Tour and See the World: Japan, part 11 - Mount Fuji

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 11 - Mount Fuji

Hello!!! And welcome!! I am back from my long hard semester doing six difficult modules, and I am back here to write on Mount Fuji. OK, since I'm lazy, I'm just going to post pictures and let them do the talking, since I can always write about my visit to Japan when I am feeling more hardworking. - I'm glad to be back - !

I don't think I've posted up my pictures on Mount Fuji yet, so here they are for you to enjoy! Thanks to my dear, dear readers who have commented and said nice and beautiful things about my travel site! I have "outsourced" some of my other websites as I'm busy with my Honours thesis and so I'll just focus on this one, and a couple more. I can't post pictures and write about beautiful places often, I'm sorry - but I'll do my best to upkeep. Anyways, without further ado: come with me as I tour and see the world :)















The tour buses and tour coaches in Japan, as well as in any large country, usually stop at rest points and rest stations, much like this one. Mavis and I stopped to rest at this place above.














This is the beautiful Mount Fuji in Japan, and isn't it picturesque and exquisitely beautiful? Sometimes people can't see Mount Fuji from the hotel because it's blocked by clouds and mist, but on this day I got lucky and Mount Fuji showed me her beautiful side.















This is the outside of the building from which I took the pictures of Mount Fuji..















And here's another Mount Fuji picture.

I love Mount Fuji; I hope you do too! Anyways, I will post more travel pictures and write more about my trip to Japan, as well as other places I've toured and visited, in future posts here on my site. Thanks for reading and special thanks to those who have nice comments, like Zara and the anonymous people who write nice things to me! Do pls leave your names and contacts, travel websites/ travelogues/ other travel writers' blogs and other info so that I can write back to you. Thank you very much and cheers!! :)

Tour and see the world - back!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 10 - travel videos

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 10 - travel videos
Tour and see the world with me!

Normally I don't post travel videos on my travel blog, because technically I am a dinosaur/ luddite/ traditional travel blogger or travel writer... but NOW look at how high tech I am :) :) I have attempted to share some of the sights and sounds with you; you can view the pictures in earlier posts on Japan here on my travel site. Thanks for watching and cheers!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 9 - Yamashiroya, the best toy shop in Ueno, Tokyo

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 9 - Yamashiroya, the best toy shop in Ueno, Tokyo

Welcome to Yamashiroya toy shop!!

Mavis and I visited Tokyo, Japan, and we had a look at the biggest and most interesting toy store in the entire country - Yamashiroya, the coolest toy shop in Ueno, Tokyo, in Japan! Apparently boasting of 7 levels of various kinds of toys, this is one of the best toy shops in Japan, if not the best. The interesting and cool pictures that I got of the toy shop might interest you, even if you're not an avid collector!
















Gundam is a product of Japan - see them all here at Yamashiroya, Ueno!
















Remember these cute guys? Pokemon, Digimon and whatnot... see them all here at Yamashiroya, Ueno!
















Since we are in Japan, I also shot this interesting Japanese model... model toys and making models and replica toys are important in Japanese urban culture for teens, I guess! Guess what I am going to say next?... You got it right: see them all here at Yamashiroya, Ueno!
















The vast array of merchandise and toys from all over the world and from Japan is bewildering.... see them all here at Yamashiroya, Ueno! Here, Mavis looks up at the vast quantities of toys.

And this last picture is the most important: that's how Yamashiroya, Ueno looks like! Be sure to visit this place as it's worth having a look at the many toys and diverse Japanese toy products inside. You might want to come here because it's a great place to be, full of youths and urban culture. This place made me feel at least 5 years younger! Haha :) Next theme coming right up here on my travel site, so please stay tuned. Thanks for reading and cheers!

