Japan Part 7 - Tokyo again!!

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 ^_^

*****************************************************

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

Odaiba : http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3008.html

Fuji TV : http://www.fujitv.co.jp/en/visit_fujitv.html

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.

“Traveling- it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller"

~Ibn Battuta~

Japan Part 5 - Tokyo Disneyland!!

Assalamualaikum, Konnichiwa and Hi!

As usual, some notes here:

1. this is only meant for sharing, I'm not a pro, just an amateur traveller, but I love Japan sooooo much, so I really want to help others who love Japan as much as me to have some ideas about travelling to Japan.

2. Feel free to skip all those stories, and scrolled to the end of this entry if you're only interested in costs and links of places. I always make a summary in the end of my entry. ^_^

3. If you have extra budget, you also have the option to hire a tour guide. And if you are a muslim, there are also some muslim tour guides, that will not only guide you to attraction places, but may also help to provide you halal foods, and places to pray. ^_^ Mine are more for backpackers ^_^

****************************************

So, we woke up early in the morning, hyped up by the fact that we're going to Disneyland, a land where dreams come true ahaks! yes, we grew up watching Mickey Mouse and friends and all those Princess Fairytales especially Cinderella. So, going to Disneyland is totally a dream come true alhamdulillah, eventhough we're not kids anymore ^_^ there's always a child in every adult right???

We already got our direction from our earlier revision in Malaysia, and confirmed all those routes with the Anne Hostel staff. From our study, we should go from Asakusabashi station (nearest to our hostel) to Akihabara station, change to Tokyo Station and finally to Maihama station. The staff said that was ok, then told us a simpler and shorter way to go there but I don't really remember haha. So, here we go!!

When we arrived in Maihama station, our hearts jolted when we heard Disney song was echoing there. We were touched for that dream-come-true moment and at the same time very excited!!

We arrived there around 8.30 am, and went to the Disney Resort 1st for pre-check in. We chose to stay one night at Disneyland Hotel just to have some experiences there. At least once in a lifetime right? Maybe after this, we will try the affiliated hotels around Disneyland and Disneysea. A little bit more info, Tokyo Disney Resort has 3 hotels, Disney Ambassador Hotel, Tokyo DisneySea Miracosta and Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. At 1st I wanted to book the DisneySea Miracosta, but by the time for me to do the online reservation, all the rooms that I want within my budget were already fully booked, so did the Ambassador Hotel, so we ended up booking the Disneyland Hotel. You may find more info about hotels within Tokyo Disney Resort HERE. 

The pre-check in started from 7 am - 4.00 pm as we can only get our room at 4.30 pm. The staff was so friendly and nice.  She said that she will give us an upgrade room, because I booked the room with 2 beds and a "trundle" bed, but she gave us the room with 3 beds. Then, after she saw us so excited with the upgraded room, she even offered us to upgrade to the highest floor level for a very affordable price. I mean, if the basic one, your room will be on the 1st-3rd floor. But, just to give you some tips, if a staff offer you the same offer, asked him/her will you get a view of the park. haha..

The staff gave us 2-day pass for the Disney Resort Line, and also our key card for our room. While trying to settle all things, I brought out my folder that consists most of my important paper for Japan like the Disneyland Park Tickets, veeeery important! haha. When the staff saw the folder, she was so surprised, because I used my Arashi folder with Matsumoto Jun as the cover hahahah. She said she did not think that Arashi is so well known in other countries too, I think, maybe because she said that she's not really a fan of them or Matsumoto Jun, I did not really remember huhu..

the train pass and the room key (we got three keys with our names on it)

Thank you Disney Resort! 

and here is how my folder looks like from front and back

thank to JapanJE Agnes because I got this from a free-giveaway

Usually I don't really buy things with my ichiban, I don't want to be bias that's why I usually buy things with the whole group picture but this one was free *happy*

And after everything settled, we left our bags and luggage to the hotel management, so that the bags can be delivered to our room once it was ready. And the joy began!!

The air was so fresh, and a little bit cold, but the weather was good alhamdulillah. The first ride for us was Big Thunder Mountain!! hahaha.. why? Because I love Matsujun ahhah.. and If you are an arashist, you maybe know what's the relation between Matsujun and Big Thunder Mountain (^_^) and the ride was soooooo fun! A very good openening!

Big Thunder Mountain, and no, we're not stalking that man with the blue hat, 

we were just interested with his hat hahahhah

I forgot to tell you that we bought the 2-Day Passport, and planned to spend our time one day in Disneyland and another day in DisneySea. One day of course is not enough for you to complete allllll rides and attraction in one park, so we planned our rides carefully so that we can enjoy the park as much as we can. We even took the FastPass for most of our rides in Disneyland and Disneysea.

Other than Big Thunder Mountain, we also rode Space Mountain (seriously amazing!!), The Haunted Mansion, Star Tours: The Adventure Continues, Gadget's Go Coaster in Toontown, It's a Small World (a little bit boring for adults but sure helps when you want to rest but don't want to waste time only on the bench) and also Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall. We spent some time in the souvenir shops, some time for rest and eat, and also, PARADE!!! Pictures may speak more haha..

The only thing that we can eat with confidence, ICE BAR!

Full of excitement, even a grandma who sat beside us was dancing and singing ^_^

while queing for Space Tour, no picture of Space mountain because it was a bit dark there

Deylarella and Dyanarella hahahhaha

It's a small world after all..it's a small world after all........zzz..heheh..

