DAY ONE: TOUCHDOWN + SHINJUKU

Day 1 was pretty ordinary, we touched down from our redeye flight from SG to tokyo Narita and took the JR Narita Express (NEX) to Shinjuku. That train was super comfortable and fast, and of course it was what like the televisions showed, super duper clean and organised.

Costs: 3200 Yen 

Duration: 90Mins

DAY TWO: TSUKIJI FISH MARKET + ASAKUSA 

We first went to Asakusa and were greeted with one of the first sights of cherry blossom for the trip.

To be honest, there wasn't much to do in Asakusa except to walk the streets where touristy shops are lined and literally tourists everywhere.

However the park there is quite pretty and you'll be able to see some cherry blossoms there!

tsukiji fish market is a must-go when you visit Tokyo. Not only does it have lots of sights to see, the food stalls there are also splendid! The queue for every restaurant was super long due to the golden week where everyone flocks to japan for the cherry blossoms, so if you wanna queue for good food you gotta go early.

Chances are, you probably will have to split up if you're in a large group because restaurants are really small there.

We first tried the Soba Noodles with Tempura in Dashi broth at a roadside stall and it was SOOO good especially in the cold weather.

We then went to queue for what seemed like a Singaporean's favorite - Sushi Zanmai

I say that because 50% of the people in the queue were singaporeans as well LOL.

But anyway, Sushi Zanmai is the place to go for cheap and good sushi!

Their Otoro and Chotoro are really really amazing at only SGD$5 per piece. Slurps

DAY THREE: OYAKODON + YOYOGI PARK + MEIJI SHRINE 

Day 3 saw us checking out of our airbnb in Shinjuku and leaving for one in Roppongi. I wouldn't recommend switching hotels within a town because generally places are very easy to get to, but if you're going during the golden week then you really have to book early!

The accom we were staying that for days 1 & 2 got booked up after that's why we had to shift accoms which got pretty tiring and time consuming. haha

For lunch, we had Oyakodon at Hashida-ya , located in Shibuya

The restaurant practically only had 3 mains on the menu, and we ordered all 3 to try. 

To be very honest, despite the hype and good reviews I read online on Hashida-ya's oyakodon, I felt that the Oyakodon was not the highlight of the lunch.

In fact it was the chicken cutlet rice (pictured at the end of the picture) that was fried to perfection, salted well and had an amazing homemade mayo-combination (idk what was in there) to top it off.

The Oyakodon on the other hand was bland and we needed a lot of soy sauce on the side to give it some taste.

Hasida-ya

3-15-4 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Yoyogi Park

Wearing Suede Cold Shoulder Babydoll Dress from The Dress Room 

I wore this outfit for the third day because i knew this gorgeous shade of camel would go super well with the babypink of the cherry blossoms.

Yoyogi park was one of the worst nightmares of tokyo because it was literally FLOODED with tourists. I think its not an exaggeration to say that the park had at least 10-20k people in there at the same time.

People were rubbing shoulders, squeezing, pushing.. etc.

People were on the floor having picnic, watching the flowers. That would have been nice if we secured a spot in the park to picnic as well but well, we didn't.

Don't expect to come back with good photos of yourself + the cherry blossoms because that's impossible!

Meiji Shrine

One of the world's most famous shrines, the meiji shrine. The Meiji Shrine is located in Shibuya-ko and is just next to Harajuku.

Thousands of tourists come here everyday to have their wishes written down on these wooden blocks. I wished for mine too and had such a great time reading others'.

This place is so so gorgeous and serene, there is something about the Meiji Shrine that comes off as spacious and welcoming, despite the number of tourists in there.

However, note that it closes pretty early at 6PM daily, so remember to catch it before it closes!

I like to visit in the evening when it starts to get cloudy because the weather is the best then! 

That's it for TOKYO!

For those that are planning to head to Japan for a similar duration, you here's the summary of the places we visited:

Day 1 to 3 : Tokyo

Day 3: Hakone

Day 4: Kawaguchiko

Day 5 to 7 : Kyoto

Day 8 to 9 : Osaka

Keep a lookout for the posts coming up over the next few weeks!

Love

Mong