Flying Fishy

Day 2 is one of the rare occasions where we follow advice from a guide book. For myself, i would try as much as possible to avoid so called tourist traps and as much as possible experience a country as a local and not a tourist. But the highlights of these places simply are too good to miss.

Subway Station - A new home


This is how you order food

After oversleeping and missing the early Tuna auction at Tsukiji Fish market, we ventured into the arena of Scooter like vehicle zipping pass your side every second. Turns out they are all already on their way to delivering the sea products to the various stores. Seeing that we had already missed the great action, we wandered into the heart of the market and discovered a whole wet market which sells nothing but.... you guessed it right, sea food! Normally i wouldn't be so surprised by something i consume so very often but the myriad variety of seafood available there is really amazing. Seafood

Giant prawns
Tako!!
Strange Fish

Giant Clam
Friendly Store man whom we bought Japanese pancake from(the one that doraemon loves)



Being at a fish market, the only obvious thing to do is to have sushi for breakfast. We were directed to one that was deemed the "most popular" which had like a hundred people peering through the windows, and were told that it would take about 3 hours before we can even step into the place.

Yeah we may be Singaporeans but i personally did not like to queue for something for such a long time, so we ventured away searching for the restaurant with the most fisherman boots in it. We decided upon one that was tucked away at the corner of the area. Even the short queue took us 45mins to get in. Behind us was a German guy who did not speak any Japanese. So after a few small talks, we invited him to join us for sushi breakfast.
Bored while waiting
Prawn Head Miso Soup - It is superb! too bad there is only a head..

Sushi chef at work
Our sushi! We ate some before we took pictures. Too hungry!
German guy that joined us for breakfast

With our belly feeling more than satisfied, we headed to the Ginza area where big international brands were seen on both streets. We headed into a 9storey stationary shop called "Ito-ya" where the girls stock up on their kawaii tools.





Next stop, we headed to Akihabara where it is famous for the many electronic shops. We hooked up with a local university where they conduct free tours of the area. The guides which consist of the teachers and students were very friendly and the English that they spoke never failed to crack us up.

Our guides for the afternoon
How many traffic police can you spot?If only Singapore uniform looks like that
Anime!
More Anime!
This place is heaven


After purchasing anime goods, we boarded a train to a destination that i dont remember. During the journey, we spotted a large theme park from afar and immediately we hopped off and excitedly head towards it. We stopped for abit of snack along the way and when we reached, immediately joined the long queue for the roller coaster! I have never tried to ride a roller coaster in winter before and even though it wasn't snowing, its still freaking cold. But trust me, the experience was FANTASTIC! In the end we found out that the place is actually called Tokyo Dome which is a stadium where they hold baseball games. And beside it they built a shopping mall and a theme park.
Roadside Japanese pancake seller - the warm snack taste extremely delicious in the cold weather
Roadside "Yong Tau Foo" Store



Now why didn't Singapore think of that?

Roller Coaster beside National Stadium would be a great idea.

Touch Down

After a less than fortunate morning, we managed to board the plane without any more hiccups. Breakfast on the plane was nothing fantastic, just your typical airline food. One thing good bout United Air is that we each had a individual screen so we can watch whatever we want instead of sticking to one movie. Other than that, there really isn't much to talk about the flight as its pretty normal.

Even though we were travelling in a pack of 4, we actually had our seats separated 3-1. So our dear Rac volunteered to sit alone. But apparently she wasn't exactly alone. Sitting just behind her was her colleague from school which coincidentally was a teacher i knew. She didn't teach me back then but we used to hung out quite abit. We went out for meals and movies a couple of times and it has been years since i last saw her. So it was definitely a pleasant surprise to see her in narita. I would have invited her to travel with us but she was on transit to US to meet her boyfriend.

As we plant our feet firmly on Nihon ground, we managed to find our way to the train station which will lead us to our hostel. Being sua ku singaporean, we were pretty excited when we saw the seats of train turn around as it prepares to travel the opposite direction. Along the way we caught a glimpse of the more rural areas of japan as our train meanders through towns to reach tokyo.

Great View along the way
By nightfall, we managed to find our way to our hostel in Asakusa. It was a simplistic and cosy place with a good roof top view. What i really didnt like is the lack of space in the room. There is so little space that it was impossible to open a luggage fully.


Night view from the rooftop of my hostel


Communal living room with free tv and internet

Very very cramp room little space for luggage

Seeing as there is only a few hours before the city went to bed, we dumped our luggage and immediately head out. Went to the Asakusa shrine which is considered the most famous site in that area with its giant lantern.
Giant lantern at Asakusa

Asakusa Shrine

Night view of Pagoda

Deity statue

Even though it was getting late, there were still quite alot of people who are heading to the shrine to pray. It goes to show that even japan which is flooded with modern trends and advanced technology is still very traditional at heart. This is probably the reason why japan intrigued me the most. Along the streets, its not common to see both elements of tradition and modern living by each other, sometimes even complimenting one another.

