Day 10 - Nippori and Shinjuku

A day we had both been looking forward to - fabric town in Nippori. It's basically a whole street running about three blocks with fabric, trims and notions stores running the length of it. You could easily spend a few days and lots of money trawling through the store there, and it makes you appreciate how easy it is to cosplay with great materials in Japan. But we were limited by luggage weight so had to reign in our shopping to just a few hours.

After a quick late lunch we headed to Shinjuku. Unfortunately were were too late to make it in time to the Bunka Fashion Museum which closes at 4.30pm. So instead we wandered into Odakyu for a quick look through the fabric available there. By this point though we were both feeling pretty shopped out. Hard to believe, I know. I did however find the fortitude to wander into the Wachifield store at the back of Studio Alta.

Afterwards, we decided to call it an early night. We stopped by Mister Donut for some halloween themed deliciousness to take home for desert before heading back to Tawaramachi. For dinner though, we called into a local place that we walk past on the way to the train every morning. The food is ordered at the front of the store with a machine and then brought to you when it is ready. It's a very efficient way of serving food and I can see it coming into place across the world. And to top it off, the food was great too.

We then dragged ourselves back to our hotel to start sorting through our luggage as our days remaining in Japan are limited, and I really needed to know if I would be posting any fabric home to myself. Thankfully though, it all looks like it will come in just under my weight allowance.

Day 9 - Nippori & Shinjuku

After the exhaustion of Disneyland yesterday, it would have been such a good idea to take it easy today. But no, I didn't have it planned that way and so today we were up and about and off to Nippori, or rather, Fabric Town. Essentially, it is a street running from the JR Train Station in Nippori that has an abundance of fabric and trimmings stores.

I bought so many beautiful thing today, so I decided to take one photo of the lot to show my fellow fabric fiends out there what I picked up today. My favourite pieces are the Strawberry Shortcake and Hello Kitty stuff.

After shopping our hearts out for fabric (yes, we will be posting that mountain of stuff home!), we made the trip into Shinjuku. Where we took in one more fabric and trimmings store. It was the one that I visited last time I was in Japan and found some very beautiful fabric in. We didn't stay in there too long though, as the shop was rather over-heated and it wasn't very cold outside.

Afterwards, we took in the sights that are Shinjuku. And I bought a new carry-on suitcase for the trip home - a Hello Kitty one.

By then, starvation had set in and we headed over to the Alice cafe for dinner. If you have never seen one of these, I highly recommend it. They are themed restaurants throughout Japan, and believe me when I say that there would be a theme to cater to just about every taste. There are certainly some very weird ones out there. But the one we chose, was Alice in Wonderland.

You enter by catching the lift down to the basement. It opens to a richly decorated foyer. Your waitress, dressed as Alice then pushes open one wall that looks like a book and you walk into the restaurant proper. The ambiance is incredible, and I have tried to capture what I could in the photos below. What you will notice though, is that all of our food is themed.

Today's photos are courtesy of Tracey's borrowed camera. Unfortunately I drained the battery on both of my cameras. One is refusing to charge and the other I forgot the charger for. But fear no more, I bought a new charger for my big camera today, so it is back to photo land for me!

Tokyo Trip Day 8: Single Day

Our second last day was the day we had set aside for heading out on our own. The day when you can head back to places to pick up stuff that you didn't get when you were there and now that you had thought about it wanted to go back and get. My aim was to head on back to Harajuku and spend what was left of my money on some more Lolita bits and pieces. Especially since I had saved up so much and had not bought anything new for so long. Boy was it hard breaking my crazy lolita shopping habits. My first stop was back to Closet Child, since the first time that I went there I had so many bags already that it was downright difficult to look at anything while carrying them around with me. I was over the moon when I managed to find the Baby Vampire Requiem long JSK in Burgundy and it fit me. So I of course purchase it, along with a few cardigans and boleros and accessories. I then made my way over to La Floret to have a look at what was around. I picked up the Putumayo shirt that I had missed getting earlier in the week and then wandered over to Angelic Pretty. This time, there was an older woman there, maybe the owner of the franchise? who helped me out. She was lovely and made my shopping experience smooth and friendly, while I bought the dress that I had been thinking about all week.

I wandered around Harajuku for a bit longer, heading on down to try and find the metamorphose shop, but now that I look at the map, I probably did not go far enough. After picking up a couple of cute little accessories on the way back to the train station, I made my way to Shinjuku to meet up with L and ainead as planned. We were heading to the Alice theme restaurant for dinner. And my, was it a dining experience and a half. I had so much fun.

