Went on a bit of a trek all over Sydney yesterday for a date day with Annie – it’s a bit unusual as usually we just have a single destination that we kind of go and check out, then head home afterwards. Instead this time, we went to:

• 2 Foodies in Mt. Pritchard for super authentic Pho, and Vietnamese Food
• Bondi Junction Westfield to watch War of the Rohirrim (great film!) and just check it out
• Macquarie Centre for dinner (Claypot Kitchen ♥)

Crossing Sydney as a whole multiple times was interesting, kept the day rolling along, and was a good day out!

I picked up Annie, and we trekked it over to 2 Foodies (https://www.instagram.com/2foodies_)

The food was super delicious at 2Foodies – it was extremely authentic and it was full of Vietnamese people ordering for their busy Sunday lunches! Annie went with a fresh Noodle Salad, and I went with Pho – with Beef Balls, Brisket and Rare beef and a Coconut Juice drink on the side!

We smashed our food so hard 😋

Neither of us had been to Mt. Pritchard before and we sure as heck picked a sunny, hot day to visit. Parking was a nightmare at the Petrol Station where 2 Foodies is located – so next time we go, we’ll definitely look for street parking.

Tummies full, we made our way to Bondi Junction’s Westfield Shopping Center — I’d never been before, always only passed the center. But this time around we were going to watch the new LOTR animated movie, The War of the Rohirrim.

Driving the M8 route from Liverpool all the way to Bondi was definitely a new experience for both of us, and it was kind of amazing seeing that Sydney had such a long underground tunnel for cars to travel. We made good time though, thanks to it!

I was impressed by the movie – it was an anime film that sparked a lot of Stranger of the Sword meets Princess Mononoke to me – and those films I rate probably a 9.5/10 – some of my favourite anime films of all time!

Imaginations inspired, we left – looking for dinner we actually decided to completely forgo eating at Bondi – the Westfield was incredibly disappointing. And headed “towards home” for a favourite at Macquarie Shopping Centre; Claypot Kitchen.

All in all, it was a fun day – and we’ve resolved to go on more “adventures” to check out more of Sydney together in the future. As Sydney natives – sometimes we just don’t really see things to do or enjoy in Sydney as much as it’s “home” for us.

Hopefully this opens our eyes up to more!

Day 5 continues!

We went to visit the Gundam statue – the life size version of the MG RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 🙂 we spent most of our time at a shopping center called Diver CIty.

Diver City actually had a couple of things we wanted to see and do, but it’s always been a shopping center that I’ve visited every time I’ve been to Japan – without fail so far!

Doraemon Department Store

Annie is a big fan of Doraemon, a long-running anime franchise that was (in my opinion) one of the first series to really gain worldwide recognition. I didn’t get some happy snaps of the Doraemon store, but Annie did! So these pictures are very much courtesy of her ♥

She ended up spending a little bit of time there, buying a few things to remember the trip by, and there’s already a shopping wishlist for our next visit 🙂

A Quick Break, and on to Gundam Base!

Finally as it rounded off towards evening, Annie and I had a quick snack of some McDonald’s and took a brief break before heading to the Gundam Base store – which has always been amazing!

Then onto the main attraction…

I’ve never been able to see the Factory side – as it’s always closed for Maintenance for some reason in the last couple years (last year I couldn’t see it either). However, on display were the World Championship Gunpla Builders winners models on display!

Let’s get to the galleries of the entries!

GBWC 12th Tournament – Under 20s

GWBC 12th Tournament – Under 14s

GWBC 12th Tournament – Over 21s

All these models were INCREDIBLE to see – and the customisations each of the entrants did were mind blowing and so creative. As an amateur Gunpla builder who just started this year, it was a huge inspiration!

Of course, we succumbed to the store limited editions and Annie even picked up her first Gunpla model! It was Haro! Very cute ♥

We were actually both pretty tired at this point so as we wandered out towards the exit of the center I actually caught a sign I wasn’t expecting!

What a pleasant surprise! Hololive hold a special place in my heart as around the time they started becoming popular in Western culture, it was a really tough patch in my life and watching them saw me through it. So it was pleasantly surprising to see Hololive doing a little better in Japan and increasing in popularity!

