SIONG'S LIFE: Arigatou Gozaimasu

Been meaning to post this for sometime now but procrastination has been pulling me back. Japan has been fascinating to me since I was young, maybe due to the fact that it was expensive back then and we rarely traveled anywhere for holiday, but it is one of the places which I've wanted to visit.

Our first accommodation, First Cabin at Haneda Airport.
It was pretty small and I didn't sleep much. Slept at 12am and
woke up at 4am.

The first item I bought in Japan is this chocolate biscuit which I had
for breakfast. The taste was ok, but it totally reminded me that
I'm in Japan from the vending machine I bought it from.

Had nothing to do due to unable to sleep and took this video of the "cabin"

Had free time the next day, and so, we visited Shinjuku, Shibuya and Akihabara.
Akihabara was a great place for me. Lots of electronics, figures, dvds. Didn't take
much photos of the other places though. Was in a working mood, didn't thought
of the places, which was a waste.

Big Celine Dion poster at Akihabara

Streets in Akihabara

This video reminds me of the sights and sounds of Akihabara and to me is the
definitive video of the trip to Japan. The atmosphere is clearly heard and displayed.

Trains in Japan are pretty much similar, but I noticed one of the more prominent
sounds is the squeaking of the trains due to age?

With a price tag of almost RM150 per night, Toyoko-Inn
Souka-eki NIshi-guchi (eki = Station, Nishi = West, Guchi = Exit)
is a pretty nice place to live in. The rooms were quite spacious
with a soft bed. Its pretty far from Akihabara though but good
for the adventurous which likes to explore the outskirts of the city.

Our original intention in Japan was to visit the laboratories to see
their capabilities to compare with the local laboratories for building
products. Throughout the trip in Soka we had the pretty Satomi Hoshi as
the translator (far right).

Plastic food display do look nice but we didn't eat the actual food in
respect to the Muslim lecturers which I accompanied in this trip.

Besides Soka, we went also to Osaka, using the high speed
bullet train Nozomi N700. Its a bit pricey, with RM500 for the ticket
from Tokyo to Osaka. At 2 hours for a 500+ km distance, it
really is fast though. There are other options, slower trains
but cheaper tickets. But since we hadn't too much time to spare
we took the fastest available.

This cost me 1000 Yen which is about RM30++.
Its a bento box with fish, caviar and mushrooms.
Kinda salty though with the caviar. The original intention
was to buy this because the box looks nice and I thought
maybe to keep it as a souvenir. But heck, the box is made
of plastic with a paper bottom.

One of the last photos of the box which I had to throw.
Sad that it cannot be kept.

Forgot the name of the hotel at Osaka but the room is pretty small.
Costs more than the one in Soka but with smaller rooms. There;s no wifi
at the rooms either.