Travel to Japan: Asakusa, Ginza, Akihabara & Sky Tree

ASAKUSA

Asakusa is located in north-east Tokyo. This peaceful district famous for the Sensoji Temple with a lot of matsuri or festivals are being held near there. Lucky for me, there's one when I visited this temple on Sunday morning. Even though the symbol of Asakusa, Kaminarimon gate (the outer gate), was under construction when I was there.

Nakamise Street is a well known shopping street in Asakusa, located inside the temple area after Kaminarimon Gate. It's open daily from 8:00 to 19:00. You can buy Japanese traditional craft and food here such as mochi, rice crackers, yukata, folded fans and etc. However, the price for those goodies is a bit expensive here. Maybe because this place is so popular among tourists. 

As I walked along, there's also a food bazaar near the Hozomon Gate (the second/inner gate). One more step before I reached the Main Hall. I was too busy eating various of Japanese snacks until I ran out of time to snap some pictures of those food stalls. But here's one of them! It's a banana covered with colorful chocolate :)

So I finally arrived at the inner gate! I was standing so close to watch a parade coming out from the temple.

I didn't miss a chance to try my luck at Omikuji section. Unlike the other one that I've tried at Umeda Sky Building in Osaka, I've got the bad fortune paper this time T.T So I chose to tie my paper to the wires and hope all those bad luck will go away.

Omikuji step by step:

1) Put in 100 yen into the slot (even though no one's watching, don't you cheat on this one)

2) Pick up the metal container and shake it until one wooden stick came out from the hole

3) Match the number on the stick with one of the drawers

4) Open the drawer and take out one paper

The paper written in Japanese on the front side, flip back and you can find the fortune written in English. Don't forget to put the wooden stick back into the metal container. Good luck!

The temple was so full of people that day so my friends and I decided not to go inside the main hall. We chose to have some fun taking pictures with our すごい monopod ;p

Sensoji Temple

Open daily 6:00 to 17:00 (for the main hall), no admission fee

How to get there

From Tokyo Station: to Ueno Station on JR Yamanote Line, transfer to subway Ginza Line (+/- 15 mins)

From Shibuya Station: to Asakusa Station on Ginza Line (+/- 35 mins)

From Shinjuku Station : to Daimon on subway Oedo Line, transfer to Asakusa Line get off at Asakusa Station (+/- 35 mins) - if you want to ride JR Yamanote Line, go to Shibuya Station then transfer to subway.

AKIHABARA

Callin' out all gamers, anime, manga and gadget freak out there! This district is a heaven for you! You can spend your countless yen in various game arcades here. I didn't do it though, but one of my friend said it's fun! If you're looking for a gadget or any other electronic goods, don't give your second thought a chance and buy them here. You might be lost inside Yodobashi Camera since this 8 stories building is filled with gadget, computer, game console, camera, home appliances and even one big Gundam Store! There are also many restaurants on the 8th level. Akihabara is also popular with the maid cafe where all the waitresses do a cosplay. Most of them are wearing French Maids costume. Other than that, this area is the home of Japanese leading girl group, AKB48, too. They have a theater along with merchandise store and cafe near Akihabara Station.

Yodobashi Camera, open daily 9:30 to 22:00

Games arcades, open daily (mostly) 10:00 to 22:00

AKB48, open daily, cafe 11:00 to 23:00, shop 10:00 to 22:00

Gundam Cafe, open daily 10:00 to 23:00 (open early on weekend)

How to get there

From Tokyo Station: JR Yamanote Line to Akihabara JR Station (+/- 5 mins)

From Shinjuku/Shibuya Station: JR Yamanote Line to Akihabara JR Station (+/- 25 mins)

From Asakusa Station: to Ueno Station on Ginza Line, transfer to subway Hibiya Line get off at Akibahara Station (+/- 10 mins)

GINZA

High-brand futuristic stores are lined up along the streets. Ginza is the upscale area of Tokyo. It's similar with Apgujeong/Cheongdam area in Korea. I can't afford to buy anything luxurious within this area, but I was really enjoying the view of many well-design buildings. In my opinion, it's better to visit Ginza at night since the bright lights will be shining along your way. Don't forget to grab some mini waffles at Manneken too! If you want to experience shopping in Ginza but Bvlgari, Cartier, Channel, or Burberry aren't the right stores for your budget pocket, you still can visit H&M or Uniqlo within this district.

