Shinsaibashi 心斎橋, Japan Trip (Day 11)

6th January 2014, Tuesday

Today, we were supposed to go Nara but it was raining very heavily when we woke up. So we decided to go to Osaka Castle instead. We asked the hotel staff on the direction to the castle after we had our breakfast. He told us to alight at Midoribashi station and walk for around 20 to 30 mins to the castle and so we went off, without umbrellas, just our jackets' hoods. Then we took the metro until the station but when we alighted at the station, there wasn't any sign or direction to the castle. So we went upstairs and checked with the station staff. He told us to go to Morinomiya station (1 station down) and then walk for about 30 mins to the castle. We almost wanted to faint, have to walk for 30 mins to reach the castle. Ok, so we went down to the platform again and took the metro back to the correct station. This time, there was signs to direct us to the exit to the castle and so we went up to the street level. But it was still raining very heavily outside and to walk under the rain for 30 mins....So we gave up, instead we took the metro to Shinsaibashi station instead to look for Apple Store as we had problem on the new iPads wifi connectivity.

 Inside Shinsaibashi Staion

Pom's Farm Restaurant

Once we reached Shinsaibashi station, we tried to find the directions to the Apple store. We did managed to find the exit nearer to it but it was still raining heavily and there was no shelter too. So we went back down to the station and we started to walk in the station as there was a very very long underground shopping area. We just walked and window-shopping at the place, there were restaurants and many shops too. Halfway, there was an escalator going up to the street level, so i decided to go up instead. And to my surprise, we were at Shinsaibashi-suji Shopping Arcade (which i realized i came here too during my first Japan trip in year 2009). This is the central shopping street which connects to these 2 places: Umeda and Namba. And we turned to our right and started exploring the street, there were many branded shops like H&M, Uniqlo, Face Shop, Sanrio Garden, Disney Store etc. My friend started looking for her expensive shampoo and they were selling cheaper in Japan as it was a Japan brand. We also saw a Pablo branch selling the cheesecake and we wanted to buy it but as it was too early, so we decided not to buy it first. Then we managed to catch sight of the Apple building and Nike building. So we crossed the road to the Apple shop first and went and asked 1 of the staffs on the the wifi connectivity issue. He told us could be the hotel wifi signal was weak but we don't really believe him cos my old ipad was able to connect it properly. Anyway we can't let them to do a check cos we didn't brought our ipads out. So we just left and went to Nike shop instead to continue our shopping walk.We had a crepe from a stall called Crepe Ojisan beside an amusement center, it was selling all crepe at $390 yen for only today. And there was a queue, so we went to buy one too....hehehe...The crepe smelled and tasted really nice and i got a nice hot chocolate drink too.

Crepe Ojisan

Taiko Drum Machine

After the nice crepe and hot chocolate, i jioed my friend to play Taiko Drum with me. 1 game was only 100 yen for 3 songs..cheaper than playing in SG.....shiok....After playing, we continued walking down the streets and into those shops selling all sorts of stuffs (like our value shops). We continued walking until we stopped by Pablo cafe. As it was already about 2 plus and we haven't had our lunch too so we went in. We got a small original cheesecake set, it comes with the cheesecake and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Then we went upstairs to sit down, ahhhh....finally can rest my feet for a awhile. Inside the cafe, there was a video showing on how to make the perfect cheesecake (which is of course, Pablo) and it was showing a pretty lady making a prefect man. It was quite funny and interesting, idea.

