trip to tokyo...

(actual travel date - 2Feb :4Feb2007)
Havent had time to update the travel entries in Nagoya - had been working and playing hard! Then it's cny, very busy time of the year for everyone except the kids - cooking, cleaning, tidying etc.
Then back to melb and super exhausting - moving house, getting back to work -wondering where all my files are and which is which, visas, medical chk ups etcetc.

Back to the trip details...
Decided to took fri off so that mum and I can spend three days in Tokyo (hey we have almost (99%) finished our task in the uni =p)

took a shinkansen (cost around aud100 per trip pp)
again we decided to go with shinkansen, taking a nozomi and arrived in around 1.50hr (if not mistaken).
*important!!! remember to select a left window seat - Mt fuji will be on yr left*


mount fuji...

so we 'successfully' secured two seats on the left window side in the free seating cabin - mum was asking me when are we going to see mt fuji. I looked at my watch and decided since it is nearer to Tokyo we should only be seeing it like after 1 hr - but immediately when i looked up, mount fuji appeared right in front! kirei~~

being kampung-ish, mum and I was very excited and start snapping pictures+video. Other passengers might already be numbed in seeing it (therefore i guess they might find us more interesting to observed than the mt fuji) and some who were sitting near the left window didnt even bother stop reading their newspaper. anyway, it appeared for almost 3-5min and the view was very clear (according to kento, if the weather is bad we might not be able to see it).


on the shinkansen - after shinagawa stop almost everyone got off the train while we insisted to get off at Tokyo station to catch a JR to Ueno, the place we are going to stay in the super-busy Tokyo.




yes, we enjoyed taking pictures with the Nozomis very much =p


happy mum in tokyo


One of the big pedestrian crossing in Ueno - 0101 mall on the left.

Reached Ueno - we didnt travel around in Ueno (except going from the JR Station to Tokuganeya Hoteru) but it's actually a very popular place among the tourist - with lots of traditional street markets (especially near Asakusa), parks, zoo and musuems. However, since our main purpose in Tokyo is to look at the big and busy city eg. biggest pedestrian crossing, we decided to skip the parks, shrines, temples and castles (which we already seen a lot in Kyoto, Nara and Nagoya).

Main reason of staying in Ueno is because it is relatively cheaper and safer compared to other areas (ikebukuro is another good place but i decided Ueno is closer to Tokyo station; and Shinagawa is a nice place to stay (the new hub of tokyo and have a better view of the sea but relatively more expensive - there's a deal with JR to stay in Prince and taking shinkansen with a discount but is only good for 1 night stay and need 1 week advance in booking). Staying in Tokuganeya Hotel with a double bedroom (includes private bathroom) cost us 9450yen per night (same as the ryokan rate in Kyoto).


With hungry stomachs, we decided to try out a random beef tendon tiny restaurant just opposite Ueno station - cost around 600yen per set of meals and comes with RAW egg. I can accept raw egg yolk which always exist on top of my cold green vege but raw egg white is a bit 'geli' for me. Anyway, mum and I did finish the whole raw egg in the end........ by eating it with soup, rice, beef.....



to be continue (when i get my internet at home!)