Chan goes to Japan!

Konnichi-wa to hajimemashite minna-san!



Hello and welcome everyone!


To Dannie's (a.k.a. Chan's) trip to Tokyo, Japan with my partner Ben and our mutual friend Emma this past October, 2013 broken up day by day - with images!


First step!
Ben and I got our passport a couple of months in advance, so exciting! =D





Our journey begins!




Thursday, October 3rd, 2013
Hopped in a cab to Newark Airport, highlight of that was as Ben, Emma and I got into the cab, my neighbor across the street of whom we rarely speak screams "SO, YOU'RE LEAVING FOR JAPAN TODAY?!!!!" Yes, and now the entire neighborhood knows. Thanks! My Dad thought this was so odd that she knew that he went up to her after our cab left to ask how she knew HAHA




Waiting in the airport, getting a bit stressed out about being on a plane for 14 hours...we got some nommies before the flight



Boarded the plane!!! 



It was a very nice plane with very nice stewardesses (Japanese) and we had a pretty good amount of legroom considering lol 



The food was...not that great. They had American or Japanese meals (but Emma wasn't asked that though...she was just asked "Chicken or beef" or something to that extent lolol) 

                                         

                                             






Let me reiterate, the plane ride was 14 hrs....and time was going by soooo slowly for me. I have a hard time sleeping on anything moving (planes, trains, cars) and I didn't want to take pills or drink heavily (I did get a little cute bottle of red wine though lol) so I constantly looked at the flight path on the little tv on the back of the seat in front of me, played video games on the little tv too, watched a couple episodes of "Shiro Kuma Cafe" (Polar Bear Cafe), played some Animal Crossing on my 3DS..I actually can't believe I made it 14 hrs. But it was WORTH IT!! 


We FINALLY got off the plane and I was EXHAUSTED. 



And we lost an entire day which was so weird. I actually didn't get used to the time change until a couple of days after being in Japan. We would stay out from about 9-5pm non stop walking, in high humidity every day. As soon as we would get back to the hotel, I would immediately take a shower and hop into bed and nap (or sleep until about 4am when I would naturally wake up and watch some Japanese tv, upload photos/videos from the day, play my 3DS, chat on AIM/Skype or nibble on my emergency rations of Goldfish crackers lol)
So anyway....
It took a bit but it hit me that we were in Japan...across the world, far from home. I was a little nervous. And I also notice how hot and muggy is it in the airport...and all the Japanese were totally fine, void of a single sweat drop and me? I was a mess lol And since Ben had to check his bag, we had to wait at the baggage claim for about 30 mins lol 

oh and look what I found (which I thought was so awesome and we should totally have them here)



Smokers were confined to this enclosed space where they all second hand smoked each other!! haha and all the butts get disposed of in there too, so its not all over the floor. Japan was so clean!!


It took us a while but we finally found an ATM in the airport so we could exchange our american dollars for yen. As usual when it comes to money or NUMBERS lol I was confused and almost messed it all up but Emma and Ben helped me out lol The money is so pretty! I love foreign currency..
























                                                









There is more than what I pictured here, but this is from what I got from the ATM and the change I got back from when we bought our shuttle bus ticket to bring us to our hotel - Hotel Sunroute, Shinjuku. Which brings me to....

Our shuttle bus to the hotel took 2+ hrs....
There was SO MUCH traffic. I can't remember around what time it was...probably...6-7pm? It was bumper to bumper traffic. I was so tired and crabby I couldn't even enjoy some of the sights we passed while on the bus..I was so exhausted I was literally about to fall over in my chair lol I was holding on to a ticket to claim my bag (which was in another compartment on the bus) and I was falling asleep so bad I almost dropped it so I had to put it in Ben's pocket for safe keeping lol It was totally a "are we there yet? are we there yet? are we there yet?" moment and I couldn't WAIT to get to my room lol

We finally get to the hotel and we check in (they spoke English at the front desk) And we made it up to our room!! As soon as I opened the door, the first thing I said was "this room is so small!" and indeed it was, but really? It's all you need and it was great =)





                                      







                                      

                                                             

                                              


It was a very comfy set-up once we got used to it. And check out that super toilet! AAAAAnd yes. I did try out the bidet function...once. LOL
So that first evening, even though it was fairly early (I think we got checked in around 8:30pm or so?) we were EXHAUSTED and totally passed out. But, we woke up around 4am and I Skyped with my Dad =) And then Ben planned our itinerary for the next day!

