Noboribetsu: Happy 21st!(I)

23 Decembre2009

nope, that wasnt my actual day of birthday but the treats there.. the stay and the onsens under the Ryokan’s roof are all from Vampy’s sweet dedication to me! Shall touch on the Ryokan experience later on.

Hell Valley

Slow smoke fade across the air and the pungent smell of Sulphur leads us to the famous Hell Valley where one overlooks hills covered by snow and streams flowing with sulphur. It’s probably the first time that I look at such an extensive series of hills. It was honestly, beautiful. But the peace does sometimes get disrupted by groups and groups of tourists. Nevertheless, Peace was all found on the top of the trail.

 

Walking along the slippery guided trail of hell valley, we came to where we could overlook the whole of hell valley. But if you ask me, the most beautiful time of hell valley was when the sun was setting. The purplish pink skies complemented with hills & snow did illustrate a form of unspoken beauty in itself.

 

Like a kid in the snow

Snow was never familiar to me. The unfamiliar soft & wet touch yet attracts one to touch it, step it and even lie on it. And we begun our series of fun as if we were kids playing without any worries; taking turns lying on the snow.
  Oh and not to forget our snowball wars. Everything is so surreal at this point in time. We were supposed to aim for a tree truck with our own snowballs and see who achieve a three hit first! And i lost apparently; coz my snowballs doesnt really go far enough nor do they fly in the direction that i desired. But yea, those were the sweet times and fun times.

         

Holding Together

Be it climbing up or going down, my boots just makes me slip but it’s always good & really sweet to know that Vampy is always there holding me walking through the slippery snow and sometimes ice. I still remember the last slope down was so steep that we gotto hold the rope down yet Vampy just playfully slide down. hahahahas.

The walk at hell valley was really short though coz the sun was setting and we thought it would be too dangerous to move in the dark ..so we decided to get back to our RYOKAN!! (yayys!)

(to be continued….)

Sapporo: First Snow.

22 Decembre 2009

The land was of uniform colour, a full fledge of white…land after land. It was the first time that I’ve witness a place all covered with white white snow.

Land of snow

Upon reaching Chitose Airport, the couple brace themselves up and prepare themselves for the expected cold.. lowest at -5degreescelsius. We took turns to exit the airport to have a feel of how bearable/unbearable the cold out there was. Having went first, I was  surprised to be back with the conclusion that ‘it’s okae.’ Perhaps we were better armed with the winter clothings.

It was exciting to see snow after snow on the airport transfer. Place after place, house after house and roads after roads. And it was true that the houses,  buildings, and roads were at least 2 times bigger than Tokyo’s.

 

Snow, snow, snow.

The very first sight out of the station was soft and shaped snow surrounding the sides of the pathways. Nobody said it looks like a place where people make snowballs out of (yea, probably not by the road where there’s only a small pile of snow) but we took a lump of it and mould it into a snowball in any case. And yes, it was freezing but we didnt care. That was the first encounter with snows. And before we know it, a loud ‘thud’ comes falling out the roof edge. And in winter, snow or rather ice just falls from the roof suddenly; so sudden that it’s better to not walk directly under the roof edges…

Look! I’m not even wearing gloves! The CLOSEST contact with snow

Odori Park was a nice place; completely covered with snow up to the calf level. Unlit illuminations were seen at different spot of the park. Since Odori was somewhat in the centre of the city, we immediately felt the city. A very quiet & peaceful city. The city generally just takes a slower pace. That was pretty impactful as it immediately slowed our souls down too. A real holiday mood. People there are nice & helpful. Along the trip, we see them volunteering to take photos for us (suddenly) even though sometimes they seem to be rushing off to somewhere else.

As we walked further and further away from the roads, there came a point in time when the pigeons gathered and begun munching on the apparently mini food servings on the ground. And i was pretty amazed that they could withstand the cold so well with their seemingly similar feathers like those pigeons of SG. What’s more? They are not even afraid of humans, in fact, they kinda go nearer & nearer to you.

me, hopping around in the thick snow!

