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Happy Sandwich Party
We play games.
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Disney Lunar New Year Celebration - Year of the Dog
Around Christmas we picked up annual passes for Disneyland, so we took a trip out last weekend (February 9th-11th)! We tend to visit Disneyland in February for our anniversary and we had been going at the end of the month, when our actual anniversary is, but it has been horrendously busy the last two years so we opted to go a bit earlier this year. I was actually incredibly excited about this as Disney has a Lunar New Year celebration in California Adventure, and it was right when we were to be there. Sign me up for all of the tasty food!
We actually arrived late in the afternoon on Thursday the 8th, and we head into the park because Iâm impatient and wanted tasty snacks. Oh, I also wanted to do AP things. Despite having had annual passes once before iâd never actually done any AP exclusive things.
I picked up my button. Happy camper right here. We also took some pictures and we also wrote out of New Year wishes, we are very creative and decided on world peace.
Now, while there are are some performances, parades, face painting, and character photo opportunities during the Lunar New Year celebration, letâs be honest Iâm here for the food.
But if you actually want to see Mulan and Mushu in the park, this is a great opportunity.
On to the main event of this entry, FOOD!
There were two things I wanted right away and went straight for - sticky rice with pork and pork soup dumplings.
First up - Sugarcane Shrimp Skewer (Chao Tom)
My husband wanted these and I was keen to taste them. They were tasty, but I actually thought the sauce they came with, a sweet and sour, was more tasty. These werenât bad though and I would definitely suggest them!
Pork Soup Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao)
Now, I donât think these were truly soup dumplings, because I hear that soup dumplings are a little difficult to make and there was no âsoupâ in the actual dumpling. But, that aside, these were so tasty! We actually went back the next day and ate more of them. Definitely a stand out from what we tried. Only down side is itâs three dumplings for $7...
Sticky Rice with Pork (Banh Chuâng)
VERY STICKY. No really, itâs way stickier than I was expecting and I had already heard previous to ordering this that it was sticky. Despite being a little difficult to eat and messy it was pretty good. There was a large piece of pork in the center. Very hardy snack.
Beef Pho (Pho Bo)
We eat Pho a decent amount, this wasnât perfect but it was very tasty. We ordered one of these to share and I actually went back to order a second one. My favorite thing about this Pho dish was it was the size. Usually bowls of Pho are HUGE. The size was perfect. There was plenty of beef in the bowl, no skimping there. For the price, about $10.50 I believe, I would definitely suggest this if you like Pho. Great lunch option.
Mango Pudding
If you have read my Japan blogs, Iâm a damn sucker for mango, so of course we ordered this. It was a very thick pudding and was pretty sweet. I wouldnât say donât order it, but definitely maybe pair it with something more savory or salty. The pho would be great with this, and what do you know, you can order them at the same place.
Red Bean and Raspberry Jelly (Yang Gaeng)
Another item ordered by my husband. There is is a thicker jelly underneath the top layer you see here. This wasnât as sweet as the mango pudding and was quite tasty. It would pair well with any of the other snacks.
Banana Milk (Banana Ooyu)
Another of my husbands choices. I had never actually heard of banana milk until I married him, and we have now had it multiple times. This drink has no lid, which was slightly annoying. If I had to describe it, to me it tasted like drinking a really liquidy banana bread batter. It wasnât bad, but banana milk isnât really my thing anyway. The husband liked it but did say it was a bit sweet, he didnât finish all of it.
Passion Fruit Green Tea with Lychee Boba
Iâm going to start by saying I have a love hate relationship with tea. Green tea seems to be one of the only tea I like. I thought I would give this a try and it may be a tea id actually like. It was tasty, but incredibly sweet. The lychee boba made it even more sweet. This could be because Iâm not an avid tea drinker however. All in all, I didnât hate it, but another drink we didnât finish because of how sweet it is.
Almond Milk Tea with Pudding
Iâm going to be very straight with you on this one. If you find yourself at California Adventure on the two remaining days of the Lunar New Year celebration and you want to try some of the snacks and drink - DO NOT BUY THIS. No Iâm serious, just donât. Spend your money on dumplings instead.
I mentioned above I have a love hate relationship with tea. The love portion of that relationship relates to one thing - Almond Milk Tea. I have had a stupid amount of almond milk tea from many places. Iâve had the good and the bad. This actually ranks with some of the worst things Iâve ever tasted, period.
If you are thinking, oh itâs probably the pudding because who puts pudding in drinks, nope the pudding was fine. I had my share of weird things in drinks while in Japan. What made this so terrible was how overpowering it was in all regards. It tasted like someone took liquid almond and liquid sugar and mixed them together without tea or milk involved. It was so sweet that I wanted to puke after drinking it. I never thought I would have something that was too sweet, but here it is.Â
It was the same consensus between the two of us. I took three sips of this, my husband took two, and we threw out an almost full drink. And then we talked about how laughably bad it was for the next 20 minutes.
I donât know if we just got a jacked up drink or what, but I would avoid this like the plague if they ever offered it again.
All in all, other than the almond milk tea, everything we had was tasty and I would definitely eat it again! The drinks were a bit too sweet, and maybe it wasnât a perfect representation of the traditional dishes, but it was nice to try something different while at the Disney Resort!
#Disneyland#disney california adventure#Disney Lunar New Year#Food#Snacks#Drinks#happysandwichpartyDisney
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Tokyo Disney Sea Food (Spring 2017)
This is a breakdown of all the food we tasted while In Tokyo DisneySea during the Spring of 2017, including Easter event dishes!
Apple Pastry, Egg & Bacon Focaccia, Chocolate Croissant - Mamma Biscotti's Bakery
The egg pastry was was slightly warm, the egg was also runny in the middle, which made it pretty tasty, the sauce on top seemed to be a hollandaise of some sort.
The other two were pretty standard, they would have been better warmed up or with a warm drink, but the apple danish and chocolate croissant tasted fine and did their job
Sea Salt Ice Cream - Ice Cream Cart (All Over Park)
The outside is a wafer shell of sorts, inside is sea salt ice cream with has a lovely flavor, the sea salt really compliments the vanilla ice cream. And surprise, there is some raspberry paste in the middle as well. Good treat for a warm day or afternoon snack. One of the more unique sweet treats available at the ice cream carts.
Tiramisu Ice Cream Sandwich - Ice Cream Cart (All Over Park)
Cute Mickey stamped on the outside, standard ice cream sandwich with a tiramisu flavor. The flavoring is pretty on part with tiramisu, it that is something you enjoy and want a sweet treat, this is for you!
Maple Cream Ball & Soft Cream - Sultan's Oasis
They taste like pancakes, in ball form! Pretty yummy sweet treat, sweeter than some of the other options in the park and paired with a very creamy soft serve. While a lot of the deserts in the park are more fruity, tart, or savory, this treat is a bit more sweet. Pairs well with the Chandu tail.
Peach Mousse - Mamma Biscotti's Bakery
Many of the mousse options in the parks are fruit flavored, good luck finding chocolate if thatâs what you like. This was very cute in itâs souvenir cup, but there are many varieties like it throughout the park.
Little Green Men - Mamma Biscotti's Bakery
The little green men seem to be one of the most popular snack purchases. They are filled with custard, chocolate, and strawberry. The filling all seem to have a pudding like texture and the men themselves are a mochi like texture.
They are cuter than they taste. The custard was good, the chocolate and strawberry left more to be desired.
Ubiwa Bun - Seaside Snacks
One of the best Disney Sea snacks. A shrimp bun! Makes a great breakfast item, or afternoon snack. The bun itself is in adorable packaging and looks like a life preserver, it is incredibly like and airy. The inside has a shrimp mixture which is no too overpowering but very savory and tasty!
Chandu Spring Tail - Sultan's Oasis
Too good, we ate before pictures! This is the Spring version of Chanduâs Tail. The inside consists of a chicken and cheese curry mixture, with just a bit of a kick to it, but tastes really good and is a filling snack. The outside has a similar consistency to the Ubiwa Bun, a light airy bread.
Pork Rice Roll - Liberty Landing
Basically a roll of rice rapped in bacon and then fried. It is a bit greasy, but is also a unique and tasty snack. The bacon wasnât as cooked on some areas as It could have been. A good snack if you are looking for something a bit different in the American Waterfront area, but you aren't missing much if you pass on this.
Caramel Popcorn
Much more sweet than the milk chocolate popcorn. Still tasty, and had a little bit more of a salty kick as itâs caramel. If you are looking for a snack to share and want something salty and sweet, grab some caramel popcorn! However, you may be more interested in the other flavors.
Miguel's El Dorado Cantina
Two meals and drinks - breakdown below.
Combination Plate - Miguel's El Dorado Cantina
Donald shaped rice with a tortilla sombrero, veggies are in a bell pepper cup and the meat and shrimp covered in salsa. Surpsingly good for mexican inspired food in Japan. A large well rounded meal.
Tres Fruit Cocktail - Miguel's El Dorado Cantina
Three fruit cocktails. Lime, mango, and berry (strawberry, cherry, blueberry). The lime one was the best tasting of the three, it was similar to a margarita. Great little sampler to pair with any of the plates available.
Spicy Meat Tacos - Miguel's El Dorado Cantina
Donât fool yourself, they are not spicy, but they are tasty! The tortillaâs were soft and not stale as you will sometimes find in more humid locations. Pretty standard soft tacos, with some hard shells tossed into the mix, which actually added to the flavor/consistency nicely. If you are missing Mexican food while on your trip to Japan, the options in Miguelâs are a great lunch choice!
Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen
Breakdown below.
