After much procrastinating, I’ve finally updated my Tokyo Toy Shops posts. The shops are still basically the same. I did check out one or two new shops, but nothing to post about. The main shops are still going strong.
The Jan 2010 updates are in blue. There are pics of shop fronts and the interior of the shops themselves to give you an idea of what to expect and find. I’m planning my 2011 trip, will update more then! 
Have fun toy shopping in Tokyo!
The Holiday Season has ended…. for some, not for me! Cause I’m off to Tokyo tonight! Woot! For 10 days, I’ll be checking out the usual haunts, eating the great food and hopefully scoring a few figures along the way. Will definitely post my reports when I’m back!
Grrrr,,, while upgrading wordpress, something went wrong during my FTP session and I wiped out my themes and some older pics I had from my old posts.
I’ll try to repost some like the Tokyo Toy Shops posts, gimme a few days. sianz.
UPDATE: Ok, I’ve managed to savage some old pics and have updated some posts here and there. But majority of my old posts will be missing their pictures 
.
Though I did manage to recover all the visuals for my Tokyo Toy Shops posts. Hope this continues to help fellow Toy Hunters who are traveling to Tokyo. I’ll be heading up to Tokyo again in January and will definitely posts updates as well as visuals from my Toy hunts.
Tokyo by night is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever experienced. It’s buzzing with activity and the neon lights shine brightly in the sky. I just found this photo blog of Tokyo, which is tempting me like crazy! Can’t wait to my trip back there in January. Woot! Less than a month from now!
Thanks to Eddie’s updates from the International Tokyo Toy Show 2009, there’s so much more to look forward from Hot Toys in the coming months.
Firstly, there’s the new Marvel licence that Hot Toys have gained.
Apparently it’s licences from the Marvel movies that have come out. Meaning 12′ inch figures from the X-Men trilogy, Spiderman Trilogy and more! Imagine Spidy and Venom figures! oooooo I can’t wait to see what they come up with. The latest Wolverine figure already looks great, though I’m resisting temptation to get it. heh
Another great licence is the Matrix! Yups, finally we may get to see Neo in 12′ inch goodness. Will have to see the pics before deciding.
What was unexpected to me was figures from Pixar’s UP. They look really good. I’m so looking forward to the movie and these figures are just adding to the temptation.
Hot Toys just keep coming up with the goodz. And while I’m not sure if I’ll get any of the upcoming figures, I’ve already confirmed my orders for the Terminator 4 figures. Those will keep me bankrupt and busy for the rest of the year!
Do check out the rest of Eddie’s updates, with more pics and writeups there. Good stuff!
Only in Japan will they do something like build a life size Gundam! It currently stands in Odaiba, Tokyo. They are putting the final touches to it, but already it looks really really awesome! It’s the RX-78 Gundam from the original series. The amount of detail is just fantastic. The decals, the colours, the size!!! That’s how a real Gundam robot would really look like! I hope they leave it standing for long time more, maybe till I make a trip up there early next year?
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Out last full day in Tokyo. We had covered all the areas we wanted to so today we decided to go back to Harajuku and Shibuya.
One of our first stops was this cafe which serves the nicest egg and cheese on toast! There’s just the right amount of mayo to sweeten things up! As you walk down the main street, Takeshita-dori, from the station, it’s the first cafe on the left!
I also decided to have my last crape for the trip. And while waiting in the queue, I noticed the cherry blossom tree which was in full bloom. Beautiful.
After that, it was on with the crape! yummy and delicious. The cream they used was one of a kind.
It’s always fun walking along Takeshita-dori street. There’s heaps to see and the shop fronts are always very different.
Sometimes you may even bump into hot Japanese school girls!
After walking along Takeshita-dori street, we decided to check out some of the other back streets. Most of which are quant areas with heaps of smaller shops. The street shown above is Cat Street if I’m correct. I recommend checking it out as there are quite a few shops selling unusual stuff, as well as some unique looking buildings.
One of the buildings that popped out of no where was this Nike Shop. They were having a sale, and as usual, the locals love to wait for good things.
There was even a toy shop which sold some vintage and hard-to-find toys.
Back on the main road, Meji-Dori, you may come across the Audi Forum building or even this shop front which reminded me of the scrolling text in some of New York’s Times Square light boards.
