Mission Day 5 - ('O')9 Version

njoying the warmth of the sun.

Just outside our hotel.. you see shops under the train tracks. Nostalgia. 

“Where else have we not went to?”, asked Ren, “We have combed Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya, Akihabara, Ginza, Tsukiji Fish Market, sighting of Mt Fuji..”.

Adventure

Ikkebukuro, it shall be. Our next destination. Ren is grinning. He says, “I need to show you ‘otome’ road.” Tako wanted to give a slam with her tentacles. 

At Ikebukuro.. the shopping district there.. Sunshine 60 Street.. いい天気だった！

What welcomes you at Ikkebukuro? Sanrio Gift Shop! It’s in pink, filled with Hello Kitty on the first level. The amount of attention Hello Kitty is getting.. priceless. Personally, I am ok with Hello Kitty, and NO I didn’t Q for the Hello Kitty soft toys from Macs. (You know what I am talking about..)

Pachinko. Yes, I want to try my hands on it. But No, I didn’t get to try it in the end. But have soaked ourselves with smoke in Game Centres. There are tons of Toy catching machine and the cool part. The toys are actually limited edition of anime figures, which are not sold at all. YOU will have to CATCH it. We saw lots of Taiga (Tora Dora) figure, Japanese love Taiga and I like her too. Ren attempted his luck, but failed. Japanese are good, even the ladies, they are able to bag away a few plushies without any sweat.

There’s a Tokyu Hands department at Ikkebukuro and this is so unique. On the 8th storey, there is a Neko place. A place where you pay a fee and get to play with cats, real purring cats. 

 Sort of a cat safari.. ^^

Very white nekooo...

We spent quite a while in this place, stroking cats, trailing cats and taking lots of shots of the cats. We even witnessed a cat fight. Interesting. Cats, are really interesting to observe at times. Each cats have their own attitude and personality. If they are in a good mood, no problem in stroking their fur, BUT, if you mess up their fur, they will give you a bite. And I suffered a bite from one big cat, and I quarreled with it. Yes, Ren is totally speechless at the side. Hah. 

This is the notty one.

Most of them are very slpy.. (z.z)

The 2 notty ones. XD

All of the cats actually have diff times for them to be out.. a timetable i guess..

Tokyu Hands is a fun place to shop. There are so many toys, gadgets, models, and even costumes. Do recommend that you should drop by Tokyu Hands.

We dropped by at Sunshine City. I have done a search on Wiki and guess what I found? It is built on a land which is previously a prison. Cool. Ren is the one who recommended this place, and I am really wondering, why? What is so nice about Sunshine City that he has to bring me there? After strolling a while, he blurted out that there is a planetarium in Sunshine City. Ahh, I see, look at stars! Now I know what’s so captivating about Sunshine City. 

The planetarium. There are 4 different films to watch.. abt stars, or sun.. moon.. black hole..
There are films with famous singers who will sing like a soundtrack that accompanies the film. At the time we reach.. its going screen a film abt the stars.. so we happily bought the tickets.

(Ren is always afraid of me calling him nerd because he loves gazing at stars and he starts going on non-stop about all the different stars.)

Have you ever seen a sky brightly litted with only stars. It’s an amazing experience inside the Planetarium. Of course, I like stars (but without all the long scientific names, what cosmos??). Just twinkle twinkle little star.

We stopped by at Amlux which is Toyota Showroom and Ren tried his hands on some games.

On the way out of Sunshine plaza, Tako chan found a shop selling hats! bought two winter caps.. ^^.

Meal - Lunch

Gyoza, ramen, fried rice, mapo toufu. That’s our lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Sunshine City. It’s great. Love the taste. Yummy. Ren and I sweeped the plates clean. 

Shocku~ XD

Strolling down “Otome Road” in Ikkebukuro, we found yakitori and it’s beyond words. It just “wah!!”. forgot to take photo. we were too busy munching and chewing the skewers. haha.

Otome Road (Ikkebukuro)

It’s a short stretch of road selling lots of shojou manga, posters, merchandise and more. Found Ultraman macaroni on the shelf. Hah. 

Flocks of shojous browsing comics..

One of the few shops at Otome Street down the road..

The opposite of Akiba! the consumer targets here are young gals! At akiba you see many many oppai.. here you see alot of beautiful men. XD

Inside one of the bigger shops...

The night is still young, so we off we went to somewhere more happening..

Sunshine 60 Street at night.

Ikebukuro is surrounded by many huge shopping departmental stores.