Friday, October 4th, 2013
FIRST DAY GOING OUT AND ABOUT!!! So exciting. We ventured out into Shinjuku!









We headed out at about 9am and decided to have Japanese McDonalds for breakfast!! 



And really, I just needed to try it and see what the differences/similarities were. And from what I could tell, the fries and bun was exactly the same but the chicken was different. It tasted better and it looked like it was a combination of dark and white meat. And the patty was thinner and the portion was smaller.
Also the service was so much better than what we have here lol Ya know, when you go into a McDonalds there is usually someone young taking your order and they are not so thrilled to be serving you lol Not even a "Hi, welcome to McDonalds" HOWEVER, in Japan (and in every single store you go to) the customer is treated with such respect. Every store we went in, they say "Irashaimasen!" or "Welcome!" and when you are done with your transaction "Omaido arigato gozaimashita!" or "Thank you for your patronage!" And everyone was helpful and patient if I needed some time to figure out how much yen to give them (in one store, the woman picked out the yen coins from my palm and told me how much each was lol)

Ok so, back to my McDonalds experience lol! So I ordered my food and they placed my tray to the side with just the drink and fries on it. So I stood by my tray and waited (because here you just wait for your food at the counter until it comes) but the workers gestured for me to go upstairs but I was like "I don't have all my food yet??" and the worker said "We will bring to you" and she placed a small sign on my tray. So I went upstairs to the seating area and then a couple of minutes later, a worker comes up, finds me and very politely gives me the rest of my food.

So, after our untraditional breakfast lol we made our way to Shinjuku Station! Shinjuku Station is a major railway station that serves as the main connecting hub for rail traffic between Central Tokyo and its Western suburbs. This station is used by an average of 3.64 million people in 2007 making it the worlds busiest transport hub in Guiness World Records! And I believe it, no matter what time we were there, very early or very late, it was always PACKED. People EVERYWHERE. Also, Shinjuku Station has 36 platforms, and there are well over 200 exits, which explains a WHOLE LOT since every time we got off at Shinjuku station, we were at a different exit lolol and it sometimes took up to a half an hour just to find our way OUT of the station! lololol What an adventure.   

Entering the station was really the first and only time I felt confused or out of place. There were just so many people...but we just went to the Information desk there, we told them where we planned on going and the worker told us where to purchase a pass and how much to spend on said pass (the passes aren't like metro cards. You don't buy one with say $20 on it and ride wherever you want. You buy a pass for a certain one time amount depending on where you're going. Say, your going to Mitaka from Shinjuku, about 30 mins away, you then buy a 230 yen pass) So we went to the buy our passes - it was a touch screen like our metro card machines are now, and it could be made into English or Japanese, so it was very easy to buy a pass. The only thing that wasn't so easy was actually GETTING to one of the kiosks lol there were a whole row of kiosks and "lines" but they weren't really lines lol and we were cut a bunch of times too lol but we did it! ;)



Then, to get into the station, you would go through a turn style like where you swipe your metro card to get into a train station here, but the small pass would get sucked in, you would walk through the now open turn style and then the pass would pop back out with a hole punched it in, which you take when you are on the other side of the turn style and now in the station. 



**this photo was NOT taken by me, but found on google images**


We then made our way to our desired platform to Mitaka to go to the Ghibli Museum (a museum filled with amazing things from the animated movies of Hayao Miyazaki such as My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, Nausicaa, Ponyo and MORE!) and I must say, the train station was so clean and organized! No trash about, no one was hardly talking  actually, and there was a worker who stood on the platform and announced when a train was coming on either side.



