Sunday, November 8, 2015

Japan Trip Day 6: Matsuroku House - Takeshita Dori - Meiji Jingu Shrine


Out of all days, my sixth day in Japan is the most leisure one. It's simply because today's main itinerary are CULINARY in Matsuroku House, Roppongi and SHOPPING in Takeshita Dori, Harajuku. We also planned to visit Meiji Jingu Shrine since it's also located very near from Takeshita Dori. Well, no kidding ... the tired and exhausted feeling has accumulated since the previous 5 days but we will replenish it by eating Kurogewagyu Beef grade A5 in Matsuroku House ヾ(〃^∇^)ノ♪




We took subway from Tawaramachi Station, the most nearby station from our apartment to Roppongi Station by Hibiya Line. After that we took exit no. 4A. This is the scenery that we saw as soon as we stepped the road :)


Stylish Lamp!



Very modern and busy street





I first knew about this place through anakjajan's reccomendation. In this post, anakjajan has changed a lot of my perspective regarding Tokyo's food price. Yeah, for sure most of the food here is expensive. But you still could enjoy fancy meal with affordable price in some places at the suitable promotion time. Matsuroku House is one of those places. During lunch time which started at 11.30 AM, this place will sell a special lunch set of Kurogewagyu Beef grade A5 with the price of 1500 ¥. Usually it will be sold at 5000¥ price at dinner time and this special lunch set is only available for 40 sets only.


Okay, 2 challenges here: limited time and limited quota.
We are very thrilled and decided to go there earlier from the decided time which is 8.45 AM from our basecamp (read: apartment)
ヽ( ̄д ̄)ノ


After turning our GPS for a while .... we found Matsuroku House immediately. Turns out that we arrived much .... so much...much EARLIER. It's still 9.30 AM while the lunchtime is at 11.30 AM. Nah, we don't mind though. For this case, it's so much better to arrive earlier since we will have the time to take a lot of photos and strolled around.


Small chair for the person in waiting


Here I will tell you another perks of coming earlier, being the first group to queue. 
See that small chair? You could sit on there!






As you could see, finding this place is not hard at all. 
There are so many distinctive signboards written with "Matsuroku House" :)




Since there is still quite a lot of time, we took turns to guard ... I mean, to keep the sitting place LOL. Before our arrival here, actually I found something interesting in the vending machine around this street. So Hellen and Shenna decided to wait here, while Angel and me will stroll around while going back to this vending machine.


The very neat and clean street :)


Matsuroku House's Business Card!


Well, since our arrival here in Roppongi there are already about 5 vending machines that I passed through ... although it's just 1 minute walk distance from the station exit to Matsuroku House. But thanks to my keen eye, I remembered while  we walking to find Matsuroku ....... that there is only this one vending machine that sells Van Houten Cocoa. So I lead Angel to this spot, since we are both enchanted with other blogger's influence that love this drink.



Found it!

There is another funny story about this vending machine. Finally I felt another kindness of Japanese. You know.... I took quite a lot of time to pay attention to all of the details from available drinks.This vending machine is located in front of apartment building. Suddenly, there is an old lady approaching me and you know .... like giving the gesture and asking perhaps if I am a lost tourist and need a shelter from the rain? She gave the sign to stand in the terrace where there is a mini roof above. But I kindly try to explain that .... I'm just a crazy tourist that thought a lot about what drinks should I bought lol..... with 80% sign language and 20% japanese. Hahha, okay it seems that she finally understand that I'm completely fine and just buying a vending machine drink. She still kindly bid me farewell, hahha.


Van Houten Cocoa at 130¥

Looking through Japan Vending Machine is very interesting. 
I felt like I wanted to explore every vending machines and try all of the available drinks ^^



So photogenic for a drink, huh?

Back to our waiting place and it's still 10.30 AM. There is this super pretty flower decoration. We couldn't help taking pictures of it, together with the drink that I've just bought! After done and satisfied, Angel and I opened our cans and drank it. Hellen and Shenna took a sip, and all of us agreed that this drink is very DELICIOUS. At first I was skeptical, to think that perhaps the taste is gonna be the same as UHT Chocolate Ultra Milk LOL. But turns out, that this drink is really COCOA, quite thick just like what you drink as in Starbucks' Chocolate Drink.

