Japan Trip 2019, Days 7 & 8: Pokemon, Star Wars, and Shopping

It's not like we went shopping ONLY on these days. Oh no, we've been buying stuff this whole time! But on Monday and Tuesday we went to Shibuya and Nihonbashi and Nakano and Akihabara just to shop. We even braved the crowded, crazy mazes of Don Quijote twice for souvenirs for people at home! A Can*Do and a Tokyu Hands! A Disney store that looked like a goth rocket ship! The cluttered chaos that is Nakano Broadway!  Oh woe are we, to be able to stroll around the streets of Tokyo and take the mass transit to shopping destinations!

Anyway, we started out Monday with reservations at the new (opened 2018) Pokemon Cafe! We traveled to a part of Tokyo we had never been to before, and we soon realized why: Nihonbashi is a very ritzy part of town, and it seemed to be where the wealthy go to shop. So not exactly us in our jeans and gym shoes.  Coming out of the subway station we came up through a department store building. Staff were bowing at the customers left and right from behind their makeup and perfume counters.  The customers that were there to actually shop were dressed to the nines. I told Jeff I felt like I was in one of those department stores from the 1950's where you check your fur coat at the coat check counter and buy fancy hats that come in hat boxes. Yes, we were very out of place, but it's always fun to walk among the rich and gawk.  We did find a place where we belong among the other nerdy gaijin that were flocking towards the building containing the Pokemon Cafe and the Pokemon Center DX.

We've been to many other Pokemon Centers, and even revisited the one in Skytree Mall this trip (only bought one small thing) but they have a lot of cute things at the DX Center! Let's pray the two plates (not glass, but still) we bought survive the trip home.

We meandered the store, keeping in mind the items we would come back to possibly buy and then went over to the cafe part.  I had made reservations a month in advance and loved the table we got! I reserved table B1. Not in the center table, not by the windows, and not in some corner, it was the perfect people watching spot and the perfect Pikachu watching spot! Once an hour there is a special "show" where either Pikachu or Eevee come out from the kitchen to do a meet and greet. This is a giant, fluffy costume where at times the character had to turn sideways to fit around tables! XD  It was really really adorable to watch the kids go up and see Pikachu and the little antics the costumed character got into to make the meet and greet more cute and funny. Even Jeff got to shake Pikachu's hand!!

And while the food was a little overpriced (cafe food always is, you pay more for the experience than for good-tasting food) it was actually pretty delicious.  I got the Pikachu Curry rice (which was pretty tasty) and Jeff got the Eevee plate with a croquette of some sort (tasted like a crab rangoon), a "burger" which was two rice "buns" and the meat inside reminded us of gyudon. He didn't finish all of his food, though. I guess the excitement of meeting Pikachu got to him!

We went from Nihonbashi to Shibuya to do some shopping. I wanted to hit up Tower Records to buy the newest Susumu Hirasawa CD (well, P-Model, but that's Susumu as well, so basically the same), and check out the Shibuya Disney store (not that great, I wasn't tempted by any of their Christmas stuff this year), Tokyu Hands (no silicone molds for Christina) and a nearby Can*Do (another 100 yen shop and more great little souvenirs) and finally the Mega Donki! We went hoping to make ourselves some hanko (name stamps) since there's apparently a machine at the Mega Donki that lets you make your own, but it was too crowded and we couldn't find it. It's hard to find stuff in a Donki, anyway.  But it was Pocky Day and Donki was celebrating with huge displays of Pocky and inflatable Pocky sticks and raffles and such. Glico declared 11/11 Pocky Day in 1999, but that's because they were jealous of Lotte's Pepero Day and the money they were making from it (you can read about that amusing rivalry and all about Pocky Day here).  Happy Belated Pocky Day! Share this choclate-y sweet with your significant other! <3

