Tokyo Trip ~ Day Three and Four

29 June, 2008

It was a bad day. It really was. It was raining!!!!!!!! We couldn't go sightseeing and thus, the only choice we had was to shop. Yeah...summer sales....We went to Shibuya - a shopping and eating district popular with a lot of young Tokyoites. As it was raining, we went straight to Shibuya 109 - a trend setting fashion complex for young women with more than one hundred boutiques on ten floors. Maybe I was a bit outdated or old-fashioned, but I found the clothes there were too 'in' for me. Not only I found them pricey, I found them almost the same quality with those I can find in Sungei Wang Plaza. Yikes! Not my type....

I was determined to find a ramen restaurant which has a ramen vending machine. I had read about ramen restaurants selling their ramen using a vending machine from travel blogs and I told myself I must see it when I got there. So, we walked along the streets looking for one and guess what? It wasn't difficult to find one! There are plenty of them!

You don't have to worry if you can't read Japanese. Just choose whatever you like based on the pictures. After you've chosen your choice of ramen, just pay at the machine. Then, you will get a receipt and hand it to the cook when you get into the restaurant. It's as easy as one, two, three!

Sherlyn's lunch

Mine....750yen. The noodles.... arrrgghhhh...... the texture.... very different from what we used to eat back here in Malaysia. Oishii!!!!!!!

We continue shopping as that's the only thing we could do on a rainy day until 6p.m. and went back to the Shinjuku station to meet my Jap friend whom I've known for 14 years. She then brought us to a restaurant which is located on the top floor of an office building in Shinjuku. Man...I can tell you that the building is very tall...I can't remember how tall it is but I'm sure it's more than 20 storeys. I am afraid of height, you know, and so I was VERY nervous while going up in the lift.

According to Kayo, this restaurant is famous for its Hokkaido cuisine. It's a posh one where you can enjoy the night view of Tokyo while having your dinner. Sorry guys, I can't remember the name of the restaurant. These were what we had:

Totemo oishii ne!!!!!

Again, we went to bed at about 1 a.m. This was the third night that we slept after midnight.

30 June, 2008

The itinerary for the day was to visit the Sensoji Temple (aka Asakusa Kannon Temple), a Buddhist temple located in Asakusa. It is Tokyo's oldest, an one of its most significant temples.

It was 8.44 in the morning and we were at the Shinjuku station. An average of 3.64 million people used the train station per day in 2007, making it the busiest train station in the world in terms of number of passengers.

This is the guide map of the station. It's huge!!! If you like shopping, then you really should make Shinjuku your base. There are about 11 shopping centers and department stores which are within walking distance from the Shinjuku station. Isetan, Marui, Mitsukoshi, Lumine, My Lord, Yodobashi, Sakuraya, Takashimaya, Bic Camera, Keio, Odakyu, Flags. You name it, you get it! That excludes those small boutiques on the streets!

First, we took the Orange JR Chuo Line from the Shinjuku station to Kanda station (160yen). Then we changed to the Ginza Subway Line for Asakusa (160yen).

This is the Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate), the outer gate of the Sensoji and symbol of Asakusa.

This is the "Koban", or Japanese Police Box, right next to the Thunder Gate. "Kobans" are commonly found on street corners in cities or towns, large or small, across Japan.

After entering the Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate), we walked through a 200-meter long shopping street called Nakamise. There are many little stalls that sell typical Japanese souvenirs such as yukata, folding fans, slippers. Besides, traditional local snacks from the Asakusa are are sold along the Nakamise, too.

The second gate - Hozomon, is located at the end of the street.

5-star public toilet, in terms of cleanliness, if compared to the Malaysian ones.

As Asakusa is famous for its old town, we wanted to get the old, traditional feel and so we went to the Dempoin Street, which is off Nakamise Stree to the west.

This shop was closed but I liked the way they got their roller door painted.

Another door which I liked...

Brushes, anyone??

As for lunch, we went to the main street and found a nice restaurant.

My lunch...yum...yum!!!!


Sherlyin's

Our next destination was Ameyoko - a vibrant, bustling area that sells all sorts of consumer perishables as well as shoes and apparel. It's within walking distance from the Ueno station.

Cheap....very very cheap....

One of the things I bought from the market was the Hokkaido dried scallops. They are expensive in Malaysia. I bought 1 kg of them with only 10,000yen. They are good to go with porridge and soup. Yummy!!!

