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.