Tokyo Holiday 2010: Days 7-8

Read Part 1 and Part 2 first.

Day 6: Disneyland

Saturday was upon us! Its the day we are going to Disneyland Tokyo. didn't originally plan to go there actually, but i was quite done with the shopping and sightseeing, so might as well, and wing doesn't mind going either.

on our way we saw a neighbourhood cat who looked like Maru! but this one is not that friendly (and very fat!)


it was a long train ride to disneyland, but we finally made it.


taking the special disney train. i love their train handles, it should be installed everywhere.


Look at the mickey windows. It is a happy choo choo train.


And we are happy to be going there too.


Here's me at the Christmas tree at the station. We are so psyched that they've changed the decorations to the Christmas ones already so its really nice.


I'm the Minnie ticket and wingie chose the Dumbo ticket.


At the entrance of the Disneyland! We also took polaroid here and there are more pics on wing's cam.




Giant Christmas tree! I love it :)


It was. really. really. crowded.


Wing with a giant capybara! Sho cute.




Look at the number of strollers! :O They are all queuing for some mountain ride.


We saw Russell and Carl, it was quite life-like.






and queuing for our first ride of the day, the Space Mountain! We queued for about 50 minutes, which was ok actually.




The ride itself was super fun, and quite different from the one i remember in LA. I'm glad we queued for that.

After the ride, Rovey is hungry, and so are we. So we got some burger and fries.


Toon Town.


They had the Christmas Mickey/Minnie (in white) which i didn't really fancy.


Mickey statue at the back.


Hello cute girl! She was really pretty. Sure grow up to be a heartbreaker.


Here's the pooh store! I know @RoxanneChia will like this.


The very picturesque magic castle. I wanna live inside and sleep for 100 years.


Postcard!


Here's us! (see the elliemay bear on the right? everyone is carrying that in disneyland but we found out they are only selling it in disneysea so they are just showing off!)


Wing with a cute headgear that almost everyone else is wearing too. they are really very enthusiastic about disneyland.


Here's my very bright pink leopard prinz headgear.


We watched a show too, about Minnie Mouse and her gang. She was really a diva.


We also queued for a carousel ride because I've never been on one before.


Round we go! It was quite fun with the fairy lights and chilly air.


The tree lit up at night to a magnificent glow.




The Night Parade with the lit up floats and the magical castle in the background.


We stayed for the fireworks. Not very impressive though, it was by the side and only last.. 8 minutes? the one at LA was like a full half hour story + fireworks! but it was still nice to enjoy the finale.


Disneyland Tokyo was fun, but man was it crowded! I think the fun factor will be significantly increased if there was about 90% less people. We only took 3 rides, watched 1 show (from outside) and the finale. but it was still nice to walk about and soak in the autumn air and carnival holiday atmosphere.

It was finally time to head home and we reached back rather late, it was already 10+ and most places were closed...

So where better to go for a late dinner than at an Izakaya?

We had a cool ordering tablet that we can use, similar to the sakae sushi monitors we have here.


It shows you what you've ordered, and even calculates how much is it per person, since all the food is to share!


we ordered. starters is of course, some fresh salmon.


and more salmon.


This is the bomb. Bacon wrapped cherry tomatoes. In the background is my yuzu liqueur drink.


Here's wing with her mango drink (i think?)


Ok this is probably the dish that made it to the bottom of my japan food rank. it was fried ramen and didn't really taste fantastic, just average. but even their "bad" tasting food, is average!


some karaage chicken.


tuna. not as good as the fish market's of course! (it was rather singaporean quality)


Yakitori


Omelette, damn nice.


And thus ends our very tiring but fulfilling day of disneyland and izakaya!

Day 7: Inokashira Park, Kichijoji

On Sunday, we had a little bit of a sleep in. It is going to be a leisurely day where we take things slow after the intense Saturday.

So the plan was to visit Kichijoji! If Ginza was our Paragon/Orchard Road, then Kichijoji is a little like Bugis in terms of shopping.

Before that though, we headed to the Inokashira park for a walk. It is significantly different from the shopping district.

Autumn is soon upon the country, and we could see browning trees. According to wing they will turn even redder soon, and will be very beautiful.



Took this using the Vivid function in the canon s95. Very picturesque.