 

Heavenly delicacies

Such heavenly delicacies was found not in top-restaurant and a small little warm & cosy shop in a market – The Nijo Market. Recommended also by the JTB, the house has been patronised by many celebrities..based on the number of signatures on the wall. At this place, we choose what we want off the menu and the chef will retrieve the ingredients straight from the market. Freshness goodness! That explains why the food there is SOOOO good!

This was awesome! With fresh smooth sashimi and huge JUICY SWEET roes.. and yes!!! I never had such nice roes before or rather never did i ever thought that roes could be SO nice! SO SWEET SO JUICY!.. perhaps, i didnt expect Japanese rice to be so nice as well. It totally blew my mind off that even if it’s just plain rice, i would still enjoy it alot coz it’s really that nice!! Awwww, i’m missing it now!

 

This was mine! Big fat Sashimi with Scallops.. yummyyyy! Though food, it’s ranked third among the three dishes.

Needless to say, the snowcrab INDEED ranked and top the whole trip’s meal. All that was done to the crab was boiling and no other sauce or spices, etc was added to it. And it was hell good! The crab meat fresh, soft, JUICY (yupps, it kinda creates a mess when u eat coz it’s just too juicy), tender and the meat comes out in whole! And it was so sweet. It just feels really awesome to be slurping and sucking the juices from the snowcrab. Simply unforgetable. I miss it too much now!

Didnt I tell you Sapporo people are just too warm? The shopkeeper outside spoke to us in language that i can’t understand. At first i thought that he was telling me that photography was not allowed. But who knows the next thing he’s doing was to head towards a box and retrieve this huge snowcrab for us to take photo with! How kind is that. Kinda funny too. hehs.

 

They Love Green.

The clock tower which has earned itself a bad reputation as a place of attraction. Somewhat agree. But the outside was realllly nice! It’s a mini museum inside; mostly on the clower tower’s history. Some of which comes with English while some doesnt – that means..we wouldnt understand anything. =x

 

Ice-cream in winter.

We thought it was a crazy idea to have ice-cream when it’s so cold out there! BUt who cares when u’re in hokkaido when there’s so many ice-creams around; and people still eat them anyway. What’s more, this ice-cream parlour is a really sweet romantic place. With lavender purple, it really felt like one of the sweetest lil place! Hokkaido milk & caramel were what we had! They were not really fantastic but the whole experience of sitting inside a romantic lil parlour and looking through the glass at snow, people and cars is really awesome.

 

Sapporo Beer.

I’m not a beer fan usually. But we still paid famous Sapporo Garden & Museum a visit. The structures were pretty westernised i thought.. with the brown bricks and a chimney. It’s a nice place that I would encourage anyone to drop-by. Unfortunately the Museum was closed. But the garden was pretty as the illuminations light the way again. We almost, well almost, couldn’t find it. This lady advised us to take a bus over since it’s about a 15minutes walk away from the station. Nevetheless we walked. And it’s actually nearer than what we were told.

While we were trying to find out how we could at least have a sip of the Sapporo Beer, this warm enthusiatic staff   and brought us  all the way to a  restaurant(about 5 -7minutes walk away).

 

Garden Grill, a nice warm place. The place was filled the the tempting smell of grilled meat! And you know, this kinda smell is almost irresistable for the winter stomachs! And we decided to give the recommended Genghis Khan Platter whereby it contains the various parts of lamb cuts.  The serving was quite a big one. And we discovered that couple with the sauce and spices, it’s yummy yummy. For once, vampy can’t fault me for adding additional ingredients to my food! ;p

The beer, i got to say that it’s really amazing. I had the Classic beer which is only in Sapporo while Vampy had the Limited edition 5-star.  It’s not too bitter and it just continuously bubbled within. amazing bubbles & beer!

But the man just loves Dark beer and he simply can’t resist that!

 

- cool pic for Vampy!

 

Odori Illuminations.

 

We headed back  to Odori Park for the iluminations. Somehow every city has their own distinctive &&& beautiful illuminations. Presenting the 2 best shots that I think I have! And Japan being an energy conserving country just switch off their light illuminations after a certain time. And we didnt manage to capture All of the illuminations. There are just too many.

