Here’s the last part of my Tokyo trip! Did you read Part 1 and Part 2?
March 31st: After a short day in Nagoya, this was our go back to tokyo day, with our reserved shinkansen tickets for 9:40 am. This was to give us some time in the morning to grab some breakfast, and not have to leave too early. We did have some kishimen the day before, but I decided to go for some kishimen in the morning as our farewell Nagoya breakfast, since I found a place in the station that serves it starting from 7am. We checked out of our Airbnb around 7:30, to have plenty of time to get food before our ride. I got the cold meat kake kishimen, and it was amazing; the broth was light and refreshing, the meat was sweet and tender, and the noodles were bouncy and very slurpable.
By the time we finished, it was around 9, and we had plenty of time, so we wanted to find a cafe we could get a drink and chill at for a bit. My friend saw that Pronto had oat milk as an option, and she got a strawberry milk, while I went for the Sakura Candy Matcha Latte. It was refreshing, and definitely interesting to taste the sakura flavor mixed with the matcha, and a nice morning pick-me-up. After having a little chat, we got on our shinkansen back to Tokyo!
We were lucky to have a great view of Mt. Fuji on the way there, but also super lucky again to have great weather the day after and have another good look. Here’s a picture that my friend took:
Since we were carrying quite a few things, after getting off at Tokyo we headed for our hotel to drop off our stuff. I asked my friend if she’d be interested in going to a trendy hot pot place known for having the soup base in the shape of a bear (a place originally from Sapporo, but I’ve never gone since the price seems a bit steep), and she was interested, so that was going to be our lunch for the day. Unfortunately when we arrived, they were full for reservations, and were going to close for lunch by the time everyone finished eating, and so they asked us if we wanted to reserve for dinner (no wonder Google said that the wait time here was short). Because I had other plans and didn’t think I’d be returning to the Shibuya area, we just left and headed to Miyashita Park, since the rest of the day was really just going to places that we missed. I figured there’d be food spots there that we could just browse and find somewhere casual to get lunch. At that point both of us were pretty hungry anyway and could go for anything.
We walked up to a random food court in the middle of the mall, which had a bunch of fast food, including a Panda Express! I’ve heard it exists in Japan, but very little shops, and was very surprised to see one here. There was also a Hawaiian poke and sushi place, but my friend opted to try the McDonald’s, and the Korean place was really calling to me. We each ordered separately, and had a surprisingly pretty good on the spot lunch. I also got the seasonal Ichigo Daifuku pie from McDonald’s, since I had been wanting to try it for a bit.
Now the reason I wanted to come to Miyashita Park in the first place was because a few years ago I heard they built this new shopping complex, and the cool thing about it was that there was a park on top of the complex that had a nice atmosphere and view of the area (after the fact I remembered that there might also be a DIY KitKat shop in the mall itself, but I forgot in the moment, and my friend can’t eat it anyway…). We explore the top park area, walked around, and then made our way over to the Shibuya Loft, which I wanted to show off to my friend. I think Loft is a cool place and very tempting to buy things, but sometimes I don’t really feel a need to go in because of the overwhelming amount of stuff. Someone on YouTube I watched compared it to Target, as in you walk in not expecting to get anything but walk out with a ton of unnecessary purchases.
I also went to go see the Hachiko statue, but boy because it’s such a Tourist Attraction and right next to Shibuya scramble, it was packed and there was just so many people. There was no end to people taking pictures with the statue, and I didn’t really feel the need to get one with it, so I just took one from afar and went to go see the Sakura Street. According to Google Maps, there’s a Sakura Street in Shibuya, but when we went to go find it, there was a bunch of closed off sidewalk and road in the way, and I really didn’t want to figure it all out in the moment, so I gave up and we got on a train to Harajuku.
Again, I’ve been before, but I wanted to show the Meiji Jingu shrine to my friend, so that was the main reason we went back to Harajuku (aside from getting some merch for my sister), since we couldn’t make it the other day.
Towards the end of seeing Meiji Jingu, my friend actually let me know that she wasn’t feeling too well since the evening before, and that she wanted to lie down to rest for a bit at the hotel. She encouraged me to go do my stuff in the area, and I totally would have gone back with her if not for the fact that I promised my sister I’d get her some Kirby plushies I sent her pics for the other day. With that, we parted ways temporarily, and I went to go secure some wifi for maps since my data ran out for the month.
Before going back to Kiddy Land for the Kirbys, I realized a matcha cafe I bookmarked was in the area, so I stopped by and got their Matcha Tiramisu, since that’s a pretty unique item on the menu (speaking of which, Family Mart recently did a collab and released an entire line of Matcha goods, and one of them is a tiramisu too). It came in a cute box, and was very matcha forward, lightly sweet, creamy, and was a very good afternoon pick me up.
[Update: It has come to my attention that Matcha House has since closed.]
