Japan Trip Dec 07 (recap) - Day 5

DAY 5 – Ikebukuro　池袋　(Tokyo)　
25th Dec 07 (Tues)

Bad start at Super Hotel Ikebukuro. Perhaps I was starving thus the lack of patience. Or perhaps it was simply because of very slow service. I reached the hotel in the late morning and was past their “before 10am check-in” rule. Thus, I was stuck outside and no one was at the reception area to even notice I was there.

After several calls to Adrian and a near frantic call for the hotel staff (via the intercom at the door), I was finally let in. I left my luggage in a room (as all the lockers were full) and set off for Harajuku…

Harajuku JR station…


One of the gateways to Harajuku lanes...


I was there to search for Adrian’s desired jeans at Tab Device. But luck wasn’t on our side as all his desired jeans were sold out.

Alongside Omotesando, the street’s lined up with designer brands such as Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Chanel and many others. Not exactly my kind of street though.

There’s the SMAP shop too… there’s such a long queue just to get into the store that I gave up and walked away. By the way, the picture’s showing only a portion of the queue…



Decided to head for the back lanes of Harajuku instead. There you could find interesting street fashion and cos play shops too. Took this while I was crossing one of the streets… the poor dogs were visibly shaking from the cold…



And before long, I had unknowingly crossed from Harajuku and stepped foot in Shibuya…



Nearing 4pm in the afternoon, I met up with Jen at Harajuku station and headed for some Ramen. After which, we shopped around Harajuku and Shibuya again, and stumbled upon Agnes B. We took a look inside and realized that it was cheaper to get Agnes B in Japan than in Singapore (about 20 to 40% cheaper depending on what you intend to buy). In the end, I got a striking pink bag for my sis and a leather wallet for myself. The total bill came up to approx S$310. When I was back in Singapore, I did a check and found out that if I’m to get the same items here, it could have cost me more than S$500. Wow!

And remember! Do ask the shop attendants if you could get tax refund there. You need not go to the airport to claim it. They refund for you on the spot at the shop itself. For instance, if an item cost you 10,000yen with tax, you will just have to pay the amount before tax!

Next stop after Agnes B, we went in search of Head Potter. We asked around (perhaps 8 people or so) but none of them could direct us to the store. When we finally found the shop (with the help from a nearby shop assistant), we were stumped! This was the same shop that we had passed by zillions of time and I even stood there saying “maybe the shop was just in front of us and we just didn’t see it”…

But it was too late. The shop had closed for the day. Its operating hours? 11am to 7pm daily. What a X’mas… Here’s a picture of the shop for your reference if you intend to give it a try. It doesn’t have a sign or logo anywhere so you would have to memorize the shop front…



Feeling so vexed, we decided to head for tempura don nearby that Jen had recommended. The food’s pretty good but I was feeling so vexed and tired that I could only finish half a bowl.

By the way, for the record, I ate a tempura squid which tasted pretty good.

Next up? I stumbled back to hotel to catch some beauty sleep…