Tokyo Day 12 - 28 Nov 12

Today is our last day in Tokyo. :(
So bright and early we went exploring outside our hotel

Walked all the way to Ueno Park, exploring the parts which we missed the last time.

The above, a locomotive, blue whale and a missile launcher can be found at the National Museum of Nature and Science within Ueno Park itself.

In Japan, metal or plastic trays are provided for you to place your money, unlike in Singapore where you hand the money directly to the cashier.

Dropped by Andersen again for breakfast.

Picture of our hotel Mitsui Garden Ueno Hotel. You can see the Sky Tree in the background as Ueno is rather near to Asakusa.

Decided to go to Ameyoko Market for our last minute shopping.

In Japan, it is common to find display like this outside of shops complete with fake plastic replica. Most also has a description and sometimes the prices are displayed.

Shop selling tidbits.

Fruit stall.

Seafood display of crabs. The front crabs look like hairy crab!

Tea is something you might want to consider getting as a souvenir for  your friends. They do offer you sample so you can try before buying. Do ask for recommendations from the friendly stall owner.

This is the stall where you can get tidbits at cheap prices. The GPS coordinates are 35.708582,139.774412. Entering the coordinates into Google Map will show you the location.

Just opposite is this Takiyoki stall. Cheap and good.

Takoyaki   8nos for 350 Yen   Rating: 4.5/5

 

Please help yourself to the sauce and flakes.

This is the alley leading to the tidbits and takoyaki stalls. Note the stall on the left selling chirashi which is basically raw seafood on rice.

More stalls selling seafood

The fruits here are not cheap but definitely worth trying. Really very sweet.

You can see many of these crane game machine aka UFO catcher.

 More stalls and in narrow alleys they also sell clothes.

 

Artists with their wares on display outside Keisei Ueno Station

 

 

More CC Lemon drinks while taking the Keisei Skyliner to the airport

At the airport, you can still buy your Kit Kats, Royce Chocolate, Tokyo Banana at this shop. The Royce Chocolate is definitely worth buying. Regret did not buy more.

Tokyo Day 11 - 27 Nov 12

Normally for breakfast, we'll buy bread and stuff from convenience stores. This morning, decided to eat at Yoshinoya which is opened 24 hours and nearby our hotel.

Grill Beef Don   Rating: 4.5/5

 Loved the food here at Yoshinoya. They were not stingy with the beef. You can really taste the smokiness of the grilled beef and the sweetness of the onions added to the flavor. Just wishing that they could have replicated this is Singapore.

Today we'll be going to Nikko, and we got the All Nikko Pass at 4400 Yen per person.

Took the rapid train from Asakusa Station to Nikko Station. From there, utilizing the Pass, we then boarded a bus to Shinkyo Bridge, just look out for Shinkyo stop.

To access the bridge, you need to pay an entrance fee. We did not and chose to photograph the bridge from the outside. It's one of the three most beautiful bridges in Japan and listed in the UNESCO World Heritage sites.

From there we walked a short distance to Rinnoji temple. We bought a combination ticket and this allows us to enter Toshogu Shrine, Futarasan Shrine, Taiyuinbyo as well.

The 5 storey pagoda stands at the entrance to Toshogu Shrine.

The above 2 pictures shows the most famous carving of Toshogu Shrine. Located at the stable area, it shows 3 monkeys who hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil.

The Toshogu is the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu who ruled. He's the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan for more than 250 years. With it's numerous beautiful carvings and structure as well as historical importance, it's no surprise that this is on the UNESCO World Heritage list as well.

More beautiful carvings ordaining the roof of the Toshogu.

We then proceed to visit Futaransan Shrine and Taiyuinbyo, before taking a bus to Kegan Waterfalls.

Stopped by this restaurant for our lunch.

This restaurant does not have an English menu, so we had to resort to pointing at the display outside the shop to show what we want. The entire meal cost us 1850 Yen.

Kegon Waterfalls is the most famous falls in Nikko amongst it's 48 waterfalls. At a height of 97m, it can reached by taking an elevator down from ground level.

Nikko is high above sea level and is therefore very cold so those coming here please do take note and wear the appropriate clothing in order to not freeze your butt off!

From Kegon Falls, we walked to Chuzenji. As the wind was very strong, coupled with the cold, you can hardly see anyone walking around, save for us 2.

We took a bus back to Nikko Station.

Taiyaki   Rating: 4/5

 

Exiting Asakusa Station, in search of food, we came across this shop selling Taiyaki which is fish shaped pastry with red bean.

Paper apron for eating your curry udon. How considerate!

Curry Udon with onion and tofu   1250 Yen   Rating: 4/5

Curry Dipped Udon   1270 Yen   Rating: 3.5/5

Went to Konaya at Ueno for our dinner. Konaya is famous for it's curry Udon. Order the curry udon in bowl instead of the dip ones.

Mille Crepe Cake   340 Yen   Rating: 4/5

Green Tea Mousse Cake   400 Yen   Rating: 3.5/5

Drop by a pastry shop to get our dessert. Love their packaging, adding dry ice to ensure the cake is in pristine condition when you are ready to eat it.