Kyoto 京都, Japan Trip (Day 3)

6th March 2017, Monday

We woke up early today to head out to Kyoto, aiming for the 9:03 am train. We met up at the hotel lobby and did our check-out. Then we headed to take the train to Tokyo main station. It was so crowded at the train platform when we reached Tokyo main station, and we had to drag the luggage towards to the other end for the lifts. We went to buy our breakfast and i got 2 boxes of Tokyo Banana snacks with sakura flavour. Then we went to get our train tickets and went up to wait at the platform. Got some drinks from the vending machine too before the train arrived.

Finally we got on the shinkansen train and went to our allocated seats.... "Off to Kyoto!" ^_^
Had my bento while on the train and we could see Mount Fuji when the train passed by. However, thick clouds were covering the mountain. My friends played their monopoly deal during the ride. I still sat and enjoyed the scenery. We arrived at Kyoto @ around 11 plus and we made our way to the hotel. One of my friends was guiding us to walk to the hotel when we alighted at the station nearest to the hotel. We were walking through the street until my friend guide asked me why were we further from our destination on the google map.... -_-"...hahaaa..it turned out we were going the wrong way. So I took over her phone and followed the map...funny thing was we were also walking one big round on the opposite side of the hotel...hahaa...

Tatami style

My favourite!!

Soba with Ebi

Eventually, we found the hotel, safe and sound which was a relief. However, our room was not ready, so we just deposited our luggage there and went off for lunch. I brought them to the 150 years old soba restaurant (Kyoto Honke Owariya Soba), which was just one minute away from the hotel. We had to queue for a while before we were given a table. We got to sit at the table with Japanese style, which was to sit on the floor...(almost had leg camps after eating...hahaaa..). I ordered back the same soba set that came with 5 stacks of cold soba. One of my friends ordered the same set and the other one ordered a ebi soba set. It still tasted so yummy!!! Bought some of their hand-made cookies too.

After lunch, we headed down to Gion Street as my friends had not been there before. We walked and shopped around the different shops. I bought some souvenirs too and we went to try some green tea desserts. Also, walked through the ancient streets and saw a lot of people wearing kimono. In the end, we walked until the temple at the end of the streets but it was having light rain and the wind was blowing strongly. So we went in to see the temple, we can only see the outside as the temple had closed for visiting. I had walked ahead of my friends, and when my friends can't find me, one of them actually made a "Search for a Missing Cat" short clip..... -_-". Anyhow, they managed to catch up and found me.

Side Dishes

Salt, Pepper & Lemon

Pork Belly

Beef

Then we headed out back to the streets again and we did managed to see a geisha (not sure whether was she a geisha). But many people were just taking her photos without asking and she had to walk very quickly to get away from the attention. After that, we walked to IOIO building to have a toilet break, Then we sat down there to take a short break. After the break, we headed out to find a place for our dinner. We stumbled upon an alley called Pontocho Alley where there were a lot of restaurants. We picked a beef BBQ restaurant (Yakiniku Ponto Cho Teppai) for our dinner and ordered the ohmi beef and pork. We ordered a couple of side dishes, potato salad (which i don't find it nice), we had to bbq the meats too. However, their meat were tender and nice. The staff was quite friendly and she was able to speak with us in English too. We paid $14,461 Japanese yen in total for the meal.

Our room

After dinner, we walked back along the main streets, where we went to the Disney store there. We walked until 9 pm plus. Then we made our way back to the hotel and the hotel staff told us that our luggage was already in our room. So we took the keys and went up to the room. It was slightly bigger as it was with 3 single beds. But my friends slept on one bed and i slept on the other bed. I had trouble to sleep that night as usual (got super loud snoring sound).....hahaa

Hotel Stayed:
Hearton Hotel Kyoto

Tokyo 東京, Japan Trip (Day 1)

4th March 2017, Saturday

Finally planned to go for a short trip to Japan again and this time, i am traveling with two of my friends. Today is the day to fly off, away from work and study!!!

