6th day - Ikebukuro part 2 ~ Observatory in sunshine city!

Hey everyone - ready to hear about part 2 of the Trip to Ikebukuro?

Well, after deciding not to go to Namja Town we thought we would go and have a look at the observatory.

Observatory ticket

We paid 700 yen (£4.44) to get into the observatory - there was a slightly cheaper ticket available but this one included a drink which was good.

Before we bought our tickets we were directed into a lift from the first floor up to the observatory by a guide Speaking in the usual fast and difficult-to-comprehend Keigo (polite speech) as we got into the lift, we didn't catch what she was saying.
The lift started to go up when suddenly the lights cut off. It seemed that what we failed to understand was that the lift itself had a display.

The ceiling of the lift

The door of the lift

We were still slightly reeling from the shock of the lights suddenly going off but were still able to admire the display. Atmospheric music began to play while the lift turned into a pretty light show. It was really cool but I wish I could have understood the warning we were probably given as with my past fears of lifts it was rather shocking!

The observatory had amazing views. You could go around in a circle to you could see a 360 degree view!

You can see the Tokyo Skytree in the left of this picture

You can see Mt. Fuji very faintly in the right of this picture!

The observatory had such amazing views that I took tonnes of photos, above are only a handful of them.
It was rather odd because they also had an exhibit on Brazillian carnivals going on in the observatory so you could here carnival music and the cacophonous noises of kids playing with the selection of carnival instruments that were on display.

After we had our fill of the views we went to the cafe and had our free drink and a snack.

I chose Calpis for my drink - Calpis is another milk-based drink (contains lactic acid). The taste is difficult to explain, it is has a kind of sweet tasting lemon-yogurty flavour. It might not sound too appetizing but it is one of my favorites. We were all a bit peckish so we each ordered a plate of takoyaki - squid balls - to fill our stomachs.

After the meal we had a few more peeks at the view then headed back to Tokyu Hands to pick up our stamps.

After collecting my stamp I had to leave as I needed to attend an orientation for my dorm - Waseda seems to love orientations! Amy and Zoe walked with me back to the station from which I made the rest of the journey home.

It was my first time traveling in Japan on my own so I was really pleased with myself that I managed to get to my dormitory all in one peace - even though I had to ask the station attendant which exit was best to leave out of resulting in me having to walk back to the other end of the platform. I was especially pleased as I did this all without any GPS - I still had not got a Japanese phone yet.

I made it back in time for my orientation so all in all a successful day!

I only wish I hadn't had to get back for the orientation as I missed out some cool things that Amy and Zoe did in Ikebukuro.

Well, see you later!

 

6th day - Ikebukuro part 1 ~ Hello Kitty and the Petshop

Hey guys,

on the 6th day Amy, Zoe and I went to Ikebukuro for the first time to get ourselves some Inkan 印鑑 (Japanese stamps used instead of signatures). We had heard that a department store called Tokyu Hands in Ikebukuro did them for cheap and that they could also be collected on the same day (some take days until they are ready for collection). These stamps are also known as Hanko 判子 and Insho 印章.

On the way to Tokyu Hands we spied a Sanrio store - the company that owns Hello Kitty and some various other cute characters - so we headed in.

Hello Kitty popcorn machine

Inside there were so many different cute products with various characters on them varying from phone cases to home-ware. There was even a Hello Kitty popcorn machine - pictured above - which made popcorn in three different flavours:

薄塩 usushio - lightly salted
キャラメル kyarameru - caramel
バター　bataa - butter

If you know me then you know I absolutely adore popcorn so I was very tempted to buy some (I was especially pleased that they have both salt and butter flavour). However it was 200 yen (£1.26) - not expensive by any means - but not cheap enough for me to fold in to temptation. No doubt if I see it again I will give it a go.

After the Sanrio store we went straight to Tokyu Hands and paid for our stamps, the woman working there said it would take 30 mins per inkan so we could come back in an hour and a half.
Luckily one of my last names fitted on the stamp (there was a maximum of 4 characters) however both Amy and Zoe used their first names as their surnames were too long.

