Kansai Trip 3rd September - 8th September 2016

It's been awhile since I updated my blog... like it was last december... and all I talked about was my trip to Tokyo... lol

Anyways, this time round! I'm going to talk about my trip to Kyoto -  Osaka - Nara that I went for last week!

It's going to be a bit lengthy so bear with me lol. The pictures are all taken by me using my phone so the quality sucks... And I'm having troubles typing this on my sister's laptop because my macbook won't connect to the internet even on lan cable.. which is really stupid and until I get a new laptop, I have to live with just an iPad and two phones.. which isn't so bad but it really sucks..

Kansai Trip 3rd - 8th September 2016

Day One (3rd September) : From Singapore to Kansai Airport to Kyoto to Higashiyama to Gion to Kyoto Tower

So the trip starts with me and my sister going to the airport on the 2nd of September because our flight is at like 1am in the morning. So we dealt with the check-ins and stuff and my peeps came down to send us off~

It took about 7hrs++ to reach Kansai Airport, so we reached about 9am and after immigration and stuff, we went straight to have some lunch at THE-Udon. I don't know why I don't have a picture of the food but anyways, we had some udon while setting up our wifi router (it's really convinient to have a wifi router and the best thing was Changi Airport had an offer for the wifi router so it was pretty cheap!) After having lunch, we went straight to get our Kansai WIDE pass (which we really didn't use to the fullest but it was included in our free-and-easy package so whatever) and took the JR express HARUKA to Kyoto~

It took about 1hr - 2hr to reach Kyoto from the airport so we reached our hotel which is nearby to Kyoto Station (about 5-10mins walk) at about 2pm, just in time for check-in. By the way, our hotel is Hatoya Zuihokaku Hotel, the hotel room was really spacious; part of the room had a sitting area with tatami flooring which is really nice and the hotel has a hotspring but we didn't go experience it because well I just do not want to be naked in front of other people.

After resting for awhile (because really flying takes a toll on your body), we went to look for AEON Mall because I die-die wanted to go to Bandai Namco's Ichiban Kuji Cafe. It was Dream Fest!!!! -Collaboration and I am at the moment pretty into these boys so yeah I dragged my sister to go for this with me.

After getting a drink from the cafe and the goods, we made our way to Higashiyama Area via bus. I can't really remember what bus number it was but it's probably either 110 or 206... please forgive my memory but anyways, we got off at Gojozaka if I'm not wrong and followed the crowd because it's easier to get to tourist places if you do that. Really. Anyways, the journey to Kiyomizudera was mostly uphill which pretty much killed me and my sis. I actually didn't plan to go to Kiyomizudera which we really didn't go; we only made it up to where the path leads to Kiyomizudera and then we made our way down Sannenzaka to Ninenzaka.

After which we made our way to Yasaka Pagoda and made our way to Gion Area.

All we did at Gion and Higashiyama was mainly walking and just admiring the architecture as well as buying a bunch of matcha cookies~ After that, we looked for the busstop with a bus that will bring us back to Kyoto Station but we couldn't find it so we ended up taking a bus that only operates on weekends to go to Kyoto Station from a different busstop. Good thing we didn't miss this bus because it was the last one for the day. gosh.

When we reached back Kyoto Station, we made our way to Kyoto Tower. The 360 view of Kyoto was really mesmerizing from the tower but it was kinda small so 360 view was really short.

This is Tawa-chan. She's so cute. The mascot for Kyoto Tower.

After visiting the tower, we made our way back to the hotel to rest for the day.

Day Two (4th September) : Arashiyama to Toei Kyoto Studio Park to Kyoto Anime Shopping

The second day starts off with breakfast at the hotel! Yummy traditional japanese food~ I really love their tofu. After breakfast, we made our way to Arashiyama via JR train. We bought the Saga Scenic Torokko Train tickets at Saga Station before we made our way to Togetsukyo Bridge and the Bamboo Grooves. 

While walking to Togetsukyo Bridge, we decided to take a short break and eat some Kakigoori. I decided on Matcha Milk while my sis decided on Hojicha Milk.

We walked to reach Togetsukyo Bridge and really the view from the bridge is stunning! And I really like how the bridge looks like!! I really like how my picture turned out even though I didn't really spend much time trying to take a nice picture of the bridge.

Then we made our way to the Bamboo Grooves, we were actually in a hurry so we were pretty much speed-walking from the bridge to the grooves. And well, there's so many people at the grooves and we only stood around looking at the bamboo from a distance. Well not really a distance but we didn't go deep inside the grooves.

After looking at the bamboo grooves, we made our way to Arashiyama Torokko Station where we took the Scenic Train from Arashiyama to Kameoka Station.

