3m 52s: Lenght

MALAYSIA: KUALA HERE WE GO AGAIN! & TOKYO We left Penang to move to Kuala Lumpur for a few days before our flight to Tokyo, Japan. It was good to come back as Kuala has definitely become our second home in Asia now. We know our way around and try to visit new areas of the city and find out a little more every time. You can find approximately everything in this city, from every kind of food to every kind of grocery or fashion item. Chinatown is our favorite when it comes to street food, while Brickfield, also known as Little India, could be an outsider about cheap clothes. The huge malls located at each corner of the city have also quite good shopping and food options, including concert halls and movie theatres. We went also on a shopping spree to buy winter clothes. We were warned that November in Japan can be quite cold and we were missing a few long sleeves garments. We were then ready to leave for Japan. TOKYO: DAY 1 After a 6,5 hours flight in a cramped AirAsia X plane, we landed in Tokyo Haneda Airport. The temperature of 16°C at 11:00pm was quite pleasant and not a shock after all. After 4 months in the hot/humid climate, it felt good to have some fresh air not coming from our hotel room air conditioner! We arrived quite late at the hotel close to the airport and after a short night rest, we moved to another hotel closer to the city center. We left our backpacks at the reception and took immediately a metro to explore the city, heading to Asakusa area and the famous Senso-Ji Temple, one of the iconic site of Tokyo. Second stop of the day was the Ueno Park and the Yanaka Cemetery, also great atmospheric districts. At the end of the day, we met Eiji, our Japanese friend met in Uzbekistan, for dinner. We had typical Monja food in the Tsukishima district of Tokyo, very nice and quite area and yummy food! TOKYO: DAY 2 That day we headed to Shibuya crossing, one the biggest of the world where thousands and thousands of people cross the street everyday. Then we went to the Meiji-Jingu Shrine and finished our day with a little shopping in the famous Takeshita street, where Cosplay fans have a lot of shops to choose from, and Harajuku-Omotesando area. We met Didier, a Daniel’s ex-colleague, and his Japanese wife for dinner close to our hotel before going to the Ryongoku area to eat “Chankonabe” the incredible and original sumo dinner! WE SPECIFICALLY ENJOY Tokyo: the quiet and zen atmosphere in the city and the parks. Tokyo: the Japanese toilets (specifically Daniel who kept laughing when testing all the functions). ACCOMMODATIONS Kuala Lumpur: we were back at the Transit hotel, see our episode 24 for details. Tokyo: the Richmond Hotel Suidobashi was an excellent choice, close to the Tokyo Dome, only a few meter from the Suidobashi metro station and easy to go around. RESTAURANTS Kuala Lumpur: Ben’s in the KLCC Mall. Chic cafe and restaurant. They have a special deal from 3:00pm to 6:00pm, incredible cakes and tea or coffee for a bargain! Daniel had a fantastic black forest there. Tokyo: restaurants located in this street (see google maps link) very close to Tsukishima metro strop are great to taste the monja food. Tokyo: if you want to taste the real sumo food, try the Chanko Edosawa restaurant. BEST KEPT SECRET TIP Kuala Lumpur has several lines of free buses that are usually used by commuters to reach the city center. It is called GOKL. These can also be used by tourists and we did quite a few times very handy to visit the city for FREE! 🙂 Music by Joakim Karud http://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud