We had a wonderful time in Taiwan and Japan. In fact, it was more than an awesome trip. The trip was a revelation to me. We didn't really plan for this trip much earlier than we should, everything was planned and booked in about less than 3 weeks time before we flew. We went with 2 of Andrew's friends, Michael and Sunghoon. Jetstar was on sale, but after much dilly dallying, we missed the sale. However, we were lucky enough to get a pretty cheap flight to Japan with China Airlines and the upside was the flight had to transit in Taiwan (there was a choice between Hong Kong and Taiwan, so I chose Taiwan as I've never been there). Goodie, I thought to myself, we would literally kill 2 birds with one stone.
We flew on Big Elf's birthday. I felt so bad that I "forgot" to inform his friends (you know la, guys don't remember each other's birthday, it's normally a girl's thing), so none of his friends wished him happy birthday. Oh well, he didn't feel anything either, so that was alright. Anyway, flight to Taiwan was really good. I was paranoid and worried throughout the whole journey because I heard and read about China Airlines, being the most "unsafe" airline. Thank God, journey was fine. Food was alright, nothing too unusual nor fancy.
We arrived Taiwan in the evening. We had no idea of how to get to the city and to our hotel. As we walked out of the departure hall, we saw a placard and our hotel's name written on it. So we enquired, and it was roughly TWD1200, which will send us right to the hotel's front door. So, that's only AUD12 each for the 4 of us. We went for it, as the journey was about 45 minutes to the city by car. Finally, as we were waiting outside the airport, we were surprised that our "taxi" was a black Mercedes Benz! Felt so posh for a minute there.
Journey to the hotel wasn't as long as I thought probably because I was engrossed with watching the view along the way. We arrived at the hotel, checked in and quickly got ready for dinner. We stayed at San Want Hotel along Zhongxiao East Road (one of the main street in Taipei). It was almost 10 when we arrived at the nearby dim sum place ( cannot remember the name of the eatery). Nice place and food was nice too, the restaurant was a bit of the pricey side, but we were so anxious about trying genuine foreign food, so throughout the whole trip, we weren't too skimp on money.
One of my favourite, "har gao", Taiwanese/Chinese style. It's nice but I guess, I'm more used to the Hong Kong style dim sum since I grew up with it. After dinner, or rather supper you may call it, we just walked around the streets and into smaller streets. Everywhere is closed though, so there weren't much to do. However, there were lots of little cafes around where people were just merely having drinks and meeting up with friends I guess. This is what you call, the supper culture in asian countries.
The rail line in Taiwan is apparently one of the best in Asia, and we do admit it's really easy to ride and convenient too. Our first stop is to Dan Shui (as recommended by our hotel's receptionist). Dan Shui is basically the last stop of the train towards the north and basically it's a town by the seaside. It's popular for sunset viewing but we had to go to the night market, as it was our the only night we have left. So, we only managed to walk around some streets in Dan Shui.
The street that we visited.
One of the things I bought was the sunglass (for AUD6, I always lose them, so I don't buy expensive ones after I lost one really good one which my mum bought for me during uni days). Also got myself a nice little brown carry bag..
We had lunch at a traditionally set-up restaurant. Our first ramen, very nice albeit small portion. Also comes in wet form.
Taiwan was also heaven for us, as we are bubble tea fans. We practically drank bubble tea as often as we can find them. It's also cheap for the amount they gave us. It's pretty expensive over here in Sydney and EasyWay being the only shop that sells bubble tea.
Our next stop was Ximen Ting. This is like the must go place if you visit Taipei according to everyone I know. it was good, unfortunately, it didn't do much to me. It was just a very busy place with lots of shopping (yet it's not my kind of shopping and things are pretty expensive too). Just before we left Ximen Ting however, I happened to bump into several shops selling dresses and I quickly grabbed a few dresses (for only about AUD10 each). It made my day!! So, after spending a couple of hours there, we then headed to Shilin night market. I was actually looking forward to the night market more than anything.
We had dinner at the night market (which is a separate area from the shopping area). My taste bud was opened to something delicious which I've never tried before, stinky tofu!! In fact, it wasn't stinky at all to me. However, the first bite, will send you craving for more. It's really nice if you like tofu for a start.
Another famous dish was "o-jien" or oyster pancake. We tried and we didn't like it probably due to Sitiawan's influence. Sitiawan has a nicer "o-jien" I reckon as they are crunchier.
That was all the time we had in Taiwan, short but fun! Food wasn't that impressive, particularly the night market. Such a big place, yet they all sell pretty similar food. Shopping was not bad, although we didn't even have the time to check out the shopping malls on the street where we stayed.
