Emiiichan Blog ☆ : Japan trip Spring 2015 part 6 - March 25, Day 5: Shibuya, Shinkansen & Osaka

Day 5 was our last day in Tokyo for this trip. Since we couldn't get any flights out of Tokyo in our time frame (they were sold out), we had no choice but to fly out of Osaka. I was okay with that because I like going to Osaka and riding on the shinkansen anyway lol. The junk part is moving all your stuff from one hotel to another, but we forwarded our heaviest and largest pieces of luggage the night before so we wouldn't be too bogged down by them.

Initially, we were planning on checking out of the hotel in the morning and heading straight to Osaka on the shinkansen from Shinagawa station. That way, we wouldn't have to worry about leaving our stuff in the lobby after checking out and then claiming it again, etc etc and we'd get a little more time in Osaka since we thought we'd be done with Tokyo by then.

On March 24 (the day before), it turns out that S decides he really would like to go to this specific gyukatsu restaurant in Shibuya if possible before we leave. He had seen it down an alley on his way to the Shibuya Sansui several times, and there was always a line which lead him to believe that it must be really good. He didn't really look up the name or what kind of restaurant it was until the day before we were going to leave though lol. Regardless, he gave himself two opportunities to eat there - dinner on March 24 and lunch on March 25. On March 24, he and my father went at 08:30pm intending to possibly eat a late dinner there (since any earlier would likely be peak dinner time), but the line was so long and doesn't move often, so after about 25 minutes, they decided to give up because other reviews talked about 2.5 hour waits and since last call is at 10:30pm, they didn't think it would be worth it to stand out in the cold and not even be able to get in.

Soooo, the last chance was lunch time on March 25. However, since the restaurant doesn't open until 11:00am, we had no choice but to delay leaving Tokyo for a bit. But, really, it's not a big deal and we hadn't reserved shinkansen tickets or anything. We purposefully wanted to wait to reserve tickets because we wanted to see if there was any last minute Tokyo-specific things we wanted to do on this morning, and this was a good enough excuse. Plus, in reality, it didn't really matter what time of day we left Tokyo/arrived in Osaka.

OOTD - Liz Lisa logo floral OP, Liz Lisa riders faux leather jacket, Liz Lisa flower applique beret, Liz Lisa rose quited bag and Liz Lisa lace up back pumps with Tutuanna socks

(OP and jacket both purchased on Day 1 of trip.)

We checked out of the hotel around 09:15am and left our remaining pieces of luggage in the lobby. Then, we went to Shinagawa station to reserve seats on the 12:40pm Hikari shinkansen to Shin-Osaka. We were hoping that my father and S would be done at the gyukatsu restaurant by then while also giving us some time to retrieve our things. Since we had the JR Rail Pass, it wouldn't cost us anything if we didn't make it on that train and instead had to take a later one. Likewise, if we changed our minds at any point and wanted to take an earlier train, that would no problem either since we have unlimited use of the shinkansen/all JR lines. We all got on the train to Shibuya, but once we arrived at around 09:50am, S and father went straight to the restaurant to get in line for the restaurant to open at 11:00am so that they'd hopefully for sure get in ASAP, and my mom and I went to look for the Loft to just kill some time and shop. Again, they didn't have the item she wanted so we quickly went to look around Shibuya 109 for some socks (I still hadn't found the ones I really wanted at that point) and found a few at two different places.

We also browsed through the Swankiss store a bit, and my mom and I each purchased a top. [Pictures of my top at the bottom of the post.]
We still had a little bit of time before we thought S and father would be done at the restaurant, so we decided to head over to Harajuku Takeshita doori one last time.

We hurriedly walked through Takeshita doori to Kiddyland again because my mother was looking for something specific that she had purchased last time. But we couldn't find it.

Meanwhile, S and my father were waiting at Gyukatsu Motomura since around 10:00am. The restaurant doesn't open until 11:00am, and they were the first to arrive, which was their goal since they really just wanted to get in ASAP with as little wait as possible.

I think they said the first few other people started showing up around 20-30 minutes later lol. So they could have come at 10:20am and probably still have been first, but regardless, at least they knew they were getting in with a wait less than 2.5 hours wtf. A bit before 11:00am, an employee came outside to take their orders, so their meals could be prepped.

By the time the restaurant opened, there were about 20 people in line behind them (? I think).

As it turns out, the restaurant only seats about 9 people, and that's probably why the line is always so long!

It's not like the dishes take forever to cook lol. I think the beef is only cooked for 60 seconds or something like that which gives it a very raw looking appearance.
When they got in, they didn't have to wait very long for their food to be ready (especially since they already ordered), but I don't think it's like the food was sitting there already cold or anything lol.

The gyukatsu is pretty thin, but that's why it doesn't have to be cooked for very long. Both my dad and S said they would go again (at that time. Probably not worth it to wait for 2.5 hours if you can just wait about 45 min). Essentially, it was worth it to push back our leaving Tokyo so they could try it.

the line when they were leaving

S and father actually finished up at the restaurant quite quickly and actually beat me and my mother (who were rushing in Harajuku) back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage.
We then made the short walk back to Shinagawa station, bought some last minute things like bentos for the ride and Tokyo Banana and few other things for omiyage that we could only get in Tokyo and found the correct track for our train. We were about 15 minutes early.

