Day 2: Ginza Akihabara

Our first stop for the day: Visit to the Imperial Palace (Koukyo). It is the residence of Japan's Imperial Family and is located on the former site of Edo Castle in the 17th-19th century, a large park area surrounded by moats and massive stone walls in the center of Tokyo (a short 10mins walk from Tokyo station).

The inner palace ground is closed to the public except on January 2 and the Emperor's birthday (December 23). There are guided walking tours of the inner palace ground on weekdays aas well. A tour takes about 75 minutes and English audio tour guides are available. To join the tour, you need to apply for approval from the Imperial Household Agency in advance. Click here.

This tour was fully booked for the period while we were in Tokyo!... and hence we could only visit the Imperial Palace East Garden, a garden adjoining the Imperial Palace which is opened to the public (except on Mondays, Fridays and special occasions). Admission is free. Here, you can enjoy cherry blossoms and azaleas in spring, various roses in early summer, and camellias in winter; it’s a very nice and lovely place to take a walk or have a picnic or to simply bask in the sun.

Enter the garden from the Otemon Gate near Otemachi Subway Station.

Hyakuninbansho – the biggest guardhouse where one hundred samurai soldiers used to work here.

Tenshudai – the stone wall foundation of the main donjon (tenshukaku) of the Edo Castle which was built in 1607. The donjon was destroyed by the fire in 1657, and only the foundation remains now.

Hakuchobori Moat

Cherry Blossom Trees in autumn. The flowers are so beautiful!

Our shadows on the ground. It's a really hot day!

Enjoying an ice cream waffle (¥100 each) in the air-conditioned pavilion

East Garden and its autumn foliage of reds, oranges and yellows leaves

Nice and lovely Japanese garden

Next stop: Ginza, Tokyo's most famous upmarket shopping, dining and entertainment district. It’s best to visit on a weekend afternoon as the central Chuo Dori gets closed to traffic and become a large pedestrian zone. Closure takes place from 14:00 to 17:00 on Saturdays and from 12:00 to 17:00 on Sundays.

The heart of Ginza is the intersection of Chuo-dori and Harumi-dori with its corners dominated by the glass cylinder of the San-ai Building, Wako (the building with a clock), Mitsukoshi (department store) and Nissan Gallery.

Ginza is the high fashion center of the city and contains many upscale shops and restaurants. Not much shopping to be done here though, since the stuff here are really expensive. Nonetheless, it’s quite fun to stroll down the streets and explore the area as the buildings are cleverly and beautifully decorated to serve as giant advertisement boards.

Lunch at one of the restaurants in Ginza. We ordered sushi and hand rolls (see above) which were good and fresh. Bill came up to ¥3,570 (SGD 56) for two. Yesh, lunch isn’t cheap, esp when you order sushi…

Checked out Sony Showroom to see the latest gadgets in town. Here, you can have a chance to be an astronaut!

We also stepped into a toy store to check out the fun/ cute/ quirk products available in the market. I find most products familiar, think the stores (e.g. Action City) in Singapore are pretty updated with the latest stock, hahaha…

At the metro station, we spotted a machine to polish your black leather shoes. Cool and interesting right?

Last stop: Akihabara (Electric Town), a place for stores and distributors specialized in selling electronic goods, games, manga (comic books) and animation related goods. We checked out the gigantic shopping complex - Yodobashi Akiba Building which offers everything from the newest computers, cameras, televisions, mobile phones and home appliances to beauty products, books and music cds. There are restaurants on the top level as well and we had dinner at a sushi restaurant (again).

Plates of sushi going around via a convertor belt, similar to the concept here. Prices range from ¥150 and above and the quality of the food is good... We had many plates of sushi and the bill came up to ¥2,114 (SGD 33). However, we concluded that the sushi we had during lunch is definitely better and fresher, and hence costs so much more =P One interesting thing we noted: There is a magnetic strip at the bottom of each plate; all plates are stacked together and the cashier just has to scan the last plate and viola, the whole list of items we had will appear in the system and the bill is calculated automatically and accurately. Really efficient!

Happening: Alive Gallery

Yo folks, we are going to check out the below exhibition on Sunday, 8 Aug 2010. Meet at Paris Ris MRT station directly; drop me a sms if you are keen to join and for meeting time, thanks =) And do remember to bring your student card!

Imagine stepping into da Vinci's "The Last Supper" or Michelangelo's "The Sistine Chapel Ceiling Fresco" or having Mona Lisa wave and greet you and answer all your questions... Now you can at the Alive Gallery! This is the place where fantasy becomes a reality

The Alive Gallery is the only exhibition in the world where visitors can encounter moving and talking characters from the world's most cherished artwork. Using the latest information technology, great artist such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Claude Monet and Jean Millet will interact with visitors and tell the inside stories of their works. Visitors will also get to see the real-life reproduction of Van Gogh's "Cafe Terrace at Night"

Date : 2 July - 3 Oct 2010
Time : Tues - Thurs: 10am to 9pm ; Fri: 10am to 10pm ; Sat: 12pm to 10pm ; Sun: 12pm to 9pm.
Closed on Monday except Public Holiday
Venue : D'Tent, Downtown East
Admission : Adult: $16.00 ; Student: $12.00 ; NTUC Member: $12.00

