Quickly approaching the end of our short holiday, we took a break from the city for once and headed to the beautiful island of Enoshima, located in Fujisawa City of Kanagawa. I was especially excited for this day because it was the most out-of-the-way place on our itinerary, and have seen photos posted of it from celebrities and friends.

Finding the machine to purchase the Enoshima 1-day Passport (popularly known as Enopass for short) at the complicated Shinjuku Station took us a while, and it was the first time we had to really bother with what “Local”, “Rapid Express” and etc meant, to make sure the train would stop where we needed it to.

The Enopass covers a round trip and includes admission prices to attractions on the island.

Onboard the train waiting for departure from the platform.

We had to transfer lines at Fujisawa Station. When we got off I lost my bearings for a moment because the train car we were in stopped at the very end of the station, and it was just a long narrow platform with nothing that led to the center of the station.

The station was funny in that we didn’t have to go down or up any escalators but just kept walking in one direction until we saw the platform for the correct train. The train that travels the route to Katase-Enoshima caters to less people and thus is a pretty short train with just six cars. After a total travel time of a little over an hour, we finally reached Katase-Enoshima station.

The station is some distance from Enoshima Island itself, so I took the opportunity to snap some shots of the surroundings which were part of Fujisawa City. Before we actually headed to the island, we visited Enoshima Aquarium, which was nearby. This would be the only stop involving animals of any sort on our trip.

The streets of Fujisawa.

Fujisawa City Tourist Center, of which there was a helpful map display outside.

The entrance to Enoshima Aquarium.

The guide map and admission ticket.

This was one of the instances where my broken Japanese skills helped when we were planning the trip. I did some researching on the Enopass in Japanese and realised the English website for the Enopass doesn’t state clearly the full extent of benefits at all. You can actually get 10% off your Enoshima Aquarium admission ticket by flashing your Enopass. (Some other benefits not stated in English are 10% off admission to Enoshima Island Spa, 50 yen off admission to the hall of Enoshima Jinja Shrine, and differing benefits at most shops and restaurants on the island. Check with the shops themselves if they are Enopass partners and what they offer.)

We purchased our aquarium tickets pretty quickly, on account of it being in the morning and there being not much of a queue. We given a pamphlet, together with a schedule sheet for the dolphin show. It was every one hour and we happened to enter at one of the starting times.

Not wanting to wait for the next show, we quickly headed for it. It was perhaps not the best decision, seeing how it was positioned at the end of the route through the entire aquarium. We essentially spoiled ourselves by passing by everything and we’d have to backtrack later.

Dolphins doing tricks, winning audience’s hearts over.

Beside the dolphin show stadium, you can look out to the sea where there’s plenty of surfers.

After the dolphin show, we went back into the main part of the aquarium to look at the creatures in the tanks.

Furry little penguins…

A young boy looks on as one of the penguins swims around.

Surreal-looking schools of fish.

Tortoises, crabs, stingrays and many others were spotted as well.

You can literally stand under fishes. The concave glass also adds that feeling that you’re closer to them.

Some of the smaller tanks around.

Visitors observing the fishes in the giant tank.

Done taking photos and admiring the sea creatures, we were ready to leave. Because we backtracked the entire route, we were back at the entrance when we finished seeing everything. I thought we’d have to walk all the way through again because they had a designated entrance and exit in the aquarium, but luckily we were allowed to leave through the entrance. This might differ on a peak hour maybe.

Some school kids were having a picnic on the aquarium compounds when we were leaving…

Enoshima Island seen from some distance away.

Walking from the aquarium to the island took us about 20 minutes. There’s a very long bridge into the island, which you can bypass if you take a cheap boat ride from the start of the bridge, directly to Iwaya Caves at the far end of the island. Since that didn’t gel with our sightseeing itinerary, we just went ahead with walking.

We might have succumbed to the boat ride had it been summer, but it was cold as usual. I guess I would recommend coming here during spring or fall because of the perfect weather for walking. It lets you soak in the atmosphere and is more enjoyable than sweating or freezing on a boat ride.

Enoshima Island Spa complex greets you at the start of your journey.

Upon arrival of the island, we headed for Tobiccho, the most famous restaurant on the island that serves the area’s speciality shirasu (white bait). In fact, they have two branches alone on this relatively small island. Although already anticipating a queue, I was still dismayed to find that there were about 20 other groups waiting, at 10 minutes to noon.

Thankfully, there’s a queue ticket system in place, and here again my broken Japanese came into use. I managed to get a queue ticket for three from the machine pretty quickly, and could understand that the waiting time was approximately 40 minutes. The ticket system lets people have the freedom to walk around and come back later instead of just queueing there, so we moved on.

The gently sloped path through the shops.

I bought tasty mitarashi dango for a snack.

The relatively crowded stairs up to Enoshima Jinja Shrine.

While we were at the shrine area, we got caught in some television programme filming. There was a camera crew that I didn’t notice at first, but a lady came up to Etine and I, explaining in Japanese that they were from TV Tokyo and would like us to walk through the Chi-no-wa (a giant ring in front of the shrine used for purification) and then pray to the shrine. She added that our faces won’t be shown. I translated this to Etine and she was fine with it so we said okay.

Both of us found the whole thing kind of amusing. We both threw coins into the offering box, clapped our hands together and bowed to the shrine, but later on we found out neither of us prayed for real or wished for anything, since we don’t believe in these things.

We returned to the restaurant after 30 minutes just in case, and we sat at the waiting area, which I would say takes up quite an amount of shop space. The actual dining area is on the second floor, and the first floor is just a waiting area, ingredients stock room and the washroom. I couldn’t tell if the kitchen was downstairs or upstairs though.

One of the staff members specially stands at the store front to confirm if the dining groups due to go in soon are around, and calls out the numbers on the queue tickets. At first we didn’t know that and embarrassingly thought it was our turn to go in. After another 15 minutes or so, we finally get seated.

Having read online that Tobiccho has an English menu, we asked for it. Although we saw around us that the size of the portions were really huge, we went ahead and ordered for ourselves anyway.

Etine’s mum ordered the most expensive set that had a mix of everything, and raw shirasu.

This “3-colored set” was mine, consisted of small shrimps, salmon roe, negitoro, and boiled shirasu on rice.

Etine chose this because there was raw salmon.

Some crispy veggie thing with boiled shirasu on top. It was not bad.

Since I’ve not tried other restaurants around the area before I can’t say that it’s the best, but the shirasu was tasty and mixing in the half-boiled egg made the entire thing so good. Etine said she found the food a little disappointing but it could also be because she doesn’t exactly like seafood besides salmon.

Anyway, all three of us couldn’t finish our food. Well, I finished all the seafood and rice without touching the vegetables (which I hate). We were feeling kind of bad since in Japan they really really mind whether people finish the food. Etine’s mum apologised to the waitress who cleared our plates, saying that the food was good but we were too full. The waitress smiled and said it was all right.

Continuing our adventures through the island, we made our way to Samuel Cocking Garden, where the Enoshima Seacandle (the island’s observatory) is located. Since we had the Enopass, we took the Escar, which are escalators that cuts a bit of the amount of climbing you have to do. It only goes up though, so when coming back down you’ll have to take the stairs. If you don’t have the Enopass you’ll have to pay a separate fee to use the Escars on the island.

An entrance to an Escar.

There was a small crowd gathered round a busker near the garden entrance.

The flowers in the garden were indeed pretty but it wasn’t really my thing to spend too much time admiring flowers that don’t belong to me. The main attraction here is really the Seacandle anyway. Etine and her mum enjoyed the greenery though.

Flowers being displayed rather creatively.

The vibrant colours admittedly make me feel happier.

It was just a short walk before we got to the observatory. It seems that you can choose to climb the stairs up but we took the elevator.  The spiralling stairs in the center of the tower would no doubt make you a bit giddy. It’s also not the safest stairs, the steps are a bit small and you could easily drop something through the railings and kiss goodbye to it.

The lift takes you to the glass-enclosed observatory area, away from all elements of weather. However, the star of the show is undoubtedly the top open-air deck, which you have to climb some stairs to get to. With the good weather on this day, it was really nice to take photos from the deck.

The Enoshima Seacandle.

View of the endless sea.

Inside the indoor observation deck.

The Seacandle’s stairway.

View of the Katase Kaigan area of Fujisawa city.

After happily spending time on the Seacandle, we made our way back down. There are quite a lot of vending machines around, so we grabbed a bench and a drink to rest for a while and enjoy the atmosphere. While Etine’s mum continued to rest on the bench, Etine and I walked around the ground floor of the Seacandle, where there was a goods shop and a heritage archive room. Looking around the goods shop didn’t yield any results, and the heritage archive was really small so we didn’t hang around long.

When we got back to the bench, we learnt that some other elderly ladies who had been sitting on the same bench, nearly got attacked by crows for the food she was eating. Looking up, we realised quite a few crows hang around here waiting to pounce on people for food, so this was probably not the best place to rest.

The sky was starting to dim a little, so we made for the Iwaya Caves, which was at the far end of the island. It was quite a walk to get there and there was a LOT of stairs. We were tired but I was the worst off. I literally don’t do any exercise and I guess the aches from the past days all caught up at once, as my knees started hurting really badly. But because it was about an hour before the caves closed at 6pm, I didn’t stop to rest.

It was refreshing to see buildings like these when you’ve been in the city for so long.

People enjoying the coastal area. You’ll never see this in Singapore because they overprotect everybody.

The bridge leading up to the Iwaya Cave entrance.

Inside the beginning of the cave route.

At one of the paths you’re given a candle as it’s completely dark in there.

There weren’t really a lot of things I wanted to take photos of in the cave to be honest. There were little statues around, but I was more excited just being in an actual cave, with head room so low you have to bend down half the time. And, while the top part of these low ‘ceilings’ are kind of covered up in soft felt, there’s still the occasional drip of water, so these combination of elements made it not a good idea to take photos. It was so dark in the cave, it affected the shutter speed and most photos turned out blur anyway.

We spent a little less than an hour in the cave, before finally coming out to daylight again. By the way, while we were there, the Iwaya Caves was celebrating its 20th anniversary, and so was handing out for free little “power stones” to visitors. You could pick between rose quartz, citrine, tiger’s eye and amethyst.

I took amethyst.

We went down to the coast. At times the water can come right up to where I’m standing when taking this photo.

There are people actually fishing.

Didn’t dare to pluck them, but apparently barnacles are delicious boiled with salt water.

Finally pulling ourselves away from the beautiful coast near the caves, we walked back. Along the way, the staff of some shops we passed by would say “otsukaresama”, knowing that those who walked all the way to the cave would be tired. Wanting to catch a bit of a breather, we stopped by a senbei shop, ate some senbei and grabbed a drink from the vending machines, and sat down to rest.

Exactly as it’s named (Ideal Grape Juice), it tasted great and had the right amount of sour and sweet.

Enoshima specialty, senbei.

After this short break, we headed back to Katase-Enoshima station to catch the super long ride back to Shinjuku where we would have dinner. We found an udon shop in one of the underground malls, and ate there. You could tell the udon was hand-chopped because of the inconsistency in width, but it was very delicious and springy.

Shinjuku at night.

Spicy udon.

Beef udon.

Mine was absolutely delicious. I could have eaten two bowls.

Feeling satisfied as ever, we took the train again back to Shin-Okubo to end our long day and retire for the night. All in all, albeit tiring, the trip to Enoshima was very refreshing and fulfilling.

Would recommend Enoshima to anyone going to Japan, except for those who have problems walking a lot. Also, since it’s not in the city, there are less people who can speak and less signs in English. While not necessary, knowing a bit of Japanese could help if you want to visit the area.

Having set aside more time for rest this day, we headed off to Odaiba in the late morning feeling energised and refreshed. It was also yet another cold windy day, but at least the weather was really good and skies were clear.

It was the second time I visited Odaiba, but the previous time was four years ago, travelling with a tour group. Hence, there were still many things to look forward to, such as the DiverCity shopping mall which didn’t exist then, and taking the special Yurikamome train into the island. The Yurikamome works like the Japanese version of Singapore’s LRT system – driverless and short distances between stations. However, it has more cabins and a decent amount of seats unlike LRT trains.

Onboard the Yurikamome, looking out to the tracks.

The train at one point travels alongside cars, and goes directly under the Rainbow Bridge.

Getting off at Daiba station, our first stop would be AquaCity shopping mall, which I had visited before. I’m not sure if I remembered wrongly but the mall’s interior seems to have changed quite a bit since.

The facade of AquaCity Odaiba.

It was already 11.30am when we reached the place so we needed to find lunch. Upon reaching the mall’s entrance, we were handed a flyer advertising a buffet for an unbelievably affordable price. Etine got pretty excited and wanted to try, but seeing the price gave me doubts about the food quality so I brought this up, and we agreed to look for something else. I was feeling like having sashimi, but Etine really wanted to eat omurice, so we made an agreement that she’d choose what to have for lunch and I’d choose dinner.

We settled upon this omurice restaurant called Pomme no Ki, which turned out to be a pretty good choice. The omurice here was absolutely delectable! I regretted not choosing a bigger portion because it was so tasty I wanted more. You could pay 210 yen extra for a medium size (the regular size is called “small”), and 420 yen extra for the biggest size.

Curry doria.

This was also doria but I don’t remember what was inside.

Since it was an omurice restaurant, I stuck with eating omurice.

We still had room after gobbling down the rice, so we ordered the dessert we had been eyeing earlier. The ice cream parfaits didn’t disappoint, and it was very filling. Honestly, I don’t know where you could get such quality desserts in Singapore.

The assorted berries ice cream parfait Etine chose.

Blueberries, cheesecake, strawberry sauce and fresh cream over ice cream. My kind of parfait.

Stuffed with lunch, we were ready to start shopping. We spent quite a lot of time trying and buying clothes. In particular, I aimed for those Japanese brands I knew and you couldn’t find in Singapore. Bought quite few pieces of clothing in the end. I wanted to move on to DECKS, the shopping mall beside AquaCity, to check out Joypolis, the indoor amusement park, but in the end we took it out of the itinerary in order to accommodate more time for shopping.

After finally moving out of AquaCity, we crossed the road to the Fuji TV building. It was apparent that the building was a place that most tourists would just take photos of the exterior or at most probably only step in to look around, since the open-to-public areas here only sell merchandise of shows shown in Japan.

Being a pretty avid Japanese drama watcher, I roughly had in mind which dramas’ merchandise to look out for in F-Island, the name of the Fuji TV goods shop. F-Island is located on the 7th floor of the building, and there’s a long escalator on the exterior of the building that takes you directly outside the shop.

The Fuji TV building.

Escalator up to the seventh floor.

When at the open area outside the shop, I immediately looked for one of the J-drama posters I knew was up here, and it happened to be on the pillar closest to the shop. I got pretty excited and hung around taking a few photos even though the strong winds were killing all of us.

I was not alone in my excitement, since there were two women who spotted the poster and one of them squealed, telling the other she was very happy to see it. She then proceeded to snap a photo with her cellphone. Why the excitement for this particular late night drama? Because a Johnny’s Entertainment idol is starring in it, that’s why. It really was less about the drama and more about seeing this giant poster with him on it.

After enough photos, we went into the shop. This whole Fuji TV stop was mostly for me since Etine and her mum don’t really watch J-drama. After getting a few items off the shelves, we left the place as it was approaching evening light. Etine and I wanted to take photos of the giant Gundam outside DiverCity in daylight.

One of the many giant drama billboards on the pillars outside the shop.

Fuji TV drama goods on sale.

They were filming something on the ground floor outside the building as we left.

Needless to say, it was getting colder and breezier by the hour, so we walked pretty fast. Call me an inexperienced traveller, but I didn’t even know it could be this cold in spring. Of course we checked weather forecasts daily but knowing the temperature and actually feeling it is different. At some point I started trying to walk backwards instead, against the direction of the wind, so it would stop freezing up my face.

Upon reaching DiverCity, Etine’s mom looked around shops while Etine and I bypassed most of the shops. Our priority was making our way to the outside area, where we found the giant Gundam model and the Gundam Cafe.

We decided to go into the cafe first, where Etine happily bought a Haro Latte. I initially wanted to grab one as well but the price made me baulk. I’m not that big of a Gundam fan that it would justify me paying 380 yen for hot latte (but you know, 800 yen for a maid cafe latte is totally reasonable!).

It is pretty cute though.

After which, we went to take photos of the Gundam model in evening light. While waiting for it to become night, we went back into the mall to grab some Gindaco takoyaki (once again). When we were done we went back outside to take photos and it was just nice. The Gundam model looks a lot more imposing at night than in the day thanks to the lighting at the eyes and feet.

Gundam in daylight.

And at night, looking ready for battle.

Finally, we went back inside DiverCity to do shopping. However, the mall surprisingly had nothing much for us – the brands available were more upscale than the ones in AquaCity. We didn’t really find anything here to buy, so we were quickly done with the place. We decided to go towards Odaiba Kaihin Koen (Seaside Park).

We didn’t actually go down to the beach since it was already dark, and we admired the view from the open area outside AquaCity. There were some tourists around here taking photos too.

The view from Kaihin Koen. Tokyo Tower is visible, behind the bridge.

We were actually all kind of disappointed the famous Rainbow Bridge didn’t seem to be doing its rainbow light-ups often seen in postcards. Perhaps it was too early? It was dark, but only around 6pm when we were there looking out.

Since this was our last planned stop in Odaiba, we were about to go, when I spotted the Toys”R”Us sign outside AquaCity and remembered I wanted to visit it but had forgotten to earlier. It was for a lame reason that I wanted to check it out but anyway, I asked if we could make a quick stop at the mall. Etine and her mum were okay with it, so we went back in.

They continued to look at shops again, while I went to Toys”R”Us. When I was done and went back to find them, they were engrossed in trying and buying clothes again. We ended up spending another hour here before making our journey back.

On the train, I caught sight of a Kazoku Game (drama) poster at Shibuya station and quickly snapped a shot.

Reaching back at Shin-Okubo where our hotel was located, we went around the streets to find dinner. Unfortunately I’m not a fan of Korean food so there wasn’t really anything good there. Another unexciting end of day, but still Odaiba was pretty satisfying. In retrospect I wish we actually hadn’t set aside more time for sleeping and allocated more time for shopping, because we missed out Joypolis.

Come this July, Bandai Namco will be opening a brand new amusement park themed after the tremendously popular Weekly Shonen Jump comics. The new theme park, titled J-World Tokyo will open at Ikebukuro’s Sunshine City and will feature areas dedicated to the Dragon Ball, One Piece and Naruto world and characters. The first concept drawings of the park have been released.

J-World Tokyo follows the success of Bandai’s Gundam Front theme park at Odaiba’s DiverCity. Like the Gundam Front, J-World Tokyo will be an indoor theme park, this time located at the third floor of Ikebukuro Sunshine City. The opening of the new Jump theme park on 11th July will also coincide with the renewal of the Namco Namja Town amusement park located just one floor below.

J-World Tokyo. A JUMP themed amusement park.

While most of the park will be dedicated to zones featuring One Piece, Naruto and Dragon Ball (in order of size), there will also be general areas open to the entire family of Jump’s super stars. Some previews of what J-World Tokyo will look like.

Heroes Arena. Where you’ll find mini-exhibits for the various Shonen Jump titles.

Amusement Arena. Which will contain catcher games and gachapon machines.

