Monday, November 20, 2006
My Cyber Pet
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Labels: Fun stuff
11:37 PM
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Funny English
Here's some 'funny' signages we saw in Japan:
Here's another cute one...... It was placed beside this strange gadget that I have never seen before in the hotel room. Can't read the text? It goes like this:
"Because a mosquito sometimes enters into the room. We are preparing an electric mosquito collector."
And the one below is beyond my comprehension:
12:28 PM
Friday, November 10, 2006
Pretty Flowers!
I still have many interesting pictures from Japan to post, hence I will put them up slowly.
We were at one of the shopping malls when we chanced upon a Floral shop. The hand bouquets were all very pretty and creatively done up! Even pumpkins, chillies and apples are good for flora arrangement! Check it out:
10:56 PM
Halloween Night
My company recently had a dinner and dance with the Halloween theme. Being an american MNC, generally the folks are quite gamed to dress up. Here's the pic:
Generally, the Asians tend to hide behind the masks! Its FUN! I like costume parties!10:26 PM
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Japan Day 1
Weather: Hot
Places visited: Shinjuku & Shibuya
We arrived at Narita airport at about 7.30am. We were excited to feel the cool breeze grazing our cheeks and were really looking forward to the cool weather so that we can put on our trench coats and scarfs. I was also planning to 'layer' my clothings, much inspired by the Korean dramas that I had been watching.
We took the Airport Limousine Bus from Narita Airport to Shinjuku station before taking a cab to our hotel. We reached the hotel at about 10.00am, left our luggage there as it's too early to check-in and started hitting the streets.
As it's too early, most shops are not opened yet. We were busy orientating ourselves with the surroundings using a map and decided to walk back to the Shinjuku station. I must say the streets of Japan are really complex. The naming of the streets is also not obvious and of course at some point in time we walked round and round the wrong way.
Shinjuku
We were also disappointed with the weather! Man it was hot! I think it was about 23 degrees. Whatever happened to the 15 to 19 degrees we read about from on the forecast from the web? The most amazing thing is that its so hot but everyone is dressed as if they were quite cold. We were perspiring actually, even without the coats on.
I think it is good 'training' for a start since some lessons must be learnt the hard way. We then moved on to Shibuya around the evening time and were amazed at the crowd at Shibuya. Shibuya is really really crowded on a weekday night. Also, the people in the streets all looked amazing! I am not kidding you. They are all Ayumi-lookalikes! They have well-coifed hair and big mascara-ed eyes. Too bad I did not managed to take any of their pictures. However, I managed to capture one photo of a stylo-milo dressed guy.......
Shibuya
Dinner at Shibuya
This guy puts on a very nice hat and accessorize well,
right down to his finger nails. They were painted black.
By the way, the day breaks very early in Japan. The whole place looked like Singapore's 8am by 5.00plus am. The day also turns dark about 5pm. Shops also close very early around 8.00pm. Hence we always ran out of 'shopping' time.
Even then, we always walked until our feets felt really sore and 'handicapped'. We even bought plasters to paste all over our bodies to 'rejuvenate' for the next day!
10:25 PM
Japan Day 2 & 3
Weather: Cool and Cloudy
Places visited: Mount Fuji & Hakone
We had our first breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast comprises of very saltish salmon, bread, sausages, tofu, miso soup, some kind of condiments and salad, jelly cocktain and of course coffee. We left the hotel early to board the bus headed for Mount Fuji. Luckily, we managed to catch the breath-taking view of Mount Fuji in the morning before the mist took over around lunch time. It was probably about 12-13 degrees when we were at the 5th Station at Mount Fuji. We were actually all shivering in our trench coats and scarves, but happy that we finally got the chance to put them on.
A clear view of Mount Fuji from
the 5th station. Noticed the foliage is an interesting blend of green, yellow,
orange and red!
By noon, a mist took over and the view of Mount Fuji becomes unclear.
This is us! Walking around Hakone at about 8pm, desparate for any shop to be
open. But too bad there's really none.
Dinner at one of the local restaurants
recommended by the reception. We had sashimi, different types of fried fish,
unagi and sake.
The next day, its free and easy at Hakone. We were provided with a map and paid transportation so that we can easily move about on our own. We headed to the Pampas (Japanese name Susuki) field-cum-hill for lots of photo taking! It is very very nice to see a field of beige/white Pampas. Hakone is a very pretty but sleepy town......so we didnt do much but just sight-seeing and eating. The highlight of the end of the day is taking the Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Tokyo. We were really awed by the speed of the train!
Pampas field!
This is the Pampas plant, or
Susuki.
This is how the sleepy town
looks like.
10:20 PM
Japan Day 4
Places visited: Asakusa - Senso-ji Temple, Tokyo Edo Museum, Meiji Shrine & Harajuku
We met up with a colleague, Goshima-san, from the Japan branch as he had generously suggested that he bring us out on Sunday. He came to pick us up in his MPV equiped with GPS system. Seems like most Japanese relied on GPS to move about in Japan as their streets are really complicated.
How the GPS system looked like.
Our first stop is Asakusa, Senso-ji Temple, which is a temple that is reputated to be very 'accurate'. We tried out hands at drawing 'prediction lots'. Mine turned out to be a very good one! So I kept the slip of paper with me. My friend's lot didn't turn out to be good, so she had to leave it behind in the temple, to signify that she left the bad luck behind.
Front view of the temple.
