Planning your Japan Itinerary

While planning my Japan trip, I had asked around and surf online for information which are useful to navigate you around Japan. Thought it would be best to share it!

1. Tokyo Metro Map
2. Tokyo Train Fare & Transfer Planner  Tokyo Metro or Hyperdia (Recommended)
3. Disneysea (Check local tour agencies which might have offer advance tickets at cheaper prices)
4. Tsukiji Market: All about the tours, opening and closing hours
5. Japan Bullet Trains:  Durations, Cost and Frequency
6. E- Voucher for Kyoto Day Trip

Information on places to go in various parts of Japan, and what is recommended, go to Japan-Guide.com. You can even participate in the forums like I did to ask locals questions on hotel and itinerary recommendations!

 

My Itinerary for the 5D4N in Japan

Day 1 – Shinjuku
Day 2 – Asakusa , Ueno, Roppongi Hills, Ropping Cityview to see the night view
Day 3 - Shibuya, Salt & Pepper Museum, Harajuku, Meiji Jingu Shrine, Akihabara (Maid Cafe), Golden Gai
Day 4 - DisneySea (Full Day Trip)
Day 5 - Tsukiji Market (Full Morning)

Tip #1

Leave at least half a day to explore Asakusa which is brimming with many local delights and sights! It is my top recommended place to go as there are many famous ramen stalls and a famous silk pudding which my travel buddy found and rave about it like mad! (http://www.testarossacafe.net/silkpurin/index.html)

Tip #2 

Instead of going to Tokyo Tower for the cityview, head over to Roppongi City View which offers a much much better view where you can see Tokyo Tower in its full glowing glory at night!

Tip #3

Although Shibuya and Harajuka are near, my travel buddy and I chose to walk between stations as we were visiting the Salt & Tabacco Museum. I would suggest taking the train cause there is LOADS of walking you have to do in Japan and you dont want to tire yourself out like we did.

Tip #4

Unless you understand Japanese, and like seeing ok-looking girls in anime maid costumes; talking to you in high pitch kiddish voices, and willing to pay 100 dollars for omelette rice meal. I would advice against stepping into a Maid Cafe.

****

Best of luck in exploring Japan!

Tokyo Travelogue Day 5: Tsukiji Market

The lasy day of my Japan trip and I gotta end it with a bang right! So off to Tsukiji Market we go!

Didnt bother going for the fish auction cause we were dead beat from the walking at DisneySea the day before and we didnt want to wake up at 4am to “try” to get tickets. Smart me even forgot to charge my camera so thus having to grab them from Kai.

This was apparently the most popular stall in Tsukiji Market that had Japanese queuing up infront of it for their breakfast!

We had time constrains, so we settled for second best =)

Had to point point point to the staff our orders. =D

Both of us were mega excited cause nothing makes the both of happier than stuffing our face with food. Especially since I am such a crazy Japanese Food fan!

So hungry I started eating my hand. LOL


Nothing to do in the queue so it is camwhoring time!

Finally we were directed to our counter seats, shoulder to shoulder with people just quietly stuffing their face with food. Waited for what seems like forever and finally….
My Tuna and Sea Urchin Bowl!

Tuna Belly + Tuna and Sea Urchin Bowl!

When we had the first mouthful of tuna, it was sheer utter bliss. I felt I went to heave and back 3000 times cause the tuna was just so sweet and it melts in your mouth without much chewing. The rice which is so soft and fluffy just complements it OH SO WELL, we didn’t take and just kept shoving mouthful after mouthful of rice into my mouth.

No wonder everyone ate so quietly! You just want  savour every single mouthful of goodness from the sea.
Even declared to Kai that I wanted another bowl half way throughout mine cause it was that yummy. (Didnt get it cause my tummy waas protesting!) 
We order another side to share and its….
.
.
.
.
Famous Snow Crab legs

Initially I tasted the shredded pieces first and was like “Meh.. taste normal leh.. Like crab looo” Then I bit into the whole pieces and it was euphoria max! The juice just gushed into your mouth filled it up with the fresh and sweet and that tinge of saltiness just like it was taken fresh from the sea.
INCOMPARABLE taste! I would recommend anyone who heads to Tsukiji Market to order the crab legs to try at least once in their lifetime. OMG SO DAMN SHIOK!
It also helps that I had some eye candy to look at…Kaiyi managed to sneakily get this shot of the chef which ended up blur, thus enhancing X100 time his handsome-ness. LOL

Headed to the market to walk around and it was a really interesting place to be, looking at where all the freshest seafood in Tokyo you eat comes from:



Little cute carts that zipped around at high speed I think I save Kaiyi a couple of times when she was engrossed in her photosnaps.