PS I have a few simple and personal things to comment on - first, special thanks to my friend Zara who comments on my travel site whenever I post new travel pictures and new materials, thank you very much! Second, in my personal blog, I've become very famous - for better or for worse, I don't really know - but it's good to know that over here my beautiful pictures of various interesting places invites the right travel crowds! :) Third, actually based on the logic of economics, I should focus more time and effort into my finance and other more important sites because they generate more income for me, but what can I say - I love this travel site the most and I've the most feelings for it, so here I am again. Tour and see the world is my favourite site and I like writing on it the most, even at the cost of earning less money from my other sites.

Tour and see the world! Ueno, Tokyo, Japan

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 8 - the Kimono Show

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 8 - the Kimono Show

We went to see a kimono show while visiting Japan - and surely everyone knows that kimonos are a very important and integral part of Japanese culture. Most tourists should know that. Besides, it was a good chance to look at yet more pretty and beautiful Japanese ladies... Kidding! Of course. We visited the kimono show because it was part of the tour package, and some planner out there felt that visiting such a cultural show was good for our edification :) Let's see the kimonos on the various models below!
















I wanted to make the above picture the last picture at the bottom of this post, but due to the fact that I am a luddite at the computer, it ended up in front. Anyways, you can see the beautiful and intricate designs and patterns on the kimonos at this interesting kimono show in Tokyo, Japan!
















I personally feel that this is the most beautiful girl that I've seen on my tour in Japan, and certainly her kimono is one of the more interesting and bright ones, quite unlike some of the other more sombre and more traditional kimonos.
















To save time or to provide some comparison, these two beauties came up at the same time, sashaying down the catwalk. PREDICTION: I am guessing that my travel site's search rankings just moved up the scale a lot - because many people who rarely visited me in the past will be visiting me very often to have a look at the girls of the kimono show and the girls I saw while touring Japan!
















The kimono suppliers knew that I thought this girl was the prettiest, so they sent her out again, and here's another picture of her in a different kimono. More themes from Japan to come on my travel site - I've arranged some photos of vending machines (not because I am vending machine person or something, but because those machines represent Japan, I can tell you!), the biggest toy shop in Japan (apparently!), Mount Fuji (of course, because everyone knows that Mount Fuji "IS" Japan), and other interesting places I've visited and toured. Thanks for reading, stay with me, and cheers!

Tour and see the world! - Tokyo kimono show, beautiful Japan

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 7 - Japanese girls!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 7 - Japanese girls!

Anyone who travels to Japan or visits Japan will know that Japanese girls are among the cutest/ prettiest/ best looking in the entire world. Well, my travel posts are divided and separated into various themes, and today's travel theme on my Japan trip is : good looking Japanese girls - and where Mavis and I saw them in Japan! In fact, one of the next few posts on my travel site will deal with Japanese vending machines... because there are many vending machines in Japan! Haha :)
















Japanese like to visit theme parks, such as Disneyland and Disneysea. In this case, even when it rains, they put on their rain coats and go all out to play and visit theme parks!
















Apparently Japanese girls have the most interesting fashions/ fashion-sense in the world! Mavis and I were at MacDonald's (OK, the reason why we were eating there is that the MacPork burger is very cheap in Japan and money is one heck of a scarce commodity in Japan) when we saw these two beautiful Japanese girls in the most intricate, daedal dressing. I asked them for permission and we managed to get this beautiful picture for my travel blog! Personally I think Singaporean girls will not dress like this, and then even if they did, they wouldn't let others take photos of them. Arigato to the two beautiful girls :)
















This is a serendipitious and surreptitious shot we took of a nice Japanese girl at an ice cream shop. Sorry, pretty Japanese girl! But we were pretty sure we wouldn't see you again on our travels and didn't want to miss this. Anyways this was a famous ice cream shop. There are many different types of flavours that you can try at Japanese ice cream shops, from wasabi to green tea and whatnot! This picture was taken secretly when we were at Shinsaibashi, Tokyo.
















Gothic looks and Goth are in too... and this picture was taken at Disneysea theme park. These two girls were - mind you - standing in the rain taking pictures of themselves! We meet all sorts when travelling...
















Even the Japanese teenage girls are pretty... and this was taken while touring the streets of Tokyo. Japanese girls are really cute and pretty!
