I know it's hard to described by words, but in conclusion: IT'S DELICIOUS!
♡〜٩(^▿^)۶〜♡


Cheers for victory as the first one in line, LOL

It's now 10.45 AM and as you could see the long queue has started. This is the perks of arriving earlier and get the chair for yourself hahha. Finally at 11 AM, the owner of the restaurants come out and give us the menu to look through, but still ... we can't go inside yet. Japanese is very punctual in time, when the clock finally strikes 11.30 AM, the owner lead us inside :)

I know this is out of topic, but..... there are only 2 people who serves inside. The owner himself (or perhaps the chief ?) and this one very handsome and tall waiter. The one who served us inside is this handsome one LOL. #crazyNana 

But sadly, we didn't get the chance to take photos of him. After all, turns out that all of us still has a shame vein hahha. Besides, he is very busy serving the people. Well, let's just store this memories inside my heart (´,,•ω•,,)♡


Very tiny hallway, but still cozy

Yeah, everything in Tokyo is small, tiny, and efficient. There is no extra useless space. Although it's small, the most important fact is: CLEAN and TIDY.


We got the semi-private tatami room! Yeayyy, we could took our time and crazily standing to take the best angle of our food hahha. Well, all of us indeed really took a lot of time to take pictures of the food. Anyway it's not a full-tatami room. There is an empty space below the table so you could sit and left your feet hanging like sitting in usual chair.


This is how our table and seating looked from above :)


so SHINY and TEMPTING *drool*



No kidding, the meat is thick, glossy, and BEAUTIFUL ~

From left to right: Trefoil, Sesame Dumpling, and Hail

Well, perhaps you will be dumbfounded and confused about how to enjoy this meal with the right way. The waiter kindly give us an instruction paper in English about how to enjoy this meal in step by step with illustration picture that drawn and written by hand. I will write here for you ^^ :

  1. Main Dish: The beef has sauce on it. Please have the rice with it and remember to keep some beef for step 4 with Ochazuke.
  2. Use different spices to make different flavors. There are five spices: trefoil, sesame dumpling, hail, japanese pepper, wasabi. Please choose what you want with rice.
  3. There is salad and side dish. Please enjoy it.
  4. Ochazuke: Later, we will serve free additional rice and soup. Please add all the spices in step 2 and insert in the bowl.
  5. Dessert: We will serve Chocolate Youkan (Red Bean's Cake)

Upper Left: Spice | Upper Right: Anchovy Salad | Lower Left: Main Dish | Lower Right: Wasabi

Aside from the description above, the 3 bowls in the centre are side dish.
They are egg tofu, seaweed, and i guess some kind of ... choisim.



Ochazuke (Tea Soup)


Pouring the Ochazuke inside my bowl :9


Chocolate Youkan and Tea!
For sure, this is the best meal I've ever had in all my life. Paying 1500¥ for all of those delicious meals, free additional rice and tea refill is DEFINITELY WORTH IT. Not only worth it, but it's SUPER DEAL. We are so happy now that our tummy is full and our money inside the purse just decreased a little hahhha. 

I totally recommended this place to all of you who planned to visit Tokyo ( ˘ ³˘)♥


Roppongi Bucketlist is done for now. Off to next destination: Harajuku!
Whew, the train station itself is already radiating fashionable aura~



Lots of advertisement boards :)
I don't know if it's only me who is being psychotic here. But I really love EVERYTHING in Japan. All of them are indeed instagrammable. From all of the advertisements, I really love these serial of banner story about bishoujo and bishounen..... and mobile phone (?) ..... Japan really did take pride in their manga culture and I really love how they integrated it in their daily life ^^




*doki doki*





So sweet~



From Harajuku Station, there are 2 exits. Takeshita Dori Exit and Meiji Jingu Exit. We decided to go to Takeshita Dori first and right after you stepped through the exit you will see Takeshita Dori in front of your eyes :)








