Japan Trip Day 7-10: Tsukiji Fish Market, Korean Town, Odaiba, Shibuya & Harajuku

This is the third and final installment of my Japan Trip!

Day 7-Tsukiji Fish Market, Harajuku

Tsukiji fish market is a wholesale fish market in Toyko! One of the main attractions there is the Tuna Auction, which starts at about 5am every morning. Other than that, the Tsukiji market also has an outer market where the public can enjoy FRESH sushi and sashimi! In preparation for the trip there, we asked our friendly hostel staff for some recommendations, and luckily for us, he actually visited the Tuna Auction before!

So according to the guy. He went during the peak season (the sakura period). Given that the fish market only allows a max of 120-150 people in every morning, they had to go extra early (around 4am) in order to be the first 120 people. At about 5am, the tour started, and what was supposed to be a 30min auction, turned out to be about 1hr30min. Even though he's a Japanese, the hostel staff told us that he could not understand a single word during the auction (think they probably have a code or something). So he spent 1hr30min looking at a crowd of people shouting at each other lol. BUT, the guy said it was still a very unique experience. Since it was already past the peak period, the staff recommended that we reach the market at about 430am. Cabbing is the only available option, as it's too early.

Well, raymond and I decided that we really needed to catch up on sleep, so we decided to give the Tuna Auction a miss. Su and Marvin were gung-ho enough to wake up early and go to the market at 5am (they pass up on the auction as well).

Raymond and I woke up at around 10pm and we decided to take a cab down to Tsukiji! Hahaha, we were too lazy that day and it's a lot faster to cab down (around15- 20min journey)! The cab fare wasn't too bad either, comparable to Singapore's.

Tsukiji Fish Market!

The fish market could be a lil overwhelming at first because it is quite big and crowded. We decided to snake down the alleys and just go into any restaurant that looks good.

The first place we went to was a rather commercialized conveyor belt style sushi place. I was really impressed with their sea eel. Very fresh, delicate and sweet. Their salmon was better than average, but we had higher expectations since we're at a fish market, and everything's supposed to be super fresh.

There was one restaurant which left a very deep impression. It's a lot smaller compared to some of the more commercialized one, but it felt more authentic.

We sat in front of the chef and he made us our sushi on the spot.

We sat near an old Japanese couple. Somehow I always find it quite heart-warming to see old couples. Anw, they kept nodding through out the meal and they seemed very happy with the food. I heard them say 'Oishi' a few times as well!

The shop has their own cups which were quite cute, with all the different kinds of sushi.

And this was Raymond's comment after eating his Sashimi Sushi Trio.

' I feel like I'm in the ocean. No, I feel like I AM the ocean.'- Raymond Lim, Japan trip 2013

According to him, the sashimi was extremely fresh, very sweet and didn't have that 'fishy smell'. The sashimi was longer than the rice, a rare sight.

We left after about one and half hours, and met up with Su and Marvin at Harajuku! I made a mistake of telling them to meet at the Hachiko at Harajuku. There is no Hachiko at Harajuku. It's at Shibuya-.- After a few expensive text messages, we finally met up with them at Takeshita Entrance!

The Takeshita Street is where all the youngsters gather. There are fashion boutiques, fast food, the famous crepe, Neoprints, beauty store etc etc...

Japan is the mother land of Neoprints, and I used to take quite a lot of it in Secondary school. It only costs 400yen (S$5) to take a Neoprint in Japan! I think I was the only enthusiastic one, but I bet the rest had lots of fun as well!

Chio gals in Harajuku

There's a Calbee store there that sells freshly made hot potatoes! We tried their store specialty and of course I ordered my new fav soda-Ginger Ale.

We also met Pris and Weishun at Harajuku! Just after we bought our Calbee fries. Had an inkling that we will see them sooner or later because they kept checking in at locations near us.

There are 2 crepe stores (Angle Heart and Marion Crepes) on the Takeshita Street and they're right beside each other. Pretty stiff competition I think.

We decided that we need to try out both stores to see the difference. Su and I bought crepes from Angle Heart, Raymond and Marvin tried out Marion Crepes. I think I read somewhere that Angle Heart is supposedly more popular, but there was a long queue at Marion Crepe that day. Turned out Marion Crepe was having a 50% off everything. The usual price of Marion crepe is already slightly cheaper than Angle Heart, so the guys essentially bought their crepes at less than half the price of ours.

Verdict?

I think mine tasted the best! Hahah, I ordered strawberry cheeseback crepe. The cheesecake at Angle Heart was freaking good. I'm not really a fan of cheesecake, but I liked it enough to go back again. Marvin's one was quite good as well. I think it was caramel ice cream cheesecake or something. Raymond's green tea crepe was sadly the most disappointing one. 

We also went over to Cat Street which is near Takeshita Street. Cat street is less crowded than Takeshita Street, and somewhat more upmarket and niche. 

Once again, Raymond was in the mood for some Takoyaki. 