The best time to be riding this train is during Spring or Autumn but well it's the peak of summer so we enjoyed the breeze and cool air when we passed the various tunnels. From Kameoka Station, we walked pass some fields to reach Umahori Station to take the train to Uzumasa Station where Toei Kyoto Studio Park is located.

It's really common in Japan to have train tracks passing through roads but it's really rare for us so yeah we were a bit excited over this. Anyways, we went to Toei Kyoto Studio Park! My sis was the one who really really wanted to come here, so we went. At the entrance, there was this uncle who was giving out the maps to the visitors and well, he gave us the japanese language one but I really can't navigate with a japanese map, so I went back to him to ask for an english one and he was like "oh! oh.. " and he wanted to give me both the english one and the japanese one for i dunno keepsake? so I explained to him that my sis already has the japanese one so I don't really need another one. ^^;; And then because we were standing at the entrance taking the picture below, he offered to take a two-shot of us at the entrance and I had to refuse him kindly because well, I don't really like taking my own pictures ><;;

From the entrance, we walked a long walkway to the main area and it was really like a filmset for those jidai-dramas. It was really fun and we watch most of the performances and had some more kakigoori and ramune~ But the most amusing part is that there was A LOT of cosplayers. They were all posing and stuff with their pro-cameramans and lighting and stuff.. just whoa. But if I was a cosplayer, I'll come here too to take photos because it really has good sets for photos! 

This... is just a monster in a lake. The reason I took this is because well Zizan (the malaysian comedian) went here and well he failed to take a selfie with this monster. lol.

We stayed at the studio park till it was almost closing time (around 6pm) and we made our way back to Kyoto Station. From Kyoto Station, we made our way to Avanti Kyoto Outlet Mall for some anime shopping where well... most of my money just vanished from my wallet. whoops. We went to both Animate and Lashinbang there. So for anime fans who are going to Kyoto, you can visit Avanti~

Day Three (5th September) : Fushimi Inari Shrine to Manga Museum to Nishiki Market

Third day starts with yet another delicious breakfast at the hotel~ After breakfast, we made our way to Fushimi Inari via JR Nara line to Inari Station. Fushimi Inari is directly outside the station so it's really convinient~ 

I really like the toori gates but there was a lot of people and it was really hot during summer even though it was still morning so I only managed to get a nice picture when we walking back down. After visiting the shrine and you know getting your daily fortune (i had good luck on that day!), we made our way to Manga Museum which is at Karasuma-Oike Station. 

The Museum had tons and tons of mangas which you can sit down and read all you want. We decided to sit down and read some shoujo mangas. I only read like half of the book before we decided that we didn't really have time to be sitting around reading mangas... And before we left the museum, we ended up spending some time just gacha-ing at their gacha corner and well... we got the complete set of tsukiuta cards/stickers so yeah, good time spent there. lol. We also had some mango parfait at their cafe before we left to make our way to Nishiki Market which is one stop away from where we were but I was not willing to walk that distance so we took the train to Shijo Station.

We took some time to actually find where Nishiki Market was and yay, we made it there! We walked through the market while looking at the local produce and then made our way to well more anime shopping lol.

The first shop we found was SakuraSaku and well, it was just by pure coincidence that we found this shop because I don't even know what shop this is... but it's a secondhand bargain shop. And I managed to get hold of a really cheap Uzuki-chan figurine here. After that we went to WEGO to get ourselves some bags (you know those bagpacks with the transparent front where you can make the bag into an itabag). And the shop clerk was kinda surprised that we weren't japanese. well we are asians after all and the fact that we could converse with her in japanese is well yeah... After that, we went to Animate and Lashinbang and Toranoana as well as Animate Cafe Shop where they had CardCaptor Sakura Collab! I couldn't reserve a table at the normal cafe because it was on eplus but at cafe shop, we can try out the drinks and still get the special coaster as well as buy the special goods~

After shopping, we made our way back to Kyoto Station via train from Kyotoshi Yakusho-mae Station. It was a long day and the next day, we were going to Osaka.

Day Four (6th September) : Kyoto to Osaka to Tennouji to Nara

The next day starts with breakfast at the hotel before checking out. The breakfast menu was the same as on the first day. After checking out, we made our way straight to Osaka. Our hotel at Osaka which is Granvia Osaka Hotel was right at the station so it was really convenient. We left our bags at the hotel because it wasn't check-in time, and made our way to Tennouji because well, we had reservations at Otomate Cafe at Bali Tower Tennouji. The reservations was done through Lawson's Loppi machine on the day we reached Kansai Airport. It was a semi-headache to use because we sucked so bad at katakana and we didn't notice the button to put a space between the name. ><;; Anyways, we were actually a bit early for the reservation, so we ended up at book-off reading some manga to kill time. 

