Day 2 - Zojoji Temple, Tokyo Tower, Harajuku

It's our 2nd day in Tokyo! As we're a lil bit tired from the previous day, we went out quite late at 11am. Before we went out, we had a quick and simple breakfast at our apartment with pork buns (cha siu bao) that my dad bought at Lawson.. It's so delish that even Jakarta's most famous bun shop couldn't beat it.. The dough is so soft and the pork has a perfect seasonings + so many pork fats (which is my favorite part). Lol.
On the photo above, I was holding another can of van houten hot cocoa, it's available at my apartment's vending machine.. yayyy!! Hot choco every morning =P

Then we're going to have another breakfast / early lunch at Ichiran Ramen (click for address).
It's not hard to find this place.
First you must go to Shibuya Crossing, then go to the road which is the right side road from Starbucks (It's a huge starbucks store right in front of shibuya station hachiko exit).
Just walk straight and you'll find Seibu, Oicity, etc.

Continue to walk straight along the right side of the road, you'll find a ZARA store. The Ichiran stall is a few steps after ZARA. It's located in a basement of a building . The place is soo small !!

• Top left : The Ichiran sign!
• Top right: I got there at 11am , so it's not really crowded, but I still had to queue for 15mins. My tip is: don't go there during lunch time (12am-2pm) as the queue is kinda CRAZY , esp. in the freezing cold winter weather! =___=.
• Bottom left: Order the ramen with a vending machine! There's only 1 menu which is buta ramen (pork ramen), but you can order additional hard boiled egg, extra leeks, rice, pork, noodle, etc. 
• Bottom right: This waiter will hand you another 'menu' to custom your own ramen like the richness of the soup, the strength of flavor, how many garlic/leeks/sauce you want, etc.

We sat inside a small booth and they'll open the partition if you come with your friends (in a group)

The taste itself was very satisfying and worth the hype. My dad who dislikes all the ramen franchises in Jakarta even told me that the ramen is delicious! :)

After having our yummy meal, we're heading to Hamamatsucho Station (JR Yamanote line) from Shibuya Station.

It was raining since early morning and it was one of the coldest days when I was in Japan T.T.

Even the firefighter sign is soo cuteee... *___*

We wear masks as it's really...really...cold...till there were snots coming out of my nose .. lol

So.. the hamamatsucho station was the station we took to go to Zojoji temple and Tokyo Tower!! :)

The big red gate is Sangedatsumon Gate which is believed that if you pass through this gate, you'll overcome 3 passions (greed, hatred, and foolishness) !

In front of the main hall of Zojoji temple, there's this big maple tree that still had those red & orange leaves. I couldn't help but to take soo many photos there!! I feel so lucky to be able to find this pretty tree! It's me & my parent's first time ever experiencing fall/autumn season :D

Zojoji temple itself is a Buddhist temple. There are places where you can hang your wishes and the bad (not-so-good) luck papers that you got from the fortune-teller (usually it's put in a stick inside a bamboo/bottle where it'll come out when you shake it).

The Jizo statues above symbolize the unborn children (aborted, misscaried, unborn). I think their parents will come to visit them at some time to change the knits. There were also some statues that wore jackets since its winter! :'>

Behind Zojoji temple, there's Tokyo Tower! I've been dreaming to go to this place since I didn't go there at my 1st visit to Japan. Look at the pretty autumn trees :). Couldn't stop smiling despite the freezing wind that blew!

Along the way to Tokyo tower, there's this small garden full of autumn / maple trees too! So we took photos...again. xD

A small food stall at Tokyo Tower that sells coffee, milk, ice cream, and crepes. Too bad I don't like crepes so I just bought hot coffee for my dad.

I know this is kinda random, but I found out that most of the food stalls in Japan have this alcohol sanitizer. So the seller's hand will be clean after they receive money and then go to make the food. The buyer can also use it before they eat there. I still don't find this hygene attitude in Indonesia's food stalls :(

The view of Tokyo from Tokyo Tower. Although it was cloudy and hazy, my dad said that Japan's roads are all so good till it looks like a 'miniature' city from above and there's not any holes on the road (like in Indonesia.. lol). The road's lines are also very clear and bold. In Indonesia, we still find many road lines which are almost invisible... T_T. The citizens are also very obedient to the rules as there's not anyone who cross the road carelessly (not at the zebracross). My friend, Ashley (whom I met later on that day) told me that's because their tax is very high and it's all used to make the perfect roads & public facilities!

We had dinner at Matsuya . I ordered a bowl of kimchi & beef rice. This matsuya stall is located in Daimon street (along the way back to Hamamatsucho station). I still prefer Yoshinoya !

From Hamamatsucho station, we headed to Harajuku station to go to Takeshita dori! The rain was even harder than before I couldn't take any photo along this street :( :(. 

I met Ashley in Takeshita dori. Actually we wanted to visit this Pompompurin Cafe but the queue was so long and I couldn't bear the cold weather T_T. *giving 100 thumbs out for those Japanese girls who queued at that time T_T*

Super small portion which was still BIGG for me xD

In front of Pompompurin Cafe, there's an omu-rice restaurant (I got excited right away!!). We decided to eat & have a chit chat there :)

I knew Ashley in 2009 through blog-walking. We exchanged postcards and e-mails. I'm so happy to meet her! We had chit-chats as if we had ever met before! >o<. She's such a kind and lovely person! :D

We went to Liz Liza's store and it felt like heaven on earth *_*. The shop assistant was so kawaiiiii and humble. They really treated customers as "princess". I got 2 pieces of clothes there (for my sis who's a big fan of Liz Liza!) hehehe :)

I told Ashley that I wanted to go to a Purikura photobooth Then we went to this place which's full of purikura booths. There were so many of it, and here's the result of our purikura session.

Look! I look like a different person... I wish my cheeks and eyes looked like this in real life T^T .
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Overall, that day was such a blast despite the freezing weather. Dear Ashley, let's meet again in the future! Hope I can go to Japan again soon! ;)
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#verenleinJAPAN - @verenleecious