Were we tired after all that shopping? Hell no! After a fortifying dinner of yet another visit to Ichiran Ramen (this time a Shibuya location), we dropped our purchases off in the hotel room, took a brief rest, and went back out. Again, to an area we had never been to before: Toyko Station. That's a lie, kind of, we have been through Tokyo Station, but never outside of it, or in the surrounding area. I suppose this was the perfect time to go, because the area had been busy over the weekend with the parade for the new emperor!  Near the Toyko station is the Imperial Palace where this all took place just a few days prior, but our goal wasn't the palace. Our goal was Christmas lights, illuminations, and most specifically: Star Wars.  The Marunouchi area (a couple blocks and many large department buildings) were all participating in the Star Wars Marunouchi Bright Christmas event.  There were different displays in the department stores and each one had a stamp commemorating each Star Wars movie in anticipation of the new one Rise of Skywalker. I found and collected all 8 stamps, and there were some tough ones too. Not everything was on the main floor!  It really was a lot of fun walking around, looking at the lights, and looking for the stamps. There were some cool displays: a cute Chewbacca with C3-PO in a toy store-like display, a Christmas tree that had a light show to Star Wars music, little motion-activated posters, and a giant, lit-up snowflake statue made of Star Wars patterns/designs. On the downside, the pop-up store closed almost right after we got there.

But no worries! We vowed to return the next morning when they opened at 11 a.m.  And after we woke up and bought a suitcase for our souvenirs, had breakfast at Doutor, we were right there when they opened. Jeff bought a cool hoodie and I bought some mamezara (tiny plates) and a BB-8 pin. So cute!

Our last stop was Nakano Broadway so I could pick up some Nendoroid pieces I had seen and decided to get. I'm hoping I can Frankenstein together a custom Nendoroid and hopefully make it look decent enough. Here's to hoping!

Then we headed back to the hotel to do the dreaded packing. Time to Tetris all the stuff we bought and hope it all fits into the suitcase we bought and will make our checked back at the airport tomorrow.  No way to know if anything breaks until we get home, 20+ hours later. UGH. 

I had 3 requests: One last karaoke session, two purikura sessions, and dessert at Denny's.  We got to do everything right near the hotel as one last hurrah. Gosh I love Japan! <3

Next post probably won't be until after we're home, but we'll type it up on the plane. Until then, pray we have a safe flight home. Ta!

Pokemon Cafe and Pokemon Center DX

Howdy 'do there Ms. Pikachu!

Star Destroyer-esque Christmas tree

We found the Porgs!

Marunouchi Naka-dori is all lit up for the holidays

Tokyo Station at night

11/11 Happy Pocky Day!

Our last full day in Japan ended on a delicious note

Japan Trip 2019, Day 6: Sumida Sunday

Sunday's original plan was going to Yokohama, but we ended up nixing Chichibu on Thursday and swapping it with Sunday's schedule. Today we went to the Skytree Mall to do some shopping and walking around.  I swear we missed half of the shops in that mall because the layout is so maze-like! So is Donki for that matter... My mind just can't fathom what feels like going in a circle around an escalator in the middle but then I'm not coming around full circle? It's more like a ladder or weird off shoots around a main hallway that goes in a circle? Sure there's maps, but again, it breaks my brain to actually walk around these halls!

Anyway, we got to the Skytree Mall around 9:30, sleeping in a bit again today. But even that wasn't long enough because, as I mentioned yesterday, things don't open until 10 or 11.  We walked the Sumida River path for a bit, enjoying the outside, as the weather was yet again bright, clear and sunshiny.

Looking at the extensive selection of restaurants at the mall, I was feeling tempura (yes, for breakfast) and so we went to a tendon restaurant and enjoyed some yummy tempura. Not as crispy as I like it, but still pretty decent. I had two shrimps, a lotus root, green beans, and even a long strip of eel in my tendon! Jeff got the beef tendon and seemed to enjoy his as well.

A quick aside: I don't like tea. I like matcha flavored items, but that's mostly because it's green tea and sugar. Matcha ice cream, matcha cake, etc,. I've tried teas at home and didn't like them. But give me the weak, watery stuff at a sushi restaurant or mugicha and for some reason I don't mind it. Mugi has a bitter, almost coffee taste (and I'm not a coffee person either) but when it's cold I really don't mind it. Anyway, hooray for me and my trash palate!

