Monday, December 10, 2007

Moving Notice~

Dear all,

Thanks for visiting my blog all these while. I'm moving to new blog, please visit http://alvinjani.mylovepress.net/ to continue update with our latest news.

We've combined both our blogs, so it'll be much easier for you guys to visit just one site then. :) see you there~

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Tokyo Sea Life Park & Harajuku

We were struggling whether to go DisneySea or not as it would be our last day to go if we want. We only found out DisneySea is not for water games the night after we went Disneyland. After consideration, we decided to give up going DisneySea, as

i) The weather forecast is advising us not to go, it'll be gloomy day and it might even rain~

ii) We didn't buy the multiple day pass, which will be cheaper, it's gonna cost us like RM100 extra if we buy the DisneySea ticket again. Not so worth it.

iii) It's so tiring as it'll take another whole day again.


We didn't really plan our trip, except that Disneyland is the MUST. In fact, we just read the catalogue and choose our destination the night before, or even the second day morning.


Since we are not so in to the shopping stuff, we chose to go to Tokyo Sea Life Park, which is just one station away from the Disneyland. We need not rush to go, so we took a better rest. But that day was really cloudy and gloomy, and it's cold!

Far, far away, can you see Disneyland's castle? Like fairy land in fairy tales..

This time we were smart to present the brochure before we bought the tickets, and we got a discount of 140yen per person. ;)


I think this is a real special and unique one --- Leafy Sea Dragon. The rest I'm not going to post up here, you can simply browse them in http://picasaweb.google.com/alvinlms/TokyoSeaLifePark



The penguins here are not so cute as those in Ueno Zoo..

By the way, i forgot to mention this in my previous post. In the Ueno zoo I found there are quite a number of the birds/animals got their name as 'Japanese --- bird'. And I was thinking, these animals also have nationality. Kekeke...


Outside of the Sea Life Park there's park with beautiful sceneries. This is the first day I'm using the Canon camera, the effect wasn't that good lar. Need more improvement on my skills. ;p some more, the weather is not good.


It's not easy to carry that heavy camera every where~!



We found this chinese restaurant in the train station of the Sea Life Park. This is the only meal that we think it's consider cheap as in Tokyo. This whole meal cost us almost RM40. If other restaurant, normally it'll be like around RM30 per person already, and sometimes it's not enough to fill out big tummy. Hehe..



So, next stop will be at Harajuku. Since this is also one of the recommended tourist spot, we came to have a look.
This is another shopping street -- Takeshita Dori. I found that it's very popular in Tokyo to have streets like this. It sounds to me these streets are just to 'dig' money from the tourists. Hehe..

The difference between this street and Ameyoko is that this is full of fashion stuff and packed with young fashionable people . Anyone want to try these maid costume?

These fashion are definitely not my taste~ I wonder why the young ones like to wear like this.. One thing is that they always have the poster or photos of the artists wearing the similar clothing or accessories, to attract the youngsters.

We didn't get to see the youth culture in Harajuku, since it's not weekend and we were not lucky enought to catch any of them here. Or maybe we didn't notice. Anyway, just type Harajuku in google you'll be able to find out a lot more about this fashion place.

Underground shops are quite common to be seen in Tokyo. This doesn't mean that it's illegal. But their shops are located underground.

We just have a walk on a street and decided to go back, since these are not our taste of fashion. In addition, it seems like going to rain too.


Time is still early when we are back in Shijuku Station. so we went to Bic Camera, another store equivalent to Yodobashi and Sofmap. Again I'm not interested in these, so I went window shopping at the good department. :)

There are plenty and plenty of seafood! these are only small part of them.. Most of these are for you to take them raw. Even those prawns~ After the sushi nightmare in Yodobashi I don't really fancy to try them at the moment...

This crab is not covered by mud or what, it's some kind of furry crab, and it's still alive!

I love crab, and I'd very much like to try one of these~


Too bad, we can't bring these back home..



Hmm.. Sounds cruel, after visiting Sea Life Park and now thinking of having seafood meals~

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Ueno & Akihabara

We got the map and tourist guide from Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Tourist Centre, after collecting information and ideas and studying the tourist guide catalogue we decided the next spot is Ueno and then Akihabara, since it's just nearby, you can visit both places in one day.




As we've heard from others, Ueno would be overflowed by the Japanese during the sakura and cherry blossom season. It was on the Msia newspaper too. Though it's not spring season now, but we still can enjoy the autumn view ma.


Outside of the zoo it's the Ueno Onshi Park, The scenery is so beautiful~ But too bad, the sky is gloomy again.



