Luke.Blog

I woke up suprisingly early today, 6.30am. I was confused to be waking up in a setting I can’t remember sleeping and next to people I forgot I was with, that sounds really bad.. but thankfully it was my friends, Cas and Lee. They were fast asleep but I was feeling refreshed and awake, slight hangover but that’s to be expected after a BBQ night.

I decided to go for a little walk around the area. It was actually quite cold outside and raining slightly, makes a huge difference to the blistering heat of Tokyo. I’m going to assume it’s cold and rainy because we’re surrounded by mountains and lakes. I only took a short walk before going back to the cottage and waiting for the others to wake up.
Genta was the first to wake up, he rose like a zombie from his sleeping mat and soon spung to life. Cas was second to wake and after walking around in a zombie like state for a bit, he quickly woke up and began constructing an Uno tower of cards. He’s damn good at building these, sadly, Genta had the window open and the unexpected wing blew Cas’ final attempt at a giant tower down.

It wasn’t long before the rest of us were awake. We had to be out by 10am and only had one bathroom but we had no trouble all getting ready in time. When we left it was raining quite a bit, so a mad dash into the car and off on our way to our first destination, Shizuoka.

I’ll admit, I don’t know anything about Shizuoka apart from the fact that the giant Gundam statue has recently been moved here, we were planning to go see that. The car journey was about an hour and a half, it went quite quickly and to a play list Cas created on my iPod. It was a good play list, it had the Polysics cover of My Sharona.

The drive around Kawaguchigo was really nice, it was a sleepy mountain town and reminded me so much of the setting for the first Rambo movie. We drove around a large lake and up quite high, the sky off the side of the moutain we were driving was white, no sky to be seen.

While driving around I fell asleep on the way to Shizuoka, it took a lot longer than we assumed. When I woke up it was raining still. We drove around looking for the parking lot near the Gundam Statue, we could see it in the distance and eventually found a place to park up, outside two big shops.

While we were waiting for Lee and Mayu to arrive, me and Penny went to look in the shops. One sold jeans and the other was sort of like Homebase but with a babies department. There was a small snacks stand in here so I decided to give the Hershey’s Cookies and Cream Bar a try, it was good!

When me and Penny left the store it was raining quite hard, we joined up with the others (who thankfully brought umbrellas) and then it was a short walk around the corner to the Gundam Statue.
The statue was originally in Odaiba but moved to Shizuoka. They made a wise choice not putting this in an area surrounded by grass like in Odaiba as the grass was completly destroyed by the huge crowds that came to see the Gundam. The Gundam is now in a sort of make shift mini festival area, it’s the Hobby Fair.

There are lots of snack stands here and the Hobby Museum which we didn’t check out. We walked around the path getting photos of the Gundam on the way, we eventually made our way to a photo point, you go up some stairs and a photographer takes your picture. I decided to get the picture, i’ve mentioned my dislike for digital photos before and this was a nice one so I decided to get it despite costing £7, memories attached are worth more than that.
We then went to queue up to stand under the statue to see it in close detail. Because of the rain, there was hardly anyone here but I imagine this place could get very crowded in nicer weather. We didn’t have to wait long at all before we were up close with the Gundam, the detail on this thing is incredible.

You only get a few minutes here but that’s all you really need. We continued around the path towards the exit.

I passed many Kakigori stands and eventually gave in, I bought an ice snack in heavy rain, I think I have a problem.
Back in the car and out of the rain we went to go some lunch. We eneded up in a place which looked like a Jungle / Shack themed TGI Fridays. There was 60’s music playing to give it a bit of a hippy vibe.

One thing that really impressed me about this place aside from the interesting decor was the waiting system. Rather than standing around waiting for someone to come seat you or tell you there are no tables, there is a machine to cut out that person. It shows you how long the wait is and you press the button for your party (guests, smoking preference) and a ticket is printed, the staff then know and you’re in the queue. It’s really efficent.
Our table had a massive menu waiting on it, another good idea, a giant menu for everyone to see rather than pass around something smaller. The place sold hamburg and rice, curry and a few other things, it was a mix of Western fried foods and Japanese.

I decided to get the Japanese Curry Hamburg with Rice, the others all got something similar, take a took for yourself, there’s 8 of us and I forgot the names of everything to list or bore you with.
The food was alright, the portions were quite small but it wasn’t too expensive. We decided to skip desert and head back to the cars to head back to Shinagawa, Tokyo. A quick passenger swap (Hiroe left our car to go with the other girls) and Lee joined us in the party mobile. Me and Cas created an awesome playlist and we set off on our 3 hour journey.

Randomly, Genta had loads of chewing gum in his car, including Hawaian Blue flavour (Kakikori Blue Juice)

The drive was mostly on a standard motorway after leaving the city. We pulled up at a service station midway to catch up with the others.

This service station had a lane of food stalls, a food court and a large food shop selling regional snacks and sweets. I really like the service stations here, they’re full of interesting things and lots of food.

There was an interesting chicken snack stand, I had to try it and so glad I did.

The snack is called Brave Chicken, it’s a long chicken nugget but tastes like the old Burger King Chicken Strips, these are SO good!

Walking around, still hungry, I came across a Baskin Robins, nice to see one of these so far out in a service station.

I decided to try the Mango and Banana Flavour with the Popping one again, it was a great mix. The Mango and Banana flavour was lovely.

Randomly, Penny went off for a wander and came back with some mini game gashapons. There was a bowling one and a sort of robot fighting one, interesting for a few minutes.

Eventually Hiroe, Mayu and Takako arrived so we had a quick catch up and then headed back to the cars to finish our journey.

Randomly, I noticed a funny sign, it read, “Because it is easy to glide at the time of rainy weather, please be careful”, Ok, not as amusing second time around.

An hour or so later, we arrived back in Shinagawa. It was a long car ride back but most of it was spent sleeping or playing DS. Big thanks to Genta for the ride.

We waited for the others to catch up and then had a bit of a chat and a goodbye, as it would be the last time to see ‘The Others’, Genta, Takako, Lee and Mayu. It was really nice meeting them, a very fun and friendly bunch.

Back to the station and we parted with Hiroe, making our way back to Ningyocho and then a slow and sluggish walk back to our hotel.

The trip was amazing, from start to finish it was a lot of fun, I can’t even properly describe how much of a great time I had, it was legend… wait for it… dary!

It was all possible thanks to one person, Hiroe. She planned the whole thing and organised everything for us, it was stress free and fun filled the whole time.

The company on the trip was great, it was a really cool group, everyone was friendly and fun to be around. So Genta, Takako, Mayu and Lee, it was great meeting you and I hope we’ll meet again soon.

Another big thanks goes out to Hiroe, thank you so much for organising this trip, it’s pretty much all down to you. Also another thanks to Genta for driving us there and back, it was a long ride and we’re all very greatful.

Thanks Hiroe, you’re awesome.

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Today we had to be up, ready and leave at 7am, so when I was woken up by the telephone at 6.54am, I was in a bit of a panic. It was Penny, “Luke, are you ready?” I had literally just woken up. I wasn’t feeling well, nothing serious, just a bit sickly and feeling slow. I battled through that to get showered, dressed and put the last few things in my bag before speeding out the door.

Despite me waking up super late, we managed to leave around 7.15am which isn’t too much later than originally planned. We had to meet Hiroe at 8am, Shinagawa station. It wasn’t too far so we was good for time and headed to the mini mart to pick up some breakfast.

We arrived at the station just in time, about 5, 10 minutes short of the meeting time, 8am. Cas lead us to the meeting point, West Exit, it was very specific so we headed there to wait.. and wait.. and then realised we might have been in the wrong place. Cas then mentioned a clock tower, which was the actual meeting point, I hurried over there to check while Cas and Penny waited.

At first, I didn’t notice Hiroe and Tatakiko standing there. Hiroe was wearing glasses (never seen her wear them before) and also dwarfed by the giant backpack she had on. Eventually we were all in the same place but had to wait for the others to arrive. I say ‘The Others’ because that’s how I knew them at the time, I didn’t know who we were meeting, just ‘other’ people.

The plan was to all meet at the station and then drive to our destination for the next two days, Mt. Fuji. Today we were going to Fuji-Q Highland, one of the biggest theme parks in Japan, it is very close to Mt. Fuji, hence the name.

The others were all running late, so we went to Mc Donnalds to wait for them. I think Cas got a Sausage McMuffin (he expressed his craving for one on the train) and the girls got something too, I forget what. Eventually two of the others arrived, Lee and Mayu.

Lee and Mayu are both friends of Hiroe and Tatakiko, they all work together in a hotel on the reception desk. Lee is from China and Miru comes from Osaka, they both live in Tokyo now. Lee and Maya were going to rent a car to drive down, so we headed off to the car rental shop which was a few minutes down the road.We waited in the tiny office whlie Lee and Miru sorted out a car, it wasn’t too long before they had their car and Hiroe got the call from the final ‘other’ to say he was waiting around the corner in his own car. We left Lee, Mayu and Tatakiko and went off to meet the final other, Genta.

Genta was sitting waiting in his car, he also works at the hotel with Hiroe, Tatakiko, Lee and Mayu. We all bundled into the car, filled the back with our bags and set off on a mini road trip to Fuji-Q.

