재.: 日本 JAPAN TRIP 2016 - TOKYO + KAWAGUCHIKO

日本 JAPAN TRIP 2016 - TOKYO + KAWAGUCHIKO

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Hello dear,

i've been slacking so much the past few days watching japanese movies, anime and manga to try and get over the fact that i'm no longer in Japan.

First time in Japan and my mom gave me a budget of 10k SGD for 3 people to plan this F&E trip for; so we flew in on Scoot and stayed at AirBnb apartments to splurge on expensive food.

Total cost of Lodging, JRPass, Return Flight, 12 days Wifi and Insurance was $1270 SGD per person. I'd say that i'm pretty good at budgeting after paying for my own trips. So we had a lot more spending money for food and shopping.

Those 12 days were a mix of the best and sometimes worst (when we were lost and cold ><) and this post is to recollect what we did. Will write about Kyoto and Nara+Osaka+Kobe in separate posts!

So here goes, TOKYO

Asakusa Shrine (& Nakamise Street)

Exit 1 Asakusa Station, 5 min walk

Akihabara

Otaku heaven Akihabara - where you'll find Maid Cafes, electronic megastores, karaokes, small restaurants and ANIMATE (7 floors of anime, manga stuff!)

SHIBUYA

Shopped and glanced subtlely at every ikemen (1 in 5 males). There were like 3 ikemen even in Daiso, and even if the bottom half of their faces were covered, the kakoii shone through. My fave the entire trip was the raven haired NamTae doppelganger in Daiso, we shared eye contact. probably knows i'm appreciating his looks.

YOYOGI PARK

Harajuku JR Station Exit. Turn right and walk 200m

look at the contrast in expressions

There's food tents everywhere to its a good way to start the day.

Lots of cute dogs and children and elderly.

MEIJI-JINGGU SHRINE

beside yoyogi park, ~7 min walk

w JT at the famous sake barrels

traditional wedding ceremony

HARAJUKU

Lunch & Shop @ Takeshita Street. You could also walk to Omotesando for expensive shopping. Alt. Go to Roppongi if you don't enjoy shopping! There's Mori Art Museum.

Love the thrift shops here even though i didn't buy much since they were pretty pricey. a printed thrifted blouse is around $40 SGD OTL. also WEGO is everywhere.

KAWAGUCHIKO

Took the Highway Bus from Shibuya Mark City (@Shibuya) to Kawaguchiko Bus & Rail Station. (It goes to Fuji as well)
http://highway-buses.jp/fuji/ it's easier if you reserve them in advance

Take the Kawaguchiko Sightseeing Bus from the bus station to stop 16:

KAWAGUCHIKO MUSIC FOREST

Admission Price:

Adult - 1,500円
High School Student (16 - 18y/o) - 1,100円
Primary/Middle School (under 15) - 800円

It doesn't matter if you're a foreign student, just show your student pass! Really worth going, the giant organ is really amazing and they have an hourly fountain show with music and a mini conductor, just like a cuckoo clock!

The Kawaguchiko Museum of Art is right beside the Music Forest so you can drop by there next if time permits! Closes at 5pm. There is Free Admission on the 14th of every month too.
We went on a 14th but didn't make it in time for the last admission :/

KAWAGUCHIKO LAKE

Kawaguchiko Lake from the area beside the Museum! It's pretty but i bet in autumn it'd be magical.

DAY 5:

Fuji-Q Highland

It started snowing around 2am and i set my alarm to see the March snowfall. /Turns narrative/
Curious and excitedly, she shuffled in the hotel slippers towards the balcony window. Squinting, for she was half blind sans glasses, she saw some white stuff on the balcony floor. SNOW! IT'S SNOW! she thought. Just a little, but tomorrow there shall be lots. She looked at the sky but there didn't seem to be anything falling from it. How odd. She opened the window and walked out into the negative degree weather in nothing but pajamas. There was nothing on the floor. On closer inspection, the white stuff was just part of the cement floor! Wow, such a silly mistake!

Come the next morning, i opened the curtains again to see white flake flurries drifting down. It's pretty magical seeing snowfall for the first time. (the only other times i've seen it is iced and on the floor). So obviously, I have to try to taste it. I then realised that it's gonna be snowing the whole day, contrary to what the weather forecast says. We probably won't be able to ride ANY rides at Fuji-Q.

ALMOST EVERY DAMN THING WAS CLOSED. I made a snowball and tossed it at the floor, grumpy kid cheorom.

So we Q-ed for 3 hours in 2 deg weather with HEAVY SNOWFALL for a Mission style attraction. It was miserable. And we didn't understand the mission, which was in Japanese, so we failed it in 10minutes.

magical dampness

3 hours for 10minutes. I felt like a guide failure. Why so?
Because just around the corner was the famous 1km long haunted house! the same waiting time, but we could've enjoyed ourselves so much more. The haunted house would take around 50minutes to complete. OTL

We couldn't wait another 3 hours for it. I felt so bad for my crew bcos i chose the mission ride, thinking the q would be ok. Such a waste of money and time!

Dodonpa, Fujiyama and 1km haunted house, i'll come back for you in the summer/autumn!
and then we headed to Kyoto. 5 hours of train rides. x_x

tbc >

Cheerio!

재

Continuation:
II. KYOTO
III. NARA + OSAKA + KOBE + MITAKA

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日本 JAPAN TRIP 2016 - TOKYO + KAWAGUCHIKO

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