After months and months of planning, the day had finally come for a proper overseas trip with Bruno (the Manila Major doesn’t count since it’s solely to attend an event), and the destination was none other than Japan!
Japan is a country where I’ve always wanted to go, but somehow I always ended up holidaying in some other countries – just not Japan. So finally, FINALLY, I got to go! It’s like a dream come true…
Before the trip, I’ve already reserved a pocket WiFi from Changi Recommends for my internet connectivity in Japan. I’m so glad Changi Airport had this service. The pocket WiFi device for Japan actually has unlimited data, so it’s better than those Japan prepaid data sim cards which has only a max 500MB of data per day before it’ll get throttled.
Right, so well, knowing me, I always love to hit the airport hours before my flight, and it’s the same this time too. The difference is that instead of just going for cafes hoping for an empty table at the transit area, I got complimentary lounge access this round, thanks to the Priority Pass that came with the DBS Altitude card which I had applied almost a year ago. We chose the SATS Premier Lounge at Terminal 3 to spend our 3 hours there before our SQ red eye flight to Narita Airport.
The lounge is quite a nice, quiet place. There’s some hot food (for example, Chinese wok-fried veggies, Indian curry, etc) and salad/sandwiches. Just some light bites, but it’s just like buffet style, so if you like any of the food, you can just keep going for more till you are totally full. There’s free soft drinks and coffee/tea too! Every seat there is very comfy, and there’ll be a charging port next to you to charge your gadgets. Bruno and I had some light bites, and we just relaxed at the super comfy chairs, scrolling through our Facebook/Reddit pages with the free WiFi provided in the lounge. What a nice way to spend time while waiting for our flight – definitely better than trying to beat the crowd and securing a table at the eternally-crowded Starbucks or Coffee Bean.
Then we went off to board our SQ flight to Tokyo. I didn’t take any photos on the plane – I only remembered I tried to nap but I couldn’t. Seriously, this will be the last time I’m taking red eye flight. I always felt terrible during the day after the flight…
Anyway, the first thing we did when we touched down at Narita Airport was to purchase the Narita Express ticket that will take us from the airport to Shinjuku. So while Bruno was busy ogling at the vending machines there (he loves vending machines for some reason), I went to queue up to purchase the tickets. I did not go for the JR Pass this trip, because there is no need to. It’s only worth it when you take a return shinkansen (for example, from Tokyo to Osaka, then back from Osaka to Tokyo). We arrived in Narita Airport, but we will be flying back from Osaka airport.
Before the trip, I was still worried about the timings of trains in Japan, but actually, it’s really quite easy to navigate around in Japan. Or should I say – it’s not as hard as I thought it would be.
So I’ve got the tickets, and off we went to the tracks to wait for the train. As it’s gonna be quite a while before our train arrived, I took random pics of the station. It’s so nice that you can totally eat and drink in stations and trains – they even have kiosks on the platform that sells snacks! And many, many vending machines that sells cans… some cold, and some hot! I love their hot beverage cans in vending machines. Such a life-saver at times…
Our shinkansen came, and off we go! We were initially so charmed by the views and sights, but at some point while the train just sped ahead, Bruno and I started dozing off.. and before we knew it, we reached Shinjuku!
I’ve done enough research to roughly know how to get to our hotel, but really when you are there at Shinjuku station yourself, you’ll just find yourself at a loss. I thought I knew the way – but nope! I was even quite confused which exit I should be taking! We ended up going to one of the many information kiosks in the station to ask, and the very friendly staff gave very detailed directions on how to get to our hotel. It’s definitely not what was described online by many people! My guess is because the exit that the staff told us to take was actually a new exit.
And good thing we asked and followed the instructions given to us, because our hotel was really just a 5minutes walk away from the station (not counting the wait at the pedestrian crossing). It’s so convenient! And the hotel that we were staying is no other than Hotel Sunroute Shinjuku. The site itself offers a very attractive rate, and it’s one of the cheaper options around that’s still within easy walking distance to Shinjuku Station. I actually grabbed a rather cheap rate off Japanican website, so I guess I’m really lucky! As our trip was near the Christmas period, most places in Tokyo has Christmas decorations already – and so did our hotel! We arrived too early before our check-in time, and knowing the hotel has a really strict check-in timing, we left our luggage at their concierge and went exploring the neighbourhood, as well as grabbing our first meal in Japan.
We went back to the train station to secure our shinkansen tickets from Shinjuku to Kanazawa, and then also the shinkansen tickets from Kanazawa to Kyoto. We also bought Suica cards for our transport expenses in Tokyo (very much like our ezlink card in Singapore). After that we started to explore quite a bit, walking round in circles, and before we realised it, we became too hungry. That Bruno didn’t want me to use Google Maps to navigate, just for “adventure’s sake”, and we ended up being unable to find the Ippudo Ramen that I wanted to go for. He relented in the end though, and we managed to find it! Our first meal in Japan – Ippudo Ramen! How apt is it? Haha! It tasted AWESOME. <3 Firm and very thin noodles, charsiew with fats that melt in your mouth, proper ajitsuke tamago, and the broth! My favourite tonkotsu broth… Yum! I’m salivating as I wrote this.
We went back to the hotel at around noon, and it was still too early. We sat around the lounge area, and Bruno fell into a deep sleep as he was really sleep-deprived. I took out my laptop and started checking some of work emails, until it’s nearly two in the afternoon, before I went to the counter to ask if the room is available. Finally we were checked in proper, and the first thing we got into the room is – SLEEP.
I couldn’t really sleep in the afternoon though, so I just closed my eyes and rested a bit. After a couple of hours, we got up and went over to Takashimaya to look for our dinner. It was really windy and cold… but we were too distracted by the pretty pink sight near Shinjuku station! IT’S SO PRETTY.
Anyway, after ogling at how pink everything was, we went forward in search for our dinner. After a quick walk around the restaurant levels in Takashimaya, we settled on Cafe Moana, whose price seems pretty reasonable. We both ordered the steak slices with waffle fries, and while he ordered the Mojito cocktail (which he said he couldn’t taste any alcohol content at all), I ordered the banana milk shake with chia seeds. The steak slices tasted really good with the gravy, but it’s just a tad tough. The banana milkshake was good, but I really dislike the chia seeds. But overall the prices are decent, so we weren’t complaining!
As Tokyo’s businesses close really early during winter time (at 8pm – even for major shopping malls), we got back to the hotel at around 9pm. On the way back to the hotel, we went to the Family Mart opposite our hotel to buy some snacks and breakfast for the next day. We bought the 野菜汤 (direct translated to be wild veggies soup), which we both ended up loving and got addicted to for the rest of our trip. :x It’s quite an experience drinking hot instant soup while working overseas!
For more photos on this day, please click on my Flickr album link here.
For Japan Trip 2017 itinerary / content page, please click here.
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