Day 7-8: Back to Tokyo

Ohno met us at Haneda Airport and brought us to a small hotel he had helped us book for our last night in Japan. =) After a yummy meal of hot soba, we set off for Ikebukuro to meet Haramichi and explore Sunshine City more.

They brought us to Namja Town!



Namja is the name of the cat who is the main character of this amusement park. There were LOTS of people there cos it was a public holiday. The whole place was set to look like old Tokyo - all retro lights and facades and shops...






Then we went up to the second level..



Ice Cream City!!!



They had lots of these game machines there. I tried to win this Piyo Piyo duck, but skill not there lah. =b



This is Namja the Cook.



Me eating an Ice Strawberry, Caramel ad Chocolate Sauce Crepe!!! SOOOOO delicious! Shared with mel.





From L to R: Ohno, Mel, Me, Haramichi

After that we went up to the 60th floor viewing gallery where you can see almost the whole of Tokyo! But it was still raining heavily, so we couldn't see much =(



view from the top.

they brought us to this japanese restaurant that's all bamboo. the floors and walls - all bamboo poles, with some rice paper sections! we had to remove our shoes and put into lockers at the entrance, and from there, it was barefoot all the way (slippers provided in the toilet). we had our own little room for privacy too!



A palette of traditional japanese appetizers! (can't remember the names though)



Got the cute trainee waitress to take pic for us. =)



Our main course - pork and burdock with japanese rice. =) my first time trying burdock, which i've read about in totto-chan. it's quite crunchy - like carrot - not a whole lot of taste, apart from the soy sauce that it's seasoned with. but in general a nice dish. =)

we also had a daikon salad with a jappy vinegar base as a side dish. i really want to try and make this dish in Singapore!



matcha green tea icce cream for dessert

Our last morning in Japan (sob sob) we walked the streets of Tokyo, and took pictures of these pretty streetside flower boxes, put there, it think, to announce the arrival of Spring!



We found a second hand CD shop, and browsed there for AGES! I was very happy with my singles of Utada and Do As Infinity! =)



Lunch in a dingy but cozy jap place.



tonkatsu don set. the meat was a bit tough =( but i liked the side dish of steamed veggies, esp steamed yam and sweet potato!



waiting a the airport. our flight was delayed, so we had to hang around for almost 4 hours!!! the outdoor viewing gallery, where this pic was taken, was very nice. but very COLD. so we only stayed there about 10 minutes!




we didn't have sushi the whole time we were in Japan! so for our last meal, we decided we MUST eat sushi! =) notice how the fish meat is significantly longer than the rice - not like those puny chunks they serve in Singapore. and the egg was almost double the size of the rice underneath it! =D




beautiful origami exhibition in the departure lounge. WOW!!!

then it was back to Singapore... but I had a WONDERFUL time, and i'm so happy to have had this break! and i got to watch Juno on the flight back! =) heh.

Day 5 and 6: Hiroshima

Day 5 was another rainless day =) Mel had his second day of meetings, so I set off to explore another side of Hiroshima.



Our breakfast at the hotel. Traditional japanese fare, including steamed veggies (sweet potato, carrots and pumpkin!), japanese rice, tiny mackerel, raw squid, and egg roll (tamago).



Mel on his way to his meeting.



It was a loooong walk to Hijiyama Park, which is actually a small hill. Walking up...



Stopped at the Museum of Contemporary Art, but the display pieces were kind of disappointing for me. Or maybe I just can't appreciate the world of surrealist and pop art. =b



Look familiar?



Then I went to Hiroshima Station and took a train out (Kure line) to Saka Bay Side Beach. It was a bit scary to take a new train system on my own, but thank God I found a helpful ticket agent. =) This is the beach, all, er... fenced up =(

After that disappointment, headed back to the main city and went to Uniqlo! Where I found my grey Jappy jacket thing for 1000 yen (S$13.80)!!!

Dinner with the guys again that night. Shabu-shabu is the Japanese name for steamboat. "Shabu shabu" is the sound the meat makes as the very thin slices are swished around in the boiling water to cook! Then you straight away dump the cooked strips in either one of the sauces in front of you. the black one is soy sauce with vinegar, and the other is a sweeter thicker one (i can't remember the name!!)



the meat!



the sauces



corn, rice cake and udon - to be cooked in the steamboat water after all the meat has been cooked - kind of like a closing to the meal.

