Tokiyo Trip : Post-Tokiyo Videos

Af finally-finally finished editing the 1st video compilation for our Tokiyo trip last September. I've been waiting for months. Ha.

The song taken from The Album Leaf - Window. I remember I found this song and immediate thought of our next escapism video T^T The song is really beautiful, kan? 

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ESCAPISM #6 Tokiyo from Farikarim on Vimeo.

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Here's the second video from our Tokiyo trip that Af just finished editing last night *so random?. There are quite a number of slots with my face in it =.= I'm a bit uncomfortable, but Af said because he's the one recording and editing so he can make the choice. In future trips, I'll make sure I'll record him as well !

ESCAPISM #6 TOKIYO Pt 2 from Farikarim on Vimeo.

Note : Watching this makes me miss Japan more, and it's the start of Cherry Blossom season! :F

For the next 3 Tokiyo Guide borrowers, hope they will have a lot of fun in Japan.

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Tokiyo Trip 10 : Our 8-days Budget Trip to Tokyo, Japan

We managed to spend RM 1,000 per person while we were 8 days in Tokyo, Japan. 

I brought extra of RM 1,000 while AF brought RM 500 for our back-up money in-case there's an emergency. We put aside these money in a secure place before our trip. The plan was to stick to RM 1,000 in a week, just to experiment whether it is possible to survive that long in the so-called "one of the most expensive city".

Note : During our trip, the rate was about RM 1,000 = 27,000 - 28,000 yen. So that means we can use up to 4,000 yen per day while we were there. In our plan, every extra money that we didn't use for the day will be put aside and kept for later.

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Pre-Trip :

The return Airasia flight ticket + insurance + dinner + baggages ( RM 900 per person + ) bought 7 months before the trip and for the accommodation, we rented a studio apartment in the outskirt of the town in Asaka ( RM 440 per person - 7 days 6 nights ), we booked 2 months before the trip. So this happened before of the inflation. Thank God for that.

Why I exclude the return flight ticket and accommodation ?

Because it was already planned, booked and paid many months before the trip. And usually flight tickets and places to live depend entirely on your preferences and several aspects to consider : whether you want insurance or not, extra foods, staying with partners or groups or solo, etc.

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Itinerary

• Day 1 : Arrival late at night - Slept at the Haneda Airport
• Day 2 : Marunouchi, Airbnb Apt. in Asaka
• Day 3 : Shinjuku
• Day 4 : Harajuku, Shibuya 
• Day 5 : Ikebukuro
• Day 6 : Mitaka, Kichijyoji 
• Day 7 : Ueno Zoo, Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo Skytree
• Day 8 : Akihabara, plane back home at night

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Roughly, these were the money spent while we were there :

Train & Subway Rides : Pasmo : 6, 000 yen ( RM 210 +/-) and Metro : 1,500 yen ( RM 53 +/- )
Total : 9,000 yen ( RM 316 +/-) 

Parking for the bicycle : Total : 1, 700 yen ( RM 30 +/- ) 

The Foods : Total : 6,250 yen ( RM 220 +/- per person ) 

Souvenirs : Total : 10,000 yen ( RM 300+/- )
Consists of all Ghibli Studio items, magazines, and stickers :D 

Others : 1,050 yen ( RM 37 +/- )
Like the zoo, the monorail, gatcha-pon, etc.

I wrote down almost all the things that we bought and spent money on. There were some money used for little things that I might forgot to take note. But what I'm sure of is, I managed to spend every yen that I brought for the trip - without touching the back-up money. I remember our last 200 yen was spent on the gatcha-pon at the airport :D 

So, it is possible to survive with 28,000 yen ( RM 1,000 ) in a week in Tokyo :D

It all depends on if you want to stay far from the city or not, share room/dorms with people, eat home-made foods and ready-made onigiris everyday and can stop yourself from buying things that you don't actually need, avoid overpriced tourist attractions.