Boats can be rented to row out on the lake that the park surrounds.




Here's us using the poster function.


There was an ART Market on that Sunday! I love it, its all very indie and you can find people selling handmade items and bric bracs. I got some postcards.


I also wanted to get myself a portrait by the street artist who was brilliant at it, but there was a long queue! We stood and admired her painting the little girl and the likeliness was talented.


We also had some violin music in the park. So idyllic.


Next up, back to the shopping area! That place is HUGE. But before we commence, our tummies were rumbling...


So instead we went to find food instead! Wing asked, "Have you tried Ippudo before?"

"Yes, but I think its ok leh. Pretty normal," I replied, in reference to the popoular chain that recently opened in Singapore at Mandarin Gallery.

"Let's go to the Ippudo for some ramen then!" And suddenly we were in front of the Ippudo restaurant that was hidden in the basement of some building. It was so random and totally unexpected!

I GOT TO TRY IPPUDO IN TOKYO.

That's just.. amazing.

It's really nothing like the one in Singapore. I must emphasize again that of all the Japanese food I've tried so far, they can all be replicated in singapore other than the ramen. Both times when i visited japan (osaka in 07 and tokyo 2010), even their most basic ramen just blew me away with the world of difference.

This Ippudo is a huge hit among the locals, so you know its tip top. Nothing beats the source of the fame, man.


We added the lovely Yu Zi egg. Golden liquid in an egg that tastes like happiness, love and joy.


Oh man. So good.

So after all the schlurping, its time for desserts! We walked out and came upon a crepe cart. So I decided to get another crepe because the one i had at harajuku was so good!

I ordered from the vending machine, naice.


Here's me with the banana chocolate with ice cream crepe. It was a good dessert to end lunch.


We then shopped around somemore. Before leaving though, wing said we have to try their takopachi. Another japanese food item checked off the list!


Bought a few items at kichijoji. I wish i can stay there and shop for about 1 more day and go completely broke in the process. I got a bit crazy at the end with the shopping since I realised it the last time i can shop. Haha.

We then travelled back home.. and stopped for my last dinner in Tokyo.

Tonkatsu!



This was 2 oysters + chicken set. It was really worth it, and we shared it since we weren't that hungry after all that food previously. Super nice though.

And then it is back to the apartment at 8+, where I have to start packing and preparing to leave the next morning!

Not before wing had some more fun with my hair though. haha! she got the idea of the side braid from the magazine.

LOL.


How's this? Very japanese no? I don't think i can pull it off in public haha. This is just for fun.


Here's rovey with some of the totoro items i bought, and a curtain hanger thing that is super cute. I gave that to elsie because she's super taken with it!


The polaroid we took at disney.


Day 8: Goodbye Japan

Woke up at 5.30am the next morning.. i was all packed so I just had to change out and leave. Wing woke up and helped me as well with the luggage and all.. it was goodbye then with wing, who had been such a darling the past week. i can't wait for her to come back to singapore!

left the place at 6.30am so i can catch the train to kichijoji and board the limousine bus at 7+. this bus service is such a lifesaver because i cannot imagine changing trains 3-4 times just to get to the haneda airport! the train to kichijoji was also slightly delayed due to a train fault, but luckily we had a bit of extra time for buffer and i made it there safe and sound!

Here's totoro joining me for the journey.


Relaxed for a bit inside the airport after checking in and bought some cosmetics with the rest of my yen. I went with 2k sgd and left with none, not even coins. haha.

Here's my cathay flight meal. It was quite yummy, and i like the desserts they served. However the in-flight entertainment is really really crappy. they only play so little movies and you cannot pause them. once the movies run to their end, everything else also finished playing so you cannot watch another movie, which sucked. Since the flight was from 11.30am onwards, i didn't sleep since i wasn't tired.

It was also quite a full flight from both haneda to HK, and HK to sg.


In the air.


so that was it! when i landed in singapore at 8.30, i found out that my luggage didn't make it to singapore because they didnt have time to transfer it from HK to sg! omg right. but at least they didn't lose it.. and will deliver it to my house at 1am. So I went home and said hello to all my family members :)

and that concludes my tokyo trip, blogged in 3 parts. phew! it took me like a month to do it. but I'm glad i did.