Pablo Cheesecake Set

Staffs Dancing

Then after some time, the music suddenly got louder. I was wondering why the music got louder and then we saw 2 of the Pablo cafe staffs started to dance in the cafe. Hehehe....One of the guys was featured in their own video too, singing one of the songs from Frozen - Love is an Open Door but in Japanese. Everyone in the cafe was surprised when they started dancing and after that, everyone was enjoying the performance. After the nice performance, everyone gave their applause and continued eating their nice cheesecake. We too left the cafe after finishing and continued with our walk. Just beside the cafe, there was a Italian restaurant selling Naples Pizzas...kekeke....didn't managed to try it. Then we continued to walk until Dotonbori (Namba area), where we saw the buildings with the lighted up signs. One of the famous one which normally see on tv was the Glico sign, a runner reaching the finishing line. Then of course, also saw those famous dinning restaurants like Kani Doraku (the restaurant with the giant movable crab). And the bbq crabs smells really really nice. Then we also saw the King of Gyoza and a shop with giant octopus selling Tako. We continued walking, the whole street was full of food, beef, noodles, crabs, bbq scallop, etc. We kept walking until we came to a building where the 1st level was amusement center, and there was bowling alleys (from level 6 to 10, total of 42 lanes) and a 24 hours KTV. We went up to check out the bowling alley, the balls were highlighted colors and they played in the dark, where the balls will shine (if play at night time). Each game costs $650 yen and $370 yen rental for the shoes. There was darting boards too at the service counter. But we didn't went and play, so we went off and went across to the next street, where there was a big BIC Camera building. We kept walking until quite far in and we don't see the end point of the shopping street too....soooo long and i don't know whether we covered half of it anot...hahaha...

Boiled Snow Crab Legs

Snow Crab Legs Sashimi

Snow Crab Hot Pot

As it was getting dark, we walked back to Dotonbori and went for snow crabs dinner at Kani Doraku.  I bought a bbq scallop along the street to try, it was $400 yen per piece. It was quite big and not bad too. Then we went into the restaurant, and the manager held the lift for us while we 2 were busy taking photos of the giant crabs in a tank near the entrance....hehhee.. There were 2 lady staffs welcoming us when we came out from the lift (it went up to level 2 or 4). She told us to take off our shoes and brought us to our table. We had to sit on the floor when our legs under the table. The staff also passed us the ipad for ordering and we ordered a set meal, which consists of a crab hot pot, crabs sashimi, boiled crabs, bbq crabs, rice porridge and fruit. The snow crab legs were very fresh and sweet, we liked the sashimi best. Then we had the hot pot...nice...but it got salty towards the end. And the staff came and used the remaining soup to cook our rice porridge. Before she poured in the rice, she got us to try whether the soup was too salty. If it was too salty, she will add in more water and let it boil for some time and let us try again. Once the soup was ok, she poured in the rice and started cooking it. And later, she also poured in an egg to mix with the rice. The rice porridge was nice too...hehehe...After the nice and yummy crabs dinner, we went down to level 1 and paid for our dinner. After that, we walked back to the bridge and walked along the canal. All the mechanized signs were all lighted up in the night. Then we walked until Ebisu Bashi-Suji shopping street, we continued to walk along it. Went to check out their Daiso shop, it was 2 storey high. Then we continued walking down along the street, came across another shop selling cheesecake. We tried a tiny bit from their sample, it was quite tasty, something like Uncle Tetsu cheeckcake in Ion. Then we continued walking and saw a very big Takashimaya building. But it was closed, so we can't go up and explore.

Glico Runner

Dotonbori Canal

Yummy Cheesecake

Takashimaya Building

Then we continued to walk some more to see as much as we can but most shops had already closed for the day. Hohohoho....and as usual, we walked until so lost. We had no idea where we were and we didn't even see any metro station around too. We walked until almost 10 plus, passed by a shop selling porn videos too...hehehe....Went in a 24 hours mini mart and asked for directions and bought a pink Pesi drink (cherry flavor but not very strong cherry taste). We ended up at one of the stations (Ebisucho station) on the brown metro line. So we just took the metro from there and changed to the green line to go back to our hotel. The train for the brown line was nicer and cleaner too. We were surprised that our bath curtains got changed to a cleaner one, with no stains. And so i can do my hot bath, while my friend went downstairs to surf the net with her ipad. After my bath, i just lied on the bed and watched TV. Was watching a Japanese program on some facts and frictions...It was showing on a fact that you can use Mayo sauce or Coke to chill down the wasabi spicy effect. And there was a poor guy who had to eat the one big chunk of wasabi and using the different ingredient to try to see whether it helps. He tried with normal green tea, mayo sauce, coke and milk. Milk was the bad drink to go with wasabi cos milk triggered the wasabi spiciness more. When he drank down the milk after eating the wasabi, he was crying out that he had to throw out the wasabi chunk from his mouth. Can really see it was very very spicy.....hehehee.... Another fact was how to slice an egg into 5 pieces without having the egg yolk in a mess. You just have to freeze a raw egg for 7 hours and then peel off the shells. And you can slice the egg with the egg yolk still frozen. Then after slicing, you can fry the egg slices and you can share one egg with 5 or 8 people. It was quite interesting but i think i was sleeping on and off throughout the show, until my friend came back. And she was happily telling me my old ipad cannot connect to the hotel wifi but the new ipad can.... -_-"....Then it was rest time for the both of us.....

