Tokyo Sky Tree

The Tokyo Sky Tree is a is a broadcasting, restaurant, and observation tower and is expected to be open to public by Spring 2012. 

Even before its completion, the Tokyo Sky Tree has become an attraction for visitors to Tokyo. Construction of the tower is scheduled to be completed by December 2011 at a record height of 634 meters, making it surpassing Tokyo Tower which stands at 333 meters. 

Tourists are already flocking to take photos of the yet to be completed tower and restaurants are selling tower-themed menu items.  We didn't go near the tower while we were in Japan in September but as we were based in Asakusa, the tower majestic height can be seen from almost every street in Asakusa. We can't miss it, jutting out and dominating the skyline. We saw locals and tourists alike stopping and photographing the tower from almost every angle.

Like I said, we didn't go near the tower but we managed to get a few shots of Tokyo Sky Tree from various places in Asakusa. Of course, the tower is in the background of every photo.

Losing Sleep Over A Scandal

No, not a real scandal but over a Korean drama titled Sungkyunkwan Scandal. I have been sleeping late for the past week, watching whatever episodes that I've downloaded over and over and over and over again. I'm trying to pace myself and not watch the whole episode in one go by not downloading them all,so I've only watched 16 epsiodes so far.

I've always have a soft spot for romantic Korean drama, but the last time I was this obsessive was over Coffee Prince.

The drama was set in Joseon era, in Sungkyunkwan, the nation’s highest academic institution, founded in 1398. For info, Sungkyunkwan is still in existence in modern day Korea. It is the oldest national university in Korea and all of East Asia. Interesting fact, no?

There is a  bit of similarity of the story because it is about a girl cross dressing as a boy to make a living. In Coffee Prince, it was a case of mistaken identity (or rather mistaken gender) that started the relationship; in Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Kim Yoon Hee (which was played by Park Min Yeong) had to dress as a boy to make a living. The stakes are different, since the consequences of being found out are severe, it’s no longer a matter of losing the guy’s trust and/or love but of failing your family and facing severe punishment and possibly death. 

The story is of a girl beating all odds to enter a higher learning place which was forbidden to women back then, in order to help her mother and sick brother. A heroine slogs through all odds and triumph in the end; I'm such a sucker for this kind of storyline.

And watching three beautiful men (those three in the photo above) doesn't hurt either. Koreans does have a knack to make a strait-laced guy looks hot! And watching this drama makes me even want to try wearing a hanbok someday. If you want to know a bit about Korean traditional dress, click here for more info.

Anyway, enjoy this soundtrack from the drama.

Breakfast Of The Day - Seating With Legs Folded At Uematsuya

I posted about our stay at Uematsuya and enjoying the onsens earlier. After spending the evening soaking in numerous onsens, we woke up refreshed and with an excellent appetite. We had dinner served in our room the night before but for breakfast, it was served in a traditional Japanese-style dining room.

The tables set for guests to enjoy breakfast.  If you have trouble sitting with your legs folded, don't wear a yukata to breakfast. You'll have a hard time hiding any body parts you don't want other guests to see. 

Our breakfast that morning. All those in the photo are a portion for one person. The breakfast served here was less elaborate than what we had at Taenoyu Onsen last year but still, it was a really good breakfast.

Some close-ups.

You know I am very much pampered by my husband when instead of me serving the rice, it is always him handling this task even at home.

Breakfast Of The Day Part II - At JAL City Hotel

Another breakfast-themed post from me. ;-)

We spent one night at Hotel JAL City in Sendai, utilizing my JAL coupon that I exchanged with my frequent flyer mileage. We got our room for 16,000yen per night which includes breakfast for two.

Our breakfast coupons.

The dining area. It has a rather "upscale" and sedate feel to it that wearing shorts when entering the restaurant feels improper for me. :D

The buffett area. The selection may not look much, but there were ample selection of food here; be it Japanese style or Western style breakfast.

