Day 14 in Tokyo, Tuesday 26th July.

We were getting towards the end of our trip and one thing on our itinerary that we hadn’t had a chance to do yet was see the Tokyo sky view. We would have liked to see the view from the Mori Museum, but we were low on funds by this point. Thanks to this website and the free wi-fi at our guest house we found out that there is an observatory on the 45th floor of Tokyo Tochosha, The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, which is open free of charge to the public. The building is just a short distance from Shinjuku station. At 243 meters, it is the 2nd tallest building within the city. We got to enjoy a viewing of the city from 202 meters above ground.

It really was breathtaking.

Best smoking area in Tokyo: It has a view of Mount Fuji!

Yoyogi Koen really stands out in the middle of the cityscape.

There is a bar and a gift shop in the observatory too. What better to do when you’re 202 meters above ground than buy Hello Kitty junk?!

We stayed to watch the sunset. ^_^

In the evening we headed back to Koenji and I stumbled upon this little Sylvanian Families hair dresser in the street. I saw it on my first night in Tokyo and thought I might have imagined it!

We headed to one of our favourite Koenji bars, Godzilla-ya! It’s a tiny bar run by a cute lady who loves 1960s toys! She’s displayed her amazing collection of toys all around the bar.

In Godzilla-Ya we met an elderly Japanese ojiisan. He spoke little English, we spoke little Japanese, but we managed to communicate through the universal language of Nihonshu. He bought us many drinks and got us really drunk! It was a memorable evening.

Day 15, Wednesday 27th July, our final night in Tokyo!

Our final day in Tokyo was spent gift shopping & packing, with huge hangovers thanks to all the nihonshu the night before! In the evening we went out for sushi and beers in Koenji to say thank you & goodbye to our fantastic guides, hosts & translators, Aleister & Maya.

The next morning we flew home! I had one last ice coffee drink at Narita Airport. Oh man, I really miss those Japanese drink vending machines!

Well, that’s it for my July Tokyo trip blog posts! I had the time of my life, I hope to visit Tokyo again soon.

Day 10 in Tokyo, Friday 22nd July. We went to Asakusa, the centre of Tokyo’s shitamachi (old town), where an atmosphere of old Japan survives. There are many temples and shrines in Asakusa.

We visited Sensō-ji, Tokyo’s oldest Buddhist temple. During World War II, the temple was bombed and for the most part destroyed. It was rebuilt later and is a symbol of rebirth and peace to the Japanese people.

The “Thunder Gate”. This massive red & black paper lantern is meant to suggest thunderclouds and lightning.

Worlds largest Izakaya lantern? ^_~

There are many statues and shrines in the temple grounds.

Wooden prayer tablets (Ema)

Giant sandal!

Asakusa was also historically an entertainment district. This statue is of a Kabuki actor.

Clean up your dog’s poop?

Pom Poko

There are some lovely traditional shops in Asakusa selling things like handmade crafts and vintage Kimonos. Wish I’d bought one of these cute pin cushions.

After walking around Asakusa, we headed to Chiyoda to the Tokyo Imperial Palace. In this area the contrast between old & new buildings was quite stark.

Double-bridge Nijūbashi leading to the palace’s main gate over the moats.

Tokyo is often defined by extreme contrast of old and new. After a day of exploring classic Tokyo, we spent the evening enjoying modern Tokyo. Some local Tokyo friends took us to ‘All-you-can-drink’ karaoke in Nakano. It was a fun night out, we got our own booth with a karaoke machine and a phone to order drinks with! Things I learned about karaoke: Punk songs are great to sing as they are short & you can shout along! NOFX ‘Murder the Government’ and Rancid ‘Time Bomb’ were awesome! But I also learned that no matter how much you like Glee, you really have to be able to sing to bust out ‘Don’t stop believin’. *cringe*

After karaoke we went Para Para clubbing in Shinjuku. Really awesome night from what I can remember! Cheers to Aleister, Maya and Max for a great night out!

We finished off the night by sampling Honey Toast. Honey Toast is basically a loaf of white bread transformed in to a delicious cakey desert. Half a loaf of white bread is toasted on top,  drowned in honey, syrup and butter, then topped with ice cream, fruit & nuts. Ours was strawberry flavour! It’s a pretty strange concept but it was tasty and it also pretty much prevented me from having a hangover the following day, even after all you can drink karaoke. Sugoi!

Day 9 in Tokyo, Thursday 21st July. We headed to Akihabara (Electric Town) to check out the arcades and retro game shops.

Sega Arcade

Jutt ‘avin a fag in the Taito arcade

I played some Tekken 6 online and kicked some random persons ass. It’s the only computer game I am any good at!!

Thanks to a recommendation from Laura we headed to Super Potato! (All those hours spent listening to Jpod101 Survival Skills paid off when I was able to ask the smallest cutest maid in Akihabara the way to Super Potato and understand her directions)! Super Potato is a retro game shop with 3 floors of vintage games and arcades!

Nintendo Cartridge throne

An actual Mario Kart

Playing a spot of Mario

Akihabara is full of cosplay shops and toy shops too. ^_^ I hope to go back one day and see more of it!

Like many of our days out in Tokyo, Day 9 was followed by a night out in Koenji. We enjoyed a 100 yen nama biiru with Aleister. We misunderstood this sign and thought all the beer was 100 yen… but no, only the first one was!

This was gooood. ^_^

Day 6 in Tokyo, Monday 18th July. My 29th Birthday! As a special birthday treat we went for dinner at the Fantasy Dining Alice in Wonderland Restaurant in Ginza.