Our train comes, we get on and it is NOT crowded (I'm sure you all are thinking the trains in Japan are always crowded and sometimes you are to be pushed into a train car with a gloved worker and a crow bar lol but this is not the case!) due to the fact that we were early, I'm assuming. Most workers and school children are at work/school already, and it was probably about 10:30am-11am by that time I believe.
The inside of the train was VERY clean, the floor, the chairs, there was no graffiti on the ads and they weren't ripped up, passengers rarely uttered a word and every train talks to you to let you know which stop you are on and which one is next. 
It was a heavenly experience and I wish every day that our public transportation systems was this way. I did NOT take a bus though, but here is a picture we caught of one-




We got off at our stop at Mitaka, which is in the Kanto region, and this residential area was the most beautiful I've seen, so much so that I wished I could live in one of the beautiful cute houses.
Each house with a little car or bike in the driveway, cute little front gates, gardens, minimalist structures, I cannot express how beautiful this was to me. I wished I knew someone who lived in one of the houses so I could go in and visit. I wanted to spend time there. One a drizzly, rainy day such as that, to sit on the porch of on of those houses...subarashii! (how happy!)


And so, after a 20 minute walk from the station, we made it to the Ghibli Museum! I was so excited! Sadly, we could not take pictures or video inside the museum, but we took pictures of everything we could OUTSIDE lol 
Heres me with the sign:





Here is the front gate:



Here is the museum "crest":



This museum was so magical, and since I have a hard time explaining what I actually saw, here is the description from wikipedia.org-


"The museum is a fine arts museum, but does not take the concept of a usual fine arts museum. With many features that are child-oriented and a sprawling and occasionally mazelike interior, the museum is a playfully created place. Centered around the motto appearing on the museum's website "Let's become lost children together" (迷子になろうよ、いっしょに Maigo ni narō yo, isshoni?), or "let's lose our way together" as it is translated in the English leaflet. It has no set path or order of viewing. While the museum brochure contains a variety of languages, the signs within the museum are in Japanese only.
Hayao Miyazaki wanted to create a museum that was interesting and relaxing to the soul. His goal was to create a museum “that makes you feel more enriched when you leave than when you entered!”
On the bottom floor is an exhibit room showing the history and science of animation. One of the displays is a three dimensional zoetrope named “Bouncing Totoro", with models of a smiling bat, a cat bus, Satsuki, Mei, a big Totoro along with little ones, each in a slightly different pose, arranged in rings on a spinning table. [4]A flickering stroboscope flashes in time with the rotating models, illuminating each as it passes the same spot, creating an illusion of movement that shows how animation works.
On the first floor is a mock-up of an animation studio, with sketches, story boards, reference material and more to look at. Also shown is the process of creating an animated film, from sketches, storyboarding, keyframing, cleanup, coloring, background painting, etc."





There were winding staircases inside and outside, a playroom for kids, replica of Miyazaki's studio (there were his reference books, story boards, the paints he used, it was so awesome!) a small movie theatre where we watched a short film only available for view in this museum (the short film they were showing during our visit was "Hoshi o Katta Hi" or "The Day I Harvested a Star"), a garden on the roof, a giftshop, a cafe...here are some images of various spots, which I will explain in more detail later on in the blog:



Outside right past the main gate. See Totoro in the ticket booth? =)





Winding iron staircase outside that leads up to the rooftop garden


















\





Giant robot soldier from "Castle in the Sky"









Pretty pathway in the rooftop garden area





Keystone from "Castle in the Sky"





The cafe





Kaze no Tani (Valley of the Wind) beer with label drawn by Miyazaki





Dust sprites from "Spirited Away" too cute



The short film we saw in the theatre during our visit was "Hoshi wo Katta hi" (The day I harvested a Star) **this image was NOT taken by me, but found in google images**