We spent quite a lot on the travelling part because we stayed in Asaka, Saitama, we also visited some far places from the main city like Kichijyoji, Tokyo Skytree, and the return train tickets to the Haneda Airport. Plus, we decided to rent the whole studio apartment for ourselves, equipped with our own personal bicycle. So yes, if it's on your budget, you might want to stretch some parts here and there for the things that you want to try, yeah :) Plus, the whole shopping spree at Ghibli's was worth it.

Conclusion - per person ( 8 days Trip ) :

Return Flight Ticket = RM 900+
Apartment = RM 440+
Survive in Tokyo = RM 1,000 

Total = Around RM 2,500 +/-

8 days trip in Tokyo felt too short for both of us. We will come again soon. I really want to try the unlimited 14-days JRpass one day, to explore the whole Japan by the bullet-train. Soon sooooon :D

Note : I updated all the links to travel, places and events here.

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Our next trip is on April 2016, 5 days trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Tokiyo Trip 9 : Things I bought during the Trip

As anyone who went to Japan would understand, there are wide ranges of every little things in Japan that we never knew we needed. Ha. The Japanese are really good in making things and almost anyone will fall into the trap of buying *even though I am not really a spender. 

So these are the things that I bought in Tokyo :

1. Magazines

I went to most bookstores to find magazines to take home to, because what they are selling here in Kinokuniya KLCC are really-really expensive. This is solely for research purposes because I've been pinning so many designs from Japan in my Pinterest and having the physical copy for my keeping might be good. What I like about their designing style is the clean-minimal look with nice subtle colour combos and light use of patterns and objects.

I bought Oz Trip Magazine (593 yen) and Hanako (600 yen).
I LOOOOOVE them.

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2. A New Planner

I've been using the Muji Planner 2015 the whole year. I got no strong reason to replace it except that the year will end in 2 month, so I might need a new planner after-all :D Alasan kan. So I've been searching high and low, I like what they have in the Loft Shibuya - wide ranges of planners and affordable *below 1,000 yen.

And I found a Totoro version planner at Ikebukuro, the cover is detachable so I can re-use it again. It was wayy pricier than other planners (1,800 yen) but oh well. I bought it nonetheless, not proud of myself but very happy afterwards. Still am.

It starts from Oct 2015 - Dec 2016 (15-months). Added with several pages of lined-pages, empty pages, detachable mini memo, address pages and Tokyo Railway map. Every pages with Totoro, hah hah. That's how I'm embracing my adulthood, by holding on to my childhood memories :D

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3. Hankerchief

I bought one from Ghibli for 250 yen with Totoro and Susuwatari and sakura flower printed on a small handkerchief. Another one, a Wataoru Hamamonyo's thick handkerchief from Tsutsumu Factory in Shibuya for 540 yen. I'll probably keep these two and never use it because these are just too cute to be used for sweats and watery nose.

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4. Badges and Lapel Pins

• I bought 2 Gotochi Dayan : Wachifield's badges for Tokyo & Saitama - to put on our backpack. These were bought at Kichijyoji after we walked pass the park from Ghibli Museum.
• I bought one random collectible badge from Ghibli shop for 250 yen at Ikebukuro. I opened it afterwards and realized that I got the 1986  'Castle in the Sky' version. Too bad it wasn't Totoro or Kiki.
• There was a huge vintage wooden drawers in the Ghibli shop in Tokyo Skytree. I was bundled with joy T^T These lapel pins are too cute, too nice, with such a great detailings - I want to buy just one because it costed 500 yen, too expensive for a lapel pin you see. So there were several that I personally liked, but I choose the one with innocent-looking Totoro.

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5. Stickers

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For me, things that they sell in Japan can be a bit costly when you convert it to MYR depending on the current rate. Imagine 100 yen = RM 3.50 and for example a small badge is 250 yen, for them it seems like RM 2.50 - quite cheap but for us after conversion will be RM 8.90, which is super expensive. 

For example, buying things in Daiso will only costs 100 yen = RM 3.50. But in Malaysia, buying stuffs in Daiso will be RM 5.30 for each item. Buying tinned cafe latte is 150 yen while tinned latte here is RM 2.60. Magazines there is around 600 yen while in Malaysia it will be around RM 14. 