When visiting Japan, one should go and watch the kimono show - and these are the ladies we saw at the Japan kimono show while visiting Japan! Let's visit the kimono show in Japan, in the next set of travel pictures...

Tour and see the world! - next up, the Kimono show in Japan

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 6 - Shinsaibashi

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 6 - Shinsaibashi

Tour and see the world - and here we are in Japan :)

Shinsaibashi is in Osaka, Japan, and it is a main shopping area that has many shops and places to eat, drink and much more. Tourists and teenagers come here very often, apparently. There is a wide open area with many buildings, with many brands and many companies, and there is a covered shopping street as well, here at Shinsaibashi in Osaka. Mavis and I had our dinner here when the tour guide brought us to this very interesting, colourful and exciting place!
















This is how Shinsaibashi looks like in the evening... and I must say that it's quite nice!















We had to recognise this gigantic crab (apparently there are four of them) hanging outside this restaurant - so that we could meet our tour group again, amidst this concrete jungle!

Warning - a vulgar Singapore joke follows! - Do you know that apparently steamboat/ buffet is called NABE in Japanese? And worse still, did you know that crab is called KANI in Japanese? So that makes... if tourists want to eat crab steamboat buffet: KANI-NABE! When the tour guide told us this, we all laughed in the tour coach and nearly fell off our seats!!!

Here above you can see that we visited a Disney store. Later on, there will be pictures of our tour at Disneysea and all the nice, fun, and exciting rides that we took, and of course - you can read and see how fun Disneysea is!

A simple glance at Wikipedia informs me that there is a youth culture here in Osaka where Shinsaibashi is... and one look confirms that. I hope you loved the interesting pictures above! More to come on Japan, soon! I have divided the future photographs and pictures into various sections, ranging from touring various places, to vending machines, to pretty Japanese girls that one can see on the streets of Japan, and much much more. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world - Shinsaibashi, Osaka, Japan

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 5 - Universal City Walk (Osaka)

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 5 - Universal City Walk (Osaka)

In the last few posts, I showed you interesting and exciting pictures from Universal Studios (Osaka). After visiting and exploring Universal Studios, Mavis and I took a walk outside the theme park and saw an interesting mall, called Universal City Walk (Osaka) - and it was a very fun and hip place to have a look! We toured the mall and here are some pictures from City Walk:
















Hard Rock Cafe is universal... and here it is in Osaka. Perhaps you might want to visit this place - to buy souvenirs or something. "Love all, serve all!" :)

The Japanese have all sorts of cute and interesting toys! In fact, in future posts, I will have an entire section devoted to Yamashiroya Tokyo/ Ueno, perhaps the biggest toy, anime and manga shop in Japan? These toys here are cute, but Universal City Walk's range of toys cannot match this incredible toy shop that I will talk about later, in future exciting posts on my travel site.

I enjoyed my tour and travels in Japan! And having shared my Osaka travel pictures with you, full of fun and excitement from Universal Studios, I hope you loved them as I do. More exciting places and areas that I visited and toured in Japan, ranging from Mount Fuji, to Shinsaibashi, to Disneysea and much much more, will be upcoming. Thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 4 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 4 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

Welcome back to my series here on Japan, and here we are at the Universal Studios series of pictures in Osaka, which I visited as part of my packaged tour of Japan. It was great visiting and touring Osaka overall, but Universal Studios (Osaka) has the greatest votes from me and I love it! :)

Being a city dweller, I am very used to city scenes and love them very much. Singapore is a city state, in fact, so I am used and accustomed to seeing buildings. That's probably why I love Universal Studios (Osaka) so much; because it has all sorts of quaint, interesting buildings, it sort of reminds me of some old, quaint built up area similar to Singapore but different, with the only interesting exception that it has all sorts of famous "brands" and famous characters! Did I also mention that Singapore is going to have its own theme park as well? Anyways, without further ado, here are the beautiful pictures:

Waterworld is quite famous, and the act there is quite nice to watch! It's worth going to Universal Studios just to see the explosions and the sounds present at Waterworld's act :)

This is a famous "brand" - remember that old movie, Jurassic Park? This theme park is worth visiting for this exciting ride and also for the fond memories of having watched this exciting movie. Universal Studios brings back fond memories for people who are sort of movie buffs.

