Yamano Nihongo Gakuen

The title means Yamano Japanese Language School, and that's where I'm at!



Two Mondays ago, Dzaid and I sat for our placement test. We had to go through an interview session, then went through three horridly-kanji-ridden written test. Kanji are chinese characters used in the Japanese language, and something I'm VERY VERY bad in. D:



And wow, from lecturer to student. Unbelievable. I feel young again! \o/

The next day, we had an entrance ceremony, where we had visuals of Sakura petals falling down gracefully as Manabi proudly sings the school anthem. (Sorry for yet another hardcore anime reference)



After that, we got to know the class placement. This is where I imagined a cute girl nervously looking at the announcement, then glancing at me and shyly saying "Looks like we're in the same class. Yoroshiku ne." *blushes and scurries off*

Nope, didn't happen.

Dzaid and I were placed in a class lower than our expectations. We are now studying grammar and vocabulary that we learnt years ago. :S Luckily, the sensei assured that it was because of our Kanji, and if we built it up, we could jump 2 or 3 classes up in the next test.



But good thing it happened though, coz there are a bunch of cute girls in the class. :9 Though all of the others are either Koreans or Chinese (as in China's Chinese!), so kinda hard to fit in, no one speaks English! Dzaid and I had no choice but to converse in Japanese with them. Well it makes for great practice after all.



Every other day, I would go to a cafe or stay at home and practice my Kanji like mad. Really hoping to jump a few levels up, so gotta study hard!

Ganbarima~su!

10.10 Birthday in Gonpachi

Wow, look at all the birthday greetings! I'm so surprised to come back from a full scheduled day and see my blog brimming with messages. Thanks everyone!

In the spur of the moment I might as well talk about how I spent this wonderful 28th birthday (yipes, that's close to 30 D:)

From Akihabara 秋葉原 (aka heaven), I took the Hibiya 日比谷 subway line to an artsy place called Roppongi 六本木. Met up with Daim and Dzaid to have our joint birthday dinner (Dzaid - Oct 15, just five days younger, same year, same hospital!). We chose Friday night out of convenience, since Daim won't have any work the next day.

Before that we saw a cool petrol station belonging to Eneos, the same workplace as Jay Chow in the Initial D movie.



Thought I'd work here for awhile. Can't wait to have some ahbengs coming up to challenge me in a downhill race.

Take note of the fuel pumps hanging on the ceiling to save space :D

Then it's time for birthday dinner!



Daim took us to a superb place called Gonpachi 権八. The interior is amazing; so amazing that it was used as the inspiration for the Kill Bill Vol 1 restaurant set! Serious! Remember the scene towards the end with that yummy mace-flinging schoolgirl? Yea that one.

And it didn't stop there... the food was DELICIOUS! Ate a whole lot of skewered beef and chicken, together with some lamb chop and steak. That was meat heaven right there! And it was on Daim too. Thanks so much for the treat, dude!

Oh yea, you can visit the restaurant's website here to have a clearer look at how cool the place is (sry lah, my phone camera works horribly in the dark): Gonpachi official site.



We left around 11:30pm. Rushed like mad to catch the last train of the day. I shall not do that again. Why? Coz Dzaid and I went into a place full of businessmen and women who reeked of sake:



Ah, authentic japanese experience...

Still no internet >_<

I know the whole Tokyo is wifi-enabled, but looking for a free wifi spot in Japan is difficult. Had to google with my J-phone for the place. Only a few Starbucks here have free wifi! Grrr...

Finally I found one, in Ginza, a little nice cafe called Pronto. Ginza is quite the high-class place, but managed to find a place for a low-class guy like me :P The above is the view from outside the window I'm facing, a nice little quiet corner of otherwise busy Ginza.

Soooo... the internet in my apartment is still down X( Today the guy came, looked over some stuff, then mentioned that the modem was spoilt. Waited a whole week for that report! Tomorrow, some engineer would come over and look at the thing, hope I'll get the Internet some time this week!

Otherwise, am enjoying my life in Tokyo now, though I really miss the PEOPLE and YAMCHA SESSIONS of Malaysia (yea that's all). Trying my best to save money, though I did buy the complete series of ARIA manga, ehek. It's for learning Japanese, I'm telling you!

Ok lah that's all. Will update with MANY MORE photos with a REVAMPED layout once the Internet is up *sigh* Meanwhile enjoy a picture of me camwhoring in the cafe...

Konnichiwa from Tokyo!

I am now in some super canggih Internet cafe in Shibuya. Argh so hard to type on this Japanese keyboard. It's challenging to even press the spacebar!

Anyway, I have safely arrived in tokyo and am now enjoying myself before the school term starts, trying my best not to splurge on anything >_< The apartment is VERY NICE, but I can't show you guys anything... bｅｃｏｚ it takes one whole week to install the Internet grrrrrrrrr... that's why we're in an Internet cafe now. Dzaid and I just went to the City Hall yesterday to register for our alien registration card. Anyone who lives in Japan for more than 90 days need to apply for that. With the card, you don't need to carry the passport around!

And, we just bought our J-phones! You can email me, and it will be sent straight as an SMS to my phone! Ain't that neat? My email is hazmer{at}softbank{dot}ne{dot}jp.

anyhow, until the Internet is fixed, I can't update my blog with pics nor revamp my blog, so you guys just have to wait.

Watch out for the first REAL Japan blog post next week!

Crap, my half an hour is almost up. Mata ne! And keep in touch!

Big Move Finale: I'm moving to Japan!

This was taken back in 2006. Since my trip to Tokyo in 2004, I swore to myself that I will go to Japan every 2 years. I guess all good things come in threes. ^_^

Some of you already know it, and some of you don't. The previous three "Big Move Announcements" were a build up to this one, coz this is the biggest move I have ever made in my life. I'll be flying off to Tokyo this coming 28th September. Yup, you heard me right. I'll be in Malaysia for another 3 weeks before the great flight.

And no, it's not just a holiday trip. I'll be studying in a Japanese language institute, together with my cousin Dzaid, for one and a half years. And apart from my one-year experience in a hostel during Form One, this is the first time I'll be living independently *nervous*

Why learn Japanese, you ask? You see, I have two life-long dreams:

1. Create a game with a one million purchase/subscription mark. Need A LOT of experience for this to happen.
   
2. To obtain Japanese PR. (this is subject to change in case of culture shock, etc)
   

With this trip, I plan to kill both birds with one stone. The bigger picture of this journey is that I could join their independent game-making community, aka the doujin game culture.

Twice every year, they have a convention called Comiket, where tens of thousands of people visit booths opened by doujin enterpreneurs to sell their own manga, games, etc. Zun, creator of Touhou, also opens a booth once in a while to promote his product. Even Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, which started as a doujin game, had a lot of exposure through this convention.

So my short term goal is to join an independent game circle and open a booth to sell my games at a dirt cheap price. To some who are concerned, don't worry, I will still market myself as a Malaysian game developer ;) I just wanna have this booth-at-Comiket experience at least once.

But to do this, I need to perfect my Japanese.

