So-Celine: January 2012

another post for japan, tokyo before chinese new year hit by!

happy 3rd anniversary! day 4 marked our 3 years together, but it wasn’t a great day out since morning! raining for the whole day..

started out to harajuku, planned to go meiji jingo shrine. missed that because, it was pouring heavily and we are both drenched! purchased 2 umbrellas on the streets and started our shopping spree under the rain. takashita dori is a good place to shop, but it was so crowded! only managed to spend our early afternoon with the 100 yen shop. daiso is 4 storey high, and we are having fun inside the daiso from level 4 to 1! bought a lot of snacks from there, cos we thought that this is the only place selling cheap stuffs, afterall, it’s just less than 2 bucks for each item. wahhaahaa~

babe ish sad sad because of the rains. me too ! ><

spotted gindaco from far away, hopped in without thinking and tried out the takoyakis. yumss… it’s so good! better than singapore’s. a bad day, but with this comfort food, we are all goods! haha.

were so tired of walking under the rains, so we took the train from harajuku to shibuya instead. shibuya 109 is girls’ heaven, the japanese trends is a die-for. shibuya is one of the twenty-three city wards of tokyo, but often refers to just the popular shopping and entertainment area found around shibuya station. with this, shibuya turn to one of tokyo's most colorful and busy districts, packed with shopping, dining and nightclubs serving swarms of visitors that come to the district everyday. of cause, we have been swiped by people here and there, especially on a rainy day as well!!

saw 109 men building too. i believe all the retail shops flooded with men’s stuffs as well!.

settled our dinner at boteyu @ shibuya tokyo plaza. actually, i booked a place for dinner on this special day, but we couldn't find our way there. boo.. =( wellies, as long as we are together, normal dinner will be a romantic dinner date too! ^^

ordered quite a lot of food, and we were both glad to see this placed on the table.. wahahaa.. wreck every single bits of katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) in that small container, haha..

simple date on day 4 is yay.

rested early for the day and charged ourselves for the next day!
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set off our day real early, because we want to cover more places today. take into consideration that of journey is further away with another. oOops.. =)

it's my second most favourite place in tokyo – we are going to asakusa!

asakusa is the center of tokyo's shitamachi (literally "low city"), one of tokyo's districts, where an atmosphere of the tokyo of past decades survives. asakusa’s shopping street provides a variety of traditional, local snacks and tourist souvenirs for centuries.

kaminarimon is our first stop, it is the outer entrance of senso-ji. this gate has beautiful lanterns and statues which give it an extremely breathtaking look.

it was warmer at asakusa, kind of regret wearing heat tech out that day. haha. it’s always so crowded, took a long time to snap a shot with the big lantern! bleah..

we saw this station for divination! just need drop a 100¥ coin and you can obtain your own divination lot. if its a bad divination, you have to tie it to a hanger of sorts, therefore casting your bad fortune away. *here we go:

ta-dah.. number 76! look out for number 76 drawer and pick your lot!

mine was not bad.. but babe gotten a bad lot!

thus, he toss another coin and draw another divination lot again and he gotten this:

we thought that our divination lot wasn’t fantastic enough,
so we tied our lots to the rack though. ^^

arrived at hanayashiki, the oldest amusement park in japan! it was just 5 minutes walk away. here’s the link if you are keen: http://www.hanayashiki.net/e/index.html
*note: admission to the theme park cost 900¥ only, approximately $14 per adult.

i’m so fascinated by the carousel flying in the air, i love carousel to bits! ^^

this little town is awesome, so many things to eat and see..

ice cream is very much needed too, especially on afternoon's weather.

last minute changed our itinerary, and slotted the odaiba trip into this day! that includes the statue of liberty and the rainbow bridge sightseeing for us. *mad excited!

odaiba is a popular shopping and entertainment district on a man made island in tokyo bay.

tokyo has a few borrowed land marks, there’s the replica of the eiffel tower, although in a bright orange paint job, disneyland and the statue of liberty.

a great place to be at, a great place to view the sunset too!
*loves..

i feel love today with my loves stocking! =D haha~

silly babe with this post!

if you wonder why there’s a statue of liberty in tokyo, here:
“sitting proudly overlooking tokyo bay and the golden gate inspired rainbow bridge is a 1/4 scale of new york’s magnificent lady. it was originally only a temporary structure, the french gave it to tokyo in 1998 to celebrate the french year in japan but the japanese loved it so much, so a replica of the one the french gave them was commissioned and built on the same site. it is now one of tokyo’s most photographed monuments. just like the new york monument the statue is made of iron and green copper bronze, it even has gold leafing encircling the beautiful torch of freedom.”

how to get here: take asakusa line to shimbashi station > take yurikamome line to daiba station. you will see it when you exit the station!

before we left this place, we saw this streets dancer starting to jump here and hop there.. caught our attention by their rocker music and their hairstyle.. we thought they are quite cool. for a bits, babe were imitating them when we left..

wanted to go for robata yaki grill at shimbasi. took a long time to find it, walked every single possible streets since the time is still early. we just couldn’t find the place, end up, spotted gindaco again! it’s just too good to resist it, so we had gindaco again to half-filled our stomach first. wahahahaa~

went back to shinjuku, decided to make our way down to walk around takashimaya. blue label was disappointing, still thought that i could get a bag or two in the boutique, but nothing is nice there. =( just outside of the takashimaya, krispy kream tempted us away, but the queue was turned off.. so we walked away without hesitance.

went to a very interesting place for dinner – the zauo fshing boat café

dedicated fishermen would surely say that nothing tastes better than food that you've caught yourself. obviously the japanese know that and that's why the zauo: the fishing boat café chain exists.

like so many things in japan, zauo is unique, a little zany and something we just can't wait to do. these are large restaurants with a boat in the middle of a lot of water, and you can either order your food straight away (boring!) or order a fishing rod and catch your own.

obviously there's a huge seafood bias to the zauo menu, and it all sounds delicious. if you're on a budget, then definitely opt to catch your own. for example, the lobster usually costs 3,600¥ ($60), but you only have to pay 2,600¥ ($40) if you pull it out of the water yourself. oh, and if you fail to catch anything, it doesn't really matter. they won't let you leave hungry either!