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.