Easter Special Sparkling Lemon Drink - Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen
Another drink with a sprite like taste, including raspberry jelly in the bottom and pop-rock (without the fizz) like candies added. The jelly in these drinks was very popular around the park, it was a unique consistency. Good taste, but it little over powering if you drank up too much jelly at once. Give it a shot just for the jelly added at the bottom, itâs different.
Scallop Chowder - Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen
Very standard chowder, a nice warm snack with a cute Micky bread cracker. Nothing outstanding, but a good snack if you are hungry and not looking for Pizza while in the Mermaid lagoon. It is a small cup, so donât expect to be full for long.
Sausage Pizza - Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen
The bread on the pizza was very good! Light, tasty, and not over cooked. The sausage was a bit greasy, but overall this pizza is a good snack if you arenât looking for something as large as a full set meal that many of the restaurants offer.
Strawberry Cream Roll Cake - Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen
Wafer like sea shell decoration, similar to the sea salt ice cream. The cake was very moist and tasty, the pairing of the strawberry cream was a good touch in lieu of a vanilla cream. I would definitely recommend this dessert if eating at this restaurant.
Blood Orange & Passion Fruit Mousse -Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen
We ordered the mango version and ended up with blood orange. It was very tart. If you donât like tart do not order this. There were mini boba and a jelly like mixture on the top. I would personally not order this again (though I would try the mango version), but it was nice to give it a try.
Potato Soup - Magellan's
Magellanâs has course meals which come with a soup, main dish, and dessert.
The soup of the day was a creamy potato. Warm and tasty! There were however no large potatoes in the soup itself, it was completely puréed, but still very good! I would recommend this soup.
White Fish - Magellan's
Iâm not actually sure what type of fish this was, Iâm leaning toward a Halibut? No one was able to tell us, just that the fish of the day was a white fish.
The main dish portion was small, but the fish it self was well cooked and tasty, I would definitely order again. There was bread on the side so donât fret about not getting full from a small main dish.
Creme Brulee - Magellan's
A very standard creme brulee, nothing speculator or ground breaking in terms of the recipe, but it was well executed, and a very large portion for one person. If you like creme brulee I donât think you will be disappointed.
Link to Tokyo Disneyland Spring 2017 Food
https://happysandwichparty.tumblr.com/post/160218011602/tokyo-disneyland-food-spring-2017
#food#foodpics#travel#japan#tokyo#tokyodisneyland#tokyodisneysea#toktodisneyresort#disneyland#disneysea#disney#travelfood#cutefood#happysandwichpartyJapan
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Tokyo Disneyland Food (Spring 2017)
This is a breakdown of all the food we tasted while In Tokyo Disneyland during the Spring of 2017, including Easter event dishes!
Double Chocolate Chip & Banana Walnut Muffins - Sweetheart Cafe
They are muffins, cute muffins, but none the less muffins! They tasted good, and were a nice morning snack. Nothing to write home about.
Mike Wazowski Melon Pan & Mickey Sausage Pastry - Sweetheart Cafe
The Mike Wazowski melon bread was significantly more melon tasting than many of the other melon pan we found in Toyko - however, it was still a subtle flavor, the bread was light and airy and tasted very good! A nice breakfast snack.
The sausage pastry was surprisingly good. It was however room temperature, not hot. On top was a drizzle of Japanese mayo, this was a good breakfast item if you were looking for something quick and easy, but a little more hearty.Â
Tapioca Mango Drink -Â Squeezer's Tropical Juice Bar
Hands down my favorite drink from Tokyo Disney - We picked one up both days in the park. It is in a small cup so it will leave you wanting more. Very smooth texture, great for a morning drink. The tapioca balls are small on not overpowering. This is a must try in my opinion!
Sparkling Tapioca Drink (Lemon) - Captain Hook's Galley
More of a refreshing, soda like, afternoon or lunch drink. Tastes very similar to sprite. There are mini tapioca balls in the bottom, I believe the same ones as the mango drink. Also has mini crunchy pieces with a consistence similar to pop rocks (without the fizzing). Tasty if you are thirsty.
Cheesy Potatoes - Captain Hook's Galley
They are tatter tots. They are a bit ambiguous on the menu as to what they are, but they are basically tater tots with a hint of cheese. Easily an item worth passing over, nothing spectacular, pretty bland.
Basil Clam Chowder with Bread Cone (Easter Seasonal) - The Gazebo
The basil was quite prominent in the chowder, there was also a small hard boiled egg in the chowder. All in all it has a nice flavor and was a good small snack. The cone was a little large and thick for the amount of chowder included, but both tasted good.Â
This location also has a chili bread cone they serve year round - which we did not taste.
Milk Chocolate Popcorn - New Orleans
Tokyo Disneyland has quite a variety of popcorn flavors, as we do not often eat popcorn, we tried very few.
The milk chocolate was a nice mix of sweet chocolate with regular popcorn. There was no butter or salt on the popcorn that we could tell. That would be the one thing I would personally add to have that perfect salty sweet mixture. However, for chocolate popcorn, it was pretty good. Ideal choice for a quick snack for sharing while wandering around
Scrump Dumplings - Space Place
(The Space Place closes in October 2017)
The hair is not edible! These are filled with fruit flavors, more savory than the Little Green Men. Mango, Banana, Red Bean. The banana has a fake banana flavor similar to Runts. I believe these are good to share with someone as they can be a little much for one person to eat all three, especially if you donât enjoy one of the flavors.Â
in my opinion, these are better than the Little Green Men, but overall are cuter than they are tasty.
Chicken and Rice au Gratin - Grandma Sara's Kitchen
This can be ordered as a set with a salad and a drink. However it is plenty filling on its own. Itâs a cheese, rice, chicken, and veggie mixture. The veggies are carrots and broccoli, the chicken is full, good quality pieces of rotisserie chicken. A very hefty, tasty meal! Can be a little bit greasy but nothing over the top.
Easter Special Set - Grandma Sara's Kitchen
Included a main dish, soup, dessert, and drink. The soup is a potato. Breakdown of the main dish and dessert below!
Chicken in Tomato Sauce, Eggs, Ketchup Rice - Grandma Sara's Kitchen .
The rice really is rice mixed with ketchup, itâs not bad just different. Goes well with the scrambled eggs provided along side. They are a little more runny than what you would usually find the United States. More similar to a European style scrambled egg. This is a large filling meal, the chicken portion is very large. Could definitely be shared by two people who are not large eaters.
Grilled Donut - Grandma Sara's Kitchen
A very dense but tasty donut dessert. Comes with a blueberry sauce and a cream drizzle. Pairs nicely with the set meal, but doesnât stand out enough to order on itâs own if it was available.
Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall
This is not a set meal, just three of the options available. The soup is minestrone, and is on par with similar soups, nothing to write home about.
 Seafood Fry - Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall
Fried seafood with tartar sauce. Fried shrimp, white fish fried, scallop cream cream croquette. The theming of the restaurant is what draws people in, this dish was particularly underwhelming and not very warm. I would recommend picking another dish in this restaurant.
Strawberry Mousse Heart - Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall
First - itâs impossible to find chocolate mousse in Tokyo Disney, itâs all fruit flavors. that being said, this was actually pretty tasty! It came with a blueberry and strawberry sauce and whatever the top layer of the mousse was, it was very good tasting. If you enjoy fruit flavored desserts I would recommend this if you are eating at this restaurant.
Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall
This is not a set meal, just three of the options available. The soup is cream of corn, and is the better of the two soup options, itâs actually pretty tasty.
Grilled Swordfish & Tomato Caper Sauce - Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall
The better of the two dishes we tasted. The fish was cooked decently well, especially for a walk up counter service restaurant. The tomato caper sauce was tasty.
The issue with this dish, like the first, it was a bit cold. Second, also relates to the fried fish plate, the potatoes with the dish were flavorless. They had red and yellow peppers mixed in with them, but still had zero flavor. They needed to be mixed with the tomato sauce.
However if you are eating at this restaurant, and want something more than a standard chicken or beef patty dish, id say pick this one.
Cassis Cream Cake (With Souvenir Plate) - Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall
Cassis is black currant berries, for those who may not be aware (like me).
A simple layered cake with a fruity (cassis) filling between the layers. The cake was moist and topped with a vanilla bean frosting. The lady bugs are edible chocolate. A typical cake dessert, however I would recommend if looking for a dessert to taste, it was well made and very fresh tasting. The fruity filling definitely added to the flavor.
Link to Tokyo DisneySea Spring 2017 Food
https://happysandwichparty.tumblr.com/post/160257554697/tokyo-disney-sea-food-spring-2017
#food#foodpics#travel#Japan#tokyo#tokyodisneyland#cutefood#travelfood#tokyodisney#Disneyland#happysandwichpartyJapan
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Japan - Day 15 (Final Day & Travel Home)
The final day was uneventful. A lot of cleaning, a lot of waiting, and a lot of flying.
(Text heavy, not many pictures)
We finally got the sleep in! Which really just meant me getting up at 6:00AM instead of 4:30AM. The remainder of the morning was spent eating, watching TV, and packing. We had to be out of the Air BnB by 11:00AM so we didnât really do anything in the morning. Our flight also wasnât until 5:00PM but we had nowhere to leave luggage for all that time.
That meant we got to spend a lot of time in the airport! Yay!
The train ride back to the Narita Airport does take about an hour, so at least we spent our time in different places rather than a lot of time in one place!
We took the Asakusa line to Oshiage. The only issue with this is that the elevator for the Asakusa line is kind of a far walk. We were very tired and sore from hauling he luggage. And we only ended up with one extra bag than what we arrived with. Imagine if we filled the two other bags we packed. Oh boy! Donât pack heavy in Tokyo. Itâs nice to have everything you need, but itâs not fun to haul it all over the place, especially in stations that donât have escalators.Â
Anyway! At Oshiage we transfered to the Narita Sky Access line. We were originally going to get off at Aoto (like we did on the way in) and swap trains. But both the one we were going to swap to and the one we got on at Oshiage both end up at Nartia, so we didnât bother changing, just road the Sky Access all the way since we had seats.
