Category: The Travel Tales

First dinner for our Tokyo trip gotta be Gyumon! It’s like a must-go for all muslims when they go over to Tokyo! Now i know why. It was so so good we end up eating twice there.

Directions to Gyumon by Farhana here was helpful!
We managed to reach the place safely following her pictorial instruction.

Shibuya! Well, the restaurant is located at Shibuya. Just make sure you exit from the Hachiko Exit.

The Halal Menu is limited. I’ll be honest. But really you don’t need 20 other meal options if that one option available is darn good!

We both chose the ¥4,000 (S$50.00) Halal BBQ Set cos we’re not really head over heels about chicken meat. Beef? YES PLEASE!

Macam nak bbq si Nadya ni pun ada.

And you know what else is da bomb? That sambal! I know, it’s so weird to go gaga over sambal. In japan. Kau dah kenapa dyan?
But i’m not kidding you, that sambal, eat with hot rice & bbq beef. Ya Allah, nikmatnya! Especially during winter. We kept asking for that sambal seh. Perangai.

So nice! It’s not even heavily marinated. Tapi sedap gila. I don’t know what they feed their cows over there. Asal daging dorang sedap sangat ni.

Gyumon 
Address: 3-14-5 Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0002, Japan
Contact No.: +81 3-5469-2911

They are opened from 5.00pm – 4.00pm except for sunday where they operate from 5.00pm – 12.00am. I would suggest you come early, like 6.00pm. Especially on weekends cos we saw them turning away some customers cos there were no available seats.

The second time we were there, we occupied a table that was meant for 6 pax and they also turned away some customers even though there were space for 4 pax on our table. We had to tell the waiter to ask them if they wanna share our table cos so kesian walk all the way in the cold then kena turn away. Turns out to be a Singaporean family so we made new friends!

Talking about making new friends, we saw a few Muslim families there in Tokyo.
Rusly & me are quite friendly lah, i would say. Especially Rusly. I know he look very garang but he always make it a point to say hello to people and then initiate conversations. I take a little bit more time cos i like to study people first (I know, i’m so judgemental sometimes! )

But you know, many times we smiled at other muslim travellers, they looked at us funny seh. Macam “dekni apahal“. Why sehhhh.

But oh wells.

 

We’re back from Tokyo!!! Our first trip for 2016.
Yes, i’m really confident i can persuade Rusly for another 2016 trip. Heehee.

Really enjoyed our time in Tokyo, mostly cos of the weather, although the 1st day was really hard for me to adapt cos i don’t really like being in the cold. My husband loves it though. Even Nadya loves it seh! I’m the only one in the party who’s always rubbing her hands together, constantly moving just so i can generate heat. -___-

We took the flight out at 23:50hrs via Singapore Airlines and landed the next day at 07:15hrs. We arrived Tokyo at -2 degrees, according to the pilot. Not sure if he was kidding but it sure felt like it! Probably cos it’s still in the morning and all. Narita Airport is not as huge as Changi Airport so it was pretty easy to navigate around, pick up our baggage and to the ticket counter.

We chose to take the Narita Express (NEX) train to Shinjuku. We did toy with the idea of taking the limousine bus but after a 6-hour flight, i wanna chop2 get to our apartment. Especially cos our AirBNB host was nice enough to give us an early check in at 12:00 noon instead of 3:00pm.

The NEX tickets are at 4,000 yen (S$50.00) per adult, if you buy a round ticket. Just go to the ticket counter and tell them the timing you want, to & fro. It stops at some of the major stations like Tokyo, Shibuya & Shinjuku so it’s quite convenient if you’re staying at these areas. Trains come in intervals of 30 minutes but all seats are reserved so if you booked for the 9.30am train, please don’t pandai-pandai take the next train or something.

And the trains are really punctual. Right on the dot. Japanese are really punctual people.
Even their subway timings very weird one. No such thing as round off to the nearest 5minutes. If it’s stated the train will leave at 03:11pm, it will definitely leave at 03:11pm. No exceptions.

We alighted at Shinjuku station and made our way to the New South Exit as per our host’s instruction. If you’re at Shinjuku, do know it is a huge train station. So huge and so many train lines & platforms and they have different exits everywhere. Different exits will take you to some other parts of Shinjuku and from one exit to another is about 5 – 7 minutes. So be mindful of the exits! It’ll make your life easier.

Our host gave us detailed instructions on how to get to the apartment but this woman here turned the map around and then we walked the other way and got lost. But a kind local lady stopped and asked if we needed help. So nice. She told us the right way and when we got on the right track, i was so delighted to find out that our apartment was really close to Shinjuku station. At least 5mins walk. It is such a convenient place. 3 mins to Takashimaya / Times Square & the Highway Bus Terminal. There’s 7-11 right down below where we spend our time buying snacks and drinking water for Nadya and terrorize the staff there to help us translate stuff like “Which one is Salmon Onigiri?” Lol.

The apartment is quite small actually but it was enough for us three. It’s really basic but then again, we only use the apartment to sleep and hide from the cold. So it was ok!
However, i would totally recommend the place if you’re visiting Tokyo. It’s fairly cheap, by Tokyo’s standard. The host is nice, the location is great, the place is clean. We’re happy!

Here’s the listing if you’re interested! The hosts have few other apartments for rent in the same building, in case you can’t book this one. My requirement for our accomodation is pretty simple. Must be few minutes away from Shinjuku station and have lift access in the building. Cos akak tak kuasa nak panjat tangga hari2. If i want to exercise, it’s not during the holiday. Tenks.

We settled down in the room by 1.00pm and i know we’re supposed to go out again by 4.00pm, check out the Takashimaya and all but we overslept. Actually i woke up in shock and thought it was already 7.30pm. Cos it was so dark outside! Turn out to be 5.00pm only. Hahahaha. The day is so short cos of winter so by 5+pm, its already dark. I swear Rusly pun terkejut cos  i screamed “B… dah lambat!! Dah malam!!!” hahahaha.

 

We washed up and made our way to Shinjuku station and figure out how to get to Shibuya. I downloaded few apps prior to the trip and they helped me survive the intimidating Tokyo Subway! So, download these apps before you go! You can read more here.

We witnessed the peak hour. Busy sak.
Orang semua sibuk nak balik rumah from work. Kita sibuk nak gi makan daging.
We managed to get to Shibuya and then witnessed the Shibuya Crossing. Actually me & Rusly had fun watching people flood towards us and kept laughing at it. Hahaha. Seriously gila.

Next post on where we went for dinner. Yummy yummy dinner. So yummy we went twice!