Saturday, January 21, 2006 - Asakusa, Shinjuku, Shibuya
Got up... to find it snowing!! Yes indeed, that day it started snowing and it was magical and lovely. (Well, and sometimes it was irritatingly wet and cold, but looking back on it, I prefer to think of it as magical. hahah) Apparently it's quite a rare thing for Tokyo, too, which makes it even cooler than we got to be there for it. It ended up delaying everyone else's flight, which sucks, but for us, it made things all pretty. I ate breakfast with Melissa, then checked out of the hotel and sat in the lobby for like 2 hours until everyone else in our group had left for the airport and it was just Kathryn, Sarah K, Milin, Fred and I. We made our way to Asakusa, to our place of accommodation for the next week, Taito Ryokan. It's a cute little two-story building (probably a converted house) with about 10 rooms, and feels more like a hostel with all the other foreigners of myriad nationalities (Spanish, Swedish, Australian, French...) than a ryokan. It's extremely cold, though, since we only have a space heater to warm our room, but everything else is good.
I actually took all these on the last day, but it makes more sense to put them here. This is me and Kathryn's room at Taito
Yep, it's pretty messy!! (That's my side)
Communal sinks
Upstairs bathroom--check out that Japanese toilet!! Who knows how to use one! I dooo :D
Shower room; the only one in the ryokan, but you can of course lock the door for privacy when you're in there.
All the shampoo is in different languages! :D
The front entryway. Never locked!
After we settled in Kathryn and I went to Shinjuku and poked around the department store Isetan (why is everything so expensive! I felt bad for dragging Kathryn there when all we could do was look, and neither of us wanted to go back outside where it was all snowy and cold) before eating dinner in a great little curry diner, where we had awesome delicious curry which we both love (mmm, I can still smell it! Curryyy! Mine even had chicken-katsu, breaded chicken strips, on top and it was so good). Randomly we stumbled across Marui, which was actually one of the places I wanted to go (a fact I didn't realize until days later!), where we browsed the Gothic Lolita clothing floors and I got a pair of Baby the Stars Shine Bright! socks for Ash
Snowy Shinjuku :3
It looks pretty now, but it was so cold and slushy, I really wasn't a huge fan of it at the time!
Of course, everyone busts out their umbrellas. They're not just for rain anymore!!
Gothic Lolita dresses at Marui
We stopped at a conbini (convenience store) and I was way amused by these fruit cups or whatever with amusing faces on them. HEEHEE :D
Us in the karaoke room (all the rest of these pictures are John's)
Me and Susan
Ahahaha!
Sunday, January 22, 2006 - Harajuku & Shibuya
Got up at around 8:30 (on purpose--we thought maybe Sarah, Fred and Milin were going to take the shinkansen to Nagoya that day and we wanted to get back in time to go with them while our JR passes were still good. Sarah, Fred and Milin paid for another week of JR passes while mine and Kathryn's expired the 22nd. Not like that stopped us from continuing to use them, though!!) and Kathryn and I headed back to Asakusa, where we promptly crashed until around 3 or so, since Sarah et al. weren't going to Nagoya. When I woke up in the afternoon, Kathryn was getting ready to take the shinkansen to this little mountain town she wanted to visit, Nikko, and so I went out with Sarah, Milin and Fred to Harajuku. We walked around all over and witnessed the teenage insanity (oh man, it was packed!) and then, as it was Sunday, saw the people all dressed up on the bridge and took some pictures.
Heehee. Amusing chalkboard outside of a hair salon place.
The crossing outside of Harajuku Station
Looking back at Harajuku Station
SEA OF PEOPLE!! That was like a freaking jam-packed river going down the main shopping boulevard, Takeshita-dori
Hello freaks!! :D
It is wayyyy cold but they are still out there!
From Harajuku we went to Shibuya and had dinner at this place where everything is 300y, food and beverages. Then we kinda wandered around looking at things and it was just so fun somehow. And I hardly ever hang out with those people at AC so that made it even better.
When we got back to our ryokan, we chilled in the common room for a bit with Kathryn (back from her trip into the mountains, though she had wound up going to the wrong town by mistake!) before all of us (minus Milin) went to the nearby onsen. It costs 400y but it's a real hot spring with water from below the ground and everything. So we relaxed in the hot hot water before coming back to Taito and falling into a blissful sleep.
Monday, January 23, 2006
A very lazy, relaxing day. We all slept in (some of us later than others--Kathryn) and then I got up and did my laundry at the laundromat next to the onsen place while Kathryn did some shopping around the area. I ate lunch at a ramen place nearby with Sarah, Milin and Fred and then they left to go to this big car store and I went back to the ryokan.
Later in the afternoon Kathryn and I went back out to the Asakusa area to go explore the Rox department store by our ryokan, which had much more affordable shops. I bought some socks and souvenirs and generally explored the clothing shops but found nothing. Then we went to the hyaku-en shop (dollar store), which took us by Sensoji and Nakamise-dori, where we took cool nighttime pictures and I bought a cat fan from one of the stalls still open, respectively. We browsed the hyaku-en shop and I got a lot of chopsticks, some for presents, some not. Also a chopsticks case and a rice bowl.