Once arriving at the Airport we had to top off our Suica cards as we were just a little short. The great thing about doing the adjusted fair right when leaving is we have no money sitting on those cards! While we can use them when we go back in a couple years itâs nice to not have wasted any money.Â
The fair adjustment machines didnât have English as far as we could tell, but they were pretty easy to click through and figure out what you needed to do.
Next we checked in to ANA and dropped off our bags, then I made my way over to the post office to drop off the pocket WiFi. There are no post offices past security so make sure if you have to drop off a WiFi you do it before! There was a post office right in the terminal entrance so it was easy!
Security was uneventful. We had priority with the business class tickets so there was literally no wait. Walked right up to the metal detector. Immigration too a little bit longer about 30 minutes. But they just scan the sticker in your passport from when you entered and then stamp, and you are good to go!
Next we went to find the ANA lounge so eat! Food time! On the way to the lounge we passed the ANA Duty Free store. And guess what? They had the Sakura Matcha kit-kats iâd been looking for the entire trip! My mother will rejoice.
The lounge was busy, but very similar to the lounge in LA. The food was obviously a bit more Japanese, but still good and nice to have something to snack on!Â
They did have a noodle bar if you wanted something more meal like, and I didnât notice until our way out to the gate but there was a sushi bar as well!
We were delayed about 20 minutes, but they board first and business so quickly itâs not really a big deal. Honestly ANA boards really quick, you hardly notice because itâs such a smooth process. Or maybe Iâm too enthralled in business class by all the stuff and prepping my little sitting space. Who knows.
The return flight is short because of jet stream, plus itâs overnight so that always seems to go faster in my opinion.
The meal service was in similar fashion to the first flight, right at 10,000 feet they started prepping everything. This meal services seemed to go slower. While Mr. Husband seemed to get his food in a timely manner, it seemed as though I was the last one in my aisle to get food. This was the case for every course, despite the fact that I eat quickly and was done. For reference, the husband had his dessert right around when I got my main course.
I have to say the food on the way to Japan was better than the return. This is likely a biased opinion because Iâm more tired, and just ready to be home eating my own food, but I still believe the other food options were better and they tasted better.
My only real issue with ANA business class, and I may have mentioned this in my original travel post, is the pillows are awful. Iâve read countless reviews on their business class and not one had anything bad to say about the pillows. Both husband and I thought they were awful. If you are just using them for your back itâs fine, but they are so flat that you may as well not even use a pillow when laying down. My tip, if you plan on actually sleeping, bring a small travel pillow.
My other issue, and this was flight specific because we didnât have this problem on the way over. Actually I've never really had this issue. The plane was ungodly hot. Thatâs coming from someone who is always cold. This was unfortunate because it made sleeping really difficult.
All in all though, ANA business class is amazing, and you get treated really well! the flight back to LAX was only 9 hours, and we ended up landing on time despite leaving late. It also was a fairly smooth flight! Bonus.
Arriving at LAX was an incredibly smooth process! We were able to use our Global Entry, which resulted in us getting through the entire process of being cleared back into the country, including all baggage in about 10 minutes. The initial customs lines were incredibly long, but the Global Entry kiosks took about 30 seconds. It is worth it with just one use, I highly recommend!
The remainder of the day was frustrating and as such I wont go into much detail, it adds nothing.Â
We did have TSA Pre-Check for security so that was nice. In the end our Phoenix flight was delayed, boarding was a mess, flight was bumpy, and children on planes can be frustrating.
But! We made it home safe, no real problems, and now itâs back to the normal life! The trip to Tokyo was great, and I canât wait to get back to Japan and explore more!Â
2020 Olympics anyone?
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Japan - Day 14 (Akihabara)
Our last full day in Japan. We decided to go back and finish up Akihabara and look for some last minute gifts for friends.
This was our laziest day yet. Probably because we had done everything we wanted on this trip and were just hitting up Akihabara a second time.
I did get up at around 5:30AM, but we didnât leave the Air BnB until around 10:00AM. Spent a lot of time being lazy. I also did some packing and prepping for us to leave.
I did try a new drink though! And, it wasnât very good unfortunately. I picked up a milk tea with tapioca at the Family Mart, the tea was fine, the tapioca not so much. Ew.
Once we were on our way, we too our last trip on our usual route. Ginza to Ueno, JR Yamanote to Akihabara.
We did a lot of walking back and forth intitally. We started at the Yodobashi, as I wanted to walk through it again. It was actually much busier than the first time. Â I was considering buying some stuff in the paper and office supplies area as they had some unique things, but in the end refrained. Iâm already going to have a super full suitcase.
We then wandered over to the main street in Akihabara and started from the opposite end from last time since we still had about a 1/3 of the street to visit. However at around 12:00PM we were meeting up with a friend who has been living in Japan.
We went with her to get some lunch at a hole in the wall place. We were going here for shabu shabu, but it turns out they were only doing yakiniku on this particular day. That was fine for us, we hadnât had that yet!
It was very good! They had some soups, sides/salads, plenty of meats to choose from, and ice cream! My favorite was the kimchi pork. yum! The entire meal was only about $10 a person. Super cheap!
After lunch we made out way back to the stores we handnât been to. Our friend came with us for the rest of the day. We spent a lot of time walking up and down the many floors of the different building. There were so many cutre figurings that I would have liked to bring home. But I really just donât have the space for them.
In search for a particular gift for a friend, we ended up on some 18+ floors, which was incredibly awkward in my opinion. It was just me, a bunch of men, and some characters with very unnatural looking boobs.Â
We ended up calling it quits in Akihabara around 3:00PM. At this point we made our way back to Ueno, friend still in tow. In Ueno our plan was to hit up Ameyokocho again. I needed to pick up kit-kats for the people I knew, as up unti this point Mr. Husband was the only one who picked up any.
Upon finishing our mission in Ueno, we parted ways with our friend at the station and made our way back to Asakusa.
We walked up the shopping street neat the Senso-ji Temple, I needed to pick up a couple post cards for my cousin. We found what we were looking for and then decided to go crazy with the drink vending machines.
We canât exchange small coins back to USD, so we were using the to get drinks.
Apple juice, banana milk, and of course, milk tea!Â
This was my first time trying banana milk. It tasted like banana Runts. And as much as I love banana Runts, I was not a fan of the banana milk. The husband liked it though!
Around this time I started to not feel like (seems like a trend, huh?). So I spend the rest of the evening laying down. The husband when out and picked up food for himself. I ended up not eating any dinner, just drinking some Sprite. Sad ending to the day.Â
Despite all of this, I really enjoyed our last day, it was just very relaxing and also fun to meet up with a friend!
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Japan - Day 13 (Tokyo Disneyland)
It was our last day at the Tokyo Disney Resort. We are nearing the end of our trip. The last day was fun, and Iâm glad we were able to relax so much and take our time in these two parks. It was definitely a unique experience and Iâm glad we made the time to visit!
The longer you spend at Disney the more tired you get. We walked for a week straight on this trip before going to Disney and yet still somehow those 4 Disney days are more rough on my body than anything else.
Today was the first day where I looked at the clock and rolled back over for more sleep. In the end, I still ended up getting up at 5:30AM so iâd have plenty of time to get everything prepped for the day. The husband is not a morning person and I am, so itâs up to me to make sure we have everything packed up that we need.
We left a little bit later today, about 8:00AM, which now put us in rush hour. The trains were packed! Luckily we werenât delayed at all because the Japanese train system is like a perfect science.
The park didnât open until 9:00AM and we werenât about the make the same mistake we did the first day in the Disneyland park. We arrived about 15 minutes before the gates opened. The line was maybe only twice as long as the day we arrived over an hour early. This was expected though as the crowds were supposed to be smaller.
Upon entering we took our time, similar to our second Disney Sea day. We picked up some fast passes and then when to eat some breakfast.
Iâve had quite my fill of pastries the last 4 days, which started to catch up to me about day 3 - definitely not feeling quite as great as day 1. Iâm glad I had the chance to try so many though!
The day was incredibly similar to past days, the morning was filled with rides.Â
Again we skipped some rides that were exactly the same as home, as in our opinion it was really not worth the wait.
After rides was lunch, we ate at a super cute restaurant in Critter Country. I donât know how I ate so much the first two days. I feel continually stuffed now!
Despite feeling stuffed I still continued to snack through the day. I was determined to try all the yummy things I canât get back in the United States parks.
If it has tapioca or boba in it, Iâm going to get it! I drank so much liquid during our 4 Disney days! Have to try all of the amazing drinks!
And of course you have to have Disney churros! The ones here are shaped like Mickey!
After lunch we defaulted back to exploring and some random rides here and there. Iâm still in love with all of the Easter decorations. Itâs like a game finding all of the different eggs throughout the park.Â
There actually is a scavenger hunt like game you can play with the eggs, but you just get a sticker for completing it.
We did end up watching a parade as well. We kind of stumbled into it while picking up some snacks. Very colorful! I havenât watched a Disney parade in a while so it was enjoyable!
After getting our fill of the park, our last adventure was to go through the shops and pick up anything we wanted that we hadnât bought yet! We didnât end up buying as much as I thought we would. There were definitely more things that I wanted to buy but I figure itâs situational and I will only use certain things when in the Disney parks. Which is often, but not often enough to buy 3 more character headbands!
After our shopping spree, we head back to the train to return to Asakusa. We managed to just miss rush hour, so the trains werenât terribly packed which was nice!
We left early enough that we would be eating in Asakusa for dinner.Â
After resting (and getting off my foot) for a little bit, we head out around 6:30PM for some food! I picked out a sushi place a few blocks away. It was pretty good! Much salmon was eaten. Yum!
