Tsukiji tuna auction

One of our bucket list is going to the Tsukiji tuna auction.
Tsukiji is an area famous for it's fish market, and on this October, it's moving to a new area and in the future, the tuna auction might won't be open to public anymore, so MUST GO!

If you heard about Tsukiji tuna auction, you'll know how hard it is to get into it. Although the first batch is at 5.30am (?) but people started queuing up since 1am and it's only limited to 120 people per day.

After ticking the bucket list -go to a concert in Japan-, we decided to go to the tuna auction after that. It was damn tiring as the concert ended at about 10pm, we need to rush back home to change and rush out to catch the last train.
We reached home at about 11pm, showered, packed a bit and went out at 11.15pm HAHA

It was damn risky but we got to catch the last train and reached the area that night,
We spent the night at one of the manga kisa (a place where you can read manga or use the computer), I watched a drama and tried to sleep a bit but GAHHH the guy behind me was smoking and I got red eyes and runny nose thanks to him =/

Heaven for Otaku

We left the place at about 2.30am, to queue up for the tuna auction.
We were wrong thinking that we were early, as the first batch 60 people is already full, and we almost missed the second batch PHEWWW (3hours earlier we're still considered late!)

Crowd for the tuna auction

We waited there for the 3 hours, went around the area with the chill breeze that smelled like sea and fish in the summer morning, squeezed with the foreigners from all around the world, listened to one of the workers at the tuna auction there sharing his story and tried to nap a bit.

Finally it's our turn to go in to watch THE tuna auction. It felt unreal as I saw lots of videos and documentaries about it and now I am here! I kyaaa-ed countless time inside XD

Inside looks like this!!!

It lasted not long but it's totally worth the wait.
We then queued up for another hour for breakfast at there, we had don although people mostly came for the nigiri.

Traditional shops at Tsukiji

my breakfast!!!

After breakfast, we went straight to Asakusa.
On the train to there we dead slept HAHA (one of the Japanese 'skills' is sleeping on train and never overslept LOL)
We were so early so there's totally no crowd at there.

Hi Kaminarimon!!!

you do this to get good luck (?)

We went around a bit and when all the shops are open, we had dango and matcha at a famous local shop then when for a shop famous for its melon pan (which Yama came before!)

dango and matcha looks simple but DAMN NICE!

The melon pan is heavenly nice too!!!

After two hectic days we can't stand anymore and decided to just go home and sleep.
All the way back we were dozing off on the train and I dead slept once I reached home HAHA

We then moved to another place to stay that night, near Shinjuku and it was so nice as it has two conbini just in front (and one of it even have place to sit!! <--- rare in Japan)
We called for Mcdelivery that night for dinner and even McDonalds in Japan is better!!! Wide range of drinks and also some special menu <3

Ermmm.... we dig in straight after we opened it so this is the only pic I have XD

illion japan tour 2016

I was always afraid to go through my draft list as I have so many things waiting for me to post LOL
Tried to filter out those must post ones but all those memories are precious gahhhhh, so instead of filtering I'm combining those (sounds smart but nahhhh)

So another day in Japan, we woke up early just to go to..... KARAOKE!!
This was a so crazy idea haha, since we always see people going to karaoke after work or after school so its in our list.
Its very cool as they have a few kinds of TV and sound system for us to choose, and I think some provide different kinds of mic (saw it during the research but the one we went didn't have it). Its a bit pricey as expected, and the song choosing part is also quite complicated compared to the one we have at Msia.

This is how the 'lobby' looks like

Free drinks are provided and we went quite crazy since early in the morning HAHA.  

For lunch we wanted to try out one of the recommended gyoza shop but found it to be closed when we were there, so we decided to just randomly go into one of the restaurant for lunch.
We were so very not satisfied at first as it allows people to smoke and the whole small room is filled with tabacco smell.
When we had our food, we were suprised by how big the portions are!! They even provide free white rice, well the portions are scary enough I can't even finish a bowl don't even mention for the rice HAHA.
It taste damn good we were so satisfied and the price is cheap considering the portions! Before we left, we realised that it is also one of the recommended restaurant from the website we used. LUCKY!

mine

Zz's

Zoe's

The gyoza is jumbo 

After that we went to a CONCERT!!!!!!!!
We always wanted to go for a concert in Japan, and compared to those huge stage, we thought it would be better to go to the small stage ones to have a closer feeling. (Just imagine going to JUMP's concert which they might run around and I might still not be able to see them LOL)
We decided to go to illion's Japan tour and sadly the tickets were all sold out *sobs* A few days before we head to Japan, Zoe got someone approach her since she posted on twitter looking for tickets, and yepp, VERY LUCKILY, we got the tix!!!

