Japan Trip - Day 7 (31 March 2010)

仙台 (Sendai)

Today we are going to Sendai (仙台), the birthplace of Gyu-tan (ox’s tongue). Kath has been looking forward to this day as she love gyu-tan. Upon arrival in Sendai, we decided to make this our Shopping Day.

Our first stop was Mitsui Outlet near the Sendai Port. On our way there, Pris missed a step at the train station’s stairs and fell (totally sat on the floor). Luckily, she did not sprain her ankle. So Kath told her not to look at the map and walk at the same time.

This Mitsui Outlet has 2 storeys and about 120 shops. We shopped around and we bought socks in Fukusuke store. Then, we went back to the Sendai Station for lunch. Of course, lunch is gyu-tan. There is a 牛タン通り(gyu-tan “street”) which features 4 shops. As the tourist information office gave us discount coupons, we decided to eat at one of the shop there – 利久たんや. This must be a popular shop 'cos There was quite a queue. Kath ordered the 人気No.1 choice. Pris was worried that she may not like gyu-tan so she ordered the 牛タンハンバグ(gyu-tan hamburger) set.

The gyu-tan was FANTASTIC, とてもおいしい (very delicious). It was really really good. The grilled gyu-tan was served with ox-tail soup and barley rice, the standard way that they serve in Sendai. Pris’s hamburger set was good too. She tried the gyu-tan and said it was good too.

After lunch, we passed by a pastry shop. Kath was attracted to the food and decided to buy some to try. It is sweet potato pastry and she ordered different types (chocolate, pumkin, seasame, sweet potato, etc.) to try – nice.

Next we shopped along the shopping streets – Vlandome, Ichinomiya. Pris saw another interesting snack and bought to try. It is cuttlefish balls coated with sweet bread pastry. This is nice too.

We walked to the end of the shopping street and reached the Sendai landmark – a statue of a woman twisting her body. We took a few pictures and then walked back to the station and head back to Tokyo.

Tonight, we decided to try another food that we sought after – Yakiniku. We had it at 牛角- a popular Yakiniku shop (as the guide book says) with many outlets in Tokyo. There is one outlet at Sugamo and we went there. We went for ala-carte instead of buffet as it was getting late. When the waiter came to get our order, we told him 「日本語は少しわかります。」and his face went blank. Then he tried to communicate with us using more simple words. We ordered and enjoyed the food very much. They had one of my favourite Korean appetizer – seasoned beansprouts at a low price of ￥100 per bowl. We had 3 servings of this.

After dinner, we head back to our apartment for a good night rest.

Japan Trip - Day 6 (30 March 2010)

Nikko (日光)

Our schedule for today is Nikko. Pris and Kath said that the weather will be too cold for Momo (yesterday was -1 degree) so I was left behind in the apartment and the 2 heartless women just went on with their trip to Nikko. ( T _ T )

So today’s host is Pris and Kath, that’s me.

You can see “Nikko is Nippon” posters everywhere in Tokyo and Nikko. Japan is highly promoting Nikko. Pris and Kath took the Shinkansen to Utsunomiya (宇都宮) and change to the JR Nikko Line for Nikko. On the JR Nikko Line train, you can see a lot of tourists.

When we arrived at Nikko, it was indeed cold but bearable. We went straight to Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Falls. We took the Tobu bus and the journey was about an hour. Along the way on the bus, there was snow at the roadside. It must have snowed the last few days. The way to Lake Chuzenji was uphill and involved a lot of sharp U-turns. They call the slope – Iroshika Slope. As I get motion sickness easily, I prepared myself this time with motion sickness pill. Guess what, I slept throughout the whole journey. Wahahaha! V ( ^ O ^ ) V

We finally reached Lake Chuzenji. With the majority of tourist going to Kegon Falls, we make our way to Lake Chuzenji to get away from the crowd. The lake was amazing. Part of the surrounding was covered with snow so it makes the scenery even more heart melting. We took photos and more photos of the lake with mountains. Oh….we met 2 Singaporeans there too. What a coincidence?

Enough of Lake Chuzenji, we proceed to Kegon Falls. We were hoping that the waterfall was not frozen due to the cold weather. We were lucky. It was falling with full energy. It’s so grand. To have a better view of the waterfall, we paid for the elevator ticket to get to the bottom of the falls – 100m down. This was worth it. You have a full view of the Kegon Falls compared to the view from the top. We took photos and then proceed for lunch.

It seems that ゆば (yu-ba) is famous in Nikko. Almost every shop is selling ゆばそば (yu-ba soba) or ゆばうどん (yu-ba udon) so we decided to give it a try too. We went to a family-run shop that was opposite the bus station. The owner, an old man, was trying to ask us to try his restaurant earlier when we were on our way to Kegon Falls so we decided to go back to his shop.

