Tokyo Trip - July 28, 2011

Day Two

Day Two wasn't spent with so much walking, I was smarter this time - yeah right! - instead it was mostly spent inside the JR Yamanote train.  Not paying attention as to which direction I was supposed to be heading I just stepped inside the train.  The one good thing is that the JR Yamanote Line is a circle - a big big circle.  I almost completed the loop....had I been paying attention, I would have completed my trip in half the time.

JR Yamanote in Akihabara

I finally did get to Shin-okubo after taking in all the various interesting ..... smells.  Korea Town is in Shin-okubo.  I gather Korean Drama is very popular here in Japan as well.  They have stores selling goods with pictures of Korean stars - I recognized many of them - hehe - that was also one of the reasons Shin-okubo was on my itinerary.  Ummm, no I did not buy uchiwas!

KDrama - My Princess - there there on the light post!

One store selling K-star goods flocked by fans.

One other reason I wanted to go to Korea Town was to taste their Gam Jae Tang (Pork Bone Soup), and ended up eating at Sukiya - the  most non-Korean place I could have gone to while in Korea Town.  I ordered what was supposed to be a donburi, the server was by now speaking to me in rapid Japanese, I could only catch bits and pieces of it so it was just easier to say  「はい！」....so my donburi came to me without the rice, which was just as well as I wasn't really feeling that hungry - it was still yummy anyway.

Next stop - Ikebukuro.  Thank goodness it was just a five minute trip - I went the right way this time.  Ikebukuro is a very busy place.  There is an interesting store called Tokyu Hands, it's fun to browse through the stuff that they sell.....of all the things - I managed to buy a pair of eyeglasses - in Japanese. Yups, I went through having my eyes checked, reading the chart - in Hiragana mind you. 

I went to Namjatown in Sunshine City.  I was only there for the Gyoza Town - though didn't get to eat one gyoza at all.

Piggy-shaped Gyozas?

 and the Ice Cream City

Wasabi - ice cream?

I should have really tried the wasabi ice cream, but I had the more normal Mango Magic Ice - coward!

So there goes Day Two of my trip.

Just because I caught the worm......

I didn't get to bed until around 1:45am last night and was rudely jolted awake by my phone at 4:00am.  Arrrgh.....it was an unknown number by the way.  Couldn't go back to sleep no matter how hard I tried, then I started sneezing, that means I am fully awake.  Coffee doesn't get served until 6:00am in the lobby, so I thought to hang out at McDonald's for my morning coffee and use their wifi.  Yeah yeah I said I wasn't going to McDonald's when in Japan - but they've got FREE wifi!!!  I should say that McDonald's is very convenient.  It can be found in almost every corner.  So I went down armed with my camera, thought to take some photos around the neighbourhood - so it's raining today, scrap taking photos around the neighbourhood then.  I did get to take some.  Here goes:

hotel facade

There's Family Mart two doors down - my go to fill'er up place.

.....and there's good ol' Yoshinoya! - never been, but by the end of the trip, hopefully will have been ;-)

As you may have guessed, I had my coffee in the hotel lobby again.  Smarter this time and got myself a hot cup of coffee.  As it's a rainy day, change of today's itinerary, which, if it was a sunny day, would be spent mostly outdoors.  Since I don't have to be up and about early, thought to have a good hearty breafkast to tide me over til the afternoon. 

Today's breakfast.  I thought they were going to be noodle soup, it turns out they are cold noodles.  What is it with this cold stuff I happen to pick. 

And that ends my July 28, 2011 morning entry....it is now 8:19am Tokyo time.

Tokyo Trip - July 27, 2011

Day One

Today's first thing on the itinerary was an early breakfast at Tsukiji. I did get up early, but I was not in the mood for getting ready that early in the morning.  My tummy was craving for coffee. So I decided to head down to the lobby for my first cup of coffee and mistakenly pressed the iced coffee. I'm not really an iced coffee fan at any time of day or weather. Coffee was coffee and it would have been a waste to dump it, so yeah, I drank it while using the hotel's computer at the lobby. Y100 for ten minutes! By the way, it only does email. So I emailed family and friends - fast - as I could see the clock ticking away.  I ended up spending Y400!  What a waste, when I had a perfectly good computer in the room, which just happens to have a three prong and the sockets only had the two prong, plus they only have a LAN connection in the rooms.  So instead of breakfast at Tsukiji, I spent my morning getting all excited about discovering wifi in the lobby.  I got all my gadgets from the room, made myself a HOT cup of coffee this time and got in touch with the world :)

I decided to go to Tsukiji after all. A last minute decision when I was at the station. Had brunch instead of lunch.

My Appetizer - they sure do look like snails - but what the heck!  Though I did crave for Asahi to wash it down with :P

I did have my proper meal - おいしかった！

The facade of the restaurant I picked.

Next was the Hama-rikyu Gardens.  The family garden of the Tokugawa Shogun.

View of the Tokyo Tower from afar.

It was eeire...I could hear birds "cawing" - for lack of a better description - all around.  It felt like I stepped into the set of Robinhood.