So with that ends our first day in japan. Its a short day but overall a good introduction of the country.

Brace yourself for something fishy in the 2nd day. Till next time!

New addition

Who is that?

I know i am supposed to continue my travel to japan since it happened literally eons ago. But this came in a few days ago and i had to showcase this. During my stay in kyoto, i managed to find a family that kindly agreed to put us up in their home to experience what a typical family is japan is like. So when we went, the daughter of the host was about 7months pregnant. She was a very nice lady even though she didn't speak much English. So what happen was she gave birth to adorable baby girl and i was sent pictures of the baby and the noble mother.

What goes up must come down Λ V

What not to do the night before.


Every time i travel with my mom, she always says the same thing. When the clock strikes 12, she would tap me on the shoulder and says : " Son, you have a flight to catch tomorrow morning, you better get some rest or you would feel like shit" Being the usual night owl, obviously i turned a deaf ear to her advice.

A short 2 hour wink after, the cab i flagged was on its to my travel companion's place. The driver rooted in his seat beside me was throwing occasional yawns and hard winking eyes onto the road ahead, somehow his lack of sleep caused me to instinctively tighten my seat belt further.

"Its just a short ride, it would be fine" i thought to myself with my eyelids half opened.

I was wrong.

After a series of unfortunate events, i injected into my head that i was getting a ride from my friend's dad and so the taxi was sent away, along with our only Lonely planet, rough itinerary and contact information and E tickets for our flight.

What make matters worse is the hotline for the taxi company would put anyone on hold for a good 20mins or so unless of course you are calling to book a cab. As the clock ticks away, we were getting closer and closer to missing our flight and cheerlessly we had to cease waiting.

Off we go, speeding away in the sparsely populated highway with the car that creaks precariously whenever the speedometer exceeds 90km/h. Fortunately we made it to the plane on the dot and in one piece.


The 3 musketeers


Nin(Left) - Knew through a volunteer programm. Previously did not know the other 2.

Sus - Shared the same primary school and JC and my travel partner to school.

Rach(Right) - Aka Sus's elder sis, teacher in the same primary school me and Sus used to attend.

In case you are wondering, the one on the extreme right isnt me.

Will Japan ever be the same?

How to pay for a week in Japan without the help of parents

The prelude


As many will know, every able bodied male singaporean after the age of 18 will have something to fear(or highly anticipate for the weird ones) - National Service. It occupies 2 precious years of adolescent male in hope of turning them into “Men”. Most of the lot will be “invited” to the army whereas the “lucky” ones will be posted into other units like the Police , Civil Defence or navy etc. Other than the fact that everybody will have to serve the nation for 2 years, one other aspect in common is the pay and rest assure that it is not something that many are excited to talk about.

So how did i managed to fulfil my trip to japan with no additional source of monetary rewards?To start it off, i am one of the “lucky” ones mentioned above. Yes i do get a bigger piece of bread at the end of the day which makes the eyes of others turn green but it does not come without a price. I have to take a higher level of risk than others to yield that pay but thankfully due to professional and wholesome training, the risk is taken to a minimum. Don’t get me wrong here, i am not advertising my vocation or gloating at others, i am here to blog about my trip.

So other than having a little money, what are the other prerequisite to travel without help from others?

This is by far the most important aspect of travelling and also the most tiring to fulfil - Research. If you cant augment the amount you have in your pocket, then the only other way is to spend less. Although the standard of living in Japan is compared to Europe very often, there are still cheap steals around that can be utilize while maintaining a high level of cultural and experience exchange.

Throughout the 7 days of my trip, i would share how i managed to keep my spending low while i try scripting the journey in a way that will provoke readers to want to know more.

Being an amateur writer, my aim is to write(or rather type) better with every post. Welcome to the world of Luffy, Naruto and Kurosaki Ichigo.

A New Beginning

The End of a Beginning or The Beginning of an End?
In the language of english, there is a “Full stop” to signify an end which other than the very last 1 leads to another beginning. In the language of chinese, there is a “ju hao” to close a sentense. In life there are many ends and beginnings as well anddeadend3.jpgdeadend3.jpg all these are signified by the very decisions we make.
The very action of starting a blog is in fact both a ending of a beginning and a beginning of an end together. It spells the end of my procrastination which began far too long ago and kickstarted my passion for writing and my daily intake of life(whichever ends first).
This blog is not meant for anybody in particular nor hidden from anyone the same. However if you somehow come across it, i would like to know who you are.