Post-Trip Thoughts: Words from the Tour Guide

Hey guys, after procrastinating quite a bit, it's now my turn to start blogging my post-trip thoughts. Exactly one week ago, we would all have just landed in Changi, you know, just right at this moment Yanting and I would be at the baggage claim section waiting for our luggage and wondering why it hasn't come. Haha.

I guess you can see that we all miss the trip really badly. We miss the weather, even the rainy days, the thrill of exploring a country, a city as individualistic as Tokyo, on our own, and we miss all the things we see and hear that are foreign to us. Japan has always been a place of dreams for us, and no amount of tired legs can take away that exhilaration.

And I'm glad I spent this eleven days with three people who can enjoy it as much as me. I love the fact that we managed to go everywhere we wanted to go ourselves, with the help of a handy tour guide map, and our zeal to make it work. To Andy, Yanting and Darryn, I'm sure we will all look back at this and savour every memory.

Eh, my entry also become emo le.

There were many moments of real joy in this trip - a lot of places we loved, Disneyland, Mitaka, Odaiba being a few. People we met, Akiko-san and Akimoto-san at the Tokyo Teleport station in Odaiba, taking the Rinkai Line home.. Yanting's hairstylists, the Burberry Blue Label guy in Harajuku, Ameyokoyaki guy and the shoes salemen in Ameyokocho.. Travelling seems all the better, when you meet people in that country who welcome you with a smile.

Pictures are being put up on facebook, slowly but surely, and you can access the first day here: Tokyo Travels Day 1

and slowly make your way through the other albums.

I will go to Japan again, like Chelsea said, the other seasons are as amazing. And perhaps then, another blog as wonderful as this will spring up, and will serve as my memory of another great journey.

=) loves
velda

Post-Trip Thoughts: The Closing Chapter

Well, it has been almost a week now since we arrived home from our most wonderful trip in Tokyo. In fact, at this very moment exactly a week ago, we should have just returned from Odaiba after taking the Ferris Wheel. And the next day would be a shopping day in Harajuku. Fast isn't it? Life's back to the usual again and inevitably the Tokyo trip is dearly missed.

Post-Tokyo Syndrome, i call it. Haha. Looking at the photos we took brings back all the memorable moments that we had. From Day 1 to Day 11. From our little cosy place in Shinjuku that we call home for 11 days to almost every single part of Tokyo. It was truly fun and enjoyable, to say the least.

This blog was read by our avid fans during the 11 days, and I'm glad that it is also a blog that the 4 of us share, a blog to reminisce. We can read it over and over again without getting bored. Good job guys! :)

Okay, to lighten the mood of my entry abit... (i realise it's abit emo, haha)

I just wanna say that I'm happy and proud of the 4 of us for making this trip, for allowing everything to go according to plan. But most importantly that we enjoyed ourselves tremendously. Japan is a nice place to be, nice people, nice places, nice scenery, nice weather. And we managed to take a total number of 845 photos! Amazing!

Not to mention a whole lot of videos from Yanting's videocam as well. Haha.

Andy the Tour Leader,

Signing off now, with a picture of the 4 of us...

@ VenusFort, Odaiba

Day 11

We checked out of Shinjuku Kent Hotel at 11am, and left our bags at front desk counter to make our way to Shinjuku Sta. to buy our Narita Express tickets. The moment we came out of the Narita Express ticket office, it was to see the way back shrouded in a mist of heavy rain. *thunderclap*

5 minutes later, the people on the streets of Shinjuku saw 4 drenched tourists lugging around 12 baggages, walking desperately fast to seek the nearest sheltered way to the subway station.

"Yanting I can smell your hair's salon smell from here!" - Velda in the rain

We waved goodbye to Tokyo as we sat on the Narita Express on the way to the airport, and got more omiyages from the airport mall. We even made overseas calls from the telephone booth to our parents back in Sg. And I made a domestic call to HAIR DRESS Tachibana... Hehe it was fun.

I am proud of Darryn and Andy for being able to refuse the temptation of the 'pull ball' catchers, so that we managed to catch our 11.40am train. Proud of Velda for getting us to the Shinjuku train station in the rain. Proud of myself for really getting down to studying on the airplane for my Japanese exam on Sat.

Most of all, I am glad that the four of us had fun! ^^

"Shin-ju-kku, Shin-ju-kuu."
"Tsugi wa, Takadano-baba. Takadano-baba."

love from
yanz

PS: T3 rocks my socks! And Sg is HOT!

