The Happiest Place I'd Be // Harajuku Stroll

Yoo, Dreamers! Feeling so bad for not posting anything about my Japan trip anymore. One year has passed and I still have so many posts queuing. I thought I'd be so excited to write all the #BigDreamerInJapan posts but nah, real life problems + poor time management. I'm trying to make it up now, before I go on another trip in the near future. So! In case you don't know, I have this special thing with Harajuku. I still see it as my happiest-place-I'd-be but I also realized the reality is not always as great as your imagination/ expectation/ anything you hear about. Will tell you why below, so keep on reading ;)

In front of Harajuku Station :)

How to Get There:Harajuku is located between Shibuya and Shinjuku station on the JR Yamanote Line.

Let's start the Harajuku Stroll (a.k.a photo diary)!

I actually went to Harajuku (Takeshita Street) twice, once in the night by myself and once in the afternoon with my friend. It's not enough actually, I haven't explored all of the stores :( I didn't take enough photos for content, I didn't visit any cafe there, but it gave me enough reason to go back, hahaha.

Some tips I can share with you before visiting Harajuku/ Takeshita Street:

- The stores are closed around 8 PM. I didn't know about this, arrived there at night (not even planned), strolled around and the stores began to close one by one. I was like, seriously? Hey, it's Harajuku! Doesn't it supposed to open until late night? lol. 

- Avoid the weekends! OMG! It's. So. Freaking. Crowded. The street was full of people (both local and tourists) and we couldn't even walk one full step, hahaha.

- Visit Cat Street. It's less crowded than Takeshita Street tho. I knew if from the manga "Cat Street" and decided to visit it with my friend's guide. 

- Make sure to find this Harajuku Moshi Moshi Box- just for a mandatory proof photo that you've been to Harajuku. Well, it's just my own opinion, lol. This Moshi Moshi Box is actually information center about Harajuku, with clocks that show time around the world, decorated in legit Harajuku kawaii way- with stuffed animal, ribbon, toys, you name it. 

- People said that one of the things you must do in Harajuku is trying the crepes. Oh well I was so rebel I didn't try it, lol. No, no, actually I wanted to but the timing just....off. When I went for the first time at night, I was thinking that I'd just eat it on the next visit. But turned out, it's too crowded on my next visit that I didn't even think about it anymore. I just wanted to get out of there as quick as I could :(

- Don't miss out Kiddy Land! It's paradise for cute characters lovers- kids or grownups. It has 5 floors and all kinds of cartoon/ characters you can imagine from Disney, Sanrio, Japanese manga/anime, Ghibli, you name it. I was sooo excited when I saw Gudetama but poor me, I didn't buy any of it. So, let me show you some snippets from the store here ;)

- Last but not least, thrift-hunting. I visited Panama Boy and I love the vintage vibe! I didn't buy anything tho, it's quite expensive even for used-clothes but the quality is also still so great. 

Food Monster Escape: Amausaan Uji Matcha- Central Park Mall, Jakarta

Hola, Dreamers! It's been a while since my last Food Monster Escape post, right? I'm currently in love with a matcha specialty cafe/ dessert house called Amausan Uji Matcha, located inside Central Park Mall Jakarta, LG floor near BCA ATM. This is the dessert house you must visit when you're longing for Japan, especially Kyoto. All the decorations are screaming Japan- with traditional wood interior, shrine-like exterior, including wish boards and fortune telling corner. The torii in front of it is an instagrammable spot tho!

Before we get inside or take a seat, we should order first. So the sequence will be: order, wait until the waitress call you and show you your seat, enjoy your matcha desserts. Every corner of Amausan Uji Matcha is worth a pic, imo. We can also use those Japanese decorations as photo property, but make sure to return it afterwards.

