Enjoyable Time At The Tetsudō Hakubutsukan (Railway Museum)

The Tetsudō Hakubutsukan or the Railway Museum is an interactive museum. There are plenty of exhibits that can teach us about all things railway and how it evolves throughout history.

The Museum had different zones for exhibits; History, Learning, Entrance, Park, Collection and North Wing.

For us, after spending a grand time checking out the trains on display, going into each of them, we went to the Learning Hall.

Raimie had fun checking out all the exhibits and being a train driver at the Learning Hall. Children will not be bored spending a day here, that I can tell you.

Plenty of interactive display to show how trains work so it was such a learning experience not only for children but for adults too!

There's a mini operating train area outside that you can ride for 200yen. We took the free mini Hayate train instead. The staff was sporting enough to pose for photos with visitors.

There were a souvenir shop and restaurants inside the museum but they were so packed with people, we decided against buying anything.

Why is it that souvenir shops in Japan are always so packed and Japanese shop for souvenirs like there's no tomorrow?

To Tetsudō Hakubutsukan (Railway Museum)

The Tetsudō Hakubutsukan or the Railway Museum is definitely a must visit for anyone interested in the trains and railways. We went to the now closed Transportation Museum a few years back and enjoyed looking at all the train exhibits there, so we were really looking forward to a visit to this Railway Museum.

The Railway Museum was built in Onari, Saitama City as the centerpiece of the JR East 20th Anniversary Memorial Project.

Paying our entrance fees using our Suica and Passmo cards. We also used our cards as our entry passes. So easy, convenient and avoiding wastage in issuing new cards or passes. Entrance fee was 1,000yen for adult, 500yen for Elementary, Junior High and High School Students and 200yen for children 3 years and above.

The centrepiece of the exhibition. 35 real train cars, including the six-car Imperial train form the primary exhibit. Almost all the trains exhibited there can be entered, so you get a feeling of taking all those trains. A truly exciting day for train nuts like us. You can bet we went looking at every single train on exhibit. On the first floor, you can learn a little bit of history of how the train evolve in Japan. Do note that while there are labels of the exhibits in English, none of the explanation were. But don't let that mar you from enjoying going through an important part (I feel) of Japan history here.

More photos of us enjoying our visit there next.

Another Dinner At Yayoi-Ken

Another dinner a Yayoi-Ken for us. This is a great place for budget conscious people who want good food at reasonable price. And you can find one almost everywhere. Everywhere we've been to, at least.Zaini's saba misoni. It had a rather sweet taste to it, so it might not be for everyone's taste. Certainly wasn't my favourite.

My shima hokke (horse mackerel) for dinner. The portion was huge. I had so much leftover despite sharing it with Raimie but luckily Zaini is always on hand to help both of us finish our food. This dish was really, really yummy. I ordered the same one a few times afterwards.

After a few days in Japan, I was beginning to miss spicy food. Worry not! There's shichimi (seven flavoured chilli pepper) available. I liberally sprinkled the shichimi on my rice. And believe it or not, I was missing my dose of kimchi too. Good news for kimchi lovers. Kimchis are readily and easily bought at most supermarkets in Tokyo.

Walking past a couple of supermarkets to our hotel, we can't resist buying some fruits there. Four huge nectarines for just 580yen. These nectarines would cost a bomb in Malaysia!

One beauty of staying in Asakusa, apart from being a quiet area was that the place has a very residential feel to it. This include easily accessible supermarkets at almost every corner which allowed us to buy our fruits, drinks, snacks and even packed food with ease. Buying stuff at these supermarkets was much more cheaper than hitting the convenience stores!

"Makan" Club Outing - Lunch At Pasta Zanmai

Me and a few friends at the office have this so-called club that we call the "Makan" (which means Eat in English) Club. We contribute a certain amount of money each month and we try to arrange for a Makan outing every few months or so. Last month, we decided to go to Pasta Zanmai. I duly got a few Panora Magazines because there were discount coupons inside that we can use at the restaurant.

The gang, 10 of us and growing...

Happy faces with our respective orders. Most of us went for the set lunch that day which are a good value and we shared pots of tea. A pot of tea (RM3) is refillable and they do give extra cups for us to drink.

I had a busy time that day because almost everyone in the gang asked me about the menu and the food there. LOL

I was pleasantly surprised that the "old" staff were back at the restaurant. I ranted about the bad service Zaini and I received when we were last at Pasta Zanmai, with their batch of new, clueless staff in the restaurant and had not been back to this place ever since that visit.