Day Jew - Jyu - 10

Holla to da homies back in SGland! Today is our last adventurous day in TOKYO! Ok not that much to do today except catch up on last minute shopping and eating!

We started out late in the morning at 11am where we headed out to Isetan to get Andy's papa his document bag and shirt! Burberry Black Label is da rox arse cause its exclusively in Japan only.

But before that, we had Brunch! Roar! At Isetan's Casual Dining Restaurant... But the price wasnt casual at all :) haha. But the food was like godsend again!

After shopping and eating, we MOVED to HARAJUKU to search for the BAPE store + Yt's Hair Salon. We left Yt at Tachibana and me vel and andy walked to omotesando (aka HIGH CLASS place) to look for BAPE. We saw like all the branded goods shop along the way like LV, Gucci, Prada, Kate Ashley etc. Wa lau... Super chor sia see liao also scared! Vel bought some make up from Shu Uemura. Rich kia. Tour guide so rich de :(

WE finally found the BAPE store (legitimate one). Everything was super nice... to me that is. haha. Vel bought boxers for her bro... Nice sexy blue camo one haha. I bought... A long sleeve shirt. quite sexy also la :) haha.

We went back to Burberry Blue Label Men's section to get my sexay shoesss. Ok la abit Haolian la. but then vel they all richer then me. buy wallet same price as my shoes! :(.

Ok yt shall blog about her hair curling experience! HAHAHA.

DINNER was a FULL AFFAIR!!! Andy and me ate the exact same thing, bento + sushi. Vel was eating some bento crap + soba from convenience store cause she always fugging hungry! haha. Yt ate some kucheeroookie (Yanting says it's Sakana Koroke) or some shit like that also.

and now they are talking about nipples and shit. god they are hilarious dipsters!

/wrist
darryn

- yanting here desu!

we are talking about hokkien versions of japanese song desu. anyway, i went to a hair salon called Tachibana in Harajuku. The owner, Tachibana, speaks English, according to the website I saw. But because he was out today, I met 2 other hairstylists, Ai Saotome (五月女和) san and Hiroki Ohmori (大森浩希) san...

First of all, Hiroki san shampooed my hair, and gave it a long, comfortable head massage. Then they sat me in the chair, draped a blanket over my legs, and started chatting with me about our tokyo trip and about Singapore. Usually I don't like trying out new salons, because I don't usually hold up conversations well, but they made an effort to get me to start talking and feel comfortable. And despite the fact that only Ai san knew a bit of English and me talking in super broken Japanese, it was the first time I felt that I shared the same frequency as my hairstylists. I had a good time chatting with them... :)

Like the website said, if you are looking for a professional and careful haircut by friendly staff, this is the place to go. If you reside in Tokyo, that is. Hahaha.

The review of the place: http://www.englishok.jp/shops/tachibana/review.php

Amazing ne, these things!

1: The chairs where they shampoo your head is AUTOMATIC. So you just sit there upright, and the chair will lower you down to the basin... And it was ticklish!

2: They give you a CUSHION (shaped like a banana to put around your waist) to hug just cuz it's cute and comfortable.

3: There's like a small special ROOM for customers to come in and change out of their coats into a GOWN provided by the salon on a rainy day.

4: Their 'Omizu' (water) / 'Ocha' (tea) is served in a paper cup placed within a plastic cup holder... So every customer gets a new cup instead of sharing. Smart eh?

5: Not to mention they have nice apple and honey flavored sweets... ^^

The website: http://www.hairdress-tachibana.com/p/

Yanting after salon

Vel refused to let me take a picture of her new dyed eyebrows though... But she did it because it was cheap! At 1500 yen, it is almost SGD 21. Okay la maybe it sounded a little cheaper than we thought... *sheepish smille*

*Back at the hotel*

We were playing a hide and seek game of some part of Andy's body, and we even have a winner for the contest, ME! But, Andy shy, so I shan't tell you what contest it was. Maybe you can ask Vel for the pictures... Haha... Good night all!

so says,
Yanz

Day Nine (9)!

Today we went to Odaiba!

Odaiba is, according to very knowledgable Vel Khoo, a sort of futuristic view of how Japanese scientist expect Japan to be like as it progresses. Even the Yurikamome train had tracks that ran above and overlooked the sea and the Rainbow bridge...

