Hey all,
I know I didn't post yesterday, but we were so tired that it was impossible. But I'll post on yesterday more fully later. We did so much today that I feel at least compelled to get it all down before I forget.
Haley and I decided to separate from Jake and Sam today, since we had different goals to accomplish. So, we were out ofthe capsule hotel by 9:15-ish, and off to the metro. I had spent an hour planning our day the night before, making sure we'd hit everything. It was goign to be perfect!
First stop: Meiji Shrine. According to Wikipedia, this "is the Shinto shrine dedicated to the souls of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken. Emperor Meiji died in 1912 and Empress Shoken in 1914. After the demise of the Emperor and Empress, this shrine was constructed to venerate them. Their souls were enshrined on November 1, 1920. The original building was destroyed during World War II. The present shrine was completed in October, 1958."
So as shrines go, this is pretty new. But it was made to look very venerable and traditional, with the torii gates left a natural wood color instead of painted red. But the shrine itself was nothing spectacular - 'seen one shrine, seen 'em all' seemed to be the impression given by it. However, it was big, pretty and famous, and that's all the matters. We did get to see some kind of ceremony where some people came out and bowed before the alter while a guy pounded on teh biggest taiko drum I've ever seen. Got that on tape.
After the shrine, we wandered around Harajuku for a bit, especially down the famous Takeshita doori. This street is home to many of the small and unusual clothes shops for which Harajuki is famous. This area is a mecca for fashion-conscious Japanese girls looking to enhance their individual style. You will see everything from scary goth to cute maid outfits to funky haircolors and ripped jeans here. Even the guys like to be trendy and shop here. I took some pics, which I will upload later. But we didn't spend alot of time in Harajuku, as it is mostly clothes shopping and therefore uninteresting. We got back on the train and headed to Nakano.
PS - As a side note, we did most of our travel today by the JR train line, whereas on Wednesday we did most of our travel by the JR metro line. One is a subway, one is a train and although they occasionally share the same station, there are many stops that the metro makes that the train doesn't make and vice versa. Today we happened to need to make the stops that the train made, so we used the train. But the train doesn't have an all day pass like the metro does....so we paid thru the nose.
I looked online, and at Nakano station happens to be...the largest anime store in the world! So I knew we had to go there, if only for a short while. After some walking around and not finding it, we went to a Mister Donuts (yes, that's what they have here instead of Dunkin Donuts, and its better) and we asked for directions. It had been right where we were walking, but only on the second floor! So we went back and found Mandarake (that's the name) and explored. It consisted of several shops: DVD, CD, figurines, and doujinshi. We saw a lot of cool figurines, I even saw the rare Sailor Saturn statues that i've wanted for years. (costing about $150) Ah, I'll never have one, but I can at least dream. We wandered around Mandarake for a while, but we had to leave pretty soon if we were going to hit up all the places we wanted to go to.
After Mandarake, Haley wanted to go to the Tokyo national Museum, so we went there. It was in Ueno Park, a large open park with fountains, temples and museums. They also had a museum of science and of Western Art there. But who goes to Japan to see Western Art. Instead, we went to the Japanese art floor and basically did a quick survey of all Japanese art in an hour, including things like samurai swords and helmets. After that, we went back to the station.
My next goal: Plastic food store! I found some really good directions online for how to get to the plastic food store, so we went and found it no problem. In case you did't know, plastic food is a pretty big deal here. ALL restaurants have it out front so you can see what the food will look like. Therefore, the making of plastic food has become somewhat of an art, as they try and make it look more and more realistic. The result is something you can barely tell apart from real food unless you look closely. But it is a rather niche market, so there are only a few stores in all of Tokyo that actually sell it. We found the famous ones, and I was determined to make my first big purchase in Japan other than necessities. I really love plastic food, I think it is hilarious and would make the best souvenir. So, I decided to get something you can't get back home, in order to remind me of Japan - Ramen! I got some plastic ramen, then I bought a cheap bowl to display it in. It was expensive, but absolutely worth it. It looks so real! Haley got some melon pan keychains - the lifesize melon pan was about 55 bucks, which is just too much. Yikes, that stuff was expensive! The ramen i got could buy you 10 bowls of real ramen. But this one'll last forever!
Then we left the plastic food stores and returned to Akihabara. Both Haley and I wanted to explore Akiba some more before the anime convention. We stopped by the Tokyo Anime Center to see what it was - basically a glorified information booth. Had some flyers and a looping video advertising various anime, and some merchandise. But it was good that we stopped there, bcause I saw an advertisement for a store I wanted to visit a couple of streets away, another famous one like Mandarake. So, even though we were exhausted and had hadnothing to eat except a donut and a chocolate covered banana, we lugged our stuff and walked through Akiba, looking at various stores.
