Hong Kong Day 1 – Dec 24 2009, Thu– Part II

Main Highlights:

• Langham Place Hotel, Mongkok
• Christmas decorations nearby the hotel

The entire bus journey from the airport to the hotel took around half an hour or slightly more and so it was almost 9 when we reached the hotel. Quickly checked in so that we can venture outside to get into the “Christmas-mood”. 🙂

The hotel’s reception area. Looked very dark.

We quickly went into our room and the room did not disappoint us, despite its rather high cost. (Okay lay, may be cheap to you, but it was not cheap to us!)

Nice bathroom. I like bathrooms with white marble finishes. And the bathtub area overlooks the bed!! That means you can watch TV while soaking in the bathtub!

Another angle of the bathroom. I was sitting on the toiletbowl. Nice glass basin and there was a separate shower stall too.

Picture of the bedroom. Looks cosy huh. Somehow I did not sleep well in the hotel, will explain why later. 🙂

Wow, there is even an ipod dock in the room!

Plasma TV and painting on the wall. We were not artistic enough to appreciate it. 🙂

View from our room. Shows how cramped Hong Kong is. Most of the buildings, especially in the city, are very close to one another.

Picture of the bathroom taken from the bedroom area. I have always liked the idea of a glass wall partitioning the bedroom and bathroom, looks very luxurious. 🙂

The hotel corridor as we walked towards the lift lobby. I don’t like the colour of the walls, I think that’s rosewood colour? Have always found that colour to be very old-fashioned and “obiang”.

Just to show you all how the lift lobby looks like. Normal lor.

Outside Langham Place Mall. Very crowded that nice since it was Xmas eve. And that picture was taken around 11 pm.

 

Fulfilled one of our main aims in going Hong Kong on our first night. –> Xu Liu Shan! It’s a mango desserts chain of stalls everywhere in Hong Kong. I already know of 2 branches in Mongkok district, perhaps there are more. Our favourite was the mango-coconut-milk. Their drinks come with pearls too, but I still prefer those in bubble tea because the Xu Liu Shan’s ones are less chewy. 😦 The mango can be sweet and can be sour too, so don’t expect every cup to be of the same standard.

That’s me recording our expenses and noting down the details. I do that every trip.

Simple and nice decorations inside Langham Place Mall. Many Hong Kong people were busy snapping pictures with the decor as their backdrop. I think there was some theme, about some animal characters which we have not seen before.

More Xmas decors… At least you don’t see such stuffs in Singapore malls.

This is the bridge that links Langham Place Mall to Langham Place Hotel’s lobby. Specially decorated for the Xmas season too.

Yay, finally could go back to the room to rest. So tired. Was at work in the morning, on plane in the afternoon, and still walking around Mongkok at near 12 midnight. Can you see Yh’s reflection? 🙂

Back in our room. The walls were of rosewood colour too. I really don’t like that colour. You can’t find that colour in my house. Haha.

Wow. Impressed. They bothered to programme the phone! Personalised message. Alright, not that personalised, but at least we were addressed politely. 🙂

P.S. Don’t know why I seem to have lost interest in blogging, probably because I have been busy with many many things and have grown increasingly attached to my brother’s dog Kaylene. Having lots of fun bullying her every night after work. 🙂 Sigh, time (I meant personal time) seems so limited.

Read Full Post »

Hong Kong Day 1 – Dec 24 2009, Thu– Part I

Main highlights:

• Setting off to Hong Kong International Airport

As many of you might have been aware, Yh and I just got back from Hong Kong. We went for a really short trip of about 6 days, during the Christmas-NewYear period. 🙂 Just like my Tokyo trip, I am going to write a day-by-day account of our trip there, so as to preserve all the (happy or unhappy) memories we have had there.

To save on our leaves, we had aimed to set off immediately after work on X’mas Eve (half-day that day) and because the flight was at 3+ pm, I had to leave for Changi Airport directly from my workplace…

There, that’s me, having lunch  at Burger King. Stoning.

Was trying to take a shot as if I was swallowing the Jetstar plane. Yah, I know, not a convincing shot. Haha.

A picture to show you that once you pass the immigration gates, Terminal 3 is actually within walking distance from Terminal 1. So near yet seems so far.

Waiting to board the plane. Damn bored then.

Wow, so many people boarding together with us. (Not cheap to fly on Xmas eve leh, even though it’s Jetstar…) Anyway, you see the water coolers? I thought we were not supposed to bring water on board the plane. I saw many people refilling their water bottles still. (Jetstar does not provide free water, you will have to purchase mineral water if you are thirsty.)

Me reading my “book” on the plane since there is no in-flight entertainment on Jetstar. Haha. Budget lah, can’t expect too much. We had photocopied some pages of the book so that I didn’t have to carry the entire book there.

Inside the lousy Jetstar plane. They don’t do much cleaning up of the interiors. Leather (or pvc) seats looked very worn, the wall (near the area where we leave our handbags under the seats in-front) had coffee stains (YUCKS!), the tray (for us to have our meals or do some writing) was dirty, blah blah blah. I remembered that during my previous Jetstar experience (to Taiwan), my tray (i.e. the stowed tray in front of me) had mucus (i.e. nose-shit) deliberately left on it. (I know it’s deliberate because the inconsiderate and disgusting idiot actually CIRCLED the mucus and wrote, “This is pi sai (i.e. nose-shit)”. Did he/she think he/she was being humourous?)

Sunrise or sunset? Is the latter.

Finally reached Hong Kong International Airport. Looked very empty on Christmas eve night.

Very “budget”-looking Christmas decorations in the airport.

Why were we eating at Ajisen when there is Ajisen in Singapore too!? No choice, we didn’t have many choices as we had only 20 mins to eat before boarding our shuttle bus to the hotel. I was actually anxious waiting for my ramen to be served. Did not even have time to take pictures of our food and quickly dug in. Anyway it was a rushed but satisfying dinner. My ramen was good! (Perhaps too hungry to think otherwise…)

That’s the way to the Airport Express platform (the train stops at only a few stations in the entire Hong Kong).

Yay, we were at the bus terminal in the airport, about to board the shuttle bus. It is not very cheap but at least it drives people to the hotel’s doorstep and there is someone to help you load your luggage onto the bus, as well as unload your luggage when you reach your hotel. Definitely costs more than the Airport Express trains but less than Japan’s Airport Limousine service. hehe.

Inside the cosy Airport shuttle bus. Btw, we stayed at Langham Place Hotel at Mongkok and we booked this shuttle bus service directly through the hotel. The charges were about the same if you were to book directly from the shuttle bus counter. The shuttle bus company is called Parklane Limousine and it travels to various hotels in Hong Kong.

Just a short introductory post on our day 1 in Hong Kong (2009 trip). Not much time to take many pictures since we reached Hong Kong at around 8 pm. Next post, I will be flashing pictures of Langham Place Hotel at Mongkok. I kept specifying Mongkok because there is another Langham Place Hotel elsewhere in Hong Kong, if I am not wrong. 🙂

Read Full Post »

Tokyo Day 9 – Aug 9 2009, Sun

(Last day of Tokyo trip 2009)

Our flight back to Singapore was around 6 pm, so we had some time in Tokyo city to have lunch and probably walk around a little before heading off to Narita Airport on the Airport Limousine bus. Since our hotel is in Shinjuku, we spent the whole morning and afternoon walking around in the area.

