Japan and U.S. Domestic Travel Blog

Travel blog, starting with a trip to Japan March 20, 2010 through April 4, 2010 and continuing through both local and long-distance travel thereafter.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Day 13 - Adventure through Japan "Yokohama and Akihabara"

Part I - Long morning, Yokohama:  We had a simple plan for the day, meet Jasmine, an old friend from North Carolina in Yokohama at 9:15 at a designated 7-11, explore Chinatown for a bit and then head to the Ramen Museum.  The rest of the day was sort of just free time, we knew we wanted to finally go to Akihabara for awhile though.

We knew Yokohama was close to the bay and much closer to the Ocean then Tokyo itself and also were prepared for the 45 minute train ride south to get there.  What we were not prepared for was the 50mph or higher wind we encountered once we finally arrived.  Luckily, we left early (around 7:45am) because this is the only time the train ran late or was delayed the entire time we were in Japan.  Due to the high winds, we got stuck on the track for an additional half hour or so, it was not fun.  Finally out and at the 7-11, we were stuck waiting for Jasmine for an addition half hour since she was also delayed.  The morning was long and already not looking too good.

Part II - China Town:  In attempt to still do something with the morning, we begin the walk to Chinatown while chatting and just generally catching up with a friend we hadn't seen in years.  The entire group decided we should look for a Starbucks or like place so we could catch a drink and some breakfast.  Oh yeah, did I mention it was still only around 45F and light rain with this high wind?  The weather was not pleasant at all for the morning.

Our Chinatown visit ended up being nothing more then walking through a street of it to get to a Starbucks (Chinatowns always seem to have a nice two story Starbucks, why is that?) and another street on the way back out to the train station.  Nearly ever shop was still closed because it was still very early morning to them (something I never got used to), there wasn't even a lot of people out and about due to the wind.  The wind was so strong we were actually dodging full potted plants (that probably weighed 30lbs or more) that had knocked over in front of stores and onto the sidewalks and downed signs.  It was not very fun, but at least we had food in our stomachs from the Starbucks.

Part III - Ramen Museum:  After some confusion on what train to take and what station we even made it inside to we finally figure out that Yokohama has a local only and a longer JR line system.  Unfortunately, the station we were at was local only, so the switch at Shin-Yokohama to the JR line took longer then we had hoped.  After the debating and finally walking on to the correct line, we were on our way to the Ramen Museum.

After getting off here, I recall the wind was a little less terrifying.  Probably around 20-25mph now.  The map we had to get to the Ramen Museum was rather straight-forward, so after about five or six blocks of walking we located it without too many issues.  At one point I thought we had taken a wrong turn, but it turned out Matt knew where we were going somehow. 


Once inside it was about 11am and starting to become lunch time.  I was rather disappointed by the "museum" ascpect of the place as there really wasn't much to see and none of it was in English.  Matt, myself and Jasmine continued on to the bottom floor (two stories underneath) in order to search for some real ramen instead.  The entire basment was set up like Edo era Japan, it was a pretty awesome site.  Ramen stalled lined the outside walls of the entire first floor, with the second floor having a replica bath and a few more restuarants.  We realized the place was starting to fill up with people rather quickly, so we move on to a Ramen ticket machine and quickly head inside to get the goods.  It was a good decision as by the time we were finished eating (the Miso Ramen was some of the best I ever had too), the lines to get a bowl in any of the 15 or so shops was at least 30 people long each.  It was lunch time for sure.

With the guys in a line that would take at least an hour to get through, we grab Donnie (as she was unable to determine if any of the Ramen was vegetarian) and head back out to explore this side of Yokohama for awhile as by this time we had enough of the crowds that were inside.  We end up just walking around a few blocks adjacent to the museum for awhile, with Donnie stopping at a Kombini for food and ended back up at the museum to get the guys so we could head to Akihabara.  We had to wait awhile longer for them to come out, but I was enjoying watching the waterfall that was directly across the street from the Ramen Museum entrance (I believe it was for the restaurant there), it was very calming. 
We finally left around 2pm, it was time to finally see what Akihabara had in store for us.
Part IV - Akihabara:  The train headed to Akihabara was pretty packed, so we actually got split up between cars trying to find a place to sit.  Jasmine and myself ended up sitting next to each other, while the other four walked between cars to find seats for themselves.  The ride was going to be long, about an hour if we didn't hit any delays, so while Jasmine was reading on her mobile device (I don't recall what it was), I decided to blend in with the rest of the Japanese people that ride the train and fell asleep.

I was surprised at the fact that I actually did get some rest while sleeping like that, before I knew it we were at Akihabara.  Once off the train and in one large group again, we formulate the plan to meet back up at the train station around 6pm (I think).  Matt, myself and Jasmine decided to walk together, while the rest of the group went off on their separate ways. 

I had a "tour map" printed out prior to coming here, with all of the shops I wanted to hit marked out.  Among the list were places like Yellow Submarine (used figured), Softmap #7 (specifically more used figured), Animate, Gamerz, Radio Kaiken, Super Potato and more.  By this time we had decided that there was not enough room/weight left in our bags to purchase any books, so I walked through any book floors or stores quickly so as to not purchase anything.  We did however stop in a few used game stores as well. 

Yellow Submarine was awesome for some of the model kits they had in stock and for some of the life-sized anime figures on display (sadly, no pictures allowed).  One of the most memorable was a set of Ah, Megami-sama! figured that must have been 7 foot tall each, I was later able to find normal figure sized versions of the three statues for 1,200 yen, so I just had to buy them.

Animate was also memorable for how they displayed merchandise, it was organized by series so it was much easier to find what you were looking for.  Posters were displayed across the top of the aisles to locate the series, underneath the they would have merchandise that varied from stationary and plushies all the way to model cars (you attach specific decals to them) and more.  It was rather interesting. 

Softmap #7 had probably the greatest selection of figures out of all the stores we hit in Akihabara, for fair prices too.  They reminded me of the shops in Nakano, where we were there to actually purchase stuff instead of just browsing. 

There was also a Gashopan store I don't recall the name of that was pretty awesome.  I picked up a ToraDora grab bag here (that turned out to just have Ami stuff in it -.-) and there was cosplay stores on the 3rd and 6th levels.  I never ended up buying any cosplay items, but they were actually really well made for a fair price (most where under $200 for complete outfits).

Most of Akihabara turned out to be just browsing in whole, the sites were there to see, but it was actually a lot smaller then I had imaged, only spanning two or three blocks total.  I never found four or five of the stores I was looking for, the place was set up rather confusingly.  The only place we could find to sit down for awhile to rest too was a McDonalds on the corner about half-way through the walk, and of course, it was busy!  My goodness, it was busy in there.  Overall we had a good time and got to see a lot of interesting stuff here.  It was decided that most of the next day, our time reserved for Akihabara, would be spent in the large number of arcade that we were purposely avoiding this day.  Oh, how badly I wanted to go in, but I reserved myself for the last day.


Part V - Night walk and Family Restuarant:  We meet back up with the group with suprisingly little hasle and part ways with Jasmine in order to return to the apartment.  They wanted to stop by a few places before heading back, so we get off on different stops with just Matt and myself going back to drop off our bags and rest for awhile.  We still had not eaten anything for dinner, so our plan was to go back out around 8pm or so in order to get some food and then possibly hit up one of the many pachinko/slot places that surrounded where we were staying. 