They had some amusing things to order. There were fries with chocolate. Mr. Husband wanted to order them, but I was so full I thought that probably wouldnât be a good idea.
I love ordering unique types of salmon here when we go out for sushi. This one was salmon with mozzarella and pesto. It was tasty. Again with this cheese and salmon thing, who knew!
Instead of fries we ended up with ice cream puffs. Mostly eaten by the husband, but I did get a few bites. They were pretty good!
Now that we have eaten an abundance of food for the last 4 days, Iâm ready to rest and eat like a normal human again.Â
After dinner, was just the usual TV and hang out before heading to bed. There were games show on! Like I said previously, itâs like TV roulette, no rhyme or reason, itâs always something random!
Link to the Tokyo Disneyland Food Breakdown Blog!
https://happysandwichparty.tumblr.com/post/160218011602/tokyo-disneyland-food-spring-2017
#Japan#Tokyo#TokyoDisneyland#Disney#TokyoDisneyResort#TokyoDisneyEaster#Travel#Travelblog#food#happysandwichpartyJapan
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Japan - Day 12 (Tokyo Disney Sea )
It was our second day in Tokyo Disney Sea. We opted to spend to days in each of the parks. However it was incredibly windy so it made it difficult to do a whole lot during the day - the park was quieter though!
We started to day off later than our first day at Sea, the crowds were supposed to be lighter and we already did a lot so werenât worried about rushing in to get fast passes.
We left for our 40 minute train ride at about 7:20AM, with the park opening at 8:30AM. We ended up getting in line about 10 minutes before the gates opened. You could tell right away there were less people than the first day.Â
Upon entering we both went to the locker today, and right after stopped for some breakfast pastries. Afterward we made our way to Journey to the Center of the Earth for fast passes. It was really quiet so we rode it while we were there as well.
We basically did exactly what we did the first day with less rushing around. Rode on Indiana Jones a few times, and Journey a few more.
We of course were snacking the entire day!
For lunch we made reservations at one of the sit down restaurants - Magellanâs.
The restaurant was really lovely, had a great ambiance.
After lunch the wind had gotten even worse, and on top of the wind my foot problems had also gotten worse. I just decided to power through and I will suffer in a few days when we get home.
We decided to walk through the shops again to get out of the wind. We did end up picking up a few things for ourselves and for the Twitch stream giveaway.
There are still a few more items I want to pick up before we leave, hopefully I can find them all in the Disneyland park!
We spent a lot of time exploring again, we did end up going to see a show, Out of Shadowland. We didnât know what to expect going in, but it was a cute show! All the dialogue and singing was obviously in Japanese, but the store is still very easy to follow with visual queues.Â
After some more exploring and hanging out in the Ariel location (itâs out of the wind!) we decided we were going to call it a day. On the way out we made our way to one of the popcorn stands to pick up a popcorn bucket that one of my coworkers asked for.
Heâs pretty cute. Not the popcorn bucket iâd necessarily pick, but still unique. He also holdâs a surprising amount of popcorn. This cart in particular had caramel popcorn. So I munched on it on our way out of the park!
The ride back was pretty uneventful. There was some high alert on the JR line, but I have no idea what for.
Also, it was significantly less windy in Asakusa. Go figure.
All of the walking in the wind really tired me out, after to internet browsing I ended up going to bed at 8:00PM.
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Japan - Day 11 (Tokyo Disneyland)
Tokyo Disneyland is the main park at the Tokyo Disney Resort. It is more similar to the other Disney parks around the world. Itâs our second stop on our Disney adventure and our second of 4 days at the resort.
I started the day at 5:00AM, I was so tired from the previous day at Disney Sea. We were planning on heading out the door a bit earlier today.
After our long train ride with multiple changes we arrived at the Report at about 7:40AM. I thought the park opened at 8:00AM because that is what I saw online, I was apparently wrong, it opened at 9:00AM. At least we were able to line up nice and early, about 20 people back in line today versus hundreds yesterday.
Our plan was similar to the first day, husband goes to the lockers to store jackets for the evening, I run off to the first ride for fast passes. In this case we went to Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek, which is almost right inside the entrance just inside Tomorrowland. After getting the fast passes we head off to hit the other major rides. Poohâs Hunny Hunt, Space Mountain, and Peter Pans Flight.
Again during all of this we were on the look out for snacks!
This park has snacks that are different than Disney Sea so time to eat ourselves silly again!
We also wanted to make sure we ate at the Queen of Hearts banquet hall, we got there right around 11:00AM to make sure it wasnât so busy we couldnât get in.
After lunch we explored the other half of the park we hadnât been in and rode Big Thunder Railroad! This is one of my favorite rides at home and I actually really enjoyed it here.
We of course continued to eat snacks. We seem to do more snack eating that ride riding.Â
It started to get pretty windy later in the day so we spent a lot of time walking through the shops and people watching.
It seems like a bulk of the crowd came just to watch the parades and then leave. Very different.
Once it got too windy and cold around 5:00PM we decided to call it a day and head back on our 40 minute train adventure.
Plus I was having some issues with my right foot. I havenât had problems in a while but a week and a half of walking decided to catch up with me during Disneyland and my extra foot bone was causing problems. Thanks weird feet!
Once back at the Air BnB we rest and hung out, watched some TV. Seems like we watch the news a lot here.
We also keep seeing a lot of American news talking about how scared everyone over here is of North Korea and how everyone is prepping just incase. Honestly, no one seems phased and we havenât really seen much on the news in regards to it, just talk about Americans talking about it. We arenât too worried.
Link to the Tokyo Disneyland Food Breakdown Blog!
https://happysandwichparty.tumblr.com/post/160218011602/tokyo-disneyland-food-spring-2017
#Tokyo#Japan#TokyoDisneyland#TokyoDisneyResort#TokyoDisney#Disney#Travel#Travelblog#happysandwichpartyJapan
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Japan - Day 10 (Tokyo Disney Sea & My Birthday!)
April 24th is my birthday! I turned 25. Before taking this trip I had determined that I wanted to be in one of the Tokyo Disney parks on my birthday, so we made it happen! Because the weather was good and the park itself is unique to the Disney park family, we decided on Tokyo Disney Sea as our first stop!
To preface this blog, there will likely be a set of Disney entries. The daily entries, food blogs, and a general Tokyo Disney blog. When the others are complete I will link them within the corresponding posts. That being said, these daily post may not be as in-depth because of a lot of the detail will be in the expanded posts! I love Disney way too much and Tumblr can only handle so much in a single text and photo post!
I got up decently early, about 4:00AM, I was too excited and we finally had to get going early for once. No 9:00AM start. The Disney Sea park opened at 8:30AM and we had to get there and buy our tickets as well.
The train ride was a little more complicated today. We took the Asakusa line to Ningyocho, switched to the Hibiya line to get off at Hatchobori, then again switched to the JR Keiyo Line and arrived at Maihama. Maihama is the Disney stop!Â
Once you reach Maihama you can either go to Ikspiari (shopping area), walk to the Disneyland main gate, or get on the Tokyo Disney Resort Line (costs about $2) and take that to Tokyo Disney Sea.
We obviously took the resort line since we were heading over to Disney Sea. We opted for Disney Sea our first day because it was nice out and the park is unique to Tokyo.
There is also an Easter event going on right now at the resort!
I donât want to say the park was packed because in reality it wasnât too bad. The popular rides had a long wait but nothing outlandish. 100 minutes was the highest I saw all day and it was for Toy Story Mania. Many of the rides had a 20 minute wait, with the other popular rides around 40-60 minutes.Â
Anyway! When we arrived it looked insanely busy because everyone here seems to show up before the park opens. This isnât quite as common in the States.
I ran straight for Journey to the Center of the Earth upon entering, needed to get fast passes, and the husband took our jackets and put them in a locker.
We rode the big rides that were important to us pretty quickly, in about the first hour and a half, and then took it slow. I really enjoyed the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride. I have no clue how large the drop was, I usually avoid drops, but I didnât care I had fun! We ended up riding it twice. Between rides on the Journey we ventured over to Indiana Jones, which was very similar to Disneyland, but still fun!
We picked up some snacks on the way as we found things we wanted. Such as this shrimp bun! Everything in the park is incredibly well themed and that includes the food. Not only was the packaging adorable but the food was as well!
Another example of the snacks we had - the famous Green Men Dumplings. These make their way all over the internet because they are so cute and unique.
Between snacks we spent our time getting on the rides that had shorter 20 minute waits. There are so many rides that are only in this park I was so excited to try them out, even if they were kid rides.
Additionally, the Disney Sea park is incredibly beautiful, I can see why a lot of people say itâs the best of all the Disney parks. It has such a special feel and look to it, itâs unlike anything else in the Disney family. You can definitely tell how important it is to them that they carry the theme and that everything is perfect.
I had so much fun just looking at everything. We spent a lot of our time during the day just exploring and looking at the different areas.
Each area of Disney Sea park represents a different world, be that a real world or a made up on. For example one of the most impressive areas of the park in my opinion was the Under the Sea area. Absolutely amazing looking, very unique atmosphere.
One big thing for us during the day was lunch! There was a taco restaurant! As people from the southwest we are blessed with so many options when it comes to Mexican food, and we definitely eat it often. This usually means I crave it when I travel internationally because you just donât find it anywhere! We were very excited to have some and it was pretty good!
We spent more time exploring and wandering through the shops. We bought a few things. I made sure to pick up a headband iâd been eyeing, as well as a little pouch that are incredibly popular here. Mine it a Mickey hamburger, because it thought it was hilarious looking.