On our way out, Annie spotted a Doraemon claw-game machine at Round 1 near the entrance, and she won!

Dinner

We ended up heading back to the hotel and honestly resting/snoozing for a couple hours before heading out to a nearby popular curry rice chain, CoCo Curry House. Finally got my chance to show Annie this amazing food chain; it’s still a classic hit, and they do 20 levels of spice now instead of the 10 from last year that my friends and I had encountered!

A classic Chicken Katsu Curry, with Cheese/Potato Croquette 🙂

Day 5 marked the first sort of “free exploration” days we had. We had a final tour booking at the Ginza Art Aquarium Museum, but after that, we were free to explore everything.

The entrance to the Art Aquarium museum was actually pretty odd! We had to go up to the 9th floor, then take an escalator down to the 8th floor where the dedicated entrance was 😲

The tanks were surprisingly sparse, but at the same time – very intricate; the tanks overflow with water into a pump system.

There were lots of cool and nice photos – however, the overall museum size was a lot smaller than we expected and it was quite lackluster. The ambience was pretty good for the museum however, it was quiet, relaxed, and darkened and cool in temperature.

I don’t think I’d recommend this museum for a visit sadly.

Shopping in Ginza

We stopped by Uniqlo – can definitely recommend going – the pricing in Japan is (generally) much cheaper than in Sydney. We didn’t end up buying anything, but the Ginza Uniqlo store is the flagship;

After Uniqlo – we grabbed a waffle a delicious chocolate waffle from an artisanal store called MANNEKEN! It was delicious and tasty grabbing an exclusive Christmas Chocolate dipped waffle (“Chocolate Marble”)! Definitely excellent! We loved the waffle – 8.5/10!

Gobbling down the waffle – we decided to walk towards the flagship MUJI store, and worked up a bigger appetite for lunch.

Lunch at the Muji Diner (B1F on the store map!)

Annie ordered a drink, and tiramisu; I ordered a set meal:

• Anitpasto (assorted meats)
• Pasta Course (Pomodoro Sauce)
• Beef Consomme
• Pork ribs

All of that for $28 AUD! I was shocked at how cheap it is – a meal like that in Sydney would’ve set me back probably around $60!

After such a huge lunch – we ended up making our way to Odaiba – which was where the life size Gundam, and a great shopping center – Diver City. But that’s for the next blog entry 🙂

Day 4 begins with a really sketchy meetup just outside Tokyo Station, with a tour guide who’s holding a pink plushy heart for us to identify her by…

I was actually concerned enough that I shared my location with the gang on Discord, and my sister in the “Find My…” app.

Suffice to say – the tour did start off shaky, but we were ok! We were underway to some destinations near the foot of Mt. Fuji – at this time of year, it was too cold to go up the mountain itself and in fact it’s banned for tour groups at this time of year due to how risky it is. Experienced climbers would have to privately organise their own climbs if they wanted to.

About 90 minutes out from Tokyo, we started to see signs of Mt. Fuji – and honestly, it’s gorgeous. I didn’t expect it to affect me, but seeing such a huge mountain physically in the distance from me is very different from looking at a picture of it.

I can see why the ancients worshiped this mountain.

There were four destinations we’d be visiting – taking us about 12 hours for the day:

• Gassho Village
• Oishi Park
• Oshino Hakkai
• Arakurayama Sengen Park

There was a slight change in the destinations due to one of them being under maintenance after some weather damage. Still, we were promised that there were still plenty of beautiful locations and photo opportunities for us 🙂

Gassho Village

Our first stop – there was a nice crisp gentle breeze – interestingly there were stands and stalls with Fuji apples, Taiyaki, and other goods for sale. There was even a Halal uh… Kebab shop available! 😅 We were definitely in a tourist trap. It wasn’t horrible, but I at least, personally felt a bit silly with the village. I twas nice to look at the layout of the village – but our tour guide let slip that it was a rebuilt village after being destroyed by a large landslide in the 90s; so now no one was allowed to live there, only work there as a tourist spot.

Still, we weren’t going to discount everything and it was nice to see how things “used to be”.

