Only 3 days cos a lot of things happened these three days!
Ikebukuro
Went to see this guy on a rainy Wednesday morning
And hid under a table. Blur photo is not cos of my hands. Can you already guess where this is?!!! During an Earthquake!!! Taking a selfie is one of the steps to take!
This 叔叔 says it's not though. Oh wells. At least we got to get some simulated earthquake and learnt how to deal with it if one really hits.
So yea, we kinda graduated I guess. Haha!
Wandered around and went into one of the theaters, pretty artsy I must say
And it's lunch time! Except Sadia is fasting and was looking for a Halal restaurant to dabao her dinner, and guess what she found!
It looks kinda like Indian food with curry and naans but it's actually a Pakistani restaurant! So coincidental that Sadia get to find her local food here in Japan, plus all of us had our first taste of Pakistani food (under the guidance of a Pakistani), in Japan! Haha. Very cool
And here is us, 4 very satisfied customers from 4 different parts of the world (and yea, Sadia was satisfied later during dinner when she ate the food; of course she would be! It's home food)
Split ways after lunch with Rhea headed for her camera purchase, Sadia for prayer, and Wen for a nap. I took the opportunity to wander of course!
Ueno
Braved the rain to visit yet another shrine, this time in Ueno.
But the shrine was kinda just the "by-destination", this 不忍池 is the main thing in Ueno. I have no idea it's a pond even when I walked beside it, cos it's just filled with all these pond plants! And it's a massive pond mind you, the shrine stood in the middle of it and looked really small both on the map and on the actual ground
Ueno Park beside was nice as well; a really huge place even without including the adjacent Ueno Zoo. There's a trail that'll take about an hour, I was too impatient with my soaking shoes for it.
Found a nice little shrine with all these red gates guiding down the stairs, heard they're much more common in Kyoto, shall find out when I'm there!
Another one cos it's nice
Gave up on finding a cafe and headed back to the hotel to rest before the class, which ended later than scheduled, so I had to rush off immediately after, for this:
Green Tea Restaurant is pretty common, one that serves what it serves? Probably not
So this guy was the main character, yes, the one flipping the menu. Oh no, I mean the guy in green: Matcha Beer. But as expected, Ms Blur wasn't impressed cos the Matcha flavour didn't manage to cover the beer taste, so most of it was mine! Haha
She's probably more impressed by the English haha
Atas food also; this was supposed be mentaiko calamari, turns out to be a small plate of raw octopus. Not what we expected.
Chicken was pretty decent but this was the bomb! Some pudding with Matcha sauce. Amazing.
Headed home after the night, and kinda just rested. Next morning went out to meet Ms Blur for lunch
As usual, nothing can go wrong in Japan
Yanaka
Then settled my JR reservation and headed out to Yanaka. And Yanaka is now officially my favourite part of Tokyo. It is THE place to go, at least for me.
First exited the subway and got onto a cemetery. As mentioned countless of time, one of my favourite places to be in
Greeted by a very modern looking shrine that's pretty humble, unlike many others I've seen
And this! Rows of very old Japanese houses!
Apparently it is one of the rare few places to find pre-WWII architectures
And yup, plenty of nice looking old shrines
Most of them with very elaborate courtyards...
And then I followed one of the online guide for cafés with wifi, and I found this; a treasure
Wifi, English menu, Jazz music, in a quiet little corner of an old Japanese town. What more can you ask for?
The whole setting was impressive enough, and when you take a closer look...
You find that they sell really interesting stuff. These are real vegetables!
Some meh meh's wool
And many many organic stuff, some of which are homemade!
And when you come in a group, take the sofa seats but don't disturb the peace and tranquility, just like how the taitais that left halfway through my stay were acting. Haha. Nice bar top as well!
Zoom in and you'll find architectural drawings. Ms Blur will love this place definitely
And last but not least, a bonus! Vinyl records with a modern player. Speaker beside was really huge too.
Left this place pretty unwillingly cos I have to head back for lessons, I'll be back if I have the chance!
