Japan Trip Day 4: Shopping for Yukata at Sensoji Temple and Odaiba

PS: Useful links will be provided below

So, on the fourth day there is quite a big change in the itinerary!

Actually it's supposed to be Tokyo Tower - Zojoji Temple - Odaiba. But since we are preparing and putting tomorrow's itinerary which is Tanabata Festival as a priority ..... well it's decided that today will be dedicated for yukata hunting mission! This is why actually I chose this period of day for travelling to Japan (July 1-7), so it would be fit to attend a local festival which happened to be at July 4 and 5, and it's only 3 minutes walk from my apartment. Not just attending, but also blending in with locals by wearing yukata, complete with cute hair accessories, kinchaku (Japanese pouch), and geta (Japanese sandals).

Girls in Yukata - Shutterstock

Of course, I already planned this before that we will buy the yukata at Odaiba. To be more specific, at Shimamura Store in a shopping mall called Aqua City Odaiba. I've already read so many good reviews about it. Shimamura is a retail clothing store which sold almost everything, from formal office wears, casual outfits, sandals, shoes, hair accesories, and even yukata set! Yukata set means it already consists of yukata + geta + obi  with price ranged from 3000-6000 ¥.

Yukata Set from Shimamura - Shimamura

It's indeed really pretty right?
Could you believe that it's only 3900 ¥ Σ(゜ロ゜;)

But the more it sounds promising, the more we are scared. We are scared that by the time we arrived there it's already closed. It's the last place to visit in our itinerary and Japanese shops closed really early (8 PM). We also feel insecure.

How if the price is already going up? 

What if we don't find the pattern and color that we like? 

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Yet, the deadlines are tomorrow!

So, we are searching for another alternatives. From many sourced in the internet, it is said that Sensoji Temple is one of many places in Tokyo to get a cheap yukata. Wow! Yeah, I know that we have been in Sensoji on day 1, and I know that I have seen some of yukata and kimono being displayed there but I don't know the price. So why not? Sensoji is only 7 minutes walk from my apartment, so .... let's go to there again!

Shopping Alley in Asakusa

But it turns out that we took our time more than 7 minutes there. LOL. We try to go there by gut feeling since we have been there yesterday. But nope, it still feels like we are going there as first-timer. By using GPS, then we knew that actually there is a shortcut so it should have been only 4 minutes to go there -_-

Ah, Nakamise Shopping Street! We twirl ...... and twirl around, going there and there, this shop, that shop and finally there are 3 yukata shops in my consideration. Well it's more pricey than Shimamura. The yukata alone is already ranged from 4000-6000 ¥. The obi is about 2000-3000 ¥. Hairpin 1000-3000 ¥. Kinchaku 3000-6000 ¥. Geta 1000-3000 ¥.  OMG, my 10.000 ¥ will be gone for complete set (= IDR 1.1 million).

There is only 1 shop which sell yukata set, but I don't like the pattern since the color is dominated by black and pink neon *sigh*.

Today is gonna be the most crazy shopping day in my life. Never I've spent this much for only 1 set of clothes. Ah well, but this is the main purpose of coming to Japan in this period of time right? All of us 4 girls do encourage each other....when will be another day to get a chance wearing yukata like this? So.. there we go. We keep those shops and label price in mind but we are still not giving up to search the cheapest selection available, so we continue our searching to every bit corner of Nakamise and Sensoji.

But then, besides searching for yukata store. We also searched for yukata rental shop called Shichihenge. Hellen looked up for it this morning and the store has english website available. It is said that we could rent a yukata set for one day for 3000 ¥ only. They will help us wearing it as well as do simple hairdo for us! We only need to buy our own tabi (Japanese socks) so we are not staining their geta. The direction said that it's near the Buddha Statue in Sensoji Temple. Okay, let's explore Sensoji once more. On the first day, we haven't really explored every bit of Sensoji corner anyway.

Here are some photos of Sensoji that we haven't taken on the first visit!

The Pagoda Tower

Main Temple

Buddha Statue

 There is it .... the Buddha Statue. So from here on, just walk straight.....

