The Central: Biker Gong? Boker Ging? What are words?

 Ever wanted to take a bike ride through the central business district of the largest city in the world on the day when nobody is conducting business there? Fantastic! You're gonna be very envious when I tell you that's exactly what we did today. 

Bright and early, around 830am, we hopped on the trusty Yamanote Line to head over to Kanda. There, we met up with a tour group from Cycling Holiday Tokyo. Our tour guide Jenny-san showed off their fancy electric assist bicycles, which were a technological marvel for a boy from the sticks like me ("You mean ta say them bikes are actually motorbikes what can help us pedal? What a marvelous country y'all have! Japan's livin' in the future!"). (Angie: I had done an e-bike tour with Jenny-san in 2024 during my solo trip so I was very excited to see her again! I did make them worry because we were 5 minutes late to the meeting time, so I made sure to bow and gomen-nasai profusely. Luckily they didn't seem to mind and were just relieved we weren't lost and everything was okay. I was happy to show off Jeff to her!)

Itinerary

Our group also included two very nice ladies from Seattle, Cassie and Steph. I am guessing at the spelling, as I never saw them written down. It was fun to meet some fellow Americans with a similar outlook on Japan travel (seeing the out-of-the-way spots to make sure to get a better view of the reality of the place, that kinda thing). Jenny-san asked the group about their trips so far, if we knew any Japanese, and then quizzed us on some basics of the language. I, being a dutiful dweeb, did not answer until after giving the ladies with us (who were on their first trip to Japan) a chance to answer. Jenny-san seemed very excited any time I knew correct words or bits of trivia about the country (she was particularly impressed I knew who Hattori Hanzo was, though I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was because I played way too much Samurai Showdown in college) (I was wondering what weeby thing taught you that name! I figured it was some anime with genderbent historical figures like that one with waifu Ieyasu) [We don't talk about Hyakka Ryouran in front of polite company.]. I'm sure I earned a lot of Good At Answering Questions On A Tour points, which are a real thing that I'm certain everyone tracks throughout their day to day life. 

Tour Company

The tour started with a roll through of the Otemachi financial district where Jenny-san very thoroughly explained that it was Sunday and that all the Salarymen were off work today. Also that drinks there cost nearly ten times what they do over in Kanda, which is a more working-class neighborhood. (She showed us an office building with a nice brick façade and said that the outer part was new, but inside it is very old (and run down) but it was once the tallest building in the area, until the rich businesses moved in, but they made sure the outside looks nice so they can brag about being The Oldest Building That Was Once The Tallest.)

Then, on to Tokyo Station to see the third busiest station in the world. Most people who use the station never see the outside, as it's primarily a transfer hub for regional transit to local transit. Angie and I have seen it loads of times, though. Because we're cool like that. There was a flower arrangement display, tied to Pokemon's 30th Anniversary (frick, I'm old). (She also showed us that the architect supposedly based Tokyo Station off of Amsterdam Central Station, a place we have never been but Cassie and Steph have. Points for them this time!)

Tokyo Station, as seen over flower displays.

A cool little park we rode past, behind which was a high-rise with a terraced garden on the twentieth floor. This photo was taken at top speed on an eBike and has not been edited in any way. I am just that good at photography, somehow. 

Our next stop was the area around the Imperial Palace. Several gates, of varying historical significance. (I learned that there are two gates that all are at right angles to each other at a short distance so that when they rode in on their horses, the horses couldn't quickly change direction, they would close both gates to trap them, and then shoot them full of arrows. The horses would be perfectly fine and survive, of course, we and CasSteph concluded.) We rode past the Nippon Budokan, famed home of both Sumo and The Beatles. One of them is an ancient performance where 800+ pounds solemnly perform in front of thousands of serious and hidebound fans, and the other is Sumo. (She said "Budou" or all of the sacred, Japanese Martial Arts. She was very intent on making sure the sanctity of this sacred place where traditional sports were played for hundreds of years was forever tarnished starting with the audacious Beatles demanding to perform a concert there. And they weren't even Japanese! She had a list of all the non-Japanese people that went on to also demand they perform their concerts in this martial arts hall, of which Eric Clapton seemed to be a repeat offender.)

One of the castle gates.

Budokan, peeking out from behind the castle gate wall.

We were on our way past Yasukuni Jinja, a shrine that is famed for a yearly remembrance ceremony related to the end of WWII, when we started noticing a *lot* of police. Like, *a lot* a lot. Like, "The President Is About To Announce Something Very Unpopular And Is Worried The People Will Revolt" a lot. Jenny-san tried to talk to a few of the police nearby, who were in the process of putting up barricades, but they all gave her the brush off and an "everything is daijoubu, mind your damn business" type response. Several blocks later, we met up with a bike cop who gave us the skinny. There were two protests happening the same day, at the same place. One, the hyper-conservative ultra-right wing party who wants Japan to go back to 1930s Japan - with the conquest and the violence and the... all that stuff. The other, a moderate group who wants Japan to continue its peaceful ways. The police were putting up barricades because when those types of protests happen, things tend to go sideways. So they were being cautious. (I was sad we had to ride past the Diet building, the seat of both the left and the right wing politicians and official judicial decisions are made. Also central setting to a favorite anime of mine: Yami no Matsuei.)

