Monday, December 28, 2009
8:18 am
Woohoo...Hey peoples, I'm back in singapore! And japan was niiiice. Went to japan for the first time the past few days, from 23rd till this morning at 12.25am when the plane landed at terminal 1, but you should've known that now shouldn't you.
Day 1
Ok so, on the first day, after the plane landed, i was like...omg its japan o.o Cleared immigrations, met up with the tour group (yes i went on a tour), stayed at a hotel at narita (a.k.a. become field cause its 成田 in japanese). Temperature was about 8 degrees, wind made it colder though. Seriously not used to cold weather (not on the first day anyway) so was like shivering abit cause i didnt wanna wear the thicker jacket (just wore my sweater which was really thin i suppose) cause then it would be too warm. Yeah so, i was like...so thrilled that the walkways around japan looked exactly like those drawn in animes. Even took a picture of it. Really. So cool. Went to a shopping centre to get some snacks and have dinner (hehheh...sushi, very nice. Like 1x10^10000 times better than sakae, and just slightly more expensive). Kept looking at the jap guy's hairstyles cause all look like anime...defying gravity, but damn cool. Then i noticed that my hair started to stick to my head for some reason. There was this one piece "strong world" promotion going on, then alot of people queueing up for collectibles. Didnt bother to join though...probably wont know what the guy tells me. Yeah so thats about it for the first day.
Day 2
Ate breakfast at the hotel, orange eggs (very very orange yolk...interesting), rice (basically every meal of the day im eating the jap rice), sausages, miso soup (much less salty than whatever here = yummm), some fish...dunno what kind though, but its full of bones. Thats the buffet. Left for some sulphur cespool somewhere near mt fuji. All i can say is that...it stinks. Some guy on the tour got nauseous somewhere up the trip on the mountain cause of the smell...ewww. Well it was interesting to see H2S gas bubble from vents at the side of a dormant volcano, and piles of blackish solidified andesitic lava. They sold hot spring eggs there yeah, with black shells and stuff. Dunno if they stank as bad as the cespool though, didnt wanna get one. Tried the wasabi and egg flavoured ice creams though. Wasabi wasnt that strong...duh...the egg flavoured one tasted like egg tarts, both not bad, but i still dont like egg tarts. Oh yeah...maybe i shouldntve eaten ice cream though...now that i think about it, eating ice cream during winter with only one sweater at a temperature of 8+ degrees is sorta crazy now isnt it. Oh well.
Freshwater spring next, which was supposed to give you longevity if you drank the spring water. Hmm...nothing much done there. Looked at huge oversized koi, puffy ducks. There were lotsa people selling stuff like miso or sweet beans and stuff. I think my dad bought a packet.
Went to a factory outlet store after that for some shopping. Got me new shoes ahahaha (i got those tennis shoes samuel, cheaper too), got a jacket for my sis, took pictures pictures and more pictures of mt fuji. Oh...i bought something else also. Ah...where is it.
After that went to a really really really cool place. Its called, a hot spring resort. Which means...theres hot springs and yukatas, wheeee. Sat in the hot spring (which was...at an all high of 42 degrees...which is damn hot but you get used to it after awhile) for like...half an hour? Not an open air one though so no bamboo fence all around. After about 10mins my face was very red...too much blood circulation lol. Ate sashimi for dinner, alot of stuff that normally wouldnt eat in sashimi appeared ahaha. Ever ate raw lobster before? or...raw scallops or raw prawns? Tasted quite good actually. Probably will never get to eat this kinda thing until the next time i go to japan...sadded.
Day 3
Got up early to go to the hot springs one more time before leaving for mt fuji (or fuji-san as the japs call it). Didnt think there would be anyone in the hot springs at 5am in the morning...but well, i was wrong. In fact...there were more people than when i went the previous night...a grand total of 5 people. Heh. Anyway, went to mt fuji's 5th lookout (which juuuust opened right as we got there. Was closed earlier cause of weather i think...or something like that. Then closed again soon after we passed. Sooo lucky), a very very high place covered with snow. Tour guide said it was roughly -16 degrees i think. Man thats cold. Kinda glad i got to see some real, non-snowcity snow, finally...after 17 long years. Managed to make small balls of snow ahaha.
Went to a place called Asakusa after that for some temple sightseeing (no, didnt see any mikos. If you dont know whats that, nevermind), talked to this extremely hyper guy who was advertising rickshaw services to...tourists like me i guess. Funny guy. Anyway, asakusa was full of...shopping...again. Then went to eat dinner and went to another hotel somewhere.
Day 4
The most shopping-ful and anime-ful day. My sis went crazy. Went to harajuku for some clothes shopping for my sis. Went to macs for lunch, got a pokemon poster there =D yay pokemon. Saw lot of those ermm...visual kei clothing, which are...sorta like punk+gothic kinda stuff. Also alot of PINK stuff. Though like for girls only.
Went to Ginza, also shopping, but very expensive shopping. Went to this toy shop somewhere down the street. One of the floors sold all sortsa anime stuff, so got me 2 FFXIII cans, which are right now on my shelf together with the rest of my displays. Cant wait for it to come out. Bought onigiris at the nearby convenience store for a snack. I think i can survive on onigiris if i ever go to japan...cheap and quite nice.
Next was...Akihabara. Whooo manga heaven lol. One piece first book in japanese. Im very happy. Sis bought some KHR doujinshi *sigh*. Went to this place called the tokyo animation museum store or somewhere along those lines. More stuff that i wanted but...oh well, didnt get anything there in the end. There was a life sized pikachu and saber model there though. Never knew pikachu was that big...hmm. Found a hmv-like store around the corner. Glad i can read jap...cause all the titles were in jap (of course...), wouldnt have been able to find an ikimonogakari album if i didnt.
Day 5
Wouldnt say i did very much on this day. Just walked around, looked at stuff, tried a bottle of melon cream soda, went to the airport, took a 7hr flight back to singapore, got a nosebleed halfway through the night for some reason. Got a nosebleed when i woke up this morning for some reason. Yeah...nothing much.
Now...back to studying...man. Still havent finished holiday homework yet...hope i havent lagged too much behind the past 5 days.
back, and more tired than ever before...
brendon...
