Swingin' da MoODz: April 2007

I just got back from Japan a few days ago. And fortunately enough, I ran into my friend, Yun, in Narita..so no matter how tired I was..we decided to go downtown! yay!!

Even though we speak NO JAPANESE at all except for "Arigato Gozaimasu," which is "Thank You," but we are still going!!

Firstly, we took the shuttle bus from our hotel to Keisei Station in Narita. From asking around at Keisei Station, we decided to go to Shinjuku. The train we took to Shinjuku was 940Yen (around 9.4USD, 283Baht.)

Keisei Station, Narita

See how confusing the railway system in Tokyo is??
(thanks to Tokyo Metro for the pic)

We took Keiseiline From Keisei Narita to Nippori, then took JR line from Nippori to Shinjuku.
From Keisei to Nippori, it was like forever!! It took like an hour or so...but then from Nippori to Shinjuku, it wasn't too bad.

Waiting for the Train :)

Here we are...the busy street of Shinjuku!
It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the busiest train station in the world(Shinjuku Station), and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration center for the Tokyo Metropolis.

After walking around a bit, it was like 7-8pm there, we found some alleys..so we went to check them out.

The alleys are full fo tiny restaurants where people go and have drinks and food!! It's soo authentic, I love it!! It's like what you see in Japanese movie or in comic books. These restaurants are full of people who came to have dinner or some drinks after work. Mainly guys though, I only saw a few women who came with guys, never women alone.

But as for me and my friend, Yun, we are not Japanese women..so we went alone, heheh.

Here it is, the alley I'm talking about ;)

This is the front of the place we went to eat..(something Yakitori??)

Yun in the restaurant..

Yakitori!

Yakitori is a Japanese type of grilled chicken on sticks...(skewered chicken.) Yakitori is a very popular dish in Japan. Many working people grab a yakitori and beer from yakitori stalls on the way home from work or eat at the restaurants.

Yakisoba, aka Japanese fried noodles..

Takoyaki, (literally fried or baked octopus) is a popular Japanese dumpling made of batter, dice octopus, tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, konnyaku , and green onion, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, green laver (aonori), mayonnaise, and katsuobushi (fish shavings), originated in Osaka.

Yummy!!!

Pachinko Avenue in Shinjuku..

We found a Pachinko place..so we went in there to check it out. Full of guys and smoke...it's a place where people come to play..i don't how do you enjoy it, really...

Pachinko is a gaming device used for amusement and prizes and is related to pinball machines. Although originally strictly mechanical, modern Pachinko Machines are a cross between a pinball machine and a video slot machine.

Next Station...Roppongi...

From Shinjuku, we took Oedo line train to Roppongi, it's only 210Yen because it's quite close..

Roppongi is also a busy area with an active night club scene, and a relatively large presence of Western tourists and expatriates, though the vast majority of visitors and residents are Japanese.

We wanted to try some night clubs there..but unfortunately, it was Monday night...not many people at the clubs..hehe.

Puppy selling ..looks so expensive!! 128000YEN!!

Japanese girl selling crepes..she's so cute!

Annie's Crepes display...

It's actually the same as in Siam Square, Bangkok..I think..We tried the Strawberry Banana thingy...526 YEN :)

Now she's making one for us :)

Oh, while walking around in Roppongi, we walked pass this nice shop selling clothes...this place has its own brand and many branches. It's called Ebonye, the salegirl is very very pretty and so are the clothe!! I bought this one for 2625YEN...

Nice, eh??

After wandering around Roppongi, we decided to go back to Narita..it was like 9 something already...we weren't even sure if there was still any train to Narita..because we had to take the train from Roppongi to Daimon by Oedo line then change to Asakusa line at Daimon to Oshiage..and change train again to Keisei line...

but we took the risk....we bought the ticket from the machine, Roppongi to Keisei Narita was 1,010YEN

Once we got off at Aoto..it was so dark and quiet. Though ,there were still some people around waiting for the train. But we had the feeling that the train to Narita might stop already..because Narita is still a long way ahead.

Finally we tried to ask someone around, no one spoke much English, of couse..we struggled a lot and we believed that the guy told us that the next train coming was the last train that might go to Narita..thanks to Yoshio, we would be lost in Aoto and probably had to find somewhere there to stay until the morning train came. hehe.

Mr. Yoshio, our life saver!!

The last train of that day to Keisei Narita..see how empty it was??

We made it back to Narita safely, it was such a journey..no plan or anything, but we enjoyed it, lol. We arrived Narita around midnight..so there was no transportation back to the hotel except the taxi..which is known to be quite expensive..

So we decided to go to a Karaoke place called "The Truck." It is a very cool place, all English songs..I love it!! It has a platform so u can go up and sing,,woo~~ I love performing!!
The drink there wasn't too bad, around 500-600YEN. And they even have the shuttle bus service to your hotel at 1am, 2.30am, and 4am. Very nice convenient! hehe.

Here goes my unplanned Tokyo journey, hehe..it was so spontaneous..so I didn't take very good photos, just using the mobile phone camera...sorry!!

P.S. Thanks Wikipedia for the extra information :)

I just had a chance to visit a temple in Narita, Japan. Fortunately, it was the right time to see Cherry Blossom (Sakura)!!

The place I went to see the Sakura is Naritasan Shinshoji Temple. It took about 15-20 (or 30, if you are a slow walker like me, hehe) minutes from Keisei Narita Station on foot.

The road to Naritasan Temple

It is such a huge complex!

Some Sakura along the way :)

The Great Pagoda of Peace

The Pagoda was erected in prayer for world peace in 1984. World leaders’ messages and prayers for eternal world peace have been placed in the time capsule which lies under the ground beneath this Great Pagoda (more info at Naritasan Shinshoji Temple website.)