This is going to be a short post. Will be using the following pictures to share with you our boring day 9.

A picture of Takashimaya Times Square Building. Modern-looking.

Looking for lunch in the vicinity. Read somewhere that this Chinese restaurant selling gyoza (jiao3 zi3) is good.

Was more interested in eating ramen that day so we entered this small restaurant.

The interior. Very cramped and every patron sits side by side.

We ordered this Japanese egg which was SUPERB. Really very nice. It was cooked (or maybe half-cooked?) and was very soft, though it looked firm. Think it was immersed in some sauce for long, so it was very tasty too. Yummy. Can never find such stuff in Singapore.

Spicy ramen. Good.

Miso ramen. Also fantastic.

Like I’ve always said, almost everything served in Japan’s restaurants tastes very good.

Happened to come across some rally or protest by a political party in Japan. Notice the vans and flags? Don’t know why it was very low-key and did not draw much attention. So peaceful.

Last shot..

My lunch or dinner at Narita Airport’s Japanese restaurant. Salmon or saba with miso sauce. Surprisingly very nice though the fish was not very fresh. This gave us the inspiration to cook our fish with miso sauce (out of miso paste) from then on. Hee hee.

Remember to shop at Narita Airport! There are many shops before and beyond the departure gate! Lots to buy too, especially Japanese snacks to share with your friends. (They are slightly cheaper in the airport (in the shops beyond the departure gate) than in the city’s supermarkets or shops.) Do save some yen for all those. Okay, byebye!

— The End of Tokyo Tour 2009 —

Read Full Post »

Tokyo Day 8 – Aug 8 2009, Sat

Main Highlights:

• Eating tonkatsu at Shinjuku
• Shopping at Shinjuku
• More of Tenya at Ikebukuro before going back

As it was our second last day in Tokyo already, we had to do some last minute shopping at Shinjuku. (Okay, more of me doing the shopping rather than Yh… Hehe) We had planned to have our brunch at a Tonkatsu restaurant located near Shinjuku Isetan Men’s Building, facing a carpark. I don’t know the name of the restaurant but there is a huge signboard above saying “TONKATSU” in hiragana. Walking from our hotel to that area was a nightmare as our hotel (i.e. Tokyo Keio Plaza Hotel) was at the Western part of Shinjuku and Isetan Shinjuku was at the Eastern part. I think we walked for about 30 minutes before finally reaching the small restaurant.

The restaurant was located in a quaint corner of Shinjuku, very traditional looking and really small.

Phew… Finally reaching the tonkatsu restaurant.

(Tonkatsu is a popular Japanese dish; it’s actually breaded deep-fried pork cutlet)

That’s me staring into blank air after the long-distance walking from our hotel. Was very tired and hungry. “Where’s our food?!”

Sampling the appetizer. Strange taste. Should be radish.

Yay! Our orders finally came! Mine was ebi (i.e. prawn) fry set and his was the typical tonkatsu set. Each set was around SGD $30. The portions seemed rather small but the food looked so home-cooked-like. Could not wait to dig in then, but had to take a picture first. 😦

Lady-like me (*puke*) acting demure while savouring the prawn at first instant. OMG. I felt like I was in heaven. The best ebi fry I have ever tasted in my life. The outer layer was damn crispy and the prawn meat was also tasty. You know, some ebi fry in Jap restaurants are crispy but somehow the inside, i.e. the prawn meat is tasteless.

And hey, another pleasant surprise was the miso soup which looked quite gross at first glance. Again, it was the best miso soup I have ever tasted in my life. Sounds exaggerating but that was really my thought. Besides the typical tofu, mushroom and seaweed found in most miso soups, they added in bacon! Thanks to them, Yh and I now cook miso soup with bacon added in for the extra BOOMZzz.

Another shot at the exterior of the restaurant.

Not sure if this helps you in finding your way to the restaurant, but this picture was taken while standing at one of the entrances/exits of Isetan Shinjuku Men’s. On the right is the carpark building, on the left is the side of the street where the restaurant is sited on.

With a full stomach, I could then summon all my energy into shopping! I bought a few more bags (*happy*!) from Burberry Blue Label and Agnes B as well as 2 blouses. Did not take pictures of them or I could show you all.

Not practising favouritism by saying the following just because my mum and aunt work for Isetan, but the Isetan Shinjuku Building is the nicest building in Shinjuku area, in my opinion. It has this historical and yet clean-cut look, and somehow makes tourists feel like posing next to the building.

One of the many entrances of the departmental store.

The plaque on the wall proudly announcing to everyone that this is ISETAN and a short write-up is below it, presumably on the history of the store.

Behind me is a larger view of the Isetan Shinjuku departmental store.

Another picture similar to above, but without my face in it, for the benefit of those who can’t stand looking at me.

Across the road was Marui departmental store. It’s another departmental store selling fewer brands and I don’t really like that place, probably as it was much smaller too. They have Rebecca Taylor there though. It’s a girly brand with a range of nice wallets and bags, at rather affordable prices. Affordable meaning SGD$200 or so. It’s something like Samantha Vega (the cheaper sister-brand of Samantha Thavasa), but I think it’s slightly cheaper than Samantha Vega. 🙂

There was a popular gelato store at the entrance of marui. Such a long queue!

We did not spend much time at Marui and proceeded to Takashimaya Times Square. We were there to look for the insect catcher at the Tokyu Hands branch there but somehow we could not find it there.

Another insect catcher device sold at Tokyu Hands Takashimaya Times Square. We did not want this because the stick was too short. It would be easy for the lizard, cockroach, insect etc. to climb up the stick to reach our hands within seconds. Better to buy a longer stick to maximize the distance between us and our target.

Aroma-therapeutic candle holder in the form of Anpan Man! That’s Anpan Man btw, for those youngsters (like me) who have no recollection of such a character. My hubby was the one who could remember his exact name. 🙂

Two of us taking a break (very tired leh!) at one of the benches in a secluded corner of Takashimaya Times Square.

The 2 pictures below were taken in RanKing RanQueen, a very interesting store in Japan. One of my favourite must-visit store in Japan besides Tokyu Hands. Almost everything in the store is ranked in terms of their popularity and you get to buy the items, of course. They have drinks, snacks, stockings, eyeliner, mascara, etc. Why can’t such stores open in Singapore too? One reason I can think of is, many Singaporeans tend not to buy things based on popularity, but based on price, so it could be hard for such stores to appeal to the mass market here.

Popular drinks’ ranking, categorized according to their types. (Mineral water, milk tea, oolong tea, etc.)

Another picture of drinks and food inside.

At night, we made our way to Ikebukuro, specially to buy the insect catcher! To see it you will have to see one of my previous Tokyo Day’s posts. We again went to dine at Tenya @ Sunshine City, the restaurant selling different kinds of tempura.

Do look out for the “seasonal” menus there. Certain items are served during limited time periods only.

“Wah… I have cold udon (yummy!) and my tempura rice bowl to eat… How to finish?”

The yummy sauce which goes well with the tempura.

