Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 16

December 14, 2012

This night, we had to say bye-bye to Tokyo.

Checked out of the hostel at 10am and lugged the luggages (one for each one of us) to the station. We stored the luggages in the lockers at Ueno before moving to Ikebukuro.

We had one final buffet at Shakey's. That was a very long queue as it was lunch (we usually had it after lunch hours). Well, we were happy to eat it once again.

Then we moved around, just simply walking about and NO BUYING this time.

After that we went back to Ueno to collect our luggages and headed to Narita Airport. Had our dinner at Subway and start to while away our time. Flight was late and very full too.

Reached Singapore in the early hours on 15 December. Sad to leave Tokyo or rather, I should say that we are all sad that our holiday has to end.

 

Back to Life, Back to Reality!!!



Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 15

December 13, 2012

I saw this article in the Sunday Times sometime back, about Yanaka. What caught my attention was there were many cats there. Billie and me loved cats, so this is a place to be at. Heard there were nice snacks too - another plus point.

When we reached there, we were on the lookout for snacks and cats. To our disappointment, we didn't see many cats. Believed could be due to the cold weather.

Seems like this town is cat-themed, even the snacks had cats' paws on them.

One disadvantage of not knowing Japanese would be you might be eating something you didn't fancy. The pancake in the shape of a cat was Billie's and mine's favourite. We did not know which flavour/fillings to order and we ended up with Pizza fillings. That was a disaster. So, at least need to know how to read Romanji, Hiragana and Katakana before you go there.

In the evening, we had another sushi dinner. This time round, we had to talk to the chef directly, ie. if we did not find the sushi we wanted on the revolving belt. Instead of speaking, we chose to settle with whatever we can find on the revolving belt. Noticed that we actually ate alot, as compared to the locals. I guessed it was just the attitude - must play hard and eat hard while on a holiday. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the sushi, though we still missed the one in Osaka. Cannot remember the name but should be able to remember how to get there.

The rest of the day was spent shopping, shopping, shopping again. And packing, packing, packing.

Packing was a challenge because of big stuff - model kits, and heavy stuff - CDs, books, etc.

We had to ensure each bag was manageable so we packed and re-packed. We even had to dismantle some of the model kits to make space.

I remember I won a huge stuffed dinosaur for Billie at a carnival in Hong Kong around 8 to 10 years back. And this monster was stuffed in ONE BIG bag. I loved that monster and Billie enjoyed sitting on it for sometime.

Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 14

December 12, 2012

Holiday is ending. So, these few days would be spent buying stuff.

Went to Shibuya and found 天下一品 Tenkaippin. We tried this Chinese food in Osaka the last time and we love the ramen, followed by a bowl of fried rice. Obviously we ordered the same again, with gyoza. It was just as good as before.

And then, it was shopping, shopping, shopping. I got some craft stuff, Billie got her anime and hubby got model kits. Yeah. We happily bought stuff but when it came to packing, it was a headache, especially when the luggage refused to listen to me.

When we went on this trip, our smaller luggage was tucked in our bigger luggage and both have number locks. Of course we only used the number lock for the bigger one. So, surprise, surprise, surprise! We tried out the locking system on the smaller luggage and realised we didn't know the combination. So I had to test it out one by one **groan**. Tried all the 1000 combinations but to no avail, so I retried and finally got the combination and wondering why the previous round didn't work. **sigh**.

Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 13

December 11, 2012

My birthday! So, the entire day is for me to decide where I want to go, what I want to eat and what I want to do. Alas, I have no idea.

Alright, I want to eat deep-fried pork cutlet! So we went Katsuya and Yummy! I totally enjoyed it!

Although it was my day, I did not want to get all the attention (generous, right?!!!) So we went to Mandarake again for Billie to finish her shopping.

At the same time in Akihabara, we tried to look for the shop with lots of capsule machines. We had the address and were trying to look for it, but were out of luck. So we went to Akihabara Anime Centre for a walk. I plucked up my courage and asked the counter ladies where the capsule machine shop was. We managed to understand each other and found the place. Wasn't very impressed. It was a small shop with all machines stacked on top of one another (neat organising, though). There were definitely more capsule machines than those that you find outside Yodobashi Camera.