Hotel Stayed:
Humor Resort New Oriental Hotel

Kyoto 京都, Japan Trip (Day 6)

1st January 2015, Thursday

Lucky bags from BIC Camera

Yawn....Happy New Year, Everyone!! It's the first day of 2015 and today we need to travel down to Kyoto, our next destination. Woke up at 8 am and we just missed our reserved train to Kyoto, so we just took our time and packed our luggage and then checked out from the hotel. Then we made our way to Tokyo station. But on the transfer station, we went to BIC Camera checking out their lucky bags...hehehee...It was camera and video-cam bags, and the items were random, depending on your luck. We got 1 camera bag for $30,000 plus yen and we got a Nikon D3320 DSLR camera. We also bought a lucky bag from Adidas, which consisted of a jacket, a track pants, a scarf, a polo shirt and some more. Then we went upstairs to look for NDS console set as it was cheaper there. My friend went down to buy another camera lucky bag as we were thinking of selling the camera sets when we were back in Singapore.Anyway, we got ourselves stuck there shopping for hours before we left to the train station...hohohoho.....

Once we reached Tokyo station, we went to the JR office to make seats reservation for our next train to Kyoto, which was at 2.33 pm. Then i bought a unagi bento to eat on the train, $2310 yen..not very cheap. Then we boarded the train with all our stuffs...so many bags to carry. I just ate the bento as the train moved, we passed by Nagoya too, some towns we passed were snowing heavily and some towns we passed were having bright sunlight with no snow. We also passed by Mount Fuji, it was having snow on top of the volcano. We reached Kyoto station around 5 plus, and it was snowing in the train station (as it was open ceiling). And we went to check out the streets, there were snow everywhere and ice too. So we decided to go check in to hotel first before going for dinner, then we transferred to another JR line to go to Otsu station (2 stations away from Kyoto). It was really cold and the wind was blowing very strong. There were many posters on snow crabs, made you feel like going to eat. We were really jumping in the cold, luckily the hotel lift is connected to the JR station. But when we were going to exit from the station, there was no staffs there to show them our JR passes. We were so puzzled and my friend went to the other side to ask the staffs in the office. I got hear my friend's voice over the speakers too..hehehe...Then she came back and pressed onto the intercom machine there. We thought we can just pass through the gate, but when i tried to pass through, the gate door blocked me. Then my friend pressed on the intercom machine at the side and told the stuff that we had our JR passes and showed our passes over the camera. Then we took the lift up to level 2 to the hotel lobby.

Hotel Bed

Tracks covered with snow

Kyoto Tower

Then we checked in to our hotel and the staffs can't speak much English well but we still can understand them. The room was much bigger here and the toilet and bathtub was also much nicer. And we got a nice view outside the room, all covered with snow...heheee....Then i went to the toilet and accidentally locked the toilet door from outside. Hahaha...the toilet can't be opened now...so we called to get the staff the door. A young lady came up to our room and then she tried to open the door and was also puzzled why the door got locked. Then she suddenly ran off after telling us that she will be back later. Later another guy staff (who helped us to do our check in) came and helped us unlock the door. Then he also told us how to lock and unlock the door, after the drama, we rested for a while before heading back to Kyoto station for dinner. Before going to take the train, we went to the reception to ask for the breakfast meal for tomorrow and we also enquired on the places to eat during the next few days as it was new year period. The staff took us all the places are closed the next few days. So we booked breakfast meals for tomorrow, my friend asked the staff whether there was warm food in the breakfast buffet. The staff doesn't get it, so my friend asked her whether there was noodle, rice or eggs. She managed to tell us that there was eggs included, cos she can't speak English well but we can see her trying very hard to communicate with her. Somehow we did find her very cute....hahaa...Anyway she kept saying sorry to us when we left the hotel for dinner. We took the JR train back to Kyoto station and it was still very cold outside. So we tried to find food in the station, the station was quite big and there were a lot of restaurants. We went up 10th level in Istean, this level was a ramen street. There were a lot of ramen restaurants in the level. So we walked 1 round to see which ramen restaurant to try.

