My Japan Trip: Part 6| Homeward Bound

Our trip was nearly at an end, all that remained to do was to travel back to Narita airport, and onward to Heathrow.

I got up extra early on our last day so I could walk round Shibuya while no one was around. I wanted to experience the area without the crowds. I walked round near Seibu, Loft, up to Tokyo Hands and round to the station, where I found the famous Hachiko statue – for once not surrounded by the crowds…

We were told when buying our N’Ex tickets into Tokyo from Narita that you could book your seats the day you travelled back to the airport, so I went into Shibuya Station to try and find the ticket machine. Took a while, but I found it in the main foyer. I noted it’s location for later.

Back at the hotel, and a final grape Fanta from the vending machine (my favourite drink whilst in Japan – I wish we had it back in England!). Glen was up by now, and we both finished packing our suitcases.

We left the hotel about 7am, got on the N’Ex train and made our way back to Narita. Arriving about an hour later, we got through security and the bag drop off with no fuss, and boarded the plane for our 12 hour flight back to London.

I took one last look out the airplane window at Japan – I’d had such a great time and it was sad to be going home. Usually at the end of holidays I kind of miss home and am happy to go back, but that wasn’t the case with Japan. I vowed I would return again, someday.

On the way home I watched Star Wars again (twice!) did some crocheting and read a little. I still couldn’t sleep sitting up...

I’ve been asked a few times how I managed to get a crochet hook on board an international flight. On this occasion, visiting Japan, I took a Clover crochet hook – one of the ergonomic ones. I’ve heard from friends that these are quite safe to fly with, but my advise to you would be to take a spare hook - not your favourite - just in case they do take it from you. I’d bought this 4mm clover hook especially for the trip, and thankfully was fine. I’ve also taken bamboo hooks on planes to Cyprus before as well with no problem, but again don’t take your favourite hook. Also, just in case they do confiscate it, take a self addressed envelope with you, so they can post the hook back to your home if you have to leave it behind :)

We landed at London Heathrow about 12 hours later, our journey finally at an end. The car journey back to Basildon was slow – there was a lot of traffic on the motorway – and we reached home around 6pm.

And that’s it! Although we were only there for 5 days I loved every minute, and would like to thank my parents for making this life-long dream a reality. I couldn’t have gone without their help, so will be forever grateful <3 p="">

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my Japan trip, and thanks for being with me to the end of it! I hope one day I can report about my return visit!

Hope you enjoy the rest of your week <3 p="">

My Japan Trip: Part 5: Shinjuku and Nakano

If yesterday was a search for retro gaming and gashapon, today was most definitely a hunt for Blythe dolls and craft shops.

I got on the Yamanote Line train up to Shinjuku around 9:30am – it was a Sunday so I thankfully avoided the horrific rush hour traffic we met on our way back from Mt.Fuji. Shinjuku is just 2 stops up from our base at Shibuya, so I was there in no time.

The above photo is the view upon exiting the station – I descended the stairs and made my way left in search of a chain of craft stores that had been recommended to me many times – Okadaya.

I have to confess I was wandering round the streets of Shinjuku about 2 hours in search of this store. On my walks I found a great underground shopping mall with a basement full of cafes and restaurants, where I had a drink and a slice of cake. It was so hot this Sunday and I just needed to sit down awhile, and this was the perfect place. Also in this shopping mall was a great fabric store, selling traditional (and expensive) kimono fabrics. You could see the ladies in the shop fitting kimonos for customers – the fabrics used were so pretty and vivid.

Wandering, wandering, wandering – about an hour later I found the first of the Okadaya stores – the one for fabrics. Inside was about every type of fabric you could imagine, from cotton to denim, linen to kimono fabrics. I was very tempted to buy some small print cotton for Blythe dresses, but I was very good and managed to resist.

Across the little side street was the main store I’d come to see – the one containing yarn. Inside it was like a yarn addicts paradise..

Again, like the fabric store across the street, there was every type of yarn you could think of. I particularly liked these acrylics, in rainbow colours…

I regret it now, but I didn’t buy any yarn here (shock, horror!). The yarn I find myself buying these days is usually acrylic, in bulk, for blankets. I loved the little 50g balls of yarn pictured above, but I have to say it was a little expensive, and the amount I would need to make a blanket with would leave me with no holiday money to spend on my last day. They were very pretty though…

It was about 1pm by now, so I headed to a McDonalds on the corner near the railway track. I went up to the 3rd floor and got a nice seat overlooking Shinjuku…

I couldn’t believe people were still walking round in coats – it was so hot this day! I felt weird being the only one out without a coat, but theres no way I could have put up with the heat if I’d have left it on.