I then went back down Takeshita street, and though it was around 4pm, it was surprisingly a lot less crowded than the other day, and most of the super long lines weren’t that long. I made my way to Kiddy Land, bought the Kirbys, and at the last minute gave in and bought a 600 yen Sailor Moon cup (oops).
At that point I contemplated going back to keep my friend company, but she sounded like she wanted to be alone, and I figured it’d also be a good chance to go casual sightseeing on my own pace. I walked into La Foret, a shopping complex that I really like but didn’t see much of a point in bringing my friend since most of their stuff is high end, and headed for the Sailor Moon store. I’m not sure if that was a good idea or not, since I walked out with a tote bag that I previously told myself I didn’t need.
Ok, so the story is that I get points on my Rakuten Credit Card, and at some point they were expiring, and around that time is when the Sailor Moon x Sanrio collab goods came out for preorder on Premium Bandai. I was debating betwen the t-shirt and the tote, but I ultimately went with the shirt because it was cheaper (and ended up being free since I used my points!), and had all the characters on it versus the tote had half (there were two totes, one pink one with the inner senshi, and a dark blue one with the outer). After seeing the totes in person and I guess after becoming a tote person recently, I caved and bought the pink inner senshi one, since I’m a pink girlie, and I could go without the outers. Oops.
I then walked over back to Shibuya, which was right next to Harajuku and as crowded as ever, mainly to cash in on my Loft lottery voucher that we received since my friend spent over a certain threshold there. It was in the Loft and Muji basement, and I spun a digital lottery wheel. I ended up with a paper soap consolidation prize, and a coffee stick mix box.
At this point, I was just wandering the area and thinking about what to do for dinner (I decided if my friend didn’t respond by 8 I’d go get something to eat), and my friend messaged me that she was feeling better. Earlier in the day I suggested going to a izakaya in Shinjuku that specialized in chicken dishes and mizutaki, a collegen chicken soup, and she was still down for that, so I suggested we meet up at 7:30 to give her some more time to rest. That gave me about an hour to make my way to Shinjuku from Shibuya, and part of we was determined to walk all the way there (about 45 minutes) to walk off the tiramisu, get some more exercise in, and save some transportation money. I ended up walking to Harajuku, but did feel my legs getting tired, and didn’t feel too safe walking by myself in an area that was not too lit in the dark, so I ended up deciding to save some time and got on the train to Shinjuku, intending to explore the area there while waiting for my friend instead.
The nightlife there is insane, but also pretty cool and relatively safe since everything is lit and everyone is out and about doing something. Since I had some time, I stopped by Omoide Yokocho, a very narrow alleyway of tiny izakayas that has since become extremely popular and touristy. I just walked the alley, but every shop was full of foreigners and in full business, with signs that said “English menu”, “Korean menu”, “Spanish Menu”, etc everywhere.
I did get to the Izakaya a bit early, and I did see an interesting looking pub around the corner. The name was basically a play on the Sailor Moon Title, but obviously to be more pub-like. The outside looked cool, and I just wanted to get a feel for the vibe and not actually enter, since I don’t drink and had to meet with my friend anyway. It was basically a tiny staircase that spiraled down to where the pub actually was, and surrounded by pretty aesthetic galactic-esque ombre wallpaper. I spotted at the bottom that there was a bell next to the door, so I assumed you just rang that to get an employee’s attention. What I did not expect was a large man to come out and try to welcome me into the shop, and I hurriedly apologized and said I was just looking and left. Did I mention it was super smoky?
My friend showed up a bit later, and we entered the izakaya and sat down. I wanted to try their mizutaki, or chicken collagen soup, and thankfully I wrote that my friend has an egg allergy, because the waiter came by later and said the soup actually has egg mixed in to it (we ordered by scanning a QR code and inputting it on our phone). They couldn’t take it out or make it without it, since I guess they just mass-produce the soup in a giant batch. That was a bit of a bummer, so we canceled one order, and my friend ordered some skewers and other things for herself. The soup was good, and very flavorful, though either I boiled it too long or there wasn’t enough liquid, because it ended up all evaporating by the end. There was also a ton of stuff in one serving, but you had the option of adding other things to it too (including extra broth).
We found a Donki on our way to our subway stop home, and grabbed a bunch more soymilk.
April 1st: As our last full day in Tokyo together, our main agenda of the day was to go get a hammock head spa in the morning and then hang out in the local area the rest of the day. I made our appointment for 10:30 in the morning, and since we had a bit of time before our appointment, we stopped by a local bakery called Shigekuniya to look at their selection. The pictures made it look like a proper shop, but it really was just kind of a hole in the wall with just a case showcasing all their breads. Everything looked absolutely stunning, rustic, and homemade, but we both got a bagel; I a green tea and sakura bean paste one, and my friend a green tea and bean one. It was amazing, a little hard but probably because it wasn’t fresh and was sitting in the window for a bit, but extremely chewy and mochi like the description said it was.
