Luke.Blog

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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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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Me and Penny woke up early today to go to Yoshinoya, a popular chain restaurant that serves Gyudon, lightly cooked beef on rice with onions. I spotted on near our hotel so we took the backstreets to find it, and we did. I didn’t get us lost!

We sat down and were almost immediately given glasses of water. There isn’t much choice on the menu, just lots of Gyudon. To give you an idea of what that is, here’s a picture.

It doesn’t look so appealing but it is really tasty and makes a suprisingly good breakfast, really fills you up and gives you energy for the day. It’s one thing to try if you ever visit Japan!

We finished our meal and headed back through the backstreets to the hotel, 5 minutes down the road Penny asked where my bag was… where was it?! I had left it in Yoshinoya, I quickly ran back expecting the worst but nope, it was there. Japan is really safe, you can leave your bags and it’s very rare for someone to steal it.

On the way back, we headed into a Daily Yamazaki mini mart in search for the sandwich i’ve been craving. Sadly, they didn’t have it but they did have a much larger variety of flavours,

I hadn’t seen some of these before so me and Penny decided to get one pack each and share, as you get two in a pack. I got the Banana flavour and Penny got the Blueberry. I also got a bottle of Fanta FunMix Cola+Orange drink which i’ve also reviewed.

We headed back to the hotel eating our sandwiches on the way. The Blueberry one was really tasty, it was like a sweet jam which went really well with the heavenly soft bread and smooth creamy butter. The Banana one was interesting and i’m not saying that in a bad way, it works but it is pretty much mushed banana in white bread.

Just before we got to the hotel, I saw a weird statue. It was a Tanuki (Japanese Racoon Dog) There are loads of these around Japan and i’m not quite sure why, yet.

We met up with Cas at the hotel, who was wide awake and seemed to have beaten his Jetlag. Today we planned on going to Shibuya, we were meeting our friend Hiroe who lives out here in Japan. We bagged up her gifts (sweets and snacks from UK) and headed to the underground station.

It didn’t take too long to get to Shibuya. We first found a locker to put all of Hiroe’s gifts in, we didn’t want to be carry around Chocolate and Sweets in the baking sun for obvious reasons. It’s really handy to have so many lockers in Japan, it’s a shame stations here don’t have that but I can see it being a huge security risk.

We were at the Hachiko exit of the station, it’s named this after the statue of Hachiko the dog, a famous dog from Japanese history. The story is that the dog would wait here for his master every day while he went to work, then the owner died and the dog continued to wait and wait… A bronze statue was made and it has now become a popular and easy to find meeting point. We’re meeting Hiroe here later.

which is right by the famous Shibuya crossing, one of the biggest and busiest in the world. When the lights stop traffic, it’s a huge free for all crossing in ALL directions. I really like this crossing, you can get to where you want in one cross, rather than crossing multiple roads, just run across to where you want to go!

We decided to have a bit of a wander around Shibuya, just seeing what we could find. We didn’t have to meet Hiroe till 6.30 so had a few hours to kill. We first went down a road to the left from the crossing, it was mostly restaurants and coffee shops.

After a short walk, we headed back to the crossing, passing an interesting sign on the way. It was for a Cat Café, this is exactly what it sounds like and it’s totally bizzare. You pay to sit in a Café full of cats! Hidden away on the 3rd floor of a building, we went up to have a look but the acremum time to visit was far too long, one hour at 1450 yen.

We continued down the road and Penny stopped, she then pointed out a really cute looking Puppy shop.

Penny went in and I went with her, Cas waited outside because he is a monster who doesn’t like dogs. I kid, i’m sure he likes them but just didn’t want to go in. The shop was full of incredibly cute puppies and a random cat. I felt sorry for them all cooped up in the little cages, they seemed so excited to see us. Here are some cute puppies for you to look at.

I beat temptation to buy one (I have my own, she’s a nightmare) and we headed on down the road, back to the crossing. We passed a UniQlo which we hurried into to escape the heat. All the shops here have amazing aircon, it’s great to just cool down. UniQlo wasn’t much different to the ones in the UK apart from the staff here are very friendly and look like they want to be working, rather than the ones in the UK who just look and act like they don’t care and hate their job.