Good shot!

 

Hotel Resol.

Our best value-for-money hotel! We booked it when we were at Odaiba since we figured that we wouldnt wanna land ourselves in the same situation as the first night. And we booked it without even a single picture of the hotel. It’s  a new hotel. And we’re quite satisfied with the room! The rates are also the lowest for the whole trip!!

Sapporo Album I
Sapporo Album II
Sapporo Album III

Shinagawa-Haneda: The Morning Rush.

22 Decembre 2009 – 6:15 a.m.

Run

The clock reads 6:08a.m when I happened to take a glance of it. Yet it didnt arouse any form of doubt or realization in me. All on my mind was fatigue and why did the man bath SO long, as usual? I continued changing and packing my lugguages until the clock striked 6:15a.m and the man came out exclaiming: “Why is it 6:15 darling!??” And i still replied blurly, “it’s not correct?” But the truth is, we were running very late for the flight to hokkaido. It was supposed to be 5:15a.m , Japan time. I probably havent imagined such intense shock before, not on this trip at least. We hurriedly packed and dragged our belongings out in a total state of shock, perhaps not even in a clear state of mind of WHAT-TO-DO?!- cab or train? All I remembered was feeling warm and increasingly wet from the perspirations of shock while we threw our hands waving for a crazily priced cab. Even in the cab, things weren’t much better with the e-tickets not stating the terminal of our flight. It was a complete moment of loss. The language barrier with the cab driver didn’t help and all we could do is to shove the whole file towards him. Slightly comforted when the cab driver showed signs of enlightenment of the terminal we should depart from. And we reached Haneda Airport still grasping for air to comfort ourselves …………….. Slowly accepting the fact that we didnt adjust our phone/alarm times to Japan time and all the fatigue accumulated over the days just result in pure carelessness…..and the most expensive cab bill in my whole lifetime. 60+ sgd for a mere 20-30minutes journey.

Heart.

Everything happened so suddenly that I can hardly register. From the journey in the cab to the registration & subsequently to the waiting. And I’m still waiting. The nurse said they were gonna fetch him down now. And I just can’t imagine how is everything gonna look like. And I still naively thought that it will be fine. The thin line between health & illness. And I know he’s gonna be so disappointed. I just know.

——-

& i’m back again. Decided to combine the posts.

It’s one of those nights when I have so many thoughts running through me. One by one. Not exactly coz im deeply troubled but maybe coz im still pretty much tramatised by what had happened. Incidents you watch on dramas. Never expecting them to happen on you perhaps. The kind of emotion is pretty odd coz on one hand you feel worried but on the other you feel exasperated and angry coz the patient is so stubborn, is so disobeying. Does age really catch up on one that one start to become like a stubborn child, starting to ignore rationale? And can I add, does growing old means getting lost in one’s world and begin to lost sight of ‘responsibility’? Doesn’t he know that every spiking statement that he speaks of made our heart ache & afraid? As far as my memory carries me, I remembered we started asking, forcing & persuaing him to give up smoking yet he didnt. And today smoking is gonna be one of that major cause & cost. I question if it’s worth it and yet there he is lying on the patient bed trying to tell us the most familiar line that he can’t. And perhaps i know how he feels. A fully sponsored trip to HK on a SQ A380 is all gone in a night. He specially prepared for the trip..from shirt to expensive shoes. All for the moment that he would have been proud of. An award ceremony for his years and years of hard work. Would I not understand his pain? Months & months of anticipation all wind down by a night of nightmare.

Tokyo Disneyland: Where Dreams Come True!

21 Decembre 2009

Where the 21st Unfolds.

After checking-into the Weekly Mansion Shinagawa which wasn’t so hard to find afterall, we made our way to Maihama where Disney is located at! The disney’s magic is instilled right from the station – exclusive kind of music. I remember the wind blowing on my face the moment I stepped out of the station, the sight of the Disney Ambassador Hotel which is like a modern castle, and the beautiful blue skies that day (again!).

