Nippon kara ikimashita ; Day 10

But first, I had the most awful day yesterday in a long time. 

My second fever in 2 weeks...i cant believe it, i thought i was able to take care of my body. 

Woke up in the middle of the night, took panadol & went back to dreaming about One Piece.

Made some mistakes at work which caused my colleagues and supervisor trouble. Really really stupid of me.

Then, I bought dinner & reached home but i forgot my keys. And just today everyone wasnt home. So i went to the CC coffeeshop to eat & wait.

BUT. thats not all. i didnt take cutlery for my food. So i had to borrow from a stall. Halfway through i realised i borrowed it from a malay stall when i was eating chinese food. I dont know if it is taboo but i felt very bad. 

Well, i wasnt thinking straight the whole day..and then Zh tells me he also lost his stuff in the hotel. 

Very bad day for us.

Japan Day 10

Had a very good sleep in the capsule surprisingly. We went out for breakfast at Yoshinoya nearby and i brought ZH to the shopping mall i went to yesterday. 

Afterwards, we checked out & decided to come to ....Shinagawa, of all places. Yeah we were running out of places to go.
Finding a locker here is really difficult, and I dont know why its so crowded here.
I went around the shops to change for coins but all of them were shooing me away like a pest. Maybe they had people exchanging fake money or something. But, i finally got my change from the nice people of Dean & Deluca.

Nomming on an onigiri. Ehh...now i dont remember where he got that from. o_o"
& Dean & Deluca behind.

Well, there isnt much to see here so i guess thats why its not in the tourist booklet. But we didnt want to go too far from the Airport.

Awww....here comes my crazyface.
He has to carry his FF poster because it wont fit in lockers. ORBI GOOD! >_^
Oh now i remember. We got food from a combini. Yep, always with the combinis, this sure isnt healthy.

We found the Aquarium and the indoor park. But it ddnt seem so interesting so we just stole a picture and walked away.

With nothing else to do in Shinagawa, we decided to go back to Shinjuku as it was still early.
We didnt really explore all of Shinjuku that day too as we headed straight to Artnia.

Tadaaa...the impressive Times Square building. Tokyu Hands + Takashimaya. Definitely occupied us a while.

And Zh on his relentless search for a Porter bag. He did more shopping than I have.

And walking around Shinjuku.

We just kept walking around the district, Shinjuku felt like Shibuya somehow with the layout of the street.

Here, we stopped for...dinner? Probably our last proper meal in Japan. No more ramen, but rice bowl.
This shop (with zh's head in it), i dont know whats it called but it has REALLLLLYYYYYYYSUUGOIIII bibim-pork bowl.

You order by a machine too, so i chose what looked nice. At first i didnt know what it was, but the poster said it was bibimbap pork. No wonder it tasted different. And i dont even like bibimbap so it was sugoku oiishi. Zh's one was normal..ahaha..

Also, through that street beside it, Zh told me it was where they filmed The Shinjuku Incident. The one with Daniel Wu. I was really impressed when he told me "oh, this is the place where he was selling the chestnuts and the yakuzas came and beat him", or "this pachinko place is where they filmed".
So yeah, we were traipsing in dangerous territory, while i was trying to hide the DSLR. I wouldnt want them to think im taking photos of their place!

Streets were kinda sleazy & empty & we were kind of scared. We hurriedly walked back out into crowded places. We also saw girls that came out of some 'shops', they walked in front of us & they met some men in business suits who gave their name cards to them. You can kind of interpret that situation..

Went into their H&M.

Isetan? Also looked really grand here.

We walked a lot today as well. You can see, sun is setting and we were heading to 'God's something?' (Yabai, 2 months ago i can remember but now.. >.<) a shopping mall near Lumine.

Haaaa....* I remember standing on this bridge still. When will i go back again?

And this cafe that sells the most ridiculous sweets. Ice cream cone on top of sundaes and crazy stuff. Wow.
Luckily we didnt go for it though, the after-regret would be over 1000.

Night fell, and we headed for Haneda airport. Yup, another nighter at the airport till our flight home at 6am. We're cheapos that way but its way more fun i think when you have to scrimp.

I guess i was really tired because i took 2 naps, while Zh didnt at all. Afterwards, we crashed on the plane.

Sayonara Tokyo~maybe next year!

DAY 9: Back to Tokyo!

Alright, we checked out of Righa Royal in the morning and took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. No pictures as our hands were full with bags. Damn i miss that hotel now.

