Alfred probably looked forward to this day the most! He finally gets to visit Super Autobacs, what I call a department store for boys who are into cars. We had a pretty early start just so we can fit a few things in the day, so this is a pretty photo heavy post!

This post; Super Autobacs, LOFT, Disney Store, Tokyuhands, RAMEN, A different kind of sushi train etc

First, a few shots of our neighbourhood, Akihabara which we didn’t get to explore till the last day of our trip. It is pretty dead in the morning…

Becareful when searching up places on Google maps, we accidentally went to a different Autobacs… not the “Super Autobacs” so we were set back by an hour. We made it there in the end anyway, from the outside… massive building. To be honest I was a little scared how long I might be stuck in there for…

So I kept myself occupied by documenting the boy as he wanders around his toy store… and took photos of random things    

Obviously these girly car accessories caught my eye.

Because “Little Mermaid” obsessed. 

Finally! We’re in Shibuya!…

The one thing I miss most from my first trip to Japan was… ramen from Ichiran! The craving can finally be satisfied 4years later. I was pretty excited for Alfred to try it out too and hopefully understand why I was craving all these years!…

Waiting for seats to be vacated.

They’ve also started selling their ramen in instant packs, without the meat and all. Not cheap for ‘instant ramen’ going at $7ish a serving. I guess its cheaper than buying a ticket to Japan when you’re really craving. I bought some home but only allocated 1 per family member. Have not eaten it yet so can’t review on the flavour etc, because its SO PRECIOUS..

Drooling for this view right now

Alfred loved it just as much! (We went for a supper at a nearby branch the next night)

We went on our way to the Disney Store in Shibuya, apparently you can prepurchase tickets for the theme park there just so you can save yourself from queuing on the day. I can tell you the things at the Disney store is somewhat different to the ones at the theme park, they didn’t sell any of those nice tins of cookies, or any Shelly May bears. I held off the urge to buy anything until our Disney Sea trip!

Why can’t I be 5?

While on the search for Tokyu Hands, I spotted a familiar name and logo in the distance. Loft! I’d say its a more modern, slightly more pricier version of Tokyu Hands although they do sell pretty similar stuff. You can tell the difference between the both in the photos below. I quite liked the stuff they sold at Loft but not so much the price tag. I did walk away with a new iPhone case though 😛

P.S. Free Wifi on the ground level!

Their phone case section is !!! I tried to not walk away with about 3 cases… luckily I succeeded. 

Although we did visit a branch of Tokyu Hands in Osaka… I’ve been excited to check out the main store, the one thats like 7 levels high. Imagine all the goodies in the store? First level we walked into was the hardware level, we already knew at that point that we can’t be together for the rest of the building… so we split up. We eventually caught up to each other at some point 😛

I could be at the Craft level for quite some time! Just look at all the Washi they had available and the prices are so enticing! $1-2/roll! Looking back I wish I bought a few more 😛

Onto the Beauty department, you find some pretty ordinary stuff and pretty odd stuff…. Look at all these “face masks” with different purposes…

Just so you know how much calories you’ve lost by taking the stairs. 

We spent about $100 there, but bought ourselves heaps!

We popped into FrancFranc (another of my favourite Japanese stores!) and couldn’t take my eyes off these super cute macaron cushions. If only I had the luggage space, I would’ve came home with at least 2 of them! For about $20… its pretty affordable.

Macaron sponges too!

We went up to the Starbucks that had the best view of the Shibuya Crossing, shouldn’t be surprised to find there were so many tourists pressed against the window or hanging around waiting to get ‘that shot’. The cleaning lady comes along and shoos everyone away. Even if you were clearly a custom with a cup of Starbucks in hand, you weren’t allowed to take photos. Of course we still did, while pretending to really just be enjoying the view and drinking our hot green tea latte… our DSLR was sitting on the table just ‘snapping away’ by itself. Alfred put together a timelapse with those shots!

We went for sushi train that night, it wasn’t just your ordinary sushi train, it was up another level, or a few levels.

You make your order through the touch screens (minimum of 3 plates at a time) and your food will make its way to you on the conveyor belt.

Pretty impressive and fun to watch! They zip around pretty fast, and theres no chance you could grab someone elses plate off the belt.

Alfred tried to capture it in motion

What we ate between us

You check out individually, for approx $10/pp its not bad! We were pretty full.

 

Since we were in Shibuya, we went to one of the department stores to find myself a belated birthday cake. I let Alfred choose, he knew my tastebuds pretty well… 😉

Had my little birthday party back at the hotel, just the two of us and my little cake, turning 25 didn’t seem so bad especially when you start it off in Japan! Now to hope my Birthday wish will come true 😉

x Clarissa