Here is a souvenir hand towel I bought in the gift shop that depicts some highlight of the museum, spiral staircase, robot soldier statue, small doors scattered about that you could walk through, the movie theatre that looked like a train on the outside and the large clock

At the cafe, I was ballsy and ordered my drink in Japanese =) "Momo jusuu o kudasai." or "Peach juice please." which was yummy and came in a cut paper cup with Ghibli art on it. Ben ordered a "beiru" or "beer" and it came in a beautifully labeled bottle only available in the museum and you actually weren't allowed to take the bottle and when you were done, someone came to dispose of it for you. I did get a picture of it as you saw above (not sure if I was allowed to do this though lol)
The gift shop was magical, it was VERY crowded but I was able to make my way around and bought a couple of cute things (including the hand towel above)-








Gift shop bag and Totoro picture frame 









Small stuffed keychain of the museums mascot


On the roof, up the winding iron staircase, was a garden and thats where the HUGE statue of the robot soldier from the animated movie "Castle in the Sky" made from bronze was, as well as the keystone from the same movie among the shrubbery in the roof garden.
So we were here for most of the day. We made our way back to the hotel and explored the area around our hotel a bit, we saw there was a cool arcade there, a Uniqlo outlet, some cool restaurants..we went back to our rooms and relaxed a bit then at around 9:30pm or so, we ventured back out to find something to eat.
There was this cool looking place we passed on our way to Shinjuku Station a couple times so we decided to go in. The restaurant seemed to me to be a karaoke bar, so you were seated in isolated rooms and there was a tv and karaoke machine in each room too. But we just ate lol Ordering was a tad difficult since the waiter didn't really know much English but with the help of Google Translate and "pointing" lol we did just fine. Another thing I noticed is that the locals were very patience with us when it came to the language barrier and we always found ways to understand each other. 



It was getting late so I asked the waiter when they close, he understood what I said but didn't know quite how to answer me, after a while of him going "Ano..." or "Um..." he finally said "As soon as possible." which meant they were closed or indeed very close to be closed lolol so we didn't linger as long as we wanted. I ordered a steak dish with daikon (radish) and spring rolls with swiss chard and shrimp





Ben ordered gyoza (dumplings) and assorted yakitori (meats on sticks)

















and Emma got a pasta dish with clear cellophane noodles and shrimp 




and me and Emma got a mixed drink with our new favorite fruit "momo" or "peach" =) And with that meal, we ended our first full day in Tokyo. On to the next one!!



Itadakimasu! (Let's eat!)



Saturday, October 5th, 2013 
Another day, another adventure! We started our day with a somewhat normal (not for the Japanese lol) breakfast at a little French-esqe cafe across the street from our hotel called Caffe Veloce. Ordering was easy since everything not the menu was in English lol I had a hot matcha au lait or green tea with milk and a cream bun which was very yummy



We ended up eating here for breakfast almost every day since breakfast really isn't a "thing" in Japan and what they do eat for breakfast is usually fish, rice and miso soup, which I wouldn't have minded eating lol but I'm not a breakfast person per say.
Before we headed out to Nakano for the day, we walked around Shinjuku a little more and I found a Lawson! It's actually nothing special lol just a convenience store chain like 7 Eleven, but they carry anime merchandise and anime themed snacks every now and again (during the time of my stay however, there was nothing..) but I'm glad I actually went inside one! We also went into the Uniqlo outlet and me and Em bought a pair of matching comfy "room pantsu" or lounge pants for the plane ride home. We also checked out the Taito Arcade too, and man, was it awesome!























I would have had way more photos but I was told by a worker a couple mins into me taking pics that photography was not allowed. Boo. But I did still sneak some...the arcade was kind of dead and there were not many workers around sooooo yeah lol
And as you can see, the Japanese celebrate Halloween! I didn't know that. But I don't think they celebrate it the way we do, but as a culture that does like to "cosplay" or "dress in costume" I guess Halloween is right up their alley. Every mall or tourist attraction we went to was decorated in someway with Halloween decor, which was very cute.
Anyway, back to my arcade experience! 
So, there was a Taito Drum game (which I LOVE!!)




