walk with us on this special journey..

Day 9 – Tokyo  (Asakusa, Ginza, Odaiba)

It was a reaaallly busy day ahead as we had squeezed in too many things!!! The plan for the morning was to visit Asakusa, have lunch, visit Ginza in the afternoon and spend the rest of the day in Odaiba.

We needed to change trains at Ueno in order to go to Asakusa, and, we happened to see Hard Rock Ueno there! It was a pleasant surprise ‘coz we didn’t get to check out the Hard Rock Cafe at Roppongi. Hard Rock Cafe boutiques are one of our must-go shops while holidaying! =) She got a Hard Rock Hello kitty limited edition t-shirt and a lovely fridge magnet which we both like alot. As Ueno is not in our itinerary, we grabbed the chance to explore the shopping centre a little while more.

We reached Asakusa at noon time, the weather horrible and the heat unbearable. Jus a 10 min walk under the sun was killing us.

The touristy photo everybody will take in Asakusa.

The shopping street in Asakusa, nothing very interesting actually.

The weather was too hot and off we went looking for our lunch. We had planned to go to a famous tempura shop but we just cannot find it! The street nos are atrociously confusing! So we just stepped into this restaurant which did not look too bad. Dear had a good time conversing in Jap with the server. The food is nice – authentic jap tempura but it is abit regretful that we didn’t get to try the famous tempura.

Asakusa station.

Ginza is next. All the huge shopping arcades and luxury boutiques.

Coffee time in one of the shopping centre cafes. Blue mountain coffee for us.

Muji in Ginza, Dear is making a pair of specs which will take about an hour to complete. Huge Muji store and much more interesting than SG’s Muji

The shopping centre behind is one of the premium Jap shopping centres. Way too atas for us!

Us on train to Odaiba, just as the train is going to cross the Rainbow bridge. =) We should have allocated more time for Odaiba ‘coz there’s so much to see and play here! =S

Sega Joypolis – but Dear is not as keen as me. Since it is after 5pm, we got the evening free pass at a discounted rate. One thing i like about this is, we got a choice of just paying the entrance fees and you can always top up to the free pass after you go in. We checked out the rides and very quickly decided to top up to the evening free pass, haha! JoyPolis is a 3 storey indoor theme park by Sega where there are many simulation rides, carnival stalls and arcade.

This is fun, giving u a feel of skating. Our scores are bad rank 3rd in 4 lo.

Storm G -  This is fun esp the 360 double spin! We came in 2/4 for this! =P

Initial D – too bad we can only race with the comp.

Doll house. This is pretty scary. You will go through a short tunnel with someone narrating the story. We dun understand a single word as it is in Jap. But the feeling is pretty eerie..

The roller coaster ride which we took twice. There is a part where you will be outside the building and you can see the beautiful Rainbow bridge.

Rainbow Bridge.

Dinner was at Saizeriya (Sg also got!). Nice food at economical pricing.

We should have spent a whole day here – there’s so much that we didn’t get to see in Odaiba! We did however fully utilise the train pass and went to Palette Town and the Big Ferries wheel. But all shops are already closed. More on Odaiba night scene below. All in all, it was a lovely & fun place!

Day 8 – Tokyo

It seemed to be a reeaaally bad day for us ‘coz we missed our flight back to Tokyo!!! All becoz we were too lazy/ forgot to check the JR rail schedule from Lake Toya to Chitose Airport. By the time we reached the JR Toya station, we were told that the next train would only be coming at 10:05 am and that it would reach Chitose airport at 11:30. Our flight is at 11:30 too! Great. We did look for alternatives – the helpful station master tried to help us check with the taxi driver but even a 30,000+ yen ride does not guarantee that we would be in time for the plane. So, we decided to take the train and to see whether we can get onto the next flight. We reached the JAL counter at 1135, and explained to the sweet JAL lady that our train was delayed (which caused us to be late =P). I would say taking JAL is the right choice ’coz they put us on the next flight @ 1200 without any extra charges.

By the time we checked-in to our hotel in Ikebukuro, it was already the late afternoon. We took a short break and off we went to explore Tokyo city!!!

Ikebukuro – in the vicinity of the hotel

Us at Shinjuku

Yakitori alley. The weather is too hot for bbq so we continued to search for our late lunch.

Finally we decided on Jap curry fastfood.

Cheep & Good!

 Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office

View from South Tower.

Shinjuku @ evening time

Taking a break in a cafe in Shinjuku to people watch.

Us @ Roppongi

Nice Takoyaki. Same one as in Ion basement!!!

Tokyo tower from Roppongi

Our dinner for the day.

Buys for the day

Day 7 Hokkaido – Lake Toya

Leaving Sapporo today – we’re taking the 9am Donan bus to Lake Toya.

I guess we made the right choice in choosing the Donan Bus to Lake Toya, altho it took abit longer - the fare is 1/2 of that of JR Rail and the service was really good! The bus captain also dropped us right outside the Hotel although he was not obligated to. =D

The Donan Bus..

The bus ride also included a 15min break at this place. Nice cooling weather and yummy fried chicken.

After 2 hrs of bus ride, we finally reached Lake Toya. And this is our Onsen hotel in Lake Toya.

Hand Bath outside our hotel.

We reached Lake Toya at around 11am. As we couldn’t check in yet, we went on to explore the area ard the hotel. The weather is cooling but visibility is low as it is pretty foggy.

