Narita town

I'm getting on with life with chocolates, the best therapy besides shopping, for girls.

Lindt and Frey both makes amazing off-the-shelves chocolates.

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A very backdated entry of me in Narita more than a month ago for work.
Since I did not have much energy to travel to Tokyo (it will take a good 2 hours ride thereabout), I went to the little village of Narita town instead :)

Japan is as clean as it is said to be. Without any bins in the streets, I find no litter/s on the ground - pretty amazed!

Look at those food displays - they looked SO real.

Taken at Narita-san Shinshoji Temple

This quaint temple that sits in Narita seems to be quite a popular spot for Japanese to offer their prayers, while I came as part of a sightseeing plan.

Giving offerings for the temple while Japanese locals did the same. Well, that's the instinct I grew when I travel - do what the locals do (same for eating and shopping at times).

A very overexposed photo of me at the temple, reaching out for the red lantern in the middle after climbing several steps up.

The temple itself covers a fairly large area, and the pagoda has to be the highlight.
Says Narita Travel: "A broad variety of temple buildings stand on the spacious grounds of Naritasan, including the temple's new and former main halls, a three storied pagoda and a huge Tahoto style pagoda, named the Great Pagoda of Peace. There is also a pleasant park, which incorporates both, traditional Japanese and European elements."

My colleague, Xiwen pointed out this pretty turtle stone structure in the pond nearby - I will guess it's to signify longevity for the people living in Narita town.

Xiwen and I then took a public bus to Aeon Narita mall, the nearest mall nearby for some shopping.


Daiso has to be the other good place to shop in Japan - since things are priced fairly steep. Well, at least I gotta say I do enjoy shopping in Daiso Ion when I was back home, and this 150 yen shop does provide a little comfort when it comes to bargain shopping.

Needless to say, I bought lots of food and little household items! I especially like the cotton pads that Daiso brings in for removing makeup and also, they have a wider variety of Japanese food items than we have in SG - I saw seaweed, local made cup noodles, Japanese rice sauces (I love the tomato based ones) and tons of fruity japanese drinks with jelly. Quite a heaven shopping in there since I love Japanese dry food.

Came out waiting for Xiwen who surprisingly took a longer time than I did!

We had lunch in a nearby sushi restaurant with the usual conveyer belt concept.

my crabby miso soup

I was holding to salmon sushi, while xiwen held onto the sea urchin one.

Ebi sushi :)

I struggled with my poor japanese grammar to communicate with the sushi chef, but he was sooo nice. So I went "ichi ... salmon"or *point* to the menu with pictures if I couldn't find the word.

Chawanmushi - I miss these smooth steamed eggs.

Scallop with teriyaki sauce on rice roll.

The sushi shokunin (sushi chef) is a really nice man, I would have come back just for the service that this japanese restaurant gave.

I wanted my ginger and fish - so I ordered this grilled white fish sushi - yummeh!!


The lobster sushi that went around the conveyer belt got me and Xiwen raising our brows - you could see half that lobster going around.

Though we did not make it for Sanrio Puroland, the best I could find is a Sanrio gift shop.


and I came out empty handed because I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary here ;(
Why didn't they have a San-X store for rilakkuma? :(

Went cosmetic shopping (my gawd, lots of good stuff in there) but I didn't have photos of the stores. Ending with a photo of the hi-tech toilets that are currently seen in most places, well-invented by the brainy Japanese:

haha, I gave a flush button a good punch and it did sounded like an electronic flush tone. Well, you could guess what it is for
;)