We slept in today after our big day trip yesterday and then headed to Imakatsu Akasaka which is a very well known katsu place walking distance from our hotel. This is their local (smaller) store which often has lines but we got in just before it got busy at about 11:45am. The katsu chicken was sooooo juicy! And delicious. And the set comes with refillable cabbage (use the white sauce on that) plus rice, pickles and miso soup. Yum yum yum.
After lunch I did a few hours of work (yay travel and online uni) before we headed to the only onsen/sento bath I could find that was both tattoo and woman friendly. Rah Tokyo, get with the times please! This was the same onsen we visited 6 years ago called “Mannen-Yu” and is very local but also one of the few tattoo okay ones. It’s down a weird, tiny alley in Korea town. We also had the super interesting experience of a drunk local coming in, throwing up and then being removed by very angry owners. Not often you see Japanese being angry in public!
After the onsen, we visited Shibuya crossing (and got a semi decent photo from the free shopping centre overpass) before we ventured up to Shibuya Sky. We also saw the Hachiko statue which had a very long line I chose not to join so I snapped this sneaky photo instead.
I did try getting into L Occitane cafe before we did the free overpass photo but they had no view seats and the food was stupidly expensive….so free overpass it was!
I pre bought our evening tickets for shibuya sky (6pm session) about 2 weeks before and it was a good decision as they were totally sold out for the whole day about a week ahead….when we left just after 7pm the line was absolutely bonkers. I did try for sunset at midnight on the day tickets were released a few weeks ago but they sold out in under a minute.
We got to see the sky view, ride the (slightly terrifying) glass sided escalators and almost freeze to death as no hats or beanies allowed. I thought my ears might fall off.
We didn’t realise they have a bar within the inside viewing gallery so I recommend have a drink at that bar…which included premium view seating if you make a purchase per person. Don’t buy the food! It was awful. Just grab a few cocktails and some hot chips to justify the seat usage.
Then we headed to the champagne and gyoza bar around the corner from our hotel which was delicious! It’s very small (about 15 seats) and even though I was exhausted the fact they had spare seats as we went past meant I wanted to give it a go! Minimum spend is 1 drink per person and the champagne of the day was REALLY good although not cheap. Can also say the gyoza were top notch. I want to go back here again when I’m a bit more alert lol.
Mel's Travel Blog 