How I imagine every Japanese politician felt in their offices, knowing that they continue to stoke dissent amongst the populace in a bid to retain what power they have.

Then we saw the British Embassy. And the park that *used* to be part of the British Embassy, until they couldn't afford the rent anymore, so they gave it back to the City of Tokyo to manage. So now it's a park. I was a very good lad and didn't deface *any* posters outside the Embassy, despite very much needing to correct it to "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and The North of Ireland". Several more points of me, there. 

We rode downhill towards Tokyo Bay, heading for some of the reclaimed/constructed islands there. Riding through Tsukiji Market was a trip, so incredibly full of people. We stopped for a potty break and then rode on to Tsukishima Monja Street (not related to Tsushima, no matter how many times my brain autocorrected the name), famed for being the place that actual Tokyo locals go to get Monjayaki (a sort of make-your-own pancake on a hibachi grill, I promise it's better than I'm making it sound). A nice little area. (It's a soupier, goopier version of okonomiyaki and I would like to try it someday.)

Tsukuda Island was up next, one of the only pieces of natural land in Tokyo Bay. It was where, in the 1600s, Soon-to-be-Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (*ptooo~*) brought a bunch of fishermen and shamans from Kyoto to be the foundation of his new Imperial capital. Because you can't go having a capital in one place for too many consecutive centuries or it's bad luck or something. (Jenny also took us across some really scenic and beautiful bridges to get us to the "reclaimed" little islands. She also showed us a tiny shrine that was built around a large, old tree, and how you don't cut down nature to build in Japan, because that would be disrespectful to the kami, the gods, that are all in all things in Shinto religion. Instead you build a shrine around it to respect it and keep it safe. She also said that all Shinto shrines have the torii gate at the entrance of them and they don't have to just be the ones painted that red-orange color. They can be plain wood or even stone. -100 weeb points for me thinking it was Buddhist if it was all natural colors and materials with no glitzy paint job.)

The "Buddhist" temple in question.

We swung through Ginza, one of the most expensive places to purchase property in the entire world. Our little convoy of heimin got a lot of glares from rich folks. Okay, just a few. And it was primarily from rich tourists (Europeans, Americans, etc), rather than locals. But I could tell from their eyes. We weren't wanted there. So we rode on through Ginza without kicking a single $200,000+ car. (That was legitimately a concern of mine. I would ride right alongside or behind these expensive cars and be very worried I was going to suddenly run into it and scratch it!)

Our last stop was a lovely temple where they had painstakingly dragged thousands of rocks from Mt Fuji to Tokyo, so that people could venerate the highest mountain god without leaving the comfort of their home. Apparently, there are around 90 or so of these Fuji-Outposts throughout greater Tokyo. Now, with the advent of faster travel (so that it doesn't take a month for a healthy person to walk to Mt Fuji), people can just ride the train there if they wish to do so - even if they're in poor health. Nice! (I loved Jenny's explanation of it. That people's grandparents would get sick and ask their strong, young grandchildren, "Do you love me? Do you want me to get better? Go be a good lad and fetch me a giant rock from Mount Fuji!"  Jenny asked Jeff, "If your grandpa asked you to fetch a rock, wouldn't you do it for him?" LOLOL! She also joked that Mount Fuji isn't as tall because all these shrines have their own little Mt. Fujis with all these stolen rocks LOL!) [Neither of my grandfathers would ever request that of me, because until their deathbeds they were both *incredibly* physically active with daily gardening and woodworking, respectively.]

We saw a fox or two that we knew.

And with that, we arrived back at the base for our tour group. Jenny-san took some photos and we went our separate ways. Angie and I took the train back to Ikebukuro to have a quick respite before heading out for some more shopping. 

And that is where Jeff ended his half of writing the blog as it was 10pm when he started it and we were tired. Now that it's my turn, it's the next morning and uh.... what in the heck did we do next? We came back to the hotel and made a game plan. Ah yes! Since it was Sunday, that means any place we were going to go was going to be crazy hopping (except the business district, apparently), so we were going to go to the last couple of shops in Ikebukuro we didn't get to the other day. First up: a card store in a mall on the other side of the station. It was small and didn't have much or affordable in the ways of Magic cards for Jeff. They DID have a Tower Records on the top floor, and you know I can't resist a tower records! Jeff bought a soundtrack to Persona 4 Golden. I bought a soundtrack to Jet Set Radio Future and a Malice Miser CD (the money for which we hope goes to Mana), and we both yearned to buy the vinyl for Twin Peaks and Blade Runner, but decided we can more easily buy those in the states for about just as much moneys.

