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Japan!
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Finally. My long overdue post on my Japan trip.
Day 1- 18th November: Arrival
- Tokyo is overwhelming. Really bright and loud and just... haha. overwhelming.
- my plane trip: watched Stardust but fell asleep half way. I only remember the guy being kinda hot. Magic, fantasy and romance.
- checked into hotel: the room is freaking small. Urg. and having to share it with 2 people who want to kill each other isn't all that fun.
- The toilet: Hahaha. I shrieked when I tried the 'wash' and 'bidet' buttons. You see, my brother had turned the water pressure to the max and when I pressed them, a strong jet of water had shot into my... uhm, you know.
It was interesting.
- train ride from Shinjuku to Harajuku (yep. Before we actually got our asses onto the train, had a boringly long lecture about how I was gonna get lost) (AND guess what? I didn't. For the whole trip ok.) (Ok, so maybe sometimes I had to ask for directions).
- So anyway, Harajuku: GAH. It's one thing I miss so dearly about Japan. Cosplayers so freaked my parents out. Thought it wasn't the best time to say I wanted a dress like that. I want to go there again and shop till I drop! Oh. and the crepes are great.
- note to self: never let parents pick eating place. My first dinner in the Land of the Rising Sun was: Koreanish. I think. Ah whatever. Not a pleasent meal.

Day 2- 19th November: Tokyo Disneyland
-Disney Day!
- BLOODY crowded: like seriously. I didn't do any walking the whole day. Because I was simply pushed along in the flow of people. Hardly space to breathe. So not highly enjoyable. We spent a lot of time trying to avoid the crowds... which were everywhere.
With all the waiting times amounting to like 3 hours for one ride, I actually only sat Space Mountain (I got my usual sweaty palms and freakouts during the 20 min queue (we got the fast pass) but it turned out pretty fun). The rest, my siblings and I wisely abandoned in the name of souvenior shopping. We were jostled along from Adventureland to the Castle to the Grand Enporium and the Pirates (!!! I love pirates!) shop where we blew much cash on needless little things. But I have to say, Disney merchandise kicks Universal's ass.
And lunch was pizza. (yes, more than 24 hours in Japan. And not a morsel of real Japanese food in me).
Best buy of the day: Turkey drumsticks.
(Like really. come to think of it, what were we doing in Disney!? Conversations went like this:
Me: Ok. Let's see what time the parade is.
Bro and sis: Oh it's at 3.55... and fireworks are at 8
Me: great.
bro and sis: So there'll be shorter queues for food and gifts around that time.
Me: yep. Great.
Like we totally missed the parade! and the fireworks! because we were shopping and eating.)
- Did I mention Disney day was a freakishly cold day? It was reported on the news. Extremely low temperatures for autumn. Brrr. I was super duper cold; which added to my desire to duck into shops becuase those are warmed places.
- After it all: managed to escape from Disney before the mob and meant parents for dinner. Had Udon. Yay. Jap food.

Day 3- 20th November: Hakone
- Sightseeing in Hakone: Very scenic. I remember being 1) miserably cold and 2) just miserable that day because I had a like 5 hour lecture on how I should have just brought my gloves to Japan instead of freezing my ass off now.
- Black eggs: we climbed to this on the mountain place and ate black eggs, hardboiled in the natural hotsprings that contained sulphur (which explains the colour). Supposedly, you lengthen your life by 7 years with one egg.
But it's one of those claims you can't ever prove right? I mean, you didn't know how long you were gonna live in the first place...
Transport types taken that day:
- train
-bus
-cable car
-tram
-cruise
Worst dinner of the trip: Shabu shabu at some random Korean restuarant. WAY too expensive and so not worth it.
Back at the hotel: we got fucking scolded because apparently we were gonna get lost tomorrow if they let us go shopping on our own.
The last line in my diary that night: So far, so good.

Day 4- 21st November: Shopping for expensive things
Out on our own at last. We went to:
- Time square, near Shinjuku: my sis bought stuff from HMV. Tokyu Hands should be a stop for every shopaholic.
- Harajuku: Yay. Hahaha. I love this place. Like seriously.
- Ebisu: To see the stone where Jun shot Hanadan. Short period of silly photography.
It's a very pretty place. If I ever have a fling in Tokyo, I'd go there for a date.
- Kakurazaka: It's kinda of a poorer, more backward, smalltown part of Tokyo. No time to get lost... Had cappucino at Canal Cafe and watched the purple sunset. (Practically all the sunsets I watched in Japan were purple and pink and orange. Gah. Singapore has ugly sunsets.)
Overall, much spent and much enjoyed. Ah, freedom.