I did not feel like going back to Tsukiji Station, so I decide to take the Sumida River Cruise to Asakusa.  The river cruise was tentatively on the itinerary anyway and Asakusa was the next destination anyway.  

The Rainbow Bridge

I just found this building interesting.

The view of the Tsukiji auction site - they just happened to be closed on Wednesdays so my not having breakfast there ended up to be a good decision :)

Asahi Breweries - where oh where were you when I was eating snails?

Got off from the Asakusa water bus stop and went looking for the Sensoji Temple.  Along the way, found many interesting things :)

These are the guys who push the rickshaws.  I noticed that they all have the same shoes.  Omoshiroi kutsu :)

Bicycle Parking

I had to take that photo.  I'm still getting used to the fact that they drive on the right side.  It always startled me, seeing a car with no driver, my first instinct was to get away from the car.  Well, aside from that, cyclists here are crazy!  You think Toronto couriers are mad?  Well..... here it's a mish mash of cars, people and bicycles.  People bike on the sidewalks from all directions!  Aside from navigating my way around people, I have to watch out for bikes, they come at you every which way and that is no exaggeration!  Looking at the bicycle parking above, I can appreciate how many people here bike.  

So I find these yellow lines everywhere - the stations, the sidewalks....  I guess they are to separate pedestrian traffic.  By the way, pedestrian traffic keeps right too.  "Keep Left, Move Right" does not apply here on the escalators.  It's the other way around.....and I just blocked a mile long line behind me because I momentarily forget until we were almost at the top.  Well, the guy behind me didn't say anything at all - OOOPS!

I am absolutely tired!  Somehow, I ended up at Kanda Station from the Akihabara area.  When I looked at my subway map, well, though on different lines, Kodemmacho and Kanda were right beside each other.  So I figured they were parallel to each other.  So I asked where Kodemmacho was, the guy said to take so and so train and get off at so and so station.  Well, that wasn't what I had in mind, so I said I wanted to walk, he said it was a bit far.  Yeah yeah....I tried walking anyway....yups it was far alright!  Finally saw a Nihonbashi sign, might I add that may have been sign for cars not people on foot.  Anyway, stubborn as I was I refused to take the subway.  Finally gave up at Nihonbashi Station cause it had an Asakusa Line which was the other station near my hotel.  Got off at Ningyocho.  I could have changed to the Hibiya Line which would take me all the way Kodemmacho, BUT stubborness prevailed.  My hotel was in the middle of Ningyocho and Kodemmacho so I could walk right?  Well, it was dark and I've never been to that station....well you can guess.  After aking good ol' Keikan-san, I did backtrack and found my way.  Yoshinoya!!!!  There you are!!!  Home Sweet Home.  It's always one thing or another, too tired to eat at Yoshinoya - this time opted for the Family Mart onigiri again, plus a Yebisu and Clear Asahi - I think I deserved it.

Welcome to Japan - July 26, 2011

My flight from Toronto was delayed for about an hour and a half which was just as well because I woke up to rain and thunder in the morning. Otherwise, it was smooth flying. I had the aisle seat because I did not want to feel guilty everytime I had to go to the washroom. The Japanese couple beside me would always attempt to jump over my legs everytime they had to go through. Well, imagine doing that in economy. They were probably in their 50's by the way. Was it because they were too polite to disturb me? I wouldn't call jumping over my legs (and in economy) polite either. The food was so so - it wasn't such a big disappointment to me as I wasn't expecting much. It filled my stomach and that was enough for me. Over all Air Canada wasn't so bad :)

The flight landed in Narita thirthy minutes ahead of schedule. It was cloudy but not raining YES! The immigration officer NEVER asked me a single question. Just gestured that I had to have my fingerprints taken and the eye thing. He stamped my passport, he smiled and I was on my way. The customs officer made more effort. He spoke in Japanese. I caught the word "hitori", I said yes I was travelling by myself. He pointed at my luggage I assumed he meant was that the only luggage I had, I said yes again. I guess I answered right cause I was on my way. Immigration and customs not even ten minutes.


I uttered my first Japanese: 「けいせいの駅はどこですか。」　Where is the Keisei Station? Found it, bought my ticket and had six minutes to run to my train. Made it! It was an hour from Narita to Keisei-Ueno by Keisei Skyliner. From Keisei-Ueno, I had to transfer lines. It was no joke! It was 8 minutes away inside the station! And guess what - no elevators nor escalators! So I had to lug my suitcase flights of stairs. This cannot be! I gotta find an exit with an elevator or at least an escalator. By this time I was sweating buckets. I never sweated like this in Toronto. But I must say this humidity is tolerable yeah yeah.

I found my hotel no problem. Thanks to Google Maps - amazing. Not sure how updated that photo was cause my McDonald's and Starbucks landmark was nowhere to be found. Lawson's was there. Yoshinoya was a welcome sight cause I knew it was right across my hotel. Was going to have dinner there but when I passed by all the customers were salary men so I changed my mind. There is a Family Mart two doors down which by time is like my go to place for stuff. Bought myself an onigiri which by this time is my fill'er up food hehe. Cheap and Filling - important :)

Here are some pics of my humble abode for the next eight days: