Tokyo Spring 2010 Day 2 (MJ ver)
18 March, 2010 by MJ
What’s for Breakfast?
Started the day at 7 am. The cool weather made me roll around for another 45 minutes before I dragged myself out of bed to meet Chad downstairs for breakfast. I was expecting bacon and eggs, but the free hotel breakfast was a continental buffet style selection of, buns and hard boiled eggs. Ahh well. It’s free, so can’t expect much. Eggs were delicious though. Different from the ones we have in Singapore.
First stop, Edo-Tokyo!
The trip to the Edo-Tokyo started with us asking this nice 7-11 counter lady for directions. Yes we were 2x lost for a while. Eventually we found the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum. It’s actually a park that holds many old buildings from the ordinary middle class Japanese experience to the homes of wealthy and powerful individuals such as former Prime Minister Takahashi Korekiyo.
The museum allows you to enter and explore a wide variety of buildings of different styles, periods, and purposes, from upper-class homes to pre-war shops, public baths (sent?), and Western-style buildings of the Meiji period, which would normally be inaccessible to tourists or other casual visitors, or which cannot be found in Tokyo.
Volunteers!
The park, amazingly, is run by elderly volunteers! Old people that act as guides for visitors, some sit inside the houses, maintaining the fireplaces inside. I thought it was just for show, until we struck up a conversation with one of them, and realized the fireplace had to be constantly lit to keep the building in shape. The soot from the fire coats the roof and wood, driving away insects! Then he said the house we were standing in was over 250 years old.
Like, wow. A hundred times older than me. Imagine all the generations of people this particular home has seen. With his limited english he said he visited Singapore as well, 10 years ago, and there were no wooden houses in sight. Everything was concrete! haha. Nice guy. so chill to come here after you retire, just showing people around, sitting around fireplaces telling stories eh?
Shibuya + Shopping!
We completely skipped shopping at Shibuya the last time we were here, so this time we headed straight for Shibuya 109-2, the mens equivalent of Shibuya 109. Some background story in case you don’t know, the Shibuya 109 Building is very popular among young people, especially teens, and it is famous as the origin of the kogal subculture. Kogals are known for wearing platform boots, a miniskirt, copious amounts of makeup, hair coloring (usually blond), artificial suntans, and designer accessories.
Yes everyone in there was dressed like hardcore punk rockers or host club people. For some reason it felt a bit scary to browse their shops. But they were surprisingly friendly though, and urged us to try on whatever we touched. Some of them could converse in some basic English, others tried, and a few completely ignored us as soon as they found out we didn’t speak Japanese.
Max competitive
We bought jackets from different shops, and the interesting thing about this place is that they’ll walk you to the door before giving you your purchase. I’m guessing it’s to show rival brands that you bought something from their shop.
It’s so insanely competitive here that they even wanted to put the rival shop’s paper bag Chad was holding, into their own paper bag! According to Chad some of these brands are actual host clubs, so it’s adds to the competitiveness.
That was it for day 2. Satisfied with my new hoodie jacket. Hope it works 
Photo Tour :
Early second day. 7.35am!
Headed to Edo Tokyo today.
According to Chad, this is the worst fast food in Japan.
They have dedicated lanes for bike crossing roads. Why not in SG?
Shooting what?
Huge river beside Suidobashi station...
Which, if you follow a few stops down, leads to this fishing spot...
Which happens to be where Morning Musume filmed their TV Tokyo commercial! xD
Switching trains from the Marunochi Line.
To the Chou & Sobu lines.
If not for the English names, we'd be so dead.
Here we go!
Chad looks pissed.
Lucky we got a seat.
After an hour long ride, we arrive at Musashi Koganei.
And we see Iron Man 2's poster in Japanese xD
We forgot to try the Yoshinoya here to compare it with local ones.
Whole lot of construction going on at the station.
One thing i noticed, they have dedicated traffic people for every little road work project going on.
Plus they're nice and friendly.
Hello Suzanne! Yes we're tourists.
Chad says I anyhow walk through people's garage to take photos...
But I was looking for emo shooting spots! xD
Denny's! I don't think there's any of these in Singapore.
Chad was thinking about getting a haircut in Japan.
Yes we got lost again. This map didn't help.
Maybe we should try asking the people on bikes...
Or this nice 7-11 lady, which pointed us in the right direction.
Emo walking shot, success! You should see the 'making of' video. lol.
More emo shots! xD
Started to see more trees. The park should be nearby now.
Straight down, turn left!
And here we are!
Cute birds on the railings.
No cherry blossoms yet. All bald!
Random parked train beside the park.
Walking on a soft bed of autumn leaves.
Walked quite a while before we found...
This! But Chad says these pink ones are plum trees, not sakura trees.
They still looked nice though.
Further down the park saw even more plum trees.
Had nice lighting coming through the trees for photos here.
That's the Edo Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum.
Beautiful place with people walking their dogs...
Very nice dogs. Chad says he wants one of these super cute mini breeds.
Map of the place. Turns out we came in from the side entrance.
Getting thirsty and cold from all the walking. Must, buy, drink, here!
Standard hot milk tea
They have these because the crows in japans are the size of chickens. Yes, really.
While pigeons are double the size. Super cute!
This one was digging through the leaves before it saw me, and ran away!
That's where we're headed.
