momo-travels

[momo-travels]

Japan Trip 2016  Day 1: Part 1 - Landing + Checking in @ Tokyu Stay

This was my first trip to Japan~! Feeling really excited because I had yearned to head there for a really long time ever since I was a teenager, and now my wish had come true~ ^^ It would be a very long trip of 16 days, where my friend and I would travel, play and eat from Tokyo to Kyoto, and lastly ending at Osaka before flying back home~

I’ve taken Nendoroid Kotori and Hotaru with me on this trip actually, but unfortunately, I never get any chance to take them out for photo taking TWT TWT It’s still fun to prepare the nendoroids to travel though~

Went through the customs over at Changi Airport smoothly and saw some pokemon structures being displayed at the departure hall so I took this photo~ They seemed to be very tired and collapsed though ^^;

It was a night flight that we took and since I’m such a heavy sleeper on the plane, I took a nap and when I woke up, it’s already the morning and we’re high up above the clouds! ^^

Seeing land and knowing that soon we’ll reach our destination - Japan!

Landed at Narita Airport in Tokyo~! I didn’t take Japan airlines though but thought this scenery was nice so I took a photo of it ^^;

The first thing we do when we reached Japan - travel to our hotel where we’ll be staying for the week and left our luggage there~ The hotel we’re staying this time round in Tokyo was Tokyu Stay.

Interior of the lobby~ The area where there are lots of tables and chairs would be where we’ll be eating our breakfast every day for the week~ Tokyu Stay seems like a small hotel, but it looks clean and warm there ^^

As it was nearing Christmas, there were some Christmas decorations around the front desk as well as a nicely decorated Christmas tree at the lobby~

As our room was already available by the time we reached the hotel, the staff kindly allowed us to check in ahead of time! This was the first time for me seeing a washing machine in a hotel room OWO” Even though the hotel room seems small, there is enough space for us to put our luggage. There’s even a desk for us to put some of our daily necessities too~ (And there’s also a TV, but I didn’t take a photo of it ^^;)

After checking in and leaving our luggage in our room, it’s time to head out and play~! Here’s how the streets look like in the neighbourhood of where our hotel is located~ I really love the streets of normal daily life in this side of Ikebukuro~ (Though it gets abit shady at night ^^;)

[momo-travels]

 Japan Trip 2016 Day 1: Part 2 - Lunch @ Ikebukuro Gudetama Cafe

Now that our luggage and room has been settled, it’s time for some late lunch as it was around 2PM by now~ There was a cafe which my friend was greatly interested in and thus we made our way towards there~

Hmm? These illustrations look strangely familiar...

It’s the Gudetama Cafe~! My friend was a great fan of Gudetama so we just had to give it a try since we’re staying in Ikebukuro after all~

Just peeking in at the counter while we wait for our turn to enter the cafe~ Gudetama illustrations could be seen everywhere OWO

There’s also a bunch of plushies lining up all around the counter, so we ended up taking a bunch of photos of them while waiting~

Finally it was our turn so we made our way to the seats allocated to us~ Yep, everywhere there’s Gudetama +W+

Here’s the menu we get to look at while waiting outside just now~ There’s quite alot of variety of food to desserts and even drinks to choose from! +W+

We made our order once we’re seated (since we already deciding while mulling over the menu just now when waiting), so all we could do now is to wait~ (And look at this cute desk mat~)

Finally, the food arrived~! I ordered “Gude White Curry”, which has a cute gudetama lying on a pile of white sauce~ Gudetama itself is made of yellow rice, and the white sauce was supposedly white curry but it doesn’t taste like curry much though ^^; It was still really delicious and all the small vegetables are adorable ><” (I’ve never seen such a small potato in my whole life ever OWO”)

My friend ordered a carbonara instead, but this was quite special as it was meitaiko flavoured +W+

She also ordered a Gudetama drink as every drink gave out a coaster as a gift ^^ I honestly find the drink abit too expensive and thus didn’t order one =p (They had plain water anyway~)

Overall, I really enjoyed my lunch and time there~ The food is nice, the ambience is pretty good too since it wasn’t too noisy over there~ The price can be abit expensive compared to other cafes in Japan, but still considered reasonable prices if you compared to Singapore’s prices ^^;

[momo-travels]

Japan Trip 2016 Day 1: Part 3 - Tokyo Skytree

After our lunch, it’s time to head to our next destination, and only destination of the day - Tokyo Skytree~!

