Japan 2012 - 16th~17th December, Sunday~Monday

After the Wonderland Market, we decided to pay a visit to the Motomachi Chukagai (Chinatown) as it's just within walking distance.

I wanted to try their stuffed buns or dumplings if they are different from those we had in Singapore. One distinctive difference is the price, we can buy around 5 to 6 in Singapore for the equivalent. The filling is also a little different from ours in Singapore. In general, they taste good as the skin texture of the bun might be better than some shops in Singapore. These bun stalls are everywhere in Chugakai, it seems like buns and dumplings are the signature Chinese dish in Japan.

This shop is selling souvenirs on Pandas and they are selling Panda shaped buns too! Every shop selling buns enjoyed good business so it's not a surprise that a souvenir shop hopped into the band wagon as well. We had Chinese food in a restaurant for dinner before heading back to Tokyo. We actually quite full after eating buns and after dinner, we could barely walk.

Upon going back to Tokyo, we headed back to hotel for unloading of the toy cars we conquered in Wonderland Market. After unloading of stuff, we headed to Ikebukuro which is a stop away from our hotel for Bic Camera. I bought some Diapet and Bandai transformer look alike robots. I did managed to get some Tomica as well. We walk to Toy'R'Us in Sunshine City nearby as I wanted to buy some Toy'R'Us exclusive Tomica as I do have some of these edition in my collection already. I saw the blister packed Tomica are on sale which prices slightly lower than Bic Camera so I bought 4 at 997 yen only.

Day 5, 17th December 2012, Monday. A day we needed to wait up early for taking the bus ride to Gotemba. We had breakfast in a eatery shop nearby our hotel. I am more relaxed finally as I achieved 90% of my KPI with only Minicar TMT missed in my planned schedule. Hence I have time to spy on Keong because he captured almost anything in his camera behind my back while I was heading the directions during the first 4 days. That includes every meal we had. Nope, he has no facebook or blog.

The JR Kanto bus brought us here, Gotemba premium outlets which the ride took about 1 hour and 20 minutes. We shopped for stuff we like. Bought a Reebok classics, some garment from Gap and a pair of gloves that cost much more than any of my T-shirts. I am still figuring out why I bought this, for trips in Germany perhaps.

There's a food court in the Gotemba Premium Outlets and one of the stall is selling Singapore Chicken Rice. I gotta try this. 

I ordered the Pepper Chicken Rice and it tastes nothing like Singapore. The rice is just plain rice unlike our chicken stock rice, the salad look-alike doesn't taste a single bit like our "ah-cha" and the chicken is totally in a world of its own. Interesting.

Keong in action again. Wha ha....

I couldn't find Mt. Fuji so I look for the information counter to do a verification if I come to the right place. I just want to take photo and in the mean time we can shop here. The lady at the counter is very helpful and courteous. She walked out of the information counter and show us the direction of Mount Fuji, she told us that as it was a raining day, it is not possible to see Mount Fuji. We thanked her for her kind gesture although a little disappointed.

We had dinner in a Italian restaurant in Gotemba before heading back to Shinjuku. The JR Bus is waiting.

You might be thinking we called it a day? No, I rushed down to Minicar Ikeda as I need to check if I can get some stuff here. I also urged Keong to buy the 2 Tomica encyclopedia so that he will not go home with regrets and he can refer to all the variants whenever he needs to. Then we rushed down to Gulliver which is near our hotel for last minute shopping.  Nakata San saw me and asked about the Hong Kong Tomica I have bought as he learn from Bob we bought one each. This is the first time we chat and he is one friendly person. Although I have been to his shop many times but we never chat before. I showed him my Hong Kong made Tomica Sprinter and he said that I bought it at a reasonable price, I thought so too. I also showed him my green Microbus because I brought it everywhere I go in Japan. I requested a carton box from Nakata San as I wanted to pack all my cars to send to myself in Singapore. I have bought too many cars and my luggage couldn't take all. I thanked Nakata San and we head back to hotel as we had a long and tiring day shopping.