I sat here a while, then headed back downstairs and onto the streets of Shinjuku again. I had a further wander round, mainly round near the station. After a while I decided to move on to my next destination – Nakano.

Getting to Nakano means travelling on a train that isn’t on the Yamanote Line, so I needed to navigate different platforms at Shinjuku Station. It was no problem though – everything in Tokyo is so well signposted, even with signs in English. I liked the trains the most – there were LED displays above the doors telling you the next station, and on what side of the train the doors would open. You don’t get that on the London Underground!

My main reason for travelling up to Nakano was for toy shopping. Just north of the stations North Exit is the main draw – Nakano Broadway. It’s a shopping mall full of toy shops, which you get to through a gallery of food, convenience and mobile phone shops.

Photo (c) frolichawaii.com via Goog;e

At the end of this little parade of shops you reach the outside of Nakano Broadway proper…

Photo (c) japan-guide.com via Google

As always, I intended to go to the top floor and work my way down. Upon arriving at the top floor though I found the whole floor to be a massive gaming arcade, no signs of shops. So I skipped that level. Big mistake - you will see why in a bit...

I looked round the remaining floors, Ooh-ing and Aah-ing at all the amazing toys for sale. I found a shop full of ‘girl’ toys, including these Licca Dolls…

Kawaii!! Though as of yet I was still to find any Blythe dolls, which is what I was mainly here for. Hmm…

Onto more shops – a lot of the shops here were owned by Mandarake, and therefore sold a lot of second hand collectable and vintage toys. It was so fun looking round them all, especially finding the retro Japanese monsters and dinosaur figures. They were really cool, but sadly a little outside of my price range.

It was very hard to get photos in these shops, but I got a few sneaky ones on my iPhone. Like this one…

Toy paradise!! 

Also in this shop I spotted an amazing sample of amigurumi work – I have no idea what he was but he was so fab!

Look at the detail in the face! Wow!

I only noticed when I got home and looked through my photos that there is also an amigurumi in the background of that shot – it looks like a tomato with a smily face hehe!

I made my way down the levels, buying little bits here and there that took my fancy. I got a little do-it-yourself doll kit, where you buy mix and match hair, face and body parts all separately and build it up yourself. I got a Miku version, shown in the picture at the bottom of the page.

I reached the entrance of Nakano Broadway and have to admit I was a little disappointed not to find many Blythe dolls. I had heard stories of the hoards of Blythes you could find in Nakano, and all the bargains to be had. I however had only found a couple of dolls in the Mandarake. I must have missed something….

I decided to head back into the shopping centre, determined to find what I had come here for. I decided to check out the very top floor again – the one with the arcade. I ascended a different elevator this time, and Thank God I did! It opened up onto a completely different area of the top floor, this one with more toy shops, and more importantly, shops with Blythe dolls! Lots of Blythe dolls!

Seriously, there were glass cases full to the brim with every Blythe doll you could think of. From stock new releases to second hand favourites, customs to Kenners…

This auburn Kenner was my one of my favourites – she was so pretty and in brilliant condition, probably why she merited a 150,000yen price tag (approx. £1,003 GBP/$1,439 USD). Believe me, if I’d have had that amount of money I could have bought her - of course I would - but, alas, I didn’t. So I left her in the display case...

I didn’t leave empty handed though – after about 45 minutes perusing the different shops and Blythes on offer I settled on a super cute, second hand Friendly Freckles that was hiding away in the bottom corner of one of the bigger stores. I also found some toys I was aiming to get whilst in Tokyo – a Wonder Frog and an Odeco-Chan! Yay! I bought all 3 of these treasures in the same shop, and in turn spending most of the last of my money. I had a about 10yen after this!

I left Nakano Broadway on cloud 9, so happy I had found what I had come all this way for. I made my way back through the gallery of convenience stores and onto the train station, bound for Shibuya.

Back at the hotel I had a grape Fanta from the vending machine and sat down to admire the days purchases…

As well as the Blythe, Odeco-Chan and Wonder Frog, I got a D-I-Y Miku, a Blythe outfit, Halloween Edition Sonny Angel, 3 kawaii -block-type figures and a weird looking mushroom man – he was so strange looking I just had to have him hehe!

Here he is admiring the view from the window…

Isn’t he fab?! He has a magnetic hat haha!

I decided to spend my last evening in Japan wandering round the now familiar streets of Shibuya. I visited the Parco store, one I had somehow managed to overlook the day before. Thank God I did – look what I found!

