Gotemba Premium Outlets,The Ultimate Guide

Gotemba Premium Outlets
What is a visit to Tokyo without dropping by or
seeing the most famous symbol of Japan, Mt. Fuji? Probably not complete. If you’re on the lookout for a place to shop (within the budget) and
at the same time a spot for sight-seeing, we totally recommend a trip to Gotemba Premium Outlets in Hakone.
Most (if not all) my favourite brands are there,
let me drop some names: Adidas, Balenciaga, Cath
Kidston, Chloe, Dior, Disney, Francfranc, Furla,
Gelato Pique, Harrods, Havaianas, Isetan, Jill
Stuart, Kate Spade New York, Lowrys Farm,
Moussy, Nike, Nikon, Petit Bateau, Saint Laurent, Sly, Snidel, Tory Burch, Valentino and
many more. -Ashley
How to get there?
From Tokyo, take the JR Shinkansen to Mishima
Station, transfer trains to Numazu, and transfer
again to Gotemba. From Gotemba, there’s a free
shuttle bus directly to Gotemba Premium Outlet.
From Shinjuku, take the Odakyu Limited Express
“Romance Car Asagiri” to Gotemba. Again from
Gotemba, there’s a free shuttle bus directly to
Gotemba Premium Outlet. (Source)
Aside from shopping tax free, Gotemba Premium
Outlet offers a wide variation of restaurants,
kiosks, and cafes such as Haagen-Dazs (our personal favourite!), Crazy Crepes, Gelato Pique Cafe
Creperie, Godiva (must try!), Tully’s Coffee and
more.
List of shops / brands
You can follow Premium Outlets on instagram,
Facebook and google plus for more updates!
The Ultimate Guide: How to
Travel to Tokyo from Manila on a Budget
Tokyo is definitely a top place to visit for
tourists. No one can deny its charm. But, there
are many buts. What if it’s too expensive? So
much “what ifs”. Today is a great day to debunk
all those Japan myths and start planning about
this dream already.
1. Making Your Itinerary / Where to go? What to
do?
We’ve made a couple of ready-to-print
itineraries here at OurKawaii.Tokyo that you can
just follow, alter or use as an itinerary inspiration.
(Click here)
You may also check the blog of our friend Raisa
for her “DIY Tokyo, Japan 5 Days/ 4 Nights Tour
for less than 30,000 Php” informative entry.
2. Applying Japan Visa by Justin (Click here)
As you would know, Japan Embassy in Philippines
doesn’t accept Tourist Visa applications via
walk-in. You need an accredited agency to process the visa for you. In my case, I went to Re-
li Tours to process my visa for me. They have
multiple branches in the metro but I opted to go
to their Dusit Thani Hotel branch in Makati because it’s near my office. These are their numbers: 632-893-9226/ 0906-280-6666
In most of my calls with them, a Filipino-speak-
ing Japanese operator will talk to you and help
you with the process. I applied for a Tourist
Visa w/o a Guarantee Letter. If you will apply
for a Tourist Visa with Guarantee Letter, you
will need to submit additional requirements and
a different handling fee (a little more compared
to the regular Tourist Visa). The requirements
are as follows per Japanese embassy which the
agency will require: (Tourist Visa w/o guarantee
letter)
Philippine Passport (It should be valid for
more than 6 months before expiration from
the time you leave and go back to the country.) The agency will warn but proceed processing your visa application even if you
do not meet the above requirement. However,
you might encounter problems with the
Philippine immigration upon leaving the
Philippines
Visa Application Form (The agency already
has a copy for you to use. You may also
print it if you want.)
Photo (2×2 photo and must be pasted on the
application form. I submitted 1 copy with a
white background. Do not choose the Japan
visa format picture advertised in some stu-
dios. That is not the required photo. Use
2×2 photo only.)
Birth Certificate of Applicant (Original
copy from NSO I applied for a birth certificate online. It costs Php 315 and it will
be delivered after 2-3 working days. You
may pay in BDO branches.)
Daily Schedule / Itinerary (There’s a format for this. I don’t think you need to
strictly follow everything you write here.
But the embassy would like to know your activities during your stay in Japan.)
Bank Certificate (There’s no monetary requirement given by the embassy. I think the
goal of the embassy is to check whether you
have the capability to survive during your
stay in Japan. A bank certificate will
range between Php 50-100 depending on you
bank. You can do it over the counter in
your account branch.)
ITR (Form 2316) I submitted a photocopy of
the latest ITR document. Obviously, they
want to know if you’re employed and paying
taxes.
Employment Certificate (This will let the
embassy know that you are employed and
gives them assurance that you will come
back after your vacation. Ensure that your
Employment Certificate indicates your role,
start date and tenure, contact number of
your HR, address of your company and
salary.)
UPDATE: Japan tourist visa now cost Php900 only.
If you’re applying for the second time around,
you might get a multiple re-entry visa as well!
3. Booking Your Flight via LCC (Low Cost Carriers)
Cebu Pacific
Philippine Airlines
Jetstar
Tips when booking:
Cebu Pacific and Jetstar flights are always
cheaper but you might also want to consider Manila-Haneda flight via PAL, it could
also save you airport transfers and time
(of course).
Avoid peak season if you’re on a tight budget! Fall/Autumn (especially weekends of
mid October – November) and Spring (especially first week of April for Cherry Blossom viewing) are the best time to visit Japan, sure, but on these dates everything is
HYPE up so don’t expect things to be cheap
or easy.