It’s a 2-3 hour drive from Shinagawa to Fuji-Q, seems like a long time but it didn’t feel like it. There was quite a bit of traffic getting out of Tokyo but we eventually got out of the city and onto one of the nicest motorways i’ve ever been on. It was a road that went alongside mountaints covered in thick forestation, you could see tiny villages and towns in the hills and mountains in the distance. Trees overhung onto the motorway and the sky was a nice clear blue. It was a great drive.

Randomly, the best song in the world came on the sterio. I decided this was the perfect moment to make a little video.

We stopped off at a service station to stretch our legs a bit and catch up with Lee and Mayu who were trailing behind us. The area was full of snack stands and busy with people from all other Japan, it looked like a travellers meet up point, it was a nice crowd. Everyone went to the toilet while I wanderd off to get myself a Kakigori, iced perfection in a tub, covered with a sweet blue juice that slightly melts the fluffy ice as it hits. I’m really going to miss this stuff, it’s delicious.

I met up with the rest of the gang back in the large food court area. There were several food stands and a rather large mini mart type store that sold mostly regional choclates and sweets. In Japan, each region has it’s own specialty sweets and snacks, these are boxed nicely as they are commonly bought as gifts. There are only 6 mini bars in the box, but it’s worth getting as you will have trouble finding these else where.
KitKats also get the regional treatment, travel Japan or read some KitKat fan blogs and you’ll find loads of weird and wonderful flavours. Fuji was no expection, walking around I managed to find Strawberry Cheesecake, Soy Sauce, Spicey and Wasabi KitKats. I decided to get the Strawberry Cheesecake and Spice flavours, Wasabi is too strong for my liking and Soy Sauce KitKat makes me feel a little sick.

While paying for my expensive KitKats (£6 a box) I spied some rare Banana KitKats at the till, I grabbed one for the remainder of the car journey. We eventually met up with Lee and Mayu, had a bit of a chat, got some photos and then headed back to our cars to continue the journey.
It didn’t feel like any time at all for the second half of the jounrey, eventually we could see the roller coasters from Fuji-Q in the distance, I don’t think Lee and Mayu did beceause when we eventually arrived at Fuji-Q and got to the car park, Lee and Mayu had gotten lost. Thankfully, it was only a few minutes before they arrived and we were all ready for some fun at Fuji-Q Highland.

The park is home to two record holding roller coasters, The world’s Tallest and the world’s Fastest. There is also another big roller coaster and a Horror House. Also, there are a bunch of other rides, nothing that really stands out as different or noteworthy.
Randomy, I noticed some curious signs leading to the park. It seems that bear fighting is not allowed and that the bears are fobidden to eat from the bins. Seems there is a bear problem in the park but to be honest, I bearly noticed it…

We headed to the enterance and Hiroe gave us all our tickets, she had prepared this trip well, we didn’t have to queue to get in. The enterance is through a gift shop, a large shop filled with gift sweets and snacks aswell as lots of merchance. As i’ve mentioned before, many things and places in Japan have their own mascots, Mt. Fuji is no expection.
When we got into the park, the first thing we had to do was get our ride pass ticket. Without this, you won’t be getting on any rides so if you go, don’t forget to exchange your enterance ticket for a ride pass ticket. There are several stations to get one of these, you have to take a photo of your face and it gets printed onto the ticket.

With our ride pass tickets in hand, we were ready to roller… coaster (sorry, bad pun)

The first area of the park we walked around had two large roller coasters in it, Fujiyama and Dodonpah. Both of these roller coasters were world record holders for the worlds tallest and fastest respectively.

The first roller coaster we decided to go on was Fujiyama. When Fujiyama opened in 1996 it was the world’s tallest roller coaster at 259 feet (79 m), and had the largest drop in the world at 230 feet (70 m). Info from Wikipedia.
The queue didn’t look like it was too long but it took us an hour at least before we were in our seats and ready to go. While waiting, we played Rock Paper Scissors to determine who would sit with who. My ride partner was Mayu, we were both excited to ride Fujiyama.

We were all really hyped for the ride by the time the car we would be boarding pulled up.
There is nothing special about the cars, it’s typical roller coaster style with the bar that comes down and crushes you and a seat belt to stop you falling out.

Randomly, I noticed a sign, “Chicken Way”, it made me laugh as it was the exit for people who queued all that time and then chickend out last minute, none of us went the chicken way.

The ride ended with a cheer and round of applause from the staff, people waiting and of course, the riders. It was an awesome roller coaster, starting with a huge drop (and a fantastic view) it speeds down into tiled high speed turns and then several more drops. The ride lasted nearly 3 minutes which is much better than say, Nemisis Inferno at Thorpe Park, UK, which only lasts less than a minute, rubbish!

Of course, there are photos taken on the rides, they didn’t come out so great so I didn’t buy them, instead I took a sneaky picture.

I really enjoyed that ride, we all did. I think it’s easily one of the best roller coasters i’ve been on. The view from the top was great, you could see Mt. Fuji quite near by but the peak was covered in thick clouds. We were all hyped and ready to do another roller coaster, well, all except Penny.

We decided to go on Dodonpah next. It’s the fastest roller coaster here at 106.9 mph. When it opened in 2001 it was the world’s fastest, it’s now third but still holds the world record for highest acceleration at launch.

Penny decided to sit this one out, the gets terrible motion sickness and was already feeling it. While discussing the last ride, Fujiyama, she realised she actually blacked out on the ride for a few seconds! So while Penny went to go find somewhere to obviously play Dragon Quest, we waited in line for an hour and a half.

To break up the bordem of waiting in line for so long, Cas decided to teach the girls how to play slaps, they seemed to enjoy it. We also played Rock Paper Scissors again to determine who would be the single rider would be, Genta. My ride partner this time was Lee.
The ride was a lot of fun, it slowly leaves the station and turns a corner, there is a short wait in a small tunnel which opens out into the park. You wait at some traffic lights before the count down, 3, 2, 1… come on!.. GO! The ride doesn’t go on 1, there is a wait of a few seconds before you’re shot out at a neck cracking 187MPH! The shock of the instant speed boost was incredible, it reaches maximum speed in a single second before slowing down to a tollerable high speed and going around a short and typical roller coaster track.

We met back up with Penny at the ride exit, she pointed the photos out to us, pretty good i’d say!
After doing the two biggest and most popular roller coasters, we went to the food court to get something to eat. There are food stands near the two roller coasters but Hiroe led us to the Food Court as the stands are no good.

The food court looked a lot better. It served Noodles, Curry and some other Japanese foods. There was also a Baskin Robbins stand with no mega queue like in Shinjuku, joy!
We all got either Ramen, which I got, or Yakisoba. I was tempted by the curry but thought it might be too much for a theme park.

The Ramen wasn’t really that great. It tasted far too much like Cup Noodle, I actually think it was. But it was still good enough to finish. I decided I wanted desert and excitedly ran over to the Baskin Robbins stand.I decided to try the Popping flavour ice cream with Lemon Sherbert (Sorbet) I was in ice cream heaven, the two flavours went together perfectly, the Popping flavour was quite dense where as the Lemon Sorbet was very smooth and slightly melted into it.

The ice cream was one of the best combinations I’ve ever had, I’ll be hunting down a Baskin Robbins in London when I get back. The ice cream was so good, I actually got another.
It was a suprise to the others (not Cas and Penny) that I had got another Ice Cream, there’s nothing wrong with two tubs… is there? We continued walking to go to our next ride, it was a water one.

When we got there, the queue was over an hour, we decided to go see what the time the queue was for the horror house. The queue time here was much longer than the water ride but it was closing in 2 minutes! Me, Hiroe, Genta and Tatakiko were brave and went for the horror house while Cas, Penny, Lee and Mayu chickened out and went back to the water ride.
The Japanese Horror House, Fujikyu Hospital, is a large building over 3 floors. The ride is more of an experience where you walk through the building and actors are lurking around to scare the shit out of you.

It was a long wait before we were able to go in. The wait was long because it can take up to 40 minutes for a group (of 20~) to go through the horror house.
We went in as a large group, the building is made to look like an old Japanese hospital, if you’ve seen any Japanese Horror Films set in a hospital, it’s like that, but with very low lights.

The experience started with us being led into the waiting room by a nurse. There was a large projection screen that was pulled down in front of the reception desk and we sat to watch a little film, it was basically video of the hospital and scary things happening. As the film came to a finish, a hanging corpse fell from the ceiling, it made us all jump.We were then led into another room, it looked like a medical examination room, we were asked to split into small groups so we were now just 4. We had to sit on a bench and get an xray?! taken. All of a sudden the where a loud crash, air blew from the right and our photo was taken, not an xray.

The next room we were taken to had a torch for us to take, we were told to stick to the path and follow the signs. The rest of the experience we had to navigate the poorly lit corridors and rooms with only our flash light. Some of the rooms were really dark and we couldn’t see without the light. We were slowly walking around one room when my flash light went off. Someone ran past, we were a little spooked. I turned the light back on and there was someone there, we locked eyes and they chased us! We ran into the stairwell to screams of “YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA!!” from Hiroe.

The rest of the horror house was in this format, it was incredibly creepy and reminded me of the old hospital in Silent Hill. We reached the final room, as soon as we entered, someone hiding to the side of the door scared the hell out of us, we ran through the room and to the exit.

Great experience and well worth the wait. We were incredibly lucky to get to the attraction before the line closed, very early closing time of 3.30! We met the chickens at the exit, they were laughing at our photo, which I failed to snap.

