to japan - part 5 - the finale & encore

Monday, 5 April to Monday, 12 April

So we arrived back at Tokyo. What a familiar feeling. So many people, all busy, noise everywhere. I was home. And felt more at home when we finally got back to our ryokan. After re-checking in, we went to dinner and rested.

Next day, Shinjuku. Yep, back to the busiest station in Tokyo. It was so big that when we got separated, even if we knew where we needed to meet up, we couldn’t find the right exit.

Went through Takashimaya and around 3 or 4PM, I went back to Asakusa. Went to Daiso/Hyakuen shop (100yen shop) and back to Senso-ji. Took photos of it and I learned my lesson that day. And boy I was glad my camera handles high ISO photos better than my previous one.

Japanese temples are much better photographed at dusk. They are OK if you photograph them during daytime but at dusk, that’s when they really shine. Or maybe it’s because my daytimes in Japan are mostly filled with clouds, not the nice ones, the gloomy ones.

After dinner, it was just the routines, fully packed train ride, Sunkus konbini opposite Minowa station and bought breakfast the next day and headed back to the ryokan.

The next two days were Disney themed with Odaiba in between.

First day we went to Disneysea. Took the Disney themed monorail from Maihama station. Even the station attendants kept on waving at people to look nice and happy.

I didn’t have that much fun in Disneysea. It’s not the place, it was the cold and drizzly weather and my stomach. My stomach hurt the whole time and I had to do my business a couple of times. Can you believe that? Finally at around 3PM I decided to bail. I went to Odaiba then back to Ueno to grab myself a quick dinner at Gyuu no Chikara then back to the ryokan.

The next day at Disneyland, it was much better. The weather was nicer, although still cold and my stomach wasn’t acting up anymore. Had lots of caramel popcorn. We stayed until late and left after the fireworks. Saw lots of parade there.  Dinner, again, at Ueno. Had a karage set in a nice small diner at the corner of an alley in the market. It was so good Then back to ryokan.

And Friday came. Went to Mitaka to Ghibli Museum. After that we just went straight to Shibuya, just to take photos of the crossing, then back to Akihabara. Tried going into one of those maid cafés. I felt weird. I won’t explain what it is. If you don’t know and you want to know, click here.

Later that night we had some yakiniku at, yes, Ueno then headed home..

Two days before we left, we went to Ueno station quite early and bought ourselves the Skyliner tickets for us to go back to Narita airport on Monday. I didn’t bother bringing my camera out today. My shoulder was sore. Then off to Shinjuku to have lunch, then off to Shibuya and just explore the alleys. Later that night we were taken by my friend’s friend, a local, to have dinner at an izakaya in Shibuya (if I’m not mistaken, sorry Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro is now a blur to me heheh) and she promised to take us to this spicy ramen place the next day in Ikebukuro. Woohoo! Spent the night, yet again, in Ueno. Got myself a Crayon Shinchan plushie after the machine ate probably 2000yen of our money. Never again.

Last day in Tokyo, we went to Ikebukuro and as promised we were taken to this spicy ramen place called Nakamoto ramen. People were queueing outside and I didn’t dare try the spiciest ramen (10/10 fires) since tomorrow I had to hop on a plane and I don’t want my stomach acting up again, just a precaution. If I were still there for a couple of days, then I would.

The verdict, it was spicy.

Then spent the afternoon around Ikebukuro and Harajuku and that night, yep, you guessed it, Ueno again. I’ve become so attached to Ueno because of their small alleyway markets. The food was awesome and it was close to our ryokan, only two train stops away. I tried to go back to the place where I had Hambagu rice on our first week in Tokyo but I was too late. When I got to the alley where it was located, I saw a sign on the door and straight away I had a bad feeling. And I was right, the sign said ‘closed’. Argh! Next time I’m in Tokyo I have to go back there again. I hope I still remember where it is.

And on the day of the flight, we woke up quite early, took a taxi to Nippori station where we then took the Skyliner to Narita airport. There I returned my rental simcard, had breakfast at McDonald’s (yup, they had a muffin with pork, how cool was that?), bought some snacks and was on my way home.

Would I come back? Definitely, but I’d like to travel around to other countries before I go back to Japan if possible.