Prices:
¥2,300 - Cold medicine.
¥1,300 - Starbucks food (for two).
¥4,600 - Pokemon merchandise.
¥2,300 - Lunch at Chinese restaurant (for two).
¥1,500 - UFO catcher tries to get ToraDora figure.
¥3,300 - Approx. how much was spent on anime merchandise in Nakano.
¥1,500 - Various food items for dinner, enough to feed two (like Yakitori).

Lesson's learned:
Asakusa attracts a lot of Asian foreigners.
Tokyo Sky Tree is going to be HUGE.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Day 12 - Adventure through Japan "Asakusa, Ueno and Nakano"

Part I - Asakusa: After much discussion the night before, we decided to begin the day in opposite directions.  Myself and Matt would start off by going to Asakusa (which we knew was under construction), while the rest of the group headed to the Imperial Palace/Gardens.


We arrived still in the early morning (for Japan), around 9am or so.  Most of the shops on the main street were just starting their morning routine.  Some of the sites were obscured by the fact the main hall was under construction, which was a little disappointing, but it was still beautiful with the cherry blossoms now in full bloom. Being so early in the morning, there wasn't a lot to do in Asakusa other then walk around and enjoy the sites, so that is exactly what we did. There were a lot of Chinese and Korean tourists there at the time, more then any other place we had visited so far and unfortunately (as most tourists seemed to be), they were very rude. Standing in middle of walkways, blocking the path and also going as far as smoking, literally, right beside the no smoking sign. After a short 30 minutes or so I was ready to walk away from the main area. 

Part II - Walking the basin/Meet-up:  We continue down a few side roads and end up at the basin. The view was nice, but unfortunately was also littered. The bayside walk didn't seem to be as well maintained as other areas of Japan we had been in. There was even the sad sight of homeless people living under the walkways there.  A little further down the bay, we were able to get away from the people however (and most of the litter), so it was more pleasant.  After taking a few pictures of Tokyo Sky Tree under construction, we finished our walk by heading back to (what we thought was) Asakusa Station.  Turned out however that Asakusa has two completely different lines, basically one that doesn't go anywhere of importance and another one that is the main line, which we came in on.  We walk in the station and walk back out without taking a train, which freaked our Pasmo cards out.  We straighten that out with the staff and finally make it back on a train headed in the right direction, which was to the Kabuki theater inside Ginza.  The next step for the day was to "pick-up" Jason (like he was a kid being baby-sat, haha) from Donnie and Brandon, while they go pick up a Kabuki play.  From what we had read, you simply get in line around 10am-11am and wait for the matinee tickets to go on sale...

Upon arrival, I began to look for cold medicine as I still felt like crap from the cold I caught four or five days back.  I think we arrived around 10:20, with the meet-up time of 10:30.  I score some cold medicine (it was basically Tylenol w. coudine for $22, and then head back to the front of the Kabuki theater to wait, they all arrive a few minutes later, just a little late.  We wait around outside the Kabuki place for a few, waiting to confirm they have tickets so we can move on with our day.  The original plan was that we would go to the Pokemon Center and then do some shopping before coming back to the Sony Building to meet up around 2pm.  We wait around for awhile, only to discover that tickets are a horribly complicated process and to make a long story short their only real chance of seeing a show was to come back on Friday or Saturday, with Friday already booked with Yokohama we were left with changing plans for Saturday instead, which dominoed to how the rest of this day would turn out.
Part III - Sony Building:  With everyone together and plans suddenly thrown up in the air, we begin the walk to the Sony Building.  The catch here?  I did not have a map that went from Kabuki to Sony because that was not how the route was supposed to go.  We end up wandering around Ginza for a much longer period of time then I had hoped only to arrive at the Sony Building at 10:55, five minutes before they opened.  I was in search of food in order to be able to take the medicine purchased earlier, but once again this was never an easy task to accomplish.

Once in the Sony building, we come to the quick realization that it is nothing but a bunch of demo's for products you can purchase inside their store.  Nothing innovative or "new to us" here compared to what we had seen elsewhere.  It was about ten times less interesting then the Panasonic building we had gone to in Odaiba on a whim.  I was horribly disappointed and was further irritated by the signs posted all over the store stating they would not sell to foreign customers due to region locks, blah blah blah... not that I was planning on buying anything there anyway, but it was annoying.  There were two food places located inside as well, but for some stupid reason they only opened at 11:30am and 12pm and I was in no mood to wait in a boring place like that for one to open (not to mention they were horribly overpriced).  Extremely disappointed in what the Sony Builidng had to offer, we decide to move on in hopes of salvaging the day.
Part IV - Pokemon Center:  Ah, these good 'ol maps.  We get out on the wrong side of the station, but I do manage to figure out what exit we're supposed to take, so we turn around as everyone starts to get aggitated, I believe at me.  See, it had been left up to me (and Matt, on occasion) to map out everywhere we were going and was normally the one stared at when it came time to make a decision of what to do next, especially when things went wrong as they were this day.  We begin the walk down the road with me disclaiming that I'm not sure if we should be taking a left or right out of the station, but everyone followed me on the assumtion that the right I took was the correct decision.

Luckily we run across a Starbucks half-way down the road and are finally able to stop for some food.  I was less irritated after being able to finally take my medicine, well over an hour from purchasing it.  After looking around at the landmarks (of all things, McDonalds were marked well on my map and proved helpful) I realize while sitting there eating that we, in fact, should've taken a left out of the station and so we had gone about four blocks in the wrong direction.  But I had warned them!

With medicine taken and food eaten we were on the road again, this time in the right direction!  We spot all the other landmarks that were supposed to be along the way and finally end up in the Pokemon Center.  Unfortunately none of the pictures taken in here actually came out, but let me tell you it was an interesting place.  Much smaller then I had hoped, but still interesting none-the-less.  I picked up some merchandise, such as a Pikachu pancake pan (which I have yet to get to work well), Togepi T-Shirt and a few figures.  With the rest of the group pretty disinterested, we moved on.

Part V - Hibiya Under the Tracks:  Another place out of my tour book was Hibiya Under the Tracks, a row of restaurants underneath train tracks.  Unfortunately once we finally arrived there we were at the time between lunch and dinner, around 2pm.  Most places in Japan close during the early afternoon time, so it was horrible timing on our part.  After pacing around hungry for a good 30 minutes, we find no place suitable to eat at under the tracks and end up in a large corporate building across the street that had a Chinese place in the corner.  For some reason, the Chinese places always seemed to have an English/Picture menu and we were just simply ready to eat by this time.  Everyone was stressed out by this point, so we just sit down and try our best to enjoy the meal.  It turned out to taste pretty good, the only down side is that the drinks were literally ¥500 each, which was horribly expensive.


Part VI - Ueno Park:  With our stomachs now full, we were ready to tackle another site for the day, Ueno Park.  We didn't arrive until around 3:30pm, which must have been bad timing because it was BUSY.  I knew Hanami was in full swing and the cherry blossoms were gorgeous, but still!  Quickly being reminded of walking D.C. during the Cherry Blossom festival we were ready to not be there anymore.  Splitting from the group and deciding to meet back up in an hour in front of the Takoyaki stand in the beginning, we begin the trek down the main walkway (above).