Actually, I've visited it two times! First time with my friend Ticia and second one with my mom. So, I'm gonna write a short review about all menu that I've tried (it's quite a lot, hehe) and tell you which one that I love the most :)) 

Uji Matcha Ice Bamboo Tube (IDR 52k)

Uji Matcha Ice Bamboo Tube is one of Amausan Uji Matcha signature menu, served in bamboo tube- obviously. It contains shaved ice, shiratama balls (rice cake), red bean, matcha gelato, whipped cream with caramel and roasted rice puff. Even I'm not a fan of whipped cream, I can say that I love it after some bites and I totally love the rice puff. Hands down to the matcha gelato, it's sooo gewd! It still has the bitterness that make it tasted authentic. 

Matsukawa- Raw Matcha Bowl (IDR 62k)

My friend ordered this and I had a bite- it's so matcha! If you're a true matcha lover, you must love this one. With the combination of matcha gelato, red bean, shiratama, and raw matcha jelly, it simply brings you to Kyoto (what?!). The hint of bitterness from matcha gelato and jelly + sweetness from red bean + chewy shiratama = best combo!

Ishida- White Jade Matcha Story (IDR 62k)

I tried this on my second visit, I thought that I must try another dessert so I could write more on this review, hehe. I ordered Ishida- White Jade Matcha Story (what a beautiful name) contains matcha soft-serve, red bean, shiratama (glutinous rice balls), roasted rice puff, and we'll also find a hint of crunchy Japanese crispywafer and vanilla silk pudding inside. All the ingredients create a perfect harmony- tasted super good. But if I have to choose, I actually prefer their matcha gelato. This soft-serve is good, but you can taste more milky matcha rather than "bitter-sweet" matcha. It's personal preference tho :)

Sakura Blossom Roll Cake (IDR 39k)

This roll cake is from their Cherry Blossoms series. I ordered it because I love sakura (lol) and it's available for a limited time only so I just gotta try it. It's roll cake with sakura cream filling and edible sakura flower on the top. I have to say that....I LOVE THIS CAKE! It's so fluffy, soft without tasted too dry, and the filling was just perfect. Not too creamy and not too sweet. The sakura tasted a little bit sour- in a good way. I'm not sure it's still available now tho :(

Overall, it's such a pleasant visit(s) and I know I'm gonna go there again and again. FYI, they imported the matcha from Uji, Kyoto, that's why the authenticity is guaranteed. Based on my palates, I love matcha gelato more than matcha soft-serve, simply because I still can taste the bitterness from their gelato- it just tasted authentic, hahaha. Oh, the price might be pretty expensive for some people but I think it's an equal price for such a high quality matcha desserts. It's a must-visit dessert cafe for matcha lovers in Jakarta ;)

One Day, 6 Places in Kyoto. Is It Possible?

Hi hi hi, Dreamers!!! It's been a while since the last #BigDreamerInJapan post, right? So, here we go ;) First thing first, have your ever considered about visiting more than 4 locations in a day when you're traveling? Actually for me, 3 locations a day is the maximum. How can you enjoy one location if you're in rush? But yeaaaah, I somehow- unplanned- visited 6 locations in a day when I was in Kyoto. How come...?!

1. Kiyomizudera

One key to make this possible is to depart as early as possible! I left my guest house (Santiago) around 8 AM which was actually really close to Kiyomizudera. I could reach there by walking around 12 minutes (based on Google Maps). Another reason you better visit Kiyomizudera earlier is that it's one of the most tourist destination, so around 9 AM there will be a loooot of buses full of foreign tourists and you can see nothing but people, ugh. Kiyomizudera was on renovation when I went there, I actually knew it before but decided to just gave it a visit because it's one of my must-visit site in Kyoto. Well, I guess I have reason to go back there, huh? ;)

2. Arabica Coffee Higashiyama

After a short visit to Kiyomizudera Temple, I walked around to find this famous coffee shop, %Arabica Kyoto Higashiyama. Yup, it's located near Kiyomizudera, closer to Yasaka Pagoda and the colorful temple actually! Now you know why it's possible to visit more than 6 places in a day right? Hahaha. You can see that a lot of foreigners were having their morning coffee and breakfast here. Well, I think most tourists visit here before continuing their trip tho :) I'm not an expert coffee drinker but I thought the coffee was okay. Guess what, I had it as my breakfast and didn't get any gastric problem all day :")

3. Colorful Kukurizaru at Yasaka Koshindo

Apparently when you go straight from Arabica and walk to the Yasaka pagoda, you will find this temple with colorful little pouch called Kukurizaru. I have written about them in 10 Things to Do in Kyoto post ;) I just took some photos there and left because I had so little time. You can spare some time to buy the colorful pouch and write your wish, if you want.