Stores open daily, mostly 10:00 to 20:00 or 21:00

Restaurants open daily, mostly 11:00 to 22:00 or 23:00

Saturday and Sunday are the best time to visit Ginza because the central street, Chuo Dori, is closed for cars or any other motor vehicle from 12:00 to 17:00

How to get there

From Tokyo Station: take subway on Marunochi Line to Ginza Station (+/- 5 mins)

From Shibuya Station: go to Ginza Station via subway Ginza Line (+/- 20 mins) 

From Shinjuku Station: take subway Oedo Line to Aoyama-Itchome Station, transfer to Ginza Line and  get off at Ginza Station (+/- 20 mins) - if you want to ride JR from Shinjuku, go to Shibuya Station then  transfer to subway Ginza Line

From Asakusa: go to Ginza Station via subway Ginza Line (+/- 20 mins)

TOKYO SKYTREE

Our last stop for the day, the tallest tower in the world, Tokyo Skytree Tower. Most of towers surely have a observation deck as well as Tokyo Skytree. Besides that, there are also broadcasting companies, shops, restaurants, aquarium, and planetarium on the lower level of this tower. Tokyo Skytree has just newly opened 2 years ago with its full height of 634 meters. It has 2 observation decks. The first or lower one is 350 meters high. The Skytree Cafe, Restaurant, and shop are located at this level. The second or higher observatory deck is 450 meters high. I didn't go up to the observation decks, but I think the view of Tokyo and some parts of Japan will look amazing from the top.

Tokyo Skytree

Open daily, 8:00 to 22:00

First observation deck ticket: 2000 yen, first and second observatory: 3000 yen 

How to get there

From Tokyo Station: go to Otemachi Station on subway Marunochi Line, transfer to Hanzomon Line and get off at Oshiage Station (+/- 20 mins)

From Shibuya Station: to Oshiage Station via  subway Hanzomon Line (+/- 35 mins)

From Shinjuku Station: go to Sumiyoshi Station on subway Shinjuku Line, transfer to Hanzomon Line and get off at Oshiage Station (+/- 30 mins)

From Asakusa Station: to Tokyo Skytree Station via Skytree Line or to Oshiage Station via Asakusa Line (+/- 5 mins)

(p) pictures courtesy of Purti

Travel to Japan: Tokyo (Disney Sea, Shinjuku, Shibuya)

"I wonder if you know,  how they live in Tokyo. If you seen it then you mean it, then you know you have to go."

- Tokyo Drift by Teriyaki Boyz (Fast & Furious 3)

TOKYO. Acknowledged as one of the most expensive city to live in for many years. Yes I made it, in my own affordable way.

After a long almost 10 hours journey from Osaka, we finally arrived at Tokyo on Friday morning around 08.20. We got off from Willer Bus Express near Tokyo Station (Kajibashi parking lot, across Yaesu Fujiya Hotel). Even though Tokyo Station is just 5 mins away, we chose to walk to Kyobashi Station to take subway to reach Tawaramachi Station (near Asakusa). Main reason? We didn't need to transfer since both stations are on the same subway line. Since we brought some heavy luggages, we tried to avoid subway's stairs :)

Morning exercise to Kyobashi Station (p)

For getting around via subway in Tokyo we couldn't use our ICOCA card that we bought in Osaka, so we bought another transportation card called PASMO or SUICA. You can buy PASMO on ticket machine at subway station or SUICA at JR station. Truthfully, we can use our ICOCA card to ride JR trains at Tokyo too, but not for subway. We need to move fast in Tokyo, so we decided to buy another transportation card. Read here for more information about Tokyo transportation cards.

Thanks God there's an entrance with elevator at Kyobashi Station. We also bought our PASMO card at this station with some help from a nice officer on duty. We arrived at Tawaramachi Station 15 minutes later. There's no elevator here, so be brave and embraced the stairs. Fortunately, I met a very kind Spanish tourist who helped me to bring my heavy luggage through the exit. I owe you big one surprisingly helpful stranger. 

We stayed at Khaosan Tokyo Laboratory. A very nice hostel in Asakusa area. Khaosan Tokyo has some branches around Asakusa: Ninja, Original, Samurai, Kabuki, Laboratory, and the newest one World Asakusa (open late Nov last year). The Laboratory branch was also recently open last year too. 

