Finally finished the journal yesterday... here goes :P
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After 5700+ km and about 7 hours and 10 mins of flight, finally I arrived in the land of the rising sun.
1st day in Japan (well, technically it's 2nd day, but since I arrive at my sis' place about 11pm, so I'll consider it first day today).
We started the day by taking the train to Tsukiji (fish market). To our disappointment, it wasn't open today. But we went rounding a little anyways.
Found a pretty decent spinning table sushi place in the area called Sushizanmai (http://www.kiyomura.co.jp/) and we went in for breakfast. Spend about 1500 on the sushi. Pretty decent.
After a nice meal, we stroll back to the station and went to Asakusa (the famous temple-with-big-lantern-on-the-doorway place). Pretty packed with tourists from HK, Taiwan etc not to mention the local Japanese. Wanted to buy some souvenirs but things are not really cheap there and the quality of the stuffs so so only. So just walked around look see look see. When we're about to leave the place, it started drizzling a little. We decided to go for lunch before leaving as it was already 2pm. Went to a little ramen place 2 roads away from the temple area. Cost me 550 for my pork soup ramen, and 650 for my sis' spicy ramen.
Next stop, we went to the Akihabara (electronics street). Saw a shop with that sells lots of second hand DVD. And then there's a shop selling 2nd hand cameras... damn cheap, but only has 1 month warranty, so don't have much confidence. :P After a while, the drizzle starts getting heavier and it really spoils my mood a little, so we decided to leave the place and call it a day. But since we have to travel past Ginza, we decided to stop by and have a look.
The weather was not really helpful and the rain just continues on and on, but luckily we have an umbrella with us so we just moved on. It's a really posh place, reminding me of Singapore's Orchard Road. You can see Prada, Gucci, Burberry and etc boutiques on both sides of the main road. Seeing that the rain is not getting any lighter, we decided to make a move.
When the train pass by Roppongi, again we alight the train and went out for a rounding. Roppongi Hill is a different kind of posh area, quite different from Ginza, probably because it's newer I heard. The towering building allows us to see the Tokyo Tower from a deck. Interestingly, the tower is lit up in a pinkish light today. Even some Japanese are astonished at the change as it's usually lit up by a whitish light, so everyone started taking pictures.
After that on the way back we stopped by Yokohama station and went to the food market to buy some stuff for dinner. It's quite fun as it's close to closing time and they are pushing the prices of some items down to clear them off before closing. You can see the staffs yelling here and there, and prices of things dropping from 20-50%, and some discount 100-250 yen. Really interesting sight indeed. In the end we bought some salmon and rice, and some meat on stick for dinner.
2nd day (Monday)
Today we had some breakfast and then we headed for the Haneda Airport. Will be boarding a flight for Hokkaido at 1pm.
The flight is a old 747-400 of the carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA). The ride was quite noisy and not exactly comfortable, but nevertheless we arrived safe and sound in New Chitose Airport. From the airport we took a bus to Sapporo town center for 1000Y.
Reached town at about 4+. Was pretty hungry so just settled for food near the station. Turns out the teriyai style burger (minced beef) with rice set was really nice. The place seems to be famous for it's deserts and it's rice. It is just slightly off the main street of Sapporo.
After the meal, we walked around town while looking for the way to our inn. Finally found our inn and checked in. Pretty small but clean and cosy place.
Went out again to check out the town and get a feel of the directions. Inside Sapporo town there's 2 underground street which somehow reminds me of the one in Singapore (probably because that's the only one that I know of). One is Pole Town which runs North to South, while the other one Aurora Town, runs East to West. At the Eastern end of Aurora Town there's a TV station tower. Looks kinda like a mini Tokyo tower.
3rd day
Spent most of our time today going around town checking out the attractions within walking distance. We started off with the Clock Tower of Sapporo, then the Old Govt Administration Building.
After that we walked quite a distance to the Sapporo Beer Museum. Had a taste of the original Sapporo brew. Next we moved on to the Sapporo Beer Factory, which is a now defunct factory (similar to the museum) having a shopping complex (incidently, called the "Factory") right next to it.
