Yesterday I shared the story of our last day in Tokyo and the lost be@rbricks. For a truly astonishing “only in Japan” tale head on over to The Englishman’s blog to read about the rest of the story.
Over the next few weeks I’ll have more photos and stories to tell about Japan including a whole heap of great bike stuff we spotted while we were there.
Woke up to a stunningly sunny day and was sad that this would be our last day in Japan. But no time to mope we had to make the most of our last day.
Lockering our bags at Tokyo station we also took the time to book our tickets on the Narita Express train (NEX) it only leaves once an hour for the express so good idea to book ahead.
Some quality fashion spotting in Harajuku was next and then we finally found the green tea shop we’d been hunting for on the day of FAIL. Cho Cho Na Ma is super cute.
More cafe than tea shop so we decided to grab some lunch there. The food portions are so huge it kind of was like lunch and dinner rolled into one. But the prices were reasonable and the food was yummy.
Once again I had some issues with my ordering. The English description was sauteed ginger with vegetables and rice. I thought that sounded great and The Englishman had chosen hashed mushrooms. It turned out my sauteed ginger was sauted pork! So we swapped meals and all was well. The hashed mushrooms turned out to be a thick almost stew like mix of mushrooms, root vegetables and sauce on mixed rice. We also picked up some green tea to bring home with us.
We took a walk through the back streets of Harajuku to walk off the enormous food portions and finally found KiddyLand! It’s this great toy store which used to be on the main intersection but has been moved due to construction. We saw some be@rbricks there but decided to head back to Shibuya and 1/6 and get some more there before we left.
beautiful entrance in Harajuku
We'll miss seeing the enormous pimped out scooters
I'll miss seeing cute collections in windows
In Shibuya there was some kind of Pirates of the Carribbean treasure hunt walk on which of course meant someone dressed up their cat as a pirate.
Some shopping and a stop at 1/6 to pick up more be@rbricks and then head on over to Akihabra but not before once last crazy dash through Shibuya crossing.
At Aikihabra we went to Yobidashi electronics store and got a few pieces including a crazyily tacky pink hello kitty phone cover for me (I mean if you can’t leave Japan with one totally pink crazy accessory what’s the point of going to Japan? ha ha no really it was so bad I had to have it).
Back at Tokyo station we were packing the days purchases into our luggage when The Englishman asked me for the be@rbricks. I said you’ve got them, he said no you’ve got them. Searching through our bags from the day and they weren’t there, they’d been lost. I was devastated, even though they weren’t very expensive they were something we’d brought ourselves from our trip and I’d lost them. With not enough time to go back and search for them there was nothing to do but wait for the NEX and in my case have a cry. Such a bad way to end such a good holiday I was just so upset at having ruined everything.
At the airport we were leaving from the second terminal and almost nothing was open, nowhere to get food and the only stores were luxury handbag places so it was impossible to even buy some snacks for the plane. Jetstar had changed our original flight plan so now we were going from Narita to Osaka and then on to Cairns before having an 8 hour wait in Cairns before heading to Sydney.
We’d been told when we booked in at Narita to not get any liquids there but to wait and get them in Osaka as we’d have to go through a second security check. Problem was once we got to Osaka the stores were all closed. Literally only one tiny little cafe was open. It sold out of almost everything as everyone was trying to get some food for the flight and buy a drink. Plus it meant no duty free of any kind. Nice way to screw over your customers Jetstar.
The flight ended up leaving after midnight local time. Being a night flight we thought they’d have the lights turned down and we’d get some sleep and it would make a long flight seem not too bad. How wrong we were. It seems Jetstar no longer has hosts on it’s flights more like sales people who ruthlessly shove their overpriced crap products at you relentlessly for the length of the flight. Till well after 3am it was the sales assistants walking the aisles calling out over and over again what products they had and how you could purchase them for. Finally the lights were slightly dimmed but only for about 2 hours because by 5am the sales pitches started again and continued for the rest of the flight.