This museum was the reason we came all the way out here.
Chad says it's the largest open air museum in Japan?
View from the entrance. The security guy was giving us strange looks xD
Got tickets!
They have volunteers to guide visitors through the place.
This musuem is actually a huge park, with it's exhibits being old homes from many years ago.
They didn't look very old to me though, very westernized.
Signs outside every exhibit home to tell you who it belonged to in which era.
You could walk in to explore after taking off your shoes.
I was in boots, too lazy to remove shoes, so Chad did all the exploring. haha~
Lots of elderly people sitting around, reliving the old days maybe?
Old photo studio. I remember asking at this point, where are all the really old houses! These look new.
Seems they were all placed at the back of the park.
Ok even the fence looks old now.
Yes! Old houses! lol~
This was an old guard house. I had this image of guys in samurai armor, walking around the place I was standing...
While some stayed inside to keep the fireplace going.
Ignore the electrical boxes at the background. lol.
More similar styled houses.
We saw at least 8 elderly folks painting the landscapes. And they were good man.
Old water pumping well, with a hose tap next to it. xD
Old school kitchen.
This was the super nice volunteer that chatted with us for a while. He was keeping the fire going so the soot coats the roofs, driving insects away. He is, after all a volunteer. Much respect for how he's choosing to spend his retirement time maintaining heritage.
More very old props and cooking places.
Some of them were folding paper cranes...
And windmills. I assume they're for sale too.
Trying to blend in with one of the tour groups xD
I was trying to imagine myself living in one of these cozy homes. Possible, as long as there was an internet connection. lol.
Some of the homes were eerily quiet.
Chad was bent on taking photos of this mausoleum.
On the other end of the park were shop houses.
Like this copper plated building.
We saw one just like it at Suidobashi. Chad said maybe they stole one from there xD
More rows of old shop houses. The one on the right most sells pots and pans...
Like these.
Old signs running up the side.
The buildings may be old, but they restored the signage. This one was an umbrella shop.
They had these old school umbrellas inside. Not for sale though. Just for display.
Boxes of them, finished and unfinished ones. It was like a factory.
They had these miniature figures showing how the umbrellas are made.
Step 1.
Step 2.
Step 3.
Step 4.
Step 5.
Step 6.
Step 7.
Step 8.
Done! Interesting no? haha!
Chad getting his fair share of photos.
Different materials used in different parts of Japan.
Then we came across, a Soy Sauce shop.
Tons of empty glass bottles inside.
Amazing they kept these in such good condition for so long.
Old school weighing machine.
View from the inside. At this point I remember getting hungry after seeing their old cans of tuna on the shelves.
Vintage bike with cart!
This was outside the florist shop house. I've never seen such plants.
The grey building actually sold udon on the second floor. Reluctant to walk all the way out the park to look for food, we had some.
And it was the best hand-made udon noodles ever. The square thing in the middle was a chuck of sticky rice. So nice!
Recharged, we pushed on, heading out of the park.
Saw this old 'school train'.
Yes it's a train carriage just for school kids.
Worn out train controls.
Here's how the interior looks like. They had black and white photos inside showing school kids and how it looked like when it was in operation.
Chad says I always walk into his shots.
Camwhore time!
They changed to another security guy.
Even he thanked us for visiting. Which security guard in Singapore does that?
On the way back to the train station we saw interesting drain covers.
Made it a point to capture all the different covers in different areas.
I was amazed by this one. The huge LED screen showed an animated man waving a flag. So high tech!
Chad ran out of money in his Suica pass.
Heading to Shibuya now.
Not sure which line to take.
Had to ask the nice station guy.
And we're here! Shibuya Mark city. This was a sculpture outside. Realized there was a 'no photo' sign after we stood around taking photos of the thing. lol.
We just had udon, but according to Chad this Freshness burger was a must try.
So we did. The place felt like an atas version of Burger King. I had their 'Classic' burger. Crazy juicy platter with a massive onion inside. There wasn't any sauce or topping. The onion provided all the flavouring. Good stuff!
Drinks at the fast food joint was way too expensive. Vending machines are your best friend.
Walking around Shibuya...
Chad was looking for a zoom lens for his camera. Was complaining he can't do spy shots.
Didn't find it though. So more walking around.
Francfranc! Spotted some nice gifts in here. Will be back to get them if i don't see anything nicer in the next week.
Huge Bape store.
Parco Part 3. This Parco thing was massive. 3 different buildings linked together selling departmental store stuff. I got lost trying to get from Part 1 to part 2.
Back at the busiest crossing in the world...
Where we went into Shibuya 109-2.
Spotted several stuff to get here. Their service staff are so high level!
Both Chad and myself got a jacket each. Chad regretted his impulse purchase shortly after, and for most of the entire trip. Blames on peer pressure ._.|||
Back at the hotel we found this waiting for us.
AKB48 TICKETS HAVE ARRIVED! Weee! All our concert worries were settled.
I spent a good part of the night unpacking and opening all 16 PINK glowsticks.
Yes, 4 for each hand. Morning Musume concert tomorrow you know? Sayumi ftw.
Born and raised in Singapore, MJ earns his keep by pushing pixels around as a media designer. Other jobs include getting paid taking pictures, as well as being a full time fanboy for all things cool & kawaii. MJ shoots with a Canon 5DmkII.
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