I've been studying Japanese for two years, but I stopped coz I just didn't practice enough. You know, since we're in Malaysia. My JLPT Level 3 certificate means nothing if I can't even speak smoothly. And that's why I'm going to the source of it all: Tokyo!



As with anyone who plans to stay in Japan to work or to study, I had to obtain the Certificate of Eligibility (CoE) from the Japanese government 6 months earlier. I'm telling you, it ain't easy. They needed A WHOLE LOT of documents, so I drove to and fro to my former Japanese institute in KL Plaza. But it was all worth it, coz with the CoE it's easy to get my visa done, since a lot of background checks have been done already.



And of course, the flight ticket. Man, this is where I directly felt the impact of the fuel price hike. A one-way ticket to Japan cost me a freaking RM 2,600! _orz

Yup, that's the time of the flight. 28th September, 10:50 pm. I'm still in my numb state, I just couldn't believe that I'll be flying off so soon :S



This is where a whole lot of my money will go to. Apartments in Tokyo are small and expensive. Dzaid and I will be sharing an apartment, and it really looks similar to Sato's place in Welcome to the NHK: a staircase leading up to the room, with a ladder inside leading to the bed (though Sato used it to throw all his rubbish!)

It's a very decent apartment, and feedback from Malaysians who lived there before were great. It comes with a fridge, kitchen, microwave, an attached bathroom, and most importantly, an internet line! The price, though comparable with other Tokyo apartments, is really crazy by Malaysian standards: A freaking 53,000 yen/month, or RM 1696/month! And that's the price PER PERSON! Yaaaahooooo!

I will keep everyone posted about the trip. The blog will be revamped (about time!). To my dear close friends, let's yamcha more often! And my humble apologies to the classes that I'm teaching now, coz you'll be getting a new lecturer 3 weeks from now. You might get a more interesting one, so no worries! And to the students whom I taught before, don't be surprised if I come in with a camera yea ;)

Oh before I close this post, 6 months ago I had to xerox my passport to get my Certificate of Eligibility. The stewpid photostat machine in the shop had their toner set to high, so I asked them to do it again. Just to let you all know, this is the first result:



No government would want this freak in their country!

Killing Spree in Akihabara

Usually I don't like to write about bad news, but this is about my favourite district on Earth, so I'll make an exception.

The bastard in the suit above is Tomohiro Kato. Noon today, he drove a truck into the middle of a crowd in Akihabara, Tokyo. He then walked out and randomly stabbed those people with a knife. 7 people have died and at least 11 others have been injured.

His motive? "I'm tired of life. I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn't matter whom I'd kill".

In case you didn't know, Akihabara (nicknamed Akiba to attract locals and tourists) is the "electric town" of Tokyo, where people can buy electronic products and anime-related goods. As you can already guess, the place is super-crowded on a Sunday.



The story doesn't end there though:

• A week and a half ago, someone posted a thread in 2channel (a popular japanese forum) under the title "[News] In Akihabara, an Xbot ninja will be involved in a tragic slashing spree" with the text "Soon after 5th June, this is guaranteed to happen, so I thought I'd post ahead of time". Whether the killer is the poster himself is yet to be determined.

• A similar stabbing spree happened 2 months ago in another district, killing 1 person. Coincidence or not, the stabbing was done by a Dead or Alive runner up champion. Because of the "Xbot ninja" thread, the killing today was attributed by some to the Ninja Gaiden 2 launch, also by the same company.

• Today is also the seven-year anniversary of the Ikeda elementary school killings in Osaka, where 8 children were killed.
  

Looks like the reputation for being one of the safest country in the world is being tarnished. I truly hate the killing of innocent people. May the victims rest in peace and my sincere condolences to the families and friends involved.

Here's CNN's early coverage of the incident:



Be careful, Daim. Take care of yourself.

Raku-Job Event

The job situation in Japan is dire, especially due to the recent plunge in the US economy. To answer this urgent call, an NGO has set up Raku-Job, an event where many passionate but jobless Tokyo-ites could look for jobs in the anime, manga and game industry.

Among the employers involved were Gonzo, Production IG, Toho Animation, Koudansha and Hobby Japan. Dunno which game companies were there, I'm guessing it's those anime-game companies that make dating sims and visual novels.

Just like the line for the PS3 and Wii, many potential employees lined up all the way to the outside of the building. Itulah passion Japan.



To give a great first impression, everyone wore a snappy business suit/dress. Of course there were exceptions.



At least he won't be hot under the sun. But it's kinda the edge of winter there, so...

You can go to their website @ http://raku-job.jp/blog/. I like the way they represented the game, anime and manga industry as 3 characters.

Maybe one day I'll be part of the line? :3

Itterasshai

My lucky cousin, Daim has finally gone off to Japan to work for a 6-month contract, possibly more if everything goes well. If he feels like BLOGGING (ehek) about it, check out his adventures at http://www.daimation.com.

Zaido and I will see you there. Wait for us.

2ch forum

We live in Malaysia and are very influenced by Western culture. It is understandable that we rarely get to experience the great things that happen in Japan, one of which is the Japanese premier Internet forum, 2channel (or 2ch for short). Here's the wiki: http://www.answers.com/2ch.

2ch is said to be the BIGGEST internet forum in the WORLD! I just checked the stats like a minute ago, and there have been 2,663,086 posts so far TODAY! You can check the stats here: click here. It has reached a high level of significant influence to the Japanese society, reaching that of television and radio.


This was all started by this Japanese guy living in a college apartment in the US named Nishimura Hiroyuki. Now he's a director of two companies and CEO of one.

The reason behind 2ch's success?

• They have more than 600 active boards, relating to topics such as sports, cooking, social issues, anime, whatever under the sun!

• Unlike most Western forums, anonymous posting is allowed (registration is optional). Posting your response is a cinch. Of course, with this rule, you would think that there would be "bad threads" lying around, but:
  

• Decided by board-specific volunteer groups, the latest post in a topic would either raise or lower its position in the topic list. Most boards sort the topics based on its latest post, which is bad coz people love to "bump" their topics. 2ch sorts the topics based on the combination of the latest post and the raise-and-lower ranking.

• There can only be a maximum of 1000 posts per topic. There would be a discussion among the volunteer group as to whether it deserves a new thread. This prevents the rotting of old threads, eases readability (you only read the latest happenings about the topic, after all) and eases the processing of the server.

Of course, there are still many bad apples out there who would want to take advantage of the anonymous posting mechanism. For this, 2ch worked closely with IOSYS to come up with a cute Flash animation called Itte Yoshi 2005.

Itte Yoshi (or its engrish-ized name, It You See) roughly translates to "GET OUT!". The animation mentions the types of posts that would make everyone say "Itte Yoshi!" to the poster.

Here's the animation, in YouTube format. Originally in Flash format for 2ch surfers. IOSYS always makes impressive Flash animations that sync well with the music.



To think that they would make a Flash animation just for the rules of the board... cooool! Giko （ﾟДﾟ） and Mona (´∀｀） are a play of the two popular Japanese emoticons. When the types of posts appear, Giko would appear in the middle and shout "GET OUT!". Simple and effective. Quite sorhai also.