Our flight to Japan was the next day in the afternoon. Flight was only about 3-4 hours. Going to Taiwan wasn't as bad as Japan, because we can speak Mandarin and even Hokkien if we have to, but Japan is a totally different place altogether. Communication would be a big issue as most of them don't really speak English!! All the more we were excited!
Arriving at Narita Intl airport safe and sound. First drama: I realised I left my newly bought sunglass on the plane. I did check the pouch attached to the seat in front of me before leaving the plane, but guess what, I didn't check the floor. It must have fell down on the floor while I was asleep. See, the talent in me has surfaced! I knew something like this will happen, that's why I will never buy anyhing expensive for myself!
Thank God for the guys as they just knew what to do and where to go next. We went to the JR counter to get our passes. The most suitable pass for us was the 7 days unlimited travel on JR line pass. Since our trip was slight more than 7 days in Japan, we had to also get a subway pass. The 7 days pass is really worth it, it also includes travelling on Shinkansen. It cost about AUD300+ but the Shinkansen alone would cost about AUD200+ to and fro Osaka. So, it's really worth it for anything wishing to travel in Tokyo.
We headed to the city. Due to some mix-up at the travel agent's end, we had to stay in Tokyo a day earlier than we planned. So, we picked Ochanomizu, slightly cheaper and also because it was close to Akihabara, which will be our first stop for visit. The journey from the station to the hotel was absolutelly ridiculous!!
It was stairs all the way. We had to carry and drag our luggages and by the time we arrived at the hotel, we were exhausted. The weather didn't help a single bit. It was absolutely hot and humid in Japan. Anyway, I'm glad we tried this hotel called Tokyo Green Hotel Really small, but the toilet design is genius!! Space were used wisely and it felt like being in a luxury train ride with an ensuite bathroom!
So our first night in Ochanomizu, everything's closed, streets were pretty quiet and we managed to find a decent restaurant around where we stayed called "Watamin-chi" which really sounds like Vitamin C! Had some sushi and teriyaki chicken (the gross part of the chicken like giblets) and a nice cocktail drink, after which we all headed back to the hotel for an early night's rest.
Next morning, we walked to Akihabara, which is really about 2-300meters walk. Now, this is where the busy activities are all centralised. Akihabara is the main electronics area and for electronic geeks, this definitely is not to be missed. They have all the latest trend mobile phones and almost everything you can think off. Unfortunately, of course we can't purchase any mobile phones because there would be a 2 year lock-in contract. I guess that explains why the guys chose to stay here. We surveyed every store than we can find on the price of an Ipod Nano 8GB. Apparently one shop sold the cheapest for only 20800 yen (~AUD208), even cheaper than duty-free Sydney. Big Elf couldn't resist it, he had to get one!
We had brunch at a tonkatsu place. A new experience because apparently we have to order firstly by purchasing a ticket for our meal using the ticket machine places outside (sometimes inside) of the shop.
SO, Akihabara was like I said is mainly electronics. It wasn't really for me, but thank goodness I found some places that sells other stuffs like cosmetics and sourvenirs. So, at least I kept myself occupied with these shops.
Our next stop was Shinjuku. This was to be our base for the next 4 days. From Shinjuku station, we got out at the South Exit (or southern terrace exit) to get to the hotel. So, we checked into Sunroute Hotel and much to our delight, it was a better room than the previous one. Although it says 3 star hotel, really that was because they don't have a gym nor swimming pool. The rooms are at least 4 stars. They are great for that amount of money we paid. It was also close to the station and pretty central too. The hotels in Japan and Taiwan probably gives the most amenities to anywhere I've been too. You don't really have to worry about bringing your toothbrush for holiday there, perhaps just your dental floss and mouthwash!
One thing I love about Japan is their state of the art washlet, the bidet style toilet. It is absolutely amazing. There is a control to heat up the toilet rim, there's bidet to wash your private part after the business is done, but of course ultimately you still have to use the toilet rolls yourself, but if only they have a dryer in there too! The toilet cover even opens up by itself when you enter the bathroom! How cool is that?? They basically have it installed in most places in Japan except probably the public toilets in the park and the train station.
Alright, enough with that. After settling down and resting for a little while (I was busy checking out the hotel room that I didn't have time to rest, how suaku ~ coming from a village), the guys were hungry and we spotted a restaurant just a block away from the hotel. Again, ramen (I think our friends are really fond of noodles) but can't blame them because it wasn't easy looking around for places to eat. We were either:
a) wasting too much time walking around or
b) couldn't understand the menu posted in front of the shop or
c) didn't know what the restaurant was serving at all or
d) too expensive.
