Weekend at Tenri City

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Last Friday, after my classes ended at 11.45pm, I made my way to Sakudaira Station skipping school lunch. And the reason...yep like the title suggests, I made my way down to Tenri City. The hour long ride on Asama Shinkansen from Sakudaira Station to Ueno Station is about ¥5500+. I delibrately made a transfer at Ueno Station so I could go to Akihabara's Akiba to pick my goodies. Despite waking up with a sore throat, I pursued on with my much planned journey.

As you would have noticed (I bet you haven't) my wishlist on the right side of the page is constantly changing. So this time round, I picked up my Casio watch which is only available in Japan, my MacBook screen protector and an aluminium camera case which I thought was kinda cool to dub it as a normal personal carrier. Initially I had planned to do a bit more shopping around downtown Tokyo especially Shibuya, Shinjuku and Harujuku but due to the exorbitant Shinkansens fares, I decided to reduce the damage. So after grabbing my stuffs, I headed down to Kyoto via Shinkansen which robbed my off ¥13000 and 3 hours and then finally hopping on the Kintetsu line which takes me to Tenri City which is the last stop.

Alrite so here's the run down of the route...

Sakudaira Station (Nagano) ---> Ueno Station (Tokyo) via Shinkansen ¥5460 , 1 hour+
Ueno Station (Tokyo) ---> Akihabara Station (Tokyo) via JR Yamanote ¥???, 4 minutes
Akihabara Station (Tokyo) ---> Tokyo Station (Tokyo) via JR Yamanote ¥???, 5 minutes
Tokyo Station (Tokyo) ---> Kyoto Station (Kyoto) via Shinkansen ¥12710, 2 hour 30 minutes
Kyoto Station (Kyoto) ---> Tenri City (Nara) via Kintetsu Line ¥730, 1 hour+

In summary, the Shinkansens are the ones chalking up most of the fares, so if you can, choose other alternatives. But bear in mind the the ratio between fares and time taken are relatively proportionate. If you want a cheaper alternative, you would end up spending more time and vice versa.

Met up with Lucian, and Vincent upon arriving and had a scrumptious extra big Katsu Don fit for a judo master. Yes the portion was HUGE but yummy...superbly fried Katsu that's so crispy on the outside and yet so tenderly juicy on the inside only to be covered by a layer of egg and onions. YUMMY! Poor Lucian and Vincent had to struggle to witness me down the entire bowl while they feast on the normal size ones. Hahahaha...

Nothing much on Friday nite so hang out for a second meal of Nabe with the other members at Semba's 86 Moya.

On Saturday, went for the SenenKai in the morning at the main santuary (Jiba) as it was drizzling outside. Had another incredible Katsu feast from the same restaurant yesterday for lunch and then attnded my second Besseki lecture at around 1330 hours. Just like the last time, i fell asleep in the middle of it. :p After the lecture, went shopping alone at Hondori, ate some outta this world Takoyakis before finally having a get-together feast with Okada Sensei and Akira (Okada's bf) and Lucian. Dinner was amazingly great as well so after dinner, crashed with Lucian and Akira in a little small but cosy pub. I would strongly recommend this little water joint to anyone going to Tenri...It's no doubt small but the ambience inside is worth every cent spent.

Took the 0600am train from Tenri with Akira after crashing 2 nites at Lucian's place in Senba and got home around 1200pm with my huge shopping bag. Down with flu and a really bad throat...but nonetheless, the experience still rocks. Am really glad I got to see Lucian, Okada and Akira and had a great time together.

Not much pictures though as the small drizzle dampen my mood for any chances of a prospective shot.

By the way if anyone's interested in knowing in advance the various train timings, fares and frequencies, check HYPERDIA and click the English tab on the top left of the site. Punch in your place of departure, and place of arrival, dates and times, transfer points and VIOLA!