It was quite late so we headed for another ride, a massive mid-air swing. There was hardly any queue for this so we was on almost right away. The swing takes you high up into the air, giving you an amazing view of the surrounding area, including Mt. Fuji which was now free of clouds and the peak was visible.

Cas and Penny gave this ride a miss as they would get too motion sick on the ride, so it was me Hiroe, Mayu, Tatakiko, Genta and Lee. We played Rock Paper Scissors to determine the single rider, me.

We hurried to get to the last big roller coaster but the line was already too long and it was closed early, the guy wouldn’t let us through so we had to give that one a miss, it was a shame.

We decided to have a little stroll around the park before leaving. We got a really nice view of Mt. Fuji in the background as the clouds from the peak had cleared.

Randomly, I saw a sign in the splash zone of the water ride, No Shampoo. Do people really bring shampoo to this area or do the staff just have a sense of humor?

Before we left the park we decided to get some photos of Mt. Fuji in the background. It was a lot of fun taking the photos, we had all our cameras on the table with the timer mode on.

We decided to spell out the word ‘FUJIYAMA’ for the last lot of photos, it was hilarious trying to get into the shapes of the letter. Lee was having a a struggle with the letter ‘U’ as he was on his back with arms and legs into the air.

Randomly, I noticed someone’s bag had a penguin on it. I forget who’s it was, but it wasn’t a stranger walking past. There has been a lack of penguins in my post today and I thought this one was quite fitting, Chums.

Many photos later we headed to the exit of the park, had a quick browse through the busy gift shop then made our way to the car park ready to leave.

After Fuji-Q we split up into cars again, Mayu and Penny went back to the cottage we had rented near by and the rest of us went shopping. It didn’t take too long to get to the super market.

Tonight, we were having a BBQ so had to get lots of food and drinks. We was here quite a while stocking up. As we got to the meat section, a staff member was putting stickers on all the meat, Half Price! Perfect timing.

Randomly, I found a new flavour of Fanta! Cider Zero, which is what I think they call the Cream Soda type flavour here, it certinally wasn’t the alcholoic type of Cider. The drink did had that Cream Soda sort of flavour but also the flat lack of taste that is common with these Zero fun drinks, it also managed to taste dry.

When we left it was really dark, despite only being 7.30. There are very few street lights in the town, there were none when we left, it was almost pitch black when we pulled up to check the location of the cottage, we got a little lost..

The cottage was really nice, two floors, two large sleeping rooms and the usual. It was in a small residental area, the whole place was surrounded by mountains and crops. A really nice little village, it was beautiful.

I decided to do a quick video tour of the place as I couldn’t really be bothered to go take photos of each room, I Youtubed it for you all to watch.

It’s going to be hard to blog about the BBQ in fine detail as my memory is a little hazy in my hungover state, there was plenty of food, beer and good times. We started with the food, the girls were chefs for the evening and prepared some of the best BBQ food i’ve had in a very long time.

I can’t remember the names of things but pictures are said to be worth a thousand words. Here’s a few pics of the food we ate, I didn’t seem to take many, too busy eating.

After eating we chilled out for a bit, the food was still coming but the most of it had been eaten already. It was a great night, we all had so much fun. Here are some random pictures of us having a good time.

It was recently Mayu’s birthday, we picked up a cake for her at the supermarket as a surprise. She didn’t expect it and we had a little birthday celebration.

I decided to record the preperation and delivery of the cake, along with the Happy Birthday which was thankfully sang in English, we would have had trouble had it been in Japanese.

We eventually ran low on beer so a late night beer run was required. There was a mini mart in the area, we just had to find it. There were no street lights, it was around 10pm and we had no torch…

Suprisingly, we managed to find the mini mart without getting lost. I think we ended up in some bizare crazy parallel universe because we were served by kids. That’s right, kids served us beer, something about that doesn’t seem right but we found it hilarious.

Randomly, me and Cas went off to explore the fields which were alost pitch black. We came across what we drunkly assumed was a grave, maybe it was. We rushed back to tell people and Genta came to see it, he then tried to dig to see what was underneath…

Hiroe had brought load of sparklers and some ground fireworks. We had lots of fun playing with these, i’ll let the pictures do the talking. Obviously we were careful with these and did not light them while drunk. I most certinally did not knock a ground firework over pointing towards the house, then run back to stand it up nearly burning my face off.

Randomly, Genta found a frog. He decided to bring it over to the table where all the girls were sitting, you can imagine the response he got.
The whole night was a lot of fun, one of the last things I can recall was going to lay down in the field to look up at the stars, it was such a beautiful moment. Living in a built up city like London, it’s rare to see the stars like this. I can’t remember going to sleep so I assume I just crashed out somewhere, when I checked my camera in the morning I found this photo.

The next morning I was told of things I forgot about the previous night. Aparently I fell asleep in the field and was out there quite a while. I then crashed out in the living room area and was carried into the sleeping area.

One of the best days of my life without a doubt. The whole day was fun from start to finish. The company was great, everyone is so friendly. It was nice to meet Genta, Lee and Mayu, they’re cool!

The drive down to Fuji was a lot of fun, I was tired but the view was too good to miss, driving along side the mountains was a few I don’t want to forget, also, My Sharona was played.Fuji-Q Highland was great! We got there kinda late, around midday so couldn’t do all the rides but had a good time even though we did just three of them. I had been waiting 3 years to visit a Japanese Horror House, it didn’t quite live up to expectations but was fun.

The evening was the best part of the day, everything about it was perfect. The area we stayed in Kawaguchiko, was beaufitul and was a refreshing break from the busy city of Tokyo.I’m hoping everyone is reading this so I can thank Hiroe for planning everything, she did an incredible job of sorting out a really nice place to stay and basically making this possible. Hiroe, thank you so much, we all had a great time and it was all thanks to your planning. I’ll never forget today.

Perfect.

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Memory is a little hazy but i’m sure we woke up a bit earlier today. We set out and got breakfast as usual, I decided to mix it up by trying a Sand Burger, assuming it was Chicken Katsu in a bun.

Thankfully, it wasn’t sand in a bun but it wasn’t what I expected either. It was more like chicken and pork mixed into one crispy burger thing. I got it microwave and it shrunk about 50% in size, it wasn’t good but it was filling. It did actually taste like it had a handful of sand in there.

We headed to the station and made our way to our destation for the day, Shinjuku. Shinjuku is a large shopping area filled with hundreds of shops and large shopping malls all over the place.
The station is a HUGE shopping mall, it’s very easy to get lost in all the shops so we avoided that station and when to another one close by, I think Shin-Shinjuku. Much easier to navigate our way out towards the shops we wanted to visit.

Randomly, I saw a sign on the Freshness Burger informing customers, just incase they hated the old ones or wanted to check out the new ones. I thought it was a nice welcoming for the new staff, very friendly and hand drawn. See what I mean about the staff being friendly and passionate about their jobs?
We then continued to a shopping mall, stopping in Forever 21 on the way, I bought a belt. It was boiling outside so we tried to stick to the shade on our way to the Wald9 OIO Annex shopping center.

This shopping center has a lot of big brand names, Levis, Addidas, Fred Perry ect, it also has some smaller shops. There was a summer sale so lots of bargains to be found, despite the horrible conversion rate.Randomly, I saw a funny hand drawn penguin sign, I have no idea what it says but I liked the picture and it was a nice reminder of someone special back home.

On the top floor there was a specialist model crafts shop. The shop sold lots of kit models, Gundam, Trains ect and also sold all the paints and materials needed. At the back of this small shpo was a large train set which was really well done. I decided to take a few pictures, things like this are interesting. Not trains, but models of towns ect.
The best thing about this shop was the work space. Because many houses and apartments are so small there isn’t enough space needed to work on kit models. This store had a great solution, a dedicated workshop for customers to use, I thought this was a cool idea, not that i’d ever use it, just cool for those that would.

When we left it was still quite hot but the area and side of the road we were on had a lovely shade, much needed in the heat!
Our next stop was Sekaido, a large stationary store that spans multiple floors. The top floors are art galleries, there is also a workshop at the top which was holding drawing classes.

The ammount of stuff in this shop was incredible, i’ve never been in an arts and crafts store like this. Think of any shop you know and each floor was like one of those shops!
When we left we were all quite hungry and decided to go eat. Penny had a well recommended Ramen place in her guide book, it was near by but we were having trouble finding it.

After a while of standing around looking at maps and the guide book, a kind local offered his help. He spoke very good English and told us where it was, he then led us to the shop.
Without this guy’s help, we wouldn’t have found the shop, the sign was all in Japanese with Chinese Characters, the description in the guide book didn’t help either.

The menu was thankfully English on reverse so we all decided what we wanted then used our character matching skills to use the ticket machine and get our dish.
When we sat down the tea was placed on the table almost instantly after our asses were placed in our seats, now that’s service! It’s a shame the tea was bad, so bad. The only way to dirnk it was to take long sips and then face the horrible after taste.

Our food arrived quite quick, big bowls of Ramen, lovely! Funny to think I had never liked or properly tried it before this trip, it’s one of my favourite dishes now.
The Ramen was delicious, I really enjoyed it, big slices of meat all in a tasty soupy water. I highly recommend this place, I think it’s called Suehiro Shop. We continued out of the backstreets onto the main road for more shopping and to head towards the main part of Shinjuku.