Day 1: Tokyo Ueno

Time for photos for my last year Japan trip! Itinerary: Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka

We took a direct, overnight JAL flight from Singapore to Tokyo. Plane was really empty, no wonder the company has to file for bankruptcy protection! Arrived at Narita Airport at abt 7am, we cleared custom pretty smoothly and we quickly looked for a counter to purchase Tokyo Metro Open Ticket for unlimited rides on Tokyo Metro Line (Special 2-day open ticket at ¥980; 1-day open ticket at ¥600) as we need to catch the 7.44am Keisei Railways "Limited Express" train to Ueno station (Adult: ¥1000, 1 hour 10 min journey)

Note: You can only purchase the Open tickets at Narita Airport at the stated prices and the prices are slightly higher if you purchase them at the city. It’s definitely worthwhile to buy the 2-day open ticket if you are traveling around, cos the individual metro ride ticket per trip is pretty expensive.

Simple and yummy Japanese breakfast served on board the flight

Special 2-day open ticket (similar to the magnetic mrt card we used a few years back)

Interior of the train when we boarded it at the airport. After a few stops, it became really packed with office men wearing black jacket suit, black pants, black shiny shoes and carrying black briefcase. What you watch on TV on how packed the train can be is real! hahaha...

We had an early lunch at a ramen restaurant next to Ueno station. See the above machine? Here, you select the food item that you want, make payment (¥420), collect a food ticket, present the ticket at the counter and viola, your food is served. Really very convenient!

You can see into the kitchen and watch the Oba-san chef prepares your food (below)

Ueno Park is a large public park just next to Ueno Station. It was opened to the public in 1873, and offers its visitors a large variety of attractions. At the park's south entrance stands a statue of Saigo Takamori, an important personality of the late Edo and early Meiji Period who played a central role in realizing the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

Left to right: Statue of Takamori-Saigo; Memorial; Lamp by the side of the pathway

Shinobazu Pond is a large pond located in the southwestern part of Ueno Park. This beautiful artificial pond is full of lotuses and water-fowls which are very well fed with bread crumbs; it's pretty fascinating to watch the birds fight for food, hahaha. Rowing or pedal boats can be hired at a price and I'm sure it's a good way to enjoy the sun and breeze (assuming I'm not the person rowing the boat).

In the middle of the pond, there a small island on which stands the picturesque little Bentendo Temple dedicated to goddess Benzaiten, the goddess of prosperity and the arts. Very lovely and nice temple.

Tokyo National Museum houses almost 100,000 art objects covering Japanese history from the Jomon period to the 20th century. This place is really huge! and we grew tired from walking (plus lack of sleep) after a while. Luckily, there are nice and big comfy sofa seats inside the museum for us to rest. A best visit if you are keen to know more about Jap arts.

Entrance fee: ¥600. Open daily 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM, closed Mon. Admission includes access to the following buildings:
1) Honkan is the main museum which is notable for the breadth of its displays. It displays works of artistic and historical value, including Buddhist statues, calligraphy, tea ceremony art, swords and armor, folding screen artwork, noh and kabuki-related items, and ukio-e woodblock prints.
2) Heiseikan is an archaeological museum which displays excavated items, such as pottery and burial statues from early periods. Heiseikan also houses special exhibitions.
3) Toyokan exhibits art from east Asia, India and Egypt.
4) The Gallery of Horyuji Treasures houses art donated by Horyuji temple (near Nara) in 1878. The modern museum building, designed in 1999 by Yoshio Taniguchi, is worth a visit for its own architectural merits

Dinner: A bowl of sliced pork udon at ¥420 at a noodle restaurant outside Ueno station. Yummy!

Food dishes with labels are on display prominently outside the restaurant, making it really easy for us to order food via the vending machine.

After dinner, we went for a stroll at Ameyoko (photo above), a packed shopping bazaar full of stalls selling almost anything you can imagine. It runs roughly south of Ueno station along the inside of the JR Yamanote line tracks to Okachimachi station.

Giant crocs, not for sale. Judging from all these stalls, discounted items are going for at least ¥1050 and the normal priced items are much much higher. Gosh, guess I wont be doing much shopping in Japan, haha...

PS: ¥1000 = SGD 15.60

My dancing days!

Back in my Lindy Hop days. Biggest stage was in NDP 2002. Im the couple on the extreme right at:

4.07-4.11min

4.38-4.42min

5.04-5.14min

The camera man didn't do us justice. Keeps missing all the flips and stunts.

I miss dancing on the stage.

My latest buy

Finally! Got a Coach madison large claire style leather bag yesterday =) An all-day shoulder bag with a generous interior (i can fit in my 14" laptop comfortably and with lotsa space still, amazing!!), shiny cowhide leather and comes with inside zip pocket, cellphone, multifunction pockets and cross-body detachable strap. Size: 13 (L) x 13 (H) x 6 (W)

It's quite a nice-looking, spacious bag and since it's leather, minimal care is required from me. I'm sure it will survive chili sauce, drinks, whatnot, hahaha =P

Erh, don't think my photos are well taken... Check out the official website here