JAPAN THEMED RESTAURANT: VAMPIRE CAFE

Vampire cafe  ヴァンパイアカフェ (also under Diamond Dining group) is, as the name suggests, a vampire-themed cafe. The store is located near Ginza station. The cafe is dimly lighted and decorated with red and dark colours.

As a someone who dislike anything horror-related, this place is still acceptable for me. Only the toilet was a weeee bit spooky for me.. especially since I went in alone... O.O

Located at level 7 of La Paix Building

The skulls welcome you to the restaurant~

We were brought into the cafe by Vampire Rose. There is a female bride/vampire?? as well. 

We were seated in a private booth where curtains can be closed and we are seated safely inside. Hopefully you don't get a shock when the servers open the curtains! >.<

Table setting. Ring the bell to call the servers!

Food menu

Drinks menu & special menu

There's a coffin outside. It's real candles burning there by the way~ Don't burn yourself!

Complimentary appetizers. It was delightful!

Salad! This is very cool. If you order this dish, when Vampire Rose serve it to you, there is some sort of chant and the rest of the servers will repeat the chant as well. Then Vampire Rose will pour the 'blood' into your salad. :D If only I understood what the chant was... Also, the salad is quite nice!

We shared a main dish - beef served on hot stone! Not bad, but I find it a bit difficult to chew and swallow.. but that may just be me.. 

Ice cream spider for dessert! My friend likes this better than me; I found it a bit too sweet. Can't remember the exact flavour of the ice cream but it contains peanut butter. 

The toilet is themed as well

The mirror creeps me out by the way.. >.<

Bloody sink~

To sum up, nice decorations, good service and delicious food; worth the money and great experience! We even took a photo with Vampire Rose after we finished eating! The staff here speaks minimal English but English menu is available.

Cover charge: can't rmb how much + minimum 1 food & drink each

Map: level 7 of La Paix Building


Opening hours: 5pm to 11pm (after all vampires are only awake at night...)

Yunomori Onsen at Kallang Wave Mall

My friend and I visited Yunomori Onsen after finishing our JLPT N5 exam! Always missing soaking in onsen when I'm in Singapore and now with Yunomori Onsen, it's time to try out and see if it is as good as the ones I had in Japan!

Yunomori Onsen is located at Level 2 of Kallang Wave Mall (nearest MRT station - Stadium). Directions to the onsen can be found on directional signage within the mall. What's good about Yunomori is there is no time limit on the duration you want to stay there. Onsen entrance fee costs S$40.66 (after GST) for adult. Additionally, if you want to take up some spa treatments, they are available at a charge. Click >>here<< to see the prices.

Entrance to Yunomori

Place your shoes in the shoe locker before heading to the reception

Map of Yunomori

After placing your shoes in the locker, you will proceed to the reception to make payment for the entrance fees. The staff will take your shoe locker key and pass you a electronic wrist tag which will be your clothes locker keys as well as your payment mode within the onsen. Then, proceed to the changing room where you can collect your towels and select your yukata and obi to change into and wear while inside Yunomori. Disposable undergarments are also provided if you are not comfortable with going into the onsen fully naked. ;)

Even though we were there on a Sunday afternoon, the place was not crowded. Hopefully, it stays that way? After all, it won't have a relaxing atmosphere if the interior is fully packed with people right?

Managed to snap a photo of the dressing table. Hairdryer, cotton pads and body lotion are provided. No make-up remover though, if you want to remove your makeup, you have to bring your own!

Moving on to the baths! There are 4 baths and a steam room for females. Remember to take a shower and clean yourself at the bathing area before soaking in the onsen! Shampoo, conditioner and body wash are provided. The conditioner is damn good by the way, can totally feel my hair becoming smoother as I conditioned my hair :D

No photos of the pools cause you know, everyone's naked. :P I shall briefly describe the pools available; arranging them from the lowest to highest temperature.

1. Cold Bath - It tightens the skin and it's really very cold to go into, especially since after soaking in all the hot baths, your body temperature is higher.
2. Soda Bath - The most mild bath. I recommend starting in this bath first to slowly warm up your body. It improves circulation, reduces high blood pressure and detoxifies the blood.
3. Silk Bath - Want to have silky, soft skin? This is the bath for you!
4. Bubble Bath - The bath water literally bubbles like a hot of boiling water. Time to cook ourselves!
5. Jet Bath - This is definitely the hottest. I don't think I managed to soak more than 5 minutes in this bath. And I find it difficult and awkward to lie down and relax in the bath somehow.. It is good for aches and pains and the full-body jets relieve tension and soothe the muscles.

Lastly, the steam room. There is a tub of onsen salt inside where you can use it to scrub your body.

There is a water cooler between the changing room and the bath area for you to quench your thirst. Remember to hydrate yourself after all that soaking. Don't soak too long as well, you might get lightheaded. Take short breaks in between. On a side note, the small towel which you can bring into the bath is not supposed to touch the bath water.