Next stop: Super Potato (there's a popular one in Akihabara but there's also one in Ikebukuro). A great place to go for used games, especially for older consoles. We bought nothing but had fun looking around.

Tsugi wa: Book Off. There we DID find a used copy of Fire Emblem for Nintendo DS (which is the last of the Nintendo handhelds to not be region-locked).

Then: Big Magic, a teeny tiny store jam packed with people so that I just waited outside downstairs, while Jeff didn't find any Magic cards for sale but DID find a blind-buy Magic Deck gashapon vending machine, where he got a random deck of MtG cards for 500 yen that DEFINITELY had a great return on investment for him! I'm proud of him for only buying 4 boxes. [Foil, full art, JPN Meathook Massacre for only 500 yen is a *steal*. The other packs weren't that much of a steal, but they were all worth well over 500 yen. I may go back tonight...] [Also, Angie makes a big deal about it taking forever, but I was inside for a total of 8 minutes.]

84 years later: I decided to get my refills of Japanese beauty products shopping done now while were were near a Matsumoto Kiyoshi and found everything on my list but one thing that I tried last time and loved and had used up. I bought 2 of everything which will hopefully hold me over until next trip to Japan.

Despite our feet starting to hurt we couldn't resist taking a little LookSee into the nearby GiGO arcade but only went up two of the floors and wasted 400 yen to realize all the machines had the weakest claws in existence. We left.

And then we plodded along for the remaining 8 blocks back to our hotel, dropping off our stuff and deciding on the nearby Ootoya for dinner. Like a Cafe Gusto setup but with traditional Japanese foods at not expensive but higher than Saizeriya prices, I had the shrimp tempura on rice and a pumpkin croquette (best part) and Jeff had sweet and sour chicken and a creamed corn croquette. Their sweet and sour is only sour and a strange taste that neither of us really liked. The creamed corn croquette was pretty good though!

It was now about 8pm and we could hear the sounds of cheering and singing from a concert going on nearby. It was either Idol Cream Soda at the Municipal Building, or performers at the Curry Festival at the park. Either way, it sounded fun, but it was time for us to turn in. It was a little early, so I made the decision to start packing, decanting, and unboxing our souvenirs now rather than the night before we leave. That took an hour or two, but I'm glad we did it. Now we know how big of a second suitcase we need to buy. Jeff hopped on the Discord to say hi to his Sunday morning game group and I washed my face and went to sleep.

Today is our last day in Japan! T-T The worst part of any trip is leaving! I do miss our kitties though.

Our next blog post might not be until much later, so we'll report back with a conclusion when we can!

The Central: Day 13 - A Repeat of a Shopping Episode

Cerulean Hart: There's a lot of shopping and not much else today. 

Slightly Longer Version: We woke up, we went downtown to look for a job, then we hung out in front of the drug store. 

Actually Longer Version: 

We started the day by trucking ourselves (well... public transit-ing ourselves) to Shibuya to hit up the SEGA store to grab some Persona merch. Come to find out, there was also a Capcom store, Godzilla store, Pokemon store, and Nintendo store on the same floor. Needless to say, we found many other things to acquire to sate our little weeb hearts. 

After that, we planned to go to a revolving sushi restaurant, but all of them were far away. Then, we decided on Ichiran (since it's safe and was right there), but there was like... a lot of people. Minimum of an hour wait. No thanks, I'm hungry now. While we tried to find alternative options, we wandered up to Tower Records (styled TOWER RECORDS everywhere) to try to find some Japan Only albums. Sadly, they only had albums we already owned from previous trips. What a horrible issue to have! Woe are we! (Angie: I was pretty much just checking the Susumu Hirasawa selection. Finding that vinyl last time has me hungry for more!)

In the intervening time, we decided to hit up Pronto to get some pasta. It was down in the basement of a nearby building, so thankfully no lines. The pasta was... eh. It was okay. Angie got a yogurt strawberry drink (which, at the time, she did not know was yogurt related) (But was still pretty tasty! I did use my pasta spoon to spoon out the remaining chunks of strawberry at the bottom. Ice cubes in fancy drinks here really are preventing us from enjoying the good stuff!) and it had a similar problem to the drinks from Caffe Veloce - the milk product stuck to the ice cubes and was hard to extricate. 

Now, the bulk of the day. We grabbed the Yamanote line to Shinjuku then transferred to the Chuo line, bound for Nakano. 

Nakano Broadway, for the uninitiated, is like 5 (4) floors of random anime nonsense and "completely legitimate" watches. 

Very, very few of the shops allowed photography, so we decided to not, ya know, take any photos. 

