Ichiran Ramen 一蘭 @ Shinjuku - Shibuya

After visiting Meiji Jingu, we headed to Shinjuku to meet up with Yuri for lunch. I chose Ichiran Ramen as it is one of the highly raved ramen in Japan other than Ippudo ramen. 

Ichiran Ramen @ Shinjuku is about 3 minutes walk from the south east exit of JR Shinjuku station. The big and striking signboard made it easy to spot the shop.  

We made our order using the machine located at the entrance of the shop. Everything is in Japanese but i had Yuri with me so everything is alright!

Then we were seated side by side in a cubical  facing the kitchen. The server will double confirm your order and serve the food. However, I dislike about the cubical design as i would like to be seated together so that we can talk easily rather than eating by ourselves.

Ordered this salted tamago as appetizer and it was the best thing ever! It is refreshing and not salty at all! 

Ramen is served! We are able to customise the ramen according to our liking. We can choose the amount of garlic, oil, hardness of noodles and spiciness. I chose normal for everything but minimal oil and spiciness. 

I prefer ramen from Ichiran than Ippudo as I find the soup from Ichiran was more flavourful and I actually finished the whole bowl of soup!

Ichiran Ramen @ Shinjuku (south east exit)

〒160-0022　東京都新宿区新宿3-34-11 ピースビルB1F

After lunch, I said farewell to Yuri as this was the last time I will see her during the trip. Yuri and I met during my trip to New Zealand in July 2012. I was a solo traveler and she was studying in nz. We met on the magic bus and our friendship began. I hope that we will meet again no matter in Japan, Malaysia or other parts of the world! :)

After that, we took a train to JR Shibuya station to see the famous shibuya crossing and Hachiko statue! 

We exited the station via Hachiko exit and we were greeted with the Hachiko statue. The Hachiko statue also served as a meeting point for the locals so there are a lot of people hanging around the area.

Then we move on and cross the famous shibuya crossing multiple times! It wasn't too crowded during that hour. We tried to cross once during rush hour and it was really spectacular

We did some shopping in Shibuya and decided to end our day early as both of us were not feeling well. Shopping during winter is not convenient as there are so many layers to take off and put back on. Also, we felt really uncomfortable when some shops set their warmer too high. It is too hot for us as we had heatech underneath our clothing.

Here i present you a train during rush hour in Tokyo. They will board the train facing backwards and slowly move their way in while the doors are closing. The whole train was jammed packed and it was really fun to watch them squeeze into the train!

Meiji Jingu Shrine 明治神宮

This was my attempt to dress like Japanese to blend in with the crowds. I normally wear sport shoes when I am travelling as I will be walking a lot and my feet really need a good pair of shoes. The plan for the day was mainly to walk around Shibuya so I decided that I can at least dress up nicer for once.

Passed by this shop selling Taiyaki (鲷鱼烧) - Japanese fish-shaped cake. The shop offers fillings with red bean paste or custard, I went with custard as we are not a big fan of red bean. 

The batter is poured into a fish-shaped mold and filled with fillings. The mold is cooked on charcoal and it’s ready to serve!  

We made a short visit to the Meiji Jingu Shrine (明治神宮) before meeting up with Yuri for lunch. Took a JR train to Harajuku station and we saw the cute Hachiko bus!

Meiji Jingu Shrine is just a short walk from Harajuku station. You will know that you have arrived at the correct location when you see the mighty Torii at the entrace to Meiji Jingu Shrine.

The Meiji Shrine complex is really big and we walked for about 15 minutes to reach the main area. There are other halls and galleries within the complex with clear directions shown.

Sake Barrels

We were greeted by this water fountain once we entered the main yard of Meiji Jingu. Without any instructions given, we observed and followed what everybody was doing – scoop some water to wash both hands and take a sip of the water. It is said to ritually purify yourself before entering the shrine.

The shrine is surrounded by north, south, east and west gate. Our trek from Harajuku station leads us to enter through the South gate.

The shrine building

We made our prayer following the instructions written: flip a coin into the offering box, clap our hands together and say our prayer, then clap their hands twice we when are done.

Trying to read some of the prayers left by visitors from all over the world. 

No photos allowed - image taken from google

Before we left Meiji Jingu, we bought a few Omamori for ourselves and families to pray for their health and safety.

Opposite the Juyosho (amulet office), there are a place for visitors to return their omamori. I asked Yuri why are them returning/throwing their omamori and she explained that the omamori needs to be returned when it has served it's purpose or they normally return it one year later. Soooo.. i guess we should make a yearly trip to Japan!

Sensōji (浅草寺)

After renting a kimono, we went to the oldest temple in Tokyo - Sensōji (浅草寺, also known as Asakusa Kannon Temple). Sensōji is one of the famous tourist spot in Tokyo. It is filled with tourists from different places even though January is a non-peak season. One of the things that I like about Tokyo is that most tourist spots are free admission. This enables us to travel Tokyo with a small budget as we only need to spend on the necessities like flight ticket, accommodation and transport. This post contains a lot picture of me in kimono as I took lots of pictures of myself to make the money I paid worthwhile. Haha

To enter the temple, we have to pass through the outer gate of Sensōji which is the Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate). I am attracted to the giant red lantern at the gate. There are keychains/magnets/miniature lanterns for sale in the shopping street but I didn’t get any of them because I think that it is quite pricy. Now I deeply regretted my decision! 