After already being exhausted by the walking earlier in the day and short train rides thus far (which normally gave us some sitting down time), we reached the end of the road and were treated to a street performer that was giving a show in the clearing.  We sat down on the pavement and just watched him for a good 10 or 15 minutes in order to give our legs a rest.  He did a bunch of cool things with bouncy balls, music and then the balls that are on strings (what are those called?).  It was an entertaining show.

We turn around and start heading back the way we came, however this time taking the side-roads and dodging in and out of the foot traffic that was mainly headed in the opposite direction.  We ended back up at the meeting spot way early, around 4pm, so we decide to walk over to the opposite corner where there were some interesting looking shops.  I was finally treated to some anime stores and shopping, there was a lot of SquareEnix merchandise in one large Duty-Free shop and we hit up and arcade or two (winning our first ToraDora figure, I got it!) and head back to meet up at the designated time.  We were going to head back to the apartment for a few (and to drop off the things I had bought) before heading out to meet Jackie, a friend from the States, to go shopping in Nakano.  Luckily Nakano was only two stops East of the apartment, so it was very easy to get to.  Remember the "wrong" place I waited at for the apartment manager the day before?  Yeah, there.  We decided that the KFC, since I knew where that was, would be the perfect place to meet.

Part VII - Nakano and shopping:  Ah, I was looking forward to this.  A few months before leaving for this trip we were informed from a friend that there was a discount mall full of anime figures and merchandise.  Figures that would normally cost $20-$50 online were in this mall for the likes of ¥500 and less.  There was sure to be a wide range of assorted goods here, and at better prices then we would ever find in Akihabara. 

Completely hyped back up to finally get some shopping in, I was ready to go.  We arrived in Nakano shortly before nightfall, it was around 6:15pm or so, a little early, but there none-the-less.  They had a lot of flowers in bloom and were actually doing a lantern festival kind of thing, which was cool to see.  The roads intersecting in front of the station were full of flowers and greenery, so it was a pretty site to see in middle of a well built city.  The KFC is just barely off to the side of the picture here, which was our destination.  We end up waiting here for about 30 minutes for Jacky to appear, it turned out she actually forgot where the KFC was as it wasn't a famous stop or anything.  And here I picked it so we wouldn't get lost!  Luckily, it was pretty close to the station exit, so she did finally find us.  After chatting for just a few minutes, we were on our way to the mall.  It was just across the street and to the right down this long hallway like path.

Once inside we were greeted with this huge shopping arcade.  The place filled with anime goods was located inside this maze.  We run through this hallway here in order to end up at a set of stairs located near the back.  Once up the stairs and on the 3rd floor, we begin to see the anime merchanside.  Beginning from the back and working our way forward, inside just the first store I was greeted with gashapon figures by the hundreds.  We unfortunately only got to be in here until about 9pm before most of the shops were closed or in the process of closing.  We scored some great merchandise for the first time in though, including a ToraDora beach towel (which yes, I will be using at the pool this Summer) and even an Isamu figure from Macross Plus for Matt, which he didn't even know existed.  Coming out paying about 1/4th of what would be a fair price for the merchandise in the States, I finally had a satisfying shopping experience.

Jacky wasn't really feeling too well and we had yet to have dinner, so we parted ways and headed back to the apartment.  Luckily we had that Wal-mart type grocery store to walk through on the way back, so we just picked up something while walking through there and stayed at the apartment to rest the remainder of the night.

Prices:

  • ¥2,300 - Cold medicine.
  • ¥1,300 - Starbucks food (for two). 
  • ¥4,600 - Pokemon merchandise.
  • ¥2,300 - Lunch at Chinese restaurant (for two).
  • ¥1,500 - UFO catcher tries to get ToraDora figure.
  • ¥3,300 - Approx. how much was spent on anime merchandise in Nakano.
  • ¥1,500 - Various food items for dinner, enough to feed two (like Yakitori).
Lesson's learned:
  • Asakusa attracts a lot of Asian foreigners.
  • Tokyo Sky Tree is going to be HUGE.
  • Getting Kabuki tickets is really difficult.
  • Sony Building sucks, don't bother going there.
  • Pokemon Center is actually pretty small, very interesting merchandise though.
  • Hibiya Under the Tracks would be a lot better for dinner and drinking.
  • Ueno during Hanami is busier then D.C.'s Cherry Blossom Festival, even on a weekday afternoon.
  • Nakano shopping is awesome, but hours are limited. (some shops were closed by 7pm)

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Day 11 - Adventure through Japan "Nishi-Ogikubo, Ghibli and Shinjuku"

Part I - More travel:  I was ready for this day to go better, Nikko was just not the way I wanted it to be at all and actually I look back on it as a nearly complete failure of a day.  Hopefully Day 11 will be better!  Starting to fight the cold a little better, now with a throat that was no longer sore at least, we head off bright and early so not to run late for the day.  I was still nervous, however, since we were on a tight schedule for the day and it took an extremely long amount of time to get out to Nikko compared to what I had originally planned for.  Trying to push those fears aside, we move on and get out of the Ryokan and into taxi's that would take us straight to Nikko Station at 6:30am.

Part II - Apartment Adventure:  So, did I mention that by this time I still had no concrete information on our apartment for the final 4 days?  No address and no place to meet the apartment manager as of yet, so I was also extremely nervous about this (our payment had been made in full).  I had a cell phone number and e-mail address, but without cell phone signals (not to mention the $2/min charges), they were of no use to me now.  While on the Shinkansen back we formulate the best plan possible, I will go to Nakano to meet the apartment manager and get into the apartment (which was the last plan mention by him through e-mail) and the rest of the group will head to Odaiba to retrieve the rest of our luggage.  With both of our smaller bags in hand, I change at the tranfer point around 9:30am and arrive in Nakano.

Now, I have the thought of "why are we meeting in Nakano when the apartment is in Nishi-Ogikubo?", but dismiss it as the apt. manager knowing better then myself.  I get off in Nakano, call the apt. manager from a phone booth (which I finally figured out how to use, go me!) that was located by actually speaking Japanese to the train station workers.  It seemed I was doing better in Japan by myself then I was with people! haha  ...I confirm our meeting place of the nearby KFC and then also call Sirena to confirm meeting her at the station leading to the Ghibli Museum at 12pm. 

I kinda sorta get into the KFC,  by that I mean I am an idoit and couldn't locate the odd looking front door, so I went into the side-hallway and took the elevator up.  This was actually a good point since I decide to walk back downstairs to the first level to get a good view of anyone who came in.  Struggling with two rolling bags, a nice gentleman actually offers to carry them down for me.  It is amusing looking back on it, because without hesitation I said "onegaishimasu" (please), where in America I would've said "uh... I got it" in fear someone would run off with said bags.  I didn't even realize this point at the time.  Finally downstairs with luggage in the corner I realize I am STARVING.  KFC for breakfast, eh?  Why not, it's Japan, ne?  After some struggling to order (again!) due to my original selection being sold out, I end up with a chicken sandwhich with egg on it.  Reminded me of something Chick-fil-a would have here in the States, it was a bit salter, but actually really good!  After eating I continue to wait around for this apt. manager until 10:30 arrives.  He is late!  Finally arriving just a few minute short of 11am, he proceeds to apologize profusely as we should've been in Nishi-Ogikubo! *facepalm*  ...I should've went with my gut instinct here.  Long story short, we take the train two more stops West and end up at the apartment where he proceeds to hold me up (explaining things about the place) until 11:30am.  I literally end up running back to Nakano where the others had been waiting for about 15minutes so we can go back to the apartment with the luggage and FINALLY head off to the museum.  With no way to contant Sirena, I once again feel horrible for leaving her in the dark.

