A TRIP TO JAPAN (CYCLE 1)

This is a backdated looong story.
Cycle 1 ( Bak kata Cik Diva, tak nak kalah dengan ANTM tuh! hahaha!)

Amaran: Story ini juga mengandungi banyak gambar. Harap x jemu membacanya. :)

The arrival
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13th September 2010. MH 088 landed safely on Narita Airport. It's 7.40am local time ( Kat Malaysia 6.40am) and the temperature outside was 24th degree Celsius. (Eh dah macam ayat standard pilot bila landing pulak ha).

After 7 hours ketakutan dek heavy turbulence up there, i could finally taking a deep breath. Alhamdulillah!! Lega sungguh. Masa ni dah start syahdu-syahduan. Raya ke-4 kot!!! Oman and Dadda texted me that they had safely arrived in Alor Star berhari raya di sana. (seb baik lepas tu nampak abang2 jepun yang hensem hilang sikit rasa sedih tu ha. Ahaks!!)

The hotel that we (Me and Kimi) were to stay for the whole week in Tokyo,was Celestine Hotel and it's located ~75km from Narita Airport. There were few options of transportation to get to that hotel, and we chose to take the Airport Shuttle Bus at Y3000 per way. (Actually, nak naik train pun boleh. Sangat efficient. Tapi, kalau carry big luggage macam us, then nak tukar station, then nak jalan lagi ke hotel.. hmmmm.. naik bas lagi ok kot! terus sampai ke pintu hotel. haha.. lagipun, the condition of the bus was tip top)

The first thing i learned about Japanese that they are very PUNCTUAL! If it's stated there that the bus will reach you by 8.30am. Sah sah 8.30 dia sampai. So, janganla nak cakap macam ni, "alah, cakap je 8.30 tu, mesti 8.40 baru sampai". Selamat Tinggalah jawabnyer tau!! (Bukan semua tempat di dunia begitu yer... ehem ehem :))

Credit to mr H for lending me that book. Lawok seh!! :)

Say Hi To The City
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It's the greatest get to know that I've got to see this beautiful hi-tech Tokyo with my own two eyes. Tokyo is so damn clean hokeh!! Macam xde sampah sarap langsung. :) Even when the bus passed through sort of rural area before reaching the city, i didn't see any form of rubbish out of the correct place. Kagum!

Eh! ade 1 je sampah i jumpa. Ni mesti bukan Japanese yang buang (bak kata si wawa. haha!)

Here, the buildings and residential areas are developed systematically and smartly in place. Owh, in Tokyo, huge percentage of the residential area is either apartment or condominium. The city is so congested so that it couldn't accommodate for landed houses. Those who loves to have their own compound, usually they will stay little bit far from the city. They have no worries at all to have their house a bit apart since their train system is so superbly efficient. Jam pun x jam, cepat pun cepat!! (Eh, macam pantun dua kerat pulak) :)

-Tokyo-

The Celestine Hotel (An English friendly hotel. Highly recommended for tourist)
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We reached the hotel after almost 1 and half hours on the road. Check-in time was supposed to be at 2pm but since that day was a special day due to franklyidon'tknow, we are allowed to check-in early without additional charges applied. Owh! I was so thankful!!

Kimi and I had some planned to visit Akihabara and Harajuku City after Dhuhr Prayer. In the mean time, bolehla achik refreshed, update fb and took a little nap before Salaat. (Just fyi, if i were abroad, i always refer to Islamic Finder for local prayer time. Untuk Kiblah, i lupa bawak kompas. Dah cuak-cuak dah. Nak tengok matahari x berapa nak reti. Mujurlah ade jam ajaib Kimi menyelamatkan keadaan :)).

My room sweet room.

Hotels' rooms in Japan are mostly not as spacious as in other countries in Asia. But don't be surprise if you found that the prices are higher than those spacious rooms you found at that other places k. However, the facilities such fridge, TV, internet, coffee corner, iron, hairdryer, toiletries are perfecto. Tapi, mineral water x tentu free lagi tawwwww. Some hotels, you need to pay for it. Oh, Japan memang mahal! :)

When i entered the washroom, i was so jakun to see how computerized toilet seat in there. There are functioning buttons like the one in the bottom left picture above. Main picit-picit je hokey. First time to use it i felt so freaked out kot kot la tertekan salah ke kan. Silap-silap boleh cakap ke toilet tu, mau terloncat achik! Hahahahaha.

