Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Japan Diary Day 1

In the first weeks of December, Thali and I made our first trip together to Japan! I've done a little day by day diary of our adventures.

Our trip was for two weeks. We attempted to accquire tickets to the Angelic Pretty tea party but unfortunately we weren't successful. It was a bit of a shame, but we had a great time regardless!

We spent the first week in Tokyo, and the remainder in Kyoto/Osaka. I think next time we'll go for a little longer and give ourselves some more relax days (and maybe keep a day free for when one or both of us inevitably becomes ill!). The day actually coincides with the date (so day 1 was the 1st of December) so I'm not going write it for each, but in case you were wondering!

This was my 6th trip and Thali's 3rd trip, I think. My Japanese is rudimentary at best and I can muddle along, but I'm really grateful to my friends who helped me with double checking information (ily jordi and aviva). I used google maps for all our travel, since it's pretty extensively integrated with Japan's public transport. I have an excessive number of screen shots of gmaps instructions and well the actual map with markers. I don't think there was anything we looked for that we couldn't find.

Let's begin!

Some of my final haul. I needed a photo to start with since I didn't take many at all for this day.
Day 1 - Tokyo
Tuesday

Our flight arrived early in the morning on the 1st. We'd packed light, so we skipped over leaving our luggage anywhere and jumped on the Skyline. It was a few changes and jumping across lines and train companies, which is a great challenge when you've just gotten off a nine hour flight, but we made it to our first destination- Grand Bazaar in Shimokitazawa!

The store is really lovely and the shop staff were really nice. It was super quiet, and we mostly browsed alone. Thali was lucky enough to find JM's Royal Stripe midi skirt in green, and I picked up two cardigans. One was a lavender glitter cardigan from ETC that Thali had picked up and suggested to me, I dithered but I'm really glad I got it. I've already lost count of the number of times I've worn it. We picked up a few cakes on our way to the station that were super tasty. I think it would be nice to spend a bit more time in the area next time, but that it seems the kind of place that would take a while to get to know.


After Shimokitazawa, we jumped on a train back to Ikebukuro. We stayed with Panda Club in their nearby airbnb. It was super cost effective for the area, though would have been cramped for people not really used to small apartment living. We got into Ikebukuro just in time for check in! We took some time to relax and get rid of that gross I just got off a plane feeling and then went for a look around Ikebukuro~

Ikebukuro is a place that's very easy to get to know! There's a lot of signage and it's not too difficult to navigate. We looked in at Closet Child Ikebukuro and I picked up some accessories, and Thali a cute regimental skirt. We took dinner at Saizeriya and I won Thali a tiny puppy key chain in a crane machine. They've gotten really difficult! Saizeriya is a cheap eats kind of place. I don't know that they're great (and they got rid of the salad or added shrimp to it and I was sad) but if you want something cheap, warm and filling they're not too bad.

We poked our head into a chemist and picked up some make up and for our dessert, we celebrated our first night with parfaits at the Milky Way Cafe. Mine came with candles, given the number of things we did or almost knocked over it probably wasn't the best idea. We survived though, and headed home with our spoils ♥

Places of interest:

4 comments :

  1. It was such a wonderful trip! ♥ Thank you for writing up some memories of it ; v ;

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    1. I'll try to write more soon.. it's a slow process ^^;;;;;;;; ♥♥♥

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  2. 6 times? Wowza! Everything is so cute! I love that you've included the points of interest too, I think it's a bit frustrating when people just kinda share photos of some places they liked but don't say where! Christmas time seems like a really lovely time to visit too!

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    1. Yep! Thank you! I really wanted to these posts to be even a little bit informative, so hopefully even just some little links will help. Christmas was lovely, but I'm looking forward to trying to go back in Spring next time Thali and I go.

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