Hey Hive!
Sorry for the hiatus last week but we were away on another trip, this time across two countries we visited briefly before! It was quite chilly but we had a good time and more importantly got to see lots of beautiful cherry blossoms!
But now we're back to our regular schedule, continuing on with our anniversary trip to Tokyo back in Feb 2023! It'd been at least 3 years since we visited Tokyo and the last time was pre-covid so we decided to go back and find some new places to explore while revisiting our favourite hot-spots.
Last time, we left off admiring and cooing over adorable puppies in P's First, one of our favourite stores to visit in Japan.
We also had a very delicious dinner from our favourite chain - Abura Soba, which is oil noodles with a special seasoned sauce.
Anyway, on to the next day!
6 Feb 2023. Monday.
We didn't really have anything special planned today and just wanted to relax. But first, it was time to go get our favourite breakfast! I've written about Japanese bakeries before in my foodie series, but if you've never tried them they are really in a league of their own.
We were on the hunt of a specific bakery though, which is actually part of a convenience store chain. However, only certain outlets will have this special bakery section so we had to take the train to one of these unique branches.
We ended up taking the train to Toyosu station which has something that I've actually never seen before. The train platform has an unused track that is completely covered up! You can tell from the gantries that remain that there used to be another track there.
Apparently this was covered up because of a change in the train timetable resulting in an unused track that was covered up to ease passenger congestion for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Anyway, we made our way out of the station and it was a perfect day for a short stroll to the convenience store.
I saw pictures of the store online but seeing it in person was even more impressive because this was by far the biggest Daily Yamazaki outlet I've ever seen!
To compare, this is what a regular Daily Yamazaki outlet looks like, and if they have the special bakery section the sign would also say Daily Hot.
But this outlet was not just Daily Hot, they had a whole Daily Bakery, which was new to us as well. We were so excited to check it out!
We entered the store and made a beeline for the Daily Bakery which took up half of the store!
They had quite a selection as well, definitely more than the regular Daily Hot sections in other outlets.
I think this part of the display were all the bestsellers, but honestly everything looked and smelled so good!
I had to get my favourite bread, which was this Bacon and Egg Toast. I don't even remember when we first discovered this but now every time we visit Japan we always try to find it.
We took some time to peruse their selection before buying a few buns. The rest of the store looked pretty normal but maybe a bit more polished in this fancier-looking Daily Yamazaki.
Japanese convenience stores have always intrigued me, just like they do for many others. It's always so tempting to buy a bunch of different snacks to try.
But I retrained myself and we bought one Bacon Egg Toast each, and decided to try their sugar donut as well since it was the number 1 most popular product.
Another feature of this store was this nice seating area with quite a few tables available for patrons to enjoy their food. Considering it's a convenience store and not a cafe, this seating area was quite spacious. We sat down here to enjoy a nice relaxing breakfast.
I don't really have a sweet tooth but I do enjoy donuts; but only the simple plain sugar donuts, not the fancy ones with various flavours or fillings.
This donut was really special though! It was fluffy on the inside and slightly crisp on the outside with a generous coating of cinnamon sugar that thankfully didn't spill. I think Sean said it was one of the best donuts he's had.
We enjoyed our delicious toast and a nice filling breakfast while people watching.
After that we went to take a stroll around the neighbourhood to enjoy the nice sunny weather.
There was just a bunch of office and apartment buildings but we came across this playground and I couldn't resist.
We saw some preschool kids going on a walk as well, and there were a few being pushed in this huge pram that looked like a mini train of sorts.
There was a park nearby and we figured they were heading there so we followed along as well. The sky was a brilliant blue and it was nice to enjoy the weather without perspiring.
We saw bigger playgrounds here and a number of kids running around.
There were also some other kids around that looked like they were on a field trip. Seems like everyone was out and about enjoying the good weather.
This park is right near the water as well, overlooking this river running through the city.
It was nice and breezy here beside the water but we had a stunning view of the Shinonome Bridge from here.
We walked along the path that had the most shade and came across some leftover sakura on the trees.
There wasn't much shade up here though with the trees being so sparse so we headed down to the water's edge to hopefully get some nice photos.
The sun was shining quite brightly in our faces but I think the photos turned out okay.
We saw some people with adorable poodles going on a walk as well.
There was a group of people flying a kite in the distance too, it was nice seeing people enjoying themselves on such a fine day.
But it was getting quite warm with the day approaching noon, so we decided to see what else was around.
Apparently there was a museum and monument nearby.
There were some steps over here that looked like they were seating areas for something, kind of like an amphitheater.
I wonder if there were street performers here on weekends. It would work as good stage, especially with the river in the background.
We saw a couple walking a corgi from afar! It looked so cute!
There was a line of shophouses that looked quite European along this side of the river. I think they were mostly cafes that were closed at the time. They probably only open in the evenings.
We also came across this huge outdoor eating area that looked like they were designed around food trucks. It definitely gave off that hipster bar vibe that I can see being very happening at night.
I bet this place would look so nice lit up at night too.
We heard about this art exhibition called TeamLab Planets that everyone likes to visit, but heard that the queues are also ridiculous so we decided to just check it out.
One of Sean's friends recently came here and said that the line was surprisingly short that day but I guess it wasn't our day. The crowd was insane and full of tourists lining up in the hot sun so we decided to bail on it.
Since we were already on the outskirts of Tokyo we decided to head to Odaiba which was just a few stations away.
We would be taking this track to Daiba station.
We'd been walking for a while so it was relief to sit on the train and rest our feet for a bit.
The train had a nice view of the river as well.
And there was also a special seat where you could be at the head of the train so we snapped some photos.
It'd been a while since we were on this side of Tokyo, and this building is probably the most iconic in Odaiba. It always reminded me of a robot from Gundam.
We were just going to explore Odaiba but ended up doing something special here. But more on that next time!
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #276 (Tokyo): Cute Pups, Nummy Noodles and Shopping 🐶