Ugly me. The focus of this photo should not be me, but the Indian lady whose back is facing us.. She made us feel so ashamed then. Her Japanese was superb! Initially we saw a group of Indians making a commotion outside the Tenya restaurant, speaking Tamil, as if they were discussing whether to enter the restaurant and it looked like they were struggling to understand the Japanese menu. Then after they sat down at their table, the woman started conversing with the waitress in Japanese! I heard her “sumimasen” (i.e. “excuse me”) and then go on to ask questions about the menu, ALL IN FLUENT JAPANESE! Haha.. I would think with our ability to read Chinese words, it should be easier for us to learn Jap language; but this Indian proved us wrong. We ought not to have belittled them earlier on. Hahaha. Anyway, I realise that most Indians pick up different languages very quickly and easily.

That was the end of my day 8 in Tokyo and I was to leave for Singapore on day 9. So sad right. Hate that feeling of going home each time I go on a trip, like going back to reality. Yh and I usually suffer from post-trips-depression for about a few weeks, like what we are undergoing now after being back from Hong Kong. Hee hee.

Read Full Post »

Tokyo Day 7 – Aug 7 2009, Fri– Part III

Main highlight:

• Odaiba Aqua City

We left the boring Decks Tokyo Beach and walked to the shopping mall next door, Aqua City. While walking, we continued enjoying the scenery of the Rainbow Bridge. It was a rather long walk.

A closer look at the bridge. Looked quite ordinary but it was considered a “touristy” sight…

Finally, when we reached Aqua City, we were awed by the size of the shopping mall and spent our time shopping like mad instead of taking pictures. They have Agnes B, Comme Ca Ism, Le Sportsac, Coach, some Jap brands that we’ve never seen before, etc.

They have a Naruto Museum there. Naruta fans should have known about this.

That’s me staring at the signboard above. I was wondering what kind of Naruto place that was. There was a boy squatting at the corner, eating his Baskin Robbins ice-cream. So nice meh?

There was also a Disney Store there too. You can buy your Disneyland tickets from there if you wish to. The photo below roughly shows the dress sense of young school girls during summer season. Basically they are very casual and laid-back during summer, but during spring time, they actually bother to doll up and look really different (much better) than summertime. 🙂 Whenever we go Japan during summer, we won’t feel so out of place in terms of dress sense; but whenever we go during spring, the disparity is there. Haha.

Inside Disney Store.

That’s me looking excited playing with the Pooh puppet. See, he looks happy too posing next to me in the picture.

Wanted to buy him home but my cold-blooded husband said strictly NO MORE STUFF TOYS! There, the pooh was begging him to take him home, by tugging at his sleeves. “Please master, bring me home…”

That’s cheeky Pluto looking down from the shelf above.

See the dalmatians from “101 Dalmatians”? I actually find real dalmations very ugly because they usually have very skinny legs and look like they have kind of skin disease with black spots all over their white fur, but Disney managed to make the dalmatians look so adorable and much more lovable. 🙂

Many more decorations in the store below. Yh was busy taking pictures everywhere and anyhow to occupy his time in the store.

Wanted to share this cute merchandise I saw in the store. Earphones in the shape of Disney characters. Although I found them very cute (especially the Pooh one, since I love Pooh), somehow I felt they were not very well-made. The plastic material alsomade the item look very cheapskate. Not worth the price. Can’t remember the price already.

Only took pictures of the Pooh one ‘cos I love him the most among all the characters. 🙂

Fancy a Casio Baby-G watch with Disney designs? About SGD $330. Not cheap ok.

We then left Disney Store and ventured into other interesting shops in Aqua City instead. There was this particular store which was super attention-seeking and rather ostentatious imo. Yh was very grossed out in the store as majority of the items (all kinds of household things, girly stuffs, stationery, etc.) were pinkish. I would say about 80% of the items were of SHOCKING pink shade and there were some rather nice but overly priced BLING BLING hair accessories in shades of pink and the usual clear diamante colour. I remembered the price for a usual hair band to tie ponytails was about SGD $50. Crazy. They were similar to those you find at Chomel, in case you are still wondering what kind of hair accessories I was talking about. Anyway, photography not allowed in the store, so no pictures were taken. The store seemed to be opened by a particular Japanese female artiste. I don’t know her name (maybe ‘cos I am swagoo) but she could be someone popular there, based on the row of posters of her flaunted all over the shopfront. It’s either opened by her or she was the spokesperson lah. Anyway, I thought she was a porn actress as her dress reminded me of those costumes bought in sex shops.

There was also a store there to cater for all tourists in Japan. Basically it sells many items which could only be bought in Japan. Note: Don’t expect everything there to be Made in Japan. Many items were Made in China but sold only in Japan. They sell high tech items, Japanese bottled drinks, hairdryers, facial-related appliances, etc. The item below attracted my attention and I contemplated buying it but later changed my mind as it was too expensive for a 1 GB thumbdrive.

A Hello Kitty thumbdrive! Our local Hello Kitty stores don’t sell this.

Soon it was dinner time. Of course we settled it in Aqua City as they have one whole level of restaurants on the 5th, 6th or 7th floor. (Sorry can’t remember the level but you will know after taking their information brochure.) We chose a restaurant selling … OMU RICE. What’s Omu Rice? It’s actually Omelette-Rice, and is a well-liked home-cooked dish by the Japanese. The simpler versions consist of just butter/tomato-fried rice wrapped within  a thin layer of omelette. The more complex versions will consist of additional items to eat with your omu rice, such as a hamburg steak, fish, prawns, special gravy, etc.

This was the restaurant we went into. My friend told me there was a branch in Garden Walk Outlet too, but somehow I had missed it there. Hee hee.

Pomme-no-ki

Picture taken during dinner time. There was a queue outside. Almost every restaurant there had a queue during dinner time.

The Japanese are fond of putting up colourful and detailed window displays of food to tempt potential patrons.

A closer look at one of the main courses. Looks exquisite right? Of course the real thing is not so neat and pretty lah, but the chefs do put in effort to “decorate” your food before it is being served to you. Japanese care a lot about food presentation.

We got a counter seat inside and were presented with this nice window display in front of us. Alright, perhaps not really that nice or scenie, but being a kaypoh person, I enjoyed watching people walk up and down, observing what they were wearing and looking out for good-looking people. 🙂

That’s me, waiting for the waiter to take orders from us. Did you notice the bottle of milk tea next to me? That’s my favourite drink – Kirin Milk Tea. The one shown above is the thicker and more expensive version of milk tea by Kirin. They do have a cheaper one, it’s very nice too!!!

Felt very calm staring out of the window then, though inside was bustling with activity – people chatting and eating while the waiters were busy shuffling around.

The view from where Yh was seated. It was drizzling when we entered the restaurant and it soon turned into a heavy downpour. No more people-watching already. Occasionally we still saw some brave souls running towards the nearby Yurikamome Station – Daiba.

(As mentioned earlier, Decks Tokyo Beach is nearer to Odaiba Kaihin Kōen while Aqua City is nearer to Daiba Station.)

How the interior of the restaurant looked like. It was quite a small but packed place.

Couldn’t wait to dig in still must pose with the food. 😦 I chose one with half-half cream sauce and brown sauce. VERY TASTY.

Mine… Yum yum.. I don’t know of any nice omu-rice places in Singapore as of yet. The ones I have tasted in Japan were never disappointing.

Yh’s… He chose one with hamburg steak. Nice too, though most hamburg steaks tasted the same to us.