I bought my Tokyo startbucks card that day! The starbucks at Shibuya was out of stock, glad that they had it at Harajuku!



Since we're near the area, we also visited Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park. I think it's probably a better idea to visit the park during the weekends, because there will be cosplayers and performances. Made a mental note to revisit it on our last day.

Since we went pretty late in the evening, the shrine was quite empty, and we decided to take some jump shots. Typical Singaporeans.





Haul of the day!
We had dinner at Shibuya. And we went to Forty Hands! Finally finally got my hands on the Instax mini 25! Wished I had it at the start of our trip so we could take more photos with it, but we didn't see it in Osaka.

Day 8-Shinjuku, Korean Town

Shinkuju is kinda like Toyko's CBD to me. It has quite a lot of department stores (Takashimya, Isetan, Lumine etc) and tall business buildings. We went to Takashimya and Lumine, and there's a Laduree cafe at Lumine. The Laduree in Singapore doesn't have a cafe, which is such a pity! It's a very nice place to camho.

Su looking pretty with her macarons

I think Laduree makes one of the best Pistachio macarons around, we bought 2 of them. Su didn't really like the pistachio though, she preferred the strawberry marshmallow one.

First 2 Instax taken by my new Instax mini 25! I think so far it takes outdoor shoots with natural lighting the best. Somehow the films always turn out to be slightly yellowish when taken indoors with artificial lighting.

Shinjuku wasn't really up our alley, so we headed over to Korean Town (also near Shinjuku) for lunch!

There was a lot of choices and most of the restaurants have pictures of celebrities all over the storefront. We decided on one with posters and signatures of the Big Bang members.

Errr, we most definitely over-ordered. Actually we already took out 1 or 2 dishes because the dude who served us told us the portions are quite big. But still... 4 skinny people with small stomachs.

The staff cooked our pork and helped us to cut them into smaller pieces! hahaa, good service:) My favorite side dishes are the giant bean sprouts and kimchi! I think the food wasn't too fantastic, but the environment and service standard were awesome. 

We had a little time in the evening, and we decided to head back to harajuku since it's pretty near Shinjuku.

I really wanted to take more Neoprints, so i dragged Raymond along with me! Su and Marvin went shopping at Harajuku, they bought quite a lot this time round! 

We tried the caramel cheesecake crepe from Angel Heart this time, and I think it's better than the Strawberry cheesecake! The strawberry cheesecake has strawberry, cheesecake, strawberry syrup and whip cream. The caramel cheesecake has vanilla ice cream, cheesecake, nuts and caramel sauce. 

Raymond didn't want to get a crepe because he said he prefers crispy crepes (the crepes at Harajuku are quite soft) and he didn't like the whip cream in the crepes. BUT, I think he ate half of my caramel cheesecake crepe-.-

On our way back to the hostel! The 'YES' cap on Raymond only cost 300yen (S$3.75)! Bought it at the 300Yen shop in Harajuku. I also bought a plain blue backpack for my brother at 300yen. Good Buy!

Haul of the day! Bought everything at the Don Quijote (discount chain store) in Korean Town. I regret not trying some of the stuff I bought when I was still in Japan. I only tried the Trolli Sour Glow Worms when I came back to Singapore and I'm OBSSESSED. Unfortunately, I finished the whole packet in 2 days, and I can't seem to find it anywhere :( I'll be so grateful if someone could tell me where I can get them. They are just super chewy sour gummies, and my favorite is the blue/pink combi. It's an absolute delight, everyone should try it once in their life. 

Day 9-Odaiba

Odaiba is a man-made entertainment island. It's impossible to cover the entire place in 1 day because it's so big and there're really a lot of things to do.

Visit http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3008.html for more information on Odaiba.

There are many more things to see, but for me, the 4 main attractions are the Oedo Onsen, Venus Fort, AquaCity, DiverCity, and Leisure Land.

Oedo Onsen is a hot spring theme park, which I really wanted to try! But we didn't have time for that and the rest weren't too interested. Venus fort shopping mall has an 18th century European design, with man-made river flowing through the mall. It also has a whole level dedicated to outlet stores. Aqua City has a ramen theme park. DiverCity to visit the Giant Gundam statue! Lastly, Leisure Land entertainment complex has ninja house, arcarde etc...

So I was pretty excited for Odaiba!

Odaiba is easily accessible by train, but we decided to alight one stop ealier and walk on the rainbow bridge to Odaiba! It was quite a long walk, probably took us about 30-40min to cross the bridge. BUT, it has great view of various landmarks.

This is the famous ferris wheel at Odaiba! Palette Town (Venus fort, Leisure Land etc) is just behind the ferris wheel!

And my favorite picture of the day

Venus Fort!

And this was what we saw when we entered Venus Fort

They had a dog event that day!! Actually when we were taking photos at the ferris wheel, we already saw quite a few doggies, such a lucky day!! Just beside Venus Fort is the Toyota Mega Web. It's basically an ultra big Toyota show room, with exhibitions, test-drives etc. Toyota also had an event to introduce their 'pet safe' cars.