This is an even older movie theme, and it's Jaws - the movie with that shark and whatnot. I watched it on TV when I was young, and this was great! Haha this is also worth a visit when you travel here to Osaka Universal Studios. By the way, all these pictures of Universal Studios were taken by me when I was visiting the theme park itself onsite and they are all my own personal pictures, not taken from any online sources - so I'd appreciate it if you inform me or ask my permission if you want to borrow my pictures. Just a reminder!

I had lunch with Snoopy at the nearby Snoopy restaurant - and of course, who can forget Charlie Brown and Lucy and the rest of the Peanuts gang? There are so many things to see and do at Universal Studios and I loved visiting it very much. In the next post, I will put up pictures of the nearby Universal City Walk Osaka, which is a shopping centre area nearby, that has all the hardcore Universal Studios visitors' favourites - Hard Rock Cafe, shirts and souvenir shops, and Universal Studios merchandise. I went to Hard Rock Cafe and I also toured the mall. More to come here on my travel site, so stay here with me; thanks for reading and cheers!

Tour and see the world with me!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 3 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 3 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

Welcome back to my series on touring Japan, and I am still posting pictures of Universal Studios (Osaka). Universal Studios is a great leisure theme park and a great place to play when you visit! I do suppose that all of us tourists have different priorities when travelling, and I do acknowledge that some people don't really like theme parks. Some people prefer instead scenery and other attractions or landmarks, other than movie "propaganda" and whatnot, but don't worry - there will be a lot of Japanese scenery and other Japanese attractions in future posts, I promise!

There were very few people in the theme park because the Japanese government had closed schools and prevented people from moving around or travelling here in Osaka, during the period I was there. I was there during the H1N1 period, you see. This means that there are very few people in the pictures below, but well, I benefited because this meant almost no waiting time at all for the various rides and attractions! Please enjoy my pictures:















This is a restaurant with lots of model cars that are all extinct already - vintage cars!














Hello Kitty is uniquely Japanese in many ways, and here is a Hello Kitty shop in Universal Studios (Osaka). During the course of my trip in Japan, I saw many Hello Kitty shops and various forms of merchandise.

One thing that I like about theme parks such as Universal Studios and Disneyland/ Disneysea is that there are many things to take down on camera and photograph - and all the various attractions are always so quaint or nice or colourful. I hope you loved my pictures here on Tour and See the World, stay tuned for more beautiful pictures!

Tour and see the world!

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 2 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 2 - Universal Studios (Osaka)

Yes, I visited and toured Universal Studios (Osaka) on the second day of my exciting and interesting Japan tour! As I promised, here on my travel blog are the pictures of my fun-filled and very interesting day in Osaka Universal Studios. One interesting thing is that, due to H1N1, and the fact that the Japanese mainly stayed indoors during the period that I was visiting, there was no queue at Universal Studios, even though normally theme park visitors might have to wait and queue for about 2 hours for a 5 min ride! (This same nominal rule also happens to apply to tourists visiting Disneysea and Disneyland theme parks in Tokyo.)

Without further ado *drum roll* ...

Here are the beautiful pictures from Universal Studios (Osaka) in Japan. I hope you enjoy my pictures!
















Welcome to Universal Studios (Osaka)!

Thanks for reading my travel blog, and I promise more and better pictures of the various theme park attractions at Universal Studios, and much much more! Thanks and cheers; stay tuned!

Tour and see the world with me and Mavis

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 1

Tour and See the World: Japan, part 1

OK, this is just the beginning, so do please bear with me!

The Japan tour I will write about starts from Osaka and ends up in Tokyo, Japan. So the very first day, I only managed to get these photographs when I landed in Osaka, as it was dark at night, and we all know that tours count travelling as the first day. (Travel tour leaders and tour agencies need to feed families.)

