Ohaiyo Japan (4) Isohara Seaside & Tokyo Tower

Ohaiyo~

And I am back with part 4 of Ohaiyo Japan! 🙂

Another day of pretty breakfast at Isohara Seaside Hotel! You know I don’t think anyone can possibly tire of looking at how beautifully Japanese presents their food! This is my type of meal, with meat, eggs and vege!

A breath-taking panoramic view of the seaside from our room. The hotel is designed so that every room has a seaside view, brilliant isn’t it? 🙂

We took a walk down to the seaside for a closer look! Look just how serene the place is. 🙂

Another awe-inspiring panoramic view of the seaside. Click the photo to see an enlarge version!

An obligatory touristy pose with the iconic “rock” on Isohara beach! It’s not actually a rock but rather a tiny island named Futatsujima. Meaning two-island, Futatsujima is a famous coastal landmark reflecting contract.The north island,with high steep slopes,is covered with grass and visited by thousands of birds at nightfall.The south island is small, and continuously washed over by the sea’s eroding waves. Credits here. Little Futatsujima island used to be covered in green trees and plants but unfortunately was washed away since the 2011 tsunami and has not yet since grown back.

We then proceeded to the Honda Civic Center for our presentation preparation and practice sessions in the day and early afternoon!

Here are our lovely hand drawn props of Singapore iconic landmarks, by Ade and Xav! 🙂 Merlion, flyer, Esplanade, CBD area and a hint of MBS! 🙂

Our group, split into the “actions” team and the “singing” team as we present the song “Singapore Town” ^^ The action team and their props. 🙂

Our two cute representatives, Beatrice and Dylan, smiling for my camera in between practicing their script for the powerpoint presentation.

We took a break for lunch and here’s a series of selcas with Ying! 🙂 I love how well lit the place is and how lovely the photos turned out, taken with my Iphone and no filter or post processing at all!

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Our sandwich lunch box! Mustard sandwiches, Pumpkin sandwiches, Croquette in bread and fruits!

After our morning and afternoon practice sessions, we took a short break at the plaza for #OOTD.

Thanks to styling and photo whiz Greggy for capturing this photo!

Anddddd somehow Ginette cajoled Ying and I to take this action photo after we did some jump shots! She used an app to create this dramatic effect! 😀

Next up, we came to “Wedding Place Bihou” which is basically a beautiful hall with a restaurant for weddings. But we were using it for our thank you, farewell and cultural exchange dinner with our hosts from Ibaraki region, meaning all the hosts we’ve met at all the places we’ve been in the Ibaraki region came down! )

Before the event, the 4 groups took turns to practice our short 5 minutes item on the actual stage, so that allowed the other groups to venture the place.

So here’s another photo! Heh. 🙂

And another with Ying 🙂

Naturally the spread and the atmosphere of the dinner was fantastic, but as the indoor lightning was dim (intentionally so), so I didn’t manage to capture nice photos. We managed to speak to the managers at the previous Ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel) to thank them for their warm hospitality. 🙂 It was also a great time where we presented our items and enjoyed watching others present theirs. What’s more important was that the Japanese hosts seem to be really delighted by our presentations and we also enjoyed ourselves a lot too. 🙂

An commemorative photo of the Lasalle aka SUPER gang: Greg, Des, Ade, Xav, Alex, SJ, Myself, Ying and the elusive Callison (Not sure where he is in the photo lol)!

Day 8 !

Final breakfast at the Isohara Seaside Hotel, this time with fried fish, meat, pasta and a soft bun. 🙂 Blogging about Japan trip has made me constantly hungry, seriously! >.< 😛 All these fantastic looking food makes me crave for meat and carbo, which I love!!! 😛

Thought I’d capture the bedside table which felt pretty old school, with the clock, phone and what seems like a radio. Heh.

It’s our last day in Isohara Seaside Hotel and the region of Ibaraki region as a whole, so Greg, Ying and I quickly grabbed the last chance to take our #ootd at the seaside after breakfast.

The same Isohara seaside, but a totally different feel isn’t it? 🙂 The weather that day wasn’t as great as the day before, it was slightly gloomy and definitely much colder.

