My 2.4m x 0.9m space

Japan 2023: Hello Sakura

posted : Saturday, April 22, 2023

Thought I’d get started on these posts while still on the trip since I unexpectedly have a fair bit of down time everyday…coz I am rationing on roaming data usage and wifi isn’t readily available everywhere especially on train rides.

So the Japan trip! It was already tiring enough at work leading up to the trip and I decided to complicate matters even further with and unplanned trip to Melaka just before the trip. Had a chance to make things worse by coming back on Sunday morning itself, but as fate would have it I couldn’t secure another night at my Melaka hotel, so duly came home on Saturday night.

Made my way to airport early on Sunday, plan was to be as chill as possible and use a lounge visit. Checked in luggage through (I had this worry that my luggage will get stranded in Brunei airport somehow, so I was watching this part closely). Intended to use the SATS Premier Lounge at T3 but it was full and they weren’t accepting pass users till 1030, so went back to T2 which is pretty empty (guess most ppl hadn’t realize it had reopened together with T2). Food was okay, nothing to shout about and I did get to do a bit of trip research while waiting.

T2 lounge is pretty quiet coz it hasn’t fully reopened and so lesser flights..not that I was complaining coz I tried to go to the T3 one and was turned away coz it’s full

Flight to Bru was uneventful, the transit was a new experience for me coz I never had to do one before - in all the times I have been in the arrival hall I never once noticed the transit area. Also had to hide from parents who arrived on a different flight like 10 minutes earlier, because they weren’t supposed to find out I am transiting in Bru…yet.

Red eye flight to Tokyo. Was hoping flight won’t be full and maybe there’s a chance to snag the entire row of seats to myself, but an entire 越南大妈团 arrived and oh well. I did have my window seat still (camped two nights ago to be the first to check in so I can snap my seat), and as it turned out, I managed about 3 hours of (very interrupted) sleep throughout the 5.5h flight, which is not too bad I suppose. Most entertaining moment was my aisle seat partner getting into a beef with the passenger right in front of him over how far his seat was reclined (“because of this I cannot sleep the whole night!” “Well next time book business class then!”).

Sunrise from plane

Touched down at Narita nice and early. At this point while there’s mostly no restrictions, they do ask you to fill in and declare a few things online beforehand, though it’s not mandatory but it will make your life a lot easier if you do it. Once the declarations are done a QR code will be generated, and officers on ground just needed to scan it and you’re good, so that speeds things up. Apparently the whole world is in Japan now too so immigration queues were reportedly crazy. But I think I got lucky coz landed early enough, and I only queued for around half an hour I think - by the time I reached the counter the queue behind me had snaked way beyond the point I joined.

Out and straight to the JR office to get Narita Express tickets. Queue wasn’t long, but this bit took me almost an hour damn, in part due to hidden bombs like this Mexican lady who processed JR pass for her entourage of at least 40ppl zzzzz. Seeing her heap stacks of passports into a ziplock bag after everything was done. Thought I had missed my intended train as a result but staff told me it was late and I can still catch it which was a bit perplexing because I thought these trains don’t usually get delayed (point to note for my return trip then).

Decided NOT to pop into the first combini I saw lol

Train into Tokyo station! Reached in good time and thought I would want to stuff my luggage in one of the station lockers and head for early lunch. Problem: couldn’t find a free locker. Initially wanted to find one that is closer to my night bus exit, but gave up coz couldn’t figure out where that exit is, and eventually gave up the whole locker idea altogether coz I couldn’t find one in the vicinity that is available to use, found a luggage storage service instead and just deposited it there. Down side is that they close at 8pm so I had to retrieve it by then while my bus is at 9.40pm, so I would have some time to kill but not a major issue.

Train to Tokyo

Hello Tokyo Skytree

Needed a photo to mark down the location of my luggage storage

Finally set off at about 11, headed to Ueno where I knew there was an Ichiran outlet and it’s near Ueno Park which had Sakura spots. Had to queue for a bit though.

Off to Ueno!