At 19 degrees c, it was the perfect temperature for us to visit our Oedo ONSEN Monogatari!

CUTE!

At the Onsen, we got to choose a yukata and met up at the foot bath area, which is shared by both females and males. (BTW, it was Ladies' Day today, which means females pay 500 yen LESS than the usual price! WHEE...) From there on, we separated into our different gender baths; and because we obviously were not allowed to take a camera into the area of naked bodies, we don't have photos! ^^ It was a bit wierd for me but Vel kept telling me whatever everyone else had we also had; and by the time you go into the onsen area and you see all the ah mas and little kids running around, it's almost like going back to younger days of public baths at swimming complexes.

The onsens there was shiok-anathans! There was the 'introductory' tang, at body temp of 38 degs. Vel's fav. And there's a shio-onsen (saltwater onsen, very good for injured skins) at a temp of 40 nearly 41 degs, which Vel so totally cannot take it, but I loved... And we keep going from the hot one to the cold one at 20 degs, which feels like it's freezing after the 40 degs one! But the one we both loved, was the nemu-tang (sleeping onsen), where you just lie down in the jacuzzi and sleep... ^^

They really pamper you at that place; hair dryers and lotions for body and hair were provided for you after you finish bathing, and everyone walks around the place looking refreshed, glowing and in their nice yukatas.

us around the shops inside the place


doesn't darryn look like he's having the time of his life?




a tatami room for relaxation... *kimochii*

We left Oedo Onsen and headed for Palette Town! Which we suspect Pokemon 'koped' the name from this place to put as one of their towns. It consists of VenusFort, the Palette Ferris Wheel and SEGA Joypolis.

They have a casino in the middle of the VenusFort mall square... How tmd is that?

VenusFort is beautiful! Need we say more?

Has expensive shops like Burberry Blue Label and a lot of other shops that don't ring a bell. But we found this shop: www.lush.co.jp, and we got a lot of nice gifts from this shop! go check it out.

Then we went to the Ferris Wheel...

The Ferris Wheel is beautiful.


We went at night, after like spending 2 hours at these m.o.f.o catchers again.

Had to go past the Toyota showroom, where they had the Toyota MotorSports Simulator (the racing type). Looked super fun but we weren't allowed to go cuz it was filled with high school students on their school trip again.

our Ferris Wheel ride momento... ^^

We ate 4 meals today... HELP! Japan's food is really too good to resist. Andy asking what's for breakfast tomorrow now... save us...

Meal 1: MacDonalds

Meal 2: Soba, Ramen, Udon, Ice Kachang, Soft Serve


Meal 3: Hayashi Omu-Rice


Meal 4: ODEN! + Soba AGAIN

~ We met bery nice people while waiting for the train back to Shinjuku from Tokyo Teleport Station. We boarded a train headed for the depot, and the 2 ladies behind us gestured to us and pulled us back from the train doors. So paiseh! Then they laughed at our paisehness, and we started chatting with them. Their names are Akiko san and Akimoto san.

Akiko san knew English, while Akimoto san spoke more with Vel cuz she only spoke Japanese. Then we talked about where we came from, Singapore, and when they asked us to describe what was the difference between the two countries. We talked about how Japan's weather is so nice while ours is hot like all year round; and how there is so much to see in just tokyo and like maybe they can visit bukit timah nature reserve in sg... And the food is much better here! How Sg cars are super expensive, and yet we can travel from one end to another within an hour by MRT... ^^ Quite interesting convos we had, trying to think about what can best describe our country.

Akimoto san very cute; she said, "Oh! You've visited so many places in Tokyo that even I haven't gone. I've only been to Hawaii and Guam..."

*pengs* ~

Haha so this concludes the end of our very wonderful day at Odaiba, a beautiful place with nice weather, nice scenery and interesting surprises around every corner.

so says Yanz

Day Eight

Yo! I guess you all missed me because i haven't been blogging. =) My sore throat is now better, yay, and we had a sunny day today, in tokyo.

We went to Yokohama today! Yatta! Went to visit a place I have been wanting to visit for a loong time alr, the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum.

Arashi went there for a variety programme many years ago.

The inside of the museum is styled according to old-style Japan, with all the famed ramen shops around a small square. Weird, they even made the clean toilet look dirty. -_-"


We had ramen from Shinasobaya, one of the ramen shops there. It was really good, loved the charsiew! Andy and I had the special egg which was 300 yen each (about S$4.20). It came from chickens that only laid one egg A WEEK. The taste was really good.