My breakfast for the day. A variety of bread & pastries, along with a bow of piping hot rice, and an assortment of side dishes.

and what breakfast in Japan would be complete for us, without some sticky, gooey Natto too!

As you can see in the first photo, there were only two breakfast coupons and we are a party of three. Well... to save cost, only Mommy and Daddy went down to have breakfast while Raimie watched TV in our room. Being "naughty", I stashed away some bread and jams for Raimie in my bag that I took along with me. 

Have you ever stashed anything away to bring back from the buffett table? :p

Breakfast Of The Day Part I - At Toyoko Inn

We never skipped breakfast and staying in a hotel that provides complimentary breakfast is an important requirement for us. Having a complete (and complimentary breakfast) help to cut down our lunch cost too because we won't be needing a heavy lunch afterwards.

The majority of our nights in Japan are spent in Toyoko-Inn branches and most of them provide Japanese breakfast with the exception of a few branches.

A complete breakfast for us - onigiri (rice balls), miso soup, pickles, veges and maybe a slice of toast with jam and margarine.

 

 Most Toyoko-Inn provide standard fare of onigiri, miso soup and veges but different branches have different touches added. The best breakfast we had at any Toyoko Inn around Japan was at their Akita branch. There were onigiris, rice, simmered veges, pickles and also salmons, sardines for side dish, fruits (in this photo, it was a banana) and our favourite stuff to put on a hot rice: natto! I can just eat rice with natto for breakfast and be completely satisfied. :-)

What's a natto, you ask? Natto is a kind of fermented soybeans with very slimy texture. Some people may not like it, and natto is kinda smelly but I think if you like "tempeh", you'd have no problem eating natto.

At some branches of Toyoko Inn, instead of Japanese breakfast, we were served with bread. At Nanba branch is Osaka it was freshly baked bread and the photo above was our breakfast at Kawasaki Original branch.

With Air Asia having a collaboration with certain branches of Toyoko-Inn, I anticipate plenty of guests from my part of the world staying at this hotel. If I can put a plea to my fellow tourists when enjoying breakfast here: please bus your own table and please, please do not take your time eating. The breakfast area at most Toyoko-Inns are small so when we linger there, we deprive of others their time to eat too. And please lah... don't stuff your face eating of what seems to be eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner all combined at one seating just because it is free! Malu, man!  You know most Japanese guests only took three onigiris, drink their miso soup, had a cup of green tea or coffee and be off.

It's A Feast - Japanese Food We Ate Part I

I've done my daily trip reports, so now I'll be starting on my series of posts on Japanese food we enjoyed while on vacation, then maybe posts of the places we stayed before starting on random posts and put up more photos that we took during our vacation in September.

But before I swamped you guys with all the food photos in Japan, a post about what we ate in a couple of Japanese restaurants in Malaysia recently. Didn't we have enough Japanese food while in Japan? No, certainly not! Moreover, some of the food in Japan are out of bounds for us due to religious/dietary restriction so we can only enjoy them in Malaysia, in a restaurant with a certified Halal kitchen. Anything with pork in it is out of bounds for us, for one!

After a long break, we finally made a visit to Pasta Zanmai again, armed with the RM10.00 discount voucher from Panora Magazine. I hate to say this, but I'm regretting informing my colleagues and friends about the discount vouchers that can be found in the magazine because the free Japanese magazine ran out really fast nowadays!

Raimie loves his hamburg when we go to Pasta Zanmai so that's what we always order for him

Mommy, with her new love for both Japanese and Korean food, had Mini Kaki Kimchi pasta and Tori Karaage Garlic Fried rice. It is a set at RM23.00, and although it is called a mini, there's nothing "mini" about this dish. I mean, I was full even before I finished my bowl of pasta! There were three oysters in my pasta bowl and it was delish. Nyum nyum. The fried chicken, I gave to Zaini. I am now not a fan of chicken dishes anymore.

