Assalamualaikum, Konnichiwa and Hi,
As usual
-this is meant for sharing only
-I am not a pro-traveler, just an amateur who love Japan so much
-I know that many out there have a dream of going to Japan especially Arashist so I share my experience, hoping that it may benefit you to plan a trip to Japan, budget-wisely
-I am losing my memory, and carving here is a solution, so bear with all the stories
-All useful links and summary of the cost will be at the end of each entry. You may skip everything and scroll down. No hard feeling at all ^_^
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Our 7th day started in Anne Hostel. We woke up and went out immediately after getting prepared. The nice staff greeted us at the lounge but we decided to have some breakfasts on our way to the station (Anne Hostel provides free breakfast in the morning, eggs, breads and jam and hot drinks).
As I already told you before, our hostel located only few minutes walk from Asakusabashi station. From there, we took the train to the Shinbashi station, then bought our Yurikamome One Day Pass (this was found by my sis during her pre-study for Japan). It's a pass that you can use on and off Yurikamome line around Odaiba no matter how many times you want in ode day, at 800 yen. Very worth your money especially if you want to truly enjoy Odaiba for the whole day. Then after that, we went to Daiba station, walk few minutes in that beautiful weather and arrived at Fuji TV!!! Yeah, our first location in Odaiba was Fuji TV. Why? You will know why ^_^ (Arashists may already know why hehehehe)
Our Yurikamome Pass
Tadaaa.. We just knew that blue kawaii dog is the mascott for Fuji TV hoho
The admission fee is free except if you want to go up to the Spherical Observation Room from the Roof Garden at 550 yen, where you can enjoy Odaiba view from the spherical thing that you see in that picture. It is situated in the 25th floor.
Above left: Rainbow bridge and Tokyo Tower seen at the back
Below left: the replica of Statue of Liberty
Below right: Man-made beach in the city. Beautiful!!
Then we went back to the Roof Garden, bought some souvenirs and took some pictures (got Lucky 7, Chocolatier and Nazodi posters) at the shops located there. They have many manga and movie-related merchandise such as One Piece, Chuggington and many others.
Then we went further down to the 5th floor to enjoy the Wonder Street. It is where *collection of valuable items from popular programs, a fun photo spot and more are available for you to enjoy here at Fuji TV’s Wonder Street. When you enter, the first thing that comes into sight are the 5 monitors airing Fuji TV and its related channels. Next to the monitors stands a giant timetable that encompasses all of Fuji TV’s programs. Moving forward, you will encounter an area dedicated to Mezamashi TV, a perfect spot to take photos with your favorite anime character.
Follow the hallway lined with familiar faces of Fuji TV’s newscasters and announcers, and you’ll find a life-sized panel of hosts from noon-time variety show “High Noon TV Viking!”
The “Variety Show Corner” is the main area of Wonder Street where you can find a part of the set used in “SMAPxSMAP,” when Lady GAGA performed. Further down there is a display for “Terrace House,” a reality show where 6 male and female members share the same flat. Here you can check out their rooms and past members’ romantic interests. “Mecha Ike” and “VS ARASHI” displays can also be found here as well.
Other areas of interest include an area of Fuji TV’s popular dramas and movies, events, and more. Come and see, feel, and take photos at Wonder Street to experience Fuji TV in a whole new light!*
p/s: phrases in *...* were taken from the web. Hoho. I'm not that good in explaining without missing anything hahhahah.. So enjoy the picture!!
Gachapin, Run for Money, SMAPxSMAP
Yeah, VS Arashi!!!! But we didn't come on the recording day :(
and Ogura-san!!
Some more pictures
After everybody was satisfied enough, we went down to the Theater Mall, having our onigiri and drinks. Then we spent some more time looking around before we moved to our next location, Aquacity Odaiba. Actually it's not in our plan to go there, but on the way to the Fuji TV, we saw the Disney Store sign, and we really wanted to find a birthday gift to our niece, Marissa (we missed her birthday party because it was held on our arrival day in Japan). So to make us less guilty, we tried to find her anything related to her favourite Princess Sophia the First in Disneyland but failed so we tried our luck in the Disney Store. For a Disney fan, Disney store is like 2nd heaven after Disneyland hahahha. And we managed to find what we wanted, thankfully!!
Then, our next location was Venus Fort.
We walked from there to Daiba Station, took the train to Aomi Station and from there walk only few minutes to Venus Fort.
Venus Fort is a shopping mall in the style of a 18th century South European town. The mall features over a hundred shops, fashion boutiques, cafes and restaurants on three floors including a few outlets shops on the upper floor. What's more interesting about Venus Fort is the ceiling of the building is painted with cloud and sky, and it will become day and night through times. A very beautiful shopping experience ^_^
Left above: The Fountain Plaza
Left below: The Church Plaza
We even went to the History Garage where you can find Historic Car Collection.
Interesting!
I really want to share you this story. As we walked around, shopped around, we had to stop for prayer. We tried to search a suitable place where we will not disturb anyone or make anyone uncomfortable, and finally we decided to pray at an emergency exit, the door to the stairs. The space was big enough for us to take turns to pray and not disturbing the path to the stairs. I was the one standing beside my sister when she was praying, and many times people came in to use the stairs. Some seemed so surprise at 1st then nod and just walked by. But, suddenly, one of the passer-by, a man in a suite, came to me and said "I can take you to a clean room", I did not hear very well and asked him again and he repeated "I can take you to a clean room. Here not so clean, people walk here". I was so touched, but said "It's ok, my sister almost finish already", he smiled and left. I held my tears, too touched of that stranger's kindness and understanding, as you know that muslims are still minority in Japan, yet they still appreciate and value us. Thank you stranger-san. My prayers are always with you. Funny to tell you, after she finished her prayer, my sis told me she lost her 'khusyu' at that time because she said that she thought that man wanted to take us to the 'security room' hahahhaha...