The cafe was cozy and well we spent almost the whole reserved time there eating sweets and watching the various otome games PVs. I don't play otome games so this was all my sis's idea but the visuals of the various games were really nice. Leaving the cafe, we made our way to Animate and Lashinbang at Tennouji Echo Across Outlet. 

After spending some more money on anime goods, we made our way to Nara! Yes, we made our way to Nara at like 3pm or something... We took the train to Nara Station and took the bus to Kasuga Taish-mae. We walked around and watched the deers just walking around or resting or following people for food. 

While we were at the museum, using their toilet, it started to rain really heavily, so we took shelter at the museum for awhile. It looked like it wasn't raining so bad anymore, so we decided to make our way back to the bus stop but it was still really heavy so we were really drenched by the time we board the bus back to Nara Station. 

We went back to Osaka and check-ed in and rested for the day.

Day Five (7th September) : Namba to Umeda

The next day, it's plainly a day filled with just shopping. So we went to Namba first. We took a really long route from JR Namba to Shinsaibashi. We walked past Dotonbori and walked the whole stretch of Shinsaibashi to reach Cube Plaza for Sweets Paradise x B-project Collab. After eating sweets and being all excited over b-pro, we made our way to Mandarake since it was the nearest and then to Otoroad and Dendentown; Animate, K-books, Lashinbang and Toranoana as well as Kotobukiya.

After shopping at Namba till sunset, we made our way back to Umeda, where we wet to Umeda Loft for Rejet Shop and then we went to Animate at Umeda Center Building.

Day Six (8th September) : Umeda to Kansai Airport to SG

We woke up later on the last day since check-out is at noon. We checked-out and left our luggage at the hotel first because our flight is at 11pm and we had a lot of time to kill. So we went to Johnny's Shop. Really, if you are a Johnny's fan, go to Umeda's outlet of the shop on a weekday. It's really empty and you don't have to line-up to enter at all. After that we went to Animate and then we went to have something to eat at the cafe opposite of Animate at the Center Building. We also had some gari-gari-kun ice popsicle from lawson. Then we made our way to Namco at Umeda for well the dreamfest!!!! cafe collab and we tried to win something from the crane-game but yeah... not happening. 

After that, we went back to the hotel to get our luggage and made our way to the airport. Because Idolmaster Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage's anniversary event was ending on that day, I was playing the game on the train and well it was stressful. 

At the airport, we had some dinner at THE-Udon before we decided to just sit around waiting for check-in and well, again we got interviewed by the airport police (it happened the last time we went to Osaka)... oh well, not like we were doing anything wrong but I'm questioning whether it's because we were the only ones in our headscarves... =___= 

Phew.... that was one long post... I got tired of typing at the end so forgive me for the lack of details there... Well, till the next time! I'll be going to Tokyo in December so I'll be writing again then.

Ciao~! 

Tokyo 9th - 20th Dec 2015 Trip Part II

Part Two of my Trip write-up! For Part One click here~!

Tokyo Trip 9th - 20th Dec 2015

Day Seven (15th Dec): From Kawagoe to Ikebukuro

Day Seven! After having breakfast at the hotel as usual, we made our way to Kawagoe via Ikebukuro. We took the local line accidentally so it took an hour plus to reach Kawagoe. I ended up sleeping in the train. So anyways, we reached Kawagoe and the first thing to do is find the bus that goes to Kawagoe Warehouse.

The Koedo Loop Bus that we took! 

Kawagoe streets lined with old-fashioned Japanese houses which are now either shops or museums. 

Imo Koi! It's this sweet potato manju/mochi-like sweets. I really love these. And in winter, they actually sell it to you warm~

A shop at Kashiya Yokocho. That's Pink-sama's hand... look at all the old-time candy!

Actually I gave us more time at Kawagoe in my pre-planned itinerary like 2hours BUT when we reached there, we just didn't have time! So we looked around, bought Imo Koi and walked around while eating it, then bought candy and fugashi at Kashiya Yokocho and straight away went to the bus-stop to go back to Kawagoe Station. All this done within 30mins. We were really that rushed! We actually laughed about how we spent so little time there and yet managed to do whatever we wanted to do.

So we took the loop bus back to Kawagoe Station and made our way to Ikebukuro, this time on an express train. We reached Ikebukuro and the first stop was P'Parco! Niconico Honsha! The studio and the cafe! and other anime shops was also there, like Otomate shop and such but only my sis is interested in those things so me and Pink-sama just ended up walking around and talking nonsense about otome games and harem animes.

The big Niconico screen on P'Parco building. 

The studio where they do their radio at! I came really early so of course there's no one there. lol 

After walking around P'Parco, we went to find Otome Road where all the otaku shops for females are located! And we were also looking for Swallowtail Butler Cafe. But because my reservation time is still not yet, we went to the otaku shops first. And then comes Swallowtail Butler Cafe. We were not allowed to take photos so yeap no photos.