Back at the crossing we heard loud music coming from a small stage set up outside a shop. I’m not sure how to explain what this thing is but it was dancing to some loud Japanese Pop music and people were watching. I find things like this strange but fascinating at the same time.

We walked down another road to make our way to Tokyu Hands, a large department store that is one of the best things to check out in Shibuya. It isn’t very far from the crossing.

On the way we stopped off in a Club Sega, which is an arcade. This one mostly featured token games and slot machines. Token Games are large coin pushing machines, you put a token in and you can win some more, repeat until you need to remorgage your house.

There are loads of these types of Token Machines, they’re really interesting and we will play some another time. We didn’t spend too long in here, me and Penny played Air Hockey which was fun despite me beating her a million to 3, or something like that. The table had a screen which showed the score and provided other distractions to make us miss our shots.

It was nearing midday so we went for a little bit of lunch. We decided to go to the ‘Milky’ brand cafe. I don’t know much about the brand but I think it’s popular Japanese Ice Cream / Deserts, you should recognise the mascot.

The restaruant was on the 2nd floor, so we had to go up in the elevator and it opened straight into the restaruant. The place was quite empty apart from a table of middle adged Japanese women. We decided to get desert because it was so hot. Me and Cas got Melon Soda Floats and Penny got a Sundae with just about everything in it.

We left and started to explore some of the backstreets. These are full of small restaurants, music and cloth shops. It’s quite a trendy part of Japan so there is quite a lot here for the younger crowd.

Randomly, we noticed a sign for some interesting Pizza. Burger and Choco Banana Pizza from a place called, Shakey’s. We didn’t try it but it was something we hadn’t seen before. Choco Banana one does seem interesting…

We continued walking around the backstreets until we eventually arrived at our first destination, Tokyu Hands, the department store that makes household items interesting!

This shop is made up of several floors which are each split into sub floors, A, B and C. It’s a small building but crams a lot in. I took a whole bunch of photos in here, mostly things that I found interesting. I’m going to post a mini gallery of them all and just write about them in order.

1. Paper Craft moving kits. You build these and can turn the handle to make them move! 2. Lemon Powered Buzzer, the Japanese have figured how to get power from the best fruit in the world, amazing! 3. Leather and Animal Hide, notice the Armadillo? Creepy. 4 and 5. Stamps, loads of them! 6. Tons of Stickers! 7. Robot Memo Clips and Shaped Paper Clips 8. Pen! 9. A robot alarm clock, it rolls around the room when it goes off, forcing you to catch it. 10. Kero Clock, just because frogs are cool. 11. Shaved Ice Kits and syrups! I want one.. 12. Coin Banks. 13. Coin Turtle, so cool! 14. Puzzle Games. 15. Colour Soduku Puzzle Game. 16. Rubix Cubes. 17. Stacking Game Display. 18. Octopus Hat! 19. Garu Garu Kun (Ice Snack I like) Shampoo and Body Soap?! 20. Humping dog…

Tokyu Hands is a lot of fun. There is so much in there, you could spend ages just looking at all the cool things. Even boring stuff like Kitchen Utensils becomes interesting. I love that shop! By the time we left it was 3pm so we decided to get a small lunch, this time, actual food. We wandered up and down the street looking for somewhere to eat.

We eventually settled on a Japanese / Chinese place. If any one can read the name on this sign then good for you, I can’t understand it at all but it isn’t a problem because there are pictures and always plastic food displays outside the shops to show you what they sell. I really like this, it makes food window shopping possible!

We decided to order Gyoza, Edame (Pea Pod things) and what I think is crispy flat Gyoza but i’m not sure.

The Gyoza was really tasty. It’s a popular and very cheap Chinese food, it’s like a dumpling with a pork(?) filling. I’m sure someone can explain this better via Google. The flat stuff wasn’t good at all, it had the texture of a dog snack, I don’t know why I know this… Edame is always good!

