So, I figured starting a blog on my own in the comfort of the Sekitei Hostel’s finest bedroom via word document was a fine idea. A fine idea, indeed. I can just update this to my blog and add pictures as soon as I find internet somewhere… Like in a Starbucks or something, right?
We’ll see how that goes.
/EDIT/
There was no wifi to be found. These were all written the day they happened, and to keep everything related, mushed together as one giant post of huge proportion. Enjoy.
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MAY 27 & 28 - CONCERT DAY
Today started yesterday, in reality. Rory, Ashley and I took a taxi from JCMU to Hikone Station where we met our friend Tori from the May Short Course who is also staying in Japan for the remainder of the summer. Having an hour more than we originally thought we had before the night bus arrived, we trudged over to the local 7 & Holdings (7/11) and bought snacks, breakfast for the following day and whatever else we thought we needed for cheap. It was bound to be a good trip, because we saw a street cat streaking around Al Plaza, and cats equal good everything. At least to Ashley and me.
The bus arrived around a quarter to 1am, and after grudgingly surrendering our backpacks to be stored under the bus, we squeezed onto the bus and into our assigned seats. It was already pretty full, and as we soon realized, more suited for small Asian people than long legged Americans. As is typical, someone was snoring loudly, dim lights were on, and whenever we neared a stop (beginning at 3am) the driver would get on the announcement speaker and repeat three times where we were and what time it was. Most people had headphones, neck pillows, blankets, the like; we had the clothes on our back and minimal legroom. It was a great night.
Rolling into the Shinjuku area of Tokyo at around 6:30am was grand, though. The forecast (due to an offshore typhoon) is rain for the rest of our lives here in Japan, so the streets were soaked and low hanging clouds obscured buildings as they reached into the sky. I could very much appreciate the limited amount of people and scenery at such an hour, so the first things we did we wander around to take pictures in the rain and locate breakfast.
It was easy enough to find a Denny’s a few blocks away from the station that the bus dropped us at, so we stopped in for breakfast and to waste time (nothing opens in Japan until 10am, and we couldn’t check in until 1pm). I had scrambled eggs, a piece of bacon, a sausage link and three mini pancakes with BUTTER. Unfortunately, scrambled eggs in Japan = very wet/uncooked eggs, bacon = heated up uncooked bacon, and butter = margarine. BUT! I was more than willing to choke down as much as I could because from the window of Denny’s I could see a Starbucks, opening at 7:30am.
As you can imagine, around 8 we abandoned Denny’s for the seductive scent of coffee and scones. I love Starbucks in Japan. The employees are always so genuinely happy to help you, and (more importantly) I have yet to have a bad/made wrong Caramel Macchiato. We bummed around here for another hour or so, had our days absolutely MADE by hearing Australia by the Shins playing as we drank our made to order drinks, and then braved the rain once more in order to head to the general area of our Hostel in Shin-Okubo.
The hostel was only 3 train stations away from where the bus dropped us off, so we arrived in the general area of our hostel in about 10 minutes. On a whim, we decided to at least find the darn thing since we were still toting around our backpacks for the weekend and see if they would maybe let us drop our bags off even though it was much too early to check in. It was shockingly easy to find the hostel, and we happened to run into a backpacking group from Colorado who were just checking out of the same hostel as we bummed around the entrance. Since they were on their way out, we decided to test our luck and try to check in. The woman manning the desk at the time (the Sekitei hostel is a family run cute little old two story hostel) let us right in and showed us to our rooms! We paid for the weekend, shuffled between rooms (boy in one, all of us girls in the slightly larger other), and then collectively decided a nap would be just the thing since the ride into Tokyo wasn’t the easiest to sleep during. Two futons were made up for us girls, as well as the air mattress bed and after taking pictures of everything in sight, we slept for a good 4-5 hours.