So whatcha waiting for? Get involved in this big Internet phenomenon today! http://2ch.net

Otaku Medley

You don't know what's an otaku? Let's see what Wikipedia has to say about it:

"In modern Japanese slang, the term otaku refers to an overtly obsessive fan of any one particular theme, topic, or hobby. Common uses are anime otaku (one who sometimes enjoys many days of excessive anime watching with no rest) and manga otaku (a fan of Japanese graphic novels), pasokon otaku (personal computer geeks), gēmu otaku (playing video games), and wota (before referred as "idol otaku") that are extreme fans of idols, heavily promoted singing girls."

Following the popular otaku japanese forums 4chan and nikonikodouga, probably the modern anime and game otaku is now:

• Controlling their favourite idol girl in the arcade game Idolmaster
  (and get this: when it was released on the Xbox 360, The Idolmaster has been credited with making Japan's ratio of Xbox Live sign-ups to the number consoles sold the highest in the world!)
• Dancing to the sequence of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi and Lucky Star
• Watching psycho-moe animes like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
  
• Still crazy over Pokemon, Digimon and Yugioh (yup, they still haven't got 'em all)
  
• Looking at their DVD boxsets of Madlax, Aquarion, Air, Bokurano etc.
• Playing back prequels of Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Rockman
  
• Playing doujin (amateur-made) games like the curtain shooter Touhou Project
• Watching YouTube videos made by other otakus
• Playing popular hentai games, or at least watching their intro sequences

Of course, it would take another otaku to put all the above together and sing all the relevant theme songs in one 10-minute video, like a music medley of otaku mayhem.

Well, this guy does exist. If you do or are at least familiar with ANY of the activities above, or if you just wanna catch a glimpse of the otaku world, then you should watch this:



It's one guy singing all the otaku-medium songs in one remix. Pretty cool.

Otakus rock!

Day Fif+Sixteen - Tokyo and Malaysia (NOOO!)

Drat, I'm back in Malaysia. Two weeks in Japan is really too short.

Sorry that I haven't been updating it, since I'm already into crazy work and all. Nevertheless, I still find time to update trip's last two days. Hope my memory is fresh enough to talk about it in detail.

Let's start with Day 15, which was last Saturday (22/4/2006).

We wanted to go to Tokyo University (known as Toudai in Japanese), the number one best university in Japan. Dzaid and I came here on the second last day we were in Tokyo, which is exactly what happened with this trip!



This is the side entrance of the University. It's a little backdoor. When I came here at first, I thought we took a big risk 2 years ago by simply going into the Toudai through here (what with the dodgy entrance and all), but Dzaid and I found out that visitors are welcomed.



The buildings in Toudai look similar to the ones in my mom's previous uni (UKM). Of course, the scenery and weather here is completely different.



We took a nice walk through the campus before reaching the main entrance. Quite few students though. Maybe because that day was a Saturday.



Ah finally some students. The campus area is very big, so riding a bicycle seems to be a good choice. But it's ok la, I just roll through.



Almost reaching the main entrance. You could tell because you could see a bunch of students walking through that doorway at the end. Ah, the intellectual atmosphere.



Earlier before this pic was taken, the students had some training with the fire extinguisher. Somemore got one guy shoot some water towards another student. So THAT's what they do here in Toudai.



Now I'm in the doorway. One more doorway to go through before reaching the main entrance.



And finally we reached the famous clock tower on the main street of Toudai. And this seemed like the place for my daily pose! Love Hina fans should be very familiar with this scene.



I really love the presence of the clock tower. It's like a symbol saying "You made it!". And there's quite a nice small park in front of the tower. How relaxing. Two groups having a picnic, then two boys playing ball. Darn, I wish I brought some onigiri from 7-Eleven to eat here.



And what is the clock tower without the A-Star students to appreciate its presence, right?



Quite a coincidence that a motorbike was parked at the back of the entrance, so a nice camera shot is in order.



If I were to study here instead of APIIT, I would be in this faculty...



...which is located right here!



It's spring, but there are dried leaves lying around. Cool.



And dried leaves look good on the ground, right?

We got hungry, and Mama belanja-ed me yet again! This time, she wanted to thank me for being the "best tour guide in the world".... uh... works for me! :D



So we came into this restaurant and bar. Most of the people are seated at the proper tables, since it's lunch time anyway.



It's like I'm in some medieval tavern, minus the vending machine where we ordered our food.



And this was my lunch! Omuraisu, or Omlette Rice. It's something like Nasi Pattaya, but the egg is softer and more... uh... melty-like. Truly delicious! Thanx, Mama!



My mom had some fish instead, a little on the western side (as usual). She said it was a little too salty, but overall it's quite tasty.

Next, we wanted to go to this temple, which is currently at the center of media attention. More on that later.

The only way to go there is obviously through the trains.



Osaka! Haha, only Azumanga Daioh fans would know this stupid joke.



The train station near the temple was actually quite canggih.



Just check out the way they distribute the flourescent lights. Felt like I was in the brain, looking at the neuron circuits.



This is the park outside the temple. Feels like Kyoto all over again (oh man, I miss Kyoto...)



And here we are! This is the super controversial Yasukuni Temple. This place honours 14 Japanese war criminals. The prime minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi frequently visits this temple, so countries like Korea and China protested that this temple is an indication that Japan still does not admit their horrid military past.

Well, like my mom said, one country's criminal is another country's hero. So we just leave it at that (I really dislike politics anyway).



Whenever there's a temple, there must be the O-torii! This one is not orange though.



The japan flag waving proudly in front of the temple.



Yup, security here is a little tad tighter than at the other temples. Must watch out for those pesky protestors who are willing to burn the temple down at any chance they get.

I didn't do much shopping, so my mom gave me some time alone to do it in Akihabara from 4pm (again, thanx Mama!) while she stayed in the hotel till night time (Sorry Mama). Actually dragged her along with me for shopping once (remember Shibuya's Mandarake?), she got bored... fast. So I dowanna make her go through that again.



Akihabara on a Saturday. Seriously super crowded!



Almost every street in Akihabara was like this! I really shopped on the wrong day, but it's not like as if I had a choice. I was here only for 5 days, after all.

I shopped like mad. Really mad. Imagine, only 5 hours till all shops are closed.

At around 8pm, I realised that I bought too much stuff. Had to buy a bag to contain 'em all!



So here's the bag. This is the first time I own a bag which has both a roller and the shoulder straps. Benri desu ne (Very convenient).



And my goods filled the bag to the rim!

And then, the dreaded day came, Day 16. I didn't sleep at all, coz I dowan the night to end! But the world goes around, and life goes on. I had to leave.

The flight back to Malaysia was at 10:30 am, so we had to wake up early (or rather, my mom had to wake up early). We left the hotel at around 6 am.



No one's awake yet. Bye bye everyone. Have fun in Japan. (wu... wu... wuaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!)



Tokyo at 6 am. Already very bright.



