new year shopping in tokyo

FINALLY i have finished posting about my first laps of japan trip, tokyo.... we spent 4 days there: day 1, arrived in japan; day 2, walk around central tokyo; day 3, harajuku sales & kinki kids concert; day 4, shibuya sales, you can read about them & see for yourself how amazing new year sale can be ....... it was tiring 4 days since we were rushing to places & carrying lot of lucky bags but really fun, at least for me =)

Day 4: tokyo

*back dated entry*

today is the second of the new year sales which is also the day of INTENSIVE shopping for the rest of the crowd cause all the shops resumed business..... for today, my targets are samantha bags & shibuya 109....

i guess most people should have know the samantha brand by now... i like their bags, they have several series & all of them look very sweet & nice but the prices here are just too high... of cause, if you compared to the high end brands then samantha still belongs to the affordable range... i would say in SG, average price of the bag will be about SGD400, if there are sales, lowest price i saw was something like SGD300+.... my friend told me that samantha is much cheaper in japan since it's local brand so naturally samantha bags will be my target for this trip....

as i stayed in Ueno this time, my goal is to chiong samantha in Ueno marui since they have 3 shops in that mall.... i arrived at marui at about 10am & woah.... all the girls were "fighting" for samantha vegas lucky bags.... not so much for petite & thavasa probably due to the price.... lucky bag for vegas cost 10,800 yen but thavasa 1 cost 21,000yen... i was very tempted to get vegas lucky bag but i was worried that if the design or colour not nice then will be wasted.... so in the end i go for thavasa 50% sales bags.... not all the bags were having sales but substantial amount & i found the bag i always wanted at half price = 14,500 yen!!!! which is like 160sgd!!! common man, that's like half price of the so call SALES price you get in SG!!!!

tada my very first samantha!!!

samantha petite lucky bag

helped my friend gotten the petite lucky bag... not too bad i would say, 2 wallets for 10,800yen when normally 1 will cost that much.... after gotten my samantha, we chiong to shibuya 109!!!

shibuya view from station

shibuya 109

finally i arrived at SHIBUYA!!!! by the time i reached it was close to 12nn so the morning crowd has left but there was still some small groups of girls outside the building to do exchanges for their lucky bag items..... when i stepped inside the building, woah, super packed with people!!!!

INGNI sales

people everywhere

more people

ank rouge sales

seriously, everywhere is packed with people cause every stores were having sales & selling lucky bags!!! if SG has winter, i am so going to sweep back at least 5 more lucky bags from shibuya but i controlled!!!! the sales were really tempting cause they were really cheap!!! when they say sales, it means serious sales... really everything on sales, not like SG, always 1 small section has sales items but they put the super huge sales word in the store....

after some serious consideration, i only bought 2 lucky bags at shibuya

ober tashe 3000yen lucky bags

2015yen lucky bag from some accessory shop

the ober lucky bag really worthy, you get a total of 4 bags for 3000yen.... so damn cheap!!! the 2015yen lucky bag was cheap too but you have more random & not so useful stuff....

after shibuya we slowly made our way back to ueno & inside the station we saw this very cute bakery....

cute bakery

usagi bun!!!

 the usagi bun was so cute!!! taste wise was average but the look was really cute!!!! & then we had dinner a yoshinoya....

dinner

after which we went to ueno ABAB, it's a relatively new shopping center, i wanted to go there cause i need to go daiso to get more vacuum bags to contain my clothes.... & there i found amazing stuff....

ABAB at ueno

daiso

cute calendars from daiso

golden store

 this golden store is somewhat like a mixture of supermarket & daiso cause their items are so cheap!!! average snack cost like 90yen, even cheaper than daiso (100yen)!!! really amazing store... & within the buildings you have other less well known boutique brands but their designs are nice too & best thing, they are CHEAP!!! i didnt manage to take any photo of those shops but like a decent looking down jacket cost 2990yen, shoes 990yen, nice coats at 4000yen+, etc.... seriously.... you can just shop till you drop inside ABAB & the good thing is you dont have to fight with the crowd cause there wasnt too many customers.....

after some small shopping at ABAB we walked back to hotel & we saw another amazing thing.... FROZEN lucky bag!!! yup, japan really has lucky bags for everything!!!

2000yen frozen lucky bag

i am not a frozen fan but my nieces are, they LOVE frozen... & i can imagine their happy faces when they saw the bags....

so that marks the end of tokyo & first laps of my japan trip... tomorrow we will head up to nagano where the sightseeing part of the trip will start =)

Day3 : tokyo

*back dated entry*

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! today is going to be a very fulfilling day!!! there are 3 main objectives... 1st is go sensoji to pray for good luck, 2nd is chiong lucky bags in harajuku & 3rd will be going for my KinKi kids concert!!!!

so today we woke up pretty early cause from what i heard, there would be tonnes of people flocking to temple/shrines to pray so i want to avoid the crowd so that i still have time to fly down to harajuku to shop... so we reached sensoji close to 10am & to my surprise, the place was not very pack.... i would say it had much more visitors than normal but it wasnt pack till you can hardly walk.... so that was good....

