I forgot if it was this day or the day after, but I was really shocked at the train station when I saw the electronic timetable board showing, “person accident.” and the train will be delayed. Pardon my lame translation. But I’ve read about this “accidents” before, it means that someone has jumped down the train tracks and you know the rest of the story.
And I’ve read that when people see the sign, they would just calmly take out their handphones and sms other people to tell that they’ll be late. Horrors! The thing was never shown when I was in Fukuoka, but in Tokyo. I felt sick in my stomach. Someone has just died. On train tracks.
Anyway, back to the day…
The night before, HY arranged with Day to meet up at Shinjuku’s station so all of us can tour Tokyo together. What was not on our minds was that the map online of the train station is totally different from the real place.
A poster at Tokyo stations. I think it means that don’t rush into trains that are closing their doors. The picture doesn’t make sense at first glance. It still doesn’t make much sense now.
SO we went to Shinjuku station. Then we realised that the map of the train station online is totally different from the real thing. We walked from exit to exit and still couldn’t find D. So I told them to stay put while I use my JR pass to get to the South Gates.
Very luckily, Day was at the South gate when I got there. (Told you we were lucky during the whole trip) SO we walked back to the East gates, but HY had ran off to find us. We waited some more and she came back from her search.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m too apathetic or that other people are just too helpful. I guess it’s me.
Off we went to a conbini to buy breakfast. I bought a cream puff and it was yummy!
We went to the Municipal Building, coz we can go high up for free. (Free is a very important thing!) Like always, we walked in the wrong direction before going to the right direction.
The building is high. And you have to go through security checks before you can take the high speed lifts up.
Oi aunty, we’re taking photos!
After sightseeing, we walked back to SHinjuku station. PY and MC wanted to climb Mt Fuji and they want to ask tour operators about it.
On the way to the station, we saw a branch of a famous pork cutlet shop.
THis place is great, rice, soup and salad is free flow! I discovered a bug in my salad. They took away my whole tray. I should had eaten more of my pork before letting them take my things away. Anyway, I asked for more soup.
Back in Shinjuku, PY, MC and D signed up for the Mt Fuji climbing tour. Ganbatte!
Then off we went to TOKYO HANDS, because I was being an ass. But TOKYU HANDS was amazing. Why didn’t they have it in Fukuoka?! I was deprived!!!!
I bought my pair of Crocs here, because they had an AMAZING collection. Oh, CROCS in Singapore are more expensive than in Japan, so get your pair in Japan!
Then HY had an inner debate of whether to go ASAHI TV or Harajuku. In the end, we went to HA-RA-JU-KU!
What’s surprising about Harajuku is that the train station has a lot of trees! TREES! I had never linked Harajuku to tree. I mean, when you hear Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku Girls, do you see trees in your mind? NO!
Then we found out why there were so much trees. The station is next to the Meiji Shrine. The Meiji Shrine is the shrine of Emperor and Empress Meiji.
By the bridge to the temple there are artists
Impressive!
A shrine is a shrine is a shrine. I’ve seen too much!
They asked for a donation when you use their chop. I did, didn’t I?
Oh, when we were in the shrine, the guard told a tourist, “No Photo.” I know I was being rude, but I was too tired to walk away to find seats so we sat on the steps, and the guard came out and said, “No sitting.” in Japanese. I think they never told him how to say, “No sitting”
I’ve been told that miko are usually just part timers. I want to be a part time miko too!!! I love that dress.
On our way out, we saw two very cool street performers. OK, they’re good looking too. It was raining but we still stood there watching.
You see the girl on the left. She blocked my view of the cute guys! OK, that’s not really the point. She was happily clapping in tune with the guys, ignoring the rain and my “go away” vibe. THink she’s a big fan of them.
We reluctantly went away when they finished their song. Maybe they’ll become a big famous band and we can say, we’ve seen them performing on the streets.