Woke up @ 5 am and got ready to go to the airport. My friends had arrived first at the airport and checked in their luggage when i was on the way (Purposely don't want to wait for me to check in together... :P). There were a lot of self-checking in kiosks and self-printing of luggage tags & boarding pass at the SQ counters. I went ahead to check in my luggage and we went in. While i looking for breakfast, the 2 of them were buying their makeup stuffs. We had our breakfast there after shopping. I had a doughnut and hot chocolate drink. After that, we walked towards to the gate and waited to board the plane. I got a different seat with my friends, so we were seating separately on the plane. And it's time to fly!!

Arrived @ Tokyo

Watched some movies during the flight and we landed in Tokyo at 3.15 pm (Jap time). It took a while for luggage collection, we tried to figure out the way to our hotel. We had to change 2 times on the train route to go to the hotel. We had to carry our luggage up the stairs when we cannot figure out where was the lift. My friends were having a bit of trouble to carry their luggage up as one of it was weighing 22 kg. By the time we reached the street level, we were panting....hohohoho.....By the time we finally arrived at the hotel, it was already almost 6 pm. Our rooms were on different levels too as i was taking the single room while my friends were taking double room. After check-in, we all went up to our own rooms.

My Room

The interior was quite the same as the one i stayed during my last trip in Tokyo. Didn't expect the single room to have a double bed too, when i went to check out the double room, my friends were also sharing the double bed and the size of the room was the same as the single room...and i got the whole bed to myself in my room....hahahaaa).

After settling down, we went to Akihabara for dinner. It was a stop away from our hotel and the sky had already turned dark, We went up to a building named Chomp Chomp to find some nice shabu shabu. But when we went up to the indicated level, there were two different restaurants, each on left and right side. We chose one restaurant (which was on the left side), named Akane No Niwa, and went in to try. The tables were placed inside separate small individual rooms and there was a strong cigarette smell too. We ordered a plate of gyoza as our starters and ordered a seafood hotpot. Thought we can order 2 different hotpots to try but was told by the staff it was required to order 2 of the same soup base.

Yummy!!

Seafood Hot Pot

The gyoza were yummy and there was a nice sweet sauce that came with it.The skin wasn't thick too.
It was so nice that we ordered 2 more plates of it. When the hotpot came, it was big and had quite a lot of seafood, including crabs. However, we don't find the hotpot was as yummy as the gyoza. It was quite disappointing though. After we finished our dinner, we had a bit problem to communicate to the staff to get us our bill. Cos we were trying to tell her "Bill", she kept thinking it as "Beer"......hahaha..
Finally, she got what we meant and got us our bill, which we paid at the counter.

Drinks from Gundam Cafe

After dinner, we walked around the anime streets and went to find the Gundam Cafe too. But we walked in the wrong direction and ended up walking in circle. Anyway, we managed to find it and queued to have some snacks. There were more characters designs for the drinks and we all ordered different drinks. I also ordered some fries as i was getting hungry again...hahaha....By the time we finished, it was almost to 10 pm and we took the train back to the hotel to rest.

It was soooo cold....

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel Kodenmacho-Ekimae

Last Day in Tokyo, Japan Trip (Day 15)

10th January 2015, Tuesday

Origami Display

Ahhh....tonight have to fly back to Singapore, last day to enjoy the cold weather and good food in Japan. Since we didn't plan any activities today, so we woke up and did out check out first. Then we headed out to Hakusan station to help my brother to buy his origami book. We walked to the metro line from Shin-Nohombashi station and we passed by a shopping mall like Istean under the station. Many people were actually outside the doors for it to open. We waited for a while and the doors opened, we went in to take a look. We were at the food level, so there were a lot of food, all looking so nice to eat. We spent there like almost half an hour before we dragged ourselves out of the place..hahhaa...Then we went to take the metro to Hakusan station and tried to find the origami shop named Origami House. It was located on the 2nd level of the shops opposite the street. So we went up to get the book and there were some origami displays by the experts but photography is not allowed.

