Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 2 (1/2)

The journey for Day 2 began at 8.30am. Before that, we went to eat breakfast at Tokyo Dome Hotel 3rd Floor. Sorry that I didn't take any pictures of the breakfast as I left my phone inside the room charging. However, there's Japanese breakfast buffet and Western breakfast buffet inside the restaurant. I ate Japanese breakfast buffet such as salad with Japanese dressing, mackerel, udon and miso soup. The mackerel was great as I believe that it is marinated and grilled with miso paste.

We packed our luggage after our breakfast and brought our belongings into the bus.

The first stop was visiting the Sensoji or Asakusa Kannon Temple.

Sensoji or Asakusa Kannon Temple

Before visiting the temple, you'll have to wash your hands first.

Here's the washing area. Remember to get the water from the dragon's mouth.

Follow these procedures and you'll never go wrong: Left hand, Right hand, drink the water and return the ladle.

Inside the temple, you can pray for anything from family to academic to good luck. Apart from that, you can also draw a lot at 100 yen. I tried drawing a lot and got good luck. However, if you unfortunately get a bad luck, you can tie the paper and pray for something good.

Outside the temple, there is a shopping street where you can buy souvenirs and eat snacks. For me, I visited a famous fried fritters stall and bought a custard fritter. That stall is famous because the Japanese prince and his wife visited the stall before.

That's the fried fritters stall.

They sell different types of fried fritters.

Here's the photo of the Japanese prince and his wife visiting their stall.

Custard filling fried fritter. Delicious and there's a lot of filling in it.

From the Sensoji or Asukasa Kannon Temple, you can view the Tokyo Skytree and take pictures.

Tokyo Skytree view from the Sensoji or Asakusa Kannon Temple

I bought a bottle of Japanese cider from the vending machine. It tastes about the same as the Korean cider which I always buy and drink from the Korean Supermarket but it's acceptable that I would purchase again.

Introducing the Japanese cider. Wondering does it sell in Singapore?

The visit to the temple has come to an end. It's time to visit the full size Gundam statue at Diver City Tokyo Plaza! As I have mentioned in my previous post, Diver City is close to DECKS and Aqua City. So, it's still around the Odaiba area.

Full size Gundam statue at Diver City Tokyo Plaza

Seeing that Gundam statue was not enough for many die-hard Gundam fans. There's Gundam store located outside the mall with capsule machines and also Gundam Cafe. I'm not a die-hard fan so only took the exterior of both places.

Gundam store located outside the entrance of Diver City Tokyo Plaza.

Gundam Cafe

Gundam is not only just outside the mall. Inside the mall, there's Gundam museum at the 7th storey!

Gundam Museum

A wide range of Gundam models from the 1st generation to now!

When you visit the Gundam museum, remember to visit the left hand side which is what you saw the interior above. It's free of charge! The right hand side needs you to pay the admission fee where you can see more Gundam models in there. I didn't go in there so I didn't know what's inside. After visiting the museum, you can shop inside the store which is located further inside where Gundam models, clothes, folders and magazines are available in there. My younger brother bought a Gundam model there but it's not limited edition by the way. Nearly 2,000 yen! Saying that, if you are a collector of Gundam models, you can try looking for models which are only available in Japan.

Apart from Gundam museum, you can shop at UNIQLO and H&M for clothes, eat McDonald's or other restaurants, or buy snacks. It's also a suitable place to shop and eat in Tokyo even if you are not a die-hard Gundam fan.

The visit to Diver City Tokyo Plaza ended in the afternoon and it was time for lunch. The lunch for the day was to eat sushi! Yeah!

BUT! We had to make sushi ourselves.

Arrived at the restaurant for lunch. Sushi Yachiyo is the place where you can create your own sushi.

The entrance and the restaurant is located downstairs. However, as we walked down, there's cigarette smell that almost made me suffocated.

DIY sushi making and other activities in the afternoon and evening are on the next part of the Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 2.

Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 1 (3/3)

Day 1 in Tokyo continued with a shabu-shabu dinner at a shopping center named DECKS in Odaiba.
 

The exterior of DECKS shopping center.

Another exterior view of DECKS. There's JOYPOLIS amusement center and a discovery center (HINT: The discovery center is also one of the theme parks in Nusajaya, Malaysia)

 

DECKS has 2 different paths. I forgot the names of the 2 but it separates the JOYPOLIS and that discovery center into 2 different paths. The restaurant that we were entering is located at the JOYPOLIS path, 5th storey.