As we slept, Rory was a good friend and traveled out to Narita Airport to meet Jenny when her flight arrived around 4:30pm so that she would find her way to us with ease. The rest of us, Ashley, Tori and me, walked about the immediate area around our hostel until we found somewhere cheap to buy some dinner (7/11 oh how you spoil us with your delicious pre-made lunch sets) and snacks for later in the hostel. At around 6:30/7, Rory and Jenny made it back to the Hostel and there was much merry-making. Rory, eager to head to the Your Favorite Enemies concert that we decided on attending on impulse a few days prior, was practically throwing us out the hostel door as Jenny changed into some more comfortable clothes. (Let it be known that we saw yet ANOTHER cat, this time outside of our hostel.)
We then spent the next half an hour or so traversing trains a few stops, re-familiarizing ourselves with Shibuya area (where we found the Hachiko statue and nothing else before), and finding the Kokusai building which housed the Shibuya CYCLONE, the venue for the concert. After getting turned around a few times and missing turns we finally managed to locate the little hole in the wall that was the Kokusai building, and headed into the basement.
It looked like a venue, smelled like a venue, and after a quick once over we spotted YFE t-shirts hanging for sale by the ticket counter. We were at the right place. After quickly paying for our tickets and ordering the complementary drink that came with the ticket (oh, ginger-ale I have a whole new appreciation for you in this country, it seems), we stepped into the small little shoebox that was the stage area. Now don’t get me wrong, it was a full house, but there were no more than 75 people in this venue. We managed to arrive at the tail end of the second opening band, a scream Japanese band featuring a very skinny, orange dye haired guy and a drummer and guitarist. The atmosphere was quite a bit…repressed, compared to what is typical at rock-type concerts in the States, but this just made it easier to take in and after a few songs we dove into the crowd to find appropriate places to stand and see the stage. Let me just say it now: I love actually being able to see at concerts because I’m taller than 90% of the people in the crowd.
After a 20 minute intermission of sorts, YFE got on the stage and the wild antics of the lead singer began. Now, being the shy creature I am (hahhh), when I go to more rock-type concerts, typically they are Christian-rock-type concerts, so I don’t get worried for my safety when things get a little crazy because I guess I trust the band’s morals. YFE is not a Christian band. They are Canadian. And the little lead singer wanted nothing else but to be in everyone’s faces, touching everyone, crowd surfing, jumping off of things into the crowd, etc. Let’s just say he really enjoys interacting with his audience. Despite all of that, it was a really fun concert, not too loud, and “made Rory’s trip”.
We were all very happy to get back to the hostel and cleaned up (thank goodness for hot water and shower heads) and are planning on hitting up the Harajuku area all day tomorrow (it’s a Sunday, that’s when everyone’s supposed to be out showing off their stuff). Let the Tokyo trip begin in full force!
MAY 29 – HARAJUKU DAY
Today was a scheduled day for spending lots and lots of yen. Where would we do this massive spree of shopping? Harajuku, of course. The weather was not willing to cooperate and we have not seen a break in the rain since last night, but that didn't mean that we wouldn’t go walk the shop lined streets of potentially the most exciting and our age group aimed area of Tokyo.
Our first stop was a store called Body Line, known for it’s affordable Lolita style clothing, but (!) we soon found out that the Lolita shops didn’t open until 11am, so we hopped into a Claire’s and bought gifts for friends and things for ourselves and wandered a few alleys before making our way back to our prime outlets for the day (although during this meandering we did come across the cutest bathroom known to women. Too self conscious to take pictures of it though). Body Line was a dream come true for aspiring impractical cute dress wearing girls like ourselves. Every clothing item was priced between the equivalent of 20 to 50 dollars, there were accessories galore, shoes, hats, etc.
When typical Lolita clothing costs something over $100 and usually twice or three times that, it’s safe to say we went a little crazy here.
After giggling over cute items, looking everything over 349867 times* and figuring out how the line for the check out worked, we then made our way to a couple of other stores that had cute items in the window until we worked up enough of an appetite to look for a cheap restaurant. We looked at several expensive cafés and line-out-the-door joints that had appealing menus (keeping our vegetarian as well as our picky eater (ME) in mind) until finally we saw the word ‘ramen’ on a sign in the near distance and booked for it. None of us had been to a ramen bar, but there’s always a first time for everything, right?