Part III - Ghibli Museum:  With the rest of the group hating me by this point (though it wasn't my fault) because believe Ghibli will not let you in past the ticketed time, we all head to the Ghibili Museum anyway to see what can be done. By this time it is already 12pm, the time stated on the ticket.  With a 15 minute or so train ride, we get off and see no sign of Sirena (it was now 12:15 or so), which was no surprise.  Walking to the museum took another 15 minutes (Matt and myself were taking a different route, one stop past the rest of the group to look for Sirena) to walk to the museum from there, along the way we see this awesome antique car/truck and get this picture. 

Greeted by a life-size (I presume) Totora outside, we arrive at the museum and attempt to call to the others over walkie, but were briskly swept inside by staff, who assured us out tickets were still good and forced us inside (literally) without the chance to go back outside (no re-immittance).  It was a little odd, to say the least.  We end up meeting back up with them inside, but somehow Matt lost his ticket to the short film, so we stayed separated from the group for just about all of the museum.  It was an interesting place to say the least.  Some of the highlights were seeing the case full of all the cels used to make Ponyo, I believe there were over 700,000 if I read the plaque correctly.  They were all nicely bound and organized, stacked on top of each other.  There was also a room where models, that varied slightly from each other, were arranged on a turntable.  Once the turntable started spinning quickly the light would start to strobe and you could see how they were now appearing to be animated, it was really awesome.

We finish up by heading to the store, where I bought some very cool unique items and finally headed to the cafe to eat some sort of weird chicken/rice bowl for lunch (I didn't like it much), but the ice cream for dessert was yummy.



Part IV - Tokyo Metro Building:  It was somewhere around 3pm by this time.  The original plan was to go to Tokyo Metro Building with Sirena as our guide, but we had long since lost her (which was my fault).  We decide to try and head there ourselves, but unfortunately I was not armed with a lot of information on the place.  We litterally wander around for about 30 minutes, unable to find anything that looks like a top-floor restuarant or observation deck (like Umeda in Osaka had), with the rest of the group hungry we decide to let them go get food while myself and Matt head to Shinjuku so I can finally go to Kinokuniya, which I was looking forward to.  The Kinokuniya branches in the States always seemed to have what I was looking for and anytime they appeared at an anime convention they had some rare products.  Couldn't wait to see what the main store had.

Part V - Shinjuku and Kinokuniya:  Not being far from Shinjuku at this point, we decide to just walk.  Frustrated at how most of the day gone up to this point, we really just wanted to take a long walk alone anyway.  After 20 minutes or so, it was clear we were in the thick of Shinjuku, after entering and finally exiting the station.  Once again, my maps were not clear enough and we couldn't figure out just what side of the station we exited on and what side street Kinokuniya was located on.  I didn't care much at this point though as Shinjuku looked a lot like Shibuya to me, which I loved.  The tall buildings, arcades by the dozen and bright lights, I was just enjoying the moment.

After stopping in a few arcades and walking the streets for awhile, we finally figure it's time to find this place and stop in a drug store to ask.  Luckily the clerk was able to figure out what we were asking and pointed us in the correct direction.  It must have taken another 20 minutes, but we finally arrived!  Much to my surprise, I was less impressed then the Book-off's stores we had previously visited by this main branch of Kinokuniya though.  I was disappointed by the selection and how difficult it was to find anything in the six story building without speaking Japanese fluently or being able to read Kanji.  It took us forever to find them, but we did locate our JBP volume 2 books for the upcoming Japanese Intermediate class we were taking.  Other then that, I don't recall even buying anything here, it was just like a large Borders or Barnes and Noble, but everything was in Japanese and nearly impossible to navigate.  Not to mention, by this time, I was spoiled by Book-off prices.

Part VI - Ending the Night:  Somehow I don't recall what we really did for the rest of the night.  I think we returned to the apartment shortly after leaving Kinokuniya as our feet were really tired from all of the walking.  I think we also stopped by a few arcades spotted on the way back, but never saw anything memorable.  It was a very exhausting day and I was happy to be in an apartment with a bed.  This one was a much more modern place (as to be expected in Tokyo).  Located on the 2nd floor of a seven story building.  There were two separate bedrooms, a normal size bathroom (set up Japanese style), kitchen and large living room area with pull-out bed.  Just enough room for all 5 of us and some place I would easily think about returning to on future trips to Tokyo.  It was a pleasant experience.  The only downside was I was informed not to have more then 2 heaters on at a time because we could blow a fuse... so we kinda froze the first night.  Come the 2nd night, the apt. manager said "try 3 and see" so we were fine after that.

Prices:
  • ¥500 - Breakfast (KFC).
  • ¥2,400 - Ghibli museum tickets (two).
  • ¥4,000 - Misc. merchandise at museum.
  • ¥1,600 - Misc. food at museum.
  • ¥6,400 - JBP books from Kinokuniya.
  • ¥2,000 - Various games at arcades.
Lesson's learned:
  • Have a plan on how to meet up with the apt. manager BEFORE leaving for Japan, even if they don't want to 2 weeks in advance.
  • How to use a pay-phone!
  • State the obvious to apt. manager, like "we're not staying in Nakano".
  • Don't count on apt. manager to be on time.
  • KFC in Japan, like most places, is better then the States.
  • Don't go near Ghibli unless you are prepared to be swept inside Ghibli.
  • Tokyo Metro Building is not easy to navigate by sight.
  • Shinjuku is as huge as the station makes it out to be.
  • Kinokuniya is not easy to locate.
  • Kinokuniya really is no better then a Book-off, I actually enjoyed Book-off stores more.
  • Pay attention when the apartment manager mentions something about one room having to freeze-to-death.  Even when in a rush, this part is important.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Day 10 - Adventure through Japan "Nikko"

Part I - Travel:  We get up early with the plan set to just check out of the Sunroute hotel in Odaiba and head to Nikko as early as possible.  By this time I had come to the realization I was sick and there was no way we could do half of the activities I originally had planned in Nikko.  With the activites for the day drastically reduced from 3 temples and some Nature hiking (I really wanted to see the Kegon Waterfall) cut down to just one major temple, we set off to meet to meet everyone in the lobby and depart.  With some of us late, we end up leaving a little later then planned and finally depart at 8:15 with just the one needed bag for our overnight stay.  The rest of the luggage would be left at the hotel so we wouldn't be dragging it all around Nikko just for just one night there.  More on this decision to follow in Day 11.

