Travelog: Akihabara, Ginza, and the trip back to Manila


Ok hags, I’m back to blogging and so I will continue my Tokyo blog since this is the very last of the Tokyo series. Then it’s blogging about Hong Kong! Whee long list of blogging to-dos!

Akihabara is famous as the “electronic town” of Tokyo. Now if I had my share of bag heaven, DH was to have his share of electronic heaven. And this was the place to go to.

We were sooo hungry already by the time we boarded the train. I got bored on the way to Akihabara so I decided to take photos of footwear haha.

The Japanese women looove their boots 🙂 The dress code of the day– short skirt, thick upper coat, and knee high boots. *Snicker… every man’s dream to see hahaha*

Ok as I was saying, we were hungry. So when we got off the Akihabara train station, we scouted for restaurants. I told DH I wanted to eat in places where there were no gaijins (foreigners) so I can really try authentic Japanese food– one that locals eat. It didn’t have to be sushi or ramen…

I did entertain the thought of having doner kebab shawarma…but tsk I didn’t come to Japan to have Turkish food 🙂 I’d have this again in Manila or in Turkey should I ever go back there again *ugh and I actually loooooove shawarma too!*

But anyway, we chucked the shawarma lunch idea. We walked a bit further and we found a place we really wanted to dine at in some corner of an alley. We saw photos. Steak. I told DH, “Ok dude, this is the place!” And DH exclaims “will you mind what kind of meat you are going to eat?” I was like, “Ok. I am so hungry I can eat a horse, but YES I MIND coz I DON’T want to eat horse meat!”

I prayed hard that the place we chose doesn’t serve horse steak. So we went in. I smelled yummmmy beef steak 🙂 It looked like beef. Smelled like beef. “It MUST be beef!” I gleefully exclaimed 🙂

We both ordered. Starters, I had some salad.It was terrible salad. Like those that get served on the plane. *blech*

Then we ordered the beef. Different cuts. I like my steak with some fat. Sooo this was mine. Served on a sizzling plate of course!

DH had a more marbled meat slab. It looked real good. Not kobe beef. Not wagyu. Just beef. Hahaha.

Our meal set us back by a good US$170 (Php 7k +). It was a pretty darned good meal, especially with the special beef sauce which had the signature recipe of the restaurant. However again, let’s remind ourselves that this was no hotel that served the beef. Nor was it some shi shi poo poo restaurant. But oh well, again everything in Japan is expensivo 😀

Apres our late lunch, we began running into the “dressed up” girls 🙂 The Harajuku girls in Akihabara 🙂 It’s Sunday so everyone who enjoys this kind of dress-up goes around town 😀 It’s great to finally see them because when we were at Harajuku, we didn’t really see any of them! They were pretty cute!

Here are two more ladies in black and plaid . Total cuteness!As much as I’d love to play dress up like them, I don’t think I can. I have too many flabs and my legs of ham are not meant for the world to see. *shock hehehe*

And then there was this little lady that both creeped us out. If you’ve only seen Sailor Moon in anime, then you’re in for a shock when you see someone that looks like her up close and in person! She was cute initially, but she really really creeped me out! It was fun to see an anime gal up close though. Only in Japan 🙂

Woooo more vending machines! One of them even served warm green tea with milk in a can! I loooove the drink! It cost Y120 for a teeny tiny small can. But again, it was worth every yen.

As I was drinking that green tea, I saw a large group of people running toward a small crowd. So of course being the nosy me, I joined in. Everyone was taking photos of these guys (middle of the photo right below the blue and white balloons)Who are these good looking men? I think they’re athletes, judging from the way they were dressed (in track suits). Footballers perhaps? Boca Juniors was written on their jackets.

A quick google and voila– these are Argentinian Footballers!!! *WOOHAAA*No wonder everyone was clamoring to meet these peeps. I managed to catch this guy’s attention 😀 It must be my bright orange jacket!

