Tokyo, Japan: land of the shrines and parks

Hama rikyu garden during early spring

slot machines in akuhabara

This is definitely a record for myself. Went to Tokyo twice within a span of a month. The second time was purely for work so that did not count. However, the first trip was nice get away with wife. As usual, all was free and easy; budget style of travelling. Overall, this definitely was one of the best trip we had done, and also one of the more complicated ones. We used Frommer's guide for Tokyo as main framework and tweaked on it.

prayers board which one may find in all shrines

First few things: Japanese are really nice and disciplined people. You would note that pedestrian would even stop at red light late at night whereas local would just cross the street without thinking twice. The same reason why Japan is relatively safe. I had seen people left their phone in shops only to come back and manage to find the phone safe and sound with the counter. The same reason why they would religiously queue up for subs even though it is rush hour. The same reason why Tokyo is so clean.

Kamakura

Food is nice. Despite what local painted japanese food to be all sushi and sashimi, it is not so common to find it in every corner. It is easier to find rice with bento and noodles (ramen, soba and udon). And to be frank, it is rather nice. Street food is not easy to find though and not cheap. The cheaper way is to look for bento especially near closing hours in departmental stores. Plus, the tap water is safe to drink from.

Must visit: Tsukiji fish market

Price is definitely not cheap, but there are always cheaper way to do things. We manage to spend RM3000 per person inclusive of the whole flight, stay, food and souveniors. A decent meal would cost 500-1000 yen which cost bout RM15-35. The main bulk of expenditure would be in transport.

Transport is not easy; as there are few independently run transport such as Metro subs, Toei Subs and Japan rail. The day pass would pose more difficulties rather than convenience, but at least there are Passmo or Suica which is accepted by most major transport. It would take a bit of homework but with adequate preparation, it is still a breeze. Try hyperdia site for real simple instructions across different companies subs/ metro/ train.

The main itinerary:
day 1: since we reached Tokyo late at night (11pm to be precise), we just proceed on to the hotel and call it a day. By the way, we booked the night in Toyoko Inn Haneda which has a free shuttle from Haneda airport.

Sumida park

pork in Yoshinoya

day 2: Checked out, move our stuff to Oak Hotel, Ueno and left our luggage there before going around Tokyo. Since it is Sunday, our first stop is Akihabara. Filled with electronics shop and anime related shop, they even have a flea market on Sunday. Next place to do people watching would be Harajuku, which is just next to Meiji Jingu shrine. Since it is the first full day and yet to check in, we just return to the hotel and call it a day.

day 2: a long schedule ahead, we start off with Tsukiji Market which is a must-go in Tokyo. We did not go for the tuna auction but the wholesale market and the fresh sushi/ sashimi is worth it. Next to it is hama rikyu garden with the sumida boat cruise to Asakusa. There, we just hand around Sumida Park and move on to Asakusa temple. Since it was so near, we chose to go to Tokyo Skytree but did not go up the tower but hang around Solamachi shopping complex.

NIkko

day 3: we sort of finish Tokyo proper so we spent the next few days doing day trips. Our first one was Hakone. Spent some time in the Open air Museum which was superb, move on to Lake Ashi and Checkpoint Museum. The main enjoyment in Hakone is the travel itself not the destination; with small electrical train, cable car and sight seeing ships.

day 4: next is Kamakura which essentially would be temples and shrine. The souveniors here in Kamakura is also generally cheaper than Tokyo. Since we manage to finish earlier, we returned to Tokyo and went up Tokyo Tower.

day 5: the furthest day trip to Nikko which took us at least 2 hours train ride. It essentially is a shrine complex surrounding by tall oak trees. The sight itself is awesome.

day 6: the last day, we still have the whole day before flying off at night so we concentrated in Tokyo. Spent the morning in Ueno Park with Tokyo National Museum. Had street food as lunch before moving to Yanaka for sakura watching. The cemetery is peaceful and probably the best place to watch sakura.