Given the popularity of the Shonen Jump characters in Japan (and the rest of the world), we’re quite surprised that it took nearly this long to bring this idea to realization. Unsurprisingly, J-World Tokyo is also part of Japan’s ongoing “Cool Japan” efforts to promote “Japanese culture”, though mainly just anime, overseas.

So far prices for the park are definitely on the steep, if not obscene side of things. Entry alone is planned at 1,300 yen for adults and 1,000 yen for children, exclusive of rides. Individual rides will cost an additional 800 yen a go. Given the fact that given that the park is located indoors, the types of rides available will be severely hindered.

One Piece themed carousel.

Another One Piece ride mockup.

So far, 5 rides have been planned. From One Piece we have the Dock Adventure Ride, an indoor track ride that will take visitors through a series of short animated sequences and a One Piece themed carousel. There will also be a Naruto themed maze and a Dragon Ball treasure hunt, which will be familiar to those who’ve visited Namja Town. Finally, there’s a 3D augmented reality Dragon Ball simulator.

Our impression is that the rides will be primarily targeted towards the comics younger audiences and thus might seem a little underwhelming for adults.

The J-World store will carry some exclusive merchandise.

If their past efforts were any indication though, Bandai Namco will do an amazing job with the merchandising of its goods. Fans of the Jump comics can look forward to exclusive merchandise at the J-World souvenir shop.

Like Namja Town, J-World Tokyo will also have a section dedicated to Jump themed food and snacks with the J-World Kitchen.

J-World Kitchen.

Concept art for some of the planned treats have been previewed, let’s see if you can identify which anime worlds they are theme after.

J-World Tokyo Food Mockup #1.

J-World Tokyo Food Mockup #2.

J-World Tokyo Food Mockup #3.

J-World Tokyo Food Mockup #4.

You cannot leave Okinawa until you’ve visited one of the island’s UNESCO World Heritage sites from the Ryukyu Kingdom. There are several throughout the island and the Zakimi Castle ruins is one of them.

The beauty in ruins.

Located on top of a hill, it dates back to the 15^th century and was declared as a World Heritage site in 2000. Within the past decades, the castle also played a role during World War II and the subsequent US occupation of Okinawa.

An intimate look at the walls that made up a castle.

It’s a picturesque place and the surrounding park around the national historic site gives you a sense of traveling back into time, without much signs of modernity in sight.

The surrounding park gives an added sense of serenity.

While it is interesting to visit a fully restored and reconstructed castle, such as the ever popular Shuri Castle, visiting a castle ruins like Zakimi can give you a closer look at the masonry work of the people of the Ryukyu Kingdom and also a deeper sense of authenticity.

Breathtaking view from the top.

The Yomitan Village History and Folklore Museum is also nearby the site if you’d like to soak in more history and culture.

Zakimi Castle
2975, Zakimi,Yomitan-Village, Okinawa

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After 3 days in Tokyo, we had a slight change of environment in the form of Yokohama. Having a bit of trouble finding the place to buy the special discounted Minatomirai Ticket due to wrongly understanding that it was not sold at Shibuya Station at all, our plans were delayed so during the day we had to cut short some places we intended to visit.

The Minatomirai Ticket included travel on the month-old Tokyu Toyoko Line, which apparently cuts short travel time from central Tokyo to Yokohama, and has been the cause for rise in visitorship to Yokohama. Because their website isn’t exactly clear, we exited at Yokohama station and re-entered before changing to the Minatomirai Line. Turns out it wasn’t needed and we could have just changed lines straight.

The sparkly clean trains of the Minatomirai Line.

Going to the furthest point on the Minatomirai Line, Motomachi-Chukagai Station was where our first stop of the day was. We went to Yokohama Chinatown, the biggest in Japan. Unfortunately, it had been raining on and off since we began the day, and of course walking the streets of Chinatown meant being outdoors most of the time.

Grey clouds looming above the entrance of Chinatown.

A giant panda entrance to a shop.

This was my first experience being in a Chinatown outside of my own country, and I must say it’s interesting to see the Chinese-ish architecture you don’t really see in Singapore’s. Perhaps a little on the exaggerated side but it adds to the atmosphere.

The vibrant streets are a mix of small clothes shops, souvenir shops, streetside dim sum stalls and Chinese food restaurants. We checked out a few shops, but didn’t stop by everything because it was a hassle opening and closing umbrellas. We also bought snacks from the streetside stalls. Since it was cold, piping hot meat buns were a delight.

Shop selling super random souvenirs. Leaf-holding frog figurine for 900 yen, anyone?

There are also a fair amount of men trying to get you to try hot chestnuts so you’ll buy them. I don’t eat chestnuts, so I avoided them all the way. Etine’s mum, however, was curious enough to try one, but this particular guy scolded her when she didn’t want to buy. Not sure if she was just unlucky, but anyone reading this might want to take note.

Although we were supposed to find lunch here, we kept buying dim sum, because everywhere we walked, there would be a streetside stall enticing us. The dim sum is not cheap, but I suppose it’s because it’s more of a rarity in Japan, and that Chinatown is essentially a tourist trap anyway. And apparently, many celebrities have visited Yokohama Chinatown before, so there are many places advertising photos of celebrities at their stalls.

Stall showing celebrities patronising. AKB48′s subunit no3b included.

After a fair bit of walking, we finally decided to settle down at a Shanghai cuisine eatery called Yan Tai, as they were having some price promotions. Living in Singapore, we basically eat Chinese food almost everyday, and this is Japan, so we went in there not really knowing what kind of standard to expect.

It turned out to be good decision to step in, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know if I was hungry and it affected my judgement or anything, but I think it tasted better than a lot of the hawker centre fare I’ve been eating.

Congee. Looks normal but tastes pretty good.

Mapo toufu! This was really really delicious and had just the right amount of spice. Would go back for this.

I don’t really remember what this is… black pepper chicken or something?

Yan Tai’s specialty dumplings. Only 2 were left before I could take a photo… and it actually tasted so-so.

With this yummy meal, we left Chinatown, going back to the station to take the train to Minatomirai. We had intended to visit the Yokohama Marine Tower before leaving this area, but as mentioned earlier, due to delays we decided to forgo this.

Upon reaching Minatomirai, we found that it had stopped raining though the sky was still overcast. We headed towards Yokohama Landmark Square for some shopping, although I limited the time we had there for fear we would not have enough time to cover everything we wanted to.

The majority of our time in this shopping mall was spent at Pokemon Center, where a wide array of official Pokemon merchandise are sold. It was also the place with the most traffic in the entire mall, which says a lot about Pokemon’s popularity in Japan still.

Was excited to see the iconic Landmark Tower, regularly shown in one of my favourite dramas, RESCUE.

Entrance of Pokemon Center. Photography not allowed inside.

Thereafter, we were going to make our way towards Kishamichi Promenade, but spotted something we hadn’t come across while planning the trip (don’t ask us how that happened, I have no idea). There was an observatory on the 69th floor of the Landmark Tower called the Sky Garden. We debated for a while whether to go up, but eventually did. It costs only 1,000 yen for a spectacular 360 degree view of Yokohama, and what’s more, we didn’t have to queue. Tickets are purchased via machines.

The staff were also extremely polite while ushering us up, although they didn’t seem to speak any English. Of course, we possibly don’t look foreign enough, but we were actually going in the same time as this Caucasian family, and the staff continued speaking in Japanese.

I did at least manage to understand that the lift we were taking to the 69th floor was the fastest in all of Japan. There was a speed indicator in the lift showing the staggering speed we were going at. In no time at all, we were on the 69th floor, greeted with breathtaking views.

Inside the lift with the speed indicator and the sparkly, reflective ceiling.

Amazing view of Minatomirai from the Sky Garden.

Another view from the Sky Garden. Yokohama Stadium can be seen in the distance.

We spent about an hour in total taking photographs and admiring the view. Okay, it was mostly my fault actually. Etine and her mum were done looking around in half an hour so they spent the rest of the time sitting down and waiting for me. Meanwhile I was too absorbed in the views to notice that they were already bored, and even spent 100 yen on those payable telescope things.

By the time we were out of the place, I had caused our schedule to delay further, and so we struck out going to check out the Nippon Maru ship museum. It was something we had agreed to strike out if we were more interested in other things than a museum, and we were.

Snaking through the Sunday crowd and getting across the super long travelators, we finally reached Kishamichi Promenade, whereby we took more photos of the scenery while crossing it towards the Akarenga Souko (also known as the Red Brick Warehouses).

Kishamichi Promenade. Sky still looking ready to pour anytime.

Akarenga Souko, with a special flower exhibition for the Spring season. In front of this pretty sight however, was something that looked like a construction dumping ground.

The smaller block of Akarenga Souko was apparently an exhibition space so we didn’t spend time there. The bigger block was filled with stylish cafes and shops. It looked completely different from a 2003 variety show I randomly watched recently, but I guess the interior changed a lot since then.

None of us spent any money here, although it was really interesting to look around. There was one shop in particular, an omurice restaurant called Yokohama Tachibanatei, that attracted a crowd. We poked our heads through to see what people were looking at, and we discovered the kitchen had a glass window for people to view the preparation process of the omurice.

I can’t adequately describe how fascinating watching it was. We actually stuck around watching a few rounds of it. The chef obviously had a lot of experience and was able to flick the omelette from the pan perfectly onto the ketchup rice on a plate. Everyone who came by to watch were so amazed that there would be audible gasps of surprise. And the chef liked to show a victory sign to the crowd. You can actually watch the process in the video on their website, where they got featured in a Korean TV show (skip the very front part of the video).

Watching the chef cook up delicious-looking omurice.

Unfortunately since we were there at neither lunch nor dinner time, we passed on eating there. I would definitely want to go back and try it some time when I get the opportunity.

There’s also this balcony on the second floor of the warehouse, which faces the Japan Coast Guard Museum building. Of course, I took out my camera there ready to capture the scenery, but to my surprise, there was this police-looking guy who was standing in the area directly below the balcony calling out to me and telling me that photography was not allowed.

Then I noticed there were a whole bunch of police-looking people near him, seemingly discussing something. But it was still weird that photography is not allowed from an open balcony, and I wondered if it was just for that day because they were doing something sensitive. There were others on the balcony with us but they were taking photos of themselves against the interior rather than with the view.

Done with the Akarenga Souko, we decided to proceed towards the Cosmo World theme park, where we planned to take the Cosmo Clock 21 ferris wheel and try to catch the evening to night view. On the way there, it started raining again, and it was so cold that my feet were freezing up and it was starting to hurt while walking, so we hurried towards World Porters Mall first to get some warmth.

The exterior of World Porters Mall.

It seemed the section of the mall we were stuck navigating had like a outdoor concept though, and I didn’t want to stop to look at any shops because of the weather. At some point we saw a pretty big apparel store that Etine’s mum suggested we could walk through from one exit to the other just to warm up. And… well, let’s just say a lot of things caught our eyes in that shop because everything was so attractively priced and they were having a 20% off promotion (last day!) on top of it.

We got stuck in that store for probably more than an hour, so there went the plan for evening views from Cosmo Clock 21, but all of us bought stuff from there so no complaints. Plus I hadn’t really been buying stuff the last three days, so I couldn’t have been more glad to be able to spend some (exchange-rate-dropping, loss-making) yen.

When we reached Cosmo World it was already pretty dark. Quickly purchasing three tickets for the ferris wheel, we went to the 4th floor where a long queue for the attraction awaited us. Let me just mention that I regret not taking a photo of the ticket – I thought we would have it as a keepsake, but the staff just take it from you when you enter the ride. Also, like all theme park attractions, they take a photo of you before you go in, and then try to sell it to you after the ride.

Going up… cabin is actually roomy enough for 8, so the 3 of us moved around a lot.

The inner framework of the ferris wheel is pretty to look at too.

Night view of Queen’s Square.

In 15 minutes, we were back onto the ground. Since the theme park doesn’t have any admission fee, we didn’t desire to take any other rides. We were heading towards the exit when Etine got attracted to one of those throwing game stalls to get prizes. Without any luck, we walked back towards Queen’s Square to find a place for dinner.

After a lengthy debate over what to eat, we eventually settled for this food court that -get this- had McDonalds’, KFC and Subway all in one. Amazing. They were individual stalls but all shared the same dining area. There was also a western cuisine restaurant, named American House, inside the food court and that was where we settled for.

We were so tired from the day that we had forgotten to take photos of the food that we ordered until after we cleared our plates. Thanks to that, my memory is blurry of what we ordered, but I remember there was California Hamburg Steak, Chilli Cheese Hamburger and fries. And they looked and tasted good.

Then, it was time to call it a day and bid Yokohama farewell. And I thankfully remembered to take a photo of the Minatomirai Ticket before the train gantry sucked it away upon completion of a round trip.

Minatomirai Ticket.

Spotted at a train station on the way back – snapped a photo since AAA was on it!

Some time ago we looked at the Japanese SIM card rental options and deduced that if you’re visiting for a short holiday, the best thing to do would be to stick with your local carrier’s roaming plan. The situation’s changed quite a bit since then and many of the previous SIM card options are now defunct, though the previous conclusion still stands. However for those staying for a longer duration or who require internet access on the go, B-Mobile’s prepaid data cards provide an excellent alternative.

Following the rise of smart phones in Japan, B-Mobile began marketing their local 3G  enabled prepaid data SIM cards between the end of 2010 and 2011. For roughly 3,000 yen, B-Mobile’s data cards offer a month’s worth of data usage. They tap onto the existing NTT DoCoMo networks to provide speedy mobile internet access to just about any part of Japan. Recognizing the demand for data cards by foreigners visiting Japan, B-Mobile have also released special “Visitor Sim” cards last year though I wouldn’t recommend them for reasons explained below.

B-Mobile offers a wide range of different prepaid cards for sale off the shelf at most major electronic shops in Japan like Yodobashi Camera or Bic Camera. Their data cards are available in standard, Micro and Nano sized SIMs (at least for the newer SIMs). Do make sure that you get the correctly labelled package, otherwise you’d have to find some means to cut the card to the desired size.

It is important to note that all of the B-Mobile SIMs are data-only, giving you mobile internet access in Japan, but no traditional phone time or SMS. You can see the full range of B-Mobile products here, however only a few are relevant to travellers, their classic U300 and 1GB Fixed cards and their rebranded equivalents targeted at tourists.

U300. 1 month of unlimited data capped at 300kbps.

U300

The first data SIM card that was offered by B-Mobile is the U300. U300 in this case stands for Unlimited 300 as the U300 data card gives users unlimited data access for a month, which is capped at 300kbps. There are also additional limits to the U300 card in that it does not allow for Voice Over IP services like Skype or LINE or streaming videos. Sustained streaming have been disabled in the card.

The U300 card is the cheapest at 2,980 yen. Given these limitations though, there is little point for unlimited data access, but if you find yourself in Japan without any other forms of internet access this may be attractive to some visitors. The lack of phone calls may be overcoming by using a messaging application.

Since the U300 is considered an older product, you may have a little bit of trouble finding it at out of the way electronic stores. Sometimes it is not displayed prominently either, leading some to believe that they are not available in stores. In the case that you do not see it displayed, some have had luck asking the sales staff at the electronic stores as they may be tucked away with the rest of the less sellable stocks.

1GB Fixed. 1gb of uncapped data usable over a month.

1GB Fixed

The second data card introduced and the one that should interest most visitors is the B-Mobile 1GB Fixed data SIM. It costs slightly more at 3,480 yen but removes the restrictions on VoIP and streaming services. The access speed is also not capped at 300kbps, allowing for lightning fast 3G and 4G LTE access. Our experience with the 1GB Fixed card speeds was very satisfactory. Being Japan, we found the internet access to be much faster than any equivalent Singapore connections, even while traveling on the train, in the middle of the countryside. The downside to this is that data access is capped at 1GB.

With VoIP, one can use services like Skype or LINE to replace the occasional call in Japan. The 1GB data limit is sufficient for a couple hours of total calls and just about as much messaging or surfing you’d ned for a month. If you’re on holiday in Japan and using anything more than that, chances are you’re not enjoying the trip to its fullest.

Note: The one and biggest downside to the above two SIM Cards is that they were only created with the local user in mind and were meant to supplement existing lines. In order to begin using the B-Mobile data SIMs you will need to dial up a toll-free number and enter the product code into the automated systems with normal Japanese cellphone.

If you have access to a friend in Japan who can do this for you, then this is a minor issue. Picking up the U300 or a 1GB data card directly from an electronic store is the cheapest option, since you can forgo any extra shipping charges. However in our last trip, we found it extremely difficult to get anyone to help. I have heard stories where the shop assistants at certain electronic retailers would help tourists to activate their cards, but this is not the norm. In fact with the new B-Mobile Visitor cards, I might suspect some have been told not to.

Getting the SIM card to work without the help of a Japanese friend is much more troublesome. B-Mobile offers a hotline that can be accessed by landline, however to deter tourists from using this SIM activating your card this way now costs an additional 2,500 yen.

One possible solution is to get the B-Mobile data SIMs through local resellers. There are people living in Japan who have taken the opportunity to sell pre-activated B-Mobile cards albeit at a heavily marked up price. This should only be considered if you’re planning to stay in Japan for more than 14 days. Getting a reseller to activate the card and then ship it to you not only costs more, but you’d also be losing at least one day of data access in the process.

Visitor SIMs. More expensive, less days.

Visitor SIM 14-days Prepaid and Visitor SIM 1GB Prepaid

The Visitor SIM 14-days Prepaid and Visitor SIM 1GB Prepaid cards are the two B-Mobiles SIM cards targeted toward tourists and they follow the typical Japanese practice of taking foreigners for suckers.

If you’re visiting the B-Mobile website in anything other Japanese, these will be the only two cards that are displayed to visitors. Both cards are identical to the the regular U300 and 1GB Fixed cards respectively, with the exception that data access is capped to only 14 days, rather than the usual month.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the visitor SIMs also cost more than their Japanese counterparts at 3,980 yen each.

However, if you’re only planning to stay in Japan for a maximum of 14 days and want to do without the hassle of getting the SIM card activated yourself, the Visitor SIM 1GB Prepaid is still a viable alternative as the prices for the visitor cards are inclusive of delivery charges to your hotel when ordered online. All the cards come pre-activated so you can place an order in advance and have it delivered on the day in which you arrive at a hotel for maximum convenience. Airport pickups are also available but cost an additional 210 yen more.

Edit: The B-Mobile link above shows which SIM cards are available in which sizes, but for clarity do take note that only the newer Vistor cards are available as Nano size SIMs. The local versions of the U300 and 1GB Fixed are available in standard and micro sizes only.

We started off the next day waking up early, in order to pack up our stuff, check-out and move to our next hotel which was located one stop away from Shinjuku Station on the Yamanote Line. The initial plan was to take a taxi there since we had to carry all our luggage, but realising that we wouldn’t have to change train lines at all if we took one from Tokyo Station, we decide to save the money. Our hotel in Hatchobori did provide a free shuttle to Tokyo Station anyway, and most guests checking out took advantage of it.

Leaving our luggage at the reception of our next hotel, Shin-Okubo Sekitei, as it was not check-in time yet, we headed for the nearby branch of Gyoza no Ohsho to have lunch. Like its name suggests, it’s a shop known for its gyoza. We had a quick lunch here with all of us ordering sets that included gyoza, and it didn’t disappoint.