Bye bye Japanese railroad. Bye bye Japanese sky. Bye bye Japanese birds.

ok ok enough of being sentimental. Since there won't be many pictures taken on Day 16, I took the opportunity to teach you all how to buy a train ticket.



Easy onlyyyy. Just look at the map, then at the destination station, you could see the price of your ticket. Just press the value of the ticket like so...



...then put in your coins or the yen notes...



...then out comes the ticket and the change. Simple right?



The Japanese are very concerned about handicapped people. At the crossing, a song or tune will play if the light becomes green, so that blind people will know when they could cross (and the direction too). Also, there's braille writing on most of the elevators. Here, a textured trail helps a blind person to go to the train platform.



Then once the blind man feels the circles beneath the foot or using the walking stick, then it's time to stop. This trail will lead the blind person to the priority seats (seats for special people).

We had to change trains at Ueno station, where we could take a direct train to Narita airport.



One bag for my clothes, and one bag for my toys. What a drag (literally!).



My mom smiling at the camera, saying "haha I have to drag only one bag!".



I dunno why, but the Narita airport was really congested. This is just the line to the check-in counter, we were not even near it yet!



Some more, this is the line for only MAS flights!



And just look at the crowd going into the Departure Gate! Then I just found out that the security was very tight. People had to even take out their jackets and coats, and put it in the x-ray belt thingy.



It was like only yesterday that I took this kind of shot, but instead going towards the Narita Airport. That was 2 weeks ago. *sigh* Time travels so fast.



I wanted to get a taste of Japan just one more time! This was my brunch, Tempura Soba. It was average though. -_-"



On one of the TVs, there was the professor from Astro Boy teaching people to use condoms. Wow, kid shows nowadays.



I'm sure some of you Malaysian readers are laughing at the company name on the truck. To those who don't understand, don't ask. :D



And that's my flight. My first hint that Malaysia was near.



Bye bye Japan. See you again two years later... hopefully.



I didn't sleep the previous night, so I paid the Sleep God a visit from miles above ground.



And this is the last daily pose. I'm facing the camera this time coz I'm going back towards Malaysia. Cool concept eh? :D

And that ended my Japan trip! It was really fun, and I really saw the cultural and historical aspects of Japan this time. And not to mention the aesthetics part too! The cherry blossoms, as well as the cherry bosoms *wink* *wink*

Thanks for reading my travels in Japan. Appreciated all your comments, really made me realise that blogging about my travels LIVE from Japan was really worth it! Hope you continue coming into the blog to witness my journey towards my two ultimate missions in life: to be a great game designer, and to obtain Japan PR status!

ok I've been blogging too long already. It's time to continue work.

Day Fourteen - Tokyo

OMG, tomorrow I'm going back!! Damn it lah! I mean, sure I miss all my family and friends in Malaysia, but not Malaysia itself!

Man, I wish I had the money to bring all of you here, then get our visa approved to stay for a year... I'm sure many of you support this idea :D (eh I just realised that these sentences rhyme! hahaha) Then I better start blogging and get my ass into gear!



We were on our way to lunch, so we went to this Bandar-Utama-Centrepoint-like area. A lot of people ride bicycles here, coz you can tell by the dedicated white lane just for bicycles.



There are a whole lot of 'em parked in front of the complex. This is only one row of bicycles among six of them.



And we have reached the complex: the Lala Terrace of Minami Senju, which is 15 minutes away on foot from our hotel.



Mama wanted to belanja me makan because I've "been a good tour guide" (thank you, Mama!), so I chose this place. The 100 yen plate sushi shop (oh, plus 5 yen for tax)



Yup, it looks almost the same like the one in Kyoto...



...except that Kyoto does not have this touch screen menu. It's actually more than just a menu.



Once you're done with the plate of sushi, you put it down the slot like this...



...then it will increase the plate counter on the LCD by one. This is to ensure that you don't have a table full of pagoda plates while you eat. Then once you're done, you press this pink button, where the waiter will come to give the bill.



Oooooh yummy raw squid.



Seems like a normal salmon sushi...



...until you see the side! So darn thick! This was really satisfying!



This is another favourite of mine. The squids look so cute... but they are more delicious than they are cute :D



This is raw tuna with slightly raw egg. Never seen this before, but this is also tasty.



This is the recommended sushi, smoked tuna. I'm not really fond of tuna, but this one might convert me if I eat enough of it :D



And finally we have dessert. A humble cheesecake.



Every 5 plates, some sort of slot machine will start...



...if we win, we get one of these toys. There's even game balance in the slot machine. The more plates, the less symbols, so the more chance to get a prize. Too bad we were not so lucky. Maybe have to eat 100 plates, then only can get.



All in all, we ate 15 plates of sushi. Thanx again, Mama!



Oh man it's such a beautiful day. Better hurry to the next destination.

We took a train to Tokyo station to go to the Imperial Palace.



On the way there, I saw this advertisement. Now there's this software for the DS where you can translate some Japanese text (or choose some preset sentences) to another particular language, then you can show the phrase to the person who couldn't understand Japanese. Good for travelling.

You can also learn the language via this software as well. The languages available are Thai, Chinese, Korean, English and German. I hope that there will be a version for us english speakers as well.



ok sorry for that distraction. And here we are, at Tokyo station, which is the oldest station in Tokyo. As you can see, the station is still preserved in the original state (but inside there is completely modern la haha).



There were a few artists outside who were also admiring the old architecture.



There were many tall buildings around the station, a very rare scene for us Tokyo travellers (since we're normally around many shops that only have 10 floors max).



Came here with Dzaid two years ago, so I kinda know my way around. We had to choose between two paths to the Imperial Palace: a tar road or this bridge. Wasn't hard to decide :)



Crossing the bridge will get us here: a simple modern park. Wow, the sakura tree here is still blooming. It's already almost a month since the first day of the Tokyo bloom. Normally, the sakura bloom would only last 2 weeks. Our luck with the sakura is simply amazing.



I quite like the fountain at the background, which was spraying a mist of water rather than shooting jets of water like the one on the right.



If you see the park from the top, it looks like a fish. You should download Google Earth, then you'll know what I mean.



Flowers like these are beautiful, no matter whether they're surrounded by mountains or concrete tiles.



And this is the Imperial Palace AREA. This building is NOT the Imperial Palace. Can't take a picture of it, since I need special permission to get in. Whatever it is, this kind of old building surrounded by a gorgeous lake is good enough for me to take a nice photo.



Ah, the fusion of the old and the new.



The area of the Imperial Area is H-U-G-E and vast.



Told ya we can't go in.



You can see these trees growing throughout the area. These trees might not grow straight upwares, but the random arrangement and trunk shapes are beautiful. A garden fit for the emperor.



We had to walk down this path...



...to get to this beautiful bridge. This is the bridge to yet another entance to the Imperial Palace. How come we never visited this area before, Dzaid?



See, even this guy is amazed at its beauty.



Foreground item, background scenery, clear sky. The formulae to a good photo (good by my standards, of course).



We took another route back to the train station, so we had to go through this park. It's so nice to sit down here, read a book with the hot sun ray and the cool winds hitting your face. This is what the Chinese call "Damn song!" (the song here is not LAGU yea)



These people work hard to make sure that the grass is cut and the sands on the grass are fresh.