Then we are coming to the end of  Sensoji Temple area.

 Yups, another shopping street! From here choose the right way :)

OMG, THERE IS IT the ASAKUSA VIEW HOTEL which is 1 minute from our apartment.We should use this way when we go to Sensoji -_-

Here is it! Asakusa Shichihenge

Yay! We found it. Besides renting yukata and kimono, they also have some pieces available to sell. From yukata, kimono, obi, and other accesories for the obi such as obiage, obijime, etc. It's all a decorative sash/rope to make your yukata even more beautiful and colorful!

We talked with the store keeper. They could speak English so it's really convenience. So..... 

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Okay, we CANNOT rent the yukata since it's all already booked for tomorrow. OH, NOOOOO! 

。：゜(；´∩｀；)゜：。

*sob* *sob*

The store keeper also looked sad when they told us this disappointing news.

Lesson learned! If you want to rent a yukata or kimono here, especially when there is a festival nearby. You are supposed to make a reservation many days before it I guess. Here is the website of Asakusa Shichihenge. Browse through it and you could find contact number to reserve the yukata or kimono. Please do note that yukata is different than kimono. Yukata is made from cotton and used for casual events, while kimono is made from silk, more harder to wear, and used for formal events. I guess I should make a post about yukata, kimono and all of it's accessories. What do you guys think? Hehhe.

It seems God really has a plan for us not to be a money-saver. We are destined to BUY it, LOL. So we looked through their yukata which was displayed for sale. It seems that Angel took a liking for one of the pieces but she still wasn't feeling sure. So where we go next? Back to Nakamise of course. It seems that Shenna, Hellen, and me already 90% sure which shop will be our choice.

So out of my 3 favorite store, I finally chose a shop called "Fujiya". Well it's simply because it's this only shop which sold bright color. The other shops mostly only sold dark colors such as black or very dark purple. It seems that the locals are tend to love black yukata. The shop assistant in Fujiya also could speak English fluently and you could pay with Credit Card! How convenient is it.

Hellen also chose this shop, because this shop sold yukata at her height (140-150 cm size). Mine and her choice has similiar colors: broken white. While Shenna chose Red .... hahha, okay this is the spoiler. Though maybe some of you already known through my instagram account what kind of yukata I chose. Okay, the three of us have already bought our yukata and obi? How about Angel?

Well....

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Angel finally 100% sure that she will buy a blue yukata at the previous Yukata rental store we visited. There we go .... walked back around again hahha. Besides, we also left our umbrella there (|||❛︵❛.)  

So we really need to go there again.........

Angel also bought the obi there. Unlike us which chose an instant obi or pre-tied obi, which already has big ribbon attached to it. Angel chose the traditional one where you have to tie and shape it manually. The storekeeper kindly teach her once how to tie it. Whew! Finally we all already get our yukata and obi. All that's left are hair accessories, geta, and kinchaku.

But first, let's have a snack first. Stumbled upon this Melon-Pan store because of the nice smell!

It's really cheap! We bought 3 for 500¥. OMG, it tasted really delicious. I know you might be already bored on how many times I typed "DELICIOUS" for every food and drink I have in Japan since the first day. Hahha, but it is! The outer bread is really crusty, yet the inside are soft and warm inside with the not-overly-sweet taste of Melon. Aaah, it's quite recharged my stamina.

Beside the store, there is a vending machine. I bought this Royal Milk Tea at 130 ¥ and surprisingly I got the one with Fairy Tail picture. Hahha, there is also Nodame Cantabile too. Not only it's good in my eye, but it also tasted delicious. Many bloggers have recommended to try Japanese Royal Milk Tea, and it's true! It's really different from any milk tea I've ever tried. It's not sweet! It has a deep flavor of tea and milk. Yet, usually in Indonesia, it tasted like tea, sweet flavor from sugar, and creamy thick texture from milk. So it tasted like sweet milk with a hint minority of tea.