Not only that our waiter (the cute one that I like too was back! Hehehe) was patient enough taking our orders - my friends are an opinionated bunch and they do like to query about almost everything, they obliged our request to split our bill 4 ways; because we have four RM10 discount vouchers from Panora magazine. So obliging of them. You bet that got favourable response from my gang.

Food as always were satisfactory. Certainly no complaints about it.

Great improvement on your service Pasta Zanmai! Keep up the good work.

Street Food At Yoyogi Park

Out of desperation due to the packed crowd that Sunday on Sep 20th, which happened to be a long weekend (Silver week) in Japan, we weren't able to find any decent place to have lunch that did not require us queuing for our seats. The huge crowd felt like the whole Tokyo population just came out to play outside that day. @_@

It was a really hot, sunny day and pretty soon we got a tired boy walking slowly, needing fluids to quench his thirst and food for his empty stomach. What to do when you are really tired from the hot day and all the eateries were jam packed with people? Out of desperation, we opted for street food. They weren't exactly cheap, but hungry stomach cannot be too choosy! And I'm not a nice person when I'm hungry, a fact that Zaini is fully aware of.
Yoyogi Park was abuzz with people on Sunday and more so that Sunday due to a Vietnam fair held there.

We just chose a quiet spot away from the Vietnam fair to have our lunch. After our walk in Shibuya and Omotesando, we had enough with crowds by now.Our lunch. Okonomiyaki, yakisoba and takoyaki. I'm sorely missing the Osaka takoyaki. Those takoyaki were sooooo nice!

We decided not to board the train at Harajuku because the station was already bursting with people and walked further ahead and use the subway instead. We made a stop at Yodobashi-Akiba and Raimie got to buy a few toys. A treat for him for being such a good boy today.

Sea Of People In Omotesando

Sept 20th was our 5th day in Japan and not only was it a Sunday, it was a long holiday for Japan. Hence, it was really packed with people all coming out to spend the day with friends and family. And that Sunday happen to be Eid too, and Muslims all over the world celebrated the end of Ramadhan (the fasting month).

We went to the Malaysian Embassy dressed in our traditional costume (me in my baju kurung and Zaini and Raimie wore their baju Melayu). Afterwards, we just went sight-seeing in the nearby area.

Me, in my traditional baju kurung in Omotesando. I did say that I'll be wearing one in Tokyo, didn't I? Raimie had his Baju Melayu on earlier, but we changed his shirt afterwards because of the hot weather. Nobody bat an eye at me wearing my baju kurung. Zaini opined that people must have thought that I'm Vietnamese, coming from the nearby Vietnamese Fair at Yoyogi-Park. There was a huge Vietnam fair there, and with a really good response from the Japanese crowd too.

Walking along Omotesando, we saw mikoshi (portable shrine) bearers. The one that caught my interest was the children carrying a small mikoshi. So cute.

And there was a taiko (drum) performance too.

And also a parade showcasing Japanese and Korean culture. Very interesting. It was a relief being under the shades for a while, watching the parade. It was really hot that day!

Sea of people. Despite the huge crowd, we weren't pushed or jostled at. Everybody walked patiently and in somewhat rather organised way. That being so, I wouldn't want to be caught with this many people again any time soon!

Lucky for us, our lifeline and main transport while in Tokyo, the Ginza Line wasn't that crowded so it was rather a relief taking the subway away from Omotesando afterwards.

A Malaysia Biggest Breakfast Meal At Mizu, Bangsar Village

A break from my Japan post this time.

On Saturday, Zaini and I went to Bangsar Village for the Mall's fund raising event, Malaysia Biggest Breakfast in support of the National Stroke Association of Malaysia (NASAM). A two-day event which was held on 31 Oct and 1 Nov 2009, the Malaysia Biggest Breakfast event saw F&B outlets in both Bangsar Village and Bangsar Village II sponsoring the breakfast sets available from 10.00am to 11.30am on the two dates. All proceeds from the sale went to NASAM. Customers needed to donate a minimum amount of RM15 and get a meal voucher.

Although there were so many restaurants to choose from (23 restaurants to be exact), is it any surprise that we chose to go to a Japanese restaurant? We made a beeline to Mizu. We even managed to persuade a friend to forsake Sakae Sushi and made her and her family chose Mizu too. Hehehe...

Mizu's entrance.

There were five breakfasts set to choose from; Hot Udon Set with Futomaki, Salmon Shioyaki Set, Saba Shioyaki Set, Unagi Set and Tempura Set. I went for the Salmon and Zaini went for the Unagi.

My friend on the other hand, ordered all the sets available for her family. No photos though. Not nice to hijack somebody's else breakfast time with my relentless photo taking. Hehe