Was out of town recently which caused the lack of updates. So to make it up, I am blogging at 2am on a Sunday :) The last of day 11 (5 more days to blog, finally!)
After our visit to Meiji Shrine, we dropped by Takeshita Street - the focal point of Harajuku's teenage culture. Leecher strategically visited this place on a Sunday in hope of spotting Nami-chan & Sakura-chan. Alas, I reckon that the weather was too cold for them to engage in cosplay, as we only spotted 1 guy donning a milk-maid's dress >.<
The street is so crowded that you literally had to squeeze your way in and go with the flow.
Daiso, the 100 Yen shop in Japan! 4 floors filled with lots of stuff, which I had a hard time suppressing my urge to shop :( Bought munchies & cute gift bags for Leecher's colleagues, not forgetting matching chopsticks for our new house.
The sky is dark at 5pm. The bad point of travelling during winter - you have to race against time for sightseeing. Shopping? Anytime!
Shopping @ Burberry's (Harajuku). This is a down scale version of the Ginza outlet & each outlet have their own limited edition bags/SLGs.
I've lost count of the no. of times that I walked into Agnes B and came out with a shopping bag. Bought the heart campaign bag for Miaoli & the SA was kind enough to bring out all the colours for me to pick and choose while I was talking to Miaoli over the phone. During the rainy season, shopping bags will come with a plastic rain-cover (as seen above), to ensure that your purchases remain dry.
A visit to Kiddy-land, one of Tokyo's most famous and popular toy stores. Located along Omotesando, the 6-storey high building is filled with all kinds of toys from electronic games to stuffed animals. Up close & personal with my fave: Winnie the pooh!
Shibuya 109 building (
Ichi-maru-kyū) is owned by Tokyu Group. The name of the building, 109, is taken from the Japanese characters to (meaning 10) and
kyu (9) as in
Tokyu. The mall is filled with trendy clothing boutiques and is extremely popular amongst the teenagers. Gyaru subculture originated from here as well. Shibuya 109 is pretty much like our own Far East Plaza.
Crossing the road in search for the famous meeting point ~
Statue of Hachiko, a dog who waited for his late master (Professor Ueno) at Shibuya Station every day from 1923 to 1935. His unwavering loyalty was penned down by Professor Ueno's former student & eventually, Hachiko became a national celebrity. Hachi: A Dog Story (starring Richard Gere) was based on the true story of Hachiko. The statue was built adjacent to the station & the surrounding Hachiko Square is now the popular meeting point in this area.
It wasn't easy navigating with 3 shopping bags + 2 maps....
While Leecher had it easy with .... no bags spotted.
Shabu Shabu at the famous ShabuZen, which was featured in Lost in Translation (where Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson eat lunch and complain about having to cook it themselves). It was very difficult finding this place. With only the address on hand, we combed the nearby shopping malls for a customer service counter to ask for directions. The gentleman @ the reception was extremely helpful! He took the restaurant name from us and looked it up in his bible of restaurant listing. He even went the extra mile of calling the restaurant for their exact location (significant landmarks etc), booked a table for us at the same time & wrote down the directions on a piece of paper for us. So touched by his sweet gesture. We walked for a long time before we approach another passer-by for directions. He walked with us to the restaurant, so kind! Felt so lucky to meet helpful people on trips :)
Condiments for Shabu Shabu. Usually, two dipping sauces are provided, which are traditionally a goma (sesame seed) sauce and a ponzu dipping sauce.
Spring onions & radish to add to the flavour :)
Hungry, but still have to wait for the soup to boil ~
Pure torture - looking at the meat yet you cant eat, arg! Evil Leecher purposely push the veggies to me, so that he can eat more beef.
See how he strategically place the tray of beef close to him?
Shabu shabu's name literally translates to "swish swish," the noise that the meat makes as it is swirled through hot broth with chopsticks. Being true Singaporeans, we went for the buffet menu, which means we can order as many trays of beef as we want! Wa ha ha ....
We were so excited at eating shabu shabu that we devoured the first 2 plates within minutes. When we got onto the 3rd tray - still manageable. 4th tray - 80% full. 5th tray - pure agony. We were so full that we didn't want to eat beef ever again, lol.
Just when we were about to call for the bill, the waitress came over with a tray of noodles & mochi. Imagine our shock when we realised that we still have to eat the noodles. According to the "customs" of Shabu Shabu, after finishing the meat, the broth is strained and poured into a cup with udon noodles and a piece of mochi and consumed as a refreshing finish to the meal. Refreshing? I beg to differ - it's certainly not refreshing when you have 2 adults who are about to "merlion".
A visit to the washroom: cotton buds, tooth picks & face blotter. Wow, so high class!
Got mouth wash somemore! No wonder the bill also v nice, officially the most expensive meal of the trip.
But first, bargain hunter blamer managed to source for discounts yet again. A visit to Odakyu Travel later... ...
Hakone Free Pass! Valid for two days actually, if you intend to stay overnight to watch the sunrise and sunset. However, Blamer and I calculated that if we were to ultilise all the available transport modes, it was still worth the ticket price even for a day's trip.
Grabbed a quick bite at ChezLa.
Will you just look at the crowd?? Amazing! I wonder if most of them were tourists like us?
From here on, we will embark on the classic round trip by train, cable car, ropeway, boat and bus.
First, train from Hakone-Yumuto to Gora. As what the sign was telling us, next destination Gora/Sounzan for the cable car.
Arrival of the train and people were already streaming into the carriages, while Blamer here still want to take pics.
We were segregated into different sections to board the train in an orderly manner.
Stunning mountain views along the way.
After around 45mins we arrived!
A little amazed at Japan's version of the cable car. It still travels on a cable, just that it seats more people. Our Sentosa version of cable car is equivalent to their ropeway.
We can see the volcanic smoke emitting out as we head higher up the mountains.
Ropeway on the left! That's where we will be heading next.
Arriving at Sounzan, we noticed the obvious dip in the temperature but the excitement of seeing one of the most famous landmark of Japan kept our spirits up! Ganbatte!
