Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Japan: The Northern Alps #6

21/6 Day 6: Karuizawa to Tokyo


The next morning was mostly wast... I mean spent at the Karuizawa Prince Shopping Arcade outlet mall. There wasn't many things that piqued my interest, other than a LEGO store and the adidas and Nike shops. I decided to chill out in a Starbucks while the parents did their shopping.

I was surprised when the Starbucks staff asked me after taking my order of macha latte:「どこからですか?日本人ですか?」(Where are you from? Are you Japanese?). Well of course I replied 「いいえ、シンガポール人です。」(No, I'm Singaporean).

The reply I got? "NOOOOO waaaaaaay!! Get out of here!"

She said it in jest of course. Turns out, the cashier was a Singaporean working in Japan! She said my pronunciation sounded Japanese, but I didn't look Japanese so she was curious. And another Japanese staff told me she lived in Singapore for a few years as well. Judging from their reactions, I guess Singaporeans don't really go to Karuizawa that often XD

We took a Shinkansen back to Tokyo and arrived shortly before dinner. After spending a week or so in the Japanese countryside, I was having trouble trying to navigate the hordes of people at the station and on the streets, especially during peak hour. It didn't help that our hotel was in Tokyo's notorious Kabuki-cho district in Shinjuku D:

Shinjuku by day...
Shinjuku by night
Kabuki-cho, bustling with people
 Dinner was a hearty seafood hotpot in a smoky restaurant filled with suited salarymen and their bosses, all chatting over beer and cigarettes. My mum was the only female in the restaurant, apart from the waitresses (who were all from China).
Seafood!
22/6 Day 7: Tsukiji, Ueno 


We headed to Tsukiji fish market for some early morning munchies and to search for fresh uni (sea urchin) to eat. Mainly my parents, because I don't eat uni (looks strange and creamy D:).

First stop was my favourite gyu-don stall that was facing the road. You order a bowl, sit down and just eat it in front of the stall :D And if there's no seats? Stand and eat of course! Much, much better than the crappy beef bowls you get in Singapore (especially the local Yoshinoya). Heck, the Yoshinoyas in Japan serve gyu-dons a billion times better than those you can find here.


Piping hot gyu-don!
The gyu-don stall
 Next stop - a simple bowl of shoyu ramen! Just a few stalls down the row you'll find a ramen stall that is perpetually flooded with customers and tourists - its that popular. Just a hearty, simple bowl of ramen that warms the stomach with its delicious soup stock.

Super thin pork slices!
In Tsukiji, you eat standing up 
 We walked around the market, looking for things to eat and buy. Plenty of fresh seafood stalls, sushi bars and dried goods stores. My dad finally managed to get his hands on a tray of fresh uni. Expensive stuff D: For a snack, I spotted a couple of tamagoyaki stalls selling freshly grilled tamago.

Tamagoyaki on a stick!
Many different favours of tamagoyaki
After breakfast, we headed down to Ueno to check out Ameyoko shopping street. Before that though, we wandered into Ueno park. Its amazing considering that I've never been to Ueno park before even though I've visited Tokyo a couple of times already.


A temple in the middle of a pond of water lilies
A duck and her ducklings :3
I really should come back during sakura season ><
We browsed around Ameyoko for awhile but couldn't find anything of interest to buy, other than a few packets of snacks to distribute to colleagues and friends, as well as a couple of bags of Japanese green tea. \

Ameyoko!
This reminds me of Times Square in NY somehow lol
That night, I met up with Jun and Linus to attend Mitsubachi Fest 2012, which I shall write about in a separate post :D

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