Train train train! Got to northern Tokyo, transferred to the Shinkansen. Got off Shinkansen, transferred to the JR line going to Nikko. There was confusion on how to buy the tickets and what train we were supposed to get on exactly.  Up to this point we had just been taking Shinkansen by using our JR passes, so it was a bit of a confusing mess that I had no patience for with a cold.  Finally we got to the Nikko station at about 11:00.  It was a much longer commute then I had mapped out, for reasons I have yet to figure out.  Most estimates I saw/see online say Nikko is about 1 hour North of Tokyo, so even coming from Odaiba I cannot figure out how it took 3 hours total.
Part II - Getting lost:  Already frustrated by the transfers and length of time the initial travel took, we arrive at Nikko Station only to be completely lost.  Information and maps were not readily available online for Nikko, so I was working off of the two tourist maps I was able to locate, which were little to no help.  After discussing our route with both the workers at the station and police inside a nearby koban, we decide to hop on a bus heading in the generally correct direction.

While waiting for the bus to arrive (which was a good 30 minutes), we take in some scenery around us.  Luckily it wasn't nearly as cold as we had been preparing for and there was no longer a thick coat of snow on the ground.  Instead we were greeted by 40-45F weather and partly cloudy skies.  It was a pleasant surprise in an otherwise bad day so far. Once finally on the bus we learned, unfortunately, it would not take us to our destination.  After another discussion with someone who was taking the bus who spoke English, it turns out the bus had the final destination in the opposite direction of where we needed to be, so we needed to get off.  It was a good mile from our Ryokan, but we got off at the next stop and began the walk, which was mainly uphill.  At this point I was so glad we only had one bag each, but was also exhuasted and not feeling good, so I don't remember much other then being frustrated by the day so far.

Part III - Ryokan: Somehow we managed to locate the Ryokan, which was off of a side street.  I was nervous as when we first arrived, there was a building on our right that had the name "Nikko Green Hotel" on it and was nothing more then someones house, or so it looked.  After knocking and waiting a few minutes, I decided to take a walk around and actually discover that there is a hotel-sized building across the street from the place we were waiting at.  Once inside, we learn it is "only" 1pm (far cry from the 11am-noon I was planning on originally) and check-in was not until 3pm.  We leave our bags however and head off to see what would end up being the only site of the day.
Part IV - Toshugu Shrine:  Other then Kegon Waterfall, which I had realized would not be possible, this was where I really wanted to go in Nikko.  This Shrine houses the 3 National Treasure carvings, including the original "hear/see/speak no evil" monkies, and Tokugawa Ieyasu's tomb.

We stop at a noodle shop quickly for some lunch, off of the main street we had to take to get to all of the Shrines.  It was pretty good food, but very confusing for again, the lack of English.  Kind of salty too, instead of flavorful, but I didn't feel much like eating so it might have had something to do with it.   The walk to Toshogu ended up being pretty long, but we also stopped a few time to take in the very nice scenery.  Along the way we stopped at Taisha shrine, which was a little moss-covered stone tori (gate) and shrine/alter.  It was a very peaceful area.  Some time around 3pm we finally arrive at Toshugu Shrine, I was afraid we were lost by this point because the length of the walk.

We buy our tickets and get inside.  I was finally happy after getting here, as right near the entrance they had the monkey carvings.  It was so cool to see the "original" hear/say/see no evil carvings and what they were originally a part of.  Got a lot of pictures here.  The informational boards were actually in English too, so it was very cool.  I finally felt we accomplished something for the day.

After reading through the map/brochure for the place, we continue further inside.  They pretty much had the walkway set up like a tour, so you couldn't really miss anything.  The remaining carvings and tomb were really awesome to see, on top of that there were cute little stone turtles on the side of the pathways.  The walk up to the Tomb was very taxing, but worth it just to feel the atmosphere of the place, it was unlike any other site we visited in Japan, very heavy air about it.  We stay up here for awhile and get some very cool pictures.  The trees and landscape surrounding the area were gorgeous.


Inside the Shrine itself, they were doing restoration, however it was still open.  The walkway was covered in informational boards regarding the process, what had been done and what was still being done.  This was also very unique as the only site we saw that was still able to be observed during the restoration period.
Part V - Walk back and Dinner:  I was still feeling pretty bad from the cold and was very exhausted after the hike to the tomb, so come 4:30pm or so when we were nearing the end of the Shrine, it was time to head back to the Ryokan.  Matt split off from the rest of the group and walked back alone, where he snapped a few nice pictures of the area.  Myself and the rest of the group went the way of the main road and stopped at a few local shops to grab a couple of O-Miyage before heading back to the Ryokan where dinner would be ready shortly.

Upon my arrival back in our room, I'm greeted with the great view from our window, which was just next door to Brandon and Donnie's room.  It was a nice view and I was enjoying it until the news came our toilet was broken.  So, to top off how badly my day had gone so far, we were swiftly relocated to a room on the clear opposite side of the building (a good 5 minute walk from this original room) and put in a room with a horrible view of the road and traffic.  It was very displeasing, but with inn keepers that didn't speak English (or at least not well), there wasn't much I could do.  All because of a stupid broken toilet, it didn't make sense to me at all.

Dinner was being served downstairs at 6pm.  It was a full-course Japanese meal and was a very authentic experience.  We struggled with what half of the food was and the proper way to eat it all, but that was half of the fun and the only other part of the day that I actually enjoyed.  After a very full experience of cooking shabu-shabu and eating nearly everything laid out before us, it was time to head back to our respective rooms for a few moments before going down to the Onsen. 

Part VI - Fail:  When we first arrived, we reserved our private spots in the Onsen for 8pm.  This gave me about 15 minutes to go back to our room, change into the yukata and go meet Donnie at her room to go downstairs to the Onsen together.  As far as I knew, that wouldn't be an issue.  However, once I arrive at Donnie's room, there is nobody there.  I wait around for a few minutes and finally figure she went downstairs without me for whatever reason.  However, again, with the lack of English I am guided to the wrong Onsen and end up unable to find anyone.  Completely done with the day I return to our room, take a crappy short shower and turn in for the night.  Later I find out the clock on her room's wall was about 10 minutes fast, so she went down to the Onsen without me so not to be late, little did I know where that even was.  I was guided to only the "public" bath and not the reserved one when I went down to find her, so my day ended with another misunderstanding.

Don't get me wrong though, Nikko was gorgeous.  I would just never recommend it as a day or one night trip.  I would say you need at least three to experience anything they have to offer there.  With myself having a cold and travel times being much higher then expected, my day simply turned out this way instead of what it should have been.

Prices:
  • ¥3,500 - Each Shinkansen ticket
  • ¥1,600 - Lunch for two.
  • ¥3,000 - Toshugu Shrine, full tickets (two).
  • ¥3,000 - Misc. O-miyage
Lesson's learned:
  • Travel to Nikko from Odaiba is extremely long with a lot of transfers.
  • Ryokans are interesting, but I wouldn't really recommend this one, for the crappy room we ended up with compared to the one I booked alone.
  • Toshugu Shrine is totally worth the visit and hiking.
  • Ryokan dinners are facinating, but not really that delicious (shabu-shabu was good though).
  • Ryokans are very noisy at night, lots of drunk people.
  • Onsen reservations are confusing when nobody speaks English.
  • Don't go to Nikko for any less then a three day period.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Day 9 - Adventure through Japan "Tokyo Disneyland and Roppongi"

Part I - Beginning out:  Just as planned, we begin the day around 7:30 a.m. at the breakfast/cafe place.  The morning was very uneventful.  Unfortunately, it also began with my throat being sore, so I was unsure if it was due to the dry air in the hotel or me getting sick.  Shrugging it off and moving on with the day, I settle for eating just some miso soup for breakfast and pass most of my bread and actual meal off to Matt.  It was another rainy and pretty chilly day, but we were off to Tokyo Disneyland anyway (hadn't stopped us yet), hoping that the crowds would be thin because of the bad weather and it being a Monday morning (non-holiday).  It worked for Himeji, so it should work pretty well here.

