Day 2 included a visit to the Act City Observatory, Hamamatsu Castle, Scandal’s concert…
Day 2 started out with a nice complimentary breakfast waiting for us at the ground floor. The variety cannot be compared with 5 stars restaurants, but it was tasty nonetheless.
here is the spread…
There is another tablr in the middle, where a few kinds of bread and origini are served. However, I was too hungry and forgot to take a picture of it.
Friend A got…
while Friend B got…
and Friend C got…
and on my plate were…
Notice the Miso soup? Two types of soups were usually served at breakfast, and both soups contains enough condiments to differentiate it from the cheap, clear soup sometimes served in eateries.
A closeup of the Miso soup…
The pasta…
is nicely done, not too bland, not too creamy, and reminds me of the “peas in a cream of mushrooms” that I had in Israel.
Once we had our fill, we began our journey to Hamamatsu Castle.
Along the way, we encountered our first “Shrine at close proximity”, a shrine which pops up from nowhere, just as we walked round the corner…
Here is a typical alley of Hamamtsu…
If I didn’t remember wrongly, in crowded cities like Tokyo, you will usually find little or not gaps between two buildings, as everyone will want to maximize the utility of their land as efficiently as possible. Such gaps are just simply eye sores to investors.
Yummy food display toying with our digestive system as we walked by…
Whenever you see the crab, you can be sure that tasty crab dishes are served inside the restaurant…
Some roads within the shopping arcades do not allow vehicles/bicycles during certain hours…
Here is a map of the surrounding area, we find that these maps are really useful for tourists like us, and they are often present at almost every junctions.
As we are walking around, we noticed one thing very different about Japan, as compared to Singapore. We saw almost zero talent on the road, working on menial jobs…
All road cleaners, constructors and even waiters are all staffed by their locals. This is unlike Singapore, where most of our road cleaners, construction workers and many of our waiters are staffed by foreign talents. I wonder if Singapore is the odd one out, staffing most of its menial jobs with foreign talents. What about your country? Do foreign talent dominates any portion of your country’s work force?
To my delight, I spotted the “guy in suit wearing a white hard helmet and riding a cheap motobike to work” scene, something which I always saw on the television ever since I was young…
After a long walk, we arrived at Hamamatsu castle’s garden…
and met the man in person…
Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Standing at the entrance of the path leading from the garden to the castle, you can have a fantastic view of the castle.
Right within the ground of the castle, lies a small shrine…
and beside it, a blessed rock…
Here is the entrance to the castle…
From within the castle, you can see parts of the garden…
Within the castle, lies a gift shop which sells gifts only available in the region, and in the castle…
Within the castle, lies a marble statue of Tokugawa Ieyasu himself…
and I can’t resist taking a photo with him…
A view of Hamamatsu before modernization…
Many other items are on display as well…
My friends bought a Hamamatsu Castle coin each…
The miniature model of ancient Hamamtsu looks cute enough…
Two of the Samurai armour on display…
On the top of the castle, one can see the Pacific Ocean in the distance, and the Pine Grove we visited on Day 1.
Here I am, trying to sneak a peak of the ocean…
Act city is in a distance…
The town guide is kind enough to guide us around the castle for a while…
A photo with the castle guide…
and a group photo taken by the guide for us…
Strangely enough, the basement of the castle is open for public to see. Within it is a small well, which I speculate where Sadako crawls out from…
After I got a bit thirsty, I bought a bottle of milk tea and had my fill…
Once we had enough of Hamamatsu castle, we decided to take a rest in the Royal Garden once more…
and forget about the hustle and rustle of our live for 5 minutes, staring at our friend who was taking photo graphs of the waterfall in the middle of the garden…
However, the inhabitants decided to pay us a visit…
Here is the view of the castle from the garden. Notice how “small” is the castle?
And this is the castle, after utilizing the amazing power of my DSLR, with a 18-200 super zoom lens…
We spotted a old timer, taking a rest in the garden as well…
Saying goodbye to Hamamatsu Castle, we walked towards Act City, the building which looks like a Harmonica from far away.
But before that, here is a close up of a spider, one captured without the correct lens and macro flash…
and I will be seeing her sisters all over Japan on our trip.
A fire hydrant we stepped on while walking towards Act City…
A typical street in Hamamatsu…
notice the huge “P”sign at one of the buildings? Within Japan, there are a lot of small pockets of parking place for cars. It is not surprising to find an automatic parking system tending to just 1 or 2 parking space. This indirectly shows how profitable it is to own a real estate in Japan’s city.
Here is the parking indicator of one of the parking spot…
It says “empty”, meaning that the parking lot is available for parking.
The traffic lights and road signboards in Hamamatsu are quite unique…
being painted in rusty red, they displayed a sense of strength and hardiness, something traffic lights in Singapore do not.
