Japan Trip Day 1 - Ikebukuro

The whole Japan trip itself was kind of a hectic to begin with. It was my first time doing a free-and-easy trip and I have abandoned my little Japanese language 6 years ago! I've bought myself 2 books and a map of Tokyo. And I read Anna The Red's blog to know more places that I wanted to visit. She posted a lot of useful information on her own Japan trip last year's November. And we both love totoro; more about it in another post ;D

I arrived at Narita Airport early in the morning. The plane itself was late for more than an hour, there was some trouble before we leave Singapore. (One passenger didn't board on time, so the plane which hasn't fly off had to drive back to the terminal to 'specially' pick him up! Grr! X( )

Anyway, we took limousine bus to the hotel, which took about 2 hours. As we didn't have any concrete plan until the second day, so we don't mind the long journey (plus stealing naps after the long flight). Plus, we are bringing big luggage which isn't convenient to carry. We reached the hotel at about 11 a.m. but we couldn't check-in yet.

So I decided to visit Tokyu Hands at Ikebukuro. If you never been there but interested to check it out, print and bring along the map out! We were lost (a big time! XD) and I asked a lot of people on how to go about. I don't really speak Japanese, but I roughly ask where were we and how to reach Tokyu Hands. One warning though: the map isn't really updated, so it'll be easier if you can ask someone from the hotel for the way; at least you know they can speak English.

I went straight ahead to the crafts floor, found some clay but never buy any. I fear I would spent too much money at my first day! I skipped the pet shop though, coz my mom is not that fancy towards pet. Plus we are cranky and hungry.

So after walking around and almost getting lost again, we decided to eat ramen; at least the waiter boy spoke some English! XD

Luckily I've read Anna The Red's blog, so I knew that we had to order the ramen through the ramen ticket machine. But as usual, even though I've told my mom about this, she straight away looking somewhere to sit. We don't know what to order, so I picked the one that is being recommended by the waiter boy and my mom picked something with crunchy looking topping. It was very delicious, although sinfully full of fat and pork cuts. Xd

I ate this!

my mom's

On the way back, we past through Seibu, and bought a mont blanc cake (which tasted a bit weird with a strawberry inside, since I was expecting a chestnut filling). We went back to the hotel to check-in, opening our luggage, and went for a long nap.

We went back to Seibu through the train station and bought some onigiri on the way.

the left one is oyster filling, and the other one is salmon

They are preparing for the winter season, so most of the clothes are very thick! I do covet some of the jacket, but they are so expensive T_T

Most of the shop close at 9 p.m. so we went straight to the supermarket. I bought some persimmon which is very juicy and sweet! Ooh, I miss those! I forgot to take photo of it, but it was very big (bigger than your average apple!).

Continue to Japan Trip Day 2...