Down the stairs of that building is the mystical world where you become an Ojou-sama and you have butlers waiting for you. And up the stairs is the world of Fujoshi...

Things that happened in the cafe. Well.... First! They will take your coat and bags and shopping bags from you. And then they carry your bags while leading you to your seats. We got a corner sofa table so I was in the middle while Pink-sama was on my left and my sis is on my right. They'll place your bags next to you and place a cloth over it. But because I was seated in the middle, I had to do it myself because they can't reach it. =__= And then they'll place a different cloth on your lap and again I had to do it myself (I started laughing by then...). Then they'll give you a wet towel and the menu. Because I reserved it under my real name, so they know I'm a foreigner so they asked us if we wanted an english menu. But the funny thing was because everything is done in japanese, I'm questioning why the door man had to ask us if it's okay that everything's in japanese and he was talking to us in japanese so.... yeahhhhh.

Anyways, there's a bell where you can ring for the butler but before Pink-sama could even try that out, the butler came to us which caused her to be a bit embarrassed. haha. Then after trying to tell him that I can't eat meat in japanese (well I think I was the only one talking the most to the butler because he kept looking at me in the end because I seemed to be the only one who could talk japanese when no... my sis can too. either that or I was the only one responding to him...) and getting our orders across, we waited for our orders and yum the food was nice. their desserts are really top-notch and the tea was just super frangrant! Pink-sama had to try out the whole going to the restroom system where they bring your bag for you and escort you to the restroom and when you're done, they come to escort you back to your seats! And after eating and paying for your food, they escort you back to the exit and give you back your stuff and put on your coat for you. wahhhhh~~

After that whole experience, we went back to our sad otaku life. Considering we went to K-books, Animate and stuff after that. And then we went to Pokemon Center where Pink-sama looked for stuff while me and my sis were just waiting outside sitting down and just relaxing.

Day Eight (16th Dec): From Harajuku to Shibuya

We skipped eating breakfast at the hotel because we were going to do some cafe-hopping at Harajuku! We left the hotel and went straight to Harajuku. We took some time looking for Rainbow Pancake and when we found it, there was already a line forming. But it didn't take that long before we were inside eating their awesome fluffy pancakes!

Apple-caramel Almonds Pancakes. It was super delicious! 

After Rainbow Pancakes, we made our way to Reissue Cafe! Their latte-art is to die for, though it was kinda ex for a cup of coffee. Pink-sama requested for Rin from Free, my sis requested for Hinata and Oikawa from Haikyuu and I requested Aroma-sensei and Eoheoh-taichou from MSSP.

The latte art from Reissue Cafe! It's just so awesome. 

After that, we walked around Harajuku. Looked through some clothes and went to Alice on Wednesday. The shop with the forever small entrance. And then we went to Kawaii Monster Cafe! We ordered each a drink and shared one parfait.

Non-alcoholic experimental drink. Orange flavoured. I didn't even experiment much, I just dumped it all in the soda water. whoops. 

The Christmas Parfait that we shared.

Next, we went to Shibuya. It was getting dark by then. Well it's winter, so the sun sets pretty early. We went to Tower Records first before heading to Animate and Mandarake. Yes, we go to otaku shops almost everyday.

Day Nine (17th Dec): From Shinjuku to Roppongi

After breakfast as usual, we went to Shinjuku. My sister wanted so badly to go to the Love Object at Shinjuku because of Durarara!! so we went there first before heading to the Metropolitan Building Observatory Towers which were free by the way~

The Metropolitan building from below.

After looking out from the observatory towers, we made our way to Animate Cafe Shop at Marui Annex where they have collaboration with Kekkai Sensen. So we each had a drink each before walking around Marui Annex where I was surrounded by the famous lolita-punk brands and I can't afford anything. OTL Next, we went to Animate before heading to Sasazuka Station to go to 81actor's seiyuu museum. We actually got lost before realizing that the building was like right next to us all this time. The museum was really small and photo-taking was only allowed at one part of the museum. But it was nice to see the scripts from famous animes and I was just staring at I*Ris little corner there.

After that we went to Roppongi Hills for the observatory. Tokyo Tower was like right there in front of us and yet when I try to take photos, it looks so small and the reflections from the glass was just awful. We stayed there till the sun set and the illuminations at Roppongi Hills started. It was really pretty~

The view from the observatory. The nicest shot I had.

Day Ten (18th Dec): From Asakusa to Skytree Solamachi to Odaiba

First stop for this day was Asakusa! First we made our way to Kaminari Mon where Nakamise and Shin-Nakamise Shopping streets were located as well as Sensoji Temple is located.

SkyTree! Taken while crossing the road. 

Somewhere near Sensoji Temple if I'm not wrong. Sorry my memory sucks. 

