Japan Day 1: Akihabara And Namja Town, Ikebukuro

This is our second round in Japan.  This time we want to dig deeper of each district in Tokyo, that we haven't covered last time.  Plus we will visit some new places like Hakone and Okinawa as well.  So please enjoy my blog, guys. 

After we landed from Bangkok, we just dropped our luggage at the hotel then headed straight to Akhihabara to see those superhuge and colorful billboards about the anime.  The city is definitely shown as what they are entitled of.  Manga and Electronic Town.  For the manga geek, this place will make them go crazy.  There are games, dvds, costumes and also figurines. 



Quick lunch at one of the sushi train next to JR Akihabara ststion 

At night, we had a stroll at the Sunshine City Complex, Ikebukuro.  We didn't walk much in the mall but instead heading straight to Namco Namja Town, where they have food theme park, Gyoza Stadium, Dessert Alley, and Ice Cream Parlour (it is used to be Ice Cream City).  There is a hounted house as well inside the area.  

Variety of gyozas

There are nearly 50 flavour of ice creams available



6 flavours of ice creams 610¥:
from top left: Salt of Okhotsk, Miso noodle, and Mascarpone cheese
down left to right: Royal milk tea, Eel ice cream, and The wasabi ice cream  

Gyoza Stadium, Namja Town

Sunshine City Complex, Ikebukuro

Opening Hour: 10am -  10pm (last entry until 9pm)

Admission: 500 yen

Dai Ichi Inn Ikebukuro

1 Chome-42-8 Higashiikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo

Tel: +81 3 3986 1221



Stay tuned for the next blog still in Japan:

Japan Day 2: Tokyo DisneySea



A Little About Surabaya Food

Previously:
The House Of Raminten


Back to Surabaya with train

Old time snack

Pasar Atom is one of my favorite mall in Surabaya.  You can almost get everything you need in one place.  You can get things from fashion, watches, dvds, furniture, kitchen appliances, snacks and so on.  The place is so massive yet not-so-luxury.  The old site of this mall is pretty hot with no air-conditioning but the selling price is much cheaper than the mall site where shops are pretty new complete with air- conditioning.  Bargaining skill is highly needed in here unless for some shops that already put the fix price tag. 

Not only for shopping, their food and drinks in there are totally heaps and heaps.  If you don't know what to choose, you can visit the food court on level 4.  It will give you even more headache, spoilt with abundant of choices.  Although the tables and chairs are plenty, but in the lunch time you better save some sits before actually ordering the food or if you come with your friend, you can swap around.  Otherwise is pretty hard in finding one. 

You can place an order, then pay money first.  Most of the stalls will give you a queue number to hold on.  Then the waitress will delivery it to your table.  You only need to point roughly where your sit is and she will come looking for you.  I'm so amazed by their talent on finding the whereabouts of customers.  Even me at that time were looking for my parent who reserved the table for us, took me nearly 10 minutes.  The food usually comes very quick and they're all yumm..  If you are not the locals, just look at the most busy stall which normally should be the best one in there.  No worries about the price, it is pretty cheap as they are too much competitors around. 

Batagor - traditional fried tofu and egg dumpling with peanut sauce

Iga Bakar - grilled beef ribs

Satay Babi (Pork satay)

Burung dara goring and kwetiaw siram

Food Court Pasar Atom

Pasar Atum, Lt. 4 (Jalan Bunguran No. 45)
Surabaya

The House Of Raminten

Previously:
Borobudur Temple

One of the famous eccentric restaurant in Yogyakarta is this The House of Raminten.  The restaurant is named after Mr. Hamzah Sulaiman's character in soap opera on Jogja TV that he used to perform.  The decoration in this place is so eye-catching.  Nice lesehan (sitting on the floor/mat and low table) setting on one side, then some kursi malas (lazy chair) on the other side.  You also can find the Jacuzzi on the way to toilet at the back, is placed for no reason (or maybe we just didn't get it why!!).  More weird thing is there are horses (in the cage) as well inside the restaurant.  Pretty smelly though around that area.  Some other small touch here and there, on the wall or just been placed by the wall are really interested.  The serving dishes that they used are pretty fun and unique too.  The price of food is quite reasonable.  

Wedang jahe merah

Susu prawan tancep

Ayam Koteka

Tempe Goreng

Variety of Satay



Special rawon with steamed rice

Their rawon was really good actually.  The broth was so thick and flavorsome just like what I like.  This is a very traditional Javanese dish.  However, the steamed rice is needed to order separately. 



Sego Ijo (Green Rice)



Sego Kucing Single



Sego kucing triple

We were surprised and little disappointed with this dish (not blaming anyone but our self).  When we read the menu they said 'triple', we thought it would be triple portion of everything.  But when they served it in front of us, it was correctly triple but only rice, the meat and condiments are the same amount.  Lucky it wasn't my dish though. 



Roti bakar

Durian pancake

Stay tuned for the next blog still in Yogyakarta:
A Little About Surabaya Food

Borobudur Temple

Previously:
Dieng Plateau And Sikidang Crater


This is the number 1 top destination in Yogyakarta, and I would say top 10 in the world.  It is part of UNESCO World Herritage and the Seven Wonders.  This Buddhist temple is dating back since 8th century and is one of the biggest temple of many temples in central java.


It is a massive temple, so magical and no a single nail or cement used to built this temple in the past.  However,  around the end of 2014 strong earthquake stroke this town and had an impact on this temple.  Some of the pagodas and walkway were ruined.  They just did some basic restoration but can't be like the original.

Stay tuned for the next blog still in Yogyakarta:
The House Of Raminten

Dieng Plateau And Sikidang Crater

Previously:
Gudeg Bu Djuminten And Malioboro Street

Before we were going for a day tour today, we had breakfast at the hotel earlier in the morning.  The buffet breakfast in this hotel was really good.  So many choices from cold to hot type food and they also serve fresh made-to-order Jamu which is a traditional healthy drink, mixed from herbs and spices. 





Today we went to Dieng Plateau, is about 3 hours drive from Yogyakarta city up to the mountain.  Dieng is an active volcano region and the Plains formed from volcanic crater that has died. Visiting the Telaga Warna (colourful lake) and Kawah Sikidang (Sikidang Crater).  When we were there, the weather wasn't that good, therefore we couldn't get the beautiful color reflection on the lake as the water got a little muddy and there were no sunshine.  However, we still can see the pure green color lake and how lush the forest and surroundings. 

Then we headed to Sikidang, where the sulphur is still coming our from the crater.  The smell is so strong that you need to wear mask.  On some day where the sulphur is poisonated, people are not allowed to hang around there.

Telaga Warna

Sikidang Crater

Nasi Goreng Jawa

Nasi Goreng Jawa is the Javanese version of fried rice.  Sweet soy sauce based fried rice and egg noddle and is normally served with chicken, egg and vegetables.  Not forget to eat with sambal too. 

Kawah Sikidang (Sikidang Crater)

Dieng, Kejajar, Wonosobo, Jawa Tengah

 



Stay tuned for the next blog still in Yogyakarta:
Borobudur Temple