So, if you are planning on buying stuffs in Tokyo - make sure you plan ahead. I used around 10,000 yen during that time for shopping. And I didn't even bring back a lot of things except for tiny-tiny stationaries and magazines. 

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Tokiyo Trip 13.2 : Ameyoko, Yanaka Ginza, & Tokyo Skytree

Day 7 : Ueno ( Tuesday ) Part 2

We went out towards Ueno Onshi Park right outside of the zoo. We saw several 7/11 across the road but decided not to cross it because it was quite far to walk pass it and return to the place we were heading to. We walked pass the park and saw Toshogu Shrine, built in 1627. There was lake full lotuses and creepy crawlies. It was beautiful but creepy - because I'm not quite fond of lake and big dark water ponds, no thank you.

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We were both too hungry to do anything so we went to the first mini mart we saw to buy some onigiris. But the thing is, to eat alongside of the road might seem inappropriate and to walk back to the park will take some time. So we just decided to enter the alley : Ameyoko Street. That's when we saw a halal kebab shop ! We haven't eaten any meat for 7 days and I was craving for it, I ordered chicken kebab extra spicy (500yen) and AF ordered beef kebab (500 yen). We sat on the bench outside of the shop and enjoyed our spicy kebab to the final bite - it was really nice T^T

That's was all it for Ameyoko, the greatest spicy kebabs :

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We also visited : Yanaka Ginza, an old downtown with many temples, shrines and beautiful cemetery not so far from the main Ueno station. We went for a little stroll to take a look of what there were in the little towns - because it was mentioned in the guide book as 'to-go' place. We found really old shops, stray cats, nice calm views, slow-paced environment :

All images above taken by Af

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And to make our final day complete, we decided to go to the Tokyo Skytree. We had to stop at the Asakusa Station to change to the private train. We arrived at Tokyo Solamachi around 6-7ish, before sunset. It was a really long tiring day for both of us, but we really wanted to enjoy what's left for us there. We bought another cafe latte and sat beneath the tower, waiting for it to lighten up just after sunset. There were many people around as well, waiting for the tower.

Our final stop at Tokyo Solamachi was the Donguri Kyowakoku, a place that sells all Ghibli merchandizes :D We were greeted by a huge Totoro behind the mirror. I was too excited to take any photos again, I started looking and picking up random beautiful things in the shop. I bought several nice handkerchief, finger-dolls, lapel pin, and postcards. Arrgh, I was I can buy more items here. It would be really nice to splurge money of those little things that I might not really need. Ha :D

Public transport spent : 1,668 yen
Because we went to places quite far from one-another.

Tokiyo Trip 13.1 : Ueno Zoological Garden, Ueno

Day 7 : Ueno ( Tuesday ) Part 1

During our stay in Tokyo, I wanted to spend some money to visit any tourist spots like aquarium or zoo or planetarium - even for once. We missed Inokashira Park Zoo while we were visiting Mitaka because the zoo is closed on every Monday, so we chose to visit Ueno Zoological Garden in Ueno the next day.

Ueno Zoological Garden is the oldest zoo in Japan, opened in 1882. There are around 500 hundreds animals in the zoo. It costs around 600 yen per ticket for adult. 

We took a train ride to Ueno Station and saw the signboard to the zoo rightaway. It wasn't hard to find it. The zoo is located near all the museums ( Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, National Museum of Western Art, National Museum of Nature and Science, etc ) - if you love museums, this is a must-go place.

We both bought 2 tickets and took a huge nicely illustrated map to guide us. The zoo got 2 sections, connected by a monorail ride (150 yen) - so you can imagine how big the zoo was o-O We used the map to walk around the area, it is much simpler to aim each place and walk towards it right-away than walking blindly to places because we were trying not to spend the whole day at the zoo. Our trip was almost over :(

Our first animal was 2 pandas. And next it was the otters - among the other that were swimming around, there were the ones that slept in the glass tank right outside of the gated area so we can just see it right in front of us, and the birds - the huge eagles, and owls, and we went to see a tiger  - we were just separated by a thick glass next to one another, this was the best view I got so far. I don't have to zoom in anything :

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And the cute gibbons hanging out, and the grumpy gorilla, the bears and elephants, the cranes and ibis, kangaroos, ridiculously cute pack of penguins running around, majestic polar bear, snow owls, bun-bathing seals,  giant antler, storks, okapis and zebras, bug rhino and cute chubby pygmy hippos and giraffes! Also all those super-slimy-creepy-crawly that I love so much - double chin crocodiles, turtles, snakes and frogs and all weird things they could offer.