Continuing onwards, we dropped by a famous wine maker (Chitose Tsurugi). Sampled some excellent rice wine there (FOC by the way).
Next we moved on to a famous fish market. Had our lunch there, but wasn't quite satisfying as the portion was quite small and tastes so so only.
Finishing our tour on the town, we walked over to the TV station to get a day time shot of the tower.
Exhausted, we went back to the inn for a short rest. After that, we decided to go to the other end of the road to check out a garden. Turns out to be quite an interesting place, too bad we didn't get any day time shot of it.
Night time, we dropped by a ramen shop for dinner. Had a spicy pork ramen which was pretty good, but kinda oily.
4th day
Enrolled ourselves in a tour trip which goes to Otaru, a town about 30-40 mins away from Sapporo.
First stop is a winery. Had free sampling on some of their wines. Most of their wines are fruity and sweet, quite nice to drink.
Next we stop by a street famous for glass products and wares. Just walked around, didn't really buy any stuff. Tried their famous ice-cream with melon flavor, very nice.
After that, we moved on to the Otaru Canal. visited a music box store (Otaru is famous for glasswares and music box) and took some pictures around the area. Got to know an American family who're on the same tour as we do. Incidently, we actually bumped into them yesterday at the Sapporo Beer Factory. Small world huh?
Next up, we stopped by a sushi street for lunch. Had a sashimi set which was nice and fresh, really excellent.
After the lunch, the bus took up uphill, towards Tengu Mountain. It's something like an observatory cum temple cum museum on top of the mountain. Had to take the cable car to go up there. From up there, we can see the whole of Otaru town and some part of the sea. Great view indeed.
Last stop was a memorial building for a famous sportsman of Sapporo (for yatching). But we didn't went in as there is an entrance fee. So we ended up visiting a huge factory outlet mall opposite the road.
5th day
Got a day pass for subway + bus and went to two major attractions of Sapporo. One is a hill that commemorates a Dr Clark famous for his quote "Boys, be ambitious". Another is the Shiroi Koibito chocolate factory.
On the hill (can't recall what it's called exactly in English, but after translation it's like "Sheep's Hill" or something like that), there's a sheep farm and some chapel like buildings. From the hill we can see a portion of Sapporo city.
Next, we went to the Shiroi Koibito factory, a famous chocolate maker. The whole factory is actually very nicely done, something like a playground. There's a rose garden, and then every now and then (some time interval) there will be musics playing, human sized dolls dancing and moving about, and bubbles floating. There's also a tour that you can join for a price. It leads you around part of the factory to tell you about chocolate history and stuffs. Even let you see the packaging department behind a glass window.
After the visit, it's already getting late and we hop on a bus headed to the New Chitose Airport to catch the plane back to Haneda/Tokyo.
6th day
Nothing much to do today, mainly because the whole day it's raining. Went to Shakey's Pizza for lunch buffet. Very cheap at about 700+ Yen per head. Tried 10s of types of pizza including a Halloween Special (sweet, with pumpking), some salad pizza, a japanese pizza (Okonomiyaki) type... and then there's the regular fare of pepperoni pizza, seafood pizza and the likes.
Spent most of the afternoon in Yodobashi Camera Yokohama. Lotsa stuff to see and touch, especially cameras. They've got the latest and greatest models at prices cheaper compared to M'sia. Was really tempted to get a camera there, but convinced myself to wait a lil while more.
7th day
Nice weather today. Spent almost the whole day at Kamakura, temple-hopping. One of the temple has a huge Buddha statue which was built about a century ago. What's surprising is that the whole statue is actually hollow. They even let you go inside the statue for 20Y. Most of these temples requires an entrance fee, so we only select a few to visit. While at a major temple (this one is actually free), we spotted a Japanese couple getting married.