Harajuku is packed to the max on weekends as you can see on the street side as well as outside the train station.
We checked out the nearby Yoyogi park were there were heaps of festivities. Apparently the locals love to spend their weekends in the park and they stream into the park in hordes. They lay out mats and congregate in groups eating and drinking away! Some practise their dancing while some practise their juggling skills.
The entrance to the park is lined with food stores selling all types of Japanese street food. Like the yakitoris above. Yummmm.
And of course no trip to Yoyogi Park would be complete without cosplayers. Though for some reason we saw hardly any. I took pics of those we did see though. Love those Elvis impersonators.
We had a great day out and was kinda sad to have the night ending on us. For our last meal we felt like tempura. We walked all around Shinjuku looking for a good place to eat, but couldn’t find any place that specialised in tempura. It was only when we decided to check out 1 last obscure corner did we finally find the place. It was the same chain of restaurants that we had the best tempura a few days back. Yeepeee!
Shinjuku was a great place to stay and as a base of operations, it was very well connected.
Our hotel, Sunroute Plaza Hotel Shinjuku, was also very comfortable and reasonable in costs. The location was great as it was about 5 mins away from Shinjuku Station.
Narita Airport in the morning, waiting for our flight back. Dreading going back to Singapore.
Checked out the food court at the airport and they had this pretty cool technology. For every order, they pass you this small device. You can walk around or go back to your seat, when your food is ready, the device will beep and vibrate signalling for you to pick up your dishes. Good idea!
The huge A380 waiting for us on the tarmac.
The view from the top is truly one to savour. Can anything be as blue?
The new inflight entertainment system on SIA planes rocks. Over 100 movies, tv programmes and games to keep one occupied. The screen is now bigger and even has a small light below for your reading purposes. You can even connect your iPod or USB drive to read video, mp3s and documents!
And that’s it! Our last pic of our Tokyo trip. It was a fantastic trip and we had great fun. 9 days exploring Tokyo and eating Tokyo. Heh,, we wanna go back!
Roppongi, one of the high class areas of Tokyo and home of the Mori Art Museum.
The day started with quick trip to Akihabara to check out some toys followed by a great find, Tempura! We came across this chain of tempura restaurants which in our opinion, served the best tempura we have ever eaten. The squid in particular was delicious, not rubbery, just nice and chewy. Shiok!
Before Roppongi Hills, we dropped by Tokyo Tower. One of the landmarks in Tokyo. Well, it was just a tower, doesn’t even come close to places like the Eiffel Tower.
The Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills. Named after the tycoon, the building is a landmark in Roppongi and holds the Mori Art Museum on it’s 52 floor. The museum incorporates the Tokyo City View and the art museum on the 52 floor, and the Sky Deck from the top of the building.
The city view was pretty spectacular with 360 degree views of Tokyo from the gallery. You could see as far as the Odaiba and the rainbow bridge.
The view was also up close and personal as you can see from the pic above. You can go right up to the window and look down. wooooooo
Mori must also be an avid car collector. He had Ferrari’s from different ages as well as an Audi Spider on show.
One of the best views ever was from the top of Mori Tower. Behind Jas is the helipad. It reminded me of the top of Swiss hotel, and the view of Singapore from there is just as good.
The Mori Art Museum, it is known as one of the better art museums worldwide, and I was about to find out why.
The exhibits were all engaging and I had a great experience there. Pics will not be able to give you full experience of the various rooms where the artworks lay.
The above was one of my fave artworks. It had symbolism to the 9/11 attacks in New York.
The museum gave me my best experience ever in an art museum. It showed me that art could really be fun and interesting. The above visuals depict the various ads put out by the museum. Even those are works of art.
After our museum visit, we walked around roppongi. The streets weren’t as interesting as Shinjuku or Shibuya, but we did come across Hard Rock Tokyo.
We ventured back to Shinjuku and were looking for a place for dinner. We decided to have our first and only non-Japanese meal, and what a great choice it was. We had Octopus Sashimi, and two pizzas!! I forgot to take the seafood pizza as I was too busy eating. heh,, the Japs sure know how to make pizza, I like how they always make their crusts nice and thin. Yummmm
We got up bright and early to visit the famous Tsukiji market. It is one of the largest fish markets in the whole and millions of dollars of fish comes thru this market daily.
