Japan trip Spring 2017 Part 2: Day 2 - Liz Lisa x My Melody Shibuya 109 release and Yokohama Ramen Museum

March 25 was the in-store release date for the Liz Lisa x My Melody 11th collab vol 2 items! I had previously discussed going early to Shibuya 109 with Ebony so we could wait in line together. Based on her previous experience with My Melody collab recent releases, we decided to try to get to the store at around 05:00am.

I had a hard time sleeping despite trying to go to bed at around 20:30. I ended up constantly waking up and checking my phone to make sure I wouldn't oversleep. I finally decided to just get up at around 03:40 to start getting ready. I was out of the apartment and in Shinagawa station by around 04:33. It was so empty!

The Yamanote line train wasn't arriving until 04:43 so I was a bit early but there were plenty of other people who wanted to catch the same train.

I had no trouble just getting a seat on the train and catching it a several stops over to Shibuya. I walked straight to 109 and arrived just before 05:00!

Ebony hadn't arrived yet and I didn't see any other customer either which made me really nervous :O. I looked all around the entrance and didn't see anyone who seemed to be interested in Liz Lisa. I messaged Ebony and she told me that the previous release waiting area was actually in the basement so I went down to check, but again, no Liz Lisa customers. Just homeless people. I even went down to check B2 just in case but was only greeted by many, many more sleeping homeless people.

I didn't want to wait down there alone so I went back up to the first floor and waited for Ebony to arrive.

This was the area that I had previously waited for the Liz Lisa x Yui Kanno collab event two years ago but was never this early and I've never been first before. It was so nerve wracking because I began doubting that today was even the day of the release and thinking I had woken up at 03:40 for nothing lmao.

Ebony arrived a short while later and we both put down (matching!) floor mats and sat down. 

We sat alone with no one else joining the line for a while except Ebony's friend Sylvia. Eventually a security guard walked by and Ebony asked him where we should be waiting for the Liz Lisa release. He told us that we were supposed to be on B1 after all! We walked downstairs and a security guy had moved the homeless people and was opening the area and putting out line guides. Just as that was happening, the next customer finally showed up.
On the glass of the B1 entrance was this flier that identified where you were supposed to wait for each store's release. I didn't see it earlier because the 109 gate was pulled down.

We settled in again (by this time, it was close to 06:30) and just waited.

Ebony and Sylvia went to Family Mart for a small breakfast and picked this up for me while I watched over our spots.

And we continued waiting lol. Luckily there was also a super clean bathroom in the Shibuya subway station so that wasn't an issue. I thought I would have more to blog about this, but since relatively few people showed up after us and we just sat and chatted, there isn't really much to say!

Just after 09:30, the Liz Lisa staff came downstairs to hand out the tickets to represent which items we wanted to buy. Since I was first in line, I got "1" for the three items I wanted - the OP in pink, the OP in white and the charm. She continued down the line to give all the other waiting customers their tickets as well. There were only maybe 13-14 people in line after me including Ebony.

Shortly before 10:00, we were led into the store in line order by 109 staff.

We went all the way up the escalator to the 6th floor and directly to Liz Lisa.

I waited at the counter until the store officially opened and handed over my tickets in exchange for the items and made my purchase!

Then waited while Ebony and Sylvia made their purchases as well. By this time, there were a few more customers who had joined the line but still not very many imo.

Having gotten what we came (at 05:00am) for, we left 109.

 And Ebony and I went to go take purikura!

I made sure to take off my mask this time so it wouldn't make my face weird but I guess it can't be helped lmao. Ebony and I were twinning in Liz Lisa x My Melody 10th collab vol 1 sweet cake OPs. I'm wearing pink and she's wearing the white version.

Thank you Ebony for keeping me sane while we waited for the store to open! It's a shame that it doesn't really feel "worth it" as much with such a small amount of other customers who waited before the opening time, but this is probably the only time I'll ever be first in line and I was definitely with good company! And at least we didn't have to worry about getting the exact items we wanted + we were able to check out quickly because we didn't have to wait for anyone else lol.

We separated so Ebony could go home to receive the rest of her collab items (!) and I went back to Shibuya station to meet up with S who had done his own shopping in the area that morning.

We were both already hungry and a bit tired, so we started on our way back to Shinagawa and googled for a convenient place to eat. We ended up exiting Shinagawa station from the Konan exit and trying to find an Ootoya,

But on our way to the Ootoya, we found something I'd rather eat - Tonkatsu Wako! I remembered eating at the Machida location during my last trip thanks to Kaede's recommendation and definitely wanted to eat it again.

Once we finished eating, we walked back to the apartment and ended up taking a nap/resting for about an hour. I didn't really fall asleep but it was still nice to kind of relax even though I had just spent about 4.5 hours sitting in one spot lol.

We headed out again, this time to Azamino via Shibuya where we transferred to the Tokyu Den-en toshi line. I'm not really sure what else is out there but S always visits to go to this fishing store.

