The Bonkurasu Brigade

I’m home. And aching all over. My arms from swinging lightsticks, my feet from walking non-stop, my back from sleeping on the return flight.

I went to Japan again to enjoy the Silver Week (prrrrrrrrromotions!) and came back after four days with the fatigue of a 10-day journey. This post will highlight the interesting bits of this trip.

After the jump!

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Day 1 – Shinjuku

Drab Shinjuku. But it was a nice place to stay in. The weather was in-between summer and autumn, making for a cool 24 deg C most of the time.

Nakamuraya spotted!

Taito Game Station. Went in to try a couple of rounds of Taiko 12 Zoryouban. Played Hatsune Miku’s Melt and Sakamoto Maaya’s Triangular, both of which were very fun.

Anizo machine outside the arcade. Gave it a try, but didn’t get the Mega Anizo.

The Muji storefront is sleek.

Movies that were showing. Gave these a pass because of the insanely expensive ticket prices.

Dinner in Shinjuku. I ordered a rather pricey negitoro-don because I wanted to try some. It turned out so delicious I totally forgot to take a picture of my food.

Thus, empty plate 8D.

Went for karaoke at Karaoke-kan. Karaoke buildings are everywhere in Shinjuku. Above is the view from the seventh-floor karaoke room.

This is why karaoke in Japan > karaoke in Singapore. :<

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They had rapbit’s When They Cry!

Day 2 – Asakusa and Tokyo Tower (i.e. Being a tourist)

I swore I would eat this again the next time I went to Asakusa and I did. Freshly baked melon-pan, with a crispy cookie crust and fluffy bread on the inside. I tried miso ice-cream from the same shop too, and it wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be. I still prefer the chestnut and almond-beancurd flavours.

One of the shops at Nakamise were selling iced matcha along with skewered rice cake.

Made my way over to Tokyo Tower, not to see the tower but to the summer crepe flavours at Marion Crepe, below Tokyo Tower.

Summer berries, ice cream and iced jelly. Refreshing.

Speaking of summer flavours, it appears that jelly drinks are the new rage.

Pudding drink.

Coffee jelly drink.

Picked up a few souveniers before going to Shibuya.

Tsundere cookies. 10 out of 12 cookies are tsun.

The only omiyage snack food I buy for myself. Hiyoko Manjuu!

Caricature booth. If you look closely..

Perfume!

Day 2 – Akihabara

Just a quick stop to get lunch before moving on to Shibuya.

The waffle place had chestnut waffles, as a season-limited flavour. Bought one for dessert. It had bits of chestnut inside the pastry!

Day 2 – Shibuya

Saw this at the arcade. Cute!

The drain cover below the vending machines scream coin disaster. I wonder how many coins were devoured from the hands of clumsy people.

Spent a lot of time in Shibuya 109 shopping and browsing through level after level of cute things. When I was done it was already dark outside, and the lights of Shibuya can be seen clearly.

Bought some matcha pudding home for supper, and it was delicious.

Day 3 – Shimo Kitazawa

Shopping tiem (Part 2)! Funky shops all over the place. Bought a bunch of socks and stuff.

Wandered around and found this store, with a bunch of shops stuffed deep inside. After walking inside for around five minutes, I chanced upon the main store of Kamikaze Style! I always wanted to visit this store but I never got the chance to find out where it was.

Met the store-owner who was a really messy person (The counter was cluttered all over with stuff and he had a PC with one monitor facing out, showing the design he was working on at the moment). He seemed rather amused with my choice of shirts (You’ll see in the loot section later in this post), and gave me a discount :DD

My first time waiting at a train crossing. Yes I came from the caves.

Dinner was taken at a second-storey restaurant.

Flight

A snap of the inflight meal.

They had Perfume’s Polyrhythm on one of the Jpop playlist!

Loot

I skipped over Day 4 because I spent that day at a minor P4-only doujinshi event in Bakuro-Yokoyama.

Omiyage for family and friends.

Loot-on-floor, all still in their respective bags.

The Kamikaze Style bag.

Jyu-on! The Heavy Metal club.

This is not the end of the line. I swear, this guy’s shirts are genius.

A little pumpkin pot of sweets from Kamikaze Style, as part of a Halloween promotion that was going on in Shimokita.

I wonder what Bottle Sour is.

Bought a copy of FLOOR from the HMV at Shibuya.

A comparison of the Flash Best cover alongside the More More More cover. Yasutaka’s expression does not change.

Ah, and a look at the P4 tarot card set I got from the doujin event.

The Ba- Empress.

Most beautiful card of the set.

The event also had a kujibiki special where you fill up a stamp card (One stamp for every purchase at a circle), and every three stamps got you a try on the kujibiki. I had five tries (First try was free), and won two packets of tissue, two sets of collection cards, and one Tofu Soap from Rise’s shop.

Cute packaging is cute.

The soap.

And that’s the end. I’ll be off to take a good, long nap.

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