Street Food At Yoyogi Park

Out of desperation due to the packed crowd that Sunday on Sep 20th, which happened to be a long weekend (Silver week) in Japan, we weren't able to find any decent place to have lunch that did not require us queuing for our seats. The huge crowd felt like the whole Tokyo population just came out to play outside that day. @_@

It was a really hot, sunny day and pretty soon we got a tired boy walking slowly, needing fluids to quench his thirst and food for his empty stomach. What to do when you are really tired from the hot day and all the eateries were jam packed with people? Out of desperation, we opted for street food. They weren't exactly cheap, but hungry stomach cannot be too choosy! And I'm not a nice person when I'm hungry, a fact that Zaini is fully aware of.
Yoyogi Park was abuzz with people on Sunday and more so that Sunday due to a Vietnam fair held there.

We just chose a quiet spot away from the Vietnam fair to have our lunch. After our walk in Shibuya and Omotesando, we had enough with crowds by now.Our lunch. Okonomiyaki, yakisoba and takoyaki. I'm sorely missing the Osaka takoyaki. Those takoyaki were sooooo nice!

We decided not to board the train at Harajuku because the station was already bursting with people and walked further ahead and use the subway instead. We made a stop at Yodobashi-Akiba and Raimie got to buy a few toys. A treat for him for being such a good boy today.

Sea Of People In Omotesando

Sept 20th was our 5th day in Japan and not only was it a Sunday, it was a long holiday for Japan. Hence, it was really packed with people all coming out to spend the day with friends and family. And that Sunday happen to be Eid too, and Muslims all over the world celebrated the end of Ramadhan (the fasting month).

We went to the Malaysian Embassy dressed in our traditional costume (me in my baju kurung and Zaini and Raimie wore their baju Melayu). Afterwards, we just went sight-seeing in the nearby area.

Me, in my traditional baju kurung in Omotesando. I did say that I'll be wearing one in Tokyo, didn't I? Raimie had his Baju Melayu on earlier, but we changed his shirt afterwards because of the hot weather. Nobody bat an eye at me wearing my baju kurung. Zaini opined that people must have thought that I'm Vietnamese, coming from the nearby Vietnamese Fair at Yoyogi-Park. There was a huge Vietnam fair there, and with a really good response from the Japanese crowd too.

Walking along Omotesando, we saw mikoshi (portable shrine) bearers. The one that caught my interest was the children carrying a small mikoshi. So cute.

And there was a taiko (drum) performance too.

And also a parade showcasing Japanese and Korean culture. Very interesting. It was a relief being under the shades for a while, watching the parade. It was really hot that day!

Sea of people. Despite the huge crowd, we weren't pushed or jostled at. Everybody walked patiently and in somewhat rather organised way. That being so, I wouldn't want to be caught with this many people again any time soon!

Lucky for us, our lifeline and main transport while in Tokyo, the Ginza Line wasn't that crowded so it was rather a relief taking the subway away from Omotesando afterwards.

A Malaysia Biggest Breakfast Meal At Mizu, Bangsar Village

A break from my Japan post this time.

On Saturday, Zaini and I went to Bangsar Village for the Mall's fund raising event, Malaysia Biggest Breakfast in support of the National Stroke Association of Malaysia (NASAM). A two-day event which was held on 31 Oct and 1 Nov 2009, the Malaysia Biggest Breakfast event saw F&B outlets in both Bangsar Village and Bangsar Village II sponsoring the breakfast sets available from 10.00am to 11.30am on the two dates. All proceeds from the sale went to NASAM. Customers needed to donate a minimum amount of RM15 and get a meal voucher.

Although there were so many restaurants to choose from (23 restaurants to be exact), is it any surprise that we chose to go to a Japanese restaurant? We made a beeline to Mizu. We even managed to persuade a friend to forsake Sakae Sushi and made her and her family chose Mizu too. Hehehe...

Mizu's entrance.

There were five breakfasts set to choose from; Hot Udon Set with Futomaki, Salmon Shioyaki Set, Saba Shioyaki Set, Unagi Set and Tempura Set. I went for the Salmon and Zaini went for the Unagi.

My friend on the other hand, ordered all the sets available for her family. No photos though. Not nice to hijack somebody's else breakfast time with my relentless photo taking. Hehe

Ultraman Drinks For Raimie

One of the highlight for Raimie vacationing in Japan is Ultraman. We went to Hero's Base in Kawasaki and he was able to meet a couple of Ultra Heroes there. A post on that later (much much later). We came to know about these Ultraman drinks because of Farah's photo of it which she posted on Facebook. Thanks Farah!After passing by Dydo vending machines selling drinks which included cider drinks in an Ultra Heroes cans that Raimie cannot fail to notice, not buying one for him would be unsporting of us. We allow him to have a can most days and he got to bring back the cans home for his collection too. And the drinks cost only 100yen.