First of all, from Singapore, we flew to Tokyo International Airport, also known as Haneda airport. Then, we took a domestic flight to Osaka. We stayed in the airport hotel, known as Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport. Apparently this hotel is very famous, and in any case, it was very comfortable and we enjoyed our stay there!















This is how Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport looks like.















Another view of the famous Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport.















This is how the airport terminal wing looks like. The Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport happens to be right opposite to the airport terminal.

NOTE

I won't be posting for the next few days as I am checking exam results and then deciding to do an ISM or some other form of academic research. So I won't be writing till next week. But no worries - there will be more pictures of beautiful Japan in the next post, of course! In the next post, I visit Universal Studios Osaka. Special thanks to M L and special thanks to Miss D M who recommended that I visit Universal Studios in Japan. It was interesting experience of a lifetime!

Tour and see the world!

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy, part 4

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy, part 4

Hello to all my dear loyal readers! How have you guys been? Have all of you been fine and doing well so far? I am back from my holiday in Japan. I visited many places there, mainly Osaka, Nara, Yokohama and Tokyo (naturally), and of course Mount Fuji also. My trip was fantastic. I have lots to say about my holiday trip and will be soon posting up many many detailed pictures and detailed descriptions of my fun time enjoying my holiday in Japan! On this note, I must say that this holiday was not marred by H1N1 despite its outbreak in Japan. (And I was in Osaka, the main centre!)

Since I am going to spend the whole of the rest of the year writing and posting about Japan, since I have a mountain of pictures and digital photographs of everything from Mount Fuji to the little shop down the road, I will finish up this post with a last instalment of exciting pictures from Venice in Italy!

(Sorry to any Italian readers... I have more pictures of Japan than I have of Italy, so it makes more sense for me to write more about Japan, sorry!)

Do enjoy the following pictures and tour and see the world!
(Special thanks and special appreciation to Mavis Lim, for all her pictures, her help and much much more. Need more be said? :) )

Thanks for reading, and I do hope you enjoyed the segment on Venice in Italy. On a completely unrelated note, did you know that the Japanese have in Disneysea a replica of Venice in Italy, replete with gondolas? I will be going on to write and post beautiful pictures about Japan in my future posts. Some interesting readers and scouts have written nice things about my travel blog and have written that I specialise in Britain. Some went on to say that I specialise in Europe also, which up till now may have been true. After all, I've written about Manchester, London, York, Oxford, Cornwall, the Lake District in England, Liverpool and much more, and also about my grand Europe trip covering Paris in France, Zurich in Switzerland, Milan and Rome in Italy, Bratislava in Slovakia, Vienna in Austria, Munich and Berlin and Potsdam in Germany, and finally Stanstead Airport in London, and much more. Now, with the next post, here we visit Japan and truly make my travel site a trip around the world - tour and see the world with me and my friends! Thanks for reading and cheers.

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy, part 3

Tour and See the World: Pictures from Venice, Italy, part 3

I will be going off for my holiday in Japan (Osaka and Tokyo!) in a few days' time, and so here I am with more pictures of Venice in Italy.

Anyways, I just have to say this: I know this is the holiday period and so there are few of my erstwhile supporters reading this travel blog of mine and looking at the various travel and tour pictures, so I understand! I really do. Do please write to me and comment on my tagboard or here at this post on Venice when you guys come back from holiday, especially Zara, my blogosphere friend :)

Anyways, I can describe Venice as very beautiful and full of boats, water, waterways and gondolas... water, water, water, water! Well that's about it for my use of language describing Venice, although my history teachers and Michael Kelly from school will beg to differ (or be angry at the paucity of my language).

Well, pictures speak louder than words when it comes to my travel site, anyways. Do please enjoy the beautiful pictures that follow and I will see you when I come back from my tour of Japan, with more pictures of Italy and Japan in future!

Thanks for reading and cheers! More pictures of Venice in Italy to come in future posts, here on my travel site! Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Tour and see the world