We continued to search the backstreets of Shibuya some more when we came across a Mandarake. This store is a MASSIVE underground (literally) preowned store for geeks, it sells Manga, Anime, Collectable Figures, Games, Music ect. 

There was SO much stuff here, it was quite overwhelming to think there was this much Manga in Japan. Obviously we couldn’t buy any of it but it was interesting to have a look around.

Leaving Mandarake, the heat really hit us, so we hurried into a near by arcade to take advantage of the aircon. The arcade was like all the others but less busy. I managed to find the newist music game, Project Diva that didn’t have a large queue waiting to play it, rare opportunity to play so I did. 

The music in this game is all Vocaloid, it’s basically vocal music that is computer generated. I won’t try to explain more because i’ll get it wrong, Google time for you! The game is HUGELY overrated, it’s one of the most boring music games to play and is pure fan service. By that, I mean the biggest sell of the game is the mascots dancing aroud in the background while you play. Worth a try though!

It was getting a little cooler outside so we continued to explore Shibuya, we had a quick look in HMV and then headed to Tower Records. Me and Penny didn’t really fancy exploring so left Cas too it and went off on our own for a bit.

Penny decided to go look around some clothing building and I decided to go to an Arcade. I found a small one called “Game” which was full of music games and not busy at all!

We met back at Tower Records and went off to try and find a popular second hand clothing store that Penny wanted to look in. On the way we saw some really strange Japanese Graffiti, it was quite disturbing to read “Kill your Baby”, “Satans Bride” and “I am the Midnight Killer” scrawled on the walls.

The shop we were looking for is called RagTag. It’s a second hand store for designer clothes so was still really expensive. What surprised me, aside from the insane prices was the fact that all the clothes looked like new. People really take care of their stuff here. For example, the shoes had no scuff marks, me and Cas had to look really close to see anything wrong with the stuff here.

It was time to go meet Hiroe so we made our way back through the streets to the crossing. It was around the time most people left work or were coming into Shibuya for the evening so it was really busy.

We waited at the Hatchiko statue for Hiroe, it was then like a game of “Where’s Wally” trying to spot her. Cas won, he saw her first. She had brought her friend along, Takako.

Hiroe led us to a restaurant that she had chosen, it served Okinawan food which is mostly pork based dishes. Okinawa is small island of Japan.

The restaurant was really nice, it’s one of those places that is hidden away from tourists, we were the only english speaking people in there so it was nice that Hiroe took us to a place like this. 

None of us had an idea what the food was, the menu was all in Japanese and had no pictures. Thankfully, we were with experts, Hiroe and Takako ordered us a whole bunch of food, naturally there are a lot of pictures, i’m going to post them in sets so have a look at all the images then read the description below.

First up was “Umibudou Shima Dou Fu Salada”. I’ll admit, it didn’t look nice, almost like something a dog rudely leaves behind but I decided to give it a try. I’m not a food critic so don’t expect an in depth description of tastes and textures but this was really tasty, can’t really compare it to anything but it sort of tasted of Red Bean.

The next dish didn’t look good at all, it all looked very fishy too me. The dish was called “Go-Yei Chan Puru”. Can you see the mini grape looking things? That’s a type of seaweed, it was incredibly salty and popped in your mouth (No, not like pop rocks) It had a strong sea salty and ocean flavor, can’t say I liked it much.

Something fried then arrived at our table, looked good. Then Hiroe opened it, it was purple inside! This was “Purple Potato Coroke”, I hesitated to try but i’m glad I did, it was really tasty. The potato was sweet and kinda fluffy, went well with the cripsy texture of the coating.

The main bowl arrived, it was “Okinawa Soba Noodle”. This dish is popular in Okinawa, it is a big bowl of Soba (Thick) Noodles with a large lump of pork and other green vegetabley things. It was very tasty, the noodles had a porky taste from the water and pork. The pork was very soft and easy to eat. I really enjoyed this.