The venue is called Studio Coast and it's just by the sea, once we came out from the train station, you can feel the sea breeze and the smell of the seawater in the air <3

the crowds

outside view

We waited for a while, struggling A LOOOOOOT should we buy the concert goods or not LOL
We got in by following out tickets number, but since it's standing the code doesn't means much.
We need to pay for the drinks tickets (which I forgot how much) and before going into the concert venue, there's a small space with a bar in the center which we exchange our drinks with the drink tickets. Zoe got coke and I got Heneiken.

the drinks bar

We got into the hall, and we were standing wayyyyyy behind. Everyone is being damn behind and there's space everywhere (Japanese why you so polite LOL)
Before Yojiro caame out, a DJ, Banbi heat up the atmosphere first. Just when he came out, everyone started to squeeeeeeze and I was squeeze in FRONT!
I finished all my beer before the concert starts, and started to get a bit wobbly with the music and lightings (blame me drinking too fast) Just before Yojiro came out, I was squeezed in the 2/3rd row, damn front and got lost with Zoe LOL.
I was expecting only the angelic voice but OMG ANGELIC FACE THROUGHOUT!!!

We sang and danced for nearly 2hrs, I had the time of my life!

Throughout the concert, there's one girl in front that fainted because of the squeezing, so he told us to space out a bit, but apparently no one did LOL and he said "dou yatte odoru no ga shiranai dakedo, suki no you na odorou" (I don't know how you guys can dance like this but just dance the way you like) HAHA Well we still can dance, jumping and sang XD I lost my breathe once as it's too squeezy (reminded myself how weak my body used to be) but phewwww I survived and didn't faint.
Also, when it almost end, he said the "album zenbu 50 bun dake" (all songs in the album also 50 mins only) he even sang his new song which was not published yet!!!

A night to remember

I came out after the concert, having so many feelings, was so overwhelmed and don't know how to feel nor how to express it to words!!!

BTW I just watched kimi no na wa yesterday and I am so damn proud I met him! KYAA!!!

I visited THE Johnny's Shop!

Our fourth day in Japan, we woke up early to go to Meiji Shrine so that we can avoid the tourist crowd. I was very amazed that even in the center of the town, there's still such a place full with trees and so calming, just like it was far away from the busy city.
All the way in you can hear the very noisy cicadas, before we reached the shrine, there's a display of nihonju and wine that is given to the shrine to thank the God.

 Before we did our prayers in the shrine, we cleaned our hands and mouth with water.

 Although we can't go into it and can only do our prayers outside (throw a five yen coin and make a wish) there's still people inside, and it felt so calming even with all the crowds outside.

 Also, before we leave, we're VERY lucky to be able to see a traditional wedding ceremony here!!!

After visiting Meiji shrine, we go around the Yoyogi park beside it, from there we can see the Yoyogi stadium (?) where JUMP always held their concert there. The feeling of so near yet so far XD

We walked all around the park just to find this two orange and yellow steel boxes. It's called a rubbish bin. Although it's so hard to find a rubbish bin here, yet there's totally no rubbish around the park!!!

Then we went to Harajuku!!!

We were literally squeezing through the crowds as it was a Sunday. Well we purposely chose a weekend to go there as we wanted to feel the crowds HAHA
We didn't do much shopping there as the currency is very bad which turns out everything is expensive so we didn't even think of buying things there LOL
But there's a three-storey DAISO there which sells literally everything so we did some shopping there as it's much more cheaper compared to buying it at Msia.
Other than that we bought some branded bags(?) which was requested as the price is fixed and buying it online will be much more expensive due to the charges.

We had a loooooot of fun staying there seeing the crowds. It;s very easy to meet people in weird clothing and they are all very friendly and ready to take a pic with you.

We had taiyaki and takoyaki there for lunch then after that get into the crowds again and grab a crepe and kakigori for more. Yepp can consider food trip liao.

Here comes the crazy and siasui part at JOHNNY'S SHOP.

We knew that there's a Johnny's Shop at Harajuku so yepp MUST GO.
I saw a lot of repo online saying how to go and how it looks like. It's always very hard to imagine as NO PHOTOGRAPHY OUTSIDE AND INSIDE.
I have the image that it's very small very hard to find (coz people say so). We used google map and I was busy looking on my phone for directions. When it shows that I'm AT THE PLACE I looked up, and realized OMG IT IS HUGEEEE.