We caught Hikari 513 which left Shinagawa at 12:40pm and arrived at Shin-Osaka (last stop) at 03:26pm. It takes just under 3 hours to get there.

We were able to see Mt. Fuji! Luckily we were on the right side of the train, and the clouds weren't too heavy that day.

When we last rode the shinkansen in Summer 2014, we couldn't really see it/it definitely wasn't this clear!
I love the this beef bento from Shinagawa station. I'm a super picky eater so usually I don't like to eat half the stuff that comes with the main dish in a bento, but I actually eat like 90% of the things in this one! And it tastes good warm or cold :)

my bento

my dad's bento

I decided to keep these two pieces in front of me for the majority of the ride. I don't really need a lot of leg room and actually generally prefer to sit with my legs crossed/not below me if that makes any sense.

The person in back of me when we got on the train was actually working on their laptop, so I didn't feel like I could recline my seat, but after he got off somewhere around Maihama or Nagoya (?), I actually could recline, and it was so much more comfortable lol.

After we arrived at Shin-Osaka, we still had to catch a train to Osaka station, the nearest station to our hotel. It was a short 4 min ride but the cars were quite crowded!
We opted to stay at the Westin Osaka for this trip, and we've never been there before, but thankfully the Westin provided a really good pictorial for how to get to their main lobby from Osaka station and after a short walk, we arrived with no big problems.
S had some fishing stores he wanted to go to right away, so he headed off on his own, and my parents and I went back to the Osaka station area to explore a little bit and see what was around there. We eventually made our way to Hep Five

where I took a brief look in the Liz Lisa on the first floor, before we decided to look for a place for a quick dinner in one of the stations (JR/Hanshin/Hankyu).

We ended up eating in a curry restaurant on the bottom floor of the Daimaru in the Osaka station.

Next, I wanted to quickly stop by the Tennoji MIO Liz Lisa store because I wanted to clarify if I was properly understanding the blog posts about the Liz Lisa x My Melody OP release at that specific location the next day (March 26). Thankfully, I was able to communicate with the shop staff in my limited Japanese and seemingly confirm the release so it wasn't a huge waste of time. I mean, Tennoji is not super inconvenient, but it's actually about a 20-25 minute train ride away, and I literally made the trip over there simply just to ask a question lol. But I think it was worth it because it really affected what I did the next morning since I knew for sure that I could get the dress.

We had to go back to Osaka station from Tennoji (of course, to get back our hotel), and we stopped to get some desserts! My dad and S have been trying cream puffs wherever they saw them, and these (on the left) caught my father's eye when we were walking past earlier.

The same place was also selling eclairs which were really good. The cream puffs ended up not being the best, but we were glad we bought from that place anyway because the eclairs were such a treat despite them not presenting as nice as the cream puffs.

My OOTN and my nails -

I had to add the pom pom knit and changed to sneakers lol. Idk these are just two random pictures that I took that night lol. Nothing of any particular importance.

Day 5 wasn't very eventful for me, but my dad and S got to try something totally new that we can't get in Hawaii despite about an hour's wait. I did get to do a little bit of shopping and take care of a lingering question I was quite nervous about though. And generally, I enjoy catching the shinkansen, especially with the JR Rail Pass because it's really easy + we can reserve seats easily as well. I actually wore what ended up being one of my favorite outfits of the trip on this day but hardly anyone saw it lol.

Again, like for the non-Liz Lisa clothes items from Day 4, since I don't really have any other place to put these photos but on the day they were purchased because it doesn't make sense for them to be in a blog post on their own.

From Swankiss -

stock photo from Swankiss.net

Heart argyle sleeveless knit with poodle embroidery collab (detatched) in pink

with my Liz Lisa fitted denim skirt and Flag J pumps (collar worn) -

with my Liz Lisa long sleeve sheer dot OP and Flag J pumps (collar not worn) -

I bought this because I really wanted to get something from Swankiss but wasn't overjoyed about paying for anything full price (idk I'm a cheapo unless I'm paying for Liz Lisa apparently) and was happy to find this in the sale section. I really liked the strawberry long sleeve version of this top from earlier in spring, but this sleeveless version was still super cute and easier for me to wear in Hawaii. I decided to just purchase it without trying it on and just go with it lol. The length is a little shorter than I thought it would be (although it was obviously meant to be cropped), but that will make it good for layering I think. I really want to try it with a white, A-line chiffon (maybe?) knee length skirt and a white top with sleeves layered underneath. I'm not sure if it'll turn out how I envision it in my head, but I don't have the right things to go with it right now, so I probably won't find out for awhile lol. Meanwhile, I saw a picture of a model (maybe it was Yui Kanno actually) while scrolling through the Swankiss tag on Twitter wearing the long sleeve strawberry version of this top with a denim skirt with suspender straps similar to my Liz Lisa one, so I gave that a go for this post lol. And since I wanted to try to add sleeves/layering, the Liz Lisa dress was the first thing to come to mind. The skirt of the OP actually starts at just about the right place and the pinks go pretty well together. I think I still need to do a little experimenting to find the right coordinate for this top, but meanwhile, I will probably just enjoy the print which I think is super cute.

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