It turned out that this type of ramen restaurant was set up so that you pre-bought what you wanted on a machine outside of the building by inserting the amount of cash you want to use, then selecting meal choices (and sides, etc) on something resembling a vending machine. We then went inside, filled out a taste preference sheet for our ramen specifically (featuring fat content, none, little, regular, extra, spiciness level, whether or not you wanted pork cutlet in it, noodle firmness, etc), and then waited for bar stools to open down a narrow hallway where we would be served. We had to split our group of five into two and three, and Ashley and I went in first. Sitting down on our stools, there was a small window in front of us with a half drawn shade so that we could only the the lower torso of a server. He took our preference cards and our meal tickets that we bought at the door, and then went off to get our food. At the small counter space you were portioned, you had a personal water spigot and glass, chopsticks, and access to Kleenex, and more importantly you could close the divider between you and a neighbor if you were friends and wanted to share the space or talk, which Ashley and I did.
The food came quickly and piping hot, the server behind the window closing the shade all of the way once our meals were delivered and he was no longer needed and so we dove into our bowls of ramen.
Most. Delicious. Meal. Yet.
I ordered regular everything except for fat (typically the Japanese leave fat on their meat, and I don’t like that) which I asked for “less”, and with one spoonful of broth, the flavors just explode in your mouth. There was a decided heat to the dish that grew and gathered at the back of your throat and made your nose run like none other (hence the tissues), but the noodles were perfect and easy to handle with chopsticks, I ordered rice on the side of mine which I put in my ramen once I ate all of the noodles, and it was the kind of dish that you want never to end because it’s just that good.
Outside of being delicious, it was also extremely cheap. Around $5 or so. I couldn’t even finish mine, it was so much food.
We eventually waddled out of the ramen bar and fought through the sea of umbrellas and misting torrential rain to return to the never ending shops of Harajuku. I was dead set on finding a cat eared hoodie and we had yet to find one for less than 368058967 yen (only 3680589 dollars!*) that wasn’t completely gothic or plain ugly, so, back to Body Line we went! The good news? I found a cat hoodie! (and am now the stupidly happy wearer of one everywhere I go) The bad news? We immediately wanted to buy so many more things once we were back in that store. This Lolita business is addicting!
Post Body Line part 2, we explored Tokyo’s biggest 100 yen shop (3 floors of stuff for a dollar) and I finally picked up a sketchbook, some cute crayons and erasers. True essentials for any art major traveling in Japan. All of this Lolita shopping had taken a toll on us, however, and at around 5pm we called it a day and headed back to our hostel in Okubo.
As you can probably imagine, the first thing we did when we got back to the hostel was try all of our new things on (you are not allowed to take pictures nor are you allowed to try on Lolita clothes, or really much of clothing in Japan) and giggle incessantly for about an hour. It was fantastic fun.
Around 7ish or so, we decided that a little tempura place that we’ve seen on our way to the Lawson down the street sounded pretty good for dinner and hopped in there for a quick bite before checking out an adorable little bakery down toward the train station. There’s nothing quite like ending a day in Harajuku with tempura and a delicious strawberry cake.
Tomorrow is supposedly Akihabara and a giant bookstore, but we may try to fit in a little more Harajuku, too, if we can help it.
*these are not actual numbers, I get lazy and exaggerate.
MAY 30 – AKIHABARA & HARAJUKU 2.0
Another rainy day in Japan, but we set off for the land of anime fandom and electronics regardless. Nothing could keep us away from Akihabara. A thirty minute train ride and a short walk later, we were there, greeted by 8 story buildings of merchandise and the glamour of new technology.