As mentioned the park itself is beautiful! During the day itâs beautiful and the same can be said for night. The park lights up! There is a completely different feel at night, there is something very special about the night time here. We made it a point to stick around until It was dark just so we could see the park light up. It was totally worth it!
Disney may not seem like the type of place youâd want to go after traveling across the globe, itâs just a theme park. For us we love Disney so it was a must. More than that, I actually think itâs a great way to really see the culture of a country. There are so many unique things that people do here that you donât see in the United States park. Itâs very fun to people watch and just soak in the cultural differences here!
We ended up leaving the park around 7:00PM. We had a 40 minute ride back to Asakusa and we didnât want to go to bed too late as we are doing this all over again in the morning!
Please look forward to the other Disney blogs as they will give a more indepth look of the park, food and rides!
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Japan - Day 9 (Harajuku)
Harajuku - the location of the young and fashionable. Home to the famous Takeshita Dori. Also home to Yoyogi Park and the Meiji Shrine.
Iâm going to preface this entry by saying much of the day was spent feeling sick on my part so it wasnât the most enjoyable of all the days so far.
I woke up early again, but thatâs probably because I went to bed early. I spend most of the morning working on the blog and being a lazy blob until getting ready and waking up the husband.
We head off to the train around 9:00AM. The usual, Ginza Line to Ueno and the JR Yamanote to the Yoyogi stop in Harajuku.
We started the day by heading toward the Meiji Shrine. At this point I want to do as quick of an in and out of the forest area as possible. My eyes were watering like crazy and I was sneezing like mad. Unfortunate because this area really was beautiful and I would have liked to spend more time in it. But, there is always next time.
We had our first bit of disappointment for the day upon reaching the shrine. They were doing construction maintenance and the entire thing was covered because of such. You couldnât see anything at all. Everyone was still praying at the covered shrine but as a tourist it was incredibly disappointing.
Iâve been to many places that were being renovated on my trip, but nothing has been quite as disappointing as this, you couldnât see anything.
Because of the fact that I wasnât feeling great I was incredibly frustrated at this point and just wanted to get out of the park/forest as quick as I could since my allergies were driving me insane. Grumpy wife.
We did get to see the sake barrels on the way out though, they were pretty neat!
After exiting we were now by the Harajuku station and head toward Takeshita Dori. This is another place id been longing to visit.Â
Unfortunately, again, the fashion is a little out there for the States and it makes it difficult to justify a purchase. Also, this is definitely a more teenage area. There are some shops that are geared toward a young adult but most had a teen vibe and I actually felt very out of place at times. What is this, Iâm feeling old?!
Also, all of the stores seemed to open at different times. Some 10:00AM, some at 11:00AM. Stores that were supposed to open at 11:00AM opened early, kind of? It was very confusing. Because of this we ended up wandering back and forth down the street about 3 times trying to hit the shops I wanted to see.
We did end out first trip down the street with a crĂȘpe! This was mistake number 2.
The crĂȘpe was good, a little underwhelming for what I was expecting, but still good. I also got a mango milk and the husband picked some Oreo matcha concoction. Heâs more adventurous than me apparently. I also donât like Oreo (gasp!).
After the crepes our wandering continued. We eventually hit most of the stores and then continued on to LaForet. I mostly just wanted to stare at all of the Lolita dresses again, which is why we went here.
About this time I started to feel pretty sick. The damn crĂȘpe did me in. So at this point I started to not really care about clothing and just kind of wandered around taking it all in.
After LaForet we walked down Omotesando street, this a tree lined street that basically runs parallet to Takeshita, but is about twice the length. It is apparently dubbed the Champs-ĂlysĂ©es of Japan, I can understand why.Â
There are a ton of designer store, itâs mostly what is on this street. If you donât want designer, like me, you may be more interested in hitting up the side streets or the area closer to Takeshita.
After Omotesando, we head down Cat Street, itâs a side street off of Omotesando and it houses more high end stores. It has a very different feel and amost quaint cute look to it. Much quieter as well.
After Cat Street we looped back to walk by the Baby the Star Shine Bright store, as it seems to be one of the only lolita stores with a store front. We did not go in, as much as Iâd love to buy everything in the store, it just wasnât going to happen.
After concurring everything we wanted to see in Harajuku and me feeling progressively more terrible. We decided to head to Akihabara which was to be our Second stop of the day.
Remember the Yodobashi store, with the amazing smelling food on the 8th floor? Thatâs where we went for lunch.
We both had a beef, rice skillet for lunch. They were different types, but pretty similar. I wanted something a bit simple.
Unfortunately I still was feeling pretty awful after eating a solid meal and resting. We opted to go back so I could sleep it off since we Disneyâs tomorrow and I need to be at peak performance!Â
The usually route home again, JR to Ueno, Ginza to Asakusa. I could almost sleep walk this route now.
I rest for a while, prepped for Disney (looked at maps, tickets, food, times, etc) and then we head out to find some food. I was definitely feeling a lot better in the evening.
We wandered around Asakusa for a while just taking it all in, seeing what food was on the way. It did start to get cold, so after about 40 minutes we decided we should probably pick a place to eat.
Mr. Husband ended up finding us a shabu shabu place! Yes! Something we havenât eaten here yet.
If you donât know what shabu shabu is, itâs pretty similar to hot pot or sukiyaki. Â It consists of thinly sliced meat and vegetables boiled in water. You swish the meat around in the boiling water to cook it and eat/cook things piece by piece. Shabu shabu is more of a savory flavor than sukiyaki which tends to taste a bit more sweet.
Iâve only has shabu shabu one other time, so I donât have a lot of to compare to. We enjoyed it and it tasted pretty good!Â
It was an all you can eat place, which isnât great for us, we donât eat a whole lot. But is also came with rice and ice cream, so cool! We also were able to go up to the self service area and pick exactly which veggies we wanted (mushrooms, mushrooms and more mushrooms!).
I did try a drink at this place as well - an apple juice. Now you may think, why order apple juice. Well, everything is different around the world, the US has apple juice that is super sweet and doesnât really taste like apples. This juice actually tasted like I was eating an apple. It was pretty great!
After stuffing out faces, we made the trip back to the Air BnB. We took the route through the shopping area (now closed) leading up to the Senso-ji Temple, still very beautiful at night!
Upon arriving back at home base, we did some final Disney prep - power banks charged, go-pro empty and charged, wifi charged, etc.
Time to get my Disney on!
#Harajuku#Takeshitastreet#takeshitadori#omotesando#catstreet#crepe#japan#tokyo#travel#travelblog#food#shabushabu#mango#meijishrine#happysandwichpartyJapan
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Japan - Day 8 (Nature and Science Museum & Odaiba)
It was a random day, we didnât decide what we were doing until we were getting ready to leave. We settled on the Nation Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno and checking out Odaiba!
I think I've sneezed more in the last 2 days than the rest of my life. I now understand why everyone here wears face masks, especially in the spring.Â
We were lazy again, I hate that we make a habit of it, but what can we do when nothing opens until 10:00AM. It just feels like we are wasting time though.Â
The route was the normal route. We decided on the museum because we had to go through Ueno to get to Odaiba anyway. It was a busy day in the park, there were tents being set up, looked like there would be street food around lunch, yes!
We spent about an hour and a half in the museum. There were some great exhibits to see, it was basically a trip through life on earth and the life of humans. However once you progressed past the first floor basically nothing was in English.
Some digital displays would have brief English descriptions, but the majority of the signs didnât even have the titles in English so we probably progressed through the museum faster then we would have if there was a bit more English. I believe there were audio tours available which were likely in English but we obviously did not get any headsets.
Despite not always learning about everything it was still a great museum and if you are interested in planet earth and humans I suggest going, there is a lot to look at.
As a side note, there are multiple museums in Ueno Park - it seems the Western art museum is free on the 4th Saturday of the month. However I've see so much art, I opted against going. Seeing the Louvre multiple times and the National Gallery makes you tired of art for a little while.
Upon exiting the museum we head over to the tents that were being set up when we arrived. It was time for entertainment and food! There were dance recitals happening at one end and the sides were lined with food. Score!
Lotâs of different options to choose from, we ended up with takoyaki and a beef skewer.
They were yummy! I was glad to finally have takoyaki.Â
We spent a little while talking with a nice woman from Australia while we were eating. Itâs surprisingly nice to be able to chat in your own language every once in a while. Husband and I are obviously together, but at times it does feel lonely when you canât just walk up and talk with people as you please.
After finishing up our snack we head back to the station to hope on the JR Yamanote to Shimbashi. At Shimbashi we had to get off and get on a special train (Yurikamome Line) Â to get over to Odaiba.
Odaiba is a shopping and entertainment area in the Tokyo Bay, it is on a completely man-made island. The islands were originally built during the Edo Period to protect from attacks and were later expanded to create the large islands they are today!
We got off the train at the Daiba exit which is right by Aquacity. You also can see Rainbow Bridge and the Statue of Liberty replicate. Rainbow Bridge is an unofficial name, however it does light up like a rainbow at night. The Statue of Liberty is much smaller than the one in New York. Iâve now see the New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Las Vegas statues.
Behind Aquacity is the Fuji TV building which is very unique looking.
We explored Aquacity for a little bit. There is another Disney Store inside, did you know I like Disney?
There are quite a bit of food options if you get hungry. There is an entire area dedicated to ramen from different areas of Japan.
We did find a pet store which had some adorable kittens, and actually had Neko Atsume pet supplies you could buy. They had some really cute beds from the game, if only I could get them home, and if only my cats wouldnât destroy them. One can dream.Â
We also picked up some souvenir type snacks for family.
After Aquacity we head over to DiverCity. More shopping! Itâs more of a traditional mall style than AquaCity, definitely better shops, also a lot of restaurants to choose from!