There were heaps of variety of edible marine life. And most of which where still alive when we were exploring the market. It was the first time I had seen live squid and sea cucumber!
One of the main highlights were the tuna fish. These guys are huge! And already gutted and frozen as soon as they are caught. Thus what you see in the pics are frozen tuna which are still super duper fresh, needing a saw to cut them up.
Across the market are stores which sell dried food, sharp knifes and sushi restaurants!! Yups small little sushi bars that serve up the fresh sushi I have ever tasted. These were just alive possibly less than a few hrs ago!! The scallop was soo soo good! The taste is definitely different when you eat the freshest of the fresh. Jas who before this trip stayed clear of raw fish, was a convert.
After the excitement of the fish market, we went to visit the Imperial Palace grounds. The palace itself is only open to public twice a year, and the grounds around the palace are open to the public. Look at the bonsai trees, they are everywhere! And they look pretty good!
The visit wasn’t a big deal. All we could really see was the moat and this centuries old bridge leading to the palace. We were kinda disappointed but made full use of the time taking pics.
Jas liked the weeping tree while the 2nd pic shows the great view of the Tokyo Tower in the distance.
We then headed down to the Ghibli Museum. The museum was situated in Mitaka, a pretty nice and serene part of Tokyo.
The museum was a magical experience. Character’s from Hayao Miyazaki’s movies came to life in some of the most creative exhibits.
Best thing was that the whole museum was designed with the magical and whimsical theme in mind. Everything from the galleries, foyer, fire hydrant holder and taps for the sink. An immersive experience that I won’t forgot.
They also had a special exhibition called Petit Lourve. Basically it was a mini exhibition on the Lourve. There were mini paintings and sculptures all from the Lourve. It was a pretty good exhibit.
Ghibli Museum is a definite must stop for visitors to Tokyo. It’s a fun time at a museum you won’t see anywhere else.
The long and tiring day ended with Jas and me picking up some bargain foods from the food markets. We had a spread and were stuff to the brim!
A day of sightseeing to some famous spots in Tokyo, Ginza & Odaiba.
Tokyo trains, they run faster than our MRT’s and most of them have real time maps on a screen which tell you what stop is coming up next.
Having just arrived at Ginza, we saw Cherry Blossoms. A good start to the day. And better yet, a traditionally dressed Japanese man under a Sakura tree. nice.
We came across this Mochi shop in Ginza which had the loveliest shop front. They had Strawberry Mochi’s, which sadly wasn’t ready when we were there. So we grabbed some apricot and sakura mochis. Both were very delicious.
Our first stop was the Sony Building. I had read stuff about how this show room was state of the art and had really cool interpretations of Sony’s new tech. Well, none of that, it’s just an over glorified showroom. yawn yawn
The famous Ginza 4-chome intersection.
It seems that every luxury brand in Tokyo has their own big building in Ginza. Good to know how rich they are and that at least some of them have the decency to have unique buildings.
The Advertising Museum run by Dentsu, the advertising agency. The building, or should I say skyscraper the museum is located in is owned by Dentsu. Yes, they whole freaking building. Anywayz, the museum was pretty interesting. Showing ads done by not only Dentsu, but other ad agencies around the whole. It showed the evolution of ads from the past to the present. A pretty interesting museum and good to help inspire your creativity.
The Venus Fort mall at Odaiba. It has some nice interiors. But on the whole, a bit of a boring place and a tourist trap. lol Decks and Aqua City nearby are much better.
The famous Rainbow Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. Yups, New York and Paris are not the only places you can find the statue. This one was given to Tokyo by France.
The FUJ TV Headquarters, known for it’s unique architecture.
There was a beautiful sunset by the beach, and I decided to play with some of the camera settings. Nice.
Back to Shinjuku after a day of sightseeing. Shinjuku is one of those places that never seems to sleep. The neon lights light up the streets and locals come out in force at night.
Down at the Isetan basement, we were checking out the huge variety of food. And came across Strawberry Mochi’s!!! Woot! We bought 6 to go and boy did they go… down our throats. They were extremely delicious!
Nothing better than ending the night at our fave BBQ place. Look at the amount of meat that is about to be gobbled up!
