And so, to continue with my previous post, it was our second day at Shinagawa Shuku Guest House. I can still remembered the refreshing morning breeze that day and all of us set off with a relax mood..
Okay this is how the exterior of the guest house looks like.
Our OOTD
Ueno Park
Our first stop is to visit Ueno Park. Main purpose was that it is listed in the travel guide as one of the must-go places to view the Sakura / Peach Blossom during their blooming season (Mar/April). But first up, our breakfast…or brunch…?
We decided to explore around Ueno for food before we visit the park. After strolling around the streets of shops and restaurants, this curry rice shop appealed to us most. Hopped in and was instructed to use the ticketing machine (as above) to order our food. Hmm interesting..
In fact this “vending ordering” is quite popular and common among the Japanese. Well, for goodness sake, vending machines are everywhere in this country! I can say Japanese is really smart to transform the good old Vending Machine into one of the most useful inventions ever!
Back to our food. Well ya we were instructed to order our food from the machine but..it’s all in japanese?! Thank god, there were some food samples at their shop front. So what we did was to go outside to their shop front again, chose the dish we want and memorised its japanese name and tallied it with what was written on the vending machine. LOL!
After our meal, we proceed to find our way to the entrance of Ueno Park. Well, on our way to there, we weren’t greeted by any “pink” sights. Basically what we knew was that the winter season that year (2012) got delayed and so the spring season got delayed as well and so did the blooming of sakura 😦
Of course that kind of dampen our mood but..we were ecstatic to get our first glimpse of Sakura as we walked further down the route!
So what this tells us? Never give up…continue walking. Gosh, Ueno park is big…
Of course, we didnt manage to tour around every single corner of the park, just leisurely strolling around…honestly my colleague should blog around this since she knew the most on what was going on the itinerary..hahaha…>.<
At the Bentendo temple. (shown above)..easily located in the middle of the pond linked by a street of festival food stalls.
That was what we usually did when we visited their temples….pick divination lots (求签). Most of the temples in Japan will definitely have one divination corner for tourists like us to try our luck on. Normally with a price of 10Yen per lot?
Some spring well and percussion performance group headed by a priest chanting recitals.
One of the temples in the park. Look at that gorgeous Sakura tree above our heads!
Their version of recycle bin…look at the number of categories?
Bet you will spend most of the time sorting out your trash before you bin it..haha. And one thing to note (very important*), it is extremely difficult to find a trash bin along the streets of japan. The only few places which you can throw your trash are perhaps their train platforms, inside the shops and in your hotel? Hmm…that’s all I can think of for now. So next time if you have trash to throw and have no idea how to call a bin in japanese, trash bin is called “gomi-bako”
Apparently, I googled on finding a rubbish bin in Japan and this link popped up..
Well, if you have the time, you can read it…interesting explanation on why you can’t find a bin on public streets.
It is in Japan where you really feel like getting rid of your trash so badly..because it is so hard to get rid of…haha!
Outside one of their science museums.
Found our way back to Ueno Station and on our way to Gotemba Premium Outlets…
On JR HSR 🙂
Gotemba Premium Outlets
Speaking about Gotemba Premium Outlets, the name would have explained itself. The journey to Gotemba was not a straight and easy one. It consists of taking JR HSR transferring to a local train and a shuttle-bus. So by the time we reached, it was around mid afternoon already.
It is run by “Premium Outlets” that has branched its outlets to different parts of the world as well.
One thing about travelling with brand-conscious mates is that they will most likely raved about these outlet stores and will try all ways to reach the place no matter how inaccessible it is. And so, here we were…
Seriously, after my experience, premium outlets in Japan are not “factory outlets”. Reason was the price wasn’t even cheap in the first place. Hmm well, only slightly cheaper by a percent but I’m sure you can find a even better price in somewhere else other than Japan. Trust me.
So we diverted our attention from fashion to food instead…look what we found.. 
Ice Cream from Haagen-Daz outlet. 🙂 Yum Yum!! I bought the creamy annin (almond) flavour and my colleague bought other flavours like coffee milk. Love love love creamy almond, it tasted so good! One of the best flavours I tried. ♥
Premium Choc Brand, Godiva Outlet! Tried their Chocolixir (Super rich hot chocolate).
Tasted real good too!!
With nothing else but window shopping…again, we decided to head back to Tokyo Station again to buy some dessert for supper..before dinner time..hahaha.
Bought our Strawberry shortcake and tart and went back to Shinagawa and have dinner before returning to our accomodation.
Just realised why I always ended off with food…hahaha..
Xoxo
eil
eilart 
I do not know whether it’s just me or if perhaps everybody
else experiencing problems with your blog. It appears as
if some of the written text on your content are running off the screen.
Can someone else please provide feedback and
let me know if this is happening to them as well?
This might be a issue with my browser because I’ve had this happen before.
Thank you
Hi,
I have done a check on my blog but the texts look okay on my screen. I’m trying out on internet browsers like IE8 and Mozilla Firefox. Maybe you may want to try viewing it on a different internet browser?
Thanks!
eil