Monday, May 30, 2016

Blossoms of Tokyo















The beautiful flowers in Japan. White & Pink were the most commonly seen. It lit up any park in an instance. So so beautiful. I am glad i got to witness the Cherry blossom/Sakura season before it ended.

My past couple of post has been all about Tokyo. I put together a video solely based on my time spent in Tokyo! Watch it to see all the places i visited in Tokyo (:



Saturday, May 28, 2016

Tokyo- Ginza + Harajuku + Pablo cheesecake

GINZA, 銀座

Ginza is a shopping district. Many people come here to shop at Uniqlo, Muji, A&F, Etc. I read online that on weekends they close certain roads so that people can walk freely whilst they shop. That's quite thoughtful of them. 

The Uniqlo outlets here are 12 storey high! The A&F outlet is 11 storeys! It's crazy huge!! So huge that we lost one of our friends in Uniqlo whilst shopping & we had to get the staff to call for her over the PA system. Haha it was hilarious. Almost all the shops at Ginza have the same policy where if you purchase over 10,000yen, you get tax free. Their tax rates are a standard of 8%. The Uniqlo in Japan is slightly cheaper than the ones in SG. Example, a pair of pants that usually cost SGD45 it cost SGD37 in Japan. My friend went nuts & bought over 10,000 yen worth of Uniqlo clothes. Lol.




 




The Muji stores are huge too! I didn't know Muji sold other items such as cooking equipment, bedding items, books, bicycles etc. They even had a cafe! Pretty much like Ikea. I thought their items here would be cheaper since Uniqlo's clothes were slightly cheaper than SG's. However after converting the price to SGD it's actually the same. I wanted to buy another pair of White shoes cause its so comfy. Oh wells no luck. Only the preserved packet food sold is a couple of dollars cheaper. 

Beside Muji was another store selling all kind of items from stationary to luggages , cosmetics & scrapbook items. Seriously it's like an atas version of mustafa! Great to buy souvenirs for your friends & family here! The store is linked with Muji & it's called "Loft". (Picture below)







HARAJUKU, 原宿

Harajuku is a youngsters shopping place. I loved Harajuku the most! Mainly because of the people. There were several people dressed in funky clothes. They had brightly coloured hair & they weren't afraid of being judged. I liked that they had such great confidence to be comfortable in their own skin. If i still had my Turquoise hair, i would totally blend in!! I absolutely loved the atmosphere of Harajuku! Everyone is so cool & funky & really friendly. I mean, almost every Japanese person we met has been so kind to us. They are so polite & well mannered. Something some of us should learn from the Japanese.

















It took me 3 days to find this place. The one in Shibuya apparently has closed down. So it's down to 2 places: Shinjuku & Harajuku.

Address: 1-1-2 Nishi Shinjuku | B2F Metro ShokudoShinjuku 160

Now, the one at Shinjuku is located near the train station towards Odakyu Department store.  Address provided above. They only had the big cheesecakes and not the individual small portions (Pictured above ).


Then there's another one that's located in between Harajuku & Shibuya. Which is the one i went to & it's the store in the photo above. Address provided below. Just rmbr that the store is located within an alley. Which explains why it took us almost an hour to find. So angry. Hahaha walk until our legs want to break. Anyway, it's near a Nike Shop. They have a board at the opening of the alley directing you to their shop so keep your eyes open for it.


Address: 1-14-21 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo


I was very disappointed in the cheesecake. So was my friend. The photo shown in their shop is this : 

 But the cheesecake was nothing like the photo above. I expected the cheesecake to have a gooey centre. Instead, this was what we received..

It was pretty dry & not at all what i expected. Whatever happened to the gooey centre oozing out? It tasted like an ordinary cheesecake. It doesn't taste horrible. It's just very normal. So i don't get the hype over this particular Pablo cheesecake. Totally not worth the effort & time in trying to find it.