Hey Hive!
I'm currently recounting our anniversary trip to Tokyo back in Feb 2023! It'd been at least 3 years since we visited Tokyo and the last time was pre-covid so we decided to go back and find some new places to explore while revisiting our favourite hot-spots.
Last week, we started our last full day in Tokyo by having lunch at a very red blooded American-style diner!
We got a snack from Mr Waffle at the train station and it was pretty alright, maybe a little small and plainer than we would've liked.
After that we explored Akihabara and Sean went to play a few games of DDR before we ended up going for an evening stroll and looking at gachapon machines.
There's still a bit more to this day so let's finish it off!
9 Feb 2023. Thursday.
We were walking in the streets of Akihabara when I saw this sign for Genshin Impact. I was still quite active in playing that game at the time so I got curious.
We had to walk up a few floors to this shop but saw quite a few anime posters on the way.
Upon arriving at the store, the first things that caught my eye were two impressive cardboard standees that I’m sure many people would gladly pay good money for!
The store itself looked quite regular but there were different sections of merchandise from different games and anime franchises.
Of course I was only interested in the Genshin merchandise since it's pretty much the only one I know.
They definitely had quite the selection from keychains to plushies, blind box figurines and stationery.
Some of them looked quite interesting like this chibi Venti figure.
They also had some leftover merchandise from the Genshin concert event that was in Shanghai a few years ago. Not many people could attend it due to covid unfortunately, so I guess they have quite a lot of unsold merchandise.
I thought this file was quite cute since the slimes in the game are actually adorable. I was considering getting a slime plush at one point.
There were also these unique paper craft style standees that I think could light up as well.
This was the first time I saw Genshin jigsaw puzzle. But to be fair, the art in the game is really good.
There were a lot of different keychains, from weapons to characters in different styles.
There were also buttons and different stationery.
And even some jewelry as well! I thought it looked quite cool but I guess only cosplayers would get it for their costumes.
There was also a big section of acrylic standees and buttons of all your favourite waifus and husbandos!
There was also a Japanese magazine just for Genshin. I'm not sure what was inside though and I probably wouldn't be able to understand it since it looks like it was fully in Japanese.
There were other merchandise as well but this was definitely the store with the biggest Genshin section I've seen. I was kind of on the outs with this game though so I mainly took the photos to show my community.
I did try the gachapon machines though since this was the first time I saw the star shaped keychain and it looked pretty nice.
After perusing for quite some time, we left and went back out into the streets, and actually came across some crowd control police.
We were hungry for a little snack so we decided to stop by Mister Donut and see what all the hype was about.
We'd heard a lot of people raving about Mr Donut but have never actually tried it before, and since it was quite empty at the time we thought we'd go check it out.
I think they're pretty famous for their specialty donut which is the Pon De Ring that looks like this but also comes in different flavours.
Unfortunately those get sold out pretty quickly in the day and by night time they only had the regular donuts left.
We decided to try their powdered sugar donut since that's my favourite, and it was pretty good. It was soft and bouncy and very sugary with a lightly chewy texture.
It was getting quite late in the evening now and almost dinner time but we took the time to walk around to avoid the peak dinner crowd.
We wanted to go look for a supermarket to buy some last minute strawberries but this was the only market we could find with fresh produce. It looked really fancy.
We bought some fruits before heading off and ended up in this very festive-looking walkway with lots of twinkly lights.
I guess they still had Christmas decorations up since it looks really pretty at night.
But soon it was getting to be dinner time so we went to visit one last favourite eating spot - Kitakata Bannai Ramen!
I remember the first time we saw this restaurant at Tokyo Station and the thing that caught our eye was the bowl covered with chashu. I'm glad they still have the same item.
It was pretty late but there were still some salaryman coming here for a quick dinner.
We took a seat to peruse the menu and we would normally order the set that comes with ramen, chashu rice and salad. The marinated and torched chashu is actually super good; even better than the ramen I would say.
But they also had something special on the menu this time which had peanuts, cabbage and chili in the ramen which intrigued me.
But honestly for the price, we were better off just getting a set with more items, so that's what we ordered. Granted, the ramen wasn't covered with the chashu in the sets but we really wanted the chashu rice so it's a fair trade I suppose.
Honestly the noodles aren't bad, but it's pretty regular. The chashu is still nice and thick and the broth is quite light but still flavourful. It's not super spectacular but alright for a nice meal.
Our favourite is definitely the chashu rice though, the marinade makes it sweet and savoury while still tender.
Overall, it was a very delicious last meal in Tokyo!
We enjoyed our sweet and juicy Japanese strawberries when we got back to the hotel.
10 Feb 2023. Friday.
Our final day was basically just at the airport and we set off pretty early since our flight was in the morning.
Even the restaurant weren't open at the time either, sadly, so we couldn't even get a proper breakfast.
But thankfully there's always convenience stores.
The whole terminal was quite deserted since it was still the wee hours of the morning.
We were surprised to see Tax Free Akihabara though and I was expecting more anime merchandise but it was basically souvenir snacks.
By the time we were boarding the sun had come up.
Thankfully we did get some lunch on the plane.
And about 6 hours or so later, we were back in Singapore!
Here's our haul of snacks, cosmetics and merch!
It was definitely quite a haul but I think we held back quite a lot already, especially on snacks. Overall it was a very rewarding trip indeed and the biggest highlight was definitely getting to visit the Nintendo store!
Thanks for coming along with me recounting this trip! Hope you enjoyed and see you for the next one!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
Bodacious Burgers and Snacks 😋- TacoCat’s Travels #292 (Tokyo)