We only went for the obvious ones like this one, which has noodle pictures splashed on the wall inside the restaurant. Easy enough, we just chose whatever we saw and ordered. The ramen, however turned out to be unbelievably good. Beef and pork was superbly soft and it practically melts in your mouth. It became one of our favourite restaurant instantly.
Oh yeah, back to the hotel. I was relieved and happy to find out that they have a guest lounge with free internet. No other hotels we stayed in Japan has it, in other words we have to pay for internet usage. This hotel, however is free, except you can only hope there isn't anyone there before you when you want to use the internet. There's also free coffee and tea at our dispense. Truly a guest lounge!
We then took a taxi to a nearby town called Harajuku, we were too exhausted hence we had to take a taxi there. If by train it was only 2 stops away. The street which the taxi stopped us took me to a shop which was probably the only shopping place I've ever wanted to go in Japan. It was all so unexpected! I saw the shop from outside and thought, it must be good as there were many people in the shop! I parted with the guys, because we don't have the same shopping interest (It was a good move!). I stepped into the shop and after looking at a few things, I got frustrated.. there were no price tags! I had to resort to asking a lady beside me how much does it say it cost?? (Spoke in English, then translated in Japanese, Sore Ikura deska? ).. Of course thank Goodness she replied in English, "100yen.. evrysing 100yen". I quickly thanked her, and I was all beaming.. I found my shop!! I didn't even keep track of the time but we all did agree to meet in an hour's time. I was taking my time and looked at everything slowly. Unfortunately, the "Auld Land Syne" song came out and my first instinct was, "what?? the shop's closing soon???" and true enough the announcement came. I gushed upstairs to quickly take a peep of what else they have and there were 4 storeys!! Oh no, and I promised myself, I will go back.. I definitely will go back there.
So I met up with the guys, we walked around the streets in Harajuku, and finally sent into a tempura restaurant for dinner or even supper if you may call it. I wasn't particularly hungry but the tempura looked nice. We even tried some local beer, Kirin, but I prefered Asahi.
After taking a stroll down the streets, we decided to go back to Shinjuku and to Kabukicho (kabukicho is just next to Shinjuku, divided by this big shopping building called Lumine). Kabukicho is the red-light district of Tokyo. However, the "activities" weren't too obvious if you are a lady. When our guy friends was walking with us, no one approached them, but when they weren't with us, say a few feet ahead of us, we could see that a man (on several occasion) would approach them and would whisper to them. Afterwards, I was told, they needed my presence in order to walk places like Kabukicho nd Ginza (in Kyoto) in peace!!!Alright, so that concludes the day.
The next few days were mainly visiting places of interest such as the Imperial Palace, Ueno Park, Asakusa and Roppongi Hills. Roppongi Hills is a must go particularly the Mori Building for the Tokyo City View. It is spectular and it's so densely populated. On a clear day, you might be lucky to get a view of the Mount Fuji.
Generally, it was hard to find a cheap and nice sashimi restaurant. So, we took the advise of some ACS forummers and went to the food court of either Takashimaya or Isetan. We went to Takashimaya and the food on display looked so lovely. They do have sashimi in wet market area and it's probably much cheaper than any restaurants. I was later told that salmon, apparently is very expensive in Japan and Japanese prefer tuna than salmon.
On that day we parted with our friends. They went to other places like Odaiba and we went our way. We had whatever we wanted to eat, without the fuss of getting concensus on meals. Had the chance to try out speaking Japanese from the phrasebook (which was God-sent). It was extremely handy to be able to converse a little in Japanese. We also found out the reason why there were no wastebins in Japan. I was told that Japan feared terrorism, hence all wastebins has been discarded and we can actually hand our rubbish to any sales assistant, and they will be more than happy to bin them for us.
The last day in Shinjuku, our friends went to Ginja, we however went back to Ochanomizu because Big Elf found out about a street full of shops selling musical instruments ie mainly guitars. He was excited and "persuaded" me to go with him. Of course, I had to go being the submissive wife. But the plus side was we found a very cheap sushi place. I had a really fair share of my Ikura (Salmon Roe) and Tobiko (Flying fish roe) in Japan!
Oh, we also saw this beautiful church called, Holy Resurrection Cathedral also known as Nicholai-do. Not much of a history there except it's the main orthodox cathedral in Japan.
It was a very productive day for Big Elf I would say because he managed to buy his dream fretless bass guitar, which you can hardly find in Australia. So, this purchase alone made his whole Japan trip! Good on him!
No comments:
Post a Comment