Japan - Day 2 (Shinjuku & Akihabara)

We woke up in the morning, thought that we're going to take explore Shinjuku more and maybe start getting some souvenirs and finish off our day with a trip to Akihabara at night.

That was exactly what we did. Went to those tiny shops along the small lanes hoping to get something nice and affordable. To our surprise, it was not that affordable. A key chain costs around 600yen! We started counting the number of people, especially in our office that we have to get, it would costs us a bomb and we thought oh well... tough luck! :D

Us at the front of our hotel in Shinjuku

We were more ready on our second day. After our previous night experience at the sushi bar, we thought rather than being gung-ho with our memory trying to remember anything in Japanese, we brought our Lonely Planet (LP) book along and go with those that it recommends.

At lunchtime, we purposely chose a typical non-english menu restaurant to have our meal and have some fun with LP's recommendation. Went in there, was feeling confident, sat down at a corner table next to the cashier and took out our LP. A couple of wierd stare from the locals but thats ok. Didn't bother us.

Front of the restaurant

Signalled the waiter, she came over. I asked for "chasu-men", i.e. ramen with roast pork. She replied a whole lot in japs while shaking her head. We sort of took a guess that they didnt have chasu-men. Excellent!

I started flipping LP again for another meal. She was giving me a smile and so were the other locals. Shortly, she started speaking again. The only word I could understand was "chikin", i.e. chicken. I believed she was asking me if I wanted to try some chicken meals. I went along with it. Mei Lee asked for "gyuuniku", i.e beef. She said something and we went "hai! hai! hai!".

We absolutely had no idea what we were about to get. When our meal arrived, we were relieved. :D Mine was fried chicken and Lily's was stewed beef meal. It was not some wierd meals with some chicken and beef intestines in it. It was quite good really... very tasty and authentic, even the rice was nice, soft and flavorsome.

Stephen's fried chicken meal

Lily's stewed beef meal

While we were walking around Shinjuku, we saw Lawson (Japan's version of 7-Eleven) across the road, went in there to get some water since we were thirsty. We then came across something that we only seen in animes, triangle shaped rice sushi.

Triangle shaped rice sushi

I am starting to believe they have a passion for food. Everything we have tried so far has been good... tasty and appealing. Even when the food in Lawson was appealing... the pastries and the take-away box below look delicious!

Pastries and ready-to-eat take-away lunch

Come dinner time, we were walking around and saw this long queue outside a "steamboat" restaurant. You know the food will be good when the locals queuing up for the food. We joined in the queue and after approx 15 mins of waiting, we got ourselves a seat. A seat next to the "kitchen". It was indeed very good... very simple and yet full of flavour.

the "kitchen" - 1

the "kitchen" - 2

Our dinner - 1

Our dinner - 2

the "kitchen" - 3

After our dinner, went to Akihabara to check out the electric town. It was a very vibrant town with each shops filled with people, local and overseas tourists buying all sort of items from electrical items to anime figurines. We were expecting the prices here to be cheap but we were surprised how cheap it was. Gundam models were selling for 400yen, and it was not on sale! 400yen! Back in KL, it was selling for RM26 and Australia was selling for AUD25. I just had to get a few.

Sceneries of Akihabara at night

We came across a row of toy vending machines and it has some really cute toys. It was selling for only 100yen! 100yen! So cheap! We just had to try, at least once. :D

Row of toy vending machine

Lily putting 100yen into the vending machine

Turning the dial

Lily's 100yen toy

We finally left Akihabara past 9pm. Everyone was starting to leave and we thought we should call it a night as well since we have been walking non stop since morning. Our legs and feet were so soar after our dinner but we still had to keep on going. There were so many things to see, so many places to visit, we were enjoying ourselves so much that we just ignored our sore legs and feet and marched on.

Shinkuju city at night