I went Japan again! This time is from Taiwan to Japan then back to Taiwan~
Actually the intention is just to visit our relatives in Taiwan but my sister and auntie are "itching" to shop in Tokyo. Thus, we bought the flight tix from China Airlines which allowed us to fly to Narita(flight transfers at Taoyuan), then stop over at Taiwan for a few a few days before flying back to Singapore.
It may sound surprising; I've never been to Taiwan even my maternal grandparents were from there. The rests of my family members went there so many times.
We took off on 26 may at 10am - Spore to Taiwan/Japan. First time taking China Airlines. It was a morning flight at 10am and transit has to be done at Taoyuan Airport. Pretty pleasant flight from Spore Changi Airport where air crew was quite efficient. Lunch was on the plane. We carried very few clothes and luggage were intended to carry the stuff bought over from the 2
cities. My luggage was only 10kg when I board the plane.
Taking transit flight was tend to be less tiring as you were able to catch a cat nap within the 4 hours without being cramped in a direct flight for 6 hours. Watched 2 movies onboard, hilarious romantic comedy, "When in Rome" and childish flick such as "The Tooth Fairy".
Flight transfer from Taoyuan to Narita was really a hassle cos we have to move from Terminal 1 to 2, on that, we took the monorail rail. When we reached Terminal 2, we found out that our plane was slightly delayed at Taoyuan to Narita due to late transit. We thought it would be too late to catch the last express train to Ikebukuro. Luckily we managed to board on the last Narita Express to Ikebukuro at 9.45pm. After purchasing our Suica+Nex package each at JR East Station, we rushed off to board on our train.
We reached Ikebukuro at around 11.30pm. Our minshiyuku was located at West of Ikebukuro Station called "House of Ikebukuro". It was raining rather heavily by the time we reached Tokyo.
Due to overbooking, Mrs Chen the minshiyuku keeper informed that actually her staff was waiting for us at Ikebukuro station where we were supposed to check into an apartment at Ikebukuro north gate for the 2 nights. We hopped onto a taxi, where the muddle-headed taxi
uncle took us round and round that area.
Finally, we saw Miss Huang, the staff came running to us when we reached the North Annex house of Ikebukuro. After she paid the taxi fare, she told us that actually the taxi driver knew where he was going and but tried to cheat us on the mileage.
After settling down, we all had a good night's rest on the bunk beds. It was a very neat room to stay in. Unlike a hotel, it has a small dry kitchen with necessary equipment to whip up a small meal. The only inconvenience was the bathroom and toilet was a little too small. I can't wash my hair at ease inside, arm kept banging against the wall.
27 may - Ikebukuro, Akihabara
Rise and shine! We woke up pretty early and had breakfast (nice loaf of bread with jam) with compliments from House of Ikebukuro! It is definitely a rare thing to have cheap, clean accommodation with free breakfasts!
Then we went to shop before the shops were opened around 11am. The shopping district was just a walking distance from the place we stayed. It was plain madness! Within 3 hours, we had purchased 3 Burberry Blue/Black Label bags and Agnes B while shopping at Tobu Mall alone.
Staring at the shopping bags is enough to make you go "Gaga".
Then sis saw the very sweet watermelon at Tobu supermarket, bought it as it was the famous branded one called “红小玉 ” without much white flesh.
The very exquisite, expensive watermelon!
One can never get enough of Akihabara so we went there after our crazy shopping at Ikebukuro. Spotted a new cafe, GUNDAM Cafe as we peeped by. There was a long queue and we really wondered what was its selling point as it looked rather like a normal Starbucks with its barristas.
Gundam cafe at Akihabara
Jeans Mate branches are basically everywhere in Tokyo and hardly you can miss out any. The boutique offers relatively affordable unisex fashion retail brands like Edwin, Lee, Levis, etc. You can also find comic-related t-shirts in Akihabara too!
Tip 1: Always remember to take off your shoes when going into the changing rooms!
Tip 2: You can also find Maids as sales girls in Jeans Mate, Akihabara.
Lastly, we settled for curry rice for dinner in Akihabara. The boy (looking 'otaku') just bought a new IT gadget and was fiddling with it while eating his curry rice. But these Japanese really ate very fast and moved off after finished their meals.