Anyway, we shopped around and around and up and down 6 (there's actually 9) floors of the mall and visited favorites such as the Pokemon Center, the Disney Store, a kid's train store, some souvenir shops, and a Daiso (it was pretty small), but we were able to pick up some souvenirs and stuff for ourselves. There was Christmas music playing, but it was all played on traditional Japanese instruments, and I dearly wish they had a CD of that music. Oh, you like Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring? Here it is played on koto!

We walked across the Sumida River again and into Asakusa to get to the Ginza line to take us to another shopping destination. Maybe we could do Shibuya today, or stop by Ueno.  Then my ankle decided for us as it gave out and started hurting really bad! It's like I bruised a bone or something! Who knows, but we limped to the Ginza line and took that and the Yamanote back to Akihabara where I took a nap in the hotel and Jeff bought me an ankle compression and some nasal spray for the both of us (we've been fighting some really bad nasal drip).  Jeff went to wander Akiba and shop while I napped.

By the time he got back I was rested and ready to try out my ankle again. It still hurt, but not nearly as bad, and I didn't have to limp, so that was good. It was around dinner time anyway, but I wasn't up for going too far from the hotel. I was willing to walk for some tonkotsu ramen at a place a few blocks away.  Not as good as Ichiran but it was pretty darn good tonkotsu (at least, 100x better than even the best ramen at home).  Across the street was a Don Quijote which is a nice place to look for reasonably priced souvenirs (better than Daiso, but cheaper than a regular store) and they have EVERYTHING, but it's all compacted into a maze, like the mall, but in aisles the width of one person, yet you will often have to squeeze past people, dance around others, ring around the rosey in the aisles.  Cheap prices at the price of clausterphobia! Today was Sunday, the busiest day of the week in Japan while people are (mostly) off of work and school, so maybe when we visit the Mega Donki in Shibuya tomorrow it won't be as bad.

I'll have to find the picture I took of me and the Col. Sanders in 2008 and put them side by side. It was a lovely reunion!

Oh Godzilla, we shouldn't hold hands in public!

Skytree! Skytree! Skytree!

We enjoyed the Skytree from the ground this year.

Japan Trip 2019, Day 5: TeamLab Planets

Did you know that nothing opens in Japan until 9:30, 10 or 11 a.m.? You find that out right quick when you wake up at 5, can't really eat at a restaurant for breakfast until 7 and then can't go shopping until 10 or 11.  SIGH. I kind of forget about that bit and then remember real quick.

Luckily, Denny's is the earliest to open and we really love their food here, and it's on the second floor of our hotel, so we had breakfast there once again. And once again I got the Japanese breakfast of grilled salmon, rice, miso, and (this time) tofu salad.  Jeff once again got the French toast and sausage. I really wish I had a way to cook the salmon as crispily and deliciously as they do here!

We had some time to kill until 12:30 and just sorta ambled about Akihabara, going into shops that were slowly opening: Animate, Trader, Jungle, and Retro Game Camp.  Some we went to in hopes of finding an old PC game, some just to look around. Both Ikebukuro and Akihabara are big anime centrals but they are complete opposites of each other. In Ikebukuro you will find much more anime geared towards girls, idol merch, boy bands, and BL.  Meanwhile over in Akihabara we sat in front of Animate waiting for it to open and the store next door was blasting a song of high voiced girls singing "Ippai~! Oppai~! O-P-P-A-I!" Yup, night and day. Yin and Yang. Mars and Venus.

Finally it was around 11:30 and we took the train to Odaiba.  A stop or two before we got off, a couple of elderly people got on and Jeff and I offered them our seats. We did the ol' "Oh, it's okay!" "No we insist!" "Oh we couldn't." "Please have our seat." and in the end they sat down. Then one of them got our attention and handed us a package with two peaces of mochi in it! She said it was a "thank you" gift. SO SWEET! It was adorable and we thanked them profusely for the gift as we left the train. It was really tasty! We ate it outside teamLab Planets, our attraction for the day.