Double yay! 

It was a whole section dedicated to the Blythe store Junie Moon. Bags, clothing, books, dolls, phone cases, postcards, stickers, pencil cases – it was all here. I was so sad I had spent all of my money!

There was however a little pot on one of the tables with some freebies in it – including an Ayanami Rei Blythe iPhone 5 sticker – so I snapped it up, seen as I have an iPhone 5 myself! Score!

I walked round a little more, up to the Tokyo Hands and down Center Gai. I got another cake from the Starbucks overlooking the crossing, hoping to sit and watch the passers by for a while, but it was so busy – there wasn’t a single seat available. So I took my cake back to the hotel, grabbed another can of grape Fanta, and settled in for the night.

And so ended our last full day in Japan. We were to return to London the next day at around 10am, which meant I should get some sleep for our early start. I planned to get up extra early anyway in order to explore Shibuya whilst no one was around, something I had meant to do since we arrived, but never got round to.

The last instalment of this report will be posted tomorrow, I hope you can join me on my early morning wandering and journey back to London!

My Japan Trip: Part 4| Shibuya and Akihabara

Photo (c) travel.nationalgeographic.com via Google

 I planned to spend the whole 3rd day of our holiday exploring on my own. It’s not that I don’t like spending time with my family, it’s just that our interests differ – they don’t really want to look round craft and toy shops – plus I like having time to myself sometimes. So we all met up in the restaurant area at around 8am, talked about our individual plans for the day whilst eating breakfast (noodles for breakfast?!) and went on our own way. I think Glen was off in search of a music shop we had seen from the train window on our arrival in Shibuya and then on to Nakano, and my parents were wandering around the nearby streets and doing a little gift shopping.

After my little interaction with a local the night before (read about it in Part 3, here), I was very nervous about taking pictures in public, incase I upset anyone. So I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of personal pics from today, so I will enlist the help of Pinterest :)

I started the day by visiting Tokyu Hands a couple of streets away. Unfortunately today it was raining quite a lot, and seen as I was out quite early, had to wait round outside the store for it to open, umbrella in hand :P

Photo (c) Luri and Wilma Magazine via Pinterest

Tokyu Hands is a self proclaimed Japanese lifestyle mecca, and sells a wide range of items ranging from fabric, yarn and craft bits, books, stationary, homeware and furniture, bags, clothing and even pets and pet accessories. The store in Shibuya is the flagship store, and the biggest branch in Tokyo.

 I spent ALOT of time in here! There are 10 floors, each with at least 2 separate tiers for you to peruse. I got the elevator to the top floor, and made my way, slowly, back to the ground floor and the basement beyond.

 Here’s a picture of the steps – I loved these as it made me feel I was doing some exercise!

Photo (Toothpick Nations via Pinterest

I got a lot of cool bits and pieces from this store – including a back support cushion for my work chair back home, vinyl stickers, blind box toys, more gashapon, some pens and a stretchy resistance exercise band thingy – you really could buy anything here! I even got a discount card for showing my passport! Yay for money off!

After I’d spent about 3 hours here, it was still raining outside, so I looked for more shops. I visited Seibu, Loft, Shibuya 109 and Kinokuniya, where I bought the Japanese edition of my favourite books – Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84, Parts 1, 2 and 3

I stopped for lunch in an Italian pizza restaurant on Centre Gai, where I had the weirdest pizza I’d ever eaten in my life (tasty though!) and headed back to drop my purchases off at the hotel.

I got this shot of a little side street out the back of the building…

The rain had let up quite a bit by this time, so I headed for Shibuya Station and on to my next stop – Akihabara…

Photo (c) Foursquare via Pinterest

Akihabara is a gaming nerds paradise, with streets and streets of retro gaming stores and arcades. There are whole shops full of nothing but gashapon! I think I bought about 30 gashapon here – I even had to exchange some 1000yen notes for 100yen coins. I’m not ashamed…

Photo (c) Tokyoexcess.blogspot.com via Pinterest

I wandered the streets - taking in all the neon lights and signage - up towards the massive Mandarake store towards the east of the area. This is the flagship Mandarake store in Tokyo, and it didn’t disappoint!

Photo (c) wikimapia.org via Google

Featuring 7 floors of books, manga, collectible and designer toys and cosplay items; it even sold a few Blythe dolls! I was very good though and didn’t buy one – I was saving my big Blythe buy for tomorrow, when I intended to visit Nakano.