Naritaya. A halal ramen restaurant in Asakusa! 

The ramen! 

And the Karaage! 

Before heading to Skytree Solamachi via the Pandabus, we went to eat ramen at Naritaya which is halal! So who would give up the opportunity to eat halal ramen in Japan~ But we took a while to find it because we got distracted by melon bread and went passed the shop when it was just opposite the melon bread shop.

Then we went to Solamachi via the pandabus~ We just did some walking around and we bought some drinks from a shop that was having a collaboration with Haikyuu. And even though I don't watch the show, I managed to get Hinata's coaster for my sis. talk about having luck when it doesn't benefit you. And we ate some soft-served hokkaido milk ice-cream~

Skytree from below. 

We then made our way back to Asakusa via train to take the waterbus to Odaiba. Since I've been on it before, I just ended up in this trance of taking pictures of bridges while I have no idea what Pink-sama was doing because I had my back towards her. The only cool and cold thing about the waterbus is the open-air rooftop!

When we reached Odaiba, we first made our way to Takoyaki Museum where we tried out three different stalls' takoyaki~ yum yum~ I realized you can tons of takoyaki without getting sick of it.

Takoyaki~ We shared this amongst the three of us~ 

The most standard of Takoyaki. I ate this all on my own. 

This Takoyaki had yam in them. It was interesting and really nice~ We shared this amongst the three of us. 

After eating Takoyaki, we made our way to the Gundam Front. I don't know how many pictures I have of this gundam by now... And then we went to see the Ferris Wheel and then made our way back to the hotel.

Gundam at Diver City Tokyo. 

The Ferris Wheel at Palette Town. 

Day Eleven (19th Dec): Shinagawa Aquarium to Suginami Animation Museum to Kichijoji

So we had breakfast at the hotel, our last one for this trip. -crys buckets- We went to the hotel front to get discounted tickets to Shinagawa Aquarium and got ourselves a map to the aquarium as well. So we walked to the aquarium because it was really nearby to our hotel. We walked through a park and then reached the aquarium!

The aquarium was actually really small but it was pretty close-up. Like the dolphins were really close to you as well as the sea lions and stuff.. They were really close to you. I've never watched an animal show that close-up before. Like seriously. After walking around the aquarium, we decided to take the shuttle bus from the aquarium to Oimachi Station and from there we made our way to Ogikubo Station.

At Ogikubo Station, we took the bus which is like so vague because on the website, it said any Kanto bus so like.. seriously any one will do?! So yeah we took the bus to go to Suginami Animation Museum! There, we watched one episode of Chibi Maruko-chan and looked at the exhibition and looked through their library before heading to Kichijoji.

At Kichijoji, we went silent and were just trying to find the places that we were supposed to find via google map and well I got lost because I can't for the life of me read maps. So I passed the phone to my sis and made her lead the way. We first tried finding Kichijoji Shuffle and well we did but it was this really small walkway to the actual building and someone was sitting at the end of the walkway and we didn't even have tickets for BACK-ON's live so we made our way to the next destination, Temari no Ouchi which again I got lost because I inputted the wrong address on google maps. But we managed to find it but it was full so... we gave up and ended up at Rashinbang because my sis heard someone promoting Rashinbang while we were walking towards the cat cafe. So we just ended up otaku-shopping and I searched for where Animate was and ended up there before going back to the hotel to finish packing up to go back to Singapore. On the way to Ogikubo, me and my sis were like "let's go Nakano after Kichijoji" but in the end, we just ended our trip at Kichijoji.

Day Twelve (20th Dec): From Narita Airport back to Singapore

Last day and our flight is at 11am so we had to wake up like at 2am to get ready and go out of the hotel by 5.30am. Then we made our way to Keisei Ueno and took the Skyliner to Narita Airport. We wanted to eat halal udon but... it wasn't open. So after check-in, we bought some sushi and just ate sushi while waiting for our flight. Of course, we bought some food souvenirs before just sitting around waiting for our flight. And just like at Haneda Airport, there was random surveys being done, so did the surveys and went to the toilet and got on the plane to fly back to Singapore.

Overall, the trip was really filled with activities and we bought so much stuff and it was pretty satisfying for me. It was tiring but really fun~ Can't wait to go for another trip to Japan. (forever, I will only go Japan...)

Well that's it! Ciao~!

[[*HAPPY NEW YEAR*]] + Tokyo 9th - 20th Dec 2015 Trip Part I

Happy New Year~!! 

Time sure flies by and it's already a new year and even though I said I'll do a write-up on my recent trip to Tokyo.. I never had the time to get around in doing it until well now. Mostly because I was so busy sorting out my stuff from the trip, catching-up on anime that I've missed while being in Japan (because seriously I didn't have the energy to stay up late to watch them there neither did I have energy to watch them online when I was there) and just trying to get well from my economy-class syndrome and what-not. And I was sick for the past few days and it just sucks...

