We had a good night sleep in Sakura Hostel, so good that everyone had a hard time waking up as we all soon found out in the days to come. It caught us by surprise that we all found it so difficult to wake up. Perhaps the fact that we are no longer "Paiseh" by waking up late in our host's place revealed our true habits. It so happened that our wake up times were nicely staggerred such that we didn't need to queue for toilets and of course the only 2 or 3 pairs of slippers around.

The 1st place we tackled was of course the Sensoji Temple right in the heart of Asakusa. We had to bash through the huge crowd that had already been amassed on the streets of Asakusa by the we made our way out of our hostel. Kenny seems to have the whole area memorised by heart as he led us with his internal GPS turned on. The Sensoji wasn't any less crowded as locals and tourists both thronged the place. The temple's beautiful morning views and the crowd provided us with enough reason to unleash our shooting equipments to satisfy my photo-hungry companions.

There was a giant incense pot outside the main praying hall where thrings of locals streamed around, seemingly to inhale the smoke generated by the burning incense. I guess its meant to get blessed in a way by absorbing the divine aura. At the main worshipping hall, people took turns to go to the front to offer their prayers. Just by the side is an area where you can obtain a fortune slip by making a small donation. Everyone got one for themselves except me, I guess I've learnt my lesson from Teine and there seems to be no place to hang your unlucky slip if it is unlucky this time. LOL. And well, if I didn't remember erroneously, none mange to get a good one. Just below the steps from the main praying area is a little pavilion which housed a marble/stone like structure that was filled with water and had a bamboos connected so that flows through it and out circulating the water. Wooden ladles are placed all around to scoop the water. After a few minutes of observing what people did with the water, I was confident of knowing how to go about getting myself rid of bad luck/diseases/sins whatever its for, I'm sure its for the better. First you wash your hands with the water then you scoop some water up and drink the water. Simple right? Ok, now I feel all blessed and ready to take on the day!

Oh yah, we had this super metro card which allowed us unlimited rides for a day on the metro lines. We got it when we first arrived in Japan and Kenny kept it all the while. Finally its time to put it to good use. After munching on jap snacks all the way to the metro station, we're off to Akihabara. I've already heard about the place before I came to Japan and more or less knew its a gadgetty place. But boy! Did what I saw really impress me. But first, we had to have something to eat and a Gorilla themed curry rice place was the answer. It was a simple place with serving, what else, curry rice with pork, chicken, tempura ebi or sausages. The interesting thing was that there is a choice of basic, economy class, business class and first class. I got the business class as I was pretty famished. But guess what, the only part of the food that was business class was the rice. The portion of the chicken was the same as the economy class which June ordered. Extra 100Yen for rice, so I had to finish it! But I didn't in the end. By the way, where was also a challenge to finish a World Class menu which is like 4 1st Class combined. Its worth 2500Yen and it is big! For a sense of how big it is, it contains 1.5 kg of rice and if you can finish the whole of it, its free and theres only 5 sets per day. DUH..who can finish it?? And I don't even think that there will be 5 challenges any single day.

The lunch was fulfilling and gave us energy to move on. After a couple of turns, we arrived at Yodobashi. It was just like a Sim Lim Square except that it is about 2 times larger, stocked with stuffs thats 2 generations of technology ahead and better service standards. Not so similar already right. LOL. There are all sorts of stuffs in there so I'm not gonna go into it in depth but the couple of things that really impressed me was this 32GB SD holographic card which cost a whopping 49,800Yen and also a world's largest Plasma TV by Panasonic Viera. We spent most of our time at the games and console section though. Kenny and I were interested in laying our hands on a brand new PS3. Kenny got his contacts to check out Singapore prices while we were there but were unable to get any info until later tonight. So we left impressed but empty handed.

Next stop was Harajuku which was easily accessible by the Metro. Harajuku is home to the Meiji Jingu(Shrine) and on Sundays, Cosplayers too. And guess what, today is Sunday! Shopping here isn't shabby at all with Zara, Burberry, Adidas and many major brands lining up the roads. We crossed an overhead bridge onto Yoyogi Park where Cosplayers hang around. Looking at how crowded the place is, I believe we are on track to meeting real life cosplayers. The first one we saw was disappointing in a way, an effeminate guy in pink greeted us. Being a sport, Kenny and me took a photo with him. We soon asked ourselves why we did that later on in the trip. LOL.

A group of really cool Harajuku girls dressed in Gothic styles attracted a lot of attention. Another group offering free hugs had just as many interested onlookers. Some guitar players and a triplets of doggies dressed up completed the cosplayers lineup. We spent some time taking photos of them and with them but there was an obstacle that point of time. There seems to be a professional group of photographers taking shots of the more flamboyant cosplayers and they kept the public away from them. Spoilsports! So we decided to head towards the Meiji Jingu first.