Okay, gotta go. It’s weekend today and I gotta go make full use of my weekend! Will blog soon after I have edited the photos okay… 🙂

Read Full Post »

Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodles and Ah Chew Desserts

Yh brought me to eat my favourite minced pork noodles on Saturday. Many would have heard of the famous Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodles. As the name suggests, it used to be at Hill Street, but later on moved to Marina Square, and finally now to somewhere near Lavender (at Crawford Lane) 🙂 What I like about their pork noodles is that they add cuttlefish and it remains very crispy/crunchy even after being immersed in the vinegar and other sauces. The pork liver is also cooked very well, and is not those type that is cooked till it becomes hard to chew.

It is now inside this small and dirty-looking coffeeshop. There is usually a long queue, and it’s self-service. Note: Photo was taken at ard 11.30 am.

Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodles stall is the most crowded among all the stalls in the coffeeshop. Next to it is some Western Food stall which is also quite popular, but still loses out in terms of popularity of course. 🙂 There are very few tables, so it can be quite hard to find seats during the lunch hours.

What I wanted to share with all of you is this. Every stall has their own helper to clear plates belonging to them… This Tai Hwa Pork Noodles stall hired the uncle in the photo below..

This uncle was damn disgusting!!!! I caught him using a pair of chopsticks from the container I circled, to pick up something amongst the “rubbish” in the blue plastic sieve, to be thrown into the black garbage bag just next to it. He then dumped the chopsticks back into the container!!!!!! The chopsticks in that container seem to be for the stall’s patrons to use one lor!!!! At first I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and thought maybe he was using the chopsticks to pick up some uncooked food or ingredients, and not garbage… Before I left, I specially went to see what the contents in the blue sieve were. They were actually leftover meepok, minced pork, veg, etc. The uncle pours everyone’s leftover food into the pail to segregate the food waste from the liquid waste. ALAMAK! And the chopsticks in the container were not used chopsticks by patrons; I know because I saw him carrying the bowls, chopsticks, spoons etc. into some washing area… *puke*

We then went Bugis shopping, as I wanted to buy some shoes from Pazzion. Nearby Bugis is this popular desserts eatery, known as Ah Chew Desserts. Their popular desserts include sesame paste, peanut paste and mango sago with pomelo. We went there at 1.15 pm and turned out they only open at 1.30 pm on Saturdays! There was nothing else for us to along that street, so we ended up waiting outside the shop. Haha.

The very Chinese looking signboard.

The whole street is all about FOOD, FOOD and more FOOD.

Had nothing better to do then but to scrutinise their menu, to see what to order later. Hee hee. They were trying to make the whole place very Chinese looking, see the rosewood tables and chairs, with the roses carvings.

Anyway, I just realised we did not take any photos of our food! Too excited and quickly dug into the food when they arrived. Haha!

Read Full Post »

Tokyo Day 7 – Aug 7 2009, Fri– Part I

Main highlights:

• Ueno Atre
• Ueno Ameyoko Arcade

Ueno is a place which brings back fond memories. Years ago, my husband and I decided to go to this small zoo in Tokyo – Ueno Zoo, as I had never seen pandas before then. After seeing the one and only panda there (her name is Ling Ling btw), I realised I really like pandas! Somehow lazy-looking things appeal to me. Haha. Recently, I got to hear that Ling Ling has passed away, thus causing the zoo to become an unpopular attraction since then. Well, if you like deer, maybe the zoo will appeal to you still. 

Anyway, this year that we were in Japan, we had not known of Ling Ling’s death and had no time to go to the zoo as well. We would always try to go new places every trip and I decided to bring Yh to Ameyoko Arcade. I went there about 8 years ago during my first Tokyo trip with my aunt and impression that the place gave me was that it was more like a Japanese pasar malam. I remember there were many stalls selling local food (mainly raw food, like seafood, Japanese seaweed, eels, etc) and shops selling sports shoes, stockings etc.

I will explain more alongside the photos…

My lousy breakfast from Takase bought the night before at Ikebukuro. I think it was an anpan. Nothing wow about it.

At Ueno Station. We were at this particular portion of the station that seemed very run-down. See the walls and the low “ceiling” behind me. A little lost then on how to walk towards Ueno Atre.

Yh took a picture of Ueno Station. Every JR Station looks something like that. Many staircases leading to the various platforms (e.g. platforms for Yamanote Line, Hibiya Line, Keiyo Line, etc.) Do take note of the signboards above you before climbing the stairs. You wouldn’t want to climb all the way up, then notice the platform is for a different line from what you intended to take. That is why I say, lots of walking to do in Tokyo.

We walked towards a more modern-looking area of the Ueno Station, and were nearing our destination –> Ueno Atre.

From this angle, you walk straight, and you will be exiting out of the station, towards Ameyoko Arcade direction. On the left will be many restaurants clustered together, and on the right will be Ueno Atre…

More on Ueno Atre.. Initially I had thought that there would be lots of shopping awaiting me, but I was disappointed. I had expected like hundreds of shops there, but turned out there were about 50 shops or less. However, they have a small branch of Afternoon Tea there (for those who like the simple and yet girly country-style kind of items. There are many branches of Afternoon Tea in Tokyo. I remembered there was one located inside the dept store just outside Shinagawa Station too). There is also Peach John, Samatha Thavasa (the more expensive range, and not Samantha Vega), some clothes shops, bags shop, a store like Matsumoto selling ettusais, manicure stuffs, etc. Basically, it would be a mini mall serving commuters on-the-go.

It was about 11+ when we reached Ueno Atre, and we were feeling hungry as the Takase breafast could not satisfy our stomachs. We went around hunting for restaurants and food in Atre but noticed there were not many appealing choices. In the end, we realised had to walk out and walk towards the restaurants section instead, which is on the left side of my photo above. (The restaurants section is located on the opposite side of Atre.)

Anticipating a good lunch up there. It’s bright up there due to the large, tall windows bringing in lots of sunshine.

The grand and arty decor behind me in the picture suggested there was an art gallery inside the building as well. I cannot confirm this as I only focussed on searching for restaurants. Haha.

We entered a restaurant with a nice window display of various food items, mainly hamburg steaks and spaghetti variations. After going in, *jialat*… There was no English menu and there were no pictures for us to point at as well. Fortunately my katakana is not too bad and I could read the menu. I even remembered that Yh and I got into a small tiff due to the ordering of food. Can’t remember the exact contents but we were quarrelling in a hush-hush kind of manner. Wouldn’t want to attract the attention of every Japanese patron in the restaurant.

The food came and we had stopped arguing by then. Glad we ordered really delicious food. I ordered Napolitan Spaghetti which was okay (actually delicious but how wrong can Japanese Napolitan Spaghetti go) and he ordered some hamburg steak with onions and and brown sauce.

Special mention must be made for the above. It was really very nice! I think hamburg steak tastes roughtly the same everywhere, but this particular one was well marinated and the sauce was really well-apt. The baked potato was also good, and what I liked was that the set came with a sunny-side-up. I always love food that comes with a sunny-side-up. It will always make the entire set seem more complete. Haha. Another plus point was, the onions must have been cooked for long, as they were very soft and all we could taste was the sweetness of the onions matched with the tasty brwn sauce.

Oops, just realised I sounded like I was the one savouring the set.. No no no. I merely took a small bite. Okay, probably a medium-sized bite. Haha.

Btw, this was the restaurant we went into. It says “Grill 1930”. Really almost 80 years of history?

