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 2)

5th March 2017, Sunday

Shibuya

Today, we woke up @ 8 am and met up at the hotel lobby. My friends were bringing me to Shibuya to try Ichiran Ramen for breakfast. So we took the JR Line down to Shibuya, most of the shops were not opened yet. When we reached Ichiran ramen resturant, we were greeted with a self-ordering machine where we ordered 3 bowls of ramen from it. After which, we went in to find our seats. The interior was partitioned to cater for individual seating, however, the wooden partition can be folded away. And the staff will serve the ramen through the front window, you can also see the opposite row of table. When the ramen was served, the staff drew down the curtain so that the diners can enjoy the ramen with no disturbance.

The ramen was niceeee!!....the soup was with so much flavor and it combined very well with fresh green onion. You can also choose to add more noodles, green or white spring onion and with chilli. We had a very nice breakfast, after that, we went separate ways as i needed to travel to another place to buy origami books for my brother while my friends went shopping on their own. However, we had arranged to meet up again in Sunshine City to go to Pokemon Centre during lunchtime. I reached Hakusan station at about 10 plus and saw a small shop selling coffee beans, but not able to make out the flavors of the coffee beans as the signs were writing in Japanese....kekee...
Managed to buy the books and proceeded to meet my friends for lunch. However, they needed more time to shop. So i headed first to Ikebukuro and went there to see see look look while waiting for them to arrive.

Fruits

Mini Cakes

More mini cakes....

There were many beautiful cakes and chocolates in one of the major shopping mall when i arrived at Ikebukuro station. It appeared they were selling to prepare for their white day, which was on 14th March. All the cakes and chocolates look so tasty from their displays, there were many people shopping too. It took me some time to figure out how to exit from the correct exit, plus, it was crowded too. Finally, i managed to exit out from the station and got up to the street level. I then made my way slowly to Sunshine City, bought my new jacket with Mickey Mouse design for $54 sgd at the biggest uniqlo store there. It was 6-storey high and with alot of varieties to choose from. Along the Sunshine City walking street, there were many shops such as cinema, gaming arcade, uniqlo, food restaurants and bowling centre. There were many youngsters shopping there too.

Largest Uniqlo Building

Shopped around the different shops there and was so hungry. By the time i met up with them, it was almost 2 pm. Then we walked around the shopping area nearest to the station and ended up in Coco Curry House. It was not so crowded, probably it was over lunch time. Don't find the curry rice nice to eat. After eating, we made our way to Pokemon Centre, which was located in Sunshine City. The store was quite big, but it was SUPER crowded. There were some statues of the different pokemons and many stuffs that you can buy (Warning: The toys are super cute and you will want to buy them all... :P ). There were gashapon machines located at the entrance of the shop too. I managed to buy two can badges as it was too crowded to be able to see the stuffs slowly too.

Charizard

Mew

After that, we headed down to Harajuku area. But when we arrived there, it was crowded too. We weren't sure which direction to walk, so we just choose Meji Shrine to visit as it looked like it was walkable distance away. However, after we started to walk in the direction, we saw a super busy street (Takeshita Street) on the opposite side. So we headed towards the busy street to explore and it was really crowded. The shops were mostly for younger generation and there were multiple of crepes shops around too. We saw some people buying a giant size candy floss with multiple colours, it was interesting. We wanted to buy one too, however, the queue was so long until a queue number was required and had to come back after like 1 or 2 hours later. So we walked further down the streets to explore other shops. We went in to Calbee snacks house, it was two-storey high and bought 2 different flavors (Spicy and Chocolate) to try. One was too sweet and the other was too salty...hahaha....

Entrance

Calbee Spicy & Chocolate Chips

Brown's room

Croquant Chou Zakuzaku

After which, we continued to walk to the end of the streets where the big brand buildings (like Nike, Line, Forever 21) were located.We went over to check the Line building opposite the street. There was a giant Brown statue where you can take photo with. There were snacks with Corny, Brown, the yellow duck printed and there was a small showroom for Brown's bedroom. After that, we made our way back to Akihabara for dinner. We tried a nutty cream biscuits along the way, it was coated with chocolate and nuts and long-shaped. It had milky cream as the fitting.

Sushi Set

Fried Ebi

We went to eat in Ginzo Restaurant for sushi when we arrived at Akihabara and ordered a sushi set for sharing. The dinner was not bad and we made our way back to the hotel as it was getting late. We also bought a baked sweet potato at the 7-11 shop near our hotel. It was hot and soft, nice to eat in cold weather. It was then sleeping time....

Tomorrow will be another adventure in kyoto.... "Soba Soba, here i come!"

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel Kodenmacho-Ekimae

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

Rawa Isand, Malaysia Trip (Day 3)

28th August 2016, Sunday

Today was the last day on the beach, we got up and went outside. We saw 3 baby sharks swimming in the sea from a distance (was able to see the shadows). As we got up quite early, the staffs were still preparing the breakfast. While waiting, we saw a black cat around the benches, so i played with it. Funny thing was the beach dog, Daisy also came to our side. And when the cat saw the dog, it got naughty and 'slapped' the dog on its face. It made Daisy jumped and wanted to get back at the cat. Even the cat was ready to fight too. But in the end, Daisy just walked away. After that, the kitten started to annoy my friend's hubby by trying to grab his toes on the bench...hohoho...

Daisy

After that, breakfast was ready and the staff told us to check out at 12 pm and we can leave our bags outside the restaurant hut while waiting for the boat to pick us up. After breakfast, they went for their last swim in the sea, Me and my friend just walked near the shore to pass time. They still went for snorkelling for the last time. After that, they all went for shower to get ready for lunch. As the time was still early, we just sat around at the restaurant hut and waited. We had some drinks and snacks before lunch. By 12 pm, lunch was ready and we all ate our last meal on the beach.