Harajuku’s Takeshita Dori. Very crowded with lots of shops
We went into an idol shop, it was lined up with posters and photo cards of idols. Quite fanatical.
Toma darling!
Of course, we had Marion Crepes. There’s a branch here in IMM.
I’m not that well suited for crepes, I feel really dizzy around the end and sligh
A turn from the end of Takeshita Dori took us to Omotesando Hills . A very classy shopping area, with
classy public loo
David Beckham’s underwear advert opposite his wife’s advert for no-one-knows
A police van with funny drawing
Nice Parisian, side walk Mc Donald’s
Then we walked on to Shibuya, the fashion mecca of Tokyo (If you’re a teen). Along the way, we saw
A 3D fugu advert
United Nations University (Good place to continue my studies??)
We were greeted by hundreds of people when we got to Shibuya
First stop was the Hachiko statue next to to the station
Suddenly, I saw a foreigner holding the ranKing ranQueen bag. HY wanted to go there and she bravely asked where the place was from the girl.
RanKing RanQueen is a shop selling top 10 items of everything: cosmetics (divided into mascara, foundation, lip gloss, etc), diet food, books, CDs, you name it!
kat-tun
stupid idiot! Saw this guy’s van when we were at Meiji Shrine. Was already pissed at him. His banners say, “Revive the Imperial Army”. “America is guilty for atomic bombing” “invasion of other countries during World War II was self defense” “WWII was a holy war!”
what the bleep. this guy is just waiting for someone to shoot him in the brains.
Strange girl outside station:
After that, it was SHIBUYA 109.
I think everyone was quite tired around this time. We took the excalator up to the 7th floor and the lifts down. Then we decided to have dinner.
The guide book said there was a branch of Tsukiji sushi at Shibuya, we found the place. This is the one place that I had really bad service. The one and only place. I do not recommend the Tsukiji Sushi at Shibuya. You get better service else where
So we went in the shop. I didn’t notice that the waiter wasn’t too polite as I was happily thinking about sushi. They showed us (5 ppl) one copy of their rules and regulation in Chinese.
Ok, one copy for 5 people? Isn’t that a bit too little to spread out?
Anyway, the rules are
- Order within first 20 minutes,
- If it is between 5:30 – 7:30pm, you are allowed only 35 minutes for your meal.
- You must eat 7 dishes.
- and other crap that no one reads anyway.
Whatever! So we were brought to a row of seats. And the sushi guy was saying, “Please order, please order.” with a smirk.
Then a group of noisy Taiwanese aunties sat beside us. They were noisy, too noisy.
Then p and m realised that they have to eat seven dishes. they do not like raw stuff and no one can eat seven dishes of egg sushi, not even if they’re famished. It’s just too disgusting. So they asked for the bill, and since we haven’t been there for 20 minutes, it’s ok not to eat 7 dishes. that’s what we thought
Anyway, the cashier didn’t say anything to p and m. But when they got out, things started getting nasty.
The cashier told the sushi master, “They can’t read chinese characters. ha ha”
Sushi master, “WHy don’t they just stay back and watch the olympics.”
Hmm.. maybe they didn’t realise that the three of us can understand their conversation very very well. Didn’t have an appetite after that but threw him death glares.
After eating seven plates, we left. Hmph!
Then we took the train to Ginza to catch a kabuki show.
Kabuki is usually long and they have breaks in between. If you’re on a budget and can’t sit through the whole show, you can get seats for part of the show. We did just that.
We queued for a long time in the dark alley before we bought our tickets. We didn’t rent the translating thingy (regret!) and as there were no sitting seats, we stood. My feet which had been tortured by the crocs were stinging.
I thought it was only about half an hour. But it was v v v long.
Still, the stage was magnificent, their scene changes by replacing the scene board with another. The board is painted beautifully and the clothes are good too.
But they used really strange language, I could only sort of guess what was happening on stage. I almost fell asleep halfway through the show.
Finally it ended! and everyone went home
We got home and started some photo transfering.
YQtravelling 