First Meals

I just realised that I haven't started any post on what we ate while vacationing in Japan last year.  How remiss of me! About time to start posting food photos, in between travel stories. No?

First meal, upon arriving to Japan. A late supper bought at a konbini. The melon pan was for Raimie. Plus a cheap 105yen 1ltr pack grape (I think) drink.

First breakfast in Japan - we would eat this type of breakfast often as this is what is being offered/served at Toyoko Inn, the hotel chain that we like to stay at (or is it in?) Though I have to admit, I can only last a week eating onigiris before I start wanting only bread for my breakfast! Thankfully, they offer those too.

It's easy to spot a foreigner at the breakfast hall at this hotel. By foreigner I mean Asian tourists and not Westerners. Due to the limited space, Japanese guests don't usually linger at the breakfast table and eat just enough - 3 onigiris, some side dishes and a cup of tea and they usually don't make a second trip to the buffet table. Us foreigners sit around, hog the breakfast table and eat to last us until dinner! I kid you not! "It's free so might as well scarf everything and get value for money for it" mentality should totally be left behind back home, lah...

Zaini and I, who are foreign tourists ourselves would scoff at these people and mutter "sheesh, these foreign tourists. Why can't they learn to be like the Japanese". A case of  being a Japanese-wannabe? Visited Japan way too many times?

First lunch in Japan was at Shin-Yokohama Station. Nothing too adventurous; we went to Tenya and ate tempura, ate rice, ate some udon too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know there's proper name for those but I'm lazy to put it down.

These, our first ekiben. Eaten on our journey from Shin-Yokohama to Hakata Station, taking the shinkansen. Guess which one is Raimie's?

Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse

Another post of man-made structure.

After two posts on the Tokyo Sky Tree, I'm back on track with the much-delayed trip report posts that I should have done right after our return from Japan last December. I got side-tracked, I guess. A LOT! heh

There's Landmark Tower in Yokohama and another building of note is :

Yokohama Red Brick warehouses which was built in 1911. It is facing the Yokohama Port and consisted of two wings. The former shipping warehouses are now renovated to house fancy restaurants and stores.

The first wing houses galleries and there's a hall for concerts. The second wing comprises of stores that includes a beer restaurant and Motion Blue Yokohama.

When we were there, the place was busily in the midst of preparing to put a skating rink, for Xmas celebration. It would've been nice to spend an evening there once the venue is set up, wouldn't it?

With the Cosmo Clock 21 (that's the ferris wheel) and Landmark Tower in the background. The adjacent park known as the Red Brick Park is a nice place to spend a day out relaxing.

It didn't look like it through these two photos, but the place is a popular spot. 

 

We had no interest in the restaurants or shops so rather than going inside the building, we chose to stay out and took a breather enjoying the port's view. Raimie was too tired to care where he's sitting! Mommy had a bit of energy left and couldn't sit still! LOL

There are two other places that I know that has red brick buildings in Japan. One is the Tokyo Station and the other is Hakodate's Red Brick Warehouse.

The Landmark

Okay... I look totally ugly in this photo but this is the only (almost) full photo of Yokohama Landmark Tower I have.

It's Japan tallest building, standing at 296metres and is the third tallest structure in Japan after Tokyo Sky Tree and Tokyo Tower. There is an observatory on the 69th floor aptly named the Sky Garden and the observatory is the highest observatory in Japan. 100 yen admission to the observatory, which is really a minimal fee, to experience being so high up in the sky - at 273metres to be exact! For free access to an observatory, you can opt for the Tokyo Metropolitan Building in Shinjuku (its observatory is located on the 45th floor on both towers).

Anyways, if you do go up - have fun riding the second fastest elevator there and whoosh up from ground floor to the 69th floor in 40 seconds!