Day 5- 22nd November: Hello Ryokan.
- Moved to our next hotel which was Ryokan style (meaning we slept on Tatami mats with the matresses and all that. But it's really more comfortable than it sounds because the mattress was quite thick. and the quilts even thicker.)
- Tokyo Dome: Really big stadium thingie. Siblings sat on the Thunder Dolphin (It's a really scary rollercoaster).
- my brother's PSLE results came: 3As, 1B. He was fantastically estatic as were my proud parents. (I mean, really. Me and my sis got like... urg.)
- Shibuya: to see the famous 5 way crossing. more photos and moving on.
- Odaiba: I swear I will return to Odaiba if I go to Tokyo again. Venus City is made for women only! shopping would have been fantastic if I had time... sigh. I guess you can't always get what you want.
- Dinner was great Italian food.
- Sing with me: Bare Naked, and I just can't take it. hahah. Onsen! LIKE OMG. really. I've never actually been in one before and the hotel had one... So we toodled down in those oversized robe things... and uhm... sort of found out we were supposed to be completely nude in the damn tub.
There followed 20 minutes of giggling fits from the 3 of us.
A bit of a traumatic experience for me. Spent first 15 minutes with my legs curled up and my arms around my chest.
Water was hotttt... gah. But this nice lady eventually came and told us how we should behave. By the second night we were pretty much comfortable with walking around nude and bathing with other nude women.
scary.

Day 6- 23rd November: Down by the river
- Yokohama: is a port city. Means its freaking cold there. I only remember seeing the sea, and the gulls and the freezing wind. Yep.
- Roponggi: High end shopping district. Had sushi for dinner there.
- wandered off to Ebisu garden Place again... It's even prettier in the night.
- Doughnut Place: Sat, drank coffee and ate a yummy doughnut, talked rubbish as all the shops were closing around us...

Day 7- 24th November
- Bullet train to Osaka!: I napped all the way. Holidays are tiring with parents...
- checked into our hotel: which was really nice, except for the completely horrible air conditioning which made us always feel like roasted buns in the morning.
- My brother found the button to warm the toilet seats. I am all in favour of that coming to Singapore.
- slacked till dinner.

Day 8- 25th November: Old town, new memories.
- Kyoto: It's one of those places I've always wanted to go to. Sort of an olden Tokyo. It's known as the spiritual capital of Japan and I know why. The entire area is littered with shrines and temples and everything in between I'm guessing. (The difference between shrines and temples: Shrines commemorate someone noble or great. Temples don't.)
Kyoto, being an old town, required much walking. which I enjoyed... It's always better to explore a town on foot. The problem though is... no street signs and all that.
Much crowd that day... because it was the 753 festival or something like that. Kids who are 7, 5 and 3 go to temples and shrines all decked out in their very cute kimonos to ask for blessings. (I swear Jap kids are born cute. Singaporean kids have to work so hard)
- walking tired out the older generation and hence they didn't enjoy the day as much. Oh well.

Day 9- 26th November: Universal Studios Japan
yay!
- less crowded than Disney so we actually covered most of the major rides in the place. This place is good for people like me. Rational people who don't voluntarily put their lives in danger by strapping themselves into a highspeed turbulent rollercoaster that goes through a near vertical drop. Almost all rides were stimulated and so on... So I basically could handle it. Jurassic wasn't though. But I managed the 25.9m plunge by looking totally unglam and my ride picture came out with me eyes shut and trying to show everyone all my teeth.
- shopping here was not fantastic... just not very nice stuff. They should take a leaf from Disney.
- Lunch was Omurice! which rocked if I may say so.

Day 10- 27th November: Shopping!
- Shop shop shop.
- That's basically the whole day.
- Japanese Mochicream: damn nice.
- we stopped for coffee and Japanese sweets once in the afternoon... haha. refuel for the road and it was back to splurging.

Day 11- 28th November: Sayonara
- Brunch as the hotel: fantastic spread. I ate everything! Gosh. I'm like super duper fat now. and guess what in like less than 24 hours, I have 10km to run. Good luck me.

Sigh.
Like I said, I have the 10km to think about.
Once that's over, I'm throwing myself into work.

"Are your parents terrorists?"
"'Cause you're the bomb".

Are you kidding me?






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