Japan, here I go~ Part 4

Day 4

It's a brand new day, brand new beginning. This day, we planned to go to Studio Ghibli and I've pre-booked the entrance ticket as they can be limited at times. I booked 8 tickets, 4 for Studio Ghibli and 4 for Fujiko museum for all of us through a site, Bridge.jpn. The people there is so nice and so responsive! I remember placing the order in the late afternoon and within 20 minutes, they replied me asking whether I can make the payment within 2 hours so that they can rush to buy my tickets for me. And surely afterwards, they replied me again saying that they already have my tickets and ready for posting. That smells like dedication to me! Impression for Japanese people, checked..

The tickets came in such packaging. Inside contains 2 folders separating Ghibli's tickets from Fujiko's.

Anyway, on our forth day, before we went to Studio Ghibli at Mitaka, we decided to walk around our Ryokan, which is located at Asakusa. It was raining on that day, but despite that, there were a lot of people at the shrine that we visited. Walking to Senso-Ji is only around 5 to 10 minutes from where we stayed, along the way there are people selling foods and souvenirs, so we went ahead and bought something for ourselves. 

It's basically red bean-ish sweet paste..

The famous lantern that every tourist will take photo of in Senso-Ji.

In Malaysia, we try to avoid the smoke.. But in Japan, they let the smoke on themselves. #culturaldifference

It was raining, but somehow it makes a pretty scenery to look at.

Saw this outside Senso-Ji Shrine, their vending machine provides free WiFi!

And then this, such a cute mini van and its eyes even blinked at us.

After that, off we go to the long awaited Ghibli Museum. To make things even better, Bridge.jpn emailed me on the previous day reminding me that my visit to the museum is today and that the weather is not too hot to do some sightseeing. Dedication at its best. There was no direct train access to the museum, so we had to take buses on top of subway to get there. We got lost a few times, even missed our stop near the museum. After asking a few traffic polices, running around in the rain, we finally reached its entrance.

The entrance itself impressed me so much, the receptionist is so friendly and gave us our tickets together with different languages of map. Every ticket is unique as it has 3 consecutive frames of a random anime from Studio Ghibli.

Portion of the map for Studio Ghibli.

The ticket for Studio Ghibli, it's like a film negative and everyone has different ones.

A giant stands alone in the rain, so was I.. The feels~

A secret path near the giant robot that not a lot of people know about.. Let's see where it leads to..

Fans of Castle in the sky, recall this? It's the core of Laputa!

We weren't allowed to take photo in the museum, so it's no surprise that I don't have a lot of pictures to upload here. But honestly, the museum itself did not disappoint. The museum is very well decorated with subtle callbacks to their famous art, and there's even a short tour showing the process of making an anime from scratch. Despite it being called a museum, it gives the vibe of a home, a home of the great artist known as Hayao Miyazaki, certainly a very heart warming feel.

We ended our visit to Studio Ghibli with a short film which every guest is entitled to watch once per visit. It was in Japanese so no one in the group can understand a thing except taking in the scenes and recall the techniques used in creating each frames.

Night view of the museum. I don't have a great camera back then, but you can see the giant at the rooftop. 

After we left Studio Ghibli, I wanted to visit Shibuya for its famous crossing. Once we reached Shibuya, we decided to have our dinner first. So we walked around and met 2 Chinese ladies in one of the pharmacies. they were so friendly and nice to give us a few ideas for dinner in Shibuya. The one that we went with, is takoyaki. We went to a random takoyaki restaurant as we were quite hungry at the time, luckily it turned out to be nice. 

Smokes, a lot of smokes.

After the dinner, we walked around and this time, to find a place to enjoy the crossing. Starbucks caught our eyes and it is at second floor, perfect! Also, we took some pictures with the Hachiko statue and it was hard moving around, let alone taking a decent group-fie with the statue.

Starbucks at Shibuya, overseeing the crossing.

The famous Hachiko statue in the middle of a large crowd.

Our visit to Shibuya is a short one, we didn't even get to shop much as the malls were closing and the crowd was dispersing. So we decided to call it a day and head back to our Ryokan.. Up next, Fujiko F. Fujio Museum, Tokyo tower, Harajuku and more..