I bought a bunch of these games for my ps2 and had been practicing for this very moment!! so epic! lol there were also a LOT of crane games with cute anime toys and plushies (Ben was able to win a "Shingeki no Kyojin" or "Attack on Titan" blanket! During this days visit, I won a cute little fox plush (of whom I so aptly named Rocky) who became my bag companion and made some appearances in my photos! You'll meet Rocky soon =)



This arcade had...3 floors? And one on floor there were these AWESOME arcade games called "Kido Senshi Gundam: Senjo no Kizuna" or "Mobile Suit Gundam: Bonds of the Battlefield" which is really cool game where you actually pilot a Gundam robot! The arcade machine is shaped like a pod and you go into it. There is a big screen inside and you have your Gundam controls with sticks and levers, it was so so awesome but hard to play lol especially since it wasn't translated haha but I played it for a couple minutes before I died lol and here are some pics of the pods, it was dark on this floor though..but this made it easy for me to take pics undetected!! mwahaha



Inside the cockpit, while Ben is playing





Gundam statue about as tall as me near the games 





What the pods look like on the outside, there were a bunch!

Ben had a great time with this game, actually, anything that had to do with Gundam he loved =)
After we were done hanging out, we made our way to Shinjuku Station to go to Nakano, in the Kanto region, and we came here to visit Nakano Broadway, which is a "otaku" or "fan of all things anime and video games" PARADISE. Its several floors filled with arcades, manga, anime, idol, hobby, music, toy, collectibles, and subculture shops. 




I was IN HEAVEN and this was where I bought the most stuff...lol I am an otaku after all! I was able to get my hands on such awesome collectibles, like anime "douga" or "drawings that come with many pages that are used to make animation cels" they are not colored, just sketches, but are really cool to own! and for only $20! Amazing! The douga I bought was from the anime "Saiyuki"











                        



Here are some of the awesome things I saw-

















A maid cafe lol



























and here is the stuff I bought-































                                      







I was so so happy, you all have no idea. The things I found...I've never been able to find online to purchase myself (well...affordably) and specking of affordable, everything was a steal! Nothing compared to how much you would pay for the stuff here on amazon, ebay and the like, since I was in Japan where this stuff COMES FROM I didn't have to pay the inflated prices due to import taxes and such. WIN! For example, I bought  that "Shingeki no Kyojin" art book for roughly $20 and if you wanted to buy it here, it costs between $45 and $60, I even saw one for $100 and for some, these prices aren't even with tax and shipping. 

After many hours at Nakano Broadway lol we hopped on the train towards Akihabara, in the Chiyoda district, which is nicknamed "Electric Town" for being a major shopping center for electronic goods (computers, computer and video games) and it also has a lot of arcades and anime/manga shops. It also has a bunch of maid cafes (I showed a pic of one I found in Nakano earlier in this blog - they're cafes where woman dressed as maids wait on patrons hand and foot, play games with them, call them "master" but its not meant to be a sexual thing, its playful, they actually opened up a maid cafe in NYC not too long ago!) and outside almost every shop, there were girls dressed up in some type of maid or cosplay who were trying to get people to come into their shops or to hand out flyers to passersby as well as small gifts like tissue packs, mints, paper fans...I personally found them annoying lol they all yelled in a super sweet, squeaky voice (like an anime character) and usually its right in your EAR haha there was this one girl in front of the Sega arcade that I couldn't stand so much that I wouldn't go into the arcade haha!







I'm glad we were able to be here at night because all the lights were so pretty (and look great in photos! lol) 
We went to Kotobukiya (anime and video game merchandise)

































It was so organized, I loved it! We liked it to much we came back another day =)
We saw a KFC! with a Colonel in front! When we got back to Shinjuku, we saw there was a small KFC near our hotel so we ended up getting that to eat for dinner that night lol, no Colonel statue there though! I'm glad I got to see one in person!