A Tanuki, or Raccoon Dog, infront of a shop house…
Though hard to spot, Hamamatsu do have some “hard-to-find” sleezy spots…
The one that my friend was pointing at was “Go Go Densha”. It specialize in providing escorts dressed in Japanese School Girls’ uniform.
A Bacon/Pork Bistro whose smell of fried Bacon can be detected a few shops away…
If you looked carefully, you will notice black oil dripping down from the top of the Pigs. apparently, they used authentic lard, and anyone who have a weight problem show think twice before visiting the Bistro.
Instead, we decided to experience a “Normal Ramen store” which is small, and obviously not under any franchise…
We sat down on one of the walls of the store, since the only 2 available tables had been taken by local office dwellers…
Take note of the space. This shop is designed for compactness, and I had my knees right at the walls when I sat down. There is only enough area to put a bowl of Ramen and maybe, a tray of salt, pepper, and the such, and that’s about all. On the other side, directly at the kitchen, they are accommodate another 3 person…
Adding up the office dwellers, the total capacity of the shop is only at most, 20 person. It is that compact of a sho.
The menus are more of less on the walls…
There is a free flow of Chili, pepper, Olive Oil (?), drinking water and soup….
This means that you can refill your bowl with rich Ramen soup if you should finish the whole bowl of it. Oh, by the way, the shop only serves water, but it is free flow…
Yes. Free flow.
The gyoza we ordered arrived first, accompanied by four saucers…
After a while, the “Miso Ramen” I ordered was served…
There is one thing the four of us immediately noticed: In order for the spoon to stay on the bowl, the shop used a specially designed soup spoon with a notch in the middle, so that it can “catch” the side of the bowl. This made for easy serving by the waiters and customers will have less chances of the spoon falling into the soup…
The noodle is just fine, unlike those from Aijisen, which are more often than not, overcooked…
a larger serving of meat is also present, coupled with the standard one-half of boiled egg with soft runny yolk
The verdict??
we agreed that Aijisen is no longer an option, in Singapore.
As we walked towards our next destination, the observatory at the top of Act City, we came across a theme cafe, with “One Piece” being the theme…
“Wanted” poster lined up the narrow walls of the stairs leading to the cafe…
Strangely enough, we found a shop selling hand-made noodles…
Soon, we reached Act City…
and we had some fun with what I thought was a stone Chikuwa…
When it started raining, we decided to head into the building, and went straight up to the observatory…
the ticket is bought directly at the door of the observatory…
we had some time for a group photo…
The view of Hamamatsu is just spectacular…
Everything looked so small from up here…
In the distance, lies a power plant of some sort…
There is a chapel in the observatory itself, so you can hold your wedding/s in the observatory itself, giving your bride a taste of heaven…
The other side of Hamamatsu…
It is easy to forget about time over here….
Here is the T-shirt my friend bought from AFA 2010. He is a Scandal fan…
After finishing our objectives for the day, we decided to walk around the city for a while, since the Scandal “Baby Action” tour concert do not start for another 3 hours.
During our walk in one of the shopping centers, we came across a shop that provides pre-orders for Final Fantasy Zero…
We also passed by a cafe opened by the Monkey God…
I spotted one of the legends of Crowded Japanese City: the narrow buildings of Japan…
Soon, we arrived at the concert venue, Hamamatsu Musical Hall…
which housing a real live Organ…
Soon, we found ourselves surrounded by Scandal fans, with their trademark “Canta” hanging all over them…
While we our Scandal friends lined up to enter the concert hall, friend C and I decided to leave the venue and rest up in the hotel.
While walking back, we passed by a shop selling traditional Elementary School Bags…
After getting an hour’s sleep in the hotel room, we were awaken by the Scandalous duo who came back from their Scandal tour concert. it was raining heavily, and after a quick change of clothes, the four of us head out to hunt for our dinner for the day.
After some walking under the rain, we decided to make do with a family restaurant which serves good looking sushi.
Tea are free flow here also…
The Sashimi looks colorful…
Friend B’s Mixed Don Delux set A…
Friend C’s Sushi Platter…
Seafood tray for Friend A…
And from Friend C’s magical tongue’s rating, the Sashimi served here is only “So-So”. Hmmmm… I wonder what he eats everyday.
We actually found the “Unagi Pie” factory while walking back to the hotel…
We went to the 7-eleven…
and I bought another bottle of “Afternoon tea”.
With that, we ended our day, and got some sleep before we embarked on our next journey towards Iwakuni on the following day.
Overall, though Hamamatsu is not really a tourist attraction, but we found had our nicest meal there and the place is less crowded which makes it sort of a getaway from busy city life.
It was just 2 days in Hamamatsu, but it felt like a lifetime~~!!
Good place to relax and stroll around the town, and eat Unagi don when you feel like it (^w^)