breakfast

entrance to sensoji

big lantern in sensoji

place to tie your bad luck

food store around sensoji

some holy water thing

didnt take much photo today cause not going to anywhere new... i actually took picture of skytree from afar but my bloody phone siao then photos were corrupted =( since it was new year day, i went to check my fortune for 2015 & i gotten bad luck =( super sian.... so i went to tie the bad luck paper on the rack, hopefully can keep the unlucky things there.....

so after that, we chiong down to harajuku & again, we were surprised... there wasnt alot of people at takeshita street... in fact i felt there was more people yesterday than today... but that's a good thing since we can walk around freely.... for the first time, i FINALLY experience japan new year sale... & excuse me... it's OMG AWESOME!!! let me share some pictures first...

Luceo

lis lisa

momo

aimerfeel

liz lisa sub brands lucky bags

my loot in 1hr

ok... i was busy shopping so i couldnt take more photo but what more i need to say... everywhere is SALE!!!! & like seriously, how can you resist not buying such cheap stuff!?!?!? i will show the items inside the fukubukuro later... let me tell you... they are AWESOME!!!! & you can see how much things i can buy within 1 hr... & all the loot cost only 26115yen which is about SGD$290!!!! later when you see the items then you will be super surprise how many items you can get with that price....

grilled mochi

food store along harajuku

it's SNOWING!!!

lunch

ok... so after shopping, we gotten some snack along harajuku & it SNOWED!!! i always read online that it's somewhat like confirm that it will snow on 1st jan & it DID!!! YEAH!!! so happy to see snow for the first time!!! it was really light snow but hey... i still find it super amazing!!!! after some snack, we went back to hotel to put down my loot before heading down to tokyo dome!!!

laqua city

KinKi Kids M concert

tokyo dome

i always wanted to contribute my maiden concert visit to KinKi Kids & i DID it!!!! tokyo dome was really HUGE!!!! i was like sitting somewhere at the back & when i looked down, the amount of people was HUGE!!!! then stupid me didnt know where to buy those concert merchandises so i went inside the dome & thought they will sell things inside but apparently the queue was OUTSIDE!!!! i wanted to buy the light stick but the tiny stores inside the dome DIDNT sell!!! they only had photos & jackets... so i went inside the concert without light stick =( it felt TERRIBLE!! cause every single audience had one, whether it was from the concert merchandise or a normal light stick... i had NONE!!! so i cant wave but nonetheless, the concert was AWESOME!!! seeing KinKi Kids performance live was really very different from online.... tsuyo was so damn cute!!! man... i was like practically bouncing & screaming when they appeared on stage... but hey... i wasnt the only one... EVERYBODY stood up & waved their lightsticks..... the 10k yen tickets really worth it.... but hubby was sleeping inside since he not into KinKi.... but who cares.... =p

NOW!!! the moment of truth is here!!! let me reveal what i gotten inside my lucky bags....

Luceo 5800yen lucky bag

 inside Luceo lucky bag, you get a coat, 2 knit top, 1 knit cardigan, 1 bottom & this sweet shape pillow arm warmer... all these things for 5800yen!!! come on man.... to buy a cheapo coat from taobao already cost me SGD$30+ & some more quality was just average.... i would say this Luceo bag was the most worthwhile bag that i gotten....

tutuanna 1000yen lucky bag

 hmm... i would say tutuanna bag was ok... you get 5 pairs of socks & 2 pairs of stockings... but all these were not suitable to wear in SG.... so not really worthwhile

paris kids 315yen lucky bag

 paris kids sell accessories... they had several variety of lucky bags, some just for ear rings, hair accessories & etc.... i think the things they gave were not really useful but it was cheap so ok lo...

aimerfeel 3500yen lucky bag

 aimerfeel sell inner garments & my friend tole me this brand has very comfy bra... for 3500yen you get 3 bra set, 1 extra panty & a pouch.... quite good bargain i would say

7000yen lucky bag

 i couldnt remember this brand... think it was momo something... this brand sell more mori to loli-ish kind of clothes.... really lovely.... but compared to the items you get from Luceo, i think latter was better

2000yen lucky bag

 i think the shop name was audrey or something, it was the last boutique store if you enter from the JR harajuku station side... you get 2 jacket, 1 shawl like stuff, 1 dress & pouch for 2000yen... good bargain but the items didnt look very nice

swimmer 3000yen lucky bag

 swimmer is a popular brands in japan, they sell all sorts of cute stuff... so it was one of my main target for this lucky bag spree... they had 2 types of lucky bags... 1500yen & 3000yen... since latter looked much bigger & heavier... kiasu me of cause gotten the 3000yen bag & it really had ALOT of stuff inside....

items inside swimmer lucky bag

when i opened the lucky bag i was shock by the amount of items which also explained the weight... the bag was really heavy & i had a hard time carrying it back to hotel....  i would say they have 4 main categories of items.... first was accessories + bag, second was stationery, third was kitchen stuff & lastly the room deco.... really ALOT of items for 3000yen... really value for $ but i would say most of the items were not really useful.... 

