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*

Trip to Beijing (Day 1)

17- 24 December 2012
Beijing

Because my brother was having his exchange in Beijing, our family decided to pay him a visit as well as bring some of his stuff back. We were not sure how much stuff he wants us to bring home so we brought 3 pretty huge luggages. Air tickets were on promotion via Singapore airlines. I always look forward to food onboard but there was nothing interesting about this meal. I really love their bread and butter though :D

Food on board SQ flight to Beijing

As my dad snores REALLY LOUDLY in his sleep, I refused to stay in the same room as him so before we left for Beijing, We book 161 hotel (more to the budget side) as the price was reasonable for 2 rooms. Reviews for that hotel was not bad. Before we arrived in Beijing, we have already notified the hotel beforehand that we will be checking in late due to our flight. However, when we arrived at the hotel, we were told that the rooms are not ready as usual check in time is 12 noon. They decided to put us at their sister hotel (Super 8) until our rooms were ready the next day. The stay at Super 8 was horrible. The rooms smelled bad, floor and toilet were dirty too. I got so paranoid that I feel that their bed/ bedsheets/pillow/ towels were dirty. Thinking that we will only be there for 1 night, we decided to just ignore the state of the room.

We did not have wifi or china number for my brother to contact us, so we told him to meet us at 161 hotel after his class. Instead of waiting around at Super 8 for a phone all to go back to 161 hotel, we decided that we will just go ahead back to the hotel even if it was way before 12 noon (offical check in time). We were told by the reception of Super 8 that our rooms are still not ready. As we were really insistent on going over, they had to call 161 hotel. As Super 8 could not explain the situation to us, they handed the phone over to us to 161 hotel could speak to us. We explained what we wanted to do and to our horror, they told us that we might have to wait till 5-6pm before we know if we can return to 161 hotel. OH WAIT, not only that. They were not even sure if we could even return to 161 hotel throughout the whole duration of our stay. It will be really ridiculous for us to be sitting around just to wait for their phone call. We asked them why can't we know if the room will be ready, they could not answer us. If they could not get the room ready for us, tell us beforehand so we can make other arrangements. We were pretty angry then so we went out, got a local number to contact my brother. Updated him of our situation and decided that we will not go ahead with the booking. As the reservation was make via Agoda, I made a phone call to Singapore's office. I am thankful that I managed to get a full refund for this.

We went off to Holiday Inn and we settled for 1 room. I have to endure my dad's snores for 4 nights and the thought of it was torturous.

After we have settled accommodation issue, we could finally relax. PHEW.
The room at Holiday Inn was not bad!

 The 2 beds in the room can sleep 4 people.

Along the streets of Beijing

Food on the first day!

Picture on the left is of some potato dish. I don't know how they do it but their potatoes and mushrooms are amazing! On the right, it's 海底捞。It's a 24 hour steamboat place that my brother highly recommended. He recommended it for the service. They provide manicure, shoe polishing, internet counters etc at the restaurant itself!

海底捞
http://www.haidilao.com/
They have many branches in Beijing which you can find on their website.