Today was our last day in Tokyo, Japan and we had a flight to catch in the evening at Narita Airport which happened to be delayed for 2 hours. It took about 2 hours bus ride from our hotel in Ikebukuro area to Narita airport.
Our main destination for today was to check out Ginza and Ikebukuro. We decide to do Ikebukuro last since we stayed in one of the hotels in Ikebukuro area. We originally didn’t plan to visit Ginza, however, wife wanted to visit and checked prices on some cosmetic related items.
Note that Ginza and Tsukiji fish market are very close to each other and I would say it’s within a walking distance. You could go to Tsukiji fish market in the morning to see the fish auction and eat some sushi for breakfast then walk to Ginza, stroll around the area and have lunch there.
We left our hotel around 8am and despite being Saturday, we still saw a lot of people at the Ikebukuro station. Not as bad as a rush hour during weekdays but it’s still crowded in comparison to what we normally experience back in Toronto.
To go to Ginza, we took Marunochi Line toward Ogikubo to Ginza station and the train ride took about ~20 minutes. It was still quite early in the morning and generally stores don’t open until around 11am. We stopped at Starbucks at Ginza station to chill for a bit and enjoyed a cup of joe before we continued to stroll around. Wife noticed that the price of a normal coffee was almost the same as flavour drink like latte etc. We’re not sure if this is normal. Maybe anyone who lives here can confirm if that’s the case by commenting below.
After we got out from the station, the area was still quiet and there weren’t many people around yet.
Luckily for us, we found a Muji store and it opened at 10am which was perfect. We could take a look around in there until 11am for rest of stores to open in Ginza area.
After we finished at Muji, we went to the main strip of Ginza. This is truly a high-end shopping district. All the international and luxury branded items can be found here and it’s no surprised that we found an Apple store here as well.
Strolling around in Ginza area took its toll on our stomach. We were starving so we went to the first restaurant we found on our way which happened to be a Korean restaurant (couldn’t remember the name). All the waiters spoke fluent Korean as we overheard them talking to other customers. I got myself a Bulgogi (beef on top of rice) and my wife got a Bimbimbap. They tasted ok and we thought that the ones we frequently go to in Toronto were better.
We were fascinated by the fact that all the side dish were served in buffet style. It meant that we could take as many side dishes as we’d like as well as various drinks ranging from water, tea, soft drinks, etc. Back in Toronto, typical Korean restaurants normally bring us various side dishes and we can get more, however, we have to ask them to bring more side dishes.
After lunch, we took the same train back to Ikebukuro and exit to Sunshine City direction. There were a lot of people and it’s so crowded. I think ‘a lot’ was an understatement. We barely could walk without bumping into other people. My wife and I wanted to visit Animate in the area.
Before we went to Animate, we stopped by at a cafe nearby for some refreshments. We ordered various deserts. They tasted so delicious and we inhaled them with no time :). What we really loved about this place was the fact that they put how much calories each desert has. Even though we’re on vacation and on our ‘cheat week’ in term of diet, we thought that it’s amazing and a great concept to have. It would be great if more restaurants put their calories on the menu back in Toronto aside from fast food.
After enjoying our delicious desserts, we were on our way to animate. They have nine floors in total but we didn’t check out every single floor. In addition, we also didn’t take a lot of pictures inside Animate since it was very crowded inside and some items we couldn’t take a picture.
We thought places like Animate and Radio Kaikan in Akihabara were actually where we experienced our most culture shock. Yes, we do have similar stores back in Toronto but it was nothing these big with these many people. The only time we saw this many people was during a major anime convention like Anime North.
They even had various merchandise from on-going anime series for Spring 2016 season. From left to right, it’s Sousei no Onmyouji, Bungo Stray Dogs, Super Lovers, Sakamoto Desu Ga?, Kuma Miko, Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu and Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta?
