Japan 0709 - Days 1 & 2
I am back from my holiday in Japan! It had been an amazing 6 days and although I'm all worn out from the trip, I had enjoyed myself immensely. My brother was extremely patient with me getting excited about the concert and squealing everytime I see Tohoshinki on a banner, on big-screen TVs, or their pictures, and I appreciate him for being such a good sport.
Day 1 - Otsuka and Ueno
Northwest flights usually depart from Singapore at 6-ish in the morning, but this time round the flight was at 5-ish, and my brother and I reached the airport at about 3.45AM to check in. By the time we board the plane, we were very tired and fell asleep immediately.
We reached Narita Airport at about 2PM Japan time, and the weather there wasn't as hot as I thought it would be - it was actually pretty cold because of the wind and I wish I had brought along stockings or something.
We stayed in Toyoko Inn at Otsuka, and the journey there was pretty long, around 1 and a half hours or so. The hotel is situated pretty near the subway station, and there are many eateries and convenience stores located near it, so I'm very grateful to Dawn for introducing it to me.
I only have one complaint about Toyoko Inn at Otsuka, and that is the size of the rooms. I'm not sure if all rooms are this small, but our room is really..very crammed. The bathroom is also ridiculously tiny, although the bathtub is pretty big. But I guess that's Tokyo for you.
The neighbourhood the hotel is located in. We explored abit and came across a boxing gym. There was sort of a practice match going on so we watched some of it.
After dinner, we headed down to Ueno as it was still early.
I had wanted to go to Ameyoko, but couldn't find it even though it's supposed to be just across Ueno station. We only walked around for a while before heading back because we were both exhausted from the flight.
Day 2 - Gyotoku, Nishi-kasai and Ginza
We woke up early as we had planned to visit my aunt and the journey to Gyotoku is about an hour long. I was really excited because I hadn't seen my aunt in a long time, and I get to play with my little cousin! When I passed the hotel room key to the receptionist, she passed me a package sent to me from Yoshi! He wasn't able to meet up with me so he sent my concert tickets to the hotel by speedpost! I wanted to open up the package immediately but was rushing off to meet my aunt so I left it at the counter to be collected when I return at night.
My aunt came to meet us at the station with Yee-chan, and Yee-chan was very shy at first, but gradually opened up after eating Japanese watermelons (you can eat the skin and it tastes like cucumber!) and lunch together.
Isn't she just the cutest! My aunt said Yee-chan is abit like me when I was a kid, always carrying a smile on our faces. Yee is a very sweet child and would suddenly run to me and hug me around my legs. She also loves to run and is very curious about her surroundings. She'd occasionally stop and point to a flower, an insect, and if there's a dog around, you can bet that she'd be the first to spot it. Yee loves dogs so much that even if it's only a dog statue, she'd go towards it to pet it.
Yee-chan loves chasing after pigeons and would stare in awe if they suddenly take off and fly away.
I had an awesome time with my aunt and Yee-chan, and felt quite reluctant to say bye. Even though we don't get to see each other often, I feel that I can talk to my aunt freely. She gave me alot of advice and support during the time when I felt confused about many things, and I'm thankful that I have such a great aunt. I already miss Yee and my aunt, but they'll be back next year! Can't wait!
Headed to Ginza in the evening. My brother loves Ginza because of the lights, and also because everything looks so clean and posh. We went to Uniqlo's 5-storey store first - the one in Singapore just can't compare to the one in Ginza which carries the full clothes range.
My brother and I spent alot of time at Yamano Music, a 7-storey store offering music-related goods from CDs to musical instruments. My bro, who has been dying to learn to play the cello was delighted that there was a cello exhibition held at the event space on the 7th floor on that day. I also bought my Stand by U single there and wrote in a book provided at the promotion table for fans to write messages to Tohoshinki. Saw a promotion table for Big Bang's Japanese single too.
Ginza is really huge (as compared to Singapore's Orchard road anyway) and we walked around blindly not knowing where we were headed to. We ended up at Shimbashi station, which is one stop away from Ginza station, quite fortunate for us because if we had taken the train at Ginza, we'd have to change trains. But at Shimbashi we could take a direct train on the Yamanote Line back to Otsuka.
Back at the hotel, I was finally able to open my package!
Fanclub tickets! I can still remember how thrilled I was when I finally saw someone selling them on ticket.co.jp for 30,000yen. It was the cheapest on the list - and it comes with concert goods! There were others that weren't fanclub tickets, didn't come with goods, and were sold at about 50,000yen. So although 30,000yen is still a ridiculous price to pay for a ticket, I'm glad that I didn't have to pay any more than that.
I went to bed early; concert held the next day, had to have enough sleep so I wouldn't feel too tired!