Thursday, 23 April 2015

Home again

Stuff I ate - 東京 edition (part five)

Vending machine ice creams


 The pickle pringles are pretty good, the naporitan ones, less so.
 Final breakfast hot dog and matcha latte

 Final 24 hour Sushi

 pretty much all fatty tuna
 Sakura ice cream
Those frothy noodles I mentioned earlier. Not good, like someone made 2 minute noodles and then added guinness. I threw half of them away.
 Airport hamburger
 lunchtime hot dog
 and lobster bisque
 The nine varieties of Kit-kat I brought back.

Elephant Mask, Elephant Beret

Back to Tokyo for one last time before flying out.

I had memorised the Kanji for a couple of places that I went to frequently, to make it easier to get around. (Some of the smaller stations don't have english maps, and even in the larger ones it beats having to look for the english map)

This I did by coming up with an associated image for each Kanji

So Tokyo

東京

became "Elephant in a mask, elephant wearing a beret", or Elephant mask, elephant beret for short.

and Shinjuku

新宿

became "Lamppost Monster, Karaoke Robot"

So, back in Shinjuku for a day or so, I did a bunch of souvenir shopping, ate at my favourite 24 hour Sushi restaurant a couple of times, and then caught the bus to the airport (the NEX doesn't currently stop at the new terminal 3, which is where Jetstar has been banished to).

European models show off the latest in farmer's clothing.

a stand selling banana themed toys

at least I assume they're toys

the duck mascot for the kitchenware district

sushi restaurant at the airport.

Sunday, 19 April 2015

Stuff I've eaten - Niigata edition

5 alcoholic drinks.
A highball, 1% alcohol lemon water, mostly mango flavoured,
pineapple (the best of the lost), and grapefruit

Amerikan BBQ

Foamy instant noodles.
I purchased these in Niigata, but didn't eat them until much later.

Orangina - fizzy orange drink with pulp.

breakfast at the hotel

Bisque!

Lunch at the local fishmarket



Chocolate coated puffed rice

White chocolates filled with either blue cheese, or gouda.

iced tea

not a very good cappuccino

Friday, 17 April 2015

Niigata

I caught the Tori shinkansen to Niigata
there was some fairlt cold mountainous regions that we passed through

but eventually I arrived at the station and a line of icons led me towards all the delicious things they had to eat.

The hotel was spartan but no worse than hotels that were twice the price in Tokyo.
The main drag near the station
Bandai rainbow building
inside
The rainbow tower that gives it, it's name. It was shut.
The river at night
Well known brightly lit landmark Bandai bridge.
The cherry blossoms were still in good shape here
It was pretty dismal weather wise while I was there
To get back to Tokyo I caught a Toki Max
16 carriages of double decker Shinkansen awsomeness
Although really it's two 8s with the nose cones removed joined together
Now Kiss!
And so we went through the ice and snow, trees and coats, and back to Tokyo.