Tokyo!! - Tsukiji Market

Finally we are in Tokyo! After so long it seems, I know. Heheh. Our hotel was at Asakusa btw. The subway close to our hotel is called Tawaramachi (if I'm not mistaken). Its really close to Tokyo Sky Tree. But err we didn't go. We didn't have time (lazy), but its true. There are so many other things to do and eat. Our itinerary is full already.

P/S: blue font was written on the day itself that night when I went back to the hotel.

This morning we woke up early about 7 am and finally went out at about 845 to Tsukiji market for some fresh sashimi. 

We have heard a lot about Tsukiji market from many tourists all over the world raving about it on Trip Advisor, Japan Guide etc. Supposedly one of the biggest fish market with live auctions. Can see humongous tuna fish and whatever. But we didn't go for that.

We just wanted to eat some really fresh sushi while we're there. :)

We heard the queues at sushi dai went for about 3 hours..well they were not wrong, crazy no point wasting time. We chose a sushi shop at the outer market with no queue at all. Locals inside so what the heck. With no queues, we feel less pressured to eat faster, but with more locals, we feel more embarrassed (a little but didn't stop me) from taking lots of photos. Heheh.

Just to show you what the prices are like. Not cheap! Y3,500 = RM104. That is for one person. 

These souvenirs are cheaper here than at Sensoji Temple area (Asakusa) though. I wanted to buy those slippers (?) for Kev, but I thought I should check out the prices at other places instead. It was cheapest here actually. Also tourist area and should be jacked up prices but oh well.

I didn't buy for him in the end.. I knew he would like it though. Next trip. :) I even went home and told him this. Hahah.

We bought one of this egg thingy to try out. Mehh. If I remember correctly, it has some prawn taste though it looks like egg only. They all look the same so we simply pointed at one to try. Heh.

We did still choose a less popular stall to have some sushi breakfast. It still costs about Y2,000 - Y3,000. One set each. Don't remember how much already.

This was not everything. I wanted to wait till the chef plated everything nicely so I could take photo but he kept gesturing for us to start eating. Oh okay.

Actually he kept on adding stuff (not much) while we ate. That's why he was gesturing at us to start eating first so he would have more space to place the food.

The food was good but not outstanding. Fresh sushi from the market. Thick slabs of fish, yum. The miso soup was good too. They don't provide any spoon though; just slurp it up. Btw the locals seem to eat sashimi with their bare hands. I didn't though..used a chopstick and spilled some rice. Red faced and hurriedly scooped it up and into my mouth anyway. Wouldn't want to be bad manners. Heheh.

 But I think the sushi we had at other shops while at other places were much cheaper and more worth it. This was just..for the experience. 

Photos a bit repetitive cos the chef was adding stuff to our plate and we are eating so slowly. Taking photos of everything and savouring each bite. Heh.

Damn looking at this is making my mouth water!

That guy behind me lihai. Early morning drinking beer with sushi. Actually I was quite surprised. It seems a lot of men are drinking beer at any time of the day! On the train, breakfast (!), during lunch, during dinner, etc. Just surprised. Not like Kuching. We only drink at pubs and wedding dinners (cos its free). Hahahhaha.

Don't have a proper photo of the soup but it was really good! There were a lot of clams inside. Delicious!

We are not very ambitious though. We draw the line at fish testicle sushi. Haha never heard of it? Its available! Google it. I googled already. Click. Is it eww or is it eww? 

I mean I saw Cheesie's post on squid eyes (that I still can try), but fish testicles? They look like brains. And yes, I'm drawing the line at brains too. 

This is what it looks like. Photo from Foxe's Foods.

Some temple we saw on the way to the station.

After that we went to Shinjuku. I wanted to check out Shinjuku gyoen for late blooming cherry blossoms (sakura's). Lucky for us, we managed to take quite a few photos! Happy me. I liked that feeling..walking about in the park. Everyone was happy and had a camera in their hands. Lots of uncle and aunties (more like grandma/grandpa) held DSLRs, with many lens. Wtf. We felt so..erm..old-not up to technology standard whatever.. But yeah. You know what I mean.