Fried Rice...Must Try!!

Ramen

Fish Cutlet

We went to a ramen restaurant and bought the items using the vouchers machine. Then we queued for table. We ordered a ramen with pork, a fried rice and a fish cutlet. When we sat down, we noticed there was a basket of raw eggs on the table. Then my friend was saying the raw egg to beat in the ramen and i also saw other people beat the raw egg into their ramen. The fried rice was super nice and i also liked the fish cutlet. The ramen soup was abit thick but the bacon was very tender. My friend even smuggled 2 eggs back to the hotel...hohoho...After the nice dinner, we went back to the hotel. We exited on the other side to take a walk around the surroundings. There were some workers pushing the snow away from the walkways in front of the station. Then we started to play with the snow and even made a small snowman. We also saw a small blue car with a block of snow on top of the car...hohohoho....After that, we went back to the hotel and my friend went and asked for coffee. After that, i went and 'onsen' inside the bathroom...lol...the hot water was very shiok, after that i felt super hot and looked red after the bath...hohoho...Had to open the window to let the cold wind in to cool down. The snow was also snowing heavily and the wind was still blowing strong. Worry about tomorrow that we cannot go out due to heavy snow.

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Tetora Otsu

Nikko 日光, Japan Trip (Day 4)

30th December 2014, Tuesday

Nio-mon Gate

Today, we were going back to Nikko again but this time we will be visiting the popular shrines and temples there. We left the hotel early today too but this time we bought our breakfast from 松屋 and then made our way to Tokyo Train Station. Then we went the same way as the day before to Nikko, but this time there was super foggy when we passed some towns. It was totally white in color, cannot even see anything outside and we saw a lot of snow. The temperature in Nikko is 0 degrees celsius and it was drizzling too. Today, we noticed there were more people going to Nikko, compared to yesterday. We reached there around 10.30 am and then we took the public heritage bus to the first temple which was the further away, Taiyuinbyo Temple (This time, we didn't alight on the wrong bus stop). There were some remaining snow around the ground and the ground was also very wet. The temple was also under repair works, so one of the main gate was covered with scaffolds. There was a golden door which was shinning very brightly as the sun shone on it, when we first saw it, we were wowing. There was a Haiden-Honden Hall, which the halls were connected in a 'H' shape and it was built with gold too. There was a golden arrow which costs around $8800 yen and it is meant for you to put at home as a charm to ward off evils. The golden arrow was a weapon used by one of the gods standing guard at the gate.

"Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil"

 After exploring this temple, we walked to another temple. At the entrance of the temple, there were boxes where you put a small amount of money (eg: $100 or $300 yen) to buy a fortune paper/charm for yourself. We bought 1 small little stone, in the form of crescent shape which has different meanings for each individual color. Then we went in to another temple ground with the entrance fee $200 yen. Not sure what temple was that, there was some mini games which you can also play with them as you walk by. There were also very big trees which were more than hundred of years old. After spending some time exploring the temple, we walked down to Toshogu Shrine, which was the oldest shrine in Nikko. The entrance fee for this temple costs $1300 yen per adult and there were some famous cravings like the sleeping cat, the see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil monkeys. As we walked in, we saw the monkeys cravings on one of the houses. There were many difference cravings on the monkeys with different explanations like a mother monkey is looking at the future of the child...and the child grew to be independent. There were 2 big storehouses opposite the cravings too. After this, we reached the Yomeimon Gate. The Yomeimon Gate was under repairs, so the whole gate was covered with scaffolds. And as we entered, the golden door of the main shrine greeted us. The door was shining brightly too and it was made of real gold.

