Konnichiwa! From the kimchi to the mochi here we go to the land of sushi sashimi kawaii everything nice! It's a trip to reward ourselves after mid-terms and Japan is the best place to go, Tokyo being 2h15min of flight away (paid S$313 for flight on Eastarjet). Wenmin and I flew a day earlier because Charissa and Sherri realised they have papers on that day and changed a flight later. EXCITES!
With one of the best travel companions I can ever ask for :D
The plane ride was pretty tiring since we woke up early around 6+am and traveled 2h to Incheon Airport for the flight, and traveling from Narita Airport to where we stayed at Ikebukuro took another 1.5h. Trains in Japan look very similar to the ones in Seoul, except that they're a lot quieter since it's their culture to keep noise level to the minimal on transportation.
We managed to find our way on the regular trains to Ikebukuro and found our awesome hotel just about 6min walk away from the subway. It's located at a really good location with majority of the tourist spots nearby and there're also lots to explore at the area too. We booked a room for 3 - a double bed plus a single so both wm and I have a bigggg room to ourselves for the first night hehehehe. I strongly recommend Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro for anyone considering travelling to Tokyo, we paid less than S$50 per night per person :) There's awesome shower and room service daily, nothing not to love for its bigger room compared to Japan standards, and cleannnnn too!
After we dropped our bags, we were starving from the morning surviving on a bread since breakfast. Took a train to Shinjuku for the best Tokusei Tsukemen which is basically ramen served separately from a thick broth and you dip the ramen into the broth to enjoy the goodness. Afterwards you dilute the broth with hot water and drink it as a soup. We researched and found there's a must-try at a little restaurant called Fu-unji and were damn exciteddd for decent good ramen! It took us quite some time to find the place as the Internet hardly had any walking directions to Fu-unji located quite ulu. We had to wander around and ask for directions with our non-existent Japanese. I took basic Jap in poly but that was bullshit, not helpful and besides I forgot everything I learnt except "Kaimono suki desu" which means I like shopping. LOLOL
Anyway Japanese are so so so so so so friendly and kind people, best human species in the worldddddddd!! Despite language barrier, they're all so kind to stop by to help us out the best that they could, so sincere and polite people? Tokyo is my favourite city already :')
For people that wishes to give this ramen a try, here's a simple walking instructions I kinda figured out but it may not be 100% accurate; Exit South of Shinjuku and walk right towards Lumine, till you see a Family Mart, cross the road on your left and walk straight till you see a small Police station and turn right, Fu-unji should be in the street on your left :)
They close from 3-5pm in the afternoon so you don't want to miss the operating hours, and do consider going early since the place is really small and crowded. To order the best, simply choose the 1000yen one on the vending machine and pass it to the chef :D
Here's my first meal in Tokyo, the awesomeness for only S$12 I can never forget this taste :')
This is how you eat it! The runny egg is of Ippudo standard, really goooddddd too!
Next up on the itinerary is the Tokyp Metropolitan Government Building for the Tocho Observation Deck at the 45th storey of the building, free observation deck!
It's walking distance from Shinjuku but we asked for directions to get there but I think it's easy to get there with a map. The night creeps in really early in Japan, around 4pm the sun starts to set and it can be really gloomy. We reached the observation deck around 6:30pm but it felt like 9pm already. Be sure to go early before 7pm before they close if you wanna be a cheapskate tourist like us for free night view!
This is one of the best nights I've had, the best night view I've ever witnessed. City lights lit up the entire horizon, a view to kill for, best part of it, free of charge hehe.
Pretty proud of the 2 of us for being to navigate easily despite being a mute in Japan HAHAHA
We spent the rest of the night exploring Shinjuku before heading to Shimokitazawa and got ourselves a little cup of Godiva oh so divine (I know they sell it in SG but it just looks better here lolol).
Dark chocolate oh so yummy :D Thankfully we're both dark choc x whipped cream lovers heheh
Shimokitazawa is a hipster street with indie cafes and youthful thrift stores. By the time we reached, it was around 8pm and the shops were already closing. We managed to snatch some great deals from the thrift store - JUMBLE STORE. It's the best thrift store everrrrr, wm got a pair of boots for S$6, I got 2 jackets, 1 which was a winter jacket from GAP for only S$20, of good condition. There, I've settled my winter clothes heheh. Lovin' Tokyo simply in a night for the friendliness experienced, clean and neat streets and best convenience stores ever, I know this is a place Imma miss for a long time :)
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