They love KFC so much in Japan, they dress up the Colonel is costumes from time to time and its a tradition for Japanese to eat a bucket of original recipe for Christmas dinner! XD
Then, we made our way to a place that Ben was very excited about called "Super Potato" which is Japan's leading second-hand retro game shop with several floors and stuff EVERYWHERE. On the walls, ceiling, floor, steps, every single nook and cranny was FILLED with gaming merchandise, video games from various systems old and new, toys, collectibles, plush, and there was even a floor with a bunch of weird candies! Be warned, there are ALOT of pic from this place, there was just stuff EVERYWHERE!)





































Life sized "Snake" statue from Metal Gear



























































A Virtual Boy that still worked!





This place was amazing and we experienced OD sensory overload. So epic!
And so, after stuffed our faces full of KFC we were off to bed. Another day down! Now on to the next one...

Sunday, October 6th, 2013
As per our routine, we made a stop to have breakfast at Caffe Veloce and then we took a walk to Shinjuku Gyoen which is a national park in the middle of Shinjuku and its HUGE! I was amazed that something as vast and beautiful as this was within the city. 
























































































































































































             First Japanese toilet sighting!!








The gardens, which are 58.3 hectares in area with a circumference of 3.5km, has a blend of distinct horticulture such as French Formal (with a huge rose bed or "bad" as they misspelled on the map lol), English Landscape and Japanese traditional. There is a traditional tea house on site, ponds with koi and small buildings and bridges.
There was also a big outdoor event going on and I was thinking it was due to the fact that Japan's National Health & Sports Day was soon, October 10th.
After the park, we hopped on the train to Harajuku, in the Shibuya ward. Harajuku is filled with fashion boutiques, creperies and other food stands/shoppes and some anime/manga shops. To my surprise, we stumbled upon a Neon-Genesis Evangelion shop!















And I walked into a random boutique and bought a cute yellow hoodie and a Gloomy Bear shirt! too cool =3
We took the Takeshita exit from the station and oh man, was it CROWDED! Yes, it was a Sunday but this is the day when most kids are off, since there is no school. Japanese go to school 6 days a week. On Takeshita-dori or Takeshita street, it was very narrow and FILLED with people, making it almost impossible to move at times..



This was the most crowded place I experienced in Japan (aside from Skytree, a fairly new tourist attraction, which I will go over soon!)
We also went to the "Oriental Bazaar" which is a shop where you can purchase traditional Japanese souvenirs (and some cheesy ones lol) it has 3 floors filled with antiques, furniture, kimono, and the like, its a good place to get souvenirs for family and such. We bought a big Daruma doll which is a hollow, round, traditional doll modeled after the Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism. Daruma are a symbol of good luck, perseverance and encouragement. 



The eyes of the Daruma are blank when sold, as you can see from the picture, it does not have any pupils. You are supposed to fill in one eye upon setting a goal for yourself that you want to fulfill, this way, every time you look at the one-eyed Daruma, you will be reminded of your goal. Then, once the goal is accomplished, you fill in the other eye and then the Daruma becomes an embodiment of the goal you accomplished =) We haven't done this yet, but I have some ideas...
From here, we went to a bar or "taproom" that Ben wanted to visit called Baird Beer or "BB" a Japanese style pub that has its own brewed beers (15 on tap) and snacks such as yakitori and "izakaya" or beer inspired snacks.  I really loved the look and feel of this place and the beers were quite good. Ben and Emma got a tasting sample of them all.



























Ben and I also loved that they had the art from the beer labels painted on canvas on the walls, very nice touch.
To end the day, we made our way to the infamous Tokyo Tower in Shibuya. Along the way, as the sun was setting, we visited Zojoji Temple.





























