D1 - Tokyo
Overview
| Time | Activity / Destination | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 23:30 (Day 0) | ✈️ KUL Airport | |
| 07:30 (Day 1) | 🛬 NRT Airport | |
| 09:30 | 🗼 Nippori Station | |
| 09:45 | 🔒 Hamamatsucho Station | Drop Luggage to Locker |
| 10:10 | 𠮷 Yoshinoya | Breakfast |
| 11:00 | 🛍️ Shibuya | Shibuya Crossing, and Shopping on Dondondonki, Parco for Games Floor, Loft |
| 13:00 | 🍜 Chiikawa Ramen Parco | Lunch |
| 16:00 | 💊 9h Hamamatsucho | Capsule hotel check-in, and nap |
| 17:30 | 🪈 Yamano Music Ginza | Sourcing for Flute |
| 20:00 | 🥘 Sokabokka @ Nakameguro | Dinner |
| 22:00 | 💤 9h Hamamatsucho | Back to capsule hotel for the night |
I had only planned for a single day in Tokyo this time, as the theme of this trip was to explore the surrounding regional cities, so Tokyo served mainly as my landing spot on Day 1 and a hub to depart via the Shinkansen.
Initially, I chose a 9:30 AM departure flight for Day 1. However, to give myself a full day in Tokyo for shopping without feeling rushed, I decided to change it to an 11:30 PM flight the night before.
Plane Flight
I’ve got to say, the flight was super-duper smooth, to the point where I honestly barely felt the plane lift-off from the ground. I usually get sweaty palms during takeoff, but this time around, my palms were completely dry.
I did run into a minor hiccup with the onboard Wi-Fi, though. For whatever reason, it wouldn’t let me log on until we were about three hours into the journey.
Narita Airport
Plane landed at 7:30 AM, fairly fast immigration procedure on taking thumbprint and move on.
Almost missed my train…
After picking up my luggage, I bought a Skyliner Express ticket to Nippori Station. The train was departing in just seven minutes, so I rushed down to the platform. Seeing a train already waiting, I jumped on, ignoring my intuition that Japanese trains usually only arrive a minute or two before departure.
That mistake caught up to me when I found another passenger in my reserved seat. After a confused conversation, I realized the terrifying truth, that I had boarded a train heading in the wrong direction, back toward Narita Terminal 1, and the doors were already closing.
I quickly deduced that since my correct train was scheduled for some minutes later, it had to be waiting at Terminal 1, and sure enough, I saw the train waiting with doors wide open as I’m reaching. I stood by the exit door gripping my luggage, and bolted across the platform the moment the doors open, to the opposite train and boarded it. Sure enough, barely some seconds later, the doors shut. And of course, the train arrived at Terminal 2 as stated on my ticket.
Phew… almost wasting the ¥2,500 ticket.
Tokyo City
I reached Nippori Station at 9:30 AM, and immediately felt the bustling vibes of the morning crowds. Picked up a brand-new Suica card from the automatic ticket machine, and headed straight to Hamamatsucho Station to store my luggage in a locker. With that out of the way, I was finally free to wander and start exploring the city. But first, I needed to find something to eat.
As I walked around Hamamatsucho, it felt a bit like a corporate office district with only sparse restaurant options around. Then, a familiar restaurant caught my eye. Realizing I shouldn’t be too picky for my very first meal, I decided to just go for it.
Shibuya
It has been eight years since I last returned to Shibuya, and it is just as busy as ever. I only took a few photos here and there, as I am still getting into the groove of the trip.
Of course coming to Shibuya, one thing can’t be missed is to be shopping! (Whether is it for me or for my wife and sis… I do not know hehe…).
Went to pharmacy for some facial mask, then Don don donki, Parco for Capcom store (!!), Nintendo and Pokémon centre, and also Loft for stationeries.
Shibuya Parco - Chiikawa Ramen Buta
I can’t quite pinpoint when my Chiikawa obsession actually started. I only found out about it because I was googling “Hachiware”, which is the Japanese name for my cat’s breed, and this random critter just popped up instead lolz.
But as my wife and I actually watch their anime series to get to know the characters more, we kind of grew into it as we can relate with the personalities of the Chiikawas, along with their funny moments.
Anyway, here is a look at the shop’s interior. It is definitely an “internally screaming” moment for any Chiikawa fans!
However, I forgot to take a picture of the noodles, but it is a thick and chewy style one. I thought the soup base will be like Ichiran Pork Bone style, but its more of a buttery fat which you can see scooped on top, and the garlic is reeeally spicy. Overall quite a heavy and fatty ramen, which I have a hard time finishing it, even though it is mini size.
As it is my first day in Japan, when I went into the shop, I saw a reception counter and some merch in racks on the right. The staff gladly take my order, but somehow they blurted a long Japanese instruction that I can only pick up some keywords like do you confirm your ramen order with your merch? Once all order is finalized no add-ons are possible. I was kind of confused why the insistence of it.
Then as I was eating my ramen and looking at some of their merch then I realize, Oh, they mean if I want to purchase merch, must be paired with a main meal of ramen, I guess to deter merch-only scalpers. I only able to grab a blind box and kind of regret not looking around more, as my stomach definitely can’t fit another bowl of ramen ><.