“So-kini’s fly” was next, it’s Spare Pork Rib. This was really nice, one of my favourites. It’s basically Pork Rib on the bone but is coated in what I can only describe as, the Skin on Fried Chicken with a hint of lemon. It was incredible but there was hardly any meat on the bone. Tasted a lot like Chicken, so much I kept calling it Chicken.

More fried stuff next, this was “Tempura”. I’m sure you’ve heard of it before. We had Tempura’d Spam (Yup, really), Go-Yei (Seaweed thing), Shrimp (or Prawn?) and Onion. My favourite was the Spam Tempura, it went so well with the sauce!

Finally the last dish arrived, it certinally was a case of best till last. This dish is called “Bibinba”, it’s similar to the Korean dish, “Bipimbap”. The bowl was full of rice, meat, green vegetabley things and some other stuff topped with a raw egg. The waitress (We all agreed she was too cute for her own good) then mixed it all up. 

This was incredible. It all mushed together so well. It had a spicey meaty taste, which meant Cas didn’t want to finish all of his because he’s not a fan of spice. I ate his left overs because it was that good. I need to learn how to make this!! (Hiroe, are you reading? ;)

Desert time! Hiroe had ordered serveral dishes for Desert. First up were the two SUndaes, Bleu Seal (Not Seal as in the cute animal!) Ice Cream with Sa-Ta-Andagi and also, Black Sugar Sundae.

Phew, that was a lot to write about and now i’m hungry again. Dinner was amazing so I have to really thank Hiroe and Takako for taking us here, I really enjoyed Okinawan food and i’m so glad I got the chance to try it. Thank girls!

We stayed in the restaurant for a while chatting and drinking Beeru. I had a drink which was really nice, Honey Sour, or something, I forgot the name but i’m sure Hiroe will remind me ;)

Hiroe recieved lots of snacks and food from us all, Cas got her loads of Kettle Chips, I got her mountains of Haribo and Penny got her lots of Chocolates and Liquorice, she was well happy with her food haul!

While here in Japan, we’ve been planning to visit Mt. Fuji. Hiroe has been planning the trip for us and wrote up a little plan of our 2 day trip. Here’s a photo of her plan, it’s really cool, check out all the little pictures. Thanks again Hiroe for a great plan!

I won’t detail the plan, i’m writing way too much as it is. In summary, AWESOME! We left the restaruant and headed out to have a drink. We decided to go to an English Themed pub, it’s quite popular, Hub.

The place was really busy, there was some sort of sporting event on that everyone was watching… Tour De France, yeah, seriously… We were quickly shown to a table and given a large brown bag to put our bags in, how thoughtful! We were drinking Mango Beer, it’s really good, incredibly sweet, it’s just Mango Juice and Kirin Beer but a perfect mix.

I think it was Hiroe who ordered one of the most bizare pub snacks i’ve ever tried, Deep Fried Spaghetti. I’m not sure why an ‘English’ themed pub does this, first time i’ve seen it!

I really didn’t like this but I was so curious about it I kept trying it. I tastes EXACTLY like uncooked Spaghetti, it’s very strong and snaps in your mouth leaving a really salty taste over the top of that Spaghetti flavour. It wasn’t good but everyone else seemed to love it.

We spent quite a while in the pub and then headed off to make sure we’d catch the last train. On the way back we saw some super expensive and oddly shaped Melons. The one at the back costs over £100.

Shibuya seemed to be alive at this time of night. It’s a popular night life spot for the young trendy crowd. We all headed back to the station which was quite busy, assuming everyone was trying to catch the last trains. My expert navigational skills got us on the train that would take longer but at least it was in the right direction.

Today was a lot of fun. It was nice to casually wander around Shibuya and then also take our time looking around Tokyu Hands, easily one of my favourite shops in Japan. Meeting up with Hiroe and Takako was great, it was nice to see Hiroe after so long and good to meet her friend who would also join us on the Fuji trip. Had a great evening filled with amazing food, company and beeru!

I’m ending this post with a big thanks to Hiroe and Takako for a wonderful evening, thanks girls, we all had a lot of fun, can’t wait to see you again soon!

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