Anyway, that's the room i was going to stay for 5 days. Overall, i loved it. :)



The Walk and Ride
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It was 1.00pm that we decided to start our city tour. Since it was sunny day, i chose to wear simple t-shirt with jeans and palm shoes. Easy Britzy sket kan. :)

The nearest train station to Celestine Hotel is JR Tamachi Station. JR is stands for Japan Railways which operates a large proportion of intercity rail service (including the Shinkansen (bullet train) high-speed rail lines) and commuter rail service in Japan. Cepat dan jitu. Ewah! (nasib baik station dia punya peta and directory ada English tau dah sekarang. Xdela meghaban bukak kamus kat situ. hihi)

From the hotel, it took around 10 minutes walk to reach there. I bet Japanese people would made it less than 10 minutes. They walk very very fast!! :)

Just next to the hotel i stayed, is NEC HQ Building. Santek! :)
Besides public transport, Many Japanese ride bicycle to work too. Chomel jek.

Cik Abe pakai spek itam tu la Encik Kimi. Hihi. Cik Adik tu pulak, sapa lagi kan, i lerrr. Haha.

Akihabara (Train Fares: Y160 from Tamachi Station)
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Owh! This place is called Electronic Town. Right, left, back, in front... mana-mana semua kedai electronic. Just name it whatever you would like to look at, wah lah.... segala mak nenek design ada from the smallest to the biggest. :)

Here, games & anime shops are everywhere too. You could see cute Japanese Ladies wear the anime costumes along the walking path and try to get you to buy their products. How soft their voices tau!. X penat pulak tu ulang ayat yang sama beratus-ratus kali.

Rasa-rasa berjaya x dia jual product@goda mamat-mamat tuh? hihi :)

5 days in Tokyo, 3/5 days we went here again and again tau after work. Why? Because Encik Kimi was considering to buy a camera and we took those days to check few shops for the best deal. Nasib baik on the 3rd day tu, he finally decided to get a Canon DLSR Kiss4 or 550D after he satisfied with this one shop. Kalau x, mau i bagi jelingan tajam kat dia sebab hari-hari pegi tapi x beli pon. Hahaha. (Canon murah wo kat sana. Tapi body camera warranty Jepun, lenses jer yg international. Ok lah tu kan!)

Then, what did i get for my self? Hmm..Since i did not plan to shop much for electronic thingy, i just grabbed a hard disk casing and a mouse for my notebook. (paling murah tapi i sukeeeee design dia. hihi) Owh and out of nowhere in Akihabara, i found a shop that sell t-shirt with Japanese word printed on it, so i grabbed few for my love ones and me. :)

Harajuku (Train Fares: Y190 from Tamachi Station)
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Oh My! Welcome to the shopping heaven in Harajuku. Girls love Harajuku so much! (credit to Lovely Fashionista Adriani for sharing her experience shopping in Tokyo). Turun-turun je from train Station, i could feel my fast and furious adrenaline (ngadenyerrr). Encik Kimi siap boleh perasan lagi keexcitedan i. Hampir semua kedai i nak masuk. 2,3 kali i told myself to beristighfar, geleng-geleng kepala Si Kimi tengok perangai i taw! Ahaks.

It's not because like i have a lot of money to shop everything there (xde allocate some untuk shopping pun , duit bawak cukup makan je. huhu), but u know, it's kind of therapy, like some booster when you see ladies clothing, shoes, boutiques .. here and there.. and you just want to get in, join the club, feel the fabrics, tried on the shoes... crazy you! erm, tapi sebab Encik Kimi ada sekali, i control sikitla. Hahahahaaha.

Kemain semangat lagi nak gi Harajuku taww!

Tadaaaaaaa.. The first boutique you gonna see in front of Harajuku Station is GAP.
Then just keep walking cause a lot lot more to see everywhere along the street, ladies!!! :)

Untuk mengelak Encik Kimi bosan ikut i, Encik Kimi kene jadi my photographer that day :p

Takeshita Street.

Owh! Owh! If i got chance to visit Tokyo again next time, i'm definitely will come here again cause this street has really so much to offer!!! Clothing, pants, cardigans, accessories, lingeries, handbags and shoes and more!! hihi. I found a shoe boutique that sell cheap and pretty boots (flat, heals, knee high, all it has!!!). I spent the longest minutes in there but ended up i bought nothing. menyesal sungguh!!

Alright. I think i better stop here. I'm afraid it's gonna be too long to share the whole journey stories in one entry. So, there'll be Cycle 2 next. I'll tell bout my work there and my visit to Otsuki and Fujiyama. I promise i will update it soon kay.

Thank you for reading.

xoxo,
-mommaholicSuri-