Angie: Now that I'm all showered and soaked, it's Jeff's turn to get clean and relaxed and my turn at the blog!

Yes, this isn't our first time at Nakano Broadway so we know to start at the top, 4th floor and only make left (or right, but pick one) turns. Like a maze, because it is pretty maze-like. The floor plan is almost set up like a ladder with 3 rungs, but not perfect rectangles, the ladder has little dead-end hallways at the tops and bottoms.

Plus, this lets me go to the place I wanted to go here for anyway: anime cels. There are 3-4 cel shops, but two of them have large enough collections you can rifle through binders or bins of labeled and unlabeled misc. anime. Like flipping through records! Right off the bat Jeff found a cell with about 5 douga of Shido! And it was only 1,500 yen! The least I've bought one online was for $30 so this was literally the best deal I've ever had!

Alas, that was the end of any Nightwalker purchases for today, but one is better than none, and with that anime in this day and age, that's pretty lucky!

So we snaked our way through each floor, around every corner, to every nook and cranny, sumimasen-ing and squeezing past other people in the tiny little shops filled to the brim, floor to ceiling, with second-hand anime merch. I feel like there are more anime stores than there were in 2024, but maybe that's because it's nice to have a second set of eyes, or if you need a break, send the other in to scout it out while you wait outside the shop. 

In the end I bought a souvenir or two for Christina, a plushie, some cute, little, chibi L asleep (from a gashapon series it looks like), and a Death Note doujinshi. I kept seeing a figure of L in a chair for about $130-$200 but couldn't bring myself to spend that much. I'll sleep on it. If I really care I'll go back for it.

Jeff bought some doujinshi, also some souvenirs, a D&D guide book, and a Fern figurine (it's really cute).

This all took about 4 hours, so about an hour each floor, but once we got to floor 1 there wasn't as many anime stores and we were tired and hungry. There was a Kura Sushi near the Nakano station and since we didn't get it last night I was still craving it. The wait was only about half an hour so we used the facilities and I bought some essentials from the nearby drug store (Lion foot relief pads, more chapstick, and Biore UV sunsecreen for the bike tour tomorrow).

After some confusion because we SWEAR it displayed our waiting # on the screen at Kura sushi, we finally were up for our turn. We got two spots next to each other at the counter, once again in a gaijin corner, but that's okay. Kura sushi has the Janken Pon (I think they called it Bikkura Pon) chance to win a prize for every 5 plates of sushi you eat. Drinks, sides, soups, or desserts don't count, but sushi plates are all the same size, and you slide it into a little plate-sized hole at the top of your counter and it deposits the plate to a waiting dirty dish conveyor below. So after you return 5 plates you get a chance to win a little gashapon prize and right now the prize were little magnets of.... Detective Conan. Have we mentioned that it's everywhere, yet? If not: It's everywhere right now. The 29th Detective Conan movie is in theaters right now and it's being promoted everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Much like Evangelion, they really really love Detective Conan. Anyway, I didn't win and I only had (only, ha) 7 plates of sushi, BUT when I sat down, the person before me forgot their little gashapon prize so I got it and it was a magnet of Conan himself (I think the plot of the story is a famous detective either goes back in time or is accidentally regressed in age to a child again, but he continues detecting?)

I think the best thing I had was a fatty pork (cut real think like ham-thin) sushi. Jeff's favorite was a teriyaki hamburger with mayo sushi. It was great to get off our feet, too, and so when we left, we had the strength to make it back to the hotel.

And so here we are, freshened up, showered, eating snacks from Family Mart, and ready for our bike tour tomorrow morning. Wish us luck!!

The Central: Day 12 - We did the Shop part, when does the Drop happen?

 Today was a day full of shopping. 

We started off with brunch at Jonathan's (another Family Restaurant owned by the same group as Cafe Gusto and like... basically every other one). I had pancakes and an apple streudel-alike. This will come back to bite me later in the day, as everything was only carbs and I didn't have anything substantive and I definitely felt that by like 5pm. Angie had grilled eggplant, pasta and shrimp casserole, and a garlic shoyu butter roll. A much more sensible food option, for sure. 

Following that up, there was a lot of shopping. K-Books, Lashinbang, Mandarake, Animate. Wash, rinse, repeat for about 9 hours. Lots of stooping and squatting and stretching to reach things. Angie found some comics, we found a few cool figures, and some presents for some folks. 

They're still making pop-sockets in Korea, apparently?

Angie has been very interested in these little doll things.

New vampire and spotted.

They have a cute little bus/tank thing!

Sometime in the middle of that, we visited Caffe Veloce (a coffee chain in the area) and had a Matcha Float and a Melon Soda Float respectively. In both cases, there was ice in them and it kinda ruined the vibe of the drink. Tasty, otherwise. (Angie: The ice cream would not exactly melt, in fact in kinda refroze and got lost among the ice cubes. Sad face.)

