Alright, as expected, we are starting on our final leg of the holiday already, and everyone is kinda tired out from all the walking and shopping, heh. I was up by 8+, but the rest only got up like, 1 hour late. By the time we had left the hostel, it was already closer to 10am, so we arrived at Tsukiji Market only at 10.45am
*Imbal restaurant queue
*Uber filling breakfast...
By the time we arrived here, as expected there was no more action left to see. By action, Im referring to the auctions and stuff. Typically, if you come early enough, alot of the higher class restaurants will be there in the morning to purchase all the fresh fish for the day, and there will be auctions going on.
So with nothing much left other then looking around, we headed to the restaurant with the longest queue and got our breakfast there! You can see from the picture on top, it is super filling... We had trouble finishing the breakfast, but still went for it anyway, so as not to get the cook unhappy, lol. However, this bunch of aunties sitting next to us finished everything like nobodys business. All 3 of us just take all the ingredients and left quite abit of rice. That being said, it was all still super fresh. We could really, TASTE the sea in our mouths, it was that uber.
Moving on, next stop was the Pokemon center! That being said, it is actually more like just quite a big shop filled with Pokemon merchandise, such as games, key chains, soft toys etc. We saw the trailer being played on the tvs for the next pokemon movie, looked quite super, then made a few purchases, and headed on to the next area!
*Harajuku cosplay park area
*Streets of Shinjuku
*Girls in Kimonos!
Determined to not make it a trip where we only go to Akiba for all days in Tokyo, we headed out into other areas to have a look around. First stop was Harajuku! Baha had been here before and he brought us to the park where there were supposedly alot of cosplay being done there. Sadly, probably due to it being still early on a weekday + there was some construction being done in the park, nothing of major interest to see there. So we just visited some nearby streets and headed off.
Shinjuku was probably more interesting in my opinion. Even though we similarly just went around shops and looked all over the place, it being a more uptown area meant we saw alot more.... well dressed people would be a good term. Lots of girls and guys with accessories and stuff trying to look their best, so it was quite pleasing on the eyes, lol. Also, we have been seeing a few girls here and there in Kimonos ever since we entered Japan. Not sure of the exact date, but I believe there is some Coming of Age festival or something around now? Maybe Rauzes can give the correct answer? I only know Children`s day was on 5th of March.
*Table flipping game?!?!?
This was the highlight of Shinjuku probably, lol. We have been visiting arcades and have seen a few cute games here and there but this takes the cake. This game is all about slamming and flipping the table. Looking at 1 guy playing, what happens is you can choose a scenario. The one we saw went like this.
1. You are an aunty kinda fat woman, who finally decided to enter a night club the first time in your life
2. However, you got disappointed as all the hosts were old uncles who are your age
3. Worse is they are doing this crappy %#"% dance which you dont even know whats going on
4. Time to show some anger!!!
So your table is filled with champagne glasses and stuff. What you had to do is slam the table to show anger, and cause damage to property and stuff. Towards the end, you flip the table! Table goes flying along and destroys tons of stuff with it, and they show it in slow motion and replay it too, lol. Then your score is calculated by how much monetary damage you did, heh. In the end, its probably more like just a stress relief kinda game, but funny all the same.
Well, not much more was planned for Tokyo after that, so being the true Otakus as we were, we headed back to Akihabara to go walk around, as well as find stuff which we saw yesterday, but didnt buy as we hoped to get better deals. Before buying anything though, some food was needed! (It was already 4+, and our breakfast was at 11am) We headed into a kaiten-sushi place (Revolving belt sushi) in Akiba and ordered some stuff. Only counter seats were available, and we got to see the chef making our sushi fresh just as we order them. Fantastic stuff. Best part is prices are definitely comparable to Singapore prices, yet obviously tastes that much better, even though this is just one of the usual stores there. In the end, though, as we were planning to have a proper dinner later on, we decided to just have a few plates to fill our stomachs and left.
Moving on, we bought the few stuff we had seen earlier (I finally started buying stuff for myself!!) We headed into a card shop we had been at before and saw our few card players there. However, as they all seemed to be playing fun decks (Reactor deck, etc. Nothing serious), it felt weird to ask them to play. Without any further plan to walk around, me and Baha sat down and started playing, where some of them came over and we became the ones on show instead, haha. Nothing really happened though, so we just stayed there for awhile, then left after that.
*Yummy, meat!!!
We then left Akiba, and headed back to the hostel to put down our belongings. While I was there though, I asked the hostel staff about good Yakiniku places, and was directed to Gyu-kaku which was just 10 mins walk away. (Yes the same Gyu-kaku that is in Chijmes, but none of us ate that before anyway, so away we go!) Staff is seriously helpful here. Before we left the hostel, the staff actually took the initiative to print out some coupons for us to use, that got us free deserts.
The meats are totally awesome, and nothing really beats fresh grilled meats.... Yummy..... Not only that, but the meat quality was awesome and the charcoal fire was smoking hot, making our meal that much more enjoyable. Words just cannot describe the awesome tastes... While we were ordering though, the waitress asked us where we were from. When we said we were from Singapore, we got the full "Eh... Really?", as well as calling over some waitress friends to talk abit to us. We were however, generally left to enjoy our meals. Following that was our free deserts, where I got the shop`s speciality, maple syrup bread (To be grilled on the charcoal fire as well), to be eaten with vanilla ice cream.... Awesome..... Been seriously enjoying too much good food here, need to go gym when I head back to Singapore.
After dinner we headed back to our hostel, I seriously understand how people can eat hot food and feel cold after that (Due to digesting) I definitely felt the cold weather around me much more, even though the temperature shouldnt be that far off to before I entered
Anyway, that ends our day today! I realized that I have been simply talking about Akiba without really showing pictures. Which is logical, since we have been simply walking around similar areas, and almost all shops here do not allow you to take photos. As such, I decided to post a photo of some of the stuff purchased, for my friends and myself so far below. Till tomorrow`s final post then, bye bee!!!
*I got my Hoi Hoi-san! Woohoo!
Seijin no Hi is during January.
ReplyDeleteMy best guess is Japanese university graduation ceremony.
Or maybe it's the upcoming White Day. lol.