A Japanese Summer: Chapter One (ii)

A friendly warning before we proceed: Post is very very photo heavy not to mention I've even slot in a short video or two. Therefore, why don't we enjoy a good intro while we let everything load itself as we "scroll" along. Good?

A Japanese Summer: Prologue
A Japanese Summer: Chapter One (i)


Woke up around eight in the morning while we took turns using the toilet. Did I mention how tiny everything in Japan is? I love Japan. *hearts it lots and lots* But cost of living is just a killer. Tiny apartment, tiny toilets and I assure you what you have in mind of 'tiny" right now, shrink it another two times.

Yup.

TINY.

Okay, let's continue. So we pandai-pandai follow YY out, keeping note of all the details as we go. *cough cough* Watch and learn, my friend. GOTTA Watch and Learn. Because upon reaching Shinjuku Station aka the busiest train station in the world, we have to bid farewell to YY as she head off to work. In other words, we were on our own! *gan jiong 100%*

So we explore the station, find the right train line, get ourselves to the right track number and board the right train. Not bad! And we're on our way to the famous Harajuku.

Ah the famous Takeshita Street (竹下通り Takeshita-dōri) a must visit street for us young people. *nods* Read Wikipedia for more info. Hee... By the way, most keywords are linked to a wiki link, just in case you're wondering "where is Harajuku?", "how massive is Shinjuku Station?", etc. Just Clickie. So convenient, right? Because pass experience has taught me not everyone knows Japan as us Japan lovers do.

Hiyashi : Ah this is Harajuku! *points to photo*
X Person: Ah.. okay. *with a very clueless look on their faces*

-___-

HARAJUKU

Where fashion is a statement on its own.

Where you drool over fake food.

Where girls dye their hair blonds, dressed in eye-catching outfit and yet we don't call them "Ah Lian".

Then again, Ganguro Girls probably freak you out even more. If you don't know who they are, you really should click on the link and be amazed. Hey, learn something new today.

OUT OF THE WORLD.

Well said.

Did I mention how droolable fake food are in Japan? Oh yes. I did.

And you would have thought in a country where you can make payments with a mere scan of your mobile phone that old board-carrying advertising is well, the dinasour way of doing it.

Man was screaming "Cheap something something, shop is just behind the street. Come come." Or something like that. =P

Ah pretty Japanese girls willingly pose for us.

*niceness 100%*

Woohoo... lookie at all the people.
Sigh, I wish I am there right now again.

Where else you find a dental clinic next to a lingerie shop?

QUIRKY JAPAN
♥

And along a busy street of fashion and craziness lies a little alley, so hidden, so modest yet so intriguing.

A shrine pulak!

Tapi seorang pun takde kat situ.

It's a ritual to clean oneself before entering a temple in Japan. Four simple steps: Scoop, Wash, Wash and Wash.

Cleaning your body and mind at the Water Place before visiting a shrine.
1. Take a water scoop on right hand.
2. Scoop water and wash left hand.
3. Switch scoop on left hand, and wash right hand.
4. Switch scoop back on right hand and pour water on left hand, then wash your mouth.

DO NOT Wash your mouth directly from scoop.

Info taken from MustLoveJapan.

In which I broke BIG NO NO RULE. *dies* But I did not wash mouth directly from scoop. More like placing scoop near mouth for photo shooting purposes. For this, I will like to seek forgiveness for my ignorance of my manners. Hontoni Gomenasai! *bows*

And we hit the streets again.

Of the many shops we entered. This one allowed us to take pictures for obvious reasons. Famous people frequent the shop man! The owner spoke good English. Well, definitely with such a clientele. Though, he did say it was his first encounter with fellow Malaysians. *grins* I guess we should put our names up there, too.

"Vin & Cub: First Malaysian Visitors"

Why had no Malaysian gone down there? Ya. It was down a series of steps, pass a few shops before you'll find the shop. *sweats* That's probably why! HAHAHA... and why on earth were we down there? *shrugs* No reason. Saja "keh poh".

And our "keh-poh"ness led us to a place where Lost Prophets and American Idiots buy fashion. How cool is that?

It's Coolness 110%.

Snap a short of Harajuku Station before we bid farewell to Harajuku. I know that don't look very Japanese looking is it? But it's the famous Harajuku Station after all.

Off we go again!

Tokyo Day Out Next Stop is a place where even flyer distributors cosplay to attract attention.

QUIRKY JAPAN
♥

Yup. Akihabara. The Electronic/Otaku Heaven!

Buildings with anime and manga character billboards here, there and everywhere. But secretly both of us were nervous the whole time we were there because of the recent stabbing rampage happened few months back. Scared lah! Scared lah! We fast go, fast cabut.

But not before we drool over all the Japanese phone we dreadfully wished to own. And Cubbie even gasak the marketing pamphlets that has her idol on the cover. Heee...

Here's the biggy news! We DID bought ourselves a phone each. Unbelievable but true. I'll blog about it in a later post. You wait while I show you cool pictures of the phone later on. *snickers*

*******

We headed home after that. It rained though. So we ran towards the nearest eatery from the station. Yoshinoya. HAHAHA... yes we have Yoshinoya here in Malaysia.

Lookie what was at the background. Yup. That's the station.

It was still raining after we finished our meal. We waited and we dashed, from one shop to another along Prope Street. Finally we arrived at a departmental store and we bought cute umbrellas there. But of course, when we came out of the store the rain had stopped. *geramness 10%* So we head home with a new umbrella, a new phone and a whole lot of other goodies.