This magical restaurant is hidden away on the 5th floor of a skyscraper and it was quite a challenge to find! As you step out of the lift you arrive in Wonderland. In a tiny waiting room surrounded by velvet curtains we were greeted by a beautiful woman dressed as the Mad Hatter who showed us through corridors lined with pages of Lewis Carol’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (complete with illustrations) to our table in a Mad Hatter themed booth with a wonderful lampshade made from hats!

The menu arrived in the form of a cube, which opened up to reveal a miniature scene with a ticking clock and playing cards. ^_^

When we rang this tiny gold bell on the table, a waitress dressed as Alice arrived to take our order.

The drinks menu!

‘Eat Me’ bread rolls and heart-shaped butter ♡

Card suits chopsticks

Alice coaster

Cocktails with fresh fruit, decorated with flowers (a snap dragon & a red rose!)

We ordered a set meal with several courses, starting with the White Rabbit salad.

Chilled soup

Playing Card Pizza

The giant lamp, teacup and playing cards make you feel as though you are miniature!

Queen of Hearts Pasta

The teacup is particularly awesome!

Cheshire Cat chicken & broccoli

To my surprise, the adorable Alice waitress appeared with a birthday cake for me! They gave me an Alice band to wear, and presented Justin with a top hat, and they said something in Japanese which I think meant ‘now you become Alice’. They sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me! It was really wonderful, I was so touched! ♡ ♡

Thank you so much to my brother Aleister who arranged the birthday surprise and ordered this Cheshire Cat birthday cake for me over the phone in Japanese! Very impressive communication skills (even if they did add an extra letter to my name ^_~)! I was overwhelmed! ♡

Our cute lolita Alice waitress ♡

The final course of our set meal, Mad Hatter deserts!

It was funny, after my birthday cake arrived, the waitresses went around almost every group in the restaurant singing happy birthday to someone at each table! It’s obviously a popular birthday venue, but it’s also quite nice to be celebrating alongside lots of people all born on the same day. ^_^

Hats lampshade in our booth

Pom pom lampshade in the neighbouring booth

Playing card booth

There were numerous hidden party rooms of different sizes, I would love to have a good look around the whole place, it’s really amazing. This months KERA magazine features a lolita fashion spread shot in the restaurant.

I had a really wonderful birthday in Tokyo! As we left the restaurant the Mad Hatter gave us a low bow. It was a truly magical and memorable experience, I totally recommend it to fans of Alice. ♡

Day 5 in Tokyo, Sunday 17th July. I had been looking forward to this day for a long long time – we had tickets to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka!

The Ghibli Museum is a really magical place. No photography is allowed inside which is probably for the best as you can just relax and enjoy the amazing exhibits. The whole place is just so beautiful, with wonderful buildings and stained glass window designs featuring Ghibli characters. All the rooms and exhibitions were amazing, but the highlight for me was the special exhibition ‘The View from the Cat Bus’. I knew there was a cat bus for kids to play on, but this exhibition features a cat bus large enough for adults to get inside too! Imagine sitting inside on furry seats surrounded by furry floors and ceilings and looking out on the landscapes from the film Totoro. It was truly incredible! The short film while we were there was called ‘Treasure Hunting’ and it was lovely.

After looking around all of the incredible rooms we made our way up a tiny spiral staircase, up to the roof of the Ghibli Museum to see the famous Laputa Robot!

Roboto-chan is huuuge! It was so great to see him in person!

Laputa cube

It was a really hot sunny day!

The spiral staircase leading up to the roof garden.

With Totoro after a trip to the gift shop!

I loved all the details. ^_^

After our trip to the Ghibli Museum we went for a walk around neighbouring Inokashira Koen. Cicadas were buzzing all around and there were huge butterflies on the flowers.

Whilst walking around the park we took a look at the Benzaiten temple. Benzaiten is the goddess of knowledge, music and arts.

Stone dragon with water scoops for cleansing.

Wooden Prayer tablets. This one was so sweet! ♡

It was so sunny that there were rainbows in the fountains. ^_^

We had a delicious Thai curry at this cute forest cafe.

In the evening we headed to Shimokitazawa where my brother lives.

Shimokitazawa is a really cool area, a bit like Koenji, with lots of great vintage clothes shops, record shops and nice places to eat and drink.

We tried a late night snack of nikumaki onigiri – a rice ball wrapped with thinly sliced meat and covered in melted cheese. I think this is the Japanese equivalent of a kebab?! The little shop selling them plays a cute song about nikumaki too! ^_~

What a lovely summer day spent in Tokyo. Lots more photos in my Flickr album as always. More soon!

Day 4 in Tokyo, Saturday 16th July. We had an evening out in Nakano. ^_^

Origami peace cranes at Nakano Broadway – an incredible shopping centre. More about this amazing place to come in another post.

Namco! A huge arcade. We played a few games and UFO machines here.

We stumbled across this old school  Video Game Bar in the side streets of Nakano and decided to check it out as we thought we’d probably never find it again if we looked! It turned out to be really awesome.

The walls are lined with Nintendo cartridges which you can play while you eat, drink & smoke (*cough*)

Pacman!

Mario beer mat

Mario pickles! These were yummy but I was a tiny bit disappointed that the gherkins weren’t mario shaped, hahah.

Handmade felt Mario on the wall

Vintage game cabinet

Kitty-chan!

After walking around Nakano a bit more, Aleister & Maya took us to this incredibly cute machine restaurant. You order your meal from a vending machine! (It’s served by waitresses though, the food doesn’t come from the machine).

I *loved* the 1950′s inspired décor. One day I will have a kitchen that looks like this! They were also playing rock’n'roll music.

I tried Omuraisu. Savoury rice inside an omelette. Nom!

My dress matched the curtains & lampshade, hah!