Apres the football encounter, another even better photo op came up. This time, with the Akihabara regulars 🙂 Hags, meet the Sailor Moon school- girl wannabe men 🙂 🙂 ILOVEIT!!! They were sooo much fun!! They didn’t speak English but they gamely posed when I pointed to my camera 🙂

Anyhoo, we checked out a LOT of electronic stores as well as a plethora of anime stores that sold not only DVDs of them, but also merchandise– like dolls, robots, and the like. These are the adult hobby stores, and DH ended up scoring a big (as in, Hermes birkin 35cm size box big!) Macross robot/ fighter jet transformer which he refuses to call a “toy”. Well it was a pretty expensive piece of umm.. merchandise, so I guess I can’t really call it a toy (since toys are equated with kids hehehe). And darnit, there goes the space in our luggage. 🙁 *boohoo the selfish baghag could not get anything more after that!* But hah, DH finally got his fill of anime/ electronics heaven by walking away with “loot” hehehe. I don’t feel as guilty anymore about my purchase (I still do, but at least DH has something too hahaha)

We ended up staying at Akihabara for a few more hours, and even got to eat dinner at the conveyor belt sushi place 😉 Not exactly the real fresh deal that you’d find at Tsukiji Market, but well it was a Sunday and even if we had woken up early for Tsukiji, there wouldn’t really be much to see since it was closed on Sundays! Bah. Well it’s either conveyor belt sushi or these sidewalk food (which was all too tempting, but oh gawd we needed to sit down soooo bad).
Oh and we also thought about having dinner at this place– it was sooo neat. You order by putting coins into the vending machine, then you pick out the food you like as indicated, then a receipt comes out which you show to the person behind the counter inside. This machine’s like a waitress already, taking your order and your payment as well. Isn’t that the coolest thing? Efficiently eliminating overhead costs hahaha.

But bah, the conveyor sushi place’s sashimi quality is definitely nothing compared to the freshness of the Tsukiji market sushi restaurants. That’s something that I’d definitely want to come back to next time– IF we can even afford to come back to Tokyo next time! *Sigh.. the amount you spend in Tokyo is equal or in fact even greater than the amount you’d spend in Paris!!*

After our dinner, we took the train to Ginza, the Beverly Hills of Tokyo. Now this is a district that we almost skipped too since we were already sooooo tired.

But when we got there, kablam!! Printemps department store…
Mikimoto
… Baroque pearl shaped windows?
Bottega Veneta

Cartier and Bulgari

Lacroix

And wooohoo CHANEL, CHANEL, CHANEL!! These are the very latest from Chanel. Even Hong Kong’s Chanel isn’t this well stocked!

Black weave cabas *eeewww sooo bugly* paired with the Silver cloud classic! *vavavoom!*Black patent classic 🙂 Niiice…

Then there were these Chanel miroir accessories and pochettes… Interesting since they look sooo much like Vuitton’s miroir pieces.

Then there’s the Melrose gradient classic bag (which by the way is sooo sold out in Hong Kong too!)

Lookit the Chanel building. Soooo purrrdy!! I felt so underdressed to go into Chanel, and besides, I didn’t want to be tempted (I ran out of funds the moment I allowed my credit card to be swiped at Hermes at Shinjuku… hehe). Sooo we didn’t get to see Alain Ducasse’s restaurant, Beige.

Matsuya was transformed into one big white LV multicolore Murakami trunk 🙂 Purdy purdy again!!!
And Louis Vuitton bags…. Look at all those bags lined up!!
Chloe bay bags. Hmm… I wonder when the next big hit for Chloe will be again… These bags don’t do it for me. They’re so heavy too– and note, no big padlock!

Fendi. Similar pieces are on display at the Omotesando boutique. Another hideously embellished bag lies on the “floor” but that yellow Fendi tote’s growing on me actually.

Uniqlo
!! This is Japan’s version of the American Gap! 🙂 Very basic type of clothing. Too bad I couldn’t buy anything since they’re all thick coats, wool, flannel 🙁

And when we walked out of Uniqlo, I nearly screamed like a little kid because I saw the Coca Cola truck!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂THAT, signaled Christmas to me hehehe… (humming the Coca Cola Christmas song)

By the time we got back on the train, everyone was tired. Even the regular commuters were tired. And again this was not something out of the ordinary. On weekdays, you will see commuters also sleeping while on their way back home! Japanese peeps apparently work 12 hour days and realllly work their buns off!! No wonder they’re all so successful and have huge spending power!

When we got back to Shibuya, we decided to go into a department store with the food court. If the Philippines is famous for Christmas baskets, Tokyo is apparently famous for these boxed food gifts.