We took a look around, and ended up buying a couple snacks – a Taiyaki, and a Fuji apple (because of course, Fuji apples at Mt. Fuji!)

The apple was, ok! It actually hit the spot – although it didn’t feel as nice texture wise as the Fuji apples we get in Australia 😂

On to our next stop!

Oishi Park

This was by Lake Kawaguchiko it offered honestly GORGEOUS views of Mt. Fuji – but was PACKED with people from other tour busses. I managed to pick up a souvenir for my sister (a Fuji-san Carabiner Mug) and Annie and I managed to take some lovely photos together.

And of course, for a laugh – I had a “senior moment” and accidentally snapped myself with a selfie shot while trying to use my phone camera…

Our group was doing pretty well, and our next destination we would be able to stop by for a bit, and have lunch! So we were pretty eager to move on…

Oshino Hakkai

Oshino Hakkai was a another traditional village area – with a more modern part attached where people actually lived this time round.

The village itself was home to several aquifers that were fresh spring water sources, fed by the snow melting from Mt. Fuji and more. It was apparently safe to drink (we didn’t try) – and there were beautiful ponds with Koi as well.

Again, there were so many people here. So many tour busses and it was impossible to not notice that the overwhelming majority of the tourists were people speaking Mandarin.

There were a couple restaurants and eateries that were available, but the pricing was ridiculous (Sydney restaurant prices for very small plates of what looked like food I’d make back in university). So we opted to grab some snacks to power us on to dinner from the nearby Lawson.

Filled bellies, and a little stressed from the insane crowds of this place – we headed back to the bus a few minutes early. With so many people in the way, I can only imagine how frustrated the locals are. Multiple times a car had to move through the main street and hundreds of people had to move out of the way, same with the small farm workers nearby having to see all of us plaguing the area of their beautiful village, it made me feel a little bit self conscious.

I hope they continue to have and enjoy their beautiful region, and tourism doesn’t ruin the area.

We moved on to our next destination, and honestly we were pretty tired at this point. Meet up was at 7am, so it was an early start, and we’d done a lot of walking around!

Arakurayama Sengen Park

We actually stopped by a shrine, and observation deck here – and again, it was in a residential area. I couldn’t help but feel we were really intruding.

Annie and I were pretty tired and really just wanted to go to the bathroom, so we made the climb to the first level – and BOY it was a steep climb. Exhausting!

We were also greeted by the most horrifyingly dirty toilets we’d ever experienced in Japan, hands down, without question.

We were buggered, and I ended up not actually taking any photos of Mt. Fuji from the shrine’s view. I did however, take a photo of the Shrine. I’m not particularly religious, but I am spiritual, and didn’t want to do what I felt might intrude on what people might feel about this place. So I took a quick snap from a distance, and we went back to the bus to wait in the warmth (at this point it was VERY chilly in the wind, and I think Annie might’ve chilled herself and caught a cold 🙁 ).

Finally, it was time to head back to Tokyo – it was becoming late evening, and I think everyone on the bus was snoozing quite a bit 🙂

Back to Tokyo (Tokyo Station)

Once we got back, it was a pretty lovely evening view of Tokyo Station – admittedly it was SUPER COLD (about 3°C) – and we were hurrying around looking for something to eat.

A Journaling Shop!

On the way, we found the Traveler’s Factory Station store in Tokyo Station; and it was amazing! I spent so much money there, picking up just about everything to explore the product line. I’m very much into journaling (particularly bullet journaling, and logging my life like with this blog! 😂)

It’s a fairly recent hobby and only started around Christmas time in 2020. Although to some varying degree, I have been blogging on this site in one incarnation or another since 2016. And earlier than that well… it’s all lost to the void. I’m trying to piece together things from earlier, but really it’s a project that’ll be ranted about in another post for another time 🙂

I was a bit absent minded from exhaustion at this point in the day, and forgot to take photos of the cute little store itself, and only managed to snap a couple shots of products (despite buying nearly the entire store).

I ended up spending something close to $380 AUD on stuff from Traveler’s Factory.

