DAY 3
Tsukiji Fish Market Day
Address:5 Chome-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan

Okay, so we woke up really early (at least to me, lol) at 7am just to wake it for this Fish Market. Apparently, it's a MUST visit here in Tokyo, and I love food okay so go la!

We reached the market at about 8am-ish, and WE MISSED THE FISH MARKET.
Yes, the auctioning and all that live action. By the time we reached, they were already packing.. Shucks :( But there's still lots of restaurants and shops around though!

Anyway, too quick to say that everything in Japan is good. Because we did encounter some sucky food at the fish market as well. Like the below sushi.



We were queuing for the super famous sushi shop at the fish market, but they cut off their queue at around 8.30am, saying that they were not serving anymore :( What a bummer! So we had to find the 2nd best, but most of them were crowded so we walked towards the wet market.

Stumbled upon one of the shops, and while their sushis looked good, it didn't taste as good as it looked.

Well, it's a hit-and-miss! Just make sure your calories and money are well spent :)

Next, we ventured out to the wet market and there were so many things going on! All the small little food stalls and they looked better than that sushi restaurant.

The first thing we really wanted to try was the seafood, so we had one of their scallops and oyster!


I don't eat oyster, but they say that the oyster was really amazing. So was the scallop too!! Omg I love scallops for life :)


Next, HOKKAIDO MILK ICE-CREAM!





Evening:
We spend the entire evening walking nearby the shopping malls and areas at Tsukiji Fish Market.
So many cute little toy shops everywhere! And there were lots of outlet stores for Nike, Adidas, and other branded sports wear as well! Spoiled ourselves silly with all that shopping :P





Anyway, it's really dangerous to venture out to the basements of shopping malls, because they have soooooo many amazing food around! And for people with a sweet tooth especially. There's temptation everywhere.




I love the fact that the Japanese take pride in their products, regardless of food, merchandise, service, everything :)



Anyway, we were craving for tempura dishes so much that we relied on our Tripadvisor guide to bring us to the best restaurant that serves tempura!

 I forgot the name of the restaurant, but it wasn't too far off from our hotel. I believe it's in Shibuya area :)




In total, we waited for about 20 mins before getting in. It was soooo cold and I had to borrow his cap to keep warm! Hahaha but I'm not complaining. I really love Japan's weather!


While we were seated by the staffs, we were ushered to the counter table whereby we could see the chefs in live action!


It's lovely to see how the chefs prepare and cook our dinner right in front of us :) We placed ur order with the waitress and the chefs got down to work! There were about 3 chefs right in front of us, all of them doing different tasks - coating with flour mixture, deep frying, etc.








It was a interesting experience, but we thought that it was much better in Singapore, lol. Though I must say the whole dining experience was really good. Staffs are really polite (which we won't get that in SG much) and that the quality of food and ingredients are plain awesome.

Read more about Day 4 here!

JAPAN!

We took Malaysia Airlines from Singapore to KL and to Tokyo, and as usual, MAS had a delay while we were at KL. We reached Japan about 1 hour later than expected, but all was good till...................



THEY TOLD US OUR LUGGAGES WERE STILL IN KL. -_-

Omg. How can they not bring out luggages together?! My camera, my uniqlo heat tech inner wear, my clothes, my MAKEUP (this is the most freaking important ever - I can't live without my makeup!), toiletries and everything.

Okay, so decided to be really optimistic about the entire situation. After all, we were in Japan! They've got everything, right? ;) Plus we were too much in a holiday mood to care about anything else.


Upon arrival at the airport, we took an express train to the main train station - Shibuya (or Shinjuku.. I can't remember, but you can check with the train master while at the airport! Everyone's super helpful and nice ;)) 


From there onwards, we navigated our way through. It was quite a feat because there were SO MANY TRAIN LINES. Ohmygod. And it was their peak hour so everyone was just rushing here and there.


Taking the train to the station where our Airbnb apartment was located at! :) (Yoyogi Station)




Our apartment (Bnb) was thankfully really nearby the station, and to a hugeass supermarket as well!



Without wifi or anything, we managed to figure our way through and got the keys from the locker, as our airbnb host already informed us beforehand :)

To our horror, the apartment wasn't cleaned up (yet) as the cleaner was only coming in about 11am. There were like used tissues and litter everywhere in the apartment. Decided to venture out for some sight-seeing after settling down with our bags. (No luggage unfortunately. sigh)




1st Stop was Meiji Shrine.

"Located in Shibuya, Tokyo, is the Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. The shrine does not contain the emperor's grave, which is located at Fushimi-momoyama south of Kyoto."

Such a beautiful history to it. Japan is tooooo beautiful guys!








The traditional Japanese wedding is really pretty different from us Chinese. The bride is treated like a royalty (Note their bodyguards) and their entire family members walked behind the newly weds :)

Such a beautiful culture! Many tourists were snapping photos of them, I wonder if they actually feel awkward :P

Next up - Yoyogi Park.



I guess the whole trip was just stuffing ourselves silly with food.

Perhaps we came at the right day, it was a weekend and there was this group of hippies who were decked out in elvis presley style clothes!

At first glance, I thought they were gangsters but turns out to be some sort of flashmob.




Everywhere's so pretty. I was telling myself if I were to stay in Japan and had to walk past this park everyday, I totally would!!!

There were so many activities to do, and families were just out there spending the weekend with their family members, while some were hanging out with school mates and doing all sorts of fun stuffs.

I LOVE JAPAN ALREADY!

Next up, we walked around the main area of Tokyo and there were lots of huge brands all around - Uniqlo, Topshop, Nike and many more!

Spotted Birkenstock and we bought slippers too! Hehe. Chio & affordable as well :)


Ichiran Ramen was nearby, so we joined in the queue during lunch time!

Thankfully, the queue wasn't too long and we took turns to queue up. There was a hipster store nearby selling really cool gadgets and lifestyle accessories, was so caught up in the store coz there was so many cameras and polaroids - my favourite!













And many more pretty boutique shops as well..




Calbee's store! Omg, they have the widest range of potato chips here as well. Check out the potato chips freshly made in front of customers.










DAY 2
We woke up really early to make our way to Hakone! :)

Not much information is found about Hakone online, so I was kinda assuming that it wasn't so popular, but I was wrong.

We took the Love Express Train to Hakone. It's about an hour's ride from Tokyo, and along the way we saw so many traditional Japanese houses :) So beautiful.






Upon reaching Hakone's station, we saw this cute little egg stall right outside the platform.
Selling mostly egg custards and egg cheese cake as well!






Hakone is such a beautiful place! A nice getaway if you're tired of the city life. We took this chance to destress by going for their hot springs.



Hahaha. I forgot the name again, but there're plenty of hot springs in japan! Just google it. We took the bus from Hakone station, and it costed us only about $2. And the bus drivers are friendly as well :)

I was really shy the first time when we had to stripped everything off and be bare naked in front of strangers, but after awhile i got used to it. I prolly was the tannest there, lol.

Couldn't take photos coz i guess nobody took photos inside as well.




Our hot spring has a library and a resting area as well! Definitely R&R over here :)

By the way, the view is just crazy beautiful.




Was famished by the time we finished, so we headed to their hot spring's restaurant since we saw the poster featuring their Unagi Don. Omg just look at it below:


That's why right.. hahaha.








I can't wait to be back in Hakone again. Preferred Hakone to Tokyo anytime, any day! Wahahaha. There's lots of stuffs to shop near Hakone's train station, so don't forget to stock up on your Japan goodies, and they do give out free teas to keep you warm in the chilly weather too!

Read Day 3 here.