hello tokyo bye bye osaka

Day 4:  Odaiba - Fuji TV Sphere Observation Deck -
Ometasando -  Shinjuku - Akasaka

Waking up this morning, I am pleasantly surprise to discover our room has views of Mt Fuji. Tokyo had been so overcast for the past few days that it was nice to finally have some blue skies.

We decided to do a trip back to Odaiba, having rushed pass it on our first time there. It was around 9am when we arrived- an hour too early to visit Fuji TV's observation deck.

It's hard to believe that in such a touristy spot, there were no obvious places open for breakfast at this time. Luckily, we spot Nikko Hotel nearby - a place we figured would have such restaurants opened.

Upon entering this swanky hotel, we discovered this charming, little restaurant called Sakura. The views from this restaurant overlooked Rainbow Bridge and made for a nice retreat from the freezing weather outside. This was our first time experiencing a traditional japanese breakfast and it was more than my typical fare. (How often do you get served a salmon steak for breakfast?) There were so many dishes to look at with some being familiar and others quite unfamiliar like this cold soup dish that I had which had a poached egg in it and the most KAWAII mushrooms I've ever seen.

After breakfast, we finally made our way to Fuji TV's Observation Deck. The views up here of Tokyo Bay were amazing as well as the architecture, some of which we would later see up close on the monorail back. From the observation deck I could also see where the Sujio-bus (water-bus) docked and this was one of the things I was hoping to do while in Tokyo. Not knowing when it would depart, we made a dash for it. Unfortunately, our efforts were wasted when we discovered departure times were not until another hour. Sadly, we gave it a miss this time, but I'm still grateful for the up close encounter.

After our failed attempt to locate my Y-3 and Issey Miyake stores the previous day, my friend gave me another go at it. This time we got off at the right station which was a good start.

Ometasando is an area where the mainstream designer labels mix with the more niche and cult brands. As we navigated to my stores, it was kind of strange to see brands like Cartier and Prada prop up in the backstreets of these neighbourhoods. 

When we do finally locate my stores, it's in a place my friend refers to as "Middle Earth." Somehow, I was beginning to notice a pattern here. That is, anytime I went looking for something I really wanted in Japan it was either really hard to find, sold out or a combination of the two.

That afternoon we headed back to Shinjuku. We didn't realise it before but Shinjuku had so many department stores- you could literally OD on them! The ones we saw were Odakyu, Lumine, O1O1 and Takashimaya which was where we were heading to find my Y-3 store. When I do finally spot my Y-3 store to make my purchase, it's located in the men section (I wonder what that says about me?)

That night we decided to check out our neighbourhood. It had been a few days since we last had bread so when my friend orders some garlic bread it tastes so good!! And so do the fried chips that came with her steak. I ordered my first bento box meal for the trip, but only manage to eat less than half of it. Surprisingly though, I did get served melons for dessert which didn't cost me that much either. This makes me wonder, "Where are all these pricey melons in Japan people keep talking about?"