Overall, I have to say the bath were very relaxing! If I have the money, visiting Yunomori at least once a month would be very shiok! Don't need to wait until I go Japan for the awesome onsen! :) Just that it's not an outdoor bath, you can't enjoy the natural air and scenery; still need to go to Japan for that! Like I need more reasons to return to Japan ;D Would like to try the spa treatments in Yunomori when I have the money too!

Now, time to talk about the cafe inside Yunomori onsen! It's a small cafe, so if ever Yunomori gets crowded, there certainly won't be enough place to seat and dine here.

Menu

You place your order at the counter and you can scan your wrist tag and make payment only when you exit Yunomori. You will either collect your food at the counter after the buzzer sounds or the server will bring the food to you. It most likely depends on whether the server is free to bring the food to you.

My friend and I had a tea break in between our onsen soaking and also had dinner at the cafe before we left.

Buzzer

Lemon Kakigori. Taste surprisingly nice; not too sweet as well.

Tempura Mix. Very crispy and when dipped into the sauce, very delicious! :P

Coffee flavoured milk. Quite a nice blend; considering I don't really drink milk, I like coffee though.

Our dinner of hamburger steak plate & japanese assorted plate. Very filling and satisfying! I especially liked the grilled fish from my friend's assorted plate! 

I highly recommend visiting Yunomori Onsen for the baths as well as the food! You get to experience Japanese onsen and food without leaving Singapore! Having your first onsen experience here would also be not as stressful as trying it first time in Japan's public onsen since I'm sure most of us visiting Yunomori has not as much onsen experience as Japanese.

JAPAN THEMED RESTAURANT: Maidreamin's Digitized Cafe and Dining Bar

Maidreamin's Digitized Cafe and Dining Bar is a maid cafe and this cafe is decorated to have a video game look. Maid cafes are popular in Japan and you can find 'maids' holding their store's poster along the streets to attract customers to their stores.

I had always wanted to try out dining in a maid cafe, but during my previous trip to Osaka, my friend and I were too intimidated to enter since the cafe was rather crowded. This time round, I have made a reservation in advanced and since we can't see the inside of the cafe without entering, we managed to make our way inside!

A maid outside the building

Down the stairs we go~

The store was quite empty when we were there, which is good for us! There were 2 single men and one pair of Caucasian couple inside. We were brought to our table by a maid and she will be our server. She gave us rabbit ears headband to wear and helped us to take a photo of us as well.

Interior of the cafe

Video game wall designs

Cool lights

We were supposed to call the server some cute name when we were ready to order but we were too shy.. >.< Anyways, when we were served our food, we were supposed to repeat what our maid says which I have no idea what it means ;) Apparently you can pay to take a photo with the maid as well. Can't remember how much it costs, but we felt that it's a bit costly for us.. so we didn't take the photo.. since we only have limited money... >.<

We shared this dish! So cute!! The maid drew the cat using tomato sauce when she brought the food to our table. The food tastes average only though. The rice a bit too sticky for my liking. 

Rabbit ice cream for dessert! There's cornflakes inside. Tastes ok.

Overall, it was a nice and unique experience! The food is average and as you know, themed cafe are known to be more pricey as well. I think it was still worth the experience though! Not something you find in Singapore anyways~ The maid was also able to communicate well enough in English with us.

Cover charge: 500 yen/hour + minimum 1 order each

Map: Near Shibuya station


Opening hours: 1pm till late

DAY 6 in TOKYO: Visiting Oedo Onsen Monogatari

Day 6:

• Travel to Odaiba

1. Decks Tokyo Beach

2. Palette Town

3. Oedo Onsen Monogatari

• Check-in Grand Pacific Le Daiba

And... It's time to leave Sheraton and Disney~ After checkout, we went down a level from Sheraton's reception to wait for the shuttle bus to bring us to Maihama station. From there, we will take the train back to Odaiba.

Shuttle bus timing

Maihama station reached~

Back at Tokyo Teleport station, we slowly made our way back to Grand Pacific Le Daiba to put our goodies bought from Disney with the front desk. Then it's time for brunch! We initially planned to eat Shabu Shabu at Tsukiji Uemura in Decks Tokyo Beach, but they have some reservations or something, so we couldn't eat T.T We walked around the other shops but nothing really interest us though >.< No feel to eat sushi that day.. We walked along the shops located outside the mall and ended up in this shop - Shukubou (旬坊). For detailed directions & review, read >>here<<.

Store front

Menu

Egg over rice

Soba

Can't remember the exact names of the dishes; can't even remember if there were English words on the menu actually?? But the shop serves soba, udon and rice bowls. The obasan who took our order certainly don't speak English though. The rice bowl was not bad. The soba was okay, I have no idea what those white things are - they are sticky, chewy and rather tasteless though. There were no other tourists visiting this shop; guess it is more targeted to locals. We saw a few local men dining while we ate there. Note that this shop allows smoking inside.

