This is the last of my Tokyo Travelogue series. This is the 4th Day that we are spending in Tokyo so it’ll be kinda like the highlights! I had tea at a beautiful flower shop, went shopping for cute knick knacks and souvenirs at Harajuku, ate blowfish (and didn’t die), and flew off back to Singapore. It was hectic to say the least but I’d do it over and over again!!
So we stayed in an airbnb apartment at New State Manor which has a pretty good and quiet location.
It’s near Lumine 2, (opp) Takashimaya Times Square and 3 mins walk away from the Southern Terrace Exit of the Shinjuku JR station.
One thing I learnt about staying in airbnbs is the importance of reading reviews and asking lots of questions beforehand.
I took it for granted that my host would have space for me to store my luggage till it was time for me to go to the airport but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. After a frantic search for places to store our luggages (our flight was 11.55pm out from Haneda Airport), we finally found our solution in the Left Luggage counter at Tokyo Station.
TOKYO STATION
We decided to make the most out of it and checked out real early and went from Shinjuku Station to Tokyo Station via the JR Line. In view of all the travels we’ll take today, we bought the JR Line One Day Pass (750 yen). It’s very worth it especially for a day like the one we had.
At Tokyo Station (ramen street!!), we dropped our luggage and checked out this Oyaku-don that’s recommended by our guidebook. It’s located at Kitchen Street (near Daimaru) on level 1.
It was 1100 yen for a large bowl of chicken thigh and eggs and 900 yen for a small one. I had the small one and it was crazy filling! The husband had the chicken and egg with soy sauce for 1200 yen. They open at 11am.
Onward to Omotesando
With very full tummies, we hopped back on the Yamanote JR Line from Tokyo Station to Harajuku Station.
From Harajuku, we took a 7 min walk to Omotesando which is my new favourite ‘hood now!
At Omotesando, we covered quite a few places:
♥ Asoko
This is a super popular lifestyle boutique with surprising designs and prices. Their cheapest item is a cute fire-extinguisher eraser, costing only ￥21. It has variety as huge as Daiso but it could be cheaper! :)
There are heaps of fun and creative items that will make great gifts for any occasion!
♥ Flying Tiger
Yes we came back here again because this is a really good place that sells lifestyle items that are really nice and cheap! Quite like Asoko above but way better.
♥ Ayoma Flower Tea House (BEAUTIFUL place that serves flower tea and food inside a flower market!)
♥ Onizuka Tiger (beautiful japan-exclusive pieces)
And with that, we left Harajuku for Ikebukuro. Everything else at Omotesando is honestly too upmarket for humble me. :)
IKEBUKURO
And then pta decided to do something we have never done before. EAT BLOWFISH. Blowfish is highly poisonous and if it’s not prepared properly by a certified chef, it can be fatal.
In Japan, it’s pretty popular and safe to eat Blowfish. We travelled to Ikebukuro for 2 things:
♥ Blowfish beside Royal Hotel (C9 exit of Ikebukuro station)
We had a Blowfish sashimi and Blowfish Hotpot. The hotpot was quite plain. Fish was fresh no doubt.
♥ Unagi place @ Parco Level 8 (East exit)
So goodddd! Such an unassuming place too. When we were there, the whole restaurant was empty at 6.30pm on a Monday.
The grilled eel on a bed of rice (Hitsumabushi) was well marinated (very flavourful) and grilled perfectly with a slight crisp on the side where the skin is. Yummy! One set of Hitsumabushi and one set of Umaki (Chopped Unagi wrapped in Egg Roll) cost us slightly under 5k yen.
I would totally come back again just for the Umaki. It’s soooo good!!! The egg was soft and pillowy. The unagi was very flavourful. Served warm, this dish was one of the best dishes I had in Tokyo so far!
BACK TO TOKYO STATION!
We picked up our luggage, had our last ramen fix, bought some instant ramen, bonito flakes from the supermarket, picked up my very last strawberry shortcake and off we went back on the Yamanote JR line to Hamamatsucho Station. Changing to monorail was super easy. 20mins and 460yen was all it took to get us to Haneda airport. Really gotta love how close it is compared to Narita!
To read my day by day 4D3N Tokyo travelogue /itinerary, click on the links below:
Day 1: Shibuya
Day 2: Tokyo Station / Ueno / Shinjuku
Day 3: Tsujiki / Akihabara / Harajuku / Omotesando – Part 1
Day 3: Tsujiki / Akihabara / Harajuku / Omotesando – Part 2
Day 4: Last Day in Tokyo (Harajuku / Omotesando/ Ikebukuro / Tokyo Station)