Sleeping Cat

600 years old Spiritual Tree

We turned to the left side and went to the Sakashitamon Gate, where the staff checked our tickets for the sleeping cat shrine. There were many people around the temple, today a busy day it seems. We had to queue to go to the sleeping cat shrine. There was a famous craving on the sleeping cat on the gate and once we passed the gate, there was a long flight of stairs to climb up and it was very tiring to climb in cold weather. By the time we reached the top, we were panting. And the shrine wasn't very big, there were a priest that will ask everyone to come closer and he will start doing some ritual to bless all the people who came. Then he will ask everyone to walk in one direction to the back and back to the stairs for exit. We had to walk in single line and slowly, as we walked, we noticed there was another queue to pray to a big hole in a 600 years old super big tree. There was a sign that indicated that if you pray to the tree, your wishes will be fulfilled. We just walked up to the front and prayed at it and left...hohohoho...Then we went to queue to buy the sleeping cat bells for keepsake and went down the stairs to the main shrine. After that, we went to the main shrine which we had to take off our shoes to enter. Photography is not allowed in the main shrine and we just went in to take a look at the shrine. After visiting the main shrine, we went to the crying dragon shrine. Here too, the staff checked our tickets again. But my friend doesn't want to take off her shoes to go in the shrine. So i went ahead, my feet were frozen the whole day as we had to take off shoes a few times. Inside the shrine, i had to queue for my turn to go in the hall (at least no need to climb stairs again). As i moved in to the hall, i saw a very big drawing of a dragon up on the ceiling and there was a priest standing there and got everyone to come in as much as we can before he began. Then he began and introducing the crying dragon hall in Japanese...heheee...of course i don't understand what he is explaining. But at the later part of his speech, he took 2 blocks of wood and clapped them directly under the mouth of the dragon. And there was a bright ringing sound echoing back, but when he moved away from the dragon's mouth and clapped the woods again, there was no echo returned (very interesting..). So that's why the shrine is being called as Honjido Hall. There were also 12 Luo Han statues in the hall, which later i realized each one of the Luo Hans represent to each Zodiac animal. After the introduction by the priest, we were told to leave the hall by the other way, where purchases of the bells and charms are along the way out.

Crying Dragon Bells

Long-shaped Bao

Shinkyo Bridge

I bought 2 of the crying dragon bells, cos the ringing of the bells was different from the normal bells. Very unique...hehehee...I gave 1 of the bells to my friend, cos she didn't went in to see the crying dragon.  After the crying dragon shrine, we went out of the temple where there were some stalls outside the temple. We saw a stall selling baos, there was 1 interesting bao, it was long in shape which costs $50 yen. My friend so funny, she still asked me to wait for an ang mo to buy and then see his face whether he is happy or sad after taking the 1st bite. And guess what, the guy overheard us and turned around and told us the bao was still very hotz and he couldn't take the first bite yet. lol....Anyway we went ahead and bought 1 for ourselves to try...it wasn't that bad, quite nice actually. Then we walked down to Rinnoji Temple, we ended up there but the main entrance was covered by a scaffolding, which had us confused. We thought we haven't reached the temple but actually we had reached. But anyway we saw the staffs starting to sweep the floor of the place and the tickets office were closed. So we didn't went in to visit this temple. Then we just walked the way down and saw the founder of Nikko Temples statue and the Shinkyo Bridge, which was the entrance point for Nikko's shrines and temples. It costs about $200 yen to enter the bridge. We took photos outside (without entering the bridge) before walking down the streets of Nikko to walk back to the JR train station. We passed a snack shop selling bbq rice balls, which we bought 1 stick to eat and post office where i posted postcards back to SG. It costs $70 yen to post to anywhere in the world...hehehe...Then we passed a Hello Kitty shop, where everything is Hellow Kitty item. It even has Hello Kitty Lucky bags, which i asked my friend to buy 1 for her friend who is crazy about Hello Kitty.

Fried Red Bean Buns..Must Try!!!