After i got the book, we went down to Tokyo station to get the brum cakes as there was still time. We didn't managed to find the shop which we bought when we were going to Nikko. But we saw the same cakes inside Istean, so we went and bought the cakes we wanted. After buying the cakes, we rushed back to the same food market in the shopping mall in the station. And then we went back to the hotel to pack our stuffs into the luggage. By the time we left the hotel, we had already missed the airport express train. As the airport express train platform and the platform we alighted were the same, so we were thinking whether we can just board the airport train without getting a new seats reservation. We were walking along the platform to see the cars color but all were green cars. We actually waited until the next express train came but we don't dare to board it still. So my friend went to check with the train staff and she came back saying we need to do seat reservations. So i went up to the JR office alone to get the new seats reservations for the next coming train which was at around 3 plus. For the Narita Express Train, there were a total of 12 cars and the train will arrive in 2 sections. First cars 7 to 12 will arrive and then cars 1 to 6 will arrive and they join together in the platform. Both of the car front (where they were joined) will opened up too.

Naita Express Train

Train Seats

Our Last Sashimi Meal

Oysters Rice..Sinful!!

We boarded when the train came, it was really spacious to sit and so comfortable too. So we took our lunch out to eat while the train traveled to the airport. It was around 1 hour and 30 mins plus ride and the train stopped on terminal 2 first, so passengers need to know which terminal to alight not to alight on the wrong terminal. After we reached the terminal, there was security check before we entered the airport. We went to shop around in the airport as it was still early for check-in. I bought a fleece jacket for my brother and a neck cushion from Muji for my dad. Then i also bought some green tea powder for my little sister. My friend bought a postcard to send to her sister in Germany. Then we went to check-in our luggage and continued walking around in the airport. We also still bought a couple of snacks and a few boxes of Royce chocolate. There was even a small Japanese restaurant on the way to the gates, where we went in to have our last bite on the nice sushi and sashimi. Then we went into our gate and boarded the plane to fly back to Singapore. And this ended our Japan trip.....will go back visit Japan some day again... ^_^

Disneyland, Japan Trip (Day 14)

9th January 2015, Monday

Giant Mickey Pocket Watch

Main Entrance

Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters

Today, we will be going to Disneyland and so we woke up early to get ready to get our breakfast and then make our way down to the theme park. We took the metro to Tokyo station, where we had to change Maihama station. We stopped at a bakery shop to have our breakfast first before we take the JR train to Maihama station. When we alighted from the station, there were a lot of people in the station and all were walking towards Disneyland. We had cross over a bridge and beside it, was a grand Disney hotel and there was a big Disney shop too. When we reached to the ticket counters, there were long long queues waiting for the gate to open for the public. I went to buy the tickets while my friend queued at the waiting queues. Once the gates were opened, everyone rushed in to all the attractions to queue. I dragged my friend to go for the Buzz Lightyear's Blasters to get the express pass. We got ours at 11.35 am to 12.35 am, so we went off to see other attractions first. We also bought the souvenirs medallion from the machines, and after that we went to queue for the Grand Circuit Raceway. Queue was long but luckily it was moving quite fast, we both drove each car on our own. It was quite fun and we were allowed to drive 1 round each.

Minnie Mouse's House

Burger Set Meal

Canoe

After the car drive, we walked to Toontown and we queued to visit Minnie Mouse's house. There was also long queue to go in but Minnie wasn't at home. So we just went in one round and the oven and the dishwasher were cute, in the oven, there was a cake inside. After that, we walked to Good Time Cafe (opened by Donald Duck's newphews) and bought a Duck Feet-shaped Burger set meal. There were also also big big crows, trying to get free food. There was a lady who just bought her food back and was on the phone too. And a black crow came along and grabbed one of her burgers and tried to snatch off. After the nice burger meal, we walked back to Buzz lightyear's Blaster attraction. Then we went to queue to go in to the attraction, i was kind of worried that my friend will get giddy from the ride...hehehe....But she got more excited than me inside and was really firing away on the lasers. She was really enjoying the ride...hahhaaa....After the fun ride, we walked until to Winnie The Pooh honey ride as it was shorter. While walking to the ride, there were big story book pages for people to read while queuing. After the honey ride, we walked to the Critter Land and we went for a canoe ride. We got to row the canoe for a while too, and it went for one round the lake. After the canoe ride, we walked by the staffs selling turkey leg too. So we got one leg to try. It wasn't so nice as the one in Universal Studio.