It was not so cold today. Very windy but still ok. I stopped at Forever 21 for some shopping on the way back to the JR station. Oh yeah. Got something to tell. On the way to find Shinjuku gyoen at Takashimaya, we asked this girl: where is Shinjuku park? I know it is Gyoen but I didn't know how to pronounce it. So she asked Shinjuku park hotel? I said no..park. She asked gyoen? We both went: yaaaa.

She immediately took out 2 maps and picked up the phone to call someone. She called someone to translate to English for us and held out the phone for me for the person to explain to me how to go to the park. Meanwhile she pointed out the places to Cs while I was on the phone. They go to such lengths to help us. This is just one example of one case. They are so helpful, and so polite all the time. It makes us feel strangely embarrassed. We are not used to this in Malaysia. That's why. I remember thinking why is she so nice to us?? 

We have much to learn.

Later we took the Yamanote line back to Ueno. Shopped at Ameyokocho. Supposed street for souvenirs. Especially kashi no kashi. They kid us not. We bought almost everything for our families, colleagues, friends, and ourselves. Happy with our shopping loot today.

We stopped at some place for snacks.

Came back to hotel to return all our stuff and rest for a while. Went out again at 7pm to Sensoji temple. It's really close to where we stayed. About less than 10 mins walk. It was really windy by then and I was afraid it would rain plus all the shops were closed. So I dragged him back closer to our hotel.

Went back to Freshness burger. Love it. We can honestly say that it is the best burger we have eaten ever. No doubt. Bun was soft, meat was grilled to perfection. Love it. They serve beer too.

Later, we went to family mart as usual for drinks and back to hotel to rest for the night.

****

I have photos for everything and place I mentioned above but I'm lazy to upload photos now. Line is sheet and I'm sleepy. Next time ok.

Err yeah bad photo but I was pointing at our hotel. The other hotel we booked in Tokyo. Cos we gungho have to try different hotels. Budget first then splurge more. Heheh. Sad to say the Shinjuku one looks more or less like the Asakusa one. Haha we paid for the location. :)

It was right outside the station. Very convenient location and walking distance to everything.

Takashimaya! How many times have I opened Google Map to stare at the place, and now I have been there! :D

Food court was awesome. Wish I could eat more. Those food..so tempting!

Ok yeah bad photo again. But I was busy drooling at the desserts, bento and etc. 

Can't even decide what drink to buy. Decisions decisions.

I thought the "flushing sounds" button was funny. Hahah. 

Sorry if this post is confusing. But I'm lazy to edit more. I'll update more next time. :)

Night.

Life these days

I just finished Mark of Athena. Noo..what am I going to do with my free time now? Haha. Dammit though. I wanna know what happens next! Grr. this is why I don't read books like these until I have ALL the books/collection/trilogy etc everything! 

Moving on. I was browsing Trip Advisor the other day and I came across this. This guy described my experience in Shibuya perfectly. I am fat, old and not not trendy! Hahaha. Touche.

He was describing a mall in Osaka: Hep 5. That was EXACTLY how I felt in Shibuya 109. Hard not to feel self conscious. Its a good thing the Japanese are so nice, humble and polite. 

No filter sunset shot from Damai Central. It was Cs' birthday yesterday. I spent the past week and weekend rushing around serving his Highness. Finally its over. Haha.

We have this thing going on between us. The days/weeks leading up to the other person's birthday, that person gets to be King/Queen. Everything that person wants, or says, or does is correct. The other person is basically the slave. So yeah. 

Thank the Gods its over. Hahah. :)

He got to choose what to eat, where to go, what movie to watch, and I have to clean the house, cook his meals and supper, and be his maid. Come August, he will be in deep trouble. I'm gonna milk it for all its worth. Heheh. I'm going to start from August 1. Announce that my birthday is starting! 

Tried out Cs' S4. This effect looks creepy. Hahah looking down from above. 

These 2 girls were quite good singers. They will be at Escobar every weekend and they sing both English and Chinse songs. I heard them sing Gangnam style as well ala Jayseelee.

This is their video:

I love them. They not only have awesome voices, they are super pretty and are twins!! Can this get any more unfair? Hahah. They have their own album also. Go Youtube them.

Had this for lunch one fine day. In fact I hardly go out for lunch anymore. 

Once in about 2 weeks, Cs might come look for me. If I ask him to. But now that we wake up together, shower together, have our morning coffee together, go home together, eat dinner together, shower together again, and go to sleep together, it doesn't makes much sense for him to still come look for me for lunch. We need space from each other. 

