Here's a snapshot of what I did throughout these four days:
*Day 2 is marked in bold
*Day 2 is marked in bold
- Shrines: Nezu Shrine (Nezu), Hanazono Shrine (Shinjuku), Gotokuji Temple (Gotokuji), Sensoji Temple (Asakusa), Togo Shrine (Harajuku), and Meijijingu Shrine (Harajuku)
- Shopping: Harajuku's Takeshita Street, Shibuya's 109, Asakusa Area, Tokyo JR Underground Shopping Street, and Mitsui Outlet Park Tama-Minami Osawa Branch
- Sight Seeing: Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Sky Tree Tower (from Asakusa)
- Targeted food items: Japanese curry, Sashimi, Yakitori, Ikayaki, Tonkatsu, any kind of Don (Rice bowls) and Green Tea/Red Bean desserts.
- Special Agenda: Owl Cafe
French Toast, I was looking for French Toast in Japan.
Last time I visited Japan, I was running around the Kansai area
visiting Osaka, Nara, Kobe, and Kyoto. I was staying in a business hotel in
Osaka near Kitahama station, and right across the street to the left side was “St
Marc Café”. I had breakfast there 6 days in a row, trying all the different croissants
and toast and sandwiches they had. I was determined to find this café in Tokyo
as well, and there was one on the other side of Ikebukuro station from where I
was staying. It was a 10 minute walk from exit C6, cross the JR railway station
all the way to exit 42. I ordered a French toast and hot royal milk tea. I had
forgotten how good the French toast tasted, it was the most satisfying
breakfast I’ve had in a while. Sitting next to me were two girls from the
Kansai area, they were chit chatting away in the Kansaiben Dialect which
brought me back to when I was in Osaka.
Today’s agenda is to go to the suburbs out towards the west of
Tokyo to visit a special shrine (Gotokuji) and to do some shopping at an outlet
mall. The railway I was taking both entered into the city via Shinjuku Station,
so before heading out, I visited Hanazono Shrine. It’s located right outside of
Shinjuku Sanchomei Station exit E1/E2, which is one stop east from Shinjuku and
within walking distance. “Hanazono” literally means flower garden. In summer
this shrine blooms with flowers of many colors. Unlike the royal feeling that
Nezu Shrine gives off with its gold and maroon colors, Hanazono Shrine is a
traditional bright red and white color, similar to Fushimi Inari Shrine in
Kyoto. Hanazono was built back in the Edo period around the 1600’s but the
grounds were kept really well. They even have a National Mochi Tournament
Festival in February every year!
I got my first Omikuji of the trip at Hanazono Shrine.
An Omikuji おみくじis a Japanese fortune telling paper strip that you can get from
most temples with ¥100. In some temples you draw from a box, in others you
shake a can filled with bamboo sticks that have numbers written on it, and then
you open a drawer with the matching number from the stick you get from shaking
the can. At the bigger touristy temples such as Meijijingu Shrine and Sensoji
Temple you can get English Omikuji. The rank of fortune ranges from great
blessing 大吉 to a great curse 大凶. If you do get any of the
unlucky ones (凶) it is tradition to tie it on the bars or branches of trees
within the grounds of the temples so you can leave your back luck behind. For
the good luck ones (吉) you are supposed to keep it
close to you, for example keep it in your purse or wallet. These fortune strips
usually have a short poem and explains your luck for any few combinations of
the following: travel, work, learning, relationships, lost items, one’s wish
and so on. My vlog for Tokyo Day 3 will bring you to Sensoji, where I will show
you the steps of how to draw an Omikuji.
Back at
Shinjuku Station, I head for the Odakyu Railway which will take me to Gotokuji
station. On some of the station’s walkway tunnels, they were actually playing
bird sounds in the speaker systems. It was really relaxing and calming.
Gotokuji was small town suburb
Japan. People were riding on bikes everywhere, the train platform was running
on the street right next to houses, and there were a lot of elderly residents
of the area just strolling around doing their daily shopping. Gotokuji Temple
was a good 15 minute walk from the station. There were definitely no tourists
in this area. In fact there weren’t that many locals either! But Gotokuji
Temple was a must do on my list, because it has an area filled with hundreds of
Manekineko (lucky cat) Statues from miniature to palm size. Because the grounds
of Gotokuji was right in the middle of the forest, this also resulted a “feed
the mosquitoes” session, sponsored by my legs. I took count, 16. I was wearing stockings;
it did not help at all. Still, I really enjoyed it. They also had a garden
filled with traditional Japanese pine trees. Every picture I took it looked
like it came out of a post card or painting.
Now, time to
strangle my credit card again, off to “Mitsui Outlet Park – Tama Minami Osawa
Branch”.
Every time I
visit Japan, I always schedule a trip to an outlet mall. They have outlet malls
really similar to in the US where they sell major brands on discount, such as
Coach, Burberry, Kate Spade, Tommy Hilfiger etc. You can’t really find large
outlet malls in Hong Kong. So in order to get there from Gotokuji, I have to do
this:
Odakyu
towards Odawara
Gotokuji --------------------------------->
(get off and transfer at Shin Yugarioka if you happen to get on a train that’s
not bound for Karakida 唐木田)
Get off at “Odakyu
Tama Center”, walk out the transfer gate to the other platform “Keio Tama
Center” for the Keio Line.
