Tokyo 2013 (Day 3 and 4)

For the 3rd day, we went on a tour to Lake kawaguchi.
To get there, we took the Keio highway bus from Shinjuku to kawaguchiko. From Kawaguchiko, we bought the day pass for the loop bus that goes around lake kawaguchi.

Our first destination upon reaching Kawaguchi is to head to Chureito Pagoda. To get to the Pagoda, we had to take a train to Shimo-Yoshida and walk from there.

Shimoyoshida station

Mummy <3

It was about 15 minutes walk away from the train station.

Scary flight of stairs up to the Pagoda

View of Mount Fuji from the Pagoda

The walk up the stairs was alittle too much for my mum so only my dad and I managed to get up. The view was magnificant. It would have been better if the cherry blossoms in this already bloomed. A view with Mount Fuji, Chureito Pagoda and Sakuras would have been really awesome. We were really blessed with good weather that we could see Mount Fuji as my relatives were not able to see it when they went there.

This was at around 11am. After we took the train and returned to kawaguchi station, the clouds came and were no could no longer see mount fuji anymore. The places that I planned to visit around lake kawaguchi were best to view mount fuji and sakuras but since we could no longer see mount fuji, we went to do some shopping and lunch around the area. I bought the blueberry cheesecake flavour kit kat from that area. It can also be found at the airport.

Blueberry cheesecake flavoured Kit Kat

For the 4th day, we headed to Disneysea. That was the coldest day of the trip that came with rain and strong winds :X It was also the wrong time to head to disneysea as it was their spring break and everyone was there! The last time I was there, there was no crowd at all. We had to queue 4 hours for a ride :(

Look at the crowd!

The night parade

 We left after the night parade and had dinner at the shopping mall at Maihama station. We randomly walked into a restaurant and we were in for a surprise! The food was really good :D

Soba <3

Rice with crab meat toppings

 It was a cold and tiring day. Ending of with a good dinner felt really heart warming :)

Tokyo 2013 (Day 2)

First stop of day 2 was Tsukiji Fish Market.

My uncle was there to eat the seafood while I just wanted to take a look at what's there since I'm not into raw food. There were a few stalls there with really long queues! 

This stall one was of the more popular ones.

As we got to the fish market alittle too late, most of the shops in the wet market were closed. The recommended time to go to the fish market would be before 9am.

Our 2nd stop of the day was Ueno Park! Yes again! Could not get enough of the cherry blossoms. It was really cold that day as it was raining. Even though it was raining, the crowd at Ueno park was huge! Here's the spam of pictures of Cherry blossoms :)

 

There was a small area in Ueno park where there were food stalls set up. We settled our lunch there! They have noodles, yakitori, beer, lots of meat on sticks, corn and many more.

The potatoes were huge and REALLY good. They add sea salt and butter to it. A must try if you happen to see it. Am thinking of it and drooling at the moment :X

 

Where people write their wishes

Next up was Asakusa! One of the places that I visit every time I'm in tokyo. I will head to sensoji temple for the shopping street (Nakamise) and the temple. At Nakamise street, do visit the ice cream shop that sells many different flavours of ice cream including sweet potato, red bean, sesame, sakura etc. Love the sweet potato one <3. Do also try 铜锣烧 (cake with red bean fillings). They have a couple of shops there selling it so do give it a try. They are made on the spot so it's really fresh :D

They were restoring the lantern

Stop after this was actually dinner because we wanted to shop in BicCamera after dinner.
BicCamera/Yodobashi are my favourite electronic shops in Japan because the variety that they have there is awsome! If you have done your research on stuff that you want to get, you will be surprised that some stuff might be cheaper in japan than elsewhere. It's also a good place if you want to find 'Made in Japan' items. Other than electronics, they also sell toys/ models of anime characters. They also sell beauty products here. No doubt one of my favourite places to shop.


Getting around in Tokyo is pretty easy if you have done research beforehand.
http://www.hyperdia.com/en/ is a very good website to plan your route before heading out. It tells you what trains to change, the train tracks and also the timings of the train. If you are planning to travel to other parts of japan other than tokyo, you might consider getting the JR train pass. This JR train pass has to be purchased outside of Japan as it is for foreigners only. There are many places in Singapore where you can buy it. If you are travelling in Tokyo only, you can get the SUICA which can be topped up. You can also use the SUICA card to buy drinks etc.

Tokyo 2013 (Day 1)

24-29 March 2013

The trip to Tokyo this time round was a really last minute decision.
My aunties booked this trip awhile back but I was really hesitant on buying the tickets as I'm not sure if the Cherry Blossoms will bloom then.
Low and behold, the cherry blossoms went into full bloom on the day they land!

We booked out tickets on news of first bloom and arrived 2 days after full bloom!
Tickets were S$793 via Delta Air and we stayed at Shinjuku Washington Hotel. As we were on a tight budget, we could not spurge on expensive hotels :X Shinjuku Washington Hotel was affordable, great location but the room was alittle tiny.

We were hungry so we popped by a random place for dinner. Food was so so only.

Since our relatives were at Odaiba, we went on to explore the place ourselves. My main aim for this trip was to see Sakuras so off we went to see sakuras at night!

Ueno Park at night

Ueno park happens to be my favourite place in Tokyo to view cherry blossoms because the trees are lined up on both sides of the pathway and it gives a very nice view. I visited Ueno park in the night and day for different experiences. I'm glad that I remembered to bring my tripod because without it, I would not have been able to capture night shots.

See how pretty the background is!

Japanese like to have picnics under the sakura trees and they really enjoy themselves! The cool weather and great view makes everything really enjoyable.

Next location on my list was Meguro River. It is walking distance from Naka- Meguro Jr station. It's nice here because there are stalls along the river selling food and drinks for people to enjoy while viewing the cherry blossoms.

Sakuras at Meguro River

 We randomly walked into a cake shop for some cakes and turns out that their cakes are awesome!

That's all for the first day as we arrived pretty late. We were all so sleepy from the flight.

*pictures taken by DSLR and iphone*