Ursweetlullaby's and my lot. Relatively 'lucky' lots that we got to keep. It has English translation so we are able to understand what is written on it.
My roommate picked an unfavourable lot so she has to tie it to the bar and leave the 'bad luck' behind.
After that we went to the Tokyo Edo Museum to understand more about the history of Tokyo and then have lunch there. Gosh, the parking fee in Tokyo is atrocious! For the 2 hours that we were there, we had to pay about S$16! Goshima-san told us it's quite the 'norm'!
The first Subaru Car!
My delicious lunch at a restaurant in the Museum! The whitish stuff is not Chawamushi. It's some sticky potato sauce to be mixed and eaten with rice. Not my cup of tea!We head towards Meiji Shrine after lunch. A Shrine is different from the Temple in the sense that it is more like an ancestral place. Most wedding ceremonies also take place in the Shrine. Children also visited the Shrine to get blessed at certain age, i.e boys at even numbers of age and girls at odd numbers. They will dress up until really pretty - both boys and girls!
Entrance to Meiji Shrine
Instead of 'asking' for a predictive 'lot' here, you get a wooden tablet like this and write your wishes on it. Presumably, it may come true. 
And that's how many of such 'tablets' there are around......
We were also there in time to witness a wedding 'progression'.
After that, we all went excitedly to Harajuku, the place that we have been dying to see the Cosplay (Costume play). Basically, teenagers dressed up as anime characters or lolita-like dolls and parade around the bridge area. They will also pose for you to take photos. After half-an-hour there, it started to drizzle so we had to move off to the next destination: shopping at Harajuku.
So many interesting characters, had to put it in a collage so that you get to see more of it!
Night scene at Harajuku.
10:15 PM
Japan Day 5
Weather: Rainy
Places visited: Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Station & Harajuku
As it was my second time visiting Tokyo Disneyland and I am not a rides person, I didn't stay very long there. Still, the 'not very long' time turns out to be 4 hours because I went to the Haunted Mansion. I had to queue like 90 mins before I get to step into the mansion. And the total time spent in the mansion is like 10 mins max. The Haunted Mansion is not scary but the special effects were really good! The rest of the time were basically photo taking time and visiting the souvenir shops. It is a really expensive 4-hour because the entrance fee costs 5800 yen or about S$78.
The castle!
The Parade with Mickey Mouse! 
The parade with Donald Duck!
As Halloween is just around the corner,
everything here is dressed to the theme!
Finally managed to get a picture of a crow. I must say there are a lot of crows in Japan and they are very commonly heard going: ARRGGH! ARRGGH! I could not get used to hearing them around in the beginning! 
The caps that I bought!
Nice?
10:10 PM
Japan Day 6
Weather: Rainy
Places visited: Tsukiji Fish Market, Ameyoko Street, Asakusabashi & Odaiba
We woke up at 4.15am (3.15am Singapore time) to get ready to go to Tsukiji fish market. We caught the first train at 5.30am and reached the Tsukiji Station at about 6.00am. We were too lazy to read the map plus it was raining and very cold (10-13 degrees celcius), so we decided to just tail anyone who wore a pair of Phua Chu Kang boots.
Did not managed to show in this picture
that the man sitting on the right is
wearing those Phua Chu Kang boots
(though not yellow colour). But the empty
styrofoam boxes gave us a hint
that he could be heading towards the market! But Duh... after trailing him for a
while, he did not seem to be heading for our destination and we lost him
halfway. :-P
By the time we reached the market, the action were all gone. Looks like the fish auctioning really happens very early in the morning (actually 4-5.00am we heard)! Anyway, we then proceeded to have sushi breakfast before heading to Ameyoko Street for some shopping. Bought a number of food stuff from there for office colleagues. It's actually quite a nice place to walk around. But too bad forgot to take any photos there!
The place where the 'fish auctionging'
is supposed to take place. But I guess
we were too late!
Still, there are these men driving this
fork-lift looking vehicle
and zooming about in neck-breaking speed!
Walking into the wet market right next
to the 'fish auctioning'
place.
Saw these men cutting up a huge fish
(dunno what fish is that. Tuna?)!
Scallops! Yum yum!
Eer.. fish roe. Don't look very
appetizing in this state.
Octopus... eeks, I don't like.
Sushi breakfast: Oops... too hungry so
ate up everything before taking a
picture.
Sushi breakfast: Luckily, when the
second and third place arrived, I remembered
to take a picture. Yum
Yum......
I then split from my friends to go to Asakusabashi to see their beads shops while my friends went ahead to Odaiba first. There's 4-5 shops within the same stretch of road just outside the subway station, so it's really quite convenient. Bought some beads and silver parts that are not available in Singapore before proceeding to Odaiba to meet up with my friends.
As it was raining the whole day, our spirits were really dampen and we didn't buy a lot of stuff or take a lot of photos.
Die die also must take a picture under
the strong wind and heavy rain! My hands could not be steady so the shot
came
out blury.
This is the only clear picture I
had of Odaiba. There's Tokyo tower in the background (really small and
orange in
colour, followed by the rainbow bridge in front and then the
Statue of
Liberty.
Oh, by the way, one interesting thing about Japan is that they have a lot of lockers in the subway and everywhere else. So we decided to make use of them by depositing our food purchases from Ameyoko street in one of them so that we free ourselves from carrying so many things around. Sure is convenient. We return back to the station to pick up our stuff again before proceeding back to our hotel.
10:05 PM
I am The Emperor