Next Chapter: HOKKAIDO! Hokkaido saikou!

A Japanese Summer: Chapter One (i)

Alright. Finally... *note to self: need to change a fresh new song to this page now* YES YES. The post has finally arrived. Before I begin, please allow me to grumble a little first. After all, a month's absence from blogging really itches my fingers to type type type and I can assure you I can probably go on rambling pointlessly and end the post with, well nothing. In fact, I haven't even got into what I wanted to grumble about YET!

WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD. FUN PART AT THE BOTTOM. SCROLL.

If you're not one to read, please skip the following paragraphs and scroll till you see "ramble ends here" sign because that's where the fun part starts. *waves to those who really plan to skip the following* See you again down there!

***** ramble begins here *****

To those who continue on with my ramblings, thank you you kind kind souls. The Ramble of The Day... *drums roll*

PHOTO EDITING

Probably one of the most tedious process make common after the invention of digital camera.

Yup, no longer are we constrained by the rolls of film we buy nor the amount of negatives we have to developed. Oh yes, even with the limited disk space inside your camera, you'll find a way to transfer them out to little pendrives using public computers oh so thoughtfully provided by almost every hotel in Japan. *nods* Thus, you return home with over 1,000 photos. GREAT!

Now, editing photos ain't that bad but there's the "edit to be developed" and "edit to be shared on the internet" kind of photos. And it's not just about resizing photos you "edit to be developed" into smaller files to be posted on the net because you tend to blog about photos you don't want to be developed. Am I confusing you?

You see, there's a set of what me and Cubbie call "the people picture" meaning photos with us in the picture where beautiful backgrounds show where we were in the shot. It's a kiasu thing that says "I've been there!" loud and clear. Those are the photos to be developed so grandpa and grandma can see them *obviously viewing my photos through the computer ain't an option in this case* and those are photos that mummy dearest can show to friends and relatives whenever they come visiting. My mama is proud of my little achievements in life. Or maybe I see them small, she sees them BIG. It's a mama thing I believe. Or maybe it's just my mama. As annoying as her slightly boastfulness might be, I secretly am proud of myself too, simply because she's proud of me. Awww....

Alright alright. Save all the emo talk another. See! Told you I can ramble long and wide if I want to.

***** ramble ends here *****

Here's where it begins. For those who came directly from the top. Hi there again! Shame on you. How can you read my blog without "reading" it. Tsk tsk tsk.

Saturday, 2 Aug 2008: And so we flew from Penang to Singapore and then we had a stop over at Bangkok before we finally head off to Japan. All that to save that extra money to spend later on during the trip. For a return air ticket priced at RM2610, Singapore Airlines Economy Class, I got no complains except the uncomfortable flight back home. *frowns at that thought*

Sunday, 3 Aug 2008: Yup, we arrived early in morning the next day. So early that YY overslept and was not there at the airport to pick us up. *panick panick 100%* Our first challenge in Japan. Two Malaysian gals hanging around the airport. Collected our rental phone and called, called and called. Uwaah!!!! To leave or not to leave the airport? How lah how lah? Tell me what will you have done in our place? We walk down to the train station collect our 14-Day Japan Rail Pass aka Our Super Pass which gave us unlimited access to all trains under the Japan Railways for the said 14 days. Cool right? Except the fact that we paid about RM1.4k for the pass! Hah! And I tell you that RM1,400 is still waaaaay cheaper than all the trains and shinkansen you'll be sitting throughout a 14-day trip in Japan. Worth every cent I tell you.

So we took a ride on the Narita Express down to Seibu Station and met up with YY there instead. Hah. Lucky us for our detailed planning. Always a Plan B in case A didn't happened. Sankyuu Cubbie for all that research *huggles*

Met YY, lots of huggles between Cubbie and YY, old school friends. So warm and fuzzy. You can tell how happy YY was to see a fellow Malaysian, a fellow old time friend and me, a new friend found. ^^

YY lives in Tokorozawa, Saitama. Downtown Tokyo where rent is cheaper and thus is a popular "bedroom community" where working Tokyo folks make this place their home, coming back to rest after a hard day at work. Prope Street is a colourful arcade street just outside the train station. YY's place is about 25 minutes walk from the station and thus throughout our 14 days in Japan, walking along Prope Street had became a norm for us. We go Prope Prope out as early as 5.30am in the morning when the shops are still closed and we came Prope Prope back through the rain as late as well, almost midnight.

Our First Meal in Japan. It's silly I tell you. Simply silly. Our first meal in Japan was... CHINESE! *smack herself on the head* What were we thinking? Well, actually I think we weren't, at least not with our brain, our growling stomach got the best of us. Notice how BIG the portion of everything is? Ya, food in Japan is dem expensive but it's also dem BIG. I almost never finish my bowl of rice, a big taboo back home. *sticks tongue out*

OMG. I just posted a very clear picture of myself. Rules have to be bent for dear Japan no? How can I go on "A Japanese Summer" without a single picture of me! That will never do.

The sunset view of the little alley heading to YY's place. Yup, that's a "longkang" lah I know but I must say it's the prettiest longkang view I've ever seen.

A series of event happened after that, one which involved missing a concert I so longed to attend which I rather not mention. Otherwise, it was a night with as much disappointments as there was anticipation for what was awaiting us the next 13 days in Japan.

Next: A Day Out in Tokyo