Glass Slippers to try out

Once Upon A Time Magical Show

Then we went for a rifle shooting game in Western Land, it was 10 shots for $200 yen. I managed to get 4 shots but it wasn't good enough..hohohoho.....After that, we noticed people already starting to sit on the floor, waiting for the afternoon parade. I went to find a spot to sit down while my friend went off to buy popcorn. The parade started around 1 plus and it was fun looking at the cars and the characters dancing and singing. After the parade, we walked to Cinderella's castle and went up to look at the paintings inside the castle. After the castle walk, we went to try the Snow White & Seven Dwarfs ride. It wasn't so fun on this ride, it was a bit boring..hahaha...After that, i pulled my friend to try on Peter Pan's ride. I still find it fun, even though i had taken it multiple times in Paris Disneyland. After the ride, we went to AdventureLand for the choo choo train. There was a new attraction opened there too - Jungle Cruise. and there was a long queue for the ride. After the choo choo ride, we went to the square in front of the castle to find a spot for the Once Upon A Time magical show. There were already a lot of people seating on the ground. We sat in front of the castle but it was a but far away. And the wind was blowing strong as the sky got darker. When it was about time for the show to start, the staffs got everyone to stand up. Then the show started and it was quite nice but i wasn't able to see the whole thing as there were many people in front. After the show, we went to walk around the World Bazzar while waiting for the night time parade. The night parade started at around 7 pm, so we had to find a spot to sit for the parade. All the cars were lighted with lights and the parade ground was also had the street lights turned off. The parade was fun too.

Captain Hook's Pirate Ship

Toy Story

Monsters' Inc

After the parade, everyone started to walk towards to the entrance. We went to the Disney shop near to the train station and bought a few goodies back....hahhaa....There were so many cute stuffs to get but cannot buy back....ahhhhh! After shopping, we said bye bye to Disneyland and took the JR train back to Tokyo station where we had our dinner in the ramen street. After the dinner, we took the JR train back to our hotel to rest for the day.... Tomorrow will be our last day in Japan....waaaaaaa!

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Kazusaya

 

Tokyo 東京, Japan Trip (Day 13)

8th January 2015, Sunday

Ebi Filet-O Value Meal

Today, we are going back to Tokyo and we got really lazy from getting off the bed. Eventually we missed the hotel check-out time, which was 10 am and so we got to pay $2000 yen extra for the extended one hour. We left the hotel at around 11 plus and we took the train back to Shin-Osaka JR Station. We bought value meals from MacDonald's to eat on the train as the journey will be about 3 hours plus. I got Ebi Filet-O burger to try and it was nice!! And we passed by Kyoto, Mount Fuji, Nagoya and some other small towns, there was a big rainbow too when we were to reach Kyoto station. We reached Tokyo station at around 3 plus and then we made way to our hotel. The hotel room was not bad, we can open the window and see to the opposite building. Then we rested for a while until 4 plus before we headed out again. We took the metro and went to Tsukiji Fish Market.

Tsukiji Honganji Temple

Yum Yum!!

Sushi Set

My friend was basing on her memory to try walk to the market area (as she went before), and the sky had already dark. We walked passed Tsukiji Honganji Temple, the temple looked grand from the outside. As the temple had already closed for the day, so we cannot went in to explore. Then we continued to walk to the fish market but all the shops were closed for the day, except some sashimi restaurants around the area. And the whole streets were very quiet....hehehee....So we looked for nice sashimi again, we went to a restaurant and looked at the menu. We both found it familiar, like we been to this restaurant before....hohoho...Later then we realized it was the same famous restaurant we had in Shibuya - Sushizanmai. As we wanted to try other different restaurant, so we went off looking for others. We went into another restaurant, there was only seats near the sushi bar, so we sat at the corners. Cos the whole table were all working class men and they were having their dinner and chatting. We ordered 2 sets of sushi, it was quite nice but not as nice as the ones we had at Sushizanmai. When we paid for our meal, we asked the counter staff on the direction to Diver City Tokyo Plaza but she wasn't so sure about it. Then she told us that she visited Singapore a couple of years back when she was still a student. My friend told her to come back visit Singapore again as it had already changed a lot....hohohoo......