BBQ Salmon

Then we saw there was a long queue queuing at a stall, which was selling deep fried red bean buns. It was just opposite Tobu-Nikko station. We just went to queue for it too, without knowing what the stall selling at first. We bought 3 of them to eat on the train on our way back. And after getting the red bean buns, we walked to the JR Nikko station. Then it was the same route back to Tokyo station, the fried red bean buns were very yummy, should buy more of it. Went to check out the toilet on the train too, it was very big and spacious. This time we alighted in Ueno station and took the metro to Shinjuku. As this time was abit early when we reached there, most of the shops were still open. We went in to Uniqlo to shop around, it was a whole building with 4 or 5 levels of clothes to shop. We also went to BIC camera building to shop around and went to Japan's biggest pachinko building. First time went inside to have a peek on the mini balls machines. We had our dinner at Ootoya inside one of the buildings there. I ordered pork cutlet set and my friend ordered the salmon. The salmon tasted much nicely than the port cutlet and so i was stealing her share on the fish...hehehee...After the dinner, we walked on the streets to find the Apple Store there. But we found out that the Apple Store is located in Shibuya and not Shinjuku using the displayed ipads in BIC Camera shop. After which we took the metro back to the hotel and rested after a long day.

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel - Hanzomon Hirakawacho

Akihabara 秋葉原, Japan Trip (Day 2)

28th December 2014, Sunday

Breakfast Bento Set

Today, we are going to Akihabara, a shopping street famous for its electrical and anime stuffs. So we woke up early and got ready to make our way there. We stopped by a small food place called 松屋, where we bought a bento set as breakfast using the coupon machine..Still it took us a while to try to match the names with the pictures and trying to figure out what can be topped up with...heheee...Luckily there wasn't much people around (only like 2 persons dining in)....After we got our coupon, we went up to the staff and gave her the coupon...We waited for a little while and our bento set was served...and it was nice to eat...hehee...we just shared that 1 set and after eating, we walked to the subway station - Kojimachi Station which was a short distance from the hotel. There was a sign on the staircase indicated we were 31 m above sea level too...We took the subway to Yurakucho Station, where we need to transfer to the JR line to go to Akihabara. When we came out from Yurakucho station (subway) exit, BIC Camera entrance was just beside it. Bic Camera Inc is a consumer electronics retailer chain in Japan and you can see it anywhere in Japan. And the prices are all tax exemption, which means it could be really cheap. Anyway, i had checked online this is the place where you can buy data sim cards too.

Cameras

Camera Lens

Fuji Films

So we went in to take a look, there were at least 6 or 7 levels in the whole building. We were at basement 2, where all the camera and accessories are placed...They even sells those films for very old cameras. We checked with 1 of the staffs on the data cards, he directed us to go up to level 1. We saw Y! Mobile service provider, and we also saw ipads, iphones, macbooks, etc which were cheap without the taxes....We asked one of the staff on where the data cards are located...then we went to see it..it was a different data sim card (not my friend had checked online). The staff was saying it was popular with tourists, it was a 14 days 1 GB data card for around $3900 yen. The staff doesn't know how to speak English, ended up the whole conversation with him was through google translation on his phone when we tried to ask him about the data sim card. Anyway my friend doesn't want to get it cos she not sure whether the speed will be fast enough for us to google the places. So we went off to the JR Yamaonote Line, we took exit 7 and walked up to the street level. The entrance for the JR line is on the right side and there was a small lottery shop...Once again, we walked up and bought a Loto 7 ticket for 9th Jan 2015 draw...heheee....7 numbers for $300 yen...After buying the ticket, we went to take the JR line.

Gashapon Machines

Kuroko no Basuke Figurines

Gundam Wing Models

Gundam Seed Models

It was roughly 4 stops away from JR Yurakucho station, and when we exited out from JR Akihabara station, there were a lot of gashapon machines placed there. And of course, i got stuck there...went to see what was cute there and played one of it for fun...Finally able to pull myself away and we went up to the street level. It was 'WOW' when i stood outside...there were so many people and many buildings with alot of anime posters and best of all, the roads was closed there. So we just turned to 1 direction and started to walk and explore the area...It was really big, 1 whole day is really not enough to walk if you are an anime lover or electrical lover. Of course, saw my favorite Gundam and Gaogaigar toys and of course, we were also digging the different prices of iPads....There was this small shop selling iPad Air 2 128 gb with cellular for $87,000 yen. So far, this is the only shop that sells iPads with cellular, the rest of the shops we went, even BIC Camera, they only allow us to buy wifi sets. But we just continued on walking first, and went across the street for toilet break in Starbucks and to use their free wifi....wanted to compare prices in Apple Store in SG...  :P

