..and Back!!! 😀 Ok, so maybe not quite around the world. But, I did go to Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong! My oh my, do I love holidays~ *sings and skips around* If I had copious, limitless supply of $$$, I’ll travel non-stop! There’s something about visiting new cities and places that get me really excited and have me feeling really alive. I’m sure a lot of you out there feel the same way too. 🙂 Oh, but if only I can pack Domo along with me too for all my trips. I really missed him on holidays!
First stop ~ Tokyo. I had the lovely company of 3 girlies, Candy, Cecilia and Angelia (+Bluey Bear) traveling together with me. We were really looking forward to our trip together and had many e-mail exchanges prior to chatter, plan and we even had a detailed itinerary. Guess what? We pretty much didn’t follow anything planned on that itinerary! Reasons being: More shopping time had to be inserted, laziness in waking up in the mornings and an apparent eruption on Mt. Fuji that had Cecilia canceling our Hakone field trip. She really didn’t want to run the risk of getting hit by volcanic rocks. LOL.
Anyways, there was something really therapeutic and of course amazingly fun about doing a girlie trip. Maybe it was the constant chattering, giggling, late night talks lamenting about men and the men in our lives, shopping, tip exchanges on make-up and skincare and not forgetting, cam-whoring. Imagine it to be a little like “Sex and the City” set in Tokyo (a lot less drama of course). 🙂
So, without further ado, Pictures!!
Day 001
Introducing Bluey Bear on the plane. He was given to me by someone special (of course!) to take on my trip. The constant frown on Bluey’s face was how much he was missing me back at home. Aww….. 🙂
We took a night flight out and were supposed to sleep on the plane so we would be ready to dash when we touched down. But, I couldn’t sleep a wink!! I really hate plane rides, and it didn’t help I had a snoring ojisan (uncle) beside me snoozing really deeply and Loudly. Hmph!!
So, we touched down and headed for Hilton. We were too early for check-in, so we freshened up and headed out to Shinjuku. Couldn’t wait to hit the shops of course. Here’s me and Angelia in the Agnes B store. Very stoned already after having already covered another shopping mall.
Here’s Candy, beaming having bought something for her boy.
The girls suggested we go to an Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant for dinner. It turned out to be a surprise belated birthday dinner. Thank you sweeties! Really touched my heart!! 🙂 xoxo. Everything in the restaurant was to theme. From all utensils to food decor.
Here’s one of the “Alice” waitresses serving us our caesar salad! Kawaii!!
Just one of the many cute dishes. Heart-shaped salmon pies. 🙂
And a platter of birthday desserts and birthday song! :)))
The luvs! The huge Alice ribbon headband was the privilege of the birthday girl, or not?! Haha. Why so huge and floppy!
Day 002
Shopping Day. We decided to continue trying to conquer Shinjuku (where all the big deparment stores like Isetan, IOIO, Takashimaya etc are), and then head to the new territories of Harajuku and Omotesando.
A quick silly shot before we head out!
Here’s me in-front of the huge Takashimaya with the ever-popular Burberry blue/black labels, amongst many other goodies. Did you all know that Paul Smith is slightly cheaper in Japan? The huge draw-back on this trip was the so very expensive yen. :S Bummer! I saw the new-collection of Balenciagas here..droolworthy!!
Coffee break before going to Harajuku. The girls gave me my birthday pressie. Jill Stuart make-up!! 😀 I love the pretty packaging!!
Our lunch. The must-have Kyushu Jangara Ramen in Harajuku. I must have this everytime I go to Tokyo. Slurppppp!!!
Come night-fall, Bluey Bear waits in anticipation for the phone to ring.
Day 003
Out to Yokohama. Cecilia and Candy heads to Cecilia’s sister’s house while Angelia and I troop off to Motomachi and Chinatown. Round of suburban super-market shopping after.
Quaint little cafe near our hotel bus drop-off in Shinjuku. Serves really good burgers.
A very hearty breakfast, but I was hungry!!!
My ‘excursion’ partner for the day. It was a longggg ride out to Yokohama. I always miss cabs when I’m in Japan. Way too expensive to cab around here!
Candy was too tired out by day 3 and had to follow Cecilia to her sister’s place to recuperate. 🙂
Check out the Mickey headphones!! We all had to get them for ourselves.
Yoshinoya. I love the Yoshinoya beef bowls in Japan. Very unlike the ones we get in Singapore…and cheap too! A must try if you go do visit Japan.
Motomachi. It was an interesting streets with the usual drug stores, normal looking stores and a sudden uber expensive store like Louis Vuitton springing up beside the usual suspects. It’s quite a street for the rich apparently.
The elaborate gates marking entry to Chinatown.
A majestic looking temple. I think you’ll be able to find temples everywhere in the world. You reckon?
