My long overdue post...
Exactly a month ago, I woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the horizon just mere hours before we arrived in the land of the rising sun.
So, I know this is way overdue. But, all my memories of Japan are as fresh as the fish hauled in every morning at Tsukiji (what's this about? you'll see). Starting from today, I'll take you on a day-by-day recount of my adventures in the beautiful country of Japan, where almost everyone you see looks like they just walked off the runway.
Our flight from Singapore took off at night (: This is us at the Singapore airport, and you can see the alert poilceman on duty in the background (: We took Malaysian Airlines, and thus ended up stopping over at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Well, just in case you've never seen the interior of the KL airport. We didn't have any ringgit on us to spend, so we kinda loitered around, checking to see if we had to do any sort of procedure...
I have to say though, the novelty of traveling on your own with your friends (meaning, no parents to guide you around) is a one time thing. I bet I won't feel this excited the next time.
The queue for boarding was really long, even though
astelleciaand I arrived there about ten minutes before the gate closed. Missed Changi Airport efficiency then. The best part was, the sheer amount of Japanese people surrounding us at that point of time was just a little taste of what we were going to get when we landed in Japan. Of course, on the flight to Japan there were announcements in Japanese and Japanese stewards/stewardesses.
Well, we didn't get the window seats we wanted, and breakfast came at 4 am in the morning -- of course, something we aren't used to at all. Close to five in the morning, we caught the sun rising over the horizon - the cloud horizon, that is.
This is the sun rising over the cloud, as we took it from our seats. Could get up and take it, because we were trapped on both sides, so we kept standing, and the Japanese couple beside us thought we wanted to go to the loo. Well, shortly after that, the people by the window drew the window shield because the glare of the sun was too much...which really pissed
astelleciaoff. Lol. She wanted to see more of it.
Anyways, we soon touched down in Japan, where the weather was something like 20C, or possibly less. The baggage check guy had a whole book full of things that we weren't supposed to bring in, like guns and drugs and the like. He kept asking whether we had any of them, of which we said no (of course) -- and even if we did, would we actually have the right mind to say 'yesiree, I have heroin on me'? So, yeah, he went through our luggages. The cushion I'd brought along (since we won't be getting any pillow) popped up at the guy, much to his surprise. Poor guy had to help me stuff it back into my luggage later.
And shortly, we were past the gates and in a foreign airport, of which the first picture we took was this:
Exactly, the 'You Are Here' signboard in the airport. We had to figure out where on earth we were so that Brandon could locate us and pick us up. While we're on this note, the public phones in Japan are quite expensive. 100 yen only makes for slight over a minute or two of conversation (that's S$1.30). I ended up spending something like 300 or 400 yen just making sure we found each other.
Well, from Narita International Airport, we took a shuttle to Yokohama. A 2hr plus ride that cost 3500yen...so that's like 50 dollars. I'm talking about per person here (: They tag your luggage with your ticket, and then match it up when you reach Yokohama.
Here is, quite literally, a view from the bridge. En route to Yokohama (:
This is at the Yokohama train station. The guy there in black, looking much like a possible Yasu from Nana, is Brandon. Check out the train map -- looks far more complicated than the one in Singapore, no? We stared at it, trying to find out how much it costs to get to the certain place we wanted to go to (Kannai, as it was on this occasion) Brandon told us how much it was. We peered, asked "where?" and he said "trust me." (: After attempting this a few times, we just went with how much he said. Better yet, we got Pasmo cards - the Japanese version of EZlink. Those green machines over there dispense one-way tickets. If you ticket value is short, there'll be one of these machines inside where you can add value to your ticket (at your destination station) so you can get out (: Smart move there, Japan.
You really have to look where you're going, because there are different entrances to different train lines, and once beyond the gates, check if you're headed towards the right train. Check the timings too, because there are three types of trains - the normal train, the express train...and I can't remember the name of the last one...super express or something like that, it must be. Basically, some trains miss out on stops.
We managed to find a holding place for our bags where the shuttle bus dropped us off earlier at 150yen per piece. Then, we took the Keikyo line to Kannai, where we visited the now no longer existent Curry Museum:
It was closing down on the 31st, and we caught it on half-price day - thanks to Brandon (:
On the left is a picture of the entrance, as you can see. Yokohama Kare-- Myu--jiamu. The two elephants that look like they popped out of a pokemon game are presumably the mascots. Well, it was quite interesting to see the attendants dressed in saris and punjabis...looked totally wrong on Japanese. Since the museum was located in a gaming centre, we had to take a lift to the seventh and eight floors of the building, where the museum was located. Basically, how it works is that there are many little curry cafes that sell certain dishes, as advertised on a pamphlet they give you at the entrance. Choose the dishes you want, and line up outside the cafe of your choice, where you place your orders. Of course, this means that if you want to share a meal with your friends, you have to choose from the same menu.