Part II - Tokyo Disneyland:  We arrive around 9 a.m., it is just me, Matt and Jason today as Donnie and Brandon split from the group to go see Cirque du Soleil before heading into the park.  There was a short walk over a bridge on the way into the park, not far from the subway station at all, so that was nice.  The bridge was lined with Disney characters down each side, they were about 2 feet tall and very detailed, they looked pretty cool.  We notice the usual Disney fare like themed buses and trains, along with a few stores, even outside the park.  Once we got to the entrance, everything seemed "normal", the lines were no longer then ones we face when going to Busch Garden back home.  5 or 6 people long, with a path 20-30 people wide, so after just a couple of minutes we fork over the money and get inside.  I had never been to a Disney park, I know, a crime, right?  So I had originally planned to come here as a two birds with one stone thing.  I knew it wouldn't be as awesome as Disneyland in California or Disneyworld in Florida, but I still heard good things about Disneyland Japan.  It is the only Disney park not operated by Disney corporation themselves, which was very interesting to me.  The admission price was, of course, a little steep, but again "two birds with one stone". 

Once through the gates, you're greeted with, what I expect from pictures, to be a normal Disney open field with flowers arranged as Mickey, shops and other cool things.  Straight ahead you could see Cinderella's castle, the open marketplace was between you at the entrance and the rest of the park with the castle in the center at this point.  Venturing into the open market, this is where things begin to look a little crowded, but after being in Japan for over a week, crowded was the normal and I had yet to notice just how bad it was going to be.  Being guided by Jason, who lived in Florida and had been to Disneyworld at least a few times, we proceed to try and find rides and attractions to be entertained by.  The first stop was Tomorrowland to try and ride Space Mountain, once inside the first themed portion of the park, we see the first wait line.  Uh, was that a wait line for Buzz Lightyear Shooters?  Because it looked kind of long... shrugging it off and pushing forward we make it to Space Mountain.  Or at least to the end of the 230 minute long line for Space Mountain.  Being educated on Disney and how things work in Florida, Jason expects that we can get a pass to return "later", which is like 2 hours max in the States, to wait in a line no longer the 20 minutes.  However, once we see the sign for even getting the pass, the realization hits us that this is going to suck.  The pass wait time was over an hour and the return time was 9 p.m.!  It was not even 9:30 a.m. at this point and the park had only been open for an hour and a half!  Absolutely insane lines to be waiting in, by this time we start to look around and realize the line to get popcorn from a vending stand must have been over an hour!  We're surprised and a little puzzled on how all of these people can look so happy to be here.  Mind you, I don't recall seeing even one American... maybe this is just "normal" here, but not for us!  To make a long story short, we walk the entire park only to find much of the same thing.  The only attraction we were able to attend was the Stitch Tiki Luau show, which had a wait time of around 20 minutes since they could cram a lot of people into the show.  It was in Japanese, but luckily aimed at kids, so I could understand most of what was going on. 

Somewhere in between walking around the park to see what we could find, I think it was around 10:30 a.m., we met back up with Brandon and Donnie for awhile.  It turned out their show didn't start until noon, instead of in the morning as we had seen advertised beforehand.  We get a little bit of shopping and picture taking done with them, I purchased an adorable Stitch/Angel plush pair that have the magnets inside to keep them together, they have disney ears on and everything and was happy about that.  Splitting up again, we decide to head over to a restuarant inside the park with Jason to eat lunch, the lines for eating were long, but not crazy.  I believe it took about 30 minutes in line before we ended up getting curry to eat, the hard part was finding a table since it was "seat yourself" once inside.  A stupid policy if you ask me, but luckily it only took an additional 10 minutes of pacing before we were able to nab one.  By this point I am slowly coming to the realization that I'm getting sick.  My stomach starts hurting half-way through eating and my throat is steadingly getting worse.  On top of the crappy day we've had pacing around Disneyland amass a huge crowd, I was not enjoying myself one bit and was really disappointed by the experience.

After eating, we hit up the penny arcade and try and wait around for Donnie and Brandon to get out of their show before heading back.  I believe we ended up giving up around 2 p.m. when they still weren't finished and head off to Roppongi with Jason.  Snapping a few pictures on the way out and picking up one last piece of merchandise, a Lilo and Stitch card holder for my PASMO subway card.  Oh, how this turned out to be worth it. With next to no real shopping accomplished up to this point (which surprised me), we head off to Roppongi where the nearest Don Quixote was located.
Part III - Roppongi:  After the subway ride and everything, we're now somewhere around 3:30 p.m., I don't remember exactly since I was feeling a bit out of it by this time.  The main goal was to get to Don Quixote, which we were told was like a huge department store, think Wal-Mart in the States.  All we needed was some warm clothing for Nikko the next day, which to our knowledge it had just snowed again there over the weekend.  We needed winter hats and gloves, along with any type of warm sweater or long sleeved shirt to fit under our coats.  However, we end up having yet another confusing map for this place.  Once we turn around in the subway station and figure out which one of the 10+ exits we should be taking, outside the station, the mapped prove not one bit more useful.  Tired and frustrated, I end up attempting to ask a nice lady standing outside a drug store which was to go and we're finally pointed in the correct direction (opposite of what the map seemed to have).  It was actually a little bit of a walk, I'd say five blocks or so.  We quickly become aware that Roppongi is indeed more modern and foreigner friendly then we read about before coming to Tokyo.  There are a lot of English restuarants here such as Outback Steakhouse and even a T.G.I. Fridays, I was surprised.  Still separated from Donnie and Brandon, the three of us walk into the Don Quixote, which seemed to be set up like a Japanese style department store from the outside, much the likes of the Bic Camera we went into while in Kyoto, but a lot more cramped with various merchandise.

There were 6 floors of shopping above head along with the ground floor and basement, which seemed to have only food.  There were a lot of different things inside, from designer luggage to alarm clocks, anime and adult merchandise.  A little bit of everything, but nothing particularly interesting.  More importantly, it was nothing like a Wal-Mart in selection and the prices were overall pretty high.  Matt was able to find a hat though, for a reasonable ¥1,000 or so, which made it worthwhile.  We exit with nothing more then that hat purchased.  Even more irritated by this time, I just wanted to eat dinner somewhere (I had pretty much skipped lunch) and rest.  We orignally talked about getting a Japanese style pizza, since we had heard they put some crazy things on them, so I attempted to find some place to eat such a thing while Jason and Matt waited for Donnie and Brandon at the subway exit.