For dinner, after all the shopping, it was nearly 9pm and we were very weary after walking so much. We tried to get into Kura Revolving Sushi, but there was a 90 minute wait and we would've had like 30 minutes to eat after waiting another hour and a half. No thanks. We decided to walk over to Katusya, a Katsudon restaurant a few blocks away. 

Angie got a traditional Katsudon bowl (with an egg sauce on top), I grabbed a Chicken Katsu with green onion and tartar sauce. Honestly, pretty decent. I was so tired that I couldn't even manage to eat all of it. (Angie: Don't worry, I finished it for him LOL! My katsudon was delicious!)

Back to the hotel to soak our toesies and feetsies, then off to bed. Shopping is rough sometimes. (Angie: I soaked my whole body and was able to use a bath bomb from the Pensta store that turned my bath Mountain Dew green and smelled non offensive, but I got a Suica Penguin charm inside! Hooray!)

Speaking of shopping, we're off to Nakano Broadway as our next trip. Good luck, us! (Yes, here's hoping we don't hobble back on worn down nubs that used to be our feet. Like toothpick feet LOL!)

(Also, Jeff took the only pictures yesterday. No contribution from me except for these asides.)

The Central: Day 11 - Baseball Done Softer, Better, Slower, Kinder

Ah baseball. The American-born sport that was the American past time and a part of family outings and kids' dreams for many decades. Now it's just... boring. Commercialized. The majority of fans are there to get drunk on expensive beer and get sunburnt in the non-shaded, bloody-nose, cheap ticket seating (which isn't really all that cheap anyway). Where's the passion? Where are the fans? What happened to this great sport? Where are the musical numbers?

No worries, it is alive and well over here in Japan as they have taken the sport and made it fun and even the second worst of the 12 official NPB teams has a dedicated fan section with flags, and cheers and dances for each of their many many many players and plenty of merch!

But that's not until later. Not that we did much during our first full day here in Tokyo. We did... Laundry! Oh what fun!! First we fortified ourselves with a delicious and cheap meal at the student-restaurant-of-choice: Saizeriya. Think American-Italian food as seen through the lens of a Japanese Denny's. Good, but not great. Filling, but cheap. Perfect! I had some tomato and mozzarella, a garlic focaccia bread (more like a Ciabatta bun with garlic butter on it, and I loved it), and a plate of little sausages and elongated tater tots. Jeff had corn soup (I don't know where it places exactly in the running, but Bikkuri and the vending machine can with the bumpity corn can place first so far) (It was a respectable 5/10.), and a cheese and meat sauce doria. We both got the drink bar and I drank all the muscat white grape Qoo.

The coin laundry we were going to didn't have a change machine so we hit up an arcade on the way back to the hotel and used their change machine. We also didn't feel like lugging our bag of laundry into a restaurant. But once we returned and sniff-tested and sorted what needed to be washed, we were ready to set out on the 15 block walk to the laundromat. Until I said, "Hey, let's see if there's laundry available here like at APA." And you know what? There was! A lovely facility on the 5th floor with 8 washer/dryer combo machines with the PIN locks, a flat folding table, bags, and chairs. All clean and not a one being used! We each took a machine and for 600yen we started our regular load of laundry (with me once again having more laundry than Jeff so he graciously let me throw some of my laundry in his machine.) We set our timer for 2 hours and decided that was just enough time to go to Shinjuku and hit up an official baseball hat and jersey shop as well as a Suica Penguin Pensta store for all my Penguin merch needs.

But first we had to navigate there. Now I've complained about Shinjuku station before, and I only had to make a brief layover in 2024 and it went harmlessly, but today was a lot like when we were there in 2016 when we went to the Toto Toilet museum. Construction everywhere, so many east and east central gates (and signs for the east and west gates all pointing in the same direction), and the Pensta store was somewhere in the maze of stores also in the underground part of the station. Add the fact that you are often like a salmon swimming upstream and it can make for some confusing and aggravating navigating. But we found it! Yay! And I bought plenty of Suica Penguin merch because he will no longer be the mascot after this year. :*(  

Next, we went above ground and walked a dozen blocks, past the 3D-looking, giant, animated screen on the side of a building with a calico cat. There's one like that in Ginza and Shibuya as well:

(Not my picture. We were too busy edging around the giant crowds at the corner taking pictures and video.)