Okay, we went to another shopping alley. This is still around Sensoji Temple. I bought a geta for my aunt. It is an authentic traditional wooden geta priced at 1100¥.  Well, we found geta for us too which are priced in 700 ¥. But it's not made from wood, but from rattan (in Indonesia = rotan). It's more lightweight and comfortable to walk all day. Traditional geta is also comfortable but, for a new pair it's gonna be really tight and you have to wear it often so it will shape nicely like your feet. Since the festival is tomorrow, there is no more time available to make the traditional geta become adjusted to my feet LOL.

Well, we also stopped by at mini snack shop. Angel bought a Japanese Chilli Dog. It's a grilled sausage wrapped with rice cake dough instead of bread (American verson). Oishii desu!

Finally, we found a pouch (kinchaku) that's suitable for us! The price is 400 ¥ only! It's located in a corner alley like this. But the photo below is the store where we bought our geta. If I recall my memories, the kinchaku store is located beside this shop. If you really do shopping, make sure that you also explored all of the alleys available. Not just Nakamise! My friends who have been in Japan before using tour service only knew Nakamise itself, they didn't know that there is still so many shops around Nakamise main alley. It's really just side-by-side.

The store keeper is an old grandma which is very kind! She helped us to choose what pattern suitable for us. She asked to look our yukata, and then she searched the suitable one as well as explained to us the meaning behind every pattern in the pouch available. Very sincere and kind! ~ヾ(＾∇＾)

Okay, we all got everything we need. So we decided to go back to apartment to put our shopping things and move on to Odaiba. Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple are sacrificed then, hahha. It's already 2.30 PM and we spent ~10.000 walks only for shopping in Sensoji! ~impressive. If in Jakarta, I would have already dropped dead from dehydration and air pollution from walking around the street. Ah, on the way back, Shenna and me also stumbled upon a very interesting hair accessories shop. I bought a blue chrysanthemum flower hairpin there. While Shenna bought a pink sakura flower chain hairpin. Angel and Hellen decided to search for theirs at Odaiba.

Kappabashi Street

Wow! It's Kappabashi Street where we will be going tomorrow to attend local Tanabata Festival. It's actually held for 2 days, today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday). See how crowded is it? So it must be festive and lively. Aah, I can't wait for tomorrow!

Beef and Dog Statue in front of Sukiyaki Restaurant

Back to our apartment, and drop all of our shopping results. So here what I've got from shopping activity at Nakamise and shopping alleys around it :

Yukata 4000 ¥

Pre-tied Obi 2700 ¥

Kinchaku 400 ¥

Hairpin 2160 ¥ and Geta 700¥

Okay, so let's move on to our next destination: Odaiba!

Odaiba is one of anti-mainstream places in my itinerary. So many people around me still don't know the beauty of this place. From what I've read in internet, Odaiba is a man-made island on Tokyo Bay. It's used to be a  protection port against any possible attacks during war, but then a century later it's now become a popular shopping, entertainment and business district. Odaiba itself is only the land. There are so many sightseeing spots in here such as Diver City Tokyo, Aqua City Odaiba, Tokyo Big Sight, Venus Fort, Palette Town, Madame Tussauds museum, Fuji TV Building, and MANY MORE!

Shimbashi Station, looks so modern!

There are 3 ways to reach Odaiba. Walking by foot using Rainbow Bridge, using water buses from Asakusa, or using train from Shimbashi Train. Not just your usual train people, it's a special train called Yurikamome, an automated floating train!

Yurikamome Train Pass

Since we will move around from one spot to another in Odaiba by using yurikamome too, we decided to buy a train pass. It's a lot cheaper by doing so! Well, you could also walk but..... there is quite a big distance from one spot to another.

Rainbow Bridge view from yurikamome

Aah, that's the Rainbow Bridge! The thing which connects Odaiba to Japan main island. In case you are wondering why it's called rainbow yet it only looks like a white bridge .... please do wait until night. It will be illuminated with 7 colors, like a rainbow! Here is the view inside yurikamome which elevated to be the same eye level with buildings.

