Tokyo was under a typhoon-scare today. Yesterday, the weather forecast said that there would be heavy thunderstorms all day… We were kinda worried that we may have to cancel our plan to meet up with Naomi (my cousin) and do more ballet shopping this afternoon. But this morning, the forecast was nicer. It said that it will not rain until the afternoon, after 2-3pm, which gave us plenty of time to walk around Shinjuku and have lunch with Naomi.
So, around 11-ish, we left the apartment and took the train to Shinjuku, heading for Sylvia, the ballet store on our list. I used Google Map to walk there, and got a bit confused… because according to the map, the store was located right in the middle of a wide road! After fiddling around and scratching our heads, we finally figured out that the store was located underground… hoo…
We had quite a list of things to check out in this store… We basically bought everything that we could’t find in Singapore. We were planning to buy stuff like undergarments, but none of them fit Aina. We ended up with 20-something meters of ribbons and elastics and loads of ballet-themed pins.
And a pair of pointe shoes! This time, we had time to do some pointe shoe fitting, something that Aina couldn’t do in Singapore, since they don’t stock narrow width shoes in Singapore. Sylvia sold many different brands, so Aina got to try a few brands that she hasn’t tried before…
Although she ended up with a pair of Sylvia shoes: Florina III, which surprisingly was very comfortable for her. She even said that this might be better than her current Grishko Dreampointe shoes. Yay!
We were in the Sylvia store for, I think, over an hour… Ari had given up and gone up to the road to have a smoke. He also preferred to walk around Shinjuku area and took pictures than waiting for us perusing the ballet store.
Naomi came by a little before 1pm… I haven’t seen her for years! I think, the last time we traveled together was back during the Lombok Trip in 2013. So, it was good to see her again. She came in after we were almost done with the shopping. So, she helped me translate things during the payment and all…
After that, off we went for lunch! Today’s menu was gyoza! Originally, there was a gyoza restaurant that Naomi wanted to try, but it turned out that they were closed between the lunch and the dinner time. We also tried the famous Gyukatsu Motomura in Shinjuku, but the line was waaay too long for the 4 of us who were very hungry by then. So, we went back to the original plan: gyoza!
We went to Usukawa Gyoza Semmon Shibuya Gyoza in Shinjuku. The gyoza was yummy! The kakuni was excellent, we ended up ordering more. And their fried rice was very good, although we forgot to take pictures of it.
After lunch, Ari and Naomi took a smoke break, while Aina and I walked in and out of the small shops around Shinjuku. With Naomi around, Ari could find smoking areas easily… In Japan, you can’t just smoke anywhere you want. Basically, you are not allowed to smoke on the street, except for some designated areas. And since Naomi used to have her part-time job near this place, she knew all the smoking areas like the back of her hand.
Then, we all went back to Shibuya, and went to the Chacott store (again). But this time, it’s the main Chacott store, all 6 floors! Aina really went shopping there, bought a leotard, some clothes and stuff. I bought some make-up for her, too. Since the store was comfortable and quite spacious, this time, Ari didn’t bother to go out. He, infact, kinda enjoying all the shopping, buying cute things for Aina.
It was around 4PM when we were finished with our ballet shopping. We bid farewell to Naomi — she went back to her home and we walked back to the apartment, to have a bit of a rest and get ready for the tonight’s dinner.
And speaking of the typhoon, it almost didn’t rain at all except for a very light drizzle that lasted for only 10 minutes. We were lucky, indeed, that the typhoon stayed on the southern part of Japan.
For all the photos while we were in Tokyo, they are in Tokyo 2017 photo album. Other entries of this trip is at Japan 2017 Trip: Ballet Competitions.
