Japan Trip Epic (Part #2)

31 Jan 2011 (Mon)
The best way to see Tokyo is by train so we got ourselves Tokunai Pass ¥730. It is a day-pass on JR trains within designated zone. So we woke up early to maximise the value of Tokunai Pass.

By the time we reach the first destination, Yurakucho, it was only 9am. Everything is still closed. Tourist Information Center opens at 10am, JTB opens at 11am. We can only sit around and study our map. After sitting around meaninglessly for 10-20 minutes, we decided to move on to our next destination, Ueno. There are parks and zoo, which turned out to be closed for some reasons. It was again a lot of walking. Very tiring.
We give up and moved on to Akihabara. This place is supposedly the most famous electronic street. 1 whole building of electronic goods. We lepak here till afternoon. Walked too much so decided to take time-off back in hotel. Our hotel provides Green Cleaning Service option. We will be given a ¥500 voucher per day by taking up this option. Am I advertising for the hotel? By the way the hotel is nice and costs ¥13000 per night

Next destination was Shibuya. Shibuya is a shopping area where youngsters hang out. Many fashion outlet, drugs store around where cheap skincare product or cosmestic can be found here. The cross junction is crazy. Not only that pedestrian can cross to oppsite side of the road, diagonally crossing is also allowed. So we see many heads moving in all direction.

From Shibuya, we walked.... to Harujuku Sta.

Taking train in Japan is an enjoyable journey because the train is so quiet. No rowdy students, nobody rushed for seats, no dim sum dolly repeated jingles. Only announcement.


1 Feb 2011 (Tue)
Tokunai pass yesterday and Toei+Metro pass next. This is another 1-Day pass that allows unlimited use of Toei subway & metro. Today we started from Takanawadai Sta. to Tsukiji Market in the east. The market is very busy but well organised. Although it is a wet market, the floor is generally clean.

After strolling around the wet market, we head to the nearby restaurant for authentic sushi sashimi. If ou spent some time, you'll find cheap and good food in Tsukiji Market. The first one or the most crowded one is usually not the best in terms of value-for-money. I bought strawberries & strawberry daifuku. They are sweet.

We went to Tokyo Tower, Imperial Palace, Tokyo Dome & Shinjuku.

Ung have long planned to go Tokyo Dome eventhough there is no baseball game on that day. He only wanted to eat Bubba Gump. We thought the pronounciation is "Boo-Ba" Gump. My US colleague corrected me. He said it is pronounced as "Bub-ble" Gump... So embarrassing. Anyway, the food was good. Lunch is usually more value-for-money. Maybe they just want to attract lunch crowd.