In 2017 I had a family trip to Taiwan for 2 weeks and so I thought that year I won't be going to Japan which will end the strike (I have went to Japan for 3 consecutive years previously from 2014 to 2016). However a friend of mine was planning his first Japan trip with his girlfriend and asked me do I want to tag along too, sort of to be their guide (LOL). Initially I rejected, but after checking the air ticket and asked my brother does he wanna go, I agreed to my friend we will go with them to Tokyo only (the couple planned to go Hakone and Kansai as well). And so in October 2017, me and my brother went for a short trip to Tokyo!
We went there for a 5 days trip (18th ~ 22nd Oct 2017) and took Japan Airline (SGD 745). In Tokyo, me, my brother and my couple friends booked a place using Airbnb at somewhere near Tsukiji. It's a neighborhood area and the place where we stayed it's a 2-story apartment. We stayed at the upper story which has a living room, kitchen and 2 bedrooms. It was spacious and only costs us SGD 139 for 4 nights. We had a delighted stay there.
Welcoming tourists for 2020 Olympics
On 18th Oct, me and my brother took the midnight flight to Tokyo and reached Haneda Airport in the morning. It was such a good weather the day we arrived, even though it's sunny, there were cool wind breezing so you won't feel hot at all. After putting our luggage at the Airbnb place, we went to Ikebukuro（池袋）and had our lunch there. We went to eat sushi at Kura Sushi (くら寿司) which is a conveyor belt sushi store and is ¥ 100 for every plate. It's a budget place to have some nice sushi there. One main attraction point there is that at every table there is a place to drop your finished plate and for every 5 plates you are entitle to get a gatcha. It's a fun way for the customers to clear their own table and have a chance getting a 'reward'.
After that we straight away went to the Pokémon Center at Ikebukuro. That day was the Halloween theme and Eevee evolution theme. We both did our first shopping there. LOL.
Our first purchase of the trip
Then we went to J-World which is in the same building as the Pokémon Center. As an anime fans, this is a place not to be missed as there are a lot of attractions for the famous Jump anime like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto, Kuroko no Basuke, Gintama and so on. The admission fee was ¥ 800. There is a dining area too which sell foods according to the anime theme.
Soge King's mask
Dragon Ball area
Naruto - Konoha village main gate
Naruto's fav Ramen shop
The fast food which Kuroko and the team always eat
Naruto's favorite!
That was about it on our first day. Evening time we met up with my couple friends and went to a place called Gyu Katsu Moto Mura (牛かつもと村) for dinner. It was a recommendation from their friend. This shop only has one menu which is selling Beef Katsu meal and the time we reached there it was already queuing outside the door. The shop is quite small with maximum capacity only 10 peoples. We waited around 30 minutes to go in and have our dinner. Before they serve the meal, they put a hot sizzling plate in front of you. Then they served the beef katsu which was still rare, so we can cook the beef katsu to our liking because some people like it medium rare, some people like it well done. It was a wonderful meal and I mark it as my must eat food whenever I go to Tokyo. For that 1 meal it cost ¥1,300.
The next day we went to the famous Tokyo Disney Sea. This would be my third Disney theme park after California Disney Theme Park and Hong Kong Disneyland. The first day when we arrived to Tokyo it was such a great weather and I thought it would be the same for the rest of the trip. However it turned out that was the only sunny weather, the rest of the week in Tokyo was always raining. The day we went to Tokyo Disney Sea was the worst, it was like water pouring. The whole time in the theme park we have to carry an umbrella and most of the outdoor activities were closed due to the heavy rain. Because of that the queue to the indoor rides became so long we have to wait at least 45 minutes for one ride. My brother was even shivering because of the heavy rain and strong wind blowing toward us. We were looking forward to Tokyo Disney Sea, part of it was also it was during the Halloween period and the theme park was decorated with Halloween theme, but too bad we couldn't fully enjoy that day.
Holding umbrella walking toward the station
Cute Mickey's ears handle with witch hat
Rainy day
Halloween theme entrance
Our first ride and we waited for more than an hour
There were still people went for the outdoor ride with raincoat
Because we couldn't fully enjoy the theme park that day due to the bad weather, I told my brother one day we definitely have to go again with out parents and sister, and this time we have to visit both Tokyo Disney Sea and Tokyo Disneyland. And we did so in our family trip to Japan in 2019 which I would write about it in the later day. ^^ One advice before going to Tokyo Disney theme park, buy the ticket beforehand to reduce the queueing time to buy ticket on site. Furthermore you can get a better deal buying from travel agency. We bought our ticket via Klook site which cost only SGD 75.5 for the 1 day ticket.
A Halloween special burger set - ¥3,320
Curry rice at the Aladdin theme restaurant - ¥2,900
On 20th Oct (Fri) which was our third day in Tokyo, in the morning we went to the Tsukiji fish market which was nearby to the place we stayed. We walked around the outer market and the indoor market, and we also had a sushi brunch at one of the shop there.
Sushi platter - ¥1,500
Then we went to Odaiba to visit the Fuji TV building and see the 1:1 Gundam model in front of Diver City Tokyo Plaza. After that we went to Tokyo Tower and visited the Tokyo One Piece Tower which was already closed in 31st July 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. The admission ticket cost ¥3,200 which included a seat to watch the Mugiwara Live Show. I'm glad I was able to go in once with my brother before it closed down. There were a few attractions to play, and a dozens of 1:1 size One Piece characters figure to photo with. The live show was entertaining as well, as the Mugiwara crew came into live plus the characters voice are dubbed by the actual voice actors. I really had a great time and enjoyed the theme park. I hope after this pandemic they will reopen it again for all the One Piece fans sake.
The excitement after being welcome by the One Piece theme song and seeing all the Mugiwara crew having a party!
Some of the gaming area
When the Live Show performance was about to start we went in earlier to find a good spot to watch as it is free seating. One good thing about the performance was that we were allowed to take photos as many as we want as long as it's not flash photography and don't disrupt other audience. Well of course, strictly no videography.
The Live Show was pretty impressive even though I only can understand 70% of the story😂 The characters were very lively, especially for Luffy keep jumping around and Nami was really sexy 😍 After the show it seems like the stage actors will have a photo session outside the stage room, but due to time constraint we never queue for the photo session instead we went to explore other area. So after Tokyo One Piece Tower and had Ichiran Ramen （一蘭ラーメン）as dinner, that concluded our third day in Tokyo.
A cold night
The next day morning we went to Asakusa to visit the Asakusa temple. The same as other days it was still raining and imagine that narrow shopping district everyone were holding up their umbrella. So difficult to move around. After that we went to the new gaming center, VR zone at Shinjuku. As the name stated, it's a VR game center. There were a few games to play like VR Mario Kart (the most famous and most fun), VR haunted house (which I don't play), VR Kamehameha (Goku teach how to concentrate you ki and blast a Kamehameha, from outsider point of view can see a group of people squatting and yelling nonstop 😂 ), etc. It was a new experience for me and my brother, but for the price try it once is enough. Haha.
On 22nd Oct (Sun) which was our last day in Japan. Our flight back to Singapore was at night, so we still got a day to shop around. We went to Don Quijote to shop for souvenirs and snacks and then we went to Akihabara to see those anime figurines and arcade centers. Around 7pm we took the train to Hanade airport and wait for our flight. It was my brother's first trip to Japan, not sure did he fully enjoyed the trip. However he did had a fever one day because of the rainy day and cold weather. It was so cold that we have to go to a convenient shop to buy a pair of gloves to wear. So I told him we have to go again and this time with our parents and sister to fully enjoy the Japan trip. In 2019, we did go for a family trip in Japan 😁
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