There was this pretty Christmas tree display set up by LED lights at the basement when we stepped out from the train station~

We decided to head outdoors to take a photo of Tokyo Skytree, but welp, it’s obviously a bad choice as it was so windy outdoors. (And dark since the sun sets earlier during the winter period D:) The wind was howling so bad that it was hard to even take a decent photo of the skytree, and a pamphlet which I’ve gotten earlier on got blown away really far in just one moment that I can’t even see where has it flown to... Bye Bye pamphlet TWT

Oh well, back to indoors and walking through the shopping streets instead~

Saw some pretty accessories of macaroons and other sweet treats (which can’t be eaten)~

There was a small exhibition (?) showcasing all these magical girls series. I have no idea who these characters are though unfortunately...

There was also an exhibition of Arina Tanemura’s works for the last 20 years for her 20 year anniversary. Unfortunately, it starts tomorrow instead, so I wasn’t able to attend it TWT There was a really big and pretty tapestry showcasing all her characters from the different manga series she had drawn though~ >/////<

A couple character goods shops and pop up stores that we went past~ We were looking for the Rilakumma store but weirdly never came across it in the end~ Usamaru looks so cute and squishy~ +W+

Japan is well known for their plastic food model, and a shop that we went to actually showcase a little exhibition of the different steps in making the food models. (Using the silicon mould to make the shape of the food -> Colouring the food and ingredients -> Displaying everything together and plating them~)

They also sell those DIY kits that allow you to make your own food models~ I don’t think I’ll be able to make such beautiful parfaits though... ^^:

Ready-made food models are also available as note holders~ +W+ They look so life-like and so pretty, but just one of it was around SGD$25, which is out of my budget for a souvenir. I wasn’t ready to spend this amount on my first day so I didn’t pick one up in the end ^^;

There was also another small exhibition on one of the open areas in the mall, showcasing these cute little houses/shops made from DIY kit~ They look really detailed and well done, wish I have such good hands to make them T/////T

Saw quite a few cute and interesting toys at some of the shops~ Appanman actually has such cute toys~! +W+ I remembered really liking these mini houses/playsets when I was young, though my collection consisted of Hello Kitty’s and Pokemon’s instead~ <3

The stacking Pikachu game looks kind of fun and cute at the same time~ +W+

And now there’s one last stop at Tokyo Skytree before we head home for the night... (To be continued on the next post~)

[momo-travels]

Japan Trip 2016 Day 1: Part 4 - Pokemon Center @ Tokyo Skytree

One of the shops that we just had to take a look at Tokyo Skytree is their Pokemon Center~! I’ve never been to one before and was looking forward to it after seeing photos of people buying lots of pokemon merchandise over there~

There was really alot, ALOT of pokemon plushies there! +W+

This was their new product at that time~ Hehe Pikachu looks quite cute in these jerseys~

Pikachu and one of the new pokemon in winter wear for the Sapporo Festival if I’m not wrong~

Pikachu wearing a Rayquaza / Dark Rayquaza cape~ I keep seeing this illustration online so I guess this was quite a popular combination?

 A cute little torchic statue figure was high up sitting on the wall~ 

I saw these deco latte artworks of Pikachu and was interested~ It seems like you can make your own latte art by putting the sheet on top of your coffee +W+ Asked my sis whether she’s interested to get one since she likes coffee art, but she prefers practising on her own instead ^^;

In the end, I only grabbed the plastic clear file and keychain that was only available at Tokyo Skytree~ (And also a pokemon ball with candies inside since my nephews requested to get a Pokeball as a present XD) Their plastic bag is so pretty~! +W+ I love the white vulpix >////<

It was quite late when we returned to our hotel and since almost most of the restaurants had closed by now, we opt to get soup stock as a takeaway for our dinner~ Their soup is really delicious~! >/////< Wished we had this since I found it more delicious than soup spoon actually XD

Omake: My fangirl side came out when I saw Ensemble Stars’ advertisements playing on the TV~ >////< I love Japan’s TV <3