Osaka & Tokyo

[ki_123]

Day 3
->Universal studio

We went on a Monday, however it was jam pack!! Lots and lots of people queuing for rides. Approx 170mins for the roller coaster(I didn't take though).

I was overall disappointed with universal studio. The surrounding/effects for the rides were not very spectacular. You can see Hello Kittys/Seasme street character etc.

Note:Nanoblock fans, they have those seasme/kittys character nanoblocks which are so much cheaper compared to Singapore. (I totally regret not buying any)

I Hope anyone who is heading there had more fun than I am!!

Here are the pics!

When you see this, means you are heading in the right direction!

Our tickets! I bought my tickets through JTB in Singapore. Aprox 6600yen/pax.

Hungry us. Approx 500yen but it taste good!

Spiderman ride. 3D kind of visual rides.

Elmo parading

Charlie brown. He looks so cute!

Dining there is not exactly cheap (normal themepark standards?). Suggest to eat more during lunch so you can have dinner somewhere else.

Will post more the next time round!

 

[GetaBlue]

waiting for your Tokyo parts...good study material for my upcoming trip, thanks in advance. ...

btw, nice shot of the sakura flowers

 

[bakasa2002]

nice pictures of the sakura at osaka castle. Was that just a few days ago? I went to JApan Mint instead of the castle for this trip.

 

[ki_123]

@Getablue - thanks, i'm glad its helpful to you

@bakasa2002- no actually that was during end march...

Day 4
->Back to Shinsaibashi shopping arcade
->Dotonbori

Day 4 is our last day at Osaka before we are back to Tokyo so we head back to Shinsaibashi shopping arcade and Dotonbori.

For the Sanrio fans. Its 3 level so yar...happy shopping! oh there's also a 4 storey Uniqlo store & Samantha Thavasa(for the ladies), Agnes B along the way.

Dotonbori in the Day

The famous Kani Restaurant.

They do have other branches around Tokyo. I'm not too sure if they have at other areas.

Their set menu. We took their sets and paid 7000yen for 2. Overall great service. They have staffs who speaks decent English so not a problem for communication. Food wise everything is Kani. Interesting but not a must to try for my opinion.

 

[ki_123]

Their set lunches

Tempuras Kani

Bake cheese with Kani

Kani Sashmi...they are really fresh and I wonder how the chef actually slice it up so beautifully.

Erm...I'm not too sure what is this call but basically is Kani + Rice. There's 2 ways to eat it. The waitress will guide you along. The rice is really fragrant with the smell of the Kanis.

Our dessert. Macha + vanilla ice -cream.

 

[ki_123]

Some street snacks (Karage). They taste awesome!

Dotonbori @ night. For those who likes city life, the place is really vibrant and beautiful with all the lights.

We had Okonomiyaki for our dinner. You can request them to either cook for you or you cook it yourself. We had ours done by them.

Our loots for the day and we are all set to head back to Tokyo the next day.

Day 5
-> Heads back to Tokyo
-> Checked in our hotel (Ikebukuro)
We decided to buy bentos and eat them on the train for our journey to Tokyo. Please please please like a lot of lao jiaos says be early for the train rides. We almost miss our train because we were too engross in selecting our bentos and lugging around a luggage + getting our way through the station with tons of people is no joke.

Corn Potage from the vending machines!

 

[ki_123]

Back to Tokyo! It was close to evening when we arrive.

The fallen sakura leaves.

Really delicious crepe we had!

More cheap goodies that we bought for our friends/colleagues! Sadly we couldn't remember the direction of shop when we wanted to grab more goodies there.

 

[ki_123]

Day 6
->Ueno
->Ameyoko
->Ginza
->Roppongi

We arrive at Ueno for sakura viewing early noon. Sadly most of the sakura petals has fallen off. Nonetheless the place were still crowded with visitors!

 

[ki_123]

Top view from the stairways

This kids are all dress up! I wonder what it is..does anyone knows? Seems like a graduation ceremony for me.

More sakuras

I'll continue the next part of my journey the next time round! Hope you guys have enjoyed so far

 

[JuicyBug]

nice photos, keep them coming !

 

[ki_123]

After sakura viewing, we made our way down to Ameyoko. Its a small shopping street thats sells a lot of dried goods and cheap sports wear.

Since is still early, we decided to change a little bit of our plans and head down to Ginza. High end shopping and food. For the Burberry lovers, there is a flagship store that carries both the blue and the black label.