Japan, here I go~ Part 3

Day 3

Things didn't turn up well on this day. All but myself were drunk from drinking beer in the previous night. I was getting really fed up as I see the time ticking away because this was suppose to be the day we visit the happiest place on earth, Disneyland! At around 10am to 11am-ish, they were awake and we hurried to Disneyland. I wasn't pleased at all.

Around 12pm, we reached Disneyland.. All the angers turned to happiness, honestly, how can anyone be angry in Disneyland. But it didn't last very long though, as they took their time taking selfies and group-fie all along the walkway towards Disneyland. I was restless and decided to leave the group to go on ahead. Here's some of the pictures that they took, and of course, I'm no longer angry with them lar...

The late comers... Hahaha...
Photo by: Tzer Maan

Featuring Disney resort in the background.
Photo by: Kaifen

The ticket cost around 6900yen per pax. At first glance, Disneyland is really underwhelming, sure there are a lot of decorations and it was nice for them to change the deco according to the theme of the nearest festival, but aside from that, there was really nothing else. Perhaps it was due to the low number of people in the area, or I was simply mistaken to judge before entering the main area of Disneyland, you know, the castle area.

The open area near the entrance of Disneyland.

We queued up to take picture with the most iconic character of Disney, the Mickey Mouse. Here you go~ (Thanks Kaifen, now I look like I'm not wearing pants on that day)

Why Kaifen why? 

Before entering the castle area, there was a band performance and it was very nice and nostalgic when they started playing all the Disney classic songs. One of the performers saw me taking video using a GoPro and he actually stepped forward and played the rest of the song towards me. Aww~ Too bad I didn't capture the footage of that happening, pics or it didn't happen eh?

Band performance.

The actual theme park is very very huge, and most of the rides are catered towards kids, but we had fun anyway. Imagine ever since you were a small little kid, you wanted to go the a particular place, and you finally have the chance to do so.. *Insert fan girl screaming*

The castle area of Disneyland.

We got separated somehow, me and Kaifen, Tzer Maan and Jia Wee.. So instead of waiting around, we decided the explore the rest Disneyland in that combination. Myself and Kaifen were lucky enough to witness a guy proposing to his girlfriend in front of the castle! It was so romantic and everyone was cheering for them! Here's the picture proof..

Nawww~ My future girlfriend, you can expect something like this.. :P

Oh ya, remember how I was impressed by the politeness of Japanese people? Here's another point that makes me want to live there now... Knowing that being parent is tiresome, there's an empty spot for them to park the prams. And the best thing about it is, no lock or chain is needed because stealing is not in their nature.

Parking for baby strollers.

I don't think I need to write in details of the rides that we went to, but most of the rides are well decorated and immersing. I'll let the pictures do all the talking, so be warned, picture heavy for mobile users!

Just a random attraction in Disneyland. Goofy's house?

Each of these cost around 100 yen. Insert the coin, and watch the machine shapes the copper plate into one of these tokens.
Photo by: Tzer Maan

A closer look of the token.
Photo by: Tzer Maan

Lots of people wearing BFF outfits in Disneyland.
Photo by: Tzer Maan

Photo and videographer of the year right there!
Photo by: Tzer Maan

Liking how their Halloween deco just blend into their existing deco.

Oh yeah, there is one system that I really don't like, namely their way of selecting people to watch the fireworks. It goes something like this, after you bought your ticket, you are entitled to play a "mini game" to see whether you are able to see the firework show up close or not. Why don't they make it a first come first serve basis is beyond me but it is because of that, I missed my firework show. Bummer.. On top of that, it was raining! So even if you want to watch the show from afar, have fun standing in the middle of the rain which is exactly what I did.

Disney castle lights up at night, too bad it was raining.

After the show, I was separated from the group....again.. After waiting for them around 20 minutes at the entrance, in the rain, and at night, I decided the best decision that I can make is to go back to the ryokan to wait for them. It wasn't fun riding the train alone when I was soaked and wearing a Mickey Mouse cap. But that's about all that happened in the third day, after around 1 hour, they were back and we were all like, "I was waiting for you at place X!"...

Got myself some onigiri for dinner that night. They are from 7-11 and they look delicious.

Hahaha.. Next, Studio Ghibli and Shibuya. Oyasumiiii~