When you come out of the lift, there is a reception desk and what looks like a closed off room. You then find out that one of the walls that looks like a book opens out and you walk through to get to the dining area. Once inside we were directed to our little corner booth where our waitress, dressed in a cute Alice dress provided warm towels for us to wash our hands and handed over the menu - a book. The first page opens up as a pop up book, and then you get to decide what you would like. We weren't really sure what we were ordering, just that they had awesome names. I had 'The happy caterpillar' drink to begin with. We then shared an entrée which is set up as toasts with little books. Dinner was a diamond pizza dressed up as a card, and dessert was Alice and the Caterpillar. Everything was impeccable. It was all beautifully set out and presented, while tasting fantastic. I would definitely recommend it to anyone in the area, and surprisingly, it was not priced badly. I would really love to check out some of the other theme restaurants around Tokyo, but that will have to be on my next trip to Japan as I can guarantee I will be going back.

Once we made it back to our hostel, we borrowed the scales and proceeded to pack and weigh out bags. Coming in at just under 17 kilos I was ready to go in the morning.

Tokyo Trip Day 5: Hanegi & Shinjuku

Our 5th Day started out with a relaxing walk through Hanegi park at Umegaoka to view the Ume (plum) blossoms that are currently in season. The flowers are beautiful and I got to play with my camera quite a bit (hence the mass amounts of photos), but as the park is situated on the edge of a hill, it was bloody freezing up there. I tell you now, so glad that I had put on quite a few layers that day. Unfortunately, because it has been so much colder this winter than in the past, the poor trees had not completely bloomed. We were told that it generally only snows once over winter and that is normally around December / January. It makes me feel better that its not just the Australians who found it just a little chilly over there. And believe me when I tell you that some days we felt like we were almost frozen solid.

Thankfully though, most places that you go are actually heated. *some to the point where it is downright hot inside*. The nicest though are the trains, that have heaters under the seats. If you are lucky enough to snag a seat (avoid peak times) then you end up with a toasty arse and legs. So very nice, but it does make it feel quite a bit colder when you go back outside. I felt like the entire time over there I was constantly taking off my coat inside to try and regulate my body temperature.

After all our photos at Hanegi park, we hopped on a train and made our way back to Shinjuku, where we walked on down to Shinjuku Gyoen Park to stroll around the various gardens. Ironically, there were Ume blossoms in flower there too, and wile there wasn't the variety of trees on display, they were in heavier bloom. We wandered through the traditional Japanese Gardens and made our way towards the tea house to do a traditional tea ceremony. I have discovered that Green Tea is really not my thing, but I poured it down at any rate. And it was very beautiful inside.

What surprised me most about the Gardens was the constant ongoing work there. Sure, it is run by the government which means that it has decent funding, but as you look around, you notice that there are workers trimming trees, work trucks passing by, new bridges being built and a new greenhouse being constructed. What stuck me, is that most of it is not to replace existing structures or pure maintenance work, but progress, ie the creation and development of new gardens. It's something that you would not normally see in and Aussie national park or garden.

After a few hours of strolling to our hearts content, we made our way back to the city proper for some more shopping. Who would have thought? One shop that I spotted along our route was an Innocent World shop. I was over the moon, because we had not been able to find the one in Harajuku; so I stocked up on super cute accessories. After checking out a few more shops, we made our way back to Minowa for a unique dining experience.

Ainead and L, took me to an Izakaya, where the general idea is to purchase a number of small meals and share them amongst your group. We sat in our own little booth with closed doors while L proceeded to regale us with anecdotes about her Japanese toilet experiences.

Japanese public toilets differ greatly from Australian ones. For a start, you cannot always guarantee a European style toilet, but when you do; most are a cut above. While being very clean, the seats are heated, they make trickling noises when you sit to disguise your private business and they include accessories such as a bidet and a "lady shower". Then comes the flushing, some flush after you have stood up and others flush as you pass your hand by a sensor (no touching required). What really puzzled me at first were the hand basins. I was trying to press buttons to get soap and turn on the tap. It turned out that they are also motion sensor. I felt like an absolute idiot when a young Japanese lady showed my how to use it. It's all very clean and hygienic when you think about it, as the only thing you are really touching is the lock on the door. Who knew I had so much to say about loos in Japan?