After visiting Meiji Shrine, Yoyogi Park and Harajuku during the first part of Day 3, Saliheen and I made our way to our next pre-dinner destination - Vaping Ape in Shibuya! If you're interested, check out their Facebook first since the catalogue on their official website isn't as updated. They occasionally post on Instagram too. 

Not as huge as Henley Vape (vape lounge we visited in NYC) but the space was super cool and super chill, the owner speaks English because he lived in LA for some years. Rested our backs and feet and had a nice long session before venturing back out for dinner at Hanasakaji-san! It's a restaurant in Shibuya with a halal menu.

There was a little confusion before we entered the restaurant because I was actually expecting the restaurant shopfront to look like this because I read about the restaurant from this blog post. But the shopfront of the restaurant we were directed to by Google maps looks like the one below instead! Which is different!

But we were too malas to figure it out and go somewhere else (since there was a halal logo at the front, after all) so we gingerly traipsed down the stairs... only to be greeted by this suspicious looking door wtf:

Tak ke terperanjat katak aku nyah?!?!?!?! 

Apa lagi aku and Saliheen lintang pukang ah sak lari naik balek the tangga HAHAHA. Laki aku punya pengecut tak guna, dia lari naik dulu tinggalkan aku kat belakang eh HAHAHAHAHA

But no seriously wtf right, apakah maksud semua ini????? Ada manusia bertopengkan harimau kat belakang pintu tu ke apa sak. And the worst part, it was sooo senyap ok. How can a restaurant have no signs of life kan?!

So after about 10 minutes of contemplating and planning our escape plan in the event benda yang tak diduga dan tak diundang keluar from that door (hahaha), we finally trudged back down the stairs and pressed the "Push" button on the door while getting ready to run away again haha.

The minute the door opened, FUH. Terkejut terkangkang akak, dik.

Tiba tiba kita macam transported to another world altogether la seh; food smells started to waft out of the room and we immediately heard the chatter and rambunctious laughter coming from actual living human beings feasting with their friends inside! It was dimly lit, sure, but we really liked its festive dining and drinking vibes.

Didn't take picture of the interior because we were fascinated (haha) and just wanted to order our food, but you can see a picture from someone else here. By the way, I never did find out why the shopfront picture I saw online is different from the one I saw in person haha. Just assumed they were 2 different outlets with different decor.

We chose the halal washoku and shabu shabu set with white rice which costs ¥4500 per person (S$53.00 per person) because the basic shabu shabu set nampak macam tak cukup haha. You can see their halal menu options here. The washoku included 3 to 4 pieces of tuna sashimi, prawn tempura, grilled fish and salad (with a piece of prawn and some kind of clam or abalone, I can't remember).

Apparently there is a method to cooking shabu shabu - the staff taught us to lightly swirl the meat in the soup for a minute or so, and to quickly lift the shabu shabu just before it overcooks. Very yummy! The soup looks unassuming but is hearty and delicious. The washoku set was so-so aje, I'm not really a fan of tempura and Japanese-style grilled fish, anyway.

After dinner, we jalan jalan around Shibuya again! I went into lots of shops but didn't purchase anything (except soaps from Lush) because the barang barang there either not something I'd wear in Singapore or won't fit my plus size. Didn't really mind it though, I was in Tokyo not to shop but to immerse myself in their culture, bask in their sights and sounds and get new experiences - like going up Mount Fuji the next morning! YAY!

Tokyo Travels: Day 3 (Part 1)

Happy to wake up to another day in Tokyo! In case you haven't noticed, I've been blogging about my trip to Tokyo, which you can read about here and here for Day 1 and here, here and here for Day 2.

Before starting the day, I unwrapped the wagashi that I bought from Higashiya the day before and ahhhhh, the Japanese people are so good and so meticulous with their presentation and aesthetics! So pretty laaaaa.