Shibuya

We left Ikebukuro and rushed to Shibuya before most of the shops close.. usually at 8pm? yes.. its that early. its ard 930pm from where i come from..

Last minute shopping for Ren, he’s been eyeing a bag. So after not-so-much deliberation, he decided to get a Porter Bag. I like this brand, its simple and classy. Well, the bag suits Ren, so what’s more to decide. Just buy! I am totally immersing myself in the shelves of shirts, somehow I like loose-fitting shirts which can act as a cardigan. And I bagged away another checkered shirt for myself. Ren – he bagged away a bag and 3 shirts. What a harvest. 

Looking for our dinner.. you can see many restaurants at every street..

Meal – Dinner

With our shopping appetite appeased, we have to feed our stomach. What’s left that we have not tried – Ramen. It’s a buy-a-ramen-coupon shop. So we settled for the shop’s top favourite and head in. Contrary to the weather outside, the shop is warm. The only reason, it’s a ramen place so it’s all the boiling soup and water. It’s quite quiet except for the slurping sounds from everybody present in the shop. People are pressing away on their handphones or they can be chatting at really low volumes with their friend. This is the dining culture, in general, you get to enjoy quite a fair bit of peace whilst eating. But a little thing amused me a little:-

Passerby A : Pointing at a photo featuring a Caucasian guy with a bowl of Ramen hanging outside a shop, and says to friend, “Oh he came here to eat Ramen!”

Friend : Nods, and says “Oh yes! (Hai! Sou desu!)” pauses for a few seconds, then he asked Passerby A, “Eh, anatawa dare? (Eh, who’s he?)”

Passerby A : He’s the guy in Prisonbreak!

Well, I was so amused, because it's Prisonbreak photo which caught my eye and I paused in front of the shop. That’s somehow one of the reason why we ended up eating Ramen, since the smell floating out of the shop is captivating to us at 10pm.

Performance
After slurping myself crazy at the ramen shop, we strolled the streets of Shibuya again, hoping to chance upon any thing interesting. Indeed, we heard some beat-box music, and went amongst the crowd, to see a performance. It’s a group of young people dancing. It’s an interesting group, one guy doing beat-box, another doing tap dance as the music, with 2 dancers. Totally cool. I like dance. I like street dance.

Sorry abt the photos.. they're always MOVING!!! XD

The guy in black would beat-box, the two in the middle would dance. and the guy in green would tap dance on a wooden plank. he's in tap dancing shoes...

Tap dancing with beatbox dun sound bad at all.. =)

Each member of the group has done their piece and this last guy who’s good at locking and popping, did some moves. In the next second, a little BOY, reacted. 

A bystanding boy suddenly started mimicing the moves!! 

They started planning on the spot and danced!!

He danced back. He couldn’t stop. He’s totally good. His dance has the moves. Plus point, this little boy looks duper adorable. The crowd just cheered crazy. The members of the group are beaming with joy as they amaze at how spontaneous this young chap can move. It’s always nice to see people enjoying dance. And having the chance to be exposed to dance at young age. Kudos!

Here’s a video clip. Enjoy the moves.

After a long day we decided to head back to rest.. and we came across...

Free huggers outside Shibuya! XD

TV
How many people (especially man) can pout and still look good? It's a Toyota commercial featuring Takuya Kimura.

Talking about adorable child above, reminds me of this commerial. 

Ren is totally "unhappy" with my amazement when i watched the commercial

 

That's all i have for my Tokyo Trip! thanks for reading this post! hope you enjoy the photos, though it's not alot.. XD maybe i'll add more as i dig through Rren's photos.. 


Do you have any fun experiences you have overseas? feel free to share with us! =)


('O')9   タコです！　　じゃね！

Mission Day 4 - ('O')9 version

Beams of sun rays piercing through the sky.

Woke up to Typhoon No. 18.

Totally excited with what’s hiding behind a typhoon, we are close to unveiling it.
(Come on, we have never been exposed to natural disaster, so this adventure seems appealing.)

Mission Day 3 - ('O')9 version

Mission Day 3

Today’s mission is the ONE tat I love!

"迷子になろうよ、いっしょに" "Let's lose our way together!"
- Ghibli Museum's motto

Official Website : http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/

It’s a small museum located in a small town called 三鷹市(Mitaka) in Tokyo. It’s a place with no tall buildings and really quiet. I love the pace there. The tickets have to be purchased at Lawsons stores beforehand and am so glad that Ren managed to get it. The purchase system is all in Japanese and Ren could actually manage it, so proud of him!

