Japan Trip '08 - Part 6

Let's go for the finale! I shall squeeze Day 17-21 in this last part! Tokyo nothing special to talk about, I think... Let's try!


Day 17


Officially beginning our Tokyo tour on this day. Started off the day with Asakusa 浅草! I think it's a usual thing for a big shrine/temple to have a shopping street before reaching it. The same was for Kiyomizu Dera and Tenmangu Shrine. The starting point of the shopping street and the Sensōji 浅草寺 was well signified a huge red lantern with the word <雷門> Kaminarimon which literally means "Thunder Gate". The shopping street is a good place to buy souvenirs too.

Inside the temple, Daji, Zm and Zw offered incense. And we also tried drawing a divination lot. All of them tio bad luck ones, only Zy and me got the good luck ones. Actually within the compound, there are mulitple other temples and shrines too. If you have the time, do walk around a bit more to explore them.

The day's itinerary was rather free and easy. Beside Asakusa, there wasn't really anything else planned. Zy and Cui were going to Yokohama to meet their friends. The guys, or maybe just me, didn't wanna go Yokohama and would rather explore more of Tokyo. Zy left us after Asakusa. Cui left us at Tokyo Station as she's not feeling well, so she wanted to go back rest for a moment first. So it's down to just guys for Day 17.


We went to check out on the Imperial Palace. Found out that entry to the palace is impossible, but with pre-booking/reservation. Shucks, I didn't know that. We could only admire it from outside. And ya, mind you. The sun was damn hot and along the way there wasn't much cover too. Ah.... The heat was killing all of us. Every now and then we had to water parade to make sure we won't concuss.


After that we went further up to Tokyo Dome to explore. Tokyo Dome looked like a Melon Bread to me. Round round with grids on top. I LOVE MELON PAN! SEND ME BACK THERE!!! There was this Tokyo Dome City shopping complex with its own theme city nearby. Zm and Zw went for it. Daji and me stayed behind lingering around. Not a bad place to shop around, btw. Finally saw 1 Uniqlo store. Explore and see what we could
get from Uniqlo. Shortlisting first.

Next stop, we decided to visit Tokyo University. We all knew Tokyo University from its red wooden gate. Often saw it on dramas and animes, so we gotta take a look at the actual stuff. Walking to it from Tokyo Dome was doable. A bit long nia.


Majority of the buildings inside the university were pretty old. High ranking universities usually have old compound because of its long history, as said by Zw. Went to check out their soccer field too. Saw this kawaii manager tending to her injured players. =~) Oh! The main campus had a pond in the middle of it too. But warning. Lots of mosquitoes lurking around the area, even when you are within the proximity of it. The pond was stagnant dirty water! Man, should have just skipped it.

Time to explore Ikebukuro too, our staying place. Went to the east side of the Ikebukuro (we stayed at the west side). Went through Sunshine City, that's where I stayed during my previous visit. Went to that stretch of buildings where they sell manga/anime stuff. There's this building, Animate, which has 8 levels selling manga and anime stuff. I was really impressed by it last time, so I gotta bring them to see it.


After that, we walked back to the train station and back to Kimi Ryokan. Along the streets, there were many game arcade centers and pachinko. We went in to the game arcade centers to check on their UFO catchers. The prizes didn't really entice us at all. So we didn't give it a try. Osaka's ones were better.

Nothing much after this, reached back @ Kimi Ryokan and the girls returned shortly after us too. Told them to meet at the common area @ 4am next morning and we went do our own stuff and sleep. Tsukiji 築地 Fish Market, you are next!

Day 18

It was only morning 4am and we were already starting our day. The tuna auctioning was opened to public from 5am to 7am. And we wanna to catch a glimpse of this big hooha that everyone was saying must see.

I tried to act smart, trying to navigate from Shinbashi Station to the fish market. Actually, if you take the subway, you will end up very near to the fish market and walk straight in you will reach it. But walking from Shinbashi will be slightly different. Never mind, somehow we made it. We actually went past the fresh vege/fruits section, then finally to the seafood section. The tuna auctioning was behind the seafood section.


The auctioning first began with potential bidders went up to inspect the tuna first. Then one guy would start to ring the bell and start chanting, almost like doing those chinese rituals, as said by Zw too. Those who managed to get their tuna will send their tuna for sawing up. Heads off, bodies split up. Sad tunas.


