Friday, November 17, 2006
Before I continue with the final chapter in my trip to Tokyo, I'd like to take a moment and point out that today, on November 17, 2006, Jeff Buckley would've turned 40, if not for the tragic drowning accident in Memphis on May 29, 1997. For those who would like to do something to commemorate his life, make a Golden Promise in your life, and celebrate Jeff :) He has been, and will always be an inspiration to all.
Day 4 (June 21, 2006)
This time, we dragged our lazy asses out of bed by 8am. We had to. We were heading back to Singapore this afternoon, and we still had too much to see! But would we be able to do it?!
We dragged ourselves to the Girandole Restaurant for our last breakfast in this grand hotel. We didn't want to drag ourselves down, so we had a light breakfast of eggs, cold cuts and cheese. Topped off with 3 very refreshing cups of coffee (Jesus, the Japanese really know how to make an amazing cuppa), we were ready for the day ahead.
Our first stop? The Meiji Shrine, right in the heart of Harajuku. Though there were a variety of other shrines located around Tokyo, the Meiji Jingu Shrine was known to be the oldest, and also, one of the biggest. We walked down to Shinjuku station, and spent a couple of puzzled minutes looking at the ticketing system. In the end, we decided to go the main office, and purchase the tickets from the nice looking gentleman behind the counter (who thankfully, spoke enough English to tell us which station to walk to). By the by, a warning to you all: If you're in any Tokyo train station during the peak periods, remember to wear protective padding. The commuters are vicious. They take a very direct brisk walk when they get in and out of the station. This man that appeared to be in his 50s slammed right into us, and just kept on walking as if he hadn't made any contact with us! Mind you, my shoulder was still sore during that train ride. I don't think they do it on purpose though. It seems more like their culture there. When in the city, keep moving :)
The train ride was quick, and it was a relief to find out that the Meiji Shrine was right next to the Harajuku station when we got out (Thanks to the middle-aged black guy in a weird yellow spandex top and MC Hammer pants selling umbrellas outside, who also spoke perfectly fluent Japanese. Honestly, do you really think I could've made up something as elaborate as that?). It was already close to 10am, so there was virtually no one around. It had been drizzling the entire morning, so the air was cool and damp. A long, wide gravel path lead us straight down to the temple, which was a large wooden majestic affair. It was incredibly serene in there, where all you could really hear was the sound of the gravel beneath your feat, and the soft tap-tap of raindrops on the leaves. We took a moment to soak it all up, and take a variety of pictures. We said a final prayer and paid our respects, and then made our way out.
Next stop, the highly talked about shops that make up Harajuku! It was only around 10-ish in the am, so not many stores were open at the time. The road we were walking along seemed kinda dead really. That was before we came upon Takeshita Street. How do I describe it? Well, you guys know what Bugis Market looks like right? And how large it is? Well, for Takeshita Street, triple it. It's a narrow single lane for people to walk up and around in, with shops all along the sides, which, after going in, opened up to bigger and more stores sometimes. This was where the youth of Tokyo came to shop. I'm telling you this place had a shop for everything! Denise and I were quite impressed by the fact that there was even a costume shop for dogs. Ever envisioned seeing Lassie in Gothic lolita style? Well, this place gave you that chance :)
We walked and snapped pictures like crazy. It seemed like this colourful alley wouldn't end, and honestly? We didn't want it to. I lost count of the number of sneaker shops I had to tear myself away from. I love my sneaks *sighs* What's cool about a lot of these shops is that everything was original. There weren't any fake brands or knock-offs here in Tokyo. Teenagers here wouldn't go for that sorta thing. You know what was cooler? A lot of these places also offer the option to personalise the gear you buy. Ever wanted your name stitched in fine style across the back of your Nike Air Force Ones? :) There was only one way to describe the shopping along this street: Mouth-watering. If you thought the shops were weird though, you really have to check out the people wearing them. If you think it looks peculiar in pictures, nothing quite beats seeing them in real life :) And if trends were anything to go by, then apparently the trendy thing to be eating right now are crepes. There were a variety of those stalls just littering the sides of Takeshita Street.
We finally reached the end of the street. Only to find out that it opened up to a main road. And along the main roads were a staggering number of shops. We had barely tickled, much less scraped, the tip of the iceberg walking along Takeshita Street...
Since we had a little time left, we decided we would cross the street and inspect what looked like a continuing alley on the other side. There weren't as many shops there, but they had quaint little homes inside. What stood out for us in that alley was this old-school melon green Volkswagen Van. It was really well maintainted, and looked like it had never left the 60s. So with that, we turned around and headed back to the train station.