Arriving at Cairns airport with almost no sleep and no food since lunch the following day you are then shoved through the duty free store which only stocks to most common of alcohol and none of the Sake we’d actually hoped to pick up from the Japanese duty free (considering Jetstar flew us via a route that made it impossible to buy any duty free I would take a guess they either own the duty free store in Cairns or at least are shareholders in it).
Through customs and picked up our bags and headed straight to the domestic terminal where we were greeted with the sight of huge numbers of bike bags and boxes. Seems a triathalon had been on over the weekend and everyone was heading home.
Speaking to some of the ground staff I managed to get us on the next flight to Sydney instead of having to wait till almost 4pm to get on a flight (it was now about 8am). A quick flight back to Sydney then a train and finally back to a very noisy but well cared for cat.
It was a wonderful holiday but just so upset that the last few hours were ruined by me losing the be@rbricks and then by the horrible flight back.
Today was utterly exhausting! We got back to the Kangaroo late last night and put some washing on and repacked our bags. We figured with only one night left we wanted to make sure we had enough room to fit everything into our bags.
I’d not long gone to sleep but wasn’t yet in deep sleep when I was suddenly woken, disorientated I couldn’t figure out what was happening when I heard the Englishman say “it’s ok it’s just an earthquake”. Half asleep it all felt very odd like being shaken from side to side but bigger somehow. It only lasted a few moments and all was quiet again.
In the morning we made a plan of all the places we wanted to re visit, pick things up and take a look at for the day.
First stop, back at kitchenware street to pick up some pieces. Spotted this very cool plate delivery bicycle.
From there we went to Akihabra electronics district to take a look at some of the comic and toy collectables stores. Fell in love with way too much vintage Star Wars merchandise but managed to resist buying out the entire store. Next on our list was Ginza. Not wanting to revisit the day of fail when it came to food we found this yummy looking rice bento (which was mostly vegetarian).
While we’d been in Kyoto we’d started collecting stamps from the JR train stations. Now that we knew what to look for we started spotting them in Tokyo and added to our collection.
Would love to know the story behind the stamps. Is it some kind of collector game for kids? Is it just for big train nerds? It doesn’t appear to be for tourists as it has almost no English signage on them at all. Not only were they fascinating the images were really beautiful.
Ginza was shut down to car traffic and opened up for bikes and pedestrians. It even had chairs and tables in the middle of the street!
We did some shopping and when we came back on the street my feet were just aching. We thought we’d enjoy the sunshine and sit down on the curb for a bit. I am so glad we did this because not only did my feet need a break by taking a rest we spotted the best ever wiener dog. Now as many of you know we keep count of our wiener dog sightings, in Japan the count skyrockets as they seem to be the small dog of choice. We saw some almost every day. But this one was the best sighting ever.
He’s wearing pants and a shirt and a natty hat!!! So exciting and so adorable. He had his eye on that food and was rewarded for being a good dog and sitting still while his owner ate.
After the spotting of the ultimate wiener dog it was over to Shibuya to check out a store selling be@rbricks to add to our collection. A tiny little store it had a great selection and the sales assistant even snuck 2 free limited edition be@rbricks into our bag. Awesome loot as they are not available anywhere else but from that store.
Tokyu Hands was next on my list and I took the time to well and truly stock up on Japanese stationary, craft items and MT tape! Clothing stores were next on our shopping list and we spent some time picking up some pieces. I got some “goal pieces” for summer. So when all my training pays off I’ll have some new clothes to wear.
In search of more be@rbricks we’d read that Isetan in Shinjuku might be a good place to get some. Sadly it seemed they didn’t stock them anymore. Possibly it was a pop up shop instore? We’re not sure, but while we were in Shinjuku we took a look at some of the Pachinko and games arcades. The Pachinko parlours are really loud and vaguely confusing. We tried to figure out how it all worked but even watching people we had no idea what was going on. The games arcades were easier to figure out and even had demon looking bunnies to win.
Posted in Holidays
Tagged Akihabra, be@rbrick, Ginza, Isetan, Japan, stamps, Tokyu Hands, wiener dog