Things I’m gonna miss: definitely the food and the snacks. They’re fast, they’re easy on the stomach and they look good too. And the toilets. I love Japan’s toilets.

Things I definitely don't miss: getting lost, the noise, the packed trains, the packed trams, the packed buses, the continuous ‘irashaimaseeeeeee’ (welcome) in high pitch voices whenever you enter a store (it was cute at first but after a while it becomes quite annoying), the maid cafés and the scarceness of rubbish bins

Photos as usual, are up on my Flickr.

And I will post again soon, hopefully, just about anything.

to japan - part 3 - lost in tokyo

For my Japan trip photos, click here.

Wednesday, 24 March 2010 to Tuesday, 30 March 2010

So, we were roaming Narita airport (without my luggage) and went to the JR Office, exchanged our JR Passes and bought the Narita Express tickets along with some Suica cards.

Yokoso Japan!

When we first board the Narita Express, I thought Japan was so peaceful. The train was quiet, we were the only ones in that carriage and there was only the occasional tray-pushing waitress selling drinks and snacks passing by.

After an hour and a half, we arrived at Tokyo Station area and started losing our way even though we’ve got directions to our ryokan. So we started asking around. I couldn’t remember which train line we hopped on but it was definitely a JR train. We were told to get off at Minami-Senju station even though the ryokan gave us directions to get off at Minowa station. We thought ‘yeah, it’s OK. We’ll just find a map and find our way to the ryokan’ (this happens all the time during our first week in Japan, directions were scarce).

So we got off at Minami-Senju station only to confuse ourselves once again. After asking people around and finally giving the ryokan a quick call, we finally were able to find our way there. It’s not too bad. It was only a fifteen-minute walk with us lugging our luggage’s (yes I did help a friend carry their luggage too, so I wasn’t dilly dally-ing).

Once we arrived, we just did all the paperworks and were on our way.

First stop, Kanoya Udon. Having to feel the winter breeze all over again (in March mind you) without the proper jacket is really a situation you don’t ever want to be in..ever. So having seated myself in this cozy udon restaurant and slurping my udon and the soup away was really refreshing to me, my body and my two sleepy eyes. Got coffee for free afterwards. So warm.

I didn’t think we did very much on our first day. After lunch we went looking for a Lawsons (one of the many konbinis – convenience stores). Lawsons sell the entry tickets to the Ghibli Museum and we haven’t got that yet. We finally found one. After a lot of effort buying it from the ticket machine (don’t understand the language and the entry time slot were all fully booked), we managed to squeeze ourselves into one of the timeslots and went back. It was just check-in and sleep afterwards.

Went to Ueno for dinner whilst getting amazed by our surroundings. When we first arrived at Ueno station and got out, we were surrounded by shops selling..just about everything, and when we got out from the station, it was even better. We didn’t explore too much, we just wanted to go for dinner. So finally we went into one of the curry rice restaurants. Whaddya know? A vending machine curry restaurant. So we ate and we ate hard (we were hungry people). Afterwards, went to a seven eleven and bought some snacks and then home.

The next morning I’ve already thought to myself ‘relax, if my luggage doesn’t arrive this morning, it will be here this afternoon’. So we showered. Lucky the ryokan had towels, liquid soap and shampoo provided for tenants.

I was ready to go when the reception called and she told me my luggage had just arrived. I was excited.

Changed my undies and we started exploring. We went a little bit further than Ueno to Akihabara, the electronic city. Went in to Yodobashi camera and had a look around but mostly drooled a lot. Only bought an Ethernet cable since our room has free internet connection. And I now can hum the Yodobashi camera theme by heart.

Went for lunch in a restaurant where they didn’t have any English menu. So with my limited Japanese (I can only read katakana) I was finally able to order myself a kaki fry set.

It was a rainy day but our ryokan was kind enough to lend us umbrellas. They have a neat system in Japan where if you go into stores when it’s raining, the always have a place where you can get plastic bags for your umbrella that’s shaped like an umbrella cover when you first bought it. Sometimes they’re manual, sometimes they’re semi-automatic (you just put your umbrella into the hole and pull out with your umbrella already covered in plastic).