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I freakin' love the zoo. Everything were so near, so touchable, so right next to the mirror. It's far better than what we have here, far cheaper, far bigger. I just wish there were small mini market that sell foods, other than their main cafeterias. We couldn't find any small stores to buy our onigiris before entering the zoo, so it was a hungry zoo date for both of us.

Do I recommend coming to the zoo? Yes.
If you are a nature lover and not so adventurous, you should visit all the zoos and aquariums and parks and gardens in Japan. Those places are really nice. I would  want to visit other zoos and aquariums next time, that's for sure. 

Tokiyo Trip 12.2 : Kichijyoji

Day 6 : Kichijoji ( Monday ) Part 2

After visiting Ghibli Museum, we walked towards the Inokashira Park right next to the museum. We picked a nice bench overlooking the park and set our lunch packs consisted of several onigiris and our random drink of the day. It was a nice cold breezy afternoon and we saw several young mothers strolling along with their young toddler - the nicest view so far.

There was a young mother following her child, both didn't wear any slippers beneath their feet, playfully spreading their hands taking in the clear air. They walked pass us, her child innocently pointed to the birds around us - those birds were waiting for our rice leftovers. Behind us, there was another young mother with her child. Both sitting on the pathway, pointing and examining little things beneath the beautiful sunlight that shone right at their spot among all the tree leaves roof.  I love those little intimate moments of  a mother-child relationship. 

I thought how refreshing it is, to go out for a short lunch in a park during working hour just to freshen things up after several hours of work. Instead of sitting in my table eating things I tapao from food stalls across the road filled with oil, MSG and god knows what. =.= Right at this point, I am determined to refill my healthy food grocery list. Boo. 

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Anyway, we continue our journey towards Kichijoji right after we cleaned up. There were signs along the pathways so it wasn't so hard to find the way. The park is really big. We found a beautiful secluded shrine on a lake, there was bridges that we can walk on to cross the lake, there were people kayaking and riding the Swan boat, some nice little food stalls, beautiful little dogs, people walking and jogging, random magic performance, a closed-for-the-day local zoo. Things were nice and beautiful, every one looked so serene and calm T^T

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We finally reached the other end of the park and went out to the little shops alley referring to the Tokyo Guide. I stopped by at one of the shop to buy little cat badges with "Tokyo" written on it. There are many arts-and-crafts independent shops in this area. Ohh yes, and we stopped by at Namaste Kathmandu, Nepalese Cuisine for a tea-break Naan Cheese and Mango juice :D

I aimed for Sublo 36 and Pack Mart. And because I was wildly inspired by all these little indie-shop, I took photos of it and illustrated them back. It is almost halfway done - but I can't do it faster lah, the Mac is dying. There are also interesting places like Hara Donuts, Hattifnatt, and Avril. The whole list is in the Tokyo Guide, still up for borrowing purposes :)

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We wished we got more days to explore the city, but the time flew fast. Morning in Mitaka, afternoon in Kichijyoji - it was a great day. We ended the day with taking some pictures in front of Izakaya area and headed back to Ikebukuro.

Ohh, and after we found out about ready-to-eat rice, we bought two packs of it at 7/11 and Lawson to make fried rice that night because the house we rented didn't provide rice cooker. Home made fried rice, fried eggs and a tempura fish from local market. We were that cheap :D 

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Tokiyo Trip 12.1 : Ghibli Museum, Mitaka

Day 6 : Mitaka ( Monday ) Part 1

I mentioned in my previous post about how devastated I was when we couldn't buy the ticket to Ghibli Museum because it was sold out until October T^T Visiting Ghibli Museum was one of my must-do list. Tapi takde rejeki..

