Content in Part III (the final part!) of my Tokyo adventures covers Day 8 to Day 13:
- Tokyo Disney Sea
- Kamakura temples
- The La Foret Private Party, Harajuku
- Ghibli Museum, Mitaka
- Stores including Wut Berlin, Mercibeaucoup, Wagado, Meme’s Park, Nude Trump, Hayatochiri, Candy, and Shibuya 109
- Yoyogi park
- Akihabara
- Leaving Japan :'(
- BONUS PICTURES from throughout my whole trip
Day 8: Disney Sea (東京ディズニーシー)
For Hayley’s birthday we visited Disney Sea! Attractions included Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Aquatopia, Stormrider and more.
Mermaid Lagoon! My favourite place in Disney Sea.
Day 9: Koenji/Harajuku
After an epic-long Day 8 at Disney Sea, we left this day for more relaxed activities, so I chilled in Koenji and shopped all afternoon in Harajuku! This was the day I mentioned in Part I that I met Juria at Avantgarde.
Day 10: Kamakura
I’m sure people say this all the time but… the strawberries in Japan are the most perfect strawberries I’ve ever seen. They look like they are made of wax or something, none of them have a single bruise or dent! Are they more selective with the strawberries that are packaged in Japan? I am curious.
This is where I tried a toffee strawberry for the first time which Sakiko, a Japanese friend of Hayley’s, bought for me! :’) They are simply a strawberry coated in crunchy hard toffee with a salty cracker on the back, and the strawberry is super warm and sweet. It was insanely delicious, I definitely prefer them over toffee apples/candy apples!
Daibutsu (Great Buddha) (大仏)
Evening: The La Foret Private Party, Harajuku
After a long and amazing explore of Kamakura, we headed to Harajuku and stopped by McDonald’s for a quick bite to eat before heading to the party. This was the coolest McDonald’s I’ve ever been to. Never have I seen so many amazingly dressed people inside a McDonald’s restaurant (well of course… it’s Harajuku), and it feels cooler/more acceptable to eat in one here than any other places I’ve been. This is also the first McDonald’s I’ve visited where I’ve seen girls applying false nails (glue, polish and all) inside the restaurant.
La Foret Private Party
The party was pretty big and it had a ton of guests. The dress code was “Ribbon” but nobody stuck to it at all. Basically the store was open for shopping, but with a DJ, free drinks (one of which was electric blue and looked and sort of tasted like detergent?), food samples and lots of Street Snap hunters about. Some stores also had previews for collections that would be stocked in upcoming months. Some familiar faces I spotted at the party included Juria, Ikeda Hirari, Marina and Ayaka.
WALL（ウォール）H.P.FRANCE
Day 11: Ghibli Museum, Mitaka (三鷹の森 ジブリ美術館) plus Harajuku and Akihabara.
The museum was so amazing *___* and a lot bigger than I had expected! There were strict policies about photography so I do not have any pictures from inside, only the outside of the building. The building itself is very pretty, it’s quite a tall structure with bridges going between different sides of the same floors and beautiful Ghibli film-themed stained glass windows. On the first floor there is a super tall and skinny encaged spiral staircase you can climb to reach one of the higher levels! So much fun. You are also allowed to watch one Ghibli short film per visit, and we saw “Mei and the Kittenbus”.
The entire museum really has the feel of a rabbit warren and even some doorways you have to crouch to walk through, as the motto on the website states “Let’s become lost children together” (迷子になろうよ、いっしょに). Definitely the perfect museum for me.
Planning my outfit for the day.
Ghibli Museum ticket! It’s a real piece of film. Can you see which movie it is from?
The gift shop definitely has a more of a, how could I say, educational or artistic feel? It features a lot of books and cards, also a little bit of clothing, homewares, but overall a lot less commercial than say, Disneyland for example, which makes perfect sense as it is a museum and not a theme park! But in other words, it doesn’t have all the kinds of Ghibli movie merchandise I had expected. It was ridiculously crowded while I was inside though, but I managed to snag the last light-grey (the prettiest colour hehe) Totoro stuffed toy for my sister! He is so lovely and well made, I knew I couldn’t leave without one.
Evening: Harajuku
Wut Berlin
Mercibeaucoup
Orangina is so good! I wish they had it in Australia. It’s like a cross between Fanta, orange cordial and fresh orange juice.
Day 12: Kitakore, Yoyogi Park and Akihabara
Kitakore, Koenji
Hayatochiri store.
