Singapore - eat, shop, sleep, repeat

After a restful flight, we touched down in Singapore and were greeted with immense heat and humidity. Just like I remembered from my last visit! It was a nice change from the near freezing temperatures in Tokyo, until I realized I was sweating while standing still. 

We were so fortunate to reunite with old friends in both Singapore and Hong Kong. We had not seen Aude since our honeymoon in Paris in 2012, shortly after she moved from Vancouver. Three years later, the next stage of her amazing career had brought her to Singapore and she graciously offered us a place to stay. We wasted no time diving in to the delicious food offered in the country. Aude and her beau Nico took us to Ding Dong, a restaurant off of the aptly named "Club Street" (for all of its bars), which does a modern take on South East Asian food. A great start to a few days of "good eating". 

After dinner and a quick drink on Club Street, we got to take in the beautiful night view of the city from Ku De Ta, a restaurant/lounge/club on the 57th floor of the Marina Bay Sands. Our pictures didn't do it justice so trust me when I say it was stunning. 

Sunday morning we were spoiled by Nico who made us fresh crepes, smothered in jam. It was a perfect warmup to lunch, where I got to show our local hosts a family favourite of ours in Singapore - the Hawker Buffet at the Grand Hyatt. Singaporean Hawker food is THE BEST, and while eating an assortment of different dishes on plastic plates in a hot, humid hawker centre is its truest form, I wanted Dave to try the best of the best at the Hyatt so that he would know what to go for when we got to the hawker centres. 

Assorted fresh squeezed juices

Deep fried bananas and ice cream

Full and happy

Thankfully, the humidity in Singapore breaks every once in awhile and what results is a torrential downpour! It comes in short bursts, just like in Hawaii, and without an umbrella we were running. Probably good after the buffet indulgence. 

Having spent our first 24 hours in Singapore engaging in one of the two national pastimes, we turned our attention to the other - shopping. I think shopping may be so popular because of the air conditioning; that, and all of the malls have stunning food courts of course. 

We started planning this trip to Asia for one primary reason - to see my grandfather. We have not seen him since 2012 when he and my grandmother came to Vancouver to attend our wedding. My grandmother passed away last year and I was anxious to get back to see Ah Kong. We were so happy to find him in good health, still strong and constantly demonstrating his great sense of humour. We met with my family for a traditional Peranakan dinner, which is influenced by Chinese and Malay flavours. Great food, and even better company to finish our Sunday.

Farewell ramen; Tokyo, you rock

 

Last full day in Tokyo, so our goals were to fit in a little more culture, last minute shopping, and of course, ramen. From Vancouver, we had booked a tour of the Imperial Palace and Friday morning was the only time we could get for this popular attraction. While it was interesting to hear about Tokyo and Japan's history during the course of the tour, we found ourselves a little underwhelmed by the Palace grounds. There were some beautiful structures such as the lookout post pictured below, but most of the buildings on the grounds are actually fairly new due to the older buildings having been destroyed during wartime. So let's just say it was no Buckingham Palace!

 

Imperial Palace grounds

The Imperial Palace is within a close walking distance from Tokyo Station, known for being the busiest terminal in Japan in terms of number of trains per day passing through, but more importantly for us it was home to Ramen Street.

 

Ramen Street is primarily frequented by business people stopping for a quick bite on their way to and from train stops. I am in awe of how quickly people can slurp down a bowl of ramen in Japan. Their lips must have no feeling anymore, after all the lightning hot noodle eating. So while we got in line with a bunch of black suits, it actually moved really fast as seat turnover is every 10 minutes or so. Jeff and Jer went for traditional ramen, while Dave and I tried tsukemen for the first time. Tsukemen differs from ramen in a couple ways: the noodles are served at room temperature separately from the broth, and the broth is much richer because it functions as more of a dipping sauce for the noodles. I loved the strong broth, so tsukemen was a great experience for me. Dave didn't like the broth as much, so I think he still prefers traditional ramen. In any case we all fondly enjoyed our farewell bowl of ramen.

 

Ramen Street in Tokyo Station



The boys waiting with the salary men



Tsukemen

And so ends the Tokyo leg of our trip. We definitely packed it full, but I feel like there is so much more to see and I would want to come back to spend time in the city as well as in other cities like Kyoto and Osaka. The people and the culture of Japan are fascinating, there is so much more to explore. Until then, here are a few of our favourites:

Favourite food: Ramen, 7-11 food (only sort of kidding)
Favourite drink: Hibiki 21 year Whisky (Dave); Shochu mixed with anything (Viv)
Favourite experience: Sushi at the Tsukiji Fish Market (Viv); Baseball game (Dave)

Modest mannequins

On Saturday morning, we left our Tokyo crew and headed for Haneda Airport. Next stop: Singapore! We were pretty exhausted, and looking forward to a bit slower pace in S'pore (if due to nothing else, the paralyzing heat and humidity). One last sushi meal at the airport and a really cheap upgrade to premium economy had this next stage of the trip starting out pretty strong!

