East Asia - Tokyo Day 2

we went to Tsujiki fish market in the morning. of course after we had our breakfast of choice. my mom wen't with her leftover cake from last night. my brother and i chose to eat onigiri and dorayaki.

we had to check out early, bacause we wanted to venture the city for the last day. the plan today's a bit packed. Tsukiji, Tokyo Tower, Shinjuku, Harajuku (Maybe for some of you it's not packed at all. if my campanion is someone who's same age as me, i could do more and faster. but my mom had a serious injury on her knee couple of years ago, and that slows her down.).

we got out Tsukiji metro station and stood like idiots because we had no idea where to go. this is what i like about Asian people, they're friendly and helpful, an old man came to me and ask where do i want to go. i said i want to see the market. he pointed his finger to the left side and said "many good food. today is full. something happened so the building over there crowded. where you from?" with his good English (for Japanese). after we chat a while the traffic light turned green and we said our goodbyes and thank you.

i went to Tsukiji market specially to eat sushi. from many website i heard the best sushi in Tokyo located in the market. the name of the place is Sushizanmai. i found the store by luck. i always hold on to this principles: eat like a local, and the best place to eat something must be packed with the local. so we went to this narrow street (gang senggol lah bahasa indonesianya), and i saw the little sushi place. the battle to get there was unbelievable. in this gang, there're several great seafood and ham sellers so everyone tried to do the bargain on the street. some people also tried to move forward but was forced to stay put because the people from the other side also wanted to walk. in the end we're all trapped in between people and also got pushed from people behind. my mom got into a panic mode and screamed to a Japanese guy behind her--in Bahasa Indonesia: SABAR DONG PAK!! SABAR!! JANGAN DORONG-DORONG. SAYA JUGA GAK BISA MAJU- (be patience sir!! patience!! don't push around, i couldn't move forward either).

anyways, we managed to get into the sushi place and had to wait because we got there by the lunch time. my mom was still pale from the battle of the gang senggol and a bit upset for being mocked by me and my brother. i ordered a plate of various nigiri sushi cost 800 Yen. i got 10 different cuts of sushi, and i have read how to eat sushi the right waym so i must leave behind all my habits of eating sushi in Indonesia.the right way to eat sushi is to dip the point of the fish side and get the whole thing in your mouth.  i ate it from the left side to the right side as told by the sushi chef, the more i ate the stronger the fish got.

one thing i like about this restaurant is that they have a faucet in front of every chair. the green tea powder also available in front of every faucet. so you don't have to order drink but self service to mix your own ocha. i wish sushi tei in Indonesia were like this so i don't have to call the waitress every time i need more ocha.

after lunch we went to Tokyo Tower. i personally has a fear of heights, but i forced myself to see Tokyo from a height. in the observatory chamber there's a blank floor only covered with glass, therefor i could see the bottom of the tower straight away. i tried to step on it, but only managed to stay put for less than a second. was too scary for me.

next was Shinjuku and just went around. underneath the underground metro and JR lines, there's a food mall. any food i could imagine were there, and my mom offered me to have more sushi, unfortunately i had to much sushi several hours before i wasn't craving for it just yet. my brother and i drooled over grilled unagi that cost painfully too much and my mom went berserk with the desserts.

our last destination was Harajuku. honestly, to me it looked like a street with cute clothing stores on the sides, that's it. i didn't want to enter the stores since everything was just too expensive. i remember said to my mom: well, at least we know how it looks like now.

before we went to Shinjuku (again) at night to catch our bus to Kyoto, we walked by an underground mall that leads to Ikebukuro Station, and found this Soup restaurant. since it looked appealing, we decided to have dinner there. it tastes good! (almost like Soup Spoon--the Singapore Soup franchise that i just found out now open in Sency, only cheaper)

oh i forgot telling about this. The girlband AKB 48 is quite "hip" right there, and i know that Japanese people (read: oom oom mesum--perverts) are way beyond our human common sense, but i was shocked the first time i got into the metro and saw all these commercial of playboy magazine displayed 3 of AKB 48 member in bikini whilst the girls (forced) to give "oh my god what am i dong? kyaaa.. I'm half naked, I'm shy but I'm the front cover of playboy" look on their eyes. and i found the official store in front of Harajuku station. my curiosity was just too strong i had to enter the shop. I'm speechless. they're barely come of age. SICK!!

we had to say goodbye to Tokyo. by 9 p.m we hopped into Willer Express bus that'd take us to Kyoto. we are expected to be in Kyoto at 6 a.m. Although i have trouble with traveling by bus (mabok darat, ndeso) i managed to overcome this by looking through the window. but this bus, i don't know if it's because a night bus or what, the whole windows were covered by fabric. i could see nothing. on the plus side, the bathroom was enormous--bigger than the one at the hotel--and if i may, i'd rather stay in the super clean and nice bathroom.

