Tokyo Part 6 - Shinjuku - horse sashimi and more

Shinjuku is like the extremely busy CBD area of Tokyo.
And its the busiest CBD I have ever seen.

The train station is ALWAYS CROWDED. Even till midnight, 1am plus, I can still see the SAME AMOUNT OF TRAFFIC as if it is daytime peak period.
I am seriously mind boggled by the huge amount of pedestrian traffic....

It was so fascinating, I forgot to take photos.. haha!

Oh well :D
I have lots of food pictures though. Let the food porn begins...



Pork Nabe- Something like hot pot.
but much more plainer and simple fare....



A couple photo with the pork nabe



Horse Sashimi!
Tough and dense meat, very strong tastes along with the garlic condiment at the side.
Interesting that they serve horse sashimi.


Their dumplings! Prepared and cooked as 1 large dumpling, which you tear out the dumplings individually to eat....



Curry udon! I saw a lot of office workers queueing up at this eatery, so we joined in.
The Japanese are considerate people, they provided aprons for you to eat the soup udon, so that you would not dirty your office clothes.



One of our grilled meal at a grill restaurant. Compared to korean grill, it is so much less smoky!
Probably because of the air vent. We left close to the closing hours, and we saw the staff meticulously take down other vents and clean it up.
The meat quality is really good.



This is our last meal before we caught the train to the airport back to Singapore actually. And it was delicious, seafood don, basically a bowl of rice and seafood. and a ricebowl of cooked crab meat.



Issey Miyaki bags - we went shopping, and apparently issey miyaki bags were snatched up every morning, so much that they had to ration out the new bags. Look at the shelf below, completed void.
Much of the clients are Thais, and of course, the China tourists...



Found a 3D printer sold at their electronics store (BIC) Kinda cool, if they had offered shipping, I might have bought this home just to play with it...



Surprised at so many 3D printers sold at a reasonable price.



Samantha Hello Kitty Bags, at a decorated Hello Kitty Staircase...



One of the street wares sold openly. The gadget was dancing around, I tried looking up and around for wires, but couldn't find any.
I am sure there is a simple explanation for this.



The lighting decorations opposite the Shinjuku metro station.
Oh well, thats all for the area we reside in. Ironically, this is the area our hotel is located and yet the place that we took the least photos of all....

Tokyo Part 5 - Shibuya - Hello Kitty Cafe, Snoopy Cafe

Shibuya is like, hmmm, the Orchard road or Bugis of Tokyo?

We didn't really have a lot of photos of Shibuya, since we were overwhelmed by Hello Kitty Cafe.
The wife insisted that we have to pay a visit to Hello Kitty, since you know, she is native to Japan.

Hello Kitty for all the ladies out there!!!

But, meanwhile.....



People everywhere!



I think i stood at this junction for a long time just to take in the feel...



The crowd... how do they squeeze and crowd with everyone...



Before the skies darken, we have dinner at Pomme's
They are a chain restaurant famous for omelette rice...

Night time!



A bit lousy camera at night time. Funny thing is, I am not sure I am biased against China.. but the crowd here does not seem as chaotic or as squeezed as the crowd in China. Even though I felt that the crowd in China was even more dense...




Finally, onwards to Hello Kitty Cafe!!



Taking some act-cute photos at their photo booths, with their accessories.
Don't judge. :)



The wallpaper full of Hello Kitty, more importantly, the table next to us, is an all-men group! Looks like this is not a too-feminine cafe for all to patronise :D



Our Hello Kitty table mat



Hello Kitty coasters, Hello Kitty drinks.
Come to think of that, where's Dear Daniel?



And our lovely Xmas tree desserts....



You know how a kid views his candies... if you eat it, it will be gone..
if you don't eat it... it will be gone too.
Tough life.

And then we decide to visit a Non-Japanese but equally cute character


Snoopy Cafe!!
And thats Lucy?



Snoopy stuff for sale...



Hmm just realised that Snoopy Cafe is operated by Tower Records...



Unforunately, not much items on the menus... beside we were too full from Hello Kitty desserts and the omelette rice.


Thats all we had from Shibuya!

Tokyo Part 4 - Owl Cafe at Kiba (& charcoal meat grill)

We found out about an Owl Cafe in Tokyo, that is considered quite an interesting attraction by TripAdvisor.




It is tucked neatly in a building's façade, and at our time of visit, has no visitors, except the owner and one of her regulars. (I assume its a regular customer as he was chatting heartily with her)



From outside, you can see a hangout-out area for most of the owls... to chill.


Here is a closer look at 2 of them


This is the look from inside the shop, the owls will turn and look at you when you walk in... LOL


Big Owl is looking at you.


The look of the cafe, with a large tree... the other customer was relaxing and chatting with the cafe lady.


At the other end of the cafe, there are many other smaller parrots and birds.
They were chipping merrily now and then.


At a corner, there is a display of bird-themed merchandise that you can purchase.


There are 2 cute baby owls at the cashier area, under the care of the cafe lady...
The smaller one is so cute!


They are probably siblings... :D


The cafe lady will talk about the 2 baby owls now and then. Too bad I don't understand Japanese.


Cakes and pudding! The pudding is in an owl's face... haha
Japanese whisky, Yamazaki; and Sweet potato Shochu (wine).


If you like, you can pay a small fee and enter the room to pet the owl. The cafe lady will give you some instructions on how to pet the owl...


petting the large owl...


She looks fierce! (I mean the owl)


So many of them to pet...

Too bad owl is not allowed as a pet in Singapore =(
Oh well, Singapore does has its own Owl Coffee....

While exiting the cafe, I found an old style grill restaurant, that is definitely for the locals and not tourists. There is no english menu, no photos, and the chef and waitress does not know how to speak English.
I have to guesstimate and order from the Japanese words, based on the similarity with Chinese characters.


Here is a picture of the charcoal glowing... excited.


Grilling the marinated meat...


A great meal with the chilled noodles... damn appropriate for a bbq meal!