We also tried out the safety simulator, where people get to experience the safety features of Toyota's cars. For example, when there's a crash, the seat belt will automatically tighten around the driver. Pretty cool. And the machine will rate your driving skills. I got a D.

We spent quite a few hours just walking and shopping. The outlet stores had pretty good deals. Marvin and Raymond bought some tops from the outlet stores and I thought it was quite worth the money! Quality was super good.

We're very fated with furry animals during our Japan trip, somehow we managed to find quite a big pet store with an insane amount of kittens and puppies!

My favorite kind of kittens are the scottish fold munchkin kittens! They look like this~

Folded ears, super short legs and round head!! Actually I heard there are some potential health issues because of the folded ears and short legs (like mobility issues and stuff). But they're just super cute, and all the more i want to shower them with love.

When I saw this kitty, I died.

I don't think she's a scottish fold or a munchkin, but look at her adorable round head! And look at what she's doing!! Streching out her little paw, looking endearingly at the little girl~ oh nooooo, I need a kitty now:(

And more cuteness...why am I torturing myself.

Just look at those beautiful beautiful eyes.

Meow needs a home. Meow~

I think cats look damn cute when they're cleaning their face with their paws.

And a picture of some sleepy puppies! There were definitely a lot more puppies than kittens. I was so excited when I saw the puppies, but when I saw that they had kittens as well, I just couldn't get away from the pussies. Guess I really am more of a cat person.

We spent most of our time in Odaiba at Venus ort and the Toyota Mega Web. It was already evening time when we finally got to DiverCity!

DiverCity has quite a lot of things to shop as well. Discovered 3coins there! They sell household items  at 315Yen (S$4). More about 3coins in my Japan Haul here.

And we finally had dinner at the Ramen theme park at AquaCity!

I think the ramen was okay, pretty normal standard and huge serving. But our view was wonderful. The rainbow bridge was right in front of us.

In the end we only managed to visit Venus Fort (spent most of the time there because of the outlet stores), Toyota Mega Web, DiverCity and AquaCity. Too bad we didn't have time for Leisure Land!!

My haul from 3coins! Love them~

Day 10-Shibuya & Harajuku!

Our last day in Japan! We decided to split up and just go to wherever we wish to visit and buy things that we want before we take our flight back to Singapore. My initial plan was to visit Ginza, but on the way there, I had really terrible cramps, we had to alight at Shibuya to buy some pills.

This was highly recommended by the people at the pharmacy. It's a pretty strong pill (and quite expensive too) I think, just 1 was enough to ease my pain for the entire day o.O

Tired face from cramps :(

Starbucks Shibuya

Grabbed a hot green tea latte and chilled at Starbucks. Walked around a little when I felt better, and we finally took photo with the Hachiko!

I was happy to meet Hachiko of course! But afterall, it's still a statue...and guess who we saw when we went over to Harajuku?!?!?!!

SUPERDOG.

LOL, fake smile with Hachiko, genuine happiness with Superdog. Would've slapped on some concealor and eyeliner in the morning if I knew I'll be meeting Superdog :( And I thought last day already, we won't be taking much pictures.

Cuteness overload

We also visited Yoyogi Park because I read online that it's super lively during the weekends. Totally true. I think no point visiting during the weekday, because the weekend crowd at Yoyogi Park is what makes the park so popular!

This performer was doing some miming act, caught his epic expression.

The weather was really good. Cooling, light breeze, blue sky, just an awesome day to be out in the sun!

We saw the famous cosplayers too! They were totally surrounded by people, everyone was trying to take photos of them. Most of them had super bright accessories, colorful makeup and hair.

These 2 kind ladies were nice enough to take a photo with me! I don't think they're as hardcore as the others, but I thought they looked quite cute with the lace and pouffy dress.

And that's the end of my Japan trip!!! We went back to the hostel in the evening and made our way to the airport. Spent quite a fortune buying all the food and souvenir at the airport.

I'll definitely want to revisit Japan again. Love their service culture and their people! Japan is so big and each region is quite different from the others. Even between Tokyo and Osaka, I feel that there's a difference already. The people we met in Osaka were more enthusiastic and welcoming, whereas in Toyko, people seemed to be a little more shy, but still very very polite and hospitable. Hokkaido is next on my list, and I also want to see the Sakura!!!

Lastly, credits to Marvin for the photos! I think half the photos in my posts are from him :)

I think writing about the trip really reinforced my memories of Japan, ahhhhh....miss it so much. And sometimes blogging about the trip helps distract me from the stress of job search. Whenever I feel jaded or lost, I find that blogging helps to refresh the good memories from the trip and I feel so much better after that. Perhaps blogging gives me a sense of direction? It gives me something to do, so that I won't feel like I'm completely 'useless'. Cos currently, I have no directions in life, pretty much just chilling at home everyday, waiting for calls. But I guess I'm not alone, friends who're reading this and are still looking for a job, let's JIAYOU (or GANBATTE!) together!!!! :):):)

Till next time!