Tokyo: Harajuku, Shibuya, Roppongi Hills (Christmas Illumination)

December 20, 2014

The morning I departed was so stressful because I didn't really finish packing ><;;; I had so much shit to pack and even when I was done, everything was overweight and didn't fit in, and as I was boarding the bus to go to the airport,  Cory ran back to grab her duffle bag for me to stuff my extra things.

The ride to the airport wasn't very sentimental actually. Perhaps it was because I don't think I bonded with everyone else too much and I was still going to be stuck with Cory for a while. I also don't think I ended up LOVING Shanghai either. It was a 2.5 hour flight from Shanghai to Tokyo. My bag was like 5kg overweight, but luckily, I convinced the guy to just let it go. His coworker smacked him in the head for that lool.

We flew into Narita and it was a bit stressful because someone took Cory's luggage by accident. So dumb too because their luggage actually has a tag...like how do you miss that ><;; So we waited and waited to see if it would show up and had to report it and stuffs.

I took the Keisei bus to Shin-Yurigaoka (¥3,100) because I was staying with a friend in Kawasaki. There was so much traffic on the way and my friend ended up waiting for over an hour in the cold and I had no way of contacting her either ><;;; Luckily she waited, I didn't even know she was coming to pick me up :x We had nabe at home for dinner~

December 21, 2014

The next day, we went to Takeshitadori at Harajuku.
Someone from my Shanghai program was also in Japan for a few days, so we decided to meet up at the JR Station, but we couldn't find her and ended up waiting for half an hour..she didn't show up. In the end, it turns out she was running late and we did find her, but it's so inconvenient not having phones ><;

Caramel cheesecake crepe from Sweet Box (¥530) 

I think Harajuku is kind of "known" for its crepes :o It tasted okay.. I feel like they look so much yummier in photos.

When we got here, the place wasn't too crowded, but as the day goes on, the street becomes packed. We looked around at the stores and I bought some tights from tutuanna (3 for ¥1,000). I remember seeing them in Shanghai before and they were soooo much more expensive there D:< I wish I stocked up more here though. 

Oh yeah, in the 7-Elevens, there's this international ATM that doesn't charge a fee to withdraw money, but my own bank did. So it spent $15 on one ATM fee -_-! I recommend exchanging at the airport instead... bring cash and don't be like me. I exchanged some, but not a lot because I was too lazy to dig up for more cash, in my bag cuz it was from my 红包 so I was a bit hesitant, too. I didn't have much cash aside from that, I think like $10 USD.. had to borrow money from Cory. Also Japan is semi-credit card friendly. I was able to shop around a lot with my card (usually stores), but for stuff like metro and arcade, you need cash.

We went to Kiddy Land and they had a section upstairs for Sanrio and Rilakkuma stuff :D I bought some stuffs here but tried my best not to buy too much because no space :(

Eventually, we walked back to the station and took the train to Shibuya (it's only a 15-20 minute walk though). The Shibuya Crossing wasn't as overwhelming as I had thought because I didn't even know that that was the Crossing when I crossed the street loool. The Hachiko Statue is also in Shibuya.

We stopped by at Coco Ichibanya for food and to be honest, part of it was really awkward because one of my friends was being moody and rude... I ordered the chicken stew curry, I think.

 We walked through Shibuya 109, I think it has 8 floors or so? At some point they all started to look the same, but the clothes are soo pretty but expensive too D: A lot of girls in Tokyo seem to be dressed in that style.

 I wanted to check out arcades because I've always wanted to go play with UFO catchers in Japan. I didn't win anything though D: It was different from what I was used to because there's only two claws. 

Since it was still relatively early, I think around 7:00PM, we decided to hop onto the bus to Roppongi Hills to see the Christmas Illuminations since they look AMAZING online and we were here the perfect time.

Passed by this German Market at Roppongi Hills.

Maman

Could see Tokyo Tower from here :o

We spent a while walking around looking for it... and finally found the Roppongi Hills Artelligent Christmas Illumination. Apparently there's actually multiple, and the one I wanted was the Midtown Christmas. We didn't bother looking for that one because my friend's feet were making her really miserable the whole day and she still went around with us :X So we headed home and planned the next day.

Until next time!