Tokyu Hands had a pet store on one of the upper floors so we headed there straight after.

They had this machine where you could make keychains of your pets for  500 yen using your own pictures from an SD card or from other storage devices. As it was a pet store it was obviously made for pictures of your cute furry or feathery friends but there were pictures of babies on the machine so you could use it with any picture.

They had a little area where you could go and see some cats playing around but you had to pay to get in and it wasn't particularly cheap so we didn't go in.

A rather unimpressed kitty

They had this really pretty cat with a rather festive (if not too soon) halloween hat on that was loose in the shop. It tried to go for a walk around the store but was promptly scooped up and placed on the counter and then delivered into its cat basket. All this manhandling made the cat rather miffed and you can see the kitty giving the shop assistant the death glare in the photo above (poor cat!).

The store had lots of pet products and even pets that you could buy from rabbits to insects and fish!

After the pet store we headed off to sunshine city to spend some time before our stamps would be ready. Sunshine is an entertainment complex including restaurants, ice-cream shops, shopping areas, an aquarium and many other attractions.

Kimonos we saw in sunshine city

We were going to go to Namja town a small theme park which had an ice-cream area, gyoza area and funfair type attractions, however the entrance fee was rather high and we weren't sure what it actually covered so we decided to save it for another day.

Instead we decided to go to the observatory which I will cover in the next part of this post!

see you later!

4th day - Food and necessities!

Hey everyone, hope you are all doing well.

On my 4th day (15th) I went on some quick shopping trips for some key items!

A group of people from Amy's and Zoe's dorm lead by a Japanese student assistant went to go on a shopping trip as many of us still had some important things to buy.

We first went to Picaso to pick up some food.

At Picaso I bought some rice, soy sauce flavoured instant ramen, a frozen pasta meal, some corn soup, corn stew blocks and two other rather interesting items.
One of the interesting items I bought was the cheese curry instant ramen pictured at the top, I had passed up a previous opportunity to buy it at a convenience store and regretted it so I immediately snapped it up and put it in my basket. 

The other interesting item is the carton pictured to the right. I was looking for something to drink in the morning and this was in the dairy section and had one of the characters for milk on the box. It was only around 90 yen (about 57p) so I thought I would give the mystery dairy product a go. When I later tried the drink I found out it was a probiotic dairy product that tasted very similar to Yakult, and liking Yakult, I was not disappointed. 

receipt from Picaso

Overall the Picaso shop was 2029 yen (just over £12). Which seems expensive for the number of items but given the price of Japanese rice and the amount that I bought I feel that it was a reasonable shop. I'm glad I could get some food necessities in!

Next we went to a Daiso (100 yen store) for some practical goods.

At Daiso I bought some note books for the impending lessons (I like how even the things at 100 yen stores are cute), some much needed clothes washing powder, spaghetti and sauce, storage boxes for leftovers and a plastic bowl.
The plastic bowl was half necessity and half luxury, I talked myself into thinking that I would need it for hand washing when really I just wanted to use it to soak my poor feet after long days of walking. I have a perfectly good sink in my room with which to wash clothes in but I guess with the bowl I could rinse one and soap one at the same time - so not totally silly!

I also bought an umbrella! I haven't had an umbrella since I was a child as I have always felt that they are more trouble than they are worth and that the rain can be endured. However on hearing that a typhoon was coming decided that it might be worth investing in one given Japan's heavier bouts of rain. I still, however, maintain that in most cases an umbrella is unnecessary!

The first day I used the it I put it in the communal umbrella area to dry off next to another girl's one, but when I came back later it was gone! I was rather miffed but got more annoyed when I came back the next morning to find it was still missing. Luckily it had been returned later that day so I quickly rushed it up to my room and vowed to never leave it there again!

