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So, after two nights on my own in Tokyo and one night with family, I'm ready to head out to Nikko, my first destination.
Just to sum up the three days, here are a couple of photos from Ueno and the Setagaya Boroichi fair respectively. The fair mainly sold old fabrics, antiques and food. It was pretty interesting at first, until it became extremely busy, and possibly the most packed place I've ever experienced... and I've lived in Hong Kong! I never thought old fabric scraps and antiques could be so popular!
I also went to a peculiar ramen restaurant where you order your food from the machine, then sit in individual booths with walls on either side and get served through a hole in the wall in front of you. Apparently it's to prevent people from seeing your eating expressions, hahaha. God forbid anyone sees what you look like when you're eating! Grounds for dumping someone, for sure.
Sorry about the bad photo!
Trendy Japanese according to ALC press
"Ohitori-sama"
""Ohitori" is a polite way to say "one person," and "sama" is a honorific added at the end of a word, usually the name of the addressee. And the word "ohitori-sama" was originally used as "Ohitori-sama desuka? (Are you by yourself?) when a waiter/waitress, hotel clerk, or whoever the person in charge of welcoming customers, asks if a customer needs a table/room for only one.
But these days, a new meaning has been added to the word "ohitori-sama" --- it now indicates a woman, whether single or married, who enjoys spending her leisure time by herself. She goes to a restaurant or a bar by herself to enjoy whatever food she feels like having at whenever time she wants. She also goes to hot springs and stays at hotels without company, and might even buy a spacious condominium where she can release her stress and feel relaxed!"
Hahahaha! Something I've been called a lot so far - and I think it's suited me quite well so far on my trip.
We spent the morning of day 3 in Asakusa, visiting the Kaminarimon Gate, Nakamise and Sensoji Temple - Tokyo's oldest temple. Again, probably due to the time of year, it was extremely busy. There were new years decorations hung up over Nakamise (a shopping street with a long history) and masses of people queuing to worship and receive their blessings from the bodhisattva Kannon - Guanyin.
We spent the rest of the day visiting our Aunty out in the Tokyo suburbs. It was quite refreshing being out of the city and walking down the little residential streets often seen in animes. I ended up spending a night at her house after mum, dad and ant returned to HK. It was much nicer than the hostel I was staying out, which was essentially a capsule hotel - as you'll see a little further down.
The next day, we headed over to Asakusabashi to check into said hostel and I was pretty shocked at the sight of my "single room".
There were about 16 compartments in one giant room, and since it was still early, the whole place stank of beo and general morning staleness. I was not looking forward to spending the night there... although it was quite comfortable when I eventually did even if you couldn't stay in there for long periods besides sleeping.
We quickly headed back out towards Ginza for lunch, where, to make up for our previous meal in Roppongi, we had awesome Sumibi Yakiniku with Kobe beef and other lovely meats. No intestines this time!
So... it was time for mum, dad and ant to depart. We returned back to the hostel to pick up their luggage and I said my teary-eyed goodbyes. It was really sad to see them go! The road ahead and the prospect of hauling my luggage around in the snow seemed so daunting. Little did I know that after a few days of staying in Tokyo on my own, I'd feel entirely different.
Tokyo is great and all, but it gets a little tiring after a while. The lights, sounds and nearly all the girls looking identical (no offense to them!) gets a bit much. Or perhaps I found it too similar to Hong Kong to keep me interested. I was pretty much itching to leave by the end of the week and fortunately so, my rail trip was about to start...
Day 2:
We visited the Meiji Jingu Shrine in time for the coming-of-age festival so there were groups of girls dressed in kimonos, and with it being so near new years there was a massive procession of people visiting the shrine to read their new years' fortune. There were ice sculptures lining the roads and massive sake barrel displays everywhere - it was quite impressive!
When we arrived there was also a traditional Japanese wedding taking place and I managed to snap a few shots of the gathering crowd and the bride in her simple but beautifully elegant attire.
Afterwards, we moved onto Harajuku, which was just around the corner. There wasn't quite as large a group of cosplayers as I'd hoped, but they were funny looking enough to take a photo of.
After a stroll down Takeshita Dori, a 400m long street of boutiques and cafes, which was obscenely crowded, we headed over to Roppongi hills. Since it was getting late, we decided to skip the gallery and look for some food instead. We settled on a seemingly innocent looking sumiba yakiniku place (teppanyaki where you cook your own meat over coals or a burner), which boasted an "english" menu... only to find that their so-called english was just romaji japanese; and that they were an offal specialist!! (the latter, we only found out the next day -_-) What we thought was going to be a platter of 4 (or 6) different types of meat was actually 4 (or 6) different types of pig intestine and cartilage! Fail!
mm, looks good so far!
but then..
What we also read as "Wagyu beef tan set" was actually "Wagyu beef tongue set" (top pic)!! Double fail- though this wasn't quite as bad as the intestines, aka Horumon in Japanese. Naturally we clocked onto what we'd ordered and sent for some real meat...
At last, after so much planning and preparing, it's time to start my adventure around Japan. Nihon he ikou!!
We landed in Tokyo on the 9th of January and spent four days sightseeing and eating great food together before Mum, Dad and Ant abandoned me in my hostel.
Briefings of our fours days of fun to come!
The first destination of our family trip was Tsukiji Market, where we got up at half 4 in the morning to catch the early market bustle. We arrived just before 6, but by then the tuna auctioning had finished and people were busy carting away their trophies - Even so, we weren't allowed to set foot in the area, nor were we allowed any flash-photography.
We spent an hour, or so, wandering through the market, getting in peoples' way, absorbing the sights and smells of hundreds of fresh fish vendors and scanning for potential bargains. Dad spotted a large box of tuna belly off-cuts being sold for ¥500 and we quickly snapped it up, lest someone else got there first. Man, did it taste good!... but even so, the thought of eating a whole box of raw tuna without anything to dip it in made me (and probably the rest of us) a little queasy. We couldn't find anywhere that sold small packets of soy sauce or wasabi, so when we sat down for breakfast, I covered the waitress' line of site whilst dad tipped the whole box out onto our plate of nicely prepared sushi! It was literally a massive pile of fish! Not suspicious looking at all! (But it did save us thousands of yen if we had originally wanted to eat that much tuna sashimi!)
After two breakfasts and more shopping in the outdoor section of Tsukiji market we set off towards Akihabara, where I bought myself some handy pepper spray; we observed Final Fantasy Dissidia brand soft drinks; ate a beef (omg!!) doner kebab; and shook hands with a guy dressed as a mobile phone...
We then went to Ikebukuro and fried our own okonomiyaki and yakisoba; watched mum buy boots; laughed at the stupid toys in Tokyu hands; and rode an extremely fast lift in Sunshine City!...
Much fun was had by all, but man were we tired...
I also went to a peculiar ramen restaurant where you order your food from the machine, then sit in individual booths with walls on either side and get served through a hole in the wall in front of you. Apparently it's to prevent people from seeing your eating expressions, hahaha. God forbid anyone sees what you look like when you're eating! Grounds for dumping someone, for sure.
Sorry about the bad photo!
