Japan trip Spring 2015 part 4 - March 23, Day 3: Tsukiji Fish Market, Yokohama, Machida

My parents and the other family had already been to Tsukiji for breakfast before S and I had arrived (so that my brother could experience it since it was closed on the other days he was there), but they weren't able to buy any omiyage to bring back since they had to quickly head to Yokohama after, so we all went (back) together!

My parents actually went to Tsukiji market during our summer 2014 trip as well but S and I skipped out on it lol. (Too lazy/too tired to wake up early and go.) This time, S decided he wanted to go to eat and pick up a few things, and my mom brought back so much fun stuff last time, that I decided it would be worth it for me to join in as well even though I wouldn't be eating any fish.

I think we aimed to leave around 08:00am? Something like that. The idea was for most of them to eat breakfast there while my mother and I shopped lol.

My mother really enjoyed this konbu that she picked up last time and was determined to buy it again this time. It took a lot of searching, but we finally found it! -

I think this was my father's breakfast -

My dad bought this black garlic that you just eat on its own -

It took us a little while with S and my limited Japanese to figure out exactly how to eat it/if you needed to prepare it/whether you eat it plain, etc. Apparently it's quite good, especially if you like garlic, but a bit pricey.

What my mom bought from Tsukiji -

She said she bought a lot more stuff last time lol. And I think that's true. But our arms were so full of shopping bags this time that it felt like a lot when we were moving through the crowded market. We also visited the side where they actually sell the fish (not just the side with the restaurants and stuff). I didn't take any pictures though because it's so so busy there and you constantly have to watch out for people who are trying to get work done. I'm sure it's very annoying for them to have so many tourists in their way, so I wanted to do my part by not trying to delay anything by trying to compose a picture lol. But seriously everything seems so efficient and on point there.

After Tsukiji, we had to come back to the hotel to drop off all of my mom's purchases. Well, S's purchases as well lol. He had purchased this like 4lb bag of beans for his father that he had to carry around the whole morning (+ other stuff as well) wtf. Also gave me the opportunity to change my footwear. I wore sneakers to Tsukiji since they ask that you not wear high heels on the website, but I wanted to wear my Liz Lisa pumps for the rest of the day.

OOTD - Liz Lisa x My Melody 5th collab OP, Liz Lisa lace up back pumps, Liz Lisa rose quilted bag, Charlotte Russe pom pom cropped knit, the 80 denier tights I purchased the day before and Tutuanna ankle socks. You can't see them in the picture, but I also wore the Liz Lisa hair clips this day as well.

Then, we were off to Yokohama for some shopping. I initially had Yokohama on the agenda because we were supposed to go to the Cup Noodle Museum there with the other family traveling with us, but they ended up not wanting to go to Yokohama on Monday (? idk something something), and my family wasn't extremely keen on going to the Cup Noodle Museum, but we decided to go to Yokohama anyway since I already had it on the agenda.

My reason for wanting to go?

Liz Lisa Yokohama Vivre. I was trying to hit as many Liz Lisa locations as possible lol. Well, whatever made sense to go to if we were already in an area anyway. This was just supposed to be a side stop on the way back from the Cup Noodle Museum, but it ended up being the only reason I went to Yokohama at all lol. Vivre is pretty easy to find. Leave the JR Yokohama station through the west exit and look for the Takashimaya and Hotel Bay Sheraton. Walk in that direction and then continue between them and across a bridge. Just on the opposite side of the bridge, turn left immediately and after about 50 feet, an entrance to Vivre should be on your right. The Liz Lisa store is right there on your left once you enter the mall! I looked around the store with my mom, but didn't buy anything.

My mom ended up purchasing one of these Tsum Tsum themed lip balms(?) as a gift for my cousin's daughter on another floor though -

And while we were in Vivre, my dad and S had gone over to the Yokohama Sansui store (somehow luckily wherever there is a Liz Lisa, there is often a Sansui in/around Tokyo so S is willing to travel to the same area), and we still needed to kill some time. We happened upon these purikura booths and I somewhat jokingly said we should take some, and we ended up actually doing it lol.

Idk if it was the settings we chose (intentionally or not I'm not sure), but it totally smudged this red stuff all over our lips and onto our face in some of the photos lol. It was hilarious beyond belief. I definitely can't read Japanese fast enough for some of the time limits and my mom knows none at all and has very little puri experience lol. (Not that I have a ton either.) The results were laughable, really.