4. Nishiki Market

I just love to explore local market!! I visited Nishiki Market by riding the bus. Turned out, it's much more than just a market. You can eat a lot of fresh seafood, see some 'strange' sea creatures you never see before, you can buy omiyage too here, anddd there are a lot of fashion/shoes stores! Brace yourself and bring much money, okay! Hahaha. I wish I had more time to spend :")


5. Kyoto International Manga Museum

If you're not a fan of manga, I think you can skip this place. It's basically a heaven for manga lover. There are mangaka exhibition, hall of manga history, merchandise store, and park outside to read manga. That's actually such a fun place, unfortunately I can't read Japanese :( They provide some english manga tho. Sorry, no photos because my phone's memory is broken and I lost all the photos T__T

6. Gion

It's already evening when I left Kyoto International Manga Museum and I decided to go to Gion to have dinner- without any idea what to eat. I was so excited and amazed by Kyoto at that moment and couldn't stop feeling so grateful along the bus ride. Gion was so packed with locals and tourists, there are lots of cute restaurants and dessert houses. I browsed the internet to find what food to eat there and found Musoshin Ramen thanks to tripadvisor. The ramen was delicious from what I can remember, but nothing special especially when you love your ramen spicy. Most of japanese ramen restaurants don't provide chili powder T.T And after the ramen I treated myself an oishii matcha parfait at Nana's green tea :) It was the one with less queue tbh.

How I looked in the end, ignore my bald eyebrows please HAHAHA

Overall, it's pretty doable but if I had more time in Kyoto, I wouldn't do that. I would make more time to enjoy Nishiki Market (for food and shopping of course!) and enjoy reading manga at the park. Seriously. Omg while writing this I miss that solo traveling moment so bad! Should arrange another solo trip to Japan I think :p In the end, it's not important how many places you can visit in one day time, but how much you can enjoy those certain places (either it's just 2 or 3)! Hope you enjoy this post and can inspire you to visit Japan :3

💘 Find other Japan posts here: #BigDreamerInJapan Complete Blog Posts

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10 Tips You Should Know Before Visiting Tokyo DisneySea / Disneyland

Hi, Dreamers! Today I'm gonna share some tips you should know before visiting Tokyo DisneySea and DisneyLand. These are based on my own experience so I wish it can be helpful for you ;) So, before anything else, just decided which one you want to go first. It depends on your itinerary and budget, if it's possible to visit both, why choose one? lol. If you want to visit both, you can buy a 2 Day Pass. If you want to choose one, then you can choose Tokyo DisneySea because it's the one and only in the world. But! Personally I was happier when I was in Tokyo Disneyland, so in the end it's back on personal preferences. 

First thing first, decide on your visit date. Tokyo DisneySea and Disneyland are actually crowded year-around, but you can minimize it by choosing the right time to visit. Avoid weekend (obviously), peak holiday season, and also Golden Week because those will be the most-packed period to visit. I visited it on Wednesday and Thursday, and it's super crowded! You can also check the crowd calendar first before deciding. Just translate the page to your language and you will get the idea ;)

Buy your ticket online, you can purchase it on the official website or any travel agents site (mine was bought at Klook). By buying your ticket online, you don't have to waste time at the long queue. The down side is, you won't get the cute Disney ticket. Your ticket will be the boring print-out paper that you must print before visiting. Seriously, make sure to print your online ticket because you don't want to waste so much time finding printer and wasting your precious time in DisneySea/ Disneyland. All you need is the barcode actually (for entrance and fast pass).

To get to Tokyo Disney Resort by train, you'll stop at Maihama station, then take Disney Resort Line to reach Tokyo DisneySea and RUN to the Disneyland. Actually both can be reached by the monorail, but it's faster to just run to the Disneyland, lol. The monorail costs 260 yen for adults and 130 yen for children.