TeamLab Planets and TeamLab Borderless are two sensory media art attractions that are here in Japan for a limited time. Think of it as the ultimate Instagram opportunity, or just a cool, sensory art exhibit.  I had dressed appropriately knowing some of what was in store for us. Hint: mirrors and water.

After putting our shoes, socks and stuff in a locker (trust me, the less you carry (and more secure pockets) the better), we started the exhibit.  First stop was the pillow room! Holy cow, I think I got quite the workout in trying to cross this room. Think of one of those beanbag chairs but the size of a small theater! Now imagine trying to cross that theater but the beanbag fluff makes you sink up to your knees and thighs and it's nigh on impossible to not fall over and giggle because it's so absurd!

Then we walked into a room of mirrors and looooooong rope LED lights that twinkled and blinked and reached up really high, and the mirrors on the floor made them look like they went up, down, and left and right forever. Very cool.

Another room was filled with knee-high warm, milky water that had fish and flowers projected onto it. The koi would react and swim away from people, but if they touched a person, they turned into flower petals! Again, these rooms are dark, with mirrors, giving the illusion of being larger than it is, and the milky water glowed softly while the digital fish swam about.

The next room was domed and dark, like a planetarium, and you could lay down and look up and see flowers and petals everywhere, and the air even smelled like flowers!

There was a great "instagrammable" room filled with giant white balls that were either sucked up into the air or blown down onto the group of people, and their colors would change. When they came back down it turned the room into a giant, ball pit-like maze!

There was an app I had downloaded but it didn't work too well. All I got was the information for one room about the intent of the artist, but apparently you could interact with the installments. I saw it working for another person! I bet he had an iPhone and it's on of those apps that works best on iOS. Japan is very much an iPhone country, not much Android over here!

That was the main event planned for the day, so now we were free to really do whatever we want, so we went back to Ikebukuro so I could look for a shirt I saw. Alas, it wasn't what I thought it was, but we got to see some sort of event near the Animate store. There was a wrestling ring with a match going on, and pop up tents and cafes and a ton of cosplayers! So many cool wigs and awesome makeup!! There were a lot of people!

We were hungry, since we didn't have lunch yet, and it was after 2:00, so we decided what we were in the mood for (sushi) and just plugged into Google Maps "sushi near me" and it showed Daimaru Suisan, a kaiten susshi chain and that sounded more than okay to me! It was a short walk away and we were able to be seated right away at the counter. Now this was an even cooler kaiten sushi than your usual sushi-go-round with the chef in the middle and you just picking up whatever looks appetizing. This place as an iPad at the table (with an English option, yay!) and you pick out what sushi you want and submit your order. Then a few minutes later the sushi will come by on the track in front of you, stop, you pick up your little plate, and send it back. Choo choo! The sushi train has arrived! They have so much more than just sushi. Jeff had sweet potato fries and a small ramen. I stuck to good ol' sushi.  Then you take your place number up to the casheir and, instead of counting up plates, they have the info from the iPad right there and your bill total all ready!

This place was in the basement of a building called Round One, where the first two floors above that are an arcade with UFO catchers and rhythm games. I'm a sucker for going around and watching people try and win prizes. There was a super SUPER perfect stuffed animal of Yoshikitty (X Japan Hello Kitty) in a Christmas outfit, but I realized after a few dollars there was no way in heck I could win it. Even the experienced UFO catcher people were failing. I DID win my first UFO catcher prize though! On the second floor were some smaller toys and one had a cute little raccoon and I figured I'd give it a try. Got him on two tries! Now I have a little raccoon plush charm! I'm pretty sure his little tag says he's from America Wisconsin??? LOLOLOLOL!!