As usual, it was the center of the action. Businessmen by the dozens walked past us, maids handed out flyers for their cafes, and sellers hawked their wares in front of their stores. The sounds of my favorite anime songs drifted in the air. We passed by one desk where a song caught my attention - it was the ending single from one of my favorite animes that ended two years ago. But, as the speaker was explaining, this was a new version of thesingle that had come out today, with a new cover! It came out today, all the Japanese guys were looking at it, and it was really cool! So of courseI got it and it was very very exciting to be buying something like that on the day its released, here in the anime capital of the world, I can be one of the first people to buy it. yay!
Haley wanted to look in alleys for stores, and I agreed. Generally the best stuff is found atthe small stores. However, they can be seedy. We did find a retro game store, which Haley enjoyed. But the other stores we found were nothing special. Finally we returned to the main drag, and I saw the store that I saw advertised earlier in the Anime Center, and I suggested we go there. So we went to Animate.
It was really a great store, and so incredibly crowded. There were like seven floors, each one filled with a different kind of anime paraphernalia. I found all kinds of cute merchandise i never knew existed before - towels, blankets, washcloths, bottle warmers, mobiles, mugs, etc...all kinds of useful stuff. However, having just bought some expensive ramen, i held back and only bought a pen.
After that, there was only one thing left to do in Akiba: Go to a maid cafe. So we found one, and we did. Haley and I were both nervous; arent' maid cafes filled ith perverted old men? What would happen if we went in? |Well, we needn't have worried. The one we randomly picked seemed rather laidback, there were even a party of women there already seated and having dinner. No cause for alarm. The only difference betweenit and a anormal cafe was, theinterior decorating was kinda amateur and the waitresses were dressed in maid outfits. They were brown with a very short skirt. You werent' allowed to take pcitures of them, or I would have. The bartender waswearing Chi ears. They were all very cute, and the decor was suitably sugary cute wtih cat plushies and such in the area. The food was simple and overpriced: I orderedsomething called "nuts and cheese" and got a planter's assortment wtih a few cubes of cheese for 500\. A real ripoff, but the point here was not the food, it was the maids. And although themaids did not do anything special for us, they did do things for the guys sitting next to us.For example, each entree a guy ordered would have something that the maid needed to pour on before he coudl eat it. One guy got some onigiri soup. The maid had a sauce bottle and asked him what he wanted her to write, and he replied, "Love!" So she wrote the kanji for love on his onigiri. The other guy ordered curry and rice, and so themaid brought out a plate of rice and a bowl of curry. Then she very slowly spooned the curry on top of the rice for him. It was just subtle things likethat, but it was obvious that they were doing it to appeal to the men. Also, the menu saidthings like, "You must order at least one menu item an hour. Pictures are prohibited. You must pay 500\ to talk to the maids". I get the feeling that some guys just come in there to sit and stare at thegirls in their uniforms. Hmmm, i feel sorry for those guys. But at least now I know what maid cafes are like, and I lived the life of the otaku for at least half a day.
After the maid cafe,there was only one more thing to make the day complete- a visit to the largest ferris wheel in the world, in Odaiba. Getting there was such a hassle, since the ferris wheel closed at 10, we though we'd never make it. Odaiba is a manmade island in Tokyo Bay, and is thus pretty far. But after gettign lost andfrustrated, finally we made it and were able toride. The reason this ferris wheel means so much to me is because it was in one of my favorite animes, and the lasttime I came to Tokyo I saw it but couldn't ride it. But this time I did! And the view from the top car is pretty good. We even waited to ride the clear car, which is all clear plastic so you can see everything. Not goodfor people with fear of heights. But it was fun and then when we were done we sat down and watched it for a while (the deal with the ferris wheel is, it is lighted adn makes patterns at night in a way that no american one does).Then we finally came back to our hotel in Akiba, for our last night in a capsule *sniff. But man am I tired. These capsules are actually pretty comfortable.
Tomrorow is TAF! Tokyo Anime Fair Day! Then we'll be going home on the night bus. This will probably be my last post till Monday since I won't have internet until I get back to school. So, till then!
Don't forget to leave comments, posts. Thanks!
Hey all,
Well it looks as if I can use internet at the hotel, so I`ll give you guys a little update. Im tired and have to go to bed soon, but Ill say what I can.