Kawaii Store!
Credits: Google Images

There are a lot of interesting shops here and most of them are designed to be cute, girly, and really make pedestrian to visit every one of them. I visited Paris Kid's and bought 2 neck ribbons~ These kind of ribbon is worn by local girls as their uniform. You could see that there is a lot of high school girls here, shopping for accesories and all of them wearing the same neck ribbon or tie from this shop. I have known from some manga story, that there are some schools which only provide the designated shirt and skirt/pants pattern. The rest is up to you. Whether you want to wear a ribbon, tie, or nothing at all on your neck. It's so cute seeing girls wearing the same uniform outfit, but different pattern of ribbon. Some girls also wearing tie!



My choice of ribbons: navy plaid and stripes

Another good news for you! This shop is also provide additional discount for tourist. Just show your passport when you pay at the cashier. I'm so happy to buy cute things and get a discount on top of that (ʃƪ ˘ ³˘)


Although it rains, our shopping spirit never stops!

Just beside the Paris Kids, there is the biggest branch of Daiso in Tokyo! The term "biggest" here also means that this Daiso in Harajuku has the most complete of selection items :)



We went inside and literally we do shopping activities crazily! Everything is cute and for 100¥ only! This place is truly HEAVEN. Some small snacks like candies also sold in promotion tags like 100¥ for 4 pcs, 100¥ for 3 pcs, etc. OMG, my adrenaline shopping nerve is very activated here!


Hello Kitty


Disney

GUDETAMA !

I spent quite a lot of time in stationary section. Well, I'm a stationary maniac and I'm so happy that there are a lot of cute notebook cover with top-quality paper inside for only 100¥. But sadly, I can't use all of these since I'm so lazy writing in notebook. Because my major ..... basically just involving digital presentation slides :/


After done shopping, we head outside and went to Purikura Store. Yep, it's a common law for all of the tourist who visit Harajuku: taking a purikura!


So many machines available o_o



So this is our second time trying purikura... and I'm still shocked for the results.
To be honest, I'm kinda afraid though with my face  ヽ ( ꒪д꒪ )ノ




Long legs feature LOL

After that, we head back to the station to take Meiji Jingu Exit. Because it's gonna be dark soon so we have to visit the shrine now while it's still quite bright. It's about 4 PM at that time.



Here I was dumbfounded.

It seems surreal and I felt like entering a whole different world. From the busy Takeshita Street filled with fashionable youngsters and then I walked into a whole new dimension. Calming and silent forest tree which surrounds Meiji Jingu Shrine. This is one of so many things that I love about Japan. So modern yet nature lovers. Everything comes in balance here :)




Posing with the Entrance Gate ~



It's very calming and relaxing, walking through the forest here. I'm so in LOVE!



My outfit here kinda represents Harajuku's Takeshita Dori vibe. It's just giving a clear sign that I've just from the modern place Takeshita Dori into the old traditional forest in Meiji Jingu!



Outfit Details

Top: Family Heritage since my Grandma's era :)
Skirt: Bazaar in Taman Anggrek
Headband: Angel's (we swapped our headband that day :p)
Bracelet: Bottega Veneta 
Bag: Charles and Keith
Bagcharm: @pemo_id
Platform sandals: @katalogbuymeos



After done taking outfit photos, we continued our way to the Main Shrine. We stumbled upon these amazing row of sake barrels. Those sake are offered by members of the Meiji Jingu Nationwide Sake Brewers Association to the enshrined deities inside Meiji Jingu, wishing to show their deep respect for the soul of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken ( ^∇^)ノ





Super love the artistic details!


Yep, finally we are here! It's the grand shrine gate (ōtorii) of Meiji Jingu Shrine. Made from 1500 years old Hikoshi (Japan Cypress) Wood from Mount Tandai-San in Taiwan. It's really huge and it somehow gave me a majestic feeling!