Interlude - 9h Hamamatsucho
After the heavy lunch and shopping around, it is almost 4pm local time, so I headed back to Hamamatsucho station to retrieve my luggage from my locker, and start walking back to the capsule hotel.
After checking in, I went to 2nd floor to drop of my bags, and to my horror, the luggage floor was super packed, that there isn’t a dedicated space to unpack luggages, and have to pack it on the floor where people walk by.
Since this was my first time staying in a capsule hotel, I had completely forgotten to pack a separate overnight bag for my one night stay. So I spent some great deal of time fumbling around with my personal belongings and charger etc.
As you can see below, the locker is too small for my luggage, just only my hand-carry and backpacks. I also spent time fumbling on locking the luggage, and stash and pray nobody will take my luggage.
After that torturing ordeal, it’s time to return to my capsule to have a nap. I’m kind of anxious on how it looks like, but to be honest, it is not as bad as I expected, just that my knees will keep knocking on the capsule side (sorry neighbour), and there is a very unwieldy power socket that my phone will be hanging from the charger unless I put something at the bottom to hold it.
Ginza - Yamano Music
After a quick 20-minute nap, it was time to head out for my main quest in Tokyo: hunting for a flute. To be honest, I was incredibly nervous; the thought of trying to communicate what I wanted to the store staff was daunting, especially since I wasn’t sure if they would understand me. Heck, I wasn’t even entirely sure I knew what I wanted myself (though I had done plenty of research and settled on some few models after cross-checking with my former flute teacher).
Some example of the flutes, holy smokes the price (and the staff told me that these were just their entry-level models…)
When I started conversing with the staff, she spoke mostly Japanese as her English was quite limited. My nerves spiked because I couldn’t always grasp the full meaning of what she said, and I had to actively scramble to figure out how to respond.
However, once I composed myself and let her know that my Japanese was still a work in progress, we successfully navigated the conversation using a mix of broken Japanese (trying my absolute best with proper grammar, of course) and English. That’s when it hit me: broken Japanese is completely fine as long as it gets the point across (Of course I know that in theory, but to make myself be comfortable and at peace with it is a different beast after all)!
Even when I couldn’t catch a sentence entirely, simply asking her to repeat it or explain it a different way kept the conversation going. And if worse came to worst, there was always Google Translate.
I did leave the store to do some thinking and discussing, and returned to the store some time after to buy the Muramatsu flute!
Nakameguro - Sokabokka
Damn, it was already 8:00 PM. I had spent almost two hours on the flute search alone, and I was very, very hungry (The Solitary Gourmet style). I had pinned an Okinawan restaurant specifically because it was featured on that show, and I was really curious to try the food. It was just a short 30-minute train ride from where I was, which felt totally manageable.
The restaurant was full of character. Situated upstairs, it had a wonderfully intimate atmosphere that felt perfect for small gatherings and post-work drinks.
For the meals below, I usually won’t order that much, but then there is only me on the trip but so many foods to try, I just let myself go all out on it.
Savoury, salty and spicy start for the meal.
The Tofu has a pudding-like texture to it, that it kind of sticks together to give some chewy feeling to it. It has a very clear and refreshing soybean taste, while still having a hint of peanuts. Paired with thick soy sauce and ginger onion, a very surprising treat.
I felt like I’m always the sucker for ¥500 Oolong tea even when there is Saabitsu (on the house) Ohiya (cold water).
Slightly charred pork belly slices. While the fat is the chewy kind, it does not have overly strong porky taste. The fragrance pairs well with their soyce sauce (again!), and the spicy sauce in the middle that is with shredded onions and green onion. It is very salty though, more to a beer pairing dish I feel.
Japanese soba with sea seaweed soup infused with spicy green onion and ginger. The taste reminds me strongly of simple home-cooked seaweed egg soup that we can found cooked by our parents, but a comfort food nontheless.
The appetizer was not free after all…
I like to point out that for the appetizer, actually I didn’t place order for it, but the staff just brought it out to me. And he says some sentences which I did not catch. I did ask is it Muryou (無料, free)? And he replied something that I forgot.
When the bill came, the appetizer had cost me ¥500. Damn… I should have clarified further, now that my bill is coming to a ¥2,800 total…
However, as I further researched on this article , it seems that the appetizer (Otoshi, お通し) is compulsory, akin to tipping culture in the US. So I guess just something to keep in mind of when going to Izakayas.
I’m always in awe with the stark transition between stepping out of a bustling, high-energy restaurant and onto a completely dead-quiet street, a perfect, peaceful moment that I can get to practice some of my camera shots.
Fade out - 9h Hamamatsucho
Finally take a train and back to hotel area around 10 PM. I think I walked quite a lot, and really in need of rest. As I walk back I passed by this Henna (Strange) Hotel. I have seen some pictures of the reception will be manned by Dinosaur robots, that may be good for some selfies. But once I saw what’s there, I noped the fk outta there…
I headed back to the hotel, fumbled a bit more with my luggage logistics, took a hot shower, and finally back too my lovely, snuggly, chiisa na capsule~ Before sleep, I couldn’t resist taking one last look, admiring my new flute in awe.
Tomorrow, to wake up at 8:30 AM, making way to Tokyo station for Shinkansen to Niigata.
Thoughts
- This flute buying encounter gave me the confidence I needed to keep speaking Japanese for the rest of my trip.