it’s official: i have a love/hate relationship with Japan.
this and this were for my Tokyo trip. i intentionally never mentioned before where exactly i was headed because i didn’t want to jinx it haha. but now that it’s over i can talk all i want about the trip!
it was quite a surprise actually. found out i was going to be in Tokyo by first week of Feb only around mid-Jan. the first step was getting the visa - pretty painless all things considered. then came the winter clothes. if anyone’s wondering, i was able to stick to my lookbook with only a slight change in coats. at the last minute i unearthed an awesome light mauve coat from our winter closet. i couldn’t NOT use it at least once.
and so, armed with my Hipstamatic app i set-off for a 4-day vacation in Tokyo, Japan. and as i was headed home i realized that Japan and I? we’ve got a love/hate thing going.
i’m usually happiest when i take PAL, mostly because i like the Centennial airport. unfortunately for this trip, i was taking Delta - which meant NAIA Terminal 1. ugh. it took me about an hour just to check in. i also didn’t like the Delta ground crew at the counters, there were some who were just chit-chatting instead of doing security check. one supervisor had to tell them to entertain passengers.
i hated the monitors inside the 747. we didn’t have any hanging monitors overheads so if i had wanted to watch whatever was on-screen, i had to stick-up my head high. also, one of the male flight attendants was kind of rude. not to me but still, i didn’t like how he cut-off one of the passengers. i know we’re in economy but goddamnit, we still deserve service. i love Delta landing tho! super smooth!
that’s me and my Tokyo-buddy, Michelle.
the weather forecast said scattered showers and that’s exactly what i landed to. cold, wet Tokyo weather. i was up to five layeres and still i was freezing. i absolutely love wearing boots (and have often wished for boots weather in Manila) but i hated the wind bite in Tokyo.
i love how the Japanese seem to have this need to always put some positive spin to their food. this is my first Tokyo meal btw - a sandwich aboard the bus transfer. the packaging was so efficient!
this was the closest i ever got to Disney haha! i just didn’t have that much time to do everything i wanted so i sacrificed going to Disneyland and Disneysea.
temples really aren’t my thing - you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all - but was told that taking a photo here is proof that you’ve been to Tokyo. whatever. nice temple, but moving on…
i love how clean the Nakamise market is! you’re not allowed to throw anything on the street in Japan and it’s so damn amazing that they’re able to maintain it. not sure if it’s a law. so for a few minutes i had to hold on to some food stick while walking until a lady from a store called me and showed me her trash can. i was bowled over with how nice and helpful they were. i wasn’t even buying anything from her!
hated that you can’t bargain tho. you can try asking for discounts but they’d say no, everything’s at fixed price. wasn’t able to buy much from Nakamise save for my brother’s bilin, the replica of Tokyo Tower.
love the effort the Japanese put into food presentation. this is a traditional bento meal. here in Manila, a bento meal is served in a tray with divisions. when i heard that it’s a bento lunch i expected the Manila version - stupid me haha! i also love how i can eat as much as i want and never seem to feel bloated. full, yes. but not bloated. is there some secret Japanese ingredient that deflates food in the stomach?!
of course we went up to Mt. Fuji. wish we could’ve gone higher but the weather wouldn’t allow for it. we could barely see the mountain.
i wasn’t really interested in going to Ginza. after all i don’t have the money to do luxury shopping! but turns out that was in the tour itinerary anyway: dinner at Ginza. okay… i was just praying that the restaurant was near the one reason i was excited for my Tokyo trip.
and it was! H&M!!!!!!! how i’ve missed you. it was only about five doors away from where we had dinner. i couldn’t eat fast enough haha. i love how cheap H&M was - especially compared to the rest of the stores nearby. but the selection could afford to be better. i didn’t bother looking at clothes because i wasn’t really up to peeling off layers just to try stuff on. the bags were okay but most seemed something i could find here in Manila.
going around Tokyo meant getting familiar with trains and subways. have you seen how complicated the lines are?! thank God for iPhone apps: trains.jp was my bestfriend. and i got over my fear of getting lost pretty fast anyway - switching train lines was quite easy apparently. i loved it.