The lunch menu. For those interested parties. As you can see, the menu was really short and simple. Not many items for you to choose from. When you see short restaurant menus, there are usually only 2 possibilities. Either the restaurant is lousy and can’t be bothered to come up with more variations, or every food item on the menu is fantastic, hence the restaurant does not need to come up with more variations to attract people. I would think the second possibility was more likely for this restaurant. We had tried 2 items and both were great. 🙂

Finally done with lunch! More photo-taking to be done downstairs. Our first time seeing Hard Rock Cafe in Tokyo. For Hard Rock lovers, do take note there’s a branch at Ueno.

Hahaha. I looked more like a mannequin than them. They looked so funky and havoc, and could pose far better than me.

We did not spend much time shopping in Ueno Atre, so we proceeded to Ameyoko Arcade. It was hot outside! I had had to take out my jacket. Must have gotten many freckles due to the UV rays. Damn!

Along the way, we saw really cute and interesting displays outside some restaurant. Haha.

“Please feed me some soba…”

“Mmmmm.. Piping hot ramen. Smells nice”

Finally, at Ameyoko Arcade. Upon reaching there, we felt like leaving asap. Hahaha. The place seemed quite boring, there was a lot of walking to be done, and the weather was not very pleasant. <<<I need the air-con!!!!!>>>

Posing just to prove that we had been there.

Paper boxes everywhere. Seemed more like a pasar malam. But a neater and cleaner one, with more walking space for people to walk leisurely.

Another last pose at the place.

We probably finished Ameyoko Arcade in less than half an hour. Could not be bothered to walk the entire stretch as we were damn tired. Initially we were contemplating buying a mini cabin luggage from there because they were rather cheap (around 10,000 yen) and nice.. But the thought of lugging it with us everywhere (we were going to Odaiba next) in case we could not find a locker… Hmm.. Not advisable. 🙂

We left Ueno at about 12 – 1+ and quickly headed towards Odaiba!!!! Stay tuned. 🙂

Read Full Post »

Hakata Nihon Ryori – Disappointed every Sunday

Recap: Few months back I wrote about my pleasant dining experience at Hakata Nihon Ryori (click here) and have always wanted to go there for my meals with my husband. For the past TWO Sundays (once was a few weeks ago, second time was today noon) that we visited the place, it was always closed!!! My husband and I do not work in the vicinty of Mohammed Sultan, hence the only days that we could go there for meals are either Saturdays, Sundays or weekday nights. Weekday nights, we are usually too tired to drive around and will settle our dinner at places nearby. So we are left with Saturdays and Sundays only.

The strange thing is, the restaurant is supposed to operate on Sundays!!!!! I saw somewhere in a newspaper clipping recommending the place stuck on the glass window of the restaurant, that the place is supposed to open on weekdays during lunch and dinner hours, and whole day on Saturdays and Sundays. How can they suka-suka (i.e. any old how) close on every Sunday?!!?? We made the effort to drive down specially only to feel dejected that we have to make other lunch plans instead. Sigh. Stupid restaurant..

So, if you are thinking of dining there on Sundays, forget it. If you happen to see it open on a Sunday, please let me know too.

Read Full Post »

Tokyo Day 6 – Aug 6 2009, Thu – Part IX

Main highlights:

• Ikebukuro shopping
• Eating at Sunshine City’s Tenya
• Shopping at Tokyu Hands
• Late night shopping at Matsumoto Kiyoshi
• Lousy bakery – Takase
• Our expensive and yet disappointing chocolate cake

The reason why we went to Ikebukuro specially after Sanrio Puroland, was because I wanted to go Parco to get my Jill Stuart blusher. A word of advice to those who want to get their cosmetics too, their SA (sales assts) can’t understand much English, so it would be easier to just quote the shade no. to them. For instance, I wanted the Apricot shade (I think it’s 06), so I mentioned “Apricot something” which was the name of the blusher shade and they could not understand. I had to say “number 6” before they nodded their heads.

Anyway, Parco at Ikebukuro is HUGE. Btw, it is located within the JR Ikebukuro station. We spent some time navigating around as they have different buildings (A and B) and every building has many levels. It was quite a maze to us, especially when the English guide was not very detailed either. 😦

Being frustrated with the searching and the constant walking, we soon got hungry and instead of searching for a different restaurant to try out different food, we went to our all-time favourite TENYA! 🙂 It’s located at Sunshine City and is about 10-15 min walk from the JR Ikebukuro station.

Tenya at Sunshine City

I wouldn’t say it is fantastic, but we really enjoy their sauce. Basically, it’s a tempura “eatery”. (I wouldn’t call it a restaurant either, because it is cheap and not very nicely-decorated inside) So you order your tempura rice or one whole set and they pour some delicious sauce over your tempura. The sauce is sweet and refillable; They provide a bottle of sauce at every table. Do not expect the tempura to be very crispy though. It is also rather popular among non-Japanese. I am not sure if those people were expats or tourists like us. You will be happy to know that they have an English menu. 🙂

There, the English menu.

I was looking and feeling very tired that night. We walked a lot in Sanrio Puroland and then had to walk back to our hotel to put down stuffs, followed by walking around to search for the Jill Stuart cosmetics counter in Parco. Also not forgetting the walk to Sunshine City as well. Wonder if Gandi felt tired too when he walked the Salt March.. Although Tokyo city is well-linked by many different railway lines, there are still lots of walking and climbing of stairs to be done. Wear comfortable shoes when you are there. Don’t go and act chio and start wearing heels there. You can only do that if you decide to just stay in one departmental store the entire day, or have lots of money to spare to cab drivers there. Taxi fares in Tokyo are well-known to be exorbitant.

Oops.. Drifted too far away. Please shift your focus back to Tenya. Below shows our dinner that night.

We were so hungry and yet still had to pose for you all to see.. Tsk tsk.

Basically, I ordered a set which consisted of the cold udon and a normal-sized ebi bowl. Yh ordered a large-sized bowl. You can actually choose what kind of tempura you want to add to your bowl and pay the additional cost accordingly. For instance, my set consisted of 1 or 2 prawns already, but I asked them to add long bean, sweet potato and fish. The fish thing ( I can’t remember what fish it was, probably cuttlefish or fishcake) was very nice! I’m a fish-lover btw. 🙂 Yh also asked for additional items but I can’t remember what he ordered. Haha. Anyway, it was a good and satisfying meal. If you go during Spring or some other season, the set will be different. Probably some ramen with the bowl instead. My cold udon was very nice (very springy or “Q”) and matched well with the hot weather outside.

After dinner, I had no more energy to shop around in Sunshine City. Fortunately (or unfortunately), most of the shops there close at around 8 pm, so we left for Matsumoto Kiyoshi thereafter.

Before I forget, I must mention this. While walking from PARCO to Sunshine City, you will definitely come across Tokyu Hands. The branch at Ikebukuro has about 7-8 storeys and is far neater, more orgnanised and larger than the branch at Shinjuku Takashimaya Times Square. For instance, we came across a miraculous household handy tool at Tokyu Hands and didn’t buy it that night. Somehow we regretted and went to the Times Square branch, wanting to buy it. Damn! We walked round for about an hour and could not find it! On our last night in Tokyo, we had to specially make a trip down to Tokyu Hands at Ikebukuro to get it. WHAT IS THAT ITEM THAT CAUSED US ALL THAT EFFORT? TADA………………….. It’s the bug/insect-catcher!