We love the Yurikamome Pass, with it we can go round and round.
This picture was taken in front of Aquacity Odaiba, again!
Then we walked around (or you can take the train) and went again into the Aquacity to enjoy Sony Explorascience (don't ask us why we decided to go there haha, it's not that we regret the decision, no, we had so much fun there, just maybe we should suggest you other places to go, unless you really can spend days in Odaiba). Oh, there was an omiyage shop where you can buy souvenirs at a cheaper price. But I forgot the shop's name. huhu..
We enjoyed the place too much till we forgot to take pictures there. The only pictures that we have are the ones with the Best 11 Smiles hahhahaha
There are many more attractions that you can find in Odaiba, including Madam Tussauds Wax Museum, Legoland, and even a giant Gundam (we passed this regretfully). You can find all the info HERE. We did not go to all the attractions, time and budget-wisely huhu. After we were already in Malaysia, we watched Return of Superman that has Cho Sunghoon and his daughter Cho Sarang who live in Odaiba in an episode where they enjoy the night view of Odaiba and it was veeeery beautiful. Rainbow bridge and Fuji TV building were lighten up with colourful lights. And a friend also shared his experience watching the Gundam at night, and it was so much fun. We may revisit Odaiba for that experience in Japan 2.0.
picture courtesy from Google Image
We left Odaiba with wonderful feelings. We headed back to the Shinbashi station (still using the Yurikamome pass) then from there we went to the Oshiage station for Tokyo Skytree. Few minutes walk only from the Oshiage station to the Tokyo Skytree.
Another story here. When we arrived in Shinbashi station, it was already the time for people to get home from their office. So it was a little bit busy at the station. We were aware of a very old uncle walking slowly with his cane. Very slow. We passed him, and we stumbled upon a poster of Ninomiya Kazunari drama (picture below, left). So we took some pictures. While we were doing that for few minutes, suddenly I heard something fell, and to our surprise, that old uncle fell backward veeeeeery hard. He's a very tall man, and I can say that his head fell hard to the floor. We were so surprised, my sister and cousin froze and I with another passerby tried to alert the station staff, while some more passerby tried to help the uncle. I saw a young man tried to apologize (not sure if he collided with the old man or he thought that he was the one to blame) but we got more shaken when blood started to drip from that uncle's head and formed a pool of blood. We were blank for a while and decided to leave after few minutes(because I know that my sis was afraid of blood), at the same time hoping that the uncle will be okay and alright. Till now, we hope he's okay and healthy again :(
We arrived at the Tokyo Skytree, still shaken. Luckily we have to queue to buy the ticket, so we had time to calm ourselves
We managed to see the transition from daylight to night. The picture at the left are the observation window where you can see through the highest floor
You can also see Sumida river in the pictures
We spent about 1 to 2 hour there including at the souvenir shop. We even had the chance to take pictures with promotional poster and cap for Ninomiya's drama (picture below, right)
A sakura theme Tokyo Skytree!!
Then we departed to the Sensoji Temple/Nakamise street by taking the train to Asakusa station and walk towards the Sensoji Temple to get to the Nakamise street. You can buy cheap souvenirs here, among the cheapest price you can get for key-chains and fridge-magnet. But, unluckily, we arrived in Nakamise street around 8 pm and as you can see in the picture below, many shops were already closed. Still, we managed to catch few shops that were still opened.
After that quick shopping, we walked along another street named Shin Nakamise (New Nakamise) and bought kebabs for our dinner. We decided to end our day there and went back to our hostel.
One of the unique characteristics of Anne Hostel is you can only eat at the lounge and not in the room. This is because they want to make sure all guests are comfortable especially in a shared room. So we ate our kebabs (mine was kebab bento) while watching some shows on the TV and socializing with other guests. Yeah, it was Arashi ni Shiyagare then Gantz. Lucky right? :p
So summary!!!!!
Anne hostel = 3100 yen/pax (4 beds dorm)
Yurikamome pass = 800 yen
Fuji TV Spherical Observation Room = 550 yen
Sony Explorascience = 500 yen
Tokyo Skytree = 2060 yen
Train fare except for Yurikamome Line included in the 4500 Suica so none
Food and drinks = ~1000 yen
Total for day 7 = 8010 yen
TOTAL up to Day 7 = 81 020 yen
Souvenirs are not included
Some useful links
Venus fort: https://www.venusfort.co.jp/multi/index_e.html
Sony Explorascience: http://www.sonyexplorascience.jp/english/
So that's all for this time. See you in the next entry!! Thanks for reading!! xoxo!!
P/S: I wrote most of the route that we scheduled to take (planned with Hyperdia). We actually took some shortcuts recommended by the locals or through the map that we had there, but we forgot to jot down the changes. All the stations and route here may had changed at the actual trip, not because it was wrong, but because we had a shorter alternative routes ^_^
P/S NO 2: Pardon me for my broken grammar. Huhu.. I'm trying to improve huhuhu... Lack of practice I can say..Sorry!! Hope the messages that I want to deliver, reach you hehe.
P/S: I wrote most of the route that we scheduled to take (planned with Hyperdia). We actually took some shortcuts recommended by the locals or through the map that we had there, but we forgot to jot down the changes. All the stations and route here may had changed at the actual trip, not because it was wrong, but because we had a shorter alternative routes ^_^
P/S NO 2: Pardon me for my broken grammar. Huhu.. I'm trying to improve huhuhu... Lack of practice I can say..Sorry!! Hope the messages that I want to deliver, reach you hehe.
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