And today, we tried CoCo Curry House. Tasted great but I still prefer my katsudon from the morning. As for Billie, anything that's food will be great for her :)

Well, that's how my birthday goes every year. A day spent with my family is always my birthday.

Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 12

December 10, 2012

We decided to visit Aqua City at Odaiba today, because of Sizzler. A few days ago, we were surfing for new places to visit when we thought we looked for Sizzler instead, and we found that there's one at Odaiba.

Sizzler back home closed its door sometime before our trip. We missed the salad bar and the cheese toast. So, finding one in Tokyo was great! Of course there are some differences between the one in Tokyo and the one back home. But I find the one in Tokyo of better variety. Yummy!

 

 

We saw the Rainbow Bridge and the Statue of Liberty and left.

 

Went to Jinbocho - a place for used-books. Should be a good place to look for used craft books. We did not dare to go into all the shops but we did visit a few and we found some books. After that, we had dinner at Saizeriya (Billie's favourite).

 

On the train back, we boarded one with very few passengers. After I sat, I saw Sadako! Rather, a Sadako look-alike. This person actually swing the long hair and I got a shock. Thank goodness, it wasn't Sadako but a guy with very long straight hair. Phew!

 

This night, we started to do our packing.

 



Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 11

December 9, 2012

Sunday. The day to go to Harajuku! Yeah, so we can experience the crowd and the warmth!

 

 

Saw Yoshinoya, but no, not today! Reason was we saw Buffet! Not easy to find buffets here, unlike back home. Furthermore, if you find one, you would have to queue and I mean, long queue. The buffet spread wasn't alot - mostly pizzas. There was potatoes, pasta, waffle, ice cream. Just nice to fill us up, after that long wait.

 

Reason for going to Harajuku was to get to Nico Nico - something that Billie dreamt of. We had a hard time looking for the place though we were armed with the map of Harajuku. When we finally got there, Billie had to give the cafe a miss because there happened to be some performance going on in the cafe that day and the cafe was crowded. She got some memorabilia instead at the fan shop there.

 

Saw Kiddy Land and Daiso again. It's amazing that when you were looking hard for certain shops, you could find them after the first difficult hunt.

 

At Daiso, I noticed that there were some tourists who actually bought 200+ items per person! I was amazed!

 

On the way back from Harajuku, we had dinner at KFC. The taste was rather different from back home and we didn't enjoy that. Wished we had stopped by at Yoshinoya instead.

Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 10

December 8, 2012

Thought of going to the Ueno Zoo on my birthday 11 Dec. However, my hubby felt that it would be better to go to the zoo on this day, a WEEKEND!

I never liked going to the Zoo on a weekend because of the crowd. But we went as the other days' "adventures" had already been planned.

At the entrance, there are self-manned ticketing booths but I chose to go to the manned counter to purchase the entrance tickets and I SAVED 20%! Smart, ikr (learnt from Billie).

This zoo is huge. Armed with the guide, we went around. We saw there were many people drawing and not doodles, but REAL drawings - those very nice drawings! Not sure if they were students doing their homework or just some artists looking for inspirations.

Billie was busy taking pictures but I was busy looking at all the creatures. I can never get sick of the zoo, except for the "fragrance" at certain stations. Of course the main attraction was the panda station. Wished I could hug them. Well, we did - sort of.

Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 9

December 7, 2012

While thumbing through the Tokyo Guide Book, realised we have been to most of them already. As for those upmarket places like Ginza, we were not interested. Then, my hubby found this Kichijoji. Sounds good with Kiddy Land and the usual shops that we like eg Yodobashi.

Realised there is Shakey's too. And this Shakey's is by far the best in terms of taste. We enjoyed it very much.

Kiddy Land. I had no idea what is Kiddy Land though the two of them seemed to know a lot about it. But when we got there, I was shocked to see this was not a place I thought it to be. Yes, it was a place for kids but it was actually a place for Everyone! You can find Hello Kitty, Disney, Totoro and many other famous cartoon characters. Me and Billie found a whole lot of small notebooks and we spent some time going through them and got quite a number.