There are 15 Tokugawa shoguns (military General) buried at Zojoji and there is also a "Unborn Children Garden" that we visited





























The Buddha statue at the entrance to the grave site had a well of water and a bucket and its customary to put water over the Buddha before you enter as a form of cleansing (which I observed and did)
As you can see, there were rows and rows of stone statues of children representing the unborn children of Japan, including miscarried, aborted and stillborn children. Each statue was different but all had a pin wheel and knitted clothing on them. It was a beautiful yet somber experience, especially being it was night time when we visited. There were also no other people around.
We were then off to Tokyo Tower not to far away. 










Tokyo tower currently asks as a support structure for an antennae and it is 1,093 ft tall which is the 2nd tallest structure in Japan (the 1st is Tokyo Sky Tree) There was some construction so we weren't able to go all the way up but it was still a beautiful view. 





















The skyline at night was just mesmerizing. 
And here is a "mystery ball" on display in the tower, which is actually a baseball found inside a pillar near the top of the Tokyo Tower that has left officials at the tourist attraction baffled.



And then, we were done! What a long day! I was beyond exhausted and my feet were in so much pain from walking. I have to make sure for next time to come prepared with comfy shoes!! 



Monday, October 7th, 2013
Today we were off to Meiji Jingu Shrine in Shibuya. It was so humid that day!! But the shrine was beautiful and when we were walking down the paths the breeze cooled through the trees.











































Meiji Shrine is located within an evergreen forest that covers about 175 acres that consists of 120,000 trees of 365 different species, which have been donated by people from all parts of Japan when the shrine was established in 1926.
The shrine is composed of two areas: the Naien (inner precinct) and the Gaien (outer precinct). The Naien is where the shrines are as well as a museum that houses articles of Emperor Meiji and his wife Empress Shoken. The Gaien has a memorial picture gallery, stadium, memorial hall and a grand hall used for Shinto weddings.


After this, we were off to Tokyo Skytree, which I was very excited about. But first, FOOD!


Now, we were so busy sightseeing that we did not NEARLY eat as much as we wanted (next time!) but we were able to check out an awesome ramen (noodle) place Ben wanted to try called Rokurinsha in Oshiage train station.

                   





                
          


What a line! But that means its good! =9

And oh, it was! Rokurinsha is a very small restaurant that only seats 12 people at a time. You purchase a ticket for what you want to order from a machine and you give it to a worker and then he gives it to the chefs. Rokurinsha only serves "dipping ramen" which has the thick chewy noodles with a whole boiled egg and the broth, which is a house special "tsukemen" or thick, rich soup with pork and bonito separate. You then dip the noodles in the broth and since the broth is so rich, it sticks to the noodle and oh man. It is fantastic. And since it customary to slurp your noodles, they have bibs available to wear and good thing I wore one! I would have gotten it ALL over me haha I inhaled it!! So good =9



Oishii desu! (Yummy!)



And with our bellies filled with warm broth and noodles, we waddled our way to the Skytree! 



**I did NOT take this photo, it was found on google images**












It opened in May, 2012 so its a fairly new attraction and was quite crowded. We were waiting on line for...a very very long time lol I think 2, or close to 3 hrs. Good thing I had my 3DS! And you can't imagine the amount of street passes I got while on this trip! lol
Skytree is currently the tallest structure in Japan at 2,080ft, beating Tokyo Tower in 2010 and is earthquake resistance which is amazing given its size. 
There are observatories at 1,150ft and 1,480ft and the upper features a spiral, glass covered skywalk where you ascend the last 5 meters to the highest point! It was amazing!!! What a view!























































































And there is a section of glass on the floor where you can a direct downward view of the street, amazing!! And kind of scary!
And the mascots of Skytree were simply adorable



oh and Skytree was also decorated for Halloween! So cute! I loved it =)















The Skytree was an amazing place and one of my favorite attractions! It was well worth the long wait!



Rocky says "Ja ne, Skytree-san! Aishiteru zo!" (bye bye, Skytree! I love you!)