A must!!

You can see that there was a weird cute thing hung on my sis and my cousin'd necks right? It was the popcorn bucket. In Disneyland and Disneysea you can have many flavors of popcorn, some of the flavor also came with special bucket (an option, not a must, you can buy it in normal container too).

This one we bought with curry flavor popcorn. We actually didn't want that flavor, but that's the only cute container with flavor that we can eat hahah.. they have this one cute and special for Eastervcontainer, but it comes with Soy sauce popcorn which of course we did not want to try ahhaha. You know what, we can't even finish the curry popcorn huhuhu

The Disney Line station

After all those rides and walking around, we couldn't find a good hidden place to pray, so we decided to stop for a while and went to check in to our room. You can get out from the park with a stamp on your hand, and made sure that stamp is not washed out or you can't re-enter the park. A bell boy was assigned to take us to our room, and I practiced my very little Japanese with him and he said that my Japanese was sooo good *proud* hahahha. Our bags and luggage were already there when we arrived. The bell boy showed us few things, the aircond controller, the tv, and left after we said thank you (fortunately, giving tips is not practiced in Japan). 

I love this warm message.. 

We prayed and rest for a while and went down again to the park. It was dark already, and we walked around while waiting for the night parade and fireworks. We bought some souvenirs including a minnie sticklight for my sis collection.

And the parade began!

and the most waited of all, fireworks!!!!

whoaaaa...... I miss those wonderful moments haha..

Then, as the night still early, we walk around and saw that there were so many people still queuing up for Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek. Is it very interesting? Because many people queue for this ride since daylight. Being influenced, we also queue up for the ride. We took around 1 and a half hour queuing before our turns arrived. And, here is an advice, please don't get influenced by others hahahahhaha... I mean, it's fun, but not worthy to queue for a very long time hahahhahahhahahaha...

After that fun but errrrrrrr ride, we went to the souvenir shop to buy some memorial things haha..

And that's how we ended our day in Disneyland.

Cost summary for the 5th Day:

Train fare from Asakusabashi to Maihama = included in 5000 Suica so none

Disneyland Hotel for one night Superior room = 36 000 yen/ room so 12 000yen/pax

2 day pass Disney line = free (for staying at Disneyland Hotel/Affiliated Hotels)

Disney 2 day passport = 10 700 yen (I looked at web, and recent price is 11 000 yen)

Drinks bought at Disney hotel store = ~500 yen/pax (no food bought here, we ate what we brought from Malaysia in our room, and onigiri we bought the previous day when we were in Park)

Total Day 5 = 23 200 yen

Total cost up to day 5 = 69 410 yen

I have to put the popcorn as souvenir because we bought them because of the container haha. Other souvenirs also not included in this cost summary.

You can save more by staying at the affiliated hotel or hotels around Disneyland. 

So that's all for Part 5. I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed Disneyland. Thanks for reading!! xoxo!!

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."

~Walt Disney~

Tips: Japanese Currency

Assalamualaikum, Konnichiwa and Hi!

Let's rest a little from the trip entries. This entry is like an intermission in a 3-hour-duration Bollywood movie (If you have seen one in any movie hehe)

This is actually something I want to share because one of the things that I forgot to read much before I went there is the Japanese currency. Not about the Yen value in term of currency conversion, but the usage of the bank notes and coins.

Mostly, if we convert our own money (Ringgit Malaysia in my case), we will only get the bank notes, and of course it will be in 10000yen or 5000 yen or at least the 1000 yen, with no coin, right?

And when you are already in Japan and start to use those bank notes, you will start to get the change in coins. And, to tell you this, one of the Japanese coin brought a mystery to us hahahahha....

So, let me introduce you, the Japanese currency (image I took from Google Image, if the real owner sees this, you may claim your credits ^_^ )

yeah, and the one that was so mystery to us, of course the 5 yen because there's no value stated on the coin. We took almost 3 days until one of us decided to ask a convenient store staff what was the actual value of the coin. So I hope, with this, there will be no mystery in your trip hahhaa (Jangan biarkan hidup anda diselubungi misteriiiiiii).

Oh, one thing I learned there. They used so many coins. We at 1st were a little afraid to use the coin, in reason that we may slow down the staff, waiting for us to calculate and search for coins (as we did not really recognize the coins by heart like RM coins), but I think, the best is, just take your time, slowly, to count and give your coins accordingly, than keep paying with bank notes and having sooooooooooooooooooooooooo many coins in your wallet haha. So, use it wisely, as some say, get rid of 1 yen as soon as possible. That means, whenever you need to pay 243yen or 33 yen or 781 yen, use that 1 yen coins before you get another dozens of 1 yen coins hehe.

Another thing that unfamiliar with us in Malaysia but widely practiced in Japan is the usage of cash tray. Whenever you go to the counter and see a cash tray, count your money and put in the tray. That will be good enough if you don't really know about Japanese etiquette (pay with both hands if you want to give the money on hands, etc).

(source: google, if the owner sees this, tell me and I'll credit you)

So that's all for today. See you in Part 4!! xoxo

Salam Ramadhan to all my muslim readers. May this year of Ramadhan will be better than the previous ones. May it brings more blessings, improve our Imaan, and help us to be a better Muslim, a better person, insyaAllah..