We had breakfast in the morning at the restaurant.
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| Our breakfast menu |
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| Excited for our breakfast at the same table as dinner yesterday |
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| Yummy breakfast tray |
After breakfast, we packed up and took final photos before we checked out of the ryokan.
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| My favourite selfie |
Our ryokan called a taxi for us to get to the train station. The ride cost us ¥730 + ¥110 (calling fee).
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| Phototaking while waiting for the taxi |
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| In our taxi on our way to the station |
We explored the area near Hakone-Yumoto Station as we were still too early for our train.
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| Another view of the Haya River |
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| Selfie with the hubby |
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| On a strikingly red and white bridge above the Haya River |
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| The boy was so excited to see the rescue vehicles! |
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| We found Japanese kamaboko (fish cakes) in the shape of Tomica vehicles! The kids love kamaboko and we regularly buy Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma but we've never seen them in the shape of cars and buses before! The boy was delighted! |
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They even package them in Tomica boxes! So cute!
(we even managed to bring them home for the girl) |
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| Munching on some mochi from this stall (at least, I think it was mochi..) |
It was soon time to board our
Odakyu Limited Express 'Romance Car' train back to
Shinjuku Station.
You'd get a different train model depending on the time that you chose. I intentionally chose the 11.44am train so that we can ride the newer Hakone 14 VSE train.
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| Romance Car VSE |
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| Special seats with a view if you paid extra for them |
We decided to go with the
Standard seats, which cost ¥1,190 (base ticket) + approximately ¥1,000 (additional for Romancecar) per adult.
Children under 6 years old are free provided that they do not require a seat but we bought a ticket for the boy anyway just in case he didn't have a seat. As usual, turns out that we could've saved the money as the train was so empty and there were plenty of seats!
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| At our standard seat |
We browsed through the train's menu and fell in love with the kid's snack box! It was in the shape of a Romance Car VSE train like the one we rode! So cool!
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| Our Romance Car VSE snack box |
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| The snack box cost about ¥1,000, which was pretty worth it considering all the goodies we got. |
We arrived promptly at 1.18pm at Shinjuku Station.
We knew we had to look for somewhere to store our luggage before we went shopping. There were many different options for storing luggage (read more about it
here), but we decided to hunt for an empty locker at Shinjuku Station. There are many lockers located everywhere around the station but the big ones are usually full.
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| At one of the entrances to the station where we found some lockers |
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| One of the locker areas near Shinjuku Station |
As expected, all the large lockers were full so we had to make do with a medium locker for our medium-size luggage. Although we had to drag our big luggage around Shinjuku, at least we do not have to drag
two large luggage around!
We headed to the very famous
Ichiran for our lunch. This restaurant is very popular so expect long queues and average wait time to be about 45 minutes.
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Left: Ichiran at Shinjuku
(Address: 〒110-0005 Tōkyō-to, Taitō-ku, Higashi enough, 7-1-1, Japan);
Right: Order at this machine and pay before being seated. |
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Left: Choose your preferences;
Right: This board with flashing lights tell the staff which seats are in progress of their meal and which seats are empty. |
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Left: A set of instructions for first-timers;
Right: Free flow warm water. |
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| Enjoying our meal, which was served from the hole in the back of the seat |
We liked the ramen though we're not sure if it was worth the long wait. In future we might just buy the package noodles that they sold and bring it back to Singapore rather than dine there.
After lunch, it was non-stop shopping for me! Shopping here was way cheaper than anywhere else in Tokyo in my opinion and I bought so much stuff!
One of the shops I liked was
Yamada Denki as they had tax free shopping on many floors. The building where Uniqlo is housed also has tax free shopping on the upper floors above Uniqlo so do check it out!
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| Back to Shinjuku at the end of the day with tired feet but happy hearts full of shopping! *laughs* |
We collected our luggage from the locker and dragged all our
barang to take the
Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line from Shinjuku Station to Tokyo Station.
On hindsight though, I realised it would have been faster for us to take the Japan Rail (JR)
Chuo Line from JR Shinjuku Station to JR Tokyo Station since the price was the same. Both options would have cost us ¥200 per adult per way!
Anyway, we transferred to the
JR Keiyo Line at Tokyo Station to
Maihama Station. It cost us ¥220 per adult per way.
Do note that it was a super long walk from the JR Tokyo Station entrance to the Keiyo Line! Be prepared to walk for about 15 minutes to the platform!
On arrival at Maihama Station, we transferred to yet
another train, i.e. the
Disney Resort Line.
We decided to get a
2-Day Pass (unlimited rides) at ¥800 because it was cheaper than buying single trip tickets.
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| Boarded the Disney Resort Line at Disney Gateway Station |
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| The theme was Pixar Playtime this season |
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| In the Disney Resort Line filled with Mickey everywhere! |
That was the 4th train we took today, not that the boy minded! He loved every ride!
When we arrived at
Bayside Station, we transferred to the complimentary shuttle bus service provided for guests of all Disney official hotels.
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| Our shuttle bus to our hotel |
Our hotel,
Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel, is
located the nearest to the station. Hence, the journey only took 5 minutes. If the weather is good, it might even be faster to walk.
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Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel;
(Address: 1-9 Maihama Urayasu Chiba 279-0031 Tokyo Disney Resort, Tokyo, Japan 279-0031) |
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| Our breakfast coupon. We were informed that we had a choice of dining at FIVE different restaurants! Wow! |
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Clockwise from left: Aquarium with beautiful fish;
Ticketing counter where you can buy tickets to Disneyland;
The hubby playing games using a game controller. |
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| The usual Disney movie to entertain the kids while we checked in |
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| Disney official shop at the lobby |
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| Last minute Disney shopping for the shopaholics if you need to |
We had booked the
Standard Room with breakfast at S$260.11 per room per night. However, as the hotel saw that we had a child with us, they kindly upgraded us for free to the
Treasures Room meant for parents with young children.
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| Special floor decorated with colourful carpets and Sheraton's mascot |
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| My boy was in such a good mood that he was willing to pose with anything and anywhere! |
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| Special key card for our Treasures Room |
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| Treasures Room with double double beds |
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| Comfy living area and TV |
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Clockwise from left: Cherry decorations of Sheraton's cute mascot;
Even the clock fits the theme!;
Yukata is provided but only for wearing in the room. |
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| Fridge, safe and wardrobe |
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| Bathroom and toiletries |
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| I love the kid-friendly features of this room such as a kids stool, kids toilet seat and kids hangers! |
We really enjoyed our stay at Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel! Can't wait to try the breakfast (which you can read more in the next post)!
