Overall Loot

Here are all the goodies that I brought back from Japan.. Shall let the pictures do the talking..

Tokyo Day 7 - 4th August 2012

Spent the entire morning packing and exploring Asasuka before returning to our hostel to bathe and wash up. The cab came at 2:15pm to bring us to KEISEIUENO station and the ride to the airport was slightly more than an hour long. I had to put all my luggages onto the luggage trolley and it was really packed! I could barely see over my trolley with all the luggages stacked onto it! At the airport, I was charged US$120 for 6kg of excess baggage, after I had used up whatever remained of the 90kg that was given to the group for 30kg per person. The ride to HKIA felt pretty long compared to the flight from HKIA to Singapore. Soon, I was safely in Singapore with all 10 pieces of luggage =)

Tokyo Day 6 - 3rd August 2012

Day 6! Today marks the last full day I will spend in Tokyo! Yan Ting and I woke up later to a lazy morning and we went over to McDonalds to buy breakfast and I bought a duffel bag for 1050yen too! After a long breakfast in the hostel, we headed for Ikebukuro where we met Jerrine, Eng Chiew, Li Qian and MJ. Lunch was at a ramen stall where I had ramen with a soy-based broth and also ordered extra charsiew. After lunch, we headed for the arcades where the first two arcades disappointed us with their lack of interesting machines (after the numerous arcades we had visited before) but in the third one, we accompanied Jerrine as she played JuBeat on the top floor. It was really interesting seeing her and the other professional players play at such a fast speed their hands were simply a blur! Soon, the entire group had to seperate as Li Qian had to fetch her family at the airport, Eng Chiew, Jerrine and MJ had to meet their other friends while Yan Ting and I continued to stay in Ikebukuro. We moved on to another arcade where we received 2 vouchers for 10 free medals each, to be used in the arcade for the medal games, and a voucher for an additional free try on any UFO Catcher game of my choice. We headed for the medal games and it was so addictive slotting the coins in and watching them fall that we decided to spend 500yen each so that we can exchange our 1000yen for another 200 medals! When we finished our first round of medals, we realised that the collection bucket below the machine had collected another 300 medals! Unfortunately this wasn't the case afterwards as our medal stocks started depleting at a rate of 10-15% per round! After we were done with the medal game, we headed to the UFO level where I used the coupon to get myself an addition on top of the 6 tries I have for using 500yen, to get a figurine from AccelWorld. It was probably the cheapest figurine I've paid for so far at the arcade! As it was getting dark, we left the arcade and quickly popped by Tokyu Hands where we were astounded by the vast stock of items available inside! I bought chopping mats at 4 pieces for 630yen and 2 boxes of facial masks (30pcs in each box) for 1050yen each! There were so many things I wanted to buy in Tokyu Hands but financial constraints was pulling me back. Dinner was at Saizeriya, where it was cheap and tasty. It was far tastier than the branch in Singapore and the price was about the same, which is cheap for Japanese standards. After dinner, we went back to our hostel as it was getting really late.

 

Tokyo Day 5 - 2nd August 2012

Today is Tsukiji day!! Yan Ting and I woke up at 2:45am in the morning and got ourselves ready as the taxi we booked came and fetch us at 3:20am to Tsukiji Market. When we reached there, we were directed to the queue that was already formed and there were around 15 people ahead of us. We waited from 3:45am to about 4:20am before we were brought into a waiting room and given a map and a vest. The vest was a safety vest that we were to wear at all times so that the workers and security officers in the auction area knew that we are allowed to be in there. Soon, it was 5:25am, and we were brought to the auction area. The area was the size of two basketball courts and we were standing in a straight line in the middle. As we were the first batch of visitors, only the right side of the place was conducting auctions. The left side would conduct auctions during the second phase of the auctioning period. The tunas there were huge and flash-frozen, and there were many lying around on the floor. The staff had sliced part of the tuna's tail area so that the buyers can inspect for quality. Not long later, our visiting hours were over and we were herded to the shopping/eating area on the other side of the market. Yan Ting and I headed to Masamoto's Knife Shop where I made my purchase of three kitchen knives. As they sharpened the knives and engraved my name on it, we headed for the market and explored the place. It was simply amazing seeing the many unique kinds of seafood for sale and for most of the time, they were huge and the place was surprisingly stench-free! After a long tour of the market, we headed back to the foodstalls where we had some simple breakfast before collecting my knives. We then headed to one of the sushi stalls to have our pre-planned sushi brunch. Coincidentally, we met two Singaporean girls, Amanda and Yanni, and chatted with them before and during our brunch. Yan Ting ordered a single maguro sushi (which she hated) and 6 tamago sushi (which she loved)  for 700yen while I order a toro sushi (which was heavenly), a maguro sushi (which I enjoyed), a tamago sushi (which was delicious) and a tai sushi (which I hated) for1800yen. We then took a photo with Amanda and Yanni before we headed for Ginza while they walked around the market.The walk to Ginza was a really hot and long one as we took a longer route. Eventually we reached Ginza, where we stoned at McDonalds for two hours as we were suffering from lack of sleep. We walked around Ginza, visited many boutiques and departmental stores, were wowed by how big the whole place was and even felt that Ginza loses to Orchard Road when it comes to appearance and facade. Each luxury brand had its' own building in Ginza and Sony even had a digital aquarium and a real sea-water aquarium in it's own building! We then had lunch at Yashinoya, which was really yummy and cheap, before walking around somemore. Soon, it was getting tiring to walk and we headed for McDonalds where we could rest our legs and HTHT in an air-conditioned place. We met Jerrine, Eng Chiew, Li Qian and MJ at Higashi-Ginza where we had dinner at a quiet Japanese/Italian gastro-pub. The food was good and we had a wonderful time of fellowship and laughter.