We didn't go up to 69th floor, which was a pity but hey! That's an excuse for another trip there, don't you think? Well, actually I don't really any excuse for a return visit to Japan. After all, I've been making all sorts of excuses to return for the last 8 trips. LOL

Totally unrelated to Yokohama or the Landmark Tower  -gah! It's March! What did I do/achieve in the past two months? @.@

Cover Story - Yokohama

and random stuff found under our feet walking in Yokohama

The real Nippon Maru is located a few hundred metres away from where I found this manhole cover. The ship is now on permanent display in front of the Yokohama Maritime Museum.

The Yokohama Bay Bridge; a cable-stayed bridge opened in 1989. Can't help but think of our very own Penang Bridge when I see this.

By the way, I managed to get a few people at the office excited about entering the Penang Bridge International Marathon this year but I have yet managed to convince my own family to at least drive over to Penang and be there in Nov 17 -19 this year!

p.s. this is another series I've got, after Autumn Reminiscences and the ongoing On The Run series. ^^

On The Run - Yokohama

After my Autumn Reminiscence series, I thought I'd start on another. And it's something that I love doing and that's running, folks. Combine running and venturing out in a strange city = seeing things I probably won't be seeing otherwise.

On this "On The Run" Series, I'm just sharing photos I took while out running in a few places in Japan. ^^

My first running experience  in Japan was in Yokohama. We stayed in a hotel just a few steps away from Shin-Yokohama Station and also quite near to Nissan Stadium.

We were going to take a train at 9.00am to Yufuin that morning so I needed to do my run early, to make time for rest, shower and breakfast. I woke up at 5.30am and got ready by 6.00am. Hubby had kindly accompanied me walking to the nearby park located in front of Nissan Stadium but he didn't linger for long. For good reason because it was drizzling when we made our way there. Since I am already up and alert, I decided to do a short run rather than going back to our hotel. Zaini on the other hand, after deciding that it was probably safe to leave me there alone, went back to the warmth of our hotel room.

If I'm not mistaken,  I was running alongside the riverbank park of the Toriyama River. I wish the sun had risen much earlier but it was still dark after I finished my run at 7.00am.

Nissan Stadium in an almost darkness state. While doing my run there, saw a few runners doing their morning run too. See, I wasn't the only one who would do this on a cold, rainy morning. ^^

And this, the West Gate Bridge from Nissan Stadium for those heading to Shin-Yokohama Station. I made a few stop while doing a couple of laps there, to try take a good photo of the area with my compact camera. As you can see, didn't do much of a job at it. Ah well. C'est la vie.

and the last lap, on the gravelly path by the river back to our hotel. Next time, if we come back to this part of the world, I am going to take day photos of the area (and of course, do a bit of running again).

Still, if not for my running shoes, I would not have seen and experience this view of Japan during my trip. And I'm so happy I did! :)

Autumn Reminiscence - Yokohama

"Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower"

                                                                                     
   Albert Camus

Yokohama - Japan's second largest city.

We took a stroll around the Minato Mirai 21 which is a seaside urban area in Central Yokohama one fine Autumn morning.

 

 

 

and witnessed our very first autumn sights after 8 consecutive years visiting Japan. First experience is always memorable.

On the last day we were in Japan, the leaves left their tree and settled on the pavement.

Just like the leaves leaving their trees, leave we must back to our home in Kuala Lumpur.

And as with the seasons, return we will one day to Japan - that I am sure of. ^^

Pucuk pauh, delima batu
Anak sembilang di tapak tangan
Sungguh jauh, negeri satu
Hilang di mata, di hati jangan

a Malay pantun for lost love, but I think it is also apt for me and my "love" for Japan. ^^

translation:
A ruby, a mango shoot
A tiny catfish on my palm
The world is one, tho far to boot
When out of sight, keep memory warm.