Because the guys had managed to finish their work in record time, it was also a celebration dinner that the project meetings were over one day in advance!!!

So Day 6 mel was free =) went with him and a colleague to see Shukkuein Garden. It was quite beautiful, but it was all drippy and wet, so hard to fully enjoy the beauty and to take good pictures...



Mel and his colleague



My new shoes getting wet and sandy...



Mel and me =)

The rest of the day was spent in Uniqlo and napping back at the hotel. It was that kind of a day - the drippy, icky, want-to-stay-in-bed-and-slack kind of day =)

Day 3-4 - Tokyo-Hiroshima

We had the morning to explore Ginza before leaving for Haneda Airport (which btw is cooler than Narita!) to fly to Hiroshima.



Mel took lots of pics of this Nissan Sportcar (can't remember the exact name =b) at the Nissan showroom. Me, I was just fascincated with observing the clothes of the people observing the car =)



I love this Japanese sweets/snacks shop! All the stuff in it is hand-made by them, and packaged oh-so-beautifully, and fresh! No preservatives used. We got a few treats for our families, and also a small bag of sugared sweet potato slices for ourselves!

Then it was off to the airport and on to Hiroshima!



The view from our hotel, Mitsui Garden Hotel, along Peace Promenade.



Dinner with Doug and John, mel's colleagues from the US. I found out about this pokey little restaurant online, and it was quite easy to find. Okonomiyaki is known as Japanese pancake - comprising of layers of ingredients cooked one after the other and stacked up. It was quite fun to watch our food being cooked so meticulously and then eat it hot off the grill!

FYI, the layers are in this order: pancake mix, shredded lettuce, taoge (wuraishi - which I managed to explain NO NO I DON'T WANT), chickpeas, brown sauce and various spices, strips of bacon, noodles, flip it over, crack egg, move on top of egg, flip again so egg if now on top, more brown sauce and some sort of mayo. mmmmmmm =)

Day 4: mel's first day of meetings, so I was free to explore Hiroshima by myself until evening.



String of colourful paper cranes - you'll find lots of these all over the city at the various landmarks or parks. This was hanging from a tree at the entrance to the Atomic Bomb Memorial Park. the cranes symbolize hope to them.



The T-shaped Aoi Bridge, where the bomb was dropped. It exploded quite high up in the air, before reaching the bridge, so the mushroom cloud that was emitted from its centre was radiated over a really great distance, destroying life and homes in the process.

Just one of the many heart-wrenching facts/stories that I saw in the Museum.



Outside the Museum, I met this Japanese student from Sendai who's on holiday, and we spent a while talking. Quite nice and surreal. Then got another tourist to take our picture in front of the Cenotaph.



The Children's Monument, set up in memory of Sadako, a Japanese girl who was 2 when the bomb hit, and was only diagnosed with leukemia as an after-effect of the radiation when she was 12. Believing that making 1000 paper cranes would make her wish to continue living come true, she made many of the cranes in her last few months, but sadly she passed away in the end. In memory of her dream and hope, many primary school children visit this memorial every year and leave behind beautiful artwork made out of paper cranes.

From the Park, I walked to the grounds of Hiroshima Castle. But I didn't go INTO the castle itself, cos it's supposed to be mostly an exhibition of armour, which I have no interest in =b



The beautiful moat outside the castle. As you can see, the castle is right next to office buildings, right smack in the middle of the city!



I was so excited and happy to see this! My first experience of Cherry Blossoms, or Sakura as they call it.



Up close. =)

Then it was on to Hondori Street, the main shopping street of Hiroshima City. It's quite short - about the distance of Cineleisure to WIsma Atria.



100 yen shop! I love it!!! My best buys were a palette of eyeshadow, a star-shaped cake pan, a brown bag for work, and fizzy soda sweets!



The archway over the whole of Hondori Street



Met up with mel's whole team for dinner (all staying at same hotel) and John felt like "lots of beef" so we found this Korean Charcoal BBQ restaurant. My first time eating charcoal grilled food in a restaurant! On the grill are sweet potato, onions and thin slivers of seasoned beef!



Group picture!