Last night we began our journey by meeting at Hirakata-eki. We ate dinner at a place Jake likes that has a lot of fried foods. After, we went to do karaoke in that very same building. I really like that place - you can do pool, read manga, play games or do karaoke for only 100\ per fifteen minutes. So, Sam, Haley and I did karaoke while Jake played pool. We sang almost every anime song we knew, and it was great fun. After an hour and a half of that, it was time to leave. We headed out for Kyoto eki, and missed our stop. Thus, we turned the huge chunk of buffer time we had into a last-minute dash for the bus. We really had no idea where the bus was going to be when we got to Kyoto eki, so we ran around asking a million people in Japanese and finally we found where it was supposed to be, only it hadnt come yet. Phew.
Bus ride was, as expected, uncomfortable and none of us got any sleep. We arrived at Tokyo Station around 6:45AM Weds. morning, to find it pretty much deserted. So much for the supposed rush hour. We had decided that, since it was early, we might as well go see the famous Tsukiji fish market, like the guide recommends. Oh, btw we have been living off of the Frommer:s guide to Tokyo that both Sam and Haley own. It says that Tsukiji is the largest and freshest fish market in the world. Well, after freshening up a bit we went there, only to find it deserted. Merely a large warehouse-looking parking lot with a fishy smell and lots of little vehicles sitting under patios. Well, if the fish was already auctioned off, might as well try to eat some. The guidebook recommended a sushi breakfast of fresh fish; most sushi places were closed at that time, but we managed to find a 24 hr sushi place. We all ordered some manner of tuna; I finally tried some ootoro, or fatty tuna which is very expensive(400\ for one slice). But if i:m going to eat it, it may as well be here, where it is the freshest possible! It was very good- a delicate flavor. But due to the expensiveness ofsushi, my *breakfast* was only 4 pieces of sashimi.Yikes.
We left Tsukiji and, after some reevaluating and backtracking, headed towards the Imperial Palace. The palace is only open two days a year, and the rest of the time only the East Gardens are open to the public. So, that:s where we went. The gardens themselves are not particularly beautiful or interesting - mostly the fact that we were near where the royal family lives is exciting. I did see camera crews by the gate as we passed on the bus- perhaps the Emperor would show his face today? Ill never know...
Finally we quit those boring gardens and went to Ginza, the haute-couture department store capital of Tokyo. But we didn:t come to go shopping, no- we came to see the Sony Building, Sony`s world headquarters. It was very exciting! They dont let anyone in until 11 AM - there are guards standing by the doors to make sure the rule is enforced. Finally, we were let in and we ran to the showcase floors. There was everything Sony sells, all the newest models - from Walkmans to cameras to Vaios to TVs, PSP and PS3. They let you demo everything but the game consoles. There were some gadgets in there that blew my mind with their awesomeness. I:ll detail them more later.
After the Sony building, we were tired so we left to find our hotel in Akihabara. The only thing is, I forgot to print out the map from the hotel:s website as to whereit was located with respect to Akihabara Station...this caused an hour of agonizing walking around, hard feelings and endless inquiries at convenience stores for directions. At last, one nice man pointed us in theright direction and we found it. We checked in, but werenot allowed to stay because they were cleaning, so we left and atelunch at a burger place. Then, we walked around Akiba!
Akiba would have been alot better if I wasn:t so dead tired. But even as it was, ti was great. Wandering through the stores, recognizing every other songplayed over the speakers, looking at figurines, DVDs, books, manga, it wasall great. We even saw some cosplay stuff ( I really want this Naruto sweatshirt, but it was waaay too expensive). Then Haley and I returned to the capsule hotel to meet with Sam and Jake, who had returned early to take a nap.We all finished the evening by going out to see Tokyo Tower and eating dinner there.
Boy is Tokyo Tower a tourist trap. Yes its: bigger than theEiffel tower, but it has much less meaningto inhabitants of Tokyo than the other one. It is gaudy and overpriced, costing you 1400\if you want to go to the top, and *only* 820\ if you don:t. They have thigns like a wax museum there too. The view was good, though, especially at night. We saw the ferris wheel, yay! Got to ride that tomorrow. Tokyo tower has also appeared in many anime, like MKR and Sailor Moon and X. Yup.
Ok and now to bed. I get to sleep ina capsule, yay. They don:t look bad at all, really. Then tomorrow its up early to go on the mt. Fuji tour. I really hope the weather is good and we get to properly see it. Mt.Fuji is only visible 50 days of the year, you know, and its unlikely that tomorrow will be one of them. *sigh. One can only hope....
Well we:ve got stil alot left to do on this trip! I hope I get it all done!
As always, commments/tags plz