From there, we went to Machida after transferring at Nagatsuta.

I exited on the north side and thankfully you can see Machida 109 easily from the station.

And straight to Liz Lisa again!

There wasn't anything in particular I wanted to buy for myself but I did find something that Berri wanted there!

Also stopped in the bathroom and apparently took a selfie lol. I'm impressed with myself that I was able to handle being indoors with the scarf on wtf. I usually overheat really easily, but it was a good sign that I seemed to be semi-adapting somewhat well.

I met back up with S and we went back to Machida station.

And continued onto Yokohama! I left the station from the West exit and after a short walk, found the Vivre building.

Where I went to another Liz Lisa lol.

This location actually had both colors of the My Melody collab dress still in stock at 17:00! Bahaha definitely didn't need to wake up so early for it.

I didn't end up making a purchase so I was done early and was able to walk over to meet S at the Yokohama Sansui which I was surprised I was able to find tbh.

We both returned to Yokohama station and took a short train ride to Shin-Yokohama.

We met up with some of my two friends from high school and walked over to the Ramen Museum! Admission is 300yen per person.

The first floor has the shop and some displays about the history of ramen, but we were hungry so we briefly looked at the different ramen offerings and went downstairs.

which has some really cool theming! And a huge crowd of people lol.

It took us a while to figure out what we wanted to eat. If you can't read Japanese, I would definitely suggest picking up a pamphlet to help you decide which restaurant you'd want to stand in line for. It's a bit difficult with the large crowds to just walk around and look at menus.

We mostly based our decision on a ramen we were semi-interested in that didn't have too long of a wait. (It was supposed to be around 10 minutes versus 30+ minutes.) None of the restaurant lines really have seats for waiting and it's pretty dang warm in there so the I felt really impatient but the aesthetics are really neat and staff members ended up putting on a small show! They had started doing magic when we finally got into the restaurant.

Bought tickets for our food from the vending machine outside.

And were seated at the counter.

After a small wait, our ramen was ready!

My friends were planning to stay a little longer and then go to another event later that evening, so after we were done eating, we parted ways. I was definitely too tired to do much else with the night.

S and I just briefly stopped at the shop upstairs to take a look.

The ambience was really nice in there, but the ramen cost didn't seem to be offset by the admission price at all and the wait was really long, even for the short lines! I'm not sure that this is a place we'd necessarily visit again unless we knew there wouldn't be a crowd. I think if you have a lot of time and really, really like ramen, this would be a good place, but not the best for just trying to sample several types and go.

Since we were already at Shin-Yokohama, we just hopped on the next Hikari-type shinkansen to get back to Shinagawa in an unreserved car.

And arrived just 11 easy minutes later! Can you tell how tired I was feeling at that point? Lol. One of my favorite things about Shinagawa is the easy access to our accommodations after getting off the shinkansen. No further transferring necessary.

I actually had wanted to try to go to Minato Mirai Sakura Festival in Yokohama between our shopping and the Ramen Museum, but since we took the break in the early afternoon and ran all the errands beforehand, I was too tired to try to bother. It was supposed to have an illumination of the sakura trees, but I have a feeling that there weren't too many blossoms at that point anyway, and I'm glad we decided to go back when we did because I was so ready to sleep. I had an early morning (and apparently woke S up so much he couldn't go back to sleep either) and a productive day. I was easily able to get the My Melody collab items I wanted without having to fight the servers online and deal with pre-ordering. Just needed a little willpower to wake up early and some patience to wait haha. If I had to do it over again knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn't go at the same time since it really wasn't necessary, but it was certainly an experience and don't regret anything!

🌸 Japan trip Spring 2017 🌸
    Part 1: Arrival and Day 1 - Liz Lisa shopping and Ueno Park
    Part 2: Day 2 - Liz Lisa x My Melody Shibuya 109 release and Yokohama Ramen Museum
    Part 3: Day 3 - Tokaido Shinkansen to Osaka and meeting Mintkismet/Rilakkuma cafe
    Part 4: Day 4 - Hiroshima Peace Museum, Hiroshima Castle and Miyajima/Itsukushima Shrine
    Part 5: Day 5 - Nagoya Aquarium, Nagoya Castle, Science Museum and Oasis 21
    Part 6: Day 6 - Tokaido Shinkansen back to Tokyo and MariCAR Street Go-Kart Tour
    Part 7: Day 7 - Kawatsura Strawberry Farm, National Art Center, Rikugien Garden Illumination
    Part 8: Liz Lisa purchases/coordinates
    Part 9: Travel Notes - Airbnb, JR Pass, luggage & Pupuru pocket wifi
    Part 10: OOTD breakdown 

✦ Japan trip Winter 2017 posts
✦ Japan trip Spring 2016 posts
✦ Japan trip Autumn 2015 posts
✦ Japan trip Summer 2015 posts
✦ Japan trip Spring 2015 posts
✦ Japan trip Summer 2014 posts