Ueno always struck me as modern-ish

Reunited with Ichiran

Ameyayokocho, no time for you today

Colors don’t pop off here coz maybe a fair bit of the flowers have fallen so they are not as…dense?

Busied myself taking photo after photo of flowers

One with myself trying to hide those picnic-ing under the trees

More close ups

Post-lunch snack of karaage, only one I had this trip coz limited meals and too many things to eat

These are apparently not Sakura, but still pretty anyways

Asakusa is in the vicinity too so took a train ride to Senso-ji. As with Japanese temples I usually don’t come for religious reasons, and if it’s a special landmark I usually only go once. After a while you find that most Japanese temples look alike, no offense. But Senso-ji stood out for me because I always felt that their 签文 were oddly accurate, which was funny coz I started off thinking it was a tourist gimmick. So I made it a point to revisit.

Oh that and coz it’s Sakura season too. Evidence below.

But first, into combini for one of my all time favs.

This is the photo that will always scream “Tokyo” for me

Nakamise-dori featuring many people and flowers

This round’s 签文, moderately well

Very much in a “see flower, take photo” mood

Decided against exploring the streets of Asakusa for more food, and headed to a super sento next. This was in the plan this early into the trip because I didn’t have a hotel to go to for the night since I am taking an overnight bus to Kyoto, and so I needed somewhere that I can bath. In hindsight maybe I could go research on some day use facility but I suppose it wouldn’t have been worth it, plus I had wanted to go for one anyway.

The day has come when I queued for…matcha ice cream. Coz it’s a bit warm out there

Researched a bit for recommended ones in the area, the one we went last time had closed down apparently and it would have been too out of the way anyway. Found this one at Tokyo Dome called LaQua, turns out to be part of a shopping mall and they occupy a few levels on their own, indoor bath only and actually at 3000¥ it wasn’t exactly very cheap but I wasn’t going to research any further hahah. They do have different baths, cold baths etc though. But what do I care, I just wanted to freshen up after a day of traveling hahah.

The place also has an indoor theme park of sorts. And obviously no photos of supersento interior

There’s this bit of panic as I was about to leave though. You have this shoe locker as you enter the facility and you have to keep the key yourself. As I was leaving the changing room I stopped by a water dispenser to drink and my sleep deprived brain absent mindedly left the key on the dressing table next to it…as I was walking towards the check out area I was mentally listing down the things that I need to return and it occurred to me that I don’t know where my key is. Which led to a frantic search back in my changing room locker, used towel bin, ransacking my backpack and pockets, and very nearly concluded that I somehow have to pay a charge before walking past the water dispenser again and finally remembering that I should have checked this earlier haha. Good thing that nobody picked it up and took off with it though.

Feeling fresher now, hunted for a dinner place near Tokyo station since I had a timeline to meet..had wanted to go to this tonkatsu place but turns out it’s closed on Mondays, so googled a bit and settled on this tendon place. Short queue and I was 4th in line, but thankfully (I remembered being a bit stressed coz I had to rush back to station to collect my luggage before the facility close for the day) it cleared quite quickly and in about 10 minutes I was seated. A very small place though they have two floors, not sure how it was like on the second floor but the first floor bar seats can only sit 5 people.

Kaneko Hannosuke is the name of this place. Served a black bean soup starter, and the day has come when I ate a..barely cooked egg. Chefs stared at me dubiously before deciding to find one amongst them who can speak minimal English to explain that I should break up the egg, mix the yolk with rice and eat it, and I duly followed the instruction, it wasn’t too bad actually coz the flavor is all the tempura sauce hahah. But it’s a good meal.

Strolled back to Tokyo station and wind has picked up, collected my luggage first and since had a bit of time on hand, decided to go recce the bus boarding point - because it sounded a bit dubious, “Kajibashi Parking Lot” rather than some bus terminal. Don’t want to panic later and miss bus or something. Turns out it is an actual bus facility just that it is housed inside an open air car park (probably like the one at Newton). Mission accomplished, headed back to Tokyo station to camp indoors while waiting for bus. Also coz there’s wifi.