We visit a few shops. I looked at some wallets, Iâm trying to find a new one while we are here and Iâm having no luck so far.
One interesting thing is almost every store here has Disney themed merchandise. Clothing stores here all seem to have Beauty and the Beast themed clothing. The purse/wallet store I went in had an entire Disney line. They were lovely because they werenât absurdly Disney, they had a small trinket, print, or fabric inside that made them Disney. At first glance they were a completely normal womenâs wallets. Pretty awesome for a Disney fan.
We visit another RoundOne, which was on the top two floors. I just keep going in them for the UFO machines. Iâm drawn to those things.
Eventually we decided it was time to eat a proper lunch, we picked a place that specialized in fried rice. I donât order fried rice very often, but they had quite a few unique versions, they were very good!
Mine is the top, hubbyâs is the bottom. Mine was a salmon with basil and mozzarella. Yum! Mr. Husband had a shrimp and avocado with Japanese mayo sauce. Also pretty good! Both meals came with an egg drop type soup.
Left drink is the husbands, a sangria with mango and strawberries. Right, mine, is a mango juice with boba (tapioca balls).
We all know by now I love salmon, the second food Iâm obsessed with is mango. And bless Japan, they are obsessed with mango as well! If you give me mango and salmon together it is basically heaven.
After lunch we left DiverCity and head over to Palette Town, another shopping area. We would have liked to visit the giant Gundam statue, but unfortunately they took it down in March to rebuild another one which wont be placed until Fall. So no giant Gundam at DiverCity for us. Sad.
We didnât explore Palette Town a whole lot, the Toyota Showroom is here, itâs kind of neat, there is also a kids area and obviously more shops. We briefly walked through the shops.
Upon entering the shops it was like we left Tokyo and were suddenly in a weird mixture of the Venetian and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. This was highly amusing to us.
We left Palette Town pretty quick and hopped on the train station (Aomi) right behind the shopping area. It was getting stormy and we wanted to get back before it started raining.
When we arrived back in Shimbashi we decided to take the Asakusa Line instead of the JR and Ginza.
It started to rain as we were walking back from the station. Good timing!
Back in the air BnB we decided to rest and watch TV. We were graced with American TV shows today, itâs always a surprise what type of show we are going to get since itâs just the local channels. We got to see SpongeBob in Japanese.
The remainder of the night we just hung out, it was raining so we didnât want to go out again. I ended up going to bed at about 8:00PM. Allergies man, they really do you in.
#Japan#Tokyo#Odaiba#Ueno#NationalMuseumofNatureandScience#NatureandScience#Museum#Dinosaurs#fossils#food#festival#takoyaki#friedrice#boba#happysandwichpartyJapan
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Japan - Day 7 (Ikebukuro)
Starting out the day I didnât honestly know a whole lot about Ikebukuro and how long we would be there. I just knew there were two places on my must to visit list there and thatâs why we were going.
(Few pictures today!)
I woke up feeling like crap. The Gyoen Gardens adventure from the previous day was hitting my allergies hard. I wasnât even sure how long I was going to make it before having to come back and sleep.
We got rolling a little bit later in the day, despite getting up at 4:30AM, we didnât head out until about 9:30AM. It was the usual train rides - Ginza to Ueno, and the JR Yamanote over to Ikebukro. No rush hour today, we left too late - YAY!
Upon getting off the train our first stop was the Kit-Kat Chocolatory. We did take a little detour to get there. The store is in a department store attached to the train station but I seem to have a problem finding entrances from the train station so we exit and came back in through and outside entrance.
On our trek to find the store however we ended up in a grocery store in the station, the food there looked AMAZING! Wouldnât it be great to be able to just get off the train, pick up your meal, and then walk home? One can dream. That will never be a reality in Arizona.
I digress, we eventually found the sweets area! More amazing cakes here, seriously ive never seen such beautiful little cakes. There were also many traditional Japanese sweet/dessert options to choose from.
Eventually we did find the Kit-Kat store! You arenât going to find bags of Kit-Kats here, if you want those, hit up a convenience or grocery store! These are gourmet Kit-Kats in fancy boxes that youâd give as a gift. I picked up a box for my mom since they had special mothers day gift boxes. Mothers day is a little ways out, but itâs not like they will go bad in that time, plus we grabbed her a bag of matcha Kit-Kats to give her right away.
After the Chocolatory we wandered around to waste a bit of time in the station area. There was a restaurant I wanted to go to that opened at 11:00AM and was said to get busy very quickly so we were hitting it up right at opening time.
You may have see videoâs of this place floating around on social media, itâs called Kura Zushi. Basically itâs a revolving sushi bar, which you can also order from, and you use your empty plates to play a gachapon game!
When we arrived (exactly at 11:00AM), there were already about 4 groups waiting. You walk up to the machine and get a ticket for your group. The machine is completely in Japanese, no English, as is the ticket. The staff is willing to help you get a ticket if needed, or you can just let someone go in front of your and watch. It was actually simple. Green button, party number, and then tap the final two buttons, done! - you now have a ticket!
They will call your number in Japanese so make sure you are paying attention. Basic understanding of numbers will probably do you good in Japan anyway.
On to the food! The sushi was very good for only being about $1 per plate.
They have some unique combinations - salmon with cheese? Surprisingly amazing.
We stuffed our faces, much more than we normally would. We have some revolving bars back home and itâs surprising if we eat more than 8 plates. Today we ate 16. Really I wanted a gatchapon and it took 5 plates to try your luck.
Spoilers. 3 tries. We did not win. The guy next to us won on his first try though, not fair! We do have a small vlog we filmed of this place so hopefully ill edit that and get it up pretty quick (iâll link it here once finished).
One last thing about restaurants in general, many places have a pot of powdered matcha sitting on the table, cups, and a hot water dispenser so you can make your own tea! Surprisingly I actually like green tea, I donât like many other teas.
This places is very convenient, when you are done you tap the check button on the tablet at your table, they come check your plate count, and you head off to pay up front!
After stuffing our faces we decided it was time to walk a bunch! Good plan. We were walking over to Sunshine City, which is a shopping mall. On the way we stopped at Round One and a few other game locations. There were a bunch. I found the Neko Atsume machine and again failed horribly. I also tried a Disney plush machine, had better luck but still didn't win anything.
We were once again off to Sunshine City. Itâs a very traditional mall that we are all used to, and it was pretty nice! They had a fun water feature in the main atrium.
Our main goal here was to find the Pokemon Center! We did take a detour into the Disney Store though. Again, I wanted to buy so many things, but I will wait until we are at the Disney Resort. SOON!
After Disney we head up to the Pokemon Center. It was pretty busy, but all of the staff were super friendly and polite and did everything they could to make people feel welcome. We did end up buying quite a few things. I picked up 3 or 4 items for my Twitch giveaway, and also a few for myself! Included were a cute mug, a Ditto shirt tank top combo, and some socks.
Two side notes. Everyone in Japan has adorable phone wallet cases. They are everywhere and itâs making me really want one, the ones for sale at the Pokemon Center were super cute. Second, no one has face plates for the regular New 3DS, which is making me sad. Yodobashi is the only place and the selection was not great.
I digress, we went to purchase all of our items and it turns out there was some deal on socks! Who knew! I ended up getting a 3rd pair for free.
As mentioned the staff were great. They went out of their way to make customers feel welcome, they brought a basket of socks to the register for me to pick the 3rd pair instead of making me run through the store to find them. They make sure my items were double bagged so nothing would break, and they even offered me as many special decorative extra bags as I wanted in case I was getting gifts for people. I left very happy.
On the way out there were more Gachapon and penny presses. I did press a penny, which were provided in the machine, brand new and shiny! And of course another gachapon.
On our way out we stopped at Axes Femme. We visit their store in Shinjuku but it was small, this one was large! I did end up purchasing 3 items, mostly for work. This is a good store if you still like that lolita style, but want to be able to tone it down for real world situations.
After this we left Sunshine City and head across the street to the Animate. Which apparently had moved and was no longer an Animate. We still went inside because now there were 4 floors hat were cosplay stores.
This was a unique experience as a cosplayer. There were full costumes for sale, which wasnât the awesome part to me actually, since I just make my own. It was the wide selection of wigs, contacts, props, shoes, glove, makeup and god knows what else that was all in one store easily accessible! Those small things are sometimes the hardest part of cosplay in the States because they are hard to get,you have to make them! Hell they had a prop violin you could buy!
Anyway! After having a moment we left to find the new Animate. Ikebukuro was bustling, it was a very fun area with a lot to do. There were a lot of teenagers and young adults around having a good time. It felt a lot like a less over the top Akihabara. I think I may actually like Ikebukuro a bit more.
We found the Animate! Which felt like it catered more to Women than the other one we went to. The whole area did really, a ton of women and girls around and a lot of people dressed up in alternative fashions. What I would have expected in Akihabara we actaully saw here.
We did not buy anything at the Animate but I did actually see things I liked in this ones. I think the thing holding us back from buying anything is that Idol anime and sports anime are super popular right now so itâs almost all you see. Neither of us are into those so we are left stranding. You wont find anything for older anime, if you do its in some corner and no one cares. Itâs definitely what is popular now, which is understandable.
After leaving the Animate we head back to the station to head back to Asakusa. On the way in we ran into Ikefukuro, and owl statue, that like Hachiko is a place where a lot of locals wait when meeting up with someone.
We took the usual route home, JR to Ueno, Ginza to Asakusa. Upon getting off at Asakusa we found ourselves in a grocery and sweets store we hadnât seen yet. We took this opporunity to get something sweet and yummy!
We spent much of the evening being lazy before going out to grab some food. We picked KFC because KFC is a suprisingly big deal in Japan (seriously they eat it as their Christmas meal), so I wanted to see what the differences were.
