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.

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.