A beautiful prayer for Japan by Paulo Coelho

We pray for Japan

Its so sad to see one of my favorite countries look so devastated on the video clips online and on the news. :(
no words can express those terrible pictures of the tsunami destroyed land. Sigh!
Say this prayer today for all in Japan!

Sakura season in Tokyo!

Back from our Tokyo trip and boy do i miss Japan already!
The sakuras were lovely... and best of all, they were pink! My favorite color! :P
Here are some lovely pictures from my trip!









And a special part of the trip was that I got to meet Bella!! :)
(Oh Bella... only shortly after we parted ways, I realized I forgot to get a picture with you!) :S

Day 1- Ginza & Shibuya

Now that we are back from our honeymoon, its a bit hard adjusting back to reality.
Haiz, how I wish I can still be on holiday! :S Think I miss Kyoto most! (and maybe Hong Kong too, the shopping bits)

But i shall relish all those fond memories by looking at the daily collection of pictures we have and giving detailed accounts of our days there, maybe it'll offer those going there a tip or two! :)

We covered Tokyo, Nikko, Hakone, Kyoto & Hong Kong on our trip. (Which meant lotsa trips to and fro on shinkansens and planes.)

DAY 1- Tokyo (Ginza & Shibuya)

Day 1 in Tokyo was a wet one for us. Wet was one thing, cold was another! The rain drops here are icy compared to those that fell in Singapore, Bbbrrrrr...
We spent most of the day hiding in the malls and shops in Ginza. Stepping out on to the streets meant coming face to face with the cold blast of rain and wind. I think days are short here nearing winter, with the sun setting at about 4.30pm.


LION at Ginza, Tokyo's oldest beer hall. We chanced upon this outlet in one of the many underground malls in Ginza. That's where we had our first meal in Tokyo. A nice cozy restaurant serving from yakitori to spaghetti. And the best crab cream croquettes D said he has ever had. *slurp* =P~ (seen below hiding behind the breaded prawn) Appetizing plastic food display outside the outlet.

After filling our tummies, it was time to do some shopping! Yes, even in rainy conditions, the shopping has to go on! This nice spanking building caught our eyes from across the street (even in the rain) and D just had to go in to have a look at the Apples in Tokyo!

And next stop was Itoya, some way down the street. With a large paper clip beckoning this is a must go if you love and I mean LOVE stationary, like me! 8 or maybe 9 stories of stationary heaven! From pens, organisers, paints, character stationary and calanders, they got them all under 1 roof!

All well over dosed on stationary, next stop was Hakuhinkan Toy Park. Now this one is Character Heaven. Home of all characters and toys you can think of, all 8 floors of it. Breathe hard and resist the urge to cart everything off the shelves! :P
With a bit more stash, we stepped out onto wet and windy Tokyo,
hmmm, time to start looking for dinner.

We stop by at an eatery located on the 2nd floor of a mall near Toy Park, attracted by its plastic food display. Hah.. we're such suckers for these plastic food displays! :P But there's nothing better on a cold evening then Oden and Yakitori!
Yummy! :)

Oh and I forgot to mention one thing. The Japanese, always taking pride in their packaging and presentation, would never let their paper carriers bearing their brands get all crummy in wet weather. So they have devised 'rain-bags' for their carriers! Wow! nothing like a 'raincoat' to keep my buys nice n dry! And I can get to keep the carrier bag too! Double wow! hahahha....

It was still raining after dinner but we ended the day dropping by Shibuya.

I wanted to visit Loft which had a branch there. 7 floors of anything and everything. From toiletries, cosmetics, stationary, (yes, more of it) home ware and furniture!
With enough excitement for the day, we headed back to our hotel tired and frazzled by the wet weather and hoped that tomorrow would be sunny.

Tired but happy me holding on to the day's shopping and our trusty Tokyo City Atlas, which guided us around confusing Tokyo. I'd recommend this to anyone going there!

Some tempting yummies in the vending machine at the subway station! :P~

Day 5

Today we decided to take a break from the city and also with the good weather, we headed up to Nikko to catch a glimpse of the pretty autumn leaves and waterfalls.
And boy was it a good choice! :)
I never though I would see those pictures that I've seen on calenders for real!
But it was rather cold up there on the hills though... 'smoke' was coming out when we spoke! hehhehe.... lucky we brought heat packs!
Here are some pretty pictures of Nikko.

Here's a picture of the Kegon Falls, one of Japan's 3 most famous falls.

We managed to see the autumn leaves here!

Ryuzu Waterfalls, another one that we went to see. So cold here! >.<

Some loot from the hills... heheheh :P

Day 4

We went to Roppongi Hills yesterday and got to visit the Mori Art Museum and also the Tokyo City view. The night view was fabulous...!!

Tokyo Tower in the evening

This road leads into Shibuya. Its the busiest and brightest road visible from the tower.
And of coz... Not forgetting day 4's loot! heehehehe! :P

Shopping Day 1 n 2

Here's a look at our shopping for the last two days. :P
Day 2 less, coz its our excursion day. Went to a park and a viewing tower. :)

Flight to Tokyo

Our flight to Tokyo seemed like a real long one.
As we were on a Cathay Pacific flight, we had a transit flight at Hong Kong then on to Tokyo.
But when our plane got to Hong kong, it was like a car in a full shopping centre car park, going round and round. I was even wondering if there was no available gates or what.:(
As a result, we reached our boarding gate to Tokyo just in time. Its was last call already, so= no time to go toilet 1st! :( boohoo...
So we got on the plane and were got seated. I was by the window seat as usual :)
but that also meant a hard time getting out. :S
The flight to Tokyo had lots of turbulence. So the seat belt sign was on most of the time, which meant we had to stay in our seats. And in the meantime, my bladder was filling up :( It was a 3 1/2 hour flight and for the last hour, it seemed like an eternity!! I tried getting up to go to the loo but was told to go back to my seat. :S boohoo*
But the thought of getting to Tokyo kept me excited and happy... hahhahha...
This is a bit blur coz I used my HP. I'll post a better one when I get back!:P

It was great when we finally reached! I was happy for both being in Tokyo and getting to a loo! :P
It was great having my sister as a guide too. Imagine... a singaporean tour guide, giving us directions while she's in Melbourne?!? Hahhahaa... pretty accurate directions even! And with that we managed to get to our hotel! (the good thing we picked the same hotel as her when she came here the last time..hehhe)
Okies, so its off to explore now, in cold, rainy Tokyo. I'll post more pictures when we get back. Hopefully we would have did some shopping, or at least bought 1 thing...hhaha!(coz the shops were closed by the tme we got here last night):P