Rise and shine for day two! This was breakfast that I bought from 7-11 the night before. Haha, I can't help but take a photo of it because it tasted so yummy! It's like those Japanese sponge cheese cake. It wasn't too cheesy neither was it too... floury. I wish I bought more back to Singapore HAHA.
So today we set out to do some shopping! We walked to towards the centre of Shinjuku where all their major department stores congregate. Isetan was the first stop since it's ten minutes of walking time away from our hotel.
It was raining lightly that morning.
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| Pretty decorations. |
HAHA pardon me for these few shots. I'm also very amazed at their toilets. I've heard of their toilets being very clean and that it comes with a function that plays music while you pee so that your pee sound won't be heard! Japanese culture is like that, they consider it rude and ungracious when people hear your pee sound! Look, you can even adjust the volume of the music!
The toilets in Isetan are particularly atas haha. So many full length mirrors around plus the chandeliers and all.
This is the make-up area. I realise it's quite common for Japanese public toilets (like in shopping centres) to have one corner for people to sit down and touch on their makeup. Haha I mean with the chairs and all that.
After walking a few floors of the department store, we realise everything is so pricey and expensive! Even their own labels are like S$100 + or more, so it was boring for me. -.- So we head down to their basement food hall, as I heard it's well known of department stores in Japan.
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| Look at those cakes! |
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| Sashimi platters |
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| Quicheeee :O |
We walked out of Isetan and down the shopping street, and there's still rather big Uniqlo store. Actually Uniqlo is very common in Japan, especially major cities like Tokyo. After all it's their local label haha. Went in and bought more winter clothes haha, since it's much cheaper there than in Singapore.
And this is where we had lunch! It's at the subway station and actually it's rather common for such big stations and interchanges to have shops and eateries there, quite like our City Link Mall kind of place.
What I find interesting about most Japanese eateries (well the more affordable ones) is that you order through a machine. You insert the money into the machine and press the button that states the food item you want to order. Then you'll get a ticket (below) which you hand over to the cook. Another surprising thing is that your food will be ready in 3 minutes!
Since this is our first time experiencing this, we were obviously quite lost, furthermore everything is in Japanese haha. But we had a little help from the staff and after some mix-and-match of the words we managed to place our orders correctly. xD
As you can see from above, such eateries are small and they have a mix of standing room and places to sit. So I guess these places are for people who are in a rush where they just eat and leave. It kinda makes sense considering how Japanese people (like the working population) always seem to be busy and people place an importance on punctuality.
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| Beef Don |
Next we took the subway to Ueno Park. It's a big park that houses a few museums and the Ueno Zoo, Japan's oldest zoo. But since we're not that interested in their museums (considering how most stuff will be in Japanese) and their zoo, we just went there to look-see-look-see haha.
I like the picture above! It's so colourful; you can see red, orange and green leaves!
We walked the grounds for a while then realise there's nothing much to see there since we're not going to their museums or zoo heh. So we left and just outside the park there is a shopping street! Haha, so yeah we just walked and window shopped again.
We bought a kebab to try since we saw a few people eating this too.
That shopping street was quite short so we went to Akiharaba (above) after that. Since it's winter time, the sun sets early at around 5? Haha it looks like it's 8pm already right. Anyway Akiharaba is a district known for its electronics goods and gaming places. Definitely the to-go place for guys! This time my father and brother were more excited than us girls and I'm happy for them luh, after all they were bored at the past shopping streets...
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| Dinner at another usual Japanese eatery. |
After dinner we decided to give the guys some more time to look around at the electronics etc while my mum, sister and I just hang around and look at stuff that interest us. Haha, we went into this huge store that sells mainly electronics and household items but there's still section for stationery. Given that I still love stationery shopping, I stayed there for almost an hour looking at their pens and papers and files and whatnot hahaha! I mean we're in Japan, the place where many of pens come from! Haha, like Pilot and Uniball. And they have pens that are not sold in Singapore! Lolol, it was also a bit cheaper so I bought some pens and refills home... DON'T LAUGH. Haha ok I'm laughing at myself too! xD I see stationery and I get excited okay... I know I won't be using pens much for the next few months but... stock up for uni? :D Hahaha.
So yep that's pretty much my second day. Mainly shopping heh.
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