Japan Trip 2018: 9D8N in Aomori, Sendai & Tokyo
Just got back from Japan, another few prefectures checked. I really hope I won’t bore you guys, but this trip was something different, because it was my very first trip with my BFF – Ching!!! We had a lot of fun time, bumped many surprises during our journey, did silly things together, took many many photos for each other, and laughed all the way in shinkansen ride… are you ready with my travelogue?
Travelling to the Tohoku area is a breeze with this ultimate Flexible 5 Day JR East Tohoku Area Pass (Japan Pick Up). I got it from KLOOK at ¥19,000 (about Rm 700). This pass is a flexible 5 days pass where you can pick any of the 5 days (within 14 days period), ride on shinkansen or local train and travel to your destinations.
It covers a few major areas of the northern east such as Aomori, Sendai, Akita and etc. You are allowed take unlimited rides on local, limited express and express trains including Shinkansen train such as shinkansen on Hokuriku Shinkansen, Tohoku Shinkansen, Akita Shinkansen, Yamagata Shinkanse, Joetsu Shinkansen.
Yes!!! Shinkanken! It is unlimited rides of them!!! Per ride itself, one way is costing a bomb but with this pass, you will be able to hop on and off the shinkansen! Imagine travelling to the up at just 3.5 hours, to the apple kingdom, somewhere near Hokkaido (but not Hakkaido. LOL); and it is UNLIMITED rides!
Aside from that, this pass also brings you to Nikko on JR East lines and Tobu Railway lines! Planning to travel to Nikko? Read about Things to do in Nikko.
Aomori, Sendai & Tokyo
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In | KL / Tokyo | Tokyo / Aomori | Aomori/ Hirosaki | Aomori/ Sendai | Sendai/ Tokyo |
| Breakfast/ Brunch | Hotel Breakfast | Hirosaki Koen Mae Starbucks Coffee | Hotel Breakfast | Hotel Breakfast | |
| See Shop | Fly with MAS | Shinkansen ride: Ueno > Shin-Aomori | Fujita Memorial Garden 藤田記念庭園 Hirosaki Castle/ Hirosaki Castle Park | Auga Fish Market Shinkansen ride: Shin-Aomori > Sendai | Nikka Miyagikyo Distillery |
| Lunch | Nokkedon @ Furukawa Fish market | Chez-Moi French Dining | Konbini | Ekiben | |
| Tea See Shop | ASPAM Aoi Umi Park Uto Shrine Warasse A Factory | Hirosaki Apple Park Former Hirosaki City Library Salon de café Ange Omiyage shopping @ APPLIESE | Date Masamune’s Mausoleum Aoba Castle Osaki Hachimangu Shrine Jozenji dori Avenue | Shinkansen ride: Sendai > Tokyo | |
| Dinner | Sanfuri Yokocho Aomori Yataimura | Daikoku Sushi 大黑寿司 | Tanya Zenjirou Umai Sushikan | Shirubee 汁べゑ 渋谷店 | |
| See Shop Supper | Ichiran Ramen | Dormy Inn Sendai Annex’s Night Soba | Ichiran Ramen | ||
| Stay | Super Hotel JR Ueno-Iriyaguchi | Hotel JAL City Aomori | Hotel JAL City Aomori | Dormy Inn Sendai Annex | Hotel Sun Member Tokyo Shinjuku |
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| Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In | Tokyo | Tokyo / Omiya | Tokyo | Tokyo | Landed KL |
| Breakfast/ Brunch | Hotel Breakfast | Hotel Breakfast | Hotel Breakfast | Hotel Breakfast | |
| See Shop | Omnibus @ Naka Meguro Temari Sushi Class with Japan Cross Bridge by localbites.jp | Shinkansen ride: Tokyo > Omiya Hikawa Sando Dori Musashiro Ichinomiya Hikawa Shrine Omiya Park | MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM: teamLab Borderless Tokyo | Tsukiji Market Mosaic Street @ Shinjuku Shinjuku MyLord | |
| Lunch | My own Temari sushi | 手打そば大宮大村庵 | Konbini | Hawaiian Pancake Factory @ MyLord | |
| Tea See Shop | UN GRAIN アングラン | 鉄道博物館 Omiya Railway Musuem Shinkansen Ride: Omiya > Ueno Aoyama Flower Market Tea House | Snoopy Museum Tokyo | Bus to Narita Airport by Airport Limousine Bus | |
| Dinner | Zauo @ Meguro | Kouya 香家 新宿本店 | Airport | ||
| See Shop Supper | Shibuya 109 Izakaya @ Shibuya Don Quijote | Don Quijote | Shopping @ Duty Free Store | ||
| Stay | Hotel Sun Member Tokyo Shinjuku | Hotel Sun Member Tokyo Shinjuku | Hotel Sun Member Tokyo Shinjuku | Fly with MAS > KL |
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My Best travel buddy ever to go on trip with me!
It is very handy to have one when you are travelling, for GPS location, google translation, for area, restaurants and shops information. Also, it helped me a lot when my friend was away to attend wedding and I had to travel alone; It is super convenient to have one in your hand. Priced very affordable too. Remember to book at Visondata / Samurai Wifi and collect yours before travelling.
What I love most on Visondata’s device:
– Small and handy, I can just put in my pocket.
– UNLIMITED data at just Rm 20/day!!!
– Super long lasting battery; I hardly rely on the powerbank.
– Sharing up to 5 pax.
– The line was super smooth and fast! Love it max that we kept spamming the Instagram stories during my free time in Shinkansen.