The restaurant that we went in for dinner.

Fried tempura

The main dish: shabu-shabu

Pork slices to dip into shabu-shabu

Sauce to dip the pork slices.

The shabu-shabu dinner was great as the broth used was not the normal pork bone broth which I thought. The clear broth uses kombu (seaweed) to boil and also cabbage, carrot and leek. The taste, as compared to the normal pork bone broth or any other broth, was tastier and healthier.

Each person received 12 pork slices to dip into the broth. It only took around 20 seconds to make a pork slice completely cooked. After that, dip the sauce. The sauce itself was a bit sour but the pork slices were tender and melted into my mouth. Apart from the tempura and shabu-shabu, udon was also served but as the meal was delicious, I forgot to take a picture of the udon. Anyway, the udon can be eaten with the shabu-shabu sauce or pouring in the broth to eat. I tried both and it was great.

After dinner, I went in to the washroom and noticed something special. Although not pictured, it was a fun discovery that the washroom is also an arcade. For male toilet, there's something to play while you do your small business. Large business inside the cubicle...Sorry! I didn't enter the cubicle.

Outside DECKS, we moved on to see the view of the Rainbow Bridge but...

Statue of Liberty in Japan?!

I was amazed by that but by combining Statue of Liberty from New York and Rainbow Bridge from Odaiba, it makes a wonderful view. I thought I was in New York in a minute.

Other than DECKS, there's another shopping mall named Aqua City Odaiba. Behind Aqua City Odaiba, there's FUJI TV building. Diver City Tokyo is also around Odaiba too (See Central Japan Day 2 for more details).

Aqua City Odaiba and FUJI TV building behind it.

Rubbish bins are very hard to find in Japan. Even if you find it, you have to classify it. So...what to put inside non-combustible bin and combustible bin?

 

 

 

 

 

 

We boarded the sightseeing bus after walking around and arrived at Tokyo Dome Hotel. That hotel is near Tokyo Dome (Duh!). Unfortunately, I didn't go out to visit Tokyo Dome.

My younger brother and I were in a twin room and the room for the first night was wonderful with desk and chairs.

Before we slept, there's supper and it's custard and red bean buns.

Supper time!

I ate the custard filling bun.

That's the end of Day 1 in Central Japan after finishing our supper.

To be continued for Day 2.

Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 1 (2/3)

Here's part 2 of Central Japan Day 1.

We've arrived at Narita Airport in the morning and were prepared to move to the next destination.

According to the itinerary, a family could choose whether to go Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo Disneysea. For us, we've chosen Disneysea because Disneyland is an exclusive theme park made for Japan and also it would be strange to see teenagers riding on kiddy rides. I thought Disneysea would be a water theme park. Yes, there's water. No, that's not for playing.

All families decided to head to Disneysea after listening to Florence's (our tour guide) explanation. And sadly to say, as it was a Sunday (14 June 2015), both Disneyland and Disneysea were crowded with visitors. Not just overseas, even locals went to visit.

The view of Disneysea.

Different Disney characters were featured on the passport. Mine was Donald Duck.

A 1-day passport shown here. As it was a group passport, it cost 6,200 yen.

We got our bags checked at the entrance and went in to visit Disneysea. Our first stop was to watch Fashionable Easter performance at 10.30am JT (or Japan Time). Although there's 15 minutes before the start of the performance, many visitors have gathered at the Mediterranean Harbor, many sat down on the floor or with plastic sheets and other ground coverings while others stood and patiently waited for the performance to start.

The crowd gathered at the Mediterranean Harbor.

The Fashionable Easter performance was a fashion show with Disney characters and dancers in celebrating the beauty that took place on the waters of the Mediterranean Harbor and the new stage on the shore. The show was first started on 1 June 2015, performing 3 shows a day. 23 June 2015 was the final day of performance. We got the privilege to watch that show during that 1 June to 23 June period.

There were big boats, Disney characters and dancers during the show.

There were also flying colorful kites and fireworks (picture not taken).

The show went on for around 20 minutes before we decided where to go next. We decided to have lunch first before moving onto the Big Band Beat performance but things didn't go smoothly as we began to look for a place to eat. As I've mentioned earlier, there were many visitors and all we could do was to queue and wait. From Mediterranean Harbor to American Waterfront to Port Discovery to Lost River Delta, that whole journey, just to look for lunch, took an hour.