28 may - Sendai, Naruko onsen (JR)
We were supposed to catch the relatively early shinkansen train to Sendai the next morning at Ueno so reached the train station pretty early.
Tip 3: And we visited Afternoon Tea's cafe at Ueno! A pleasant place where you sip your coffee and listen to Beatles's "Strawberry fields forever"....
Reached Sendai after 2 hours. After which, we took the Loople bus at bus terminal to tour around Sendai City. The bus brought us to several tourist's attractions in the city. We then visited the the feudal lord, Date Masamune's mausoleum (Zuihoden Mausoleum).
Tip 4 : Loople bus - 600 yen for 1 day trip. You can drop down to the various attractions and hop up again.
Tip 5: Not many seats on the Loople bus ~ Mostly have to stand all the way. Also give up your seats to elderly please!
To get into the tomb of the feudal lord, one has to climb the steep slope up. There were different types of graves over, even graveyard for children who have deceased.
We saw dandelions along the way as we climbed up the steep slope. Aunt was munching on the rice dumplings as we climbed.
With a serene atmosphere, very quaint setting which made you stop and ponder over what actually happened long time ago.
Harmonious-looking Buddha sculptures
Next, Sendai Castle.
Sendai Castle also known as Aoba Castle is just a few stops away from the mausoleum.
It is usually flooded with tourists. There was a souvenir shop selling rather expensive stuff related to the Fuedal Lord.
Sis bought a bbqed sweetcorn from the food stalls and it was simply delicious!
Gateway to Sendai Castle
Lord Date's sculpture. My aunt said that he looked like an "angmoh" cos he had a very broad face at a closer look. He was so commercialised that they even designed him in various ways!
For example, Date Masamune has a "bishonen" version in video games!
Of course the feudal lord isn't so "yandao" la.
Also a cute version made of onigiri (rice with seaweed) ~ the mascot of Sendai City!
Credits to An Illiterate English Major
On top of the Sendai Castle.
There you have a bird' eye view of Sendai City by standing here. Don't forget to bring along your binoculars!
You can also see the Sendai Daikonon from here.
At the base of Sendai Castle. The walls looked new and fake.
We have to check into the onsen hotel at Naruko by the evening. Thus, we took the 15 min shinkansen to Furukawa then change into JR East Rikku East Line to Naruko onsen(takes about 1 hr). There was actually a more exclusive train that brings you directly from Sendai to Naruko but no one seemed to know about it.
Naruko Onsen is located in the middle of the hills along countryside.
Naruko Station (JR)
Our hotel, located nearer to the hills.
Steam oozing out from the hotsprings Oh, you can soak your feet here (shown facilities) for free.
View from our hotel
Then we tried their outdoor onsen. I dun really like it as the water has strong sulphur smell. Naruko has a high sulphur count, as well as sodium chloride and sodium bicarbonate, thought to be a relief for the symptoms of high blood pressure and hardened arteries. So, we also happened to see a lot of elderly folks in this onsen district.
Dinner time! A young, lovely waitress served us.
We ordered Asahi beer too. They actually charge high tax on alcohol. So it's actually more expensive to order from inns and hotels.
Finished our dinner and went back our room to sleep. The mattresses were so comfy and within minutes, I managed to doze off into a deep slumber.
29 may , visit to Sendai Daikonon, - check in Sunroute hotel Sendai, Mitsui outlet shopping (JR)
Checking out from our onsen hotel, we left Naruko Onsen town and took the train to Furakawa then back to Sendai. We had to rush to check into our hotel(Sunroute) then to Mitsui Outlet cos it's meant to be a shopping trip! For your info, Sunroute is conveniently located near the train station, just across the more expensive Metropolitan.
Sendai Daikonon
Because it is too early to visit the shopping outlet, we decided to go for another tourist attraction around the area.
My aunt had wanted very much to visit Sendai Daikonon ever since during the last trip in Dec. Due to time-constraints, we were not able to make it. Given the whole morning to make up for this trip, we took bus from the Sendai bus terminal to the mentioned location which took us 30 mins.
It was a very tall Guanyin indeed!
There was an exhibition, featuring on the different types of Goddesses.
There were only a few tourists in the 12 storeys building thus we could hear our own echoes. Took the lift to the top floor then walk down.
12 storeys of explorations - not much of an exploration, actually.
