Japan Trip Day 1: Shinjuku, Harajuku, Ikspiari

This holiday has been a mess. My grandma is not in a good shape and for the past few days, decisions constantly changed: from cancelling the trip altogether, going without my father, going just with my sister etc. Thank goodness Expedia allows quite last minute cancellations. I am actually quite angry because since last year, I already said I did not want to go in May because of the weather. The rest made decision hastily and I sucked it up because essentially the purpose of the trip is to accompany my parents and unlikely they will like winter. If the purpose is just to go with my sister, I will choose cooler months and I am not going to just repeat Tokyo. So at the end I just went with my sister because if I would lose some miles to expiry if I cancelled this. Another reason is because my sister kept nagging want to go and her being my dad's favourite child, I went to make her shut up and not giving my dad a headache while taking care of my grandma.

Preparation and packing were done haphazardly and until the last minute. Only on the travelator towards the boarding gate that I realised that I forgot to take the mobile wifi rental. Sigh.. what to do. This is my first time flying business class but that will be a separate story. Although I did not sleep well, I managed to get perhaps 1.5-2 hours of uninterrupted sleep in a flat bed. It made a huge difference as I did not feel so tired and grumpy as usually when sleeping in economy chair.

After arrival, we tried to find mobile wifi rental at Narita and decided that they were too expensive. We decided to just use our own phone mobile data roaming. Yep.. lesson learnts: better remember that mobile wifi rental at Changi because $5 a day is a steal.

We took the Airport Limousine to Shinagawa Prince Hotel to drop our luggage first and then we went to Shinjuku to find way to Hakone. This was another thing that made me so angry at my sister. I was settling Yokohama and Kamakura itineraries and just asked her to settle the Hakone part. Not to mention that I prefer to go Hakone immediately instead of spending 1 night in Tokyo before going to Hakone.  Since she did not do her part, I let her be responsible and do the asking and talking.

1.5 hours were wasted for something that could be done pre-trip and in the end we settled for Fuji Hakone Pass for 8000 JPY. Thank goodness the staff was a Malaysian guy so communicating in English was a breeze. With everything done so last minute, we had to be glad that there was still a bus at 800am to Hakone which meant we have to wake up very early. The next available bus is in the late afternoon and that would mean wasted 1 day.

We spent the rest of the day around Shinjuku to find various Uniqlo stores in the area to find the elusive Doraemon x Uniqlo plushies. It was only released yesterday and it seems that all the plushies were sold out just like in Singapore?? It did not bother me as I am not a Doraemon fan but I do not mind getting the plushies to sell it later on. Lol. My sister was checking instagram and apparently there is 1 store with Doraemon decoration but without the address and there are few Uniqlo stores in Shinjuku, we did not manage to find.

We went to Harajuku nearby to check out Kiddyland and Disney Store. Peter Pan Tsum Tsum Land plushie that I did not buy in December was no longer available :( Sianz..  I also KIV Christopher Robin plushie. I am not a fan of Winnie the Pooh but sometimes I am tempted with characters which are seldomly made into plushies. That was the reason why I bought Rabbit and Owl in December as well. We also checked out the newly renovated LINE store which is disappointing now. Although it becomes bigger, the Brown's room to take photos is gone now. Anyway I am not a LINE person.

I wanted to go to Ikspiari for Disney Store and Bon Voyage store outside Disneyland so we went there in the afternoon. Peter Pan Tsum Tsum Land plushie was also no more :( At Disney store, I saw small figurine sets with Aladdin and friends but they are expensive: 3900 JPY for 4 figurines and there are 2 sets so I KIV first.

At Bon Voyage, I only bought Tomica cars for the 35th Tokyo Disney Resort series, again for the purpose of selling it. I also decided to try some of the food items. The display looks attractive and usually I do not buy because of the price and I do not want to carry bulky food back. Luggage space is more precious for toys. Lol. Since this time I still have 1 more week in Tokyo, I decided to try some of the food items: Mini Ramen and Mr Potato Head's potato snack.

Aahh.. this corner room at the hotel is amazing. Too bad it will only be 1 night here. Only now I realise that the hotel actually has coin laundry service as well. I am going to ask them to put me at level 9 subsequently so that it will be easy to do laundry. It will be even more difficult to find another hotel in Tokyo now hehe..