Monday, May 26, 2008
/ 1:09 pm
Day 02 - 20 Mar 2008 (Thurs)
Temp: 7-13c
Temp: 7-13c
Tokyo-Osaka
Makudonarudo! McDonalds in Japanese. Sounds weird to go Japan to have that for breakfast, but its the new menu that is attracting me...McGriddles. No need to explain since most of us have tried it. It was in their market for quite some time, made me wonder why sg din had such gd food for breakfast. It was indeed the starting of my mcgriddles addiction.
McGriddles! sorry for the blurred pic. but anyway, we didnt stay for long as smoking is permitted in the restaurant despite a non-smoking corner. smokes knows no boundaries.
it was kinda early, today's vernal equinox day, the arrival of spring day, all the morning bullet trains to Osaka is fully reserved. We had to take the noon train at Tokyo, so now we were exploring our iidabashi district. it was sure chilly and cold.
Another Mcdonalds....they are found everywhere...
evacuation map for this neighbourhood in times of natural disasters...
JR trains running to & fro across the Tokyo network...
Explored around the region of Iidabashi since most of the shops at the shopping centre wasnt open that early anyway...
Returned back to our hostel and check-out. Here's the view we had from the govt hostel...Quite cool.
We lugged our luggage to the West Exit of Iidabashi Station, everyone kept to the lane of their directons...
A potable water tap for the train station wardens? A common sight at every station.
The warden will stand on the platform, once a train approaches, he will make announcement through the PA system and wave his flag, he will then watch the CCTV screen to make sure the path is clear. In the event the train is crowded, he will also do the announcements of board the next train please, but that usually occurs for crowded stations and they have more than one man to do that. After the train door closes, he will wave his flag in the direction of the train and raise his hand until the train leaves the station, after which he must quickly move to the other side of the platform and repeat the sequence.
Its the beginning of Spring, its Japan's public holiday to commemorate the start of spring, so there we go, we start to see the locals wearing their traditional wear. However, the weather wasnt any better, there were still drizzle and the temperatures hovered around 7-9c, if this goes on, the flower will not bloom that soon. The media has already started predicting the arrival for the bloom is on 26-28th mar. All their trains are equipped with the centralised heat system so that your legs will feel warm when you sit on any of the cushioned chairs, really comfortable.
The hub of train lines. Shinjuku station. 2nd largest station in the world, busiest train station in the world. 12 train lines, 35 platforms criss-crossing each other on different networks and numerous shopping malls & underground malls. Had a hard time navigating out. Since we had some spare time, we strolled towards Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices (TMG)
Some random artefacts displayed at the station.
Finally reached the base of TMG. Im amazed at how I could walk underground links from Shinjuku Station all the way to here, which is like more than a kilometre away. Well, as the names states, it is the HQ for Tokyo govt, which governs the 23 wards. It consists of 3 blocks with the highest one (Tower 1) at 243m, one of the highest in Tokyo. At ground level, theres the tourism office whereby the representatives will gladly assist you in any enquiries and the top exists a panoramic observation deck free-of-charge. Security was quite strict, we had to open our luggages for inspection before we proceeded upstairs.
Posters promoting the bid of Olympics 2016, Tokyo is one of the final few candidate city. I support them!
View of Shinjuku business district.
The atrium of the main deck of TMG1
As usual, the informative board that tells you what you are looking at...the patch of green on the right is the famous Shinjuku Park, one of the top sights for Sakura blooming viewing. During the blooming season, the whole patch of green nearly turns pink. Wow.
Some random art exhibition...
View from TMG2
On a clear day (of course not today), one can even see Mt Fuji hundreds of km away....
Some souvenirs at the gift shop located at the observatory deck.
Ah...this is the "endless" tunnel that leads from Nishi-Shinjuku to Shinjuku Station, defintely a km long, and the tiles on the flooring just led to the incessant clugging noise generated from the bulky luggage.
The platform 13 (Sobu Line) & platform 14 (Yamanote Line)
The more superior Shinkansen platforms with advanced train arrival boards. Apparently, there are gantries within the gantries of the station to filter the normal trains and the express ones like shinkansen. As we booked a reserved ticket a day ago, all reserved seat holders will know their seat number and platform number. One will have to queue up at the particular segment of the station where its indicated for which platform.
The sleek and slender Hikari shinkansen arrives Tokyo. In japan, shinkansen is divided into 3 types, the nozomi (fastest, newest, least stop, the most expensive), hikari (intermediate), kodama (slowest, all stops, cheapest, but of course still so much faster than normal express trains).