After the shopping trips I got hungry and couldn't resist trying the cheese curry cup noodle. I LOVE instant ramen - as I hope you will find out for yourselves in later blog posts - and thought that this flavour sounded so exciting!
Unfortunately I was too eager to try it so I forgot to take photos! Sorry! But no doubt I will try it again so I can cover it in a later blog post.
However I can tell you that it exceeded my expectations, the sauce was nice and thick and really tasted like curry and there were small cubes of cheese that melted into the sauce that I really enjoyed!

Well, see you next time!

3rd day - orientation and Shibuya at night

Hey everyone!

On my 3rd day (14th) I had orientation at Waseda university. It lasted for aaaages! They told us about signing up for courses, introduced us to some student groups, helped us fill out some important forms and lots more.

Lunch from Waseda

We didn't get to eat until quite late and I was soooo hungry as I didn't eat much for breakfast. But the lunch they gave us was really good! It included juice, ham, cucumber and egg sandwiches, umaibo (a type of savory corn snack), some sweets and a banana. It was good to have some fruit as they are expensive in Tokyo. Inside the sweets pack there was also a card saying "welcome to Waseda University" which was nice!
The sandwiches were so tasty I wanted to take one of the leftover boxes but it felt too cheeky so I practiced some self-restraint! However I was very thirsty so I did ask for another juice carton!

Later in the evening I joined Amy and group of people to go to Shibuya for sushi.

As all the Japanese guides say, Shibuya was really crowded. The buildings towered over us with bright lights and people jostled around. There were lots of noises and sights to see, it was a lot to take in but it was pretty amazing.  

Unfortunately there was not enough room in the sushi restaurant we planned to go to as our group was rather large so we all split up in search of food and arranged to meet at a later time. 

My meal

Amy's meal

Amy, Zoe and I went with another girl to CoCo Ichibanya - a curry house - for dinner. This restaurant had been recommended to us by our friend Lucy. The price was reasonable for a large dish and you could customise the dish by choosing the amount of rice, level of spice and adding extras. 

I chose a special dish of Cheese meatloaf katsu curry! A bit naughty but I couldn't resist. Amy went for a slightly more sensible vegetable curry. It tasted really good, I would definitely like to go again.

After the meal we met up with the group and then split up again to go for drinks or clubbing. Amy and I went to a pub with a few other girls.

Amy's drink

My drink

Amy had a frozen fruit beer cocktail, I have never heard of such a thing but it certainly looked interesting. Amy let me have a sip and it was pretty nice but I am not a massive fan of so I had momoshu a type liqueur made from peaches. I had had the more common umeshu (plum liqueur) before and really liked it so I thought I would try a different type. I wasn't disappointed, it was delicious! 

After one round of drinks we all decided to go home as we were tired out from the Orientation.

Thanks for reading my post!

Second day - Harajuku, Kiddy Land and Condomania!

Harajuku's Takeshita street

On the 13th - my second day in Japan - a group of friends and I wanted to go exploring. So we decided to head off for Harajuku. I have wanted to go to Harajuku for years so I was really excited to see it with my own eyes.

We got off at Shinjuku station as we thought Harajuku was nearby and that way we could check out Shinjuku too. However we were told it would be quite a walk so we had to get back on the metro and get off at Harajuku station.

We were a bit peckish so we decided to try Harajuku's famous crepes! They had so many different flavours both savory and sweet. Some crepes even had cakes or puddings inside them! A dessert inside a dessert!

Vanilla ice-cream, strawberries, cream and chocolate crepe!

This was the crepe I decided on. It was so delicious, in fact as I type this I have a hankering for another one! Although I can't imagine it would be a good idea to eat these very often!

There were so many different crepe shops, this was not the one we ordered from but it had some amazing flavours, including crepes with not only cream and fruit but also cheesecake slices or cakes inside!

The Tamagotchi shop!

We passed the Tamagotchi shop which looked so cute, unfortunately I didn't get to go inside so I hope that next time I will be able to have a look!

After having a look around in some of the Harajuku shops in Takeshita street we decided to look around a bit in the surrounding area. We still did not have Japanese phones yet so we inquired in a Softbank shop about getting phones. They told us which documents we would need to get a phone with them.