We did arrive at the baseball place, called Selection Shinjuku, a minute before they opened, so that was perfect timing! It was mostly American baseball jerseys, especially Angels, Dodgers, and Yankees merch. In the very back was the NPB merch, where we located the Yokohama Baystars hats. There were 3 styles, and one left with the mesh back that I like, and one left in Jeff's size. It was destiny. (Jeff Edit: You don't understand. The one hat I found was a 7 7/8. I can barely find those in America. And this store in Shinjuku just happened to have an all black Baystars fitted hat in *exactly* my size? Impossible.) Another gaijin couple came up and started looking at the hats and I asked them if they were going to the game that night, and they were! I told them that I hope to see them there (and I did! They were waiting in line to get into the stadium in the same section we were in! They didn't see me, but that's okay. I didn't see them after that, but still, glad they made it to the game.)  I also bought a Baystars jersey that was luckily my size (I'm a LL or XL in men's size here in Japan) without any player names on the back (since I know nothing about the players). We left the shop happy and ready to cheer on the Baystars!

Time to get back to the hotel, as our laundry was going to be done in about 15 minutes. Long story short, the construction blocked Google's route again, we got lost, went the wrong way on the Marunouchi line, finally found a bathroom, and then found our way again and got back to the hotel laundry 20 minutes after it finished. WHEW! Although, to be fair, we did stop to grab a quick bite to eat at Family Mart and ate that first. We needed a little something to tide us over until the game.

After folding our (my) laundry (I also folded my laundry, but it took like 3 minutes because I specifically only packed wrinkle-proof boring black, grey, and brown clothing so I wouldn't have to worry about anything complicated), it was time to put on our merch and get ready for the game! We grabbed the Easter Candy and Allergy medicine goody-bag and went to go meet our kind benefactor who let us use her Japanese phone # so I could see the Gackt concert: Amanda! Introduced to us by Sarah, they went to school together in Nagoya for the 6 months the school program ran. She too is a mid-westerner and such a fun person to hang out with! She lives and works in Yokohama, so I bought us tickets to sit on the Baystars side of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows Stadium. We were the visiting team on the Swallow's home turf. We found more merch booths so I bought a cute keychain of the mascot D.B. Starman (a hamu-star), a lanyard for work, and some hollow baseball bat clappers (not that loud, Japan-forbid)! Doors weren't open yet, so we walked around the outside of the stadium looking at the Swallow's merch (much much more because, again, this was their home stadium), and food trucks. We held off buying any food until we were inside as there were more food options in there. When we got in and found our seats we realized our mistake: it was starting to get cold as the sun was setting and it was windy! Amanda and I ran back to the Baystars merch booth (they allow re-entry, it's great!) and best thing we could come up with was a long face towel with D.B. Starman on it. 

The home team had an Umbrella Dance any time their players scored. They had reflective, tiny umbrellas that they would raise and lower along to the music being played, which gave the effect of a wave of colors that can't really be properly captured on video or in photos.

Anyway, here's Jeff, who understands baseball, to tell you about the game:

The thing to remember about the Baystars is that they're currently in 11th place. Out of 12 teams in the league. Their opponents, the Swallows, are in 1st place. So walking into the game, we weren't expecting an exactly stellar (ha, Starman joke) performance. It was a closer game than I had anticipated (2-0 in favor of the Swallows). 

Japanese Baseball has a few interesting differences from American Baseball. We were a bit perplexed, because there were only three positions listed: pitcher, catcher, infield, and outfield. It turns out that each inning, the pitchers rotate. So one pitcher pitches inning one, the next pitches inning two, etc. When they aren't pitching, they're either on the bench or rotating in with the infielders. Catchers also rotate, though I wasn't a keen enough observer to see where they were when they weren't catching. 

Eight pitchers?! In a row?

As the game started, each player for the visiting team was introduced and the fans had a bespoke song and cheer (along with hand motions) for every single one of them. It felt like European football, but without the rowdiness. The same was true for the home team, but they also got Jumbotron Graphics. 

There was a reasonable amount of affiliated advertising (each Strikeout was accompanied by a "brought to you by AK Racing" [a gaming chair company] message on the scoreboard, for instance). I joked that this seemed perfect, because everyone who has a bespoke gaming chair is used to striking out. Heyooo~!

The food options were much more varied than the average MLB game (which historically had hot dogs and nachos and popcorn and beer and soda and not much else). Across the stalls inside the park, I saw: katsudon sandwiches, udon noodle soup, karaage chicken, kebabs, long potatoes (a pureed potato pushed through an extruder and then deepfried), corndogs, yakisoba, slopbowls (you know, those like... Chipotle bowls? Like that, but with Japanese ingredients), Calorie Mate, flavored popcorn, ramen noodle soup, grilled fish, cheeseburgers, yakiniku, vegetable skewers, and about 40 different combinations of alcohol. 

The biggest change, though, was that there was no boo-ing of the opposing team. When a team was up to bat, their fans would have more bespoke cheers or songs to cheer them on. When a team was warming up to field, the fans would similarly try to hype the players up. But like, when the team you weren't supporting was up to bat, there was no "You suck!", "Easy out!", "Go home!" or the like. Everyone was there to *support* their team, rather than to disparage the opponents. It was very heartwarming. 

The Swallows had runs in the second and third inning, then some rather quick innings to close out the game. 