Adorable uncle who chatted with us with his limited English and was asking us where we were from 

After this it was a madddddd rush back to the hotel to pack and rush through Shinjuku MRT station carrying my huge ass trolley luggage with one spoilt wheel, plus a shoulder bag plus a handcarry.

Reach the train platform and 5 seconds upon boarding it, the door closed. *Heng to the Max*
Slept all the way on the Narita Express where I stock up on SGD200 worth of goodies consisting of loads of Kit Kats cause the family request for it. Wish I had a couple of hundreds more cause there was so much to buy but so little money! Narita Airport has so many items which are not available in their shopping malls or food stalls.
And then… it was Sayonara Japan….

I miss all the places where I left my footprints behind, but there was a tinge of sadness inside me as I left Japan, leaving with me memories of the hospitality, helpfulness, beauty of the people, places and food.
I miss you Japan and I hope I will get the chance to be back soon =)

To read back on all Japan entries…

Tokyo Day 1  – Shinjuku
Tokyo Day 2 – Asakusa, Ueno, Roppongi Hills
Tokyo Day 3  – Shibuya, Harajuka, EleAkihabara, Golden Gai
Tokyo Day 4  – DisneySea

Best Party Dish Ever – Easy & Yummy to Boot!

Cook an awesome meal *buay paisei* when I hosted a small get together at my house yesterday

Scooped it into Taco Shells and it was cheesy, melty goodness which is so easy to make!

Receipe: Chilli Corn Carne + Sloppy Joe Inspired Dish
Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 10 minutes for all the chopping
Cooking: 20 minutes

500g of Beef / Pork
1 bowl of carrot (about 1.5 cups worth in small litle cubes of 5mm)
1 bowl of onion (about 2 onions in small little cubes of  5mm)
2/3 Cup of Tomato Ketchup
400g canned tomatos
1 tsp of garlic butter
2 tsp of garlic
2 tsp of grounded black pepper
2 tsp of hot parika powder
2 tsp of mustard (non-hot)
3 tsp of brown sugar (flat)
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp of grounded basil leaves
6 sundried tomatoes, sliced into strips (optional)
50g of grated white & orange cheddar cheese

1. Melt the garlic buttter into a big frying pan over medium fire
2. Fry the onion and garlic together for about a minutes of so
3. Throwing in the beef/pork and carrots into the frying  plan and lower to small fire and
4. Stirring and mashing the ingrdients together with a fork so the meat wouldnt be in thick chunks
5. When meat is slightly brown, transfer over to a small pot and mix in the rest of the ingredients one by one.
6. Let simmer on small fire until the carrots are soft and meat is well done (approx 10 – 15 mins)
7. Pour it out into a ceramic / porcelin bowl and top the entire dish with white and orange cheddar cheese.
8. Microwave it for abour 2-3 mins and voila it is ready to serve!
9. Eat it usin taco shells, toasted bread, wraps, burritos and even tortilla chips

Tip #1: Sprinkle and microwave the dish only when you are ready to serve
Tip #2: You can substitute it will Mozzarella cheese as well
Tip #3: Keep tasting the sauce as you are cooking to see if it suits your taste!

Served with Roasted Parmesan Potatoes as sides, I do hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!

Inspired by the following two receipes:
Chilli Con Carne: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3228/chilli-con-carne?pager.offset=180 
Sloppy Joes: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sloppy-joes-ii/

Tokyo Travelogue Day 4: DisneySea

Rise and shine for Tokyo DisneySea!

Both of us were mega excited and we tried sticking on fake lashies before deciding that it was too darn uncomfortable for us to have them on the whole day. #Vainpot fail

Outfit of the day!

Decided to try something funky/jappy since we are here in Japan and there were no weird looks at all cause everyone dress like this!

Starting forthing when I saw this and I was sooo damn excited

Great thing was that we were in time for the 10th Anniversary of Disneysea which had a whole new spectacular show in celebration of it!

The cute trains and attendants in adorable outfits~

Signature handlebar

Disneysea really faces the sea

Mad crowd at the ticketing booth, even though it was a Monday! I wonder why those Japanese dont need go school or work leh!

