Warning..a very very very long entry ahead with no pictures (yet) . you can check back tomorrow (probably) for picts that will be incorporated into the appropriate spots in the entry.
Have been having pains on my left side for the past few days.. I don’t know what it’s due to, but it hurts quite badly. Probably will see a doctor if I still don’t get well in a day or two. I just hate going to the doctor’s. I want to get well by myself as much as possible because I don’t have the discipline to eat medicine.
I realized I haveN’t blogged bout my Tokyo trip.. since I’m pretty free at the moment.. (in the office)
24-6-2005 FridayI went to Tokyo by plane for the first time from Osaka. JAL 1504 ItamiàHaneda. It was fast, but quite restrictive as we had to off our electronic devices etc. the flight in actual was only 45 min. touched down in Tokyo at bout 9.30 am. And took the monorail and then train to Shinjuku, where the capcom branch office was. Reached there a little past 11am and the weather was disgustingly warm. Tanaka 部長 (GM of my dept) took me to lunch in a sushi place downstairs and he treated me to a ちらし. That’s a dish with all the sushi ingredients on top of rice. (think of all sushi combined into a dish). One thing good bout the Tokyo 支店is that the people are very friendly and kind.
After that went to Roppongi for the Australia Game Mission thing to talk to the companies. It was interesting.. but I realize Japanese companies are quite stuck up. I felt quite bad listening to the remarks being made and I could only keep quiet for much of the meeting. At least at the end I helped to pacify a pushy guy.
Reached back office at bout 4pm to have a tv conference with my sup from the Osaka office to report on the meeting and my other hw as well. Abit regretting that I complained bout my training progress cos now I’m swarmed with work but at least I’m really feeling the deadlines and the work is at least forcing me to learn something and real work is involved. Anyway.. was supposed to explain some hw I did in jap and report but it become quite a chatting session and he told me to brush up on my reading skills. Yikes. I knew that was coming.
After the meeting, there wasn’t much to do and I was just waiting for dinnertime. At 5.30pm, rushed off to take the train to Roppongi Hills to meet Ryo for dinner at the Chicken rice restaurant. Reservations were full but they said we could go b4 6pm. So he was waiting there for me and we had chicken rice and char kway teow. Not that great but it was almost the same so I was happy to have eaten there again. Very filling, however their rice was too sticky. Chilli should have some vinegar too. Haha.. picky picky.. Ryo enjoyed the food..
After that, went to zara haha.. I couldn’t pass up the chance to shop at Zara knowing there was a shop right in the vicinity. Bought a pair of white pants and a shirt. Very summer very fresh looking. of cos, not that cheap. But in yen, you somehow don’t notice how fast money flows.
Was too tired to go anywhere after dinner so we just dragged our luggage and headed to our hotel which was near Disneyland 浦安 area. It was cheap, bout S$80 per night only. And it was near Disneyland.. and included breakfast. Reached the hotel in an hour, took a bath and conked out for the night.
25-06-2005 SaturdayDisneyland day! Woke up feeling really excited bout 8.30am. the hotel buffet breakfast lasted until 9.30am only so we took a quick shower and went to have breakfast. It was quite good. Rice, miso, jap food and there was bread and tomatoes and toast in the shape of mickey mouse. filled myself up and we headed to Disneyland. The weather was scorching. And apparently the place had opened at 8am so we were kinda late to reach there at 11am. Immediately saw pooh bear but the queue was already closed for photo taking. Darn. There were other characters there too.. so I took photos with tigger and goofy. Wanted to take photos with Pluto but he was so swarmed by Japanese who refused to give way so I gave up trying.
This summer, the theme at Disney was rock and roll. Very retro but the performance was all good elvis presley music and retro songs. Very gd performances but a pity I couldn’t go all the way to the front to see. We garnered ourselves with fast pass for Space Mountain and went to watch a Micro adventure 4d show. It was from Honey I shrunk the kids and it was quite fun. With rats and snakes and wat-nots, pretty exciting. After that, it was time for the space mountain ride and we went in and only waited bout 15min. cool
After space mountain we went to get our next fast pass for haunted mansion. Wanted to get the pass for Pooh’s hunny hunt but it was already finished for the day. Man.. so we went to stroll around the place, taking pictures, joining the queue for the Mystery tour of Cinderella castle. That was fun. Cos it was very real haha. We went to the dungeon and there was a evil wizard. After that.. still had time before Dreams parade so we went into the Mickey Revue, a performance highlighting the soundtrack history of Disney.
