Japan in October 2014 (Day 3 and 4)

After spending the night at Fuji, we drove back to Tokyo and spent the day exploring some of the less explored places. We headed to Jiyugaoka. Before heading to Japan, we researched on some of the nicer cake shops to check out and we were going to spend the day looking for the shops.

Romper from LoveBonito

As we walked, we tried food here and there. We chanced upon a shop selling beef as well as some cooked food so we went in to get a fried beef ball. This fried beef ball comes with a surprise! There is an egg inside. I used to think that the beef ball at Satou Steakhouse was good bit this is better! Won't mind heading back for this again. Too bad many of my family members are not beef eaters if not I will definitely bring them back. Can't remember the name of the shop though :X

Da bomb. This was amazing.

So off we went to the first cake place.
The cakes were great! 

We were on the hunt for cakes like Kki and this meets the mark!
Won't be sharing the place openly but do contact me if you will like to know.
Not that i want to be selfish but this place is not that big for a crowd.

I prefer this chocolate cake as compared to the other one that we got.

CW preferred this.

This is not my first time at Jiyugaoka but it's the first time i'm exploring it in more detail. There are many shops that sell unique goods. There are many that I will like to get for my new place but I don't think I will be able to carry them back. It will be a nice place for tourist to check out.

Street at Jiyugaoka

To my dismay, the other cake shop in Jiyugaoka was closed on the day that we visited. We only managed to visit 1 out of the many that we shortlisted. I'm glad that I brought my sneakers along for this trip as we did a lot of walking.

My awesome Nike Air Max Thea that i brought along for the trip.

We spent the rest of the day at Harajuku eating and shopping.

Cotton Candy Sky.

Cheese Calbee chips. Will love to try other flavours.

We did the usual shopping at Harajuku, had crepes, sneakers shopping and shopping at Potter.
We then went to try the raved Maisen Tonkatsu. Though it was highly raved, we preferred Katsukura even when we ordered the best cut. Not sure if it's just us or there's nothing to rave about.Visiting Japan always spoil our tastebuds. We can never find comparable Japanese food in Singapore.

Next stop was Ginza as CW has not been there before. First stop, UNIQLO! OMG this branch is amazing! 12 stories of shopping can you imagine?

Collaboration level.

We travelled to Kyoto the next day for the festivals.

There were 2 festivals that we planned to visit that day. 

We were anticipating the crowd so we were not too surprised.
First stop was the Jidai Matusri at the imperial palace.

Look at all the equipment. Photographer's paradise.

Everyone waiting for the event to start.

Our video setup. Can't help but love the iphone 6+.

It will be worth it to check out these festivals. We headed to another festival after this. The next festival was a night one at Kurama. It was the fire festival (Kurama Hi-Matsuri). We were there early and it was nice and cooling but it got pretty chaotic as the event started. Initially we waited along the road the catch the festival but were told by the organisers that when the event starts, we will have to walk in circles so that everyone there will get a chance to be part of the event. The chaotic part is when people refused to move so we were all stuck. If everyone moved as they were supposed to, everyone will be happy.

Calm before the storm.

People on the second level got the best view. I suppose that they were part of a local tour group.

As the crowd slowly gathered.

More and more people.

The torches.

We spotted a rainbow! Weather was quite gloomy that day.

Sightings along the way.

At this festival, locals flaunt their possessions.

Along the path that we were led to. If the crowd does not move, we were stuck at somewhere like this.

Children were out first. The adults helped the with the torches.

Photo by CW. www.eleventwomedia.com

Photo by CW. www.eleventwomedia.com

Some information of the torches.

It was the end of a very tiring day.
We ended the day early without seeing more as we don't want to be caught in the crowd on the way back to Kyoto. It was time for dinner by the time we arrived at Kyoto so we went to ..... Katsukura! Some say it's over rated but it's still our favourite. As it is a tourist hotspot, they have english menu so no problem ordering at all.

So happy to be there.

Grinding sesame for the sauce. 

No pictures but we had 2 sets of Tonkatsu and chawanmushi! The best way to end the day.