By that time, S and my dad were done at Sansui, and I told them to scout for a place to eat lunch while they were waiting for us to make it back towards the station. There was this Italian(?) restaurant/cafe near the West exit to the station that we decided to go to.

I thought it was pretty good. I just had a margherita pizza though lol.

Since we were already in Yokohama, we decided to take a short trip to Machida as well since there's a Liz Lisa and Sansui there as well lol. It's also kind of in the area where my dad used to live for a couple years maybe 40 years ago lol.

Machida 109 is pretty easy to find as well.

Exit the JR Machida station on the north side and you should just be able to see it lol.

My mom and I got a little distracted on the way to Liz Lisa on the 2nd floor and stopped at the Disney store! We have one in Hawaii but don't go very often actually since the mall isn't very convenient for us. This one had lots of cute Tsum Tsum stuff though!

I bought a couple Tsum Tsum washi tapes for my coworker and also some stickers that were on sale.

After leaving the Yokohama store, my mom had decided that she wanted to try and get one of the backpacks that were on sale for my (other) cousin's step daughter, but I didn't know what else I would want to get if we made a purchase, and she was kind of still thinking about it.
I really wanted to make each purchase "worth it" and aim to get a novelty each time. I thought that it would be silly to make like 9 small individual purchases and get no novelty items if I the amount I was spending total would have been able to get me 3 novelty items if I consolidated some and made only 3 purchases or something like that. Lol I love free stuff wtf. And the novelty item was quite nice this time I think! Anyway, while we were on the train to Machida, I quickly searched TKL and tried to figure out what else I wanted so that we could get the backpack and also aim for a novelty item.

The shop staff at this store was super helpful! I recognized her from the Liz Lisa Machida 109 shop staff crooz blog, but I didn't know her name off the top of my head. Once she realized that I didn't really speak Japanese well, she used a lot less polite language (which I really appreciated) and more simple phrases so that I could understand and actually converse with her. She was also really patient! I just did a quick search of the Liz Lisa Machida 109 twitter account, and I think her name is Sayaka!

photo from @lizlisa_machida
This is also the outfit she was wearing when she was helping us!

A lot of shop staff in the stores are nice, but I definitely had the best shopping experience with her! Even though the store was empty, she didn't bother or hover around us TOO much, but was still easily available if we had questions about anything. She also carefully wrapped up all of our purchases :)

Meanwhile, while we were shopping in Liz Lisa, S and my dad ventured out to find the Machida Sansui

Only to discover that it was closed on Mondays starting recently lol wtf.

After I was finally done at Liz Lisa, my dad and mom went off to find a fabric store so that my mom could find some fabrics for her friend's friend and then intended to find my dad's old neighborhood a few stops away, and S and I decided to head back towards Yokohama.

Since the Machida store wasn't open, he thought that he'd want to go back to the Yokohama Sansui, but instead we decided to just change trains at the Yokohama station and go straight to Tokyo station.
There was a specific wallet that his mother wanted him to purchase from a small store near Tokyo station, and it closed at 05:00pm so we had to be sure to give ourselves enough time in the day to make it there. It took us a bit to find it since it's a somewhat nondescript business in a building that doesn't look like it has any retail stores in it. Unfortunately, they didn't have the pattern his mom wanted in the style of wallet she preferred, but we were still able to find something that was better than her current wallet (long story).

Then, we decided to head back to Tokyo station to look for this ahi head (or something like that) that my dad and S has eaten the last time we were here.

Unfortunately, they didn't have any left since it was the late afternoon, and I don't think they typically have a lot anyway.

Instead, we decided to grab a few desserts!

S chose some sort of mango thing and this chocolate one was kind of for me. Or well, it was the only thing I thought I would eat. I'm not really a fancy dessert kind of person. It was really good though! Except there was something in the middle (I'm still not sure exactly what it was) that I didn't enjoy the flavor of. But besides that, every other part of it tasted amazing! It was a good, small, refreshing snack.