Come maximum 1 hour before the park opens. It's opened at 8/9 AM so make sure to be there at least 7 AM. When I arrived, it's already so crowded! So you need to come before 7 AM to be in the front line, lol. Some hacks to survive the queue: 

1. Bring portable chair. OMG some Japanese brought some chair to sit while waiting in the line. I want!! hahaha. 

2. Bring snacks. Bought your breakfast and eat it while waiting in the line, or candy to kill your boredom. 

3. BRING YOU FRIEND!! lol. I went to both DisneySea and Disneyland alone so queuing was actually pretty boring :")

When the gate is opened, people are running, rushing to get their fastpass. The staffs were telling people to slow down, but they just ignoring them lol. This is why you should know which attraction is your priority, so you can rush to the location and get your fastpass.

Fastpass is Tokyo DisneySea/Land system that allows to "book" your seat on certain attraction.  It will minimize the amount of time waiting in line by assigning you a specific time to enter the attraction. For example, you get your Fastpass for Tower of Terror at 15.15~16.00 then you NEED to come to the attraction around that assigned time. Then you use that waiting time to enjoy another attractions or doing anything else like taking photos or shopping. Note that to get your next Fastpass, you need to wait for another 2 hours after the first Fastpass. Sorry can't show you any photos because all my photos taken by phone are lost :((

** To know more about this Fastpass, you can read it on their official website ;)

Still related to the previous point, try to plan your visit beforehand. You can check the park map and attractions on their website (DisneySea // DisneyLand). Find your possibly most-wanted attractions to ride, then plan the order of your Fastpass. Use the free time in between to queue for another less-crowded attractions.

Splash Mountain at Disneyland is one of the Single Rider Attraction!

Use Single Rider! If you have no problem riding the attractions alone or separate with your friends, get to the single rider line to enter the attractions. You will pass the loooong queue and entering in no time. How it's working: A group of friends are riding that attraction then there's one empty seat. That's your seat! Something like that. It's only available on certain attractions tho.

Don't miss out the parades. There are some parades in one day, depending on the event. In Tokyo DisneySea, I could just enjoy one parade at night, Fantasmic. There were no special event so no day parade :(( But then in Tokyo Disneyland I was able to experience both daytime (Happiness is Here) and nighttime (Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights) parade and my breath was taking away!!! I was extremely happy that I couldn't stop thank God, hahaha. Will tell you more about these parades on another post dedicated to Tokyo DisneySea and Disneyland each.

Tips: Tag your place around 30~45 minutes before the parade starts. You can check the parade schedule on the map you got at the park. Well, you will actually know it's going to start when you see people are busy to find their perfect spot to enjoy the parade.

Turns out, Tokyo DisneySea/ Disneyland allows you to bring your own lunch/ bento from home. The restaurants at lunch/dinner time is extremely packed and you need to queue super long to get your food/table. I didn't know this on the first day (DisneySea) and guess what, I didn't eat any proper meal that day (because the restaurants were too crowded), I just ate some snacks and felt like dying at night because I was super hungry. Fortunately, I could have a proper meal on the next day at Disneyland, I had burger set around 10 or 11 AM, the burger is in Mickey Mouse shape but guess what? Didn't take photos with camera, only phone and then the photos are gone. CRY.
Tips: Eat your meal before lunch time. You can also book your table at the restaurant 2-3 hours before your meal time. If you're okay, just buy snacks like hot dog or any food that can be eaten while walking ;)

Last but not least, just BE HAPPY! It's the happiest place on earth anyway. Don't rush anything, it's IMPOSSIBLE to try all the attractions nor exploring every corner of the park because it's huge (and crowded!) Just focus on some attractions you like the most, plan your fast pass, and ENJOY! I personally plan to go back tho, hahaha. Oh, you can also go Disney characters hunting, find the hidden Mickey Mouse (I had no idea about this!), try various popcorn flavors, collect the popcorn bucket, jelly bean bucket, eat their cute snacks, do whatever you want to make you happy 💖

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