Meal

But before we embark on such an exciting day, we have to settle our brunch. Off we go to Shinjuku and chose a stall selling soba. 

Soba-ten! Everybody's standing! X.X

Tako's lunchy! Cold soba with yasai-ten! \('O')/

Ren's lunchy! Soba with niku-ten! (^^)"

We are in the midst of the lunch crowd, so we have to be really fast in buying our lunch coupon, stand at the counter, pass the coupon to the lady, get our soba in less than one minute, slurp the soba in my maximum speed. I felt that I was in war zone, people who knows me, know that I am quite a slow eater. But the stranger on my left is slurping so fast, that I find myself competing with him and totally ignoring Ren who’s on my right. Ren is so amused at seeing me with my whole mouth filled with soba. But it’s great fun!

With my stomach filled with un-digested soba, we started our little journey to Mitaka. It takes about 45 minutes, but time flies while we are chewing on chewing gum.

But there’s a chewing gum commercial by LOTTE, that caught our eyes and ears:-

There’s a dance competition organized by LOTTE via youtube. Fans with the highest view hits will walk away with a big cash prize. Ren knows the dance very well and he dances from time to time in the subway, I should have recorded it down and post it on youtube. Well, now if you see a guy dancing this in Singapore, high probability that he’s Ren.

I just love the commercial jingle.. niah niah niah~ ~ ~

Ooops. back to Ghibli..

Our bus ride to Ghibili from Mitaka Station! its ghibili-painted! ^^. 200 Yen for an adult.

Side entrance to Ghibili Museum.. gives ren a jurassic park feeling.. *hums jurassic park theme*

Giant Tororo!!! CHOO KAWAIII~!!

The garden ard Ghibili museum is fantastic.. its close to a forest, but too big. haha. This is also where we queued to get into the museum. =) getting excited.. Too bad they dun allow photography in the compound. =( If not ren would like to show you how maze-like is the place.. *ren nods*

This is the ticket to Ghibili. if you notice.. its actually part of a filmroll of one of Hayao Miyazaki's movie!! they cut it out to make it into tickets!! its amazing. Whether is it the actual film, it doesnt matter, but the thot.. this is ren's one.. cant tell from which movie but tako's is a scene frm Howl's moving castle!! COoolll..~

There is a little theatre inside the museum where short films are played. The one that we caught on screen is 水グモもんもん(Water Spider Monmon).
I digressed from my “Ghibli Museum” story. Oh Ghibli museum is a place where one will get to see all the hard work put into making an anime film. It’s a fun place to explore and I love the atmosphere there! I enjoy looking how young children are enjoying themselves in this little cosy land and the museum is designed by Hayao Miyazaki. 

A huge life-size statue of one of Miyazaki-sensei's lead in one of his animations.. Ren took this photo becos it's outside & raining. not much pple ard so you dun get weird stares for breaking the rule. heh.

There's a cafe in the museum.. its realli a very nice atmosphere to be in..

Adventure
三鷹市is next to 吉祥寺. It’s a small neighbourhood. There's a lovely cafe. Stopped by at the cafe for a high tea. It's called Café du lièvre. 

Garden-like Cafe.. Café du lièvre.

Directions to the cafe if anyone's interested to drop by! =)

The bacon and egg wheat crepe, with steamed caramel milk tea. It's superb. sweet.

Then on, there's a bloodshed of Ren's wallet at a little shop called RedBros. This is where ren bought 5 out of 10 tees and vest. I love the shop too. I bought a pair of wacky sunglass over there.

Moving on..

We shifted our target location to Akiba. The paradise. 

View of the main road from Electric town exit. ^^

Both sides of the road is filled with IT, anime, manga, games and figures shops... *drools*

Trust me, your heart will cry tears of blood when you see racks of Gunpla models with the unbelievable price tag on.

Ren.. he almost went crazy. I will let him CONFESS how many sets of Gunpla models did he buy behind my back. 

(Ren: hahaha.. i alr did here. sorrie tako.. you guys will understand one rite.. especially after looking at the price.. XD) 

Meal

Wel, we slurped on instant noodles as we watch TV programs, enjoying every moment of simplicity.

Not forgetting the wacky adverts dosage that we get everyday and frequent reminders of the impending Typhoon No. 18.

Thats all for today's mission!!!! thanks for reading thru! more to come.. =)




('O')9  タコです!　　じゃね！