Here, I regret to inform that there won’t be any photos for today’s travel and food. We kept our cameras away in the luggage as Etine and I would be going for a concert right after, and didn’t want to risk any trouble with the bag check. We would also be splitting up from her mum, who would be doing her own shopping in Shin-Okubo and Shinjuku while we went for the concert.

The concert we would be going for was the opening day of AAA’s Eighth Wonder tour. For the uninitiated, their name stands for Attack All Around, and the group consists of 5 men and 2 women. They do a variety of genres in accordance with their name – what they’re attacking are actually genres. They’re also titled a “super performance group”, giving energetic dances and singing at the same time without lip-syncing. With their debut single BLOOD on FIRE, they won Best Newcomer at the Japan Record Award.

Lately they’ve been leaning towards a more electronic sound. Here’s their latest release.

So anyway, we made for concert venue, which was in Hachioji City, 1 hour away from central Tokyo. On the way there we started to feel kind of sleepy due to the long train ride after a filling meal. But the moment I got out of the train I regained my energy and started getting super excited because in Hachioji Station itself I could already spot other fans who were carrying AAA goods.

All along the station’s exit till Southern Sky Tower, there were a ton of fans decked out in AAA gear, ranging from official goods, self-made t-shirts, and cosplay outfits of the members’ costumes. There was also a dance cover group in the open area outside the shopping mall, but we didn’t stop to watch as we were freezing in the cold. The 9 – 11 degrees temperature was already cold, but adding were strong winds that happened to be blowing in that area. It was too much for my Singapore-bred self. I think Etine was able to put up with it a little better though.

Heeding the advice of online forums, we were there at the concert venue, Olympus Hall Hachioji (located on the 4th floor of Southern Sky Tower), at about 2pm. It was one hour later than intended due to several minor delays in the morning, but I’m glad we didn’t reach earlier because we ended up with too much free time.

AAA B2-size posters for sale on display.

The advice on forums said to be at a venue at least 3 hours before the doors open (4.30pm in our case), if you absolutely wanted to get your hands on goods. However, I guess this didn’t really apply to us as it was the first day of the tour and there’s less chance of things being sold out. So anyway when we got to the queue for buying goods, we got an official tour light stick and towel each, and I bought some a~panda keychains, the AAA mascot.

Other merchandise on display near the goods counter.

When we were done buying, we didn’t stick around the area since it was crowded with fans sitting around chatting. It was still 2 hours til the doors opened so we decided to walk around Southern Sky Tower, which was a shopping mall.

Most of the shops around were restaurants, but there was a supermarket and a 100-yen shop as well, so we spent our time in those. Etine ended up buying strawberries from the supermarket as they were cheap. Also, when we visited the washroom, it was filled with AAA fans who were there to change into their AAA cosplays.

Close to 4pm, we returned to the waiting area outside the hall. Finding an empty corner, we sat ourselves there. There were plenty of other fans around but none tried to talk to us, to which I was kind of sad, but then I didn’t approach anyone to chat either because I was afraid. Around 4.30pm, staff started shouting for people to form a queue to enter the place. Since there was no English spoken, I was only half-sure of what I had understood. Anyway, we joined the queue since there was nothing to lose (nothing to win either – the concert is ticketed seating).

This display was also near the counter, on the floor where staff checked tickets for entry to the concert hall.

We had to climb two floors of stairs after entering the place since our seats were on the third floor. Despite it being the third floor, the view we had was clear without any blockage. Props to Olympus Hall here – each row of seats are elevated so high that you had no possibility of being blocked by the front row unless you had a 2m-tall man in front of you.

When the hall started filling up, I noticed the Japanese fan beside me was holding a pair of binoculars… and that is when I realised how stupid we were to not foresee the usefulness of bringing binoculars when you’re seated this far from the stage. You can’t really see facial expressions from this distance.

It was not long before the lights switched off, squeals from the audience were heard, and colourful moving lights appeared on the screens that were on the stage itself. The thumping dramatic music at the beginning really got everybody into the mood and even Etine, who wasn’t a hardcore fan like I was, got excited.

Opening up with a totally new song which was very electronic-sounding, it set the pace for the concert. Most of the songs for the day’s setlist would be upbeat. The setlist consisted of songs from recent years (Still Love You, CALL, etc), most recently released singles (Miss you, PARTY IT UP), and new songs from their upcoming album. We were treated to a total of five new songs that would be in AAA’s upcoming album – this meant everyone in the audience on this day were the first fans to listen to these songs. After the encore there was also a medley of older songs that were fan favourites. Here’s one of them.

The MC portions were also enjoyable and you can witness how comfortable they are with the stage after 7 years since debuting. With my limited Japanese though it was still not easy catching what they were saying, and there were a few times where I was clueless when the audience laughed. I also tried explaining the parts I could, to Etine who totally didn’t understand anything.

During the encore MC, AAA also showed their appreciativeness to fans, and they specially asked for the lights on the third level to be turned on so they could see us and wave to us. Naturally, everyone on the third level waved back enthusiastically.

Being immersed in the music I like, watching the high-energy dances and entertaining skit, waving my light stick along with everyone in the audience to the rhythm, and swinging my towel to their song together with a friend, I could say that this was hands down one of the best times I’ve had in my life. Of course, there were many other songs I love that weren’t performed, but I was very satisfied with the show. Etine was also satisfied and ended up buying a~pandas because she became a bigger fan of one of the members.

The concert in total was about 2 and a half hours which was what I expected. 5pm is an early time to start a concert, but I think it was done in consideration of fans – it ended nicely at dinner time. Since we came all the way out to Hachioji, Etine suggested finding dinner in the area. The opposite side of Hachioji Station seemed to be quite a bustling place so we headed off to find food there.

Loot for the day, including Etine’s a~pandas and some flyers. Actually didn’t buy much.

On the way I spotted an electronics shop, so I quickly took a look inside to find the earphone model I had been searching for. And this time, I found it. Still 30 dollars cheaper than in Singapore, so I promptly bought it, then we continued on our journey for food. It was also raining at this time, so it became unbearably cold walking around the streets.

At one point we wandered into an alley with a sign that said “Lingerie Cafe” or something so I tried to stop Etine from going further into this alley. She, still a little blur, walked on a bit before spotting some dubious-looking men and turned back to me and said “Let’s go back to the main street.” Feeling a little scared of what else we could accidentally wander into, we in the end settled for…friendly old McDonalds’.

It’s not as disappointing as you might imagine. The McDonalds’ in Japan has a different menu from Singapore, and after trying the food, I’ve got to say the standard is so much better there. Etine ordered the ebi burger together with seaweed shaker fries. Except it wasn’t called “seaweed shaker” there. I first saw the photo so we mistakenly thought we could just ask for “seaweed shaker” and the staff gave us a confused look. Turns out, when I looked at the menu a second time, it was called “shaka-shaka potato”.

I ordered a teritama burger meal and it was really good. I wish it was available in Singapore too! We sat near a window where we stared back into the same dubious alley we had gotten out from. This time, I spotted even more dubious signs, and was glad we didn’t hang around in there long.

After we finished eating, we headed straight to the train station, since going back would take another hour and we didn’t want to be back too late.

Images and videos of AAA from avex trax/avex management inc.

Still reeling from the disappointment of missing the Tsukiji tuna auction in the morning, we took the train for tech gadget and anime paradise Akihabara, which would hopefully make the day better. Since it was still pretty early when we reached, there weren’t too many people.

Initially looking kind of sleepy, my friend, Etine, quickly perked up upon spotting a To Aru Kagaku no Railgun billboard poster in the distance. It was a little amusing. We headed for the Akihabara UDX building first as it was the closest to the station exit we had come out from. Etine, being an anime otaku, wanted to visit the Tokyo Anime Center in the building. We found out we were a little too early as the center hadn’t opened yet, so we loitered around until it did.

I’m a pretty casual anime watcher myself, but I gotta say I expected more than what we were greeted with, which was basically a bunch of flat TVs showing various anime, a small goods shop, and an exhibition for the hot anime of the moment, Kakumeiki Valvrave. Actually I didn’t know of the anime before, but seeing the number of seiyuus’ names I could recognise off the autograph board, I guess it’s quite a big production.

Those hexagonal shapes pieced together really remind me of Evangelion.

After looking through the place a bit, we went to the Tokyo Anime Center official shop which was a few floors down. This was much better, but still any anime shop around the vicinity could easily win it in terms of goods variety and amount. Etine ended up buying quite a lot of things anyway. We moved on to another anime shop, Animate, which was just around the corner in another building. Animate apparently spans 8 floors if I remember right, and we spent a fair deal of time in there. I still didn’t buy anything since nothing actually caught my eye.

By the time we were out of Animate, all of us had started to feel hungry. We didn’t have to decide what we wanted to eat this time, because we had it already planned in the itinerary, and it was the highlight of the day! @home cafe, one of the bigger maid cafes in the area, was our dining choice for the afternoon.

Once we were shown in to our seats by the cute maids, Etine and I became super excited. While I initially thought we would be the odd ones out, there were actually other female patrons in the shop. The maid serving us was named “Pyon” and she was really cute. My attention was mainly focused on Pyon, Etine was admiring every single maid in the cafe, while her mother didn’t look all that interested but it was understandable.

Etine ordered a banana milkshake while I ordered mocha latte for drinks, while her mum was fine with plain water. All of us ordered set meals as they were the most value-for-money on the menu. The drinks alone were already pretty expensive, because of the fanservice that comes with them. To be honest, I usually stay away from coffee on non-school days due to its particularly strong effects on me, but this was an exception.

Most expensive non-alcoholic drink I’ve bought. But the bunny drawing was worth the 700 yen.

My mocha latte came with the fanservice of the maid drawing with chocolate sauce on the foam of the coffee. I was asked to pick between cat, bear or bunny, and I chose bunny because the maid’s name was Pyon. With Etine’s banana milkshake, Pyon mixed the drink in a shaker, and while shaking it she required us to say the “magic words” along with her, which consisted of mostly cute-sounding onomatopoeic Japanese words, and then finally “Become delicious!”

The mocha latte tasted like any other coffee and the bunny was ruined within the first sip, so nothing special there. I also had a taste of the banana milkshake, and it was not bad but we both agreed it was a tad too sweet.

Following which, we were pretty much left alone for maybe 30 minutes. It took a long long long wait for the food to actually come. In the meantime we observed the neighbouring patrons playing games with the maids (chargeable). One of the maids spoke to us in broken English upon realising we weren’t local and asked where we were from. When the food finally came, it was another maid that served us because Pyon was taking a polaroid with another patron (chargeable). We were asked to pick a toothpick flag with a design we liked, so I picked a bear design because it was the cutest one. Etine ended up getting teased because she picked a flag that said “fujoshi” on it. Since Etine doesn’t really read or speak much Japanese she was a bit clueless.

Almost couldn’t bear to eat it.

So, after waiting that long for the food, how did it fare in the taste test? All 3 of us felt it tasted surprisingly good. It’s not that the food was amazing, but it was decent. And against our low expectations, it being a maid cafe (expecting a rip-off), it was good. Also, looking at the amount of different things on the plate and how detailed the decorations are, one can guess what took so long in the kitchen.

With our stomachs filled, we decided to pass on dessert and pay the bill. A pleasant surprise was that the entry fee was actually 300 yen for females instead of 600 yen. This wasn’t displayed on their website so I didn’t know beforehand. And then after we paid the bill, the maid presented to each of us a loyalty reward card of sorts where you’d get stamps for every visit after. It has a different front design for males and females.

We were asked how to write our names, and because it’s in English, the maid wrote it on tissue paper first to confirm with us. Then she proceeded to write our names in permanent ink in a really cute handwriting on the back of the card. It included titling us as “ojousama”s, a simple animal drawing beside the name, and a heart drawn into the visit date. All in all, it made our maid cafe experience a really good one and I’ll definitely return if I have the chance.

Making our way out of the DonQuijote building, we spotted a nail salon on the first floor, doing anime nail art and we were really interested in doing it (particularly so for me because they displayed Evangelion nail art). But we found out it would take 2 hours. Agreeing that it was too long (on hindsight, it wasn’t…), we passed it up and moved on. After walking around Akihabara a bit more and admiring the Gundam and AKB48 cafes from the exterior, we moved on to Tokyo Dome City (TDC).

The sky was overcast and it was cold so my photos dropped in quality as my hands were freezing.

It seemed we were there too early on a weekday as the place was pretty empty and the rides were hardly in operation since no one was taking them. I actually thought they were shut down or something because of bad weather. In the end we didn’t take anything since it felt really lame and no fun to take rides by ourselves. The star attraction of TDC, the Thunder Dolphin rollercoaster, had also been closed down for more than two years since the Tohoku Earthquake.

Workers seen on the Thunder Dolphin. One wonders what exactly they are repairing.

What do you do at TDC if not taking rides? Shopping, of course. We headed for LaQua, the shopping mall inside TDC. Here, we spent roughly two hours, including some time chilling at a green tea shop. There was also a CD shop where I found a rather rare Limited Edition of a CD I wanted to buy, but didn’t because I stupidly thought I would be able to find a Used version for less, in the coming days (spoiler: no such luck and am still kicking myself for this).

Although we had planned in our itinerary to spend the rest of the day here, it seemed we had already exhausted the place and didn’t know what else to do here. Then I remembered Etine was saying that she wished we had more time in Akihabara, so I proposed taking the train back there to continue shopping, since anyway from Akihabara we wouldn’t have to change train lines to go back to our hotel later on.

But before we could leave TDC, we stopped by MOMI&TOY’S to try their crepes. Definitely not disappointed. I never knew fresh cream could be this delicious!

Too yummy for words.

By the way, being a Japanese music fan and knowing Tokyo Dome, I didn’t neglect to take a closer look at the massive stadium since we were already at TDC. Of course you can’t walk into the stadium freely, but I looked around the outside area and took photos. Hopefully one day in the near future I’ll be able to attend a concert here!

Tokyo Dome’s gate guide.

After that, we made our way back to Suidobashi Station. We were dismayed to find the trains terribly packed. I had forgotten my own warnings to Etine prior to the trip to avoid taking the trains around 5 to 6pm as it would be rush hour. But with no choice since we were already there, we managed to squeeze into the second train that came.

By the time we reached Akihabara again, it was dark. This time, Etine’s mum decided to look at another mall in the area which had clothing stores, so we split ways until dinner. Keeping in mind many businesses in Japan close at 8pm, we quickened our footsteps, heading for Mandarake, another anime goods store. On the way, we passed by an Aoki suits store, with a big Kamenashi Kazuya endorsement poster displayed. Naturally, being a KAT-TUN fangirl, I paused to take a photo of it. However, stopping on a crowded sidewalk isn’t exactly the best idea, so I tried to take it quickly. Unfortunately no matter how many times I took the photo, there was bound to be someone walking into frame.

Hastily taken photo.

Mandarake was interesting to look at for the first few moments but due to the amount of things on display it was really cramped and I felt like I had a lack of oxygen. I guess it didn’t help being surrounded by anime figurines, something I’m not really interested in.

We walked around several electronics stores trying to look for a particular model of earphones which was on my to-buy list, because I was expecting it to sell for cheaper in Japan than in Singapore. Find it we did at a much much cheaper price, like about 30 dollars less, but the colour I wanted was out of stock. Sigh.

Afterwards we met back up with Etine’s mum at a Starbucks, wondering what to have for dinner. Finding that everything in the vicinity were expensive and it was late, we made the decision to go back to our hotel area and buy bentos from the nearby convenience store. A rather unexciting roundup to the day, but we were content with it since we were all tired from walking.

Hi, I’m Grace, yet another Singaporean obsessed with many things Japanese. I’ll be writing about my experience of my recent week-long trip to Japan on this site.

It’s been almost two years since I had last been to Japan. I’ve gone to Japan twice before, one in central Japan and the other in Hokkaido, but they were both on tour groups. This was the first time I was going on a free and easy trip so it was easily a lot more exciting.

Actually, I had been yearning for this trip for a really long time, and as a graduation trip of sorts, it was part of what spurred me on to finish my polytechnic education. My plan back then was to take a solo trip, but my parents wouldn’t hear of it since they couldn’t trust me to be all alone in another country. I then pulled along my best friend from poly who also loves Japan and I believed I would have no trouble travelling with.

However, my parents were still not convinced it would be okay, while my friend’s parents are also strict and didn’t allow her to travel with just friends. In the end it was settled that we would be travelling with her mum, which put both my parents and her parents to a better peace of mind. Not what I had in mind initially but it’s still better than travelling with my own family members.

The itinerary was still completely planned by my friend and I, so very skewed towards our interests, and her mum was like a kind of guardian throughout the trip who followed what we planned. There’s also days where we split up, for my friend and I to do our own things and her mum would go somewhere else to do her own things. Anyway, we’re both waiting for graduation so we were pretty free. It seemed like waiting for the trip to come took forever but it finally did.

Waiting to board the plane.

On my previous trips to Japan, I’ve taken both JAL and ANA. This time, we took Scoot, the low-cost carrier under Singapore Airlines which started operating in June last year, as the prices were attractive.

We heard quite a lot of things about Scoot both online and through word-of-mouth and so we knew what we were in for. The seats were normally comfortable as like any other airline, and leg space was considered pretty good for a budget carrier. There’s no leg rest and the headrest area is just flat which is a little uncomfortable. They also don’t turn off the lights in the cabin besides for take off and landing. A small exception was when we were flying there they did dim the lights for a couple hours at about 3am. Well, all these are probably how they entice people to buy their neck pillow, blanket and eyemask pack.

We also heard from friends who had taken Scoot, that no matter how hungry you get, to never purchase their hot meals on board, because they taste really bad and you will feel like throwing it away after eating a bit. So we duly noted their advice and steered clear of the plane food. On the going journey it’s not hard to endure hunger since it’s the wee hours of the morning, but if you think you’re gonna be hungry, you might want to sneak sweets or small snacks on board. They clearly state that they don’t allow outside food of course, so be careful if you do.

Our departure was delayed by some passenger who didn’t turn up for the flight, so in the end we were about half an hour behind our itinerary but it wasn’t that bad since our first day wasn’t packed. Flying to Narita Airport by Scoot is undoubtedly cheap, but you also fly for longer hours because there’s a transit at Taiwan’s Taoyuan Airport. You still take the same plane after the transit. To me transiting was a bit confusing, maybe because I had never been to Taoyuan Airport. The staff will direct those continuing on to Tokyo towards a counter to collect your transit card. You’ll have to go through scanning your handcarry bags once more and then wait for departure again. In case you get lost or anything, make sure you know Scoot in Mandarin is known as ku4 hang2 (酷航).

Transit card for use at Taoyuan Airport.

If you’re trying to catch sleep on the flight I recommend plugging in to music or wearing earplugs. Because the flight includes transiting, every single announcement they make on the plane comes in English, Mandarin and Japanese. It gets pretty annoying and longwinded and at some point I felt really pissed off. It wasn’t because I was trying to sleep but because the constant announcements were giving me a headache. Other than that it’s basically a smooth ride.

Anyway, upon reaching Narita Airport we headed to find lunch since we were famished from not eating anything on the flight. Since we wouldn’t be able to check-in to our hotel until 3pm, we ate at the airport in a slightly pricey udon and soba shop. The food was normally delicious.

Delicious tamagotoji udon.

