Hello everybunny!♪ We're up to day 8 now! Since we'd had a theme park trip the day before, we planned for this day to be sightseeing.♪ We originally planned to go to just the Pokecen but we ended up doing something a little more special! If you're not particularly interested in dull 'gardens' (I'm bitter about the gardens, okay? But more about that in the trip report www) skip to about a third of the way through for cute things!♥ The first stop of the day was Tokyo Station for the Imperial Palace Gardens.
Tokyo station was pretty empty, but I imagine it gets pretty packed. ;;
This lower part of this building looked pretty abandoned, the trees up there are pretty neat too.♪
This doesn't really look like Tokyo, it seems more like London. So strange!
If fact, this area of Tokyo near the station reminded me a lot of London, but cleaner. ;;
This street led down to the palace gardens. There were a few people dotted around, we saw a couple having some sort of wedding photo shoot I think? Whatever it was it looked pretty fun. There were also some business people who all looked very... businessy, fellow tourists etc. While it was a bit more sunny than when we left the hotel(it was raining that morning), we thought it'd be a good time to stop for brunch. It doesn't get much nicer than stopping for a brief picnic while it's brightening up and fresh outside, right?
My little brother is a huge fan of chicken katsu, so I tried a sandwich for him. It's a shame I couldn't buy him one as a souvenir so he could eat it instead ww... He loves the chicken katsu curry at Yo Sushi haha.. Admittedly, I had been wanting to try a Japanese sandwich but personally I would have preferred something with veggies. Do those sort of things even exist in Japan? I don't fancy cream and straberries in a sandwich.
Japanese sandwiches are strange. There's no crust. Okay.
It didn't taste too bad, it definitely worked but blegh fried meat. OTL The Japanese mayo and the sauce inside worked well though. But it could have used more salad. Or maybe just salad with the Japanese mayo and sauce. Yeah. OTL Now my little brother wants to have chicken katsu sandwiches for the rest of his days ww
Here's where things start to look less like London, phew!
We could have headed straight to the Imperial Palace Gardens but we noticed a sign that said there was a water fountain garden across this bridge♪
Oops, back in England again ww It was beautiful, but I was expecting a different aesthetic ww
...and we're back in Japan haha.
Then it was just a hop across the road to the gardens♪
It looked amazing!♪
There didn't seem to be much in the way of gardens though. ;;
The awe of it all kind of faded quickly though. OTL There really wasn't much in the way of 'garden'. ;; I was expecting pretty flowers and lots of grass.;; I won't lie, I got very bored, very quickly ahah. I guess the hot weather didn't help.
There was a lot of gravel. A lot. A depressing amount, in fact.
I'm afraid I cannot provide an explanation for this photo other than we were so bored of walking over gravel that Josh posed with all our umbrellas and pulled a silly face.
Finally green stuff! In a garden!
Unfortunatley that was a zoomed shot. It was actually far across a sea of gravel. OTL
We couldn't find anything in the way of 'garden' so we decided to head back to the station. Yes, I was quite bitter that I didn't see any pretty flowers ahah.. but the day ended up getting a lot better!♥
There was some interesting art on display.♪ I love things like this in stations, it makes them seem so much less mundane.
After walking through the station, Jen headed off to do her own stuff because she just joined us to to the imperial palace gardens.♪ Josh and I had Pokemon things planned and Jen isn't such a Pokemon fan. The cool thing about Tokyo is that there's stuff to float everyone's boats!
Josh and I popped outside Tokyo station to see if there was anything interesting outside Tokyo station before we headed to Roppongi Hills. There was.
Who even comes up with these things? www
Admittedly, that was the only thing that caught our eye. Josh was getting hungry so we headed to Roppongi Hills.♪ Why Roppongi Hills? Because of the special Pokemon XY movie event!♥ There was a Pokemon movie exhibit & special Pikachu café on the top floor of the Mori tower!!♪
It's a little strange because you have to take an elevator up a small building next to the Mori tower, then walk across a bridge to actually get into the Mori Tower ww To get to the top floors, we needed to buy a ticket which got us access to those and the Pokemon exhibit.♪
The view from the 52nd floor! You can see Tokyo Tower!♪
Unfortunately a lot of the exhibit prohibited photos, but omigosh there was some awesome concept art and info about the animation techniques.♪ Josh & I really really enjoyed it! It was really interesting. I did manage to take some photos of other parts of the exhibit.^^
They had little models of all the Pokemon planes! Ahh I'd love to fly on one. OTL
Then it was time to take go to the Pikachi café! Which, by the way, was uber popular. I can't remember how long we waited to get in, it was a really really long time though. Luckily we remembered to bring our Pokemon games ww
There were posters from all the Pokemon movies about the queue line!♥
And on the other side of them, there were the Pikachu short posters♥
Photo spot!♪ I looked awful though ww
Following on from earlier's silly Josh photo, another silly photo ww
There was a lot of cute merch available♪
Ah yes... the adorable menu...