This is our first meal in Japan. Chicken curry, I believe the name was. It was "UMAI~" 500yen, which is apparently quite affordable by Japanese rates. (Note: apparently, the standard pay for part-timers in Japan is about 1000yen per hour. That's S$13) According to my pay, that would be like S$3.00.
For some reason, we weren't supplied with a fork, just a spoon. Anyways, we had to move along because the lines outside were really long, and we'd feel bad about taking up too much time in that small little cafe.
While in Kannai, we dropped by a local bakery and picked these up:
Umasou~~ Eh, I can't remember the names of the buns.
After that, we went back to Yokohama, took a ride on the Tokyuu-toyoko line to Hiyoshi, which would be our resting place for the next couple of nights. A point of note, the trains belonging to this line look exactly like the ones we saw in the Death Note movie, where the Kira manipulated the FBI agent into killing all the other agents.
Coincidentally, the Tokyuu-toyoko line is also connected to Shibuya, from where we took a train to Shinjuku via the Yamanote line. There's this shop in Shinjuku that specializes in J-rock music. Eh, I don't have the name on me right now, or the exact location, but well, FYI. Also, we learned that the phones in Japan have a sort of GPRS on them, so from where we were, we could find bearings to where ever we wanted to go. Coolies.
This is Kabuki-Cho in Shinjuku. Apparently, it's one of the red light districts in Japan..so girls, don't go there at night unless you're looking to be harassed by drunkards, or non-drunkards.
Apparently, the chicken wings in this street (also Kabuki-cho) are excellent, or so says Cabbage (one of my bosses). Well, we didn't find the chicken wings, and I have absolutely no clue what he was doing here in the red light district. Hmm....
Anyways, Brandon left us to go to a Tommy Heavenly Concert, so we met up with Momoko in Ikebukuro (also along the Yamanote line) and went to places with anime goods galore.
This is K-Books, a store that specialises in doujinshi, if I'm not mistaken. There are two of them along the same street in Ikebukuro. What's the difference, I don't know. They also sell posters, a bit of merchandise and the like. Oh, and if you noticed it's gotten dark, this is only about six o'clock in Japan. Yep, the sun rises early and sets early -- which explains why they can start school at seven and still have CCA before that (think PoT).
And this is Animate, the 7-storeys dream house for all anime lovers. Specialises in anime merchandises. For a fact,
astelleciaand I managed to find a pair of Nana glasses for 2400yen. We had a good time trying to ask the lady at the counter - with our sad, broken Japanese - whether the glasses were 2400yen individually or as a pair. After a lot of pointing and random words like "issho ni?" and "hitotsu dake?", she understood what the dickens we were talking about. On a side note, that's me and Momoko in the picture.
After that, we took a trip to the B. Lily Rose Cafe - a kind of host club, if I can put it that way. Err...the attendants/waiters there are actually all female, but dressed up in suits and with make-up to look like guys. They'll do the whole cocktail shaking ordeal if you order a drink - which all of us did. Not very impressive actually...but the food was good and the drinks affordable at something like 500yen per drink/meal.
Here's what we had at the cafe:
On the left is a strawberry cheesecake I had, along with a (duh) non-alcoholic fruit punch. On the right is
astellecia's cheesecake with some alcoholic drink. Everything's 500yen, as was mentioned.
Momoko's...apple pie, I think it was. Presentation of the food is quite gorgeous, don't you think. It was definitely worth it.
Well, so after
astelleciatook a polaroid photo with the host she thought was cute (also 500yen per piece) and spilled her drink - accidentally, of course - we walked out into the chilly night. I mean like teeth-chattering chilly.
Before heading back to the station and giving Brandon a call, we were introduced to this:
BOMB TAKO!!!
It's takoyaki the size of a baseball. (: Nice and hot, perfect for that chilly night. I had curry cheese bomb tako. :9
Gomen, we couldn't take pictures of our tako because from the top view, it looked like mush with all the sauce covering the takoyaki. But, it's definitely worth it. 380yen, mine was.
Well, bomb tako ended our first night in Japan (: We headed back to our illegal resting place at about 10pm. The winds were blowing our way on our walk back to the hostel, so
astelleciadid the craziest thing - she whipped out her umbrella and held it in front of us to block the wind. I know what must have been running through the minds of the Japanese then: "Baka gaijin".