After viewing the auctioning, we went for fresh fish sushi! Got 1 particular sushi restaurant had a super long queue outside. In fact, when we first walked past, there was already a short queue. And it was only 5+am that time. Power! The queue was too long, so we had to choose the next best restaurant.

We had around 5-6 pieces of sushi and cost us 2750 yen. But within those sushi, 1 special sushi was the TORO SUSHI!!!! Toro is the tuna belly, the fatty meat of the tuna. Super nice!! But that single piece of sushi alone cost 800yen, around 10 SGD. Not cheap. The rest cost around 300-500 yen a piece. But all tasted excellent! FRESH FISH! The girls on the other side, as we expected, ordered the breakfast set which cost eh.. 3500 yen? Can't really remember.

Anyway, after that, we went back to Kimi Ryokan, washed up and rest for a while. Shagged can? Then we moved on to Disneyland. Had a short discussion when we were over there. We were choosing between either Disneyland or Disneysea. After checking out a bit on both places at the information counter and discussing, we chose Disneyland in the end.

As for Disneyland portion, I won't really go into details. Disneyland quite standard lah. Theme rides and parades. Everyone knows it. But the place was pretty beautiful lah. Btw, everything was in Japanese, the rides and shows. A picture speaks a thousand words. Enjoy looking at the photo slides! 96 thousands words waiting for you.

After Disneyland, we went back and slept early. The morning really shagged us out. Another day gone. 2 and half days left.


Day 19

Shopping day because we were going Shibuya 渋谷! Hot weather again. Everyday in Tokyo was hot. =\ Summer. When we managed to get to the main shopping district, we split up. Girls went shopping @ the Shibuya 109 - the whole building was selling girls' stuff. And we guys went walking around to look for our stuff. After much searching around, with some visiting of atas shops, we found Gap and Uniqlo! Gap was slightly cheaper than Singapore's one, but we already got our stuff @ Gotemba Premium Outlet.


So next shop, Uniqlo! YESH! I got myself 2 polo tees and 2 boxers there. Their jeans were cheap too. Around 20 odd SGD you can get yourself a pair of jeans already. Way better than our Giordano. After a short frenzy shopping @ Uniqlo, it was time to gather with the girls. And guess what? We saw Shibuya 109 for Men. =.=" We walked so much to find shops for guys when Shibuya 109 Men was actually just nearby.

Lunch @ a korean restaurant. And after lunch, our next stop was Roppongi. The girls were going for the Blue Man Group show. So we guys would be acting atas and walk Roppongi Hills. TV Asahi was nearby, we went to check it out to see if we could pay a visit or what. Lucky! 19/7/2008 happened to be the start of TV Asahi's open house for their 50th Anniversary!

They had this van with all the monitors inside. You can control the operations and what appears on the screen from there, like switching camera, slowmo, etc. Then outside there, they put their actual camera for visitor to have a hands-on experience. Zm went to try it out. The zoom was super powerful! Daji, you can throw your camera away liao.


Then we went inside to check on the exhibitions they had displayed. Posters of upcoming shows, mini game shows, etc. And I didn't know Doraemon belong to TV Asahi! So is Kamen Rider!


Okay, atas area now. Roppongi Hills. It's a cluster of atas shopping centers. Inside are atas boutiques like AX, and many other brands which I have never heard of. Found a starbuck, and we hid there until it was time to find the girls again. Next up, Tokyo Tower!


After coming out of the subway station, walked a bit and we immediately spotted Tokyo Tower. It was impossible to miss it. So bright and tall! No way you will get lost either. Just follow it. Don't know because it was a Saturday or what. There was a super long queue at the ticket booth, and another super long queue waiting to get into the elevator.

The waiting was worth it. We could really have a good view from the Tokyo Tower. Note that Tokyo Tower was situated kinda in the middle of Tokyo too. We were able to view Tokyo in all directions. We wanted to go up to the Special Observatory Level too. But the queue for it was insane too. So we had to give it a miss. Sadded. They sell exquisite souvenir over here too.

And, yup, that ended our Day 19. Day 20's coming. Also kinda marked the end of our trip. *Sob* SEND ME BACK THERE!!!