We stumbled upon MORE sakura trees in the park, so it's photo shoot time! Heeeeey, my mom looked cool here...



...I wanna look cool too! (Deja vu, anyone?)

Remember the time in Kyoto where I wanted to throw myself into a bed of flowers and sleep?



Well this is close enough (poor Sakura petals).



As we walked on, we saw this horse carriage on the way to the Imperial Palace. What a way to treat the VIP. I felt a sudden urge to hijack the carriage just like in some anime (i.e. Rurouni Kenshin / Samurai X), but I resisted it eventually.



(if )ians already know about this contraption. In fact, I showed them a demo of how to use it two years ago, and here I am again.

It is a big display utitlizing many LED lights to show graphics. Moreover, the display will respond to any movement close to the screen (just be close, don't need to touch it), so there were some cool mini-applications that demonstrate the interactivity of this piece.

I will show the full video in this blog when I get back to Malaysia.



Of course, the floor tiles must also be cool-looking as well.

We took a train from the Tokyo station to our next destination...



...Shibuya, the youth district! This is the famous Shibuya crossing, where around a hundred people will cross at any allowed time! A very busy street, I'm telling you!



This is the pose of the day. Blocked by a few people, but this is Shibuya after all.



Oh darn, I almost missed the dinosaur! This is the dinosaur that Scarlet Johanssen saw in "Lost in Translation". This is one heck of a big projection, which is also what Shibuya is famous for.



Shibuya is full of young people (and one senior malay lady :D)



OK! I WILL!



Since this is the youth district, english songs are played everywhere we go. This is one little sad part of Japan's youth culture, being heavily affected by the west.



Remember this place, Dzaid and Dina? When we first came here two years ago, we bought our onigiri here...



...then we sat here and ate our lunch. How nostalgic.



This is also the famous shopping complex of the district, the Shibuya 109. If I took the picture of the complex in the center, you can see it forking the road into two, similar to the famous Time Square scene in New York.



Dzaid and I came to Shibuya for one reason: to go to Mandarake, which sells almost any type of merchandise for anime, game and manga fans alike! Sorry, Mama, for dragging you to a place like this.

After that, we took a train to the next station...



I saw this poster on the way there. Spongebob the Movie. hahahahhahahah so funny. Keep remembering the stupid scenes from the movie (MY EYES!).



And this is Ikebukuro! Dzaid studied his Japanese here around 4 years ago when he was doing the homestay thingy.



My mom wanted to try some Sakura-related food, so there's only one place that I could think of: Sakura Cafe.



This cafe is dedicated to Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars), a Sega lineup of games and anime (originally a Sega Saturn game). The girl on the right is Shinguji Sakura, a typical kimono-clad beautiful lady. Haha that's clumsy Erica on the left.



And here are some plush dolls sitting in the souvenir shop. After this shot, I was sounded by the waitress that I couldn't take pictures here. Whoops, really forgot about that.

Well let's leave it to your imagination, shall we? We ate three small cute scoops of Sakura-flavoured ice cream, with preserved Sakura petals on top. I liked it, while my mom said it was ok, coz she prefers creamy ice cream while I like fruity ice cream. To sum it up, my mom likes Haagen Daz while I like Baskin Robbins.



For our dinner, we ate at McDonalds in Ikebukuro.



The McValue set here comes with these selection of drinks. So lucky lah the Japanese. I don't like fizzy drinks, so I hate Malaysian McDonald's selection of just fizzy drinks with the set. Bleh :P



I got as clumsy as Erica and spilled the orange juice on the table. When I informed the waitress to just clean the table up, she got me another fresh drink of the same size! Ahh, Japanese customer service. Never fails me.

And for the last picture of the day...



hahaha so lame! Didn't know McDonalds here caught up with the Da Vinci Code fever too!

Today will be the last full day I'm in Japan. Our flight back to Malaysia will be quite early tomorrow, so I won't be able to update my blog early in the morning. You gotta wait for me late at night, where I will update two days' entries at once.

Tomorrow is a sad, sad day. I gotta utilize the day today as much as possible.

So off I go to buy a bunch of stuff... See ya!

Day Thirteen - Tokyo

What?! Day 13 already?! And today is Day 14, wuuu wuu wuuuuu~ I'm leaving from Tokyo the day after tomorrow. Time travels so fast. Too fast, actually.

Well anyway, we left quite late yesterday because of the foul weather and also the long blogging session -_-" So today I woke up at 7:30 am and write my blog to make up for the lost time yesterday.

Enough of useless details, let's see what happened yesterday:



Yesterday we went to Tokyo Tower. As you can see, Tokyo Tower is quite close to Roppongi, which was the artsy place that we visited the day before.



This building bears no significance whatsoever, but the reflection does.



And there it is, the Tokyo Tower! It's mainly used as a communications tower. The middle of the tower emits radio transmissions whereas near the top emits television tranmissions.



There's a church near the tower, and there was this Japanese girl practicing her choir singing skills on the street! Japanese girls already have high-pitched voices, so you can imagine how high the pitch of her voice can go, especially if you sing for the church choir.



OK sorry, back to the tower. It's painted orange not only because of it's the colour of traditional shrines, but also because it was enforced by some aeronautical law so that oncoming planes could see the tower clearly. After all, it IS 333 meters high.



Yup it looks like an orange Eiffel Tower. Tokyo tower is taller (Eiffel Tower - 320 m) and also lighter (according to the brochure).



We took the lift to the 150m high observatory...



...to see this beautiful bird eye's view of Tokyo city!



Of course you can see Tokyo city from all angles, so these signs help to indicate the direction of the view.



Look at all those buildings! I like this view coz it's not obstructed by tall buildings, so I could see how packed up the buildings are just to save space.



Yup, that's the rainbow bridge that we have visited the day before.



There are also landmark indicators like this one. Again, there was a slight mist, so no Fuji-san for us. *grrrr* Why is that mountain so elusive? Purposely run away when we see it... drat.



Whoa, I felt like as if Tokyo is my creation, and was in the middle of admiring it.



Hey, why cannot see anything wan?! (Yup this is another sooooorrr haaaaai pose)



There is also a touch screen kiosk to show which buildings are what.



As you know, Japan is well-known for vending machines that just sells anything under the sun. Here, we have the makeshift camera and film roll dispenser.



Here's a nifty gift for those who visits the Tokyo Tower. First, you put in money...



...then it will dispense this gold coin.



After that, you pay another 50 yen and place your coin in the designated area...



...type in your name, then press Start...



...press the button to push the coin up...



...and voila! Your name is stamped on the coin! My mom didn't put the coin upright in the slot, so the name come out senget a bit, nyeh hahaha.



This is as close as I can get to overcoming my fear of heights.



Wooooooo~ Scarrryyyyyyy~



When we got back down to the first floor, there was already a crowd of students entering the tower. Thank god we didn't join the crowd.



