Shopping Day : 8th July 2015

On our last day at Ubuya, Dear woke up pretty early that day and disturbed me from my sleep. The reason was there was clear sky in that morning and Mount Fuji was clearly visible at that very instant!! Thank goodness we finally got to see Fujisan on our last day!

A perfect end to our road trip!

Despite the sky being cloudy, the shape of Fujisan can be seen clearly with its reflection on the peaceful Lake Kawaguchiko. We had breakfast at the restaurant while enjoying this view. Now I understand why Japanese value Fujisan so much. The sight of it will just awe you with an immense satisfaction and respect for the mountain :)

Our elaborated Breakfast at Ubuya

Lobby at Ubuya

We really spent our time to the fullest at Ubuya before saying goodbye at the time of checkout (11am). We decided to drive back to the Toyota Kofu outlet to return our car and as there was still time, we decided to check out a really big Uniqlo store near to Kofu city... If you think the prices of Uniqlo products are affordable in Singapore, you will probably shop till you drop when you are in Japan, especially to less populated areas. We manage to find real good deals of good quality wear, be it casual or office wear at prices like 500 yen?!!! Totally unbelievable..you could easily spend a day there but we need to return our car, so we shopped to our best ability to the time limit...haha

After returning the car to Kofu branch, we dragged our real heavy luggages to the shinkansen, taking towards SHinjuku..It is about 1.5hour ride and we packed bento to have lunch on the train :)

Away from the peaceful and calm environment of Yamanashi prefecture, we returned back to the city life in Shinjuku. Weather was really bad that day with heavy rain. Fortunately, our hotel JR Kyushu Hotel Blossom Shinjuku was found round the corner from the South Terrace Exit of Shinjuku station. Shinjuku station is a big maze if you haven't been there.You can lose your directions with so many exits and so many buildings above the ground, and also underground as there are so many passageways. Luckily, Dear was at Shinjuku the day he arrived, so he was pretty familiar with the whereabouts of the hotel haha

Raining the whole day

Walk, Shop, Eat at Shinjuku

All Walks of Life

Phew, what a long journey! so we rested our feet before heading out to Lumine EST to make our Zoff spectacles. Have heard a lot about Zoff specs from friends, known for its light and good quality specs, fast service and reasonable prices, so we decided to give it a try! Although little English could be used for communication, we managed fine first by choosing the design, did a free eye-test, and made the payment. In around 25mins, the specs were ready and we were really happy with the purchase that we wore them immediately as they were so light!

(taken from another good blogpost on Zoff specs)

We went ahead to have dinner, this time some pasta, as we had many many days of Japanese cuisine and decided to have a short break from it haha.. and after dinner, I wanna explore the Yodobashi and Bic Camera outlets in Shinjuku. But, I did not know Yodobashi Shinjuku is divided into many small outlets everywhere in Shinjuku, and the different type of items are sold at different areas, not under a single building! This is really confusing to me as at Osaka and Sapporo, all items can be found in a single building with no hassle of walking around in circles! 

After purchasing what we wanted, we couldnt help but feel the travel fatigue kicking in again. Gotta rest early today as the following day we would be meeting Nakano-san for our adventure in Nikko! 

Osaka Shopping - 26th November 2013

For some reason, we decided that instead of going Nara on that day, we should do shopping in Osaka instead! So we changed our plans and started our shopping spree in this bustling city!

As we were in the midst of moving into our new house, we decided to get some cooking stuff from Japan as the quality is definitely superior and I heard getting from the wholesale market is cheapest. So I searched online and found this place Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shopping Street, located near to Shinsaibashi-suji.

It's a Kitchen street, which sells all the cooking cutlerys and bowls and utensils and knives that you can think of. In fact, people from restaurants also come to his place to purchase all the cooking items and bowls as its sold at the cheapest price.

Details:
ADDRESS〒: 542-0075 Area around Nambasennichimae, Chuo-ku, Osaka
TRANSPORTATION: 3 minutes walk from “Namba Station” on Nankai Line, Subway Midosuji Line, Yotsubashi Line, 5 minutes walk from “Nippombashi Station” on Subway Sennichimae Line, Kintetsu Line

This street is filled with all the shops selling almost the same items. And all at wholesale price. We went around and purchased our forks, knives, spoons, bowls, plates from this street, as well as a sleek-designed umbrella rack. We also bought ceramic knives and some innovatively-designed containers for the sauces.

http://www.yodobashi-umeda.com/information/access_map.html

And we added more shopping at the Yodobashi Camera   shop located at Umeda station. It does not sell just camera, it practically sells anything and everything...ranging from phones to jigsaw puzzles to toys to luggages to towels..and some very well-designed gadgets to enhance one's lifestyle.you gotta come see if you are in Osaka. There are more than 5 levels of items and all are neatly arranged. If you are a jigsaw puzzle fanatic, you gotta get to Yodobashi! I gotta emphasize the convenience of gettimg tax refund from shopping at Japan. You get refunds instantly at the moment of paying. You do not need to get the receipts and queue for the longest time unlike in areas at Heathrow Airport, which we have experienced before!

Aside from Yodobashi shops, Japan also has the BiC camera shop whichhas almost the same scale of products... also, camera addicts..you jus gotta go to Yodobashi to see all the lens, all the filters and any camera accessories you can think of..they are all under this roof!


Along the way,we hopped by Muji shop near Shinsaibashi..which to my surprise, consists of cafes,food, and 4stories of products. This is so unlike Sg which has so limited variety of products. Visiting Muji in Japan is a must! I regretted not purchasing some of the products as I thought they would be available in Singapore haha..
Sufficient reason to plan another trip to Japan again!

http://shinsaibashi.tokyu-hands.co.jp/en/


I have not emphasized on Tokyu Hands..i have visited Tokyu Hands during my last trip to Tokyo..yet another have-it-all shop which I love losing myself at the varieties of products..as we are moving house, household items, kitchen items naturally become our alert! We were amazed at the Japanese creativity to make life easier with simple and useful gadgets haha!

Also, pharmacies at Osaka area is alao a highlight! All the collagen pills, medicine, things to make you feel comfy like soothing cream for tired legs, contact lens solutions for different type of contact lens, eye solution for weary eyes while driving, while reading from computer can also be found there. The amazing thing is a simple eye solution product has many brands and many varieties... and price is much affordable for collagen drinks in Japan than in singapore, hongkong, taiwan. Maybe that is why I always see tourists from these countries sweeping off the collagen pills and drinks off the shelves! Totally not exagerrating.

So pardon me for the lack of pictures in this post as that was a shopping day, but Im happy to share some of the shopping places in Osaka area for some good deals with you readers!