I just couldn’t resist this plush toy of Moogle from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (Click here for a referenced picture). It was around 4pm before we decided to go back to our hotel to get some rest before dinner time.
For dinner, we went to Lumine again near our hotel. They have various restaurants on the 8th and 9th floor. I couldn’t recall the name of the restaurant but I had udon noodles with beef donburi for ¥1,000 which I thought was a pretty good deal considering the portion. Even the kid menu for my son was pretty generous as well. After dinner, we went back to our hotel to get some packing done to go back to Toronto. Tomorrow will be our last day in Tokyo, Japan.
That summarises our day 7 in Ginza and Ikebukuro. It’s our last day and tomorrow, we will fly back to Toronto. If you haven’t done so, check our other adventures on Day 1, Day 2 – Daiba, Day 3 – Ghibli Museum, Day 4 – Tokyo Disneyland, Day 5 – Asakusa, Tokyo SkyTree and Akihabara, Day 6 – Shibuya and Day 8 – Final Day.
Our main destination for Day 6 was Shibuya and surrounding areas. We woke up around 6:30am and ate a Japanese curry bun with a cup of green tea. We left our hotel around 8am.
Our plan for Day 5 was to visit Asakusa – Sensouji Temple, Tokyo SkyTree and Akihabara. To cover three places in one day was proven to be a challenge for us.
We started our day early and ate some bread for our breakfast bought from 7-11; it quickly became our favourite place for breakfast and snacks. We couldn’t help but admitted that food quality at convenience stores here in Japan is much better than we have back in Toronto. Once we ate our breakfast, we left the hotel 7:30am to go to Asakusa.
Continue reading “Tokyo Day 5 – Asakusa, Tokyo SkyTree and Akihabara”
Tokyo Disneyland originally was not part of our plan but we made some adjustments since we cancelled our day trip to Yokohama. We replaced it with Tokyo Disneyland. There are two main parks at Tokyo Disney Resort: Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.
With Golden Week holidays going on right now, the Disneyland was filled with local tourists ranging from families, couples and junior/senior high schools.
Our main destination for today is Ghibli Museum located at Mitaka within Mitaka Inokashira Park. Getting the tickets to Ghibli Museum was proven to be a challenge due to its high demand and it happened to be a Golden Week as well in Japan. Golden Week (or GW) is a series holidays happening in late April and/or early May. Kotaku just wrote this article yesterday to not come to Japan during this time but it certainly didn’t stop us from going to Japan.
After exhausting Day 1 due to long flight from Toronto to Japan, all of us slept like a log that night but we all woke up around 3am in the morning due to jet lag. It worked out great for me as that’s when I had some time to write my blog post.
For day 2 in Tokyo, our plan was to visit Tsukiji fish market and Gundam at Odaiba.
I’ve been wanting to visit Japan since as long as I can remember. It’s been a long overdue trip and is super excited to spend a week in Tokyo with my family.
My recent trip to The Big Apple (New York City) during Christmas (hence why there’s no Christmas post -_- as I had no internet access) added couple more items to my collection. For some reasons, I didn’t bother to get 2010 calendar but visiting New york, there’s one place that I must visit. It’s Kinokuniya japanese book store. It’s something that we, otaku in Canada, are hoping to have it here and will continue to dream that one day, Kinokuniya will open branch stores here in Canada.
I only bought 2 items from Kinokuniya…surprisingly. The first one is Kobato (こばと) 2010 calendar for ~$30 . Kobato is my new favourite anime for this fall season and it’s just because she reminds me so much of Sakura from Card Captor Sakura and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. I scanned each month image for your enjoyment ^^.
If you want the original scanned versions, click here to download. I would appreciate if you link back to my site when you use any of these images on your site ^^.
It must have been a Clamp day or something because I spotted an art book ‘All about Clamp’ which lists all anime/manga series by Clamp for the last 15-20 years. I got it for $28.80 which is a good deal imo because it’s quite thick.
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