23 February 2013, Saturday
In the blink of an eye, 10 wonderful days had flown by and I would be returning to Singapore in the evening. As I still had time to spare in the morning, I made a trip to Daikanyama for breakfast and to spend some quality time discovering new music at Tsutaya Books. MB had brought me to Daikanyama and Tsutaya on my fourth night here in Tokyo, but I didn’t have time to explore fully then, so I decided to come back for more.
For breakfast, MB had recommended a sweets and dessert shop called Matsunosuke (click here). It was located less than five minutes away from Daikanyama station and a stone’s throw away from Tsutaya. I found the shop easily with the help of Google Maps.
Matsunosuke specialises in apple pies but they also sell cakes, scones and pancakes. MB had recommended the pancake so I ordered one, and a latte to go with it. True enough, the pancake did not disappoint – it was the fluffiest pancake I had ever eaten and it was delicious. Once again, thanks MB for the great recommendation!
With the pancake happily settled in my stomach, I walked over to Tsutaya Books. Tsutaya is a chain of bookstores established in 1983 but it is way more than a bookstore. It is a lifestyle concept store, selling not only books but music, magazines, stationery, movies and more.
This particular outlet is called Daikanyama T-Site, with the three building wings connected by a 55-metre-long aisle called Magazine Street. The façades of the buildings are adorned with thousands of white, interlocked letter Ts. The striking façade, together with the large glass panels, evoke elegance and class, making Daikanyama T-Site worthy as one of “The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World”.
I headed straight to the music section, which was on the second floor. The best thing about Tsutaya is that you can sample almost all of the CDs for free. There are 40 listening stations and they are equipped with Bose headphones. Furthermore, the music collection is HUGE, with the jazz section especially impressive.
Having discovered Cuban music while having dessert at Kitchen Coucou in Kichijoji during my second night in Tokyo, I went to search for more music by members of the Buena Vista Social Club ensemble. I was very pleased when I found an album by their singer Ibrahim Ferrer. I also ventured into jazz and checked out albums by composer/arranger Quincy Jones and saxophonist Stan Getz. I was particularly interested in Quincy Jones’ jazz material because he later produced three of Michael Jackson’s solo albums.
It was the perfect way to spend a lazy Saturday morning and I left Daikanyama T-Site after 2½ hours. As the CDs at Tsutaya were rather pricey, I decided to make a quick last-minute trip to Shibuya (just one stop away) to buy the albums from Book-Off and Disk Union, where they were much cheaper as some of them were secondhand. It was my last day and I was running low on cash.
After successfully finding the CDs in Shibuya (yay!), I had lunch at Go Go Curry before heading back to my hostel at Asakusa for some final packing. At 4:18pm, I caught the Keisei Access Express train direct from Asakusa to Narita Terminal 1, arriving an hour later.
My Delta Airlines flight 621 was supposed to depart Tokyo at 6:50pm. However, to my surprise, the counter staff informed us that the flight was overbooked and asked for volunteers to take the next day’s flight instead. The compensation offer was a US$600 Delta Airlines voucher (to be used on any Delta flight within a year), a one-night hotel stay in Tokyo, three buffet meals and two-way airport transfer between the hotel and the airport.
It sounded like a very good offer. I quickly considered my options and decided to go for it. After settling the necessary paperwork and retrieving our checked baggage, the few of us who volunteered were escorted out of the terminal and put on a bus for the short ride to Radisson Narita airport hotel, arriving at 7:37pm.
Radisson Narita is a four-star hotel where the Delta crew are being put up as well. As I walked through the lobby and entered my room, I thought about how this was the poshest of all my accommodation in Tokyo, and I didn’t even have to pay a single cent for it!
I dropped my bags and went to have dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was a buffet spread but it wasn’t anything too fancy. Nevertheless, it felt nice to be pampered just for a bit. Needless to say, I slept very well that night. An unexpected reward with an extended stay in Tokyo!
24 February 2013, Sunday
For my “bonus” day in Tokyo, I actually didn’t do much. I could have gone back to Shibuya or Shinjuku for more shopping and eating but the hotel was too far away from the city centre, and I didn’t wish to spend any more money unnecessarily.
After having my buffet breakfast at the hotel, I took the free shuttle bus service to the nearby AEON MALL Narita, arriving at 10:10am. It was a perfectly serviceable, run-of-the-mill shopping mall but it didn’t have any special qualities that make Tokyo unique. I passed my time window shopping and eating at KFC before taking the 1:20pm shuttle bus back to the hotel.
By this time, I was feeling rather restless and decided that I should go to the airport early instead of lazing around in my hotel room. I had another quick buffet meal before hopping on the 3:30pm shuttle bus to the airport.
Thankfully, today’s flight wasn’t overbooked and I could return home as intended. At 6:50pm, I took off from Narita Airport and landed safely in Singapore at 1:35am the following morning. What a way to end this amazing trip!
