Tampines 1

I just went to Tampines 1 on Saturday... And boy, was it CROWDED.

I didn't take photos and all, but trust me, it's like twice, three times, or maybe even four times as crowded as Orchard is.

The stores were all pretty cool. I found clothes with the kind of designs I was looking for Clar for quite a while (after not being able to find them for so long), but the prices were a bit steep... =/ It wasn't too comfortable for him too- Anyway, there are 2 places in particular I want to mention:

Uniqlo

Like oh. my. god. That was my exact reaction when I got to the shop. I really wanted to go check it out (though I hadn't really had much of an impression of it yet), but the queue was CRAZY.

Mind you, this queue wasn't for payment. This was the queue to ENTER the shop. I should have taken a photo of the queue, just to give you an idea.

I figured that the only time the queue will be short enough for me to even consider going, I would either have to wait for the fad to die down, or go during office hours on a weekday (not during the primary/secondary/JC school holidays either). The advantages of tetiary education in Singapore ;) You never have to clash with the school holidays of all the other schoolchildren.

I'll have to give another review when I actually get in.

Manpuku

We went to queue to go in 15 minutes before it opened for the dinner crowd, and it paid off =) Even though I spent a while walking around trying to figure out what to eat, Clar and I still managed to beat the huge crowd... (Thank goodness... Although, of course, thanks to my slow-ness we still had a queue in front of us...)

The concept is slightly similar to Marche. Everyone is given a card (with a limit of 100 SGD -- if you intend to spend more you have to pay the 100 off first before proceeding with your subsequent purchases) and you can go around the many different stalls there to buy your food. The bill will be charged to the card that they gave you, and you can then pay the bill on your way out.

There were stalls selling Japanese desserts, drinks (I tried those! The dango totally changed my perception of the food -- and the only time I ate it was in Japan), tarts, udon, curry, Japanese grill, Okonomiyaki etc... Click here to see the full list of stalls there.

A friend was recommending the ramen stall, so I bought from there. Boy, was it good. It's better than Ajisen and those local ramen stalls... =D Their soup and noodles were good. I went to google, and found out that the ramen stall I ate at (Aoba) is ranked within the top 10 ramen stalls in Japan, and top 3 within Hokkaido. =D Awesome.

Maybe next time I can try Okonomiyaki (if I manage to resist the temptation to get the ramen again)... It'll take me a lot of willpower to do that though, cause I don't like any of the okonomiyaki that you get from Singapore... (especially those at those 'pasar malam's)

Again, no photos =( Sorry about that.

Signing off... ...

I'll definitely be going back to Tampines 1 during the holidays =D