Across the way a UNIQLO caught our eye and, since we hadn't been in one yet (thankfully we haven't needed any new or different clothing since the weather was once again PERFECT), but the top floor had some cute shirts, so we bought one that I think both Jeff and I can fit in XD

In hopes that they might have the Yoshikitty at the Sanrio store, we popped in, but no luck on that front. What they did have was a little section of Yoshikitty stuff that was on sale! I bought a reusable bag which was exactly what I needed! Huzzah!

Today we had been kind to our feet, but it was still a lot of walking, and by 6 p.m. we were ready to head back to the hotel, get a snack and turn in for the night. Tomorrow is Sunday, and many people are off on Sunday, turning the most popular places in Tokyo into giant, crushing, crowds that you can't escape.  We learned that last time we tried to go to Harajuku on a Sunday. NEVER AGAIN. So we'll try and think up a place to visit that might not be as crowded. Good night!

Mmm, delicious mochi from the kind older couple!

Pillow room!

SO COOL!!

JEFF IS DJ TIESTOOOOOOO!

Ain't we cute?

Our new profile pics, I'm sure!

FLOWERS IIIINNNN SPAAAAAAACE!

Kira kira!

Japan Trip 2019, Day 4: Kawagoe

Today we "slept in" by waking up at 8 instead of 5 or 6 a.m.  Even your best preparations to fight jet lag won't work completely.  It was yet another beautiful, sunny day and a great day to visit the town of Kawagoe!  First off, I'd like to say how lucky we've been weather-wise on this trip. I packed for a cold fall, but it's been pretty warm! Tuesday and Wednesday were in the low to mid 70s and yesterday and today were maybe a little cooler and in the high 60s! And nothing but sunshine and clear skies each and every day. It's great!

Okay, back to Kawagoe. In the Saitama prefecture, this city has a section with original storehouses, and buildings, giving you that feel of walking back in time to the Edo period. In fact, it's often called "Koedo" or little Edo because it resembles Japan's old capital so much.  A quickly growing tourist destination, we were lucky to have gone on a weekday and in the morning, because it is supposedly packed on weekends! The sidewalks are narrow and they don't shut down the streets to traffic, so you have to be careful while walking that you don't get clipped by a car!

Our walk toward the major temple, Kita-in was really pleasant and quiet, as Google Maps decided to take us a weird back way through residential streets and past a high school where the poor kids were running laps around the block. Ahhh, so nice being on vacation (and out of school)!

Kita-in is the major temple of the area, but there are many small ones as well. We visited Kumano Shrine as well. I watched some women take a strainer basket, put some money into it, and wash it in a pond, so that was a neat little ritual you don't see. I did walk over a path of varying spiky/bumpy/pebbly/sharp/digging stones for my health! Yeehaw! I guess I might as well go all out in punishing my feet this trip!

Kawagoe's most famous landmark is the wooden bell tower called Toki no Kane. Built in 1630, and then destroyed in a fire and rebuilt in 1894, this clock chimes 4 times a day (we didn't get to hear it). A little off the beaten path, on a side street by the delicious donut I had, it makes for a great photo spot!

The walk around Kawagoe is lined with TONS of shops, some souvenir, but mostly food. I had a tofu donut, yaki dango, sweet and purple potato ice cream, and grilled sweet potato (looked like a grilled onigiri). All of them were SUPER delicious! A little old lady saw me ordering the yaki dango and asked if I liked it and seemed pretty surprised I was able to answer her that I enjoyed eating yaki dango. It's nice to believe your nihongo is jouzu. >_< Are you seeing a theme in the foods? Kawagoe is famous for their sweet potato, or imo, as well as eel (didn't get around to eating any of that, maybe next time). We got to meet the most famous of sweet potatoes, the Kawagoe mascot Tokimo! She was walking down a side street so we quickly waved and took a photo as she waddled on by.

We came, we saw, we ate delicious foods, but our feet were starting to complain so we turned around to start the long trek back to the station. The streets are lined with little signs and decorations on the posts for the 2020 Olympics, where Kawagoe will be the location for the golf Olympic games!

