Last day in Tokyo

Mum and Dad are flying back home tonight, so I thought we'd spend the last day exploring Tokyo for food and some last minute shopping.

For brunch, we went to 茶鍋カフェ kagurazaka saryo. It's the first time I've brought my parents here.

I was super glad that my parents enjoyed the meal. It's such a nice comfort food for winter.

Best of all, you can get a dessert lunch set.

The cakes here are always good. It was my first time trying the sweet potato cake and I LOVE it~!!!

After some shopping, we stopped by Ichiran ramen for tea break. 

While many who live here argue that there are many ramen that are better than this and that's true. But it's undeniable that their tonkotsu broth is delicious and is really easy for foreigners to accept as they're not too oily as some of the local ones. Also, it's great that you can customise it!

I think many also feel that the pork slices served are too thin, but one can always order extra meat.

Personally, I enjoy it once in a while.

heehee.....at the salaryman waiting area!

Haneda airport has a nice open area on their top floor that  gives you a nice view of the planes.

Dad and mum flew with ANA here and back this time. They said that the seats were very comfortable.

Sagamiko Illumination 2019

On the journey back from Shizuoka, we stopped by Sagamiko Pleasure Forest.

Website: https://www.sagamiko-resort.jp/

We came here for the illumination and it's not too bad. It costs 1000yen/ adult for the entrance ticket into the park for the illumination.

We arrived before sunset but it was ok. We just sat down with a hot baked sweet potato and enjoyed the view. It always feels nice to enjoy a piece of hot sweet potato when you're out in the cold.

It got dark pretty quickly and soon we were hiking up the hill to enjoy the illumination.

Look at the beautiful colours.

I could spot a few differences from when I last visited 2 years ago.

I think it's nice that they change things up a bit as it would have been boring for those who have been here before.

Mom soon got tired as this is a pretty big and steep hill to climb.

So after we hiked down, we dropped mum off at the restaurant for some ramen before we continued with the rest of the park.

Big Xmas tree, spot Daddy and I.

This year there was this interactive illumination thing, whereby we were all given a glow stick before entering the tent.

Inside is this big crystal surrounded by walls of lights and mirrors. The glow sticks are programmed to not be of the same colour but their on/off timing matches the illumination show in the tent.

After that, it was another 90mins before we arrived at Sushi Ro for dinner! As we did not book before hand, we had to wait for almost an hour to get seated as this place was super popular! Oh well, but the food was amazing as always!

Shimizu Fish market - 海山

For breakfast the next morning, we went to the Shimizu fish market - 海山.

Website: http://www.shimizu-maguro.com/menulist.html

As daddy doesn't like sashimi, we walked around the market, checking out the menu to see if there are things that dad would like. Well, there are many shops that serves cooked food, but we ended up at 海山 because of their fancy looking anago tempura don.

Mum and I had the sashimi don which was delicious~

We also ordered some cooked dishes to be shared. 

This here is the fried kuro iwashi hanpen which is another specialty of Shizuoka. I don't really like this, the flavour of iwashi if pretty strong.

The friend squid was super delicious, we ordered a second one. 

The kimmedai was also good, but I feel like the taste is on the light side.

Gotta have another sakura ebi because it's a popular dish from Shizuoka.

Get there early before the shop opens and you can get a nice seat by the window, overlooking the dock.

Look at the size of the bowl for the sashimi don!

  

While the weather was super dark and gloomy, we were lucky that it didn't rain when we were at the market..

As we drove towards the Gotemba premium outlets, it rained heavily. Even so, there were many cars heading towards the premium outlets and all the nearby car parks were full. Hence, we had to park pretty far away and walk in the rain towards the outlet.

Website: https://www.premiumoutlets.co.jp/gotemba/

We had tea there with some chiffon cakes before continuing our journey towards Sagamiko.

Suruga Onsen

Once again, I'm back at Suruga Kenkoland.

Website: https://www.kur-hotel.co.jp/suruga/access

I've been in love with their onsen ever since the last time I visited with Kiu. 

As it was the New Year's holiday this time, it was more packed that the last time I visited. We had to wait about 30 mins before we could get a seat for dinner. But that gave me a chance to snack on some ice cream! :)

Ordered a few dishes to share. We had the butadon which was super yummy. 

Some assorted yakitori which I thought were not that good.

Sakura ebi tempura was super delicious. So good, that we ordered another one.

Then a huge platter of yakisoba. Soooo good~

And this cold garlic nasu appetiser dish which was the super delicious!

I really enjoy the onsen here, but this is not the place for you if you have tattoos as they are very strict here. While there are more and more places that allow people with tattoos, it is still not that common yet.

S-Pulse Dream Plaza

S-Pulse Dream Plaza~

I last visited here about 10 year ago with Dad and later with Naoko & Kiu.

Somehow it seems like, this is one of the must go to places when visiting Shizuoka.

This time we were stopping by to just look-see, before checking into our hotel.

We passed by this booth selling canelé. It has a best selling, no.1 sign all over the booth!

So we bought some to try too.....but unfortuntely, none of it tastes good. Lol, not sure if this is how it was supposed to taste but it was just horrible. I can't believe that it was a top selling food!

 I prefer the ones made by the Italian restaurant that I frequent.

In this area, there are many seafood restaurants. Other than the sushi buffet that I had with Dad, I have never dined here before.

Maybe next time, I shall try a sashimi don from one of the restaurants here as they looked good!

Lol, a 2019 version. Every time I visit, I snap a picture of this.

And once again, I'm back at the ramune meseum.

They seem to change up a little something each time.

Then back on the road we go, towards our hotel. This time, we got a nice view of Mount Fuji. :D