Yoyogi Park
A lot of people reccomended Yoyogi park to me and I’d read about it in tourist guides. I’m really happy I got to visit! It’s very pretty and the trees are gorgeous, but my favourite part is watching the people. Some are having large picnics, some are playing sports like catch and badminton and others are practicing group dances together. We even spotted a girl and a guy self-recording a video of their choreographed dance (below), the kind I always see on youtube!
Akihabara
Brandon kindly accompanied me to Akihabara that evening, because being a foreign girl in Akihabara alone at night is not the smartest idea! A lot of things were closing by the time we arrived, but we still saw a ton of maids promoting their maid cafes on the streets, and we even got to visit the massive Don Quijote (ドン・キホーテ) as I was still on the hunt for a black and/or dark green sailor uniform. The store is really tall with a ton of levels and kind of like a discount store mixed with K-Mart, Target, Walmart etc. but Japanese. While I didn’t find the exact uniform I wanted, there was a HUGE amount of cosplay costumes and maid costumes! I was tempted to get a cute Japanese maid costume just for fun.
Day 13: Koenji, Shibuya and going home.
Prior to day 13, the last day of the trip :'( I had already been up until about 2am packing my back to be sure I could fit everything into the bags I had brought along (which miraculously, I did!!). In the morning I had my last breakfast, checked out and headed to meet Brandon, Hayley and Henry for lunch together at Freshness Burger (the same place where we had our first lunch in Tokyo, aw). I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon in Shibuya, essentially to visit the enormous Shibuya 109. It is pretty big indeed and has a TON of stores, with the vast majority being gyaru style fashion. I was not able to take any photographs inside (as much as I wanted to) because there are super strict no-photography rules with signs on every level reminding you. I also had a look in some random nearby shops and picked up some more socks! Cos you can never have enough socks.
I headed back to Koenji to grab my bags and I hopped on the train to Shinjuku around 3pm, as my flight was for 7:50pm. From Shinjuku it was back on the N’EX train to Narita Airport, and I spent the ride staring out at the scenery (which I could actually SEE this time, the ride to Shinjuku when arriving was at night so I could barely see anything outside) and feeling sad about leaving while using my portable internet for last time before I had to return it to Softbank. When I checked-in at Narita I was expecting to be charged for my luggage being about 5kg overweight for my main suitcase, but I got a trainee girl at the counter and ended up not being charged?! Super lucky! And then I went to eat an early dinner straight away because I was super hungry from the journey. Shortly after browsing duty free shopping and buying an eyemask I boarded my flight back to Sydney :'( Which was super comfortable and I slept for a few hours which was exciting for me. I had exit-row seat again and an older japanese woman next to me was so sweet and sort of took care of me the whole flight? Like she showed me how to open my blanket (which they stitch together with a breakable thread, something I’ve never encountered before) and asked the flight attendant for new headphones when she saw mine weren’t working – SWEETEST EVER :’)
But that’s not all! I have a bunch of additional images taken on my compact camera from throughout the trip!
✰ BONUS PHOTOS ✰
Putting an outfit together for Day 1.
In the Candy fitting rooms, Shibuya | Inside MeMe’s Park, Shibuya
MeMe’s Park
NUDE TRUMP, Shibuya.
Wagado, Shibuya.
LUMINE, Shinjuku.
Tokyo lyf.
And that concludes the final part of my amazing time in Tokyo! I hope enjoyed these posts and that you didn’t get drowned with content. Once again if you have any questions, go right ahead and ask below. If you asked a question in Part I or Part II, please check the comments for your reply 🙂 I’ll be back again soon with my regular style of posting, please look forward to it ( ´=ิ◞▽◟=ิ’)
✧ Also please be sure to check out and Like my new facebook page here! 🙂 ✧
once again: WOOOOOOOOOW. I'm speechless, so much awesome in one post. What I can put in words though, is that I love all the outfits you wore.
a great post! awww i so want to visit japan! did you buy a ton of stuff? i would!! =^_^=
Your Tokyo posts have made me even more determined to return there!I loved all your posts about your trip 🙂
Really enjoyed reading your adventures in Japan 🙂
wow i'm so jealous!! what an incredible trip. are you going to do a post showing everything that you bought? the shops you visited look amazing.
oh yes! everything will eventually be featured in various outfit posts, other things I will put in other posts etc.! I like to spread it out rather than do one big dump of all the shopping if that makes sense! 🙂
I absolutely love all your photos.
awwwww this is SO great. I wish I could see/eat/own everything here! I love your outfits too :))
One of my favorite posts. I'm so glad you've kept such a thorough record of your trip. You've inspired me to start saving so I can visit again. I was in Japan for a wedding when I was 9, so it's been almost 9 year since.
That Meiji ichigo au lait is soooo good!