We ordered ゆばうどん(yu-ba udon) and mushroom tempura 舞茸そば(soba). While waiting for our food, a group of Taiwanese tourists were leaving and they kept saying おいしい、おいしい(oishii, oishii). When the food was served, we finally knew what is ゆば. It is actually some kind of beancurd skin. The food was delicious!! Really yummy especially the tempura so we decided to order a plate of the mushroom tempura.

After a good lunch, our next stop is to visit the World Heritage – Toshogu Shrine. This is a very popular shrine and where you will see the “see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil” monkeys and the sleeping cat. We bought a special combination ticket which allow us to visit 5 temples/shrines including Toshogu Shrine.

Once you enter the shrine, you will see the “see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil” monkeys. They are really popular with tourists. Everyone was snapping away. Other that this popular figurine, there are other monkey figurines and they actually have an explanation for each figurine. Eg. One was showing a mother monkey looking far away with the baby monkey looking at her. It means the mother is looking into the future of her child. Interesting!

Next we proceed up to the shrine. It is under restoration work and part of it was covered. However, we still manage to snap the right picture. The sleeping cat needs a separate entrance ticket so we decided to give it a miss.

After Toshogu Shrine, we visited the other shrines – Futarasan Shrine and Rinnoji Temple. All temples and shrines close early at 4.00pm so that’s all we managed. Next, we went to the Shinkyo Bridge to take some pictures before returning to the station.

At the station area, we did some shopping and tried some local snacks – one fried pastry and one steam bun. Both had sweet bean paste in them. Nice!!!

Then it was home sweet home. Along the way, we stopped at Utsunomiya to transfer to the Shinkansen. As we were an hour early, we shopped at a nearby mall and I bought a pair of new Adidas track shoes as my other pair of shoes was giving me problem. It was a good bargain – just ￥2990. Then it was really home sweet home.

Japan Trip - Day 5 (29 March 2010)

Kamakura (鎌倉)

Today we will be covering two locations – 鎌倉(Kamakura) in the morning and 横浜(Yokohama) in the afternoon. What attracted me to visit 鎌倉 is the 大仏 (Great Buddha). Pris said that it is the 2nd largest in Japan, after 東大寺(Todaiji Temple) in 奈良(Nara). Before we set off, we had Mister Donut for breakfast – Angel Cream, yum yum!! Then it was an hour ride on the local train to鎌倉.

Upon arrival in Kamakura, as we need to save time, we took a local bus to Daibutsu. After reading so much, Daibutsu is finally here before our eyes. Too bad Sakura was not in full bloom during our visit, otherwise it will be a magnificent sight. Anyway, just looking at the Daibutsu was already very grand. We took many photos of Daibutsu and of course, I am also one of the main attractions. People were looking at Kath while she was taking photos of Daibutsu and me. ( > _ < )

We then proceed back to Kamakura Station for our lunch. We had 回転寿司 (Conveyor Belt Sushi). We were lucky as their ネギトロ寿司 (Negitoro Sushi) was on promotion. The price went from ￥180 to ￥120. Wow…. what a catch!! Pris and Kath just grabbed all the Negitoro sushi and gobble down their throat. I think they enjoyed eating.

After lunch, we walked to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine and at the same time do some simple window shopping. We had croquette and せんべい (Senbei) on the way to the shrine. Yah yah yah….. more eating. At the Shrine, some of the sakura has bloomed therefore we managed to take beautiful photos of the cherry blossoms with the lovely pond. We stayed for a while before taking the famous Sakura-dori back to Kamakura Station. It was a 10 mins walk which we enjoyed although it was drizzling.

Yokohama (横浜)
We reached Yokohama at 4pm in the afternoon which was within our plan. We walked from Yokohama station to Minato Mirai pier. On the way there, we passed by an amusement park with roller coaster and many other exciting rides.

Then we walked on to 赤レンガ (also known as Red Bricks Warehouse). There was a flower fair which was something similar to what we saw in 2005. I think the fair is mainly for wedding decorations. Kath’s main purpose to visit Yokohama was to take the night view of Yokohama harbour.

As night falls, the wind got stronger and the weather got colder. It was unbearable just standing by the pier and waiting for sunset. Our whole body was numb with the cold. It was worst when our camera’s battery started to fail. We had no choice but to wait patiently for sunset and take all the photos we want. It did not turn out as nice as what we thought but anyway, we get to see the night view and 1 more task accomplished.

Next we discussed about where to have our dinner. The weather was too much for us so we went to World Porter shopping mall to temporary hide from the cold. We came across a restaurant serving Shabu Shabu 80 minutes Buffet. Thinking of the hot soup, without hesitation, we joined the queue. We waited for about an hour but it was all worth it. The beef and pork was delicious. We did not have time for our dessert and the time was up. That was fast. However, we have a wonderful dinner.