Todai
Snapped a nice passageway in school
And did you know there exists a choice for types of toilet bowls? Lol
And then ended the night with a beer cos we gotta sleep early to wake early the next morning for something exciting! Didn't work very well though, was too excited for results release the next day.
Tsukiji
And this is the something exciting...
The 5am group! Didn't go with the 3am group cos we wanted to sleep more (I'm gonna have a long day that's why). But still, went at 5plus to catch the fresh seafood dons!
As recommended by Ms Blur and online websites!
And this is it! Apparently the third best in the area... What about the first two?
It takes some patience to eat them. And we kinda lost it under the rain haha
Caught some behind-the-scene after our oishi breakfast though
Also, people here travel/transport in these really cute and interesting thingy
Checked out the outer market and we had about 1.5 hour to kill before the inner market opens. Decided to head back for a nap and come back here to see the actual market next week (gotta see it cos it's gonna move soon!) and so we headed back home when everyone was leaving for school/work.
Took a short nap and went for a field trip!
Marunouchi
First was by Mitsubishi Estate, where QY is working at, about the Otemachi-Marunouchi-Yurakucho redevelopment
A very nice office of the Ecozzeria; nice to be able to enter one of the office building in CBD of one of the world's most important cities
Walked around the district on a short tour to look at the results of the redevelopment. This is a carpark turned into underground passage with a small market thingy going on every Friday
Roppongi
Took the chartered bus and landed here, next presentation by Mori, with a very impressive translator (amazed by her more than the massive projects of Mori). The meeting was also held at the 49th floor! And look, Evians.
This was going on outside our conference room, imaging mugging here for exams, with Tokyo tower as the backdrop and looking into the dense concrete field from such a vantage point. Cool shit
Went up another 3 more storeys for the observation deck, and even the sky cleared up a little (sun!) on a super rainy day for our arrival
"Looks like model", said Ms Blur of this photo
Highway to Shibuya!
And this is us! People from all over the world (no one from the two American continents or Africa though), most of whom are cream of the crop in their relative fields! Amazingly fortunate to be with this bunch
When to the Mori Art Museum after and saw this amazing piece, the piece of satin is not attached to anything, the vents on the floor simply blows it to change its form. This mindblowing piece ironically doesn't blow minds, it calms it instead.
Bonus find just before we left, Slam Dunk miniature set! Didn't get it though, due to time constrain
Rushed back to hotel after an antagonizing peak hour jam, grabbed my stuff, and left to meet Ms Blur.
Shinjuku
Back to Shinjuku for the other interesting things that I've yet to see, got dragged to eat western food in Tokyo cos her sister told her to try it. Lo and behold, Freshness Burger is really good because, well, it's fresh! Haha. And also cos they have white truffle spray! Spammed them on our onion rings and potato wedges.
Nice old London/HK feel in a busy district too
Went to see the Golden Gai, didn't find any guy that was gold in colour; but did find out that Gai = 街. Guess what the Japanese part reads?
Basically a small area of 60 mini bars (only one row of bar top seats kind) squeezed close to one another, many of which only serves regular customers. Very interesting but kinda unwelcoming
Omoide Yokocho~ the name is so nice sounding haha, tingling the kiddyness in me
Another kind of night food street, same feel, different attitude. Much less sleazy and more welcoming here! But decided to not stay on cos of the smell... Haha
Walked quite a distance from the East to the West for this: TMG aka Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. Coincidentally met Andrea and Ching Kit here as well!
Night view of Tokyo and it's free!! But don't like how the inside of the building is so bright (and filled with tourist-trapping shops), spoiling the lighting and our vision. Still, city night scape with all the lights is still one of my favourite urban scenery!
Burgers weren't enough, so this is my first Sukiya experience upon Yf and Penny's recommendation
And the night ended with a very full stomach. Haha. Shall continue blogging bout my weekend trip in the next post!
Went to see this guy on a rainy Wednesday morning
