Japan Day 2

So, we had a good night's rest at Hotel Vista Kamata and prepared to check out at 10am for our 2nd day in Japan :D

For the next 2 nights, we will be staying at Flexstay Inn Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Tokyo. Liping had made bookings for this stay via the hotel website's prior to this trip. It was somehow cheaper on the hotel's website. We were not allowed to check in at the time we arrived, however, we were allowed to keep our luggages at the hotel's office while we went out and continue our mission for the day.

We had our breakfast at 7-11 before heading out to take the train to our next destination. i tried one of their onigiris (they have different flavours) and bought another thinking that i would need it afterwards. the coffee in 7-11 was nice too... we just need to purchase the cup, and go to the coffee machine to press some butttons, and tadaaa.. hot coffee is served! :)

Today's plan was 1st to head to Akihabara's Yodobashi Electronic's store to get a simcard for our mobile data. we'd decided to get this b-mobile visitor sim 1 GB plan, which cost us 3980 yen. More info here: http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/product.html our plan was to insert this sim card into one of our phones, and use it as a wifi hotspot, so we could share the data usage among each of us. At the end of the day, we're not sure how much of the 1 GB we'd used up, but the line was not bad and was able to connect and use at most of the places we went.

By the time we settled the simcard, it was over lunchtime, but we were not very hungry, so we stopped by the french bakery/cafe nextdoor for teatime. I just noticed that mocha was not so famous in Japan.. instead i saw alot of cafe-au-lait. i ordered 1 cafe-au-lait to try and it turned out to be something like latte. but they also have latte in their menu.. hmmm. nevermind, as long as it's coffee, im fine with it, haha :D

A picture with the buns we had that afternoon with our coffee, 2 melon buns (1 with cream, 1 no cream) and one cinnamon roll

Our next stop was to go to Sunshine city at Ikebukuro, to get our Disneyland ticket :) the line was long in Disney store.. we got our number and was told that we needed to wait for 1.5 hours for our turn. but there was this app where we can check whether our turn is coming up or not, once we got our number, so we can hang around the shopping mall while we wait for our turn. So, we stopped by Pokemon centre, which was also in the same mall :) lots of Pikachu, and other pokemons which i was not so familiar of. they were all so cute anyway :P

Picture at Pokemon Centre, Sunshine City, Ikebukuro

Our disney ticket for the day after tommorow 17 sept, we 'kiasu', so we bought tickets earlier

after we got our tickets, we went for dinner. My legs were not used to walking too much yet, and they were tired even before dinner. we had dinner at a restaurant in the mall, because we were hungry and we came across this menu and the price was affordable too. We didnt expect the portion to be so big, that i could not finish my meal..

I forgot the name of the restaurant, but this is 1 set-- mee and rice together, so filling 

After refuelling, we went out of the restaurant and we got a shock, when we found that most of the shops were already closed!! before we went for dinner, they were still open and there were many shoppers too.. this is quite unbelievable! and the time was only around 8.30pm. hmm...

anyway, we proceeded with our plan to Tokyo tower by taking a train from the nearest station --Higashi-Ikebukuro station.

We did not plan to go up Tokyo tower to see the view of Tokyo, so im not sure about the price. But it did look grand. 

The setting inside the tower

Outside the tower, there's this projection

The lighted walkway to Tokyo tower

The majestic Tokyo Tower at night 

Satisfied with our photos and video-short clip shooting, we departed and went back to the hotel at around 10.30pm.

Before reaching the hotel, we stopped by Family Mart to get a bit of something -- yogurt drink/ice cream/ chocolate/ junk food to munch or try out, if it's nice we can buy some back :) the thing is, they have so many types of convenience stores, 7-11 and Family Mart is just an example of it and the prices of the things they sell were quite reasonable too.. unlike the 7-11 here in Malaysia, where the things they sell are always more expensive :(

We went back to the hotel, settle the payments and checked in. When we wanted to get our bags, the hotel staffs told us that they already helped us placed our bags in the room. that was so nice of them!! :D

That's it for Day2 in Japan. 