After the Thunder gate, we are greeted with a stretch of shops at the shopping street called Nakamise. This shopping street is located between the outer and second gate of them temple. Other than local Asakusa snacks and typical souvenirs (keychain, t-shirt, postcard, etc), there are also Japanese traditional items such Yukata, fans, ninja swords and so on. You can easily spend hours in such small area to slowly discover each and every item. We however did not spend much time there as we have a busy day ahead. The only item we bought from this shopping street is a snack called agemanju which is a battered and deep fried soft cake with fillings. 

Then we reached the second gate called Hozomon (Treasure-House Gate) after we passed through the shopping street. Behind the Hozomon is Sensōji’s main hall where all the statues located.

 Main hall (image from google – I realized I didn’t have a full picture of the main hall L )

You can get incense sticks from the booth side it with a small fee. Incense sticks are used for prayers and blessing. It is said that the smoke from the incense can cure illness so you can see some people rub it on themselves. We did not purchase the incense but we did made some prayer in the main hall and made a small donation to the temple.

We ended our short trip to Sensōji and continue with more photos taking session in the temple and around Asakusa. I was gaining a lot of attention from other tourist that day as I was the only person wearing kimono in the temple. Some of them even ask to take pictures with me which I happily agreed to. I think most tourist thought I am Japanese due to my height and my Asian face. Most talked to me in English and was surprised that I could speak their language. Growing up in Malaysia allows us to be exposed to many languages. I spoke Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai, Indon and of course English that day which was really fun and memorable.  

One funny incidence happened there was that there were 3 Japanese women talking Japanese to me but I couldn’t understand anything. After telling them that I don’t understand Japanese, they asked me where am I from in English which I answered “Malaysia”. Then they continued talking more Japanese to me. In between their sentence I heard “kawaii” which means cute so I thank them by saying “arigato”. Other than that, I could only stand there and smile non-stop while they are talking. But I was really happy because Japanese themselves approve my look. HAHAHA

One of the tourist activities to do in Asakusa is to have a short tour on the back of the man-powered rickshaw cart called Jinrikisya. These rides are available in front of Sensōji and there are people giving out flyers promoting it. However, we did not take the ride as it is really expensive. 

We were supposed to take a train to Tokyo Skytree as it is just one station away from Asakusa. But I was too cold in the kimono and not really interested with the building, so we decided to change our plan and head to Ueno for Ameyoko instead.

Winter is Strawberry season in Japan. Price of strawberries in Japan can range from about ¥300 to over ¥6000 yen for the premiums ones. We bought a pack of Nagasaki strawberry for ¥399 and it was the best strawberry we ever had. It was really juicy and sweet without any acidity! Now I’ve lost interests to any strawberries available back in here Malaysia. 

Here’s to many years more of adventures with you J

My Kimono Experience

I love seeing people in kimono. This traditional Japanese garment is elegant, feminine and pretty. So while planning my Japan trip, I decided that I must have this once in a lifetime experience of wearing a kimono.  

After much research on the internet, I settle on renting kimono from Sakura Photo Studio in Asakusa. The place is located less than 5 minutes walking distance away from Sensō-ji which is great as I am able to visit the shrine in the kimono. Also, the price they offered is the cheapest I could find. 

The shop is actually a small room located on the 3^rd floor of the building. The lady owner is very nice and sweet. She is able to speak Japanese, Korean, English and some Mandarin so communication is not a problem there. There is a lot of certificated displaying in the room and she explained that those are from the kimono courses she took. She is really quick and efficient. I got dressed in kimono and my hair styled within 45 minutes.

She did explain what was she doing on every steps but I couldn’t remember anything by now. With the help of this wikihow, I can roughly explain what was going on. 

After putting on a pair of white tabi socks, I was dressed in juban which are the “kimono underwear”. It has a white cotton shirt, a skirt and another outer shirt with white collar.

I was wearing Uniqlo’s heattech top and bottom underneath as it was really cold and windy that day.

After putting on juban, she styled my hair with Japanese hair style. Hair styling services is included in the package but she does not provide make up services. 

I took the “simple plan” offered on the website which is the cheapest package. The only difference between “simple plan” and “basic plan” is the type of obi and accessories used in basic plan is nicer. The “luxury plan” has another type of kimono with long sleeves which is really nice but it was out of my budget range so the cheapest plan will do.

I chose a white kimono with pink flowers which I think is really sweet.

The dark pink cloth at the middle is the obi. Underneath it was layers and layers of cloths/towels which were tied quite tightly. Do be prepared that you are not able to relax your stomach/breathe deeply/eat well/walk quickly when you put on your kimono.

TA-DAH!! After choosing hair piece, bags and shoes, and we are done! The shoe I was wearing in the photo is for photo shoot use only. It was quite high with unstable base which I think it’s impossible for first timer to wear it and walk around.  

I am able walk around freely with the kimono and only need to return it before 5pm. I was also given kimono coat at it was really COLD.I was planning to visit the Sensō-ji and Tokyo Skytree in the kimono but the Tokyo Skytree plan got slashed off as I couldn't bare the cold anymore. You can’t blame a person from a country with summer all year long for feeling extremely cold. 

We dropped by a convenience store to buy breakfast while on the way to Sensō-ji. We settled our breakfast in convenience stores everyday for our trip as it is much cheaper and I really love the food varieties in the convenience store. I enjoy trying different types of origini and beverages every day. And I think it’s really brilliant to have warm canned coffee available as it doubled up to be a heating pack too! I just love holding on it.

Sakura PhotoStudio

sakuraphotokimono@gmail.com

東京都台東区雷門2-9-8

ふなきビル306

Tokyo Taitoku Kaminarimon2-9-8

funaki Bld 306

Price

Simple plan: ¥ 3600 (¥2400 each for 2 pax and above)

Basic plan: ¥5000

Luxury plan: ¥10000