Hello Kitty panda. Chinatown was all about pandas and “baos”. How typical. Haha. 🙂
Angelia and I waiting for Ceci’s sister to pick us. We were really freezing, but still trying to capture the glitzy vending machines behind us. Without much success…
The colourful drink machine
And a very tempting looking ice-cream machine
We packed MacDonald’s back to our rooms for dinner that night. Here’s kimono clad Candy and her little pig.
Day 004
Disneyland!! Yipee!!
The happiest place on earth. 🙂
Entry pass and guide.
Winter head-warmers! There were so many designs – plain, leopard print etc. So cute! I was tempted…but definitely impractical for Singapore!
Cecilia and I with mickey ear-muffs and Disney castle at the back.
And more matchy mickey ear muffs! 😀 We couldn’t hear each other very well when we put these on. Haha.
Tea-time…and even more mickey-ed out!
Different character floats during the afternoon parade.
We were really cold, but we had to have our sundaes. Hot coffee after!!
Mickey cheese snack.
Toon Town~ where all the Disney characters “live”. One of my favourite parts in Disneyland.
We were too old to bounce in Goofy’s place. 😦
Minnie’s house. All pretty and pink.
And getting cosy in her house.
Candy raiding her fridge and stealing her cheese!
The girls convinced me to take this roller-coaster ride. I know it’s teeny! But I’m darn scared of these thrill rides!!
We didn’t stay for the night parade. Did our shopping, got our large dosage of mickey paraphernalia and hopped on the long bus ride back to the city. I absolutely Love Disneyland. Walt Disney really got his stuff right.
We had a nice long dinner at a lovely izakaya with really yummy food. What a satisfying day. 🙂
This mushroom dish was really good. Maybe because I love mushrooms.
Day 005
More shopping! We covered 3 areas today. Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku. Yes, we are speed shopaholic monstresses..LOL
Here’s my roomie, Angelia and I waiting for Cecilia and Candy to get ready. Our choices of read. The Vivi and JJ girl…just one of the many random pictures we took.
A quick breakfast at Soup Stock.
The girlies testing the flexibility of Bluey Bear.
“I’m really not that flexible!!”
Cecilia and I doing a quick pose in the middle of the busiest intersection (will that be of the world?).
Pretty things in a shop in Shibuya 109.
Shades perhaps?
Beef Risotto for lunch
Complete with a soft moist strawberry shortcake.
Matsumoto drugstore. The place where we stock up on our skin-care and make-up. Lots of it.
Scouring the streets of Harajuku for more wonderful findings.
Cos-play store! Had all the costumes that you can imagine and more!
Unsweetened green tea. Someone should really import this to Singapore.
Slowly crossing over to Omotesando. I love how shop fronts are designed to match the products sold in store. Makes it a really interesting looking street.
We had charcoal grill bbq for dinner at Gyukaku. So good! There’s Gyukaku branch at Chijmes, but a lot more expensive.
Red-faced from the charcoal heat.
Day 006
We went to Odaiba and Cecilia’s sister’s place for dinner. I’ve always wanted to visit Odaiba. The place didn’t fail to please. Glad I went this time!
A quick breakfast of bagel and coffee and off we went!
On the Odaiba monorail
We stopped by New York along the way. Haha..what was the Statue of Liberty doing here!!
Odaiba was built on reclaimed land. The waters surrounding it made it really surreal and beautiful.
That’s Aqua City Mall at the back.
This store in Aqua City had plus size everything! So cute!
We had lunch at the food court. This device beeps when our food ordered is ready. So clever! No waiting around the stores for our food!
Venusfort and the ferris wheel. A very dog-friendly place. There was a huge pet-paradise in there and so many people were shopping with their doggies. If only we could do that in Singapore! I got Domo a really funky Snoopy tee and a Stitch chew toy. Absolutely missing him here!
We then headed to Ceci’s sister’s place for dinner! She had a really really amazing massage chair. I almost feel asleep on it. Mmm…and that followed by a really scrumptious dinner of dumplings, yakiudon and oden prepared by her. Lucky us!!
We were having really late night drinks. We really wanted to stay up, head to the hotel, freshen and then visit Tsukiji Market for the Fish auction at 5am. ….No, we didn’t make it. Haha.
Day 007
Time to head home! We were really really worried that we’ll have very overweight baggages cos’ we all had an extra check-in. Thank gawd we had Cecilia! Crew privilege – we didn’t have to pay for our overweight! Whee~~~
On the way to the airport.
Read the sign. One of the many funny usage of English in Japan. 😀
And this is it! The End. It was such a niceeee holiday. The girls are planning the next already. But no shopping this time!! A nice beach resort perhaps? 🙂
More about Korea/Hong Kong soon to come! xoxo
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