Alas, we are finally on our last post for this trip! 🙂 After we left Hakone, we took the train back to Tokyo and checked into our third and final hotel for this trip. Our first order of business, after getting settled into the hotel, was to head to the Pokemon Megastore in Sunshine City. Bridgette is a huge Pokemon fan and this was her most anticipated part of the trip. Though Brianne isn’t as into Pokemon, she still shared the excitement with her BFF. 🙂
While in Ikebukuro, I took them to one of my favorite cafes in Tokyo–the Milky Way Cafe! The desserts there are out of this world delicious (and pretty!!) and we had such trouble narrowing down to just 1 selection per person!
For our final day in Tokyo, our schedule was pretty packed as there were still so many places we wanted to hit. For our first stop, we ventured back to Shinjuku to play in the arcades (you’ve got to watch Bridgette’s Youtube video on this here!) and then strolled around our favorite lifestyle store–Tokyu Hands.
In the afternoon, we went to Dog Heart, a dog “cafe” in the outskirts of Shibuya. That was Brianne’s pick, since she’s quite the dog-lover. The place turned out to be much smaller than what we imagined it to be, and we felt a bit sad to see all the dogs (including a large Golden Retriever) cramped in such a tiny space together all day. We stayed for about an hour and played with them, along with about 8 other people.
Our final activity in Tokyo was one that I looked forward to the most. My sister found this sushi making class by Tsukiji Insider’s Workshop and signed us up for it. Having been an avid sushi lover for so many years, I was excited to learn the art of sushi making!
The day time class would have included a tour of the Tsukiji fish market and a glimpse into the fish auctioning process that takes place there everyday. Due to our packed schedule though, we only had time for the evening class, so we didn’t get the market tour. Our class began with an introduction to the actual fish preparation, where the chef taught us how to debone and properly slice the fish. When it came time for us to try, we all quickly realized that it was much harder than it looked!
The sushi making portion was no easier. You’d think that placing a sliced piece of fish on top of some rice would be pretty straightforward, but we learned that to do it properly, it takes focus and precision. Definitely not as easy as you’d think when you’re sitting on the opposite side of the sushi bar.
We had a really fun time in this class, and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves sushi!
And with that, our Tokyo + Hakone trip concluded. As much as we didn’t want to say good bye to Tokyo, we left for Narita Airport before the crack of dawn the next morning to head back to Hong Kong. Sayonara Tokyo!