Then we had our unique hammock spa experience at Cocona Salon! I found this place on YouTube from a channel called ASMR Twix, and the experience looked so relaxing and unique that it’s been a dream of mine to visit ever since. My friend was super excited when I told her about it too, so we were both very much looking forward to it. We both got the 10 minute head spa without any extra treatment, but by the time I finished with the entire process, it had been an hour (probably because drying my hair took a while). It felt amazing, and defnitely was a special experience. I’d be down to go back, or get any head spa in general.
I gave my friend a few options of food in the area for lunch, and she chose soba, so we went to Shinano soba, a local hand-made soba restaurant operated by an elderly couple. Both of us got the Vegetable Tempura Zaru Soba. The soba was not too buckwheat-y, perfectly chewy, and as my friend noted, the dipping sauce was much more concentrated and stronger and any soba I’ve had back home. The tempura was hot and fresh, crispy, and all the vegetables were so soft on the inside; I suspected they were pre-boiled and then fried. I was surprised that this set didn’t have shrimp and specifically was vegetable tempura only, but for someone who doesn’t really like most of the vegetables in this set, they were all so good as tempura, and surprisingly the onion too.
On the way to Shinano Soba, we passed by a traditional Japanese sweets shop, and vowed to go back as a sweet treat after lunch. We made our way back, and were able to snag a table in the midst of the crowded shop. It was small and compact, but also retro Showa style, with no tv but a radio playing some kind of live event. We were attracted by the shaved ice in the window, and I also ordered an anmitsu since my friend hasn’t experienced that yet. Like Shinano, the “menu” was actually posted on signboards on the wall, and there we found out there were quite a few flavors. We ended up going for the Uji tea one, and just a plain anmitsu.
The tea flavor syrup was almost melon-y / fruity, but you could still taste the tea flavor behind the sweetness, and it worked amazingly with the fluffy shaved ice. In contrast, the thick red bean, natural sweetnes of the fruit, the gummy candy, and the very sweet brown sugar syrup paired with the crunchy-ish agar cubes in the anmitsu had such a textural change and added to the flavors. We actualy found that these two worked wonders together, and combined the syrup, the agar cubes, and the shaved ice together to create a franken-dessert. Very satisfying.
We headed back in the direction of the station, as there was a shopping street there and I wanted to check it out, since I’ve been obsessed with the vibes of shopping streets. On the way there we checked out a pretty cool thrift store where most of the items were going for $1! We also checked out a few other second-hand shops on the shopping street, when we suddenly needed to use the bathroom. We popped into a bunch of convenience stores and bigger stores, but no bathrooms were to be found, so we went back to the station to use one there. I figured we were about done with the area anyway, and were ready to go to Nakano, which was a train stop away.
Our first stop off the train was Nakano Shiki Mori Park, which looked to be a pretty spacious place on Google Maps, and who’s passing up on the chance to see more sakura while it’s sakura season? When we did get there though, it was really sunny, and the park was definitely a park, but less nature-y and more hangout-y. There were a ton of people picknicking and spread out on blankets in the rectangular patches of grass, but otherwise the trees alonside the park were comparatively fewer. We sat for a bit on the edge of some platform, but to be honest, I was disappointed with the place as a park. I only randomly picked it off of Google Maps though, and didn’t hear much else about it, so maybe this one was just a big miss. Then we turned back and went to Nakano Broadway, one of my favorite places to just browse around and take a look at stuff I can’t buy. 🙂 I love the place as a retro goods store, and I have yet to try the 10 layer ice cream in the basement (my friend can’t have dairy, so not that day…). We spent a lot less time there than I thought I would, maybe because a lot of the shops were closed, but we didn’t really pop in to that many, and I don’t think my friend was as interested in the stuff as I was.
We were feeling thirsty, and could really go for a cafe. At first I suggested a chic cafe behind Nakano Broadway called Butter, but I did not expect there to be such a huge line when we saw it from afar. I knew it only had 6 or 7 seats, but still…my friend didn’t want to wait, so I found an older Japanese-style tea cafe somewhere in the Nakano Broadway shopping center, and my friend got an iced tea and a jam toast, while I got an iced royal milk tea.
The milk tea was very nice and refreshing, and tasted very similar to the bottled milk teas I see everywhere here in Japan. I reall wonder why mine came with a tiny spoon though, because the thing on top was whipped cream. Was I supposed to mix it in or something? It was a really chill experience, and would have been more relaxing except that some guy decided to smoke right behind us in this cramped tiny cafe. Why dude why.
Another reason we were chilling here is because neither of us were really hungry, and wanted to grab something light before I headed out at 5, because my boyfriend invited me on a date, basically the last time I would see him for two weeks. My friend and I parted ways temporarily again, and I met up with my boyfriend in Shibuya.
