Japan Day 4

4.8.2025

See day 3 of the trip

3.13 Thursday

After my previous days of sweet sugary mornings, I really wanted a full and hearty breakfast. I chose WOODBERRY COFFEE SHIBUYA, which is a popular brunch spot nearby. And popular it is! I came 5 minutes after opening and had to wait (not too long though) for a sit spot

I ordered the smoked salmon benny (benny!!), spicy strawberry mocha, and hojicha cheesecake You order after being seated using the QR code located on the table. I requested my cheesecake to arrive after the main meal.

Omg, this benny - it was really hearty and filling! I haven’t eaten a full avocado-toast-like food ever since starting my diet, so I was soooo happy to eat such a delicious and lavish variation. The benny was made fresh and with perfect texture!

I rarely eat egg now too so definitely this was like a treat meal for me.

They take their coffee really seriously! This was another place where I think my manz, a fancy coffee lover, would enjoy It was honestly a bit too fancy for me and I think I would’ve preferred it sweeter (after all, it’s a mocha), but I think there was an option to sweeten it when you order but… I hadn’t selected it. LOL

Yes, the cheesecakes have returned. I was a little nervous since houjicha is hit-or-miss for me in terms of enjoying the flavour but this cheesecake was SO good! I think it’s not made in-house (I don’t remember) but I really enjoyed it with my meal, even though I was completely bursting at this point!

While walking after my meal I came across this restaurant with these funky paintings. I don’t know why they were there, but I enjoyed seeing them

Since the weather was so beautiful, finally, I got to walk outside at a park and I chose Shinjuku Gyoen. It was the perfect option and really uplifted my whole mood.

Since it was still kind of cold, not a lot of blooms were present, but it was still so crispy and refreshing. I haven’t mentioned it yet, but during my trip, I tried to get about 15-20k steps a day if possible, so a beautiful park to walk at was suitable

Basically, so far I’ve been walking between stations as much as possible to get in some extra steps, but the rain made it kind of gloomy so far. Thankfully, today was really lovely out!

There were even cherry (? or plum? lol I have no idea honestly, I’ll just call them cherry blossoms) blossoms at the park which people crowded around haha! But it wasn’t a huge crowd yet so I was very happy and surprised to see such early spring blooms!

Filled me with so much happiness

While taking photos, a little pink leaf fell on my fuzz

So pink!!!

While I was trying to take photos of this tree, a really nice girl walked up to me to ask me for help with taking her picture. I think she was a solo traveller too which made me happy to see - she was really kind and offered to help me take photos too, though I wasn’t planning to (I didn’t even wear makeup today haha). When I hesitated, she was really cheerful and said it would look super cute, so I was convinced!

My neck got kind of tired looking up at all the pink blossoms lol but it was lovely! I spent a long time walking around them and enjoying even though there really was just like 3 trees that blossomed It was kind of funny because you could see other people running from pink tree to pink tree, too.

I took some photos of my boy

Some of my favourite photos from this trip was of my pink flowered boy

My manz suggested visiting Sekaido which was basically just outside Shinjuku Gyoen, and I’ve always wanted to go, so I visited here after a relaxing time at the park.

Omg I was missing out by skipping this on my previous trips!!! I thought it was just going to be mostly art supplies which I don’t really need more of, but it had tons of stationery (which I also don’t need more of haha but ) It was super fun to browse!

I even found sumikko goodies

Finally, the other stop I planned for today (though now that I think about it, this would’ve been better on the rainy day…) was Thermae-Yu - a spa recommended by both jumelle and my manz. Wow, I am not really a spa person normally but this place is sooooo relaxing!!!

It’s just one price for the whole day (you can stay overnight for an additional fee) but I really, really needed a relaxing few hours, which I spent happily here. There are multiple floors with lots of amenities and relax spots aside from the spas. I even tried a hot rock room which wasn’t as hot as a sauna or hot yoga, but comfortably hot.

There’s food that my manz said was really tasty but I only had the cremia ice cream hehe (I was tempted by the protein smoothies lol but sadly they only use whey)

I really wanted to visit here again before my trip ended but sadly didn’t get to, but I guess I’ll have to plan to go again on my next trip

On my next stop, I went to Tokyo Station to check out the Chiikawa and Sumikko shops. Wow, the Chiikawa shop is so packed that you have to get in line for like 30 minutes just to pay! Sarah invited me to see her idol friend Heidi perform but I was stuck in line at Tokyo Station lol…

I got a few gifts but I don’t know if I would really recommend stopping by here just for Chiikawa. Tokyo Station is quite far and the checkout line was really long, and a lot of the merch you could find at other chiikawa store locations. Still, it was fun to browse since I was already there!

Then, I went to the Sumikko store…

…and saw these cute boys…

…that were all so cute…

…and I’m so obsessed with them LOL

But they look cuter in groups or arranged like this, so I didn’t end up buying any for myself (somehow)!

I kind of regret not picking one (or some) up though… just look how funky they are!!!

I also saw these huge boys I wanted huge shirokuma so badly but there’s no way he’d fit in my luggage. Oh well… I guess I don’t have anywhere to put him anyway

Wow looking at this photo and seeing how poor quality I took it is pretty funny Anyway, this was Maguro-to-Shari Shibuya, a tuna bowl specialty shop. I zipped in here 20 minutes before they closed hoping the kitchen was still open, and got so lucky, because after I came in the owner turned the sign to Closed! It was super cold and rainy outside so I was sooo thankful I got to eat food even though I was calculating which konbini food would sustain me the best as I ran to this store haha

I somehow didn’t initially realise it’s a tuna specialty shop… I typically prefer salmon but decided to just try it out. You order via a machine at the back and pay there, then give the ticket to the owner who will prepare the bowl for you!

I got a smaller salmon bowl with some fatty tuna added in, and it was so fresh and delicious! I liked how straightforward it is. The owner gave me a free miso soup too (probably because it was about to close haha but it was cold out so it was really nice)

These were my buys from the Sumikko shop