Perhaps it’s excitement but it seems that I didnt register it to reality when i first stepped into Disney until i walked through the entrance.. until I managed to catch a glimpse of the Castle that’s distinctive of Disney.

The pretty Mickey made out of grass & flowers – that’s how amazing good artists can do with anything i guess. The most amazing thing is the perfect crop of Mickey despite using nature. The seasonal statues & illuminations gained their rightful popularity as a photospot too. Almost every other one has  quite long queues just to have a snap with them. We couldnt do much of those queuing due to the lack of time. But it was noticed that the Japs are pretty organised (& nice) by queuing & taking turns..

And yes, it was around here that I had my first sights of the Castle! Then it dawned on me “I’m HERE! IN TOKYO DISNEYLAND!!” And it wasn’t hard to feel the magic of disney. Everything was so carefully planned to enable its visitors to fully experience the magic & fantasy! Everything that goes from the music, the plants, the shops, the architecture, the art, the lamp posts, the dust box, and the ducks that move freely around.

-There were already people sitting along the pathway waiting for the Xmas parade to begin!-

 The most perfect shot of the Disney, in my opinion. And yea, I thought there was some sorta ride inside the castle but apparently it was just a walk-through. But isn’t that a every girl/most girls’ dream?!  

 

There were quite a number of push carts or little stalls selling snacks. We had chocolate popcorns which were pretty awesome, churros & choco churros, and Teriyaki chicken leg. The Teriyaki Chicken leg was probably the comfort food out in the cold. The warmth it gave was unbelieveable. Oh! As you can see, I was pretty much distracted by the magic before me, one by one and I continued snapping && snapping.

And Vampy bought me a Mickey beanie ^^. We also bought a couple of stuffs from the souvenir shops, the things to buy are endless. *screams.

It’s a Small World at 4+ PM; night & lights.

The first ride that I had in Disneyland was “It’s a small world” which I continuously call it wrongly as ‘Little World”. Whatever it is, the ride which was told to be his mum’s favourite right did surprise me ALOT. It’s probably the first ride in my whole life that is not of thrill but simply a harmonious blend of meticulous art & magic. The visual satisfaction just can’t be brought out by my amateurish range of words. The ride was a simple boat ride but what we see along the boat ride was incredible; with each ride telling us the story with art so real, so defined. I remember one part of the ride to be almost totally white; sooo romantic! The outcome, most importantly,  was that it made you felt like you’re part of the story.

The white little world in small world.

Not sure if it was after Small World Ride that the disney xmas parade was already ongoing. But we still managed to catch quite abit. Dressed-up fairies, snowman & elves led the audience with their dance. Real spontaneous audience. And the unforgetable Santa Claus with his “hohoho, Har-ppy Hor-li-days”…hahas, for he just constantly says that for the 15-20mins or so.  But the parade did boost the festive mood.

“Snow White’s Adventure” was the 2nd ride we took in Disneyland. Young children were specially warned to be cautious of the wicked witch. We saw the witch appearing numerous times in the whole ride while Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs appeared only once.  We thought it should be named The Wicked Witch Ride instead. But the art was once again amazing. They looked exactly like what we see in storybooks but in 3-D forms.

For those with some childhood, the wicked witch.

“Peter Pan’s Flight“, the third ride. I like this ride quite alot. It’s as if Peter Pan took us for a flight. As apt as the name of the ride, we were flying on a sail through Peter Pan’s adventures in the Disney Peter Pan story. First we were brought high in the skies above the buildings in the story, through the starry skies and finally off to Neverland – where one doesn’t grow up. And finally Pirate Hook’s defeat and his split across that crocodile’s mouth. But the coolest thing about the ride was being able to ‘fly’ and see as if u’re seeing what Peter Pan is seeing!

The sail that brought us flyingggg.

