So here's the first one. The jap look! Considering that I only brought 3 pairs of boxers and nothing else to wear for this trip, I obviously had additional incentive to be shopping! Only the Polo Ralph jacket wasn't bought in Tokyo. Everything else is from UniQlo except for the cap which is from Gap. Don't I look local?
This is our humble apartment on the first floor of a 4-storey building. We managed to get this place for cheap and its situated in a pretty cosy and safe neighbourhood called Nakano, which happens to be one subway station away from Shinjuku. Its kinda small and cramped but that's how all Japanese living quarters are. The good thing is that they've everything you need in a normal house. Talk about compact living.
As you can see, I was born to win on the UFO machine. I played so much that wifey had to restrict the amount of money I used to play. And still I got so many little toys :) What a talent I have!
Well we can't ignore the food when in Tokyo, and we had it all. Ramen, udon, curry rice, pepper lunch, sushi, grilled chicken, pork charshu, KFC, Mcdonalds, cold soba, takopachi etc. This was our first Ramen meal in Nakano at a little joint in the shopping arcade. Really good stuff. The tamago was to-die-for. Slurp!
Downtown Tokyo taken from the World Trade Center Observatory. Its quite expensive up there and there're no gift shops or cafes at all so all you can do is view the 360 degree view of Tokyo. Quite nice, but expensive. Plus we hadn't even had our breakfast yet that day. I have an almost identical picture of this on my Blackberry and that one was taken professionally.
Dinner with staff from our Japanese office. From left, thats Yuko, Wataru and Peder (who's also visiting from CPH). This restaurant was super ulu. I don't think any tourist could've found it, but it served up one of the best meals of our trip. Very small and cosy, we had an exclusive 5 course Japanese dinner with the chatty owner entertaining us along the way. Reminds me of Tatsuya in Singapore.There was this weird uncle sitting beside wifey who kept glancing at us till his dinner ended and then he told us what a sweet young couple we were. Awww.....
Hakone. We took a day trip there and did the recommended round trip. A nice and serene getaway on the edge of central Tokyo.As you can see it was a cloudy day, so we couldn't see Mt Fuji no matter how hard I tried to imagine. Sad :(
So we finally made it to the famous Tsukiji fish market. It was HUGE! There was the auctioning section, which was the size of one Exp hall. Then the wet market section which is the size of four soccer fields. And then the commercial section with the sushi bars and eateries. We had to wake up at 4am in the morning just to catch all this action. Last time I was here the area was a dead town by 1pm. The above is the auctioning of the large-ass Tuna fish. You can see the auction table in the upper centre of the picture. Shortly after taking this picture we were asked to leave by a security officer because we were in a no-tourist zone. Haha.
Shopping in Shibuya and Harajuku. We also went to Ginza, Shinjuku, Akihabara to shop. I used to think Singapore was crowded but Tokyo is crazy packed with people! Can't believe how crowded the city is. Something is wrong when the subway evening rush hour starts from 4.30pm till 12.30am! WTF?! Still I've gotta say that there is far more shopping variety in Tokyo than anywhere else in the world I've seen. Different things at different places all the time.
Lastly, we also went to Ueno to see the museums and parks there. Very nice and the buildings are very old and charming. Ended up shopping in Ueno as well. It is definitely one of the more touristy areas in Tokyo and most of the shop people speak a smatter of English. In contrast, the workers at the eateries in Nakano hardly spoke a word of it since there were hardly any tourists there.
And so, that was our 6 day Tokyo trip in 10 segments. All in all was really fun to the max. And we got to live like the Japanese do instead of tourists.Took 572 pictures in total on my Canon Ixus but I'm obviously not gonna post them all. I already had quite a few enquiries about the apartment we stayed in. If you wanna find out more, drop me an email :)
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