On the Keio
line, I just take 2 more stops further towards the same direction and get off
at Minami Osawa, and the outlet park is just on the right hand side of the exit
after crossing a bridge.
I didn’t end
up shopping for too much since this Outlet wasn’t massive and didn’t carry all
the brands I was looking for. I ended up getting a Coach all leather clutch/cross
body bag for around $100 US. Upon entering they give me a 15% discount card and
then the item itself was 50% off already. I also bought a pair of comfortable
shoes from a Japanese brand. I’ve been walking a lot since arriving in Seoul
and my feet were killing me, so I immediately changed my shoes after sitting
down for lunch.
From Minami-Osawa to Shinjuku was
a straight shot on the Keio railway’s Sagamihara Line. Also you can take any
speed of train since both stations are large transfer stations. I managed to
get on the orange Semi-Special Express. 40 minutes of train definitely made me
doze off on a little nap. I hurried off the train in Shinjuku and made my way
towards the Shinjuku Sanchomei Station in order to take the train towards
Meijijingu-mae. Just as you might’ve guessed, I was absolutely lost in the
Shinjuku Station. (3.64 million daily passengers, 51 platforms, 200 exits… come
on, how am I supposed to not get lost?) This forced me to go on ground level,
but that allowed me to enjoy the business district of Tokyo. It’s very
different from 6 years ago. The buildings are much more modern now with all glass
windows tinted in various bronze, gold, and blue colors. No more boring all
grey concrete buildings.
Major tourist temple – Meijijingu
Meijijingu
and Sensoji combined are the 2 must see temples for first time visitors to
Tokyo, which means that the grounds are filled with tourists. As much as it’s
filled with tourists, I haven’t been there in 6 years. And the walk through the
grounds to the main temple is very pretty. The whole pebble pathway is probably
around 10 meters wide and takes 15 minutes to get to the actual shrine. It was
built in 1920 in honor of Emperor Meji and his wife Empress Shoken. The whole
area is in a forest of 70 hectares (170 acres) with around 120,000 trees. It is
definitely feels very grand and sacred when you walk through the forest.
6 years ago in Meji temple, I
also wrote an Ema (wooden wish plate). This time round I just bought 2 Omamori,
which are amulets or charms you can find in all temples in Japan. Some temples specialize
in providing different kinds of Omamori. Usually they come in the form of
charms for work, school, money, health, and safe transportation. I got one
which keeps bad luck away and another one that gives good luck for winning.
“Hi there, we are looking for
pretty girls for this new tv show, would you like to join?” – Japanese celebrity
Scout, Harajuku.
Harajuku.
It’s a very distinctive
neighborhood in Tokyo with very distinctive fashion. Usually it comes in very
bright candy colors mixed with a little bit of punk and Lolita. Kind of like
how you’d imagine someone to walk out of a Japanese anime or video game.
Takeshita street is the most famous street, directly across the exit of JR
Harajuku station. It is filled with stores that sell cute accessories,
clothing, as well as souvenirs that are less touristy and more creative. This
is the perfect place for me to buy accessories like rings, necklaces,
bracelets, charms and all that. I stumbled upon a Disney Store that was full of
Disney Princess products, and I got stuck in there.
About Disney in Japan, I need to separate
this into a dedicated paragraph.
Disney in Japan isn’t really
targeted for children; in fact it’s more targeted towards young women anywhere
from teenagers up to women in their late 20s. An idea date would be to take a
girl to Disneyland Tokyo, they will love you forever. And all of the Disney
themed products are intended for women to use so it’s often girly things like
earrings, dainty necklaces, phone cases, umbrellas, schedule diaries, mugs, and
other household items etc. Most of the products are of much higher quality than
what you find in the US. Often products aren’t made with anything plastic, but
instead are made of metal like silver with very fine decoration gem stones.
Back to the Disney store, they
were playing music videos from the movie Frozen. So I was shopping while
singing. I ended up buying a very gorgeous key shaped key chain with the tip as
a letter A and the main part was a carving of Ariel the little mermaid. One of
the most satisfying purchases of this entire trip.
For the first Tonkatsu (deep-fried
pork cutlet) of the trip, I was back at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. It was a
place called Tonkatsu Wako, recommended by my very much so “Asian guide book”.
They had so many mouthwatering displays inside their windows; I just wanted to
order all the things. It was definitely good quality Tonkatsu.
I was very happy to rest my feet
in a long hot bath. I wanted to know how much I’ve actually walked, but it must’ve
been a good 10-15km today. While I sit on the bed deciding where else I need to
visit, I can hear the jazz playing outside my door in the hallway. Because jazz
playing on every floor all day & night and having a vending machine on
every floor but no wifi on any floor except for the lobby was more important.
Maybe they think a business hotel needs to stop people from working so hard
with wifi in the rooms, so they should play jazz instead. All in all, every Tokyo
subway station has free wifi, so there’s no need to worry.
Tokyo Day 3
will cover: Sensoji, Skytree Tower, Togo Shrine, Tokyo Tower, and Roppongi.
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