How was the planning process for your trip and budget wise? I really want to travel to japan when I save up some money!
It was not too tricky! For me I already had substantial savings and when the opportunity to go to Japan came, I knew I would be putting a lot of them towards that. In addition, I did not buy anything for about 3 months leading up to my trip, no clothes or anything (anything I may have received or blogged in that time though would have been a gift!) I saved my spending money. For budget I suggest you first look up the price of airfares and accommodation and go from there! The planning of my trip was very easy as the people who I travelled with already had activities planned that I went along with, of course did have many of my own shops and places I wanted to visit as well that I listed and found maps for. Always have a map for everywhere you want to go in Japan! If you have any more questions feel free to email me, I am more than happy to help out! 🙂
I will be traveling to Tokyo by myself in January (I am a young female), and have no idea what is best to stay in/relatively cheap and good accom. Where you stayed seemed to be in a good location. What was the hotel you stayed in and would you recommend it? I will be there for 15 days.Also! If you can recommend any things I must see/go to/shop at while I am there it is appreciated! (besides from things you have already mentioned). I would LOVE to go to Disney Sea but I think it might be weird going alone (cold too)… I will definitely be going to Ghibli though! >.<
Ahh so exciting! If you are travelling alone, I would DEFINITELY recommend a hotel and not a hostel, especially if it's your first time in Japan. It is more convenient, comfortable and secure feeling. I stayed in a hotel in Koenji, the Mets Koenji hotel, it is literally on the train station which is SUPER convenient. It's also extremely quiet, peaceful, comfortable and great value, buffet breakfast is included. My single room had a nice big bed, about the size of a double bed. Koenji is also a lovely neighbourhood with great shops like Spank! and Kitakore, it's a really cool place to stay. Besides the things I blogged, I don't have a huge amount to recommend? Personally if I was to go back to Tokyo, I'd explore Shinjuku further. The reason I didn't was because it is HUGE and I was alone and didn't know it well, so I'd say map it out and plan it carefully. I'd also spend more time exploring Shibuya which has TONS to see. Also go to Akihabara during the day and not night! Nothing is open when it gets later. I think one thing I can say is 15 days in just Tokyo is the smartest idea, because trying to travel to too many cities or places and see everything in a short amount of time is not wise, it's better to stay in one place and explore it really well and get a feel for it, which is what I did in Tokyo. You can do this with places within Tokyo like Harajuku for instance, I went back there what felt like almost every day and there was always something new to see and I got a really got feel for it and knew my way around easily by the end of the trip. As long as you visit all the top places you're keen to go, don't worry if you miss out on anything else! Oh yes, Disney Sea is really fun, but if you have not been to Disneyland before I would recommend Disneyland over Sea because there is more to do and the rides are a little bit better. Ghibli is also amazing of course! You will love it for sure. If you have any other questions feel free to email me I am more than happy to help! 🙂
It would be wonderful if you could post everything you bought! : )
oh my, these posts make me wanna go soo much to Tokyo!! Sniff, i guess that will need to wait still a few years, still kind of far from Portugal :PXx
I WANT TOKYO!It fascinates me!Thank you for such a nice post!amazing one!P.S. That OOTD thing, where'd you buy that cat-face shirt?amazing!want to go there so much!
these photos are amazing, it looks like you had an awesome time! haha can't wait until I get to visit Japan too 😀
you're on fashionsnap!HOW AWESOME.
OH MY GODDDD, i am insanely jealous of your entire trip, me and all my blogger friends that i've met in London always talk about how amazing you are and that your trip is incredible! ^_^ I hope you're okay! x
You had such a variety of stops this Japan trip. You should saw many things and looks like you bought plenty too! I'm so jealous of everything you ate, and you make me miss Japan so much. :O
Your trip seemed so fun! I really want to go to Tokyo. My mother is half Japanese so we only go to Hokkaido, her hometown, never Tokyo. 🙁
That's so true, strawberries in Japan are grown to absolute perfection. Maybe they're actually grown in labs to be genetically perfect, ha ha! So many beautiful pictures! What a whirlwind of a trip it must have been :3
Do you have any idea how much you spent entirely on clothing? I'm travelling to Tokyo soon and I would like to know how much to bring 🙂
My boyfriend and I just spent about half an hour going through your tokyo photos. I remember going to Don Quijote!! I too was like "Maybe i should just buy a lolita dress. they are REALLY cheap…" And going to a maid cafe in akihabara. AH! I'm so excited about going back to tokyo, thank you!! Did you go into a maid cafe? Such a weird experience haha. Oh and by the way your blog is my new favourite annnnd going right on my blogroll 🙂