We went BookOff. This is a place to sell and buy 2nd hand books. It wasn't easy looking for craft books but I managed too. Billie found books related to anime, music and drawings too. Just that you need some time to slowly look for them, not knowing the Japanese language.

Saw a pianica in Yodobashi. Both of them remembered Nodame in the cute bear suit playing the pianica in the movie and in the end, bought Billie the pianica. Hope to hear her play it soon.

Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 8

December 6, 2012

Our hostel is located in Minowa. We found out that going to Asakusa area should not be too far. I was determined to go and visit the temple we visited a few years back when we went on a guided tour to Japan.

We planned our route. Go to SkyTree first, then to the temple. Not a difficult task this time as we could keep SkyTree in view whenever we walked. We came across this interesting building on the way there.

And this is how that interesting building looked like from below.

Another interesting structure we saw was this.

This is actually a school, complete with playground (at the back).

And finally, SkyTree.

There is an aquarium there too. But the entrance fees for both were just as costly, so we did not go up to have a view of Tokyo and neither did we pay the seaworld a visit. Instead, both Billie and myself had ice-cream at Cold Stone. We also had this lovely and sweet lady serenading to us as she "cooked" the ice-cream.

After that, we walked to Asakusa. Not far, provided you know the way. Slowly but surely, we found it! The "Lei Men" (that's how I remembered it).

We tried a few of the snacks along the way and they did not tasted as good as they should be and that was due to the cold weather. Everything turned cold easily.

Walk and walk again - this time, back to our hostel. On the way, we stopped by a Yakiniku restaurant. They were not ready so we rushed back to the hostel, and returned without our jackets (didn't want to smell meaty) for the dinner buffet. It was timed, but we could still eat leisurely, and the food was nice.

Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 7

December 5, 2012

The adventurers were at it again, today! Since we managed to get close to Nippori, what is Ueno to us. We turned right to go to Nippori, so we just followed the directions and go straight instead to Ueno.

On the route to Ueno, we saw little toddlers sitting in some carts with a teacher pushing them. Happened to be on the same route (we were not following them!), we saw that they stopped at a playground. So cute! And it was not kids from only 1 school. We saw another few from the opposite direction.

 

 

Ok. Ueno is a BIG place! Thought it would be easy to get to the Ueno station to take the JR line. In the end, we ended up at Yoshinoya somewhere in BIG Ueno and had our brunch. After our meal, well, we did manage to find Tokyo Metro Line's Inaricho Station. So, we just hopped onto it and switched to JR line and proceeded to Nakano.

 

 

From the looks of it, it sure looked small, but it is actually a long lane. And also, it leads to a shopping complex where there are many shops selling mostly anime stuff. Those who love capsule stuff ought to visit here. Unfortunately, this was a Wednesday so most of the shops were closed.

I actually found "Sadako" mobile strap, with her signature "long hair loose in front of face". Of course we did not get that, just in case.....

There is also Mandarake here too. So, as usual, Billie spent much time there.

We had our first sushi meal this day too, and it was the revolving kind. Besides getting the sushi from the revolving belt, we could order it via the machine too (just like Sakae Sushi). The sushi would then be delivered in this model bullet train.



Yummy. Sushi eaten in Japan is definitely Ooishii!

 

Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 6

December 4, 2012

Today was the day we went shopping for fabric! My day!

Seeing that Nippori station was only a few stops from where we put up, we decided to walk. Nice weather to walk as you will not perspire, unlike in Singapore.

As usual, we had Yoshinoya for brunch (breakfast cum lunch) and as usual, it was Yummy Yum Yum. After that, we started with our slow walk. We passed Sukiya (another food outlet quite similar to Yoshinoya). We told ourselves we would try that next time.

 



The route was simple enough - before we hit Ueno, just turn right to Nippori.