But the new year doesn't wait for anyone. And I was so sad that the only fireworks I saw on midnight on New Year was... the fireworks being reflected from the glass windows from the block opposite of mine. Seriously... 

Anyways! Let's get down to business! (all photos are taken by me using my phone camera so don't expect awesome quality...)

Tokyo Trip 9th - 20th Dec 2015

Day One (9th Dec): From Singapore to Haneda Airport to Omori to Tokyo Tower

First day of the trip! Our flight was at 8am so we were at the airport by 6am. Talk about waking up at 4am to get ready to go to the airport and my friend (Pink-sama) was already at the airport at like 5.30am... Anyways, after checking-in our luggage and saying byebye to my parents, we went through the gates and waited for our flight gate to be opened. 

It took about 7hours++ to reach Haneda Airport, we reached there around 3.35pm. We bought a sim-card to use in Japan but unfortunately Pink-sama's phone was not compatible so no matter what, we can't be let her get lost in Tokyo. =__=;; After settling matters with the sim-card and after completing a survey that was randomly done, we made our way to our hotel. 

We stayed in Arts Hotel Omori and even though they had a free shuttle bus from Haneda to the hotel, we couldn't make use of it because the timings from the international terminal was not favorable. So we took the Keikyu Line to Omori. 

The view from our hotel room window. In a distance you can see Tokyo Tower and SkyTree.

After reaching our hotel which wasn't that far from Haneda Airport, we checked-in and rested for awhile before heading out to Tokyo Tower. I could tell you how many train transfers we did but that's not important. lol. But it's the first time (even though I've been to Tokyo for 2 times before this) that I've seen it in the dark so close to me. (excuse me for being retarded). It's just so pretty~ 

Tokyo Tower! I tried my best to take a nice photo of it man...

Oh and you know how towers are always on a hill? Yes, Tokyo Tower is no different and I hate climbing that uphill. So after snapping a few photos of it from the ground, we decided to go up to the observatory. There was a fantasy crystal lightshow happening in the observatory but I didn't really care much about it. 

I don't know how famous this is but the road is supposed to look like Tokyo Tower~ and I fail at photography.

After spending some time at the observatory, we went up to the roof and while enjoying some really cold breeze, OOR's "Wherever You Are" started playing (they have some music-illumination going on) and we ended up staying there for at least one chorus before going down. Well the moment the intro started playing, I was like "omg OOR!" and my sis looked at me like "I know this song but what is it again..." and Pink-sama was just "whut?" hahaha. We went down and had some taiyaki before ending up at some shop buying anime kujis... =___= I bought the Token Ranbu kuji and got Hotarumaru stuff so yeah I'm happy~ After that we went back to the hotel to call it a night.

Day Two (10th Dec): From Ueno to Meguro to Shinjuku to Akihabara

Second day! Since the hotel came with buffet breakfast, we went to down to eat. Well not like there's much to eat considering our restrictions. But whatever we could eat, we shall eat! After breakfast, we made our way to Ueno just to get our skyliner tickets (to Narita airport) because seriously, we are all kanchiong people so need to deal with all the important stuff before it's too late! While walking towards Keisei-Ueno Station, we saw the gachapon outside of Yodobashi Camera so we said to each other that we'll head there after getting the tickets. So after getting the tickets, we went to the gachapon but well there's not much. 

After that we made our way to Meguro! Me and my sis's little revenge! Because in our previous trip to Tokyo, we got lost and couldn't find where the Parasitological Museum was but now we managed to go there! It was interesting but definitely not something to look at when you're going to eat after that or when you just ate... not even when you're hungry... lol. 

Next stop! Shinjuku! Just to buy the bus tickets to Mt. Fuji. We almost got lost while trying to find where to buy the tickets, but thanks to the staff member we managed to go to the correct counter to buy the tickets. 

And then we made our way to Akihabara!! where most of my money flew away. whoops. So from Shinjuku, we took the Chuo Line to Ochanomizu Station since Pink-sama wanted to go to Kanda Myojin Shrine which was nearer to Ochanomizu Station than Akihabara Station. The reason why Pink-sama wanted to go to this shrine was because it's related to Love Live! 

Kanda Myojin Shrine. Again excuse my fail in photography.

The ema-s! A lot of them where Love Live! related. 

But I was surprised to find Etotama stuff at this shrine! I was suddenly overly excited when I found Etotama stuff. So I bought one ema and two omamori. Pink-sama bought the Love Live! stuff while my sis just looked around. 