Kanda Myojin Shrine

After that, we continued walking ...werid thing is we like had walked for 2 hours or so, we were still quite near to the train station, which mean we didn't walk very far away....lol....We crossed over to Yodobashi Camera building and went into a small pastry cafe to have some breads and hot cocoa. And my friend kept pestered me on the different prices on the iPads, until i got really pissed off with it...Whole day like checking on iPad prices....Anyway, think she also noticed my frustration, so after eating the breads, we walked to the nearby shrine - Kanda Myojin Shrine, which was a straight road down from Akihabara. We reached the shrine around 3 plus, and there was some blessing ceremony going on. We washed our hands and mouth with the spring water at the side and then went in to explore the place. Don't really understand what was the ceremony about too...we stayed there for half an hour or so, they sells charm stickers to stick on credit cards, phones and computers...it was abit different from the usual charms which is put in a embroidered cloth bag. There was a little pony there too, no sure what it is doing there. After which, we left the shrine and walked back to Akihabara.

Spicy Ramen

Normal Ramen

Along the way, we stopped by some electrical shops and gashapon shops (cannot resist going in to play)...at the same time, we started looking food for our dinner. We also stopped at an Apple store when we passed by along the way. My friend checked out the prices for the iPad and was asking the staff for some extra information. The guy was telling us that we can't buy wifi+cellular sets cos it will need to be tied to a service provider in Japan (Even in BIC Camera, they don't sell wifi+cellular sets to tourists too). The guy was somehow questioning my friend asking her why she don't want to write down when she got him to repeat twice on where are the Apple stores branches in Tokyo and somehow we can see him abit getting impatient with us. So we left the shop without buying. Then we came into small alleys with mini electrical shops and my friend recongized 1 shop that she came before the first time she visited Tokyo. We wanted to eat there, but there was no English menu or pictures for us to pattern matching and it seems like the place was only selling beef ramen. So we went to the ramen shop opposite it and bought 2 different types of soup based ramens. Mine was spicy and my friend's one was neutral. Mine was too spicy for me to take it...while my friend was eating her ramen happily. We even got to pick a toy from the shop after paying for our meal. We both chose Winnie The Pooh magnets....hehehee...After which, we went walking again...went in arcade too, with those UFO catching machines...got 2 or 3 levels in a building with all these machines. We saw in 1 shop with a notice there is free wi-fi for tourists, so my friend went up to the staff and asked for a free wifi card but the staff told us we need to go the other building opposite the street to activate it (cos the wifi access point is searchable in the other shop). After activating the wifi account there, we just walked in the building to see what they were selling. We noticed Logitech is called Logicool there (not sure is it the same or its some other brand but the logic and packaging look exactly the same...lol).

Logicool Mouse

After which, we went into Yodobashi Camera building to try look for data sim cards. The staff also brought us to the popular tourist data card, which my friend doesn't want it and beside it, there were other many different data sim cards from different providers (even choosing a data card can be sooo confusing)....There were 14 days, 30days, 1 GB or 2GB or 3GB ones. Anyway we can't decide on which one to get too and the staff was entertaining 1 customer, when we tried to ask him question again, he just told us to wait until he is done with the current customer. And we waited, but he didn't get back to us even after entertaining the customer, which in the end we left without buying it...We stood there to wait for him for at least 15 mins (so give up). Then we went to Tower Records, where i bought 2 albums for my brother (from his idol). And then we walked for a little more and we went back to take the metro. There was vomit on the floor on the train, we jumped to avoid it. One guy wasn't so lucky...he had run to dash in the train and he stepped on the vomit and fell onto it....ekkk...really bad luck for him...and when the door closed, there was also vomit on the door (someone must be really drunk)...After we alighted from the metro, we forgot which exit did we came from this morning, so we were guessing on one of the exits. In the end, we walked on the streets...towards the wrong way and even walked until to the next metro station....hahahaa....From there, we took the metro back to our station again and went out from the correct exit and finally reached the hotel safe and sound.


Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel - Hanzomon Hirakawacho