It was already dark when we took the “Jungle Cruise“. An enthusiatic animating storyteller accompanies us throughout the journey. He acted fearful when the creatures/jungle animals were approaching us and pretended to kill them with his guns. It was quite an entertaining ride. We get to see the animals in the waters, by the seaside, roaring etc. Unfortunately, I can’t really understand specifically what the Jap guy was trying to tell us.

The Jungle Cruise

The “Enchanted Tiki Room” was a performance by Stitch & a bunch of parrots who spoke and sung in Japanese. We probably entered coz the queue was relatively short, & the man need to remove some sorta glue fr. the beanie and it was too freezing to do it outdoors. But i probably didnt like this at all since i never like Stitch.

The “Haunted Mansion” brought us into a Mansion that supposedly haunted (of coz.) With moving potraits & lightning, we were soon brought to Jack the skeleton when the elevator brings us down. And there we have another series of Jack’s adventures.

The seventh Ride we took was “Pinocchio’s Daring Journey“.. indeed very daring but it’s possibly number 10th of my favourites ranking out of the 11 ride we took. Indeed daring huhs. But Pinocchio’s art was the most disappointing. Somehow the 3-D art wasnt used as much. And the journey mostly commonly heard name/sound was of coz none other than “Pinocchio”.

“Pooh’s Hunny Hunt” has to be best remembered with the word “BOUNCE”. I thought this ride was amazing~~ ! There was this point in time when Tigger goes bouncing away with his jar of Hunny, the whole ride went in sync with him and BOUNCED! So amazed by its fun & interactive feature.  Besides that, in our Hunny Jar, each of the Jar(the ride) takes a different route in the ride.

“Space Mountain” was my favourite ride in the whole of Disneyland. Possibly coz it’s the most thrilling (already) in Disneyland yet in the darkness, we were brought to see a sky of stars and that was BEAUTIFUL! Well, but beautiful things end and before we know it, we were sent plunging with thrill!

Space Mountain!

We called for a break into the warm Alice in Wonderland Cafe for our (my mini birthday) dinner. Was around 8pm when we did that. It was an Alice in Wonderland themed cafe and like every other parts of Disneyland, it was done to perfection. Poke Card characters lined the entrance of the cafe and pots, kettles etc was seen hanging on the ceiling of the cafe.

                     

Even the staffs were dressed in some sorta uniforms that goes with the decor of the place.

                

Unfortunately I can’t really remember the name of the steaks anymore. But the cheese heart shape one belongs to Vampy and that was really nice. It’s like juicy tender beef melting into your mouth. The left side one was more expensive and probably the healthier choice but not as nice as the heart shape. yumyums.

             

The Alice’s apple cheesecake & choco mousse cake that vampy made me have as a birthday cake. Thank you (for the birthday song too!) ^^One thing i realised throughout the trip was the Japanese cheesecake and lighter in general and saltier compared to the West.

Thankyou vampy for suggesting on the dining place. Somewhere that we can’t possibly get it over here

.And I made my birthday wishes at the Snow White & Seven Dwarfs Wishing Well

            

After which, we made our way to our 10th ride at the “Grand Circuit Raceway“. I had Vampy as my passenger. And being a totally reckless driver, I unintentionally gave Vampy a good bumpy roller coastal-like car ride. But well, the passenger said “he didnt remember the ride to be so fun as before”. We took the ride twice for i wanted Vampy to know it wasnt that easy to drive yet his drive was so smooth. -.-

The last ride before Disneyland made their closing announcement was at the “Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters” is where we sat in a Buzz vehicle and had our own guns and our goal is to try and shoot the respective targets all over the ride. That was pretty fun too!!

The ranking of the rides hence goes this way:

   1. Space Mountain
   2. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt
   3. Haunted Mansion
   4. Grand Circuit Raceway
   5. Peter Pan’s Flight
   6. It’s a Small World
   7. Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters
   8. Snow White’s Adventures
   9. Jungle Cruise
   10. Pinocchio The daring Journey
   11. The Enchanted Tiki Room

Disney with the one you love romantically was indeed a fantastic experience. To be frank, it kinda felt like a rekindled love. And to be able to experience the magic of disney together with my loved one on my 21st birthday can’t be any better. To me, it sure beats the formality and the norms 21st parties. I want the extraordinary. And Vampy has always been part of my extraordinaries.