In the evening we headed down to Roppongi. The area is....I would say more artsy feel? hehehehe. Anyway, we went up the towers and you got to pay extra to actually go up right to the top(depending on the wind condition, it might be out of bound). For experience wise, I would say go for it otherwise, I would say is not worth paying and during my trip, the museum was close so I guess it depends on luck too?

 

[ki_123]

Okay sorry guys, I don't have too much pics for the rest of the trips as they are actually more shopping than scenery pics. Anyway, the rest of my itinerary is asf:

Day 7
->Shinjuku
Huge shopping area. Many are departmental stores though. I gave the park a miss as I feel that there isn't a point anymore since most of the sakura petals has fallen. They do have late sakura blooming varieties though but still we decided to skip. Definitely will make it a must the next time round.

Day 8
->Shibuya
Need me to say more? They sell good quality and unique clothing that are manufactured in Japan but of cos the prices are pretty expensive that some might think it is better to pay a little bit more to buy branded goods.

Day 9 & 14
->Harajuku & Omotesando
We really love Harajuku so much that we actually revisited on the 2nd last day of our stay in Japan. For people who wants to buy brands like Headporter, this is the place to go. Apparently, they do not offer tax free though. Also, there's a much rave about pancake place that the Japanese queues for. We didn't want to waste the time thus we didn't queue for it. There's also wolfgang puck express.

Day 10
->DisneyLand
We fee that disney land has more rides as compared to disneysea.

Day 11
->DisneySea

 

[ki_123]

Day 12
->Asakusa
->Akihabara
->Odaiba

Asakusa is really great for buying omiyages. All kinds to choose from!

Odaiba
Really nice and quiet place. Think I've made a mistake by not listening to the lao jiaos here and allocate more time to it. Oh between the train tickets to Odaiba is not cheap FYI.

Day 13 (Free day)
->Tokyo Skytree
->Tokyo Banana hunting.
We decided to go Tokyo banana hunting thus we head to Tokyo Skytree & Tokyo Station to shop around. For those who are interested in getting Tokyo banana my advise is asf:

-Tokyo banana leopard series is only available @ Tokyo Skytree. It is chocolate flavored.

-Tokyo banana rawr series is only available @ Tokyo Station. There is 2 shops at Tokyo station itself selling Tokyo bananas. One of the shops carries the rawr series which is caramel flavored (no difference if you have actually bought the normal caramel flavored packaging.)

-Tokyo banana giraffe and original series. The giraffe series is caramel custard cream. My advise is to get both of this series at the airport as my friend said that it is actually cheaper compared to getting it off @ Tokyo itself.

Overall, I really enjoyed my stay and the weather there. Food wise, there's always extreme ends. I would say generally for day on meals + street food I've spend 3000yen/pax (could be even lesser) and excluding occasion that we actually want to eat a little better. Transportation wise, like many here have mention. If you are travelling to a number of places in a day, you can actually get a "discount" by purchasing the so called "1 day pass". I've made a mistake and didn't realize I can get this passes till nearing the end of my trip. Anyway hope you guys have much fun as I do!! Enjoy!!!

 

[Daryl_T]

Hi there,
if my flight is departing tokyo early in the morning about 6am is the tokyo banana shop at the airport open? Or i should get it from tokyo the day before I depart?

 

[IcYFl4mEz]

Hi there,
if my flight is departing tokyo early in the morning about 6am is the tokyo banana shop at the airport open? Or i should get it from tokyo the day before I depart?

get it from the day u depart if u plan to bring back SG . cos it expire fast . like maybe 2weeks only.i just came back today(am) and my tokyo banana expire on may 9th latest,some is 6th

I bought ard $200+ worth of snack

 

[ki_123]

Hi Daryl_T, if you are leaving at 6am. There's a chance that the shop might not be open. Base on the duty free website apparently some of the shops open at 7.30am earliest.

FaSoLa Narita Duty Free Shop

I'm not too sure if it's true but my friends who have been to Tokyo and bought the goods back actually say the goods can be kept much longer (1 to 2 weeks) than what it is actually stated. Hehehe...just sharing but try at your own risk :X

 

[IcYFl4mEz]

another thing worth buying is royce nama chocolate!there sell abt 8+ , sg sell $15

 

[Daryl_T]

Hi all,
Noted with thanks!