Anyhow, I wasn't over it so we decided to go to Mitaka anyway. 

Early in the morning, we woke up like usual and prepared for a short trip to Mitaka. Mitaka is a bit farther than other main cities in Tokyo, it is not even included in the Tokyo Handy Guide. To go there, we took the local private line Tobu-Toju from Asaka to Ikebukuro Station and then we went to Shinjuku Station. From Shinjuku Station, we took a train (Chuo Line) to Mitaka Station. I forgot how long it took for us to arrive there, probably around 40-60 minutes. 

There wasn't as many people as the other station and we even had the first cabin for ourselves in the end. The train ride was beautiful, we saw various buildings tiny buildings on our way there :

Siri Eskapi Tokiyo - Mitaka from Farikarim on Vimeo.

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We walked to the Mitaka's tourist center and asked if we could buy the ticket to Ghibli Museum - but they told me that those tickets are sold only to locals who stays in Mitaka *I mean, what's with tourist center that only sells tickets to locals? The museum sells a limited number of tickets each day, so.. yes. 

I was excited to see a custom bus stop signage of Totoro, from afar. But we decided to walk, instead of taking a bus. Just so I can really feel the pain of coming to Mitaka but can't enter the museum, even more slowly T^T 

Here is the signage along the road.
It was around 1-1.5km walk.

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The city was calm and really beautiful. I decided to choose Mitaka as a place to live if I could choose one city in Tokyo :D *plus, I can be nearer to the museum as well. There were nice structured buildings, no crowds, easy-breezy cold almost-autum weather, random cute icons along the road, Ghibli bus T^T

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After a while, we arrived at Inokashira Park and saw a map of the park. We were getting nearer. I saw a lot of momiji trees alongside of the pathway, it must be nice visiting the place during autumn, kan. When I finally reached there, I had a mixed feelings of being happy and sad and angry T^T I really wanted to go inside.

These are all I got during my short visit outside of the museum :

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Almost everything was customized into Ghibli's stuffs : the lamp posts, the gate, the emblem, the entrance, the bus, the signage, the flag, the buildings T^T Too bad we didn't get the ticket kan, too bad.  I promise myself that the next time I visit Tokyo, I'll pay someone local to buy me the ticket super early.

Tokiyo Trip 11 : Ikebukuro

Day 5 : Ikebukuro ( Sunday )

We didn't really rest since the day we headed to the airport and our body was aching from extensive walking. It was Sunday and I checked the weather, it was supposed to be a rainy day in Asaka on that day. I was still paranoid with the flood news several days before, so I asked Af if we could just go to Ikebukuro that day and spend a slow day in the mall. He agreed, *wee!*

I know Ikebukuro got so much more to offer and even though we stopped by on the station every single day, we didn't really explore the place - almost at all. For that Sunday, we chose Sunshine City, the closest one from the station. We planned to go to their aquarium or planetarium.

I remember a lot of underground walk to arrive to the mall.
The first thing we did when we finally reached the place were : 

1) go to the toilet 

2) find a nice bench in the mall and eat our onigiris for lunch

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What we did at Sunshine City :

1) We found a Ghibli shop (!!!). If you are planning on buying Ghibli Studio's merchandize, you should find Donguri stores. I found out later that night about how they were selling those official merchandizes only at specific places ( I found one in Tokyo Station, in Sunshine City and Skytree ). Mr Miyazaki decided to make all items hard to get in other places, so finding one in Tokyo was a huge deal for me.

I didn't take any photos of the shop because I got too excited with choosing what to buy *especially when you have a strict budget to follow =.= I finally bought a planner (1,800yen), a handkerchief (250yen) and a random badge from Studio Ghibli - Castle in the Sky (250yen). We also bought finger-puppets of Totoro + Chi Totoro (AF's) and mine is the black cat, Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service (all 150yen each).  I really wanted the tea cup, but God, I can't. - *the shopping spree didn't stop here.

