Day 3.

Day 3 in Tokyo was probably the most tiring yet.

lots of walking and train taking today! the Japanese subway has profited much from my family today, i tell you.

one random thing about Japan: there are A LOT of cake and pastry stores that look suuuper yummy. like those sparkling, heavenly ones always featured in anime.

just add super a lot of sparkles to this one.

breakfast today was normal, eaten at the hotel. it wasn't much, but we didn't have much time to spend on breakfast. i remember the yummiest thing being the onion soup. wanna learn how to make soup like that!

today we really got our fill of Japanese trains. here's what the map of Tokyo's train lines looks like.

not pretty.
mind you this is ONLY Tokyo.

some stations are interchanges, just like the ones in Singapore. the difference is, an interchange usually has 3 or more lines running through it. this is because there are main lines connecting the main stations in Tokyo, and also smaller stations connected by the subway lines. one interchange can have as many as 5 train/subway lines running through it! that's like having NEL, EWL, NSL, Circle Line, and Downtown Line all in one station! (there aren't even 5 lines operating in Singapore, since the Downtown line isn't up yet)

so yes, taking the train can be a little bit confusing. and tiring, seeing that there are hardly any escalators in train stations. lol.

we met Aunty Karen at the main Shinjuku station, and she agreed to take us to BOTH Akihabara and Ameyayokocho! xD

we went to Ameyayokocho first, to look for MITA Sneakers. along the way, i bought my first pair of shoes from Japan, HOHO. they cost ~S$45, quite happy with them ^o^ so tempted to buy another pair of the same brand from that same shop! but decided to wait first lah. my mum despises them as usual, haha. they're chunky and remind her of my yellow shoes (though they aren't yellow) so of course she'd hate them. *shrugs*

we had delicious sashimi and Japanese rice for lunch--salmon, tuna, squid, sweet shrimp, raw mashed tuna, and sukiyaki udon. soo yummy... i was so sad that i forgot to take photos! D:

we found the MITA Sneakers store that Lionel recommended, and it's true, they really do have very good deals! :) but they cost, on average, about double that of the shoes i bought. then again, these are Nike, Puma, Vans, Adidas, Converse we're talking about, not the Rebecca Bonbons i bought. haha...

oh, and the shop opposite was selling Radii (straight jacket series) and Supra. :O !!!
but they were also Radii and Supra price. haha. i'm happy i got to TOUCH them though!!! HEHE cheap thrill.

i was debating whether i should buy this turquoise nike dunks for ~S$105, black&gold puma or purple&blue puma for ~S$90+ but decided not to in the end. we also passed this store selling original high-cut DCs in crazy colours OMG SOOOO NICEEE there were 2 pairs i really liked--one black with bronze&silver&gold scribblings. another shiny metallic purple and neon orange. but these cost ~S$155 a pair. T___T

after all that shopping where my family was kind enough to put up with my indecisiveness, we took a train to Akihabara!

Akihabara is famous for its electrical appliances and maid/cosplay cafes, as well several shops selling anime merchandise.

the first thing i did was hop into an Apple shop and play Plants Vs Zombies on the iPad omg SO SWEET the iPad is sooo...BIG. HAHA. (for lack of a better word)

the second thing i did was charge into a shop selling lots of anime merchandise--Durarara, Axis Powers Hetalia, Gintama, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hitman Reborn, Bleach, Vocaloid, and most of the current popular anime. no Soul Eater though... T__T there were mario & all the abovementioned anime shirts, all kinds of character models (especially Square Enix ones like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy), customized Tsuna earphones, customised thumbdrive (which cost S$75 or i would've bought it), Neon Genesis Evangelion hairclips (that look like their communicators), some FFXIII elixir drink that came in an ordinary drink can... i felt like buying it, drinking whatever crazy stuff they put in the can, and keeping the can afterward xD

but i didn't. oh well. it was wonderful seeing those stuff though!

we also saw a lot of girls in maid costumes promoting their Maid Cafes メイド．キャフェー. what these cafes do is they serve food and drinks like normal cafes, but the waitresses are all dressed in maid costumes! the costumes are really SUPER CUTE, all those frilly dresses and high socks.
something like this:

(not my photo. i didn't want to take any of them cuz they looked quite pitiful trying to promote their cafes in the hot sun already x( )

my mum didn't want to pay the extra price of being served by maids, so we went to McDonald's for a drink instead. :/

on the way back to the station, we passed a Gundam Cafe OMG there was a queue outside too just for people waiting to go in! Aunty Karen bought some taiyaki sweet pastry thing with red bean inside for me in the shape of a Gundam LOL.

we then took a LOOONG train ride to Aunty Karen's house which is located on the outskirts of Tokyo. just for that one train ride from Akihabara to our destination, we had to pay about S$10 PER PERSON. (this does not include our other numerous train rides today) @__@

in the train, we saw LOADS of typical modern Japanese housing estates, the kind you see in anime!
okay i shall stop drawing references to anime.
but it's so cool to actually see those streets in real life! HOOO

and also a lot of cute Japanese boys on the train. HAHA okay irrelevant point.

to get to Aunty Karen's house, we had to take a walk into a typical Japanese housing estate. her house had this cool robot cleaner that cleans automatically, can sense where to turn to enter rooms, stop and turn around before the stairs and clean all flat surfaces on a single floor without human assistance. OMG.

we also caught a bit of the most recent Bleach episode on tv, hehe. guess what--NO SUBTITLES. (duh)

my cousin Eri was pretty happy to see us, and gave me a present OMG i feel sooo paiseh cuz i didn't get one for her T^T Hiro, her adorable white dog, was also doing really well! he's still as lively and energetic as ever, despite being almost 60 in human years.

dinner was yummy, of course. had barbeque at a restaurant! with kimchi, tomato salad, roasted cow tongue, beef, cow intestines (which are UNCHEWABLE) and cold noodles afterward. it was really yummy.

i also found out that my cousin wants to become a Japanese-English translator in future! :D this is great, because it means she's gonna work hard to brush up on her English!! :D wheehee.

also she goes to Sophia Junior College, the college affiliated to Sophia Daigaku/University, i.e. the one that's REALLY GOOD AT DANCE. :D SUPER COOL. she doesn't dance, though. but i tried to persuade her to go there HEHE.

after that we took the looong 1 hour + train ride back to Shinjuku.

i'm back in my hotel room, it's midnight, Tokyo time, and i think i really need to bathe. TEEHEE.

tomorrow is STUDIO GHIBLI TIME OMG