We didnt have a place to put our bags in the daytime as our lodging for that night will be at a Capsule hotel. Didnt know if they allowed us to put our bags there first. So we tried to wander around carrying our 'homes'.

At first ZH was all gungho, saying we can carry our luggage and walk around shopping. But thank goodness he gave up and took my suggestion of the lockers. Thank goodness japanese people provide these things. 

We ended up back in Ueno for shopping, but first; lunch at a random ramen shop.

First time with a garlic press! I think i used it wrongly somehow.

It was quite pricey without any extra servings of noodles. And i think we ate more ramen than we should. I kinda got sick of it but i didnt want to go back to SG regretting i didnt eat it when i could.
And after this meal we decided to eat rice bowls instead.

Went around doing shopping on places we went before. Yea granted 10 days was probably too much. And of that 8 was in Tokyo, and on these last 2 days we were going back to places we visited. So maybe 5 days was enough?

Around evening we headed to Kinshicho, where our Capsule hotel was. Its called Capsule Inn Kinshicho. This was the only one i found on Agoda that allows females, most only cater to men.

Very first experience of a Capsule! Only ever seen it on tv. Well, ZH and I have to sleep separately and on different floors, so its a good thing they have WiFi on the floors so we can whatsapp. We also allocated a meeting time.
When i first got to mine i tried to turn on the lights and TV, but it wouldnt work. I thought i was such a newbie, or they gave me a booby capsule. So taking a long time messing with it and possibly disturbing the 'neighbours', i went down and asked. Turns out they didnt turn on the mains. -_-

Some photos of my capsule. See, it isnt as small as what people think. Quite spacious for me actually.

There was only one neighbour beside me. And i kinda wanted the top bunk.

I can sleep with my bags beside me and its still not cramped. I cant find another way to describe it, but it feels like you're in a fridge.

The only door here is that curtain, and i just leave my belongings in there whenever i go out and draw the curtain. They provide a smalllllll locker so i put my passport in there, my other stuff wont fit. Rest assured, it is pretty safe because its Japan after all. The owners will help to keep your belongings too.

Around evening time, i met ZH at the lobby. They have a TV room with free drinks provided. ZH said he was feeling unwell, but i wanted to go out and explore. So he went back to his capsule to rest while i headed out for a while to see Kinshicho.

This is the Kinshicho station, with a mall nearby. I just went in and did some shopping. It was actually pretty good, they have stores with really cheap clothes. But i ended up not buying any as i was starting to get a headache and hunger pangs.

I had spotted a sushi bar nearby the inn, so i went back to see it.
ZH isnt much for sushi so its the only time i can eat it. Relatively cheap since i only had three plates?
I think the bill came up to just 500 Y.

After that, i wanted to go take some pictures of the Skytree because we spotted it in the distance. So if you ever want a capsule hotel, this ones pretty good. haha.

 I was kind of blown away by the view. Because that was the first time ive seen the Skytree at night. Well, we didnt get to go to Tokyo Tower because ZH says its too touristy. hmph.

I couldnt really take a justified shot of it, so i kept going nearer and nearer and farther from the hotel.
Was kind of scared because the road was quiet and dark.

Well, this was the nearest i got to it because anymore i cant take a full shot. I stood there staring at it for a while, and then sprinted back to the hotel. haha.

Okay, end of my novelty solo adventure.

I saw ZH at the lobby sitting, so he felt a bit better already. He thinks its the ramen we ate that day, but i think its all the walking around we did catching up on us. We havent had proper rest days, just getting up and go from morning till night.

Well, he was hungry so we went out again. He went to the nearby Burger King and ate, and we walked around Kinshicho for a bit later on. Many drunk people around.

And then it was back to the inn. I decided to go check out the women's bath. It was located below the lobby, and there was a key that you have to get from the front desk. So its quite secure.
I changed into my yukata and wore it into the bath because i was shy. There were only 2 other women, but they walked around naked.
There were cubicles but no doors for rinsing, and a big jacuzzi tub. It was too hot so i didnt go in. I rinsed quickly and went back out.

Day....8? Kyoto, the land before time.

Wow...i forgot i have not finished this....and its been almost 2 months? I've kinda forgot some things already (>.<)

Anyhoos...Day 8 was a full day of sightseeing Kyoto!
An awesome sleep in this hotel, and I didnt even wake up in the middle of the night. Guess we were too tired after walking in the rain all day.

