JAPAN DAYS 1 - 3
JAPAN Day 1 – 03/04/2015
Itinerary:
Singapore – Manila
Manila – Narita
Narita – Marroad Inn Hotel (Akasaka)
Tokyo Tower
Roponggi Hills
My itinerary was SG - MNL, the MNL - NRT. This was because the original ticket bought by my Kuya was from Manila. I was still in Philippines back then. So I just bought a ticket from SG to MNL instead of booking a flight direct to Japan.
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We landed at Terminal 2, Narita International Airport, at around 10AM,
local time and went directly to the immigration counter.
In the immigration counter, I gave my passport and
embarkation/disembarkation card (that I
filled out while on plane) to the immigration officer, put my index finger in
the scanner and smiled in front of a small camera. Boom, it’s done. The IO gave
my passport with an arrival sticker indicating that I could stay until
18/04/2015 (15 days).
Afterwards, we met Kuya at the luggage counters since he had a direct
flight from Singapore. Afterwards, we both looked out for a booth which has
pocket wifi rental services. And we found 3 booths offering the same service.
We opted for the cheaper one, and it’s 972 yen per day. I forgot the name of
the brand, but you can easily find it at the arrival area. We paid 8,748 yen
for 9 days of stay via credit card and we were told that we could return it at
Kansai International Airport where we’re bound to depart. (Though I wouldn’t recommend this pocket wifi as the connection was very
very very slow. There were only 3 of us who used it, and sometimes, we couldn’t
even upload a picture! I guess it had 3GB limit for 3 days of use. Nevertheless,
the wifi was just really helpful because we could search for the directions of
the places we wanted to see and visit.)
At the train station, we chose the ordinary train, which was cheaper, (no seat reservation and not a limited
express) in going to Marroad Inn Hotel in Akasaka. It was more than an hour
when we reached the hotel. We left our luggage and bags at the reception area
since the check in time was 4PM. We found a small restaurant just right across
the hotel and grabbed food. To order, we needed to use the vending machine,
choose our food and pay. Then a ticket showing your order will come out.
I chose Kitsune Udon because it’s Good Friday and meat wasn’t allowed.
After eating our first meal in Japan, we went immediately to Tokyo
Tower. Entrance fee is 900 yen for access in the Main Observatory Deck (150
meters).
We just enjoyed the view of the city at night time.
Let me share with you a video of a 3-in-1 use of the sink. J
We grabbed a snack at the nearest 7/11 store and brought it inside the
hotel. Our day was done!
JAPAN Day 2 – 04/04/2015
Itinerary:
Ueno Park
Tokyo National Museum
Sensoji
Sensoji Temple
Tokyo Sky Tree
Shibuya
Hachiko Park
We woke up early because we wanted to seize our time while in Tokyo. We
purchased a personalized PASMO card where we could just reload, tap in and tap
out to avoid wasting of time exchanging our tickets for fare adjustments.
There were lots of vending machines all over Japan! So to start our
day, Carlo purchased a Welch fruit drink and a cheesecake flavored Kitkat. Both
were appetizing!
First stop of the day was Ueno Park.
Cherry blossoms were at full bloom in the park! They were so so so
lovely! We roamed around the park and took lots of pictures. By the way, we had
to buy umbrellas in the train station because it was raining when we arrived.
An umbrella costs around 500 yen.
There were a lot of food booths at the park. And because we were food
junkies, we bought these!
Hahaha, got you! :*
We just walked towards the end of the park and the Tokyo National
Museum is just minutes away by foot. Entrance fee is 620 yen. We got our
tickets via vending machine.
Our umbrellas needed to be parked.
The museum was really big. Or maybe I am not just used to visiting
museums so I was overwhelmed. Also, there were lots of locals who visit so it’s
really nice to know that they wanted to know and see what their own history,
culture and art have.
After Ueno, we went to Senso-ji and checked out some good stuff. We
passed by a Takoyaki store, and got a plate. It’s good to taste an authentic
Takoyaki which was really different from the ones sold in Manila. For lunch, we
had the sushi-go-round-table. All we had to do was pick the plate that we
wanted to eat. Each sushi was placed on a colored plate, and the plate
indicates the price of what we would eat. They all tasted really good as
freshly prepared by the chefs but it was a bit pricey so we just grabbed around
20 plates and it already cost us to pay more than 5,200 yen.
While on our way to the Sensoji Temple, we passed by different street
foods and bought these!!! They were cheap finds!
Since the Tokyo Sky Tree is a few kilometres from there, we patiently
wandered the area and took lovely photos until we reached the place.
At the Tokyo Sky Tree, we were asked to wait until 7:30PM because the
queue was too long. We just decided to pass it by but my brother found an
express lane and he took the chance. The entrance fee was just higher because
he was able to skip the long lines. He just told us that the city view was
beautiful at day time.
We went straight to Shibuya to look for Hachiko. Hachiko Park was just
right across the Shibuya Station – Hachicko Exit, where a lot of teenagers were
meeting up. It seemed like it was a “tambay” place. We even crossed one of the
busiest crossings, Shibuya Crossing, where we scrambled with a lot of people!!!
I actually wondered where these people came from because as the green man
started to light up, a lot of people came to cross one street from another!
Check this video which I took while crossing.
We had dinner in a nearby cheap resto. A bowl of noodle just cost
around 700 yen.
End of our day.
JAPAN Day 3 – 05/04/2015
Woot woot! Tokyo Disneyland!!! Let the pictures say it all J
