Interesting fact at Mukogaoka-Yuen station: they play Doaremon theme song as trains about to close its doors.

We got to the museum before its opening time, in fact we were the first to arrive. The staffs directed us to wait in line outside the entrance door that they opened exactly on time. As we walked in, we exchanged our prepaid tickets with the audio guides. By the way, they do not sell entrance tickets on site – so the best way to get tickets would be through one of the Loppi machines at any Lawson stores; or, alternatively any online sources. The audio guides will give commentary to various items on the museum when you input the item numbers, this was super handy!

Because the museum is based on Fujiko F Fujio, you will find various art works of his apart from just Doraemon. On the first level, which unfortunately taking pictures is prohibited, displays many of his original art works. Also, the professor’s life story from being a kid until married with kids also on the display photos and explained through the audio guide.

On the next level, there is a manga corner, and playground for kids with large size of various figures of Fujiko’s works. There is also screen show which you can get in once only per visit. The outside park is beautiful with many characters of Fuji F Fuji’s creation. Generally, if you grew up with Doraemon and P-Man, this is such a nostalgic place. It brought you right back to your childhood adoring those characters 🙂

What we ate on Day 14

We bought some dorayaki from convenience stores for breakfast – again kicking myself for not taking any pictures of these.

At Fujiko F Fujio museum, we had these for lunch:

We also tried their dorayaki, these are filled with red bean paste. Honestly, we both love the convenience store version with butter and maple syrup filling.

For dinner, we went to Unagi Hashimoto – highly anticipated eel restaurant that hubby had wanted to come long before our trip. We just walked in here when we got there, they was just opened for dinner. Luckily we came early, otherwise we would not able to get a meal here at all without making a reservation ahead. The kind old lady told us in Japanese that we had around 45 minutes for the meal, because they were fully booked for the night starting 6 pm. At first, we thought she meant we should come back at 6 pm – I really wished we know Japanese a bit better in such situations 😀

unagi hashimoto — Hubby’s eel with rice in medium size that comes with eel soup

Anyway, our dinner here was really good! I personally do not really fond of eel, but ones I had here did not have any fishiness, it was tasty and tender. The eel was flavoursome without being too salty or overpowering soy sauce taste, it just really well balanced meal. We highly recommend this restaurant for eel lovers!

And that was it for our Day 14.

Fujiko F Fujio Museum

2 Chome-8-1 Nagao, Tama Ward, Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture 214-0023, Japan

Phone: +81 570-055-245

Website

Unagi Hashimoto

2 Chome-5-7 Suido, Bunkyō, Tokyo 112-0005, Japan

www.unagi-hashimoto.jp

May 10, 2018May 9, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – AirBnb in Tokyo

When looked for AirBnb in Tokyo for the last three nights, I wanted it to be close to a train station that is within JR Yamanote Line. That would provide easy access to places we wanted to go. Other requirements I had were to have laundry facility so we would not come home with too many dirty laundry; also have a lift facility. This is because we planned to do all the shopping in Tokyo and to drag our luggage up/down the stairs in (most likely be) full capacity could be quite challenging.

And with that filters on, I searched on AirBnb for a many weeks before decided to settle in at Shin Okubo. I had considered some other areas like Shinjuku Gyoen, Asakusa, Akihabara, and Ikebukuro – all of which is within the JR Yamanote Line, except the first one. But at the end, we decided Shin Okubo for its close proximity to Shinjuku. The apartment has many positive reviews and it has everything we need as well. On top of those, the price was also really good, we ended up at AUD 270 for 3 nights. Communication with host was great, he promptly responded to our emails and questions. I think all of my communication with any AirBnb hosts had been really great, with all of them being prompt and helpful.

airbnb shin okubo — Street in front of the apartment

The Apartment

The AirBnb in Tokyo is located within 5-7 minutes walk from Shin Okubo station, there is one 7-11 store close by and many more near the station. Shin Okubo is sort of well known as Korea Town, where you can find many Korean restaurant and shops that sell Korean brands cosmetics and skin care. With that many restaurants in the main street, the area is very much alive until late at night. The great advantage of the apartment being slightly away from main street is we got peaceful sleeps while there. It was like our apartment in Osaka, where it is so close to Dotonbori, but far enough to not get disturbed by the noise 🙂