Day 20

Meeting my IA ex-colleague, Weilin, @ Akihabara 秋葉原 on this day. Akihabara is famous for 3 things now - electronics, anime/manga stuff and the mass killing. =D


AH! DOH! I forgot to bring her souvenir out. I was trying to act Japanese, you see. Japanese when they visit their friends, they will bring omiyage from their area and give them to the friends, as a friendly gesture. I brought omiyage from Takayama to visit her.

Met up with her, introduce her to my friends and vice versa, and told her I forgot to bring her omiyage along. But anyway, we would be going back to Ikebukuro for dinner, so I told her I'll pass to her when we were over there.

While everyone was looking at a manga/anime shop, I saw this vending machine selling canned hot soba. =\ Gave it a try. Not bad! Daji took a few photos of me eating it. Heard this canned soba thingy was only available in Akihabara. Interesting. Was actually intending to visit the maid cafes one, but I was kinda sian diao when I saw those maids giving out pamphlets. =

Oh ya, the cameras in Japan are really cheap! For the same model, you pay almost only half of what is selling in Singapore! It's that cheap. Only downside is that warranty issue. Spoil, then come back Japan to fix it lor! Simple! =)


Harajuku 原宿 next! Harajuku is another well-known shopping district. Weilin brought us around, and even introduced us the Johnny's shop. We managed to find out when she knows so much about that shop. She's a frequent patron of that shop. =.=" Or at least she said "used to be". We don't really believe her though. LOL.


Somehow we ended up in the atas area as Zm started his search on his Babari Blue Label. Btw, Babari = Burberry in Japanese. He was ordered to bring some Blue Label's bags back to SG. Oh! I finally found the Uniqlo I was searching for @ Harajuku! It was a shop featured in 都市大发现. This Uniqlo specialized in selling its UT, unique local designers' tees. But I didn't buy any. XD If I buy some more, my mum will sure nag at me for filling up the wardrobe so much.


After all the shoppings, we headed back to Ikebukuro and had dinner @ Momo Paradise, a shabu-shabu/sukiyaki buffet restaurant! We had shabu-shabu buffet there. =)) Free flow of meat and vege! And it's only 1500 yen for 90min! HOOT AH!!!!! Okay, shabu-shabu is very subjective. Some finds it too plain/boring while some, like me, simply loves it.

After dinner, Zw accompanied me to go back Kimi Ryokan to pick up the souvenirs. The rest went walk walk around, in particular the Uniqlo store. Zy wanna get some stuff from there. Back to Kimi Ryokan, pick up stuff, back to them, passed Weilin the stuff. Alright! Mission accomplished!

Then shortly after that, it was time that Weilin gotta go back home. It wasn't early anymore, 9+pm. Being gentleman, i offered to send her home. Zw and Daji joined in the gentleman ranks. Her area looks very much like Singapore with the apartments looking like HDBs. Pay her apartment a visit. Although only 18 square metres, it was kinda perfect for 1-2 person to stay in. But... but... it was really hot, steaming hot in fact! =\

Okay, we bid farewell and part our ways. Farewell, Weilin! Take care. Crap. Am I saying these here? She's on my MSN and I'm talking to her well every now and then. =.="

Sadded. That kinda sums up my whole Japan trip. Everything's coming to an end the next day. Sleep...

Day 21

天下无不散之宴席。Everything has its end. Haiz.... I'm so missing Japan now. SEND ME BACK THERE!!!

Anyway, we didn't really have much time left on Day 21. Only enough time to visit 1 place and we gotta make our way to Narita 成田 Airport. We decided to go Shinjuku　新宿, partly because Zm wished to find Babari or else his head might roll when he return home.

But quite suay lah. We wanted to deposite our barang barang in the coin lockers at the train station, but all the big lockers were all in used! Crap. So we had to bring our barang barang along to Shinjuku too. With those barang barang, we didn't really feel like walking around either. So we ended up sitting in a restaurant, Ducky Duck, and let time passed. While we were inside the restaurant, Zm and Zw were walking around looking for the Babari.


Hey! Although we kinda anyhow find a place to rest and eat, this Ducky Duck actually served good food! Nice pasta and Doria! And parfait! =) I've been wanting to eat a parfait since Day 1! Now with extra cash in hand, I decided to go for it! Time's up. Off to the airport. =~~~( The train to Narita Airport was pretty cool wor! Quite class sia.