Out of the station and I can't stop staring in awe. The infrastructures are all in TOP-class. Very modern buildings, yet you could also see greenery scene. The pedestrian road is wide, clean, no holes or cracks which could ruin your shoes. It's not hot at all since it's cloudy and NO AIR POLLUTION. I'm so IN LOVE （●´∀｀）ノ♡

Tee-hee. Stumbled upon this wild flower bush. Picture time!

We took up an elevator on the street and this glass bridge connected many buildings. It's also a perfect photogenic background btw for ootd pictures!

A lil bit of dew on the lens :o

Okay, pardon the dew because of the rain. Anyway, it's Fuji TV Building where many famous anime are broadcasted throughout the world from this building!

Okay, first stop: Diver City Tokyo!

But first, put your umbrella first inside the machine so your umbrella is automatically wrapped in plastic! How convenient is it, technology are used to its best here in Japan :)  The mall itself won't be wet from the dripping water and the umbrella owner would also not bother themselves to bring a plastic :D

First interesting spot inside: Hello Kitty Japan

See the ice cream store on the left? Yeps, you could get a Hello Kitty ice cream for only 280 ¥. Available in 3 flavors: vanilla, matcha, matcha-vanilla. There is a Hello Kitty mini red bean pie on it. So kawaii ~

It's Angel and Shenna btw who bought this. At that time, I was busy looking and browsing everything inside hahha. I just licked it a little bit :p

Odaiba Rainbow Pocky

When you are in Odaiba, make sure you buy it! It's a limited edition of pocky which is only available in Odaiba. It's indeed a nice marketing strategy, so everyone could feel so special by visiting various places in Japan since there are limited edition snack of every area :)

*another business lesson learned*

PSYCHOTIC TIME!!! GUDETAMAAAAAAAAAAA~

From bags, pouch, pencil case, dolls, keychain, mobile strap, plate, socks, all in range of 1000-3000 ¥

There is also Gudetama Cookie btw! 

From the description on the box, it seems like an egg tart cookie. The price is 780 ¥

Whew, time to fill our tummy with late lunch or ....  early dinner I guess. We went to the food court and there are so many interesting foods. Hhmmm, the smell is so tempting. Hellen and I decided to have a ramen at Tonkotsu. It is also the booth which has the longest queue ever. We have seen other people's bowl and it's really huge. We decided to buy one and then share ~ The perks of travelling in group LOL

Tonkotsu Ramen 840 ¥

Okay it's really HUGE. It's almost 2x portion of Ikkudo Ramen here in Indonesia. The taste is indeed on a whole another level. It's very rich yet it's not too oily and no stinky smell of pig when the soup is too rich like in Indonesia. That's why I always order the one with Chicken meat when eating ramen in Indonesia. My nose and tongue is just too sensitive I guess.

Kawaii Nori!

I must be gone crazy in Japan. I don't know how many billion times I said kawaii. 

HOW COULD a NORI become THIS CUTE ??

Happy tummy, happy feeling because of the thoughtful feeling in the nori LOL. 

Okay move on to our main purpose of coming to Diver City Tokyo: real life-sized Gundam Statue!

OMG, it's really huuuge! 

Awww, Gundam which I've only seen in anime and manga, now it's in front of my eyes. 

In REAL SIZE!

I'm just in the size of insects that could be crushed anytime by Gundam's feet hahha.

It's Wefie Time!

There is a very large park in front of Diver City Tokyo. 

Indeed, another photogenic background for taking pics!

Umm, and also one of dating spot? Hahha

So forgive the different lighting.

Although it's the same spot and location, the second picture is taken after about 1 hour of the previous pic LOL. The weather is also moody, sometimes rain sometimes not.

Outfit Details

Shirt: Uniqlo

Vest: Verelineclothingline 

Skort: Zara

Bag: Charles and Keith

Sandals: Katalogbuymeos 

Umbrella: Seven Eleven Japan :P

It's a VERY large Park. By the time we walked to the end of it, the sun is already set and the buildings infrastructure in Odaiba started the illumination. Now I could see why Odaiba is called as rainbow city. Look at the ferris wheel! The color changes every seconds hahha.

OMG, another reasons why I love Japan so much. So modern yet so nature lovers. Never imagine that there could be a hydrangea field like this in the middle of modern buildings!