Well, that's that. Stay tuned for more adventures in Nippon!
So, I know this is way overdue. But, all my memories of Japan are as fresh as the fish hauled in every morning at Tsukiji (what's this about? you'll see). Starting from today, I'll take you on a day-by-day recount of my adventures in the beautiful country of Japan, where almost everyone you see looks like they just walked off the runway.
Our flight from Singapore took off at night (: This is us at the Singapore airport, and you can see the alert poilceman on duty in the background (: We took Malaysian Airlines, and thus ended up stopping over at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Well, just in case you've never seen the interior of the KL airport. We didn't have any ringgit on us to spend, so we kinda loitered around, checking to see if we had to do any sort of procedure...
I have to say though, the novelty of traveling on your own with your friends (meaning, no parents to guide you around) is a one time thing. I bet I won't feel this excited the next time.
The queue for boarding was really long, even though
astelleciaand I arrived there about ten minutes before the gate closed. Missed Changi Airport efficiency then. The best part was, the sheer amount of Japanese people surrounding us at that point of time was just a little taste of what we were going to get when we landed in Japan. Of course, on the flight to Japan there were announcements in Japanese and Japanese stewards/stewardesses.
Well, we didn't get the window seats we wanted, and breakfast came at 4 am in the morning -- of course, something we aren't used to at all. Close to five in the morning, we caught the sun rising over the horizon - the cloud horizon, that is.
This is the sun rising over the cloud, as we took it from our seats. Could get up and take it, because we were trapped on both sides, so we kept standing, and the Japanese couple beside us thought we wanted to go to the loo. Well, shortly after that, the people by the window drew the window shield because the glare of the sun was too much...which really pissed
astelleciaoff. Lol. She wanted to see more of it.
Anyways, we soon touched down in Japan, where the weather was something like 20C, or possibly less. The baggage check guy had a whole book full of things that we weren't supposed to bring in, like guns and drugs and the like. He kept asking whether we had any of them, of which we said no (of course) -- and even if we did, would we actually have the right mind to say 'yesiree, I have heroin on me'? So, yeah, he went through our luggages. The cushion I'd brought along (since we won't be getting any pillow) popped up at the guy, much to his surprise. Poor guy had to help me stuff it back into my luggage later.
And shortly, we were past the gates and in a foreign airport, of which the first picture we took was this:
Exactly, the 'You Are Here' signboard in the airport. We had to figure out where on earth we were so that Brandon could locate us and pick us up. While we're on this note, the public phones in Japan are quite expensive. 100 yen only makes for slight over a minute or two of conversation (that's S$1.30). I ended up spending something like 300 or 400 yen just making sure we found each other.
Well, from Narita International Airport, we took a shuttle to Yokohama. A 2hr plus ride that cost 3500yen...so that's like 50 dollars. I'm talking about per person here (: They tag your luggage with your ticket, and then match it up when you reach Yokohama.
Here is, quite literally, a view from the bridge. En route to Yokohama (:
This is at the Yokohama train station. The guy there in black, looking much like a possible Yasu from Nana, is Brandon. Check out the train map -- looks far more complicated than the one in Singapore, no? We stared at it, trying to find out how much it costs to get to the certain place we wanted to go to (Kannai, as it was on this occasion) Brandon told us how much it was. We peered, asked "where?" and he said "trust me." (: After attempting this a few times, we just went with how much he said. Better yet, we got Pasmo cards - the Japanese version of EZlink. Those green machines over there dispense one-way tickets. If you ticket value is short, there'll be one of these machines inside where you can add value to your ticket (at your destination station) so you can get out (: Smart move there, Japan.
You really have to look where you're going, because there are different entrances to different train lines, and once beyond the gates, check if you're headed towards the right train. Check the timings too, because there are three types of trains - the normal train, the express train...and I can't remember the name of the last one...super express or something like that, it must be. Basically, some trains miss out on stops.
We managed to find a holding place for our bags where the shuttle bus dropped us off earlier at 150yen per piece. Then, we took the Keikyo line to Kannai, where we visited the now no longer existent Curry Museum:
It was closing down on the 31st, and we caught it on half-price day - thanks to Brandon (:
On the left is a picture of the entrance, as you can see. Yokohama Kare-- Myu--jiamu. The two elephants that look like they popped out of a pokemon game are presumably the mascots. Well, it was quite interesting to see the attendants dressed in saris and punjabis...looked totally wrong on Japanese. Since the museum was located in a gaming centre, we had to take a lift to the seventh and eight floors of the building, where the museum was located. Basically, how it works is that there are many little curry cafes that sell certain dishes, as advertised on a pamphlet they give you at the entrance. Choose the dishes you want, and line up outside the cafe of your choice, where you place your orders. Of course, this means that if you want to share a meal with your friends, you have to choose from the same menu.