Like kids in a candy shop, we immediately jumped into the first stores we saw and ended up buying items for people back home right away. Some stores didn’t open for another thirty minutes or so, so we got accosted by a maid promoting her café and toured the block of shops. We managed to find a giant multi-floor bookstore and some classic children’s books in simple Japanese, play in an arcade (taiko drum game AND DDR) as well as several anime shops that had anything from Totoro merchandise to the latest anime that happened to be trending at the moment.
For lunch we decided that, what the heck, we’d try going to that maid café that we saw earlier in the day. Once we wandered three flights up into this little building and entered the café, we were overwhelmed by little cat eared maids chiming in perfect tune with each other “Yokoso, nyaaaa~!” (yokoso = welcome) and in a flurry of high pitched Japanese, were shown to a table and given a maid for whom we were now her “master” and “princesses”. (Needless to say, I had gone scarlet red by this point with embarrassment.)
After getting conned into getting an expensive curry rice set meal instead of getting to choose individual items from the menu, our maid snuck behind Rory and placed cat ears on his head. It was hilarious. She also brought over bunny ears and put them on Tori’s head, which was both fitting and really cute. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the café, except if we wanted a picture of our food, which the maids drew animal faces on.
I had a cat face on mine.
The meal we had no choice but to order was actually pretty good, but the broken English and the weird environment and the constant smoking (customers, not maids) was enough to let me be happy with this one experience and never need to try it again.
Now, apparently Harajuku had enchanted all of us for life, because no matter how hard we looked, we could not find decent enough merchandise for the right price and right style for what we wanted and just kept thinking ‘I bet I can find this at ___ in Harajuku…’ until finally we threw in the towel and abandoned Akihabara for Harajuku.
We returned to Body Line, found exactly what we wanted for the price or lower than we were willing to pay, bought more souvenirs for friends, discovered cute cheap shops we hadn’t noticed the first time, and had CREPES.
I also saw another cat (the sign of good times being had).
On the way home to the hostel we had to split apart at the train station and board different cars on the same train because it was so crowded headed back to Shin-Okubo. We still got there in one happy piece, though, and immediately had a dress up session again once we were back in the room. This, of course, worked up our appetites again, so we ran down the way to the rotating sushi bar that Rory was coveting the night before and hopped in.
It was like playing a pokemon stadium mini game all over again.
The food was absolutely fantastic and fresh and beautiful, but since we had gotten distracted by so many other things (clothes, etc) in our room, we let the time slip by and it was close to their closing time, so dinner was cut a little short and we bought desserts at the next door 7/11 to bring back to our room.
All in all, it was a great day, and tomorrow is our last full day in Tokyo. After we check out of our hostel at 11am, we are planning on finding coin operated storage lockers at Shinjuku station (one of the bigger stations/where we have to catch the night bus at 11:10pm tomorrow night), and then go shrine hopping throughout most of the day. The next post will probably be done once I’m back and nestled into Hikone’s JCMU apartments again, so expect a lot of pictures and nonsense like that (on fb too, since I’ve been told I have to put all of my pictures up so people can borrow them).
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MAY 31 & JUNE 1 - SHRINE HOPPING & RETURN TRIP
As I write this in my now clean and happy condition (a high contrast of feelings from the bus ride home), I have a minute to share the events of our last day in Tokyo.
Checking out of our little hostel was much...harder than I would have thought after only staying a few days. Our host mother of sorts always saw us off in the mornings when we went out sightseeing or shopping and would always ask us how our days were when we got back, and was concerned for us when it was raining a lot, and just generally was very sweet. But 11am still came around and we all ushered out of our rooms and bid our farewells. She was kind enough to hold Jenny's luggage for us until around 10pm (our night bus was scheduled to leave at 11pm, and otherwise we would have had to lug it around to shrines, etc...not very fun), which was a blessing on it's own since we all were still carrying everything else we owned, too (purchases from the last three days, backpacks full of dirty clothes and electronics, etc), which was really heavy.