Randomly, another penguin sign. I’m going to continue to post these so get used to it. Penguins are cool!
After a quick stop off at Muji we found ourselves in a tower building of shops. Not knowing what floor the good shops we on, we pressed all the buttons in the evevator.

Bit of a time waste really, nothing in this building apart from small music and dvd shops. We left and continued on with our wandering and shopping.

Randomly, I saw a funny ‘No Smoking’ sign, There is no smoking allowed on the streets here in Tokyo. In restaurants there are special smoking areas, also on the street, i’ve not seen anyone disobey the rules which was good. The smoking floors or carridges in restaurants and trains are HORRIBLE. There is no air, just smoke, I have no idea how people can eat in a smoke filled room.

We had a quick look around Tsutaya, which is sort of like HMV but has a lot of preowned stuff then headed on through Shinjuku. We passed a Baskin Robbins and I really wanted to get an ice cream but there was a HUGE line, no ice cream for me.

Penny’s guide book led us to our next location, a store I forget the name of but described as a cheap version of Tokyu Hands. The store sold pretty much everything, it was sort of like Poundland over 3 floors.

The highlight of this shop had to be finding a new and interesting Fanta flavour, Waikiki Hula!
This clocks in 3rd on my list of best Fanta flavours, Mystery, Grape being first and second. It tastes like Lilt, very pineappley with a very slight orangey tang. It works so well and only 50p.

We continued walking and headed towards the infamous seedy night spot, Kabukicho. It’s well known for all things I wouldn’t blog about or visit, host and strip clubs, bars and i’m sure you get the picture. There are also a lot of restaurants here, i’ve heard some of the best Katsu places are hidden in the backstreets.

It’s wise to walk through this area during the day, at night it really comes alive but you’ll be hounded by people trying to get you into clubs or pimps.

None of us had interest in these places, they were shut anyway, but it was nice to walk around there anyway. We spent our time here in the arcades, they’re quite small and have older machines. Of course, Penny was trying her luck at the arcade machines and I was trying to find Drum Mania but had no luck.
I did try my luck at one claw machine, it was full of sweets. We all tried this and won quite a lot of sweets. Cas easily won the most, one go and he had a handful, I got a few and Penny got one.

We eventually made our way out of Kabukicho and back onto the main street to continue our wander.
There are qutie a few arcades in the area. We checked out the smaller Taito arcade on one of the main roads. It didn’t really have many modern machines but did have a nice music games corner.

One thing I really thought was interesting in this arcade was the guest book in the music area. It was used but not abused, with some kind looking messages in there and lots of drawings.
After a quick stop in the arcade we headed out to explore the streets a bit and look in a few shops, nothing blog worthy but it was nice. We decided to head to the best arcade in the area, the big Tatio one near the JR station and opposite something called Green Peas.

We were quite worn out from walking around so much so headed into the Tatio arcade to spend some time playing games and getting a bit of a rest from walking. As you’d expect, I was straight on the Drum Mania machine, i’m up to Advanced / Expert Level 5.2 now, if that means anything to you, more of a note to me. I started on Begginer level 1, I think i’ve done quite well and still aim to be Expert 6 before I leave. Really going to miss Drum Mania.
It was near dinner time when we left so we decided to get a quick meal and head back to the hotel for an early night as we had to be up super early the next day.

Cas decided to get a Pork Rice Ball from a stall we passed while walking back to the station. None of us knew what to expect so only Cas got one, he was the food Guinea Pig.
He took his first bite and his face lit up, not literally. He really enjoyed it, so much he got a second one. I had a try and it was as good as he said, pork wrapped around rice.

Me and Penny were still hungry so headed off to find food while Cas went back to the hotel. Me and Penny went to Yoshinoya for some Gyudon, nice, quick and cheap.
We decided to head back, a quick stroll through Shinjuku at night and we were back at the station to head back to the hotel.

Before going back to the hotel, I stopped off at a mini mart to grab a snack. While looking around I spotted a Haagen Dazs Cripsy Sandwhich, Berry Berry Flavour. Excuse the pun but it was Berry nice! The ice cream was quite dense so it didn’t melt out of the crispy wafers when you took a bite. It had a nice strawberry taste and the textures went together perfectly.

Another nice day but I can’t help feeling Shinjuku is a little over rated. I think it’s too heavily built up, the number of shops can be overwhelming and it’s quite hard to find your way around.

There’s not much here that’s different to what you can find in other shopping areas which are much easier to navigate and a little more interesting than blocks of tall buildings.

Kabukicho isn’t really worth doing unless you want to go there for the nightlife vibe. We went during the day and it was quite empty, shops were only just opening.The best things about Shinjuku is the giant Tokyu Hands and the big Tatio arcade, well that’s only my personal opinion and reasons for visiting. So in summary, a nice place to wander but not one you’ll want to visit often unless you like the nightlife.

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Woke up today feeling more refreshed after the early night. A quick trip to the mini mart to pick up breakfast and we were off on our way to Shimo-Kitazawa. Shimo-Kitazawa is a small neighboor hood just outside of Shinjuku. It is popular with the young trendy crowd because of the fashion and music stores.

On our way to Shinjuku (to get train) we passed a small homemade fruit juice stand. I decided to get one just because it was Remon.

It tasted vile, I really didn’t want to finish it. What is wrong with Japan, why do they mess up anything Lemon based? It tasted as if a whole lemon, skin included, had been thrown into a blender with a durian. Horrible.It was a bit of a trek trying to find the train we needed to get from Shinjuku to get to Shimo-Kitazawa but eventually we found it with some help from the station staff.

We arrived in a small market street after taking the North Exit from the station. While looking back at this picture, I actually found Wally (Waldo) in it, can you see him?
The market wasn’t very busy and it seemed more like a local market than a big branded one, not a UniQlo in sight.

Eventually we made our first stop in a small shop that sold a bit of everything, Penny was pulled into this shop by her lack of self control.
Shops like this are always interesting, you’ll never know what you might find. In this one, nothing, it was still nice to browse.

We continued to walk around the streets until we passed something that caught our interest, the Samurai Ice Cream shop.
They had Lemon Sorbet on the menu so I ordered that, Cas got Marron which he thought was Engrish for Lemon, it wasn’t.

The ice cream was quite good, not one of the best Lemon Sorbet’s i’ve had but it was good enough to make me have a little more faith in Japan and Lemons. The cup the ice cream was in was actually Shortbread, it wasn’t nice, far too strong. Not sure what made the Ice Cream, Samuari.
We walked around the shops a bit more and headed back through a more neighborhood like area with less shops to the train tracks.

Randomly, I saw some strange graffiti, not much to say about it really, just thought it’d post it.
It took me a while to notice but Shimo-Kitazawa has it’s own mascot, a little Panda. After seeing it a few times in different poses, it made sense that it was the mascot. This one is outside a Jeans Shop, the others were themed to the shop too.

We reached the train tracks after a short walk, after looking around at the area a bit from the track side, I felt as if I was in a sideside sort of town.
The next area we decided to walk around was Kitazawa Azumadori, we didn’t plan this I don’t think, it was just wandering around.

While storlling around we passed a Village Vanuguard, the cool shop that was also in Venus Fort, Odaiba. We had a look in here and bought some small things.
I really like this shop, it has so much interesting stuff packed into it, also, it’s got a lot of character to it. We wasn’t in here too long and kept walking, eventually leaving Kitazawa Azumador.

The next area had loads more shops, they seemed less home run than on the other side of the tracks, I guess this was more of the market than a neighborhood with shops.
We eventually found ourselves near a station exit. We coninued down the road and passed two arcades that we decided to check out.

The first had claw machines, Penny was trying her luck again, as was Cas. I don’t think Penny won anything and after about 1000 Yen, neither did Cas.I decided to try my luck here…

I managed to win 4 prizes. It only cost me 300 Yen, that’s presents for the little cousins sorted.
We walked further down the road and passed a small games shop. We decided to look into try find the games we wanted, Slither Link for Penny and I wanted a rare music rhythm game, Something De Something.

Huzzah! I found it, and at a really cheap price too! As there were two of them in the shop (very lucky!) Penny got one too, no Slither Link for her. We left and continued down the road.
We found a Mister Donut so me and Cas decided to go in and eat while Penny looked around the 300 Yen Store.

There was a smaller choice of doughnuts here so I decided to get what looked like a giant pretzel and Cas got the signature donut, Pon De Ring.
My donut was quite thick coated and glazed, there wasn’t much fluffy middle to the donut, it also had a rich savory and sweet taste, it was odd, a bit crispy and not so great. Cas’ donut is glazed on the outside but the dough in the middle is very chewy with some strength to it, interesting texture for a donut.

We met back up with Penny and walked further down the road, eventually we came across a small arcade. We decided to go in because of the claw machines.
I decided to try my luck on one of the claw games again, this machine had a random sort of plush keychain toys.

I got lucky again and one each of the three designs in the Rikkakuma (Relax Bear) set, these will go to the cousins again, i’ll keep the chicken one.Penny went into the Daiso (think Poundland) and came out with a little gift for me, Soda and Cola flavour gummy stringy things!

They were AMAZING but quite greasy and had a chalky texture after taste. Lots of flavour in them too, will get more if I see them.We walked to the bottom of the street came to a bit of an end, there wasn’t much left to explore.

