I’m finally back. Home sweet home. I miss sleeping on my bed so much my mom has to practically drag me out of it this morning (I think she’ll be doing that for the rest of the hols. haha). Got back from Japan around 8pm and since it was a daytime flight, didn’t have to sleep through it. Managed to finish two movies and a half during the 6 hour flight. 
I watched The Illusionist, Superman Returns, and Pirates 2 in that order. Oh, and on the flight to Tokyo, I watched ‘Just My Luck’, then I had to sleep a bit. >.< Food was crappy that night but the on flight back to KK, the food was so much better. Love it.
So how was Tokyo???? Absolutely lovely!!!! I loved every minute there and really, I wished we could stay longer but the rooms were really expensive, round 600 ringgit per night. >.< My aunts were also saying they want to spend a few more days there. Haha.... see, I wasn't the only one. 
Tokyo is simply the best! KL still has a long way to go. Oh my god. One thing, its a shopping heaven. They have anything and everything. After the first few days, you stop converting from yen to riggit and you just compare the prices relative to their local price and since the price range there doesn't vary, everything suddenly becomes 'reasonable' and hence the buying frenzy starts. Ok, that was for my sister but I did manage to get a few things that I really liked, will elaborate more after this. 
There's so much I want to talk about, I just don't know where to start.... I know I've learned bout thesis and topic sentence in ESLS but........ I think I'll just do this in rambling mode. So I'll be jumping from one thing to the other in this post.
Ok, erm... So we (my family + two uncles and their family and I = 12 of us) arrived at Narita airport. Got blasted by a gust of cold wind before scrambling into the bus. I wasn't really paying attention to the first spot we visited, some sort of temple, oldest in Japan. I know travelling to a new country gives you the chance to learn about the culture and history etc etc of the place but that was for Beijing. For Japan, I'm only interested in two places, Mt. Fuji and Disneyland. Haha, so we kinda rushed through the temple (since the whole tour group consists of only me and my relatives, we didn't have to linger at places that we didn't want to. So thank god none of my aunts or uncles were temple fanatics).
Me under a giant bell that you can find outside their shrines
Another temple and then it was a few hours bus trip to the foot of Mt. Fuji. There, we were brought to the hot springs and it was sort of famous for the effect it had on the eggs. Eggs boiled there turns black. Just the shell, inside still looks and tastes totally normal. The locals believe that eating these eggs can prolong your lifespan, give you an extra 3 to 7 years. Interesting no?
black eggs!!!!
Visiting Mt. Fuji was so so.. because it was winter, we were not allowed to go to the peak and although you see it cap with snow, in reality, there is very little snow there, only a thin layer and its normally frozen ice. For me, Korea still has the best snow (?!) You get enough in the mountains to make snowmen, have a snowball fight etc. =) So we took the customary pictures of the mountain, food tasted at the shops there and it was back to Tokyo. (Oh, actually, we spent one night at Mt. Fuji).
Mt Fuji in the evening….
This time, we went to the imperial Palace (outside only), and that was the end of our tour (yes!! So fast!!) It took up a total to 3 days and personally, I think we wasted one night at Mt. Fuji. There was nothing to do there except to prance around the dining area in the simple (I don’t think you can call them kimonos) kimonos provided to the guests.
trying to stay sane
3rd day was Disneyland day!!!!! Hehe… we expected a lot of picture taking so the night before we scouted out cybercafé and transferred all the pictures taken into a disc. So cybercafés in Tokyo are totally different from those in Shah Alam (those were the ONLY cybercafés I’ve been to so I don’t know bout the others). They have individual cubicles for privacy and some people don’t wear their shoes in. They leave them outside the cubicles. (???) Anyway, the whole computer was in Japanese!!! Haha… so it was part guesswork but I managed to burn the pics onto the CD without deleting them accidentally. The surfing fees was 400 yen per hour, that’s like 12 ringgit. >.< Maybe it was because of the reclining chairs provided.
Anyway, my first experience of Disneyland Tokyo was marvellous!!! Guess which character we bumped into once we entered???
My Pooh!!!!