Next we made our way to Akiba Cultures Zone where we ended up spending quite some time and money at Rashinbang and Animate. After that we went to Mandarake, Kotobukiya and then to Star Child Cafe! It's nice and cozy~ We wanted to go to the Otomate Cafe too but there was a queue forming so we gave that up and I kinda regretted not forcing my sis and Pink-sama to go to the honey toast cafe on the first floor because they were having a collaboration with Gochi-Usa. T__T After having a drink and some sweets we made our way to Toranoana and the main Animate store in Akibahara. I think I spent a lot of money in Akiba... and I didn't even take much photos here. =__=

Day Three (11th Dec): From Tachikawa to Puroland to NAOJ Starrgazing Party

Third day! It was raining hard on this day! And we were questioning the weather forecast telling us that it was 20degree celcius in that rain. 0_0 Anways, after breakfast at the hotel, we first went to the conbini because Pink-sama didn't have an umbrella. (why would you not bring an umbrella...) We then made our way to Tachikawa Station! Only reason for going there was... Gatchaman Crowds of course! who doesn't know how much I love Gatchaman Crowds. All the time we were there, I couldn't stop yapping about what happened here and there all over the station. (someone kill this fangirl... lol)

That famous object from Tachikawa Station.

After just taking photos here and there at the station, we made our way to Tama Center where Puroland is! Puroland~!! It's an indoor amusement park so you don't need to worry about the weather~ We spend most of the our there till it was closing time. We watched the parade as well as the birthday stage and most of the rides and we even watched the Jewelpet stage! It was fun and hilarious but the crowd wasn't really into it somehow. 

On the way to Puroland, you will first see Kitty-chan! 

And there you'll see My Melody! 

And then you will see Puroland!  

And this is just the rainbow we saw before we entered Puroland! Lucky~

Last we made our way to NAOJ Stargazing party! But it was really unfortunate that because of the bad weather we didn't get to look through the big telescope to see the stars and stuff. Seriously just too bad. So all we did was listen to their lecture on Almach which we were supposed to see on that day. But what I remembered most from that party was not the lecture on the stars but when I was registering for the three of us, the guy serving me took my registration paper and realized that I'm not japanese so he tried really hard to talk in english and he started laughing at himself for how bad he was at it that I really wanted to tell him that he could talk in japanese but because I didn't want to embarrass him, I laughed along with him and took whatever he gave me and thanked him and walked away. But he tried so hard so I'll applaud him for that. :D

Just the walk back to the bus-stop from the location of the Stargazing Party. It was really dark...

Day Four (12th Dec): Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise

Fourth day! After breakfast at the hotel, we made our way to Yokohama! From our hotel, it's not that far to Yokohama. Though it still takes an hour to reach Hakkeijima Sea Paradise. Hakkeijima Sea Paradise has different kinds of attractions. There's rides, there's lagoons, there's a fishing area and there's aquariums. We went for the Aqua Museum with Dolphin Lagoon, Fureai Lagoon (where you can touch the sea creatures), Umi Farm (where you can fish and eat the fish you fished) and Aqua Theatre (where they show you a documentary in a dome theatre).

The entrance to the Aqua Museum. 

Apparently, on the day we went, there were all these yurui-mascots there! 

So cute! 

I took a photo with the one on the left after I took this photo. They so cute! 

In between going from one area to another, we decided to have ice-cream. We could have sat at the cafeteria where it was warm but no, we decided to eat it outside in the cold. XD 

On the way back on the monorail. Because you can sit at the front of the monorail, Pink-sama sat there. And I took the photo of her without her knowing. hehe. 

After walking around and seeing all the sea creatures, we made our way to Yokohama Station where we almost got lost trying to make our way to Animate. Yes, we go Animate at every opportunity! I think there was also a Rashinbang there? I can't really remember right now. All I remembered was I voted for the Osomatsu-san poll outside the shop while waiting for Pink-sama to finish her shopping. 

Day Five (13th Dec): Doujin Event in Odaiba to Budokan to Tokyo Dome City to Tokyo Station

Fifth day! And we went to a Doujin Event at Tokyo Big Sight! The event was mainly focused on Token Ranbu (it was centered on certain characters but I'm not very familiar with Token Ranbu so yeah...), JoJo, K: Scepter 4, Owari no Seraph, Haikyuu (certain characters) and some others that I'm not familiar with. I was there mainly for Owari no Seraph and K: Scepter 4. Though we did walk around most of the booths. It was our very first time going to a Doujin Event in Japan and it was quite an experience that I'm going to look out for doujin events the next time I go Japan!

The entrance to Tokyo Big Sight! The place otakus always go for Comiket and Doujin Events~!

The pamphlet that came with the entrance fee. It shows you what circles are in the hall.    