Upon entering the main shrine gate, you will found this mini well like any other shrines in Japan. Before paying your respect to the shrine, you have to wash your hands and face with these water :)

Yuki also wants to wash himself. Hahha ~


Lots of wishing boards ~
Meiji Jingu Shrine itself is also famous for Traditional Shinto Wedding Ceremony. If you come here on Sunday, you might be lucky enough to take a glimpse of the ceremony ヾ(〃^∇^)ノ♪


The shrine's altar


Souvenir and Lucky Charm Shop

Today might be another brand new history in our life. We are literally the LAST tourist that left this place. It's already 6 PM and the entrance gate almost has been locked. Luckily, there is always a guard sitting in the post beside the gate. Since there is still time .... and we haven't completed our bucketlist in Takeshita Dori, so we are back again to there.




Angel and Shenna are still searching for choker. While me and Hellen are just strolling around, searching if there is other interesting things to buy.At first, I thought that Harajuku only sells fashion-related items. But it turns out that there is also shop which sells japanese cartoon mascots such as gudetama and sumikko gurashi!


Gudetama Train Pass Holder


Sumikko Gurashi Keychain


Dolls, Purse, and Pillows

Cute Bags!

Hahha, seeing those sumikko gurashi things reminds me of Priska
I took this pic and sent her straight away on that day as live report!



It's 8 PM now and all of the shops has closed .... except those Crepe Store. It's time to tick off our last bucketlist in Harajuku: eating crepes! Basically there are 2 kind of crepes in Japan. The crispy one like in Indonesia and the soft one. In Harajuku, the crispy one is sold under the brand of Marion Crepe while the soft one is sold by Angel Heart. Since Marion is closed already, we decided to try the soft one from Angel Heart!


Shenna is thinking hard of what to choose o_o

Well, there are up to 100 variations of topping and filling available. You might be confused because all of them looked so tasty! But finally I choose Strawberry Chocolate Cheesecake (^▽^)


Strawberry Chocolate Cheesecake Crepe :)

After sitting for a while, we finally left Harajuku and head back to Asakusa at 8.30 PM. Upon our arrival, we decided to have sushi as our dinner. It's different from the sushi place we tried on Day 3, this sushi restaurant's name is Sushi Zanmai~ Well, there are a lot of choices of restaurant in Asakusa. For the sushi itself, I have seen 3 sushi restaurants near my apartment here. I have only tried 2 of them: Sushi Zanmai and the other one .... I don't know what it's name and I also forget to take a picture of the banner. But I still remember the location perfectly!


Menu and Price List. Feel free to click and zoom!

It's the sixth day. Two days before my departure back to Indonesia and since I'm quite being budget-picky at the earlier days, hence my money supply is a lot of surplus in my last 3 days here. Well, it's better to be budget-reserve at the beginning so you could spend all of it on your last day for shopping right? Hahha ....

Grilled Eel, 2 pcs of Salmon, Broiled Fatty Tuna, and Salmon Roe

So I elevated my stingy treshold and ordered quite a lot!




Hmm, in conclusion ... Sushi Zanmai is not bad to my personal taste. My most favourite is the Broiled Fatty Tuna! It's very DELICIOUS and literally felt like heaven in your mouth. But for the salmon, I prefer the one from that mysterious random sushi bar that I visited on Day 3 hahha. For the service and ambiance itself, I love both of them. They are welcoming guest with full of spirit and served us very well :)


Ah, finally Day 6 is over.
Tomorrow is my last day in Japan, but it's also my most favourite among all days. Stay tuned for my next adventure post to find out why! I'm very high-spirited in preparing the Day 7's post. Hope I could post it on next weekend after my last hospital's night shift and final exam of Forensic and Medicolegal Block.

゚・✿ヾ╲(。◕‿◕。)╱✿・゚
















4 comments:

  1. Sumikko Gurashi!!! ������ and I want those ribbon!

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    1. Hahha, let's travel here again together!! 😄

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  2. ohh sounds like such a wonderful trip! and gosh this is only a one day coverage, man i'm jealous! Japan is always a wonderful place to travel to, it has this vibe like no other country has. hope you have a memorable trip!

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    Replies
    1. Thankyou for the sweet comment! Yes indeed, it was a really memorable trip ^^

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