Tokyo, Japan - Part One.

Well, here I am back in Malaysia from my trip to Tokyo, Japan for one week. I would like to say I had fun from the start till the end but unfortunately things didn't went all smooth during the whole trip. But overall, Japan is a wonderful place.

More like, Japan is another world. A more awesome world.

DAY ONE

We departed from Malaysia at the 8th of April, a Monday morning. I wasn't really feeling well from the night before and sadly, I didn't felt any much better after I had my breakfast. My stomach was upset and I vomited. I felt terrible but it's worse when I made my parents worry.

But we went to the airport anyways, and boarded on the plane to Hong Kong for a transit flight. I did feel a little better, but I couldn't eat anything because I will feel sick later and throw up. Yeap, I was down because our trip had a horrible start.

The sun was already setting by the time we landed at Haneda Airport. A person named Suzuki fetched us from the airport to our hotel, which is Sun Members Hotel at Shinjuku. It' not bad actually for a three star hotel. At least they had access to the internet.

It's really cold compared to the weather in Malaysia and it's probably 15-17°C. Plus, the weather is dry and very windy, especially during the night. Before we slept, we changed into our yukatas prepared by the hotel.

Please pardon me for not wearing the yukata properly.

DAY TWO

I was still feeling unwell and vomited in the middle of the night. Normally, I will feel nauseatic after I woke up after a meal, so I tried to refrain from eating too much. I also didn't have any appetite, all I could do was swallow down a piece of bread. And I had to go to the toilet often to excrete watery stools, ugh.

My parents and I weren't following any tour on our trip so we had to travel anywhere by ourselves. This is a really great experience as we get to use their subways and trains, which is very well connected to each other, unlike Malaysia. The best thing was the whole station is deeply underground, which amazes me and my father a lot.

The nearest station at our area was Tochomae, which is connected the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. We were confused and struggled at first because we didn't know what ticket or passes to buy but we eventually understood how things were working there, thanks to the kind staffs there.

Lost and helpless in a foreign country.

Our first destination from the subway station was the Shinjuku Gyoen, a national park. Ahh, we got lost for a while but after walking A LOT, we managed to find the park which is a great place for viewing cherry blossoms, or sakuras in Japanese.

For your information, Japanese people walk a lot. They walk to work, walk to school, walk to the subway, walk back home and probably travel to anywhere by foot. I think they don't really need a car since their subways are so efficient. And when they walk, they walk FAST.

I guess since they already started walking from a young age, when the get old, they still can walk very fast. I don't know how many times I was overtook by old grandmas. Walking a lot is probably another reason why Japaneses are healthier and live longer. And I guess they don't like to waste time or they're really busy, so they walk faster than normal people.

Okay, back to cherry blossom-viewing. I was so hyped up despite how unwell I was in the morning when I saw the sakura trees. According to the receptionist at our hotel, the sakuras left in Tokyo are only 10%, but it's still a spectacular view. Owhemgee, I was so excited.

The Japanese have a tradition of picnicking while viewing the cherry blossoms. They will sit on the mat they prepared and eat the food they bought. Me and my parents wanted to do so but we didn't have a mat so we sat at a tree stump. It makes me wonder how the Japaneses could eat in such windy conditions.

After that, we returned to our hotel and I slept for two hours. It was a bad decision as I threw up my lunch after I woke up. I should have rested in bed but I wanted to follow my mom to Shibuya and Harajuku. Ugh, who knew that I would suffer a stomachache along the way.

The subways in Tokyo have many subway lines and are owned by two companies, Toei Line and Metro Line. Normally the Japanese have credits in their ICs and can switch to different lines easily but if you buy a ticket (depending on what kind of ticket you buy), you might be limited to only one company's lines. We bought a Metro Line ticket that day and we had to walk seven minutes to their station.

See how complicated it is?

It was really hard for me because I was having a stomachache. I had to stop once to rest and walked really slowly. The worst thing is they don't have any seats at the station. But I didn't wanted to disappoint my mom, who seemed to be really excited to see the Shibuya crossing. So I endured till we got to the city.

If it wasn't for the stomachache, I would have gone to cross the road for fun. I could only sit at the side and watch as a crowd of people walk on the zebra crossing like how they showed in TVs. Later, we couldn't go to Harajuku because of I have reached my limit. Sorry, mom and dad. :(

DAY THREE

I woke up feeling better. I didn't throw up in the morning because I skipped dinner the previous night. We were on our way to Mount. Fuji on the bus. The guide for that day was Ms. Akiko. She kept talking on the bus so I fell asleep.

The Tokyo Tower that Ikki sat in Air Gear.

There was many pit stops going up the mountain and it's really chilly and windy up there. We had our lunch at a resort and I managed to eat some food. Ugh, it was so cold up there.

Then, we rode a cruise to Hakone-en (Hakone Garden) and proceeded to a cable car station. It will bring us up to the Komagatake Mountain for a better view of Mount. Fuji. Up there, the temperature is really low and it's damn windy. My hair was in a mess and the photos that were taken are just, horrible, haha.

It was cloudy that day.

After spending enough time admiring the mountain, we sat back on the bus and head to Odawara Station to catch a shinkansen (bullet train). It's really fast and they have seats like the ones you sit on an airplane. You don't feel the train shaking much even though it's travelling at a fast speed. I originally wanted to record as it arrived the station but it was already waiting for us at the railway.

We stopped at Shinagawa station first before going to Harajuku. Nearby the station is the Takeshita street which sells a lot of different kind of fashion in Japan. There's clothes you can't find in Malaysia and you can see the youngsters there dressing up in various styles.

We had udon for dinner at a restaurant underground. This proves how much the Japaneses save spaces when it comes to land.

I'll would normally love to post everything in one post but I think it'll be to long to read. I'm going to separate my journey in two parts for easier reading. I'll post the second part as soon as possible! Stay tuned.

EXTRA FACT ABOUT JAPAN

I went to China twice, and both of them are during the winter. One of the most dreadful things there is - cold toilet seat. Yes, experiencing the cold at your bottom isn't a pleasant feeling and I'd always have to brace for it when it happens.

I went to Japan during spring but the weather is still chilly compared to Malaysia. But Japan had already encounter this problem by inventing warm toilet seat. No more shall people fear of getting their bottoms freezed.

Besides warm toilet seat, the Japaneses have built toilets that can wash your bottoms with just a click of the button. You don't need to get your hands wet anymore and some even had a dryer.