Even their construction barriers are pretty, ok. HAHA (These were everywhere near our hotel)

After a quick breakfast of wagashi and pastries from a nearby bakery, Saliheen and I made our way to Meiji Shrine! Saliheen and I weren't familiar with the history of the shrine but it's on every Top 10 places to go to in Tokyo list so we dropped by for a visit. It's nice and serene in the morning (crowd started to swell when we were about to leave at 11am) but probably not a place we'll return to if we travel to Tokyo again. 

We didn't write messages on the wooden planks but I paid particular attention to this one because I love how the message is so simple yet so beautiful and can be applicable to anyone :)

We left Meiji Shrine shortly after and walked to the nearby Yoyogi Park to lepak lepak. Shiok to lepak there because the weather was very cooling! And so nice to people-watch - we saw volunteers jogging with disabled and mentally challenged individuals as part of an initiative to keep them active and healthy. So baik hati kan.

As you can see, half of our time in Yoyogi Park was also spent trying to take couple shots hahaha

Actually kan I was hoping to see cosplayers and the popular rockabilly dancers in Yoyogi Park but we were too lazy to walk around the whole park (we weren't even sure if they'd be around during wintertime) so we settled for lazy people-watching and chatting somewhere near the entrance. 

Left Yoyogi Park after an hour or so and went to an area that some people say is Tokyo's version of Bugis Market but a little bit crazier - Harajuku! Of course we had to masuk the popular Takeshita Street.

I like the chips from Calbee Plus and my chocolate brownie crepe from Marion Crepes! I wasn't expecting much but the crepe was quite nice, I can see why it has good reviews. By the way, if you're planning to do like the locals do and eat crepes in Harajuku, make sure you either purchase from Marion Crepes or Angel Heart ok, because they are the originals. There will be imitation shops along the way (with variations of their names e.g. Angel, Angel Sweetheart, etc) so make sure you get the right one. Don't depend on the length of the queues because a lot of people confuse the shops so every crepe shop will have long queue one haha. Of course if you don't care original ke imitation ke then doesn't matter la.

Also, can I just say that we went to Harajuku on the "wrong" day?! I read that Harajuku is the most interesting and liveliest on Sundays which is why I scheduled Harajuku on our only Sunday in Tokyo... turns out "interesting and liveliest" also means the area was crazy jam-packed with youths and tourists! It got too much sampai we felt suffocated (the crowd became as bad as this as the day went on) and I couldn't even bring myself to stop and masuk any of the stores to do some shopping :( Luckily Saliheen flagged out a few of the shops he wanted to check beforehand so after he bought a few tee-shirts and caps, we bolted out of Harajuku!

We didn't even get to take neoprints tau :( Read online that Harajuku is the land of neoprint shops but we didn't spot any while we were there, wahlau. I think we were too frazzled by the crowd la :( I really wanted to take neoprints seh, I used to take sooooo many neoprints with my friends and ex-boyfriends in school, it'll be so fun to take and decorate some with Saliheen kan. Ah well... yet another reason to return to Japan, I guess #ohtakeh

Oh, we also passed by Chanel, Magnolia Bakery and Kiddyland before we left for our next destination - I tried asking for the black Chanel espadrilles that I wanted but they were totally sold out (obvi), borong-ed banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery and bought myself a fluffy Gudetama pillow at Kiddyland hehe.

In case you don't know who or what Gudetama is, it is a Sanrio cartoon character in the form of a super lazy egg who uses pieces of bacon as its blanket and is always unmotivated to move or do anything. Sounds like me on any given day except I don't have a blanket made of bacon la HAHAHAHA


You can watch more Gudetama episodes on this playlist here. It's a little cute, a little weird and can get a little morbid; which is how I like my cartoons to be, really, hehe.

Talking about my Gudetama purchase, can you believe how irritating my husband can be? (Yes, you can) I picked up and hugged a Gudetama pillow when I saw a Gudetama section in Kiddyland and started squealing that it was mine mine mine, and the first thing he said was "Boleh beli ni ke bb?" When I asked him kenapa tak boleh beli pulak, his reply was "Selimut dia kan bacon" EH KAU DIAM LA SEH!!!!!!!!!!