Meiji Shrine ♥ Japan

before gg on the trip, rong n my sis had emphasized very clearly tat they wan 2 visit shrines n temples in japan..

so Asakusa Sensoji Temple with Meiji Shrine shall be..

in awe.. becos finally saw a shrine..

always see it in anime but tis time, i can finally has the chance to see it in person..

but frankly, if u wish to visit Meiji Shrine, u have 2 choose either autumn or winter season to visit.. else u gg 2 kill urself in the heat during summer becos it is a LONG LONG LONG walk in...

the water that has turned into ice e nite before we suspected.. n hence u c all e ice broken up in the drain during the daytime..

the cleansing pool i hav mentioned in Asakusa post... we din realise the meaning of this pool until we came to Meiji Shrine.. i tink there's a notice somewhere 2 tell us tat we hav 2 cleanse ourselves 1st b4 stepping into e temple..

imagine in tis uber cold weather, we have to remove our gloves juz for cleansing... brrrrrr...

i find e spitting of water into e drain v disgusting.. becos u hav 2 sort of gurgle the water in ur mouth 2 cleanse den spit it out.. at least tats what most of e ppl were doing there n we juz followed suit..

stepping into the shrine.. was kinda excited becos i can finally put up the tablet onto the wishing board..

three of us..

here's the wishing board under a tree!

i hope the wishes can come true! then i hav the chance to go back there again 2 thanks e japanese gods.. hahaha

in e shrine interior.. not supposed to take any pic.. but i sneaked a shot anyway..

some solemn ceremony gg on in the inside of the shrine but had no idea wat it was..  

still the inside.. sneaked erhm not just a shot..

then a closer up shot.. before the security guard finally came n stop mi..

putting my tablet up..

we were like discussing wat lang sld we write on the tablet.. chinese? english?? becos english felt so off.. but chinese, my handwriting is simply too ugly.. so aiya, stick to english better la (alt e ugly handwriting doesnt make much of a diff..)

sorry, try as i mite, i cant formulate a proper japanese sentence for my wishes.. dun wan to antagonise the japanese gods with my very broken japanese.. as much as i wish to show my sincerity..

i just wan to say again...

.

.

.

it is reali no joke if u wan 2 travel to Meiji Shrine during summertime.. wear e thinnest clothes n e most comfortable pair of shoes u can.. e entire road in is made of pebbles..

Tokyo Tower ♥ Japan

is one of the fairytale places i wan to go to.. ever since from young watching all the jap serial dramas.. onli thing i wish is dear bf can b there wif mi on tat nite...

a place tat i always presume is e most romantic to be at..

seeing the tower from far..

it din felt any more romantic than it is when watching serial drama..

i always had e illusion tat e setting aorund tokyo tower is somewhat very dreamy n very romantic like..

u noe like there's a small little foundation right next to the tower where lovers can hang out there taking pics before gg up... n there's a park surrounding the tower...

there's indeed a row of trees with tall brick walls surrounding the tower.. erhmmm, can tat count towards a park???

dun ask mi why... i juz had tis illusion all the way until i finally saw e real thing...

the price we paid to go up to the main observatory..

posted this up so tat i can rem wat is the cost of gg up tokyo tower...

once u reach the main observatory floor, there's basically nth much except for the bird eye view of japan..

and these r all wat my camera plus my lousy skill cld muster..

THE BIRD EYE VIEW FROM TOKYO TOWER......

from different angles..

tried to get a close up on this dunno wat bridge..
we suspected its e odaiba bridge which we din manage 2 go T_T

braving the cold just to get a few shots on this...

it was terribly cold tat nite...

so cold until yun took a heat pad fr very long ago to try it.. tats when it dawned on mi y we had been so silly until we braved e cold for so many days without even tinking of buying heat pads..

below are all pics from yun's cam there on...

my camera nearly suffered very badly in my hands... for tat instant, i had an uncontrollable urge to throw tat cam onto the floor of the main observatory tower..