Daddy had Ebi Furai Curry rice. The curry was nice and not too sweet and comes with a bowl of miso soup and salad. At RM23.00 for a huge plate with those 5 prawns, it was a good value.

Then, a few days ago, we head to Hokkaido Ichiba; a newly opened Japanese restaurant in Gardens Mall. It was a first visit for Raimie and Zaini but a third one for me! It is a sister restaurant of Pasta Zanmai, Sushi Zanmai and Sushi Zen and obviously becomes quite popular in a short amount of time. Come early to avoid long queues like you'd see in their other restaurants.

Being sister restaurant to Pasta Zanmai, Sushi Zanmai and Sushi Zen, Hokkaido Ichiba has roughly the same menu items as the other three. The big difference is the huge ice cream selection they have here compared to the other places.

Zaini had curry omuraisu - look at the overflowing curry gravy!

Raimi had a bigger dinner - Sushi & Mini Udon set

which of course consisted of a small bowl of udon and a plate of sushi along with a cup of chawan mushi, miso soup, pickles and fruits.

 And I had Spicy Kaki Ramen. The portion wan't as big as I had expected  so I was still rather peckish after I cleaned up the whole bowl so I decided to get a sweet  treat.

A puny dish of Macha Milk Parfait

There's Beauty Everywhere If You Look For It

If anyone remembers, I wrote a post about going on a m mission to find cool manhole covers while vacationing in Japan. If you don't, check out the post here. The mission was inspired by  Jamaipanese's post on similar subject.

We didn't cover many cities in this trip and I missed the chance to photograph a couple of the manhole covers in Sendai and Kawasaki but here are my findings during our trip in September. Enjoy!

 Akita City, featuring the paper lanterns on poles

 

 Bessho Onsen's manhole cover - even the fire hydrant cover with the fire truck looks cute.

 Matsushima's featuring the view of the bay

 Tokyo Metropolitan Area

Ueda City

I am definitely looking forward on going drainspotting and looking for more manhole covers  in our next trip to Japan. What? You didn't think I'm done with Japan yet, did you? XD

Day 13 In Japan : The Trip Back Home

After enjoying ourselves in Japan for almost two weeks, it's time to head home. Honestly, despite the many visits we made to Japan, it never seems enough for us. There are so many places and sights we have yet to see. Bored of Japan? Never!

We only travelled to the north eastern side of Japan this year and admittedly the few days we were out of Tokyo just weren't enough. We made a conscious choice to spend a good number of nights in Tokyo for the sake of a friend tagging along with us because of her budget restriction which didn't allow  us to be more adventurous or travel too far this time.

Our trip from Narita Airport to Asakusa (1,060yen) was on a local train. We chose to travel cheaply to save money but our trip to Narita from Asakusa was more comfortable.

We had initially wanted to take the new Keisei train, that I posted about in my previous post but because our JR East Pass was still valid,  we decided to take the Narita Express instead and not spend more money on tansport.

Last year, on our  trip back home; Raimie almost had an accident because he fell through the gap at the train station platform while trying to board a train. Luckily Zaini had pretty fast reflex and managed to grab him otherwise Raimie would have fallen down on the track!

This year, we were busy reminding Raimie to be careful but I kind of forgot to be careful myself. It was drizzling when we were travelling back and of course  the roads and  stairs were slippery. With luggages to hold in both hands, it was hard to navigate my way through a narrow flight of stairs. While trying to give way to another commuter at a train station, I slipped and  slid  down on several stairs on my butt. Ouch! Double ouch was that Zaini and Raimie didn't even realize I fell. Zaini actually gave me an annoyed look when he noticed that I kept massaging my butt. Huhuhu...

I was nursing a very sore butt all the way from Narita to KLIA and by the time we reached KLIA,  it was hard for me to sit down without feeling any pain. Almost two months had gone by, there is still a bit of pain but my GP said if I can tolerate the pain, he won't give me anything to make it better. It might  be a hairline fracture  on my tailbone and as long as the pain lessens, albeit slowly I was advised it is best to let it heal  naturally. Well, I'm quite good at handling pain so no painkillers for me. I just need to adjust how I sit a bit and not sit on the floor for too long... I always prefer sitting upright on the floor rather than on our squashy sofa.