The mickey revue thing barely ended in time and we rushed to the sidewalk to see the parade. Once again, tears just welled out when I saw the parade. It never fails to touch me and I am always so deliriously to see it. I can’t understand why too.. but took loads of pictures, sang along to the parade and had great fun.
After that.. haunted mansion time.. a very non-scary relaxing ride.. heh.. was glad for the chance to escape from the hot sun in the dark dark mansion. This time at least I understood more jap to be enjoying the rides more. Bought a drink after the ride and saw Alice and the Mad Hatter. Took a photo with the Mad hatter, gave up on Alice. Heh. Will post the pict soon. Any way.. after that .. went to queue up for Pooh ride since Ryo hasn’t tried it b4. queued up for an hour plus.. in the meantime we challenged each other on the memory game in his NDS. Ehh. I have a great memory but my mental sums were too slow. Yikes.
So tired after that.. we just wandered around the park.. seeing all the long queues, we didn’t feel like queuing up any more so we ate dinner at their food court (had a roast beef wrap) it was delicious or maybe I was just famished. And then after that we just sat at a good spot on the sidewalk in anticipation of the electric parade. The parade finally started at 7.45 and the suayest thing happened. My camera went out of batt just went the pooh float appeared! ARGH.. and I was looking forward to that the whole night. Pissed off. … but could only blame myself for taking lotsa silly photos earlier. Argh. In the end had to use my cellphone to take photos for the rest of the night. Hehe..
mm.. after the parade there was supposed to be fireworks. BUT> of cos with my bad luck,. It was cancelled due to the super windy conditions. so sad!! But just as well.. I couldn’t take anymore pictures anyway.. so we went to the shops. And walked around shopping for souvenirs for friends and family. This time I had more spending power but everything still look too ex. Tried not to do what I did the last time at least. :p
went back bout 10.30 by cab but was so hungry at 11.30pm so forced Ryo to walk me out to the 7-11 to buy cup noodles. Wahah.. been a long time since I been able to do that. And I was trying to remember the parade song but I always can’t seem to rem it after the parade. Damn it.
26-06-2005 SundayBreakfast at the hotel, this time there was pasta. 美味しい！wonderful breakfast, then it was time to check out and then we headed for the parasite museum. We deposited our bags at the Meguro station’s lockers and walked to the museum.
The museum had gross exhibits. Everything had parasites and there was a 8.8m long tapeworm that had been extracted out of a man who had eaten marinated trout. All the specimens were real by the way.. extracted from some animal or human. YUCH>. But I took a pic with the tapeworm heh.. and some photos of the exhibits. I’ll incorporate them here later on.. dun have the photos in the office.
After that went to Tokyo Tower. It was really magnificent. (cos I haven’t seen the Eiffel tower I suppose) went up .. looked at the cloudy view.. :s bad luck again. It was a really cloudy day. (hazy I felt but dunno if there’s haze in japan) but gd enuff the view was not too bad.. and after that.. we just sat in a café in the tower enjoying the view. There was this glass panel on the ground encouraging pple to look down and see how high they were and it was quite scary. Hah.. yes.. there will be picts soon.
Didn’t know where to go so we just sat there for bout 2 hours playing DS and looking at the railway map and trying to figure out places to go. In the end, we decided to head toward the airport early to relax in the lounge with free drinks haha.. cos Ryo has a JAL gold card or something.
In the end, after all the train transfers and collecting our bags etc, the time came to bout just right. And then at the airport, we realized that we weren’t sitting together cos the plane was full. Blah. Sat btw 2 guys, one beefy one and one nerdy one. Boring ride it was.
And then it was home sweet home. A sense of emptiness after the trip, prolly cos had to work the next day. And its another place I can cross off my list. Tokyo tower.
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