Nikko

Ahmet, Kim and I took a 9-day road-trip together to explore the northern part of Japan.

First stop, Nikko (日光)

One of my labmates once said "はっきり見えず、もっと美しい". Things look prettier when you cant see it clearly. I think its quite true in this situation.

It was a misty and wet day... but the layer of mist added a mystical aura to the grand shrines and jungles in the area.

Went thru all the shrines just to see this:

The most famous architecture in Nikko: 3 monkeys. One covering its ears(no listening), one covering its mouth(no speaking), one covering its eyes(no seeing)

My homestay host: Uchida san, brought us around Nikko... :)

This pic is taken in front of the biggest river there...

For lunch, she brought us to this fancy restaurant, hidden within one of the landscape gardens

To eat this 5000yen steak set!!!

(wow.. so ex!!)

Dinner was a Yuba (Toufu) set meal

Video Arcade

Here are some more unique games found in some video arcade:
Apart from the normal (big-sized) console machines,




There are weird things like this fish tank foot-reflexology. You just soak your feet in a tub full of fish, and the fish will nibble on the sole of your feet, thus biting away the dead skin cells.


There are also quite a number of simulated sports games such as this golf game:Here is my lousy attempt at a softball game (P.S. this is the FIRST time i tried playing this)

Kabuki

Ahmet, Kim and I went to watch a Kabuki (歌舞伎) play at the National Theatre
Fun experience. Kabuki is a form of Japanese opera where men dress up as women in the play. (I have no idea why they do so, but the "female" character's voice sure sounded weird)

The theatre has a very high-tech stage

This is one of the "exciting" fighting scene... so dramatic...

The rest of the play was pretty much like the next video:

For those who know japanese: Do u understand a single word they are saying???

Its no wonder so many pple fell asleep in the theatre. haha.

Did u also realise how weird the female character(a guy) sound?

Odaiba

Odaiba (お台場)

Some famous landmarks:
Ferris Wheel:

Fuji TV Building:There's a viewing gallery at the top in which u need to pay money to enter. Here's a tip: you dont actually have to pay to go up. Just follow the other elevator to the second highest floor - where a chinese restaurant is - and u get an equally good view from there. Furthermore, its FREE!!

(FAKE) Statue of Liberty

History Garage where u get to see vintage cars


Toyota also has a showroom there. Here are some of the cool stuff found there:

A Toyota-made robot which plays a trumpet!!

Toyota's Auto-drive car. Just like a themepark ride, all you have to do is to sit inside and enjoy the view as the car drives around automatically.

This is one of Toyota's new Hybrid car - Crown. It sure looks cool....

Hanabi (Fireworks)

Hanabi festival (花火大会) falls in between late july and early august. There's practically a firework display every other day somewhere in Japan.
Its a tradition to wear bathrobes (Yukata 浴衣) and picnic when u watch the fireworks.
Here we are.. me and my labmates. Quite "kiasu", we reach the picnic spot 3 hours before the start of the fireworks just to secure a good seat.
Here are some unique ones. They come in various shapes - heart shape, ghost, jellyfish, cat face, flying saucer, butterfly, mushroom, spiral etc etc. Indeed impressive.

Heres a unique one.

Clubs, pubs, bars

Apart from the fact that they are ridiculously expensive, clubs in Tokyo are otherwise quite fun to visit and hang out at. In contrast, Izakaya (居酒屋) is a more common and affordable place to get together and hang out in Japan.
Shibuya, Roppongi, Takadanobaba, etc are places full of clubs. Been to a few of those, some of them have very unique interior design. (Yipes, i realised that i dont have any nice photos to post here, cos i seldom bring my camera to clubs. sob.. sob... what a waste..)
The crowd is usually international.
Some new friends I made in a club:
Thai, Jap, Indian, and Me

Nice exterior design:

This particular club even had a live percussion performance:

Monja

One of Tokyo's specialty - Monja. Its similar to the normal Okonomiyaki(お好み焼き), just stickier.
This particular street at Tsuki-Shima(月島) specializes in this food. The whole street is practically filled with Monja restaurants.
They even sell "Monja" t-shirts for 1000yen !!
The restaurant staff demonstrating how to cook a monja:After dinner, we went to the nearby Sumida River (隅田川) for a stroll. The building behind really resembles the Petronas Twin Towers in Kulau Lumpur - 2 tall buildings side-by-side, with a connecting bridge in the middle. hhaa.

Kappabashi (Ka-pa-ba-shi)

Hungry?
How would u like a salmon sushi and a tempura prawn for a snack??

Looks delicious?
Sad to say, this is not real. its PLASTIC food models. haha
too bad, cant eat these...
I bought these from Kappabashi St - an amazing street where they sell everything a restaurant will need.


Everything - plastic food displays, cash register, cultery, crockery, signboards, furniture, lights etc etc...
everything but REAL food.











See, even some buildings are designed to a restaurant theme:

Yokohama Bayside Marina

Bright sunny weekday afternoon... i had nothing to do, so I went to this "not-so well-known" place. Its actually a yatch marina off the edge of yokohama bay. Beside it are some shops selling clothes and many restaurants along the marina:
This place is a great place to have dinner along by the see and watch sunset !!!!
As it was a weekday, there was hardly anyone around
A small lighthouse nearby

Yoyogi Park

Probably the most happening place in Tokyo on sundays.
On weekends, there's usually some fair, exhibition, flea market being held here... and it will be crowded:

At the other end of the park, there are people having picnic or simply playing/dancing:

Check out this group of bikers dancing

Nearby, there are groups of people/bands putting up performances - hoping to be talent-spotted. Some of them are selling their self-made CDs, mini-concert tickets etc etc. Of course, there naturally will be some good ones and some not-so-good ones:
There are also weird street buskers:

Near to Harajuku exit, that is where all the cos-play people gather:

So many different kinds of costumes: Lolita/Aliens
Anime characters..
"Red-heads"
more comic characters??

Interesting???

haha, "this is why i wanna come to japan"