Hence, now, I really have a lot of stuff to try and catch up on on the blog. :( So I am going to try and mix blogging about the trip with some of the unboxing posts. I picked up some Kajiura Yuki and Kalafina related stuff, as well as some Mahou Shoujo Madoka stuff and I really would like to get to some of them... so we'll see.
First things first, I would really like to finish up the account of our first 2 days on the trip. It was a very eventful start to the trip... hmmmm... actually, it was a very eventful trip all round and it would be a pity not to write about it so that someday when I look back on this trip, I will be able to recall it better because I kept an account of it somewhere. :)
So here goes.... :)
After watching the tuna auction at Tsukiji Market, we walked quickly over to where the sushi restaurants were located to see if we could get into Sushi Dai but the queue was already very long even at 6am in the morning. We were really kind of tired since we had been more or less on the move since the previous day and haven't really been able to get a proper rest since we got out of bed on the morning of the 18th. We were also scheduled to meet Manami for brunch and also scheduled to make a trip to Katase-Enoshima for the fireworks festival. Hence, we decided to go to Sushi Daiwa next door instead. To tell you the truth, the sushi was quite good but I wasn't blown away. Maybe I was very tired, or still full from our morning McDonald's breakfast a few hours ago or just simply spoilt by the quality of the sushi at my favourite sushi restaurant at Meguro. I made this same trip to Sushi Daiwa two years ago and enjoyed it more than. Maybe it was because the sushi chef that made our sushi then was really friendly or that the Japanese customers were really nice to us then and that enhanced that experience. But on this occasion, it just didn't feel the same. In the end, I think one of my big regrets from this trip was that I didn't go to the sushi restaurant in Meguro. The next time I go back to Japan, I'll have to go back to my favourite place in Meguro. :)
Anyway, here are some photos of the sushi that we ate on that day. We ordered the set. While not blow-me-away sushi, it was still good sushi so I did enjoy my meal that morning. :)
We had to split our dining party up because Pam's friend Kat hadn't arrived yet and so Pam got out of the queue to get her while Evelyn and I went in to eat first. So Evelyn and I hung out around the Tsukiji area till everyone was ready and then made our way to our hotel in Shinjuku to ditch our luggage and meet Manami for lunch.
Yes, there was A LOT of eating during our first day in Japan. :P
After meeting Manami, we randomly picked a restaurant in Lumine and ate there. The restaurant's name is Brasserie Barbara and wasn't bad at all. Even though I was quite full, I has happy to eat more. :P
This meeting with Manami was shorter than I preferred but Manami had helped us get Ghibli Museum tickets and express bus tickets to Ibaraki and we had to meet on Saturday to pick these tickets up before our Sunday trip to Ibaraki. Good thing I was able to arrange another dinner meeting with her on another day while we were still in Tokyo. She's a very good friend and I think I would have some regrets if I was unable to meet her again on this trip.
We managed to get checked-in to our hotel rooms at 3pm but we only had time for a short rest before it was time to head out again. This time we were headed to Enoshima to take part in the Fireworks Festival. Yes, Kalafina was also performing that night at a school festival at Takachiho University in Tokyo and I really could have tried to go for it because I knew about it when they announced it. However, there were several reasons why I didn't even try. Firstly, the trip to Enoshima to attend the Fujisawa Enoshima Hanabi Taikai had been planned ages before Kalafina even announced that they were going to perform at Takachiho University. Secondly, I just couldn't ditch my travel companions on our first real day in Japan, that just wouldn't be fair. Also, I have never been to that part of Enoshima and have never attended a Hanabi Taikai in Japan before. So in the end, I decided that I will just have to end this year without attending a single Kalafina or Kajiura Yuki live, the first time I have not seen them live at least once in a year since 2010. Sniff...
That said :P , even though I would love to have seen Kalafina live, I do not regret making the decision to go to Enoshima that day. The fireworks festival was really very, very cool and they fired these fireworks so low that it seemed so close, so in-your-face, so just-above-your-head, so very very dramatic. It's the most exciting fireworks display that I've ever seen. Not that I've seen that many but most of them were quite high in the sky, this was really very dramatic and photos and videos just doesn't do it any justice. Also, the food at the festival was really unexpectedly delicious. We wanted to eat everything and we really bought a lot of food which I, unfortunately, didn't take many photos of. This is only my second festival in Japan. The first matsuri that I went to last year had a ton of people and really bad food. The worse takoyaki that I've ever eaten in my life is ironically from Japan and at that matsuri last year.
First up... photos of the crowds and the very cool looking Katase-Enoshima station, street food stalls and some of the things we ate at the festival. :)
Next up, photos of the fireworks and a short video clip. It was all shot on my Samsung S2, so the quality isn't the best, but it'll have to suffice. :P Also, I didn't shoot that many photos or videos and most of what I shot was in the first 15 - 20 minutes of the display. I spent the rest of the time just enjoying the event. Here you go, just a couple of snaps. :)
After the festival, it was one huge crush trying to get to the trains. There was a huge crush I think in part because it started raining and people decided not to hang around longer even though the food stalls were still opened. I think we would probably have waited a bit and finished our food or got another beer if the weather had been better but we also decided to leave the area as quickly as possible. We managed to get into a really packed train on the Odakyu line and managed to get seats a couple of stops later and I crashed out and slept quite soundly for some time. We only realized much later than we were on the local train and although I was feeling lazy and not too keen to change to the rapid line at one of the stations later on, I am glad that Evelyn and Pam decided that my laziness was a poor excuse and we switched trains and made it back to Shinjuku in much less time than it would have taken on the local line. :) Then it was a shower, some wind-down time and off to bed and that was the end of our very busy and quite ambitious first 2 days of our Japan 2013 trip. :)
I'm not sure what I'll blog about next... maybe a Kalafina or Kajiura Yuki related post first, then do the post on Day 3 of the trip and an interesting visit to the Hitachi Seaside Park in Ibaraki. :) For now... time for bed, tomorrow (Tuesday), I return to my normal life and it's back to work, OT and saving money for my obsessions and my next adventure. :) Good night!! :)
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