Day 2 – 5 October 2024, Saturday
When I woke up this morning at 7:15am and drew the curtains of our hotel room open, I saw cloudy skies over Tokyo. Checked the weather forecast and it showed a 95% chance of rain at 8:00am, with rain continuing throughout the day. Not a good sign, especially with what we have planned for today. The temperature was a cool 22 degrees C though, which was nice compared to the 30 degrees C we had yesterday.
We left our rooms at 8:00am and had breakfast at the McDonald’s just across the road from our hotel. Whenever I travel overseas, I like to visit their McDonald’s and try stuff that are unique to that country. The breakfast menu is pretty similar but they have a Mega Muffin, which comes with double sausage and bacon. We don’t have this in Singapore so I ordered it. Due to the favourable exchange rate, McDonald’s in Japan is cheaper than in Singapore. For example, the Sausage Egg Muffin meal costs 580 yen (S$5.22) while my Mega Muffin meal costs 690 yen (S$6.21). One thing I like about McDonald’s overseas is that they use real bacon instead of the fake “turkey bacon” we have back home.
From McDonald’s, we walked for 20 minutes and arrived at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden at 9:03am, just as it opened. The admission fee is 500 yen (S$4.50) for adults, but seniors aged 65 and above are charged 250 yen. To enjoy the discount, you have to present your passport/ID and purchase your ticket at a staffed counter, so the seniors in our group went to the counter while the “young” ones bought our tickets from the vending machine.
Shinjuku Gyoen was completed in 1906 as an imperial garden but it was re-designated as a national garden after the Second World War and opened to the public. The entire garden is 58.3 hectares in size, with a circumference of 3.5km. There are three entrance gates – Shinjuku Gate in the northwest, Okido Gate in the northeast, and Sendagaya Gate in the south. We entered via the Shinjuku Gate.
Shinjuku Gyoen is representative of the modern Western-style garden in the Meiji Era (from 1868 to 1912), and it blends three distinct styles – Formal Garden, Landscape Garden and Japanese Traditional Garden. From the Shinjuku Gate, we first walked through the Mother and Child Woods, an area filled with ponds, streams and untamed forest.
We soon reached the Japanese Traditional Garden, where the lawns are more manicured and expansive. Here, we saw elements of Japanese architecture and Japanese bonsai trees, but certain areas reminded me of Central Park in New York City. There was also a Taiwan Pavilion, a gift from the Japanese people in Taiwan, which was then part of the Japanese empire. The pavilion is a rare example of authentic Chinese-style architecture in Japan, with swallowtail roofs and ornamental support pillars.
The areas surrounding the large ponds were especially nice, but I imagine it would be even more beautiful in late autumn when the leaves turn yellow and red, or during spring when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. We then walked to the Landscape Garden, where we took a break at Starbucks, which had a gorgeous view of the Middle Pond and garden below.
In all, we spent an hour at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. It was a cloudy day so it was not the prettiest for photography. We were also probably not there at the right time so we didn’t see many flowers in bloom. I think it would be best to come in late autumn or spring to see the garden at its finest. However, I still enjoyed the visit overall. It was nice to take a morning stroll and enjoy the fresh air away from the bustle of the city.
It started to drizzle as we exited via Sendagaya Gate at 10:10am. It was the irritating kind of rain – not that heavy, yet heavy enough to need to use an umbrella. We knew it was not a downpour and indeed, it would continue to rain for the rest of the day. We walked to Kita-sando Station and took the Metro to Meiji-jingumae (Harajuku) Station, just one stop away. From there, we walked to Takeshita Street, one of Japan’s most popular shopping streets. This 400-metre-long street is home to fashion stores and sweet shops, a hip place for trend-setting youths to hang out. This is where you go to feel young.
When we arrived at 10:43am, it was already packed with tourists. The narrow pedestrian street and the crowd with all their umbrellas made it difficult to walk. The rain also made it particularly annoying for shopping because you’ll need to keep your umbrella before entering a shop, and whip it out again when you leave. There were a few interesting shops and pet cafes at Takeshita Street, but honestly, it wasn’t fantastic. Or maybe I’m just too old for it.
From there, we walked down Meiji-dori Avenue towards Shibuya. Along the way, we visited the Harajuku flagship store of 3COINS. FL was looking forward to shopping at 3COINS and voila, we found it! The reason why the shop is called 3COINS is because most of their products are priced at 300 yen (before tax). In Japan, there is a 100-yen coin, so three coins means 300 yen.
3COINS specialises in practical and stylish day-to-day use products at affordable prices. The products range from household, interior goods, fashion accessories, accessories for digital devices to clothing. It is a bit of a cross between Muji and Daiso, or maybe Muji-quality products sold at Daiso-like prices.