For the First time in FOrever!!! - Japan Sept 2015 Day 1

Yeah, i know, i've been absent for so long, that i almost forgot my blog's address.

before leaving for Japan, me and my friends did many research on the internet, as we planned for a back-packing trip. So, we needed to settle accomodations and itinery all by ourselves. Scrolling through the internet has indeed helped us a lot in our planning, hence i was thinking, maybe i could do the same thing too, by sharing my experience here :)

It was few months before my final Pro exam when we'd planned for this trip. That time, AirAsia had one of it's Big Sale and my housemates, Jun and Liping, was eager to go somewhere and found that air tickets to Tokyo, Japan was cheap. I did not have much time to think about it because cheap tickets always run out fast.. and since it was also my dream to go Japan, i agreed to join them. So, airtickets to Japan were booked, even before our final exam, and we knew we had to pass our exam in order to make this trip to Japan.

Ok, our trip to Japan was from 14th Sept to 25th Sept, 12 days11 nights. LiPing was the master planner of our whole trip.. and she's quite good, although there's still space for improvement as it was her 1st time planning the itinery.

Our flight from KL, took us 7 hours to touch down at Haneda airport, Tokyo. By the time we arrived, it was 10.30pm in Japan. I had heard of Japanese walking very fast, and they always looked like they were rushing... this was the 1st thing i experienced once we came out from the gate. The arrival hall was bustling with people, brushing past us, and made us feel that we're in the way. I used to thought that i walked fast... but they're even faster in Japan.. haha :P

Immigration procedures took us about 1 hour. The line was quite long that night. or maybe that was the peak period in the airport.

We arrived in Japan!! -photo taken while waiting for the bus to JR Kamata station from Haneda Airport

We booked our stay at Hotel Vista Kamata for the night. I did the homework on how we're suppose to get to the hotel from the airport. Since it is still considered early (11.30pm) we managed to catch the bus heading towards JR Kamata station. It was stated from the West exit to the hotel was just a 5 minutes walk, so i was expecting to see the hotel once we reach the West exit. it turns out to be not the case. We managed to ask for directions from a guard on duty, and he directed us on how to get there. He was friendly and helpful, just as what we had expected based on opinions of those who had visited Japan before. Our 1st attempt of communicating in Japanese... haha >.< at least, it got us to where we wanted. Better check out Google Maps for directions before heading there :) my lesson learnt..

After juggling with our luggages for a 'short' distance (it did not feel like a 5 minutes walk for us, i would say 10 minutes instead), we finally reached the hotel. We were warmly greeted by the hotel staffs. Thanks to Agoda, where we prebooked and paid for our hotel, our check in procedures were simple, and we got our key to the room, along with 3 complimentary bottles of mineral water. :)

The room we got was a triple room, with 3 single beds, just like the pictures advertised in their page. and never had i seen so many toiletries in the bathroom. they provide toothbrush, toothpaste, razors, body scrub, shower cap...etc. if i'd known, i would just stay here for the rest of my days in Japan.. and leave my toothbrush and toothpaste at home.. haha The room was quite comfortable , the price was ok and i liked it. Too bad we're just staying for 1 night :(

Feeling hungry even though we had our meal on AirAsia's flight, we decided to go to McDonalds for dinner! McDonads Japan is so different from Malaysia, with an additional choice of burger on their menu -- BBQ pork burger, plus the sides in a set is not necessarily french fries and coke, we can choose either french fries, nuggets or another item which i forgotten (haha) while for drinks, there's a whole list of it too!!

AirAsia's Pak Naser Nasi Lemak -- Not Bad!! :) 

My BBQ pork burger set with fries and coke -- just the 'normal'set for me because i was too hungry to choose

Before retiring for the day, we checked out the nearest 7-11 store nearby. We used to hear alot about their 7-11 before coming here... where we can get breakfast, coffee etc.. and ya, they really have alot of things there, an eye-opener for me! i haven't been overseas ever since so long ago, other than singapore.. heehee

Liping and Jun bought yogurt drinks from 7-11 that night :)

That's it for Day1 in Japan, will come back to post on the rest of this trip soon ^^