Our original intention was to take the limousine bus to get to Tokyo Station. However, when we wanted to buy the tickets at the limousine bus counter, the kind counter staff referred us to a rival bus company, Keisei Bus, which was having a promotion – 900 yen to Tokyo Station. This was more than 3 times cheaper than taking the limousine bus so we were all pleasantly surprised and promptly bought the Keisei Bus tickets.

Roughly a little more than an hour later, we came to our stop at Tokyo Station. Here, we wasted quite a lot of time being lost trying to find the line that went to Hatchobori Station, just one stop away. Our hotel, Dormy Inn Tokyo Hatchobori, was located near Hatchobori Station. We underestimated the size of Tokyo Station for sure, but it didn’t help at all that the direction signs were confusing. We climbed up and down stairs with our luggage just trying to find the entrance to the correct line. I was quite frustrated by the time we found the train line. By the time we reached our hotel, it was already an hour past check-in time. We quickly put down our stuff in the hotel room.

Heading out again, we took the train towards Oshiage Station where the Tokyo Skytree was located. From joining the queue for tickets until we actually bought the tickets, the total time taken was around 25 minutes. We also learnt that there were strong winds and the Skytree would be closed the next day, while for the rest of this day the staff was restricting the number of people going up the lift at a time. Hence, it was another 35 minutes before we were able to take the lift up.

It’s so tall that when you look up, it looks like it’ll fall on you.

However, all the wait was certainly worth it when we saw the amazing view. We were lucky enough to catch the last of the day view and watch the city slowly light up as night fell. After spending ages snapping shots of the view, we finally decided to make our way back down. It was decided that we wouldn’t spend another 1000 yen to go up to the higher deck because the view would mostly be the same anyway, and we had already spent 2000 yen to come up to the lower deck.

Evening view from the Skytree.

Had a quick look through the Skytree shop located on the same level but there didn’t seem to be anything worth buying, so none of us bought anything. The strong winds were unfortunately still going on, so when we got to the lobby area, we were dismayed to find a long snaking queue for the lift down worse than the one we waited for when heading up.

Along the queue just a short distance before the lift, there was a glass floor feature. It took me a few minutes before I could bring myself to stand on it because it was kind of scary. My friend however didn’t waste any time and simply stood on it. I guess I’m weak. We took a few photos there then rejoined the queue for the lift. It was a total 40 minutes queuing before we finally took the lift down and got out.

The scary glass floor could use a little cleaning though.

Feeling cold and hungry, we went into Tokyo Solamachi just next to the Skytree. We couldn’t decide what to eat though, so we walked around. Then I remembered that I wanted to visit the official Rilakkuma store that was in this mall and so made my way there, while my companions looked at other shops. Finally, we regrouped and suddenly right in front of us we noticed there was a takoyaki shop in the form of Gindaco which looked darn good to us there and then.

So we ended up eating takoyaki… which didn’t turn out to be a bad decision and it tastes better than the Gindaco branch in Singapore. But okay, that was not really counted as dinner. We knew our hotel actually served free ramen at night so after the takoyaki we made our way back for the ramen. It was decent and definitely not what you would expect for something free.

Official Rilakkuma store in Tokyo Solamachi.

That isn’t the end of the day though. Back at the hotel we caught a few hours of sleep, and then woke up to head for Tsukiji Market as planned. However, we couldn’t find the ticket selling point for the tuna auction so it took some effort following people around. This was a bit of a failure in planning as we should have printed out a map or woke up even earlier. By the time we got to the place, we were told that tickets for the day had been sold out! It was a real disappointment, especially after waking up this early for it.

We thought about trying again the next day but then gave up the idea eventually as we would be even more exhausted without adequate sleep and the following day we had to wake early to change hotels. Unfortunately, for me at least, I don’t think I’ll ever get the chance to see the famous tuna auction at Tsukiji before the market moves to Toyosu in 2015.

Since we made the effort to come out anyway, we had sushi breakfast (the sushi we had was alright but not particularly worth mentioning to be honest) before heading back to the hotel again to catch a bit more shut-eye.

The Tsukiji Market shop area in the early early morning.

As with all travelling  there are two major concerns when planning a trip to Japan: the first concern is what to do while you’re vacationing in the “Land of the Rising Sun”. The second, equally pressing concern, is affording the trip.

As young travellers, many people are stuck between when to pay off debt and when to save. Japan has so many attractions, like the amazing Nagoya Aquarium, and cultural experiences, like the Asakusa Temple, and anybody who can make the trip, should. If you’re lucky enough to be in a comfortable position financially, affording a trip to Japan is definitely a possibility. Below are four tips for planning a culture-filled trip to Japan while on a budget.

It helps to check out the transport routes ahead of time.

Plan ahead of time. One of the best ways to save on any kind of travelling is to plan well in advance. Starting to plan early affords the advantages of getting early-bird specials and having time to compare rates on the various expenses you will have like airfare and hotels. A good rule of thumb is to plan at least 11 months in advance. With nearly a year to plan, you will be able to find all of the best deals available to you in Japan.

Cash in rewards and club discounts. Savvy travellers know that there are all kinds of advantages from credit card rewards and discounts from club memberships to be taken advantage of when travelling. Most credit card companies offer perks such as frequent flyer miles and points, both of which can be cashed in for discounts on travel and expenses when you’re planning your trip to Japan. Club memberships, like AAA and AAPR, also offer members discounts on travel. As a cardholder or member you are entitled to and have earned these benefits, so don’t be afraid to take advantage. That’s what they’re there for!

Sometimes it can be helpful to mark out things that cannot be missed, like flights and work around these.

Set priorities. Every time you travel to a new place, there will always be more things that you want to than you can do. Restrictive factors like time and money see to this. To make the most of your vacation without breaking the bank, make a list of all of the things you want to do while in Japan. When you prioritize like this, you can give yourself a better sense of what attractions fit into your time and monetary budgets best. Another benefit of creating a priority list is that it can help you see the different attractions in spacial relation to one another, which can help you to better plan your transportation while in Japan.

Visit during the off season. Because of Japan’s long north-to-south formation, the country is home to a range of seasonal attractions. Travel to each region of Japan is more costly in each respective region’s travel season. For example, the Sapporo area of Japan celebrates its Snow Festival in February, so travelling to Kyoto or Hiroshima is cheaper during that time. What regions of Japan you plan to travel to should determine what time of year you travel, if you want to save money. Once you know what you’d like to see and do while in Japan, you’ll have a better idea of when is the best, and cheapest, time to travel.

The above a just a few of the many, many travel tips that can help you save on your trip to Japan. You can save even more if you’re travelling as a couple on a budget. The world is a fascinating and enriching place, and you should take every opportunity you can to visit all of its extravagant locales, Japan and beyond, without having to worry about money.

Being from Hong Kong, I have always envied Singapore because AKB48 actually went there and performed stages more than once. The most Hong Kong ever got was the 3-song “mini live” at the Genki Japan event, despite an appearance from Maeda Atsuko right after she announced plans to graduate. So I got my plane tickets in record time when Tokyo Auto Salon announced the AKB48 line-up, which included members like Kikuchi Ayaka and Kawaei Rina.

I arrived at Changi Airport at 5am on the morning of 4/12 and hurried over to Terminal 2 to meet up with other fans. After extensive “researching” on Google+ and twitter, we deducted that the girls would most likely take the red-eye ANA flight and land at around 6am. The girls started showing up at immigration around 6:30am. I have never been to an “airport event” before, so didn’t know what to expect.

Japanese passengers on the same flight seemed quite perplexed that AKB48 had overseas fans – many of them snapped pictures of us holding signs. The girls that have been here before (Maeda “Singapore Maeda” Ami, Sato Sumire, etc) probably told the first-timers about the airport fans, because they looked more elated and amused than surprised to see us. They pointed and waved at us on the way to baggage claim. We welcomed them with frantic photo-snapping amid loud cheers until they got into pre-arranged transports and left.

After meeting up with more people, including Mus, we headed to the Marina Bay Sands Expo Center, where TAS took place, to line up for the “Priority Passes”. These limited-quantity passes were handed out each day (in different colors to prevent abuse), and granted access to the mosh pit area of the stage. The announcement from TAS was a little vague in terms of what pass holders are entitled to, with regards to AKB48′s Meet and Greet event, so all the fans decided to do the safe thing by waiting in line. We walked the show for a bit after getting the passes, and you can see summaries of the show in the earlier post by Mus.

At 2pm there was a press conference for the media to meet AKB48 first for some Q&A – but since I was brand spanking new to the team, my name was not on the list and was not allowed in. Mus did go in and he took some excellent close-up photos of AKB48 members with my short telephoto lens.

We met up again in the mosh pit around 2:45pm. Some of the people in the pit have been waiting since 10am, right after they got the passes. At 3pm sharp, the opening ceremony started and AKB48 came on stage for ribbon-cutting. After all the formalities were done with, it was finally time to meet them!  They each said their names in quick succession, and then the mosh pit audience were ushered onto the stage for a high-five session with the members. I was a little disappointed but this was expected – a handshake session with all of them would probably take too long.

Fast forward to next morning – I crashed at a friend’s house and we left for the venue at 6:30am, because we want to secure Saturday’s mosh pit passes for the one-hour AKB48 concert in the evening. The line at 7am was already longer than Friday at 8am, but that was expected. Some people apparently stayed overnight, but that really wasn’t that surprising. When Kashiwagi Yuki came to Hong Kong for a handshake event, I lined up for 9 hours to get the ticket. I arrived at 6am and was number 499 in the line – the first person had been there since 4pm the day before.

Thankfully, not everyone was that desperate.

The girls came on stage at 4:30pm and did a repeat of the Meet-and-Greet session, for those that couldn’t make it on Friday. Afterwards most of the fans stayed in the pit to keep their spots near the front of the stage. There was another performance by a solo guitarist from 5pm to 6pm, but people hardly paid any attention to him. He was not bad at all, just had the misfortune of headlining for AKB48.  By 5:50pm the pit was full.  I ended up occupying the back-left corner with Mus and the Wotaroid crew.

This was my first “real” AKB48 live concert – it was everything I expected and then some. They sung and danced for one full hour, while we swung our glowsticks and MIXed for one full hour. The setlist was great, consisted of their most popular singles like Heavy Rotation, the must-have Aitakatta, newer songs like Gingham Check and So Long, and the full-spirited RIVER.

The lineup this time had both Stalwarts and new blood.

During the short MC in the middle, there was an emotional moment when it was Akimoto Sayaka’s turn to speak. She recently announced her plan to graduate from the group, and this was her last time in Singapore as an AKB48 member. She was a central figure in the earlier years of AKB48 and has been a pillar (both figuratively and literally) of the original Team K, as well as all of its reincarnations. She asked the fans to keep supporting her and it was met with loud cheers, followed by “Sayaka” calls.

The Wotaroid crew was also spectacular, doing their routines and getting everyone’s attention. Makes me want to learn the moves and join them next time.

Kikuchi Ayaka was cuter than initially expected.

After the concert ended, I headed back to the airport and hung around until my red-eye flight took me back to Hong Kong. We were guessing that the girls might go back to Japan on the same night, but our guesses were wrong this time. From their g+ posts, it looked like they went shopping and then had chili/pepper crabs again.  It was a great trip – A+++++, would go again.

For the rest of the photos from the press conference, visit us on Facebook!

The Arashiyama mountain west of Kyoto is home to about 130 wild monkeys. On one side of the mountain a small nature reserve has been set up to observe and feed these monkeys. During the day, the monkeys come down to the Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama to greet visitors and to laze around at the clearing here. For a token entry fee, one can visit the park to meet and interact with the Japanese macaques up close.

Overview

Popularly referred to as snow monkeys by tourists, the Japanese macaques are the only species of primate native to Japan. While you will most definitely come across these Japanese monkeys in zoos, apart from the Jigokudani Monkey Park at Nakano, Arashiyama is one of the few places in Japan where you can actually come close to these monkeys in the wild. Japanese macaques are unique in that they are the species of monkey to live in the coldest environments and the most northern dwelling primates. They’re a highly intelligent and have adopted some unique behaviours such as bathing in hot springs.

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Getting to Arashiyama

Arashiyama is a mountain a short distance to the west of Kyoto. You can access Arashiyama via local trains from Kyoto, Osaka or any of the other nearby cities. There isn’t a single direct train there, so you’ll need to be prepared to switch lines a few times to get there.

There are three stations which you can alight from. If you insist on using a rail pass, then you’d need to alight at Saga-Arashiyama station which is the furthest. There’s also the Keifuku Arashiyama Station a local tram station, which is connected to Saga-Arashiyama. If you’re traveling from elsewhere, then most likely the most convenient station to access the monkey park will be the Hankyu Arashiyama Station.

For those interested, we got to Arashiyama from Osaka by taking the Hankyu train from Minamikata near Shin-Osaka, changing at Awaji and Katsura, before finally alighting at the Hankyu Arashiyama Station. Hankyu operates their small, classic looking trains through many of the scenic areas around the Kansai region, so the ride there was quite pleasing. The entire journey took just under an hour and cost just 360 yen (SGD$4.50).

Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama is located on the Hozu (south-west) side of the iconic Togetsukyou Bridge.

Visiting the Monkey Park

The entrance to Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama is located along the southern bank of the Hozu River, across from the main shopping streets. If you’re arriving via the Hankyu Station, then you should already be at the correct side. Otherwise, you’d need to cross over the Togetsukyou Bridge to get there. The entrance to the park is actually hidden beside a temple along the mountainside but there are signs pointing out the way there so it shouldn’t be difficult to find it, once you’ve made it this far.

Short trek up the mountain side.

Entry to the grounds costs 550 yen for adults and 250 yen for children (4-15), those younger may enter free. The opening hours vary slightly between the seasons but the park opens daily at 9 AM to around 5 PM with no fixed closing days, except for when it rains or snows very heavily. Chances are no one would want to visit in such weather, but in the rather case that you do, check if they’re open during the blizzard first on their website. I’m pretty sure it’d be interesting to visit during the winter when the mountain is coated in snow. There are blossoming sakura trees on the mountain during spring.

Learning boards along the way up.

The wild macaques at Arashiyama roam around freely on the mountain. The Monkey Park Iwatayama is just a minuscule portion of their entire grounds. In order to attract the monkeys over for study, the park has been set up here and they offer food to them during the day.

The halfway mark.

There is an uphill climb to the 160 meter high area of the park area where most of the sociable wild monkeys hang around. For this, you’d want to come prepared for a little trekking. Rubber sandals can be borrowed from the front counter as a last resort. Along the way up, we ran into the occasional resident scurrying past, but the majority just stick around the top. As these are wild monkeys, you are cautioned against approaching or staring directly at the macaques.

Do not stare at them in the eyes.

Free roaming.

Yet, Arashiyama’s monkeys are surprisingly well behaved, mostly going about their own business as if we weren’t even there. Quite the contrast to the the monkeys you’d find at tourist attractions in other parts of Asia.

Clearing at the top.

Nice view of the surrounding landscape.

There’s a wide clearing at the top. From here, you can not only get a nice aerial view of Kyoto, but it’s also where most of the monkeys hang out. The building here serves as a rest stop for visitors, as headquarters for the park’s observation work, and also where you can actually interact with the monkeys. The staff feed the monkeys but you can also purchase generously sized bags of treats for 100 yen. It’s a small price to pay for the experience.

Rest stop and viewing area.

Small hut where the staff stay.

Nice backdrop.

Names for the ones that hang around the hut.

Above, there’s another clearing where more monkeys hung out at, at least during this Autumn season, to bask in the afternoon sun. The staff there followed us around to make sure that the monkeys behaved themselves. Impressively, they were able to name and identify them individually and the monkeys responded to them.

Let’s you get really up close with the mountain’s inhabitants.

Popular with the monkeys.

Fighting with the little one.

If you’re visiting by Kyoto or Osaka, Arashiyama’s Monkey Park Iwatayama makes for a nice side trip. It ended up being one of the most enjoyable experiences. It’s great fun meeting the Japanese macaques, who were unbelievably civilised and intelligent. Being able to visit and observe the monkeys in their natural habitat is an experience unlike any other.

Just chilling, with a mountain view.

Grooming each other.

First few pictures are courtesy of Randy.

The Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium is one of Japan’s largest aquariums. It is both more expansive and holds a larger wider variety of sea creatures than even Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan which is popularly regarded as the second best aquarium in Japan, after Okinawa’s Churaumi Aquarium. We found Nagoya Aquarium to be competitive with Osaka Aquarium, if not better, but take a look inside and decide for yourself.

Getting to Nagoya Aquarium

As it’s name suggests Nagoya’s Aquarium is located at Nagoya Port. Unlike Osaka, Nagoya Port is pretty devoid of attractions apart from the aquarium and its related museums. Thankfully it’s pretty convenient getting to and out of Nagoya Port. It’s just 260 yen and 15-20 minutes from the city center to Nagoyako, the nearest subway station. From there, Nagoya Aquarium is just a short distance away on foot.

Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium
1-3 Minatomachi
Minato Ward, Nagoya City
Aichi 455-0033

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Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium.

Visiting Nagoya Aquarium

Entry to Nagoya Aquarium is surprisingly affordable at 2,000 yen (SGD$25). Cheaper than Osaka Aquarium and much less than what you would expect to pay for an aquarium of this size. There’s also a combination pass for 2,400 yen which bundles the aquarium with the other related attractions at the port. For just 5,000 yen, one can get unlimited access to the aquarium for a year.

Entrance.

At Osaka Aquarium

Osaka and Nagoya Aquariums are two very different experiences. While Osaka Aquarium employs a more modern design that simulates an undersea environment by surrounding visitors all round with tanks, Nagoya Aquarium contains many large, widely spaced out tanks, great for accommodating a throng of visitors. That’s not to say that Nagoya Aquarium isn’t any less beautiful that Osaka’s, but the ambiance here is more typical of a marine park.

Lots of wide open spaces.

The highlight of Nagoya Aquarium is definitely the the many bigger tanks, each holding a number of large sea creatures. Nagoya Aquarium is home to a family of orca, beluga whales and many more dolphins. Comparatively, there’s a much higher concentration of bigger inhabitants here than in Osaka.

Definitely one of the aquarium’s highlights.

Orca.

Hovering gracefully.

The orca and dolphins were extremely intelligent and very active. There are a number of interconnected viewing tanks and hidden pools at the back which the creatures could pass through freely. The majestic creatures came up to greet visitors and in the case of the dolphins, even spun around playfully in front of visitors in much the same way puppies would greet their owners.

Many dolphin tanks.

Dolphins were really active.

Overall, Nagoya Aquarium feels more traditional in terms of concept, like one expansive underwater zoo. It feels more family-centric, as compared to Osaka’s, which feels more like somewhere you’d go for dates. A good amount of space is given to educational exhibits and a couple of learning centers where younger visitors can discover more about marine ecology. The exhibits are pretty impressive though, even for older visitors.

Giant to scale models.

Kind of intimidating.

Fossil displays.

Nagoya Aquarium is split into two buildings. The first houses most of the aquariums larger animals. There’s an especially spacious central tank which is connected to the other viewing tanks which serves as a dolphinarium where the dolphins and orca can move between. Directly above this is the stadium where you can view the aquarium’s dolphin and orca shows.

Wide underwater viewing area.

The largest central tank.

Measuring 60 x 30 x 12 meters, the aquarium’s outdoor tank is the largest of its kind in the world. Unfortunately, at time of writing Nagoya’s orca shows had been temporarily put on hold but they should now be back in session. There are 3 dolphin shows (4 or 5 on weekends and public holidays) and 2 orca shows at the outdoor tank each day. The stadium built around the tank sits up to 2,500 people so getting seats shouldn’t be a problem, except in the most busy of seasons.