 

I want the extraordinary!

 

Tokyo Disneyland Album I
Tokyo Disneyland Album II
Tokyo Disneyland Album III

I question(ed).

On more than one occassion, i’ve pondered, wondered & thought about them.  Issues that requires some sorta decisions. Issues that I think i need to resolve. Things that I need to be brave and resolve with courage.

It has been about a week. Is this what a truly good holiday brings about? Or is this a 21st thing that you start to ask yourself more questions? Yet, till now even though my opinions towards certain things have kinda toned down or had took the optimistic turn, i havent had any courage to see them in the physical form. I know the kind of life i want, the kind of thing/place/person/life that’s suitable for me. I dont really wanna leave things to fate yet deep inside i still feel kinda lost. Not thinking is fine. But the moment I start thinking, there’s so many things in my life that i should do something about it. Decisions that i think i should be responsible for something called: Life.

 

My Heart, it pounds.

Odaiba: The Eve of 21st.

20 Decembre 2009

The skies, The water, The love.

We made our way to Odaiba after we checked out of the love hotel. The journey was almost smooth and each view from Shimbashi onward was breathtaking. The blue skies, which I can’t stop falling in love with, coupled with the sparkling waters at the Tokyo bay and the various attractions of Odaiba in its day. Each of these beauty blowed my mind off. For the first time, I saw Rainbow Bridge. And I was as elated as I can be, knowing that I can finally witness its beauty when night dawns.

 

The Autumn Remnants.

It was fortunate that we visited Japan in the beginning of Winter for that allowed us to see a couple of the remnants of the yellow and orange leaves of Autumn. Odaiba’s gave us the most complete experience of Autumn, I would say. A small little park down the hotel where it’s actually a ‘dog paradise’ -at least that’s what I called coz’ there were simply too many owners walking their dogs there! The whole park was overwhelmed by the orange-red pine trees. Though not at their fullest colours, I was still very much captivated by this beauty.

The perfect picture that i’ve snapped.

 

The Ariake Washington Hotel.

I was pretty much pleased with the room. From the size, to the design and to the splendid view of the room. The room offers a splendid view of the (almost-minature) Panasonic building to part of the Rainbow Bridge and even Tokyo Tower!! Good choice! Possibly our first ‘official’ hotel in Japan relative to the night’s before love hotel. Was also glad that the hotel allowed us an early check-in. Otherwise we might not be able to enjoy the day view as much from the room!

Man reading the information of the hotel.

 

Venus Fort: All Love from the Heaven.

Venus Fort had its interior modelled after those of Italy. I always loved European’s architecture. And that made me fell in love with Venus Fort instantly. The place also had an artificial blue sky as its ceiling always. And perhaps we were lucky again. Venus Fort had it’s annual illuminations from Nov – March. This year’s theme was ‘All love from Heaven’ where there were the illusions of falling snow, in the form of falling lights.

The fountain made to be sacred with the various statues.

And I really just love this; feels as if it has brought me to a new different world.

 

The Rainbow.

Rainbow bridge was indeed majestic and reallly reallly pretty to me! See that Tokyo Tower in it’s special crystalised veil behind. We were lucky to see that too. It’s only inthat crystal veil on special occassions. But until now, I have not figured out what’s that special occassion on the 20 Dec. But each of our encounter with Rainbow bridge was shortened to maximum 10-15minutes before we go running back into indoors. The wind was just that strong, that cold. It was almost unbearable yet we still tried to grit it through with our shivering hands just to take a proper picture of Rainbow Bridge and ourselves with Rainbow Bridge! (And yes, mannnny pics there turned out to be blurrr.)

The Tokyo bay with its scattered coloured lights on the waters yet so alluring. And there was just this tinge of freezing peace. Yea. It’s hard to understand what I meant by ‘freezing peace’. It almost felt like an internal conflict. The waters felt so slow, so peaceful. Yet the climate was so unbearable freezing. You just gotto bring your internal to this state of ‘peace’ to obtain the wholeness of peace.

