Japan, Tokyo II

continue with my tokyo holis, after so long.

day 2: visited hakone one-day tour on our own. suppose to set off early, but as usual, we are as slow as a tortoise. left hotel at 10am, got our tickets at hakone sightseeing service counter @ shinjuku station.

we got 2 days hokone free pass at 5,000 yen per person, its an unlimited boarding on 7 types of transport in hakone areas.. you can also upgrade to romance car for just 870 yen, and i would advice that as well, because the ride was so much comfortable and will arrive half an hour faster too.

so excited, finally get to see mt. fuji today!

if you don’t know, the best time to catch a glimpse of mt. fuji is during the autumn and winter seasons, especially on the month of dec to feb. also, visibility tends to be better in the morning so do check the weather forecast before heading to hakone to view the majestic mt fuji.

our itinerary in hakone:
shinjuku to hakone-yumoto
hakone-yumoto to gora
gora to sounzan
sounzan to togendai
togendai to motohakone-ko
motohakone-ko to yunessun

it was a traveling day, took 10.30am train and we arrived at hakone-yumoto 90 minutes later. followed by another 20 minutes journey to gora. had our lunch there, cos we are so tired of traveling olready!

weather is so cold, last minute gotten a glove from uniqlo. so ta-match! haha.

thereafter, we took another short train to sounzan and transfer to their cable car, which known as hakone ropeway!

nice scenery and we manage to see the mt. fuji.. it was just a short 10 minutes ride, but we had an unforgettable view of the owakudani valley, its also known as the great boiling valley or the valley of hell. as there were an eruption of a volcano thousands of years ago, and a pungent sulfuric fumes still hover in the air and volcanic smoke pours from vents in the ground, the tracks and factory-like structures at the base of the vast crater.

owakudani valley

arrived at togendai-ko, we took the cruise and travel along the lake ashi. both of us was too over whelming with the pirates alike ship, and keep on taking funny photos. thus, we missed the second mt. fuji view. haha.

you know what he is doing?

okays, the side view. haha!

the sunset is beautiful..

next stop, motohakone-ko. strolling along the lake was breathtaking. the air is fresh and the mood was calm. we walked to the hakone-jinja shrine, our first shrine visit. having much research on how to do prayers in japan, we were both very excited.

here we go.. throw a coin, bow twice, clap clap, bow once more and pray! click here if you want to know the proper steps to visit a japanese shrine.

to get to hakone shrine, just walk along the lake after turning left from the pier. you’ll see the bright orange/red gates.

took the bus to yunessun. the long awaited onsen!! but it came to a disappointment, the waiting time is not ideal, so we skipped it. boo.. so i say, it would be good if you are staying over for a night at hakone! it was just too big for us to cover in a day!

we had a quick bite before leaving hakone. albeit the one-day tour in hakone is rush rush, but the silhouette of the mt. fuji made this trip a meaningful one. i just love snow capped mountain!

the station back to shinjuku~
we broad the romance car, but was being caught.
so end up we paid SGD$20+ per person ! hahaa

we ended a great day in hakone, definitely, it can be better! ^^

day 3: tsujiki fish market.
until today, i still can’t forget how delicious it can be for all the sashimi sushi.. yums!

we overslept again!! suppose to stumble our way to tsukiji market in the wee hours like 7am? but we left hotel only at 10am this day!! gosh.. but in order not to disrupt our planned day-out today, we just pop over to tsukiji market for brunch! sashimi~~

though babe wasn’t really up for it; eating raw food for breakfast. still, we are sold! it was the best sashimi ever, meat all melted in our mouth. opened my mouth and babe only saw rice inside! slurps much okays?! but it was also an expensive meal.. few pieces of sushi, cost us SGD$80 over.

don't worry if you don't know how to speak japanese, cos.. if you notice, it stated chinese speaking available.

it was so crowded. need not to worry no restaurant for you.. entire streets are all restaurants!!

we came too late.. no fish for us to see, its all empty.!

friendly staff saw me self-taking picture, so she offered to help us take a picture too. =)

each and every sushi is mad delicious!

our sushi chef. goody goody~

walked to ginza area to shop. on our way there, we spotted this.. i thought they are really innovative! just pull and pump the petrol in this save-space manner. cool..

walked pass this as well, the namiyoke inari jinja (shrine). it happens to be at the back corner of the tsukiji outer market, so it’s a good starting point. the name “namiyoke” literally means “protection from waves,” and it has served as an unofficial guardian for the Tsukiji Market.

while walking to ginza, we decided to use the mask to reduce the cars' pollution.
i don’t like ginza. nothing much to shop nor see, i thought it can do without, so we went to akihabara after that instead. but nevertheless, we took a picture of the ginza wako before we left.

akihabara is famous for its electronics shops. hundreds of electronics shops, ranging from tiny one man stalls specializing in a particular electronic component to large electronics retailers. they offer everything from the newest computers, cameras, televisions, mobile phones, electronics parts and home appliances to second-hand goods and electronic junk.

when you walk around akihabara station, you will also see a lot of girls dressed up as maid (also called as maido) standing there promoting their café. the well-known maido café on the entire streets!

maido cafés are cosplay themed restaurants where guests are served by waitresses that are typically dressed as french maids. in addition to serving food, the maids engage in conversation and games with the customers and treat them with the care and respectful language due to the master of a house. maido cafés are popular for the men though.

happened to take a brochure from a maid who offered me, but she aggressively guided us to her café. no much of a choice, we followed and try it out. it was a bad move, they allow smoking in the café, and all the customers are all guys! no girls at all except the waitress. feel a bump as all the guys are staring at me! told babe that i’m not comfortable with it, so we just apologize and walked off.

whoo.. spent half a day there looking at all maido standing at the streets and looking at all interesting things in the mini stores.

spot the maids..

took the JR to tokyo tower at akabanebashi station.

tokyo tower, 東京タワー is 13 meters taller than the eiffel tower of paris, and it is 333 meters tall! known to be the world's tallest self-supporting steel tower. you can ascend to the main observatory at 150 meters and the special observatory at 250 meters to get a bird's eye view of tokyo.

we just opted for the main observatory for only SGD$14 per person.

it's christmas season! this chairs is designed with merriest christmas theme.

this is quite interesting. you can stand on top and view all the way to the bottom of the tower. told babe not to stand on it, in case he's too fat and the glass broke! wahahaha..

heard that under good weather conditions, mt. fuji can also be seen in the distance.
love the night view much, and this very much ended a good not for the day too!