Me by Senso-ji at night :D
We remembered passing by this crepe place on our way out of Rox and decided to go there, so we retraced our steps all the way to the Rox center but absolutely could not find the crepe place. Finally we gave up and went back to the ryokan, only to find Sarah and Fred willing to go with us to get crepes and then (except Fred--he has tattoos, which in Japan only means you belong to the yakuza, so he gets stared at a lot in the public bath *laughs*) to the onsen. Of course, when we got back to Rox, there the crepes were, right out in the front. Oh well. So we had tasty hot crepes (mine had cinnamon and butter, mmmm) and then a lovely hot bath at the onsen. Ahhh.
Coming back, we stopped at McDonald's to get dinner, and so after I'd ordered, the menu was turned English-side up. This group of schoolgirls after me saw it and excitedly started to try and read the ("American," as they called it) menu, darting glances at me, who was just smiling, amused. I was handed my food and before leaving leaned in and said to them, "Ah, tottemo jouzu desu nee!" (Oh, you're quite skilled, aren't you) and they called back "Thank you!" (yes, in English) as we left. It was very cute and amusing. Then we ate our food in Sarah-tachi's room, talking and such until midnight or so when we went to bed. Quite fun.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Got up around 10 or so and Kathryn and I ventured out to go do quite a lot of things. (Sarah and them had gone to Nagoya that day.) First we went to Shinjuku (I should say, on the JR Yamanote Line, using our expired JR passes. And hey, it totally worked! We did this the rest of the trip and we never got caught. The station guys will just wave you through as soon as they see your JR pass, they don't even glance to check the dates. Yesss! If you ever go to Japan, I highly recommend a JR pass. It's not only useful on the shinkansen, but the JR Yamanote Line is pretty much what you'll take to get almost everywhere in Tokyo [Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, etc], and it works on that too) and walked around Kabuki-cho. It was daytime, of course, so we didn't see much, but at least we walked through it. Then we crossed over to West Shinjuku, where all the tall office buildings are, and went to the Sompo Museum of Art. It was just one floor on top of a building, but it was quite cool. Then we walked allll the way down to the Park Hyatt Tokyo, the hotel where parts of Lost In Translation were filmed. Mostly we were intimidated by all the fancy fancy high-end surroundings and I really saw nothing that looked like the movie... oh well. We were there, at least! Then we walked through Shinjuku Park across the street on our way back to the station.
There was a small free art gallery on the ground floor of one of the main Park buildings (the Hyatt is just one building in a complex) that we browsed, and these are some exhibits from it that I liked
Ahahahaha!
Park Hyatt as seen from the park
From Shinjuku we stopped briefly at Harajuku, where I got a cool multi-fabric cream-colored skirt (finally, something I like that fits me! My dream of owning an article of clothing from Japan is fulfilled) and a crepe (yumm, blueberry cheesecake. Harajuku is also known for its crepes). Then we went to Shibuya, where we hit up Bunkamura, this amazing art museum currently doing an Impressionist exhibit, so I got to see all these paintings by my favorite artists (Renoir, Monet, etc). It was really amazing.
On the way back we went to another hyaku-en shop, this one close to the Rox building. This one was lot nicer with more selection, and we browsed there for a bit. I got a bento lunchbox and a furoshiki bag to hold the lunchbox. I'll never need a Japanese lunchbox but it's still very cute with a kitty on it and I like it. :3 At the ryokan that night, whilst chilling in the common room we talked to some other people staying there, like this French chef guy who had come to Japan to perfect his Japanese cooking skills and a Canadian girl who was in the process of touring the world, pretty much. We also enjoyed the common room's lovely kotatsu table (a low table with a heater attached to the bottom and then a blanket surrounding it. So wonderful and warm). Mmmm, kotatsu. The Japanese commons at AC needs one of those, oh man!
Genghis Khan restaurant!! :D It was right next door to the ryokan, and always playing this awesome German song about Genghis Khan that got stuck in our heads every time we passed by it. Of course I had to record the sound, and it's here. Just listen!!
Kotatsuuuuuuu :3
Wednesday, January 25, 2006 - Museums & Fish Markets
Another museum day! But first the Tsukiji fish market, as Kathryn really wanted to go. So we got up "early" (9 or 10 or so--the fish market actually 'opens' at 4 a.m. for the auctions and whatnot, but that was as early as we could make ourselves get up) and made our way over to Tsukiji Station only to discover... no fish! The fish market was closed that day, as we later found out!! (It's always closed on Wednesdays.) But we stumbled on a few stalls still open anyway, where we saw some huge crabs and things and it was pretty cool (if fishy...).
GAS DESCENDING FROM THE SKY! Of course there are normal gas pumps other places, but the sight of this kind always kind of took by me surprise.
Fish markeeettt
HUGE CRABS!
Oh my god @_@
From there we hopped on the Yamanote Line (ah, so convenient, and it even has a cool TV display showing the next station and where you are on the line and which side of doors is opening. Some of the lines are pretty ghetto but not Yamanote!) and went to Meguro, where (after some
(Warning sign outside the nature park) NO TURTLES! So if you want to bring your pet turtle, well, you can't!!