By the time we reached the station we were pretty hungry and craving something filling. A perfect time for ramen!! I have yet to have the famous Ichiran ramen, so now was the time to try it. Our train from Kawagoe ended at Ikebukuro station, and there was an Ichiran ramen there. Oh man. The broth. Oh man oh man. It was PERFECT! Okay, I gotta admit the pork was pretty sad, and the noodles weren't anything life changing, but the broth? AMAZING!! I love tonkotsu, or pork, broth and it's their signature broth. You can make the soup to your liking by circling options on a little paper you hand to the chef. I asked for soft noodles, extra rich broth, one step up from normal garlic (it was VERY garlic-y, so I'm afraid what extreme garlic tastes like) and normal spice level. It was SO good! THIS IS THE BROTH TASTE THAT ELUDES ME IN THE STATES! Or at least in the part of America we live in.

Well, while in Ikebukuro, the anime mecca that caters a lot to female otaku, might as well go shopping! This seems to be our theme: wear out our feet during the day, start to head home, and then get the urge to shop and ignore our throbbing feet a few hours more.

Needless to say, more weeb stuff was bought, and we got off the train at Akihabara for our hotel and turned in for the night (but not before stopping into Family Mart and getting a drink and an ice cream).

Yum! Sweet potato and purple yam ice cream swirl! It was really good, actually.

Have feet problems? Torture your way to health by walking over this rock obstacle course!

It's Tokimo! An imo potato with the clock tower Toki no Kane on her head!

There it is, Toki no Kane itself! Ding Dong!

Always remember to look in all directions, up and down, while in Japan. Their sewer grates are a work of art!

Thick tonkatsu broth,

Delicious pork and garlic,

I had it my way.

Japan Trip 2019, Day 3: Yokohama

Let me come clean about the real reason I wanted to go to Yokohama: it's the location of an anime. Not just any anime, the one my absolute favorite character is from. Obsessed since high school. The anime truly isn't that great but I don't care, Shido is the best and traveling to Yokohama to see the places that are in the anime in real life was super surreal and fun! A weeaboo pilgrimage, if you will. Bless my husband, he puts up with my crazy fan-girling ways and helped navigate us to Yokohama, despite us having to get off two different trains because of a delay!

But we made it! About an hour outside of Tokyo is Yokohama, a bay area with lots of ships and a big maritime theme. Also the place where Japan allowed Commodore Perry park his ship and check out this exotic and unknown land. He was very insistent.

Well apparently it is also a place very near and dear to the heart of the person who decided they wanted to create an anime about a vampire detective who slays demons and figured Yokohama would be the perfect setting.  The Marine tower, the Bay Bridge, the NYK Hikawamaru, construction cranes, China town, all of that just screams vampire anime, right? Sure!

It was like a fun scavenger hunt, looking for these places and I found quite a few! I think the artist took liberties on what the building Shido's office is in looks like, and for some reason they put London's Royal Opera House in Yokohama?? In the anime, that is. It's totally not there in real life. I suppose I'm asking for too much from a 12 episode anime from 1998.

It was a lot of walking, and it was very bright and unusually warm out (again), but I couldn't have asked for better weather. It was fun walking through Yamashita park and watching the people.  China town is only a couple blocks but it's full of food and lanterns and Chinese glitz and kitsch. We ate there for both breakfast and lunch.  Both recommended by a Youtuber. Breakfast was at A Happy Pancake, a place famous for their freshly made, fluffy pancakes.  They were quite good! It was more like eating a souffle than a pancake but pretty darn tasty.  Lunch was at a place called Kinryou, which is a butcher shop on the first floor and a tiny restaurant on the second. In fact there was only two tables: a large one, we sat at, with 4 other people, and a 3-seater long table already occupied. Kinda like The Eagle chicken restaurant in OTR. Anyway, I got the chashu and rice while Jeff ate a chashu steamed bun.  It was...okay. I have a cat's tongue and like my food not boiling hot, but it came out a little cold. It tasted pretty good though but I don't know if I'd eat there twice. *shrugs*

By now we were getting kinda tired from walking. We had walked from Yamashita Park to the Red Brick Warehouses, through China Town, and back to the pier again. We had the Cup Noodle museum on the itinerary but we were pretty wiped. We decided to...