Before we departed, we bought some crepe. Unfortunately, this is one of the yuckiest thing that I've eated in Japan so far. Too much whipped cream and the crepe was not hot at all. Bleh :P



My mom definitely agrees with me. Our stomach was so full of whipped cream... ugh... I get sick just thinking about it.



It's time to say goodbye to our tall orange friend.

We had to take the JR train to the next destination (there was the subway nearby, but we have Japan Rail Pass, so why waste it?).



During this trip, I'm always amazed at the artistry of the plastic food items. They look so real. My friend's friend is in this business of making plastic foods and I'm telling you, it's a big business!



I could just lie and tell you that I ate this for lunch!



Just look at the texture of the plastic meat! Simply astounding.



There was also this kiosk where you could clean your glasses for free. That man is putting his glasses into a compartment where air blows very fast.

Our next destination is the Sony Building! We took the entrance from the train station (and we didn't go out of the building into the streets), so I didn't take picture of the entrance. Damn, I forgot.



When we were climbing the stairs, every step that we made produces a sound. So if you climb up, you can hear the do-re-mi tones, with the last do produced on the last step.



As I thought (thanks to my years in (if )), there were infrared sensors on every step.



I dunno why this M5 is in the Sony showroom, but it sure looks cool (and in my favourite car colour too!).



This is the latest Sony walkman. Very slick. Trying to fight with the iPod, I guess.



Ooooh, a pink Vaio. Want me to buy this for you, Nyin? In your dreams!



Small MP3 players arranged nicely. I saw this in the Vaio shop in Berjaya Times Square.



I dunno what is this Owner-made business, but I'm sure that makes Vaio owners feel at home (including me, although it's the company laptop).



Wow, another Vaio PC. Damn it, I want one!



This looks like a more advanced version of the Blu-ray disc player that I saw two years ago.



This is the next generation of disc, CD, then DVD, then Blu-ray Disc. Dzaid would know the details, but all I know is that it has the space capacity of a modern hard disk! Playstation 3 games would also be on Blu-ray Disc. Supposedly, it's has some anti-piracy lock (although I won't be surprised that it'll be hacked a few weeks after release).



Sony's photo printer. So cute.



This is Sony's electronic dictionary. You can also read e-books on it. Very small, unlike its price.



And this is the big Sony PDA. It's like a very thin version of a tablet PC, so you can use it on the train while standing to do your work, plan the schedule ahead or read e-books.



And check this out, a Vaio lab. *droooool* :P~~~~~



The toilet in the Sony Building is, of course, very advanced. This is also what Japan is famous for. Here, we have the arm of the toilet seat. Those two blue buttons shoot out a fast jet of water to your ass.

Just now in the hotel, a British guy told me about his experience with the seat. He thought that the buttons were for flushing the toilet, so when he found out he was wrong, he went like "ooooooohh what a nice feeling". That statement is so funny... and kinda gross.



Here we have the advanced sink. To wash your hands...



...simply hover your hand below the soap tap (the soap is already lathered!)...



...and hover your hand below the water tap to wash the soap off...



...then dry your hands in this cool-looking hand dryer.



You thought that I would forget to do the pose of the day? Never!

My mom went back early, while I go to Akihabara to do some shopping (and playing too!)



Anime and games are widely celebrated here in Japan, so advertisements on them are everywhere! Galaxy Angel II is coming out, with brand new characters, including the main character Apricot Sakuraba, Milfunne's sister.



I had my dinner at Yoshinoya. This is super delicious! A mini sukiyaki. Darn, if only they had this in Malaysia. Pouring the egg into the sukiyaki did the trick. Sweet! (literally and figuratively)

Alright that's all. Since our JR pass expires tomorrow, we will take the Yamanote line to the popular districts today. Mata ashita.

Day Twelve - Tokyo (Part 2)

Onwards to Part 2, which is to the Fuji Television building itself!



We climbed the staircase since the escalator was not working *grumble* *grumble*. I'm so proud of my mom, at 60 (whoops shouldn't say that) and still can climb this many stairs!



Another view of the big ball of the building. It actually houses an observatory deck, where you can see the whole Tokyo from there. We wanna do that, but elsewhere, not here.



The mascot of Fuji Television. He always like to tilt his head, I dunno why.



The admission to the Studio Promenade is free, so we took the escalator down to enter it.



Ooh, a studio is open. I wonder what they're shooting now...



...the Hazmer, Mama and Kawaii Girl show! (ok ok I dunno her name)



This is the girl who took our picture earlier. The way she stares out the window is so elegant. Ok guys, pay up!



I don't even wanna know what this is.



This is a picture that we took in Kyoto a week ago... Just kidding! This is a mini-model that they use to shoot a funny sketch film. They will take a close-up shot of the buildings or alleys, then they super-impose the live action actors on it.



This is me announcing a major disaster. In Chinese, we call this kind of face the "Soorrr Haaaiii" face.



A shot of their studio. When you walk through the promenade, if you're lucky enough, you can get a glimpse of a Fuji show live.



Well well, more Chibi Maruko!



Hai, sensei!



Outside the promenade, there's some filming on some exercise session. The front is an aqua (oh man [pun not intended]) with girls following his lead.



And we say goodbye to Fuji Television station.

My mom wanted to buy something electronic for a friend, so we went off to (where else?!) Akihabara, the Electric Town of Tokyo.



Remember yesterday I mentioned that there are free English small lessons in the train? Well, here it is, explaining the difference between LATE and LATELY.



We did some shopping, then after that, I come to my favourite place to eat in Akihabara, Matsuya. Dzaid and I ate here 2 years ago countless number of times.



Here, you choose the food and order through the vending machine. The vending machine will issue a ticket indicating the food that you ordered.



Then you go to any seat...



...and present the ticket to the waiter. He will then give some water, salad and miso soup while they go cook up the meal.



And this is my meal! Ah, I SO miss this! This is Beef Karbi Rice set. The meat is freshly grilled, so it's very juicy and crisp at the same time. Man, I'm getting hungry even looking at this pic!



Well, the salad goes to my mom, of course.

We wanted some snack to eat at our next destination, so we entered this bakery. The staple food in Japan is rice, but bread is getting more and more popular. There's even a famous stupid and funny anime called Yakitate! Japan that features the various bread-making techniques.



This is one of the most famous bread in Japan, the Melon bread. Very sweet and tasty.



Just look at the array of breads...



...with their various shapes and sizes.



This is the other famous bread in Japan, curry bread. Here, it's in a shape of a doughnut (hmm but where's the center hole?)



On the way to our next destination, we saw this ad. Hey look, BM! Oh damn... Malaysia is looming over the horizon...



A guy playing the Gameboy Advanced SP in the train.



This ad is simple but creative. The white lines show the potential that Microsoft sees in your business. The tagline of this ad is "Your potential, our passion".



Another simple ad of the same concept.



Welcome to Roppongi Hill! This is a dedicated area where the elites and the artists express themselves. A very artsy area.



This is the Mori Tower, an office building in Roppongi.



From the hill, you can get a good view of the city. Lighted up is the Tokyo Tower, which we will visit today.



"The tokyo tower is within the palms of my hands." - Mama.