AND I SCREAMED OUR LOOOOOOOOOUD

I was so loud that the guard in front of Johnny's shop laughed at me (yepp they have guards standing in front) and did the douzo douzo gesture HAHA. (I'm sure this is not the first time he sees someone this crazy)
We got into the basement (where the pictures are displayed) by the stairs at the side. It's so spacious and the pictures are displayed so nicely with the atmosphere like a photography exhibition very high class. It's quite crowded and people are also choosing pictures.
I was always thinking why people wants to buy this kind of pictures, I mean what can you do with it XD Then later realized I'm starting to tick the codes on my paper 6.6
I sound like I'm very calm now but at that time I was kya-ing inside and out LOL
We paid at the first floor which it's all mainly a row of payment counter (yet we still need to line up). It's always been my dream to be here and finally after five years++, dreams do come true!!! (Ticking off another bucket list).

After dying countless time in Harajuku (too excited heart attack)
We decide to spend the rest of the day at Shibuya. Maybe we were walking too much on that day, three of us almost collapsed.
We wanted to find a cafe to rest for a while, but cafe hunting in Shibuya in the weekends is so damn hard as everywhere is full. Their conbini doesn't have place for us to sit too! We tried to search on Google for cafe nearby and it's usually full when we're there, or there'll be people smoking in a closed area (which we really want to avoid).
Finally we found a cafe that is full, but a small table that can fit us, but that really means a lot to us who almost decide to lie down in the middle of the road in Shibuya.

Americano as always.

 We spent a few hours chilling at the cafe, coz we were on our feet for THE WHOLE DAY.
After that it's quite late so we decided to leave but since we are already in Shibuya so why not visit Tower Records before we leave.

 The whole 8-storey building is selling CDs and we were very lucky to be able to meet up with a fansign event (although we don't know who they are). The fans were all prepared with their cannons, which I thought it was for animals photography XD

There's a lot of surprise at Tower Records as I easily get excited when I see their albums and singles HAHA Another amazing thing is that JOHNNY'S is considered a genre, so when I was wondering why is there no Johnny's artist in the J-POP section, I walked into another huge corner where every artists under Johnny's are put together. Heaven.

That night we decided to stop at an Izakaya (where businessmen usually spend their time there after a long day work for beer), we went to a place called 一休 which the price are reasonable.
We had one big mug of beer each, had something too eat, and had a lengthy talk.
I am actually still underage in Japan, so actually every time I'm buying alcohol in Japan I was so scared HAHAHA Coz Zz had been asked to show her ID card when she bought alcohol (glad I was not phewwww) the only time I appreciate looking old XD

Anyway, BEER IS LIFE. Cheers.

Tokyo Adachi Hanabitaikai 2016

The third day in Japan we had breakfast at home, packed our things and said goodbye to our first home in Chitose-Karasuyama.

We didn't get to meet our host after staying for two days as he's usually out for work at night. He did a very great job keeping the house clean (even though he's a guy), it's THAT clean that you'll feel stressful to use it LOL Anyway, thanks for the great accomodation.
We carried our luggage and moved on to our second house, it's at an area called Shinamachi which is quite near Ikebukurou.

OTW Shinamachi.

View outside Shinamachi station.

The whole area have a very refreshed feel.
Our house is not that far from the station compared to our first one, but it was very hard to find. We walked pass the entrance for a couple of time before we found it. The entrance was very small and the outside looks so old and rusty, but the house inside is clean, new, spacious and damn convenient. Great job Japan XD

Our house entrance is the small door at the end of this narrow alley.

We rest for a while being too tired carrying everything up and down the stairs, tidy up ourselves a bit, did the laundry, and Zoe went out to meet with Zz who's joining us for the following days.

After a good rest, we went out to hunt for lunch. Unfortunately the recommended shop that we wanted to go was closed on that day, so we went into a random typically family restaurant beside it.

Aji no mise.

The inner part looks like this.

Typical curry rice. YUMM.

After having our lunch, we were thinking to go around and explore Ikebukurou. Ikebukurou is a placed known for anime, it was the place for anime before Akihabara came out. We were quite tired and was thinking there's no point just wandering around so we decided to go to the fireworks festival earlier.

We was wrong thinking we were early, as there were a huge crowd going to the same direction we don't even need a map to go. Along the way to the event venue, there's small stalls by the side of the road selling some snacks and drinks.

It's very lovely seeing everyone in their Yukatas <3

Food stalls by the road.

We bought beer HAHA

When we reached there, everywhere is FULL with people even though we reached four hours earlier!
Everyone is there with their family, with their friends, or couples all in their yukatas. They were fully prepared with picnic mats, food and ALCOHOL (my fav part of JPN XD)
We found a place to sit, as we didn't prepare mats, we sat on the grass. Later on the owner of the mat behind us came and told us they won't need the space anymore and we can have the mat, DAMN LUCKY!!!

