preface --
Mummy and I had been talking and dreaming about this trip to Japan since last year... so when the cheap MAS promotion came along, we couldn't resist! So off we went to Japan for some mother-daughter bonding time, leaving the men in our lives (daddy and Wen Shi) to their own devices, and to give them some long-overdue man-to-man bonding time too. Haha.
--
The night before, mummy and I happily left Malaysia and arrived at Tokyo airport bright and early. Went through customs relatively fast, bought our Suica cards (like Malaysia's touch and go cards, useable at all train/bus/subway stations), and went forth and braved the convoluted train/subway system.
There were, needless to say, many confused moments of staring at subway maps and many bewildered exclamations from mummy. 3 train/subway line changes later, we arrived at the station near Ryokan Kangetsu (our lovely hotel), and promptly got lost looking for it again (haha, I know, we suck). Found it eventually, and Jun An and his girl friend Yun Qi were already there waiting for us!
Checked in, and then it was OFF to see Tokyo in all its glory! :)
First stop, Akihabara (秋葉原)
Didn't do much there... I'm not much of an electronics person, and neither is mummy. Tried scoping the audience for Otaku and Maids... only found one maid, out promoting the maid cafe she works for:
Can't really see her maid outfit, as it was SO COLD OUT!
The one cool thing we did at Akiba was eat Tendon at Tenya... the most amazing tenpura I've eaten in my life (HUGE prawns and amazing SAUCE). *drools* And the udon is SO smoooooth. Mmm. Even the rice was good. :)
Next stop, Asakusa (浅草)
This place is known as the heart of old Tokyo. A huge lantern greets you at the Kaminarimon (translated as Thunder gate), and a street (Nakamise) selling all sorts of yummy foods (kibidango, ningyoyaki, manju, senbei) and touristy trinkets leads up to Sensoji, a huge and popular temple. We had lots of fun exploring the little shops and getting lost in the throng of tourists and locals that crowded the area.
Kaminarimon
Pretty
Mummy trying to soak up as much incense as possible
Wandered about the area and then went off looking for Kappabashi dori - the street where they sell plastic food samples so real they could fool anyone. There's a huge market for this, since all restaurants display their menus in the form of plastic food in front of their stores to entice the hungry.
Yum. Can you believe that these samples are more expensive than the real thing?
Last stop, Ginza (銀座)
Took a few photos outside Kabukiza - a theatre famous for their Kabuki plays. Didn't go see one, coz we wouldn't understand it anyway. Reminds me a bit of the Chinese "Da Xi" where they wear scary white face paint and act/sing/dance.
We went there mainly for the restaurant Hachinoya, coz I found out online that they sell Hayashi Rice! I've been wanting to try the real thing after watching Ryuusei no Kizuna. The real thing was damn good... warm, rich and creamy beef stew, accompanied by some pickles and a crab cream croquette. Yum.
After this, bid Jun An and Yun Qi goodbye (they're so Japanified they bowed at mummy! So cute!) and went back to Ryokan Kangetsu to soak in the nice hot open air bath and take multiple pics of ourselves wearing Yukata (the wrong way... haha, the left side is supposed to go over the right. Oops!).
No comments:
Post a Comment