Visitor (2004-03-18)
Fung Kam Hay, one of KL's friend since high school, came to Tokyo on
business last Saturday. He is to work a week here and goes back
to Sydney on the 20th. He came here a couple of days early on his
own so that he had the whole weekend to explore the city. KL
picked him up from his hotel in the morning and went to Tsukiji (
)
together for lunch where I met up with them. Tsukiji is famous
for its fish market where it handles the world's biggest volume of
trade in fish and seafood everyday. KL and Fung had lunch at this
tiny place called Donburi ichiba well-known for its sashimi-over-rice
bowl. The "restaurant", actually more like a food vendor, is
situated on the main street off the side of the fish market. Just
walk along the main road towards the fish market after you get out from
Exit 2 of the underground Hibiya line, it's not hard to find. The
boys had the mixed seafod bowl. I didn't want to wait twenty
minutes for the only cooked fish dish on their menu, so I just
watched them eat and took pictures.
After they finished eating we went to Ueno (
) so Fung could buy some
souvenir for family and friends. I had a bowl of ramen (noodles)
at a noodle shop while they were browsing the numerous shops.
When Fung finished his shopping we headed to Ueno park. Of the
hundreds of cherry trees inside the park, a couple were actually in
full bloom. Now Fung can go home a proud sakura viewer, lucky
him! Fung spent half an hour in the Tokyo National Museum inside
the park. Since KL and I are not fans of museums, much less one
that requires an entry fee, we waited for him sitting on a bench
nearby. After Ueno we went to
Akihabara (
) where I took a few pictures and immediately hopped back onto
the train to Roppongi Hills (
) myself to pick up some focaccia, leaving
the two computer geeks wandering around all those electronics
shops. Someone will have to pay me big time to stay two minutes
in Akihabara, it is that boring.
We met again in Ginza (
) and had dinner at an izakaya (Japanese
pub). KL had been under the weather for a couple of days and by
the evening he was feeling a bit off so he didn't eat anything.
He just sat with us while we ate yakitori (grilled chicken on a stick)
and sausages. After awhile he took two cold tablets with some hot
Chinese tea followed by a glass of coke. I think the fizzy drink
did him in. He spent the next half hour going in and out of the
bathroom, poor guy! But after unloading through the top
end, he actually felt much better. By the end of dinner KL almost
fully recovered, he
even felt up to taking Fung back to the hotel.
Fung is
staying at a fancy schmancy hotel in Shibuya (
). It is the tallest
building there located just behind Tokyu Plaza at Shibuya
station. His room has a huge window which offers a panoramic view
of Tokyo, and at 34th floor it is absolutely breathtaking.
I took some night shots through the window but they didn't turn out too
good. In the bathroom the wall adjacent to the bathtub is
replaced by another huge window so you can submerge yourself both in
steamy hot water and awesome Tokyo lights after a hard day's
work; what a way to unwind. We only stayed for a short while and
bid each other
goodnight because it'll be another full day tomorrow.
I will talk about all the places we went in detail in future
entries. If I included them all here, it would make today's
entry much too long. So stay tuned if you want to know more about
Ueno, Roppongi Hills and Ginza.
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