So tired!

When have you seen airport sushi like this??

Had to stretch to touch the wall!

Dave trying out his in flight moistening mask

Quintessential Tokyo

Thursday was a FULL day. Lots of stops and most of them very quintessential Tokyo, according to our research. We still did not get up early enough to encounter the true rush hour on the metro, or the Women Only train cars (for those particularly busy times when there are metro employees at every door packing people into the trains). We took the train over to Asakusa in northeast Tokyo, a generally older part of the city and relatively quieter than Shinjuku. That's not to say that any area of Tokyo is particularly quiet, but we did find that certain sectors of the city had a different feel, not unlike any other major city. Asakusa seemed to be a bit less commercial.

Our wandering over to Asakusa was to visit the Sensoji Temple, which is a Buddhist temple and the oldest in Tokyo. The first gate of the temple lead us into a street of shops selling souvenirs and street food. Despite hawking various tourist-driven goods, it was actually a nice street to peruse and we picked up a few gifts here and there. At the end of the shopping street was the second gate to the temple, leading into a large courtyard and ultimately up to the temple. We took some time to visit the main hall and take in the Buddhist practices.



Shopping pre-temple!

Traditional kimonos among the tourists and locals. Beautiful details, love the intricate bows.



Courtyard of the temple, including a five-storey pagoda



In front of the main hall

From the steps of the main hall, with Hello Kitty

From the Sensoji Temple, we made our way over to Akihabara, a nearby district that is known for being the major area to buy household electronics, video games, anime and manga. It is also home to a number of large arcades where locals come at all hours of the day to play Dance Dance Revolution and games where you try to pick up a prize using a claw in just one horizontal move and one vertical move. We spent a lot of money on one of those games...with no success.


A typical Akihabara street




Trying to win the "pick up prize with claw" game

Upon emerging from the arcade and wandering the streets filled with bright signs and graphics, we walked by a typical girl on the street promoting the restaurant she worked for. Only she was dressed as a maid, encouraging us to visit Maidreamin which we confirmed was a maid café upon entering. Maid cafes are popular in Japan, and a very unfamiliar experience for us. Once we were seated, we were each given a set of bunny or bear ears to wear during our "meal" (a drink and a snack, which cost about $40!). Whenever something was brought to our table, we did a cheer with our maid server. No one is allowed to take pictures of the maids, but they will take plenty of pictures of the patrons, specifically while posing in "cat" or "cute" pose, both pictured below. While these cafes obviously have an undertone of subservience catering to a particular type of patron, we preferred to just enjoy the overall "Japanese-ness" of it and if nothing else, just to be able to say that we had gone to a maid café.

Cats!

A collage of Polaroids, the only pictures the maids would take with us. They decorated them before presenting them to us

At night, we went over to Shibuya to see the infamous Shibuya Crossing. 100,000 people cross through this intersection per day, which seems prime for accidents but as with most other things in Tokyo, is totally orderly and efficient. Traffic is stopped in all directions while pedestrians cross every which way throughout the crossing. It was a pretty crazy sight.



Had to get a picture with Hachiko, the Akita who waited at the train station for his owner every day for nine years after the day his owner died and did not return home *sniff*. Tony Tang would totally do the same for one of us, right?

Sometimes you need a little help from your friends. Selfie sticks are hard work.

The insanity!!!



Drooling at a depachika followed by drinks at the top of the world

Started the day out at McDonald's - this was not a homesick driven craving, but rather part of our study of Japanese culture. In other words, let's see what different things they serve at McD's in Tokyo. First difference - Filet o'Fish is on the menu for breakfast and comes as a meal with a hashbrown. Obvious choice for me. Second difference - you can get an Egg McMuffin with basically a McChicken filet instead of ham or sausage. Obvious choice for Dave. And frankly, everything was made with the care and attention to detail that we have experienced with all of our other food so far, even though it was just McDonald's! 