Nice nice view from above. If you ignore the ugly building rooftops.

Got breakfast at a combini at Kyoto station, and i found THE BEST ONIGIRI. Here it is....its like soy rice instead of the normal white rice. Then half a RUNNY EGG and some mayo i believe. SUPER SHIOK i think if i sell this here it will be hotcakes. Drooling now.

Ok, we took a bus to the first temple of the day: Kiyomizu. Sounds like Cute-water to me.
Highly recommended by one of his Japanese friends. Followed a group of schoolkids on the way up.

As you can see its quite a walk up to the temple. There's 2 prongs to the top, we took the less crowded one. But going down we took the other side. You'll see later.

Hello, Red Wings.

Quaint little shops selling souvenirs, mostly the same stuff.
Here we are, Kiyomizu! And a little-overexcited me.

The climb up here is tough, but it will be all worth it for the view. To us, it was the best temple we've seen the entire day.
If you can go just one, this will be it.

Quite far from the Kyoto Tower, where we stay.
I kind of wanted to write on those wooden panels, but no idea how to go about doing so, everything was in Japanese.

Props to them for translating english properly, unlike this bullshit I saw in Taiwan. Had me in stitches.

I mean...WHHUUUUUUU...?

Tonykakun, lots of school groups here that day too. 

Lo and behold; a breathtaking view. Totally worth the entrance fee. Yes there are entrance fees to most temples here. It was around 3 SGD.

More charm shops. They have some different varieties in different parts of this temple.

Lovey dovey picture with the lovely dovely view.

Ok, afterwards we walked around the place a bit more, saw some turtles and a water fountain. We found that the exit was at a different point, and it led to the main route! So actually, if you came in from the exit, you can get in for free. o_o DAMN.
Well now you know, and i just saved you 3 bucks.

We walked down the more crowded path, with all the souvenir stores and food. And alot of schoolkids. Shucks i sworn i took a photo but it was a video instead. (Couldnt upload the last part because of youtube restrictions)

Ok i cant remember where this place is...but we alighted  from a bus going to another temple.

Will just show you pictures because I cant remember where that was....but we wandered around this part for a long time because we were quite lost. Finally managed to find a bus stop near the zoo, and we took it to our next destination.

On the bus 2 Caucasian girls said to ZH something, and turns out there was a big fat caterpillar on my back!
I was very creeped out. Luckily my boyfriend swept it off me, and it fell on the ground wriggling. He tried to corner it away and protected me from it.
Finally it was our stop and he scooped it up and put it outside. At times like these im glad he's here.

Near lunch time and we decided to get food. Ramen at a store near Ginkakuji Temple.

This store even provided me a hair band to tie my hair back. The ramen was alright to me, though ZH said it wasnt good. We walked to the temple but were turned off by the entrance fee again, so just went back out. We decided that it wasnt a priority temple to see.

Then, the last 2 temples of the day: Kinkakuji & Ryoanji. The ones which we went the day before but was closed.

Stopped by an ice cream shop near the Kinka bus stop.

Strawberry vanilla ice and they had a notebook for guests to write in. Here's ours. Definitely the cutest one!

Kinkakuji is the gold temple. And as expected, many China tourists here. Kind of a waste of money for just this though, but well, its a once in a lifetime thing.

Totally love this shot of mine. Look at the planes and the clouds and the colours!

Next up we walked down to Ryoanji; The Zen Garden. Wanted to experience a traditional Rock Garden.

Really expensive rocks these are. Well, people sit in front of it and ...take pictures. I told Zh what if some crazy person went down there and danced.

"Shhh, im trying to zen here"

Well, afterwards it was near evening. So we decided to go back and enjoy the last few moments of our awesome hotel. We reached this train station but didnt know if our pass allowed us to take it, so asked around.
Then this nice old lady on a bicycle came up to us, guess she could see the lost look on our faces, and asked if we need help. She spoke a little english but understood what we meant. And pointed us to a bus stop. I was like marshmallow and wanted to hug her because japanese people are so nice.... T^T

Back to Kyoto station, and more Combini food. i know we should try some Kyoto cuisine but i dont know whats special here, so we just decided to buy food and eat in our room instead.

Ready to see our bigger than yesterday's food haul? Plus some leftover stuff in the fridge too. And yes, most of these were ZH's.

FEAST! and hung around watching tv surfing internet taking long baths packing our bags...