After that, we prepared ourselves (jacket and gloves) and headed for home. We took the same route back and it was torturing. As we crossed the bridge, the wind was so strong that we could not even walk straight. The Japanese lady ahead of us had to hold on to her boyfriend as she basically could not walk alone. That’s how strong the wind was.

We finally reached our apartment. Thinking back on the day, “freezing cold” is the best description deep in my mind. In Japanese, they said [冬の寒さ] which means the weather is as cold as Winter even though it is Spring.

Japan Trip - Day 4 (28 March 2010)

We started the day every early today with morning call @ 5.30am. *FAINT*
Osaka, we are coming.

At 8.33am, we boarded the Hikari Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka. This is the 1st time all of us took a real Shinkansen ride and eat Eki Ben, also known as Train Bento.

It took us almost 3 and a half hour to reach our 1st destination - Osaka Kaiyukan (Osaka Aquarium). Wow, you cannot believe this, to enter the Aquarium require an hour. The queue was unbelievable. As we were already there, we joined the queue and experienced the highly recommended aquarium.

After entering the aquarium, frankly speaking, it was not what I expected it will be. However, it is definitely comparable with Singapore's Underwater world. Due to overcrowded, it was like a "Touch and Go"  thing rather than enjoying the underwater world.

A long escalator brought us up to level 8 and we started our journey with Otter, then more and more otter. Hee hee hee.....!!! Next is Penguin, Sealions and Dolphin. The penguins were so cute.......... there is this particular one posing as if he's on Titanic - "I am the King of the world".

Moving on, we finally came to the attraction of this aquarium - Whale Shark. Momo cannot take her eyes off it. It was so giantic and unbelieveable gentle.

That's almost all about the aquarium. We then proceed to Osaka Castle in hope of seeing some Sakura but instead of sakura, we saw street performancers and young girls selling all the idols merchandise. As we walked towards Kyocera Osaka Dome, that's when we realised that there is a concert going on. We were not so sure who's but it's definitely one of the famous Johnny's Juniors.

As we get closer to Osaka-jo, we saw sakura trees scatter here and there. It's not a lot but good enough for me to take nice picture.

The only regret about this Osaka trip is ....... we didn't manage to eat our favourite ramen in Kadoma-shi. ( T _ T ) We ended up with food from Izumiya supermarket. They are not very nice but definitely oishii.

Japan Trip - Day 3 (27 March 2010)

Today Momo went to the famous Harajuku fashion street - Takeshita Dori. It's crowded and I don't like crowd. =(

Anyway, Pris and Kath went straight to Paris Kids - the shop which sells accessories @ Yen315 for all items. My goodness, the Japanese girls are crazy. I cannot move around in the shop that means I cannot even see the accessories. Argh. Well, nevermind, we went on to Daiso. Surprisingly, this time, Pris didn't spend a long time in this 100Yen shop. *Phew*. Hee hee hee, sorry. As we walk further down the fashion street, we saw a shop that sells Cosplay costume. Interesting.....!! Momo even took a picture with Arashi. Can you see it?

Hungry hungry..... time for lunch. Our lunch today is HAMBURG STEAK. Yatta!! Pris had the traditional hamburg steak and Kath had Tomato sauce hamburg steak at the Jonathan Family Restaurant. This is our first time at this restaurant. There is even free flow of hot and cold drinks and soup. Yum yum. 

After lunch, we walked our way to Shibuya. It's not very far but hmm........ still tiring. Then, it's crowd again. Just standing at the famous cross junction of Shibuya station, I almost faint. I was speechless. We went for toilet break before heading to our next destination - Odaiba.

We took the JR train to Shinbashi and transfer to Odaiba's Monorail - Yurikamone. Momo took Yurikamone.

It was a short journey to Odaiba. We first went to the beach for Sakura and Rainbow Bridge photo-taking session. Next to Decks, Aqua City and Fuji Television. Frankly speaking, I was freezing there with all the wind and low temperature. We stayed in Aqua City until sunset in order to take the night scene of Rainbow Bridge. My whole body went numb just posing for the pictures....samui samui 

Next stop was Palette Town and Venus Fort. We had our dinner at the foodcourt at Venus Fort. There was quite a few choices and we decided on buta after an ojisan passed us and the smell of his buta rice attracted us.

Food ordering was interesting. You order your food and the stall attendant will pass you a small equipment that looks like a remote control. When your food is ready, it will beep and you return to the stall to collect your food.  Hmm...omoshiroii ne. Venus Fort is amazing. The artificial roof-top sky will change colour. One moment it is daytime and the next it is sunset, beautiful.

Then it was home sweet home, oops should be hotel sweet hotel.