At Mediterranean Harbor, we found a restaurant called Zambini Brothers' Ristorante, serving pastas and pizzas. There were seats available, great. However, when we continued to walk in, something strange happened as we decided to queue. I looked at the menu and saw only sandwiches? Where's the pastas and pizzas?

The exterior look of Zambini Brothers' Ristronte, serving pastas and pizzas.

Where's the pastas and pizzas?

When I looked at that menu with red-colored background and I looked up, I saw "DELI". DELI?! I checked on the map and realized we were at NEW YORK DELI! The location? American Waterfront! I was like we moved to another destination by entering and exiting a restaurant?! How on earth did we do that?

We moved on instead, giving up on pastas and pizzas. Since we were at American Waterfront, we saw the "BIG BAND BEAT" sign.

Big Band Beat performance at the Broadway Music Theatre

 However, when we saw that, we gave up.

The crowd. We couldn't stay here all day waiting.

The Big Band Beat performance initially planned was out of our list. Then, we continued to search for other places to eat. We tried the S.S Columbia Dining Room but too many people. We also tried Horizon Bay Restaurant but didn't know there was another queue behind us.

After an hour of walking, we finally stopped by a restaurant named Miguel's El Dorado Cantina. No queue and not many people were in there. We're inside for lunch.

The entrance of Miguel's El Dorado Cantina

Inside there, it sells Mexican foods, mainly tacos. There were 3 types of tacos available, Teriyaki Pork Taco, Fried Chicken Taco and Shrimp Salad Taco. Sorry to all Muslims, by stating these 3, it's a non-halal fast food restaurant. Apart from tacos, there's also a Mexican Plate Set which includes a Spicy Chicken Tostada, Mexican Rice, Banana and Caramel Mousse Cake and a choice of soft drink. The set costs 1,490 yen. Each taco costs 610 yen but ordering a set costs 1,020 yen which includes fries and soft drink.

I ordered the Teriyaki Pork Taco set with Fanta Lemon and a cup of corn soup (250 yen). Total: 1,270 yen for me.

3 different taco sets (Orange: Chicken, Red: Pork, Green: Shrimp).

Teriyaki Pork Taco

Mexican Plate Set, corn soup not included.

Total for a family of 4 for lunch was...

4,800 yen!

After lunch, we continued walking around. I felt that I should at least tried a ride before leaving this place so I chose to go to the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull which is located at the Lost River Delta and also from the restaurant that we have eaten for lunch, it is just opposite.

We went there and I decided to use the FASTPASS!

[About FASTPASS: FASTPASS is a kind of ticket which will help to shorten the waiting time at any attractions marked with FP or FASTPASS. Visitors will have to place their passport into the ticketing machine and check the return time stated on the FASTPASS ticket. Until the return time, visitors can visit other attractions. During the return time, visitors will only to go to the attraction's FASTPASS entrance and minimize the waiting time. FASTPASS attractions are only available at 8 different places in Disneysea.]

FASTPASS Ticketing

Got a ticket! Wait, 6.35pm to 7.35pm?! We are staying until 5pm!

FASTPASS could help to shorten the waiting time. However, not all the time. When I placed my passport into the ticketing machine, it told me to wait for 5 more hours! I thought the purpose is to shorten the time?! Never mind, I decided to go for the standby queue but the waiting time...not 5 hours but 90 minutes.

Indiana Jones Adventure ride

No FASTPASS, never mind. Standby Entrance is there for you.

Look at that queue.

The queue went smoothly until I made that one stupid mistake that caused me to give up the ride. That stupid mistake would be revealed when I reached to queue for another ride.

After giving up the ride, we went to visit the Arabian Coast, Mermaid Lagoon and Mysterious Island. At the Mysterious Island, I decided to go on to the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride with my father. No FASTPASS was needed this time because it would be the same thing as the Indiana Jones ride. We went to the standby entrance and expected waiting time: 100 minutes.

The entrance to the ride.

The long queue, going round and round and round.

While queuing, look at those artifacts.

After around 70 minutes of wait, we reached the elevator. Huh?! That's it?

There's more! The ride itself.