The entrance was a large Meiji styled gate which I was familiar with as it appeared in a lot of comics I've read. It marks the beginning of never-ending journey, ok..not exactly but close. The walk was long but not that diffcult. The path was shady courtesy of the trees planted all along the path. Seems like Tokyo isn't that cold after all, trees don't have to shed leaves to survive. Barrels of Sake and wine and rows of lanterns entertained the visitors along the way to the main shrine. And when we finally saw the enrance to the main shrine, we were relieved the journey finally ended.

Outside the shrine was another hand washing and mouth rinsing pavilion. I repeated the process again and decided go one better by taking a sip of the water this time. Well, apparently its not supposed to be drunk according to Wai Kit and Co. What the heck, whats done, done. LOL. We went into the main hall to offer our prayers. There is space separating the praying area and the area where you're suppose to pray to. There are a lot of donation boxes lined up before the space. You're supposed to throw some coins/bills into these boxes and then pray. And actually boxes is a serious understatement, I don't really know how to describe it but its a huge ass rectangular container with grills on top allowing money to go in but not hands, for obvious reasons.

Outside of the Shrine on the other side is a shop selling amulets for various purposes. No one was interested except Linghan. Hey, she isn't around isn't it! That may be true but her spirit and wish is present in the form of a 10000Yen bill left behind with June. And so we found out from June that she wanted a amulet for pregnant women. The amulets are expensive and we had a really long discussion cum debate on whether to get one for her. Sensing that the debate was going nowhere, Kenny me and Wai Kit decided to help make up June's mind by agreeing that it was important to get one since its for a pregnant lady! Well, not our money anyway. LOL.

Time to leave the place and back to Harajuku area. We passed by the cosplayers again and this time the selfish photographers are gone freeing the cosplayers to mingle with the public again. We all went for the free hugs and took more photos to complete our cosplayers collection. Shopping was next on the list and we decided to hunt for Burberry Blue and Black Label, which was on our mind for quite sometime. We walked all the way to the end of the street where there was a Burberry but it was London, no blue black. Got some directions from her and went back to search for it. But no luck, there was this huge poster of the brand but we couldn't see any Burberry shop. Visited some other shops along the way though. We didn't really let our Harajuku adventure go down as "nothing much" as we spotted a hot dog cart operated by a All American Black selling authentic New York Style Hot dogs. We each got one and sat by the streets to eat it. Not bad but the dog was a little thin though. Expected a thick and fat dog! What really caught our attention was his non stop chanting of "Hot dogs, hot dogs, New York Style hot dogs, Machigainai, Oishii, Oishii!" in his American black accent. We had fun trying to imitate him, even till we came back to Singapore.

Shibuya was next on the list. Upen reaching Shibuya, we saw more impressive buildings and lighted billboards, yup it was dark already. But it was the crowd that was really astonishing. It was so packed that you probably can't see the floor at all. You look down and there are pairs of legs everywhere, you look up and you see no end to the human chains. Right outside the metro station was a statue of a dog, Hachiko. This dog is supposedly a very loyal dog that always appeared at the station to wait for his master to return. Google this name and you will get the full story. Its pretty famous by the way and I think there will be a movie on it sometime later this year.

We continued to explore the area and came upon this 5 storey shoe shop, ASBEE. I acquired 2 pairs of Adidas shoes while Kenny got a pair which made him squeakily embarassed in the next couple of days. LOL. June and Wai Kit went off to a HMV nearby to get some CDs and DVDs while we were busy choosing and trying on shoes. After we were done with our buys, we went to a underground Ramen shop to have dinner. The noodles weren't particularly delicious this time but its alright still. Me and June were sitted infront of a wall while the other 4 are shown to a table. Prejudice or what! LOL.

This day was getting pretty long already, so many places in a day and its not ending yet! We're off to Roppongi to visit the Tokyo Tower. The Tower isn't exactly located in Roppongi but somewhere nearby. A 15 minutes walk from the metro station took us to the Tower. The night view of this Tower is simply fantastic. There was no stopping this bunch of cam-w****s now! We stopped at the side of the road before the Tower to take some shots as you wouldn't be able to capture the whoel tower once you're too close to it.

The light displays and decorations were even more impressive at the foot of the Tower. There was a tunnel entrance to the Tower which was shrouded with greens and lighrts. I had the honour of being the last one to have a shot with all the lights fully lit before it changed its lighting rhythm. The foot of the Tower was decorated according to a christmas theme, since it was christmas period, and also the 50th Anniversary theme. There is a mini model of the tower and also a train. Lots of people still turned up even though it was late and the tower itself closed for visits. We revelled in the awesome displays and had a great time taking photos and making jokes with the boards there. The Tower is quite majestic and quite comparable to the Eiffel Tower although the Eiffel would probably edge out in popularity. Kenny won the cam-w**** competition this time by sitting and lying on the road to complement the words "TOKYO TOWER" shone on the road.

A long and tiring day but well spent as we covered a lot of ground. It had a beautiful end too as the majestic and stunning scenes at the Tower Tower will stay in our memories for a long time I'm sure. Thats the magic of winter I feel. Lights, especially warm lights feel and look better in the cold doesn't it?