I always like to go to zoo, I like animals ma. ;p After buying the tickets we realised we can get a discount of 120yen per person by just displaying the catalogue we brought along with us~ Aih... too bad lar.


Beautiful birds! Or should I say, beautiful photos~ Looks very professional huh?

This is my favourite. Forgot to insert in last night. Hehe..

If I'm not wrong, this is Black-tailed Prairie Dog. Hmm... Why 'dog'? beats me! Superbly cute! Just like my hamsters. Haha... But many times bigger than my hamster. Very fat and chubby~ I hope I'm not going to become like that!


Pallas's Cat -- I wonder is it the guy called Pallas found this cat? It really looks like tiger!



Cuties! The background picture, Is it used to 'cheat' the rats that they are staying in a big wide field? Haha...

This birdy has an interesting name! Guess what it is? It's called Secretary Bird!


I just don't see which part of it looks like a secretary!



Super Duper Bumper fat and heavy hippo! It was called to take lunch, so we saw it came out from the water and was taking it's sweet time walking even slower than 90 years old man. Man that's walking with hundred kilograms! I was looking for information whether they state the Hippo's weight but no, so I don't know how heavy it is, but I'm sure it's few hundred kg! See that man? This hippo is almost the height of an adult. Ok lar, someone just told me hippo's is count by thousand kg, not hundreds. So, this hippo is equals to a hundred people's weight?


Something went wrong with me laptop... or maybe just my PowerPoint? I don't know. But one thing is confirmed, there's Trojan virus, and I'm scanning the laptop now. ah, the point is, when I was trying to edit photos in the PowerPoint, the colour went crazy. But the effect of this two gorilla is coincidentally nice, so I just bear with it lar.


left: It's chilling cold!


right: (checking at his foot) hmm... this looks yummy, can I eat?


This Galapagos tortoise is enormous!



1 -- At first I thought this penguin is on guard for the female one in the nest!


2 -- Then I noticed this penguin swimming back with the leave~


3 -- I was wondering...


4 -- OOOoooh~ It's for the mama penguin in the nest! Hmm.. What is that third party doing there, kepo kepo then?




I bet you should be familiar with this species of penguin if you have watched Happy Feet. Last time I thought it's just a cartoon character! It does look very much like the one in Happy Feet. Hehe..




Emperor Penguin are the largest penguins. They look so smart!



This owl doesn't have any special look, but a special name --- Malay Eagle Owl. Hehehehe...

There are a lot more.. But since I was informed that it's taking time to load the page as there are too many photos, so I'm not gonna put a lot here lor..


Please visit http://picasaweb.google.com/alvinlms/UenoJapan for more... But that is also part of the photos only. Hehe..



There are many museums in Ueno.. We passed by This National Museum of Western Art. But people like us, don't have any sense of art, so we just took some photos outside instead. At least we've 'passed by'.. ;p


This is a large one.. But don't know all these art pieces' names lar.



Before departing for Akihabara, Alvin's most eager-to-go place, we took a quick glance at this Ameyoko street, which is famous for stores containing clothes, miscellaneous goods, fresh fish and dried food.


Not much to see, I mean for people like us.. ;) We are not going to cook in Tokyo, and stuff there are not cheap.. at least for us. Just these clothing are quite interesting... I wonder who will wear these... But they are very expensive oh!




Ok... Finally we are in Akihabara, an area with the most advanced electric products. Most of the employees in Akihabara are fluent in several languages, therefore customers can easily purchase overseas models and products.


We saw few young girls wearing in maid costume -- just like what we saw in Hiroshima University Festival -- doing promotions for their shops. No... I will never do that.



For people like me there's nothing interesting in Akihabara la~ But for Alvin it's like 'heaven'~ Haha... We went few shops and also those bigger stores, then he found this 'treasure' in Sofmap... Great offer for this Nikon D40X together with two lens.. It's like half of the price you can find in market. Well I don't really know about these stuff but I just know --- I'm upgraded to his Canon S5 IS~ Kakakaka...

No more running out of battery and memory (he got 2GB memory card man, mine is only 512MB!), no more lousy focus, better colour and better close up... OOOoooo, that's the only good news I heard so I don't mind adding another camera~ Kekeke...

But my Olympus FE-190 is not bad also.. The biggest advantage it has is light, slim and easy to carry. I like to snap photos everywhere, can't be possible to bring the heavy camera everywhere. Sounds crazy for two person taking 3 cameras huh~ But I think this photographing hobby is good what. I have more good photos then. Hehehe...

