Oedo Onsen Monogatari (Tokyo, Japan)

Cost:

Adult ¥1980, ¥1480 (evening)

Children ¥900

Directions:

From Yaesu station, walk through the Yaesu underground shopping street, keep left and look out for exit number 24 (but I'm not very sure about the exit number), once you climb up the stairs from the exit, there should be a bus stop right in front of you and there is a Macdonald's near the bus stop. You can take a direct shuttle bus to the onsen, but be sure to check the shuttle bus timetable as it is not very frequent.

Official Website:

http://www.ooedoonsen.jp/higaeri/english/

Don't get your hopes too high, it is not really a 'themepark' but still, a great visit. Once you step into the entrance, you are supposed to take off your shoes and put them into the lockers to the left. Then you can go to the counter to get a locker key for the locker you are assigned to, and a tag which will be used for payment. Before you go to your locker in the changing room and start stripping, you are able to choose a yukata which you will wear for the rest of the visit, there are quite a few designs to choose from. 

So after choosing your yukata, you can change into it in the changing room, but remeber you are supposed to wear undergarments, there are instructions in the changing room teaching you how to wear a yukata properly.

Then you'll step into the common area where guys and girls will meet, and everyone will be wearing their yukata which is quite an interesting sight for tourists. :) The common area offers vending machines with free green tea, barley drink and water, there are many souvenir stores, food stalls and festival games' booths. The prices of the food sold were quite steep but you will definitely eat there because hunger usually strikes after onsen.

The entrance to the onsen area is at the common area. Once you are ready to get into onsen, go to the onsen changing room. The lady at the entrance's counter will pass you two towels, you can only bring the small towel into the onsen, if you try bringing in the big one, she'll stop you. After taking the towels from her, just go to the lockers and strip naked. Haha!

There are many hot baths available, and an open-air natural spring which I really liked! There are also saunas, cold baths and massage baths. It was a really great experience! I tried every bath. Oh, there is also a massage service but it is an additional cost.

I like the area where you blow-dry your hair as there are many products available for use! From foot cream to facial toner, to hair treatments. :)

After ossen you can once again explore the common area in your yukata. I tried the festival game which requires you to use a pair of chopsticks to pick up stones. Well I failed the game and got a consolation prize. :/

So after you're done, you can return the yukata in the changing room and settle your bill using the tag given. Oh yes, BEFORE you enter the onsen, it is good to first check the timings for the shuttle bus so that you could make use of the free service once again :)

P.S: the onsen is located at Odaiba where there are many other tourist attractions like the huge ferris wheel and marine museum. So it's good if you can spend the day there and go to the onsen in the evening.

Edo-Tokyo Museum (Tokyo, Japan)

Cost:

Adult ¥600

Student ¥300

Directions:

From Ryogoku station (Oedo Line), exit from exit A4, turn left, bypass the first building which is the museum's office, and turn left again to walk to the museum's entrance.

Official Website:

http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/english/

The museum was pretty good and an audio guide is free for rental, you can obtain it from the counter where you purchase the tickets. The exhibits were pretty comprehensive and there was an exhibition room which has interesting gadgets in the exhibits. For example, the building will be 'opened' and you can see the interior of the buildings. The gadgets work thrice a day, so take note of the timing and stay around.

It is not a very big museum, but it's quite worth a visit to know more about how Tokyo transformed to how it is today. There were quite a lot of tourists but not to the extent of crowded. Oh, and there's a nice restaurant on the first storey, which was named Finn's (?). 

Universal Studios Japan (Osaka, Japan)

Cost:

Adult 1-Day Pass ¥6600

Adult 2-Day Pass ¥11000

Directions:

From Osaka station, take JR line to Universal City. Exit from the station and you will see a big shopping area called Universal Walk. There are MANY takoyaki shops in the complex and an awesome JUMP! store! Oh, and a Takoyaki museum which I didn't have time to visit. Okay, so you just walk along the Universal Walk street and you'll reach Universal Studios.

Official Website:

http://www.usj.co.jp/e/

Honestly, Universal Studios Singapore is much better! USJ only has 6 rides for adults, Spider-Man ride will be down for two months, so we are left with 5. One of them is a super lame ride called 'Back to the Future', it's just like a car, u sit in it and watch graphics -.- it did not move at all, all it did was shake a little. Gosh, it was labelled as a 'dynamic ride' how misleading! USS's Transformers is way better. So now we are left with 4 adult rides... The Space Fantasy and Jurassic Park are quite fun but not very thrilling. And there's another pretty okay ride - the Jaws. It's not exactly a ride I'd say... No thrill, no excitement, just a bit of fun. And the last one is the super thrilling roller coaster which I gave it a miss. Lol. It is freaking scary to watch ><. But frankly speaking, my threshold for thrill is pretty high but I'm timid. Perhaps if I've been on it I'd say that USJ is worth a visit :p

Well anyway, for USJ I'd only truly recommend the Space Fantasy and the Hollywood Dream roller coaster, other than that others are quite boring and simply not worth the SGD84~ admission ticket! In contrast, USS has more to offer,  the blue and red roller coaster rides, transformers, the Mummy etc.