i hated the cost of train rides! the cheapest fare i had to pay was around 160YEN, that’s about P90. tangena di ba? the most i paid was around 680YEN, which was around P375 - and that was to go to dinner. i will never complain about Manila fares ever again.
i’ve always said that i’m not a tourist. i hate doing touristy things. sightseeing? meh. yep something’s wrong with me. “soaking up the culture” to me means shopping at local stores. but i made an exception for Japan and joined Michelle for a stop at the Edo-Tokyo museum. holy crap the stuff there is amazing! i was so stunned with the details of the dioramas.
walking around really beats tours. the best meal i had in Japan came from this small boutique place. it’s not even a restaurant. i think it’s more of a take-out store. the rice was sooooo damn good! i’m still dreaming about it. and it’s so fucking cheap!! well, cheap for Japan haha. i love Japan! but now i also hate Japan a little bit for setting the bar too high - how can i ever enjoy Japanese food here?!
apparently while walking around we ended up in what i’m going to call the “arts” district. there was a university (loved seeing bunch of kids in uniforms!), there was a whole block of street that had watercolor painting display, and a sumo arena. unfortunately no, didn’t get to see sumo wresting but we saw some guys who could be sumo wrestlers at the train station. weren’t able to get a photo with them, we took too long debating if they were sumos - they looked too thin for sumos! then we saw some posters at the arena that showed wrestlers in similar weight and size as the guys we saw. damnit! sayang yung photo-op! guess there’s a weight class division or something.
it wouldn’t be a Tokyo trip if i didn’t get to see Hachiko. i thought it was going to be bigger but i guess it’s lifesize.
ah, Shibuya. quite possibly my favorite place in Tokyo. and yes, it’s a shopping destination. and as much as i love Shibuya for the promise of shopping, i love it more for the frenzy. crossing the street here is a must-do for a tourist.
Shibuya crossing. crazy and super fun!
Shibuya has an H&M! bigger than the one in Ginza. yes, i also picked up some more stuff while here haha. i love how Shibuya has a mish-mash of stores. i could spend a whole day here just going in and out of the boutiques and just looking at the stuff.
i did hate that unlike HK, there didn’t seem to be shortcuts between streets. so you can’t loop around. you have to go up and down one street then up and down another. kinda tiring.
one evening me, Michelle and a couple more people decided to head out to the Ramen Museum at Shin-Yokohama for dinner. it’s almost like a festival where the best ramens from different regions in Japan are housed under one roof. i absolutely loved the whole set-up! i’m an urban-girl but old-Japan now occupies a pretty solid space in my heart.
and the ramen?! legendary. i am not a big ramen girl but i know what’s good and what we had at the Ramen Museum was way beyond good. it was worth the two-hour trip. yep, we traveled two hours to be able to sit and eat noodles. but it was super fun. quite magical to be walking in winter, gathering together to eat one of the best bowls of ramen in Japan and then end the night by stepping-out to snowfall.
The Ramen Adventure, as i will now dub it, is one of the best travel experiences i’ve ever had in my life. it’s a story of hilarious mishaps and pay-offs. the you-had-to-be-there kind of story. and i am so glad i did not miss out.
Starbucks coffee is crazy expensive in Tokyo! but their merchandise and chocolates are divine. i regret it a little bit that i didn’t go and buy the Bitter & Sweet coffee mug. *sigh* i was also quite surprised with how cheap the stainless tumblers were! less than 2000 in pesos. i didn’t get one tho since my office isn’t anywhere near Starbucks. but i got a Tokyo tumbler for my brother.
this was the runaway winner when it came to crazy Japanese stuff. if i was throwing away money i would’ve bought one. love the ingenious concept. hate the price.
for the first time in all my travels, i brought home more food than anything else. i was amazed with how much money i spent on KitKat alone haha! i even brought home dips and spices and shit. that is so not me! i never bring home food. that’s just not my thing.
but Japan has a different effect on me. haaaay. i love you Japan. but i hate you a little bit too. do i want to go back? hell yes. but sponsored all the way!! or maybe after i win the lotto.
