tokyo day 4

today's main highlight is of cuz Ghibli Museum~! Thanks to ming who happen to go Japan @ the right time and is able to help mi get the tix (it's not easy and its limited!)

1stly, breakfast @ KrispyKreme! After days of witnessing ppl queueing for the donuts.. how could we not try it... :D so we headed straight there for breakfast... with free sugar glazed donut on the house while waiting.. so shiok! we ordered other flavours... and latte, which is good! as for donuts... their sugar glazed ones are still the best~ so after a filling breakfast, we headed off to shibuya

shibuya = shopping malls shopping malls and more shopping malls.. zzz when the exchange rate is no good, shopping @ malls is no good also... i see the price already sian liao... dun mention shopping... though it's still awfully crowded there @_@
look see around shibuya for quite long under the hot hot sun... and left for ghibli museum at around 230pm... our ticket is supposed to allow us entry only at 4pm though

reached Mitaka station at 3+ and found the ghibi museum shuttle bus in no time.. hence, we reached the museum rather early, but surprisingly, there's quite a number of people hanging around waiting to go in le... so we spent around 10+ min hanging around outside taking photos of the museum exterior... which is quite a sight too... and we're allowed entrance in after that! earlier than the stated time :D upon stepping in, we're given a tiny film strip as souvenier... and we headed straight for the queue for @ the theatre... the person in charged asked if we mind seating the steps, but why not... end up we located the best location on the steps and had a very good view of the show... which is a short clip which features the cat bus in totoro, i guess timeline wise it happened after the movie itself, but it's not bad anyway... then we explored the museum thoroughly. it's not exactly very big... so actually there's ample time for each exhibit...

of cuz there's this one exhibit that me and polar bear are very facinated with... it features a series of models that represents a different frame each and using strobe light, when they spin the model everything appears to be moving! and wat's more it's 3D (becuz all are models)
the effect is Good!

the shop inside the museum is veryyyyyy crowded... and of cuz it's stuff is veryyyy expensive also :S haiz....
so after lingering around the shop for quite a while, we took another good look of the spectacular exhibit and headed to the cafe for ice cream lol, it's quite cooling then so it's very shuang... and after that we headed back to shibuya... even more crowded at night... and we walked all the way to harajuku to walk around abit.. den headed back to hotel from there

tokyo day 3

plan for the morning... tsukiji fish market~ budden end up... i think i woke up late tis time @_@ ahhhh... so missed the auctioning for tuna... reached the market around 9am... :S
it was kinda hard to walk around in the market as everyone is driving some motorised goods transporter (with a giant steering wheel) all over the place and seems like we just get in their way D: but we do see lotsa fishes/crabs/shells etc and even some unidentified fishes or dunno wat :S and there's sooooooooo many fishes that they're selling... i wonder if they can even finish selling it :X

after the tour in the market, we headed to the nearby shops which have quite a few sushi bar... all with long queue... it's juz a matter of who's queue is longer @_@ polar bear said dai wa (da4 he2 in chinese) sushi is good.. so end up we decided to eat that... and joined the alreadi uber long queue... was famished half way through the queueing... and praying that ppl quickly eat finish :S that sushi's good... and very special... don't think you can find any of those in SG... and of cuz, damn fresh~ :D budden sometimes like put too much wasabi in *tears* though i had to warn ppl never to eat abalone sushi... it's really tooooooooooo chewy :S (i.e. kinda hard) taste ok but... to reach the point of swallowing is kinda difficult :S but i had to say... their sushi's kinda ex :X but ok la... they're unique :D

after that, we headed to tokyo tower~ nid to walk abit and we noticed some botak trees along the way... could they be... sakura trees? tokyo tower i feel still looks nicer on the day.... although it's not very tall, it offered a better view (probably becuz i go in the day also) than the Tokyo Metropolitian Govt office.... and as usual, can't see Mt. Fuji at all due to the fog :( and i think they should make their lift transparent instead of putting some fanciful lights inside... :D

after staying near a couple of hours there... we walked to another station (slightly further away) so it has a direct train down to the imperial palace nearby (otemachi station)... too bad we cannot go into the imperial palace... can only loiter around outside... take pictures and see people doing paintings of the palace... interesting

we then walked to tokyo station to take a train down to Shimbashi where we could take the monorail down to Odaiba... but before that, is lunch at shimbashi area... and we had soba wif sakura ebi tempura for mi and yasai tempura for polar bear... after filling our tummy, we stopped by to munch on a strawberry shortcake... my sis insist i shld try the strawberry shortcake in japan... but not exactly that spectacular i feel... got other more interesting looking cakes leh :S