The not-as-majestic Statue of Liberty.

The ferris wheels were another set of round rainbows. hahas. Even though I didnt get to sit on it coz it was closed! But im still pretty glad to be able to see it from underneath.

 

The realllly late meal. nice tempuras!

 

The Sweetness.

And being a birthday girl, i dragged Vampy to take a neoprint with me. You never know how much I love this neoprint now. It’s just so cute ^^.  And that’s the Mickey Birthday Masscot that Vampy got it for it. It’s from the same arcade as the neoprints where they have a machine dispensing mickey masscots. All you got to do is to enter the birthdate? -i think so. That neoprint just felt so innocent & fun. And the night ended with the views of Odaiba from our room. And that’s where I had my first moments of 21st.

 

The rainbow & the colours of my life.

 

Odaiba Album I
Odaiba Album II
Odaiba Album III

Ginza

20 Decembre 2009

Boutiques.

We made our way to Ginza after checking into the night’s accomodation at Odaiba:). It was in fact a 10 minutes walk or so from the JR Shimbashi station; oh well, i’ve learnt that whether it’s a (JR) Shimbashi or (Something-else) Shimbashi station can make a huge difference in where you end up at in Tokyo. We were lucky that there happened to be a road close on a Sunday which allows us to have much bigger space to shop around. Ginza is a rich district with boutiques along the roads. Most tourists probably go there for Burberry? But I just can’t find anything that’s to my liking even though Vampy said that he will get me one. Oh well… (let’s claim for a LV, hahhahhahahahas….just joking) Saw a couple of Tiff & Co too.

One interesting find was the Hakuhinkan Toy Park. It is a toy paradise that’s about 6 storeys high with each level featuring different type/theme of toys. Interesting finds! Shiseido was another one. Instead of selling facial & make-up products, it was one that sells souvenirs confectionary. Probably branded confectionary! But each and every one of the lil snacks looked really good.

 

Other than the boutiques, I like the departmental stores! Especially the basement. for they sell lovely little snacks that made our lunch and breakfast for the day.

Snacks.

The omelette.

The croquette! -Crab, potato, Oyster.

Waffles - cafe & Tiramisu  Choco Banana

The shop that sells the waffles have over a dozen of flavours to choose from (just look at the number that defines the flavours in the pic!) and the shop was really pretty! I think we ate more than these but somehow we didnt take photos of them or something. But food do get cold in outdoors within a minute and as we settled along the benches in the middle of the roadside, we suddenly became like aliens. As if eating that way was never seen in Japan. (or perhaps in the richman district, Ginza).

 

Ginza Album I

Shibuya: The X Crossing.

Buildings, Scrambled Crossing.

My first impression of Shibuya is it’s even more crowded and has even bigger buildings than Shinjuku! The buildings are really huge and most probably even more colourful! I was first told to take photos with the Hachiko – apparently the most popular meeting point in Shibuya.  A celebrity dog, i would say.

Some assclown wore the santa’s hat for Hachiko! – oh and there’s this weird dude behind. awfully weird. 

Shibuya honestly dwarfs one. The buildings – big & semi clustered. Then we come to the famous X-crossing of Shibuya. I stood before the traffics two times, watching the pedestrians doing their ’scrambled crossing’ before we embarked on our own crossing. I think we crossed the road at least 5-6 times for we kept stopping in the middle of the crossing just for a successful snap. hahas! As much as we have people coming in all different kinds of directions, it sure wasnt as scary as I was told.  But that’s also when we get to see the cold side of the people in Tokyo.

Semi succeussful shots.

We also shopped in Shibuya 109 for a while. It’s of 7 storeys high of really stylish clothes yet all of them are so expensive. I wanna go back there for a shopping spree when im MUCH richer next time! 

 

The Ramen.