Dolphin show.

Each dolphin show spans 30 minutes and is very enjoyable. The whole thing is framed like a musical concert and after the stars of the show are introduced in turn, they go on to perform a continuous span of tricks. As with such shows, those sitting in front should be prepared to get wet. Prior to each show, the staff advises though sitting in the marked danger zones to store away any electronic devices.

Giant screen for closeups.

Performing tricks in time to the music.

All of the performing animals are very well trained. After the show they are lead back to their respective tanks where they continue to be rewarded by their trainers. For the rest time outside of shows, you can observe the dolphins and orca in their viewing tanks from above here as well. You may also chance upon some of the “dolphin challenge” training sessions throughout the day. One of the strengths of Nagoya Aquarium is its fairly open concept that allows you to view these and many of the other main tanks from alternate views.

Rewarding them after the show.

For example, in the man made cover beside the dolphinarium there’s a large enclosure dedicated to just a beluga whale. The aquarium’s mascot, there are daily shows for the beluga whale observable from the top floor too. Here the beluga whale and its recent offspring were introduced in detail during one of the interactive training sessions.

In a man made cover beside.

Beluga Whale.

Back downstairs, you’ll find the accessway to the aquarium’s other building. The link leads to this pitch dark “deep sea” area where you’ll find most of the aquariums smaller creatures as well as the impressive “Sardine Tornado” display. The aquarium’s next largest tank, the sardine tornado consists of hundreds of tiny sardines spiraling around the tank in unison. It’s a fantastical sight that can’t be witnessed otherwise. The large tank also houses a number of sharks and an elusive ocean sunfish to complete the illusion of an under sea experience.

Sardine Tornado.

The rest of the Deep Sea Gallery is slightly less impressive. While there is an admirable collection of small creatures, Nagoya’s display of jellyfish pales by far in comparison to Osaka’s. There are only 5 varieties of small jellyfish on display. To make up for this, the aquarium offers preserved specimens of various deep sea fishes, 3D holographic shows and a free in-house IMAX Theater to further enrich their offerings. It is worth noting that after factoring in all the other sea creatures, the overall number of actual different species of marine inhabitants still tips in favor of Nagoya Aquarium.

Small fishes.

Jellyfishes.

Jellyfish collection is meager though.

The end of the deep sea area breaks out into the main section of the south building. Entering the section, visitors past through a colorful coral reef tunnel with giant groupers and other tropical fishes. Here, the aquarium’s tropical and freshwater lifeforms are spread over the building’s three floors.

Reef fishes.

Of interest here is a tank containing loggerhead sea turtles. There are also other species of smaller sea turtles in the surrounding tanks, but with some of the loggerheads being as large as a kindergartener this particular tank looked kind of crowded. You can witness all of the sea creatures at the aquarium being fed at particular times of the day, and at least in the case of the turtles even take part in the feeding too from upstairs.

Sea turtles.

Tiny ones too.

Apart from the turtle feeding area and an adjacent restaurant where you can feed yourself, the top floor of the south wing marks the last of the aquarium’s exhibits, with its freshwater and Antarctic sections. Coming from this side of the world, the freshwater exhibit wasn’t too notable since it contained many fishes that we should already be all too familiar with but the Antarctic section is worth your time.

Australian freshwater tank.

The penguin enclosure is pretty big. It’s a little narrow but spans across a wide area. It’s built in such a way to resemble their natural habitat. Various species of penguin share the same enclosure together. Again, these were some of the most active penguins I’ve seen. A flock of them swam quickly from end to end of the pool.

Penguin enclosure.

Penguin habitat.

A bunch of them made fast laps back and forth.

More penguins.

It’s no surprise why Nagoya Aquarium had come so highly recommended to us. True to its claim, it’s one of the largest and best aquariums you’d find in Japan. If you like marine animals, especially the larger ones, a visit to Nagoya Aquarium is quite the treat. Regardless of age, it’s nice meeting the aquarium’s healthy, active and surprisingly intelligent inhabitants.

The affordable entry fee means you’ll be more tempted to spend at either of the aquarium’s two souvenir shops. There’s an assortment of original goods featuring the marine park’s mascot and popular residents.

3D goods.

The Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium is a must visit attraction for anyone headed to the city. You won’t regret it. For those who have already been there, do share with us your experiences.

Kani Doraku is a popular Japanese restaurant chain that specialises in all sorts of crab dishes. There are Kani Doraku stores all around Japan, but here we had the chance to visit the original store located just beside the Shinsaibashi Bridge at Dotonbori, Namba Osaka’s famous nightlife district.

Dotonbori is famous for the many outrageous store signs that the restaurants there incorporate, with Kani Doraku’s giant mechanical crab being one of the most iconic. The giant billboard outside each Kani Doraku outlet marks the restaurant’s speciality, and also makes spotting an outlet easy.

Kani Doraku’s famous giant crab signboard.

The “honten” or original Kani Doraku shop at Dotonbori, is able to accomodate more than 300 customers at a time. The first 4 floors contain regular walk-in seats while the top floor houses special VIP rooms for special functions. Though we didn’t have problems getting a table, it was already nearing closing time, yet most of the seats were still occupied. Business was good here. You can probably expect the place to be packed during peak hours.

Kani Doraku Original Shop at Namba Osaka’s Dotonbori.

In the lobby, a dozen live crabs were squeezed into one tiny fountain. After checking if we wanted to smoke and confirming that we were fine with only having one hour left, we were lead upstairs to a window-side table on the 4th floor where we could get a wonderful view of the Namba canal below.

The restaurant is furnished in traditional Japanese style, so you put your shoes into wooden capsule boxes before entering and have to sit at low tables. Thankfully, the spaces under each table is hollow so you don’t actually have to sit kneeling down. The service at Kani Doraku was good, despite us being so rude as to arrive just before closing time.

Impeccable service.

The multi-story restaurant was packed with customers.

Though it also serves other types of crabs, Kani Doraku’s main is of course Japanese snow crabs. Snow crabs are perhaps the most common type of crab to Japan, though it is often mistakenly referred to as Hokkaido crabs in Singapore. The majority of Japanese snow crabs are caught between the seas north of the Hyogo and Fukui Prefectures. Thus, the reason why an Osakan shop has become nationally famous for crabs. The crabs at Kani Doraku were immensely fresh.

Raw crab appetizer.

Feeling a little lavish, we each went with one of their seasonal course meals which cost about 6,000 yen each. The meal opened up with the freshest raw crabs any of us had ever had the chance to taste and slowly worked its way through various other dishes, all made with crab. Every treat we were brought was a new experience and much enjoyed.

More appetizers.

Egg custard.

The highlight for the meal was definitely the large crab legs provided to us raw to grill to one’s own liking. As recommended by the staff, these were simply passed over the grill lightly to sear the outsides and dipped into a sauce made from crab innards that was served to us on a mini-fondue pot. Regardless of whether you’re having one of the permanent menu sets or a seasonal set, the grilled crab meats seems to be common to many sets.

More raw pieces to gril as you please.

Lightly seared.

Accompanying the crab legs were some fresh greens to grill too. Afterwards were given some pieces of different types of crab sushi. They were really good too. We had seen some bento sushi boxes for sale outside fo the shop too. It seems you can get some of the sushi (at least those that keep) to go.

Some of the sushi pieces.

Sweet potato cubes with jelly and ice cream.

Despite the somewhat severe price, we thoroughly enjoyed our meal at Kani Doraku. So much that the rest would had been keen on paying it another visit sometime again. Every dollar was well spent for this experience. If you haven’t already given the popular chain a try, I would recommend at least visiting Kani Doraku once.

If the plastic displays here were any indication, Kani Doraku also offers some really attractive crab sushi bento boxes to take with you on the go. The prices, between 1,400 to 1,800 yen seriously give just about any Ekiben a run for their money and seems like a heavenly treat to take along with you for long shinkansen rides. Anyone has any experience with these? Will definitely want to give them a try in the future.

Affordable bento boxes are available for takeout too.

Kani Doraku Honten
6-18 Dotonbori Ichome
Chuo Ward, Osaka City
Osaka 542-0071
(Open 11 AM to 11 PM Daily)

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Last year, we stumbled upon the AKB48 Cafe and Shop in Namba, Osaka. The shop occupies an impressive space right across the NMB48 Theater in the recently renovated NGK Building, and thus easily accessible to visiting fans of the 48 groups.

At least they don’t shove you here.

The shop section.

Rather than replace the existing NMB48 Shop, the AKB48 Cafe and Shop Namba carries a separate set of merchandise for the family’s other sister groups. When we last visited, the shop was stocked fully with the latest merchandise from AKB48 and SKE48.

Mingling around inside.

Now that the AKB48 Shop Harajuku has ceased operations, Namba’s shop easily outclasses the other AKB48 startups in Tokyo. The shop section at Namba is much larger and better equipped than even the AKB48 Cafe and Shop Akihabara. The place is also decorated with autographs of various 48 members and some of the AKB48 costumes are displayed in the center of the shop.

Walls were decorated with their signatures.

Oshima Yuko’s Beginner outfit.

The AKB48 Namba Cafe is decorated in the familiar tartan patterns but rather than an over the counter setting like in Akiba, the cafe section in Namba operates as a more humble fast food outlet. You have to place your order yourself at the counter and after a short wait, the food is brought over to your table.

The cafe.

There is a one hour time limit inside.

The menu at the cafe is typical fast food affair and hardly anything to rave about. However at this point I doubt anyone actually goes to an AKB48 Cafe for the food. Prices are also grossly inflated because of the AKB48 branding. The money goes towards reaffirming your brand loyalty and the 48 related programs that run on the televisions mounted at all corners.

Fast food style.

Member recommendations.

One plus though is that the cafe is very accessible when compared to Akiba’s, where there is usually a long queue. Even during this crowded evening, we didn’t have to wait for more than 10 minutes to enter. This is probably due to the fact that upon entry patrons are informed that everyone must order and that you have a limited amount of time to spend inside.

Some of the tables are autographed.

Their set meals came with 48 member coasters.

700 yen AKB48 cafe burger and drink set.

It should be worth noting that at least the Namba’s shop and cafe staff seemed friendlier and (if I might add) cuter than their Tokyo counterparts.

If you’re remotely interested in AKB48 and happen to be passing by Namba’s Nankai Dori, it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at the AKB48 Cafe and Shop Namba. But unless you happen to be a die hard fan though, I wouldn’t recommend eating there.

AKB48 Cafe and Shop Namba
1F, Namba Grand Kagetsu
Nanba Sennichimae 11-6
Osaka Chuo Ward
Osaka 542-0075

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For more information, you can check out the shop’s site in Japanese.

It’s been quite a while since Google introduced their Street View partner program and the special collection for Japan. While it doesn’t look like we’ll see all of Japan’s touristy sights covered anytime soon, the number of indoor and on foot Street View attractions have grown considerably since then.

Now part of the Google Street View Gallery, the list has been updated to include quite a few popular landmarks, especially temples and shrines. Currently most of the attractions featured are outdoors, though we see a few commercial partners like Marui willing to offer indoor shots.

There are also indoor walk throughs for the stations on the Minato Mirai line. Considering how confusing some find Japanese train stations, it’d be great to see more of such. There are also some novel Street Views such as a point of view from the Palette Town’s Ferris Wheel or Dotonbori River Cruise.

Given the current locations covered, the gallery doesn’t really help much with directions but are fun to look through anyways. Some interesting examples.

Asakusa’s Sensoji Temple and Nakamise Shopping Streets

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Odaiba’s Palette Town Ferris Wheel

大きな地図で見る

Dotonbori River Cruise (as seen in HA!)

大きな地図で見る

Check out Japan’s Google Street View Gallery for the rest.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts, but with some writing in for requests on their itineraries and insufficient time to respond on a personal basis, I thought I’d throw up a summary for all of the days of the year end Japan trip previously published. Due to the nature of things, a lot of the events mentioned won’t be applicable to future trips, but hopefully it’ll show what is achievable in one day, highlight some key attractions and provide some tips for those traveling to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto or Nagoya.

Flight

Due to the length of stay, we’ve decided to cover the Kanto (Osaka/Kyoto), Aichi (Nagoya) and Kanto (Tokyo/Yokohama) areas in all. While we’d be covering a similar Kansai-Kanto route to a past trip, this time we’d actually stop over at Haneda Airport and take a connecting flight to Osaka. Even after factoring in the costs of the local transit, this came with the advantage of saving quite a bit of money that would had otherwise gone towards a Japan Rail Pass (JR Pass).

We flew with ANA, which allowed us to plan a custom trip. Starting off at Haneda Airport, we’d take a local flight to Itami Airport (Osaka’s domestic airport), work our way north through cheaper land transport, and finally fly back to Singapore from Haneda. This way, our entire expenditure for the flight and cross country transport for a month amounted to only about SGD$1,100. A 21 day Rail Pass alone would had set one back SGD$865 during this time.

Domestic flights in Japan are cheap, more so than Shinkansen at least. ANA is now offers flights anywhere within Japan for 10,500 yen, though it’s part of a “Cool Japan” and only applicable to foreigners. There are also budget airlines that operate even cheaper flights. Flying by ANA, there’s about 2 hours between flights, which is narrowed to about 1 hour after all the logistics are settled. It takes just an additional hour by plane to get from Haneda to Itami. Given ANA’s timings, this would mean that in total we’d leave Singapore at about 10 PM and reach Osaka at about 9 AM. For those with the energy to continue on after a flight, this might be a plus.

As covered in greater detail in the Day 1 article, taking a domestic flight also comes with the benefit of Itami Airport being more convenient than the more commonly traversed Kansai International Airport. A coach from Itami to the city is just 490 yen and 20 minutes, less than 1/3rd it would cost and take if one were to arrive by Kansai International Airport.

Just a short wait between flights.

Accommodation

We would be staying at three different accommodations in Japan this trip. A hotel in Osaka would serve as our Kansai outpost, Nagoya, Aichi and an apartment in Tokyo. I was really happy with how the first two hotels turned out, not so the apartment. Definitely recommend the Osaka and Nagoya hotels to readers.

Shin Osaka Sunny Stone Hotel
It’s hard to find faults with the Shin Osaka Sunny Stone Hotel. At just SGD$52 per room, Sunny Stone gives even hotels in “cheaper” countries a run for their money. If that wasn’t nearly enough, the hotel is located within walking distance from Shin-Osaka Station, Osaka’s Shinkansen terminal, giving you convenient access to not only Osaka itself, but also adjacent cities like Kyoto, Kobe and beyond. Add in some of the most spacious rooms and a complementary buffet breakfast, and you’ve got yourself a real bargain.

Unizo Inn Nagoya Sakae (Formerly Chisun Inn Nagoya Sakae)
Hotels in Nagoya are generally more expensive. Unizo Inn Nagoya Sakae is quite affordable though, especially when considering its location. Located smack in the center of Nagoya’s Naka (center) Ward, Unizo Sakae grants you the best access to all of the city’s sights, without burning a hole in your wallet. Rooms are SGD$67 a night. Amenities-wise Unizo Sakae is a pretty standard business hotel. It’s value comes from being located within the Sakae shopping district, a lovely city center with plenty of parks, cafes and restaurants. It’s also walking distance from Nagoya Tower, Nagoya Castle, Sunshine Sakae, Osu and many of the city’s museums.

Domestic flight to Osaka.

Day 1. Haneda Airport, Itami Airport, Umeda, Osaka Aquarium

Clearing customs and dropping off our luggage the our hotel we still had the rest of the afternoon available. After visiting Endo Sushi to celebrate our arrival in Japan, we headed over to the nearby Umeda district for a bit of shopping and to get B-Mobile 3G Data Sim Cards, which we would have much trouble activating later. Finally, we made the ill-advised decision to press on to Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan in the evening, when we would had been much better spent recovering from the post-flight fatigue.

Namba Waterways.

Day 2. Senrichuo, Namba, Dotonbori

This morning we’d head over to the Selcy Mall at Senrichuo for the free SUPER☆GiRLS mini-live. The rest of the afternoon would be spent over at central Namba especially it’s Den-Den Town area for it’s amusement centers and the new AKB48 Cafe & Shop opposite the NMB48 Theater.

At night, we walked over to the nearby Dotonbori area to catch the night time illumination there, and bumped into a bunch of Halloween partygoers. We ended the day with a set meal at the original shop of the famous Kani Doraku crab restaurant, which was nothing short of amazing.

Osaka’s Castle.

Day 3. Osaka Castle, Sakuya Konohanakan, Umeda

Thought we’d spend the day tackling some “cultural” landmarks. We purchased the one day version of the Osaka Unlimited Pass, an all inclusive transport and attraction bundle pass but would later regret it. Would learn that is particularly difficult to make the one day parth worthwhile, since it costs more than 2/3rds the two day version. Faced with poor weather, we’d stick indoors by visiting Osaka Castle in the morning.

The past days’ tiredness and issues would slowly build up resulting in us reaching our next destination Sakuya Konohanakan only at closing time. In my haste, ended up dropping my camera and damaging the lens. Umeda’s Yodobashi Camera was of little help, so got some pliers from a Don Quixote outlet to take things into my own hands.

Get up close with the monkeys.

Day 4. Arashiyama Monkey Park, Tenryuji, Umeda

Meeting the Japanese Macaque monkeys at Arashiyama was one of the highlights of our trip. The Monkey Park at Kyoto’s Arashiyama provides a means of meeting the monkeys up close, without infringing too much upon their natural habitat or behavior. The rest of the surrounding area makes for a nice visit too. The main temple Tenryuji is not bad as far as temples go. We also enjoyed lunch and snacks at the traditional Japanese shopping streets. Such touristy places tend to close early, so there was still ample time in the evening to catch up on more shopping back in Osaka city.

Rightfully Kyoto’s most famous temple.

Day 5. Kiyomizudera, Higashiyama, Gion

We’d finally head over today to Kyoto’s most popular shrine Kiyomizudera. Forgot about how Kyoto is mainly serviced by buses, so ended up wasting some time and money taking a train to a nearer station, when we could had taken a direct bus from Kyoto Station. Kiyomizudera is definitely worth a visit. Rather than one temple, its a complex of temples and shrines.

There’s a great deal to see at the surrounding Higashiyama neighborhood where we spent the rest of the afternoon. More traditional Japanese shops here than any other touristy area. Gion, where we found Kyoto’s shopping malls and contemporary shops was within walking distance and would had been deserving of one full day itself.

Delicious Kobe steaks.

Day 6. Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, Mitsui Outlet Park, Kobe Tower, Kobe Chinatown

Kobe is easily accessible from Osaka by regular local trains. It takes 30-40 minutes to get there and makes for another nice day trip. Took the rest to the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in the morning again, though we dropped off at a different station this time. Also checked out some of the old colonial houses there. We spent just a bit of time shopping at the Mitsui Outlet Park, before realising that we were late for lunch at the Mouriya.

Ended up missing lunch timings on the dot and having to pay a bit more. Finally satisfied my wish of visiting Kobe Tower in the evening. Definitely one of the nicer towers in Japan, due largely to the city’s unique ambiance. Chilled out for a good while at an inexpensive rotating cafe inside the tower, before taking a look at Kobe Chinatown.

Overlooking the lake.