Dinner: Kamukura Ramen

We stopped by Kamukura Ramen – finally ticking off something the list that I wanted to show Annie 🙂 it’s a favourite amongst the Only Snacks gang – so it was great to try it out in Tokyo station, the seating was comfortable and the food was soothing. 8.5/10

We were pretty buggered, and the winter chill had finally started to get to us, so that was the end of Day 4, we headed on back to the hotel for a big rest 🙂

Day 3 was dedicated to being in Disneyland – I’ve been every single time I’ve come to Tokyo and in fact, I’ll probably go for the evening session to see the fireworks and parade next time.

We managed to arrive at around about 9:30am – with no queues getting into the park and no issues 🙂 the weather was fantastic, so we took a photo just before going into the world bazaar entry section.

First thing we did was tick off a “bucket list” moment for Annie – going on a rollercoaster 🙂 she actually chose Big Thunder Mountain – that’s my girl! Jumping straight in 🙂

I didn’t take any footage – but Annie braved the rollercoaster (I love them) – and she wasn’t even on shaky legs when we exited the ride! Although, we decided to have a break and get a quick bite to eat, so we walked backwards slightly to the New Orleans area, to Cafe Orleans.

The food was all New Orleans inspired, with a delicious Gumbo and Focaccia sandwich. It was actually quite decent, and surprisingly satisfying! Probably a solid 7/10.

Annie actually came up with a really sweet, cute idea – a few times before I had seen these “pressed 100 yen medallion” machines that spit out token memorabilia. It turns out each distinct area in the park has a machine, and accordingly themed medallions.

We caught the afternoon parade, which actually was more of a problem than a feature for us – as it cuts the paths in the park, making navigating difficult, we ended up being stuck on the Westernland/Jungle side of the park and couldn’t make our way to the other side till the parade was done.

Once we managed to make our way round to Fantasyland – of course, everyone’s favourite Winnie the Pooh and Beauty and the Beast rides (these are two major favourites with the crowds at the park) had to be ridden.

Winnie the Pooh was actually a 2 hour wait, the line was super slow – and they didn’t allow for fast-pass selection, so we had no choice. We enjoyed the ride, and the wait wasn’t horrible as we got to chat and people watch and chill together. We discovered every time I leaned or rested somewhere for a break, the line would proceed 😂 it became a bit of a meme for us!

We then decided to hit up the village – sadly no Gaston or Belle walking around today, but we headed to the tavern for some food too!

Honestly, the food was the best here. Maybe we were just craving heavy, carby foods – but it was really satisfying, a solid 8/10 for this.

We also ended up collecting a few more medallions along the way! All that was left to collect were the Futuretown ones, and we’d have them all!

Bellies full, we made our way to the Beauty and the Beast ride, suffice to say – the queue was long! Longer than Winnie the Pooh 😮

The ride was great, it’s very similar to Winnie the Pooh – but the effects are better. It’s definitely a great ride, but I think the time commitment required to get on it is too great. Winnie the Pooh’s ride remained the better of the two for Annie and I.

It was evening as things drew to a close – and of course, we managed to catch a selfie in front of Disney Castle!

And we managed to catch all the medallions! Sadly, Space Mountain was still under maintenance when we walked by 🙁

Disneyland remains a great attraction to see and do. Even without hopping on all the rides, there’s so many food options that I’ve yet to try, and I’ve eaten something different every single time I’ve been there. I’d go again just for enjoying the environment, the ambience, and the food 🙂

The gang got together for some breakfast Yum Cha at the Eight restaurant today. It was interesting, and to be honest, we felt a little ripped off, I think.

When the lads and I were sat down – because the majority of the table were Caucasian – one wily old lady came over with her cart of fried food and essentially unloaded the entire cart on our table.

This was probably one of the biggest whirlwind days in recent memory! Strap yourselves in, dear audience – this is a long blog entry with plenty of photos.

My sister Sarah and I headed out to the Rocks, just under the Sydney Harbour Bridge for an awesome lunch of food trucks with tacos and Don Julio Tequila. The food was made by (now) celebrity chef, Roy Choi. He’s famous partly for the Kogi food truck, his contributions to essentially feeding the Marvel Studios crew during their Marvel Cinematic Universe adventures, and his adventures with Jon Favreau in “Chef Show” on Netflix. The movie, “Chef” (also directed by Favreau) was also based loosely around his life.