More merch♪
We were getting nearer to the front of the queue, so we were handed a menu♪ Sorry it's a little blurry. ;; You could get the main meals as a set with one of the themed drinks and a Pikachu dessert!♥♥ The drinks also came with coasters♪
There was a Fennekin watching everyone eat. Though the way it was posed leaning forwards was slightly menacing www.. like it was watching you..
Watching..
Watching..
Food & merch display!♪
Hooray plastic food! I love seeing these, they're so neat ww The children's meal set looked tempting because it wasn't as big as the adult Pika curry, but there was extra meat compared to the adult meal and it didn't come with a drink..;;
Pikaparfait♥
Pokeball omurice♪
Instead of table service, you got meal tickets from a vending machine!♪ Quite a lot of places in Japan use this system. It's super handy!
There were tables running along the edge of the huge windows, which had
amazing views!♥ I was really hoping we would get to sit there, though
I'm better with heights than Josh ww..
It turned out that we did get one of those seats!♥ We really enjoyed the view♪♪
Check out the view from our table!♪
When we sat down, the staff member explained to us that we needed to take the tickets to the bar to order our drinks, then our meals would be along shortly.♪ When we were ready after our meals, we could then take our sundae ticket up.♥
When I handed our tickets over, we got our Pika curry bun & drinks!♥ I got Diancie, and Josh got Xerneas.♥♥ Since the Pika jelly dessert came with the meal sets, we were also given those. Luckily they didn't melt or anything.^^;;
The drinks were so yummy omigosh♥ I have a big weakness for milkshakes, and an even bigger weakness for milkshakes with cream or ice cream on top ; 7;♥♥♥
Pika jelly dessert♪
Pika curry bun! I'd never tried one of these before this. Instead of getting one each, we shared since there was already going to be a lot of food. ;;;
Yummy curry!♥
It was a little difficult to fit everything on the teeny table ww..
What did Josh order?♪
Pikaburger!♥
*not made with real Pikachu
It looked amazing!! I was very impressed that it came with tortilla chips & salsa instead of fries, it seemed a lot healthier.♪
A very happy Josh!♥
Tortilla chip Pika ears.♪
Pikacurry!♥♥ Ahh it was so so cute ;; 7 ;;♥ I ended up admiring it a lot before eating it ww..
The stars were made from omelette & carrot!♥ Ahh it was amazing ww I love Japanese omelette♪
There was also broccoli!♥ Such a perfect curry♥♥ It was super delicious♪ Josh really enjoyed his Pikaburger too!♥
When we finished our meals we spent a little time admiring the view before we got onto the desserts.♪ Curry is so filling, but so.. happiness inducing ww♥
Pikapudding time!♥
It was really light and yummy, super sweet.♥ I think it was a sort of caramel flavour? Pika's cheeks were cherry flavour.♪
And lastly, a Pikaparfait!♥ Like the Pikabun, we got one of these to share.♥
The jelly on the top was the same as the jelly pudding.♪
Close ups of all the layers, it was so so yummy ;; v ;;♥♥
It was such a yummy meal, but there was sooo much to eat ww;; v;; Since we had to pay to get in and then pay for the food on top of that, we thought we'd better try the extras like the parfait & currybun since it would have been expensive to come back again later in the holiday. ;; It's a real shame there was the entrance fee which was about ¥2,000, otherwise we'd have been back another time!
Display for the new movie!♪
And a display for the new short!♥
Omega & Alpha poster, cue screaming from Josh & I www...
Afterwards, we headed down to the mini Pokecen to pick up some goodies ww♥ Then it was time to head back to the hotel.^^
Spotted Louise Bourgeois' Maman sculpture outside! There was also a huge Doraemon display, with lots of big Doraemon figures, but there were so many people crowding around I couldn't get a good photo ahah;;; We didn't do anything that evening except play Pokemon & Ace Attorney & watch some Japanese tv.♪
Thank you so much for reading!♥ There are more restaurant reviews & trip reports coming up♪
Have a lovely day♥
Love, Eliza♥