It's full of hydrangeas!

Okay, back to the bridge! Our next destination is to Aqua City Odaiba, but to go to the train station, we must pass inside the Venus Fort. Pay attention to the photo above and below and see how the bridge changes color :)

Rainbow!

Hahha, another marketing strategy I guess. We really must do pass inside the mall itself. It's so tempting and I want to stop by some stores but TIME is our enemy. Our second main purpose of coming here is to visit Shimamura Store inside Aqua City Odaiba. Remember? Hellen and Angel haven't got their hairpin yet!

Ah-mazing Fountain

Already outside the building and the pathway to the train station is all illuminated in lights. We also passed the Palette Town. Any Pokemon Lovers must know this. It's the first city where Ash start his adventure hahha. Anyone want to start their Pokemon Adventure here?

Well, I don't know what's inside this town. 

Urgh, this is definitely on my list when I'm coming to Odaiba again.

So we arrived at Aqua City Odaiba. It's 7 PM and we directly straight to Shimamura ...... and ...

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The yukata set is available here! 

It HAS SO MANY COLORS AVAILABLE and it's only 3000-6000 ¥, already includes yukata, obi, and geta just like stated in the internet source I've read. Boo-hoooo. My wallet and my heart suffered a great deal of sadness because this is the first time I'm failed in doing prosperous shopping. You know... that feeling when you failed to get the cheaper options 

˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚

Well, my friends and I are not taking pics because of disappointment (?) hahha. Too tired to lift our camera LOL. Here are the pics I took from someone's blog to give a brief picture of what it looks like inside the store. So you would know right away when you see it :) 

Yukata Set - Eureka Moment

Kinchaku and Yukata Display - Eureka Moment

They also sold the hairpins, kinchaku, basically everything related to your yukata! 

With a MUCH CHEAPER PRICE TOO than in Nakamise. Well Nakamise is also cheaper compared to another shopping places, but truly based on my trip this time.... Shimamura is the CHEAPEST!

All hail to Shimamura !!!

Hairpin - Eureka Moment

Ergh, yeah the price is below 1000 ¥. Yet I bought my hairpin at 2160 ¥ *sob*

After about 30 minutes I guess, I finally could move on my feelings LOL. My encouragement sentences to myself : "C'mon Nana, it's okay. Look there! There isn't one similiar like yours. No blue color right?? C'mon .... it's okay ......"(repeated 1000000000.....~ times)

Shimamura is basically a general clothing store. But the one in Odaiba is specially only sell Women clothes. I hurried move from yukata section to another clothes section. Dress, Shirt, T-shirt, Crop Top, Skirt, Jeans, Pants all only ranged from 1000-3000¥. Some skirts are even in discount for only 500 ¥. Sandals, Heels, Sneakers, Wedges all are only 700-1000¥. The quality, sewing, pattern, models are ALL VERY NICE. Don't look down upon it people! Shimamura things are being used for Tokyo Girls Fashion Collection Event. Not everything cheap is also bad quality right? Hehhe

Indeed, Shimamura is moooooreee worth for shopping than in Uniqlo, Shibuya, and Harajuku in my opinion. Well, except you are really want something like lolita or gothic, of course you must go to Shibuya or Harajuku. The clothes here are the one in general category and wearable in Indonesia too.

In Tokyo, beside this branch in Odaiba, Shimamura is also located in Takadanobaba Station which is only 1 station away (5 minutes by train) from big shopping district in Tokyo besides Shibuya: Ikebukuro.

Whew, Angel and Hellen already got their hairpin. After that, we moved on to Daiso which is located beside Shimamura. We really need a lot of things for our hair and luckily there is Daiso the saviour. We need to make a hairbun, so we bought hairbun tools, hairspray, and booby pins. All in 100¥ and divided by each one of us, so it's  just 25 ¥/person for everything we buy LOL. I do really love shopping in Daiso σ(≧ε≦ｏ)

It's almost 9 PM and basically the store assistant are preparing to close the store. We do really shop until the end of limit time. Hahha. So, basically we already checked off our shopping list related to Yukata and finally we gain a time for us. Although the store itself already closed at 8 or 9 PM, but the restaurants are still open until 11 PM. So we decided to walk around the mall.