..get on the train, transfer to three different lines, and walk a bunch more through Nakano Broadway. What?! The promise of finding a rare anime figurine, or a comic or doujinshi from one of our fandoms is strong! We can ignore tired and aching feet if there's a promise of anime merch! And we did find a few things. Nothing too rare or surprising. Yet again, Jeff's keen eyes found probably the only Magic User's Club item in all of Nakano Broadway (an art book). We also went to a drug store and bought Jeff some throat lozenges (he woke up with a sore throat that was bothering him all day) and I hunted down foot pads for sore feet that had been recommended for lots of walking in Japan (I'm wearing them right now as I type, and after a nice hot soak in the tub, it's really weird, they're making my feet cold and...almost achy-crampy like they have a brain freeze, it's so weird! I hope it works).

Okay, by now it was 7:00 p.m. and we had been on our feet all day and I pulled the plug. We still had a floor and a half to go of NB but I told Jeff we could come back. I wasn't even hungry for our favorite ramen shop from 2016 that was right down the street from NB. Now that's true exhaustion!

Of course after getting back to the hotel (which had decorated for Christmas while we were gone! YAY!!) and sitting for a moment, we decided we were a little hungry and had just enough strength to go across the street and get food. Jeff bought the best fried chicken in the word- Famichiki- and I decided to try some oden since they had it out for the season. I got a daikon (oden winner), tofu (runner up), chikuwa, and shirataki noodles (my least favorite since the texture was so weird). It was just what I needed, not as heavy as ramen, and I got to finally try it for myself.

Tomorrow is Friday and I think we might try to go to Kawagoe. I really hope it cools down, I only brought one short-sleeved shirt! We'll see if our feet are up to it! Good night!

Nightwalker anime and real life comparison:

a Weaboo's pilgrimage to Yokohama

The Bay Bridge

China Town South Gate (couldn't find this exact one IRL)

The streets of China Town

The Marine Tower

The NYK Hikawa-maru

Supposedly the back of Shido's office building with the bridge going to the parks

Yamashita park along the bay with the Hikawa-maru

Japan Trip 2019, Day 1-2: Flying In and Mount Takao

We're bAAAAAAck! You just can't keep me away from Japan, it's so wonderful being back here! This trip is only one week and some change, shorter than normal, but at the beginning of this year I was determined to make 2019 significantly better than 2018 was. What better way to ensure that than a trip to my favorite place on earth? With my favoritest person on earth?

Okay, so maybe the 5th time is the charm, but flying in this time has been the easiest and (seemed like) the quickest so far.  I was able to sleep for a few hours (thank you doctor for the prescription for Ativan), my jet lag rooster clock had me pushing my sleep forward an hour each night and that seems to be working, TSA precheck worked like a charm and we were able to easily get through security. PERFECT! I couldn't be happier with how our flight went. According to Jeff's stopwatch, it took exactly 18 hours and minutes. That's a LONG day, but not an entire one.

When we landed we went straight to our hotel, the Akihabara Washington Hotel, to check in. I had never used agoda.com to book a hotel and I was worried it wouldn't work or we'd get scammed, but nope, it worked just fine! It will be the perfect place to sleep and bathe and act as a hub while we enjoy our week in Tokyo. To make sure we didn't go to bed too early we ate some sushi at a sushi-go-round, popped into some shops and arcades here in Akiba, and then headed back.  I got to enjoy a nice soak in the tub (I still stand by my obsession with Japanese bathrooms, they do it RIGHT) and Jeff and I were out as soon as our heads hit our pillows!

Our first full day was a day trip to a small mountain about an hour outside of Tokyo: Mount Takao.  Fall colors are still a couple weeks away for the Tokyo area so the leaves are still green and it was WARM today! Like in the low 70's! When we arrived at Takao-guchi station the street that leads to the mountain trails are lined with little omiyage shops with foods and trinkets to buy for friends, or eat and enjoy the local flavors. We were just starting out so we swore to buy something on the way back.