Finally, it was the ride. Inside the cave, there were creatures, scary but not to an extent of hugging each other. There were colorful lights in there but things were about to get scarier when you thought the ride was malfunctioned, a dark environment, wind blowing in and the ride suddenly went fast. At first I thought it was an easy ride. No worries! However, when the ride went fast and suddenly went into a sudden drop, I didn't scream out loud but my head was almost being pulled out. Lesson learned: Don't ever underestimate the ride.

Back to why I made a stupid mistake while waiting for the Indiana Jones ride (IJ ride). That was only discovered when the passport was not checked while waiting to ride. In the middle of queuing the IJ ride, I realized that I did not have my passport with me so I gave up instead, worrying that I may not be able to ride on it if there's no passport to be shown. Actually, I made a major mistake when I discovered there was no such procedure. Well, at least I got to try on a ride at Disneysea.

We watched Fashionable Easter for the second time but this time, it's at a different view. That was a 2.30pm show and there's one more after that at 4.30pm but who wants to watch the show for the third time?

Fashionable Easter at a different angle.

The rest of the 2 hours to 5pm went to shopping and resting on a bench to see the Disney characters walking towards us and entering the staff-only entrance.

At 5pm, we left Disneysea and went for a shabu-shabu dinner at a shopping center.

Details for the shabu-shabu dinner will be revealed at the final part of Day 1.

Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 1 (1/3)

Time really flies! The last time I wrote my first Travel Diary on Krabi, Thailand was a year ago. Initially, there was another Travel Diary to be written on Hainan, China which was back in December 2014 but maybe because of my memory faded a week after I came back to Singapore, I didn't continue to write.

This time, I believe that I can do it, finish writing my experience in Central Japan for the past week. Here it is, my written experience of Central Japan starts now. As different locations in Japan has many stories to tell, there will be many parts to be posted. Let's begin with Singapore to Tokyo.

Day 1 - 14 June 2015

The first night on the 13th was basically wasted in the airplane. Needless to say, it's not a free and easy trip. It's a guided trip! Like in Beijing and Taiwan back in September and December 2012 respectively, it's a flight at night. When my family arrived at the destination, it automatically became the next day. I don't want to confuse anyone so I would make this straight. I took the flight on the 13th at 11.55pm and arrived on the 14th at around 6am (Japan Time or JT after that). Simple? Clear enough?  I don't know what on earth am I writing now!

Anyway, when we were on board the airplane, it was already the 14th so I will start Day 1 as 14 June 2015.

We took SQ to Narita Airport. On the flight, I watched Infinite Challenge, even though I had watched it before online (Before I got Oh!K channel on the set-top box).

Die-hard fan of this show. When I saw that program featured on the magazine, I watched it immediately.

Refreshments were served in the middle of the flight. There were 2 - Warm mango and shrimp with herbs panini sandwich or Warm chicken satay with potato wrap. I chose the latter one as my refreshment.

The red one was the one I've chosen - Chicken Satay while the other one was Warm Mango and shrimp which my mother ate.

Our breakfast were served after the refreshments were served 1 or 2 hours ago. Again, 2 choices -  Japanese breakfast (Salmon saikyo miso, fish paste omelette, fish cake, seasonal vegetables and steamed rice with yukari powder) or Scrambled egg with chicken chipolata, tomato and hash brown potatoes. I decided to have a taste of Japanese breakfast since I'm traveling to Japan.

Japanese breakfast for me. The dishes tasted great even though the rice serving was a bit small.

The other option - Scrambled eggs. Again, that's what my mother ate.

Oh I forgot to mention about this small bag containing toothpaste, toothbrush and a pair of...I don't know what. Socks?

After 6 or 7 hours of flight, we've finally landed in Japan.

It's daytime, meaning we would be arriving soon.

Custom declarations in Japan is different from other countries that I have visited. As you arrive in Japan's Narita Airport, instead of queuing up one by one, letting the officer to check your passport, it goes by 2, 3, 4 or even more people. Apart from the embarkation form that you have to fill up on your own, there's another form to be filled up as a family for baggage, which is the baggage claim receipt.

It's time to have fun in Central Japan as we began our journey to Disneyland or Disneysea. I forgot to mention the people involved in the guided tour. Our tour guide was a female named Florence. There was another tour leader who accompanied us throughout the tour - Chye Huat. We boarded the bus and moved to the first destination in the morning.

The entry was a bit too long so I would have to make another part of it. See you in part 2 of Day 1.