All JR Stations will show the Kanji, Hiragana and romanji characters of the station, followed by the arrow of the directions and the kanji words on the right side of arrow indicates the district, the names at the end of each arrow indicates the station preceding this stop.Shinkansen Hikari 413
ETA Tokyo- 1230hrs
ETD Tokyo - 1233 hrs
ETA Shin-Osaka - 1530hrs
ETA Shin-Osaka - 1530hrs
Duration: 177 mins (2h 57 mins)
Length of route: 552.6km
Fare: JPY 13750, SGD 192.50 (Fare JPY 8510, Reserved Seat Fee JPY 5240)
The nozomi train which departs 3 mins ahead of us, will arrive Shin-Osaka at 1506h, total time of 156 min as compared to 177 mins, but at a price of JPY 14050 (SGD 196.70). Train schedules are very important as all trains arrive around 1-2mins of the time and will depart punctually. Every station will have a few officers standing across the platform to ensure punctuality is enforced. Of course every terminal like Tokyo, there will be cleaners popping from the back to clean the entire train and the loaders to load trolleys of food within the 10 mins before it starts service. 15 Mar marks the date of an update in the timetable scheduling and redeployment of more nozomi trains. Every segment of the train, train station has a copy of them and the company even print big campaigns to promote the introduction of more nozomi trains to compete with air transport. Well it is sure popular, i couldnt even get myself onto any of the trains in the whole morning...
Our lunch bento...bought from one of the food hubs at Tokyo Station. They are so meticulous in the packing, and the freshness is guaranteed. Its such a popular culture to eat onboard as well...
Ta-da!....well, it cost around JPY 850-1000 if you are curious...thats the market price...
Sometimes i feel its a waste to throw the non-biodegradable packaging, some even have shapes of train or wooden carvings, really a collectible.
Definitely a healthy choice, Unpolished rice, nuts and gingko on the left, at the top is tamago (egg), ebi (prawn), fishcake and a mini bottle of soy sauce. Middle compartment filled with carrot, mushroom, lotus root, yam, bamboo shoots, on the right is a mochi, and their version of siew mai and again the mini-bottle of soy sauce.
The weather was bad enough, the hopes of seeing Mt fuji is zero. This train route goes pass Shinagawa, Shin-Yokohama, Toyohashi, Nagoya, Gifu-Hashima, Maibara, Kyoto and Shin-Osaka. Any other station will just be zoomed past.
Random shots at Gifu
Oh yes, the interiors of the train, very spacious legroom like on business class.
Huge windows and a cloak hanger on the right of the window...
After a wonderful doze on the Shinkansen, here we are, Shin-Osaka. The 1st line states Hi-Ka-Ri-413 Terminating at shin-Osaka. The next 2 lines indicate Nozomi trains approaching after us. The journey was defintely smooth-sailing, at 280km/h, you cannot feel any vibration or the sound of the engines, no noisy crying kids, etc. Everybody made an effort to clear the rubbish when they leave. The best of all, no noisy siren to indicate the next stop, there will just be soothing classical tunes and a monotonous tone to announce the arrival of the next stop.
The exit of Shin-Osaka's Shinkansen Station, but the entrance to the other train lines. Another confusing station with numerous lines...
Ahh, the stamp, this is getting addictive.As Shin-Osaka is at the suburbs of Osaka city, we needed to squeeze our way on the trains to Osaka Station. yes, thank gdness we chose our accomodation in the heart of Osaka.
Beautiful drain covers...representing the Osaka castle.Soon, we began finding our way to the hotel, it was sure easy to navigate on the map, but in reality, it was a different story. Osaka station was even more difficult to navigate as compared to Tokyo. The underground shopping malls just lead to another one or another train station and it seems endless, hundreds of exits from A1, A2, all the way to I118? After around half an hour later, we finally found exit 80 to be the correct entry point. Check-in at Umeda Os Hotel and set off for Osaka exploration.
Cannot remember...but i think its the Ohatsutenjin-dori street?
the famous pachinko shops that runs 24h a day...almost....
The famous Hep Five & Hep Navio Shopping malls + the ferris wheel.
Within Osaka, if one wants to go Minami area, no JR train plies this route, hence have to buy a ticket on the private Midosuji Line or the Osaka Municipal subway. The ticketing machine was not that user-friendly, the english characters also dont make sense, but the kanji one makes sense.
Here comes the boxy train...
In certain places, like Osaka, there exists "women-only carriage". this is only enforced on peak hours. You can see the pink signs prominently...
You can see it on the platform floor as well....
Here we are...Shinsaibashi Station.
Guess whats that? Its Daimaru....a posh dept store indeed...
Mido-suji Ave...the shopping district of Minami once you exit the station of Shinsaibashi. As many as 40 luxury brand shops, it feels like being at Ginza...
