Tokyo Holiday 2010: Days 1-3

OK I am really going to blog about tokyo and give myself half an hour to finish all my photo captioning, so i can finally get the post out and get some sleep! I spent 2 hours selecting 200 out of the 1001 photos i took during the trip and resizing and uploading them on Saturday. who says blogging is easy?

edit: it is now Wednesday night. I am going to post up Days 1-3 first because it's never ending!

 Day 1: Landing in Tokyo

My flight was on Monday at 11.30am, so I had quite a far bit of time, waking up at my normal work hour time and going to the airport. had one last cuppa toffeenut latte grande decaf before boarding! my flight was excellent on both counts cos the flight to HK i had front row seats (more leg space), and the flight to Haneda had like 20 passengers so i had the whole row to myself! shiok, i should check in 48 hours beforehand more often!

This was one of the Cathay Pacific meals. I friggin love the breadroll.



From my Haneda flight.. the sun is setting! Reached at 10pm.


Finally met up with my darling who came all the way to the airport to fetch me! I missed her so much. We took the trains back to her apartment.


This is her cosy apartment! its on the third floor of the suburbs, we had to drag my luggage all the way to this, but its really cosy. the bathroom shower is like katy perry though so every night i jump in and jump out.



Day 2: Akihabara and Odaiba

Slept in on the Tuesday and waited for Wing to come home from work and go out with me on her half-day leave! Yay!

We had lunch at a french restaurant near her place. It's ironic but the food's really good! for the price as well.






Starter


really good pumpkin soup


freshly made bread they do themselves!


our chicken


matcha green tea for dessert


then its off after a satisfying lunch to take the train to 'town'! I love their trains. I really do. I pretended to take the posters on the train so i can take the people inside because i love how captures the japanese people as a whole, including their ads. no music, no whisky. hur.


Another innovation i adore -- their space shuttle toilets with automated controls for taking over the world.


So we went to Akihabara, the famous electric town and went to Yodabashi Camera store. bought what i wanted, and we were looking at their polaroid cameras when i spotted a really funny sign!

"This is a instant camera. This one has automatic flash. This one has a mirror for take yourself. This film size is 86mm x 54mm likes a card. This one has two buttons that take length one and side one. This one come with a close-up lens. Take for flower etc." WOW!


Also spotted MARU the cat! omg! haha he's this really fat japanese cat that is also an youtube superstar in case anyone doesn't know. Link to his video here.


Back to the trains we go after some time at Akihabara looking at all the tech and comic books. Its peak hour!


We then reached Odaiba, which is where the Tokyo Rainbow Bridge is at.. apparently quite a nice view and seaside place. Saw a funny cat entrance to some mall.


Dinner time! I bought a pair of boots before that first, hehe.


Here's us waiting for the food.


Beef sukiyaki! yum. its super pink and looks really fresh, covering the entire hot pot.




after the satisfying hot meal, we went out and took in the sights of the bridge, the statue of liberty and the tokyo tower (in the background).


Here's the money shot of the 3 landmarks.


Suica is your friend for tokyo train travel!


back to the train we go.. it looks quite similar to just now and it was already 10pm!



Day 3: Tsujiki, Ginza and Shinjuku/Kabuchiko

Woke up bright and early on Japan's Culture Day. Its a public holiday so Wing could accompany me the whole day out to play!

But first, some breakfast. We went to the nearby macs and got ourselves mcgriddles for 200 yen! this is damn cheap (in comparison to everything else in jp, this costs 3.60 sgd.)





and.. we go to shinjuku! but actually this is in transit. the real destination is still further away.


Back to the trains. Autumn time! People wearing jackets and coats in the train, and its actually quite stuffy!


Finally reached our destination. But the tsujiki market was closed! we didn't expect it to be closed on the public holiday. but we still trudged on.. and found quite a few restaurants and stalls open.

this guy was shaving meat off a giant tuna!


our lunch was of course, sushi! here's the tuna set wing ordered.


and here's my more mixed set since i wanted to try other fishes too. everything here was good except this yellow rubbery thing. not pictured since its gross!

with a giant bowl of seafood miso.


ok you can see the yellow gross sushi, its the one at the top left of the sushi row.


the chef obligingly smiled for a picture, and said, "500 yen!" after that. haha! quite sporting.


it was a nice beautiful day! all photos taken with my sister's brand new canon s95.


here's the closed market where the auction supposedly takes place? we can smell fish.


sian face at the closed market. boo. btw! new leggings from uniqlo and newly bought boots!


Back to the train! haha. Welcome to Tokyo indeed.


While waiting for the transfer...


I took this shot because i wanted to take a photo of that girl's really cool boots at the side, it really suited her.


we reach ginza! one of the famous crossings. very luxe the area, its like our shaw lido crossing (last time) but 1000x nicer.


giant uniqlo store. of course we went in.


and there's a forever21 store! i'm ashamed to say i spent the most in this store, cos i found stuff i like that is not furry nor knitted! i couldn't shop much elsewhere cos its all winter clothing.. mostly bought accessories.


by then it was 4.30pm. and the sky turns dark really early.


one of my favourite shots, i don't know how this happened.


us with the apple store behind.


back to the train and off to shinjuku!


saw two cute japanese ladies on the train.


and here is shinjuku, which is really happening at night.


loads of billboards and giant crossing here as well.


we had dinner first! it was at an automated ramen shop. i love!


its so good. are you ready for it?


my char siew ramen with egg!


we had some fried chicken for starters.


and lastly, my fav half boiled egg. i told wing i'll marry whoever who can make me this. then i realized most ramen chefs probably can. but its really.. golden liquid in an egg.


I'm sorry I'm abusing you with food shots.

Next up! we went to kabuchiko, shinjuku's red light district! it was very fun, and we saw a lot of male hosts. pictured below is one, standing beside a love hotel. not cheap ah, those hotels!

what they do is to entice females to go into the clubs they work for to drink and spend money. they only accompany you to drink, anything extra is personally settled.. and apparently they are great conversationalists, but sadly their clientele are mostly the 'waitresses' around the area! you need to have gold plated liver too to work in this line.



we strayed from the main area and chanced upon more seedy places. this one had 3 huge dogs outside! it is so cute. great tactic to get girls to stop and pet them.


went into an arcade and guess what we saw? capybaras!


went into one of those "everything" stores at shinjuku. wing says the cassis drink is very nice. that store has everything, from snacks to makeup to hair curlers to socks and toys.. basically like a mustafa but more pink.


bought an egg pudding and apple tea on the way home at a family mart.


at home, wing decided to give me a new hairdo! its called the dungbo. or dunggo. haha whichever, it's quite funny and apparently quite in with the local girls. you need to have bangs for them though. mine is side fringe.



she also tried to braid my hair next! it got a bit messy at the end. fun stuff that we do in our apartment :P


And this concludes Days 1-3 of my Tokyo trip. More to come in Part 2/3! Also read Part 3 if you are done!
3 comments
  1. nice!!! i love the night shot of shinjuku. it's like the asian times square!

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  2. totally awesome babe! can't wait for my turn next year! :)

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  3. hi, i happened to chance on ur blog. Great write up on tokyo. can i ask if u bought the canon s95 in akihabara? how much are they selling one over there? i'll be going to tokyo for the first time march nxt year and contemplating buying a s95 too. so wonder if i should buy it over there or get in in sg instead.
    thanks for the heads up!

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