These bento box type foods are NOT cheap. They can cost as much as US$400 as indicated on the price tags. Isn’t that insane?!?! Y430,000… ok am I reading them all wrong? Is there something more to this than just bento boxes? Gold bullions with these bento box food packets perhaps?? I hope someone can enlighten me. I’d love to get one of these as a Christmas present 😀

And then there were the yummy pastries, some of which we ended up ordering for take out. *Hehehe breakfast before we leave for the airport the next day*.

Our flight back to Manila leaves at 9am the next day, so we had to check out of the hotel by 5am to catch the 5:30 am train to Narita. So haha I actually woke up in time for the slated departure. As we were going down to the lobby, I groggily told DH “Make sure that little bellhop lady doesn’t see us with our busted luggage.” Muwahahah. It was embarrassing since I stressed to that bellhop lady that we were dumping our luggage when we checked in (she brought us and the luggage to our room). Hahaha. And there were were, WITH the luggage again. This time, I duct taped *oye, pink duct tape!!* the broken handle back into its place *muwahahaha*. Then when the elevator door opened, darnit!! Bellhop lady was THERE!! (She was apparently nightshift haha) so she saw us with the broken luggage (gee thanks DH for buying such a bulky “toy” which entailed us using the broken luggage hahaha– meanwhile I had to handcarry my loot, box and all).

Ok so do you know what you end up doing when you are guilty? You end up explaining yourself to someone who doesn’t even ask for explanations. And there I was, Explaining to little Miss Bellhop what I did to “remedy” the broken handle and why I decided to bring the luggage back home!! *Muwahahahaha* It was SOOO embarrassing for DH who had to suppress a laugh. Ok so I’m a pretty bad liar hahaha. And I acted like a schmuck hahahaha…. *cough no breeding hehe*

Ok here’s the clincher. So when we checked out at the reception, I turned over my credit card for the room charges to be swiped. It came out to US$320/ night *shock* but really, we both felt that the room was great and we had an excellent time, so it was worth it. And while I looked back fondly on the days of our Tokyo stay, the reception guy came back and said my card was declined and there was an instruction for me to call my card company. OHMYGAWD. It was SOOOO embarrassing. It was like we really had NO money to stay in a 5 star hotel, and that we only took out a loan from a bank or from friends to be able to “live the life”!! Muwahahaha… hello, ostentation!! (ouch!!)

DH was real embarrassed coz he thought I had serious credit card debt *muwahahaha*. BLAH. I would’ve been the total hoot if it really did happen that way– who knows, DH would’ve taken my credit card debt in as his hahahaha. CRUD! *Lost opportunity hahaha*

Turns out my credit card company wouldn’t process my card transaction because I didn’t call the company to inform them that I was to go out of the country. So hags, learn your lesson, call your card company before flying out to another location since they can “hold” any transaction overseas because of the unprecedented rise in fraudulent charges and transactions.

But ok, let’s make this a better sounding story by saying that I am really ostentatious, that I borrow money from friends to fund my lifestyle just to be part of the “in” crowd. Muwahaha Tsk tsk. (Oye while it may be funny to some, it’s not to others, because there are really people who borrow money from others, lie about the purpose of the loan, then blow the money off on some vacation or heaven forbid, a new bag!! Tsk. New Year’s resolution to those who are guilty of such a sin– payoff loans!! Stop lying to those who will lend you money– just tell them you need someone to fund your new bag hahaha and they’re “it” 😀 )

Anywayyys, we made it to the train back to Narita. The airport had these heavenly mochi balls… they’re soooooo yummy, although I’d rather eat the exterior part than the bean filling. Gosh I already miss these soo much.

Our flight left on time, and before long, we saw the fluffy white clouds that would take us back to Manila.

A nice Japanese meal on the plane signaled the end our Tokyo trip. It was truly a fantastic experience, an expensive one, but definitely an unforgettable one 🙂

xx
Mrs.T

No Comments Yet
  1. Fantastic post – Keep ’em coming! I’m glad you had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you only the very best for the New Year!

  2. Hey Mrs. T!

    Can’t wait for your Bags of 2007 post! And puhleeez reveal your loot from H!

    Happy New Year!

    CAC

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