– Wide coverage! I didn’t find any disruption at all throughout my trip except when the shinkansen flew in the tunnels.
– Collect and return at convenient spots such as KLIA, KLIA2 and Mid Valley.
Alright, before going into details, let me share up some highlights of this trip.
Highlight of the trip
1. Unlimited ride on Shinkansen!
These 2 beauties are Hayabusa, running on Tohoku Shinkansen line that connects Tokyo with Aomori.
2. Catch a glimpse of the beautiful Aomori Bay Bridge
ASPAM
3. Eat nokkedon in Furukawa Market
4. Immerse yourself into Nebuta festival
Nebuta festival is happening on early of August every year in Aomori, if you missed that chance, you can come to WA.RASSE to do so!
5. Happy hour in Yatai and eat all the local delights.
6. Eat apple lunch course in apple kingdom
7. Make a visit to the Former Hirosaki City Library
8. Pluck apples in the Apple Kingdom
And pay for what you have plucked. Cost only ¥ 300/kg and we spent less than ¥ 600 for 6 huge apples!
9. Visit the famous Hirosaki-jo
There is major renovation taking part at the castle’s stone wall. The castle keep was moved. In order to catch a glimpse of the castle, one may have to pay for entrance fee. You will be amazed with how the renovation takes place. Full details and information on the renovation are exhibited inside the castle keep.
10. Visit to the historical site in Sendai
11. Must eat the famous Gyutan in Sendai!
Look at that fat succulent crunchy doink doink tongue. It was so amazingly good!
Tanyazenjirou (たんや善治郎 仙台駅前本店)
1-8-38 Chuo Aoba-ku Sendai Miyagi
宮城県 仙台市青葉区 中央 1-8-38 AKビル 3F
12. Cheers in the local whisky distillery
Nikka Whisky Miyagikyo Distillery
Miyagiken Sendaishi Aoba Nikka 1 Japan
13. The must eat on Shinkansen – EKIBEN
14. Cheers in the Speakeasy Izakaya – Shirubee
Thanks to our Japanese friend, she found us a super nice Japanese Izakaya which is really hidden behind the building. It took us some time to locate this place and yepppp, amazing food!
Shirubee 汁べゑ 渋谷店
1-11-5 Jinnan Shibuya Tokyo
東京都 渋谷区 神南 1-11-5 ダイネス壱番館 渋谷別館 ２Ｆ
Opening hours: 17:30～23:30(L.O.22:00), daily
15. The BFF must have in Tokyo- Ichiran Ramen!
She was here for 3 rounds.
16. Enjoy an aromatic cup of coffee at Omnibus
17. Learn to be a sushi master with Japan Cross Bridge
Thank you LocalBites for the wonderful arrangement! Details blog post coming up in real soon!
You may now use this code: V43U-6Q7A to enjoy 5% off on any of the classes from this site
18. A date with dessert in UN GRAIN
UN GRAIN アン グラン
東京都港区南青山6-8-17
19. We eat what we fished in ZAUO Fishing Restaurant
And I fished this! Made into Sashimi! Yumz!
Fishing Restaurant ZAUO
Sun Felista Meguro 5F, 2-27-1, Kamiosaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0021
Opening hours:
Weekdays 17:00-23:00(L.O.22:00)
Weekends and holidays 11:30-23:00(L.O.22:00)
Getting here:
About 2 minutes’ walk from JR Meguro Station
20. Off to the major transportation hub and commercial center in Saitama Prefecture
21. Check out the impressive Hikawa Shrine in Omiya
22. Dive into the world of locomotives
It was a fruitful and educational trip.
23. Tea in the instagrammable Aoyama Flower Market Tea House
Aoyama Flower Market Tea House
5-3-1 Akasaka Minato Tokyo
東京都 港区 赤坂 5-3-1 赤坂Bizタワー 1F
Opening hours: 11am to 11pm daily
24. High-5 with Namie-chan in Shibuya 109
25. Danced in the DIGITAL ART MUSEUM: teamLab Borderless Tokyo
You can easily spend a whole day here because there are too many to do, to see and to photo with!!!
26. Heart to heart topic with Charles M. Schulz in The Snoopy Museum Tokyo
This snoopy museum will be here until 24 September 2018 only! It will be closed for a short while and return next year in Machida, with 2x the size bigger than current place.
If you are a fan of Snoopy and you are happened to be in Tokyo these days, do drop by! You will get to enjoy seeing, shopping and eating with the unique characters!
27. Drink all the Sake in Kouya 香家 新宿本店
Again, thanks to our Japanese friend, she brought us to this Japanese restaurant that offers super good deal of Washoku Course Dinner with All-you-can-drink sake at ¥ 5000. You might think ¥5000 is expensive but I assure you not because you will be given 3 hours to have free flow of sake from all prefectures in Japan including Dassai!
The most adventurous thing we did, we were here on the Typhoon night, taking the risk of train and subway cancellation. LOL
28. Shop till you drop in MyLord Shinjuku
MyLord is our favourite place to shop, filled with fashionable retailers and all the outfits there are super pretty!!! I wish I had more money more cash to shop…
Ladies, let me introduce you our favourite shoes brand from Japan, Lazy Swan! We went a bit crazy with their shoes and both of us bought many pairs of them! Made in Japan, super comfortable where u can stand on them all day long.
I wish i be like u
don’t say like that. you can de 🙂
Admire the brief writeup! Very useful to visitors exploring Japan
Thank you Jasmine, hope you enjoy reading ?