 We took pictures, the sky was nice, had some snacks and drank beer, enjoying the crowds and the sunset while waiting for it to start.

Well it finally start, and thank you Japan, I was so overwhelmed, everything is beyond words. I was first very busy trying to capture that moment with my camera, then my phone, then snapchat again LOL. Then I realized I really should cherish the moment, and eyes have the highest pixels that a camera can't even capture, I decided to put away everything, sit back and CRY being too overwhelmed.
The fireworks was put with a background song. All those songs brought back a lot of memories and some were used to be my inspiration and motivation. The night sky was so beautiful lit, with all kinds and all vibrant colors of fireworks.

There's also a part that the crowds used flashlight following the rhythm of the song and everything is just simply BEAUTIFUL. It ended with non stop fireworks that lit up the whole sky. IT WAS AN UNFORGETTABLE NIGHT <3

After that we spent almost two hours(?) just to get out of the crowds, although the people are soooo much there's no squeezing or pushing or anything rude. People just follow instructions and slowly wait when it comes to a total jam. Everyone is just chatting like usual and no one even complain about not being able to move or anything so. OWHHH JAPAN. (I've said a lot of time but still I just wanna say it)

It is always my dream to go for a Hanabitaikai in Japan, with the stalls, the yukatas, the kakigori the sunset, the fireworks performance. It  didn't fail me =]

Ticking off Hanabitaikai from my bucket list!!!

Shop-till-drop in Japan!

It's funny how we put shop-till-drop day on the second day in Japan instead of the last few days.
We already had a list of things to buy before we came to Japan, not only ours, but mom's and aunt's. We were thinking to gaodim all the long list so we won't be stressed looking for all the stuffs later on. It was actually a good chance for us to explore the city.

We decided to go Shibuya first. Sadly the shops here open quite late too. We were too early and what we can do is just wandering around the streets LOL

. We were too early that there's almost no crowd at the Hachi statue.

Explore Shibuya with Zoe! 

This was Zoe in a drugstore (?) since we were looking for beauty products and cosmestics.

Gudetama miniature!

A random guy cleaning the front of the shop.

We went for purikura and was so kelam-kabut LOL. There's time limit for everything and even posing, so we were not so ready for every pics (and still need to act like we were ready). All kind of cute and awkward poses came out HAHA Surprisingly love the outcome.

This is a corner from a stationary shop that sells everything made from real wood. The scent of wood filled up the whole place and everything just looked so delicate I CAN'T.

Visited Disney store in Shibuya and it's a wonderland with beautiful decorations selling every cute and beautiful stuffs (which is all damn expensive, but still worth it) I JUST WANT EVERYTHING.

Went to Kinokuniya bookstore here too, it's so quiet and calm here, but since we were not looking for books we didn't spend a lot of time here. I read some Johnny's-related magazines, wanted to kyaa-out-loud but I can't ughhhhh.

We had lunch at Ichiran (finally!!) and it didn't disappoint me! 

It's served in a small window, and usually after serving the bowl of ramen, the waiter will bow more that 90 degree (which in the picture his head is on his knee level 0.o) 

After filling our tummy we went to Ginza. It has a totally different feeling compared to Shibuya as the shops here are more high class. We just wanted to visit the place and I was really shocked by all the huge outlets here. Even a watch outlet can be 6 storey high!

We were so tired walking whole day we decided to just find a cafe and chill for a while. We went to Excelsior cafe and the ice matcha latte here is so damn good!

It was actually the date that my foundation second semester's result would be out, and I was quite nervous that time as some of my friends from the same group can already know their result (which some were good and some were bad).

It felt quite amazing as I was in Taiwan for the first day for my foundation first sem result and now was in Japan for the first day for my second sem result. It felt amazing.

At that time I was only hoping that I can safely pass my semester. Since if I didn't pass it, I'll need to take the supplementary exam, which I need to cancel my days in Japan and go back to Miri to sit for it. It'll totally be a nightmare for me if that happened.

We went to another area of Tokyo to meet with a girl to get our tickets for illion's concert XD It's not a touristy place so there's totally no huge tourist crowd. On the way to that place, I get to know my result on the train, in the squeezy crowd. It felt so amazing, getting satisfying results and after that getting our tickets!

A view in the train station where everyone is going home from work.

The day ended amazingly with all the good news <3

Instead of eating out, we went to the combini and bought some onigiri for dinner and fruit beer, chilling at home with dramas after a tired day.