This hostel offers many 3 bed rooms' space with colorful walls, so pretty! A private bath room is attached inside. We paid 3,400 JPY per person per night. This hostel also offers 4 bedroom's space and dormitory room. 

Entrance (k)

Reception, information, and free internet corner (k)

Dining area and kitchen (k)

Our bright pink room! (k)

We arrived too early from our check-in time, but Tsubasa (hostel staff) nicely allowed us to use the public bathroom to freshen up. It was a day after Halloween and there are lots of costumes and accessories on the reception lounge, we tried some of them too.

Scary crab and silly rabbit (p) 

We had a yummy lunch at a japanese restaurant nearby. I can't recall the name, it's something started with "T". Tenya if I'm not mistaken. Tsubasa recommended us to try this place because the food came in big portion, delicious and the price is affordable. Yes we skipped breakfast, yes we hungry, yes we need biggie lunchie before our happiest journey to Disney Sea.

Tempura set and tasty soba, yummsterrr (p)

Disney Sea here we go! We took subway Ginza Line from Tawaramachi Station to Ueno, transferred to Hibiya Line and got off at Hatchobori, transferred to Keiyo Line and made our stop at Maihama, walked to Disney Resort then rode the Disney Train to Disney Sea. It's a long journey. 

We arrived at Disney Sea around 2 pm and have a plan to stay until the fireworks on 8 pm. I didn't ride any attractions while I was there because the place was too packed of people, my friends were able to ride 2-3 attractions though. I chose to stroll around and watched some shows instead.

(p)

(p)

We already bought our Disney Sea ticket through Tokyo Disney Resort web. It saved us sometimes because we don't have to queue in front of ticket counter anymore. We just had to print our e-ticket and showed it at the entrance gate. You have to pay 6,200 JPY for one day passport ticket to Disney Sea.

I wasn't aware that it's forbidden to use a tripod or even a monopod in Disney Sea and Disneyland. Another thing that I just knew was you can't watch fireworks at Disney Sea, because there's a show called Fantasmic to close your day there. You can only get fireworks if you go to Disneyland.

Food and drinks in Disney Sea are quite expensive. I spent nearly 120 JPY just to get a churros, minnie popsicle, and a bottle mineral water. 

We're going to Shin-Okubo Korea Town for an early lunch on the next day. Another cheap but tasty japanese (with a bit fusion taste from Korea) restaurant chain similar to Yoshinoya called Sukiya. I ate a bowl of kimchi gyudon. After that we went to Shinjuku and visited the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to get a view of Tokyo and its surrounding from the observatory deck. I didn't have to spend any penny since it's free!

TMGO

Buildings

and building

Another buildings

The weather was too cloudy that day. It's been said that on good weather you can see Mount Fuji from up there. But I was able to catch a glimpse of Tokyo Dome and Tokyo Sky Tree though.

We went around and found a garden near TMGO. It's Saturday and lucky for us there's a flea market there!

(p)

Got myself a fluffy little Elmo at Shinjuku flea market for 200 JPY only!

I left Shinjuku around 1 pm and rushed to Saitama (a prefecture near Tokyo) to catch CNBLUE concert in Japan that held at Saitama Super Arena. I'll have another post for my Saitama trip in Japan (CNBLUE Arena Tour in Japan & Kawagoe).

CNBLUE "One More Time" Arena Tour in Japan

I met my friends again later that night at Shibuya. We had our dinner at a curry place, once again I forgot the restaurant name. But it wasn't Coco or Go Go Curry. 

Similar with Shinjuku, I didn't spend lots of my time in Shibuya. The district was too busy for me to enjoy. We revisited Shibuya on our last night in Tokyo and I did spend quite some time at Tower Records Shibuya to buy some CDs. They also have a nice little cafe and book store inside. Music, books, and coffee at one place: perfecto. As an addition we closed our Tokyo trip with a warm big plate of Coco Curry. I'm getting addicted to japanese curry.

Shibuya is popular for its crossing in front of Shibuya Station - Hachiko exit. We surely made our way and crossed that busy street :)

(k) pictures courtesy of Khaosan Tokyo Laboratory

(p) picturs courtesy of Purti