Mini Zaku

RX-78 Gundam

Gundam Shop

We took the Asakusa metro line from Higashi-Ginza station to Shimbashi station to make a transfer to another private train network - Yurikamome Line. When we reached the Yurikamone line station, we got a little confused as the stations of this line is not shown on the Tokyo metro map. So we were trying to find what station we had to get off. One of the station staffs saw us and approached us, asking where we wanted to go. Then he told us to get off at  Daiba station for the Gundam. The train was very new as it was their new design for year 2014. And you can sit on the very front and see the train moves (like our LRT trains, except this was with more carriages).  Although it was dark outside, we still can see the lighted buildings and Tokyo Tower with 2015 lighted on it. The train even passed under the rainbow bridge and there were roads for cars to cross above. The moon was very big, round and orange tonight too. It was fun taking this train, hehehee....We then alighted at Daiba station and walked towards Diver City Tokyo Plaza. The wind was blowing very strongly here, so cold....grrrr......We quickly walked into the mall to hide away from the wind and we went to find the 1/1 scale Gundam, which was standing outside of the mall.  Finally, i got to see the real scale of RX-78 Gundam. It was lighted with lights and it was really big. And luckily for us, it was having an illustration at 7.30pm, 8.30pm and 9.30pm during this period. We were able to catch for the 8.30pm performance. Just beside the gundam display, there was the gundam model kits shop and the gundam cafe.

Gundam Snack

Hot Chocolate..Nice Nice

Rainbow Bridge

We went into the shop first, there were a lot of model kits to be sold and there were also model kits displays. We walked for a while and then left without buying any. Then we went to check out the gundam cafe. It was selling the gundam toys and figurines and of cos, drinks and snacks in form of gundam logos too. There was this interesting box, where you have to fold the box into a stand form and scan a QR code on the box using your phone and put your phone onto the box. And there will be a 3D video playing onto the box. It was sort of like limited edition item now. Then i went to buy a nice hot chocolate from the cafe and i got to choose the art on the drink. I chose the gundam face art and the chocolate was quite nice, surprisingly. The illustration show started while i was buying the hot chocolate, so we went out to catch the performance. There was a projection of a video behind the gundam and the gundam was changing with different color of lights shone on it. The gundam head moved too, left to right direction. After the show was finished, we walked back to the gundam cafe to see whether to get anything. After that, we walked towards to see the rainbow bridge and the Tokyo Tower was just behind it. There was even a mini statue of liberty when we were walking towards Aqua City Odaiba. We went in the mall but most of the shops were already closed, so we just went up to the top floor to catch a nice full view of the bridge and the tower. There was even a mini shrine up there and behind it, we could see Fuji TV Building.

Legoland Discovery Centre

Supper for us

Then we walked towards another mall named Decks and we saw below across the street, there was a big christmas tree and the lights were changing colors. And while we were walking towards Decks, we noticed there was a long queue of sports racing cars going into the car park. We were wondering why there was so many sports racing cars going into the car park. Anyway we just walked into Decks shopping mall and explored. There was a Legoland Discovery Center, a Madam Tussauds wax museum and a trick art museum but all were closed for the day. My friend also keep saying wanting to bring me over to Toyota Web Mall, where visitors can do driving with their cars there. As we were making our way to the train station, we saw  a white car did 3 rounds of turning in front of a traffic light. We were so amazed by it, i also forgot to take a video of it. After the car left, there were marks left on the road. We also didn't thought of going into the car park to take a peek on whether the cars were having a race party (wasted!).....hehehee....guess we were both too tired. We also gave up going to have dinner at Ninja Akasaka where we had made reservation earlier cos the set dinner was really expensive there. Then we just took the train back to our hotel to rest as tomorrow will be Disneyland day......Yippie!!

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Kazusaya