Randomly, I saw a sign for a bar for cats and dogs to drink beer and cocktails. This is what it is, obviously, just look at the sign.
Cas lead us through the back streets to make our way back towards the station. This was a residential area with houses and the odd small restaurant.

We eventually arrived back at the station, we managed to do a nice circle around the whole area, Cas did a good job of navigating but I suspect it was luck on the way back.. Cheers, Cas!
It was still quite early so we decided to take the train back to Shinjuku.

Shinjuku station is MASSIVE. It’s a huge maze that is broken up into underground shopping centers with many many exits. We eventually found our way out and headed towards Takeshima Times Square.
I won’t post Shinjuku in detail as we’re coming back tomorrow, we only came here to let Penny get the giant Tokyu Hands out of the way.

Me and Cas left Penny to explore Tokyu Hands while we went off to the arcade.

There were claw machines at the bottom, Cas tried his luck again but failed. We went upstairs and was impressed with the Music and Gundam Pod floor. The music games were cheap, loud enough to hear individually and even had headphone ports (it’s uncommon). I played Drum Mania, Ju Beat and Pop’n’Music before we had to head back to meet Penny.We realised we were hungry when we were walking around the food court area in Shinjuku station, The Kitchen.

I decided to get a Beef Curry while Cas and Penny got some pastry foods.
The curry was alright but not as good as Katsu. There was only 3 small lumps of Beef and it was a small portion too, not really worth the money.

Still feeling hungry, I got myself an Ice Bagel from the Bagel & Bagel shop.
The Bagel was interesting to eat, at first it was too dense, felt like 4 bagels and ice cream compressed into one but then after eating it, the flavour burst through, Orange and Mango. It was really sweet and a nice snack but also incredibly filling.

We were all tired so headed back to the hotel for an early night, hoping to catch up on some rest (obviously needed) for tomorrow when we tackle Shinjuku.I really enjoyed browsing around Shimo-Kitazawa. I’d highly recommend checking it out if you’re in Tokyo, you should do that in the morning and then head to Shinjuku, you can easily cover both in one day if you’re up early enough.

It was a nice short day, we were all back at the hotel by 7pm, I know that’s crazy and that we’re in Tokyo and should be out having fun but there’s none to be had when we’re all worn out.We’re here to chill out and have some fun, not to ware outselves out by overdoing it.

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This is a double review, as these two sweets ar same from the same set, Carnival Foods and they’re also both types of Hi-Chew, so actually, it’s almost a tripple review!

Hi-Chew is a Japanese sweet that is very much like the English ‘Chewit’ but only a bit bigger and a lot softer. What I like about these chews is that they’re very easy to eat, so no chewing for ages before getting any taste. There are many flavours avaliable but these two are a little harder to find, they just happen to be two of the best.

The Cotton Candy flavour doesn’t really taste too much like what you’d expect, it has a hint of that taste but tastes of a more dirty sugar variety. When you chew the sweet, you can taste bits of sugar in the chew which gives a tiny burst of sweet flavour which a crunchy texture on the small sugar part.
The Kakigori Flavour is my favourite. Kakigori is actually Shaved Ice with fruit syrup juice on top. This flavour is Blue Hawaian, the best type of Kakigori in my opinon, you’ve probably seen me eating it a lot on the blog. The chew tastes a lot like Blue Kakigori, it’s brilliant!

In summary, Hi-Chew are pretty much the Japanese version of Chewits, they’re chewy but to make them different, they’re much softer and can almost melt in heat, they also have bits of sugar inside giving it a bit of crunch when you come across one of the tiny sugar clumps. I highly recommend picking up a pack.

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As usual, we left around midday, got our pocket sandwiches from the mini mart and then headed to the station.

Our destination for today was Harajuku, one of the most popular shopping areas in Japan. We saved this visit for a Sunday, it’s the best time to go as the Gothic Lollitas and Rockabilly guys are usualy hanging around the area.

We arrived at the station and became part of a massive crowd when leaving. It was so busy it took us a minute or two to get out of the barrier onto the main road.
Before we started shopping, we decided to have a stroll around Yoyogi Park. To get there, we had to cross over the bridge which usually has Rockabillys and Gothic Lollitas but we didn’t see any!

On the otherside of the bridge is the enterance to Meiji Jingu, a shrine/temple accesable via a path through a small forest and Yoyogi Park.
We had all done the Meiji Jingu walk before, it was far too hot to do it again and not something that’s worth doing again. We headed straight for the park.

There were many snack stalls set up along the road leading to the park, the most popular stand was Kakigori (much to my delight)
Of course, I got myself a Kakigori. It was expensive, I didn’t realise till I paid, guess these guys are cashing in on the heat. Also, it wasn’t good at all, the ice was more like small lumps rather than thin strips, it wasn’t good at all, I ended up throwing it.

We continued walking past the main enterance down the road, it’s a nice little walk and not too far to the next enterance.
The park was quite empty today, there was hardly anyone around. We went through the side enterance, I think and walked back towards the bridge.

Randomly, I saw a weird van across the road. It was for promotion, I think, not sure what it was selling. It looks like something a super hero would drive.
We arrived back at the bridge, still no sign of Rockabilly guys or Gothic Lollita girls, such a shame, we came here on a Sunday hoping to see some.

There was a guy sitting on the bridge with a sign, it read, “Marry me! I want to sing a song in your language”. Cas stopped me before I asked him to sing My Sharona.
We took the road down towards Ometesando, it wasn’t as busy as the main area near the station.

Randomly, I saw what I thought was an ‘A Bathing Ape’ store but it was actually ‘A Fishing Ape’, it sold designer fishing equiptment!
We arrived at our first destination after a short walk from the bridge, Kiddy Land!

Kiddy Land is one of the biggest toy shops in Tokyo, it’s very popular for tourists and always worth a little browse, even if you just look at the first floor.
The first floor sells a bit of everything where as the others are specific, we checked out all of the floors. Nothing really outstanding to describe so here’s a bunch of pictures.

Randomly, I found a plush version of me! It’s Luke from Professor Layton on the Nintendo DS.
After a browse around Kiddy Land we crossed over the road to explore the back streets of Ometesando.

The back streets opposite Kiddy Land were full of fashion shops, comparted to Takeshita Dori in Harajuku, this was a ghost town.

Randomly, I saw some cool graffiti on one of the backstreets, thought i’d take a picture and share it. Graffiti in Japan is quite rare but when I see it, it’s usually a nice work of art rather than a mess by some twat who’s just wrote his name on the wall.
Following a tip from Hiroe, we headed to the Forever 21 store, a mix between H&M, Topshop and UniQlo. She told us we’d like it so we went for a browse.

She was right, it was a cool shop. I wasn’t expecting to buy anything, I didn’t want to but there was three t-shirts there that I couldn’t resist. Cas bought quite a lot too. Cool shop, cheers Hiroe!
We then met up with two of Penny’s friends who was in the area. We decided to all split up and go shopping then meet later, much easier to do that as we wanted to see different things.

I went for a bit of a wander around the backstreets again, I was actually trying to find a shop but got lost.

Randomly, I found a bin with a bit of character to it. On a side notes, bins like in London don’t realIy exist in Japan, instead there are recycle boxes scattered around, usually outside shops. It becomes a problem trying to find somewher to put rubbish. Suprisingly, the streets are very clean, I don’t think I’ve seen any litter yet.

I eventually found the shop I was looking for, Angelic Pretty, a popular Lollita brand. I had to find this shop for my girlfriend, she loves it. I managed to get a quick picture before being told that none were allowed.

The most popular place in Harajuku is Takeshita Dori, a long street filled with trendy clothes stores, popular with the youths and gothic crowd, think Camden in London.

Ometesando is at the end of Takeshita Dori, I wanted to walk down from the top so took a side road back up to the top, cutting all the crowds.
I stopped off at Lotteria for a Hamburger and Kakigori to escape the heat (it was really hot!) I stayed in here to cool down a bit before venturing outside into the busy street and facing the wrath of the boiling sun.

Takeshita Dori is right opposite the station, it’s where 90% of the crowd will go meaning the top is VERY busy. This is the start of the market street, Takeshita Dori, it’s worth starting here to get the best experience right out of the station.
Just as I was about to walk down, I bumped into Penny who was seeing her friends of at the station. We joined forces to battle the crowds of Takeshita Dori together.

Randomly, we saw a sign that told us “No Smorking”, it’s only worth blogging because Engrish is amusing.
We reached the end of the street where it was a lot less crowded. We had to go and meet Cas so we headed back to our meeting point.

Me and Penny got to the meeting point at the same time as Cas, I was taking a picture and he got in it, can you spot him, Where’s Cas?
We headed back up towards Meiji Jingu bridge, Cas wanted to check one more place out before we left, the UT UniQlo store.

The UT UniQlo store pretty much only sells the UT T-Shirts in the capsule like containers. There was plenty of choice but nothing either of us wanted.
We headed back towards Meiji-Jingumae station, it’s right near Ometesando and Kiddy Land, might be worth going here next time to avoid the crowds.

We were all worn out from shopping and boiled from the sun, it was just as hot as the day we went to Studio Ghibli. I got a Fanta Grape from the vending machine, it’s so refreshing and rich in flavour.
As it was still early evening, we decided to head to Akihabara on the way back to check out the big department store there, Yodabashi Camera.

Yodabashi Camera is one of the biggest stores in the area, it’s right near the station and has just about everything though our interest was only in the 6th floor, toys and games.
I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in here but it wasn’t much to take pictures of, it’s more of the same toys and games you can find everywhere else.