NONE, i repeat, NONE of the portrait pic can turn out well becos e main observatory was way too dark.. i tried many settings, but i juz cldnt get e flash on... no matter how i tried 2 force it on, it refused... like a sulking spoilt kid...

when e flash suddenlly decided to obey n flashed on, e picture is totally blurry...

i noe i sldnt blame it on e camera... sld blame on my super amateur until-an-amateur-photographer-will-laugh-at photography skill

eventually i got myself very frustrated, i gave up trying..

tried to self take so many unsuccessful pic until a stranger who CAN FINALLY SPEAK OUR LANGUAGE volunteered to help us take a pic!! he's a taiwanese...

so basically this ends my dream of tokyo tower.. its worth the first visit.. because u will gape at the majestic and intrinsic architecture work... seriously tokyo tower is awesome to look at for the first time, but probably a waste of time for a second or third visit thereafter..

mayb, perhaps, mayb it will be romantic once again when i can visit it during any festive season...

♥ Harajuku ♥ Japan

double hearts.. becos i reali <3 <3 <3 harajuku a lot..

its gg 2 b my absolute place to visit whenever i go japan...

let u look at the locker phenomenon very prevalent in japan..

one small locker is about 300yen... big one about 400-500yen.. i tink there's one super large one tat can put in one luggage which is ard 800yen.. but din c it in the railway station..

its not cheap.. but for a tourist or mayb their own ppl, its an essential when u need to travel to a lot of places in one day with a lot of shopping..

very clever of japanese to even tink of this convenient money making idea

u can find lockers in nearly everywhere in japan..

wat happened to us was we were so laden wif the food goodies from asakusa.. n we had to deposit the heavy stuff temporaily b4 we can continue wif harajuku shopping..

here we are!! excited!!

hungry max... tat was abt 2-3pm already and we hadnt hav any lunch.. so we dropped into the first restaurant opp the train station..

very luckily, the food wasnt tat expensive..

it is definitely more worthwhile to come wif a grp of frens.. n we shared e cost of food together.. in tat way, we can actually try lots more variety..

we were also saving our stomach for the marvellous crepe ltr..

the first authentic meal in an authentic japanese restaurant..

the super yummilicious fried rice i have ever ate for japanese cuisine..

other than e yummy garlic fried rice in shima..

so yummy tat i kept craving for it when im back T_T

e ramen there no matter fr wherever, its always super yummilicious.. like i mentioned b4, not many ramen house in singapore (except e one in central.. but e one in central also onli got e egg tats super nice..) can beat this ramen in authentic japan..

ajisen is reali fake fake ramen...

also our favourite... we like it so much till we ordered one more set for it..

at the streets of Harajuku now...

the MARVELLOUS crepe that cheesie has intro-ed...

it is reali so marvellous until i tot i hav gone 2 heaven wif it..

no lying...

we choose the strawberry cheesecake crepe.. also a recommendation from cheesie..

its a must-try if u step foot in harajuku..

i heard other than harajuku, e crepes sold elsewhere r basically "fake"...

strawberry cheesecake!

told e gers 2 give a 幸福 expression... they asked mi demo..

here's my take..

FAILED!!

slightly better???

repeated pic.. but just to show tat we have gone back to harajuku once again.. becos we din hav enough of it e day b4.. so many things 2 shop...

the things there r nice though mayb not b nicer than Shibuya.. but its cheaper by a lot.. at least more affordable.. but no, we din manage to c any cosplay dressup :(

camwhore by the railway station...

then guess wat... back fr harajuku, we were still craving for more japanese food.. but at e same time we also craved for all the fast food in japan..

shopping non-stop has caused us to have no chance to fully enjoy e food in japan...

so here we r, trying our best to cram in as much variety of food as possible at nite..

ramen again... two days with three times ramen in a row..

n found e eggs we wan to eat in japan.. lazy to google wat is e exact name for e egg.. so lets juz call it egg wif half boiled center..
becos i rem central has very nice egg wif half boiled center n i cldnt forget abt how nais the egg is..
i tot japan surely has even nicer egg with half boiled center...
so although the ramen already comes wif half an egg wif half boiled center (gets abit irritating to keep seeing the egg with half boiled center.. there i did it again.. hahaha..), we ordered another 3 more..
the waitress gave us a shocked look n asked if we r sure we wan so many eggs...
yes, we sticked to 3 extra eggs more.. its not like we can find such type of egg at every alternate restaurant along e street..
we shared e egg, gyoza (harajuku one is def much better..) n one bowl of ramen..

becos we were gg to have.......................................................................................................

KFC NEXT!!!

lastly, went into family mart n bought e asahi tat i <3 so much back to hotel...

they have this clear asahi which is uber nice becos its much lighter in taste..

i dunno can bring singapore or not.. so i nv buy at all T_T

still missing japan alot and alot and alot..