I left Mandarake and strolled back along the main street towards Akihabara Station – by now it was sunny and warm. I found a great little tax-free gift shop along the way – it sold lots of great souvenirs like mini kokeshi dolls, pin badges, traditional Japanese gifts and electronics. I also might have stopped in the gashapon arcades again…

The rest of the evening I spent in and around Shibuya; I met up with my parents and we had dinner at TGI Fridays. Glen was apparently still on his adventures in Nakano. We met back at the hotel that night and he showed me all the amazing bits he’d found – I was super excited to go there the following day!

And that was the end of Day 3! I hope you can join me for Day 4, tomorrow!

My Trip To Japan: Part 3 - Mt. Fuji, Hakone & Lake Ashi

Read Part 2 - Harajuku here

For the second full day of our holiday we had arranged to go on a one day tour of Mt.Fuji, Lake Ashi and Hakone. We were to meet at 7:35am at the nearby Cerulean Towers Hotel in Shibuya – an early start!

Our coach pick up took us to a nearby bus station, where we boarded our outgoing coach with the rest of the tour group. On our way out of Tokyo we passed many sights, including Tokyo Tower…

The trip up to Mt.Fuji was a pleasant one – it took about 1 hour and our tour guide, Emi-San, was very informative, telling us lots of facts and info about Tokyo and the surrounding areas.

Whilst on board the coaches I found some cool info leaflets in the backs of the seats – I don’t know why but I think they’re really fun, with their cute illustrations and bright colours!

You definitely don’t get signs like this in UK!

We were heading for the 5th Station – 2,400ft above sea level and the highest point we could go to by coach that day. We were lucky actually – we were told the weather this day was unusually clear and we got some great views of the surrounding areas…

We stayed here a little while – there was a little shop for gifts and ice cream (ice cream – on a snow covered mountain?!) and of course for photo opportunities. We set off after about 30 minutes, our next target a rest stop at the base of the mountain for lunch.

Here is our guide Emi-San, explaining about how Fuji-San is a very jealous mountain, on the way to our lunch stop…

At the rest stop you had the option of visiting the restaurant or opting for a lunch-box lunch, which was pre-paid for when you booked the tour. We were the only ones on the coach that didn’t order the pre-paid for lunch box haha! I kind of wish we had, as it looked really nice. So instead we sat down in the dinning room and had the bits we had bought at the Family Mart near our hotel, earlier that morning.

Afterwards we got a chance to look round the gift shop (where I got a shopping bag featuring Mt.Fuji and Hello Kitty), and time to explore the grounds of the rest stop. It was really pretty there, with formal gardens and little places to sit and relax.

There was even a great view of Fuji-San out the front of the building…

Next on our tour we headed to Hakone, and Lake Ashi. We made our way through winding forest roads at the base of the mountain – in all it took about 45 minutes.

At Hakone we got the chance to board a cable car, with brilliant views of the mountain, forests and Lake Ashi below. And again, great signage!

Lake Ashi was our last stop before heading back to Tokyo on the bullet train. We got to go on a short cruise across the lake…

On the other side of the lake we visited yet another gift shop, where Glen and I spotted this fab Domo-Kun in traditional dress!

Our tour was almost at an end, all that remained was to travel back to Tokyo via Bullet Train. We had been looking forward to this part of the tour as we had heard so much about the Bullet Train's speed and efficiency.

I wanted to get a picture of the train when it passed our station, but it was so fast I missed it! Instead I got this one of a Bullet Train at the opposite platform…

On board the Bullet Train (Shinkansen, in Japanese) it was so packed we had to stand for part of our journey, where I spotted another sign…

This was the view we had out the little side window in the standing section…

Blink and you’ll miss it!

We arrived back at Tokyo Station around 7:30pm, and made our way back along the JR Yamanote Line to Shibuya Station.

That evening I decided to have a wander by myself, and got some pictures of Shibuya after dark...

I had a little encounter with a local whilst strolling round Shibuya that night – I was taking a picture of the streets outside the Seibu store when a Japanese man wandered into my shot. I think he thought I was taking a picture of him, as he passed a few angry words and gave me the finger! I learnt very quickly that you have to be very careful when taking pictures in public, incase people think you are trying to take candid photos of them instead of the surrounding…

Aside from that incident, we’d all had a brilliant day, and I retired back to the Tokyu Rei around 10pm for a drink from the vending machine on floor 4. Glen was back in the room when I arrived with my Coke – he had bought dinner from the McDonalds next door to our hotel and was sitting in the window seat overlooking the crossing, which was really pretty at night…

And so ended another full, busy day. I planned to go to Akihabara the next day, which you can read about in tomorrows post

Hope everyone is having a nice week!