 

The first night of winter in my life really felt cold; not the unbearable kind but coz it’s on its way to adaptation. A hot warm ramen for dinner cant be any better. And the ramen was really awesome! Down to the soup then to the noodles and it wasnt even an expensive restaurant YET. And i’m addicted to the Ramen Pepper, it’s so nice. I’m regretting that I didnt bring one back now ><

Shoyu

And it was that night that i realised that even in Winter, people dont necessarily go for hot drinks always. The drinks the restaurant offers are cold and people drink them (comfortably).

 

The tough find.

The couple did not book an hotel for the first night all in the determination to hunt for a love hotel to experience how they are like. They are supposed to be hotels with themes that couples go in for a ’short rest’. hmphs, you know what I mean. But the find has never been expected to be so hard! The dragging of the lugguage from Shinjuku to Shibuya up to the Love Hill on Shibuya, it was a tough hike up.

I felt my own anxiousness. Time was ticking towards 11pm yet we have no lodging for the night. I almost cried out of fear. Vampy probably felt my fear when he started to ask me to wait somewhere at the bottom of the hill before he goes hunting on one. I saw his anxiousness. It was in about 15-20mins before he returned. It was really a relief to know that there’re SOME. The search has been awful but certainly memorable as a result.

 

Fatigue has certainly didnt allow us to fully enjoy the atmosphere of the room. We checked into the room tired and shag from one night of sleepless night, 1 day of walking and the night’s hunting. Felt as if my bones were breaking!. Being the usual blur gal that i am, i couldnt find the switch for the normal lights and we had to manouver around in the florescent lights for 10mins? Until the smart guy found the switch =x. The bed has an odd function too – some bed vibrator (not sexual vibrators!) that goes allow with the music. Japanese just have weird stuff.  Well, it’s a good experience. But better plans for a next one the next time.

 

Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya Album I
Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya Album II
Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya Album III

Harajuku: Of lovely shops!

18 Decembre 09

Of designer.

I fell in love with Harajuku almost instantly. That is to say, it’s not the big shops & buildings facing the main road. We were looking for the famous cos- plays when we unintentionally walked into the small roads hidden behind the busy streets. It was a quaint & sweet lil place. Every single shop there has its own unique design and style to it. As if they were themes to the shops. I can’t help entering some shops not because i might be possibly interested in what they are selling but because the exterior of the shop simply attracts me like a magnet!

Choco Milk

I got my very first buy in Japan from a shop called ‘Choco Milk’.  The shop looked like a minature castle; pretty! (And well, I prob wouldnt get that first buy if I had read the price correctly. It’s my most expensive necklace for myself in 21 years. Having said that, I do have to admit that the Japanese has their way of making their fashion-related LOVELY!)

Another part of the beauty lies in the dining places & Cafes of Harajuku. They can be pretty hidden but when you see patrons drinking hot warm drinks outside the seats provided by the cafes in Winter & the relative silence, it just makes me feel good & wanna do the same!

There were considerably quite a number of ‘toy paradise’ in Tokyo. They are in storeys (e.g. 6 storeys) and each selling a different type of toy. Level one can be a general one, with level 2 as the paradise of Sanrio, level 3 as Snoopy world and the list just continues. Yet not all are toys, some are of practical use – like they do have hologram cameras & amazing bath speakers!

Simple love harajuku. Just a pity that we didnt manage the catch the cos-play big scenes.

 

The Xmas Illuminations.

And i’m not sure if Harajuku is the one who has Xmas lightings for the First time. But I think so! Similarly, iIt was our first xmas lightings for our trip & I was amazed at that point in time how leave-less trees can create such a beautiful scene, perhaps much better! It was nothing fanciful like what we had in Singapore. Literally translated from Chinese, we call it – one is heaven, one is hell. Singapore’s lightings really got a LONG way to go.

Along our walk, we came across this ‘booth’ when we can pen down our wishes and hang them up onto the “Bells & wishes” xmas tree – ( I don’t know what it’s called ;p) We decided to go for one. One of those sweet stuffs. Have our wishes penned and hang up there:)

Oh and Red Dior really makes a perfect background with the illuminations! I LOVE it!

 

Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya Album I
Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya Album II
Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya Album III