Andy loved it so much he finished the whole bowl.

After the ramen lunch, we moved on the Yokohama's famed Chinatown. It was a great experience, even though we were tired. =) The place was full of... Chinese people. >_< And chestnut shops, and pork buns shops, and ice cream shops, and Chinese souvenir (ie panda) shops. Yanting met a reallllly cute puppy on the street, and we managed to make a few people stop and stare at the doggie too.


I had pandaman! It was a bun with a panda face, and filled with chocolate custard. yumm.


We went on to Sweets Forest in Jiyugaoka after that (imagine how tired we were, after walking all that distance), and sat down to a delicious sweet dessert. Sweets Forest was a great place where they congregated some of the best dessert houses in Japan. Something like the Raumen Museum, but desserts instead.




It was great sitting al fresco eating the desserts, and there were warm blankets provided on the chairs if you were cold. =) wow. Yanting was really excited at the blankets because it ngam her bag. heheh.


We went to walk the shops that sold baking stuff, and Yanting was really impressed with the chocolate cellar! woohoo!


After a loong day we stopped at Family Mart for dinner, and I just thought I would try the Oden. It turned out to be reallly good, and everyone was impressed. So you can guess what we'll have for supper tmr!

Andy and Darryn are both addicted to the UFO catching things in Japan. It's become a daily affair, to go down into Shinjuku and try the arcades around. Yanting and I follow around, and sometimes we get some stuff too =) You'll see when we come back. =) We met some tourists who managed to catch a watch in the machine, and they hi-fived us. haha. I was sort of addicted to the Taiko Drum machine too, and Yanting and I sang and danced with the beat. Damn fun.

Okay, now Yanting and Andy are trying to outdo each other in Macdonald's and Disney jokes. Really very lame ones. And they're speaking in baby voices. And they're racist. Tsktsk.

It's ONSEN DAY tomorrow! =)

Signing off,
Velda

Day Seven

disneyland day! have been looking forward to this day cos it's a day to have fun, fun and more fun!

supposedly tokyo disneyland is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year on the 15th of april, which means that we missed it by a day. saw posters in shinjuku station promoting disneyland's spring carnival, which of course starts tomorrow. seems like quite a big event and probably something very different as well, the spring carnival. but well, it sure is gonna be crowded so on the brighter side we avoid the crowd tmr by going today.

woke up to a morning with light rain. but that didn't deter us from going to visit mickey. fortunately the rain cleared by noon. anyway we reached disneyland early in the morning at 9am right when its gates open. and we managed to try almost all the rides at the individual sections, namely adventureland, westernland, critter country, fantasyland, toontown and tomorrowland. it's interesting how the rides are divided like for example toontown is more for kids and tomorrowland comprises of all the more exciting and thrilling rides, and so on and so forth, you get the picture. darryn and i took the space mountain, though both of us have tried it before, in hong kong and LA respectively, but i kind of forgotten how it was like already. and even i got a little dizzy at the end of the ride cos it was just turning and turning many rounds in super high speed.

we watched two parades as well. pictures can be seen below.
disneyland is such a happy place, everybody is smiling and happy!

and i was quite disappointed because i was so looking forward to the fireworks at night because the one i saw at disneyland LA was super spectacular. but what we saw were just ordinary fireworks. no music, no storyline, no tinkerbell, no shaped fireworks. but it's alright in the end because we really enjoyed our day at tokyo disneyland! :)

at the entrance!
we all love eeyore!
but eeyore prefers to gay with darryn!
train ride!
vel likes salted popcorn
and i like my honey popcorn! i'm a pooh bear, hahaha
we have dumbo ears!
lunch and yanting had nice dessert
walt disney & mickey mouse and cinderella's castle in the background
group picture!
oh, i bought a house in disneyland, heh heh
go-kart in disneyland! super fun! we took it twice, hahaha
'jubilation' parade started with minnie mouse!
so cute, all the pui pui ones. eeyore was looking out for darryn
and presenting...the real dumbo!
mickey mouse!
we watched a 3D show
and the show at 5:30pm after all our rides. one man's dreammm!
the castle, really pretty at night
the electrical parade
nicenice! :)

and at the end of the day, i guess i took almost all the rides in disneyland, the most ever in my total 3 trips to disneyland.

vel, darryn and yanting had a lot of fun too. :)


signing off,
andy.