Lesson for our next travel - don't be too klutzy and forget about being considerate of others when you have way too much to handle yourself.

One thing I realized, and was mentioned to me by others too; Japanese wouldn't bat an eyelid at you even if you fall flat in front of them. One thing good about this of course is that you can dust yourself up and others will just "pretend" nothing happened.

Zaini and I talked about 2010's trip being the last while we were making plans earlier, but now we talking about how nice it would be to visit Japan in autumn. Autumn next year? Or winter be better? Decisions, decisions... XD

Day 12 In Japan : Last Minute Shopping Spree

Our day 12 in Japan was our last day to do any last minute sightseeing or shopping before our flight back to Malaysia the day after. I don't know why, but on this trip, we somehow had no time to do and visit the places we always head to during our vacation like in previous years. 

Anyhoo, we were back in Tokyo, and the day was spent going to places to buy toys for Raimie, and souvenirs for us to bring back home.

We started our day by walking around Asakusa.

See the tower under construction in the background? That's Tokyo Sky Tree. Even now, the Sky Ttree is already the tallest building, standing at 497m. (Tokyo Tower is 333m). The tower's full height will be 634m, making the tower one of the world's tallest.

Kappabashi (Kitchen Town) is a must for us. Not only for kitchenware, we can find cheap food items and souvenirs here too. Note to visitors - the shops here close early so if you are planning to visit Kappabashi, make sure you come on weekdays, and before 5.00pm for a good experience. Otherwise, many of the shops here would be closed!

Our bounty for the day. As you can see, no designer stuff bought. I'm not into obscenely expensive designer good anyway. I rather save my money for another trip to Japan. LOL

Day 11 In Japan : On The Train Again

Day 10 was spent relaxing in a Japanese Inn called Uematsuya and dipping countless of times in the onsens. The next day, fter checking out from Uematsuya, it was time for us to head back to Tokyo. From Bessho Onsen, we got on the Ueda Electric Railways train again for a leisurely ride to Ueda Station.

The electric train on Ueda line to/from Bessho Onsen. This train had a retro vibe to it, and look different from the train we took the day earlier from Ueda Station. Compare it here.

Checking out the shinkansen train schedule when we got to Ueda Station, we decided against taking one because of the waiting time and opted to ride on one of the train on the Shinano Railways to Karuizawa instead. 

We got ourselves a JR East Special pass for this trip, and using this pass we got to travel only JR East lines, but also Izu Kyuko lines, Hokuetsu Kyuko Railway Hokuhoku Lines, Tobu Railway and in Nagano (where Bessho Onsen is located) the pass also covers Shinano Electric Railways, Nagano Electric Railways, Ueda Electric Railways and Matsumoto Electric Railways.

Actually, the plan for Day 11 was to go on the Nagaden (Nagano Electric Railways train - above photo) but as luck would have it, it was raining rather heavily that day. With the temperature dropping drasctically from previous day and us not being prepared for the cold weather (think of temperature change from 33degrees to 16degrees in a day); the thought of braving the cold weather outdoors didn't seem  attractive for us, so we decided to make a stop at Karuizawa instead.

Brrrr.... it sure was cold that day. This was the day the weather drops almost half and enter the autumn mode. We were there for a few hours, shopping at Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza and enjoying free food samples at one of the shops there.

We were a bit naughty that day. Not armed with umbrellas and going outdoors on a rainy day, it was really difficult for us to move around. What we did was, we nicked a couple of umbrellas from Prince Hotel Karuizawa's umbrella stand at Karuizawa station and used it for our own convenience. Yup, the hotel has an umbrella stand for their guests to return the hotel's umbrella after they use it and there were plenty of umbrellas there. Sorry Prince Hotel! I know we are not your customer but we are desperate!