The only bad thing is why this doesn't happen before we go to Disneyland and the zoo... I missed out lots of shots as my camera ran out of battery and memory so fast~ haiz

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights


We met Mickey and Minnie once again somewhere near the Toon Town. I still prefer Minnie in the winter costume. keke...



It's a Small Word

I thought this is just some kind of a decorations... As it seems not so many people line up outside there, we just gave it a try.



But actually the line was quite long inside... I said quite long is because the other queueing line are even longer. I was telling Alvin that we were cheated already, this is only a ride on the boat for one round inside this hall.

But it surprised us!



There were so much to be seen! The dolls, dancing and singing in the song 'it's a small world', are all in different costumes, coming from all over the world!


Is that cowboy? from Mexico?



This is obvious --- China

Another Chinese costume


We have the Arabians too

Red Indians, are they?


This is... from Mexico also? Sorry my geographic failed. ;p

These I definitely don't know...


In conjunction with the coming Christmas, the dolls were wearing their winter clothing as well. Wow~ That means each season you enter they will be in different clothing.


Arab costumes again... There were so many, hundreds of them! You can see some more photos in http://picasaweb.google.com/alvinlms/TokyoDisneyland


Night view of 'It's a Small World'. It's telling you the time now is 6.45pm.

I'm not Alice, this is Janice In the Wonderland~



Minnie Mouse's wishing well. It is said that you can hear a message from Minnie if you toss a coin into the wishing well. But I didn't do that. ;)


As I said, everything you gotta queue up. That includes also going into Minnie's House. And there were the crews there helping you to take photos again. But hmm... it doesn't look very nice then.


Minnie's living room. The fire looks real, huh? The sofa is hard as rock....


Well, Alvin said this is a very good phrase!



Mickey's hand glove~ I like it, but there's only one glove left when there's suppose to be two of them..

At back of the castle.. the paintings on the walls are really artistic and splendid~





Can you guess the story on these wallpapers?

Yup, it's Cinderella's story, and this castle is also belongs to her.



Going inside it's The Glass Slipper, there are varieties of glassware, and you can watch the skilled artisans demonstrate glass cutting. Those work of arts can easily cost you over hundreds. So don't even think about it.


The marvellous glass castle owned by Cinderella~ I wonder why it belongs to Cinderella?


Amazing pieces of art!

Night view of Cinderella's Castle~ that is romantic! Too bad we can't go up to the top..


Twinkling Holiday Moment presented by Mickey Mouse and gang to light up the castle with dancing singing. Hmm.. why it's not light up by Cinderella then?


You know, the people were already booking the space to watch this show as early as 2 and half hour before the show starts! That's crazy. I guess these are the people who holds the annual pass to Disneyland. They should have enjoyed the other games more than enough already. Even the Christmas Parade didn't attract them too. But for me I still prefer the parade a lot more. Partly also because i don't understand what they were talking about.



The last parade of the day --- Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights~!


Do you know this giant cat? I forgot..

Though the crowd in Disneyland had decreased compare to daytime, but this parade doesn't repeat, so the crowd was still flooding the area.

My camera died off after taking this shot. haiz~

Peter Pan and Wendy fighting Captain Hook again~



I didn't watch this cartoon... anyone?




Winnie the Pooh and friends~




This is ...?


Here comes Buzz Lightyear!


Woody and Jessie~

Nemo's friends~

Aaahhh! My favourite!


They were dancing and dancing, make us can't take a clear photo of theirs. Haiz~


Now see Cinderella's magic dress!



Purple, white, blue, pink .....



That's awesome!

The Price Charming can only follow at the back. Hehe..

Lilo and Stitch again!


Chip & Dale~

Donald Duck and friends!



And finally ---- Mickey and Minnie~


That's the end of my Disneyland long long posts... There's a lot of the attractions in Disneyland I missed out... Time is just not enough! and we were extremely exhausted after the whole day. After watching the firework, we rushed to go back. It was a frustrating and tiring journey in the morning so I thought taking bus to go back directly to the Shinjuku Station would be a better choice.


But I was wrong --- The cost was more than double the train tickets we spent in the morning! and the bus stopped at the furthest exit of the station and we were kind of lost... We went to McD nearby our hotel to buy some burger, as the meal in Disneyland are super expensive and yet not filling for us. We took like one hour walking back to hotel then. AAhhh~~~~~~~


But if there's chance, I'm sure I want to go Disneyland again. And I would not miss out DisneySea this time!