Poor sister. I don’t know how she did it.

Sister’s picture compilation.

As our activities drew a parallel to an Amazing Race schedule, sister and I had very. little. sleep. throughout our four days in Tokyo [thinking back, I wonder how we managed to survive].

Candid shot by sister. Bed. Sleep. Night. Sleep is good.

We had to cancel the first night in Sapporo as we couldn’t get the Shinkansen tickets for the day we wanted. Plan B was to stay a night in Hakodate before heading to Sapporo. So during our 3rd night at Tomoyuki’s place, sister stayed up til 1.30am looking for accommodations online for Hakodate [I abandoned her at 12+pm to sleep. Too exhausted. Oops.].

Poor sister. I don’t know how she managed it… because we had to wake up at 4.15am [that's freakin' 3.15am Sg time] the same morning to get to Tsukiji Fish Market!

Too tired and cold to smile properly.

Too tired and cold to even smile.

Misadventure 1: Upon reaching Tsukiji Fish Market, all we saw were a handful of men wheeling their fishes away. The activities had ended! >.<||| *wails*

Misadventure 2: We decided to have breakfast at a nearby shop which had a wonderful smell of food wafting out from it. However, the queue crawled by so s.l.o.w.l.y we left after more than an hour of waiting in the co-co-co-cold. Brrr.

So in addition to being frozen and tired, we were also famished. *sad pathetic expression*

The next stop for the day was Asakusa, Sensoji Temple. “The first A of the 3 ‘A’s,” I told sister. “What 3 ‘A’s?? There are only 2!” she corrected me.

Art at the train station.

“We will only be here for a short while,” sister said. Little did we know…

All the people were taking their pictures here.

Superpowers: levitating the huge lantern.

“Oh no, another evil place,” was what I muttered to myself when I stepped through the entrance and saw all these shops.

It was at Asakusa that I got many stuff for people. Handphone chains, food, magnets, yadda yadda. And a beautiful snow globe for myself!

My cammie battery died just after the Tsukiji Fish Market non-experience and the photos for the rest of the day were taken using the mobile phone. Yep, the most popular functions of the mobile for the 2 weeks were the camera and calculator. Laughs. Though my mobile and the sim card were 3G, it couldn’t be used in Nihon, so I was cut off from everyone, which was, surprisingly, a welcoming relief, though inconvenient at times.

So I am sorry, I did not manage to get any of your messages, no, not even after I returned to Singapore.

After our non-existent breakfast at Tsukiji Fish Market, sister and I were ravenous and thus bought some traditional candy from the first food store we came across.

I aimed my mobile cammie non-too-subtly at her and she smiled in return. A Singaporean seller may scream profanities at me. Or something.

More food! The packagings were all so nice! Temptation galore.

This shop was selling delicious pumpkin snacks. Oshii! We went back for seconds. I would visit it again should I ever go to Asakusa again.

Misadventure 3: We were in a shop with me choosing a pair of earrings for myself and there was some loud chatter going on with the shop owner and two men. Sister came by and whispered, “I think there is a celebrity here. Over there, over there, by the corner.” We crept by stealthily like ninjas and peeked past a shop shelf. I was about to take a secret picture when the handsome supposed-celebrity looked over at us [major OOPS], and they ‘escaped’ through the back door.

Ahem. 

starm|st and Mango go to Nihon and harass scare people away.

We finally reached the temple! And I was still holding onto the pumpkin thingie.

A quick shot before we move on. And still holding onto my pumpkin thing.

Apparently breathing in the scent or something to that effect will bring you good luck. Everybody was doing it, so I joined in. *gasp choke splutter splutter sour face*

Throw some coins in and pray for..anything.

I have no idea what these were, but they were pretty, so let’s camwhore!

Misadventure 4: I’d wanted to try my luck hand in reading my fortune, and this was what happened.

I think most people have already seen it via Caoswsbhoayt‘s entry. -_-”

And this happened when he dedicated an entire entry to me.

The usual 100+ – 200+ unique readers a day [was neglecting the blog so readership went down] as opposed to, well, guess how many hundreds there were on the day when he linked me.

Kill me please.

Anyway. Sister and I forgot about the whole fortune-telling incident until our first day in Osaka when I replayed it. A part of the prediction actually came true! FREAKY MUCH??!?

It was getting cold so we headed to the indoor bit of Asakusa. Pretty! It looked as though sakura flowers were falling from the ceiling.

I have lost count the number of times we ate at weird timings. Oh, and the number of times we ate ramen as well.

We escaped the evil-place-which-made-us-spend-a-lot that is Asakusa and were mulling over our next stop when my eyes fell on something familiar…

… we were standing just outside a shop that sells Miyazaki’s stuff! *little scream* In we went, for a long long time. So much for spending a short while at Asakusa. Hur hur.

At the bottom of the picture, you can see Totoro in different positions. The entire display will spin and you can see, on the mirrored reflections, Totoro ‘moving’ in play.

A hastily, secretly taken photograph.

Lurve the brolly! All the fluffballs in the brolly are so kawaii! I didn’t buy it ‘cos we still have Sapporo, Kyoto and Osaka to go to! Can someone please get the brolly for me??

Next stop, Akihabara and Shinjuku [which we didn't manage to go on the first day]! 

Other Nihon Reads:

The Amazing Race [Nihon Version]

Meet The Katenas

Let’s Become Lost Children Together

Disneysea Part I

Disneysea Part II