I know right, the tacos don’t look like much to look at – but somehow, they were amazing. The tortillas were fresh, the recipe clicked together so well, and they were hot and tasty. Definitely impressive, especially considering there were other “great mexican food trucks” there who partnered with Roy on the event, and they served their tacos – side by side, Roy’s food was still trumping theirs. 😲

Despite the wet weather that crept up on us around the start of the event, by the time things were well underway (and PACKED with way too stylish people and hipsters) – the sun came out and everything went smashingly 😂

But by far – this was the highlight of my day 😱

Being able to meet Roy was amazing, we exchanged only small pleasantries and I thanked him for helping me see more of the world of food; he was soon mobbed by at least 30 other people.

If you haven’t seen his show – this is good watching, people: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81288533

Then what happened?

I topped off the day with Korean BBQ with the Snacks gang.

What should have been a night at Mjolnir – a viking pub in Sydney, ended up turning into a visit to our group’s fave Korean BBQ chain – this time instead of being at the CBD, we went to the one in Strathfield.

Lesson learnt – we had a huge group so we had to wait a long long time to get seated. Easily an hour. We did eventually get in though, and they spread us cross two long tables

A fantastic night was had by all. Great food, better company – it was an awesome night to enjoy lots of food and drink 😇

We then had a brief wander around to chill and cool down from the heat of the BBQ, and digest our food a bit.

Plenty of memes were had. A good night all round, and a fantastic day that I’ll look back on for a long time to come.

Tim‘s birthday is on the 13th; however, we were all mostly free this Thursday evening to join him for a nice meal at Outback Steakhouse (North Strathfield) – we were there for company over the food, but it was hearty food, full of grease, and plenty of banter to be had!

Outback Steakhouse has been in my life for quite a while, actually. Despite it’s reputation, it served more as a common meeting point for various crowds of people that walked in and out of my life. When I got my first real job in the Tech Industry (working in marketing!) I planned many a LAN party event here with one of my best mates, Ben (missingo) at this restaurant over many many nights.

Anyway, retrospectives aside; the food hasn’t changed much at all (the prices have though, oof!)

They left too much of the fat cap at the end on, one end of the steak was charred way more than the other end (the fatty end was undercooked) – making the fat render and drench everything in grease, but not in a nice hot way. The steak was left to rest too long so it was almost cold; and the chips had coagulated with their cheese to form a solid brick (you can see in the photo, this is about 60 seconds after the plate was put down in front of me).

Still, I had a really enjoyable night (definitely more the company than the food, as it always has been) and everyone else that attended had a blast too!

It was good to see Marshy, Brad, Brad, Tanj, Amy, Sean, Jimmy, Bec, Mat, Gaetano, and the birthday boy, Tim. Happy Birthday mate.

Went to a quick surprise dinner with my sister, her partner, and an old friend at a classic venue; Korean BBQ Buffet in Chatswood’s Mandarin Centre food court.

It’s a cheap and cheerful place, and actually – they have one of my favourite cuts of meat, the Pork Jowl there – it was plentiful, it was fatty, it was tasty, I loved it.

At $43 per head, all you can eat – they’ve updated the Buffet and BBQ Meat bar that you self serve at. It’s a very homely, simple place. It’s nice and quiet and a good time was had by all, honestly. We only stayed for about an hour, but we DEFINITELY ate our fill. The Hostess was lovely enough to give us a plate of Wagyu cuts which was quite nice (the pork was better!) and I think myself and all the friends from Only Snacks should definitely visit here sooner rather than later!

Would definitely rate the place a 8/10. The food was good, it was acceptable, the company was great; a good dinner! 😂

Every couple of months or so, some of my friends and I have taken to lining up early at about 10-10:30 in the morning at one of the more popular Yum Cha restaurants in the city.

Honestly, it’s always a pretty great feed. Excessive amounts of dim sum, good company, and general shit talking!

Tim managed to try out some chicken feet, loved it 👍

Note to self, I need to bring my diabetes kit with me a lot more consistently when going out with the bois.