Next, our plan was to quickly head back to Shibuya so that S could check out the Shibuya Sansui again and also another fishing store called Joshuya. After that, I had to go back to Shinjuku Alta because I found that the novelty mirror I had received the previous day was broken/cracked and unusable wtf. I was a bit worried about how I was going to explain to the sales girl what happened with my limited vocabulary (because I didn't want it to seem like I had broken it myself, and somehow had the audacity to ask for a new one), but I ended up just saying the Japanese equivalent of "I came yesterday. This is not good" and showing the sales girl the cracked mirror and my receipt lol. She asked if I wanted a new one, to which I replied that I did, and she quickly went to go get one and showed me that it was not also broken before wrapping it up for me.

After that, we met up with my parents in Meguro at a tonkatsu restaurant my mom looked up that seemed to have good reviews called Tonki. It got S's vote because it was close to the (Meguro) station lol. The first floor was counter service where you could watch the chefs prepare the katsu, and there was quite a line for seating. Luckily, there was a table seating area upstairs where we could be seated and served much more quickly. Even though we wouldn't be watching the meal being made, at least we would be served faster this way and also not smell like oil lol.

There was basically 3 different choices for katsu and that's about it! I like when it's easy to pick what to eat lol. I enjoyed mine and I think everyone else liked theirs fairly well too, but it's not the same compared to Maisen (tonkatsu restaurant we went to on Day 1) of course. When we were leaving, there was still a huge wait for the counter seating downstairs!

After we were done at Tokyo station earlier and had stopped at the hotel to eat the dessert snacks, I had grabbed my Liz Lisa jacket for layering, and I'm so glad I did. It was so cold at night!

Also I'm just glad that the Liz Lisa jacket worked so well layering with the pom pom knit too lol.

My Liz Lisa shopping for the day...I actually didn't buy anything from anywhere else I think lol -

Lots of Liz Lisa bags lol. When the Shinjuku Alta sales girl brought me the new mirror, she also wrapped it up in the gift "bag" and even gave me a new shopper to carry it in! The other two bags were from the Machida 109 Liz Lisa. My mom wanted her items packaged separately but I ended up carrying both of them anyway because my mom and dad left the store early (before the check out process was finished) lol. 

(Took this picture after the fact and forgot that that wasn't the shopper these items came in wtf, but anyway) 

Quilted bow backpack in white, Yui Kanno collab rose fairy story OP in pink, Long cardigan in white, Pearl & 3 flower barrette in white + Yui Kanno collab print jewelry box novelty in white

The backpack was meant as a gift for my cousin's step daughter and the long cardigan and barrette were for my mom. I needed a cardigan to complete the set price for an OP+cardigan, and my mom decided she liked the one Sayaka was wearing, so that's what she picked since I didn't want any in particular myself. And we had to get a small accessory to hit the novelty so my mom picked the barrette lol. The Yui Kanno collab OP (and novelty) is for me lol :)

Day 3 was mostly shopping! I was very happy to do three things/go to three places I haven't been to before on my previous 3 trips to Japan. Even though we didn't huge any one particular thing that was huge and spectacular, it still felt like a pretty good day, and we managed to go to quite a few places throughout the day - (starting and ending at Shinagawa station and going to) Tsukiji, Yokohama, Machida, Tokyo, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Meguro stations. Thank goodness our hotel was located in such a convenient place. We stopped by two times in between all of that to drop off our things and refresh a little bit.

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  Japan trip Spring 2015 posts
Part 1 - Pre-trip planning
Part 2a - March 21, Day 1: Liz Lisa Shibuya 109 Yui Kanno event
Part 2b - March 21, Day 1: Hawkeye Owl Cafe
Part 3 - March 22, Day 2: Kawatsura Strawberry Farm, Chiba, Shinjuku
Part 4 - March 23, Day 3: Tsukiji Fish Market, Yokohama, Machida
Part 5 - March 24, Day 4: Omiya, Ikebukuro, Takadanobaba, Asakusa & luggage forwarding
Part 6 - March 25, Day 5: Shibuya, Shinkansen & Osaka
Part 7 - March 26, Day 6: Tennoji MIO, Nara Deer Park
Part 8 - March 27, Day 7: Kobe (steak), Namba/Shinsaibashi & Keiko
Part 9 - March 28, Day 8: Kyoto, Berri & home
Part 10 - Hotels and Pupuru pocket wifi review
Part 11 - Liz Lisa shopping items/coordinates
Part 12 - Liz Lisa x My Melody 6th collab OPs and hand towel 

Japan trip Summer 2014 posts
Japan trip Summer 2015 posts