Countdown...

Oh yay! It's already Thursday! Can't wait for Friday to come as I will be preparing to go to the airport tomorrow night. This will be the first time that 小花 and I go to Osaka and Kyoto by ourselves, so starting to feel excited as the day draws near. Hope we will enjoy ourselves :)

Tokyo Trip: Tsukiji Market and Ginza

We went to Tsukiji Market this morning. It was quite crowded, probably as it was a weekend. We walked around and ate some fresh oysters, tamago roll and grilled squid. Tulip and Ms S even bought vacuum-packed fish as it was very cheap as compared to that in Singapore.We also had our lunch of sashimi rice bowl before we left.

After that, we proceeded to Ginza. We spent some time at a rather large Sanrio store as there were many cute stuff on display, trying to lure us to purchase them. We then shopped around at the nearby Mitsukoshi department store before trying to look for the Almond Cafe that 小花 highly recommended. We walked towards the wrong direction at first but in the end still managed to locate the cafe.

We had actually only wanted to order cakes to share but we had to order drinks too as they come as a set. The cakes were very soft and nice and we chatted and relaxed while eating.

We then went back to Mitsukoshi to shop around its basement level. We ate a fresh scallop each (with the exception of Tulip who doesn't like raw food) and it was very sweet and nice. We also bought a cake roll to share after our dinner.

We decided to have dinner at Ootoya, which is near our hotel. The food was cheap and good and we were very satisfied with the meal.

Tokyo Trip: Nakano and Shinjuku

This morning, we had breakfast provided by the hotel before starting our trip to Nakano. We were supposed to go to Hakone today but all of us felt tired from the flight yesterday and did not want to wake up early this morning so we decided to swap today's itinerary with Sunday's.

We reached Nakano rather early and many shops had just started opening for business. We walked along the shopping street and went into a drug store. 小花 and Tulip were interested in nail polish, while Ms S bought 2 bottles of Kose cleansing oil as it was much cheaper than in Singapore. We then passed by Uniqlo and saw that they were having sale so we went in to have a look. I ended up buying 2 turtleneck long sleeve T-shirts and a pair of room pants. I also bought 3 pairs of socks for 1,000 yen at another shop for my mum and 2 sisters.

We were starting to feel hungry so we decided to go for lunch at a highly recommended shop selling cheap and good unagi rice bowl. We were not very sure of the location so we just walked till the end of the shopping street and just before Nakano Broadway, we saw the shop 宇奈とと in the street to our right. We quickly went in but as there were not enough seats, we were shown to the 2nd floor. The food was delicious but the only disappointment was that there were people smoking at some tables, so we quickly finished our meal and left as we could not stand the smoke, .

After lunch, we continued shopping at Nakano Broadway. There was another tidbits shop and we were pleasantly surprised to find the yuzu strips candy that was not available at the Ueno shop. We bought all of it as well as some other tidbits.We also went to the basement level and walked around a marketplace where locals shop for groceries.

After that, we decided to go to Shinjuku. We went to the nearby Sanrio Gift Gate but did not find anything to buy. We were feeling a bit tired so we stopped by Muji Cafe to have Yuzu tea for tea break. We then went to the Agnes B section at OIOI to look for bags. We were surprised that some bags that we had just bought during our October trip were already on 50% sale. 小花 bought a sling bag for herself and I bought a bag for my mum.

We then continued shopping around before proceeding to 博多天神 for dinner. This has been 小花 and my favourite ramen shop in Shinjuku and we always come here if we are in the area. The ramen was still of the same standard as before. Yummy! :)

We went back to our hotel to share the cakes that we had bought earlier. We decided to try a similar can of alcoholic sparkling lemon juice as the pear flavoured one that we had yesterday was nice. However, we still preferred the cakes and drink yesterday.

Tokyo Trip: Ueno

Our flight departed Changi Airport at about 6am and we landed at Narita Airport at about 2 pm. Managed to doze off during the flight but still felt rather tired as did not sleep very well.

After clearing customs and getting our luggage, we went to purchase the Suica & N'EX round trip package for 5,500 yen each. We travelled by reserved seats on Narita Express to Tokyo station before transferring to the Yamanote line to Otsuka station. We had made reservations at Toyoko-Inn, which is just 2 mins walk away from Otsuka station.We quickly checked-in and left our luggage in our rooms before proceeding to Ueno to start our tidbits shopping.

We made a stop at 神田達磨 first for a たい焼き each as we had enjoyed it previously. The red bean filling was not too sweet and the batter was not too thick. Yummy! :) Only disappointment was that the たい焼き became cold rather quickly due to the weather.

We then proceeded to the tidbits shop 二木の菓子. Although we have been there a few times, we still get lost occasionally as we couldn't really remember which turn to make. Luckily we managed to find our way there this time. We slowly selected the tidbits that we want until the shop announced that it was about to close for the day. We ended up with a few bags of tidbits each :P

There was a stall selling たこ焼き next to the tidbits shop and many people seemed to buy from it so we decided to try it as well. It was piping hot and delicious. Glad that we gave it a try :)

After that, we went back to Ueno station to look for 一蘭拉麵 for dinner. 小花 and I could only remember that it was near the station at 山下 exit so we just headed that direction to try our luck and managed to find it quite easily :) There was no queue so we quickly went in and ordered the ramen. It was delicious and I even finished the whole bowl of soup.