Day 7. Mount Hiei, Enryakuji, Otsu

Shiga’s Biwako, the largest lake in Japan looked like an impressive attraction to see. It’s located about an hour east of the city at the midway mark between Nagoya. Due to the size of the lake, there are actually quite a number of cities surrounding the lake, meaning that unfortunately, there really wasn’t one default place to visit Lake Biwa. This was further made worse by how little information, English or otherwise, was available online.

We decided to try ahead with the nearest Mount Hiei to hopefully get a view of the lake but it turned out to be mostly a flop. The Enryakuji temple on the mountain wasn’t too outstanding and the view from the mountain was obstructed by foliage.

We returned to Otsu, the capital city in the evening to catch an advertised fountain show on the river, but it turned out to be a major disappointment. The rural city ceased to function as soon as it got dark and so we spent the evening at a dilapidated shopping mall beside the port. Should I decided to give Biwako another chance in the future, it will probably be for the farmers’ markets on the eastern shore.

Tennoji’s Zoo has nice enclosures but few animals.

Day 8. Shinsekai, Tennoji Zoo, Osaka Port

Our last day in Kansai. Bad weather predictions had us staying in Osaka, a decision we would at least partially regret. Without any concrete plans, the morning was spent visiting Shinsekai, which we had originally had the good sense to skip. The only saving grace to the tourist trap was an affordable sushi restaurant we chanced upon. The adjacent Tennoji Zoo turned out to be a disappointment, despite apparently being one of Japan’s larger zoos.

Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at Osaka Port, where time seemed to had stood still since the 90s. Thankfully, we had another spectacular meal here courtesy of Sakon. One thing we noticed is that we tended to enjoy ourselves more when venturing outside Osaka, perhaps because we had spent too many consecutive days there. It would probably had been better to split up the days instead. Had spent at least one too many days in Osaka too.

Osu Kannon Temple.

Day 9. Sakae, Osu Kanon, Osu, Nagoya Station

The morning was spent struggling with our baggage on local trains to Nagoya. Would  recommend taking a coach bus instead, something we had neglected to book in time. The train stations to and in Nagoya were some of the least luggage/wheelchair friendly I’ve seen in Japan. Arriving in Nagoya, we had a hard time finding lunch and the only things open were fast food outlets. We initially thought that this was due to the public holiday (it was Bunka no Hi) but later learned that Sakae only came alive at night.

We spent the late afternoon and evening first at Osu, visiting the Osu Kannon Temple and the shopping district there. Osu is Nagoya’s main shotengai, and seemingly also the city’s humble equivalent of Akihabara. Stopped by Nagoya Station last, where some of the city’s larger department stores are, only to learn that like Osaka, they close early.

The state of many zoos in Japan.

Day 10. Japan Monkey Park, Nagoya Station

Aichi has its own Monkey Park, though it’s nothing like the Arashiyama one, being actually a combination of children’s theme park and zoo. As a result, entry is an expensive 1,600 yen. Getting there is a lot of trouble too since its quite a distance from Nagoya. Wouldn’t recommend anyone visit here as the monkeys here are kept in depressing conditions. One of the bigger regrets this trip. The evening was spent back at the shopping malls around Nagoya Station, this time well in advance of closing time.

Nagoya’s interesting architecture.

Day 11. Sakae, Osu,

There was a Passpo concert to attend this evening so we opted not to go far. Instead, we’d spend the afternoon at Sakae, Osu and everywhere in between. Being at the city center, many of Nagoya’s sights could be reached by foot. Staying in Sakae has its benefits. I’d visit Nagoya Tower and some of the shopping malls around Sakae in the morning. Due to the cold weather, and later rain, we’d try staying indoors as much as possible for the rest of the day. Passpo’s concert by all accounts was incredible. Before heading back we’d stop by Yamachan to try one of Nagoya’s culinary specialities, Tebasaki.

One of Japan’s larger aquariums.

Day 12. Nagoya Aquarium, Sakae

Our final day in Nagoya would have us finally visiting the eagerly awaited Nagoya Aquarium and it didn’t disappoint. Nagoya’s Aquarium is many times larger than even Osaka’s and houses an expansive variety of marine animals. It comes highly recommended and we now add ourselves to the list of fans. Depending on how fast you go through the place, you can spend a good 3 to 4 hours here. It was back to Sakae for the late afternoon and evening to tie up some loose knots before taking an overnight coach to Tokyo.

Overnight coach to Tokyo.

Day 13. Tokyo Station, Akihabara

The overnight bus to Tokyo was a lot more pleasant than any of us had expected. Those looking to save on intercity transport might want to check out Willer Express. We reached Tokyo Station at dawn and killed some time at the McDonalds there until our apartment manager arrived. Learned out lesson this time, so after checking into our rooms at Kurumi Lease Mansion, spent the rest of the morning and afternoon catching up on sleep.

We stepped out in the evening for Tokyo’s otaku contagion zone, Akihabara and met up with Yan, who had flew in earlier today. For dinner, we headed over to the Nogizaka outlet of Uoshin to celebrate Yan’s birthday. Food there was awesome, yet affordable.

Otaku ground zero.

Day 14. Ginza, Akihabara

Our second day and first morning actually waking up in Tokyo had us heading over to Ginza to do some shopping. Unfortunately as experience would teach us, it’s literally impossible to shop efficiently in anything more than a pair, and there’s a lot of ground to cover at Ginza. The evening would have us returning to Akihabara again for some actual shopping. Given the company, we’d visit the place quite a few times this trip. However for anyone else, once should be more than sufficient.

Rainbow Bridge night time illumination.

Day 15. Meiji Jingu, Harajuku, Shibuya, Odaiba

In response to the sudden news that Eri would had to leave soon, we made the frantic decision to try to fit in as many touristy destination within these last few days. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t turn out to be such a good idea, since we’d end up being only able to barely scratch the surface of these areas. Meiji Jingu, being one of the main Shinto shrines in Japan was a given.

Tackling Harajuku and the adjacent Shibuya in the same day on foot, is our usual norm but as we also had plans to visit Odaiba in the evening, we really shouldn’t had spent that much time at these places. Unfortunately, the rest had forgotten it was Randy’s birthday and that we had planned to celebrate his birthday in the evening there. Ended up being rather rushed for time in Odaiba, which deserves a full day’s trip in itself. Moral of the story, regardless of circumstances, it’s better to take one’s time.

Biohazard Cafe.

Day 16. Shibuya, Akihabara

Convinced Eri and Yan to at least visit DisneySea once before leaving. In the meantime, had made plans to meet up with my director in Japan for lunch. Amusingly, he brought us over to the Biohazard (Resident Evil in the west) Cafe over in Shibuya. While the boss and Randy were fans, wasn’t into Biohazard but the cafe turned out to be a really novel and enjoyable experience. Think maid cafe, with zombies and guns, complete with a silly dance routine and hi-touches for everyone.

Had the buffet lunch there, which was a little pricey but wasn’t bad. Chilled around Shibuya in the afternoon, though we actually spent more time trying to find a place which had space. The place was completely packed with tourists this Saturday afternoon. Would usually advice to avoid popular city areas on the weekends. In the evening, we returned (yet again) to Akihabara but this time for a private idol birthday event.

Yokohama Arena.

Day 17. Yokohama Arena

This afternoon, we’d visit Yokohama for the only real concert we’d attend this trip. Had pre-ordered tickets for the “girl’s side” of Happy Music Love 2012, featuring Scandal, Nogizaka46, Becky, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and NMB48. We were expecting poor seats but they turned out to be decent.

The concert was great, though it lacked the crowd lacked the enthusiasm of that of a single fanbase. There was something for everyone at the concert though, with Kyary’s segment really surprising me. My pick for the show, definitely Takemura Kiriko and her crazy dancers. Wouldn’t recommend Kyary to idol fans, but if you’re remotely interested in electro-pop and open to performance art type things, do try to hit up one of her shows, at least before the hype dies down and she fades into obscurity.

The famous temple at Asakusa.

Day 18. Asakusa, Nakano Broadway

Eri’s last day in Tokyo would have us visiting Asakusa in the morning for Sensoji Temple, probably the most popular Buddhist place of worship in the city. It’s one of the prettier temples and the shopping streets that lead up to Sensoji make for some great, albeit touristy shopping. The many traditional snack shops along the street are especially popular.

While we had considered visiting the Tokyo Sky Tree in the evening, the rest seemed more keen on Nakano Broadway instead. Nakano Broadway is what I would refer to as Tokyo’s real “otaku haven”. The shops here cater to just about every (legal) niche interest one can think of. Used toy stores take up the majority of space at Nakano, but cover a much wider variety than just the anime figures of Akiba. The evening was again spent at another live where our idol friend was performing.

City shopping.

Day 19. Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya

Met up with our idol friend for lunch at Shinjuku this afternoon. She introduced us to an affordable and delicious shabu shabu restaurant in Shinjuku. We then went to shop for frilly dresses at a nearby department store, with Randy eventually settling for a Liz Lisa one piece for a friend back in Singapore. Next we went over to Harajuku after to meet Chisaki, who had just flew in. Our idol friend had to get a birthday present for another idol’s birthday performance this evening, so we spent the rest of the afternoon window shopping.

It’s not easy getting stuff for adults at Harajuku, so instead she found what she was looking for at the Omotesando Body Shop. Took a train over to Shibuya in the evening for some sinful small bites at Tengu Izakaya. At night, we strolled around Shibuya and back towards Meiji Dori, where many of Tokyo’s home grown boutiques had sprung up. It was nearing closing time, but given the chance, would probably want to visit again some time to check out the fashion here.

Tokyo’s biggest zoo.

Day 20. Ueno, Ueno Zoo, Tokyo Sky Tree

Randy’s last day in Tokyo. We’d meet up with Chisaki again in the morning at Ueno for an early lunch and to visit the zoo there. So far Ueno Zoo seems to be one of the better zoos in Japan with a large variety of animals. The animals were a lot more lively this Autumn than they were during Winter trips. We stopped by the Tokyo Sky Tree in the later afternoon in hopes of traveling up the tower but the queue was far too long, 3 hours long to be precise. Not sure if it was because of the season, or just too soon since the Sky Tree became public, but we’d have to try again some other time.

Beautiful coast.

Day 21. Kamakura Daibutsu, Hasedera, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu

Made the poor decision to visit Kamakura today, despite being down with the weather. Spent the most of the afternoon at places of worship, first Kotokuin Temple for the Kamakura Daibutsu then at Hasedera Temple. The temples at Kamakura for the most part, were unimpressive but you can get a nice view of the area from Hasedera Temple. The temples at Kamakura make for a pleasant distraction from Tokyo but if you’ve already seen your fair share of temples around Japan, you can safely give them a pass.

The Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine might be worth a visit on account that such large shrines are a rarity. There’s a particularly beautiful view from the main hall of the shrine approach and Wakamiya Oji street leading up to it. It’s also surrounded by a fairly extensive shopping district. For those with only a day to spend, I’d suggest visiting the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu and shopping areas in the early morning and spend the rest of the afternoon at Enoshima instead.

Round 1 Stadium.

Day 22. Odaiba, Akihabara

Revisited Odaiba in the morning. The island doesn’t really come alive until later than the city, so we ended up reaching too early. Spent half a day at Odaiba, which even then, was barely enough to cover half of the island. Checked out the Round One Stadium at Tokyo DiverCity, for a fixed fee, you can get unlimited usage of all the sports facilities and old amusement machines here. Those visiting Odaiba for the first time, or with any intention of shopping would probably want to allocate at least a full day there. Returned to Akihabara (again) in the evening. This time we were in for Kasai Tomomi’s birthday AKB48 Team A birthday show. Sadly, the members put up a disappointing performance.

Tokyo Dome City illumination.

Day 23. Tokyo Dome City, Akihabara

True enough to weather forecasts, heavy showers would last the entire day, starting in the early morning, which made it difficult to leave the apartment. Decided at the last minute to go for the SUPER☆GiRLS handshake nearby after all and then to Tokyo Dome City for the free Fairies mini-live there. Arriving late and thanks to the poor weather, didn’t manage to get a proper view of the show. The most amusing thing to happen today was a meeting and resultant dinner with two women Fairies wota, who turned out to be cultists.

Fairies mini-live and handshake.

Day 24. Tama Plaza

Wasn’t completely satisfied with yesterday. So after learning that Fairies Kanagawa performance wasn’t that far off, took a train over to Tama Plaza where they would be having their last live event. Managed to get a decent view this time, so despite the weather being really cold, it was an enjoyable experience. Returned to the apartment area in the evening in search of food but found nothing within the neighborhood except for some 24 hour fast food. Made a bad decision to try it out and regretted it almost immediately. Sometimes it’s just better to stick to the convenience store food.

Generous servings.

Day 25. Nakano Broadway, Shinjuku

After a bit of research discovered that there was actually a whole other better neighborhood in the other direction of the apartment that we had missed until now. Considering this, the apartment was actually located in a pretty good spot in Tokyo. Though the actual living conditions still left much to be desired. Had an amazing brunch at a Sushi Zanmai outlet. The servings there were huge and like other chain restaurants, it was competitively priced. Paid Nakano Broadway a quick return visit in the afternoon to pick up some previously missed items before heading over to Shinjuku. Since my appointment ended up running late, spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at bookstores and shopping malls there.

Fishing on the island.

Day 26. Enoshima, Kamakura, Shinjuku

Since we shared a free day, ended up meeting up with Chisaki this morning for a trip over to Enoshima. Being an island, Enoshima has its own unique ambiance and there are just enough sights on the little island for a day trip outside the city. Getting there is also convenient and affordable, since it isn’t too far from Tokyo and doesn’t involve complication transfers or alternative forms of transport. Probably one of the best Tokyo side trips I can recommend. Tried visiting Kamakura for its shops just after sunset but the shops there close early. Instead, we’d return to Shinjuku to pay the Tori no Ichi festival a better visit.

Sky Tree from Asakusa.

Day 27. Asakusa, Harajuku, Shibuya, Haneda Airport

The final day in Japan. But since the flight back was at night, still had the most of the day to look forward to. Would head on down to Asakusa in the morning to absorb some of the last touristy vibes, shopping and some great meals. In the afternoon, it was over to Harajuku to accompany Chisaki for more shopping then to Shibuya for some pre-flight sushi.

Getting back was easy enough logistically. The T-CAT terminal within walking distance of the apartment, operates Airport Limousine buses to Haneda for a decent price (but not so for Narita). Arrived at the airport well in advance of the flight this time, though the large amount of baggage on hand limited my mobility over there. Instead caught up on news thanks to the free power and internet points there. The last I checked, you had to pay to use the internet at Narita.

Wrapping up.

Afterword

Regardless of how long you plan to take a trip, while a good amount of flexibility is required, I cannot stress enough the importance of having travel plans ahead of time. Having an idea of what to do helps keep your days motivated. It’s hard when catering plans to multiple people. The good solution is to actually have everyone contribute toward the planning, though this isn’t always possible in practice.

The best solution is of course to have each person have their own individual things to do over there, but this only applies if you’re being accompanied by more experienced travelers. You don’t want to work yourself into a situation where everyone is depending on you to provide the itinerary for the day. There’s also bound to be things that not everyone is to keen on, it’s more efficient to tackle these separately and an overdependence makes it very difficult for the odd one out. It’s much easier to break off and do separate things if everyone does their due diligence. When that isn’t possible, at least plan one thing that everyone would enjoy (including yourself!) each day.

Ultimately however the most important thing to consider when traveling overseas is who you’ll be going with. The tendency is to go with friends that you know well or for long enough, but that doesn’t necessary translate into a good travel companion. In fact, oddly enough, some of the best travel accomplices are those that you do not know too well, since they’d be much more conscious about their behavior.

This matters, since while you’d typically see your friends every once so often, traveling together involves seeing (or even living together with) them continuously for a matter of days or weeks. Personally, the best travel companions for me tend to be collaborative, voicing their opinions on matters clearly while still being sensible enough to strike a fair balance. Avoid those who go for “anything” and those who push aggressively for their way or are poor at striking a compromise.

Fine weather today, which was great since it’d be my last day in Japan after nearly a month. The reality of things had already started to settle in last night while I was packing my luggage but still urged myself to make the best of the last day here.

Checked out of my room in the morning and proceeded to make my way downstairs to ask the building manager if I could leave my luggage in his custody. The flight back wasn’t until nearly midnight so I still had a full day ahead. Even just carrying the luggage downstairs, I could see how they’d be quite the problem. The two luggage bags were completely filled and then there was still a duffel bag and posters on hand.

Since I didn’t expect to return back till late in the evening and the building’s offices closed early, the elderly manager was really nice in offering to let me use the room for today at no extra charge so that I could store my things safely. Instead, I would help assist him in some manual labour, replacing one of the faulty wall mounted laundry dryers, which I gladly did. After that slight bit of delay and bringing my luggage back upstairs, I headed to the nearby Asakusa Station where I would meet up with Chisaki again this morning.

Asakusa side streets.

The itinerary this morning was to get our fill of whatever Japanesey food and snacks, and what better place to do that than Asakusa. We arrived at Asakusa in the morning, when it’s at its busiest, taking the side streets toward the far end. Chisaki wanted to introduce one of the snack shops she knew here which sold some giant melon-pan that she was raving about. We found it at the end of the lane, just to the right of Sensoji.

Hybrid cafe-restaurant.

The shop was a quaint one. A traditional soba shop, though it seems to have found greater success with its melon buns. According to her, if we had arrived any later they might had been sold out. We ordered one giant melon-pan each and proceeded to sit inside the shop. The furniture was really tiny inside, as if made for hobbits. The melon-pan turned out to be nice. It was really airy, so wasn’t too satiating despite its size.

Melon pan.

We spent some time after breakfast looking around the other snack shops around Asakusa but for the most part didn’t get much else to eat, since the melon-pan itself was quite enough.

Sensoji temple.

Sky Tree.

Chisaki wanted to get some senbei crackers though. Amusingly she visited this shop thinking that it sold some, but came back with ningyo-yaki instead. We did find some interestingly flavored senbei at another shop though and she ended up purchasing quite a bit from there.

Snack shops in Asakusa.

Ningyo-yaki.

The company was keen on trying some of the fantastic omurice that I recounted at Asakusa, so we planned on getting some later. It was still too early for lunch though so we spent the next hour or so walking around the extended area. While doing so, we coincidentally came across the grand opening for the Asakusa EKIMISE department store. Despite being its first day, it wasn’t too crowded, so we decided to take a look inside.

The Asakusa EKIMISE was sort of a rebranding of the Asakusa Matsuya that sits on top of the Tobu Asakusa station. While still primarily targeted towards housewives and older shoppers (there’s a giant crafts section and an entire floor dedicated to household appliances), the department store has incorporated a number of cheaper labels that ought to be popular with tourists. We found an ABC Mart inside as well as a clothing store selling gaudy Sukajan and dragon prints. Hardly your typical Japanese department store.

After a bit of window shopping, Chisaki ended up picking up a couple of bags one of which from a pretty nice outdoor style local label. They had some nice stuff there but didn’t pick up anything myself, even though it was really affordable. While she had only just begun her shopping, I had already spent way too much by now.

Main shopping street.

Eventually, we headed back to the Nakamise shopping street to get a still early lunch. The omurice at Asakusa Nobu is good enough to eat everyday.

Omurice.