Stumbling across an Italian place I figured we weren't going to do any better on short notice.  They had an English/picture menu and at least some sort of pizza, so it would just have to be good enough.  Once Donnie and Brandon arrived it was nearing 5 p.m. and all everyone wanted to do was eat and head back to Odaiba.  The "Italian" proved interesting, I think I had some sort of shrimp pasta dish, still having a sore throat and not feeling much like anything I didn't eat a lot of it.  The pizza they had was rather disappointing looking, I think Jason ordered one, but it was nothing memorable.  The most entertaining part was Brandon ordering the steak.  It was pretty funny as they trusted Jason with a pizza cutter for his pizza, but didn't trust Brandon with a knife for his steak.  Gotta make do with what you have, right?
Part IV - Aqua City/Shopping:  Still without warm clothes for Nikko the following day, we make one more effort to find some.  On the way back to the hotel, in Odaiba, there was a large outlet mall called Aqua City... surely they'll have something.  I had ulterior motives too, as the previous night we walked through here to get to Joypolis and I saw some merchandise at the Disney Store I wanted, but didn't want to buy before going to Disneyland.  Completely disappointed in the day and not really spending much money on merchandise thus far, we headed to the mall.  Matt decided to go back to the hotel to pack for the coming day and to get some extra r&r while the rest of us attempted to buy some clothing, at the very least.

Odaiba looked very cool at night, we had an even better view then the previous evening.  With the cold air and sickness upon me though, we rushed into the mall.  Unfortunately after much walking around and looking I ended up with no clothing, only some Disney merchandise (that was on sale really cheap) and a purse-sized umbrella.  Disappointed with the entire day and feeling like crap, we all head back to the hotel rather early (around 8 p.m.) to call it a night.  Heating up some more miso soup in the room via the coffee/tea pot, I swallow that down in hopes of it helping my throat and crash for the night after taking some of Donnie's special cold medicine that was bought in Kyoto (it had codeine in it)... I don't really remember anything after that.

Prices:
  • ¥1,800 - Breakfast (for two).
  • ¥5,800 - Disneyland tickets (each). 
  • ¥5,000 - Misc. Disney merchandise in the park.
  • ¥2,000 - Curry lunch, in the park.
  • ¥1,000 - Hat from Don Quixote.
  • ¥2,000 - "Italian" dinner (for two).
  • ¥2,300 - Disney merchandise from Outlet store (got a lot too).
Lesson's learned:
  • No sleep + cold rainy weather = sick.  I was testing myself!
  • Tokyo Disneyland's lines suck.  They aren't reasonable in the least, don't go.
  • Don Quixote is not like a Wal-Mart, they mainly have a bunch of misc. high priced items.
  • Roppongi is nothing like I thought it would be from reading articles online and I would like to try and go back there again on our next visit (this was our only trip there).
  • Japanese Pizza is not that easy to find.
  • Disney outlet stores are as awesome in Japan as they are in the States.
  • It is not easy to find warm clothes to buy in Japan in April.
  • Codeine does in fact knock me out.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Day 8 - Adventure through Japan "Odaiba and Harajuku"

Without knowing what Anime Fair would consist of, our original schedule had us attending again this day.  However, with us pretty much covering the place the day before, we decided not to go back and instead use this day to check out a few things around Odaiba and to try catch the Cosplay/Harajuku crowd that can only be seen on Sundays.  We start out around 8 a.m. again, this time trying the breakfast buffet on the 2nd floor of the hotel.  It really wasn't very good for the high price tag, but at least we ate something.

Part I - Walking/Pallette Town:  Without my consent, we end up walking to the Museum of Emerging Sciences from our hotel.  I had no idea where this place even was, so I just followed.  It was an interesting walk, but waaaay to long to begin the day with.  We did get to walk through Pallette Town, Pokemon is what it made me think of.  A small town inside a small man-made island, yes, interesting.  We also walked past a Yamaha show and a park that was oddly located inside the concrete city.  After an hour or so of walking, we arrive at the museum.

Part II - Museum of Emerging Sciences:  We arrive just as it opened at 10 a.m. so there was a line to get through.  After weighing our ticket options and what we have planned for the day, we decide there's enough time to get the "full ticket", which included the "Science of Scare" or something like that, more on this later.  We get inside after just a few minutes, again demonstrating on how efficient things run compared to the States, it was at least 30 minutes shorter then it would have been back home.  After reviewing the program and our timing we formulate a plan to catch the ASIMO demonstration at 11:15 a.m. toward the end of our tour, heading over to the environment exhibit first and also to take a look at some applied sciences.  The first part of the environment exhibit was this huge globe you could see from outside the building, it cycles through current cloud cover (as seen above), temperatures and heat patterns. It was one huge digital display and pretty awesome all by itself.  After staring at the globe for awhile, we head into the rest of the exhibits.  I don't remember exactly what they were named, but I know we got to see demonstrations of aircrafts, space exploration, weather forcasting, cells and other cool things before heading back downstairs to the robot section and where ASIMO was going to be demonstrated.

The demonstration was actually rather long, around 20 minutes.  There were no seats, just a bunch of people standing in a circle with kids sitting down toward the front.  We were introduced to ASIMO and got to see what it/he was capable of; such as running, kicking a ball, waving to the crowd and responding to some conversation.  There was a lot of explanation being done by the announcer/sidekick person, but only in Japanese so we didn't get too much from that portion.  Even though you can see video of what ASIMO can do online, it was rather neat to see it in real life.  I was surprised by just how athletic it/he can be.  It was getting even more crowded near the end, so we walked away a few minutes early to finish looking at the robotics exhibit.  Most hands-on exhibits were geared towards children and a lot of explanation boards were in Japanese only, so that hindered us a bit.  There was a rather awesome working exhibit involving balls and a conveyer system that was actually a working replica of the internet and how packets move across the web, one of the most interesting things I saw (except for the globe, which was my top pick). 

With it starting to get late, we headed to the cafe to grab a quick bite to eat and head down to the main level to enter the special "Science of Scare" exhibit.  The line was the longest yet and actually took 30 minutes or so to get through.  Once inside, it was basically a small haunted house with like 6 rooms, however what you didn't know was at the end everything you saw inside was being controlled by people watching you from the end of the house.  They had a set of 6 buttons people could press at the right moment (the entire house was displayed on TV screens, one specificly for each button), so you could see peoples reactions.  It was a rather fun time playing with people going through the house after walking through it yourself, so we stuck around for awhile there.   After that we stopped at our first (and turned out to be only) photo-sticker booth on our way out to get a spoooky photo sticker, which turned out awesome, but I'm not sure where it is right now so no picture for you!