Where next? Odaiba - an artificial island with space age buildings, electric cars and fantasy shopping malls. We went to Shimbashi station for the train to Odaiba. The ride took 15 minutes and cost us 310yen each. If you ride the train more than twice (in Odaiba) , a one day pass for 800 yen is likely to come cheaper than single tickets.

As you can see from the map above, Odaiba is quite a big island with plenty to see and do.

This picture was taken while I was on the train, crossing the Rainbow Bridge to Odaiba.

Odaiba...

That's the Fuji TV building, a favourite among the tourists.

Totoya Megaweb was my main focus in Odaiba. It's a Toyota showroom where Toyota's newest models and car accessories are displayed.

We were back in Shinjuku at 9.45 p.m That's the only day that I could sleep before midnight.

Tokyo Trip ~ Day One and Day Two

27 June, 2008

This was my second trip to Tokyo. I went there for the first time in July 2007 but I didn't get to see much as I was travelling with a group of students and teachers on a study tour. As I was the organiser, the I was very stressed up during the whole tour. Needless to say, I didn't get to do what I wanted to do during that time. Hence, I came up with the idea of visiting Tokyo with my friend, Sherlyn. It was a 7-day trip in which I had 5 full days exploring the city of Tokyo. I spent RM3700 for the trip.

I flew with Cathay Pacific, which I paid RM1980 for a return ticket. By the time we reached Narita Airport, it was already 8p.m. After clearing the customs, we went to the ticket counter of the Airport Limousine Bus and bought ourselves 2 one-way tickets to Shinjuku Train Station. We paid 3,100yen per person for a return ticket and a Tokyo Metro one day open ticket. It certainly was a bargain because the one day ticket would have cost us 710yen if we were to buy it at the train station. The sales person at the counter did not ask us if we would like to get the metro ticket. If I hadn't done my research about the ticket, I wouldn't have known and asked for the metro ticket!

There are 2 ways of getting to the downtown area - by the limousine bus or by train: the JR Narita Express (3,000yen for a one-way ticket without the one day metro card). I chose the limousine bus because firstly, I could get the one day metro ticket for just 100yen. Secondly, I did not have to walk up and down the stairs lugging my luggage around.

The journey from Narita Airport to the Shinjuku Train Station took us approximately 100 minutes. The limousine bus stops at certain 5-star hotels and if you are staying at any one of those hotels, it is definitely a door-to-door service. The hotel that I had booked is about 10-minute walk from the train station or 5 minutes from the west exit. It wasn't difficult to find as we had the map. I found the map from a website written by a Hong Konger who had stayed there. That means, besides looking for information on English websites, I looked for information from the Chinese websites, too.

Getting an affordable place to stay in Tokyo is not easy. A centrally located hostel would cost you 9,000yen per double room per nite. And, there are not in the city center. Worst of all, most of them do not provide private bathrooms!

This hotel that I found cost us 6,000yen per room per night and it is just 5 minutes from the west exit of the Shinjuku train station, which is the main connecting hub for central Tokyo and its western suburbs. That was why I chose to stay near the Shinjuku station as I could go anywhere easily! Many Hong Kongers like to stay here too, according to my HK friend. It was so true as we saw many Cantonese speaking people there. Well, it is not a posh hotel, but it definitely is a convenient and clean hotel with private bathroom! It was already 11.30 p.m. when we checked in at the hotel. We took showers quickly and went hit the sack as we were really very tired....

28 June, 2009

What a lovely morning! After having our brekkie in our room (yes, we brought some bread and packet Milo), we were ready to go to the Tokyo Disneyland. It takes 50 minutes by train from Shinjuku station to the Disneyland. The one-day passport costs 5,800yen. Gee, place was crowded....very crowded indeed. We then found out that the Tokyo Disneyland was celebrating its 25th anniversary and they were having special programmes and parades during the month. Was that a good time to visit the park? Yes, to some extend.

Those people in the picture were queueing for food. It was so packed that we had to queue almost 1 hour just to buy our lunch!

The one on my left was mine. It cost me 1,800yen for the whole set together with the box. The box is still with me and it will become Shawn Eamon's lunch box when he goes to kindergarten next year.

