Monday, March 15, 2010

Day 4 of Japan Trip

We woke up at 4.30am and left the hotel at around 5.15am to catch the train to Tsukiji Market. The nearest station would be Tsukijishijo station. It's super cold early in the morning and strong wing is blowing at all directions in the train stations.

Tsukiji is the world's largest seafood and fsh market in the world. The real action (tuna auction) of the market is from around 5 to 6a.m and blamed us for the dilly dally and waking up late, we actually missed the tuna auction. Sigh.. We reached the Tsukijishijo station at around 5.45am and got lost finding the auction area. We were also distracted by the different stalls selling all the different kinds of seafood. One of the common sights is that of the tuna. Men running by with the tuna on carts or putting a whole frozen tuna through a bandsaw.

The auction is already over when we finally got there. But well, we still managed to cam whore with some tuna lying on the floor.

Very big Clam
Big Cockles and dont know what creatures are those beside the cockles
Huge crabs covered with ???? was it sand?





Fresh wasabi
Super duper big tomatoes.


Since we have missed the main actions, we thought that a sushi BF will compensate our losses. We walked to the famous sushi shop that is just beside the market and the queue was already very long. Surprisingly, the queue for the one that was recommended in the net was much shorter as compared to one beside it. But we still go for the shorter queue since we are rushing to disneyland after that.

The sushi here is super ex, a nine piece sushi cost around $50. We were really very curious. How good can this $50 sushi taste? Is the price justifiable for this price tag? Initially we were thinking of just ordering 2 set to share but after looking at the crowd, we supposed the stall owner will not be happy if we just ordered 2 set and take up 4 seats. But anyway, we didnt manage to try the sushi as we wanted 4 seats but it's always 1 or 2 seats available and the stall will give it to the next in queue since we do not want to be separated. We concluded that there will not be 4 seats available in one go and also feeling the pinch to pay $200+ for breakfast, we move on to another place for bf.



The queue for this stall is longer. Around 30+ people queuing up

Was quite disappointed that we didnt manage to catch the tuna auction and to get to eat the sushi. Chanced upon this noodle stall which is just another street away from the sushi stalls. Without knowing what they served, we just stepped in. As the menu is in japanese and not knowing what to order, I just point to the food that the customers were eating and said, I want this, this, this. Haha....The noodle tasted super delicious, it seems like a much better idea to eat the piping noodle in the cold weather instead of sushi and we did save a lot.



Next we took the subway to Disneyland. It's just a few stations away from Tsukijishijo station so it's recommended to plan Tsujiki Market and Disneyland on the same day.

When we reached Maihama station, we were shocked as it's crowded with people. The crowd starts from the station and all the way to Disneyland. OMG! Did we come at the wrong time? Thought it's their off peak season since cherry blossom is predicted to be next week and it's not their Golden Week.

The queue tickets was super long and not knowing where to queue (we had already bought the tickets on Fri) to enter, I got Kennie to queue at the ticket queue while I went to get some help. Managed to find a Manager (Think he's a Manager cause he's the most well dressed) and asked him where I should go since I have already bought my tickets. Not knowing what I said, I brought him to Kennie and showed him the tickets. & he replied saying that we should continue to queue. Doubting what he said, I went to the start of the queue and saw that people just walked away after getting the tickets. So why are we still queuing since we already have the tickets. They walked to another crowd where the main entrance is. We did not know it was the entrance since it was crowded with people and there's no sign to direct us. The crowd was horrible with at least a few thousands of people queuing at the entrance. I decided we should not be queuing like an Ah Gon so we sneaked in by the side to the start of the queue. Luckily Japanese are quite nice people as they dont really care when suddenly someone just cut into the queue. Think it would sparkle off a quarrel if we are in elsewhere.

From the station to Disneyland. Look at the crowd.





People queuing for the tickets

Horrible queues

Another shocking sight that we see. People start running to the various attractions after entering Disneyland. My perception about Japanese actually changed after this trip. They are generally nice, friendly and helpful people. But they do not give up seats in train (hogging the priority seats), and for this instance, they are a bit Kiasu. They also like to queue.




Disneyland and sea is actually the highlight of our trip and yet it's another disppointment. The crowd is really crazy. Everything also needs to queue, queue for rides, for fastpass, for popcorn, for drinks etc. Some rides need to queue for at least 3 hours. & the fastpass were fully redeemed by 2pm. Their main attraction, Pirates of the Carribean was also closed for maintenance.

We did not managed to play all the rides. Only managed to get 3 Fastpass (Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters) and played a few more rides. The longest that we queue is the Space Mountain which we queued for around 2.5 hours.

Overall, the rides in Disneyland are very entertaining and innovative. You can find almost similar rides in other themeparks around the world but Disneyland incorporated storyline, visual and sound effects to the rides and thus making it more exciting.

In Big Thunder Mountain






Star Tour - A simulator ride

We actually saved quite a lot in Disneyland as we brought our own food from 7-11 and Tsujiki Market.

Salmon Roe from Tsujiki Market

Everyone was looking at us when we were eating this Salmon Roe.

Nice ice cream.



Some random pic of Kawai Japanese.







The queue for Space Mountain. We were finally on the 2nd level after queuing for 2.5 hrs.

Entrance to Space Mountain. It's worth the queue. It's actually an indoor roller coaster in the dark but the sound and visual effect is superb.

Photo of us in Splash Mountain. Veona screaming while the rest of us took shelter from the splashing water


Haunted House. Didnt get to play this one


It's a small World, a gentle boat ride. The ride features brightly costumed audio-animatronic dolls in the style of children of the world, frolicking in a spirit of international unity, and singing the ride's title track, which has a theme of global peace.





The Cherry Blossom Tree has also bloomed in Disneyland






Inside Minnie's house. No queue to visit Minnie's house.

Mickey's house. Need to queue for 70mins just to visit his house and to see him in person.


















No money to buy the hair band so just went into the disney stall to take photo


Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, shooting robots and aliens. Kennie has the highest points.

The finale for the night, Disney Electrical Pade, a dazzling nighttime procession filled with brilliantly lit Disney Characters parading at the Main Street of Disneyland. We left without seeing the firework to avoid the crowd.









Our dinner at Yoshinoya. The beef bowl is so much better than Singapore's and it's cheap, around $5+ a bowl.


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