This is our first meal in Japan. Chicken curry, I believe the name was. It was "UMAI~" 500yen, which is apparently quite affordable by Japanese rates. (Note: apparently, the standard pay for part-timers in Japan is about 1000yen per hour. That's S$13) According to my pay, that would be like S$3.00.
For some reason, we weren't supplied with a fork, just a spoon. Anyways, we had to move along because the lines outside were really long, and we'd feel bad about taking up too much time in that small little cafe.
While in Kannai, we dropped by a local bakery and picked these up:
Umasou~~ Eh, I can't remember the names of the buns.
After that, we went back to Yokohama, took a ride on the Tokyuu-toyoko line to Hiyoshi, which would be our resting place for the next couple of nights. A point of note, the trains belonging to this line look exactly like the ones we saw in the Death Note movie, where the Kira manipulated the FBI agent into killing all the other agents.
Coincidentally, the Tokyuu-toyoko line is also connected to Shibuya, from where we took a train to Shinjuku via the Yamanote line. There's this shop in Shinjuku that specializes in J-rock music. Eh, I don't have the name on me right now, or the exact location, but well, FYI. Also, we learned that the phones in Japan have a sort of GPRS on them, so from where we were, we could find bearings to where ever we wanted to go. Coolies.
This is Kabuki-Cho in Shinjuku. Apparently, it's one of the red light districts in Japan..so girls, don't go there at night unless you're looking to be harassed by drunkards, or non-drunkards.
Apparently, the chicken wings in this street (also Kabuki-cho) are excellent, or so says Cabbage (one of my bosses). Well, we didn't find the chicken wings, and I have absolutely no clue what he was doing here in the red light district. Hmm....
Anyways, Brandon left us to go to a Tommy Heavenly Concert, so we met up with Momoko in Ikebukuro (also along the Yamanote line) and went to places with anime goods galore.
This is K-Books, a store that specialises in doujinshi, if I'm not mistaken. There are two of them along the same street in Ikebukuro. What's the difference, I don't know. They also sell posters, a bit of merchandise and the like. Oh, and if you noticed it's gotten dark, this is only about six o'clock in Japan. Yep, the sun rises early and sets early -- which explains why they can start school at seven and still have CCA before that (think PoT).
And this is Animate, the 7-storeys dream house for all anime lovers. Specialises in anime merchandises. For a fact,
astelleciaand I managed to find a pair of Nana glasses for 2400yen. We had a good time trying to ask the lady at the counter - with our sad, broken Japanese - whether the glasses were 2400yen individually or as a pair. After a lot of pointing and random words like "issho ni?" and "hitotsu dake?", she understood what the dickens we were talking about. On a side note, that's me and Momoko in the picture.
After that, we took a trip to the B. Lily Rose Cafe - a kind of host club, if I can put it that way. Err...the attendants/waiters there are actually all female, but dressed up in suits and with make-up to look like guys. They'll do the whole cocktail shaking ordeal if you order a drink - which all of us did. Not very impressive actually...but the food was good and the drinks affordable at something like 500yen per drink/meal.
Here's what we had at the cafe:
On the left is a strawberry cheesecake I had, along with a (duh) non-alcoholic fruit punch. On the right is
astellecia's cheesecake with some alcoholic drink. Everything's 500yen, as was mentioned.
Momoko's...apple pie, I think it was. Presentation of the food is quite gorgeous, don't you think. It was definitely worth it.
Well, so after
astelleciatook a polaroid photo with the host she thought was cute (also 500yen per piece) and spilled her drink - accidentally, of course - we walked out into the chilly night. I mean like teeth-chattering chilly.
Before heading back to the station and giving Brandon a call, we were introduced to this:
BOMB TAKO!!!
It's takoyaki the size of a baseball. (: Nice and hot, perfect for that chilly night. I had curry cheese bomb tako. :9
Gomen, we couldn't take pictures of our tako because from the top view, it looked like mush with all the sauce covering the takoyaki. But, it's definitely worth it. 380yen, mine was.
Well, bomb tako ended our first night in Japan (: We headed back to our illegal resting place at about 10pm. The winds were blowing our way on our walk back to the hostel, so
astelleciadid the craziest thing - she whipped out her umbrella and held it in front of us to block the wind. I know what must have been running through the minds of the Japanese then: "Baka gaijin".
Well, that's that. Stay tuned for more adventures in Nippon!