Winnie the Pooh!!!! I FAVOURITE Disney character, apart from Tigger and Roo!!!! I couldn’t believe my luck. Haha…. Immediately queued up for a photo opportunity with Winnie. One thing about these Japanese, they’re just absolutely polite and they’re very particular about being fair. Don’t even THINK about jumping queue. You must line up just so right behind the person in front of you. Heck, they even line up to take picture with those Disney statues. No Disney personnel needed to remind them bout that. I think that is great. It makes everyone happy and you don’t have to worry bout someone else elbowing you out of the way…… I mean, they’d still patiently wait for their turn even if the queue is super long. They queue for everything!!! Do you know how Malaysians get up the LRT, monorail, KTM etc??? (Or the INTEC bus for that matter) Japanese queue up in two neat lines and you let the passengers come out FIRST before boarding!!!! It was really a nice change for me, not being pushed and squeezed.
I digress. Anyway, Disneyland was really beautiful. It was all decked out for the Christmas season so the decorations were absolutely stunning!!! And the giant Christmas tree…… mind blowing. The parades were really fun to watch. I just couldn’t believe that I was looking at all those fairytale characters up close, I’ve grown up reading bout them and watching those cartoons and, oh my god, I’m actually seeing them ‘for real’. Night time at Disneyland was even more lovely than daytime. The lights *sigh* and the night parade was even more wonderful than the daytime one. I didn’t get to experience every single ride since the queue was absolutely long. It was a MONDAY!!! But with the crowd, you’d think that it was a weekend. I simply cannot imagine what the place would be like on holidays. Well, nobody can go to Disneyland with out buying some Disney paraphernalia right? So, hehe, we went into most of the shops to do just that. Me, I was reminding my mom at every corner to remember to drop by Pooh’s Corner. According to the guide map, it was ‘the largest collection of Pooh’s merchandise in Disneyland’. How can I pass that up??!!!
Outside Pooh’s Corner!!!!
I walked into Pooh’s Corner (read - heaven), and nearly fainted. Haha… It was like my dream come through. So many Pooh stuff!! Bought quite a few stuff – 80th anniversary pin, cookies (just for the container which was really unique, sweet drops (also for the container), key ring (but the ring was, like, butterfly shaped), bottle holder… I’ve already got some Pooh stuff from this Tokyo Disneyland before. My friend bought me a Pooh glass, diary and a cuddly Pooh soft toy when he came here two years ago. Then, they were a lot of Pooh stuff selling in the shops around Tokyo so we bought them. Haha… I found this really beautiful Classic Pooh (!!!!) plate selling in a small bone china shop. I almost missed it cos it was at the back of all the other plates and teacups. I didn’t know that Noritake actually produced these plates. We walked into a few Noritake shops at the departmental stores and there were none on display. Guess they’re no longer producing those. I would’ve have snapped up the whole collection but it was super expensive, bout 60+ for one plate *sigh*.
My collection of Pooh merchandise!!! Wee!!!.
Ok, erm, back to Disney (again!!! Yes, I haven’t finished bout it). Of course we took pictures with Mickey. Had to queue for close to an hour for that, but we got to visit Mickey’s house in the end and I, erm, ‘helped’ abit with his cleaning. Haha…
Remember the sorcerer’s apprentice???
My sis, mickey, and me
So the rest of the visit at Disney was full of photo snapping, and queuing, and shopping. I couldn’t resist reading Belle’s book though, and disrupting the Beast’s plan to surprise her…
There were actually words on the book!!! Details!
The rest of the Japan trip involved us walking around Japan, visiting the shopping districts, eating real Japanese food etc. None of us knew any Japanese (except my sister but she seemed to have forgotten everything) but all of us managed pretty well. Didn’t get lost, and since no price haggling was needed (which wouldn’t be difficult anyway, we managed to do that with just a calculator when we were in Seoul), we didn’t have to communicate much with them. We even took the subway a few times and let me tell you, Tokyo’s subway is one of the most complicated in the whole world. No kidding, even they need a map sometimes. We stayed the first few nights at Prince Hotel at the Ikebukuro district, there were plenty of shops around that area, and you can’t help but walk past a slot machine / video arcade shop every few minutes. Seems like Japanese people really love spending time there. Out of curiosity, we dropped by into one that has all those machines where you try to clip out the toys with hooks / claws. (Get it?) Anyway, we soon found out why they play them so much. It actually works. As in, you do actually get something. Lol, I’m not making sense am I?? Anyway, unlike those found here in Malaysia, they actually fill out the thing until its full so not much skill is needed to hook the toys out. All you have to do is just drop the claw down and it’ll knock one into the hole since most of the toys are perched precariously over the edge. Haha… First time I manage to get something out of these machines. I got a really cute Paddington bear to hang on my bag. I love bears, Paddington, Pooh, and Tatty bear. My three favourite bears.