Overall, the trip is great, and I would definitely return to Japan again. (which I did, 3 weeks later for work)

ratings: 4 half poink!
comments: food, shrine and parks. Plus culture and people watching in AKB and Harajuku. That would summarize the whole trip.

Iron Man 3: back to basic fun for super hero

The time when I pay attention to Robert Downey Jr. was during Ally Mcbeal. Those were the days. Howver, Robert did come a long way, with much up and downs, and finally hit gold with movies such as Sherlock Holmes and Iron Man. With a tepid Iron Man 2, I was still hopeful that Iron Man 3 could redeem the franchise.



The story as probably the usual super heron fare. Introduce a super villain, get the super hero in some trouble, hero come back for final showdown and won the day plus the lady. The show opens with a super terrorist who is called Mandarin who did some random bombing everywhere. The rest of the story follows how Iron Man tried some detective work to locate Mandarin and discover the scheme behind the terrorist acts.And this is not the normal comic Mandarin who holds celestial powerful rings but completely a different character.  The discover of Mandarin turn out to be the fun twist to the story.



Few perfect things about this movie. Castings. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Start is simply perfect. He played the fun loving Tony Stark so well that the character seems to be written for him. Gwyneth Paltrow on the second hand is also perfect as Pepper Potts, with nice chemistry with Tony Stark. The story, albeit simple, but has adequate action sequence. The last battle between different Iron Man armour is something to be behold. The other perfect thing about this movie is the script. The multiple witty scripts and funny one liners are not forced but naturally played.



Overall, this is not as heavy as Batman series, but however, on the other end of the scale, this is a fun loving movie. Do take it lightly, This has all the ingredients of a perfect super hero movie and this live up to the expectations.

ratings: 4 poink!
comments: extra for the funny remarks

Oblivion: sci-fi dejavu

I am never a Tom Cruise fan. But after MI: Ghost Protocol, seems like Tom Cruise is achieving a new height in his career. Though not physically though. Tom Cruise in sci-fi? Bet it is not related to his Scientology calling. Therefore, we decided to judge for ourselves how did Tom Cruise fare in Oblivion.

Story is rather simple. Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria are clean up crew for what ever is left of mother earth. Years ago, some alien species invaded earth but human, using nuclear weapon manage to defeat the invaders. However, in the process, we destroyed earth. Luckily human still manage to move to the moon of Saturn. In the process, human use some giant machine to, what I deduce, harvest water from earth. Having some remnants of the alien faction around as risk to destroy the water miners, they have drones to protect the machines. But who is to service and fix the drones? That is Jack's job prescription. He is supposed to be finishing his rotation on earth and return to the moon. However, he kept on having some repeating dream regarding one girl, bet it is not wet though. During one of the duty tour, he came across a crash landed space craft and found the girl of his dream. From then on, more secrets are revealed and things are not seems like they are. Prepare for a twist or two in the story which is rather nice. 

Tom Cruise is suited for the role, Olga Kurylenko is rather expressionless but still manage to pull her clueless survivor of crash character. Andrea Risenborough played her character well. You can forget the rest of the cast cause seems like their roles appeared more like an extra. That is the problem with bulk of this movie. It seems more like I am Legend or Castaway. It is Tom Cruise and Andrea, Tom Cruise and Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise and drone, Tom Cruise and nice CGI. It seems like a documentary of Tom Cruise stranded in a dessert. However, with the twist in the middle of the movie, it switched to Matrix mode. Not the action, just the revelations that things are not what they seems. Yup, in the end, the whole movie felt more like a romantic version of I am Legend meets Matrix. The action, is standard so nothing ground breaking here though the scenes from the movie makes nice wallpaper.



Does it work? At times the movie really drag. So much so there are some audience began to play with their handphone. For me, it did work. I will still forget the movie by next month, but at least in next few days, I would still recall the film. Not a classic, but entertaining enough to justify the ticket price. 

ratings: 3 half poink!

comments: bring some food to munch so when you feel bored, your hands and mouth can keep you awake.