My handyman holding the handy tool. Haha. Please focus on the tool in his right hand and not his armpit hairs. Thank you. 🙂

Gotcha!!!! You are bound to get trapped!!

Demonstrating how to catch insects. Just imagine/pretend there is a cockroach/lizard/bug lying on the floor at that particular spot. You just need to press something at the handle and the plastic bristles will open up. Then quickly release the catch and the bristles will tighten to trap your target.

Now, you must be thinking that tool is a white elephant. (It cost SGD $30+, not cheap okay. That explains why we hesitated buying it initially.) No, the tool actually helped Yh catch huge lizards! Really!!!

Do note that Tokyu Hands at Ikebukuro closes at 8 pm. That was also why despite our hunger and frustration from the walking, we persevered and shopped at Tokyu Hands first. Tenya could wait as they close at 9 or 9.30 pm. Most eating places in Tokyo close rather late.

As I mentioned above, after we completed dinner and left Sunshine City, we headed to Matsumoto Kiyoshi. It’s really a girly place and guys would feel bored there. Go there to buy your Kose, Shiseido, Marjolica etc. at discounted prices. Not all items are discounted, but many are. So do open your eyes big big there. As I would spend at least half an hour there looking at various things (cosmetics, skincare,  manicure/pedicure items, hairdo setting things, etc.), my bored husband had all the time to go research on their tissue paper. Haha. He managed to find a particular kind of tissue which was good for runny noses. In particular, the tissue had a picture of a nose on it, and the nostrils are red in colour. The tissue paper’s material was very soft and somehow felt cold always. Definitely prevents friction due to excessive rubbing and pinching of your nose during a bad flu. Not cheap of course. Go Matsumoto Kiyoshi as late as you can as they close at around 2 or 3 am. Of course, go before 12 midnight or you would have no JR train to go back. 🙂

Lastly, we went to this bread shop called Takase. It was recommended in some books and we wonder why. Pui. We bought various types of bread, cakes, pies, etc. for the next day’s breakfast and all were disappointing. Singapore’s Province and Sun Moulin definitely win them. I had high expectations of bread shops in Japan before that as we used to stay at New Takanawa Grand Prince Hotel and their bread shop sold DAMN fantastic bread! I still remember we bought some Sakura jam and custard bread there that tasted so heavenly. A pity they sell that only during Spring time I think, and the hotel is rather far from JR Shinagawa Station. Lazy and tired me had no more legs power to walk that far to try their other breads.

The shop front. I must remember to avoid that bakery again unless I have totally nothing else to eat for breakfast. Haha.

After that, we quickly went back to our hotel that night to rest early. Remember that night when we went to Shinjuku Takashimaya Times Square to buy bentos for dinner, we bought some chocolate cake as dessert? We had no choice but to buy that. We had wanted to buy the cheesecake mentioned here but somehow the cheesecake shop had disappeared!!! Maybe it has closed down due to bad times? Their cheesecake was probably too expensive for daily consumption. Hahaha. We reserved the chocolate cake for Day 6’s supper/dessert and were anticipating that it would be as good as the cheesecake. The shop staff was detailed and service-oriented enough to help us wrap the cake in an insulated package, for us to bring back to the hotel. We kept the chocolate cake in our hotel room’s bar fridge.

The packaging.

The brand of the cake… OGGI Tokyo meguro. It does not mean you can only find this cake in Meguro. 🙂

How the chocolate cake looked like before being sliced. Really looked enticing.

Mainly chocolate mousse inside. VERY RICH in chocolate.

I was rather disappointed by the taste of this chocolate cake. It tasted like ordinary chocolate. Just a few mouthfuls and we were already sick of the chocolatey taste. It did not match my expectations at all. I had thought it would be good due to its price. I think that small block cost around 1000-2000 yen, which worked out to be around sgd $15 – $30. So sad….. The cheesecake is gone and I can’t find any other better replacement. What else can we look forward to next time?

Ok I shall end abruptly. This entry is so long! Hope it was informative enough for you and detailed enough for me, so that I would know what to avoid in future when I am back there! 🙂 I will be posting Tokyo Day 7 next. Akan Datang. 🙂

Read Full Post »

Tokyo Day 6 – Aug 6 2009, Thu – Part II

Brunch at Sanrio Puroland, turned out to be a pleasant delight for me (not sure if it was as delightful for Yh, maybe it was disgustingly cute for him), instead of being just a normal procedure of filling our stomachs. Part II will focus solely on our brunch since many photos were taken at the venue.

This was the exterior of the restaurant. Looked damn plain and antique-looking from the outside.

The window display just outside the restaurant. Not as cute as those in Disneyland and Disneysea leh.

Food samples. All look soooo small.. Jialat for our growling stomachs.

Looks very buffet-style. The interior did not impress me much.

Just pick something from this revolving tray and proceed to the cashier to pay. My eyes started to light up a little bit after seeing all the “hello-kitty-foods”. Don’t grab everything that you see and like, because food there was not cheap.

Wished I could collect all the different character cups home but my husband does not own the gold mine.

At that moment, I felt that the picture below, was the one worthy shot which justified the cost of my entrance ticket. Hahaha. Frankly, though I went on to take many pictures with Hello Kitty, Dear Daniel, etc. later on, I still felt these two shorties really made my day, instead of the other characters. They were so cute and bouncy, probably because of their height. I had the urge to just lift them off the ground. Haha. I felt like a giant next to them, so I had to squat down to get closer to their faces. Who were actually inside them huh? So short and adorable right?

Didn’t know Mocha can be so cute!! I am beginning to love her too. Oh no… spells trouble for Yh. Hahaha.

Btw, only guests dining in that restaurant can take pictures with Sanrio characters during selected hours. I don’t know when the characters appear too, but I think it was around 10.45 am when we entered the restaurant. We were so lucky to catch hold of them just before they walked out of the restaurant.

Next we proceeded to one of the tables to have our brunch.

Not many people inside on a weekday morning…

Another picture, like dining in a greenhouse.

Can’t wait to dig into the food.

Food for both of us. I tell you all, putting aside the kawaii factor of the food, this meal turned out to be the worst in terms of taste, throughout our entire Tokyo trip this time. It looked 100 times better than it tasted… Hahaha. Even the orange juice had a strange taste. Bleah…

See my Hello Kitty bento. I was a bit paiseh to eat that because the little girl sitting at the next table was eating exactly the same thing as me. *throw face*… Haha. We can bring home the lunch box after finishing the food. Not a bad deal. Tokyu Hands does sell this lunch box too; I think it was 800-900 yen, if I remember correctly.

My dessert served in the cute Hello Kitty cup. The size of the cup was so small, more for drinking espressos. The dessert was some rather hard and not very nice strawberry mousse. I forced Yh to finish it up for me so that we won’t waste food. Hahaha.

“Nah, show you all the cute nugget, before it lands up in my stomach.”

My mini apple juice, the cute serviettes  and cutlery. I know I am cheapskate for doing this, but I can’t help it as I love that spoon! I actually brought home the cutlery set… back with me to Singapore.. And I did not bring home the serviettes though I would love to as well, that would be ultimate-cheapo! Hahaha.