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2) We found so many big stores selling all famous anime's merchandize and I also bought my clear-glasses here. We saw the line to the aquarium was really long so we cancelled our plan *maybe because it was Sunday. Even the planetarium was closed for renovation until the upcoming October =.= Everything didn't go as we initially planned. We later decided to buy a strawberry juice + a cafe latte and find a place to lepak2.

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3) We went to the rooftop. *after we checked from their building's guide map
We saw some Japanese people wearing weird clothes, making poses and taking pictures. We didn't realize that we were in some kind of cosplayer's event until we walked farther down :F There were hundreds of cosplayers gathered in the Higashi-Ikebukuro Park just outside of the building ! I have never been in such a huge passionate crowds. The best part is it was totally unplanned :D

They mostly ignored us and they also took huge amount of pictures. There were also weird group of men wearing cute girls' costumes *they were far from cute and a man with his pet cats *more than 5! sitting together in the crowd. Ohh, and they also have fancy name-card with contact details and photo of them. 0,o It's not only the young-adults, there were also full-grownups! I wonder what makes them do it.

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We headed back earlier than days before and Asaka greeted us with a beautiful sunset view :)
Despite random earthquakes and tsunamis, how can anyone not fall in love with Japan ?

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Public transport : 492 yen

  

Tokiyo Trip 10.2 : Shibuya

Day 4 (Saturday) - continuation :

Hikarie Building :

It was a bit too far for us to walk to Shibuya Station from Harajuku so we took the Metro. 

We referred from Hello Sandwich's Tokyo Guide and found out about Hikarie Building at the station. It's on the first page of her book stated : 

"When you first arrive in Shibuya, head on over  to the new Hikarie Building and up to it's 11th floor sky lobby to take some photos over Shibuya."

We wouldn't know if we didn't look through the list T^T

So we headed to the building's lift and it brought us to the 11th floor and wa-lahh, we got the free view of Tokyo city :D I was so excited! We saw Shibuya crossing in much smaller scale :

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Hachiko Statue :

We decided to find Hachiko's statue and referred local map. We were lost and went to the wrong ways again and again =.= There were too many people around. When we finally found it, I was a bit disappointed. Young kids and adults were lepaking around the statue, waiting, wasting time, doing nothing, staring at foreigners. We can't even get a decent picture without them staring blankly at us. 

Note : Hachiko statue is located right in front of Shibuya crossing, near the Shibuya station *different exit. Not near Shibuya Station at Hikarie Building. I'm not sure whether this makes any sense, but you will understand when you go there and see how many Shibuya stations they have and how confusing they are. 

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Shibuya Crossing : 

I expected more, but I didn't enjoy the moment right when I was crossing it because I was taking a video. Not exactly the right time to take it, I know. Mental note : I shouldn't do this again, or I will lose my focus on the experience itself. And I should try the view from that exact level-2 Starbucks across the street. And probably try crossing it several times in a day at different time.

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Loft, Parco, Tokyu Hands and 5-floors Muji :

We visited a lot of arts & crafts stores while in Shibuya. It was getting late, so we didn't really enjoy each places much. One thing I remember the most is : Loft has everything all the stationary-obsessed-people want. Those things are quite affordable compared to other places, got variety of cute things in every colour possible, things that we don't know we need and oh-so-heaven T^T

Can you imagine having 5 levels of Muji, right next to several floors of Apple store, and also another Tokyu Hands and 6-floors missed Tower Records? 

Yes, it's artsy-fartsy heaven.

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Tsumumu Factory :

We missed a lot of places that 'I' wanted to visit from the book list. So I wanted to go to Tsumumu Factory as a treat for myself. We checked 2 maps and both we can't really decipher. Shibuya is a real-life maze in a city! We were lost, it was getting dark and we were both super-exhausted. I finally asked 2 school girls about the place and they asked me to follow them. They actually walked all the way to the hidden alley, where the shop is located. T^T My painful feet were so thankful.

The little shop was a real beauty! It is a 2-floor shop packed with all the beautiful little things. I couldn't leave without buying anything, so I bought a Hamamonyo handkerchief with autumn leaves prints *just like my little things :D

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We can't do any walking much afterwards, so headed back right-away.
Another exhausted day well-spent.

Public transport spent : 792 yen