Checked in our luggages. Had some extra time on hand, so it was last minute shopping time. Luckily for me, there was an Uniqlo store there too. Bought a dry fit tee and a dry fit berms. They would be good for sports, if I ever do so. And some hankies too. Can choose to give my mum or I can use them myself too.

Went through the immigration checkpoint, inside shopping now. Bought a few makans back. A few boxes of Shiroi Koibito (White Lover), roasted barley tea, and some other makan which looks good. Grabbed an Ebi Burger from Mac. Man! It was really good!!!! Okay, into the plane now. =~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(

*Fast forward* When the plane touched down at Singapore, the moment the wheel touched the ground, I was feeling really sad. Because that really marked the end of the trip. I miss Japan....... SEND ME BACK THERE!!!

I'll do the conclusion in a separate post, for a reason.

Stay tuned!

Japan Trip '08 - Part 5

Day 14

Ah... This should be a simple day to write on. Because we spent the whole morning travelling. First approx. 2 hours from Takayama to Nagoya 名古屋 on a limited express train, another approx. 2 hours to Mishima 三島 on Shinkansen, and another approx. 2 hours to Kawaguchi-ko. 6 solid hours on travelling, not including those transit time.

Luckily, Kawaguchi Station Inn was very near to the station. Walked a bit and we found our accommodation place. Checked in and went back to the bus terminal. We were going to Gotemba 御殿場 and catch the free shuttle bus to Gotemba Premium Outlet. That's another approx. 2 hours gone. Quite a waste of time right?


Basically the rest of the day was devoted to the Premium Outlet. Our first stop over there was the Gap store. WOW!!! Imagine jeans going for 30-40 SGD, a polo tee going for 20 odd SGD, berms going for 20 odd SGD too! Daji grabbed 1 polo tee and a pair of berms, and I bought one polo tee myself too.

The rest of the Premium Outlet was mainly more of just window shopping. Bought a Lego keychain for Seng at Lego shop. Another shop worth mentioning was FCUK. Daji once again grabbed a pair of jeans and a pair of flip flops overe there. Overall Daji only spent 100 odd SGD on these 2 stores. Can't remember what the rest got for themselves, but this shopping trip was quite fruitful for us guys.


Took the shuttle bus back to Gotemba and had our dinner there. We split up for dinner again. The girls went for pasta/steaks dinner, while we guys went for ramen dinner. After dinner, went over to Mac to grab my favourite McPork again! McPork!!!!!

After reaching back @ Kawaguchi Station Inn, Zy discovered that the washing machines here were used by some brainless and inconsiderate buggers to wash their flirty shoes. So we couldn't use it to wash our clothes. The washing machines were dirty!!! So we informed the counter staff, and asking if there were laundromat nearby that we could visit. The time wasn't early and there was curfew @ 11pm over here. The counter staff offered us the spare key to the main door so we could visit the laundromat and come back anytime after the curfew. That's so nice of him!


Okay, packed our dirty laundry and went to the laundromat to wash our clothes. The washing and drying time was damn long. My virgin experience @ laundromat. Zy went back earlier to settle some issue, and Daji followed along to help. The rest of us waited. When we were using the dryer, Zm said hoot the high temperature. Can dry faster. Okay lor. So it was @ high temperature for 40+ min.

Time's up. Crap. Had we grown fat, or some of the items seemed to have shrunk. My socks went from 7 inches down to 4 inches. And Daji's pre-shrunk Giordano polo tee seemed smaller too! *Glaring @ Zm*

Never mind... Let's get back. It was almost 12mn. And so we headed back.

Special Episode - Zhenwei's Birthday @ Kawaguchi Station Inn

Well.. The birthday cake surprise didn't really work very well. We came back into the room in staggered timing. So couldn't have a grand pincer attack of "Happy Birthday, Zw!". So we did a "scene 1 take 2" after everyone was ready.

Here's the operation that was going on since we reached back @ Gotemba in the evening.

The cake was bought when Zy and Cui went to the pasta/steak cafe for dinner. We spotted that they sell cake, and after some eyes and hands signalling, the girls went there and the guys went ramen restaurant.

When we arrived back @ Kawaguchi-ko, I asked pulled the guys along to visit the convenience shops, while the girls went back first and request the cake to be put into fridge.

Next was @ the laundromat. Zy and Daji went back earlier on the account that Zy's having some female issue and Daji was needed to be translator in case. In actual fact, she needed to get back early to retrieve the cake from the counter staff before they go sleep. And set up everything nice nice until we came back.