Today was mostly a shopping day because the weather was less than cooperative. One can only wield those clear plastic umbrellas sold all over Asia for so long before having to get out of the rain. We visited Isetan department store in Shinjuku, I believe it is their flagship location. Coming out of the metro, the first floor we found ourselves on was the depachika, or food floor. I had read that these floors were full of amazing savoury and sweet delights but was still impressed as we walked from stall to stall. I also have to note that when you buy anything, the store clerks wrap it so immaculately that you almost don't want to tear it open to eat it. One downside in Tokyo's depachikas - there are no tables to eat at! Kind of cruel considering how mouth watering everything is, but we eventually discovered that food is to be taken up to the garden terrace of the store to enjoy.

Japanese "scotch egg" - perfectly soft boiled egg (at any time of day that you buy one of these) packed in layers of tonkatsu. We ate one in the morning and came back for another on the way home.

Huge sweet potato fries

We worked up an appetite shopping and wanted to try a tempura restaurant, finding one eventually in Takashimaya department store. Like restaurants that only serve yakitori (chicken skewers), there are also tempura specific restaurants where the chefs are standing at what looks like a sushi bar and frying tempura all day. It's hard to pinpoint what it is, but this tempura just tasted different and so, so good. There were also a number of interesting flavoured salts to dip the tempura into after dipping into the classic tempura sauce that we have at home. Cool experience.

 Shopped some more in the afternoon, and then Jeff and Dave found Godzilla!

At night, we had planned to go to the Park Hyatt, where the Peak Bar on the 41st floor has a nightly Twilight Hour open bar. We enjoyed our share of drinks and the beautiful view, then decided to head up another 11 storeys to the New York Grill for one more drink at the iconic spot where Lost in Translation was filmed. A great way to end the night!

Elevator meta selfies

Tsukiji Fish Market, Ginza and the (crazy) Robot Restaurant

Tuesday was bucket list day. Our first stop was the Tsukiji Fish Market, famous for early morning fish auctions where restaurant chefs come to buy the freshest fish for their patrons. Only a few members of the public are allowed into each auction and the lineup starts at 3am. Needless to say, we opted to get to the market a little later and just take in the general scene. There are vendors selling seafood (obviously), knives, tea, housewares and my favourite - food on sticks. We bought some bbq eel skewers and carefully ate them while trying to navigate the narrow street between the stalls with open umbrellas. Next item on a stick was tamagoyaki, or rolled egg omelette which is prepared by folding many thin layers of cooked egg on each other in a rectangular pan. I've had tamago nigiri before but this was much sweeter, almost too much so for an omelette. 

Skewers for days

Tamagoyaki

Dave and I then ducked off from the group to find some sushi. I don't think there is anywhere in the world that could have fresher sushi than the Tsukiji Fish Market, so sushi for breakfast - check! We both got a nigiri set so that we could try various types of fish, as well as a couple pieces of uni (sea urchin) because we had never tried it. Even here, it does not look very appetizing but it is soft and rich and delicious. I think I liked it better than Dave, who was not a huge fan of the texture. We can both agree though, that sushi at the Tsukiji Fish Market was one of our favourite things in Tokyo. 

Sushi master

Uni - an acquired taste

After the market, we ventured over to Ginza, a well known shopping district in Tokyo. It is home to a 12-storey Uniqlo (I equate it to Japanese GAP) which we spent a fair amount of time in. We worked up a thirst shopping, ending up at the Ginza Lion Beer Hall. When Dave asked the server if he should order the largest beer, the server responded "that depends...are you a man?". Well played.

Beautiful art installation at Dover Street Market Ginza

Dave disappointed that his beer was not bigger

The second item that we checked off the bucket list on Tuesday was the Robot Restaurant. Ok, maybe it's not quite a bucket list item but when in Tokyo, one must see this show. It is not really possible to explain what the show is about, other than random vignettes of weirdness. Everyone starts in the lounge where we were entertained by a singer and musicians who were dressed like Daft Punk. There is not one inch of the "restaurant" that is not lit up or covered in some heinous pattern or design. We were all eventually herded down to the show and what followed was...insane. Our take on it is that this is a show designed for tourists and they made it as strange and incomprehensible as possible on purpose. Mission accomplished.

Do you see the guy behind us who is having a nap?!

Human Barbies playing large drums

These girls (who had lovely voices by the way) sang Ave Maria while a giant robot walked in front of them. Seriously.

What better way to cap a very "Tokyo" day off than karaoke and ramen? We sang to our heart's content and then went in search of Ichiran again. This time, we were successful!! Finally got to see the single stall ramen seats where your ramen is handed to you through a window and you never see an actual person's face behind the rattan curtain. Jeremy discovered his new favourite meal, and this would not be our last late night visit to Ichiran this week.

A ramen cubby hole is my kind of cubby hole