After buying all the Kureto/Guren and other pairings doujins, we just ended up walking through the hall till we felt dizzy from the amount of doujin goods there were. So after about 2hours (or was it less), we made our way to our next destination which is Budoukan. My sis just wanted to go there and I was just "okay lor" while Pink-sama just followed us blindly (even though she was the one walking in front of us lol). There was some Karate competition going on on that day, so after taking photo of the building, we went on our way to Tokyo Dome City! 

PriPara Character Shop! Prism Stone!!! OMG I was in heaven. Surrounded by the girls that I've been going nuts over.

Where I was freaking out about PriPara and Pink-sama and my sis talked me into buying two boxes of stuff from the shop. gosh. And we also went to Jump Shop! And we also went to buy some bread from Moomin Cafe and Bakery and stayed around for awhile because LinQ was performing~ 

Next, the last stop for that day, we went to Tokyo Station to buy some character goods and also some food souvenirs. And because I was complaining about being tired and thirsty, we bought some food and drinks from Gundam Cafe but there was no seats so we looked for a cafe and ended up at Sembikiya for their waffles. Pink-sama was of course tempted by their Strawberry waffles. My sis bought the Chocolate and Banana waffles while I bought the Fruits waffles because I was tempted by their melon. 

The Fruits Waffles that I ordered. Yum~

Day Six (14th Dec): Mt. Fuji - Fuji-Q Highland

Sixth day! It's half-way through our trip! Since we were catching quite an early bus, we had breakfast in the hotel room instead of going down for breakfast. We took the bus at 8.40am. But because we reached Shinjuku earlier than that, we had some coffee at Starbucks before taking the bus. It takes about 2hours to reach Fuji-Q Highland. And I think I just slept most of the way there. 

The entrance to Fuji-Q Highland! 

Our main aim at Fuji-Q was the haunted house! So after getting our tickets, we made our way straight to the haunted house while looking at all the roller coasters and telling each other, "no, we are not riding that". hahaha. So we found the haunted house and really, it's scary looking and it's a few levels high and it's filled with creepy stuff. You have to buy a separate ticket for the haunted house and you can carry your bags with you in the haunted house.

The haunted house! 

So the haunted house. Me and my sis were all pretty calm before we entered the place but Pink-sama doesn't like horror so she was all "no matter what, I'm going to hold onto you guys and not letting go." So we entered and we were made to watch some horror clip based on the haunted house and then we were made to go one group by one group into the haunted house. So the three of us went second last in the mass of people we were with. First they take a bikkuri-photo of you which really wasn't that much of a bikkuri but you'd still react to it lol.

And then comes the whole haunted house thing where it's dark and you only have a torchlight that wasn't even doing its job and you're surrounded by dirty walls, cabinets, lockers, hospital beds, dolls and what-nots. So we had a formation when we entered where my sis who was holding onto the torchlight is at the front leading us and I'm at the back while Pink-sama is sandwiched between us and she wasn't even looking around and was practically holding onto my sis for her dear life! And I the person at the back, suffered most damage because well every comes chasing you from the back! I even screamed at the ghost-actor because he was still trying to creep me out when we were making a corner turn. Seriously. And then there was a mid-section part where they take away your torchlight and you have to walk around in the dark! NOOOO. And every time, my sis feels like something is gonna happen or chase us or what, she starts walking faster with no warning making me lag a bit behind. That's just scary.

But the best part of the whole haunted house was the end where we seriously ended up laughing when we came out of the haunted house. Not because it was funny at the end but because of what happened to us while we were running to the exit. Because the ghost-actor decided to chase after us all the way to the exit and I knew that was the exit, I quickly let go of Pink-sama and started dashing for the exit leaving Pink-sama to be the last person and because Pink-sama noticed that I dashed in front of her, she was all "NOOOO DON'T LEAVE ME BEHIND!!!" and I have no idea how but she tripped and actually fell while still holding onto my sis who ended up actually dragging her out of the haunted house! It was so funny but scary but seriously funny that we just ended up bursting into laughter when we exited!

The entrance the Nagashimasuka. A water ride in the freaking cold. 

After the haunted house, we decided to cool ourselves with a water ride and we decided not to buy a poncho so we ended up just getting freaking wet. Serves us right. lol. After that we went to several other rides like the merry-go-round, the tea-cup, the swinging-umbrella thingy and had some taiyaki before we went to Evangelion World where I was all, why they don't make merchandise with just Shinji on it.

The entrance to Evangelion World.

And then we went to ride the Ferris Wheel. We rode it twice. Once when it's still bright and another time when it was dark. We stayed there till late because I accidentally put our return bus trip time at a pretty late time. We kinda rotted at several places because there's nothing much to do and because the weather was really cloudy, we couldn't even see Mount Fuji. Sad.

 The Ferris Wheel during the day.

The Ferris Wheel after sunset.

I'll stop here for this post. Next post will be the last six days of my trip! Click here!!