From our communication with the host, we unfortunately could not check in to the apartment earlier. But the host kindly advised us to use lockers at Shinjuku station which we ended up using. By the time we checked in to the apartment, it had been cleaned and everything is perfect. Of all three AirBnb we stayed at in our Japan trip, this was the smallest; but understandably so are the majority apartments in Tokyo, I believe. The size is perfect for two adults with two big suitcases. Had we have more suitcases, it would probably a bit challenging to walk around the room 😛

Our general experience at this apartment was good, everything worked well and no problems occurred while we were there. No issues with speed or battery of the pocket WiFi either, so was all good. For the price, we were totally satisfied with this place and happily recommend it to first time goers. However, next time we’d love to try somewhere else. It may not necessarily within the Yamanote line, but still close to a subway or train station. The transportation system in Japan is working so well that I don’t think it would be a major issue if we stay outside of the Yamanote line.

AirBnb Listing:

Here is the link to the AirBnb in Tokyo listing: www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/6565099

And if you are first time user of AirBnb, you can use this link to register to get AUD 50 off your first booking.

May 1, 2018May 7, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 13

Alright, down to the very last few days of our Japan trip. On Day 13, we left the magical world of Disney resort and back to real world 🙂 We left Tokyo DisneyLand Hotel at around 11 am and went straight to Shinjuku Station, in which we got coined lockers to store our luggage while we explored the area. And later in the day, we would be checking in to an AirBnb apartment at Shin-Okubo.

Day 13

Shinjuku Station is a massive station in Tokyo. I recalled many first time visitors got lost in there and as the matter of fact we did, too. We got there on the New North Wing, exited and walked around, some shopping malls. By the time we went back to the station from different entrance, we spent 20 minutes walked around in circle and unable to go back to the New North Wing again. The reason we needed to get there was to retrieve our luggage from one of the coined lockers there. In all the desperation, I remembered seeing Takashimaya Time Square nearby our coin lockers and that’s how we asked the train officer. Only then we learned it was the New North Building!

Following the direction from train station officer, we finally got to the coined lockers in time and went to the JR Yamanote line for Shin Okubo. It took only minutes from Shinjuku to get there and about 8 minutes to walk to our apartment. Once we left our luggage in the apartment, we went out again to Harajuku. It supposed to be one of the must go place in Tokyo, right? We both found it rather over crowded and the did not attract us that much. It was a quick walk along Takeshita Dori then we decided to walk to Meiji Shrine. Sadly, by the time we got there, it had already closed.

Takeshita Street - Harajuku — Takeshita Street – Harajuku

Next stop is Shibuya. No Tokyo trip is complete without a picture with Hachiko statue and walked through Shibuya crossing, right?

And it was dinner time again, I was determined to have sushi dinner at Genki Sushi. After dinner, we had more walk around the area, walked into few shops and finally made our way back home. That wrapped up our short Day 13, which we originally had planned for Ramen Museum at Yokohama and cancelled at the last minute.

Spotted this cute version of Hachiko in front of Donqi Shibuya

Shibuya Ao no Dokutsu aka Blue Cave Shibuya Illumination 2017

What we ate on Day 13

We had our breakfast at Tokyo DisneyLand Hotel, a detailed review of our stay and experience can be found on the previous post.

That buffet breakfast had kept us full so long that we did not even need to have lunch. We bought some dorayaki and milk from 7-11 for snack in the afternoon and that was it. We were very slacked in taking pictures in the last few days of our trips, so unfotunately they were nothing to show here. By the way, out of all the convenience stores dorayaki, we agree 7-11 has the best version. There is just something about them that differ from other convenience stores’versions.

And for dinner, we had our ¥100 sushi train in Shibuya. Taste wise, they are obviously not the best. But, it was an experience to try out that kind of ordering system. You can also make your own hot green tea from your table, there is a hot tap water shared between every two seats. You can choose from the menu on the tablet provided, once confirmed you’ll wait for few minutes and your food will come to you. It’s a fun dinner and inexpensive yet very filling. Again, we totally forgot to take any pictures at all!

