Tokyo Part 1

As we were in Tokyo for several days after Kyoto, I shall do the Tokyo bits in parts.

We arrived from Kyoto fairly late that evening, just in time to catch a late dinner and to have a look-see of Shinjuku, which was where we were staying. The rooms in our hotel was tiny, but the bathroom was huge. We had some trouble trying to fit a place for our luggages. But then, after the first night, it wasn't too bad. After all, I think given the location that we were in, the hotel was pretty quiet :).

I was a little lightstruck when I exited the station
Back in city, no doubt!!

We checked-in and headed right out after that. As we were walking from the train station to the hotel, I saw a sushi shop which got me really excited. Especially since after 2 weeks in Japan, we haven't actually had any actual sushis as of yet! So, we quickly made our way to the sushi shop ( I was afraid that it might close before we got there) and happily seated ourselves in front of the sushi train :).

Sushi train :)

Sushisssssssss :)

It was drizzling when we first got to Shinjuku and I thought we can make-do without an umbrella. But by the time we finished dinner, it started snowing, and rather heavily too! We resorted to buying an umbrella at a random shop for 500yen before continuing our way. We got the transparent umbrella too, coz it allowed us to still see the lights under the umbrella :).

Snowing prettily in Shinjuku

We were desperate for dessert that night, but as usual, luck was never on our side. I can never ever find a dessert shop when I want it! Argh! We spent at least 40 minutes walking around Shinjuku before deciding to retreat to a coffee house instead of a dessert house. It was a quaint little coffee shop, just off the main road. The designs were really pretty and not your ordinary cafe. It has a more 70s feel to it, and the crowd was pretty quiet making it a good place to rest and catch up if needed. We sat facing the street, watching snows falling prettily outside with our hot cup of coffees. It was fabulous!

Coffee & cake at Caffe Veloce :)

We went to Kamakura (previous post) the next day, and then proceeded to Odaiba for the evening so that we could catch the lights on the Rainbow Bridge. Disappointingly, the lights on the bridge weren't turn on as I thought it would, and it looked pretty much just like any other bridge :(.

Rainbow Bridge
*It was raining, hence the picture's really blurred*

Odaiba is actually a large man-made island in Tokyo Bay, originally made for defense purposes - what specifically, I can't remember. It was on my list of places to go, solely because of the bridge. The island has many large centres, like the Sony Centre, the Tokyo International Exhibition Centre also known as Tokyo Big Sight, and of course, the Palette Town which has really pretty interiors in Venur Fort. There was even a replica of Statue of Liberty!

Fuji TV building

To get to Odaiba, there was several options and man! did we take a long time to decide how to get there. In the end, we decided to take the Yurikamome which was an automated transit system, very much like the LRT or Putra in KL. We bought the day pass for the rail as we wanted to see a few places there and was too lazy to walk. Plus it was raining and freezing cold :P.

The Yurikamome

Two cute crying polar bears.
Aren't they just the cutestttt? 8 degrees in the rain - Man, that was COLD!!

From there, we then went to the building that had some Sony displays which were quite interesting. There was a Hello Kitty shop which G wanted me to take picture in 'cute' poses :S. I refuse, I refuse!! :P . Okay.. I almost relented... but decided against it when there was a large group of people walking towards that shop :P.

The Sony Visual Image Specials *that blue lines are suppose to be a fish*

Hello Kitty shop

We then took the Yurikamome again to head towards Venus Fort, which is a Venice themed shopping centre. The shops there were probably the mid to higher range types, but some of them sold pretty unique interesting stuffs. It was a nice walk indoors after battling with the rain and winds of the outside world. There was even a little casino area on the ground floor! And no, we didn't gamble.

Ferris Wheeeeeeel !! *grin*

Inside Venus Fort

Pretty isn't it? :)

From Odaiba, we then headed to Roppongi Hills to have a look-see after the place was being recommended as a place to go. To be honest, I wasn't that all impressed with the place, partially because it was raining, it was cold, I was cranky and tired :P. There was the huge shopping area, and that was pretty, but it was already pretty dark when we were there, and we were mainly running from building to building to get away from the heavy rain. Perhaps, that was why Roppongi was a little of a disappointment to me :(. Maybe if I was there at another time, I might have loved it.

Roppongi Hills

We were starving as we left Roppongi as we couldn't find a place for dinner, so we decided to head back to Shinjuku so that we can grab a quick dinner near the hotel. There was quite a few places that we've seen the night before and I was really craving for either sukiyaki or shabu shabu in the cold weather. We ended up going to another izakaya for them, which was really yummy!! I was one very very content person after that :). Plus we had the window seat in a small room-like area, and we were at the 8th floor or something. Given the lights and the busy roads below, the sight proved to be really good. *At one time, there was 18 cars at a traffic light, and 15 of them cabs!!!! I've never seen such a big ratio ever!*

Lights outside, from our table

FINALLY! Dinner :) Absolutely yummylicious!