Back from Japan!

Actually, it's been a few days since I've been back (on Mon), but have been slacking away big time and taking a break to chill out. Generally it was a very enjoyable trip and it was kinda different cos often I felt like I was the caretaker cos of the company I was with, lol, but dunno why it felt kinda nice also and I miss the feeling...

Day 1 - Reached early at the airport (with my new haircut the day before) and had breakfast at Mac's before boarding the plane, which was exceptionally empty to my surprise. There were hardly anybody and we were free to move to other seats, and so I eventually shifted myself to a window seat, which was nice!

Anyway, the flight was pretty non-eventful though we met a really pretty and friendly airstewardess (apparently her name was Angeline) who spoke to us and helped us to take photos. Asked her for some help regarding the transport in Japan and she helped us to ask a Japanese airstewardess for info - good service! After we got off the plane, the group kept talking about her and made fun of me and the seat belt story that was made up was very amusing.

After alighting we had to fill in some forms due to the H1N1 virus before taking the Skyliner (tip: buy the Skyliner ticket and 2-day Metro pass package!) to Ueno again. Dinner at the yakiniku place again though this time it didn't seem as nice as the last time, think cos of the cooking and maybe the weather - somebody said that when the weather is very cold (as it was last March) the food tastes better though I'm not sure how much truth there is to that!

Then we headed to Tawaramachi towards our hotel - Toukaisou Hotel - a simple place but quite comfy and pretty cheap also (considering that accommodation in Japan is generally pretty expensive). The room is small but that's fine since you don't spend much time in there anyway - recommended if you're on a tight budget!

Day 2 - Walked to the popular Sensoji temple in Asakusa which I visited last year and it was so empty maybe cos it was still early. Went to Harajuku and spent a bit more time along the shopping street this time. Had crepes at this shop called Angel's Heart and it was nice! Then walked towards Shibuya before finally heading back and having ramen for dinner at a cosy place run by a friendly old man.

Day 3 - Went to DisneySea and it was definitely the most enjoyable day of the trip! Haven't had sooooo much fun for a really long time and I think the last time I entered a theme park like that was in 1995 when I went to Brisbane, Australia. Took a lot of pictures and videos and there were relatively few people there. Many people had told me beforehand that they can only take about 3-4 rides there cos they have to queue for hours but we barely had to wait for most of the rides so we managed to go on almost all of them and even managed to catch some other shows! The longest wait was only 10 min and for many rides it was just walk-in - cool!

Let me do a review now of the rides/shows that we took/watched for the benefit of those who plan to go DisneySea next time. I shall go in order of the themed ports (there are 7 in total)

(i) Mediterranean Harbour - BraviSEAmo (10/10) - the grand finale of the night (at 8.05pm) where there's a performance at the harbour complete with dazzling water and fire display and fireworks! Must watch!

(ii) American Waterfront - Tower of Terror (10/10) - Our first ride and we went in with completely no expectations. In fact somebody even said her friends said it was nothing much so we didn't think anything of it. The introduction was in Japanese also, so we didn't really understand what was going on though the image disappearing was impressive and surprised us. But the most surprising was the elevator ride itself. It SERIOUSLY caught us by surprise. I don't want to have any spoilers here - all I will say is, "MUST GO ON THIS RIDE!!!" (but not for very young kids) Anyway it was quite funny cos I was laughing away during the ride though my heart was beating very fast. Think it's just my way of laughing off the fear instead of just screaming (though I did scream on another ride hahaha)

DisneySea Electric Railway (8/10) - A nice ride to get to Port Discovery (another themed port) with a good view as well as saving some walking if you're tired!

DisneySea Transit Steamer Line (8/10) - We took it during the evening and the view was good! The route only took us to the Lost River Delta (another themed port) and we wanted to continue taking it to Mediterranean Harbour but sad to say we had to get off the steamer...

Big Band Beat (10/10) - Very slick performance with a very solid mini-band (really enjoyed listening and watching them move and swing their instruments around - excellent showmanship!), as well as singing and dancing which were very well choreographed (also includes Disney characters such as Mickey, Minnie and Donald). During the finale, Mickey was even playing the drums - how cool is that! Thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm glad we managed to rush back to catch the last performance of the day cos I chased them to walk quickly to the Electric Railway to catch the train then run into the performance theatre. But our efforts were worth it! Again, MUST WATCH!!!

(iii) Port Discovery - Aquatopia (7/10) - A relaxing ride and what fascinated me most was the automated system because on first sight I thought it looked like some peddle-boat kinda thing but all the boats are actually controlled by the computer and they move on fixed tracks (which you can see if you look down carefully enough) and at certain spots you'll be spinned around. Quite interesting!

StormRider (5/10) - Expectations were high after Tower of Terror and the queue was relatively long from what we saw so we expected more but it was just a simulator. The graphics and in-house stuff (e.g. spraying of water) was nice but overall it was just so-so for me.