Wow, looks like we had timed it just right. We were back in Shinjuku and walking towards our hotel, with an hour or so before the bus brought us to the airport. We bumped into the Polish girls, Joasia (pronounced "Yo-Ush-Ah") and Karalina (pronounced "Ka-Rah-Lee-Nah") who were one of the pairs of contest winners we had managed to have a decent conversation with during our stay. Apparently, their flight back was in the evening, so they were just starting to head out to do some last-minute sight-seeing. We hugged our good-byes and wished each other well :) Since it was already around lunch time, we decided to grab some food in the ever-trustworthy basement. We decided on this tempura place, since we realised that we hadn't had any since coming here. Sadly, this was one of the few times we were disappointed. Though it looked great, the tempura wasn't all that appetizing on a whole. We both felt that they hadn't deep fried it proper as it felt kinda soft, and it lacked a certain freshness to the taste buds.
We made our way up to our room and finished off our packing. We decided to give a tin of Bengawan Solo biscuits and a Thank-You note to the organisers from The Promotional Edge who had planned such an amazing program for us, and who had prepared the additional prizes. So, to sum up the rest of the trip, we said our good byes, we got on the bus, arrived at the airport and checked in our bags, had one last meal (which completely made up for the disappointing tempura earlier), and got up into the plane. I'll admit right now, it was painful to leave. There might have even have been tears involved. I'm not saying :) There was something about Tokyo that I really enjoyed. I'm not sure if it was the incredible balance they had with their culture and heritage, even in a modern city like Tokyo, or whether it was how colourful and interesting the people and the places were, or whether it was just being given five-star treatment for the four short days we were there. Personally though? I'd say it was all of the above :)
THE END
Epilogue
Oh hell no that wasn't quite the end! :) Here are a few interesting developments that occurred soon after we came back. Thanks to Germaine, Lime magazine caught on to my trip, and asked if I would like to do a short article about my meeting with Tom Cruise (which I agreed to write). What was cool about that was that they liked the article so much, that by the time you've read this, I've already gone up to Malaysia to interview the Pussycat Dolls, and more recently, Stacie Orrico when she was in town. Come on, how cool is that? :) I wonder if it's 'cause Tom passed me some of his mojo when he shook my hand...
Remember the Polish girl Joasia that I had mentioned earlier? Well, come December 7, 2006, she'll be here in Singapore! How cool is that?! She's going back-packing in Myanmar and Thailand, before swinging by here as a side-trip. She'll be here for a good three days, and will be bunking at Denise's place for the duration. We're really excited, since we've never had a friend from overseas come visit before :)
So that's it. Really. The End. Granted, a 4 day trip took more than 4 months to write, but what's important is that it's finally written :) You guys aren't going to believe all the other stuff that's been happening here for the last couple of months, but that, is another story :)
Day 4 (June 21, 2006)
This time, we dragged our lazy asses out of bed by 8am. We had to. We were heading back to Singapore this afternoon, and we still had too much to see! But would we be able to do it?!
We dragged ourselves to the Girandole Restaurant for our last breakfast in this grand hotel. We didn't want to drag ourselves down, so we had a light breakfast of eggs, cold cuts and cheese. Topped off with 3 very refreshing cups of coffee (Jesus, the Japanese really know how to make an amazing cuppa), we were ready for the day ahead.
Our first stop? The Meiji Shrine, right in the heart of Harajuku. Though there were a variety of other shrines located around Tokyo, the Meiji Jingu Shrine was known to be the oldest, and also, one of the biggest. We walked down to Shinjuku station, and spent a couple of puzzled minutes looking at the ticketing system. In the end, we decided to go the main office, and purchase the tickets from the nice looking gentleman behind the counter (who thankfully, spoke enough English to tell us which station to walk to). By the by, a warning to you all: If you're in any Tokyo train station during the peak periods, remember to wear protective padding. The commuters are vicious. They take a very direct brisk walk when they get in and out of the station. This man that appeared to be in his 50s slammed right into us, and just kept on walking as if he hadn't made any contact with us! Mind you, my shoulder was still sore during that train ride. I don't think they do it on purpose though. It seems more like their culture there. When in the city, keep moving :)
The train ride was quick, and it was a relief to find out that the Meiji Shrine was right next to the Harajuku station when we got out (Thanks to the middle-aged black guy in a weird yellow spandex top and MC Hammer pants selling umbrellas outside, who also spoke perfectly fluent Japanese. Honestly, do you really think I could've made up something as elaborate as that?). It was already close to 10am, so there was virtually no one around. It had been drizzling the entire morning, so the air was cool and damp. A long, wide gravel path lead us straight down to the temple, which was a large wooden majestic affair. It was incredibly serene in there, where all you could really hear was the sound of the gravel beneath your feat, and the soft tap-tap of raindrops on the leaves. We took a moment to soak it all up, and take a variety of pictures. We said a final prayer and paid our respects, and then made our way out.