Image result for genki sushi shibuya — Genki Shushi Shibuya – courtesy of TripAdvisor

April 25, 2018April 24, 2018

Tokyo DisneyLand Hotel

As we exited Tokyo DisneySea, exhaustion started to catch up – after all it had been a long yet extremely fun day. We were glad that we decided to stay in a hotel close by than going to an AirBnb near Shinjuku. Even better, we were going to spend the night at Tokyo DisneyLand Hotel. We scored a room here before we got one at DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta, so we booked ahead just in case we would never get a room at MiraCosta. But as we later got a room at MiraCosta, I got greedy and would not cancel this one :p

Firstly, we took the monorail to Ikspiari for dinner. Felt a bit run-down, we decided to get some takeaway and eat at the hotel room. After walking around and had not decided on what to get, we went in the supermarket and bought some bento boxes and drinks.

Then we went back to the monorail for a ride to Tokyo Disneyland station, from where we walked about 5 minutes to the hotel. Unlike DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta, Tokyo DisneyLand Hotel is not inside the theme park. It is newer than the MiraCosta, with a lot more rooms and therefore is bigger. There is a pretty garden in front of the hotel, then as we walked inside and took the stairs up, there the huge marbled lobby with all its grandness. The massive chandelier, a doll house in display, seating, everything was just perfect. It gives a more modern feeling than Hotel MiraCosta, a different charm.

Check in process here was also swift and again they offered us another 3-day monorail pass. We then were escorted to our room and it was the park grand view room. Our room was in level 5 which is good because our view of the park would not be blocked by the monorail. We could see the castle from our room window, albeit in a bit of distance away. But we enjoyed the fireworks from our room while we had our takeaway dinner 🙂

The room layout was similar to our room at MiraCosta, where the toilet is separate to bathroom. But there is also an extra mirrored dressing table in the room, opposite the bathroom sink. The bright yellow pastel colour paint through out the room gives a cheerful vibe. We got a king size bed in here as opposed to twins bed at MiraCosta. Their pyjamas were also in the similar yellow pastel colour; whereas light brown at MiraCosta hotel. There is a small table with two chairs by the window.

Again, we had another really good sleep at DisneyLand Hotel. They have coined laundry facility here, which we used the next morning. There is also a very nice gift shop within the hotel, a convenience store, and few restaurants. This time, we had breakfast at one of them and was an excellent choice. Do make a reservation for the restaurant ahead to ensure you can get in at the time you wanted. We had just made the reservation at check in and was told the only available slot was at 9.45 am. It worked out well for us as we could sleep in a little bit and get the laundry done first.

Sherwood Garden Restaurant

We had breakfast in this buffet restaurant located on ground floor of Tokyo DisneyLand Hotel. There are wide range of food options available: traditional Japanese meal and Western food. We tried various Japanese meal here and they were all yummy. The pastries were light, flaky and buttery as well; particularly love their fresh juices!

The pictures above portray only a few sections of the buffet tables. There are a lot more options available on the buffet table that I failed to take picture of due to the crowd. To summarize, the Sherwood Garden Restaurant did not disappoint us for breakfast buffet – in terms of options and taste.

Tokyo DisneyLand Hotel also has some charming character rooms, which I heard the Peter Pan rooms are awesome. We did not get one of these as the only ones left were the quadruple rooms and we did not need it. Actually we got a glimpse of Mount Prometheus as well from our window, which was a sweet reminder of how awesome the past day been!

View from our room window in the morning

The gift shop here was huge and I would have been wanting to purchase everything if not remembering our budget 🙂 There is also a boutique where girls can get a fabulous Disney princess dress and we actually spotted few little girls dotted on the costumes throughout the hotel.

Check out process was swift again where they processed the final payment and that’s it. I was a little sad leaving Tokyo Disney Resort, indeed the happiest place on earth – knowing that our holiday was almost over. We would definitely love to come back again if budget permits, but absolutely will go back to Tokyo DisneySea!! Both hotels are equally memorable to us and excellent, but perhaps Hotel MiraCosta won just a few more points for being located inside Tokyo DisneySea. And that is such a unique experience in my opinion.

To add the excitement, there are so many hidden Mickeys in the whole hotel. We found a few, please let me know if you found any more in the most obvious places that we missed 🙂

Did you spot the mickey-shaped balloon? This picture is behind the reception desk

More hidden mickeys pattern on the marbled floor

On the various balcony/exterior patterns

At the Tokyo DisneyLand monorail station

Tokyo DisneyLand Hotel

29 – 1 Maihama, Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture 279-8505, Japan

Phone: +81 47-305-3333

Tokyo DisneyHotel Website