Condomania condom shop!

I had heard about the Condomania shop before and wanted to have a look so when we spotted it I knew I wanted to have a peek inside.

Birthday condom set - note the message on the packet!
"Too bad it only comes once a year!"

It may have been a small shop but there were certainly many different condoms crammed into it! Including Rilakkuma (a cute bear character) condoms!! There were lots of gag condoms as well! I was quite surprised about how many kinds there were! In the shop they also had a few other things such as phone cases.

Making sticks of rock!

We saw this sweet shop and it looked really nice so we had a look inside. the shop sold mostly sticks of rock and lollipops. There were free Halloween rock samples and we could see them making the sweets. I had never seen how sticks of rock were made before so it was really interesting, I find it amazing how they can get a picture or writing in the center. The two men at the end stretched the big blob of candy and the man at the front of the photo cut them and rolled them straight. After that he cut them down into little pieces ready to be packaged. He was really quick at the chopping! He gave us some to try, it was a really nice flavour and was still warm!

Tokyu Plaza entrance

We also had a look inside Tokyu Plaza, the mirror entrance was pretty cool.

Cute Disney luggage set

There was this travel case shop inside Tokyu Plaza which had really adorable luggage sets. I unfortunately set my eyes on the set above ~ it was sooo expensive!! Maybe if I can get a part time job I will be able to buy them before I go back! In my dreams!!!

We also saw a Barbie store that sold various Barbie branded products. How odd!

Kiddy Land!

Inside Kiddy Land

We all wanted to have a look at Kiddy Land so we headed there. Kiddy land is a kind of toy shop which sells products with lots of different characters. It doesn't only sell toys but also house and kitchen ware, stationary and other practical items with a cute twist so you can keep your house decorated with all your favorite characters!

There were so many things I wanted to buy! But I restrained myself!!

We were in the shop for so long when we left I forgot I hadn't paid for the products I was holding! I had only taken one foot out of the door when I realised and ran back to pay! Luckily I realised before we had properly left!!!

After Kiddy Land we went back to Harajuku where we bought a few things.

It was getting late but we had a look in Liz Lisa a really cute but not so cheap clothes shop.

After some more looking around in Harajuku it was getting late so we decided to take purikura photos! My first Purikura photos in Japan! There were lots of machines with different themes. It was really fun and much cheaper than taking them in London! You can also get multiple sheets for the same price if there are more people in your group! The machines in Japan can make you look very odd! They can enlarge your eyes which makes you look like an alien and in the full length shots it tries to make you look taller and skinnier which occasionally leads to some odd results!

Before we left we went to a Daiso (a kind of 100 yen store) to pick up a few essentials as we hadn't been shopping yet - it being our second day!

When we got back to Waseda it was pretty late and we were all hungry so after we dropped our stuff in our rooms some of us went back out to buy some bentos which we ate back in my dorm common room. While we were in the common room a kind boy offered us one of his grapes each fruit is very expensive here! At that point I had a revelation as to why the Japanese grape flavoured products taste the way they do! The grapes here are huge and taste completely different to how they do back at home!

My shopping haul! 

The result of the second day! I bought an organiser and polaroid film from Kiddy Land. The polaroid film was so much cheaper than back at home! I bought bathroom products, kitchen ware and some food at the Daiso. I also picked up an onigiri and sushi roll at a convenience store, and some treatment for mosquito bites at a shop in Harajuku mosquitoes love me!! I also bought some wedge heels in Harajuku for only 1000 yen - around £6.30!!!!!!

Overall it was a really busy day but we did so much! I spent a bit but luckily a lot was at Daiso so for what I bought it was really cheap!!! We got to see so many things and I was so glad I got to try the crepes in Harajuku, it was so good! I would recommend anyone going to Harajuku to try the crepes.

I had a really good time on only my second day! I hope its all up from here!

Hope you all enjoyed this post!