We just chatted for a while, caught up with each other and how our respective trips were going, and a little bit later finally decided to go get food just by walking around and seeing what’s in the area. Of course being Shibuya, everywhere was crowded, and bunch of prospective places had long lines, and we didn’t really want to wait. We tried asking a few places, and we finally spotted a Little Sheep Hot Pot (which I found kind of wild but not surprising, as they’re a huge mongolian hot pot chain). They had seats for us, and so we sat down and looked at what to order (it was again a scan a code and order from your phone situation). We didn’t go for the all you can eat or the hot pot set, and just went a la carte, but with a soup base fee, some pretty quality wagyu, veggies, and meatballs, our bill ended up a lot higher than we thoght. I was use to this style from Little Sheep, but did not expect the bill to be so high, especially because we didn’t order that much. No doubt the quality of everything was very good, but the quantity was a bit lacking. I later found out on Google Maps that there was a Boiling point (Taiwanese single hot pot) down the street, but who knows if that had a line or not. Either way, probably would have been cheaper for more quantity.
We weren’t super hungry after finishing, but not full either, and could go for dessert, like boba. I searched up any nearby boba, didn’t want to get Gong Cha, but found a True Dan a few minutes away in a department store and was pretty excited. We walked over, made our way to the 7th floor, only to be greeted by a sign that said as of March 31 the 7th floor food area is closed off and closed down. Darn you Google for lying to me.
We decided there wasn’t much else to do in the area (and any parfait places I wanted to go to were closed by then), and it was getting late, which meant it would be even later after my boyfriend took me back to my hotel and then to his Airbnb, so we headed back to my place empty-handed.
We parted ways, and my friend actually told me she spent the time packing and didn’t eat anything for dinner yet. I found a chicken ramen near our hotel that closed at 2am or something, and she was down, so we went out for some late night ramen. The tsukemen was tempting, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to overstuff myself with a full bowl of ramen, so I ordered a plate of gyoza for us to share (though getting a chicken tempura rice bowl was tempting).
April 2nd: Alas, it was time for us to go home and head to the airport and end our week-long trip. One of my favorite udon places (that is pretty viral and famous), Godaime Hanamaru Udon, opened up a branch at Haneda Airport Garden, and I really wanted to show it to my friend. They open at 11, but I hoped to get to the airport before then because even though it’s only opening time and they opened recently, I already heard that they can get pretty long lines. My flight was at 2, and my friend’s at 5, so we both had time, but I wanted plenty before mine to drop my bag off and get through security. I wasn’t worried about domestic security, but the Sapporo bag check line was quite long, and I hoped to avoid that if possible. We ended up arriving a little before 11, and there was already a bit of a line. Unfortunately, we didn’t make the first wave, and had to wait a good 30 minutes or so, but we ended up sitting down a little before 12, and food came out a bit after. My friend ordered the Gunma cider, which really turned out to be the classic Japanes soda with a Gunma label, I wanted to try out the yaki manju, and we both chose the Maitake Tempura Oroshi Cold Udon, with the Oni Himogawa noodles of course. Who comes to Godaime Hanamaru and doesn’t get the thick (with 3 c’s) noodles? That’s what they’re known for, and no where else really makes them. Even Nagoya’s kishimen doesn’t come close.
First, the yaki manju was a pleasant surprise. I thought it’d be more mochi-like, but it was soft, fluffy, and pillowy, and more bread-like than anyting. It was lightly grilled, and topped with a mitarashi dango-esque sweet and savory soy sauce glaze. The udon itself was amazing, with the light cold broth pairing so well with the chewy, thin yet thick noodles. I didn’t want the noodles to end. The tempura was great, slightly warm from being just cooked, and crispy with fresh mushroom flavor (I wish there was another one that came with the dish, even though you can order more on the side). It was a perfect, last Tokyo meal, and we were very full by the end of it.
We were in and out within 30 minutes surprisingly, and my friend decided to stay in Terminal 3, so she sent me off as I got on the free inter-terminal bus to Terminal 2 and we parted ways there. I decided to check my bag in as soon as possible, and to my surprise there was not really much of a line which was nice. I also decided to get in the security line while I still had plenty of time. The Haneda airport hack is to use the tv to find out which seucurity line has the shortest line. The one I originally got in line for had a 10-15 minte wait, while the others had no wait. Wild.
I had about an hour to kill, so I walked to both ends of the Terminal, casually walking and exploring. A litle unforunate I couldn’t go anywhere with the good shops and cafes outside in the lobby area, but oh well. That combined with the fact that Japan only starts boarding 20 minutes before the flight, and my group was the last one, I really took my time. And then I got on my plane home! I actually got a drink refill on the plane, ha!
And that was my Tokyo trip! I already want to go back…
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