Don't know if Zw was surprised by our effort or not. If he's not, at least he's doing fine by acting he was. =) Did the normal singing of birthday song and blowing of candles. Now came the cutting of cake. Crap. No knife. So we did it in an innovative way. Instead of cutting the cake and serving it out, the birthday boy scooped a spoonful out and fed the everyone! Then everyone gotta eat directly from the cake. First time doing such barbaric way of eating a big cake.

Yup! That's how we celebrated Zw's birthday in Japan. And Cui even specially prepared for it by bringing along the "Happy Birthday" candles from singapore. Well done!

Filler Episode - 耀仔正传

Day 15


Kawaguchi Station Inn stay came with a breakfast set. So 7am we went down for breakfast. And yuppie! Mt Fuji was out there greeting us! Eating breakfast while viewing Mt Fuji was quite an experience.


Our first stop was to go up Mt Fuji fifth station. 2000 yen for a 2-way ticket. Expensive shit. When we reached the fifth station, there were lot of pple sitting around. It was around the time that those climbers returned back to the fifth station
from the submit. There's a food cart here selling grilled stuff. Quite nice food they selling.

Walked around a bit, and always waiting for the clouds to clear up a bit to reveal the shy Mt Fuji for us to snap. Went to the shrine at the back. Bought some charms there for my family members. Back to Kawaguchi.


Time to pay Lake Kawaguchi a visit. Had sukiyaki for lunch. A birthday treat from our beloved Zw. =) Wanted to take the ropeway, but it looked lame, so we not taking. Zy had always wanted to take the Swan Boat. After discussing a bit, Zy, Cui and Zm going for it. While me, Daji and Zw anyhow walk walk around.


There's lot of ducks wondering around the lake, esp near the swan boats area. When we met up again, we saw the three of them feeding ducks. Quack quack quack~ How about roast duck for dinner?

Ended the day early. Oh ya. We felt a tremble at night. Feeling better than thrill rides, as said by Zw. Okay, onwards to Tokyo tomorrow. Finally.

Day 16

Although we were going to Tokyo, but Day 16 was actually a visit to Kyoto 京都. So first half of the day spent on travelling again. Took train from Kawaguchi-ko to Otsuki 大月, took JR train to Shinjuku 新宿, and finally transit over to Yamanote 山ノ手 Line to Ikebukuro 池袋.


Our accommodation here was Kimi Ryokan. When we arrived, one of the rooms was ready for us to move in. So barang barang all into that room and off to Kyoto. But before that, the girls packed their Yukata and brought along to Kyoto. The sun was hot, no way to ask them to wear that all the way to Kyoto. I think they would die before reaching Kyoto in yukata.


When we reached Kyoto, the girls changed into their yukata. Let's skip the part on how they managed to put it on perfectly. Long story. We only had time to visit one place, and i suggested Kiyomizu Dera 清水寺. During my previous visit here, I liked Kiyomizu Dera a lot. So felt like visiting it again too. Our girls were pretty popular. Quite a number of people requested to take photo with them.


After that, here came our highlight of this Kyoto visit. During this period, it was Gion Matsuri 祇園祭り. A float parade and performance, something like our Chingay, on the 17th of July. However, as what I've found out online, the night stalls would only be set up from 14-16 July. We were more interested in the night stalls than the "Chingay" parade. That's why we came here on the 16th instead.


As we approached the main street of the festival, we started to see crowds moving in a general direction. With that, we knew we were in the right direction. Following the crowd, walking for quite some distance, we finally spotted one of the floats. The floats will be stationed all over the streets until the parade day. Shortly after that, we saw the night stalls! FOOD!!!! MORE FOOD!!! AND SOME MORE FOOD!!!! Takoyaki, yakisoba, meat skewers, okonomiyaki, choco banana, shaved ice, grilled squid, candied apple, etc. We bought a lot to eat. Yum yum~ *burp*


We ate too much and walked too long. We almost missed our train back to Tokyo. =Þ If we didn't decide to take the subway or spend more timing eating and looking around, we will miss that train. But we made it. Back to Kimi Ryokan. Everyone was too tired. So we decided to postpone the fish market trip to Friday instead of the next day. Alright, sleep.

To be continued...