First major difference, no mashed potatoes. WHAT. Now I donât really eat KFC at home, but mashed potatoes are a pretty big staple when it comes to fried chicken, at least in my opinion. Instead they have Coloneling Potatoes. Which are kind of just potato wedges in  unique shape, they were actually pretty good.
The chicken itself was good quality, seemed better than home. The one difference with the chicken was the breading was lighter, it wasnât as ticket and crunchy, which I honestly think was better, it wasnât overbearing. The final difference on the food we tried was the biscuit, the honey was more like a maple syrup, still good though!
After dinner we ate our desserts and then I rolled off into bed at my allergies were starting to bother me again.
My sleeping area is starting to become a fortress of shopping bags from everything weâve purchased. By the time we finish Disney I donât think iâll be able to get in my bed!
#Ikebukuro#PokemonCenter#Pokemon#PokemonCenterMegaTokyo#SunshineCity#KFC#Dessert#Japan#Tokyo#sushi#kurazushi#kurasushi#happysandwichpartyJapan
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Japan - Day 6 (Shinjuku)
Shinjuku, another shopping center of Tokyo! Home to the Gyoen National Gardens, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. You can do it all here, shop, eat, walk through nature, and get a great view of the city.
We made it to 5:00AM today before waking up! Time to celebrate!
We started off very slow, took a while to get ready and cleaned up the Air BnB a little bit. Today was the first day we head out and werenât impacted by rush hour! We left at 9:00AM instead of 8:00AM - and we still managed to arrive before things opened in Shinjuku!
It was the usual train rides again Ginza to Ueno and then the JR Yamanote, however we did go the other direction on the JR today!
Upon getting off at the Shinjuku station I realized how crazy the station actually is, I read that it was busy but I assumed it was like the Tokyo station. I was wrong. There are so many connections, and bullet trains, and buses that leave this station itâs hard to figure out how to even get out of the station. It also does not help that there is major construction going on currently.
We came out on the government building side and then had to figure out how to get to the other side so we could head to the Gyoen Gardens. 10 minutes later we figured it out and were on our way!Â
I picked the gardens first because there were right next to one of the shopping centers I wanted to hit up.
The Gyoen Gardens cost money to enter unlike the other locations weâve been so far. About $2 a person, not bad at all.
The gardens are very large and have a lot of different unique areas to visit. A greenhouse, English garden, French garden, and a Japanese garden.
We started with the greenhouse. Inside there were some beautiful and unique flowers. We also got a taste of home when we found some cactai!
After the greenhouse we head out into the English and French garden area, I could definitely pinpoint the French garden, not so sure about the English, unless it was the giant grass field.
After this nice open area we head over into the Japanese gardens. Definitely the busiest area of the garden.
After walking for about an hour through the garden we decided to head out and start shopping. It was starting to get pretty busy in the gardens anyway.
First stop was a shopping center that housed many of the Lolita brands. It has been my dream to visit them in Japan. Unfortunately as much as I would love to buy everything, $350 dressing I wear maybe once a year are just not practical.
Everything was beautiful and a I had a lot of fun walking through the stores looking at all of the prints being sold right now. I couldnât leave without buying something, so I did pick up a bracelet from Angelic Pretty!
You canât take pictures in any of these stores, so I doubt we will have anything to show in terms of fashion until we get to Harajuku and there are store fronts we can snag a shot of.
Mr. Husband has been a good sport through all of this shopping. He just kind of stand around outside the store while I prance around all giddy inside. I do feel a bit awkward as almost every store Iâve been in I've been the only person.
After all of the Lolita stores had been conquered we head back toward the train station as the second shopping area I wanted to hit was attached to the station. Many of the locations in Tokyo have large department stores and shopping centers attached directly to the stations.
We only visit one floor in this second locations since every shop I wanted to hit were all on the 4th floor. So many cute items! Ones that are actually wearable at home. Unfortunately, even being in Japan where everyone is small I have a hard time finding clothes. Everything seemed to be in a medium, which unless itâs a skirt (length) is still not going to fit me.
I did end up buying a skirt and top from one store, I canât wait to wear them when I get home!Â
The one interesting difference between Shinjuku and everywhere else we have been is a distinct lack of English. I never expect those in a foreign country to speak my language. But up until now if someone could speak some English we would do an awkward dance of English and Japanese between each other to figure things out.
While shopping in Shinjuku was like going in blind. The shop girls were rattling off Japanese at me like I was fluent. Luckily in language classes you spend an absurd amount of time on learning to shop, for the most part I was able to figure everything out and communicate sans English. I even tried things on, and picked different sizes and styles. A very stressful 15 minutes - we survived.
Something fun about department stores in Japan is they usually have food at the top! This store had 3 floors of food at the top! Unfortunately there was a lot of pasta options, those were out.
We ended up picking a place that had some yummy looking desserts. It turned out to be an Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant. Good choice! It was cute and the food was really good!
We both ordered a seafood rice gratin and some cake!
10/10 would eat there again.
I donât think Iâve mentioned it yet, but almost every restaurant has a display of their food outside so itâs easy to see what they are serving and if itâs something youâd be interested in. Definitely makes life as a foreigner easy!
After lunch it was off to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to get a view of the city. This may seem like a weird place to go, but they have two observation decks on their 45 floor just for visitors.
It was a pretty quick 10-15 minute walk from the station and very easy to find and get to the observation areas.
They do a quick bag check inside and then they send you on your way up an elevator to the 45th floor.
The view at the top is great! It was a bit hazy so unfortunately we couldnât see Mt. Fuji, but everything else was great!
After the government building we head back to the station to hop on the JR. Unfortunately there was a passenger injury situation so the JR was stopped, we waited a bit in hope that it would resume, but in the end we got on another line to head back to Asakusa. It probably took about the same amount of time so it was no big deal.
Back in the Air BnB, we watched some TV and I took a nap. My nap ended up being about 2 hours. Oops.
For dinner we grabbed something quick to bring back and eat.
We also learned today that Iâm allergic to Japan. I have wicked allergies here, which I've never had before. Cough, sneezing, runny nose, water eyes, and a rash. Iâve got it all! I did bring some allergy pills, so we will see if they help. If not, more parks and gardens may be out of the question.Â
#Shinjuku#tokyometropolitangovernmentbuilding#gyoenpark#tokyo#japan#travel#travelblog#happysandwichpartyJapan
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Japan - Day 5 (Shibuya)
Shibuya and the Shibuya crossing - one place in Japan everyone seems to know! Itâs like the Times Square of Japan. Itâs also one of the major fashion districts with hundreds of trendy stores, and I've wanted to visit for years!
It was another 4:30AM day. However it doesnât really seem that early considering the sun rises at about 5:00AM. It does leave us in waiting limbo for a while though since everything opens late. We have become pros at being lazy in the morning!
Today was another melon pan and milk tea morning. I just keep rotating between melon pan and salmon nigiri. Itâs so good though!
I digress. After waiting around as long as we could stand we got ready and head out a little after 8:00AM. The trip today was a long one. Shibuya is on the direct opposite side of the city from where we are staying. It was the usual Ginza line to Ueno and then hop on the JR Yamanote. The JR makes a big loop around the city so itâs the go to for getting to most places. You will likely see us take it a lot over the next few days!
We arrived in Shibuya about 9:00AM - upon stepping out of the station I was in awe! Shibuya is somewhere Iâve wanted to visit for a long time, ever since I played The World Ends With You in high school. Itâs the one place so far I've just stopped and thought âWow, this is exactly how I imagined.â
The one small difference to what I was expecting is that the crossing is much smaller than I thought! Plus when we arrived it was not very busy so there wasnât much of a scramble going on.Â
If you wonder about this intersection at all, the reason it works the way it does is that all of the lights turn red at the same time so pedestrians can cross. Not your typical intersection. Though this may be more normal in a large city? Iâm not sure.
After arriving and crossing the scramble ourselves, we wandered through the streets so I could get a feel of where things were. We then made our way back to the crossing and into the Starbucks as Iâve heard the second floor is a great place to watch the crossing and get a great view from above.
I ordered some mango tea frappuccino thing, Iâm not sure, I donât drink Starbucks usually. Mr. Husband ordered a matcha frappuccino. One thing to note about Starbucks in Japan, they offer one size. Donât try to order a grande, they only have tall.
Anyway! There was a great view from the second floor, however it was busy up there. Everyone had the same idea. I only imagine as the crossing gets busier throughout the day, the Starbucks will too. So if you want to get a good view, head up in the morning, even though the crossing wonât be  crowded.
Finally at 10:00AM, the magic hour, everything opened! We head straight for the Shibuya 109 - I need to see cute clothes, now!
There was no shortage of cute clothes in the 109. Unfortunately, if you tried to wear most of them in the States you would probably look a little absurd. Itâs going to take a bit of searching and planning to pick up items that are cute but also work back home. I will figure it out!
I did find some cute items at CECIL McBEE that iâd like to go back and get, Iâm just waiting until I hit up Shinjuku and Harajuku as there are a ton of stores there I want to shop at well.
The interesting thing to me about the 109 is there is this idea lately that Japanese street fashion is dead. If you wander through the Shibuya 109 you can see that is not the case. It may have changed over the last 10 years, but itâs definitely not dead. I donât know about you but those clothes are not normal everyday clothes and you would not find them in most other countries. That is a street fashion. Itâs alive and well, just updated to suit the needs of 2017.
After finishing up the womenâs 109 we head over to the menâs 109. Unfortunately unless the husband intends on joining a Jpop/Kpop boy band, I donât see him wearing those clothes any time soon - it was a quick trip in and out.
