Sunday, July 31, 2011

Day 7 (21st July 2011) - Akihabara, Ameyayoko

Woke up slightly later to meet shoko and ben at Gundam Cafe, located just near one of the exits of Akihabara.

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Even though I'm not a fan of Gundam (except for the unicorn), the cafe was still interesting to look at. The food was so-so, but kinda expected for a themed cafe.

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this gundam is just on top

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and our food

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Since we had already finished eating by the time the pair arrived, we went over to maid cafe for dessert instead. I was quite sick of @home cafe's lame dishes so it was good we chanced upon Mai Dreaming, another chain maid cafe. Though the girls were nowhere as cute, the food was WAY much better than @home with a greater selection. The dessert I ordered was a much better parfait too, and the main courses had a larger variety, an looked tastier.

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ben and shoko's

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We then took a little walk around Akihabara. I was looking for my Squall figurine and chanced upon Odin Sphere. Nice! Wanted to get some Saint Seiya ones as well but can't seem to find and the rest were already getting bored after a few shops since the things looked pretty much repeated. Akihabara is as usual stuffed full of over-exaggerated porn that never fails to make me sick.

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well at least there's some nice statues for us to pose with

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We took a train down Ueno as we got sick of Akihabara, and walked Ameyayoko. At the very start was a shop that sold chocolates for 1000 yen. The special thing was they really put LOTS of stuff inside! There were 3 large kit kats, Ritter sports, a whole chain of crackers, several boxes of biscuits, some Werther lookalikes and I can't remember, so me and Shoko bought and split the loot 8D way more than enough for 4 person!

The rest of Ameyayoko was not much interesting. I took Purikura with Shoko (",) and the machine was one that enlarged your eyes. It also developed stickers for both of us, nice! And only 400yen.o.O love the Purikura machines here.<3

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We had dinner at an Izakaya that had a 50% off food offer and ate lots there for only about 1000 yen each. The place is Nijyuumaru and the food is so-so, but at least we managed to have a decent meal WITH shabu shabu. Awesome.

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Shoko had to leave for baito after that so i was stuck with the guys (;´Д`A i actually thought it will be hell for me since these two are seriously replica of each other but now I'm so glad they met because they can start to irritate each other instead!!

It was actually quite fun to watch them insult each other, and the ultimately impossible and hard to believe retorts. it is one thing to be cute and irritating, it is another to be ugly and irritating. I'm positively sure I was overjoyed when ben commented Mr She looked like a 30 yr old father even though he was 2 years younger than me. Now take that you fool!!! Nanee Nanee poo poo!! Don't worry, I don't think this paragraph will even affect two ounce of his cyber universal giganto egoistical brain.

Since ben wanted to play the arcade, I had no choice but too follow (too late to go anywhere else too). Ben managed to trash She in everything, GOOD ONE :D HA HA HA!!

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interesting drinks!

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We then took a detour to find a coffee shop that Ben had his eye on earlier but ended up at Mister Donut since the other one was way too expensive. Talked till the shop closed at 11, before we went off. Seems like Ben found a new friend to irritate, I wish whenever She is around, ben will be around too now!! Hopefully Hoeman wil join them ad the eldest musketeers since these 3 Guys are seriously too damn similar (except for looks).

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Day 6 (20th July 2011) - La Rochelle, Takarazuka

We finally got to taste the Iron chef French cuisine! Reached the building only to find that there was actually a university fair going on at level 24, so we popped in to register and have a look for a while since we were still pretty early. Wasn't able to look much as our reservation was at 12. here's how to get there

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and here's the waiting area when we reached:

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This is the most posh and awesome lunch for me ever (",) (not to mention expensive). We took almost 4 hours to finish the whole course (set lunch at 5-9k+yen) and went off close to 4pm x_x|||

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We had free flow bread, champagne, appetizer, soup, main course, Pre-dessert, dessert wagon and post-lunch teabreak and sweets. Then we bought the chef's pudding home to try. There was a wine connoisseur and the waitress serving who tried to explain all the dishes, and during dessert you could choose the mix you want and they will design and arrange it on the plate nicely for you <3 here's all the food pictures!

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our juices

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some anchovy broth with lobster

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She's appetizer platter

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can't remember these

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foie gras

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cold corn soup, didn't know cold soup can be so nice!

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cheese platter

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and desserts from the wagon!

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post-dessert tea break sweets

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The marketing manager, who was probably the only person with the best English, came to talk to us and he was very friendly. He gave us his name card and helped us book the Chinese iron chef's restaurant! He even printed the map for us to go. Awesome. It seems that chef Sakai and chef Chen was away playing golf and we would be able to meet Chef Chen when we went over to the Chinese restaurant on Friday. Exciting!

So after our lunch, we went to ginza for a short tour and looked for takarazuka to watch. Most of the other shows were already either sold out or closed for the day, but thank goodness we could still buy tickets for takarazuka. The only show available was A Beautiful Life, set in the ancient Japanese era and featuring people like Ishida Mitsunari (super shuai main lead), Chacha (female lead) and other Sengoku characters (nobynaga, hideyoshi, Tokugawa, etc). Since we had an hour before the show starts we walked to Sakura-mon to look at the Imperial castle.

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It was really just a look because you can't enter unless you go there during 2 special days - one is a new year and I can't remember which is the other. Went back to the theatre for takarazuka and shopped around the souvenir shop.

Since I'm not yet a fan, I grabbed their free magazines for a brief look and wowed around their spectacular costumes. The theater is an all-girls troupe and the main leads are such bishonens!! *_*

we watched Life is Beautiful, set in the sengoku baasara kind of era

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Photos/videos are not allowed but i still took a few anyway. too irresistable...

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the main lead walked out with an awesomely dazzling coat at the front

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after break time, the second half was mainly dancing and singing

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i love the arab setting!

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and then there's a huge mix of a variety of people coming out from different eras..

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finally the finale. ostrich feathers spam...!

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Love their show so much I think I'm gonna make it a must-do everytime I come japan! went to snap lots of pictures of their past works as well till my batt ran flat...

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After the show we went over to Roppongi to have a quick look at their night scene. It was raining and late, so the sky aquarium wasn't opened (heng ah, observatory tower + aquarium, double nightmare). Neither was the movie (yay! Mo expensive movies!) as the timings all ended before 10. So we walked the clubbing area to look-see look-see. Too bad I couldn't remember where the club I went to with Stella was that had the 2 free coins for food, if not my dinner would have been fixed. We tried to walk to Tokyo tower but was pretty lost so walked back instead and ended up going to First Kitchen to eat their new burger and shaker fries.

Boarded the train back to the hostel around 11+ - the last train back was actually around 1, nice of them to cater to the party crowd! I think I miss hoeman and stella when we were here, it was so much more fun...! still, this picture was worth the night lol

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