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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Tokyo Day 08-Daikanyama walk

What's for today?
First we will visit Asakusa, on the way, we'll have some shots with Bandai's famous cartoon characters. Next stop: Shopping at Daikanyama. Walked down to Shinjuku. Take the metro down to Shibuya for more last minute shopping. Dinner at a local sushi restaurant.


early morning, we called for breakfast from the hotel.
830am: start making our way to Asakusa

more poses with Ultraman!

On the way, pass the Bandai building and the Asahi Dry Hall by Philip Stark.
And we have reached Asakusa. Bought some japanese crackers here for the office.









wj trying his fried sweet potato. this store apparently has loads of newspaper cuttings and has a long q of people waiting in line for its food. Hmm...not as good as our goreng pisang back home!!! REALLY!

Sensoji Temple:
Sensoji is Tokyo's oldest temple. It is dedicated to Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, and is therefore popularly known called Asakusa Kannon Temple.
We tried our hands at the coutner wher eyou can buy your fortune by putting a 100 yen coin into the wooden box and shaking it until a long bamboo stick emerges out from a small hole at the bottom. The stick has a number which corresponds to one of the numbers on a set of drawers.
Take the fortune written in both english and japanese, from the drawer that has your number. If you don't like what it has to say, you can conveniently negate it by tying it to one of the wires provided for this purpose just outside the main hall.

wj negating his divine lot at the wires.














passing by the "Gundam" building, Aoyama Technical College.



at Fumihiko Maki's office!

休息就是就是要走更遠的路
lunch at 7-11! a quick bento set which was just as delicious from a restaurant.

next stop: SHINJUKU!!! a pitstop at the always fulled Starbucks cafe which overlooks one of the most famous junctions of shinjuku. Here one can see the crazy mass of people crossing the busy junction. It's really quite something!

after watching a few crowds crossing the junction, we made our way for more shpping at UNIQLO



sectional view of Shibuya's new extension metro station



some stuffs which really intrigue us - like mini paper models!


Friday, May 28, 2010

Tokyo Day 07- HAKONE+ Gotemba Premium Outlets

happy vesak day!
Hakone>Gotemba
Breakfast at our B.E.A.U.tiful hotel which faces the lush green mountains.
10am: Check out
1030am: From Hotel Daihakone, we took the Odakyu Bus to Gotemba Station
11am: Reach Gotemba Station. Take a free shuttle bus to Gotemba Premium outlets.
1pm: Lunch at Food Bazaar (foodcourt at Gotemba Premium Outlets)
3pm: Gotemba>Gora via Tozen Bus
415pm: On the Tozen Bus that zigzags back to Yumoto Hakone.
4.47pm: Took the romance car back Shinjuku.
6pm: Reach Rose Hotel. Pick up our luggage and took a cab to Villa Fontaine Hotel
730pm: IN search for dinner. Went to a Yakitori store but it was so packed that the lady boss told us to wait outside the shop. and it was so cold in the outsides! brrr....
8pm: Went to a charcoal stall. which was such a rave in tokyo!!! everyone's eating charcoal grilled meat in almost every store we passed by from our hotel end. WOW.
So we decided to give it a try too!
9pm: Convenient store, last chance to stock up on Japanese local snacks and of cos to bring some home for loved ones.


this is the little quaint shop where we had our dinner last night! Looks so different from night time!









hot grilled charcoal meat with a mug of cold Japanese beer - biiru!