finished the cake, took the yurikamome line down to Odaiba... alighting at tokyo big sight cuz polar bear is interested in it's building structure... (i think he should be an architect in the 1st place since that's his interest)... then we walked all the way back to palette town... and headed for toyota's show room MegaWeb... this is where i spotted a petite toyota car which i like... Toyota iQ... well, SG wun have unless u parallel import... but will cost u a bomb :X then we went to take a lookie at other cars... realise we cannot test drive cuz we din convert license to international license... but settled for an alternative.. E-com... some auto car ride that the car will drive by itself... but after realising it relies on the sensors on the floor, it's kinda disappointing... (i thought it's really that smart at the beginning) but the ride wasn't too bad... at least i looked like i drove a car there haha! then we headed to have a try on their simulator... i was ranked a driver wif safety level at B with or without the anti skid function they're trying to intro.. heheh... then took the racing simulator for F1... but it din feel too good as the seat is uncomfy... after that, we're quite done wif MegaWeb and headed to Venusfort (the shopping mall to take a look)

Venusfort is all pretty and expensive inside... we found a car museum inside and i only then realise how big a cadillac was :S. we then end up finding entertainment in the arcade (oops again)... was playing wif cork shooting air guns and got some titbits and candies as spoils... then for the first time tried some slot machine which we grew bored of... then tried a medal game which we got abit addicted :O so we loose all our medals back since we can't reallie cash it out....
after that, we headed for the ferris wheel... which is also quite expensive... and though it offered a better scene than taiwan's it's not exactly that spectacular either... due to the lack of excitment, i think i shall give ferris wheels a miss in future...

hungry after the ferris wheel ride cuz it's way pass dinner time... we headed back to shinjuku... on the way tried to take a picture of the rainbow bridge but it's hard due to moving train + night scene... dinner was not so fantastic ramen @ shinjuku... sigh.. where's one wif marutama standard?

tokyo day 2

woke up late because we relied on polar bear's hp as alarm clock... budden it's not adjusted to tokyo timing! @_@ anyway, today's itinerary is asakusa -> ueno -> disney land
because i'm not exactly a fan of disney... so decide to save some money (tho it's in a sense not very worth it) and bought the night tix for disney land... only can enter in from 6pm onwards

going asakusa is quite convenient from our hotel luckily... we reach there not too late and headed to senso-ji~ (it's a guan yin miao4)

but step into sensoji that time den realise it's partially under reno =_= can't see most of it's roof... doesn't look nice... sigh~ becuz it's guan yin miao4 and i somehow gave my word that i'll go to this temple to bai4 guan yin since i never did so before the tour, i bought one bundle of incense to offer... their incense is not like chinese's one... is a bundle of thinner and shorter incense... but it being a bundle makes it hard to lit... was standing for quite long infront of the stove tryin to light it all up... then hafta stick my hands into that full of incense urn and stuck it in while ppl crowd around trying to kapo some incense smoke? supposed to be good wor!

headed in and saw more booths for ppl to pray for a lot.. but becuz i noe i wun understand what the lot will mean eventually, i stopped myself from getting one... :S so loitered around... look see... then headed to the asakusa jinja which is juz almost next to it..
the jinja isn't really open, the most extend u can go to the entrance, throw coin, bow x2, clap x2, pray, bow... that's about it. i did that, admire the jinja abit and wondered where did the big bell jinja's supposed to have go? or nowadays no more jinja have that le :S

on the way out of that area, stopped by to buy dango to eat :D DANGO!!! yum!

after that... we walked like one metro stop down, explored the neighbouring shops abit, saw some interesting shops(see pictures i uploaded).... then gave up on the idea of walking all the way to ueno and took the metro. Got to ueno really fast... but was a bit lost as to where ameyoko is... took some time before we found it... and once we did we started sweeping up goods... :S so end up got no hands to carry many things le...

with all the barang barang, we managed to snacked abit... shop smmore.... then ate lunch at some conveyer belt sushi restaurant (not reallie great) and decided to head back to hotel to put dwn the goods we bought... then we headed down to disney land

the trip to disney land is shorter than wat i expected, cuz disney land ain't considered to be in tokyo but chiba... it's kinda cold there cuz the wind is strong... and we almost thought we got scammed by the online booking cuz approach 2 booths le they say dun recognise the booking... until we got directed to the correct booth @_@ then they dun allow polar bear to bring his tripod in... oops...
another shocking thing is there is actually quite a no. of ppl who bought night tix and the queue to go in has already formed... :O so we queued awhile... then was let in... chionged in... then headed to get fast pass for space mountain... then headed back to take photos of the disney castle... so while waiting for the parade to start (long time off but see people chopping seats liao O_O) we juz walked walked around to look... long queue for rides everywhere >.>

waited very long for the parade to start... was freezing already :S but the parade's not bad... though some of the floats they showcase i don't know belong to which of their works... sadly after the parade there's no fireworks as the wind is too strong D:

we went to ride a kiddy ride (those u sit in a tea cup one keep turning in circles one) and to their souveneir shops while waiting for our fast pass slot for space mountain... was trying on the different hairbands with ears... and polar bear bought me a pair of mickey gloves... why mickey have 4 fingers? D:
when the time comes... i was wondering if the ride is really that thrilling cuz they provided lotsa escape pods (i.e. escape routes) for ppl to back out last min... well, the ride is... ok la... abit disappointed.. there isn't even any sharp falls... :\ i guess disney land is really v safe for kids :P

we left disney shortly after... went to the shop just outside the entrance to buy more souveniers for the kids. After that, we headed back to shinjuku on empty tummy and ate some ramen that can't beat marutama at the soup or the egg... haiz~

finally stepped into Japan!