After dinner, we walked around the shops in the station. As it was Ms S's birthday today, we bought some cakes and a can of alcoholic sparkling pear juice before going back to our hotel. The cakes tasted very good. Think we were very satisfied with all of today's food :)

Excited

We will be flying to Japan at 6am tomorrow so was feeling excited throughout the day. 小花 and I finished our work and left office as early as possible. I had my dinner before doing some final packing for the trip.

As we will be meeting at the airport only at 4.15am, I shall take a nap now and wake up at about 1am to shower and get ready. Hope I can get some sleep so that I won't be tired during the trip :)

Count down

Today Ms S confirmed that she could join 小花, Tulip and I on our Tokyo trip in Jan. Now we just have to cross our fingers that the flight would not be full so that we can get the "free" tickets. We will have to start planning on the places we want to visit soon, since the trip is less than a month away.

Just thinking about the trip makes me feel excited :P Can start to count down liao...

Cheap air tickets!

Today I happened to see that Jetstar was having a "Take a friend for free" promotion so went to check it out. I tested a few dates in Apr for travel to Osaka and it seemed that there were still seats available so I quickly messaged 小花 about it. 小花 was also excited and after some checking, we just decided to go ahead and do the booking.

The total fare is $886 for 2 pax and I think it is quite cheap. Now we can start planning for both our Tokyo trip in Jan and this Osaka trip in Apr \^^/ Pleased that we have 2 trips to look forward to :D

New York

Today we will be having a city tour of New York. Firstly, we went to Battery Park, where we boarded a cruise ship to Liberty Island to view the Statue of Liberty. We had to go through a tight security check (similar to that in airports) before boarding the cruise. Our tour guide gave us some time to take photos of the Statue of Liberty and to have an early lunch at the food court.

After lunch, we took the cruise ship back to Battery Park. We then took a short walk to the nearby Wall Street/New York Stock Exchange/Empire State Building/Trinity Church. We were surprised to find that a portion of the road at Wall Street has been closed off and there were many police on standby. Our guide explained that there was probably a protest/demonstration nearby. True enough, we saw people holding posters and banners on another street while walking back to our coach. Luckily they seemed to have just started so we were able to make our way to our coach without problems.

The coach then drove us to Times Square, where we were given some time to walk around. This is the place where people gathered for New Year countdown. There were many large LCD screens showing various advertisements and I liked a particular one where it interacted with the crowd. After walking around for a while, we went back to the coach and headed to Fifth Ave. This was somewhat similar to Orchard Road, where there were many branded shops. We passed by the Apple store and saw quite a number of people paying tributes to Steve Jobs, who had just passed away the day before. There was also a long queue outside Abercrombie and Fitch and I believe it would be the same when it opens in Singapore later.

After that, we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. By then, I was feeling rather sleepy, probably because of jet lag (even though I had slept quite a lot :P). We had a quick dinner before returning to the hotel to rest for the night.

Various PVs

Finally saw the full version of the 3 PVs of Shirota's upcoming debut album \^^/










This morning saw news that SIA has reduced fares to Japan to only $398 (including taxes)! So tempted to go for a short trip... :P

End of holiday...

As our flight home today was at 3.25pm, our tour manager told us the previous night that he would not set any morning call so that we can get a good night's sleep. Therefore, we only went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast at about 9.30am. We even had time to go to the nearby supermarket for a stroll after breakfast.



We reached the airport at around 12.30pm and after checking in our luggage, we went to queue for tax refund. Luckily there were not many people and we managed to get our tax refunds quickly. We then went to grab a quick bite before boarding the plane for Dubai International Airport, where we waited for another 3.5 hours before our flight back to Singapore.






Time really flies when on holiday and now will have to prepare to go back to work again on Monday. So sad...

Italy - Rome

This morning we left Naples for Rome. Firstly, we went to Vatican City and visited the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, as well as St. Peter's Basilica, which is the largest Catholic church in the world. The architecture of the buildings and art collections were truly amazing, and even the ceilings were covered with frescoes.



























After that, we visited the Colosseum. There were a few people dressed up as gladiators for photo shoots with tourists but I managed to secretly take photos of them from far :P Near the Colosseum was the Arch of Constantine, which was erected to commemorate Constantine I's victory in a battle.







Later we went to the Trevi Fountain, where legend has it that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome.




We were then given some time to explore the area near the Spanish Steps, the longest and widest staircase in Europe. Just below the Spanish Steps was the "Fountain of the Old Boat", so named because it is in the shape of a half-sunken ship with water overflowing its bows.




After that, we went for dinner before proceeding to our hotel for the night. We were pleasantly surprised that our triple-sharing room was a suite :)