This photo gives you an idea of how cold the place is! Haha, me freezing away with hands tightly tucked in my pockets. Photo & memories > important than being in the cold! 😛

Another series of #ootd:

Let’s just say I’m not that skilled in channeling badass. 😛 I’m out-fitted in a Mango plaited top, with a floral and denim vest, grey leggings with a skirt attached, the usual blue coat and brown boots. It’s a country singer inspired look, which is easily created with key items such as plaited top, denim vest and boots! 🙂

Quickly breaking out into to a smile. 🙂

Caught with my eyes closed! 😀

Shortly after, we boarded the coach for our 3 hour ride back to Tokyo!

The very hospital Isohara Seaside Hotel staff and our Kizuna project hosts waving back to us. We were really very sad to part. 😥 We don’t wanna leave!

Anyhoos, by 3pm we reached Tokyo for lunch and after, we proceeded to Tachikawa Life Safety Learning Centre for a very engaging time of fire fighting and earthquake reaction workshops!

Here our Life Center guide is telling us the varying earthquake degrees and how to react at home/indoors when we experience a severe 7 shindo scale earthquake.

When earthquake strikes, it’s best to seek shelter under a table where we would be protected by any falling objects.

I have a video for this, where we took turns to experience what it’s like during an earthquake on the simulation stage. We were laughing a lot but of course when it happens for real, it’s not funny at all! I will upload on Youtube and update the link.

Then we proceeded to fight fire! It’s important to know how to, since the second major issue after earthquakes is the fires that erupt due to the earthquake, from houses with the fires left on and unattended before they could be turned off when earthquake strikes. 😦 Seriously, we are SO fortunate in Singapore that we do not experience earthquakes and I am super grateful for that!

Check out Xav, Ying, Ade, Alex and SJ all so excited! 😀

Look at them valiantly picking up their water based fire extinguishers and vanquishing the fire on the screen! 🙂 We all took turns, but I didn’t pose for a picture, heh. It was definitely fun and not difficult either. Now we are fire-proofed!

After the workshop, we headed to Tokyo Tower for our dinner at about 7pm!

Though not as famous as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, the Tokyo Tower is definitely a famed Tokyo tourist site!

Look how the tower is reflected on the buses! Heh!

Ying and I decided to skip the buffet dinner catered for us/the group and with permission, we headed to eat the local Japanese ramen within the Tokyo Tower!

Sorry I have no idea what this stall is called, so you will have to rely on the photos, but I highly recommend you to eat from here given the chance you are visiting Tokyo Tower! They adopt a vending machine ordering and payment method and they will pass you a buzzer for you to collect the meal when the buzzer lights up.

The collection point.

My tasty, pork Shoyu (I think it is, keke) ramen.

My super satisfied face! The photo is not edited but the light behind creates a heavenly effect which I sure felt like I was in ramen heaven! Heh. ^^

After our dinner, we shopped for souvenirs and Tokyo banana ran out of stock! Haha.

We also bought tickets to go up the tower, which costs about SGD$8/9, if I remembered correctly, for entry.

A panoramic view of Tokyo, from the tower.

Small wooden cut out panels of writings by lovers and well wishers to make and leave their mark upon the tower! How romantic! ^^

I thought the viewing gallery on the tower was very lovely…

A last photo of the Tokyo city. I love the city, not just Tokyo but the proverbial city, with its bright lights shining in the dark. ❤

We got back to the hotel about 9pm and we promptly made arrangement to sneak out beyond our 10pm curfew (oopsie!) because we HAD to explore the Tokyo city beyond the hotel and tower, right?!

A really orderly subway!

A very tired Ying and I. >.<

We may be tired but we’re happy! 😀

My first Japanese subway ticket, it’s printed on a material that seems like a very thin and bendable magnet.

Super cute ad in the subway. Not sure what it’s selling but so cute!

Here we see (I presume) the top three cities that Japanese would most like to visit! Singapore, London and New York! 😀

Spotted: Japanese women decked out in cute My Melody (Sanrio cartoon character, like Hello Kitty) bags and luggage!

We arrived at Shibuya, one of the chic Tokyo area!

Hachiko the dog says hi! He is famous for being an extremely loyal dog. Check out his wiki page here.

Japanese 7/11 sells packed ramen! Umm, didn’t get a chance to try it, but fascinating to see!

We could not decide where to eat or what to do and after a longgggg walk, we finally decided on checking out this ramen store! It was actually quite meh~ (read: so-so) in terms of the food and the drinks served. So Ying and I were glad we ate the one at the Tokyo Tower. HEH. 😛