Final Post On The Wonderful Trip To Japan!

There are so much to do and see in Japan that I am honestly quite reluctant to end it off with this post. Nevertheless, all good things must come to the end so I will try to cover as many interesting stuff and fond memories as I can in this final piece on my Japan trip saga! 

If you are a hardcore fan of electronic gadgets and all things anime, one place you would not want to miss is Akihabara, a district in central Tokyo famous for its numerous electronic stores. 

Anime or manga with beautiful female characters form a very big part of the Japanese "Zai Nan" culture

Akihabara is thronged by blocks and blocks of buildings selling mainly electronic products

According to my Japanese girlfriend, Akihabara is very popular with "Zai Nan" (i.e. young man who usually stays at home). I suppose it is because this particular group normally prefers to stay home to play computer games and watch television rather then socialize with others. The usual interpretation of  why "Zai Nan" behave the way they do is due to their innate inability to communicate with others effectively. Interestingly, despite how shy or socially inadequate the "Zai Nan" may be, they are still young men who wish to seek the solace of female companionship, which likely explains the presence of a very famous French Maid Cafe in the area. 

Famous French Maid Cafe, @Home. Photo is taken outside the cafe as there is a strict policy of no photo taking inside

Needless to say, all the waitresses in this cafe are all young ladies dressed like French maids. Apart from serving food and drinks, these young ladies also make small talk with the customers (90% male) as well as take polaroid photos or/and play games with them (for a fee). The concept of such a cafe is really quite amusing and interesting to me, although I have to say we were all quite puzzled over the popularity of this place! As like most well known restaurants in Japan, we had to queue for about 45 minutes before we got our seats. Although the charges (i.e. entrance fee and cost of food/drinks) were pretty expensive, I guessed the novelty of the whole experience is worth the wait and visit :)....at least this once!  

Just a couple more pictures of young ladies in cosplay costumes which we spotted:

It was freezing so we actually felt quite sorry for this young lady! Despite the cold, she was professionally posing for photoshoots by a huge crowd of spectators.

Much warmer here! Kai and I taking a picture with a pretty waitress in a French Maid style uniform

Not only are the people and culture in Japan really interesting, the taste of the food is also truly incredible! Hence, I would like to end this post with one of my favorite topics of all time, FOOD!

Group picture taken outside the Ramen eatery where we had lunch. Near Chibaminato station.

Ramen with Japanese style char siew

Ramen with shoyu based soup

lightly pan fried gyoza as a side dish

Ramen eateries are very common in Japan and may be considered one of the more budget option compared to other restaurants. The essence of a tasty bowl of ramen lies in the soup, which is usually brewed for many hours to capture the full flavor of the ingredients that goes into making it. Needless to say, the standard of the ramen in Japan is very high. However, as you can see from the pictures above, the soup base of a standard bowl of ramen is usually rather oily and tends to be quite salty. So depending on your personal food preference, you may or may not appreciate ramen as much as some others. Personally, I love eating ramen but I prefer not to drink too much of the soup for health reasons!

While some of the Japanese ramen joints take orders through their servers like what we are accustomed to, some others required the customers to purchase tickets for the food item they wish to order from a vending machine and pass the tickets to the server in charge of processing the order (for a bigger size eatery) or to the chef directly (for a small eatery). I am not too sure why the system is as such but perhaps this method is used so that the servers or chefs do not need to handle money and make their hands dirty in the process? Whatever the case is, we were more than happy to follow the system in order to enjoy a fabulous bowl of ramen!

We bought our tickets through this machine at one of the ramen eateries we visited

Last but not least, let me share some of my fashion buys on this trip!

Nothing more than 1990 Yen (approximately SGD$26) ! The cheapest item is only 900 Yen :)

Wearing the H&M top I bought in Japan and floral shorts (from Odaiba). Photo taken in Singapore!

The time we visited (early March) was great for summer clothes shopping in Japan as there were many big sales around!

And time to say goodbye to Japan!

I was pilot for a day! Just kidding....our flight back to Singapore was delayed by 2 hours and the pilots kindly allowed interested passengers to visit the cockpit for a photo while we were waiting!

As mentioned right at the beginning, there were simply too much to see and do in Japan! Although I have done up a total of seven posts, what I have posted merely covered a fraction of what we experienced! Special thanks to all the people who made this trip unforgettable (you know who you are!) and hope to visit Japan again sometime soon!