so above were the bags i gotten from harajuku.... i only intended to get like 1-2 bags for this trip but obviously i couldnt control myself in harajuku =p so girls, please do go to japan during its new year sales.... the things are seriously cheap... you dont have to get clothes, almost everything has lucky bags... be it food, bags & even contact lens.... can really shop till you drop =)

places to visit in tokyo

*back dated entry*

actually the highlight for my honeymoon trip is to buy my fukubukuro (lucky bag)... for those who have not heard of this term, it's ok, not too many people know about it unless you are hardcore japanese shoppers.... i first heard of this term many years ago & thought it only refer to specific brands or items but nope, it apply to everything... so every year on the first week of jan, the whole of japan will sell fukubukuro & personally for me i aim clothes fukubukuro!!! if you just do a google search, you will know that many popular japanese brands sell very good items in their fukubukuro... in general, there will be about 5 items in a bag & cost about 10,800yen BUT it will DEFINITELY contain a winter coat!!! like excuse me!?!??! that's like super cheap ok!!! based on the exchange rate now, the bag cost about SGD$120 & you have about 5 items, that's like $24/item... it's even cheaper than what i can find on taobao.com!!! so how can i not get it!!!!! BUT of cause tokyo isnt just about shopping, there are still some sightseeing places.....

1. harajuku

JR harajuku station, photo taken from here....

takeshita street, photo taken from here....

 harajuku is my FAVOURITE shopping place in tokyo!!! the B1.5F at laforet is like my heaven!!! they have all the popular loli brands there & when i was there for the first time in year 2009, i was like in HEAVEN!!! if you think that harajuku is for people with "weird dressing" then you are WRONG!!! of cause i dont deny that there are more people with bold dressing in harajuku but you can find lovely clothes there too!!! takeshita street is another of my favourite shopping place in harajuku.... so many nice shops there!!! & for those who are interested in getting fukubukuro, harajuku is one of the few place that start their new year sales on 1st jan!!!! so go & SNATCH!!!! the meiji shrine is also at harajuku area so for those who are not interested in shopping can always go & take a look at the beautiful shrine

2. shinjuku

shinjuku shopping area, photo taken from here....

another huge shopping area in tokyo... i would say this is more for general public.... of cause you can always go ginza but i find the things there are too expensive so shinjuku brands are more affordable... most of their new year sale starts on 2nd jan except for shinjuku mylord... do strategise your time & plan where you want to get your lucky bags...

3. shibuya

shibuya, photo taken from here....

what more do i need to say.... shibuya is the most well known shopping place in tokyo.... you can see the famous super pack road there too.... & most important of all, 109 is there!!!! 109 is another amazing shopping centers which i would say consists of the most popular brands in japan... their new year sale starts on 2nd jan & it's close on 1st jan

4. akihabara

akihabara, photo taken from here....

most people think akihabara is just for those who are into anime & otaku but you are wrong, they sell very good & cheap electronic stuff there too.... but the bad thing is japan use 2 pin plug which isnt suitable for SG.. but for the cheap price, i think it's worth to compromise....

5. disneyland & disney SEA

disneyland, photo taken from here....

if i am not wrong, disney SEA is only found in tokyo & the famous duffy is from there!!! the 2 theme parks are situated in the same area but it's impossible to finish the 2 parks on the same day cause the queue is always insane... japanese really love to queue....

6. tsukiji fish market

tsukiji fish market, photo taken from here...

tsukiji fish market is famous for 2 things, the fresh seafood & tuna auction... everyday they allow a certain number of visitors to view the tuna auction, you can see the information here... i went for the auction during my previous japan trip & it was disappointing for us cause the whole thing lasted like less than 15min & you only get to see a small selection of fish... so i think it's not worth to queue up like since 3+am there.... but for those who are curious, it's still interesting to try once...

7. imperial palace

imperial palace, photo taken from here....

tokyo train station, photo taken from here....

this is the imperial palace for the current japan emperor, since i didnt go for my previous trips, i shall go visit it this time... it's near to tokyo train station & my lab mate said it looks so nice that i have to see it this time...

8. tokyo tower

tokyo tower, photo taken from here....

despite being not as popular now, tokyo tower is definitely an iconic place in tokyo... i never been up there myself but i took photo nearby before....

9. tokyo skytree

tokyo skytree, photo taken from here....

tokyo skytree has definitely stole the limelight from tokyo tower ever since 2012.... i have not been there myself, only took photo from asakusa area.... not really that interested in it cause i am afraid of height so ask me going all the way up will probably kill me.... nonetheless, still a nice attraction for many people

10. sensoji

sensoji, photo taken from here....

i would say this is the most popular temple in tokyo & pretty iconic too... it's situated in asakusa area... i think i read somewhere before that many people visit it because it grant their wishes so kiasu me will always go there & pray & buy the amulet =p

so above are my top 10 attractions in tokyo, of cause there are much more than that to see in tokyo.... but if you are really pressed for time, you can consider these places for your top priority =)