Hahha I had to write out all the "together" stuff to show how much time we spend together with each other.

This was his birthday dinner at Sakae Sushi. I miss you. 

Sudden random thought: would I hate sushi when I'm pregnant in the future? Hmm. Hope not. Wait. Would I be able to eat raw food? Damn. 

End of random thought.

This is another of my lunch: bruschetta. Its not as good as Bella Italia's. I should go back there and order it again to see what's different. Heheh. But this is only the second time I made it. I gotta search for more recipes online.

Escobar last week. I look too white. Its the photo app. Makes us look a bit weird actually. Mehh. But I love his camera. Look at the photo quality. So sharp! So defined! So unlike my Apple. 

Cherrie looking cheap, as usual. Fatty turned 3 last week. Nawww..can't believe the little princess has been in our lives for 3 years. I gotta do a photo log of her soon. Heheh. 

If you're wondering why these photos have a square envelope in them, its cos S4 has this function where you can take photos with both the front and back camera at the same time. Damn awesome as I have already shown like the one at the beach. Nice right?

One ladies night umm..last month? Or last two months ago? Again its over edited. Hahah me and my apps. Stupid woman.

This one is better. Not as freakishly white. Freakish white reminds me of Nico di Angelo. Son of Hades. Can't blame me. The other day at the mall, I saw a guy on crutches and wearing a cap, and the first thing (stupid) that popped into my mind was: Grover!! (Satyr).

Percy Jackson fans will understand me. I finished 8 book in a week. (Mark of Athena has about 580 pages btw) Minus working and sleeping hours. That's a whole lot of reading! :) I even brought the book into the kitchen while I cooked. I was obsessed. Borderline. Ok fine. Very obsessed.

Kevin's birthday is on May 9, and mother's day is on the second week of May, so they almost always share the same cake. Whichever comes first. 

This year, for Kevin's birthday he chose Carvery. Mehh. Its a meat buffet for carnivores. I'm not a fan of too much meat, so yeahh I'm not the right person to judge. Its good lah but not that outstanding. Service could use a huge improvement though. 

My mum is special. For her mother's day, she and her friends decided to celebrate together in the pub. Planet. Our second home. They each cooked something each and brought it to the pub and started drinking there till late. 

Since mum and her friends are there so often, the bosses and staff there know us so well. He (that guy is one of the boss) bought that cake for them, and a bouquet of flowers for them each. So thoughtful eh? :)

I joined them after dinner. I was with Cs' family at Chef at Home this year for their mother's day. Suffice to say, it was a busy night. :)

Winnie had the bright idea of requesting Mama by Spice Girls that night. We sang that song for mum that night. Afterwards, I felt like we should have sang that song a long time ago. We don't say I love you much to our parents. We weren't brought up that way despite how open you think our family is. 

 I think there are not many mothers and daughters who go out together so often, drinking and laughing and joking together. So we got quite a few cheers and claps that night. 

Moving on. Kitty and I when she was back for a week.

This was at Junk Bar. She was only back for a week so we barely got a chance to talk at all this time. Next time babe. We drink together again! :)

One night Winnie suggested we go to Platform. They have free Tequila shots for the first 20 girls who come in. So we kiasu of course. Winnie walked in the door and immediately went tequila?? Hahhah no lah! Kidding.

Don't know why that night we got quite a lot of free drinks though. Don't think I paid anything besides my first glass of beer. Always a good thing. :)

Crystal and I. I'm liking her more and more. Heheh. Platform I think. Don't really remember now.

The reason why I forgot is cos Winnie has the awesome camera phone so she is the one taking photos most of the time. So we others have to wait till she uploads the photos or sends to us (probably 2 months later). Yeah. iphone 4 camera sucks big time.

Winnie said Steph saw that at Grand Margherita during some bridal fair thingy. Last time I was on the ship, time passed by so fast and I don't remember the scenery. Nothing much eh but then again I was born and bred in Kuching. Maybe foreigners would like it?

I just regard the whole thing as an ego boost. That girl is still 3 kg away from me btw. Darn it.

OK bye.

P/S: Cs just came home and saw me on the laptop. He said: ehh? You finish your book already issit? 

Me: how you know?

Him: cos you haven't turned on the laptop since last week. 

OK bye.