A happy boy getting his "reward" is a cooperative boy even when he's bored, tired or cranky.

Ekiben - Niigata

Taking the Steam Locomotive BanEtsu Monogatari-go at 3.25pm, we arrived Niigata station at 7.00pm. Our next train was at 8.17pm, on the Joetsu Shinkansen Max Toki to Ueno station. Deciding against eating at one of the restaurants scattered in the station, we opted for ekiben for dinner.
The ekibens look absolutely yummy, right? Salmon, salmon roe, mushrooms, eggs, fish egg and chestnut. They were so delicious! And we kept the red bento boxes as souvenir.

Check out for more Niigata ekiben selection here.

Ekiben - On the SL Ban Etsu Monogatari

Our bought ekiben in the SL Ban Etsu Monogatari-go. Read more about the SL Ban Etsu Monogatari-go here.

Instead of the food/snack trolley pushed by a train attendant in other long distance train, this locomotive has a shop selling food items, drinks and souvenir items. Customers buying things at this shop got postcards as free gifts.

We bought the only two ekibens that didn't contain "buta" (pork) and a miniature SL train. We had to wait patiently for others to finish their purchases before we can ask the shop staff about the ekiben ingredients. Lucky for us, the staff was nice and patient enough to answer all our questions about the food ingredients. We would have gotten an exasperated look from the staff and other customers if we were to do this in Malaysia (or any other Asian country).

Our meal - salmon eggs, lotus root, bamboo shoots, mountain vegetables, kamaboko, mushrooms amongst others. The green wrapped item in the ekiben in the front was dango wrapped in a leaf. There were actually pieces of chicken inside, but we just push them aside. :(

One of the ekiben covers had this train cut-out. A pretty nifty souvenir to bring back home.

All ekibens come with a pair of chopstick, a toothpick and a wet towel. A complete set to enjoy your meal without worries.

Our miniature train. Zaini is a train nut, both riding one and playing with them.

A Ride On A Steam Locomotive

SL Banetsu Monogatari-go is a special express train that runs on a 126-kilometer track from Niigata to Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima and vice versa. This steam locomotive is a C57-180 type train that was in service from 1946 to 1969.The train made a comeback on Apr 19, 1999 celebrating its 10th year anniversary this year.

This trip of ours was covered by JR East Pass too and we used this journey for our second day of our 3-day pass.

Passengers can enjoy the magnificent scenery from the large windows in the observation car. The seats here were hugely popular so you had to rush to get one.

At one of the stops. There were 9 stops made from Aizu Wakamatsu to Niigata station but only two that were long enough to allow passengers to go down and take photos around the station.

Letters sent from this train will be mailed in the original issue postmark. We sent a postcard we got as a gift from the shop to our home. Another unique souvenir for us. A train postmarked postcard!

The journey was kept lively in between the stops with passengers playing jan-ken (rock, paper, scissors) with the train staff to win train goodies such as keychains, straps, magnets and stickers. It was great fun participating but we didn't win anything.

It was interesting to note that the interior of the train and the uniform of the crew were designed in a style unique to the Taisho era which is also the period when the Banetsu line was opened.

The seats inside the train. Four seats faced each other in all cars so it was pretty comfortable for a family to sit and enjoy the scenery together during the trip. However, we were unlucky enough (because we reserved our seats quite late compared to the others) to be sharing our facing seats with a particularly fat, perspiring guy on this leg of our journey.

I don't know what was his reason for taking this rather slow train from Aizuwakamatsu to Niigata because it sure looks like he wasn't taking it for the love of the train or the scenery. What he did were mostly sleep (so soundly that he snored) and eat and took up 3/4 of the seat. But we didn't let it spoil our trip, but rather it made the trip quite amusing for us.

The overall journey was simply an awesome one despite us sharing seats with the guy. The SL Banetsu Monogatari-go follows the Agano river through the densely forested mountains and the scenery was fantastic. If you are travelling from Aizuwakamatsu on this train, make sure you are seated on the left side of the train. More scenic views from that side. And along the way, you get see locals waving at you and the train and also quite a number of photographers waiting to get the perfect shot of this train. You can wave back and stick out your head because the windows in this train can be opened. We didn't open ours because it'll interrupt our seat mate's deep slumber. *^-^*

The train only runs on weekends and holidays so if want to take a trip on this train, please take note of the schedule here.