[It's actually something about non-native species being introduced to the park; they don't want any outside influences from domesticated animals, etc... still!]
Crow! Though not a real one, just part of a bird display inside the mini-museum.
HEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEE!! This is an amusing depiction of "parasite" birds. The fat bird has kicked the baby birds out of the nest and taken their place so the mommy bird will give it the food. As you can see, it looks quite pleased with itself! It's saying "Ihhihhee" bahahhaa
Pond inside the nature park
So after we tramped all about the nature park (and after some delicious curry with chicken-cheese-katsu for lunch in another curry diner, yummmm) we made our way to the bug museum--or the Meguro Parasitological Museum, whatever. That place, featuring myriad parasite information and samples, has become notorious as a destination for teenagers, especially couples, to "test their mettle," so to speak. The place is tiny and not all that disgusting, but it was great fun to look at. My personal favorite moment? Watching a taxi roll up outside the museum and a guy and his girlfriend get out and come inside. A taxi!!! Taxis are expensive, man, what kind of teenager/young adult would take one instead of just walking 15 minutes from the station!? So freakin' crazy!! Aahahhaaha.
An electronic fortune dispenser!!! At this small shrine we passed by on our way to the museum. But seriously... electronic fortunes! so crazy!
Then we walked over to Ebisu and went to the photography museum (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography). They had separate exhibits going on and we chose to go to the Shoji Ueda exhibit on the third floor cause it looked the most interesting (and was also the cheapest). It turned out to be really awesome and I'm so glad we chose that one. We spent a little too much time looking in the gift shop, though, and missed the 5 pm cut off to be admitted to the Yebisu Beer Museum mere feet away by like 10 minutes!! Noooo, so close!! Ohhh well.
The Ebisu Garden Place complex with lots of fancy shops and things
HA! We still took pictures outside the beer museum. Take that, 5 pm admission deadline!!
From there we went to Shibuya where we met Kathryn's cousin William and his wife Yoko (who is training to be an Olympic highjumper--so cool!) who took us to dinner at this okonomiyaki place in Jiyuugaoka. Luckily I didn't have to have okonomiyaki and just fried beef strips and ate edamame instead, yumm. It was a good dinner, I'm glad we went.
Then we went back to the ryokan and to sleep!
Thursday, January 26, 2006
The night before, one of my friends had emailed me to tell me she was randomly staying in Japan for a bit, and did we want to meet at Hachiko in Shibuya tomorrow? I quickly replied saying I'd love to, but what time? I figured she'd reply by tomorrow and so I decided not to go to Nikko with Kathryn, Fred, Sarah, and Milin and wait for her reply.
...Cut to them getting back around 6 or so at night and still no reply! As it turned out, her email had gone down and she was left without a way to contact me! So I never got to see her in Japan... I'm really sad, especially since I later realized I could have called someone else who could have given me her cell number, and arrrgh, why didn't I just walk to an international phone and do that?! Agsdgjsdhg. It would have been so great to see her. Now that's one of my biggest regrets, that I didn't. rrrrr
Anyway, when Kathryn and them got back from Nikko, we went to the onsen one last time (sniff!) and then bought dinner at our beloved am-pm convenience store (that's how we roll) and then ate it in our rooom before going to sleep for the last time in our ryokan.
Glowing traffic cones!!! :D On the streets of Asakusa near our ryokan
Friday, January 27, 2006 - Last Day in Japan
Got up, packed all my stuff up, and checked out of Taito. Kathryn and I left to take the Keisei Line to Narita Airport (from Ueno), while Sarah, Fred, and Milin (legitimately JR-enabled) took the JR Narita Express from Tokyo Station. So we arrived at Narita four hours early for our flight but eventually met back up with the rest of our small group and checked into our flight and (eventually) boarded it. The flight going back was somehow shorter than the one to Japan, and we took a different route (straight across the Pacific as opposed to the opposite V up by Alaska and the Bering Strait) that we'd gone the previous time. I watched Just Like Heaven (sappy, but not awful. Mark Ruffalo, why do you only do chick flicks? I think you could be better than that if you wanted) and Roll Bounce, a hilarious Bow Wow vehicle about a roller skating competition--so awesomely bad. hahahaa
Clouds outside the plane window
Pretty blue sky :3
When we landed in Houston, we had to go through customs there, which meant getting our bags from baggage claim, running them through customs, then re-checking them onto our connecting flight to Dallas--all in the 45-minute window of time before we had to get on said connecting flight! Aghagh... so much trouble and worry, especially because they made me go get my bag scanned because I made the mistake of saying I had food and that was another 15 minutes wasted... but in the end, Fred and I got on our plane to Dallas just fine (and Kathryn on hers to Oklahoma City, and Sarah and Milin just stayed in Houston), and after a very short flight of less than an hour long, we were there! Home!
Ahh, I can't believe it's over! I'm glad to be home, but I want so much to be back in Japan, it's unbelievable. It's cliched... but a part of me was definitely left there. Sigh. I'm going to try and go back as soon as I can. aitai!!
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