4. Affordable Accommodations
Price range: For capsule hotels, it will be from
¥1500~ (Php540)
For hostels, ¥3000~ (Php1,080)
For budget hotels, ¥5000~ (Php1,800)
APA Hotel (Dougenzakaue, Shibuya)
Best Western Shinjuku Astina Hotel
Shinjuku Washington Hotel
Shinagawa Prince Hotel
Sunshine City Prince Hotel Ikebukuro
Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku
Toco Heritage Hostel Ueno
Note: You may also try renting places in Tokyo
via AIRBNB. ^_^
If you have hotel suggestions you’d like to add
to our list, please feel free to comment below
too! : )
5. Other Tokyo Travel Essentials
How to Get a Pocket Wi-fi in Japan?
1. Although, it’s highly recommended to reserve the device before your trip, getting
it at the airport is not that difficult be-
cause there are a LOT of wi-fi companies offering the same services. For Narita International airport, you can check the list of
the wi-fi brands available and their location here. You can get one directly from
their booth and just return it at the same
booth or if you’re departing from another
airport (which isn’t Narita or your base
airport), you can just leave it to their
booth at that airport. It’s just simple as
that!
2. You can also reserve in advance and have
the pocket wi-fi device delivered to your
hotel/hostel lobby and you can just easily
ship it back to them in the end. Here are
some wi-fi brands that you might want to
check out, just click their links for ordering information. (For more information,
click here)
3. If you’ve missed your chance on reserving
before hand, getting an internet at the airport, and have a mobile phone with you.
Luckily, you still have chance to get internet connection by getting a local sim card
at electronic shops such as Yamada Denki,
Yodobashi, etc.
4. If everything else fails but you have your
device with you (mobile phone, laptop,
iPad, etc), try going to Starbucks, they
have a leaflet on how to access their free
internet.
If you are able to get a visa (Php900), round
trip ticket for Php15,000, Php1620 travel tax,
stay in a capsule hotel for two days (Php1200),
eat at convenience store and skip pocket wifi,
you could probably visit Tokyo for approximately
Php25,000 (inclusive of train rides and entrance
fee for the main tourist spots such as Tokyo Tower ¥800).
Another tip: Find a travel buddy so you can
share everything with them!
As always, let us know if you have any questions!
Basic Kawaii Tokyo
Itinerary for 5 Days
Hello everybody! Kaila here~ ^^v
I just want to share our travel itinerary when
my friend Abbey visited me here in Japan. We
roamed around Tokyo during her visit! : )
If you are a creative person / an artist, maybe
you will love our list of places. We would leave
at around 9-10AM from Saitama to go to Tokyo.
Most of the stores are still closed by 10/11AM
so if you want to go temple-hopping, do it in
the morning.
[Day 1]
Arrive from airport
Rent wifi from Narita Airport (there are a
lot, you just have to ask around: “Sumimasen, wifi rentaru / poketto wifi wa doko
ni arimasu ka?”)
Keisei Skyliner -> Ueno
Leave bags inside rental locker (located inside the station)
Explore Ueno
Extra: Akihabara is just a station away.
You can also walk from Ueno to Akihabara. :
)
[Day 2]
Tokyo Disneyland / Disneysea
[Day 3]
Shinjuku
Take the East Exit when going out of
the station
Purikura at Taito Station
You can also rent meido-san / cosplay costumes here haha.
KINOKUNIYA bookstore in Shinjuku. Go
to 7th floor for the English books.
They do have the rare ones! : )
Sekaido = heaven for those who love
hoarding art materials (like Abbey
lolol)
Harajuku
Takeshita Street (first-timers might
get overwhelmed because there are lots
of stores to shop from!!)
Recommend shops: WEGO, TUTUANA,
MOMO Wonderrocket, etc.
Recommended cafe: Nescafe Cafe
(Abbey and I are both fans of cafes with superb interior design. We did some brainstorming
here haha)
Shibuya
To go to Shibuya, you can either take
Yamanote Line (1 stop away) or just
walk from Harajuku to Shibuya. Abbey
and I love enjoy walking (double purpose: sight-seeing and burn fats / get
tummy space for more eating lolol)
I brought Abbey to Shibuya Crossing
(forgot to see Hachiko though haha),
LoFT (a paradise for notebook / pen /
stationery / things-we-don’t-need
lovers like us), and other places that
I’ve forgotten. Woops!
[Day 4]
Shimokitazawa
Shirohige Cream Puffs
Just roam around this area and discov-
er homey cafes on your own. We loved
Extra: Nakano / Kichijoji
[Day 5]
Asakusa for more traditional Japanese
kawaii
If you can’t get enough of Harajuku, you
can go back to Harajuku like what we did haha.
Extra: Tokyo Skytree (this is just near
Asakusa, but you have to take the Tobu
Skytree Line)
There are also a lot of rental lockers in
Asakusa (though you must come early to reserve
yours, as there are many tourists going to this
area). I also suggest that if you are going to
take the train from Shinjuku (like Narita Express / NEX) to the airport, you might consider
leaving your stuff there first before you spend
your last day to explore in Asakusa / elsewhere.
If your flight is later in the evening, you can
spend a short time around Asakusa and then go
back to Shinjuku again. Please be mindful of
your time, so that you won’t be late for your
flight! : )
If you are looking for a snack stores to buy /
hoard greentea KitKat & #OnlyInJapan omiyage /
pasalubong for your friends, look for an Okashi
no Machioka stall. They sell these chocolates /
snacks cheaper than the ones in convenience
stores. Okashi no Machioka has a branch in Shinjuku, Asakusa, and Nakano Broadway (and so much
more). : )
Abbey and I will be writing / blogging more
about our ABCxRainbowholic adventures together
(wishing Ashley was with us as well) on our
blogs: www.artistic-dreams.com and
www.the.rainbowholic.me.
If you’ve been to Tokyo before and you want to
share your travel itinerary, feel free to leave
a comment below or link us your blog! <3
Also, you might consider this Yamanote Linebased Itinerary post that Ashley and I wrote before! : )