It seems that USJ is more kid-friendly, there are many rides and play lands for children as compared to adults. Oh yes, and it is not really a place for tourists as all of the shows are in Japanese and there is no subtitles, translations :( so we can't understand the shows and they seemed to be pretty lame! 

The shows I'd recommend would probably be a Rock n Roll show as the songs are in English and they sing 100% live, and also the hello kitty fashion show which is simply tooooo kawaii!!! Hahaha!

Ghibli Museum (Tokyo, Japan)

Cost:

Adult - ¥1000

Discounted tickets are available for students, children etc. The way to purchase the ticket is the same as Fujiko F Fuijio Museum aka Doraemon Museum, you have to purchase the ticket from any Lawson Store's Loppi machine. Tickets are not sold directly at the museum. AND, the tickets for Ghibli Museum were really hard to get when I was there, as I think, there was a new exhibition at the museum, thus, it is better for you to get the tickets at least a week earlier in order to get the tickets for your preferred timing and date.

Directions:

From Shinjuku, take the JR Chuo Line to Mitaka station and take the museum's shuttle bus. I actually walked from Kichijoji station. It was a long walk but it was rather enjoyable as I pass through a shopping street and walked through a park. There are also public buses from Kichijoji station to the museum and back, I took bus 吉62-1 from the museum back to the Kichijoji station. The bus fare was a flat rate of ¥200.

Official Website:

http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/

This is the robot from Castle in the Sky. It was located at the roof top, and you have to climb a pretty spiral staircase to go up.

Only children are allowed to enter this little playland. :(

This picture was secretly taken as no photography was allowed in the museum.

In my opinion, the museum looks great but lacks in content. It is recommended to try to watch all the Studio Ghibli's movies before visiting the museum so that you can relate better to the exhibitions.

The admission ticket includes the 'movie ticket' to a 15-minute short film at the museum. The film was my favorite part the visit, it was a 'silent' movie where there was only background music as the characters did not speak.

The content of the museum was entirely in Japanese so we really couldn't understand the words and there wasn't an audio guide, unlike the Doraemon museum. Thus, it was quite disappointing. The museum shop was CROWDED with people so it was really hard to look at all the merchandise on sale, so be prepared for that.

However, I really love the animations produced by Studio Ghibli so it was a must-visit museum for me. So you really want to go, do watch the movies before doing so!

Fujiko F Fuijio Museum aka Doraemon Museum (Tokyo, Japan)

Cost:
Adult ¥1000
-- check out the official website for an extensive price list --
The purchase of the ticket CANNOT be done from the museum, instead, tickets have to be purchased from Lawson Stores' Loppi Machine. You can approach Lawson's staff for help when making purchase. It is important to buy the tickets a few days early as tickets might be sold out. In addition, there are designated timings for admission, so do make sure you have sufficient time to travel to the museum.

Directions:

From Shinjuku, take the Odakyu Odawara Line to Noborito Station and take the shuttle bus from the front of the station. The shuttle bus ticket costs ¥200.

Official Website:
http://fujiko-museum.com/english/welcome/

The museum was great! Just that the location is really far from central Tokyo :( and I've decided to save money by walking to the museum from the Mukogaokayuen Station. The distance was quite far and we kept getting lost, luckily some kind soul led us the right way but eventually we had to jog to the museum. (Because the tickets for admission have specific timing and we have to abide by the designated timing.)

These merchandise were sold in the museum shop, there were lots of kawaii items you would wanna bring home!

The food items are superrrr cute too! I bought the red bean pancake, it tasted fairly good!

So this is our hero, the genius 'inventor' of Doraemon! In this museum, we learned about his life, as both an animator, and a father, his aspirations and his road to success.

Wall painting :)

Haha, you have to keep pulling the lever for Gian to appear!

 It's a really cute museum, isn't it? The 'pocket' is for you to drop your 3D glasses, which are needed to watch the movie.

There is a reading area for you to browse through the collection of Doraemon comics. Trust me, you can spend HOURS there, just that the words are all in Japanese. Haha.

Aw, kachapon!

The visit to the museum was pretty inspiring and entertaining! The admission ticket includes the ticket for a short movie in the museum which was great even though we couldn't understand fully what the characters were talking about. There are two exhibition rooms which display Fujiko's original art pieces and some of his personal items and his work room. There's a themed-cafe which sells nice food albeit being a little overpriced. 

So, it is really a must-go museum for me! It was well constructed and decorated, the staff were all friendly and you could feel their love for the museum from the way they greet you and introduce you to the museum.