To my suprise, I found the new Taiko no Tatsujin DS game in here cheaper than everywhere else, I bought it without a second thought!
We decided to continue our evening in Akibahara, we walked to the main road from Yodabashi and passed the Gundam Café, it was incredibly busy with a long queue to go in, we didn’t bother.

One of the best places to check out in Akihabara is hidden away in the back streets, we went off to find it.
Super Potatoe! Hidden away in what seems like a block of flats is the giant retro games / museum like store. This is retro gamers heaven, it’s full of retro games and run by people who are obviously very pasionate about their games and the store. There are lots of cool little hand drawn and made signs leading up the stairs and in the lift to the shop.

The shop is two floors of retro heaven, it sells all the retro games and consoles, also has a load of rare stuff and other things such as guidebooks and sound tracks.
At the top of the two floors is an arcade with some classic games from the 90’s. It’s quite small up here and there are better arcades, but it’s a nice touch to the store.

By the time we left it was dark outside, we decided to finish our evening with a quick browse around the backstreet shops. One shop in particular, Gamers was very disappointing, it used to be one of the best but now it’s full of pervy manga and games, not worth going in at all.
We headed back to Ningyocho to end the night with a quick meal, we were all tired and resorted to McDonald’s.

As this would be the first and last time we had dinner in McDonalds, I decided to properly go for it and create an ultimate burger.
Combining a Hamburger, Shake Shake Chicken and McPork, I created something I like to call, the McFarm.

You may be thinking that’s gross but it seriously works. The McPork at top was very juicy, it ran down onto the crunchy and spicey Shake Shake Chicken which was sandwhiched with the burger at the bottom, providing an equal balance of textures. Seriously, it’s good, try it at home with a Double Cheese Burger and a Chicken Mayo in middle.

When leaving, Penny got a milkshake, I was looking at the menu for a McFlurry when I noticed this, something you’d NEVER see in London.
They had Smiles on the menu, for 0 Yen. This is how friendly staff in Tokyo are, always happy to serve the customer and will never show tiredness or dislike for their job.

We headed back to the hotel quite early, needed another early night after so much shopping.

Today was nice, I spent more than I expected too but got some cool things. Harajuku was so busy, I didn’t expect it to be as bad as it was, guess it’s true that the place comes alive on a Sunday. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see many Lollitas or any Rockabilly guys but we still had a good time.

I think it was the hottest day of our trip, the sun felt like it was tearing into and melting the skin off our faces and arms. It got cooler a bit later on and even started to rain on the way back to the hotel, it was nice and refreshing to walk back it.

So in summary, a bit of a chill out day and it seems to have paid off, I feel more refreshed and ready for the next week.

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I was wandering around Mikata and came across a small shop, I went in for a drink but came out with a few of these, Mixed Juice KitKats. These were sold as singles and not in the more common bag of 13.

The bars are in mini form, so two at half the length of the original KitKat, most of the exciting flavours are in this form in Japan. The chocolate is a light orange colour with a standard wafer inside. The flavour is quite fruity and tastes a little of yoghurt. The orange and strawberry flavours are quite weak but it all comes together nicely to produce a sweet milky, slightly fruity white chocolate. I’ll be trying to find a bag of these, they’re great.

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CHECK BACK LATER - I’M UPLOADING PICS IN BATCHES!

The alarm on the side of my bed is dead simple to operate, you press the big button with the alarm symbol to turn it on, then the up and down arrow keys next to it to set the time. I am an idiot and forgot to set this, so I woke up 10 minutes before we were all due to go out, thankfully, Cas and Penny were running late so we left to go out nearer midday.

We were off to Odaiba today and were getting there by the River Boat which starts at Asakusa, a popular tourist destination in Tokyo. Thankfully it wasn’t as hot as yesterday, still hot but bearable. We made our way to Asakusa via train.

One of my favourite places to eat breakfast in Japan last time I visited was Mister Donut, it was also a favourite for lunch and an evening snack. Mister Donut is basically Krispy Kreme but with better doughnuts, yeah, I said it.

As it was quite late in the day so some donuts were already sold out. There was still a lot of choice as you can see, we spent a while choosing.

We spent a while choosing but finally picked what we wanted. I forgot what Cas and Penny got but I had a Lemon and Cream Donut, I put it on the tray to pay and went to take a close up picture of it. After I took the picture I noticed my new black camera was now mostly white, I put the lens in the cream…
I was obviously in a bit of stress about my camera as the cream was on the actual lens, I tried my best to clean it off but it left huge smudges. I think I ruined the camera.. it still worked, the lens was just very dirty and blured shots. Not letting that get me down, I ate my donut!

It was alright.. I was annoyed at the donut for ruining my camera and not tasting as good as I hoped. I’ll pick anything with Lemon first, you should know this. One of the fun things about Mister Donut is the points system, you get points when you spend money and can claim a prize with the points. I lost my card from last year, I had over 200 points and got a mug as a prize, ironically, I was the mug for buying so many donuts. I have a new card now and 18 points!

We left Mister Donut and headed into Nakamise Shopping Street, a small indoor area full of shops and restaurants. It leads out onto the street in 4 directions, each onto a different road, it’s like a giant plus sign.

While looking in a small family run toyshop, I saw something familiar and quite surprising, it was a Micropet! I did some promotional work for Tomy with the Micropets product, it was interesting to see it in the shop.

There is a large temple in Asakusa that draws tourists in from all over the world, if i’m honest, it’s not that great but it’s one of the biggest tourist spots. There is a long market street that leads down to it.
We cut into the Temple Market just past the starting point which has a large gate, another tourist attraction. There was a camera shop on the market so I hurried in to buy some lens cleaner. I explained my situation and the shop keeper asked to see my camera, in an instant he had a cleaning cloth in his hand, him and his wife (family run shop) were both working together to clean the lens for me.

It was an incredible act of kindness, especially as they didn’t take any money for the service. I was very greatful, they managed get the lens cleaner than it was before. This is one thing I really like about Japan, the people in shops, always happy and more than willing to help.

We continued down the Temple Market towards the temple, there are so many touristy shops on the way, selling the usual mix of keyrings, souvineers and local / traditional foods. Despite all the junk they sell, it’s still interesting to have a bit of a browse.

Randomly, I saw a dog in a weird chicken hat, then I saw the large ‘NO PHOTOS’ sign next to it, whoops.
After you come out of the Temple Market, you’ll arrive at a large gate that’s just before the temple. I didn’t take many pictures of this for two reason, the heat and the fact I took literally hundreds last time I was here.

There are large lanterns in the gate, just like the one at the start of the Temple Street Market. You see these all over Japan but never this size.

After we passed the gate, it was a major disapointment to see that the Temple was completely covered up as part of it was being fixed or restored. It’s such a shame for all those who hadn’t seen it before, bit of a kick in the teeth for them to hang up a picture of what it should look like.

The inside of the temple is quite boring if i’m being honest. It’s a shrine and I didn’t feel comfortable being there taking pictures of something that’s religious and so respecteted, we had a quick look and left.

We worked our way back down the market to the main enterance of the street, the Kaminarimon, which is a gate with a giant lantern. On the way I saw an ice cream shop that had LOADS of flavours.

I went in but got a slushie drink instead, the ice cream would have melted all over my hands. I got grape flavour, it was really nice but gave me some serious brain freeze!

We arrived at the gate, it wasn’t as busy as I expected it to be but i’ve seen it all before so avoided taking millions of photos of it.
Randomly, A Panda Bus appeared! I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture of the front but it was shaped like a panda’s face, you can kind of make it out in the picture.

Our next destination was the Tokyo Cruise station where we needed to get a boat down to Odaiba. It was a short walk from the Temple Market. The boat ride that we took was the ‘Sumida River Boat Ride’.
The Tokyo Cruise building isn’t hard to miss, just find the bridge in the above picture and to the left, there it is. Incase you’re lost, there are loads of people around the Temple Market area there to help tourists, such a great idea, nice that they all spoke English too.

We went in and got our tickets, one of the staff came over and helped us choose the right boat, it would take us directly to Odaiba rather than making us switch at Hinode Pier, if you ever take this boat ride, check there’s no transfer cause it’s a half an hour wait. You can check out the website here: http://www.suijobus.co.jp and if you view it in Google Chrome, it will auto translate to English if possible.
We had to wait upstairs for twenty minutes for the boat to arrive, like everything else in Japan. There were quite a lot of peoeple here waiting already and the boat didn’t have many seats, so i’d advise getting here early.

After a while we were asked to queue outside next to the pier and we could get a good look at the surrounding buildings. The weird gold shaped thing is the Asahi Building, it’s a brewery. Cas and Penny were in debate about the gold building with the white top, Pen thinks it’s meant to look like a beer and Cas disagreed, what do you think?

Randomly, Cas decided to take a funny picture of me hold the golden poo looking thing on top of the Asahi building, I had no idea he was doing this first. I said randomly, but I think I bugged him to take my picture, normally.

The boat looked like it had arrived from the future. It looked more like a spaceship than a boat! It was hard to get a picture at this point of the boat but you can see what I mean, right?

The inside of the boat was like a little cafe, we quickly hurried on to get a table by the window. We had to wait a while for the boat to start, it was nice to be in air-con again.