We decided at the top of the 8th, due to the cold and the large amount of fans who would soon be descending on the public transport, to duck out and head back to the hotel. I cannot imagine how packed the trains would be *after* the game let out, because we were crammed in like sardines. I haven't had this many people pressed directly up against my body since bad clubs in BG two decades ago. We bid Amanda goodbye at Ogikubo so she could transfer to her train home. 

On the way back from the station to our hotel, we hit up Family Mart for some quick treats (you may be noticing a trend). Then, it was off to bed for another day of wandering around the largest* city in the world. 

* (Tokyo metro has the highest population of any urban area, but if it's only the city proper we're talking about, Tokyo is third behind Jakarta Indonesia and Dhaka Bangladesh.)

The Central: Day 10 - "It's like that Blade Runner movie, because it's raining and there's signs in Japanese..."

 Greetings from Tokyo! From the Future! 

Our day started like several others. Hotel breakfast (Angie went with the Japanese and I with the Western [which was really mostly Japanese dishes in a western style, which is fine, just kinda funny])! Overall, it was fine. No major stand-outs on my side of the table. (Angie: I was complimented many times by this morning's server who said I enjoy rice like a Japanese person and that we both use our chopsticks well and treat them with respect. As we were leaving she said she was very happy and grateful to see us enjoying the food. That made me feel good and like I unlocked an achievement!)

After checking out, we headed up to Rinnoji Shrine (the one *next* to the one we went to yesterday) and let me tell you: we picked the wrong shrine yesterday. This one was much prettier and more serene. Angie acquired some more Temple Stamps and I got a small random fortune charm. Upon checking, it was Ebisu - the fortune of luck and success in business. (Angie: We got a ticket that let us into the garden, the treasure museum, and the temple itself, and it was great! I honestly liked this temple better than Toshogu because it was peaceful and not overrun with tourists. Plus, I feel like we often gravitate towards the Buddhist temples and enjoy them more than the Shinto shrines. They are usually peaceful, dark, with warm wood tones and gold statues and decorations, but pretty minimal. This Buddhist temple had really neat large statues of Fujin and Raijin, and I was able to get the goshuin with them on it. They didn't let you take photos in the temple or the treasure room, so no pics. But the temple had 3 really big statues of two Kannons and a Buddha (Senju Kannon, Amida Nyorai, and Bato Kannon). They were huge and intricate and very inspiring!)

After the shrine and a quick snack at the kombini, we were back at our accommodation to pick up our stored luggage and buy a few small souvenirs. (Angie: Of all the bus stops, the one in front of the Lawsons was gaijin central and boy did we have some interesting ones. First off was a cute Chinese grandma that I tried to offer a seat to but she kindly dismissed it. I swear I tried the "offer 3x rule" but no dice. In the seat next to me at the bus stop was a lady who was watching something loudly on her phone and was muttering to herself in Japanese, while she herself was definitely not Japanese. When we got on the bus she refused to speak the Japanese we knew she knew to the bus driver who was trying to tell her that her Nikko World Heritage Day Pass didn't cover this bus line or this stop. She argued back in.... not Italian but French. Because of course she would and of course she is. The second hold up were two American dude-bros who tried to bring on ice cream that was opened and they were eating. The bus driver made them go into the Lawsons and throw it away before he would allow them on. Anyway, just some interesting people-watching at that bus stop.) We also bought souvenirs of some grape tea Angie really liked and shoyu salt that was delicious on our wagyu. We checked out and said our thank-yous and goodbyes.  We took up our luggage and walked to the bus stop. As we were waiting, we noticed the concierge speed-walking after us. When he finally caught up, he had me hold out my hand and dropped in three 100 yen coins. He profusely apologized, as they had overcharged us on one of the souvenirs. We were a bit too flabbergasted to give him anything more than an apology of our own and were left to wonder about the Abraham Lincoln-esq drive for honesty. I can't think of a single American business I've visited in the last 25 years that would have chased me down to return $1.89 that they owed me. 

On to a bus, to the train station! 

The train from Nikko to Utsunomia was quiet and arrived on time. We pondered a bit as to whether to take the local train (which would take about an hour and fifteen minutes, for about $15/each) or the Shinkansen (which would take about 35 minutes for about $40/each). I made the executive decision to save time instead of saving money, so we got our Shinkansen tickets (via the live actual human, because I refuse to take another chance with a machine for something as complicated as train tickets in a foreign country) and headed to the train (Angie: Jeff made the right choice! Good job honey!). 

No sooner than Shinkansen left the station, I received a notification that the *other* train we were looking to take had been delayed for over half an hour due to track issues along its route. I'm gonna chalk that one up to the Ebisu charm. (Or the frog I held to ward away evil. So thank you to all the deities we invoked in Nikko!)