Looking at the huge, billboard-sized maps of the mountain and their trails we decide to be healthy, skip the railway incline up half the mountain, and walk it. HAHAHAHA, no. We got about 1.8 km into the super-steep, uphill path and I was wheezing and huffing and puffing like the overweight gaijin that I am, when we saw that what the maps made look like a short distance, was actually much much further! There was still 2.3 km! We weren't even halfway! We immediately turned around, went downhill and happily joined the line for the railway incline. This takes you halfway up and then you can take 6 different routes to the top of the Mountain where the main shrine is. We talked a big game about taking the long scenic one, but ended up taking the main route everyone takes, and it was still beautiful and a lot of fun. Lots of statues, humongous trees, mini shrines, shops, and vending machines along the way.

The theme of Mount Takao is the Japanese mythological creature Tengu. In fact, there are two famous ones that they claim were born right on that mountain: a small green tengu and a big red one. They guard the colorful shrine near the top of the mountain. The local popular food is soba and grated mountain yam. We ate at the historic Takahashiya and enjoyed their famous tororo soba! We also HAD to get an adorable tengu taiyaki. And a freshly grilled shoyu senbei. Mmm, good eatin'!

While hiking the trails and going up the mountain, I made a cute and heartwarming observation: many older Japanese hikers (usually old men) walked slowly but surely, at their own pace, and often I saw them carefully touch a branch or a flower, reverently observing nature up close and just enjoying it. I LOVE IT. I want to make this a part of my lifestyle!

After lots of stairs and steps and inclines that left us winded (as people in their 80s and troops of tiny school children walked right past us with no problem whatsoever) we finally made it to the top! YAY! We looked at the view, freaked out about a spider, ate delicious soba, and then went right back down the mountain.

So after walking over 20,000 steps we decided, while riding the train back to the hotel, to go out and shop for a little! We changed shoes, freshened up, and then went right back out into Akiba. Jeff searched for Japanese Magic the Gathering cards and merchandise from his favorite animes, and I pulled up my Google map with all the stores that have been recommended on reddit for figurines. And then I proceeded to buy 4 nendoroids (hey, they were on my souvenir list! I was looking for them anyway!) and this shopping of 4 stores, each one had 5+ floors brought us up to 8:00 pm. But were we tired! Heck no! Not us! We keep going! So we went to Yoshinoya, a favorite fast food beef bowl place, had some dinner, and then sang for an hour at Karaoke Kan.

Were we tired YET?! Yes. Yes we were. Our feet had had enough.

So now it's bedtime for us Bonzos. I can't wait to have another fun day!

Pictures to come later. Too sleepy. Go check out our instagrams https://www.instagram.com/jephlewis/ and https://www.instagram.com/shidoburrito/  in the meantime!

Three days later and here are some pics!

Tengu taiyaki! Filled with a really delicious anko (I can be picky) these were adorable and delicious!

"Mount Takao is closely associated with devotion to tengu. Two figures standing in front of the Izuna Gongen-do Hall exemplify the two types of tengu. The smaller tengu is depicted with a beak of crow, while the larger one has a big nose. The small tengu is considered to be still undergoing religious training, while the large tengu is often likened to an experienced yamabushi who has attained spiritual power through religious training at Mount Takao."

Is he sleepy? Sad? Either way, he's adorable!!

Maple leaves were decorating everything! Too bad the colors haven't changed yet, this place must be beautiful when they turn color!

When on Mount Takao you eat soba with grated yam (tororo)!

Oh. Oh no. I've become that which I fear most. At least I'm a flying squirrel. Takao's wildlife apparently includes monkeys and flying squirrels!

Those tengu, once more guarding the shrine.

A nice view of Tokyo city can be seen, but we're not at the top yet!

Okay, now we're at the top!

Not pictured is the giant, yellow spider I was afraid was going to climb onto me!