Before the boat started, I decided to try the Melon Ice Cream sold on board, I was hoping despite it’s orange colour, it would be the same as Melon Soda flavour. Sadly, I was wrong.
It was actually real Melon flavour, not artifical sugar green which I enjoy. Still, it was really nice. The boat had started to move by the time I finished my ice cream, it was hard to get pictures because of the window glare so I didn’t bother too much and we all just relaxed.

The boat ride takes about an hour, it goes along the Sumida river under the 12 (I think) coloured bridges (Red, Yellow, Blue ect) until it passes under the final bridge, The Rainbow Bridge. Sadly, this bridge isn’t painted like a rainbow, it’s grey and boring but it’s a huge bridge which connects Odaiba to the rest of Tokyo.
The boat ride was nice and relaxing, so glad it was inside with aircon. We were all worried it would be out in the sun on deck! The boat pulledup at a small peir outside Odabia Marine Park.

From here, you can get a nice look out across Tokyo Bay, it was too hot for us to stand around and admire the view.

We were planning on visiting Decks, a large shopping mall in Odaiba that has two amusement parks inside, Sega Joypolis and Muscle Park, more on those later. It was a 10 minute walk in the blazing sun along side a little tiny beach to the steps leading up to Decks.

Randomly, I saw a dog that looked like it had run wild in a paint shop, it’s fur was dyed different colours to make it look more fashionable. I think this form of animal cruely originates from China.

We arrived at Decks, a place I hadn’t heard of before so I didn’t really know what it was. It reminded me a lot of a seaside town / pier, so think Southend or Brighton. The building is split into two malls, Sea Side Mall and Island Mall.
It was around lunch time and we were hungry. Cas and Penny had been here before and wanted to go back to the place they ate last time, Little Hong Kong. It’s not a restaurant, it’s an indoor replica of Hong Kong streets, minus the cockroaches.

They wasn’t quite sure how to get there, so we asked a security guard who was about 3ft tall.
He was really friendly and even lead us right to the enterance, it was a few minutes walk. Everyone is so helpful here in Japan, take note, Paris!

I was surprised how good this place was, it reminded me a lot of Hong Kong from my trip last year. It was more like the dirty back streets, full of restuarants, neon signs and dirty buildings, music plays around the area so it really does feel like you’re in part of Hong Kong.
Walking around, it reminded me of Rush Hour, so I wasn’t too surprised when I bumped into Jackie Chan!

We went upstairs and had a look around all the different restaurants. We decided on what we called, Yo! Hong Kong, it was Chinese food that went round on a Sushi Belt.
There wasn’t much variety in the foods going around, despite the large menu. It was mostly buns and some weird cheesy looking rice dish. Then something amazing came along, some sort of Chicken!

I grabbed this (not realising it was 400 Yen) and ate it, not knowing what it was exactly. It was really nice, the chicken was really soft but in a batter that gave it a nice texture, it was covered in some sauce that tasted incredible, I really need to know what this is. Can any of my food or Chinese friends help me out?We soon realised we had to request things from the kitchen, so I did what you’d all expect, ordered me some Lemon Chicken!

It was different to the one ate home but still really good. The coating was slightly crispy and seemed to be fried too long but it added a bit of crunch to it. I loved it so imagine my surprise when I spotted another one on the belt! I grabbed that but think I might have taken someone elses order, either that or they knew I liked it so much.Cas and Penny had mostly buns and gyoza, I didn’t take a picture because we were all hungry and just wanted to eat rather than turn lunch into a mini photoshoot (Sorry, Chin!) I ended up eating two of the first mystery chicken dish and then two Lemon Chicken dishes, it was a great lunch.

We walked around a bit more then headed back out, just before the exit was a small arcade.

We had a look around and then I saw it again, The Green Demon! (Mame Shiba) I had to try win whatever was in the mystery box, this is the power of the Green Demon, it absorbs your money. I didn’t win despite trying 5 times, Cas kindly reminded me that each attempt was about £1. I stopped trying and cursed the Green Demon and his money swindling skills. It didn’t stop Cas, he had a go too.

Cas was lucky, annoyingly lucky and won a prize. Penny tried next and she won a prize too! I’m begining to think the Green Demon is out to make me poor. The prize was a small face towel, if you’re wondering.

Randomly, I decided I needed a picture with a statue outside a restuarant. I felt I needed to wear it’s glasses but I ended up looking a little bit like Brick Tamland from Anchorman.

We headed back to Sea Side Mall to have a look around the shops, the mall is HUGE and full of lots of interesting little shops to have a look around. I was excited as I didn’t know what to expect.

The first shop we went into was amazing. It was full of random Japanese toys and gifs, we wandered around here for a while just looking at all the odd things.

It took a while for me to realise what the other half of this shop was, as I slowly figured it out, I got more and more excited, it was a giant sweet shop!!
I grabbed myself a basket and filled it up quite fast. I was pretty much just grabbing anything blue and purple, Cream Soda and Grape flavour snacks. I also got a few jelly drinks.

We walked around a bit more, there were loads more shops, mostly the same as the first, gifts, toys and sweets.
There was one shop that I hadn’t seen before, it was called Lucky Box. There was nothing in the store apart from mystery boxes sold at different prices.

One of us was bound to gamble 1000 yen on one of these mystery boxes, suprisingly, it wasn’t me, Penny decided to try her luck. Sadly, she got a terrible prize, a weird Chinese looking keyring, quite a bargain for £8…
The next shop we came across was an imported products store, it sold imported toys and snacks. There was lots of american foods here and lots of chocolates, so M&M’s, Milky Bar, Hershey ect. There was also quite a lot of Toy Story 3 merchandice, guess it’s really popular at the moment.

We continued to walk around the shops more, there was another giant sweet shop where I spent even more money on sweets, at this point I had a carrier bag full of them.
We continued walking and then eventually crossed over to the other side of the mall (two buildings) This side of the shop was a lot more like a normal shopping mall with branded shops and of course, another sweet shop!

I was looking around gathering up more sweets when I noticed something someone was wearing, it was a shark backpack, the same brand as my little shark pouch. Doing what any stupid tourist would, I asked for a picture.
The girl seemed surprised we both had the same type of bag, that or she was just suprised that I would ask for a picture of her backpack, either way, she was happy to be in the picture. We left the shop and I was feeling a bit thirsty, I reached for my bag to get some water. The only problem was, my bag wasn’t there.

I paniced and tried to think where I might have left it, then it hit me as hard and shocking as that car did earlier this year, it was all the way back in Little Hong Kong!I ran back through the shopping mall as fast as I could, trying to find Little Hong Kong, my passport and an emergency 10k note was in that bag! I eventually found my way back to Yo! Hong Kong and asked the waitress if she’d seen my bag, she looked confused. I ran over to where we were sitting about half an hour ago and it was still there, untouched!! I feel safe leaving my things around Japan, this is the second time i’ve left my bag in a shop.

I headed back down to meet up with Cas and Penny again, wearing a huge smile on my face and clutching my bag with joy. Still can’t get over how safe it is to leave my things in shops, not that i’ll be making a habbit of it. By the time we left the shopping mall, I had a carrier bag FULL of sweets, here’s my haul.
As you can see, it’s all pretty much blue and purple sweets which is my two favourite flavors, Cream Soda and Japanese Grape. I’m saving these all for later, I couldn’t eat al this at the time, it would have made my teeth fall out and I would have developed a severe case of diabetes.

We headed back down to go check out Sega Joypolis, the indoor amusement park in the Decks building.
We had to buy an admission ticket to get in, it is an amusement park after all. We decided to just pay the entry fee and not get any ride tokens, that costs a lot more, 3500 yen, which is near £30. We didn’t know if there were rides in there worth that much money so best to leave it. You get your admission tickets from vending machines to the right of the enterance, they’re printed on foil like cards, pretty cool.

The Joypolis is pretty much what the Trocadero used to be, but better. It’s a big arcade over a few floors with some indoor rides and special edition arcade games. There really isn’t much to write about as we just had wander around and I didn’t take too many pictures in here, you’re not missing much visually.
I wouldn’t say it’s worth going here unless you’re actually planning on forking out 3500 to go on the rides, i’m not sure if that price gets you an unlimited pass but it’s really expensive for what the place is.

We played a few games in the arcade. On of the best games here was Sega’s Brick People. It’s an interactive game where you have to use the blocks to build a platform for the characters to climb and collect fruit. Simple concept and gameplay but lots of fun with the blocks!
Cas played this while me and Penny played Taiko no Tatsujin next to him. In this area was a few ‘special edition’ versions of standard arcade games. These were House of the Dead 4 and Let’s Go Jungle, both light gun shooters from Sega.

The special editions had fully moveable cabnits with force feedback, making the game more of a simulation that trys to put you in the game by shaking you about as you play, it’s a cool idea but we gave it a miss.Next to the special edition games was something called ‘Burnout Running’, it’s basically a fully interactive version of Wii Sports, you have to run on the treadmill and race your opponents.

It’s a fun idea but it didn’t get much interest, there were queues for the special editions but I didn’t actually see anyone play this. On this floor there were also plenty of carnival type games where you can win prizes, also some claw machines.
We continued to explore the next floor where Cas spotted a GIANT Tetris arcade game. The joysticks were the size of dustbins.