Our next stop was to head over to Harajuku where Chisaki could do some clothing shopping, so we grabbed the metro over to Omotesando which was just a short distance away. There we passed by some fangirls going crazy over a boy band billboard, which was so popular there was a queue up to take a photo of it.

Omotesando.

It was real peaceful walking around Harajuku on a weekday afternoon, while most of their customers were still in school. Leisurely walked around Harajuku Street and Takeshita Dori, where we did quite a bit of window shopping, and some actual shopping in the case of my company.

The architecture there gets quite interesting when you get to Harajuku Street proper, where all the unique local labels are kept. Perhaps it was the lack of space (the area is shared with many residences), or just the usual Japanese shenanigans, but there were buildings built on buildings even. While not much of a fan of Harajuku fashion, it makes for an interesting place to live at.

Sticker shop.

Was pulled along to the official Johnny’s Entertainment shop here which our companion insisted was interesting. I guess it kind of was. It was a fairly large store, bigger than AKB48′s in fact. But sales of the goods here follow a more similar format to Hello! Project stores, you have to jot down the number for products you wish to buy and take it to the counter.

There wasn’t much for sale though, mostly just photo prints. Found lots of lone women inside browsing through the different sample photos of their products for sale. Unlike the AKB48 shop, which sees both male and female customers, one would definitely feel quite out of place here without female company or distinctly a tourist.

Interesting architecture.

Didn’t grab any crepes as originally planned since we were still quite full from lunch, but did eventually settle down for a break at the Choco Cro cafe. Throughout, we had a grade school girl beside us who was busy unboxing her loot from the nearby AKB48 shop. She first opened her packs of trading card game cards, then brought out her collection of photographs, while casually discussing AKB48 matters with her mother.

Choco Cro.

There was still a few hours left, so decided to head over to Shibuya, where we had better chances of getting something to eat later. Along the way we noticed that quite a number of people had gathered at Yoyogi Stadium for some sort of event. On closer look we would learn that Korean band Infinite was holding a concert here. Even though there were many stalls selling the same goods there were some pretty insane queues for merchandise.

Outside Yoyogi Stadium.

Not far off at the Marui shopping mall, we came across yet another event. It was mini-live to promote the second single release of the band Shikuramen.

Some sort of live.

We’d visit Midori Sushi one last time, coincidentally Chisaki had yet to have any sushi yet and the queue there this afternoon was negligible. Owing to the many meals we already had today though, didn’t eat too much. Midori is known for having rather large servings. Instead just split a set and a few pieces.

Midori Sushi.

Even though there was still quite a bit of time before the flight, decided to play it safe and leave early. So I bid farewell to today’s company and caught a train back to Suitengumae. Since I still had access to the apartment room, could stop to catch my breath before setting off.

The T-CAT terminal where I would catch a coach to Haneda Airport was really just a few blocks away. The difficult portion was in getting my luggage across the bridge. Thankfully it had wheelchair/bicycle friendly ramps. It was kind of steep and not particularly easy, but managed to get my luggage across.

There it was just a matter of purchasing a ticket for the next bus from a machine (800 yen) and then waiting it out. When the bus did finally arrive, there weren’t too many other passengers this weekday evening, just a couple of businessmen and one family. The trip there was smooth and took less than half an hour. Traveling by Haneda is indeed a lot more convenient than Narita.

Departure Lounge.

Learned the hard way last trip to get to the airport early. This time, I was a little too early, with a couple of hours to kill even after completing all the procedures. Thankfully there were desks and power outlets provided at the departure lounge so one could catch up on some internet use before the scheduled flight back.

The flight back was for the most part, uneventful. Though I did get a message on my screen at the start of the flight saying that I had won something. It turned out to be just a deck of playing cards. Annoyingly, while I had expected the seat beside myself to be empty (since Eri had forfeited her ticket), the airline staff had shifted someone else to her place at the last minute. So much for getting a window view.

Sharing a cramped corner of the plane with a random stranger for hours is hardly enjoyable. I find it difficult to sleep on flights, so tried watching some of the in-flight movies but there wasn’t anything particularly interesting. For all its action and effects, the new version of Total Recall turned out to be a major disappointment, since it ended with the hero actually dooming everyone instead of saving them.

The flight back.

Since it was a midnight flight, I’d only reach Singapore at about 6 AM the next morning. It’s a good thing I had taken the day off to unwind, and catch up on some much needed sleep.

Oddly, I wouldn’t have any trouble re-adapting to the normal everyday life back in Singapore. Perhaps it’d take a while before reality would set in, or more likely I had already been accustomed to the disappointment in returning back. Even at time I writing, there wasn’t any one time since where things would suddenly hit me. Instead the trouble of flying back was  probably the least fun part. Hopefully with a little work, there might come a time where I can visit Japan, without having to experience the pain of a return flight back.

Guess a part of me was glad to return to routine comforts in Singapore, after nearly a month of adventuring. And adventures we did have. The past 27 days have been a mixture of excitement and disappointments, though thankfully there ended up being more of the former. Part of the wonder of a large, culturally rich country like Japan is that regardless of how many times you visit, there’s always new things to discover. We’ve had many new and novel experiences in the past month, without neglecting old faves of course.

Something I realized during this stay in Japan, is that while, I live a pretty simple, content life in Singapore free of wants, I find myself always desiring many things while in Japan. Here, I actively want to visit new places, try out new foods and then there are all manner of interesting things to buy. To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s a good thing.

After yesterday, it was time to get away from things with a trip outside of the city. I was weighing between traveling to Chiba to visit a farm with alpacas or to return to Fujisawa to right the wrongs there. Coincidentally, Chisaki’s plans had fallen through too, so we decided to meet up in the morning for a journey over to the nearer little island of Enoshima.

Finally got my camera to work this morning after leaving the batteries out since yesterday and draining the internal backup battery. Leaving my apartment, I’d bump into a Caucasian tourist on the adjacent Fukagawa bridge, making hand movements he went “Picture! Picture”. Turns out he wanted me to help take a picture of him with the river in the background. After which he went “domo arigatou“.

Met up with Chisaki at the Shinjuku Odakyu Station in the morning to grab our round trip passes. A number of other tourists were headed over to the area today too, including a group of boys from Hong Kong. From there we caught the train to Fujisawa, before switching to the old coastal railway for Enoshima.

Inlet.

There was a causeway connecting the mainland to the island, so the last kilometer had to be covered by foot. Not too many people here since it was a weekday and the rest of the foreigners mostly continued onward towards Kamakura. It was mostly the elderly folks who had the free time to visit on such a day.

Long bridge connecting the mainland to the island.

Along the way, we spotted a familiar white peak in the distance. We were having fine weather and it was clear enough to make out Mount Fuji in the distance.

Mount Fuji in the distance.

We found this strange staue on the bridge. Amusingly, someone had put a pair of Crocs on the statue.

Someone put a pair of crocs on the statue.

After a short walk, we found ourselves at the entrance to Enoshima. The rest of the small island would have to be trekked uphill. There’s only one main path that loops around the entire island so it’s not really possible to get lost. Land-wise, Enoshima is about 1/4 the size of Singapore’s Sentosa and can be easily covered in full in just one day.

Front of Enoshima.

Uphill climb from here.

Just past the entrance, we came across an interesting senbei shop. Even if Chisaki were not a big fan of senbei, these were definitely worth a try. There was a queue for the shop’s tako senbei (octopus rice crackers). Rather than the usual round crackers, the senbei at the shop were made by pressure slabs of octopus in a high pressure iron press cooker. The result of which you can see below.

Senbei shop.

Not the usual kind.

Not far past the shops we came across the main shrine at Enoshima. Enoshima was one of the three islands in Japan where the goddess Benzaiten (Japanese for Saraswati) is said to reside. The shrine here was accordingly dedicated to her. As the goddess of music and arts among other things, her shrine here is apparently especially popular with artists and entertainers.

Enoshima Jinja Shrine.

Got some omikuji here. Chisaki had been running around different shrines and temples picking these up. If anything, I believe in making my own fortune so wasn’t too keen but she ended up paying for two anyways. We both got really good fortunes, so there was no harm in believing in it though. Regarding travels, it said it’d be good, though I ought to take note of fellow travelers. If only it had told me sooner.

Omikuji.

Past another flight of stairs up, we came across more buildings that were collectively part of the shrine. There was a full video crew here filming a local variety show with two unfamiliar faces. For some reason we’d come across people filming everywhere we went.

Tri-force.

Looking at a map of the island, we decided to head toward some caves on the other side of the island first. Here we passed by some cafes and the entrance to Enoshima Tower and the gardens that held it. Made a note to return later for that. There were a couple of really fat cats basking in the sun outside the tower gardens. The first of many that we’d run into today.

Rough map of the island. Not to scale.

Cat.

Another fat cat.

There a good number of shop houses that call Enoshima home. These are a pretty common sight in touristy areas and had come across some similar ones at Miyajma. Many of these have shops running out of the first floors selling souvenirs or refreshments. What makes these shophouses different from other souvenir shops is that they often serve as people’s houses too. If they are no customers, the owners can simply retreat upstairs to the comfort of their home. Would be quite nice to live under such conditions.

Old shophouses.

Enoshima Tower.

Due to how small it is, traveling around Enoshima is quite manageable. But since everything is built around the circumference of the hill, it requires quite a bit of stairs. To accommodate the typically older visitors to such places, sheltered escalators had actually been build beside some of the taller flights of stairs but you need a separate pass to use them. While walking through here we actually came across a mailman going about his deliveries. There was a post office back downhill near the entrance to the island.

Winding path.

Dragon shrine.

Here there was a shrine with a dragon perched on top. Benzaiten seems to have a certain association with dragons in Japan. There was also a forested path that split off from the main road, entered to take a look.

Forested area.

Split off from the main road.

The forested area was a garden of sorts, though it was ill kept during this time of the year. The main attraction here though was the Ryuren no Kane (Dragon Lovers Bell). A lot of locks had been hung on a fence here by couples, just like at Kobe Tower. It’s a popular European practice that had spread to Japan at some point (and hence Taiwan and Korea as well) that’s meant to signify enduring love. You could buy locks from the nearby souvenir shop that we had passed by, though others had brought their own.

I guess Benzaiten’s rocker chick image is ill suited for love, since it is believed that couples who visit Enoshima together would spur the jealously of the goddess and would break up soon after. Still, as with any other island getaway, Enoshima tends to be pretty popular with couples. In this case, the Ryuren no Kane is used to call upon the help of Benzaiten’s husband (who also happens to be a dragon in Japanese folklore) to help pacify Benzaiten.

The weight of this meaning has probably been lost in modern times, but couples still come to ring the lover’s bell together in hopes of a lasting relation.

Locks.

Ryuren no Kane.

The area around the bell also signified the highest point in Enoshima, beyond here it was a steep downhill descend toward where the caves were located. There were some really nice old restaurants and cafes just beside with an amazing view of the ocean, and we decided to return here later for lunch.

Hilltop.

Many locals had come to the southern coast of Enoshima to fish. During the low tide the rocks here are exposed and it is possible to fish from here. Others perched themselves on faraway rocks which had become cut off by the rising tides. I spent about 2 months traveling the entire coastal area of Port Phillip Bay in Australia some years back, and had always wanted to visit rocky coastal shores like this in Japan too so really enjoyed the experience.

Coast.

Chisaki seemed to be quite excited about it too and had come much better prepared for the terrain with her high platform shoes. Since the tide was still quite low, we managed to walk around below to take a look.

A number of the locals used these really long flexible poles that required just a slight flick to cast. Used to fish a lot when I was younger since my dad was a big enthusiast. Haven’t for years though, but it would definitely be an interesting experience. Pretty sure it’d be heaven for my father.

Lots of people fishing.

Some had been isolated by the high tide.

The entrance to the Iwaya Caves were right beside. Entrance is usually slightly pricey at 500 yen, but it’s subsidized (450 yen) if you have the Enoshima-Kamakura Free Pass, and completely free if you purchased the island’s Enopass. Still, it might be worth taking a look inside the tidal caves if you haven’t been to too many.

Iwaya Cave.

This wing was pitch dark.

The Iwaya caves serve as the birthplace for the Benzaiten shrine in Enoshima. People in the past must had drew analogies between caves and wombs, and thus the tendency to enshrine Benzaiten in caves.

Not too many pictures inside since it was really dark. Parts of the cave were dimly lit by modern lighting, but there are others that were almost totally pitch dark. To navigate these parts the staff there provide some candles. There were some rock statues and a tidal pool. Sitting in the pool was a slab with an old tanka poem by Yosano Akiko.

Tanka Poem.

Other parts were better lit.

The caves here are split into two parts, connected by an elevated walkway that had been build into the side of the bluffs. Stopping to take a look on the way back, an old lady would stop us here to ask if we had seen the sea turtle shaped rocks below, another of the island’s accidental attractions. Like at Kamakura, there were various kites/sea hawks circling the island, though they were much closer here than on the mainland.

Connection other side..

Turtle shaped rocks.

Birds of prey circling the island.

Nothing much in the second cave, except a more contemporary looking dragon statue. The second cave is dedicated to the dragon, but since that isn’t literal enough, a dragon statue had been placed here in more recent times. It seems they replace the statue with a new one every few years.

There were some signs warning of cave-ins here, which didn’t look too scary at that point. I would learn at the time of writing though that there had been a bunch of casualties here in the past.

Looks newer.

Returned uphill to one of the cliffside restaurants, opting to have lunch at this spacious open concept one. Most of the restaurants tables were laid out against the windows, allowing for some great views of the surrounding oceanfront.

Really nice restaurant.

Wonderful view.

We both had a serving of Enoshima’s speciality, Nama Shirasu Don (Raw Whitebait Rice). The one from this restaurant was especially attractive and came with a side of lovely crab miso soup. First time trying the dish. It’s definitely an acquired taste. Chisaki quite enjoyed it, while I found the overall fishiness quite overpowering. Each tiny fry has a full fish worth of fishiness concentrated into its tiny body. Thankfully, it’s served with wasabi and ginger to mask the taste.

Nama Shirasu Don.

Looks silly from a different perspective.

There were some interesting fortune dispensing capsule machines on each table at the restaurant. Chisaki took the opportunity to get more omikuji of course. You need to align your biographical data through levers on the mechanism and put in a coin to dispense a minuscule capsule that contained a tiny slip of paper with your fortune written on it.

More cats.

After the late lunch, all that was left was to visit the island’s tower. On the way, passed by even more cats. There are probably more stray cats here on this tiny island than the whole entire Tokyo. Judging from the various breeds, they were hardly native. It turns out that Enoshima is a popular place for people to abandon their cats.

Even more cats.

The Samuel Cocking Garden takes up the central spot in Enoshima, the Enoshima Lighthouse Observation Tower its centerpiece. Entrance to just the garden costs 200 yen, while a combined entrance with the tower costs 500 yen. Once again, entry is free if you get the island Enopass for 1,000 yen.

Tip: I didn’t know at the time since it isn’t publicized to foreigners, but if you’re just headed to Enoshima there’s a new combined Odakyu ticket which includes a round trip from Shinjuku to Enoshima, as well as an Enopass (which covers entry to the Iwaya Caves, Samuel Cocking Garden, Enoshima Tower and unlimited use of the island’s escalators) for just 1,940 yen. If you do not plan to visit Kamakura on the same day (I wouldn’t recommend it), this works out to be a bit of savings since the Kamakura-Enoshima Free Pass costs  1,430 yen alone.

While sizeable, there wasn’t much to see in the garden during this season. Instead we’d head onward to the tower first. At its base, we spotted a souvenir shop and took note to visit later. There were also lots of advertisements for Enoshima Aquarium back on the mainland. I would learn later that it was actually quite a well equipped aquarium but we didn’t have time to visit today. Perhaps another time.

Enoshima Samuel Cocking Garden.

If you’ve been following, then you’d know that I was quite the fan of towers so was quite excited to be here. Enoshima Tower isn’t particularly impressive when it comes to its size, it’s a mere 60 meters tall. But since it’s build at the pinnacle of Enoshima island, is sufficient for a nice view of Kamakura and the surrounding Sagami Bay. It’s also the only way you’re going to get a 360 degree view of the area.

Enoshima Lighthouse Observation Tower’s design is also quite exquisite. As the name suggests, its primary purpose is to serve as a lighthouse for the island. The grid pattern bears a certain resemblance to the similarly purposed Kobe Tower. Thanks to its unique design, the tower is now referred to as the Enoshima Sea Candle.

The causeway here.

Apart from the souvenir shop downstairs, there’s also a cafe on a terrace level of the tower. The first observation floor of the tower had many beautiful paintings of Enoshima on display. The paintings were labelled between 100,000 to 200,000 yen (SGD$1,400-$2,800) a piece. Not sure if these were the actual sale prices, or donation prices for adopting the paintings. If they were the former would had been quite the bargain as far as art pieces are concerned.

There were many amazing ones on display, but especially loved the ones on display by Kita Hideaki. According to a a description here, he was a background artist for various popular anime titles, including Nana and Death Note. There was something about his bold use of colors and perspective that was reminiscent of the Hildebrandt Brothers.

From Nana and Death Note’s background artist.

Atmospheric.

After spending some time on this floor, we realized that there was a staircase leadings upstairs for an open air observation area. Unhindered by windows, you can get a much better better view here.

Upstairs.

The sun was just starting to set at this time, though we didn’t stick around long enough to see it actually descend. We could get a clear view of the rest of island from here. Below, the tide had risen a bit more, with only a few left fishing on now isolated rocks.

Tide had risen further.

Some of the traditional shops below.

A while later, we returned back down. Distracted by a cat here, we forgot to check out the tourist shop however and had missed out on getting some souvenir medallions that we had spotted earlier. Would also learn much later that they had postcards featuring Kita’s artwork for sale too. He had a whole series featuring various views and locations of Enoshima. Would probably had grabbed a whole bunch.

Not sure if it should be drinking that.

Enoshima Lighthouse Observation Tower.

Spent a bit of time walking around the garden or what was left of it this Autumn. It was mostly bare, though they had crates of sprouts lined up ready for the next season.

We found a nice cafe at the edge of the garden with an overlooking view of the bay. It served some seriously tempting gourmet pancake waffles and seemed especially popular since it was packed with a ton of adult women. Chisaki and I wanted to give it a try too, but unfortunately they didn’t accept cards and both of us were out of cash, having forgotten to draw some before coming.

A lesson learned and tip when traveling to out of the way places like this is always to have physical cash on hand, since you can’t really expect them to accept credit cards, even if it’s a popular destination.

Preparing for the next season.

Leaving.

So while it was still too early to head back, we couldn’t get anything else to eat on the island without any cash. Instead, decided to make use of our free passes to take a train down to the Kamakura shopping district to see what we could do there.

The classic looking Enoshima Electric Railway.

Sunset.

While more shops were open today, even at this time many had already closed (or perhaps had never bothered to open on a weekday at all). While looking around, we bump into yet another film crew. I guess this is what it means to have so many different variety programs in Japan.

Itching for a snack, we stopped by a crepes cafe for a break.

Kamakura shopping streets.

Chisaki went with a chocolate crepe, while I got a choco-cinnamon one. Quite like cinnamon flavored stuff, though they’re rare to come by in Singapore. The crepes here were quite nice. Chisaki pointed out that the ones at Harajuku were better though, she still had some shopping to do there, so perhaps will try some tomorrow. The biggest draw to the crepes here was probably the fact that they actually had a sit in area to take shelter from the cold. While there were a number of restaurants lined up along the side alleys here, we were still quite full from the late lunch and recent snack to take dinner yet.