Dark clouds coming

While waiting for the boat, the weather suddenly turned to strong winds and dark clouds. We can see that a storm was coming. By 2 plus, there were 3 boats coming towards to the shore and there were new guests coming to the beach. Most of the people who stayed on the same period us took the same timing boats as us. The staff told us to board the second boat, however, she told us we had boarded the wrong boat. So we had to shift to the boat next to it. As there were people on the boat, and the boatman was getting prepared to leave, he didn't bother to help us to pack our bags inside their plastic bags to protect from the water. Raindrops started to fall from the sky and it was super super heavy. Then we were off....back to mainland.....

The boat ride was like roller coaster, on the sea. Because of the rain and strong waves, the boat was bumping all the way. It went up and then bumped back down to the water....we were all drenched, it was like having shower with our clothes on and the water was kept pouring inside the boat. The rain was also hitting on our faces. After the long ride, we finally reached the jetty. Everyone was soooo drenched (can squeeze water out from our clothes) and my butt hurts from all the bumping after the ride. All the bags were wet too, even those kept inside the trash bags. When we saw the people from the other boats, they were not as wet as us. We had to go to the nearby hawker centre to find toilets so that we can change to some dry clothes.

When we got the toilet at the hawker centre, the toilet lady was telling everyone that there was a  water going on and the water had not arrived, therefore there was no water. Had to go the min shop outside to buy water to use. We went to buy a bottle and went to change our clothes. Oh man, my whole bag was wet. My dry clothes become wet clothes and i was only able to change my bottom as i had put some inside a plastic bag. After we all got changed, we wanted to have some drinks before our car driver picks us up. However, he arrived early at the jetty so we all left on a long ride back to Singapore. Think all of us were tired, the ride back was quite quiet...hahahaa...We reached the customs at around 6.20 pm. There was a jam around city square area, we managed to reach back in Singapore at 7 pm plus. Then the driver dropped us off one by one.

And this ends my Rawa Island adventure.

Resort Stayed: Alang's Rawa Resort

Rawa Isand, Malaysia Trip (Day 2)

27th August 2016, Saturday

First Staircase to climb

Sun covered by Haze

Today, we woke up and sad to see the island was surrounded with haze...deadly and hateful haze. We can't even see the surrounding islands. It was sooo weird to wash our teeth with the salty water as the water was too salty. So we just took our mineral water to brush our teeth. After that, we walked out to the beach. As breakfast was not ready yet, we went for a short hiking up the part of the mountains behind the resort. There was a long staircase to climb up and after that, it was just rocks path to climb to the top. However, the haze had covered the sun and it was just red in colour. Got tired of the hiking, legs got too wobby when going down the stairs. My activity for the day had been completed...hahahaa...

School of Fishes

Corals in the sea

Unfriendly Sun

After that, we went back down to have our breakfast. It was also a buffet-styled, having nasi lemark, cereals, coffee and tea. We also ordered eggs which we can choose the cooking style (sunny side up or scrambled). After breakfast, two of my friends went to play their game. Then they went to change to their swimming attires and prepare for their swim. As for me, i went to the jetty and see the school of fishes swimming near the water slides and the jetty. I walked along the shore to pass my time while i watched my friends swimming out in the sea...However, there was not much wind today due to the heavy haze. So i went back to lie in the hammock to just relax there. There were also big bats hanging on the trees up on the trees in the mountains. I can even hear them screeching sound too.

Billiard Tables

Lunch

I walked to the other side to explore on the other chalet. There was free wifi at their lobby and there was a small shop with aircon. On the 2nd floor, there were pool and billiard tables (which were very dirty). After that, i walked back to our resort house and saw two of my friends came back from their swim. So i sat with them outside the house. My friend lent me her ipad to watch video as to pass time while they went back to swim again. We saw the speedboats bringing more people onto the island. Finally came lunch time, the resort manager will call out to everyone and announced that lunch is ready. Then everyone will just make their way to have lunch. We just ate at our own free time and after that, 2 of my friends hit the water again and went kayaking. My friend took some slices of breads, saying going to feed the fishes. However, i ate one while passing the time...hahhaa...

TV area

Another friend of mine and I then walked to the jetty and fed the fishes. It was fun to see the school of fishes dashed to the bread pieces we threw. The bread pieces were all gone very quickly too. After that, my friend went down to try kayaking. So i walked and stayed in the other resort (at least got ceiling fan to blow).  When i walked back to our resort, my friends were back from their swim. I then brought them to the new resort after they asked me where i went. There was a TV area where the TV was turned on with one person watching. So i told my friends i will just stay there to watch TV while they went back for their water activities.

BBQ Seafood (with my friend's iPhone)

Buffet Dinner

Eventually i watched TV until 7 plus, when my friend called me to go back for shower and get ready for dinner.....hehehee....Then i went back to the resort, where i saw my friends sitting on the beach waiting for dinner. All of them had finished their shower, the resort staffs were doing bbq for our dinner tonight. It was a feast..we had some buffet dishes, fish, bbq chicken, prawns and sotongs. Tables were also placed outside too with a candle as light source. Basically, we had our dinner under the dark sky. Pity, there were no stars tonight. The staff informed that there will be a party till 3 am after dinner too. Some people went for a dance after dinner when the music started. We went off and played fire sprinkles. But we did have problems lighting the matchstick as the wind keeps blowing off the fire. A couple of my friends went to buy drinks and party while the rest of us just lazed on the bench. After some time, my friends and me went back to the room to rest for the day.

Resort Stayed: Alang's Rawa Resort