Japan 2012 - 18th December, Tuesday

Today is the second last day in Japan as we will be going home the next morning. Tokyo trip will not be complete without seeing the Tokyo Tower and visiting Asakusa. I have been to both but for the benefit of Keong as this is his first trip. Anyway, it could be nice for me to revisit since I have hardly taken any photo of myself wherever I travelled. 

What I like about Asakusa are the shops before the temple. There are different variety of  Japanese food stuff, souvenir, fashion, toys, shoes and many different kind of shops along this street.

Some nice toys found in one of the toy shops in Asakusa.

Reached the main temple, said my prayers and hopefully it will be answered.

We were lucky this time as there was a carnival with around 50 stalls selling local food beside the temple. We tried almost everything which comes along and our lunch was settled there. The amount we spent on food at the carnival was more than enough to visit a decent restaurant.

We tried almost everything at this stall with exception of octopus.

I bought a bowl of stuff from this stall. I call it "stuff" because I don't know what the hell I ate even until today. Initially I thought they were selling braised pork but half way through eating, it tasted like chicken. I look at the stall again and I can understand only one word, "bird".

Taito Station is just around the corner in Asakusa. I was filled with excitement as I wanted to play with the Tomica Catcher Push Table. There is another similar machine with Meiji chocolate stacked like Tomica.

Seriously, I didn't know I played for nearly 2 hours. I did managed to topple most of the Tomica in the machine. I spent a total of 10,000 yen on this machine. It was fun for me as we don't have Tomica theme machine in Singapore. What we get are lousy candies or cartoon character miniature stuffed toys. I didn't know I love Tomica this much.

Tokyo Sky-Tree is just near to Asakusa. It's taller than Tokyo Tower.

After visiting Asakusa, I suggested to visit II Ado for last minute shopping but Keong decide to go to Akiba to buy a spare battery for his out dated digital camera instead. He is too afraid to go to II Ado. He is afraid that he cannot resist the temptation and started buying again.

This time I stayed for 1.5 hours in the shop trying to inspect every corner of the shop. I requested to open every cabinet so that I can see every car better. I tried getting one car from every shelve I opened. First car I picked was a Gama VW Microbus, followed by a Diapet, a Popinica and a Solido. Finally I decided to go for another 6 Diapets from the 90s which are very reasonably priced.

Total damage done was a mere 20,000 yen. Not bad for a last minute shopping to end the trip. I still have not inspecting all my purchase although I am back to Singapore for 2 weeks. I wanted to open them slowly and most of the cars are still in a big box. I plan to re-organise my toy cars in my room so that the new ones can go into my display shelve. I did a more thorough shopping this time comparing to my last trip in 2010. I hope to visit Japan soon. Good-bye Japan and I will be back.