The flagship store is designed to look like a warehouse with a cool and hip interior, befitting its location in trendy Harajuku. At this store, the product range is much more extensive compared to the regular stores at other places. I bought a few of the super compact tote bags and foldable ripstop pouches. These items were priced higher than 300 yen (the small ripstop pouch cost 500 yen; the medium one cost 800 yen), but they were of good quality and very well-designed. Luckily, I bought them here because they were not available at the other 3COINS stores that we visited later. If you visit Tokyo, be sure to check out the 3COINS flagship store at Harajuku!
After the unplanned shopping stop, we continued walking briskly towards Shibuya because we had an appointment with Shibuya Sky at 1:40pm. The initial plan was to have lunch before that but we couldn’t find a good place to eat, so we proceeded directly to Shibuya Sky. Turns out it was the right decision not to stop for lunch because it took us a while to locate the entrance to Shibuya Scramble Square building due to the ongoing major construction works around Shibuya Station.
Shibuya Sky is an open-air observation deck located at the top of Shibuya Scramble Square building. At 230 metres above ground, it provides a panoramic view of the city and the famous Shibuya scramble crossing below. Since its opening in 2020, it has become one of the must-visit spots in Tokyo. Demand for tickets is phenomenal and you have to grab them as soon as booking opens four weeks in advance.
For international visitors, you can buy tickets via one of three official channels – Trip.com, KKday or Klook. Click here for the links. Tickets for adults are priced at 2,500 yen (S$22.50). As soon as the slots opened up four weeks ago, I used Klook to book our tickets. Even then, the most popular time slots around sunset (5:20pm) were snapped up so I booked the 1:40pm time slot. Because you need to book the tickets way in advance, you’ll have to keep your fingers crossed for good weather on the day of your visit. Alas, luck was not on our side today.
The entrance to Shibuya Sky is located on the 14th floor of Shibuya Scramble Square building. There was a long queue for the elevator when we arrived at 1:10pm but we managed to go up about 13 minutes later. The staff manning the entrance were were strict about the entry time so they told us to come back at 1:40pm.
When we went back again at 1:40pm, the staff said that access to the rooftop (Sky Stage) is closed because of bad weather (i.e. the rain), but we could still access the indoor Sky Gallery observation corridor on the 46th floor. Obviously, I was bummed because the rooftop observation deck is the highlight. I asked if we could get a refund but the answer was that no refunds will be given after entry.
Technically, we could still get a refund at that point since we had not entered yet, but I knew it would be troublesome to get a refund from Klook, and we wouldn’t be able to reschedule it because all other timeslots are full. Actually, there is no limit on how long you can stay after entering, so you could hang out at the Sky Gallery until the weather clears up and access the rooftop when it reopens. However, looking at the weather forecast and the situation that day, we knew the rain would persist so that was not an option. Hence, we went ahead and utilised our tickets.
The elevator ride up to the 46th floor was pretty cool, with sound and visuals projected on the top of the elevator. When the elevator doors opened, we walked through a futuristic tunnel with lights and sound effects before taking an escalator up to the Sky Gallery. At this level, there are coin lockers for you to store your bags and other prohibited items (for the rooftop).
The views from the Sky Gallery were actually just as good as the rooftop, but the whole point of visiting Shibuya Sky is to experience being under the sky and to feel the wind blowing against your face. The air-conditioned gallery is comfortable on a hot day, but it is just not the same feeling behind glass windows. Anyway, it was raining and cloudy so there wasn’t much of a view outside. We tried to enjoy it as much as we could, but it was hard not to be disappointed. You do need some luck when you travel, and today we were not lucky. This just makes me want to return to have a better experience next time!
After going back down to street level at 2:30pm, we were starving so we looked for a place to eat. Everywhere was crowded because it was Saturday. We eventually settled for Chinese food at a restaurant located in a quiet side street of Shibuya. The set meal was value-for-money and the food was tasty too.
After lunch, we went free-and-easy for shopping in Shibuya. My first stop was RECOfan on the 6th floor of MAGNET by SHIBUYA109. The store was originally located at Shibuya BEAM for 26 years before it closed down during COVID-19 in 2020. The old RECOfan store was much bigger and had more character because of its irregular layout and walls filled with posters of the latest album releases. The new store location is better (right in front of the Shibuya scramble crossing) and it is much neater, but it lacks the old-school, record store feel of the old store.
RECOfan is one of my favourite record stores in the world. It stocks a large number of used CDs and vinyl records, and I love digging through the crates and going through the racks slowly. During my previous visits, I have always managed to unearth some rare gems, and today was no exception. I spent about 45 minutes there before moving on to my next stop, Tower Records.
The flagship store at Shibuya has nine floors and it is one of the few remaining physical music megastores left in the world. I always make it a point to visit the Shibuya store whenever I come to Tokyo because it brings me back to the good old days when CDs ruled the music industry.