To make this place appear more elite, a lot of frameless glass windows were used on almost all buildings here.



Here, I'm having my melon bread and curry doughnut that I bought earlier.



Oooh Da Vinci Code museum, in conjunction with the upcoming movie of the same name. Too bad for my mom that it's coming soon.



Check out the Louis Vuitton shop.



Upon closer look, it's just a bunch of coloured glass. Very artsy.



Even the signboards here have better design than elsewhere.



The Mori Tower as seen through the rooftop of a shopping complex.



This is one way of putting ALL the floor maps of a shopping complex in one display.



Oh how nostalgic. I was here 2 years ago, amazed at big display of numbers indicating the time, temperature and other info. Still amazed by it, of coz!



From the shadow alone, you know that that's my mom.



This place has its own identity. See the six circles in the logo? The arrangement is so consistent that even if you take out all the lines, people will know that this is the Roppongi Hills logo...



...as clearly shown in this example.



Even some buildings surrounding it bear the same six circles in the same arrangement.



Alright that's enough for the night. It's time to go back to the hotel.

Ah so many pictures! Been wasting time blogging, it's time to head out! Mata ne!

Day Twelve - Tokyo (Part 1)

Wow yesterday I took damn a lot of pictures! Around 200+ of them! It was a big task to shortlist the pictures to just 80 of them. Even so, for this entry, I had to break it up to 2 parts. Wouldn't want to stress your Internet connection through my little humble blog :D



I planned to take my mom to the Fuji Television Station in Tokyo Bay area, which I went 2 years ago, so we had to travel by the JR train.



Thank god I memorized some of the famous station names in Kanji, or else we would be in quite pinch!



The train that we're taking is on the Yamanote Line. Travellers to Tokyo cannot avoid this train line, since it circles into the major areas of Tokyo.



After that, we had to change trains to something similar to the LRT back home.



This is the driver of the train, checking whether all the passengers have safely boarded. (ok ok it's an unmanned train haha)



This is the famous rainbow bridge in Japan.



Very similar to the San Francisco bridge, but still very beautiful.



The cool thing about this train is that it runs through the bridge!



Road vehicles go through the bridge beside us, while we travel the middle. Neat!



That's the famous big ferris wheel in Tokyo, similar to the one in Yokohama, for those who have visited Yokohama before.



And finally we arrived at the Fuji Television station! The fusion of straight blocks and the center big ball in the middle amazes me till this very day. Heyyyyy my mom looks cool here...



...I wanna look cool too!



And this is the pose of the day. Had to wait for that train to pass us, but it was worth the wait!



I just noticed that I like to merge one foreground item with the background scenery. Looks cooler, I guess.



There's a beach in front of the television station where you can have a nice view of the bridge with cool bay winds.



What big anchors! I wonder how big the ship is!



We sat on the beach to eat our lunch, with the combined front-and-back view of the television station and the bridge.



This is the first half of my lunch, Soba bread, or as hoshi-chan likes to call it, the mi goreng bread! Suddenly sounds so... mamak-ish. But this bread is delicious! Now that I think about it, putting Indomee in bread should be tasty as well. I'll try that once I go back home.



And this is the second half of my lunch. The salmon sashimi onigiri. Yup, looks like an oversized salmon sushi. Tastes ok, but not that fresh, since I bought it at the convenience store...



...but with this kind of view, whatever salmon also will taste fresh!



There were some birds hanging out near our lunch area, looking for a quick pinch of bread. My mom was generous enough to give some bits and pieces of her sandwiches.



My favourite shot of the day (and it's shot by my mom!). The proper title of this picture shall be "My mission to stay in Japan". :D



OK lah Mama, you also can have a nice similar shot.



Tourists could ride this cool-looking boat around the area, but we've seen enough rivers and lakes to last a lifetime.



There is a shopping center near the Fuji Television Station, so we walked around a bit to just check it out.



Wow, Star Trek fans (or trekkies, as they call it), rejoice! Now you can teleport to other places using the Tokyo Teleport Station. :D



This is the Sony Style shop in the shopping complex. Dzaid and I visited this shop two years ago, but of course in this kind of shop, things change frequently!



Just check out these dazzling mobile phones! I wish I could buy one and use it in Malaysia. Too bad the system is not the same :( The designs look so cool and slick. Darn.



I'm not really in touch with the PC world, but this is the first time I've seen a Vaio Personal Computer.



The living room areas in the shop are quite cozy. You know why this couple is looking elsewhere? Coz on the other TV is Kung Fu Hustle! That movie can attract ANYONE's attention!



Ah, the PSP. Ok... moving on...



I am not an (if )ian if I don't visit this place. It's the science exhibition of Sony! Too bad I can't take pictures of the exhibits...



or else you could see the Sony Data Tiles in action! Really cool stuff. You can check out a demo of the exhibit @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmD8EKWxD4M&search=sony%20data%20tiles.

Don't worry, (if )ians, will let you guys know the details of the exhibits when I get home (if I'm not too busy at that time -_-")



This is the statue outside the Fuji Television Station. My mom was happy to see this, coz there's a proper woman statue, whereas the man is represented by a huge stone blob. Shows how useless we are. haha.



Some manga (Japanese comics) lovers might be familiar with that building on the left. Every so often (dunno how often) there will be an exhibition where amateurs can set up a booth and sell out their manga creations. There will also be professional studios looking out for new talents as well. Those who watched the anime "Comic Party" should know about this building, at least.

Day Eleven - Tokyo (with a little bit of Kyoto)

Ohayou from Tokyo! It's a nice weather here in Tokyo, not so cold (good for my mom), so I wouldn't want to waste too much time blogging. So let's get on with what happened yesterday!



Had to wake up early in the morning to redeem for our mistake of not visiting Ginkakuji early the day before.



Ohayou Kyoto~ *yawn*



We reached the Ginkakuji quite early, so we decided to walk around for awhile.



Most of the souvenir shops are still closed. We only see kids in their uniforms going to their schools.



We arrived at around 7:50 am, but the temple only opens at 8:30 am. So wanna have breakfast first.



Of course, the location of the breakfast is as important as breakfast itself.



Cleaning up before visitors arrive.



And then we're in! This is the entranceway in Ginkakuji.



Wow, looks like as if we're on the moon or something.



And there it is, Ginkakuji (Silver Pavillion)! It's not really made of silver, because it is just compared to Kinkakuji (Gold Pavillion), which is really made of gold. Too bad we had no time to go there.



Let's take out the lake and put in some greens.



The garden around the Ginkakuji is very beautiful, that's why it's rated higher in a lot of travel websites compared to Kinkakuji.



Look at all the yen coins thrown here. Now the river can pack up and go on her own vacation.



There are moss building up at the foot of the hills here. Collected here are "Very Important Moss (like VIP)". Urm, okay.



Don't you just love Japanese gardens? This is definitely worth waking up early!



We took some steps to go up a small little hill...



...where we can have a sorta top view of the Ginkakuji.



More straight upward trees! Maybe the sun in Japan is always straight up?



Ginkakuji is one o-l-d temple. It's a world heritage, so it had to be preserved, despite it being modest looking.