Do read previous posts of this Autumn Reminiscence series while you are here visiting.
Autumn Reminiscence - Lake Kinrinko
Autumn Reminiscence - Shikoku Mura
Autumn Reminiscence - Nara
Autumn Reminiscence - Ritsurin Koen
Autumn Reminiscence - Ueno Park
Autumn Reminiscence - Yanaka Cemetery

2011 Trip Recap, Part II

Still not too late to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR, right? あけましておめでとうございます again! :)

A continuation from my earlier post, recapping our trip to Japan made a few weeks ago in Dec 2011.

From Takamatsu in Shikoku, we made our way to Honshu Island on Day 8. Visited Nara for a few hours, stopped at Kyoto Station for a while, walked around Namba before finally calling it a day by boarding a sleeping train from Osaka to Tokyo. A pretty productive day, if I say so myself. ^^

Arrived Tokyo on Day 9 at 7.00am and proceeded on with more train journeys, all the way to Hakodate and view & touch some snow. Not to mention eating some awesome seafood there.

Stood in awe in front of the Kamakura Daibutsu on Day 10. It was raining the whole day we were there so had to re-adjust our plan but that's OK. There's always next time, right? ^^

Day 11 was spent with our most gracious host that day, Minor and his wife. It didn't rain that day, but it was COLD! Brrrr....

Day 12 was a sunny day, lucky for us. We took a stroll by the Sumida River, walking from our hotel in Senzoku and pretty soon found ourselves in Kinshicho.

 Went to Ogawamachi on Day 13 for a spot of shopping

On Day 14, we started our day at Kappabashi. Then, we made our way to Ueno and visited Yanaka Cemetery and stumbled into a few more interesting sites along the way. We eventually stopped to rest at Nippori before making our way back to Ueno.

The last day of our 2011 trip saw us visiting Yokohama again. No concrete plans of going sight-seeing anywhere so we just meander around the area before finally making our way to Haneda Airport and boarded our AirAsia X flight.

A totally awesome trip. We got to see the sights we wanted and more. A few we didn't make it but we are not totally bummed over it. As I see it, that's an excuse to make a return visit, if we need any. xD

2011 Trip Recap, Part I

Firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! あけましておめでとうございます *^-^* Hope that 2012 will be a good year for everyone. 

To celebrate the new year, a look back at 2011's trip to Japan which we made and ended just a few weeks ago. Hopefully, there'll be more Japan trips for us in the future! (Although we *agreed* to take a break from visiting Japan in 2012 & 2013). 

We went sightseeing in Yokohama on our second day in Japan, the first day being too late to do anything other than checking-in and sleeping in a hotel near Haneda Airport for us.

From Yokohama, we made our way to Yufuin. Checked-in at a pretty cool cottage and had two baths all to ourselves. 

The first half of Day 4 was spent sightseeing in Yufuin. Pity it rained after I had my morning run there because after we checked-out, we were unable to travel much around the area because it was a tad cold with the rain. But we made it to Lake Kinrinko and walked around the town area.

Day 5 was spent at Huis Ten Bosch, feeling like we were not in Japan but in Holland albeit Japanese speaking part of Holland. LOL

The evening was spent with a blogging friend, Hanny who lives in Kitakyushu, making and eating takoyaki with her two boys.

From Hakata, we made our way to Shikoku Island on Day 6 of our trip. Lrong was in Takamatsu that day and had kindly suggested to meet for lunch but as luck would have it, we were unable to secure any early train seats reservations and with the one we had, we arrived too late to meet-up for lunch.

So instead of heading straight to Takamatsu as planned earlier, we made our way to Matsuyama first. Walked from Matsuyama Station to Dogo Onsen and stopped whenever we see nice/interesting sites; which I will post more of soon.

Day 7 was spent visiting Shikoku Mura and Ritsurin Koen and the evening was spent walking around the port area and what is touted to be the biggest shopping street in Japan.

There were rainy and gloomy days when we were there but through Day 7, we were lucky that the rain didn't spoil our plan much. How were the days after that? Stay tuned!

Day 8 - Day 14 recap soon!