Travel: Luxury Shopping & Good Buys in Tokyo

Blackswan SG

After the BBL stop, I took a stroll along Omotesando down to Harajuku. The gorgeous boulevard of Omotesando, often called the Japanese Champs Elysees, attracts many nostalgic foreigners. Beginning with Louis Vuitton & the Esquisse Omotesando building complex, which offers all the luxury brand names like Chanel & Gucci, Omotesando offers you dozens of different brand names.

Here, the immaculate streets look like they’re steam-cleaned nightly & every shopper looks American Express Black-card wealthy. After walking & walking, take a load off & rest your sore feet at any of the lovely street cafes here.

Every Sunday, many young people dress in a variety of styles that include gothic lolita & cosplay, among others, spend the day in Harajuku socializing. The popular Harajuku is not only about teenage culture, there're lots of cheap & nice food there. Takeshita Dori is a narrow, roughly 400 meter long street lined by shops, boutiques, cafes & fast food outlets targeting Tokyo's teenagers. Since I've only got 48hrs in Tokyo, I chose to skip Takeshita Dori this time & went in search of my Fanclstore. There's just too much to do with so little time.

Good Buy: Tense Up EX. I stopped by a Fancl outlet here to check out my collagen drink. This is a popular product among airline crew. It's an intensive care to firmer, smoother & more radiant skin. Apparently, this refreshing fruity beverage containing Fancl's original creation, HTC Collagen, is more easily absorbed & boosts collagen synthesis far more effectively than normal collagen.

This drink costs S$7 a bottle or S$61.50 for a box (10 bottles) here in Singapore. Guess what? Despite the high Yen, it only cost ¥2,650 for this box of collagen, which is about S$4/bottle!

Prices of Japanese snacks here are much cheaper than in the supermarkets & you'll be spoilt for choices.

I'd planned to recount the full day itinerary in this post but I'm getting tired. Guess I've to keep you in suspense while I relate my fine dining experience in the posh Ginza in my next post ....... to be cont'd.