After that, we went to a small island nearby. It is connected to the main land with a bridge. There is a path that leads all the way up to a temple. The sea was nice and blue and we can see many people yatching and surfing.
We also went to the seaside area nearby after leaving the island.
8th day
Used the day pass and went many places. First off, we went to the imperial garden area. But too bad there's an entrance fee imposed (well, why am I not surprised?), so we decided to pass that.
Went over to Shinjuku station to look around. Pretty happening place with lots of youngsters. Happened to see a group of cheerleading kids practising in the public. I was expecting them to maybe throw up a show, but seems like they are only practising some positioning and placing.
Made a stop over at the Tokyo Station. The station is kinda old, and looks a lil out of place being surrounded by all the tall buildings around.
Next we proceed to the Imperial Palace. The palace has some parts open for visitors and it is free. You just need to walk over to the booth and they will issue you a pass (which they will collect back when you leave). The palace is very very huge, with lots of interesting plants and constructions.
Then we made a brief visit to Omote Sando. This place bears a little bit of similarity to Ginza although not as classy. It's loaded with big brand name shops and you can see a huge youngsters crowd around.
As the sky darkens, we made a stop over at Ueno. Ueno shops generally sell things at a cheaper price, so we shop for some stuffs here. There's even a shop that sells all kinds of candy and snacks of the olden days. Makes you all nostalgic looking at the things sold.
Lastly, we made a stop at the station nearest to Tokyo Tower. Walked over to get a glimpse of the tower at close range and took some night shots of it (man, I need a tripod :P).
9th day
Spent most of today in Yokohama. First went to the Red Brick Warehouse area. There's an oktoberfest celebration going on, massive crowd lining up to get their Erdinger and Bittburger.
When it's almost lunch time, we went to Denny's for lunch.
Next, we dropped by Chinatown. The place is very clean and looks pretty advanced, different from what I thought I would see. The Chinatown is actually very huge, with many exits, if you didn't take notice, it's quite easy to be confused on which exit you came out from. There's also 2 temples inside. The Chinatown here seems to get most of it's influence from Taiwan instead of China, as I see banner celebrating 10th Oct, rather than 1st Oct.
After Chinatown, we went to a Curry Museum nearby which is actually a centralized plaza with a few curry house restaurant, at the same time showing some info on curry history stuff.
10th day
Didn't do much today. Just had a little walk around the neighbourhood checking out some shops. Pretty hot weather today.
11th day
Went out around town. Went to Hoshigawa to buy some stuffs, then came back, and then off again to Yokohama station. Checked out some stores etc around the station area.
12th day
Mainly hangout at Yokohama station today. Just loitering on the streets. Spent quite some time in the camera superstores there playing around with the latest models of cameras.
13th day
Felt a 5.3 Ritcher scale quake in the morning. The house was kinda shaking a little. My first earthquake encounter I guess.
Had the okonomiyaki for dinner. Then went to Yokohama station area to do some last minute shopping and stuffs.
14th day
Going to Narita Airport in the morning, headed for home.
Some Conclusions and Afterthoughts:
1) First of all, food. There's food everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. Same goes for vending machine, but that's well known already. You can literally smell the miso or teriyaki scent everywhere you go. Otherwise it's some bakery scent.
2) Arts and museums. They can make a museum out of anything. And there are art galleries on almost all tourist attractions.
3) Advertising is everywhere. Any place where it's possible to slap on an ad, you'll see it there. Especially on food, dental and personal loan.
4) Supermarkets and megastores all have their own jingle. And they keep playing it over and over again. Can't anyone play some OTHER music?
5) Japanese girls... how can you not notice them. They dress very nicely and have fabulous make ups. I'd probably say 7 out of 10 of the SYTs looks pretty and cute.
6) Transportation. Transportation is VERY expensive. And a lot of walking is required to go around town, unless you're rich enough to afford taxi. Another way would be to get a bicycle.
7) Sewer and drain cover. If you pay some attention, you'll notice that the metal cover for sewer manhole and drains are all having different designs for each city. Interesting indeed.