(iv) Mysterious Island - 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (5/10) - Took a vessel that went underwater and basically it was a short tour. So-so for me also.

(v) Mermaid Lagoon - Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster (6/10) - a simple ride which I think would be just nice for young kids cos got some excitement and the vehicle is quite cute but for me it was decent. Fun but not adrenaline pumping.

Scuttle's Scooters - (2/10) - Eh, it's nice for kids, cos it's cute, that's all. Other than that, it's like your normal merry-go-round?

Jumping Jellyfish - (4/10) - Basically just go up-and-down. A kiddy ride.

Blowfish Balloon Race - (4/10) - Again another cute ride.

(vi) Lost River Delta - Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull (8/10) - Nice fast-paced ride with a lot of sharp twists and turns as they promised. I like the video just before entering the ride - it's quite cool!

Raging Spirits (10/10) - Rollercoaster which brings you up till you can have a very beautiful view of the entire Disneysea resort before the drop. Hard-core adrenaline junkies will think this is still chicken-feet though cos actually the drop height is not really high but I'm not a HCAJ so this was just nice for me - enough to get my pulses racing. MUST TAKE THIS RIDE!!!

Mystic Rhythms (7/10) - An interesting performance which was kinda like Stomp? Not too sure but there was a lot of music and dancing to the rhythm (not the jazzy type though as in Big Band Beat) which was supposed to tell a story within a rainforest. The finale smoke effect was way cool!

We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant (Miguel's El Dorado Cantina) which had a live performance called Musica Mexicana (not really v original is it?) by 3 guys who sang some Latin songs and strummed their guitars.

(vii) Arabian Coast - Sindbad's Storybook Voyage (4/10) - Would be much better if you could understand Japanese and if you watched Sindbad before, both of which I don't/didn't.

Caravan Carousel (4/10) - It's a nice building with nice figurines to sit on, but in the end it's still a carousel. Nothing spectacular but nevertheless it was my first time!

We also took some pictures with Disney Characters at various places, such as Cruella (from 101 Dalmatians) at the American Waterfront, Panchito Pistoles (from some old Disney cartoon) at the Lost River Delta, Aladdin and Princess Jasmine (who was very pretty and really look like she was straight out from the cartoon!) at Arabian Coast and Prince Eric and Max the Dog (from The Little Mermaid).

Ok, that more or less wraps up my review of DisneySea. Basically very fun and I enjoyed looking at the map and bringing them around. My only regrets were I lost my ticket after entering, not bringing my extra XD card hence I couldn't finish recording BraviSEAmo and not buying more from the Disney store. Anyway if it's crowded when you're there you know what are the rides to go for!

Day 4 - Had breakfast near our hotel and shopped around the area before we went to Ginza and bought a Burberry Bag as well as tonnes of clothes from Uniqlo!!! Then went to Akihabara for dinner at Yamachan again (very yummy chicken wings!) before walking around and we went into a shop selling really ancient TV game sets (such as Sega Saturn, Super Famicom). Was very tempted to buy but I had too many other things to buy and bring back plus I wanted to check out what games I really want to play and what I could actually download and play on the computer so that I don't end up buying something unnecessary. Went to the Uniqlo there also where my group played the role of fashion consultants and started to get me to wear a variety of clothes to give me a fashion makeover. It was really funny for all of us!

Day 5 - Went to Tsukiji for lunch and met up with my colleague's Japanese friend there. Had a good and very filling meal and for the first time I saw a really big piece of tuna meat which we could scrape ourselves to eat. Then we went to Jiyugaoka and had high tea at St. Christopher's Cafe, which was really pretty ex (as in not really worth it) and for those tai-tai sort of people. Interesting experience though! Somehow I seem to have eaten too much and I was feeling very bloated in the night, so much so that I didn't feel too great and for once the group had to take care of me instead haha.

Day 6 - our final day and we shopped around our hotel before going to Ameyoko Street for some final shopping. Bought 2 pairs of shoes and 2 shirts at pretty cheap prices ($30 for each pair of shoes, $7.50 per shirt) so I was quite pleased with my buys, chosen by my fashion consultants again. Was so tiring lugging our luggage from the hotel to the train station!

The flight back was very entertaining - not least because we saw Angeline again! The group like went crazy and they were sooo excited to see her cos it was sooo coincidental having been on the same flight to and from Japan. I watched "Gran Turino" and "Dostana" on the plane and both were quite nice, esp the "Dostana" which was actually a Hindi comedy about 2 guys pretending to be gays (one of them won the Best Actor award) but it was really funny!

Overall view - an excellent shopping trip with 2 new pairs of shoes, 15 pieces of clothing and a very memorable trip to DisneySea. Enjoyed all the moments spent together, our chit-chat at the hotel's rooftop and calling of names. Quite hilarious at times. Kinda miss the times already haha. Ok, time to sleep!