Sendai Mitsui Outlet - I love this place and it's my 2nd time here. In fact, I love the countryside of Sendai, everything's so low-rise and peaceful. You can see a lot of hairdressing salons along the way to the outlet. Not forgetting to get the tickets (I've already memorized the steps to purchase them) to Ghibli Museum, we stopped by LAWSON to purchase from the Lippo machine. Warning: Tickets were sold out quite fast, so better purchase them 1 week before.
Anyway to recap, here's the link.
30 May - Sendai to Fukushima, Fukushima to Ueno, Ueno to Higashi Ikebukuro(Sunshine City)
Thirsty for fresh peaches, Aunt was saying we could actually get the best peaches at Fukushima(as known as Peach City as it produces the most peaches in Japan). Due to time-constraints, we ain't able to visit the farms as they were all out far away in the countryside, so we took our chance at the nearby supermarts instead.
We managed to find fresh Fukushima peaches at Ito Yamada's supermarket, 2690yen, containing 5 nos of peaches.
One word: BEST!
You just have to try it to experience for yourself.
Ueno
The grocery stores at Ueno Station is our favorite station with lots of cheap tidbits, snacks and dried goods. Usually we would purchase them there in bulk, put inside a box and bring back Singapore.
And I've managed to purchase a Samantha Thavasa key holder in Ueno as well. The salesgirl told me there will be a store opened in Singapore soon!!
Higashi Ikebukuro
From the Ikebukuro Station, we took the subway and reached Higashi Ikebukuro cos Aunt wanted to purchase some One Piece toy figurines for her son. Then we realised it was already closed. Most shops were already closing around this time thus Aunt suggested we shall visit the East side of Ikebukuro as she remembered it was a district that still opened. After asking a nice Japanese lady(she happened to be walking to there as well), she showed us the way.
Afternote: Actually to Sunshine City, it is just a walkable distance of 10 mins from Ikebukuro Station. Just to head towards to East Exit will do.
31 may - Ueno, Nippori, Harajuku, Mitaka (Ghibli Museum)
Our last 2 days in Tokyo were hectic as we have to visit more places within a short period of time. Firstly to Ueno to shop for our favourite tidbits, Nippori, the Textile Town for fabric, Harajuku, Aunt has to get some gothic stuff for her daughter then to Mitaka for the Ghibli Museum.
Nippori - Textile Town
Nippori has the cheapest textile according to a reliable source. If you are looking for scrap cloth for patchwork and handicraft, this the place! They also have cheap clothing (esp for children) in wholesale prices.
Mitaka, Ghibli Museum
Our next stop is to Mitaka, Ghibli Museum, horray! Access by train is via Mitaka Station on the JR Chūō Main Line, approximately 20 minutes from Shinjuku Station.
Transport to Ghibli museum, 200 yen for single-trip, 300 for round-trip.
Actually it is of walkable distance but because to save time, we chose the round-trip.
The queue was pretty long, but we waited patiently for our turn. Whenever the 1st bus is full, the next empty bus came in very fast so the visitors are not feeling grumpy.
* Phototaking is prohibited inside the museum but out-door is totally fine.*
The giant robot in Laputa.
Can spot some weeds growing inside the robot.
If you visit Tokyo and you love works from Miyazaki, this is the must-visit place!
Aunt bought a couple of Pullip dolls for myself and cousin. If you are a Pullip doll fan, they could be found in Ueno too.
1 Jun - Karuizawa, Prince Shopping Plaza
Our last day of shopping was at Karuizawa, just an hour's shinkansen ride from Ueno to Karuizawa's Prince Shopping Plaza. The place was splendid with beautiful golfcourses, countryside villas, suitable for retirement.
The shopping mall was large with garden-setting, all single-storey shops and a pond near the resting area. There are Agnes B and Samantha Thavasa outlets as well!
2 jun - Last day in Japan, and to Taiwan
Took the Narita Express back to Narita Airport and took the 4pm flight to Taoyuan airport. From there, a driver awaited and drove us to the hotel in Taipei, Shilin. After deposited our luggage, we had a walk along Shilin Market, hoping to settle down for some dinner. However, we ended up having our first meals in KFC.
3 jun (JR) - Jinmen visit
4-5 Jun in Taipei, visiting relatives, shopping, etc....
6 jun, Sun - 4.05pm flight, return Spore