East Asia - Tokyo Day 1

we arrived in the morning. and as all the travel book i read said, the Japanese are very kind towards tourists. the weather aren't too cold, 7 degree at the lowest point so i think i didn't have to take out my winter coat just yet.

we're staying at one of the famous backpacker hostel (always recommended in any site) Sakura Hostel. the branch we booked was the one located at Ikebokuro. The Hostel itself was really clean and quite big for "Japan", i mean it fit the three of us and our 3 luggages. But i have to admit, the bathroom was just too small. I can't imagine if a German Guy had to stay there. Even just to turn around to get a toilet paper is a battle, i always ended up hitting the wastafel and the wall.

we were hungry and honestly i wanted to try any Japanese breakfast, but yeah, i had to greet my old travel sponsor, Uncle Ronald McDonald. Back in Jakarta i was afraid of Japanese English, no offense, but they aren't really keen of it. so i just did the "point the picture" game every time i want to order or need something. in this case of course the McDonald menu. what pissed me off a little bit was that my mom, she's the kind that aren't really adventurous and it's really hard to find a food that she truly loves. in the end, she always asked "can i get that without the pickles." "i want extra fries." "i want the coffee to be less strong." and so on. i snapped and said, "we're lucky enough they understood that we need coffee and hamburger, let's not make it more difficult than it already is." so she shut up and drank her first black bland coffee.

one thing i notice from McDonald here. It looks like an internet cafe, there're only 5 tables that could hold people that tried to eat together, and the rest was just a little table enough to hold one tray. That's it. Imagine how fast their life should revolve that they don't have enough time to chat. Or to socialize.

An Internet cafe-McDonald

After the quick lunch we went to Asakusa. Getting on and off the metro line in Japan is easy, especially they already translated their (katakana/hiragana?) into latin so i could read it. I bought the wrong metro pass, that i could not use some of the metro services. (so here's the info. there are several companies that run the metro, most of the tourist attractions in Tokyo could be reached by the Metro card only, but if you're planning on going to Harajuku then you must buy a JR line ticket. Harajuku itself located in the same line between Shibuya and Shinjuku, maybe in the Summer, when the energy is all there, you can try to walk from Shibuya through Shinjuku via Harajuku. But forget that in winter.)

Back to Asakusa, i took a picture in front of the "shit building" and also some other pictures too(wont be able to show you since i lost the camera.) finally i saw the rickshaw that i always read in Kariage-kun comics with the abang-abang struggled to say some words he memorized well in English--Take you around, good price, very nice.  

Shit Building, Asakusa

I haven't really done my research on Asakusa, what i knew, it's one of the place the tourists go to when they're in Tokyo. Because Asakusa is the place to get Japanese souvenirs. I was planning to buy some postcards to send to my friends but there aren't any, so i tried to get the some other souvenir instead.   Had to cancel my plan, Dear God, everything was so expensive!! 

Later we went to Shibuya. Bought some cake, some of my mom's friends told her that she must try every dessert she could find because Japanese desserts are the best. It was! I bought myself a soft cheesecake that melts in my mouth, the great thing was, it's not "mahteg". Took a picture with Hachiko near the Shibuya crossing and crossed the famous crossing. We strolled around until we got tired and decide to had Yoshinoya as our dinner (my mom wanted something familiar). It cost 350 Yen per person for a huge bowl of Japanese Curry. (another info, the Yoshinoya in Japan really looks like warteg in here. another exaggeration of a fast food franchise by our nation.)

Tokyo Starbucks Mug. (i'm a bit upset the don't have the old version.)

East Asia Trip

i've been planing on exploring East Asia for more than a year, and finally i got the chance to do it. i wished i could bring Mia and do it the way we used to, but she's occupied with something else. by last minutes my mom and brother decided to joined. since Japan and Korea were never in their mind as an "adventure destination" i found it surprising.

blind traveler

honestly i'm super curious with these countries and will try to "explore" it my way. 

deedee gave me a "bekel" on what to do there. hahaha. thank you cinchaaa.. 

by the way, happy christmas and happy new year!! 

snap

funny how things change. i just got a new word to express this: pendulum! yes, things are moving to a whole different direction now. just one thought that's been lingering in my head for a while, and i think it's best for my own sake to let it out. some people just need to take care of themselves. seriously. and nobody, NOBODY, should dictate how someone's future should be and how bad if that someone couldn't reach it.

because admit it, no one really knows what's going on in everybody's mind. we don't know the struggle , the fights, the breakdown they have. to wake up one day just to be reminded of their failure they had tried to move on from was just pure evil.

i believe i did judge people. i learn to do less of those and listen more. the more i listen, the more i get embarrassed of myself for judging others. lesson learned. now it's your turn to learn.

a month long

i have no interesting enough story to share. or maybe i'm just too lazy to go online and blog. i've been taking sewing lesson (a free one) and started some super easy sewing projects. i'm obsessed with sewing since 2010 but haven't got the guts to cut the beautiful fabrics i continue on buying. now i found a teacher, i took a baby step. 

school also a little bit overwhelming now. near the end, the paper works just keep piling up with me having no intention to touch it at all. i'm lucky to got a group of friends that are similar like me. in some way, we're kinda being pushed further from the main group of the smart people. maybe because the smart one think we're no use for them. just a view days ago my friend found out, she said 'i think the don't wanna be friends with us because we're acting strange near them'. which i reviewed. she's right. we are strange near them. we're silent. i can explain why though, we can't follow their conversation, since they decided to always talk about lessoning others. water always finds its own level. :p

this weekend my girls will come. i can't wait honestly. i haven't seen them for quite a long time. a bit paranoid that i wont be able to follow their stories and stuff but, in the end i'll just shove that off and be happy. not everyday i get a visit from them. :D