There were various parades on that day and boy....you really have to salute the Japs for being so systematic! If you want to get a good place with good view, you have to 'book' the place at least 1 hour before the parade. So, how do you do it? JUST FIND A NICE SPOT AND SIT ON THE GROUND! Can you imagine that? It was so hot that day but those people just didn't care bout it and sat under the sun just to see the parade! We didn't know bout this rule and couldn't get a nice spot although we were there 30 minutes before the parade started!

The crowd leaving their 'places' after watching the parade. Huge crowd, wasn't it?

We didn't go on any of the rides because the queue was extremely long for every ride (at least an hour queuing for each ride). Instead, we spent our time exploring the park and made sure we were at least an hour early for the evening parade. We bought our food and found a nice spot. Imagine having your dinner while sitting on the ground....But it was worth doing so.....the evening parade was simply marvellous!

We went straight to the front of the castle after the parade to wait for the fireworks. Unfortunately, the fireworks was cancelled due to 'unsuitable weather condition'. It wasn't raining or windy....I wondered why they cancelled it. Sigh....

We walked around the park until we heard the announcement that the park was closing. It was nearly 10p.m. and so we started our journey back to the hotel. By the time I got to rest on my bed, it was already 12.45 a.m. What a tiring day......

Trip to Switzerland ~ Day Six

Thursday - 2 July, 2009

Finally, the day had come. We were going to leave this wonderful country in the evening. It was time to bid farewell to this lovely apartment (Shawn Eamon had even told me that he liked this apartment when we first arrived!) So you wanna know why we liked this place so much? Read on then....

This was the house that we stayed at. The front yard is so big that Shawn Eamon really enjoyed playing football there.

The living room...with satellite TV.....

The balcony...

The bathroom....

The kitchen...



The quiet neighbourhood...

In front of one of the houses that we liked.

Another house that we liked around the neighbourhood....

Nice garage, eh?

After packing our things up, we started our journey to the Geneva Airport, which is 214km from Interlaken. We stopped for lunch after driving for an hour. Again, the view from the building that we had our lunch.....was breathtaking!

After reaching the airport area, we quickly looked for a petrol station where we could fill up our tank. That's the requirement from the car rental company. The tank was full when we took our car and so we must return it in the same condition. The petrol station is located next to the entry point of 'rental car'. It's actually a multi-storey car park and all the rental cars (regardless which company you rent your car from) have to be parked and returned at this place.

Bye-bye car.....

Do not worry if you have got lotsa luggage with you as there is a shuttle bus service (FOC) to send you to the terminals. Now this is what you call professionalism!

I couldn't believe that I was leaving this beautiful country. I left this country out while touring Europe 4 years ago as I didn't have enough time to cover it. To see this country in just 2 days was definitely not enough and that was why I left it out. I promised myself then that I would come with my parents one day....and it would be longer than just 2 days. I've made it and I promise myself again that I will visit this country again....to see the places that I've left out during this trip. There's just so much to see and do in this small country.

I'm so glad to have Shawn Eamon travelling with us. He has gained so much after this trip. Besides knowing the do's and don'ts at the airport, he now knows how snow feels like. He knows knows what a rosti is and how it tastes like. He knows there are many different types of trains besides the usual choo-choo trains, the underground, but also the cogwheel trains. Oh yeah, not forgetting the train which transports cars inside a tunnel! He simply loves the train! On top of that, he has learned the art of self discipline! Putting Shawn Eamon to bed at night used to be a super-duper difficult task. However, he was extremely cooperative during the whole trip and went to bed at 9-ish every night simply because he didnt want to miss anything the next day. He didn't make any fuss about most of the things that we had anticipated but was very easy to deal with. What should I tell this lovely and cooperative nephew of mine? "You will be included in my next trip!"

All in all, I'm glad that I managed to organise the trip with only RM5300 per person. That include airfares, accommodation (2 nights in London and 5 nights in Switzerland, food, car rental, petrol, and entrance tickets). My cousin who went there with her family in May spent twice the amount I spent on accommodation, which is about RM3000 difference for 5 nights. Did she stay in posh hotels? Nope! She and her family stayed at 2-3-star hotels (only). If you have seen the pictures of the apartments that I rented, I'm sure mine was a better deal.

So how did I manage all these? It took time, proper planning, reading travel blogs, reviews, maps and etc. So this is my lifetime passion!