Crepes.

Just nice.

Instead, took the long journey back to Shinjuku, dozing off again thanks to the comfortable heated seats. Brought up yesterday’s festival and since it was on the way and Chisaki had yet to experience that, we’d pay a visit there again today.

Along the way, we’d pass by some of the first Christmas lighting to be set up in Tokyo. She was quite happy to take some pictures here since she would realize that this was where some band members had tweeted or blogged some photos not too long ago.

Giant One Piece Luffy on the Shinjuku Takashimaya Times Square building

Christmas illumination.

It was especially crowded today at the festival, more so than even yesterday such that we really had to squeeze through the crowds to get anywhere. Picked up some other food today and learned that the festival food actually wasn’t half bad, you just need to pick out the right stuff.

Back here.

The tried and true stuff are your safest bets. Take these giant takoyaki balls for example, which while hardly bite sized, were great. Each steaming hot piece of takoyaki came with a giant slab of octopus inside.

Takoyaki.

Huge.

Fighting our way through, would notice a few other shops that hadn’t seen yesterday. The grilled fish on a stick looked quite appetizing, a pity didn’t room for more.

Squeezing through.

Tempting.

Colorful.

Gave one of the dorayaki stands a go, though this turned out to be the one failed try today. The pancakes had probably been left on the grill for too long.

Cheese Dorayaki.

Came across this interesting okonomiyaki shop along the main road which looked exceptional. The servings were huge and the okonomiyaki was sinfully topped with bacon and eggs. It was also noticeable since the cook looked to be quite the diva.

He had a pretty intense aura and put a great deal of care to making the okonomiyaki at his own pace. Amusingly, a gyaru came along and tried to plead for one but he nonchalantly sent her to the back of the queue. You can see him in action below.

While serving putting the finishing touch of a strip of bacon on our okonomiyaki, the cook accidentally dropped the bacon back onto the grill. He cooly topped ours off with an extra piece of bacon. Lucky!

Needless to say, the okonomiyaki was about as awesome as you can imagine.

Okonomiyaki.

Didn’t stay out till too late since I still had to return back to the apartment to pack. This would be my last night in Japan, since will be flying back tomorrow.

Funny how before you know it, time really flies by. Will make full use of the remaining day left though. For starters, had made plans to meet up with Chisaki again to re-visit Asakusa and Harajuku again tomorrow morning.

For those wondering, today’s subtitle is just a nod to a classic by Seiko.

This afternoon, finally found time and suitable conditions to do some shopping. After discovering a whole new face to the neighborhood and a fulfilling lunch there, I’d head over to geek haven Nakano Broadway to pick up some previous missed items for Randy and myself, before spending the rest of the afternoon shopping in Shinjuku.

After last night’s disappointing dinner, I had took some time to search online for better dinning options nearby. Was craving for some fish, since had yet to have any since the first in Tokyo. After a bit of checking, discovered that there was a Sushizanmai within walking distance from the apartment, in the opposite direction of where I had gone yesterday. Waking up in the late morning, I thought I’d go catch a quick brunch before the shopping.

Silent Hill-esque.

This would be the first time walking toward this side of the neighborhood. Monzennakacho Station was the furthest subway station from our apartment so we had opted not to use it before. Turning around the corner from the apartment, I would discover an entire main road that while quite run down, was lined with a good number of market stalls and dining options. It looked much like a more humble, dilapidated Asakusa. Had we known about it earlier, our stay in Tokyo would had been made a lot more convenient.

Sushizanmai.

The Sushizanmai here was a small chain restaurant type establishment with mostly counter seats and just a couple of tables. It was run by a couple of chefs and a middle aged lady who handled the register and serving. According to one of the many food blogs Yan frequents, it was apparently one of the better chain restaurants in Japan as far as sushi goes. Sushizanmai’s original store calls the universally known Tsukiji Fish Market home.

Complementary salad appetizer.

A feast of different tuna cuts.

Decided to go with the rice bowl below which was being advertised outside the store. For just 1,000 yen (SGD$14) you get a generous mixture of different tuna cuts and rice. While the image below does not show so, they were the thickest pieces I’ve ever had. Needless to say, was satisfied. Will definitely give their other outlets a visit in the future.

@xdreamscape The chunks of tuna so thick I feel bad for the fish. — Supermerlion (@supermerlion) November 19, 2012

After, caught a train over to Nakano Broadway. Randy had finally decided that he wanted the set of Kamen Rider toys that he saw days ago here, so helped him picked them up. A set of 8 set him back about SGD$160. Still with fond memories of the past two days’ mini-lives, I picked up shop posters for HERO / Sweet Jewel and Beat Generation / No More Distance. The TRIO at Nakano Broadway stocks up on promo posters, the kind usually displayed whenever there are new music, movie, drama and or even product releases. The Fairies posters cost 1,500 yen each. Spotted a Sea A poster for 800 yen, which was surprising. Offered to purchase it for Randy, he declined.

800 yen at TRIO. twitpic.com/c5iao6

— Supermerlion (@supermerlion) February 21, 2013

Got a message from Yan in the late afternoon urging for company to visit Tengu Izakaya. Had already been there once this trip so wasn’t that keen, but complied thinking that it’d be no harm and he’d promise to make it at my convenience anyways. Headed on down to Shinjuku to meet him for an early dinner since I ought to head back early to start packing for the return trip, and to see how much luggage space I had left, or was lacking.

Unexpectedly it’d be quite a few hours before he’d turn up, since it turned out that he was shopping elsewhere and was preoccupied with getting a pair of pants tailored. Spent some time looking around Takashimaya Times Square and then more than an hour at a nearby bookshop. Was tempted to buy quite a few of them, including a Kyary Pamyu Pamyu guide on hipster Tokyo, but managed to resist the urge. On hindsight, probably should had, since the pressure to purchase something eventually led to far worse decisions.

The additional time left to kill led to me to spend the next hour or two returning to Takashimya Times Square and Marui Mens. Failing to find the TK bag that I was looking for or a suitable wallet, ended up caving in and getting a random wallet and bag. Regretted the decisions almost immediately after.

Festival.

To prevent any more spending, decided to slowly make my way over to Tengu first. The entire street of Shinjuku Sanchome had been lined up with interesting festival stalls. The streets were packed with people coming in either direction to see the festivities and more huddled up outside the shops eating the foods that they had purchased there, was quite keen on getting some festival food myself since many seemed quite appetizing.

Would end up having to wait at Tengu for another one and a half hours after Yan’s stipulated arrival timing. To makes things worse he had gotten lost in Shinjuku. Eventually managed to find him. The Tengu that we was one of their washoku branches, so we had to search for a different branch, one that served the Western dishes he was craving. Found another outlet a few blocks away near the Seibu Station.

Tengu’s parma ham pizza.

Probably wasn’t in the best of moods by this point. Ordered just the usual raw ham pizza and diced steak, as well as a side of salad, since wanted to save up the space (and yen) to try out the festival food instead.

Diced steak.

After a quick and somewhat awkward dinner, we headed back toward the direction of the festival, squeezing our way through the tight crowds. Since it was just a narrow pedestrian pavement, the crowds put even weekend Harajuku to shame.

Catching goldfish.

There were a great number of food stands and a wide variety of street food and snacks available there. Many sold the usual festival food like yakisoba and okonomiyaki, while some more unique stands sold stuff like grilled “horumon” or intestines. Yan ended up getting a serving to try. It was tough and difficult to chew but would had been fine had it been warm, but was cold by the time he ate it. He also ended up getting a candy apple from one of the many shops that were selling them. Apart from the usual candied apples, they also sold mini ones and candied strawberries. We grabbed a pack of yakisoba to share, which was probably one of the better buys at the fair this evening.

Grilled intestines.

Candied apples.

Festival food.

After getting our snacks, we decided to squeeze in toward the main shrine, which was the cause of the festivities. The inner area was especially packed since seats had been set up inside some of the tents to serve barbecued seafood and oden. Looked good but was quite pricey so gave it a miss. Yan was still in budget savings mode, and I was feeling the pinch too after having spent about $400 earlier on the two accessories. Under different conditions or company would have loved to give the experience a try.

Squeezing through.

It seems the festivities were set up to celebrate two concurrent events in Japan, Shichi Go San and the Tori no Ichi festival. This was probably just one of the many shrines that had celebrations, but being located in central Shinjuku definitely drew in the crowds. Apart from the main entrance which we came from, festival tents had been lined up in the courtyard and along the other exits of Hanazono shrine.

Festival lighting.

People.

Stayed around for a while to observe the people while Yan went off to get more goshuin from this shrine. To celebrate Tori no Ichi, many visitors purchased these elaborately decorated bamboo rakes for good luck. They were sold by various flower companies, who had set up stands within the courtyard. Interestingly, the shop keepers would break out into musical number that involved chanting and slapping bamboo sticks together whenever someone purchased one of the rakes, to wish them good luck.

Bamboo rakes.

Amezaiku making.

When he was done, it was time to make out way out back to the main road to get more snacks. Passed by one elderly man making the amezaiku (the candied animals that we had previously seen in Odaiba) on the spot.

Really like squid, so was tempted by the numerous stalls selling grilled squid, though they were quite pricey at 300-500 yen a pop. Got one from one of the more popular stalls. Disappointingly, it didn’t taste much more than burnt even with the thick sauce. Might fare better earlier in the day when the grill is still clean.

Grilled squid.

Quite tasteless.

For dessert, thought that I’d get one of the chocolate coated bananas. Again, there were many stalls each with their own draw points. One of the stalls used hundreds and thousands for example, which were more favorable than conventional sprinkles. This old lady didn’t get too much business since he choco-bananas looked the plainest out of all. To make up for this, they were cheaper and she offered customers a second one free, if they could win her in a game of janken. After observing her patterns for a while, was pretty sure could take her on. Sure enough, got an additional one free which I passed to Yan.

Choco Banana.

You get an additional one if you won this seller in janken.

Before leaving, Yan grabbed a pack of Okonomiyaki to bring back to his hostel. The ones served here looked really good and were affordable to boot. It’s a pity that Singaporeans aren’t too fond of the dish and all the nice okonomiyaki stalls in Singapore have since closed down.

Okonomiyaki.

We parted ways here since I could catch the much nearer subway back to our apartment. The highlight for today was definitely lunch that and probably browsing at the bookstore. The sheer amount of magazines and mooks in Japanese bookstores are nothing short of impressive. And one can easily get lost in these multi-storey complexes for hours. I can foresee myself spending spending quite a bit of time at bookstores if I were to live here permanently. Being a book otaku ain’t that bad a thing right? I’m sure many Asian parents would be proud.

Slept in this morning before waking up to contemplate what was the best way to spend the afternoon. I still had shopping to do, yet wasn’t too keen on wrestling with the Sunday crowds. Somehow I found myself looking up the Fairies website again. They were having a Kanagawa live event this afternoon, the last to promote their White Angel single. Discovered that while it was quite a distance, there was a direct train there. This was enough to tip things in their favor. I hurried over to Suitengumae Station to catch a train over to where the event would be held.

Today’s Fairies’ live was at Tama Plaza in Utsukushigaoka, a suburb along the northern-west border of Yokohama. In Singapore terms, this was one of those “heartlands” malls. Fairies would be performing in the Kanagawa equivalent of Bukit Panjang Plaza. I would learn today that past Shibuya, the Tokoyo Metro Hanzomon trains continues onward to Kanagawa under the Tokyu Denentoshi label. The entire journey takes just under an hour.

Had originally thought that it’d be further away, and had I known it’d be this accessible, would had made plans to attend the event sooner. Yesterday’s event at Tokyo Dome City was quite enjoyable but the poor weather conditions left much to be desired. Thankfully, the heavy rains had subsided at some point this morning.

Clear skies.

Since I had left at the last minute, could hear the not so distant sounds of Fairies already performing as the train pulled up into Tama Plaza. Rushing toward the source of the music, the stage soon came into view. Had arrived a little too late to get a good spot. Still, managed to tip toe through to see the rest of the performance. Compared to Tokyo Dome City or even many other malls, today’s venue was quite a bit smaller. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be too many people around.

Couple of songs into the first live.

After performing a bunch of their songs the they proceeded into another handshake event. While many fans crowded around the area to watch, hardly any were in line for the handshake this afternoon. It turned out that most weren’t willing to leave their spot, in fear of losing it.

I guess the right thing to do then was to get more copies of their single, which I ended up doing. There wasn’t any queue at the sales booth this time. Perhaps everyone had already spent their limit on the previous days. Had purchased two versions of their CD yesterday, so decided to get the third final version to complete things. Received only one handshake ticket this time and without thought picked out another random Miki picture.

Tama Plaza.

The handshake session ended up being a rather pleasant experience. Miki recognised me from yesterday and seemed quite amused to see me again. Mahiro was also a lot friendlier and more upbeat today. She had tied up her hair into two tiny buns and looked quite adorable too. She explained that it was in celebration of Mickey Mouse’s birthday today.

While the handshake session was underway, there would also be the occasional person picking up tickets at the booth, so while there wouldn’t be more than a dozen people in line at any point, there would be a steady number of fans coming through handshake line.

After my turn I headed upstairs to take a look around. Even before the first event had ended, many of the (especially) younger fans were already camping out for the next. About 50% of Fairies fans were young girls and another 25% their parents. The next largest audience today were teenage boys and random members of the public who had just chanced upon the event. Your typical wota  were surprisingly, the minority.

Didn’t take too many photos today. The camera’s buttons were still locked up from yesterday and would only shoot at all in Intelligent Auto. This coupled with the fact that focus and metering were still wonky (after having dropped the camera earlier this trip) made any photo taking quite difficult and would have a bit of trouble with video too.

Handshake session.

I managed to find a good spot on the second floor just beside the stage, alongside a couple of grade school girls and a trio of seemingly normal looking young adult women. Seeing the kids come back to their groups with rations from the nearby McDonalds, I cursed my lack of foresight to get some refreshments too first.

Didn’t dare leave the spot though. Despite there being another hour until the next show, almost the entire first floor and balcony was filled up by fans who had not left since the first live. A number, like the two little girls beside had even set up mats on the floor and were having a picnic. They killed the time by reviewing through footage from the first show that they had recorded on their camera. Thankfully, I had some cup noodles in the morning but a hot drink now would had been nice. The weather today had hit an all time low and there were strong winds blowing through the open square.

Found the best possible spot this time…at least for leaving room at noon…now just need to camp for one hour. twitter.com/supermerlion/s…

— Supermerlion (@supermerlion) November 18, 2012

Clad in the usual Shibuya fashion, one wouldn’t expect the three young women to be wota. But they were. At some point all three took out their photo albums full of Fairies pictures and began flipping through, one of them had a massive collection of pretty much every single photograph to date, save for a few. There weren’t that many pictures of Fairies in existence (on account of them only being around for a year), so she made up for that by having multiple copies of each and when that wasn’t enough filled up the remaining gaps with Tokyo Girls’ Style photos.

Trading photos.

Alas, it seems she was missing some and that wouldn’t do. Taking this opportunity between lives, the three banded together and started making their rounds. They approached several other Fairies fans whom they seemed acquainted with and attempted to convince them to trade some of the photos they were missing. They didn’t seem to have much luck though.

Apart from photo cards inside first press copies of their CDs, there are also pre-order bonuses and even specific photographs, the last of which is only available at such live events. Today’s event added 7 new photographs, one for each member. I would learn later that due to their scarcity these pictures go for as much as (if not more) than the CDs themselves on the secondary market. Theoretically, you could go for as many handshakes as you want and still make a profit (limited by the number of actual Fairies fans of course)

Oddly, there weren’t that many people going for the handshakes though. The Japanese are pretty thrifty, or perhaps Fairies were that unpopular.

Eventually the second live came around. Just before the performance started, they opened up the handshake area in front which was reserved for children and their parents. Some of the younger women had brought children that were way too young to be fans.

Out of four attempts, this was the one time that I managed to get a pretty good view. Fairies performed 5 songs (Tweet Dream, One Love, White Angel, Hero, Song For You) in total, which with the exception of White Angel, were mostly different from the first event. Needless to say, it was pretty awesome. The group has yet to release a song that I truly dislike. It seemed the crowd shared similar sentiments as myself in favoring many of their B-Sides, since they got the loudest cheers whenever one was performed. White Angel and Song For You would be stuck in my head for quite some time after.

After their performance Fairies hurried off to grab some jackets. They had come better prepared this time but ultimately the weather still won. It was getting cold, even for me since had only brought a thin blazer. A quick check revealed that it was currently 6 degrees. They were real cute about it though and laughed it off, while fidgeting on the spot between handshakes.

Rationalizing that it was a pretty good deal (it was), I bought another copy of White Angel’s event only edition for one final handshake ticket. For 1,000 yen you got the CD, a photo album and again one photograph of your choice. Considering how much they sold for, perhaps I should had put more thought into selecting them, but in the haste of things picked out one at random again.

Another handshake session.

Like in the first session, most of the fans just stood around watching the members. While there wasn’t anyone in queue after the first wave of fans, the entire handshake session dragged on for quite a while. The girls hung around even when there was no one in queue to make sure that everyone who did have a ticket did manage to use theirs, or for the occasional person to purchase another copy. A result was that those that did come later could spend just about as much time as they wanted.

In anticipation of the girls leaving, the fans formed a self policed line along the corridor to bid the girls farewell. I guess everyone had expected that they’d be returning up the same lift which they had come down from. Instead, to everyone’s surprise they left from a closer elevator. The fans dispersed quickly after that. If not for today’s live, the mall was pretty empty. Soon after one of the Fairies members shouted from upstairs which resultant in shrieks of “Rikako” and the younger, more energetic fans running upstairs.

Waiting for the members.

Even after the members had left, some of the staff stayed around and together with the fans began following a baseball game while the rest helped pack up the set. Japan were playing a friendly against Cuba this evening in preparation of the 3rd World Baseball Classic. Ran off to get a quick snack (more fried chicken) and a drink from the nearby Lawson before heading back to the apartment.

The staff and fans stayed around to catch a game.

The night was still early, though it did not make for the best weather to go out. Returned to the apartment to thaw out for a short while, whilst picking up a thicker jacket.I hoped to perhaps find something good for dinner nearby so spent the next half an hour or more walking around the entire neighborhood. Made an entire loop beginning at Kabayacho, continuing onward to Ningyocho and then to Suitengumae. All of this was in vain. Since the Nihonbashi area is mostly a business district, about everything closes here as soon as it gets dark.

The river beside the apartment.

Illuminated in the evening.

Not wanting to rely on convenience store food again, I ignored my own advice to stay clear of these sort of fast food places and settled for dinner at a 24 hour Sukiya inside of a petrol station.

The place was staffed by a couple of young Chinese women, since they were probably the only ones willing to work for minimal wage for this sort of hours. There was only one other unfortunate customer inside and he left with much of his food untouched. Another victim arrived later.

Last resort.

Bad.

I had some sort of shredded beef curry. Prices here were cheap, even less than what you’d spend at a combini, but the servings were sparse. As far as the curry went though, I’d recommend sticking to the convenience stores. At first the water from the jugs provided tasted like cigarettes, but on closer inspection turned out to be roasted barley tea that had been diluted beyond recognition. I returned to the hotel to cheer myself up with a little snack that had been kept around from Donki.

Dessert.