ok... *wipes off some dust from the blog*
i guess i'm so lacking in mood to type long stories, my blog is collecting dust... cuz any more updates will be juz about work- which i can't say too much either. Of cuz life isn't all about work, but it's quite routine... weekdays work; sat go out wif polar bear and sometimes with AS peeps; sun i rot at home... then occasionally got other outings wif colleagues, ex-classmates etc etc

so... routine lifestyle makes mi lazy. And i'm used to being lazy. haha~ plus now got time online i'll be tryin to catch some anime... oops... ya so i'll try to update my blog more often, but i guess life is quite peaceful now and i'm not thinkin so much le... sounds like signs of becoming old... :S

anyway, onto the tokyo trip~

prologue:
well, we've intended to go Korea... then extend a few days for free n easy... but i realised i'll be v tired after that and got not enuff leave lidat... + we always having difficulty queueing at the uber long queues during the NATAS... so, after finding out that air tix to tokyo has dropped abit.. we decided to change our destination to tokyo

the bad thing about f&e is that gotta plan... i'm feeling lazy and polar bear's bz.. lucky we manage to plan somehow... cuz eventually the whole trip we really sticked to the itinerary for the most part (which i tink is a feat cuz usually wun)

day 1:
the flight's at day 0(28th apr) and it's a night flight on the fattest plane A380... the biggest boo-boo that night is polar bear actually checked in his camera with his luggage -_-" so we got a disposable camera which we haven't used finish (yikes) and relying on my lousy 2.0 mega pixel camera hp... juz anyhow snapped some shots on the plane... thought we could explore the plane but we couldn't... :(

and as usual, i suck at sleeping on transport... they gave us snacks (some buritto wraps which aint v tasty) at around midnight going to 1am and i ordered johnny walker red label on the rocks (which isn't nice i find) to help mi sleep faster... but juz when i finally could fall asleep at like 3am lidat... i got woke up in less than an hour to eat breakfast =_= zzz totally no appetite.. plus food isn't great... the egg is like overcooked and rubbery... @_@

reached narita at around 7+am... was feeling groggy yet kinda excited... the walk from the gate to the customs is kinda long... then gotta go thru all the temp scan... and they got this machine that takes in both ur thumb prints and a picture :O quite amusing... then when checkin our luggage before exiting the airport... i was called to get mine checked along with polar bear's... then that custom officer tok to us in chinese o_o" is that guy from china i wonder? even at the customs? wow

bot airport limo tix... took airport limo tix all the way to shinjuku.. polar bear sleeping for most of the journey... well again i couldn't.. then got off and started scouting for the hotel... luckily there's a map along the street and we tried to figured out where... found the hotel... it's v new and quite impressive... left our luggage... and headed off to find... breakfast/brunch/lunch

went to the keio and jr shinjuku station interchange... got kinda lost around... tried to ask the information counter about day pass for trains, realised there's no cheap pass that allow ride on all the different companies' metro/train line.. decided to give up on the thought and get tix everyday... decided that we should have curry rice for lunch... curry rice cost around 500+yen per person... not bad~

further loitered around exploring... finally found takashimaya time square.. expensive stuff they're selling, found kinokuniya beside takashimaya... their piano scores section is confusing and overwhelming... gave up... headed over to the other side to check out what's game taito... realised to our horror and happiness that it's the arcade.. filled with UFO machines @_@
that's where i got my first prize... the monster hunter walking cook cat (SD version) but subsequently lost some money in attempt to try and get a second one :S headed into a shop that sells like tons and tons of AV... the collection is like wow... @_@ all sorts really.. but v ex wor

so after exploring more, we headed back to hotel... noticed a long queue @ krispy kreme and wondered if it's that delicious. we checked in... found the room kinda small on 1st impression, but it's really clean and neat.. the tv channels are v family oriented... no mention of vending machines for AV channels as zn has mentioned :X

the rest of the day is spent @ suginami animation musuem, eating dinner at ogikubo.. then headed back to shinjuku's tokyo metropolitian govt building for night scene at their observertory.. well the latter's a disappointment as the interior is too well lit... plus we're scammed into walkin uber long dist under the tunnel to the building... zzz long and cold walk
after that was back to exploring arcades and shop + supper @ standing sushi bar.. which is good!!

day 2:
to be continued @_@