The Shinkansen ride was uneventful, though we weren't able to sit together due to how crowded it was. We pulled into Ueno station and made our way to the best loop route in the known world: Tokyo's Yamanote Line. It's no secret that I enjoy trains over basically any other form of medium-distance travel. They don't have the inconsistency of busses, they don't have the security theater of airplanes, and they don't have the "I have to pay attention the entire time or everyone will die" of cars. Sadly, I live in a country where we can't have nice trains, because Henry Ford ruined those in most cities during the early part of the last century in order to make more money for himself. 

We got to the Hotel Metropolitan Ikebukuro, our lodging for the remainder of our trip. Check in was a breeze, our luggage arrived on schedule, and we headed up to our room. Through some amount of bananas luck, we had booked the Superior King Room via Agoda for the price of a Standard Twin Room (the cost for a single night in this room costs more, on average, than the amount of money we paid for all six nights we're here). A side-effect of this fancy room is that we were on the 24th floor. Not great for me, but Angie enjoyed the view. (Angie: I'm telling you, Agoda gets me some amazing deals! When I went to look up and show Jeff the room we had booked while on the train there, it showed current nightly prices. The price right now to book the room for one night is equal to the amount I'm paying for all 6 nights!!! I think I'm gonna thank Ebisu for this one.)

We are on the top-most floor and this is our view!! Who needs the Metropolitan Government building? Not us!

A quick shower, a change of clothes, and we were back out into the city to go to Angie's birthday dinner at Ginza Vampire Cafe. Our host greeted us at the door and lead us through a red-curtained hallway (with glowing red floors, like a disco floor, with red blood platelets LOL) into a private booth. We had pre-ordered a set menu, so all that was left to choose on the night-of was drinks. Angie got the Carmilla (calpis, milk, and red grape simple syrup and a glowing ice cube) and I got a ginger ale. 

Our first second course was Ritual of Resurrection to Awaken the Dark Ones (a Caesar Salad, dressed up like a grave site). The host performed a ritual in Japanese, as a call and response with the other workers, that basically translated to something like "Oh Spirits, I ask your help!" "It is evil to do that!" "Oh Spirits, bring them back!" "It is evil to do that!" "Oh Spirits, bring them back!". Very moody. Very evil. The salad was one of the highlights of the food for me, which is something I never thought I would write. 

 

Following that, Rose Cups Handed Down In The Family (shrimp and scallops over jelly). For me, this was a miss, but that's basically because I don't like shrimp. If you like whole shrimp (tail and head and leggies and all) then this will probably be a good time for you. (Even Angie doesn't like whole shrimp) 

Next, we were treated to Rose Emblem Carved On The Neck (deep fried ham and cheese balls). This was definitely the best course in the meal. Simple and savory. (It was basically fried cheese sticks with a thin ham in them.)

Our soup course was called Fragrant Rose Flowers (a sea bream soup with clams, muscles, vegetables, and a tomato cut and arranged into the shape of a flower). The good news here is that Angie discovered that she didn't hate clams. The bad news is, I continue to dislike clams. The vegetables and the bream were nice, the tomato was thinly sliced and complemented the other ingredients. (I found out they are a food I can politely eat but I don't really enjoy or seek them out. It was a very bland dish and the weakest of the meal.)

The follow-up was Dark Butterflies of Grief That Cause Fear (gnocci with ragu sauce). These were very lovely. Tender gnocci with a reasonably flavored ragu meat sauce that had a slightly odd scent that we couldn't quite place at the time. Upon further research, it was Truffle. 

Our final non-dessert course was Flame Execution Platform to Burn Down Sinful Rebels (thinly sliced roast beef with sea urchin, served flambé-style with a dipping sauce). This was also rather nice. The sauce had a mild barbecue flavor and the beef was tender. (I ate Jeff's portion of the uni.)

[Video of flaming meat would be posted here if GOOGLE WOULD UPDATE BLOGGER TO ALLOW IT!]

Dessert was The Eyeball of a Cursed Vampire (a chocolate cake cup with raspberry and blueberry sauce, topped with mousse, and accented with a marshmallow eyeball and a tiny chocolate top hat filled with marzipan or nougat). A rich dessert, for sure, but a nice way to cap off the meal. Ha. Cap. Because it had a hat on. Good times. (I loved it! Yummy!)

By the time we left, the rain had started. Thankfully, I came prepared with a big ol' umbrella we picked up in Sendai. Back on the train to our hotel to luxuriate before heading to bed. 

Angie, anything else to add? 

Just these extra pictures! I also promised my tatoo artist James I would get them a healed pic of my vampire fangs tattoo while at the vampire cafe. It healed nicely! Also, as you can see, I made sure to dress on-theme!

Also also, I guess I'm 40 now! I'm going to be using the excuse "it's my birthday" for the next week, so expect that.

Happy 40th Birthday to meeeeeeee!