Later that afternoon, our destination was Odaiba. My long lost friend agreed to meet us there. I still remember how we had to ask for directions in Shimbashi station to go to the Yurikamome monorail. Odaiba wasn’t so bad after all. Weather sucks though. Most of our days in Tokyo are filled with one hand wielding umbrella and the other hand in a pocket to make sure we’re not freezing to death.

We visited Yoyogi Hachiman temple the following day. It was a secluded nice small temple. Finally, time to click that shutter away.

Afterwards was a visit to the Meiji-jingu. This was a large temple right behind Harajuku station. Plenty of local tourists as well as foreign tourists here. I think we entered from the back side and exited from the front where they had sake barrels all lined up nicely just after the tori.

Naturally we visited Harajuku and Omote-Sando after that. Had lunch at a ramen shop in one of the alleyways of Omote-Sando. Beautiful. Hung around in Takeshita Dori almost the whole afternoon then crossed the road to Harajuku St where I finally got myself one of those hot sweet potatoes. So very sweet, and for the weather that day, it was heaven.

I bought myself a Nobita action figure from Kiddy land and a Sapporo Tee from UT then moved our butts to Jimbocho and had ourselves dinner at Le Gout Raffine en France. It was packed. I had the beef curry and if it was a little bit more spicy it would’ve been awesome, but I didn’t complain.

The next morning started really early. I should probably have said dawn instead of morning. I woke up at 4AM and gotten myself ready to go to Tsukiji fish market to see the tuna auction which start at 5AM. We got there alright, not just us, a few hundred other people too. 

Walking into the market while watching ourselves not to get hit by the buzzing battery carts we made it to the tuna auction area and had to queue for a bit. It was quite a scene. And viewers could only watch from a near distance without being allowed to enter the actual tuna auction area. We were just, sort of, passing through the tuna auction area and it was so packed with people it felt like the trains in the evenings.

Had hot tea and onigiri before and after the market then breakfast. Sushi and sashimi at Sushizanmai. I wasn’t too fond of them but they’re OK.

After that, we visited the Kitanomaru garden and got a glimpse of the blooming sakura. There wasn’t too much there yet but we got the gist of it. Afterwards, had some snack at Yasukuni jinja and went for a buffet lunch at Zenmaru.

Shinjuku was bustling with people. That’s my first impression when I first got there after lunch. I though maybe because it was lunch time but then I was informed that it was actually the busiest station in Tokyo. Believe me, it is. We hung around Shinjuku until late afternoon and went to Nakano afterwards. I want some Crayon Shinchan but couldn’t find any.

My cravings for gyuu don brought me into Yoshinoya and man, I was satisfied. Say what you want about Yoshinoya but I’m a sucker for gyuu don. Went back to the ryokan with my legs feeling as if they were almost done for.

Next morning, Ueno again. Got out of the ryokan quite late thanks to yesterday. Went straight to lunch to this place where there was no English menu (different from before). I had a hambagu rice (minced meat like they have in burgers) and a potato salad. I love this place so much but I didn’t know what it’s called and I forgot to ask. I actually tried going back to this place the night before we flew back to Singapore but it was closed. Damn!

Walked around Ueno a bit then off to Roppongi. I really want my Crayon Shinchan. Made our way to Asahi TV building and got myself some Crayon Shinchan. I was quite surprised and disappointed since they didn’t have that much Shinchan merchandise compared to Hello Kitty and Doraemon.

Anyway, spent some time at the bazaar next to the building and went to Ginza later that night to have wagyu bagu for dinner. Nice.

Next day, Asakusa’s Senso-ji, but not before doing our laundry, dried it and had many-pork-noodle (chasiu-men, but it says many-pork-noodle on the menu) for lunch. That many-pork-noodle is one of my food highlights in Japan. I'm still hooked up to this day and I wish Melbourne would have something similar to it. I will be back!!!

Once we got to Senso-ji, it started raining. Awesome. Why Tokyo? Why? Bought some umbrellas, one an actual umbrella and two other were just tiny ones..for photography purposes I guess. Again we entered the temple from the back and made our way to the front where Kaminarimon is.

Had Mos Burger after Senso-ji and later that night we visited Nijubashi bridge in Chiyoda. Parked ourselves at Wadakura Fountain Park and back to the ryokan afterwards.

The following day, we were off to Kansai.

To be continued…