I’ve mentioned this many times before: my childhood ambition was to work at Tower Records. As a teenager growing up in the 90’s in Singapore, there was no cooler place to discover new music than at the Tower Records at Pacific Plaza. I loved everything about the store and the brand – from the iconic yellow and red logo, to the staff uniforms to the slogan “No music, no life”. Back then, as a broke student, I didn’t have a lot of money to buy CDs but I sure spent a lot of time browsing and checking out new releases at the listening booths at Tower Records.
Hence, I went gaga over the Tower Records merchandise being sold at the Shibuya flagship store. I could have bought a lot more but I restrained myself and only bought a T-shirt, tote bag, water bottle and cup, all bearing the Tower Records logo. I also spent quite some time browsing through the shelves and racks. I was pleased to see that there was a section dedicated to MJ and his siblings, once again demonstrating how their legacy endures to this day.
Shopping in Japan is friendly to tourists as many stores are tax-free shops and they have tax free counters located within the store or the building. Simply spend 5,500 yen (inclusive of 10% VAT) and above in a single receipt to enjoy tax free shopping.
Different stores deploy different tax refund methods. For example, at RECOfan earlier, the tax refund is processed by the Pie VAT app, which credits the refund directly to your credit card or local bank account within 10 working days. At Tower Records, the tax refund is processed via a tax free counter within the store and you get your refund in cash immediately. At some other stores like GU, the tax refund is offset at the point of purchase, like a discount, so you don’t even have to pay the VAT. Of course, you won’t get the full 10% back because of service fees charged by the tax free operator. Nevertheless, the entire process is relatively hassle-free and worth the effort.
After meeting up with the rest at 6:00pm, we left Shibuya and took the Metro to Shinjuku-sanchome station, three stops away. FL, AL and AA had booked a foot massage session so they went off while mum, dad and I shopped on our own. We went to the GU store to check it out because we had heard good things about it.
GU is the sister brand of Uniqlo, founded in 2006. It has over 470 stores today, mostly in Japan and just a few stores in Shanghai and New York. GU is pronounced as the letters G and U, not “Goo”, and it is derived from the Japanese word “jiyu”, which means free and unconfined. GU caters to a younger and more budget-conscious consumer, offering high-quality products but with a more limited selection compared to Uniqlo. It is part of the company’s ethos to provide fast fashion at a more deliberate pace.
The GU store was evidently very popular as it was packed with shoppers. I bought a casual jacket and a sling bag for 1,990 yen (S$17.91) each. I used them over the next few days and I must say that the quality is good indeed. I have no doubt that once GU decides to expand to Singapore, it will be a big hit among Singaporeans as well, especially if they keep their prices affordable.
After that, I went to the Disk Union store located at the third floor of a building at Shinjuku-sanchome, opposite the big Uniqlo building where GU is located. Disk Union has four stores in Shinjuku, each specialising on different genres of music. The outlet I visited is the All Genres store, and they carry a huge range of used CDs and vinyl records.
Alongside RECOfan, Disk Union is also one of my favourite records stores for secondhand titles, and I never leave empty handed. However, I only had 20 minutes to shop because they were closing soon at 8:00pm, so I quickly grabbed whatever I could and left with a pretty good haul.
Following that, we went to the 3COINS outlet at Lumine EST because dad wanted to buy some more stuff that he missed out earlier. At 8:30pm, we were starving so we searched for a place to have our dinner. I was craving for tonkatsu (breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet) so I did a search on Google Maps and found a restaurant nearby that seemed to have quite good reviews, so we gave it a try.
It was a small restaurant located on the third floor of a tiny building on Moa Chuo Street. There was no elevator so we had to climb the stairs up. It is one of those nondescript restaurants that are hidden from view of passersby at street level, but somehow, the locals know and it can still survive. The restaurant doesn’t have an English name but you can click here for the Google Maps location.
The restaurant was cosy and very simply furnished, with only 20 seats. There was no English menu but the staff spoke English and they were very polite and helpful. I ordered the ebi katsu (breaded shrimp) for mum, the premium tonkatsu (pork cutlet) for dad and the cheese tonkatsu for myself. The prices were very reasonable – the shrimp and premium tonkatsu cost 1,600 yen (S$14.40) while my cheese tonkatsu cost 1,400 yen (S$12.60). You can also ask for a one-time refill of lettuce and rice. The food was excellent and the service was top notch too. Recommended!
After the satisfying dinner, we walked back to our hotel and were back in our room at 9:30pm. It had been a long day out and we were all tired. Disappointed that we didn’t get to experience Shibuya Sky as intended because it was one of our most anticipated activities prior to coming on this trip, but I think the shopping made up for it. End of Day 2, an exciting day awaits tomorrow!