Along Tachibana-dori Street...
Fanciful gothic and cosplay wears
Amerika-mura or american village. Apparently here seems to be the hub of US imported goods, thus the name. It is always brimming with young people...
The icon of Amerika-mura.
Shopping alleys
Look at the number of bicycles parked along the roads
Graffiti Art
Apple Osaka
2 storey building dedicated to Apple products
Nike Osaka
Suomachi-dori (Europe-dori) Street
Shinsaibashi-suji Shopping Street. This arcade has prolly 180 over shops ranging from long-established business to the latest brand name shops....
Part of the Europe-dori Street
Can you spot the CCTV cameras?
Back to Shinsaibashi-suji shopping district. I must admit some things are so much cheaper here this includes your daily necessities like shoes and shirts. Their clothes are definitely much trendier than ours.
Here's the Dotombori-bashi Bridge that leads us to Dotombori. With its restaurants, eye-catching billboards and trademark crab and pufferfish signs, Dotombori is a lively place which includes food & arts theme park, Ebisu Tower Ferris wheel and many neon-signs everywhere...
View from the back of Dotombori
Put all the happy things aside, here's the ubiquitous data board found at every police post. Deaths and injuries of Osaka. 47 have died due to traffic accidents in Osaka alone.
A classy theatre to watch your those classical plays
An octopus playing with balls in one of the tentacles, yes, it sells tako-pachi
Eat me!
The famous crab store
Expensive premium crabs in the fridge
Ebisu Plaza
Everyone's fighting for a share in the food industry, so all kinds of posters and ads and figurines are found on the ground level.
More shops...
Roadside tako-pachi...A for freshness and taste.
weirdo character in the red jumpsuit walking around
every shop sure has an interesting facade at its entrance
The puffer fish shop
the ramen shop...our dinner for the day
Grade: B+
I loved the taste of the pepper, what a unique can
messages from patronizers of the ramen store
dotombori street
everytime u see a sundae icon, it means that they are selling that. Apparently all ice-cream shops have that model.
no idea whats in there...
raccoon selling korean bbq dishes
that 3d model bowl sure looks tasty...bibimbap
another row of endless shopping
the cost of high-grade sashimi
Another pachinko
Quite fascinating to see the food models, and the best thing is, what you see is what you will get, nothing less, nothing more, unlike our scheming food stores, always must minus off a few things off the pic.
look at the plethora of desserts that is widely available...
Namba underground intersection
Titbits store
Art gallery within the train station premises...JR Namba
The sapphire-blue lited walkway
entrance of JR Namba Station
Inside the train...definitely not as new as Tokyo's
Alighted at Imamiya station, supposed to board the Osaka loop line back to Osaka, but boarded the train that goes out of Osaka. Apparently one platform is shared by many lines. How unfortuate. And the train we sat was the express type Yamatoji Line, it could lead us as far as Kyoto. Ouch.
By the time we realised our folly, we ended up in Nara district, after passing by mountains and tunnels. Lol. We switched to the opposite train. A picture of seats that are supposed to be priority to the needy, look at the symbols on the chair...interesting!
Transfer to Osaka Loop line from Yamatoji Line at Tennoji Station
In Osaka, the main card is ICOCA and the mascot is the blue duck. This is the add-value machine.And thats the end of day 02, wonderful shopping experience, hk cannot hold a candle to it. On the way back, its the usual problem, finding the exit again and back in our hotel nearing midnight. Tiring and exhausting day indeed...
We know life's hard, truth is hard, lies are hard, they are all hard to accept when they have been
found out, and i'm rushing history homework on the Abyissian Crisis about Italy and Abyssia going into war and that the League Of Nations cannot stop this from happening, and beacuse they are formed by means to stop war and
peace-keep the countries together, they have thus failed to achieve that. I think i tend to hold a class for history instead of telling you about me, i'm basically a what subject-realted lover (humanities) and thus
I am more analytical and critical about things, and likes to study about dead people, haha. lol. it's history what can you expect and also geography, it amazes me. I really like it alot, so what have you? Again to find this answer
you need to enter into your own reality and reflect
it's amazing. amzing how people change the way of things, like how I used to hate outdoors in Band
felt it was a complete waste of time, i've acquired to like it more, i guess people change, their thereotical means and applications in life just goes on into a new direction, and see things in another perspective, i guess- it's
all in the mind. It really amazes me how these comes into action, from someone so pessimistic has changed his own view of things, and thus my friend is scoring much better, being more optimisitc and not think of his old way of suicidal
thoughts, which are pretty daunting. and thus we need to see things, in another light, another perspective and another new way, to enable us to open up our minds, and make more new things, the new way it is.