Next stop, the highly talked about shops that make up Harajuku! It was only around 10-ish in the am, so not many stores were open at the time. The road we were walking along seemed kinda dead really. That was before we came upon Takeshita Street. How do I describe it? Well, you guys know what Bugis Market looks like right? And how large it is? Well, for Takeshita Street, triple it. It's a narrow single lane for people to walk up and around in, with shops all along the sides, which, after going in, opened up to bigger and more stores sometimes. This was where the youth of Tokyo came to shop. I'm telling you this place had a shop for everything! Denise and I were quite impressed by the fact that there was even a costume shop for dogs. Ever envisioned seeing Lassie in Gothic lolita style? Well, this place gave you that chance :)
We walked and snapped pictures like crazy. It seemed like this colourful alley wouldn't end, and honestly? We didn't want it to. I lost count of the number of sneaker shops I had to tear myself away from. I love my sneaks *sighs* What's cool about a lot of these shops is that everything was original. There weren't any fake brands or knock-offs here in Tokyo. Teenagers here wouldn't go for that sorta thing. You know what was cooler? A lot of these places also offer the option to personalise the gear you buy. Ever wanted your name stitched in fine style across the back of your Nike Air Force Ones? :) There was only one way to describe the shopping along this street: Mouth-watering. If you thought the shops were weird though, you really have to check out the people wearing them. If you think it looks peculiar in pictures, nothing quite beats seeing them in real life :) And if trends were anything to go by, then apparently the trendy thing to be eating right now are crepes. There were a variety of those stalls just littering the sides of Takeshita Street.
We finally reached the end of the street. Only to find out that it opened up to a main road. And along the main roads were a staggering number of shops. We had barely tickled, much less scraped, the tip of the iceberg walking along Takeshita Street...
Since we had a little time left, we decided we would cross the street and inspect what looked like a continuing alley on the other side. There weren't as many shops there, but they had quaint little homes inside. What stood out for us in that alley was this old-school melon green Volkswagen Van. It was really well maintainted, and looked like it had never left the 60s. So with that, we turned around and headed back to the train station.
Wow, looks like we had timed it just right. We were back in Shinjuku and walking towards our hotel, with an hour or so before the bus brought us to the airport. We bumped into the Polish girls, Joasia (pronounced "Yo-Ush-Ah") and Karalina (pronounced "Ka-Rah-Lee-Nah") who were one of the pairs of contest winners we had managed to have a decent conversation with during our stay. Apparently, their flight back was in the evening, so they were just starting to head out to do some last-minute sight-seeing. We hugged our good-byes and wished each other well :) Since it was already around lunch time, we decided to grab some food in the ever-trustworthy basement. We decided on this tempura place, since we realised that we hadn't had any since coming here. Sadly, this was one of the few times we were disappointed. Though it looked great, the tempura wasn't all that appetizing on a whole. We both felt that they hadn't deep fried it proper as it felt kinda soft, and it lacked a certain freshness to the taste buds.
We made our way up to our room and finished off our packing. We decided to give a tin of Bengawan Solo biscuits and a Thank-You note to the organisers from The Promotional Edge who had planned such an amazing program for us, and who had prepared the additional prizes. So, to sum up the rest of the trip, we said our good byes, we got on the bus, arrived at the airport and checked in our bags, had one last meal (which completely made up for the disappointing tempura earlier), and got up into the plane. I'll admit right now, it was painful to leave. There might have even have been tears involved. I'm not saying :) There was something about Tokyo that I really enjoyed. I'm not sure if it was the incredible balance they had with their culture and heritage, even in a modern city like Tokyo, or whether it was how colourful and interesting the people and the places were, or whether it was just being given five-star treatment for the four short days we were there. Personally though? I'd say it was all of the above :)
THE END
Epilogue
Oh hell no that wasn't quite the end! :) Here are a few interesting developments that occurred soon after we came back. Thanks to Germaine, Lime magazine caught on to my trip, and asked if I would like to do a short article about my meeting with Tom Cruise (which I agreed to write). What was cool about that was that they liked the article so much, that by the time you've read this, I've already gone up to Malaysia to interview the Pussycat Dolls, and more recently, Stacie Orrico when she was in town. Come on, how cool is that? :) I wonder if it's 'cause Tom passed me some of his mojo when he shook my hand...
Remember the Polish girl Joasia that I had mentioned earlier? Well, come December 7, 2006, she'll be here in Singapore! How cool is that?! She's going back-packing in Myanmar and Thailand, before swinging by here as a side-trip. She'll be here for a good three days, and will be bunking at Denise's place for the duration. We're really excited, since we've never had a friend from overseas come visit before :)
So that's it. Really. The End. Granted, a 4 day trip took more than 4 months to write, but what's important is that it's finally written :) You guys aren't going to believe all the other stuff that's been happening here for the last couple of months, but that, is another story :)