My bento consisted of the cold nugget, the soggy fried prawn, the cute sausage, tomato, rice and green peas with minced meat. I could even count the green peas, 2 in all. Haha..

Picture of the set taken from my hp camera.

Zooming in on the prints on the food. Very exquisite…

This came with the bento as a set. A dorayaki in the shape of Hello Kitty. Ermm.. Did not taste fantastic as well. Hahaha.

The paper plate was very cute too. I was seriously considering whether to bring it home too, but it will probably get crushed in my luggage. Haha. So this was spared.

It looks odd seeing an adult drink such a small apple juice. 🙂

After finishing the meal, we quickly walked out so as not to miss all the fun outside. On our way out, we saw some plates for sale. They were not cute enough to entice me to bring them home. Fragile items need extra effort to lug them home ok, so we had to seriously consider if they were worth our efforts.

Told you the plates look so-so only..

Some shaved ice and ice-cream samples. Would love to try if we had more time.

A final picture of the restaurant taken before walking out…

Hopefully they do some renovation and design an even cuter restaurant.

The view from outside the restaurant:

The kitty head was formed using many pink and white ballons. I liked that!

The sweets dispenser machine was made out of a kitty head too. Damn cute.

Caricature service. They will draw us to look more innocent and baby-ish, and not to look like hello kitty okay…

That’s the end of Part II.. Part III will show us touring the Puro Village. It’s a parade venue and also a place where there are many rides and shops. 🙂

Follow me into Puro Village….. (in part III)

Read Full Post »

Tokyo Day 5 – Aug 5 2009, Wed

Main highlights:

• Bought limousine bus tickets from the hotel bell captain.
• Akihabara.
• Garden Walk Outlet.

The itinerary for day 5 was planned in an impromptu way. I think we only discussed where we were going on that morning itself. The past 2 days of Disneyland and sea had depleted us of all our energy and we actually slept till around 10 am that morning. I still think it was a wrong decision for us to go Gotemba on day 2 because it was not only costly to get there, it was a waste of time and energy. We were seriously exhausted by the end of day 4.

*****************************************************************************

More thoughts on Gotemba Premium Outlets: (Skip if you are not interested)

Come to think of it, Gotemba premium outlets is not so bad because it really has many brands, but unless we have many days to spare in Tokyo, I think we will give it a miss in future. 🙂 The only brand at Gotemba premium outlets, which I feel will be a pity to miss it, is Samantha Thavasa. Hahaha. Other than that, the other brands are quite standard and can be found at other outlets places too. If, 1) there is no traffic jam in getting there or going back via the bus, 2) there is no rain or hot sunny sun, 3) there are more eating places and choices there, and 4) there are fewer people there (we went on a Sunday you see, haha), I think we will like Gotemba premium outlets much much more.

*****************************************************************************

Before we set off from our hotel, we went to the bell captain at our hotel to buy the limousine tickets to go Narita airport on our last day. Typically, tickets should be purchased in advance and reservations made earlier so that you can secure seats on the limousine bus. If the bus is too crowded, I think they will arrange another bus, but then again, that is not guaranteed. Anyway we won’t take chances and might as well buy the tickets early.

Japan is a high-tech city, even buying tickets from the hotel is automated, done using this machine below.

My funny husband took this picture, he kept saying this machine is so cute. Hmmm?! The only cute thing is the model of the limousine bus placed on the top of the machine lor. Haha.

Our first destination for the day: Akihabara. I have always liked Akihabara though it is more of a guys’ place.

Men like to go there mainly for these few reasons:

1. Japanese Manga and anime,
2. Japanese toys (those collectibles like figurines, army tanks, etc.),
3. the many maids’ cafes located in the vicinity, and
4. technological products, like accessories/consoles – PC, wii, PS, etc.

As for me, I like it there because they sell many cute and innovative computer stuffs which can’t be easily found in Singapore. For instance, many years ago, the sushi-types of thumbdrives were rather popular in Japan and in particular, you can see a large variety of designs at Akihabara, all exquisitely made. They had the finger thumbdrive, the duckie thumbdrive, the tamago sushi thumbdrive, the ebi sushi thumbdrive, etc. I was more after cute things then (more than 3 years ago), so I bought a pink rubber duckie thumbdrive which lights up whenever you insert into your USB ports, and also a Disney Marie thumbdrive which will display a cute Marie animation on my screen each time my PC detects it. Yh also bought a very plain and neat laptop bag for work, which surprisingly was very cheap, around SGD$40! Felt it was a good buy that lasted for years.

This time was our second time at Akihabara, and we were still amazed by the cute Wii accessories at Yodobashi Akiba. Goodness, they had a pink Wii remote strap! So girly! They also have other colours like light blue, light green, and the usual white. We also bought a nuchuck back because we thought our nuchuck was spoilt, but it turned out to be not. It was slightly cheaper than in Singapore. I also pestered Yh to let me buy many stickers, which are actually Hello Kitty protective stickers for my wii remote and nuchuck. So kawaii! Can’t bear to use them. 😦 Btw, the latest Wii console and accessories in Japan are in black now. Yh found them so cool but he did not buy any of them because they would be a mismatch with our current Wii console..

The pink wii remote strap. Wasn’t cheap, I think about SGD$5. I bought only one.

One thing about the Yodobashi Akiba store. I think I was a bit angry (because I am a petty woman) over the tax refund policy in the store. They kept announcing that they have a tax refund policy, somemore in various languages, and that to enquire more about it, approach any of the staff in the store. WAH LAO, the irritating thing was, I really approached a few staff in the store, but none of them seem to understand/speak English! How to even ask them about it huh? Hahaha. In the end when I mentioned “tax refund”, they answered me with very basic English, “No” and crossed their hands. WTH.. I don’t know how to qualify for the tax refund in the end and lost motivation in spending more than 10,000 yen there. Bwhahaha.

On the 7th or 8th storey of the store, is an entire storey of restaurants. Tokyo has lots of departmental stores with this concept, like in Tobu Ikebukuro, Isetan Shinjuku, etc. where there is one whole storey dedicated to Japanese restaurants. We visited this ramen restaurant that was located opposite Pepper Lunch, and there was always a queue, but a fast-moving one.

The front of the restaurant. Each bowl was about SGD$12. Reasonable price right?

The restaurant was small but cosy, and most of the patrons sat round the kitchen, at the counter. There were some table seats but not many in all.

Our ramen with lots of ingredients in each bowl. Our soup bases were different but both were tasty. I wouldn’t say they were exceptionally good, but okay lah. Thought the standard was similar to that in Hakata Nihon Ryori at Mohd Sultan. I reviewed Hakata here previously.

A very nice old uncle sat next to Yh and he helped us take that picture above. He was very cute. Haha. I saw him reading a whole passage of English while queueing to enter the restaurant and he could converse with us using basic English. He told us every restaurant in Japan is good because it is very competitive in the F&B industry there. Any lousy restaurant there will close down very quickly. He also told us that his colleague just came back from Singapore, and his review of our food standard was – cheap but standard-wise, “so so”. I think he went to places serving mediocre food. What a shame.. *throw face*… But I really agree with him leh. You just step into any restaurant in Japn, everything is really tasty! Nothing was really disappointing there. In Singapore, it is easy to be disappointed by the food standard here generally. Unless….. you are willing to make effort to research on reviews of good restaurants online, willing to pay for tastier food, and willing to travel to secluded corners of Singapore in search of the restaurants. With all that effort, I might as well eat the tastier and cheaper char kway teow, carrot cake, and hainanese chicken rice in many hawker centres. Haha.