The ugliest bridge in Japan. :D



Whoa, more people are coming, and we have to hurry to Tokyo too. Better get going.



I know this joke is getting old, but BIRDIE what the hell are you doing here?!

We packed our bags hurrily. Luckily, Nagano-san was there to send us off.



Since we're of the same age, it was easy to chat with him. He was also fun-loving, friendly and yes, he can speak good English. Every night, we just chat and chat and chat until he had to sleep at 12 midnight. Thanks for guiding us and making our stay an enjoyable one!



Off we go to Tokyo! Sayonara, Nagano-san. Iroiro arigatougozaimasu!

We took the seats on the Fuji mountain side, but unfortunately there was a huge blanket of mist covering most of the mountains. Oh well, better luck next time.



Before the checkpoint of Mount Fuji, I slept like hell, to catch up with the lack of sleep last night.



The conductor of the train. There was this old man who mistakenly sat in a reserved car seat. So the conductor was very nice to check whether the seat is taken (through the PDA, of course!). It wasn't taken, so the conductor reserved for the old man, and the old man paid him on the spot. Ah, convenience.



And we're here, in Tokyo!



Yup, this is Tokyo all right, full of people waiting for the next train. The train comes every 4 minutes, and there's still this much crowd!



From this picture, you can already feel Tokyo.



Heh heh for you guys. Thank me, people! It took quite a while to take this picture without her noticing!



To get to our hotel, we have to go to Ueno. Things have changed since I came here 2 years ago, isn't that right, Dzaid? Now they have a bridge where you can cross to Ueno Park and also the subways.



Last time we had to cross streets and what not to get to the subway. Now we walk above the streets instead!



Dzaid should remember this tunnel. This is the long tunnel that connects the JR station (above the ground trains) and the Hibiya Line subway.



And the pose of the day! Very different this time... no trees, no bridges, no rivers.



Yum yum, Tokyo spaghetti.



Now the government is really pressing their people to learn English. There were LCDs in the train that taught the people the difference between LATE and LATELY. Here's an advertisement for a language center that tells people that BAT and BUT are both pronounced BATTO, so which one should they use? Hey, how come they missed BUTT?



A school boy telling his girlfriend that he misses her so much (haha, just kidding).

And we arrived in our hotel, Hotel New Koyo. I came here 2 years ago, and I was satisfied with the place, so here I am again! It was awarded "The Cheapest Hotel to stay in Tokyo" by Lonely Planet, and it's really worth it! Go to http://www.newkoyo.jp if you ever come to Tokyo.



And this is the room. As you can see, it's not very wide but it's sufficient. It IS cheap, after all.



On the left is the room that Dzaid and I stayed 2 years ago.

My mom said that she's already very tired. But I'm all pumped up! So I went to Tokyo last night by myself.



Ah, Tokyo is so peaceful at night...



...unless you come to Akihabara! The electric city of Tokyo! Here, you can buy electronic stuff, play in the arcades and buy all the games, anime and figures to your heart's content (or should I say your wallet's content).



Before I came to Akihabara, I had to take the subway. This is my favourite shot of the day, coz there was also a train beside us, which is packed full of people. Oh what a coincidence, didn't see that lady there ;)



It was night time, but a lot of people were still sprawling into Akihabara.



I've never seen this game shop before when I last came to Akihabara, so I went in to take a look.



Some guys trying out the latest game. Here, they must PAY the full sum for original games, so they must try it out first to see whether it's worth it. Maybe I should tell them about Sungei Wang.



Oooh, Nintendo DS. Lee Ling, I hope you're taking care of my DS properly!



I went to the anime floor, and there were a bunch of posters on the floor. Yay, the second season of one of the funniest anime I've ever seen is now airing in Japan! Eh wait a minute, I can't see my favourite character!



Ah, that's better.



Outside some electronic stores, you can see an announcer with a microphone, shouting out the latest promotions like some vegetable seller in the pasar malam.



The last time I came here, I always went to Sega World to play arcade games. Sadly, it seems that the games there are not the latest ones (unless it's a Sega game, duh). Then I stumbled upon this place. Seems that this place is big! And the games from all sorts of companies and genres are brand new!



The new Bishi Bashi! Now you can play it online! When you play, you will seemlessly fight with others playing the same arcade game in another location! How cool is that!



This is the new Gundam card simulator. You buy Gundam cards bearing the Gundam mechs and lay them out on the game field. The machine will then read the card and transfer those locations to the game accordingly. Once you win, you get another Gundam card. Gundam fans, rejoice!



Whoa, Mario Kart arcade!



New gun game from Namco, Cobra the Arcade. It's very similar to Time Crisis (with the pedal to hide and all), but you drag the gun and target as many as possible before shooting, just like Zone of the Enders or Afterburner.



And this game is quite cool! The Idolmaster. You purchase a card where you can store the girl idols that you manage....



...then you have to train them using many mini-games to bring them to fandom! You can see your own idol singing on the stage, acting cute and all. One of the mini-games involve you focusing your camera on your idols so that you can get the perfect angled shot. Then your shot will be rated, in which it will affect your idol's image. Woo~ I so wanna try this (too bad I can't use the card in Malaysia)



Haha hoshi-chan, I have the feeling you'll like this poster.



Wow, Chibi Maruko chan has gone live action!

When I arrived in the hotel, I switched on the TV to catch up on the craziest variety shows available in Japan.



One of them is called Love Katsu, where the show attempts to matchmake five school guys and five school girls. The above shows their 3-minute date session. Later, a guy can ask one of the girls out and walk around the school, then finally give a confession letter. Too bad I'll know the results only next week.



This is another stupid stupid show. Four chefs have to cook some meal, then girls will wear some heat sensor bandanna thingy to detect how hot their body is after eating their meal. If the heat level goes to the maximum, then the girl has to kiss the chef. HOWEVER, there's also one gay guy among the girls, so if his level goes max first, then he has to kiss the chef!



This chef wasn't so lucky.



And here we have a talk show, where the chimp is the host! He will move his body and mouth, while a hidden person provides the voice. The whole show is like this, interviewing people and all, just like Jay Leno and David Letterman!



I'm updating my blog now in the hotel. There was this french guy sitting besides me pen drawing a statue of buddha. Really beautiful.

Alright that's all for yesterday! Today I try to avoid all the electronic stuff for my mom's sake and go to more scenic places.

Ja ne!

Day Ten - Kyoto

Well, today we PLANNED to go to the three major tourist areas of Kyoto: Arashiyama, Golden Pavillion (Kinkakuji) and the Silver Pavillion (Ginkakuji). Later you'll know why the word PLANNED is capitalized.

Before that...



...we haven't visited the nearest shrine to our guest house! This is the Higashi-Honganji Temple.



As you can see, it's between our guest house and the kyoto tower. Everyday we walk past it, and today's the first time we're visiting it!



Looks like we're not the only ones who decided to pay a visit.



A big part of the temple is actually being restored under that big grey factory-like building.

We had to take a bus to our first stop, Arashiyama.



Oh my god, look at the line!