pakdoktergolfblog: April 2013

Monday, April 29, 2013

Wisteria Festival (3)

Below are some pictures of the Tokyo SkyTree which is located not far off from Ueno. It could be easily viewed from the grounds of the shrine where the Wisteria Festival was held.

Below - are some pictures of the shrine where the Wisteria Festival was held. The Japanese is generally still a spiritual society. People queue up to make prayers and offerings at the shrine.

We had lunch at an Asian Restaurant just metres away from the Malaysian Embassy. After that Rastam and Tsuyano had agreed to meet up with some other friends to visit the Wisteria Festival at another shrine located somewhere near Ueno.

PRU13 in Tokyo

Sunday, 28th April 2013

Today is the day Rastam votes in the PRU13. Pakdokter and partner and Rastam's friend, Tsuyano, accompanied him to the Malaysian Embassy located in Shibuya in Tokyo.

There were about 20 people in queue, mostly postgraduate students and those working in Tokyo. However the electoral process was quite slow. It took almost 2 hours before Rastam completed his electoral exercise.

pakdokter, Fareeda, Rastam and Tsuyano

the Malaysian Embassy in Tokyo

the electoral exercise done!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

A Night at a Whisky Bar

27th April 2013

From Ueno Park we walked down to ?Ochanamizu - a district not unlike our Petaling Street but the attraction here was the many sports shops selling their goods at a discount. There were many golf shops too but their prices were not much better than those at the major golf stores in Shinjuku which were also having a 'spring sale and promotion' now.

We decided to go into a whisky, wine and beer bar for drinks and pub grub as some of the earlier restaurants we wanted to go to earlier were full.

Pakdokter tried out the Yamazaki and the Hakushu single malts - the Yamazakis were smooth and sweet while the Hakushus were smoky and would probably be preferred by cigar-smokers.

We had slices of duck breasts and a simple pasta dish with pepperinos and anchovies.

Pakistan Fair at Ueno Park

27th April 2013

From the station, we walked to Ueno Park where there happened to be a Pakistan Fair. Food stalls, crafts and textiles as well as cultural performances were put up. We tried out the chicken kebab and samosas while sipping their masala chais.

Love Hotels

27th April 2013

From the Azalea Festival Ground - we walked through the Yanaka district - an old part of Tokyo passing through streets with little arts and crafts shops, temples and cemeteries dating back to the 18th century or older. We passed by a temple on the grounds of which is where the founder of the modern Tokyo Medical School was buried.

We took the train at Nippori Station and stopped at the next station to check out some of the 'love hotels' near the station. As most Japanese homes are small in size - courting couples are served by these 'love hotels' where rooms can be booked for a duration ranging from 2 hours to up to 12 hours. Some of these hotels have different themes to suit their customers taste.

Tokyo Street Food

27th April 2013

At all festival grounds in Tokyo - rest assured there will be stalls offering street food. We sampled quite a few on offer at the grounds of the shrine.