Japan Trip Day 2 - Shinjuku & YOI Cafe

Part two of day two starts now! So we used our Suica to take the train for the first time! It was so easy I was surprised! We navigated really easily with Google Maps and it helps x1000 that all the signs to take trains and stuff were all in English. We took the Yamanote line down to Shinjuku at around 6pm-ish? It was rush hour at this time but tbh every time we took the train felt like rush hour... It was always so busy e__e 

Anyways it started drizzling by the time we wanted to go there so we took a quick stop by the TKRB 3coins store again and bough some umbrellas! They were clear umbrellas but they had the sword boys on them so it was super cute! And a lot durable than I thought they would be?

It was super misty and rainy so these shots are not good but look at this pretty clock tower~

We got to Shinjuku a bit later than I planned to so we didn't explore it that much, but we did stop by Tokyu Hands! There's so much stuff here omg... When we went there they were also doing a Boku no Hero Academia and Bandyaroze collaboration so here's a mini pic spam of that~ I'm not too into either show/game so I didn't buy anything related to them lolol;;

Each floor had a different hero standee but I wasn't able to find them all ;o; Where are all the girls at?! Tho I think there were actually two escalators and I just ended up going on the one with all the boys lmao;;

Bandyaro collab! I played maybe 30 minutes of it so I knew what the charas look like but past that I am clueless LOLOL;; I did like these little chibi standees tho! And they're wearing aprons to look like Tokyu Hands workers~

After buying some stuff it was time for our reservation at the Yuri on Ice cafe! This one was completely reservation based and also a collaboration with Sanrio which made it 100x more cute! I made a reservation online on the last day (which ended up being the first and only day we could go, really). 

When the reservations were out it was the last day at least... a couple days before the last day they ended up actually extending the cafe dates AND adding new merch for fall which I'm just a little salty about! Anyways, we showed them the reservation through my phone and they gave us a menu and seated us upstairs in the dine-in area. I think they knew we were foreigners because lmao I completely forgot all my Japanese :')))

Here's the entrance and what it looked like outside. They had a little area downstairs where you could order from the take-out menu and some seats where you could eat your take out food at. This is good for people who weren't able to get reservations, but because it is take out, you don't get the cute little placemat and coaster you get for reserving/ordering food. Also I'm not sure if you were able to buy some of the merch if you didn't make a reservation..? It kinda makes sense because reservations means paying for it!

The area upstairs was just as cute as downstairs! There's more pics of the three featured boys and if you can see under the Vikor/Yuri wall, there's a bookshelf with merch you can buy. All of the merch was cafe specific which means limited merch! They had keychains, standees, pass cases, and all sorts of merch! I'm not an avid YOI fan so I wasn't super tempted in collecting all the merch, but I did get some stuff for friends~

Anyways, ordering food! It's still a cafe, after all LOLOL;; We ordered through a little ticket thing where we could list what we wanted and how many of each thing you wanted. Each drink gets you a random coaster, and an entree gets you a random clear file. We also got random place mats based on where we sat.

Somehow I was blessed with Yuri for both items! Yuri + Pochaco is the cutest combination akslfjaskf As soon as we got them, we took off the placemat (because who would eat on them and ruin them, really?!)

Finally the food came!! Both Gaby and I got katsudons because why not... I was really craving katsudon! Compared to the Gudetama cafe we ate at in Singapore, the katsudon was just... OK? Like it was worth it because it was a themed cafe, but I've had better katsudons. IT WAS CUTE THO because look at the little edible Yuri and Pochaco on top! I guess it's printed rice cracker? It had a sweet taste to it strangely enough.

The drink came after! It was a matcha milk drink with a cotton candy Pochaco Yuri on top. It's kinda sad... because you pour the milk over the cotton candy to sweeten it which ends up killing Pochaco Yuri in the end Q__Q His glasses were made of the same printed rice cracker as the one on the katsudon. The drink was delicious~ Still sad because good bye Pochaco Yuri but delicious.

They were playing the first ep of YOI when we were there (if I remember correctly). We ended up just chilling in the cafe and watching the other customers. It was kind of a quiet day, but it was still fun to see all the fans bring out their itabags and yoi goods with them! Made me feel kind of out of place because I didn't have any YOI good with me;;

We bought merch after and I got this cute cute cuteee standee! I got two Viktors and one Yuri. A Victuuri sandwich!!! Tho I did end up giving the Viktor away to a friend haha

A couple more shots of the cafe decor! I love how they went all out with the decor... The walls are all YOI/Sanrio and super cute ;w; I wish they had places like that here, but apparently it was hard enough to bring a Hello Kitty food truck here =__=

Oh yeah! You could also order stuff off their take out menu when you dine in! The menu was mostly the same, but they had this drink that came with a super cute water bottle! I wasn't too big of a fan of the drink... It was like Sprite + fruits? And I can't do carbonated drinks l-lol;;

By then it was about 9 and we had brought another friend to Shinjuku so we wanted to meet up again before leaving our separate ways~ We went back to the department store where Tokyu Hands was and then walked around Shinjuku for a bit!

Look at all the lights reflecting off the wet streets... It's pretty now but it kinda sucked being there because everything was getting wet!!! Except those placemats/clearfiles we got earlier but I'll talk about that later :'))) We took our friend to Donki because everyone should experience Donki at least once and OMFG WE FOUND A GREAT DEAL!!

LOOK AT THESE KIGURUMI! THEY WERE ON SALE FOR 500 YEN EACH??? We saw them at the Ikebukuro Donki too, but it was like 2000 yen there and I was only gonna buy it once I made all my other purchases the rest of the days, BUT NO MAN THIS DEAL WAS TOO GOOD TO PASS UP!!! They were so warm too... I ended up sleeping in them the rest of the trip because the hotel was weirdly cold ;;

But anyways! We went back to the hotel after Donki, but not before stopping by a conbini! Saki told us about this milk tea water??? And I was very curious so I ended up buying it and wtf this thing was... Milk tea. But it was clear. There was an article on Rocketnews later about it and ?!??? it was actually composed of milk tea? But somehow still clear? IT WAS TRIPPY AS HECKkkk... I also got this pudding I first saw in Good Morning Call! The beginning of my "try one conbini pudding every day" series. Spoiler: I didn't end up trying one every day but it was close enough.

Anyways after enjoying my conbini snacks, I FOUND OUT THAT I?? FORGOT THE CLEAR FILES AND PLACEMATS WE JUST GOT FROM THE YOI CAFE??? More on that next time ayyy