In the land of ramen..
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Japan with friends has been a generally great trip. Glad that we all had sufficient fun, were almost quite well-rested, with minimal disagreements throughout the trip. Right from the day we set off, we had our itinerary planned well, and were totally expecting to make changes whenever needed- to omit certain attractions if in any case due to time constraints or other factors, there were to be changes made..
Plane ride there was really smooth, great takeoff landing and WINDOW SEAT!! However, totally not fitful rest throughout the 7 hrs flight as it was an afternoon flight… HOW TO SLEEP!? Nevertheless, reached Haneda slightly earlier than expected, and OMG, no hotel booked. Had to nua at the airport till the next morning.. On the bright side, the convenience store at the airport was AMAZING! Had such a wide range of delicacies, unlike Singapore’s convenience stores ley :/
Well, ends up we still had fun with Monopoly Deal and Daidee too, compliments of MUAHHHHHH. Fortunately I remembered to bring cards along!! :D
Next morning, headed off to take the Idk-what-line to our hotel located at Shin-Okubo station. Surprisingly, for a low price we paid for the hotel, our hotel’s distance from the train station was really near, like a 3-5 minutes walk only! Only thing was, our room was pretty small. Oh well! Nevertheless, because we could only check in at 3pm, we had the whole morning to burn. Being too lethargic, we ended up trudging along the paths to an unknown place, where we had REALLY AWESOME RAMEN!! It turns out, that place is indeed one of the better-tasting ramen places :) PS. Spoiler-alert, we also had our last meal in Japan there :P
By 1pm, yours truly got too annoyed with not being able to bathe the past 24 hours o.O And I demanded to check in early and paid a small top up fee. THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT! Had a cooling bath and some rest before we headed out again in the evening :) Evening was spent chilling around Shinjuku area as the shops closed pretty early, so no point travelling too far out :) Shinjuku is the Japan version of Singapore’s City Hall, only 10 times more bustling with activities! We somehow managed to find our way to Shinjuku directly and walked there from our hotel, since it was just one stop away from Shin-Okubo station. In addition, because the area we stayed in was like ‘Korea town’ in Japan, we also took the opportunity to explore the shops/ restaurants/ convenience stores in the vicinity. Surprisingly, we still got pretty much accomplished on that day- we purchased our Disneysea tickets, our Hakone passes, and had a quick browse of the different malls at Shinjuku itself (Lumine 1, 2, East, Flags etc) and then headed out to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to start our tour! Went up to the top level of the Government Building and wowwww, the view was awesome! We went to both buildings’ observatory deck at Level 45. Shiokkk cos most buildings in Tokyo are so.. SHORT! :P But.. Was too lethargic to identify which buildings I could view from the deck :( Dinner after was Tempura ramen @ Piss Alley/ Omoide Yokocho, which again, was some pretty delicious stuff! Realised then that their culture of dining out really differs from SG’s alot. They have very small compounds, so meals are often consumed fast- once they sit down, they order, pay up, eat and then go. Within 10-15 minutes, someone else sits down already. D: Pretty cool aye? Post-dinner exploration of Shinjuku’s clubbing district, bars, pubs, clubs, also realised that the well-known Casablanca is also there, while on the way back to the hotel. Night ended well but tired!
2nd day, woke up pretty early to head out to Asakusa. I really expected it to be a place where you really feel overwhelmed by the cultural habits/ displays, and boy was I correct :) Was already amazed by the very majestic Kaminarimon/ Kaminari Gate, at the start of the street. Lots of photo opportunities there cos the gate itself was just too awesome to miss! Followed by the Nakamise Shopping Street, where I started my shopping of Japan produces ie. Paper wallets/ magnets etc, and tried some snacks like their traditional pancakes which were made on the spot! Took a pretty long time for us to finally make it to the Sensoji Temple at the end of the street! :D The temple itself was even more magnificent. Known as Sensoji Temple, this an ancient Buddhist temple is also Tokyo’s oldest temple, and one of its most significant! Took quite a couple of pictures, offered my prayers, and drew a lot, before proceeding to shop at Shin-Nakamise Street, an adjacent lane which was recently added in.. Never enough of shopping eh?! Lunchtime was pretty awesome and cheap at 松屋, had my first Yakiniku Don! :D
Headed on to Asahi Beer Tower… Till date we still cant figure out the purpose of that place, cos we couldn’t even find an entrance after walking ALL the way there :/ Ended up continuing our journey to the Tokyo Sky Tree, where we encountered this awesome shopping mall! Wide selection of food at the supermarket!!!! (Rox Departmental Store if I’m not mistaken?) Ends up, we didn’t head up the Sky Tree itself too- why pay for one more same upstairs-observation-deck thing when we already viewed a similar free one at the Government Building? :P
Trained down to Shibuya after! SHOPPING HEAVEN NAAAA! I had been looking forward to that so much! But ends up, we were pretty lethargic by then and just decided to take it slow, and return to continue our shopping at Shibuya the next day :P Bought our first salmon sashimi at a reasonably low price from the supermarket but it was SUPER FRESH!! Then went to catch the live scene of the Shibuya Crossing that’s been shown before in movies like The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and Resident Evil: Afterlife.. Really amazing scene where traffic is stopped in all directions and people cross opposite, literally in all directions opposite! So ofcos, WE JOINED IN TOO HAHAHAH. Headed to Macs for dinner after and tried the Ebi burger. Awesome stuff man! I don’t like the fact they didnt have chilli sauce for me though :( MEH. Was walking around abit more after that when I saw Pablo Cheesetart! Heard of it having long queues but probably due to the ongoing rain, there was just a pretty short queue! So ofcos, me being me, excitedly shrieked “OMG PABLO CHEESETART! I WANNE BUY COME I QIA YOU ALL OKAY WAIT FOR ME” and ran to queue up. Guess what, my jackass friends actually said “Wa, never let us choose one sia”. AHHAHAHHA. Mean people lar! Qia them eat also complain :P I know they mean no harm la, but nevertheless, we did enjoy the cheesetart later that night, with Luther and Luxi too :)
Continue on at Part 2..~
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