Finally Our Turn: Taipei - Tokyo Day 2: Day of Getting Lost

We had a flight to catch at 7.15am at the Songshan airport. I was still trying to sleep at 1am the night before and at 4.35am, my alarm rang. I thought I just shut my eyes a while ago. I obviously wasn't the only one who didn't sleep well/ enough. 

The hotel receptionist helped us called a cab and the cab driver arrived on the dot at 5am. Our hotel is 15 mins drive away. I read that Songshan airport is not 24/7 and opens at 5.30am. I thought we would have trouble finding our way but proven wrong bcos almost all the people in the terminal were on the same flight and we only had to follow blindly. 

After checked-in, we bought bfast from 7-11 bcos it was too early and the restaurants are not opened. 

There was nothing much in the terminal after we cleared the immigration. It was small. We didn't have to wait long before it was time to board. 

This time, I got to sit with the kids bcos Nana complained that the boys took up too much space. 

Bye bye Taipei, see you in 10 days' time. 

I fell asleep shortly after we boarded. Tired siol. Zaky woke me up for bfast. 

The flight to Hanade airport was only 2hrs 50 mins, so much shorter than the 1st leg. No wonder we saw so many Taiwanese in Japan. 

Hello Tokyo! Other people got Pikachu flight. 

For some reasons, I kept worrying that something would go wrong. The 1st thing that went wrong was the airport bus that I had pre-purchsed via klook. The vouchers had expired on 30 Sep 23. I cannot remember if I didn't check or it was a stupid mistake. Anyway, we now had to pay JPY5.6k for the bus. Zzzzz.. Daddy Lim would say that any problem solvable by $$ is hardly a problem. Ok lor. 

Hello again Tokyo! 

We happily boarded the airport bus. Then I remembered that we forgot to buy the Suica passes. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz... the best part, we couldn't find anywhere in Shinjuku, where we spent the next few days, that sell Suica card. Double zzzzzzz.. 

The airport bus brought us to Shinjuku. We would be staying in an airbnb that is 2 stops from Shinjuku. 

It was a nightmare upon alighting from the airport bus. 1st, it was crazy lugging of the 2 big luggages up and down the stairs. I was reminded how the train stations are usually without lift and escalator in Japan. I think my gym work come to good use. Then, we took a while to figure out how to take the right train. Luckily Google map works. On a Saturady afternoon, the train platform was simply crowded and we tried our best not to block the way while figuring our way, which wasn't the easiest with 2 big luggages. 

We managed to find and alight at the right train station. Hooray! Then Google map brought us to the Airbnb. It was about 10 mins walk. I thought the reviews said that it was a short walk? Hmmm... while on the way, I suddenly saw from the airbnb app that checkin was from 5pm onwards. I panicked a little. Luckily, the host had the room ready and we could check-in. 

Checking in was a challenge on its own. Other than to relocate the Airbnb, we had to figure out how to open the gate. 

Then, to figure our how to retrieve the key. It felt exactly like escape game. Lol. 

Like all Japan hotels/ Airbnb, I had already expected the unit to be very small but Daddy Lim had to demonstrate exactly how small it is. 

The sofa converted to a hard double bed.

There is another tatami bed on the upper loft. This one is even harder. Lol. 

Got Christmas tree somemore. 

We left the Airbnb. The plan was to do sightseeing in Shinjuku, Shibuya and also Harujuku. I read that there are so much to be done in these places. 

But then, we simply got lost, very  very lost. 1st, we got lost in Shinjuku underground. It is simply a maze of tunnels. We eventually found our way "up" but didn't at all see the wonderful sights/ food that people rave about. We did see many shopping malls but there are plenty of shopping malls in Singapore too. Then I thought we should walk to Harujuku, which Google map said was about 30 mins walk away. That sounded do-able in the cool weather. Tokyo weather was weirdly warm on our 1st day. We happily went about in our light jacket. 

I think too highly of the kids. They started moaning and groaning after a while. We switched to a train. 

I wanted to go to Meiji Shrine but the shrine was closed already by the time we arrived. I only got this picture. Hoho. 

Harujuku is very, very crowded. We moved with the crowd without knowing where we were going. 

Lack of sleep, tired legs means that the kids couldn't last very long. We had to go back not long after we started the aimless walkinb Interestingly, the kids came alive at the 娃娃机.  Zzzz. 

I thought the day was so wasted. It was basically walking and getting lost and getting more lost. We seen none of the sights that people talked about. Hmpf.. 

So after we settled for the night, Daddy Lim and I spent time researching and finding out how we are to go to the Shinjuku Expressway Bus terminal so that we can find our way the next day. 

Mummy Lim