We then started wandering through the streets again to different shops. We stumbled upon and adorable Disney store! It was 3 floors and had some incredibly unique merchandise. Things for characters you would never find in the other Disney locations - if this is any indication of what is to come next week at the Tokyo Disney Resort, Iâm beyond excited.Â
That being said, we didnât buy anything as we will be at Disneyland and Disney Sea starting on Monday.
After our short Disney adventure, we continued our trek to random stores. We found a cute house goods and furniture store, too bad I canât get any of that back on the plane! Then we went in the huge Forever 21 and H&M. Same items youâd find at home. The husband did purchase a few H&M shirts as they had a style he bought at home a year ago but hadnât been able to find since.
After wandering around for about 2 hours we decided it was time to eat. This was the point where I had a major internal dilemma. I really wanted ramen, but ramen makes me sick...
I think I wandered through the streets with the husband trailing behind me for a good 20 minutes before I just decided to eat some damn ramen. It was another restaurant with the meal ticket system (again, love this!). I ordered tonkotsu (pork) ramen with egg, and the husband had the same without egg (heâs missing out). And bless them, they had garlic sitting on the table to add to the ramen, donât mind if I do, I love me some garlic!
After lunch we decided it would be best to head back just in case I did end up sick from the ramen. On the way back to the station we stopped by the Hachiko statue, which I was pretty excited about seeing!Â
If you donât know about Hachiko, he was a dog that would meet his owner at the train station each day when he returned from work and they would walk home together. His owner died one day while at work and Hachiko spent the remainder of his life showing up in the evening at the same time he always did to wait for his owner at the station.
After visiting Hachiko, we hopped back on the JR to Ueno. However both of us somehow spaced it, probably because of the long ride, and we missed our stop. Oops. Luckily I noticed pretty quickly and we just hopped off and jumped back on the train heading the other direction. All in all a 5 minute detour!
Once back in Asakusa we head back to the Air BnB, on the way back we made our first vending machine purchase. I picked a peach drink, Iâm not a hug fan of peach but it was pretty good!Â
Mr. husband picked a coffee. I think we both expected it to be a ice coffee situation. It was not, I could barely hold on to it when I pulled it out of the machine, it was very hot! He did seem to enjoy it though!
The remainder of the evening was pretty uneventful. I wasnât feeling amazing (damn ramen) so we just hung around. It ended up getting very windy and because of the wind, pretty cold. We had planned to go over to Roppongi just to see it at night but ended up opting out.
We instead had a super fancy meal at Burger King! Ooooh, exciting!Â
Nothing terribly notable about Japanese Burger King - the only interesting thing was my chicken sandwich had a cheese sauce on it, kind of like a nacho cheese sauce.
After we froze our butts off on the walk back, we stopped for morning snacks at a convenience store, and then we were in for the evening!
More shopping adventures to come over the next few days, Shinjuku and Harajuku still to come!
#Japan#Tokyo#Shibuya#Shibuya109#Shibuyacrossing#Hachiko#Starbucks#Ramen#Travel#happysandwichpartyJapan
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Japan - Day 4 (Tokyo Station & Imperial Gardens)
It seems as though we are making our way in a circle around Tokyo. Today we head off to Tokyo Station for some shopping and the East Imperial Gardens for our daily intake of nature!
The days are starting off progressively later as we settle in. Today I didn't wake up until 4:30AM! There was a massive storm rolling through so when we woke up there was a ton of rain and wind. Lucky for us nothing in this country seems to open any earlier than 10:00AM so we lazied around for a while. I finished up the blog post from the previous day and then decided to get ready. No exciting morning snacks today, we didn't pick anything up. Just a granola bar from home.
Despite laying around for a while we did head out about 8:30AM once the rain and clouds rolled out. Exactly when the weather said it would, something that never happens at home.Â
We hopped on the Ginza line and then picked up the JR Yamanote in Ueno to head down to Tokyo Station. Upon arriving all the stores and restaurants were still closed, they didn't open until 10:00AM and it was only 9:00AM so we decided to head down to the gardens. It was smart to do them earlier in the day anyway, the weather was saying it could be 80 degrees! What is this Tokyo with hot temperatures? I think we brought this with us from home, oops.
You canât actually see the Imperial Palace itself without a tour, which are available in April, but good luck getting tickets. From a sign I saw it seems they give them out at 8:00AM and 12:00PM, but donât quote me on that. Thatâs okay though, we only intended on walking around the gardens.
There are two areas to the East Gardens, a lake area with flowers and a more open grass area that once had a tower at one of itâs ends.
The lake area was my personal favorite, it was more beautiful in my opinion.
I didnât really get pictures of the second area, it wasnât as photogenic. I do however have one nice shot from the raised area of the old tower, it shows a great contrast between the gardens and the modern city right outside them.
After wandering through the gardens I wanted to head over to Nippon Budokan as itâs right behind the area that the gardens and Imperial Place are in. However we started to walk the long way and I opted to not continue and just head back to the station. I didnât want to do unnecessary walking if we didnât have to.
Once back at the station we head down to restaurant street, which is in the first level of the basement in the station. There are a variety of restaurants to choose from. We chose a place that did rice bowls.
Many of the restaurants in restaurant street have you order from a ticket machine where you pick what you want to eat and pay for your meal at the entrance. You then take the ticket and head inside and give it to the waitress.Â
Honestly this process was amazing, you donât have to worry about getting a check or trying to order from a menu. It makes the eating process quick as you just wait for your food, eat, and leave.
Both of us ordered a salmon rice bowl. They were delicious, the salmon seemed very fresh.
I told you that youâd probably be tired of salmon by the end of this Japan trip - I think Iâve managed to eat it in some form every single day so far!Â
After finishing up our food we head down to character street. There are shops here for a wide variety of animated characters. Specifically I was looking to hit up the Pokemon, Disney, Studio Ghibli stores.
We started at Ghibli, which has some really adorable merchandise. Depending on what else I buy during the trip I may head back here and pick up a few more things. I did buy two small things on this trip through.
Next up was Disney, this was a temporary pop-up store and mostly had Beauty and the Beast items. We are heading to Tokyo Disney later in the trip to opted to not buy anything. Finally we head to the Pokemon Store. A lot of cute things to buy, I picked up a couple small things for the Twitch stream giveaway and a couple gachapon. We will hit up a Pokemon Center later in the trip so I didnât want to splurge on Pokemon just yet.
After finishing up character street we head upstairs to just wander through a few other places. We stopped in the Daimaru - we did go up a few floors but I wasnât really feeling designer clothes, especially when a lot of them were American brands. However the ground floor has desserts. Right when we walked in the door there were some gorgeous mini cakes. I could have stood there and looked at them for like 20 minutes, but thatâs kind of awkward. I have no pictures, but take my word for it, they were beautiful.
We did run across a little Kit-Kat boutique in the station as well, but it wasnât what we were looking for in terms of gifts we said weâd bring back for those at work we, so we moved on. They did have the Kit-Kat tower though!
After we hopped on the JR back to Ueno and got off to do some shopping around Ueno.Â
We started by walking down Ameyayokocho. Itâs an open air market with many types of items. A lot of purses, shoes, and food. In terms of food, there were convenience stores with packaged items, restaurants and street stalls, and fresh ingredient stores. If so inclined you could buy fish and meat on this street.
We found some Kit-Kats here. The husband purchased a bunch for his co-workers. I picked up some matcha and some cheesecake flavored ones, but Iâm really looking for the seasonal sakura matcha flavor.
There were also some stores with UFO machines on this street, we finally found a Neko Atsume machine, however it was and old one and didnât work well, I gave it two shots and failed miserably. Next time!
After this we hopped on the Ginza line back to Asakusa, and then head back to our Air BnB.
We spent a little bit resting out legs since we did quite a bit of walking today and then we head out to explore around Asakusa some more. First we walked through the shops on Nakamise as every other time weâve been in the area they had been closed or closing. We also finally stopped and grabbed some taiyaki!
I got a cream one, and Mr. husband picked a chocolate one. Mine is below.
And we had this pigeon creeping on us while eating them. It kept watching us and moving closer and closer as we ate. The lady next to us was not nearly as amused as I was.
After we left out pigeon friend we head off into an area of Asakusa we hadnât walked through yet. We ended up finding the local Don Quijote and a bunch of pachinko parlors. We also stopped at a Lawson we found to pick up some more snacks for breakfast! And with that, we head back to chill more before dinner.
We spent the time in the Air BnB going over our plan for the next few days. I made a list before the trip of everything I wanted to see and do, so we went through the list, removed what we had done and organized what we still had to do. Spoilers, tomorrow is going to be Shibuya!
Around 6:30PM we head out to explore a bit on the way to dinner. The husband took me by the hostel and ryokan he stayed in the two other times he was in Tokyo - yes he has stayed within a mile radius all 3 times he has been in Tokyo.
Fun fact of the day. We could not for the life of us figure out why there was so much security at Senso-ji today. We happened to catch a huge motorcade leaving on our walk to dinner - it was sporting United States flags. Turns out the Vice President was at the Temple this evening.
Finally we head down one of the side shopping streets that shoot off of the temple and found a revolving sushi bar we passed earlier in the day. Itâs day 4 and Iâm just eating sushi for the first time!
My only issue with sushi in Japan with all of the nigiri has wasabi under the fish. I really donât like wasabi, but I suppose I will suffer for some fresh fish. Iâll spare you the pictures, I mostly ate salmon anyway. The husband did get a lovely plate of mackerel however!
That was that, a nice, quick and tasty meal, great experience. So glad we were able to visit a revolving bar in Japan. Such a different atmosphere and the one at home!
We did walk by the gate and temple on the way back for the night. It looks nice at night!
#Japan#Tokyo#Tokyostation#imperialpalace#eastgardens#sushi#taiyaki#pokemon#ghibli#asakusa#happysandwichpartyJapan
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