[JAPAN 2014] Day 3: Tokyo

So today we decided to cover most of the major area of Tokyo since we had limited time (we had way too many things we wanted to see lol). It didn't feel as if it was that packed but looking back at it we covered most of what we wanted to see. Ah well, it's enough for a day anyway!

First stop: Harajuku!

I'm kinda disappointed it's not a duck-motif store.

After we had our fill of people watching (and shopping), we headed off to Akihabara!

I was just planning to look for a SD card for my dad and a denshi jisho for myself. I ended up not buying it here but bought it in BIC Camera in Namba instead. Wished I'd bought it in Akihabara though, much better deals and with a salesperson who speaks great English (easier to define requirements... not so easy when the salesperson doesn't quite speak the same language ^^;). Ah well, that was my mistake. Regardless, am happy with my denshi jisho :D

I love this, plus it's halal! This reminds me of The Halal Guys' rice! The sauce even tastes similar. I'm gonna look for this stall again when I go back to Japan this May :D

DRAT! Now I found you, Mos Burger :( I didn't have a single Mos Burger during this trip! I shall rectify this for the 2015 trip lol.

Next stop: Ueno.

As an aside: I LOVE the train announcers in Tokyo lol. The way they pronounce some of the stops are adorably hilarious. I still can't get the sing-songy "Shinjukuuuu~" out of my head.

This is beautiful!

There was a father & son duo performance when we were there. Lovely music.

After resting for a while in Ueno Park, we decided to head off to Asakusa to visit the ever famous Sensoji Temple. I gotta say, the grounds for this temple is beautiful! I love the zen garden, and definitely one of the more picturesque temples I've been to in Japan.

Spotted this double decker train. Have yet to experience riding on one :D

We headed back to our temporary apartment to have a bit of a rest before heading to Shinjuku. Below you can see the entrance to the nondescript Airbnb apartment we rented. We initially had trouble figuring out how to enter the place with the key when we first arrived - one of the tenants just looked cautiously over at us while we were trying to figure out the whole system. I wonder how popular Airbnb's are here? It seems that there's an extensive network of it but is there like a law against/protecting it?

My collection of maccha snacks :D (And basically dinner)

Our compact little space. Gotta admire the Japanese's efficiency - they used every nook and cranny and yet still seemed to have everything under one 1LDK apartment.