On this day, one year ago, I was skipping happily to the airport. The hubby was working in Chiba, Japan and I went along to have a feel on the Japanese lifestyle. Though it was a short 8 days span, I actually walked so much there than I had ever did here, back home.
Half the time, I was walking around and mixing around with the locals there cos the hubby was working till really late. It was really difficult, you know, with my poor command of Japanese ( Could only mumble some greetings or asking for price ) and it surprised me that nobody I met actually could speak English in a complete sentence! So, that week, I communicated with various handsigns plus broken Japanese and constant simple English.
Although it was summer at that time, I didn’t really feel the heat like the one in Perth (was in Aussie during summer one year). Actually, summer in Chiba, Japan was quite cooling. There was this constant gentle breeze which made me quite comfortable walking around.
We ate ice-cream from 7-11 every night! The ice-creams were fantastic!!! So much better than the ones I’ve tasted back home. Not that I’m a sweet tooth, but nonetheless, good creamy ice-cream…yummy.
Well, I’ve decided to post some of the pictures which I think could be interesting and let the pictures tell the story *winks* too lazy to reiterate the entire trip. Had written it down in my travelogue. The few stops we visited were, Chiba (a major metropolitan area), Tokyo City, and suburban cities like Ueno, Ikebukuro, Asakusa, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Akihabara (this are is something like Low Yat in KL).
I was really fascinated with their toilet bowls. Yes, I know, a bit sua-ku of me but I was so excited with them. All the toilet bowls have some function buttons strapped to the side. You could press for cold or warm water and could adjust the temperature. You could adjust the spray to be directed to the ‘front’ or ‘back’. I guess you press the ‘front’ after peeing and the ‘back’ after taking a poo. Some even have thermal heated seats (useful for winters, I guess). There were some with fully automated mechanism. Lights turned on when you step into toilet. Toilet seat will recline slowly with detection of movement. Toilet seat will return to position once you finished your business. It’s called the high-end wireless control panel for the toilet. Cool eh?
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I went bizarre when I saw the bikes all lined up and parked so nicely. It’s definitely something I don’t get to see everyday in Malaysia. So many bicycles, really.
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The hubby, just came back from work. All tired and hungry.
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Went to one little quaint shop and it was really very traditional with tatami seats and Japanese bamboo at the courtyard. Customers get to eat their Summer Ice in the garden, sitting on the tatami and enjoying their ice. I had some greenish stuff. Didn’t know what it was but the man seemed to recommend it to me. Kept putting up his thumbs. He asked me to choose one of these candies too. Cute eh?
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A Shinto Shrine in Chiba. This is called a torii gate with paper streamers. I think it’s also called the sacred gates acting as a barrier for the living world and the ‘kami’ (deity).
‘Ema’ or wooden tablets with wishes and prayers written by visitors. Most of them were written in Japanese and some in Kanji. I think some of them were prayers for ‘Passes’ in exams as I could see the Chinese words,合格 He Ge (meaning - pass).
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We loved to browse around the 7-11 shops there cos all outlets have different types of bento. I loved to see how the food is packed and the colourful combination of the dishes.
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This was quite funny to me cos I didn’t think that conditions for eating could be applied at restaurants. Time seems to be very crucial in the life of the Japanese. Everything is such a rush, even when they eat.
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Standing while having their dinner is so common in Japan. This was taken in Asakusa, near Tokyo. I think the man only took a couple of minutes to wolf down his Soba noodle.
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One thing I could not really resist was the super duper cute pastries. The cakes really looked as cute as the pictures I usually receive from emails. Looking at them is enough to render me to a salivating fool.
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The cute little strawberries had eyes and mouths! So cute…but the small piece of cake cost a BOMB! 480 Yen??? o_O That’s like RM 14!! Yummy but Pricey!!!
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Namjatown in Ikebukuro. Went in to have a look at the Ice-cream Museum. Loads of ice-cream from all over the world with all sorts of flavours.
We tried a few flavours. I was less daring to try some weird flavours so I opted the Honeydew and Mango (my favourites!) while the hubby was more adventurous. He tried the Black Sesame one. I have this phobia with ‘black’ coloured food (with the exception of the seaweed) but after taking a tiny lick of the Black Sesame ice-cream, hands down, it was much better than the Mango/Honeydew combination.
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A typical Japanese simple meal of Soba Noodle (Cold Noodle). I like it that we had to grate our own wasabi. See the greenish stick at mid-top? Well, that’s the original wasabi root. The ’sua-ku’ Blusher had never seen the actual wasabi root. What I usually get from the local stores were the tube paste of wasabi.
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Recognize him? I found it a little amusing to see a lifesize Ultraman in the middle of the busy train station. There was another gigantic one outside the station as well. It seemed that he’s almost everyone’s hero in Japan.
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Blusher, posing with a Japanese couple at the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. It was summer, so, many Japanese would wear the traditional yukata with accessories.
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Washing my hands with the water from the fountain. Some people drank the water for reasons I did not know. Anyway, I followed suit. Tasted no different.
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Blusher, posing with favourite cartoon character, Totoro. This was in a building called Animate. 8 stories high with different products in each level. They had the Manga mags level, Manga DVDs level, Manga stuffed toys and merchandise level, Manga figurines and other cute stuffs level, sexy manga level, adult toys level.
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And I thought Ultraman was the only hero. Hehe! Taken outside Shibuya Station, an extremely busy station filled with bustling people and huge throngs of youngsters having all sorts of fashions you could think of.
Shibuya’s night view. The busy city never sleeps. Huge mega TV screens with endless advertisements. I was really awe-strucked with the TVs though.
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Flying home with the sun setting and the dense clouds below.
What took place now was a posh and modern looking, well-facilitated area with a patio built, overlooking the lush tea plantation. The cosy tea house was replaced with a sorta chic place with clipped and smartly dressed F&B attendants. Not too bad of a change, actually.