Part III - Harajuku:  Now somewhere around 1 p.m., we're already running late for the day, but the museum was worth it. The plan is to meet back up at MegaWeb around 4 p.m. (in Odaiba). With Brandon and Jason not very interested in Harajuku, it is now down to Matt, myself and Donnie again (against my warning, Matt came).  We were going with shopping (for clothing, duh) in mind and also to observe the cosplay/fashion of Takeshita-dōri and Yoyogi Park.  Once we got there, I realized that the maps I had were completely useless and had no idea which way to go.  We do wander into a few cool shops and eventually make our way to Takeshita-dōri, just an hour later then planned.  It was PACKED, as I had imagined it would be.  Matt would lag behind as we went in and out of various clothing shops that lined the street, looking bored to death.  Apparently many shop owners frowned upon taking pictures of or even near their shops, not to mention stopping in front of them if you weren't buying something.  So, while he would get yelled at waiting for us in front of a shop, we attempted to find some cool clothing, unaware that the bridge of cosplayers was pretty far down the road and that it was getting so late.  I think we both came out with a skirt or two and a jacket, but there was still less here in my style that I had hoped there would be.  Everything was semi-reasonably prices though, for what it was (between ¥2,000 and ¥7,000 for high fashion items) and most everything in size large would fit, which was even more surprising.  Once we were nearing, what I felt like was, the end of the street I was getting desperate for a bathroom.  Learning quickly that Harajuku on a Sunday doesn't have a female bathroom line shorter then 35 people and with it now 4:00 p.m., we were forced to give up on the venture to find cosplayers for the day and to instead head back to Odaiba.  With Matt irritated and just about ready to leave us, we get through the crowd and back on the train for Odaiba, shopping bags in hand with the few prizes we could find in the mess that was the afternoon.

Part IV - Sega Joypolis:  Skipping over the unpleasant part of dropping bags off at the hotel, losing Matt and not making it to MegaWeb per the original plan, it was now 6 p.m. or so (I don't remember the exact time) and we decide that meeting up with the rest of the group at Sega Joypolis would be best.  After researching this place for some time before deciding to go, I was really looking forward to finally getting to see it.  I love arcades and love Sega, so what better then 3 stories of Sega amusements?  It was so very cool, where do I start....  First off, right from the beginning, when you walk in, there is basically an entire floor of Sega UFO catchers.  But, before I could even make it to them, in the corner was the Initial D simulator.  Now, when we were in Phoenix a year prior to this there was a "simulator" for Initial D in a large arcade there.  It was a car you could get into, but was about the size for one person to sit and still looked like a game.  It moved and was simulated driving and all that, so this is what I thought would be here after seeing the attraction online.  But no, this is Sega and we're in Japan.  For ¥600 a play (with free passanger or all included in unlimited pass ticket) you get to drive Initial D with simulated movements in a REAL CAR.  These suckers were real down to the seat belts inside, the only difference was instead of having wheels and running they were hooked up to the arcade games (which was stage 5, btw, not even out in the States yet) and on hydrolics.  We only waited in line for about 15 minutes and then is was go time.  With Matt in the drivers seat, I got to hop in the passanger seat and have the ride of my life.  It was so much fun!  He got a real thrill out of it too and finally the stress of the afternoon was gone.  Now it was my turn, off to the UFO catchers!

I immediately change in a ¥2,000 bill for a bunch of ¥100 coins, as most machines cost just that for a play or ¥500 for six plays.  After pacing the floor for a bit and trying a machine here and there I quickly assess what sort of goods can be won.  Amonst them are about five different variation of Stitch plushies, a bunch of different Disney prizes, but sadly no real Sega merchandise.  I knew Sega was famous for having Disney prizes in their machines, but was hoping for at least one Sega themed UFO catcher at Joypolis!  I settle down on one machine and concentrate on winning a few furry Stitch plushies. 

After "wasting" ¥3,000 total (I was having fun playing them, I don't care what people say), I concentrated on one machine long enough to win both a Stitch and Angel (from the T.V. series).  They were cute, furry and made a great pair.  Once they were both in my grasp an employee showed up asking if I won them and if I wanted something... I couldn't understand what she was saying between the noise of the area, soft speaking and barely knowing the language so I was lost.  Following her anyway, over to a counter where she took both of them and put them in a balloon!  With a little heart balloon! KAWAII!

After the happiness of the 1st floor of Sega Joypolis we were ready to explore the rest of the place.  There were "rides" such as a spinning roller coaster, snow-boarding interactive ride and interactive 3-D shooters, but wait lines for all of them were kind of long at 20-30 minutes each, so we instead opt for playing some arcade and token games.  I usually have more fun playing things like that anyway.  We trade in ¥2,000 for a bunch of tokens and start playing meaningless token games.  Somehow, it was a lot of fun, even after we realized there was no way we could figure out how to trade the tokens in for prizes and such since all of the machines were in Japanese.  Even funnier is that we kept winning!  Once out of the ¥2,000 worth, I spot Slot/Pachinko machines and decide to play a really cool looking Slot machine.  Slot/Pachinko machines in Japan look awesome by the way, though I still find Pachinko incredibly boring.  After putting just ¥100 into the Slot machine, I come out with more tokens then we bought with ¥2,000, haha.  We probably stayed up here doing not much of anything for way too long, but the important part was that it was really fun for some unexplained reason.  We finally finish off the rest of our tokens and finish looking around at the arcade machines.  I just had to play the huge Tetris machine that had a joystick so large you had to control it with both hands, about 4 feet tall with little buttons on the sides to play the game with, it was awesome.  Even more awesome was the two Typing of the Dead games, both the original and Lupin style!  Had a blast playing those, you even got to play 2 player mode for ¥100!  After making it through all of the games, we became exhausted and decided to head out, with the time now nearing 10:00 p.m.

Part V - Odaiba at night:  At this point, we still had not eaten anything.  There were a few crepe places and a curry dinner place in Joypolis, but we didn't really feel like eating either of those things.  Being from the States, restaurants/food places don't close until 11 p.m. or later, so eating past 10 p.m. shouldn't be an issue, right?  Wrong, not in Japan.  We ended up pacing the walkway leading from Joypolis to the subway station, through two malls, and couldn't find a single thing to eat.  Regretting a bit about not eating inside Joypolis we decide to just return to the hotel, where the kombini located inside was thankfully open.  Getting nothing more then some Onigiri and Miso soup to eat in the room, the night was about over.  Another plan is formulated for the following morning, this time to meet up at the cheaper breakfast/cafe place in the hotel downstairs at 7:30 a.m. and to head to Disneyland after eating, hoping to get there by 8:30-9 a.m. or so, since they open at 8 a.m., that should be plenty early enough, right?

Prices:
  • ¥2,400 - Breakfast (for two)
  • ¥1,100 - Museum of Emerging Sciences tickets, each for full (reg + special exhibits)
  • ¥9,000 - Misc. clothing
  • ¥600    - Tickets into Joypolis (each, without unlimited rides)
  • ¥7,500 - Stuff at Joypolis (we "wasted" a lot)
  • ¥1,000 - Kombini dinners
Lesson's learned:

  • Not to follow someone on a walk if you don't know how far it is. (again!!)
  • Working model of the internet = awesome.
  • Realtime globe = even more awesome.
  • Don't take any males to Harajuku, especially on Sunday.
  • Don't take pictures of shops in Harajuku (as I witnessed one guy get scolded harshly by a shopkeeper for doing so, it was funny, for me)
  • Have a good map for Harajuku, it's not as simple as it looks on Google to navigate.
  • If female, go to the bathroom before going to Harajuku, you will not get another chance.
  • UFO catchers are awesome, Sega is even more awesome.
  • Even food places, in a place like Odaiba, are not open past 10 p.m.
  • Odaiba at night is very pretty, but very windy and very cold in April