We also explored Lake Toya town and found this yummy Jap Soba restaraunt. Their Soba noodles is really delicious.

From Toya, we took the bus to Mt Showa. a young volcanic mountain.

 This is Mt Showa; you can see the fumes coming out.

From Mt Showa, we took the Usuzan Ropeway to Mt Usu.

The weather is bad on top of Mt Usu, very foggy and low visibility.

We were so disappointed that we couldn’t see the volcano crater! =(

After Mt Usu, we went to the Bear farm. The Bear farm is horrible – the living condition of the bears is really poor and the bears look malnourished. =(

After the bear farm visit, we gotta catch the last bus back to Lake Toya.

Back to the hotel room! It’s a Japanese style room with tatami. Great view from our room as we can see a panoramic view of Lake Toya.

View from our room.

 After settling down, we changed into yutaka and went for our onsen. First time to onsen and it is really nice and we both really enjoyed it.

After our relaxing onsen, it is dinner in the room. The dinner is super sumptuous.

After dinner, we went to the lakeside to view the summer fireworks. They have fireworks daily at 8pm during summer and the fireworks are fired from boats moving around the lake. It is pretty difficult to take photo esp with the tripod as the boats are moving and u have no idea where the next firework is firing from. A nice finale for us in Hokkaido.

Day 6 – Hokkaido – Sapporo

We covered quite a few places on this day, the first stop being Odori Park – Sapporo Tv Tower. Odori Park is within walking distance but since we had the 1 day metro pass we took the metro to Sapporo station. 

Preparations for the Summer Jazz Party @ Odori Park.

From Odori Park, we continued our morning walk to Nijo Market for our seafood breakfast.

Nijo market is not that big and abit touristy. You can find Snow Crab, King Crab, Hairy Crab, Scallop, Oyster and lotsa seafood here. Price was more ex as compared to Otaru.

Our breakfast at Nijo market. I had the Chirashizushi (Tuna, salmon, seaweed, shrimp, squid & crab – all raw) while hers is some teppan butter crab with scallop. We shared the salmon sashimi.

After breakfast, we headed to Shiroi Koibito Park by train via Miyanosawa station.

Posing with the big Shiroi Koibito choco drink, wif choco drink in hand =P

After Shiroi Koibito Park, we headed back to Sapporo for some shopping at Pole Town.

After that, a walk to the iconic (err but nothing special) Clock Tower.

Waiting for the bus to Sapporo Bier Garden. It wasn’t easy finding this bus stop, & I’m always stressing Pang by asking her what EVERY sign means!

Sapporo Bier Museum.

Founders of Sapporo beer

Tonite’s dinner is superb & smoky. Genghis Khan BBQ mutton (jingisukan) with free flow of beer.

Our buys for the day – not much la haha!

Saw Otaru on New City Beat yesterday! Otaru is  a beautiful small harbour town famous for its Music box museum, the Otaru canal and its fresh seafood. =)

Day 5 – Hokkaido – Otaru

We bought the Otaru-Sapporo welcome pass which includes a free day pass on JR rail to Otaru and a one day metro free pass for Sapporo. We took a quick breakfast at Sapporo before taking the train to Otaru.

We did not alight at Otaru station but one stop earlier at Minami Otaru (read that we could explore the less-touristy part of Otaru this way).

 From Minami Otaru, it is a 15 min walk to Otaru museum.

Our first stop is Otaru music box museum. Inside the museum you can find so many different types of music boxes. Didn’t know that there can be so many types! =)

After the museum, we headed to Otaru Musicbox and Handicrafts Studio to make our own music box.
We choose the music - my neighbour Totoro. As for the music box deco, we choose the hamsters figurine as they look like Pupu & Dingding. She also decided to get the sakura tree deco to signify that the music box is from japan. We also chose a nice brick base for the music box. =) Putting the music box together is pretty easy, just use the AB glue provided by them.

The final product. Make a guess which is Pupu and Dingding.

Gotta wait 1 hour for the music box glue to dry. So we started exploring the beautiful town of Otaru. There are many beautiful buildings in Otaru. 

My favourite Ice cream in Hokkaido – Melon ice cream.

The seafood in Otaru is really fresh! The scallops and oysters are big and juicy. Absolutely yummy.

 The scallops are really big,  juicy and fresh.

The friendly stall owner. Me bbqing my own oyster.
 

The oyster is sooooooo big.

 Us continuing to explore Otaru town.

We had our late lunch in a small Japanese restaraunt. I had the saba set, while she had the tori karaage set. We also ordered salmon sashimi which was really.. delicious! Both of us enjoyed the lunch alot.

After our yummy lunch, we headed towards the Otaru Canal.

Glass Blowing Factory.

Yummy Bokudan Yaki

Taking a break at the Otaru beer kiosk. Got to sample the 3 different types of beer before i decided on this.

Bikers at Otaru

Summer concert at Otaru Canal. Actually the Japanese were having summer concerts EVERYWEA!

The scenic Otaru Canal

We ventured abit further up from the Otaru canal to the harbour.

Almost all shops start closing around 6pm.

Taking a break at a nearby cafe while waiting for sunset.

Nite time @ Otaru Canal

Our dinner for the day. Ramen at Ramen Yokocho (again!). Mine is ChaShu Ramen and hers is Butter Corn Ramen.

Our buys of the day from Otaru.