Next on our itinerary was Garden Walk Outlet. It’s very near the JR Kaihin-Makuhari Station, we went there via the Keiyo line. We had not had enough satisfaction from shopping at the outlets, so we targetted Garden Walk next. It has brands like Agnes b, Vanessa Bruno (star attraction for me), Adidas, Jill Stuart (clothes only) and asics (nice Onitsuka Tiger shoes there, prices only slightly lower).

All smiles because I am going shopping next!!

I always have a problem, I don’t have the mood to take any pictures when I am concentrating on shopping or food. So the above was the only shot we took at the Garden Walk outlet. Hahaha. We spent about half a day there, and it was evening by the time we left the place. We were dead beat. Although it did not look like a big place, we actually did a lot of walking and standing (while browsing through the items on sale).

Inside the JR train, on the way back to Shinjuku. Really really very tired then.

See what I bought from there!!! *excited* Agnes b stuffs were generally going at less 30% and Vanessa Bruno bags were at less 50%.

Agnes b bags first:

Vanessa Bruno bags: (I have always liked their bags because of the sequins. They make the bags look bling bling.)

The colour was pinkish-beige.

The same bag as above. I put the remote control next to it just to show its size. It’s really very small. The larger size for this colour was sold out, so I had to make do with this mini size. 🙂

I am crazy I told you. I bought the larger size bag, but in brown. This photo’s colour is not so accurate.

The actual colour of the bag, and its size.

I also saw this shop selling racks of clothes, all at 2000 yen (~SGD $30) each!!! I bought 2 skirts at one go, same design but different colours. Haha.

 The 2 skirts were clipped together, one was light yellow, the other was light grey. I like to wear such skirts, especially if they are not too short.

For dinner that night, we did not go any restaurants, but went Takashimaya basement to buy many bento sets. I think it is a very good experience though the food was eaten cold. We always do that for at least one of the nights each time we are in Japan. Many Japanese always buy bentos home for their meals and it’s like us “dabao-ing” (i.e. takeaway) food home for dinner from hawker centres or food courts.

Our sumptuous and filling dinner for the night. We were eating comfortably in our hotel rooms. Finally can rest our feet.

What’s worth mentioning is, all the salads I ate there were really very very nice! That night, we bought some big prawns salad which was not very cheap but it satisfied our taste buds thoroughly too. It was not just the ingredients used, their salad sauce was very well-suited to the ingredients. Even the macaroni salad purchased from the convenience store at the basement of our hotel was very nice! Anyhow grab one also can grab something so tasty. Hahaha. That’s why we love going Japan. 🙂

Read Full Post »

Tokyo Day 4 – Aug 4 2009, Tue – Part III

After taking all the rides that we had planned to take (except Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, because the fastpass return time was supposed to be 3.35 pm – 4.35 pm), we went to eat smoked turkey legs and shopped a little at World Bazaar and Adventureland, before going back to visit Pooh’s Hunny Hunt.

You can only find smoked turkey legs at Westernland’s Chuck Wagon.

The turkey leg tastes really good, in fact it tastes like chicken drumstick to me. The meat is tender and well-marinated. Costs 473 yen per leg, iirc. It’s a large portion, so it can be quite filling. I spent about 30 minutes savouring the entire thing. Yh finished his very quickly and was staring at me slowly chewing the meat. The seating area near the Chuck wagon is quite small, so it may be quite hard to find a seat to eat the turkey legs. We walked quite far before we found an unoccupied bench at Adventureland to sit and enjoy. Everytime we go Disneyland, we will definitely not miss this.

Went to Snow White Grotto which was nearby. It’s rather quiet there, as compared to other areas in the park.

You can see statues of Snow White and the 7 dwarfs. Do you notice that Snow White appears rather short as compared to the dwarfs?

I like to be in the picture too!

Some walking around the park before heading to World Bazaar. Took many pictures along the way.. 🙂

Our backs were facing the front of Cinderella Castle when taking this picture. What you see above is World Bazaar. It’s a huge shopping “district” in Disneyland. Shop till your legs break and you will probably still not be able to cover every single item sold there.

Facing the front of Cinderella Castle. It’s hard to take a picture without any people in the foreground. These people were probably waiting for the performance later in the day, which will be staged directly in front of the castle.

Slowly progressing to World Bazaar so that I can start shopping a little.

Our first stop: The Home Store. This store sells Disney stuffs meant for your kitchen, bathroom, dining room, etc. That is the fireplace within the store, just for decorative purposes and it fits the theme of the shop.

Inside the Home Store. Neat looking shelves with items like towels and photo frames.

That is chef Mickey on top of the table. Although I find their plates and mugs very cute, I have to say that they have too few varieties in terms of sizes. For each design, they usually have a standard size for the plate, the bowl and the mug. It would be better if they offer a few difference sizes for us to choose. I usually like larger mugs and find the size of their mugs too small.

That machine can make Mickey waffles! I love it so much and the price is not steep at all. I remember that it costs less than SGD $100. A pity the voltage requirement is not compatible with Singapore’s and meant only for usage in Japan.

Posing at another corner of the Home Store. The display was really pretty and girly. The design on the plates, mugs and flasks is a donut in the shape of Mickey’s head. Can’t buy home the entire set or it will be a huge clash with the theme of my home.

Another display inside the Home Store. The bathroom looks so girly too!

We walked to the nearby Refreshment Corner. Wanted to drink mineral water but they don’t sell that..

The next store we went to was Disney & Co. We spotted a cute cap and Yh sportingly posed with it. Haha.

Went to the one and only Magic place in Disneyland –> Magic Shop. The magician will perform some magic once in a while and children will crowd round him. He will of course converse in Japanese only, so we couldn’t understand what he was saying.

I like this Pooh bunny in a magician’s hat. It was not cheap at all and I didn’t buy home because I have no usage for it. It’s not huggable at all. Haha. The picture was not nicely taken because that particular corner of the shop was not well-lit.

Walking towards the shops at Adventureland. We have been to Disneyland 4 or 5 times, and that was our very first time walking in that street. We had never stepped into those few shops at Adventureland before this trip. Haha. Somehow they’re like our blind spot.

The decor of this street made us feel like we were at some native or tribal area.

Posing outside the beautiful window display of the shop, La Petite Parfumerie.

Even the shop’s signage is so nice.

At the entrance of the shop. I think ladies will be attracted to this shop but not men. It’s too girly. The weird thing was, we went inside and did not take a single picture of the interior. Hahaha. It was very small inside and somehow we finished touring the shop in a few seconds, then walked out immediately without taking any photos. They sell soaps and perfumes, and is probably the only shop in Disneyland selling such items. The shop was also well-hidden in a secluded corner, so it was our first time visiting it.

Items for sale at “Cristal Arts”. Look very exquisite right?

That’s Cinderella Castle. The real thing is prettier than in the photo above.

We had to interrupt our shopping abruptly and rush to Fantasyland as it was almost time for us to ride Pooh’s Hunny Hunt. Quite many pictures for that ride as Pooh is my favourite Disney character, if you have not already known. Haha. I will save that for Part IV. Stay tuned.

Read Full Post »