After dropping everything we could off in some coin operated lockers in Shinjuku station (where the bus would be picking us up later that night) we headed to Harajuku once more to get money and breakfast, and then walked across the station there to enter Meiji Shrine. Meiji Shrine is a very large shinto shrine situated in a forest (absolutely wonderful to walk in a forest after so long in the city and urban life) with lots of walking paths and little brooks and wildlife. We saw a handful of other gaijin while there, but it wasn't very crowded considering how impressive it was. The gift shop catered to Americans (which is rare) so when we bought charms this time, we actually knew what they were for, and were able to buy difficult to find gifts for people back home as well.
From Harajuku (which by the way, was the fourth time we went there) we traveled to Aoyama-Itchome (after getting more crepes, of course, in Harajuku) where we hoped to find Myogonji Shrine (supposedly full of stone fox statues). I had written down sketchy directions in my notebook and away we went. It was quite a little walk from the station to the shrine, but we found it almost ridiculously easily (as well as finding a little Buddhist park which we walked through on the way).
Following the fox shrine, we went to Yoyogi to locate and ravage Kinokuniya, the 7 story bookstore I had stumbled across online when looking for other things to do in Japan. On our way there we stopped at a place called Freshness Burger for lunch and tried to waste as much time as possible since it was only 4pm and we were rapidly running out of patience and warm weather considering our need to stay busy until 11pm. Despite that, the burgers were fantastic if a little pricey, and the book store proved to be everything we wanted it to be and more.
Eventually we returned to Shinjuku station and decided that locating our lockers with our stuff in it, and confirming where the bus would pick us up was a great idea, and that after that we could just walk to the Denny's/Starbucks combo that we went to the first morning we arrived in Tokyo. It turned out that the bus station wasn't really in Shinjuku station, but a short walk away (10-15 minutes). Even so, it wouldn't be too difficult to drag our stuff to, seeing as we had plenty of time to do so.
We popped in Starbucks for a minute before they closed at 8pm to grab a scone to go, and then ran up the stairs into Denny's where we promptly started wasting time. We had an hour and a half to kill at the restaurant, so we looked over the menus until we practically had them memorized and then all of us ordered pasta.
The food was a little bit smaller proportion than we are accustomed to (even here in Japan it was small for how pricey it was) but it was good enough to satiate us for the time being, and at the appropriate time, we made our way back to the station and took the train to Shin-Okubo for the last time. We jumped in 7/11 just for the sake of pulling out a little bit more cash and grabbing some nikuman (meat filled steamed buns) before heading back to Shinjuku station once Jenny had retrieved her suitcase.
This was the point in time that I should have taken advil, or at least have not decided 'what the heck I'll just eat a nikuman because when will I get another chance?' (this 7/11 was the only one we had found so far that had nikuman for sale). I also thought 'oho! look! delicious strawberry cake like before! but it looks better, so I think I'll get it to compare it to the Shin-Okubo cake'. Three bites into said cake, it jumped off of the box I had it settled on and crumbled into nothingness on my backpack. Strike number two.
By the time we were in line waiting for the bus, I was feeling uncomfortable, but not like I didn't have control over the situation. It was a huge relief just to get on the bus headed back home to JCMU, despite their insistence that we had too many bags. Too bad for them.
At 1:30am I threw up all over the bus seat, myself, and the complementary blanket.
And once again, Ashley had to tell someone in charge that 'sorry, but my friend threw up.' in Japanese.
Luckily, the bus driver/assistants/whoever they were allowed me to get off the bus and change clothing/wash off in a hotel's bathroom, and equally as lucky, Tori, who was sitting next to me during this, got away clean as she came onto the bus (thank god). It was embarrassing, within the first two hours of the six hour long bus ride to Hikone, and I got to sit in it all the way home.
But, considering that that was the worst that happened the entire trip (and was isolated to only me), I think I can say that it was a really great trip.
We're hoping to go back to Tokyo just once more to go to the Ghibli Museum (when the LIFESIZE CATBUS is unveiled), but that won't be for at least a month or two. I think it's safe to say that we've had our fill for now.