We looked around the arcade area a sbit more, Cas played Brick People again and I had another go on Taiko no Tatsujin. After we’d finished looking around we headed for the exit. In true money grabbing fashion, there was a gift shop full of very expensive Sega Merchandice at the exit.
We had a quick look around but there wasn’t anything we wanted to buy, then Penny called me over. It was him again, The Green Demon! (Mame Shiba) I tried my hardest to resist but couldn’t, me and Cas bought 5 (Me 3, him 2) lucky dip keychains, expensive at 300 Yen each!

Cas managd to get a whole set, well, he got 2 of 3 and I got the third so we traded. Neither of us got the green one, which is a shame because the rest are rubbish.

Randomly, we saw that Michael Jackson had been here too, also Freddie Princ Jr, some random Japanese celebrities and Leonardo DiCaprio, twice.

We went outside to make our way over to Pallet Town, it’s across the river just behind Decks, you have to find and cross the bridge. There was a really nice and much needed sea breeze out here so we sat down for a bit, I went to the nearest mini mart and got some Cream Soda Jelly Drink.

It wasn’t great, I think I made a similar face to what was on the bottle. It tasted a bit milky and a bit like Pocari Sweat, terrible combination. I drank it just to finish it. Never again!
We headed off in search for the bridge, it wasn’t too hard to find it as we could see it from where we exited (exit next to Joypolis)

The bridge leads over to Pallet Town, a small island with a large shopping center, car show room, music venue, giant ferris wheel and an arcade with a bowling alley. There’s not too much here but it’s worth ending your day here to ride the ferris wheel at night.
We decided to explore Venus Fort for a while, hoping it would get dark by the time we had finished. There are three floors, Venus OUTLET, Venus GRAND and Venus FAMILY. We started at the top, OUTLET and worked our way down.

The first floor was all clothes shops, not very interesting for me or Cas but Penny seemed to enjoy it. We’re quite immature and had a laugh at the Titty shop.
You can get a nice look down on the bottom floor from the top, i’d say that’s the best thing on the floor, it was quite boring, you can skip this if you’re a guy or just have no interest in overpriced clothing.

The next floor is interesting, it really shows off the design of the building, it’s built to look like a mini european town, think Italian. It’s really interesting to wander around, don’t forget to look at the sky painted on the cieling, it actually moves and cycles through day and night every 12 minutes, I think.

The hall is made to look like a market road, there are little restaurants here and also some stalls in the middle of the path, they sell clothes and some other random things, nothing special.

On the second floor there is a Kiddy Land, one of the better toy shops in Japan. It’s quite expensive but always worth a look. The one in Venus Fort is mostly for girls, it’s full of really cute stuff.

Randomly, I transformed my face into some weird.. I don’t know what this is, it’s creepy and seems to be a brand, there are Disney Characters with this style face and they just scare the hell out of me.
I was just finishing looking around when Penny grabbed me and showed me to a display in the store, I stopped in horror… The Green Demon! (Mame Shiba)

I tried this time, I really tried to resist but I couldn’t. I ended up buying some stickers, I really have no clue what i’m going to do with these, i’m not an 8 year old, I have no use for stickers!We headed down the stairs to the bottom floor, Venus FAMILY. This is the best floor in my opinion, it has shops full of random toys and sweets, there is also a large pet store with caged puppies.

The first shop we went in just happened to be the best store in the building, Village Vanuguard. It sells just about everything but mostly toys and books. It’s such a cool store so when you go to Venus Town, don’t miss it!
There was so much in this shop, we split up to have a look around and was in here for a good 20 minutes at least. Rather than detail everything, here are some pictures.

When I left I realised I was missing something, my giant bag of sweets! I put it down for Cas to take a picture of me with a giant banana then obviously forgot to pick it up. Not a problem, it’s Japan, I went back and there it was. People are very respectful here and won’t take your things, love it!
Just next door to Vanugard is a large pet store. There are lots of cute puppies here but it’s really sad to see them in the little cages. I’ll admit, this one is better for the puppies than the last one, open top and not really a cagey cage but it’s still sad.

We walked through here to the main part of the pet store where I bought my dog (Daisy) a toy, it’s a plush squeeky Taiyaki Fish. We made our way out of Venus FAMILY but not before passing a little sweet shop. I couldn’t help myself and found myself buying more sweets. I got a blue jelly drink, some Cream Soda ball things and three Cream Soda flavor Chuppa Chups! Been searching for the Chuppa Chups since I got here, they’re rare so I bought all 3 in the shop.

When we got out, there was one last shop. It’s for children and babies, it sells all cute toys, mostly for babies. There is a large Ghibli section with a Catbus that you can go in, there were two kids in there and some random guy sitting in the back with an iPad.

Randomly, I saw a cute little robot just standing around. It’s random things like this that I really like about Japan.

It was still quite light outside, the sun was nearly down so we decided to kill some more time. We first went into a mini mart to buy some stuff, I forget what was bought but I think it was just a drinks run.We then went into McDonnalds, it was time for me to properly try the Lemon Chicken Burger after my last fail attempt when I forgot to have the lemon sauce! As you’d expect (If you know me at all) I was very excited about the Lemon Chicken burger. Just look at the excitement on my face here!

Sadly, the sauce just made the burger WORSE. It tasted very minty, had a hint of garlic and ginger in it too, all those flavors wrongly mixed into what could have been nice Lemon Sauce.The burger remains a complete fail, how depressing. So depressing in fact, I decided to eat more, this time, The Chicken Shake Shake with Lemon Flavor, McDonnalds could still redeem itself!

The Chicken Shake Shake is a large bit of crispy southen friend style chicken with a packet of flavored poweder to put in the bag and Shake Shake! I did this, opened the bag, put the powder on the chicken, shook it like a mad man then opened it. FAIL! The powder just stuck to the top of the chicken, I took a bite and it was very peppery and dry powder with a zezty flavor, it wasn’t good at all but the chicken itself was still nice.McDonalds obviously can’t do Lemon and should stop trying to prevent any further shame. I’ll be having words with Ronald if I ever see him so he better watch out, bloody cheek, going and ruining my favourite food like that!

There is a large car and technology show room in Pallet Town, I forgot the name of the company that it was for, I think Toyota but it doesn’t really matter. I’m not that interested in cars so didn’t spend time looking around, we had to pass through here to get to the giant ferris wheel.
Randomly, we saw a cartoon version of Cas on a sign! Those of you that know Cas will find this just as funny as I did, shame he doesn’t have the hair anymore.

When we got out it was dark enough. We didn’t go on the ferris wheel, Cas and Penny get motion sickness and I had already been on it, the view is nice but I didn’t quite fancy sitting on it a second time.
We went to the arcade next to it, this also has a bowling alley upstairs. It reminds me so much of an arcade you’d expect to find at the end of Brighton Pier.

There were loads of Gashapon Machines at the enterance. Sure enough the Green Demon (Mame Shiba) was waiting in one of the machines to absorb our coins, thankfully, I had none but Penny and Cas did. Penny got a little keyring thing and Cas ended up with some stickers.
We went upstairs to see what was there, it was a ghost Bowling Alley. I say ghost because it was a damn ghost town up here, very few people in such a large 80’s looking bowling alley, it was eerie, we left soon after arriving.

As we left I realised the whole arcade was like a ghost town, it was quite haunting how deserted and old looking it was to the other arcades. It actually made me feel uncomfortable being in this spooky abandoned arcade.
We had finished with Pallet Town, seen all there was to see. We headed back into the main area to find transport to get home. It was dark now so there were some lights on but there were so few, this whole place seems a little run down compared to the rest of Japan, it’s very much like Brigton pier or something similar.

The easiest way to get back from Odaiba is to take the Monorail, it’s a minute walk, not even that, from outside Venus Fort. If you come here, don’t get the Monorail into Odaiba, take the boat, use this just to leave, it makes a much nicer day.
While on the monorail, we got a nice view around Odaiba and Tokyo bay, I then discovered my camera completly fails on fast moving subjects in low light, sorry, no pics!

We got back to Ningyocho, our local station, within half an hour. I didn’t realise it was so quick to get to Odaiba from here! It was quite late but Cas and Penny were hungry, I had already eaten bad Lemon Chicken. They decided to stop off for some noodles at this place.
I decided to head on back to the hotel and get some rest, it had been a long day.

Today was great, it was a good mix of touristy stuff in the morning followed by a river boat ride and then fun shopping and amusement parks in the afternoon.I’d highly recommend doing a day like this in Japan, start in Asakusa and look at the Temple and Temple Street Market (don’t forget Mister Donut!) then take the Sumida River Boat Cruise down to Odaiba (don’t forget, go direct!) Have lunch in Decks, lots of places to choose, check out Little Hong Kong (don’t forget your bag!!) and then browse the shopping mall. You’ll also want to check out Joypolis, maybe Muscle Park and then over to Pallet Town to stroll around Venus Fort, get some dinner then ride the giant ferris wheel at night. You could also go bowling if there’s a large group of you but i’d try avoid the spooky ghost arcade. End the night with the monorail home.

So yeah, a great day to be had if you follow my guide. You can mix it up by starting earlier at Kappabashi (i’ll post about this tomorrow) then walking down to Asakusa. You can even mix it up by going to the Shinagawa Aqua Park before you go to Decks, it’s an aquarium with a Dolphin show but make sure you plan your times right to fit everything in, you can easily do all the additional things i’ve suggested.Odaiba is well worth the trip, check it out if you’re in Tokyo.

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