Back to Decks, we headed to Level 4 where the interior, unlike the futuristic design outside, has a street shopping feel.

To Decks Tokyo Beach~

Daiba Itchome Shotengai 

We took a Purikura at Hollywood photo studio [ハリウッド写真館] located at Daiba Itchome Shotengai 

Find out where we took our Purikura in Tokyo >>here<<

We visited the Trick Art Museum there! A few pictures of the exhibitions below~

Entrance fee: 900 yen

Be a ninja~

Enter the haunted alley!

Take photos with animals~

How many animals can you find?

Quite fun! Furthermore, there wasn't much people when we were there, so we get to enjoy the whole attraction to ourselves! Unlike the crowded and busy Trickeye museum at RWS in Singapore (not sure if it's still crowded since I last visited though)! However, the scale of this Trick Art museum is similar to the Trickeye in Singapore; definitely not like the Trickeye we went in Seoul!

Second Purikura of the day at an arcade located near Tokyo Trick Art Museum

There's a SEGA Joypolis located in Decks!!

Our dippin' dots ice cream!! :P Look at all the flavours!

We shared a cool soda dippin' dots!

Before entering SEGA Joypolis, we decided to return to our hotel to check-in, put our newly-bought goods and take a quick shower! During check-in, we were informed that we have been upgraded to another room! :D Some photos of the room below! Read >>here<< for my review of my stay

We walked back to Decks Tokyo Beach to go into SEGA Joypolis! Admission only pass cost 800yen. We wanted to go in and see if we are interested in playing any of the rides before ending up with the expensive passport pass that costs 3,900yen. Based on their website, they are apparently increasing their prices after July 11, 2016.

Took another Purikura here! Can't have too many Purikuras!~

Inside SEGA, there is a Crepe Ojisan store. 

Menu

We ordered the crepe with banana and chocolate. Tastes so-so only though..

Using the admission ticket, you can charge money into the ticket and use it to pay for the rides you decide to take inside if you have not bought the passport ticket.

Below are some pictures and videos of the cool rides inside! If only Singapore's arcades were exciting as the one in Japan! I will certainly play! Cause in Japan, everything is in Japanese, don't even know how some of the games are played...

Halfpipe

Literally spinning and swinging to play the game O.O

Did you see the turning car? It's an indoor coaster inside SEGa mind you.. 

 Since we are inside, we decided to try out 1 ride! Ended up choosing this ride - Wild Jungle! It's a cool simulation ride. You board a car and you enter into a dark room with a screen. The car moved about and even though you know what's happening its not real, it felt very realistic! :D Bet all the other rides are good too!

After we are done exploring SEGA Joypolis, we each bought dippin' dots ice cream before we left! Yum yum!

Next stop for the day, Oedo Onsen Monogatari (東京お台場大江戸温泉物語)! It is a hot spring theme park with the interior decorated to the Edo period. This is a place that attracts mostly tourists. There is public onsen here and for those who do not want to strip naked in front of others, there is also a foot bath. 

Admission price

Odaiba Oedo Onsen Monogatari

You need to take off your shoes once you enter Oedo onsen and you can place your shoes in the many lockers available. Put your shoes, lock the locker and take the locker key with you.

Shoes locker

After which, you proceed to register at the counter and you will be given another locker key to put your things and clothes. You do not need to carry any cash inside Oedo, this locker key also serves as your form of payment within Oedo.

Main locker key which is also used to charge your purchases

Then, you can choose your yukata design and size before heading into the changing cum locker room. You can wear your undergarments inside but change your clothes to the yukata provided. Then you are ready to be transported to the Edo period. The day we went, it was not too crowded.

Rows of shop~

We had our dinner here! It's in a section where there is a large seating area and a few food stalls.

Menu

Tea and water are provided free flow for everyone

Our curry katsu! As I always say, you can't go wrong with Japanese curry!

After our filling dinner, we decided to head out to the foot bath! It's a rather chilly night outside though! Oedo does provide a layer of outerwear to wear over the yukata but sometimes the outerwear might be fully utilised!

To foot bath~

So pretty!

Soaking our feet in the warm water! 

There's a fish spa there available at a cost

Whenever I read manga, I see the characters trying to fish the balloon out of the water and I decided to try it out!

Caught it.... NOT! I nearly had it but the string holding the hook broke before I maneuvered the balloon towards me! Not as easy as I thought... T.T Even if you fail, you can still get a balloon though!

Lastly, we bought a fruity ice cream to share before leaving Oedo~ The flavour we chose was rather sour though! >.<

After changing back to our own clothes, we proceed to the counter to make payment for our purchases. Then it's time to return to our upgraded room for a good night's rest!

And... that's the end of Day 6!

To Day 7!~