Just a few pics here. We went to find presents to take home so went over a few places again, mainly Harajuku and Ikebukuro before going home the following day. I also puts the few pics from the maid cafe and various Purikura that I scanned when we got home.

Cannot wait to go back, hopefully next year, to finish seeing everything we wanted to see. 10 days was NOT long enough at all.

I suggest anyone visiting stay at one of the Sakura Hotels as they are awesome with lovely staff and cheap prices. Sakura Ikebukuro was where we stayed and it was a total pleasure to stay there. Will be again next time.

I love Tokyo <3

Tokyo 2010 - Last pics and then home

This was probably the day that will stick in my head over all others. It was a beautiful day to visit and it was just amazing, if not also amazingly busy and crowded with a million obaasans (old grannies) everywhere for some reason.

We did the Hakone round trip and went over Owakudani and saw Fuji-san which was the most surreal experience of my life. It didn’t feel real. Also we had booked a private onsen, which meant we had to rush a lot of the tour (missed out on the black eggs), but boy was it worth it. We can’t use most onsen due to having tattoos and they are a big no-no, so I was over the moon when I found this place. It was incredibly relaxing.

We then headed back into Tokyo and mooched about Shinjuku some more.

The amazing pics…

Tokyo 2010 - Hakone and Shinjuku

Went to Shibuya and was actually quite unimpressed, maybe I was basing it all on the hype. Shibuya 109 was just a bit sad as all the Japanese fashion currently seems to be based around trying to look as Western as possible (think 90210, Gossip Girl, etc). I didn’t like a thing in there and was quite disappointed. Found another nice sushi bar though and had fun in Tower Records. In the afternoon we went back to Akihabara and bought more stuff. We also visited a maid cafe called MaiDreamin which was a lot of fun and the girls were awesome

…

Tokyo 2010 - Shibuya and Akiba

We first went to visit the Pokemon Centre as D loves it and then spent our evening in Odaiba at Venus Fort and Sega Joypolis.

For some reason my pics are a bit the wrong way round but I can’t be bothered to fix them. Makes no difference anyhoo…

Tokyo 2010 - Pokemon and Odaiba

Finally went into Harajuku, the place I’d been desperate to go visit ever since I got into Japanese street fashion and I bought my first FRUITS book.

I love this place and it would be a dream to someday have a SHIBBY store there, even just a teeny tiny one. Who knows, eh?

Bring on the pics…

Tokyo 2010 - Harajuku

Headed to Mitaka to visit the Studio Ghibli museum. If you have no idea what that is then shame on you and I suggest you go fix yourself.

The museum was amazing and we had great fun. After we walked through Inokashira Park to Kichijoji and in the evening went back to Namja Town in Ikebukuro as D wanted to visit due to a Bleach theme going on.

Pics and descriptions…

Tokyo 2010 - Mitaka, Inokashira Park, Kichijoji, Namja Town

We went shopping in Nakano at Nakano Broadway for more anime figurines which we love. It wasn’t as amazing as some may make it out to be (some reckon it is better than Akiba, which is utter nonsense). Still bought some cool things, grabbed a bento from the food court and I had fun in a 100 yen store buying eyelashes.

After this we dropped our swag off at the hotel and went into Shinjuku for the evening. This place was mega busy but we had great fun and I fell head-over-heels in love with the OIOI Marui department store that had themed fashion floors filled with my favourite brands that I can’t get in the UK. Some of the brands are ones that have inspired SHIBBY such as Super Lovers, Hangry & Angry and Sexpot Revenge. I spent waaay too much money in the Super Lovers shop, but hey where else I can buy stuff since they closed the store in Covent Garden?

Anyway again will let the pics roll….

Tokyo 2010 - Nakano Broadway and Shinjuku

Have been back for a month and finally got round to updating this (I know I’m rubbish)

Akihabara, Electric town and also now extra famous for all it’s otaku (anime/manga obsessed) shops. Perfect for D and I Yay!

We bought tons of figurines that we later had to ship home as we wouldn’t have been able to get it all on the plane. Also visited a yum sushi bar and then headed back into Ikebukuro for some extra spicy ramen at a famous ramen noodle bar. Nom.

Let the pictures speak for themelves…

Tokyo 2010 - Akihabara

First day in Tokyo was my birthday and we decided to stay in Ikebukuro and mooch about the town.

Brekkie was yum and we met a lovely man named Watanabe-san. He is a retired company director and was full of information which he was more than happy to share with us as we enjoyed a two hour long breakfast. He even drew maps for us and was just lovely. Will no doubt see him again as he has coffee at our hotel cafe each morning.

So after brekkie was headed into town. This place is such a culture shock and it’s not even a touristy or majorly popular area. Buildings are huge, signs flash at you from everywhere, music was playing from what we think were lamp posts all down the street and people were shouting at us from various shops and arcades.

We stopped in the Sega arcade to play a few games which was fun. Then we discovered Tokyu Hands – 8 floors of craziness. They sell all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff. Top floor had Nekobukuro – a place you pay a few quid to get in and can play with tons of cats for however long you like. Unfortunately they’d only just had brekkie so were all fat and lazy. Still was fun anyway

Then we headed into the HUUUUUGE Sunshine 60 building. It has a shopping centre, conference room, hotel, observation deck and a crazy place called Namjatown. It’s a food themed area where they have a ‘Gyoza Town’, Dessert area and most importantly, Ice Cream City. They had must have been about 100 different flavours of ice cream. Some nice ones, but some odd ones. We had potato and butter, chicken wing, shark fin, shochu and cucumber, grape sherbert (nom) and charcoal.

After we’d had our ice creamy fill we foound another arcade and has GREAT fun messing about with Purikura (will scan it as soon as we get home). So much fun posing for full length camera and then getting a pen to draw on it with. Will make a video of it next time. After that we headed out of the huge skyscraper and found a bunch of anime/manga shops. It was awesome and we’ve seen a million things we want already. Still stuck in our strange jet laggy time difference mood we headed back to our hotel for dinner, a drinky and early bed. I know, boring, but we feel better for it this morning.

Here are some pics from the day.

Tokyo 17/11/2010 - Ikebukuro

Next up? Akihabara…..

Well after a 10 hour flight from the UK I am safe and happy in Tokyo with my husband. Been here a day now, but only just got round to showing my face on here.

We’re staying at Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro and it’s a nice simple hotel with a 24 hour cafe and lovely staff. Would so far recommend it highly to anyone who doesn’t mind things being a little ‘no frills’.

It has taken a long time to settle into the time difference as we pretty much lost a day on the plane.

Some pics on the plane and first night in Tokyo …

Tokyo 2010