So SHOCKING, LOL

See the photo above? That's how Japanese closed their store inside the mall. No extra fences, no railing, they only hang up a net and turn off the lamp inside. OMG, this is indeed really shocking for us. It seems that things are very safe in Japan and no criminal things? Awesome!

Okay, it seems out of place. But there is a torii gate inside the mall hahha. From what I've read in internet, Aqua City Odaiba is a shopping mall which has a SHRINE located on the rooftop (8F). So, we decided to explore it and see it with our own eyes. How could be there is a shrine above the mall? Hahha, besides a shrine, this shopping facilities also has large aquarium, you know... like Sea World in Jakarta. How could be a mall become this interesting? Once again, it might be only in Japan LOL.

Okay, so we are finally here! That's the shrine. 

It's a little shrine but still awesome considering that this is on the rooftop of the big mall.

Besides the shrine, there is also a Rooftop Bar and restaurants. We see many people are drinking beer here.You could also see amazing night city view from here. So don't worry guys, this is not a creepy rooftop with only shrine on it. There is also restaurants, and many people who enjoy the city view from here.

It's about 9.30 PM, so we are back to 2F where we are coming from the train station. Actually when we first arrived at the 2F entrance, we have already seen many illuminations. But we hold down our camera because we need to catch our time to finish our shopping list first. So on our way back home, we managed to walk around the park and observatory area here and enjoy the illuminations!

Here is it and be drooled ;)

SO PRETTY!!

Ah-mazing illuminated rainbow bridge

Perfect nightview!

Do you see how big the park and observatory area? It's beyond amaziiiiingg. I'm so completely in dazed. Uh yeah, there are so many dating couples here. Starting from inside the mall, even until here. All we could see are couples holding hand-in hand. We are the only groups of visitor which consists on 4 women without opposite gender LOL. OMG, as far as I recall my memories there is not any family visitors with children. All in here are man and women, holding hand-in-hand, snuggling each other, and other love gestures etc.

Meh, even so. I'm the only one left out still being single. 

All of my friends and my cousin already had their boyfriend in Jakarta *sob*

Another angle of Rainbow Bridge

Rainbow Bridge and Liberty Statue !

Beautiful Pathway!

Awwww, it's so romantic here. It's not crowded and of course you could feel completely the warmth that brought by the illumination. Of course, I do really recommend Aqua City Odaiba as dating spot hahha. It's so big, yet it's not crowded .... almost no people in the distance of 20 meters of your sight. You will do really feel intimacy and completely feel this is your own world with your couple.

It's completely different when you see the illumination in some shopping malls in Jakarta. Well, I could barely enjoy the illumination itself. All I could see are a crowd of people waiting for turn to take photos with illumination as the background -_-

So to some of you who see my #NatsukashiigoestoUSA post on instagram, just kidding. It's taken from this photo. Before USA and any other place, I will put Japan as first priority. There are so many interesting places which I haven't visited yet in this country :)

Do you spot me?

There is even a bench! Do you guys spot the couple there? 

OMG, truly romantic and free nightview! You just need to pay the transportation fare hahha.

The Yurikamome Train Platform

Cute Advertisement!

Fuji TV Station at night

Still remember what Fuji TV Station looks like on afternoon? 

Here is the nightview which is illuminated in rainbow colors!

That moment when the light changes exactly at "8"

Today is indeed broke the whole record. 24.000 walks today OMG!!!

We reached our apartment at almost 12 AM.  

Hahha, that's the end of Day 4. Hope we still could have strength to attend the Tanabata Festival tomorrow. Stay tuned for the next day! ヽ(｡･ω･｡)ﾉ

Here are some useful links for you:

 
Shimamura Store

To see items and promotion available here (in Japanese)

Asakusa Shichihenge

To reserve yukata and kimono

Tokyo Travel: Odaiba

To see and decide which sightseeing spots you would like to visit in Odaiba