Anyway, we thought the shops were all along the road, turns out we were wrong. The real shopping was actually underground. That was where all the cheap stuff were. We got a few knick knacks just for the sake of it and my sister got her own bear. =) We found the ‘Build a Bear’ workshop down there and my sister immediately wanted one. It comes with a birth certificate and also a really cute box house with windows and a door.
For the rest of our stay, we moved in to the Century Hyatt at the Shinjuku District (also one of the big shopping areas). Walked past more shops, and ate more Japanese food. We also dropped by a few supermarkets and everything they have there is big. Look at the size of these…
giant crab which tasted really nice.
Those were bigger than my hands.
Another area we went to was Akihabara. The whole area is full of shops selling electronic stuff, cameras, mp3s, laptops etc etc… Only thing is, we walked down another road which is also known as Gamecity and Characity. Haha, I don’t play PC games or PS so it was all totally wasted on me. My cousins went a bit mad though and we stayed in that area abit longer than planned cos it was quite hard to tear them away from the shops. I don’t know what they bought but they looked happy after that. A few random pics…
The street, full of people as usual.
Us, walking down the street, that’s my cousin with me. Can you believe he’s only 12 but he’s already as tall as me!!! >.< ok, so it’s not hard to believe…..
Some of the hundreds and thousands of figurines on display.
The costumes for sale.
I don’t know what characters they are portraying but I just snapped their pictures for fun.
Another thing that the Japanese love. You can find them anywhere.
Ok, this guy was jumping and dancing in the middle of the road shouting something which I have totally no idea of. I think he was trying to promote some dance album of his, hence this stunt in winter. Anyway, since other people were snapping away with their cameras, I guess it wasn’t rude of me to do so too.
We left for Ueno district after that (again, another shopping district. There’s nothing else to do in Tokyo except shop. If you want to see nice things, I’d suggest Hokkaido, I think that’s the place that has ice sculptures and snows everytime.). Now this place is different from the others because things here are supposedly cheap. Look at this…
That, converted to RM is about 15. For Tokyo standards, that is dirt cheap. Their shoes here sell for a few hundred ringgit (thousands of yen).
Actually, not all the stuff in Tokyo are expensive. We did manage to find a 10ringgit (315 yen) shop (turns out, it was Bonita! Haha) and also a 100 yen shop (bout RM3) while poking around. You really have to poke around in Tokyo cos the shops are hidden most of the time. Always walk to the back of the shop and see if there is another one upstairs or underground. It’ll be a pity to miss those. Oh, and one thing I noticed about Japanese, they love to shop. Not window shopping but as in buying stuff. The shops at Disney were packed with people walking around with full baskets and when we went to the LV store in Tokyo, it was like walking into a departmental store, you see people buying stuff like it there was a sale. Maybe because of the Christmas season, so people are buying gifts. I don’t know, but they really love LV.
Random pics…
Me and my sister trying to kill time while we waited for the plane to take off.
Hard Rock Café, Ueno, Tokyo.
Walking along the streets at night.
I need to spend the next few days recuperating. Weather there was absolutely dry (though not as bad as Beijing) and I had to keep putting moisturiser on. My skin has totally dried up
Oh ya, I totally forgot to mention. I got a new digital camera!!!! Olmypus Stylus 730. We went into one of the many shops and tried out just about every single camera there had there (which was a lot). Luckily, we got a salesman who could speak and understand English. According to him, the top brands in Japan are Olympus, Canon, and FujiFilm. I don’t think I want to blog about my camera, I’ll let you all read the review from the link above. I’ve spent 2 days writing this post. Really exhausting.
Ps* I also forgot to add that crossing roads in Japan is really easy. They have lots of zebra crossings and unlike Malaysian drivers, Japanese drivers actually do stop for the pedestrians!!! It was hard to get used to it at first, having cars stop for you to cross. Also, they’re really obedient. Nobody crosses the road if the light is red. Not even when there are absolutely no cars insight.
Another thing, shops in Tokyo closes really early, 8pm.
3rd thing, they are really really really punctual. Busses, trains, everything…..
Go visit Tokyo.
