Tokyo, Japan, Days 6-7

Day 6 Day 6 was our last full day in Tokyo. We went back to Shinjuku, for breakfast and a visit to Gyoen National Garden. The garden closed at 4:30, so we decided to go to Tokyo DisneySea and buy After 6 discount tickets.

We ate breakfast at a place called Slappy Cakes. The first restaurant was opened in Portland, Oregon. For some reason, they chose Shinjuku, Tokyo as the second location. It's an interesting idea, though. You can order breakfast off the menu (the usual American foods, like pancakes, sausages, eggs benedict), or make pancakes on a griddle at your table. We opted to order off the menu, and I got the banana and chocolate chip with raspberry jam pancake.



The entrance, part of the menu, my breakfast, other people cooking pancakes at their table.

The elevator up to the restaurant (located on the 7th floor of the Lumine Est store... not to be confused with Lumine 2 that's closer to the subway) was covered in interesting drawings.


Inside of the Lumine Est elevator.

There are lots of stationery stores in Japan (and Korea, and maybe in the US... though I never noticed). A Korean classmate from Taiwan gave me some erasable pens for my birthday and I bought more in Japan. The green one already started to run out, so luckily I was able to find them in Korea, too. (Though, even those ones have Japanese on their casings.)


They're like colored pencils, but erase just with friction. No eraser clumps left behind!

We then went to Gyeon National Garden. There was a small admission fee for this one ($1 or 2), and unfortunately, it closed less than two hours after we got there, so we didn't get to see most of the gardens. Still, it was very pretty.



The (south?) gate, a teahouse in the forest, a lake with lots of koi fish (carp).



Me on a bridge on the lake, a koi fish causing ripples in the water, me in front of a pavilion.

After the garden closed, we headed towards Tokyo Disney Resort (technically located just outside the city in Chiba). Tokyo Disney Resort encompasses both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea parks. Tokyo Disneyland is supposedly a lot like Disney World and Disneyland in the US (though, despite my many trips to Orlando and Anaheim, I've still never been to either), so we decided to go to Tokyo DisneySea, which is unique to Tokyo. There are seven nautically themed areas, like Arabian Coast (Aladdin), Mermaid Lagoon (The Little Mermaid), Lost River Delta (Indiana Jones), etc. Regular admission is ~$62, but after 6, it's only $33. Of course, soon after arrival, it became too dark for pictures, but I still took a few, mostly of the entrance and the first area (Mediterranean Harbor).



Tokyo Disney Resort's 30th anniversary (DisneySea opened in 2001),
my ticket, the "aquasphere" at the entrance.



Mount Prometheus, Mediterranean Harbor x2.


Mermaid Lagoon, and me on a camel statue in Arabian Coast.

My favorite area, I think, was the Arabian Coast, though that may just be because I'm partial to Aladdin. The best ride in the park (according to the internetz), Journey to the Center of the Earth in Mysterious Island, was unfortunately closed for maintenance. Still, we rode many rides, all with zero wait time (thanks for going home before 6, everyone!). I don't think it would've been as fun if we had to wait for 2 hours, as some people (again, on the internetz) mentioned having to do.

Day 7 Day 7 was mostly spent traveling. Our flights were later in the afternoon, but hotel check out was 11, so we spent some time at the airport after checking our bags. I just want to say that the route to the airport via subway is probably the worst public transportation experience I've had. There's barely any English, and nothing is labeled or explained. You buy tickets from a machine, and it dumps you on a platform that says multiple trains (local, limited, airport regular, airport express) can be coming on either side of the tracks (usually one side only services one direction)... I dunno. I suppose it's largely our fault for not knowing Japanese, but you'd think if the main city metro had English, the route to the international airport would, too. (And on the way into the city, a nice lady at the ticket booth at the airport explained things well. We figured it'd just be doing the reverse to go back to the airport, but... it wasn't quite that easy.)


My ice cream cappuccino, and an angry Pikachu guarding the fake food displays.

While we were in the food court, I started feeling a little dizzy. I thought it was weird, but thought it was just me until a sign that said "Japanese Food" started swinging like a pendulum. It was nice of Japan to let us experience an earthquake while we were there. This one was a 6.1, off the coast of Fukushima (the same area as the 2011 7.1 quake). Thankfully, it only felt like a 2.-something by the time it reached Narita Airport.^^


Earthquake reports.

It was a fun week, but I'm not sure I'm in a hurry to go back to Japan, especially with so many other places in Asia to visit. (Not to mention, one of these days, I need to get out of Seoul and Gyeonggi-do!) Macau, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore are all higher on my list (also, Australia and New Zealand) before a return trip to Japan. Though, my friend mentioned she wanted to visit Osaka in November.... The main appeal of Tokyo was that the flight was so cheap (though it kind of evened out, with the expensive meals and city transportation), but, still.. going to Osaka with a friend still might be more interesting than going to the other places alone. And the heat made things difficult. That should be less of a problem in November. I'll have to think about it. :)