Japan is one of the countries that both the hubby and I love and always think about going back again and again. At the beginning of this year, I travelled to Osaka with my buddy and had a really fun time. So, I feel really blessed to be able to make my second trip to Japan before the year comes to an end.
If you are on a budget like we are, opt for budget airline when searching for your flights. Transit/transfer flights always cost cheaper, though they take a longer time for you to get to your destination. We flew by Scoot this time round because there was a good promotion going on for flights to Tokyo. We only paid slightly over S$350/pax for our flights, which was a whopping 50% discount from the usual prices. Budget Travel Tip: Get onto the mailing lists of budget airlines if you want to be notified about flight promos and make your bookings ahead of others.
Our flight was 12.55am and we landed in Tokyo at about 10am in the morning, after a stopover at Taipei. By then, we were famished and because we would take another 1.5 hours of train ride to city area, we bought some snacks from the vending machine at the airport to fill our stomachs first. If you do not know by now, Japan has some of the best vending machines in the world – They sell all kinds of yummy food and snacks, and even hot canned drinks! My first purchase in Tokyo was this hot can of milk tea. Immediately warmed my body in the cool 15-degree weather.
The red bean pancake was exceptionally yummy. And those chocolate-coated chips were just very happy food.
We booked our apartment via Airbnb website, and got a lovely looking apartment that we really enjoyed staying in. The host – Mackey - was awarded a Superhost badge, and we totally could see why. Mackey was fast in responding to all our queries and bookings before the trip, and she sent us detailed and clear instructions on how to get to her apartment from the airport. She recommended that we take the Narita Sky Access Line to her apartment, which was the cheapest option, and that certainly helped us navigate in a foreign land very quickly.
Our apartment was located in Nishi-Shinjuku area, which was 2 stations away from Shinjuku. It looked like a rather high-end private apartment, and was well-furnished with everything you need on a trip. There’s a small kitchenette, table with two armchairs, double bed and a sofa bed. There’s also a washing machine/dryer, separate toilet and bathroom areas and a bath tub! There was also a portable wifi router provided for us to access free wifi everywhere we went in Tokyo. That helped us save quite a sum of money. Budget Travel Tip: Choose an accommodation that provides free portable wifi devices.
If you are looking at booking accommodation for your next vacation via Airbnb, you can use my code to get $28 off your first booking - www.airbnb.com.sg/c/klee1228?s=8
We took a short stroll around our neighborhood and were thrilled to find that there were 3 convenience stores and several eateries located just downstairs. So convenient! And I love it that it’s quiet and pretty too.
Settled for late lunch at one of my all-time favorite budget restaurants in Japan - 松屋。They serve basic beef bowls with decent miso soup – For the price you pay, it’s top quality food in my opinion. They only have counter seats and you order via a vending machine and get seated, with food served to you in 3 minutes flat. It’s perfect for a quick and comforting meal.
A most basic beef bowl set costs $6 and looks like this.
There are more expensive options of course, and different items to choose from on the menu. The husband tried kimchi beef bowl, which was good too.
Then we were off to Harujuku for our first night of shopping! Harujuku is one of our fav places for shopping in Tokyo because there are many street wear shops selling all kind of stuffs, especially at Takeshita-dori Street. It was only 4plus in the evening when we arrived and it was already this dark!
We were just strolling along and we spotted Ichiran Ramen shop! We couldn’t contain our excitement because friends have been telling us that this is one ramen restaurant we have to try, and we didn’t manage to do so on our previous trip! So, even though we were not super hungry, we just had to try it. We were definitely not disappointed! The ramen was so chewy, and the soup – Good till the last drop. Ichiran is certainly a must-try in Japan. The best part is that it’s also a budget restaurant with very reasonable prices!
Place your orders and make payment at the vending machine and then look for an available booth inside the restaurant for your ramen. The most interesting thing about Ichiran is that everyone enjoys their ramen in private cubicle booths.
Like this! (I wonder why the Japanese guy next to my husband was smirking at him =X)
You can make some customizations to your bowl of ramen by indicating the softness of the noodles, amount of oil in soup and whether some ingredients should be omitted, etc. Once you are done, press the red button on the table. A window opened up in front of me and a waiter appeared to collect my order.
I stuck my camera through the window to take the view inside. That’s what it looks like! =D
And my perfect bowl of ramen was presented to me within 5 minutes. Slurp!
After dinner, we went in search for Calbee shop for their freshly-fried potato chips!
And we found it very quickly! =D
It was the best-tasting cheese chips ever!
It was a non-stop eating night, as we walked into My Little Pony popup café after that. This was covered in my earlier post and you can read it here.
And as if we were not full enough, we walked into a second ramen shop that evening, and the husband said this was one of the best ramen ever! We seem to say that at every restaurant we walked into. That’s the name of the restaurant on the wooden trays.
The soup was so flavorful, OMG!
And the gyozas were truly amazing – Juicy meat filling inside with lots of soup bursting out when I bit into it, and the skin outside was crispy. So superbly good! Travel Tip: Always order food to share so that you can try more varieties and have more meals along the way!
That was our Day 1 in Tokyo – Like the rest of the trip you would read about later on, there was a lot of walking and eating. I was perpetually in a very full mode, but we just kept eating nonetheless. =X That’s Tokyo for ya. Stay tuned for more Tokyo adventures coming up in the next few days. =)