Ticket to the magical world of my childhood

Entrance display which was sooo pretty!

Princess Ariel!

Chip & Dale – They must have started the hamster trend with their cuteness

Daisy Duck whom we never got to take pictures with

Stepping into the actual park!

Traffic Light Kai

Kai grabbed some breakfast while I look through the maps and programmes to see if we can grab a proper itinerary schedule, then it is photo whoring time as we explored the place!

Ballooooons are the happiest things ever. They just float and bob everywhere

Caught the big band muscial here which was a-oh-kay cause didnt really see alot of the characters.

Too bad no photography is allowed in all shows =(

Grab some hotdog for brekkie and it was really good. Dont know whether its because I was pretty damn hungry then..

Some life size ship exploration thingy which we didnt go to

Halloween Decor everywhere since it was approaching in a couple weeks time.

Kapow and blow ya brains out

 

Really cute ride where you get zipped around avoiding obstacles. Wanted to play it but the queues were sooo long!

Me and my bag containing Shellie May cause I am so kiasu I scared i couldnt get it later =)

Took 4D space ride and this was the attendant who is super in character! I think it was called storm rider and it is mega fun!

Rushed to the big centre lake to catch the first show and we were pretty suay cause we were so far away. Bad location choice.

First float in sight!

And Goofy!

They docked at these little platforms and sing and dance in front of the crowd!

*Tip: It is best to be at least 1 hr early to chop seats for the show! The seats are pretty promient and you wouldnt miss it cause there will be loads of Japanese flocking there!

The really pretty floats and all the disney characters were on it! I zoom to the max to get these pictures cause I was so darn far away!

Eeyore sooooo cuteeeeeeeee *spasms in delight*

Headed to catch our first roller coaster ride and it was raining quite heavily but nothing can dampen our mood!

360 turn!

Kai manage to video and got snapshots of the entire ride!

Cold wet and aching legs from queuing up for at least 1.5 hours for each ride, we tucked into lunch which was pretty yummy! Japanese can do no wrong can they?

Rice + Chicken with Cheese & Veggies

Corn Soup with Hotdog + Cheese & Potato Chunks

Weather cleared up for a bit and we headed to the Indiana Jones ride which is really cool! Totally enjoyed that ride! Super recommended ride for anyone heading to DisneySea!

Onwards to take Journey to the Center of the Eath but the ride was closed due to technical issues. It later reopen but it was too late to go for it. It is a thrill ride which will send you plunging face first, if I am not wrong!

Triton’s Kingdom!

Ariel, I was like KAI TAKE PHOTO FOR ME!

This guy is a roving stand up comedian do watch out for him when you are there!

Interior of the Triton Kingdom Section

Caught the little mermaid show which is really nice and good for resting our tired feet! Feet were so sore we purposely took this ride twice cause it has a really short queue in order to sit there and rest.

Next stop, Arabian nights!

Princess Jasmine!

Took the humongous carousel ride and I was pretty much giddy with joy. There is something oh so magical about carousels which I couldnt put my finger on.

Tiger *koochee koochee*

Chiong for our last ride which was the Tower of Terror and IT IS THE BEST RIDE EVER! It is a free fall ride and check out the view that we had!

I didnt even know it was free fall ride until I was strapped into the seat and wondering where the railtracks for the ride where. Then I turned to the Japanese girl next to me and did the plunging action and she nodded her head at me to affirm it.

I was like.. OMG… . What did I get myself into. But super no regrets!

Rest at this bag locker place and Kaiyi was half dead

Energy up, sprinted to catch the finale! Didnt get a good place again but whatever I caught from the show, it was trueeeeelyy magical! Even stayed for the fireworks after that which was totally worth it.

Ended off the night with dinner at Beck’s which serves the best ever burger I have ever eaten. Nothing I have eaten, compares to this.

Juicy patty, crispy bacon, caramelized onion.. Ooo mmmyyy goddddd

Must eat it again when I head back to Japan!

We trudge back to our hotel sooo tired but so happy. Stuck our feet into a warm foot bath for at least an hour cause it was so damn sore that when we woke up the next day it still hurts.

Last and final entry will be up soon on the last day in Japan =)

Check out the previous day’s entries:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Choo Chiang Roasted Meat Noodle Houset

The Charsiew is pretty awesome here:D Address here if you want to try it! Blk 190 Toa Payoh Lorong 6 #01-522