On the way, we passed Iriya station, so far so good. Then, we saw Uguisudani station. Well, still on track. But, wait, what was that we saw? The Milk Girl (literally translated from Chinese)? Oooh, that was Fujiya and the cakes looked good and prices inexpensive. Since we had our main meal, we got a chocolate cake and shared between myself and Billie. We just loved it.

 

We continued with our walk and realised that if we continued walking, we would have to walk through a cemetry! So, we decided to take the JR from Uguisudani to Nippori which is a stop away. On the train, we saw the cemetry.

But once we reached Nippori station, we saw this display of fabric bears in the station. Mmmm... we were definitely at the right station.

Based on the instructions given in a blog, we found Nippori Fabric Town, Fabric Street.

For those who love crafts, this would be the area to be in. You would find all stuff related to crafts and they are all over the street. Prices here were better than those in big superstores. However, if you were looking for imported fabric, then they would be more expensive, for sure.

There is 1 particular store called Tomato. This was 1 BIG shop and it was not just ONE building but more than TWO.

I spent quite a while roaming this street. My hubby and Billie had each other for company during this time.

After that, we stopped by near the Nippori station for early dinner - Chinese food and well, it wasn't that great. And we saw another Fujiya in this area too.

We finished up this day by returning to Ueno and roaming there.

Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 5

December 3, 2012

Shibuya, the famous tourist attraction - where you can see the sculpture of the loyal dog and the crossroads where all the traffic lights at all junctions will stop at the same time for everyone to cross.

We took the JR to Shibuya. Not that difficult in the transfer of trains, except that when you change from one train operator to another, you may have to purchase a separate ticket, eg. between Tokyo Metro and JR. In the event that you have purchased a ticket to enable you to switch the train operators or when the station is not linked,  then you must exit from the Orange gantry in order to retain the ticket for re-entry to continue with the journey.

In Shibuya, there is a bus interchange near the station but we did not attempt to try any buses (just in case we got lost). You can find a cluster of music shops at a corner.

Finally, we found the FIRST 100 yen shop (this is readily available when we were in Osaka). And, this is not the last 100 yen shop for this trip.

We were actually looking for Shakey's in Shibuya that we found all these additional finds. We finally found it in one of the lanes where the centre of Shibuya is. Had our lunch there and proceeded to Tokyu Hands.

This Tokyu Hands is rather different from the ones we visited earlier and later too. On the top most floor, there is a Hands Cafe within all the specially selected crafts/items of Tokyu Hands. We tried the waffle with ice cream and yes, it was nice (food is NEVER awful in Japan).

 

 

I finally bought some crafts from Tokyu Hands, after comparing the prices with other big craft stores which are priced similarly.

Before we went back to the hostel, we bought 2 pieces of cakes and yummy yum yum (sorry the other cake was half-eaten before we remembered to take a photo of it).

 

 

Tokyo, Japan Trip 2012 - Day 4

December 2, 2012

Did the laundry this morning outside the hostel. Yes, the washer and dryer were OUTSIDE the hostel! Website was not updated with this change. Never mind. As long as the laundry is done, all is fine. In such a cold weather, you must make sure you are there before the drying cycle is complete or you will get colder than cold washed and dried laundry.

Decided to return to Akihabara (we don't venture out too far from our comfort zone). Reason is on the other day when we were there, looking at the map at the side of the road, I saw the word "Fabric". Mmmm.... must be cloth. Good, we must go there to look for my stuff. After sometime, we found the area!

Wow! We found that they have condoned off part of the side roads and they were having a fleamarket! So, they were having a fleamarket on fabrics. Yahoo! However, as we walked around, I realised I missed out the "apparel" word that was on the map too. No, we didn't see much fabric but household items, food products, amongst much apparels. Disappointed. Well, at least we got to try some roadside stalls selling fried noodles. Spent only an hour or so over here and went off.

Saw Saizeriya and as usual, Billie cannot resist it and we ate there. All the food there is nicer than the ones over here, except for the Seafood Chowder soup which is slightly diluted.

 

Ended off the day with Mandarake (great place for Anime and manga stuff), Yodabashi Camera and not forgetting Yoshinoya for dinner (as usual).