And that ended another long, adventurous day in Japan. On to the next, and sadly, LAST, day in Tokyo..=(

Tuesday, October 8th, 2013
I am not sure if we made our usual stop for breakfast this morning...but we got on the train straight away to make our way to Odaiba, which is a large, man-made island across from central Tokyo. There is a BIG ferris wheel (377ft) here (we didn't go on it) called Daikanransha. 












Our first stop was Gundam Front, a large museum housing every GUNDAM! (Gundam is a very popular, multi series anime based around mechanized robots called Gundams)




Gundam Front is located within Diver City Mall in Odaiba (it was so weird for it to be within a mall! it was such a vast exhibit!) and as soon as we walk in, there is a HUGE room that has 1,000 Gundam model kits that Bandai has created. I couldn't believe how many there were, it was jaw dropping.





















I regret not taking a picture of the entire room, but I did manage to get a pics with my favorite Gundam models =) and other cool looking ones.
After we were done here, we went into another huge room with life sized models, dioramas, you can even climb into a cockpit of a Gundam and take your picture with your favorite Gundam character!





















Before we ventured farther into the exhibit, we went inside a dome where they were screening some sort of film. We were pleasantly surprised at what it actually was!! The dome was 50 feet in diameter and had six projectors and 13 speakers with surrounded you, it felt like you were totally immersed in the show!









We saw footage of famous scenes from past Gundam series and impressive, highly detailed CG of mobile suit battles through space! The screens took up the whole diameter of the ceiling and it was standing room only so to make sure guests didn't fall over, there were bars for which to hold on to lol I almost got whip lash! haha
And then, in the final part of the exhibit (which I enjoyed VERY MUCH) there were walls and walls of original and never seen before artwork from Gundam Wing, Gundam Seed and Gundam 00 (I'm guessing these displays change over time since there are so many other series) but being that Gundam Wing is my favorite, I was soo happy to see all this art! 















































There were huge banners, paintings, concept art, booklets of information from every Gundam series, music from the series soundtracks was playing in the background (so cool!! they were playing Rhythm Generation!!!! Squeee!!) they also had model kit dioramas, a time line display of the series and two gift shops.





































After that, we started our quest to find the infamous life-sized 1:1 scale Gundam, model RX-78-2, which, after we had a bit to eat at the food court..



Halloween doughnuts at Krispy Kreme lol

Takoyaki! (little bits of octopus in pancake like balls)







And then....we found it!! It was right outside, standing 59ft tall! It was so amazing to see! The average person comes up to about its ankle height!


















































Right by the life-size Gundam, there was a cute Gundam themed cafe which had Gundam inspired sweets, pastries and drinks and a lot of merchandise and dioramas.

















After we took a little break here, we made our way to see Rainbow Bridge
Rainbow bridge, which is a huge bridge that connects Odaiba to central Tokyo and is 2,618ft long. At night, it is lit up with rainbow lights and the colors change depending on certain months (I think if we would've caught it at night, it would have been pink for October) The area around there was very nice, we walked through Palette Town (which may or may not be what Palette Town in Pokemon was based from...) and we sat on a beach which over looked the bridge. 











When we were done here, we decided to go back to Akihabara again, since I saw a bunch of stuff I wanted to buy and didn't (because I didn't want to blow all my money so early on in the trip lol) Also, originally, I was going to get my nails done at a salon in Akihabara called Colors that specializes in anime/manga art nails but it would have been a lot of money so I cancelled. There is always next time! ;)
And now, I will share with you the weirdo we met in the train station on our way to Akihabara lol
We were all just talking about how we weren't harassed or anything our entire time we were in Tokyo and then this...very strange man approaches us while we're on line to purchase our pass. He approaches me and asks "Do you speak English?" in a very low, creepy voice and he leans in close to me while he says this. I back off and say "Yeah, AND?!" in reply, like a typical New Yorker response when a weird stranger talks to you lol He goes from me, Emma and Ben asking us all the same question and then follows us to the screen where you buy your pass and tries to, well, what looks like, "helping" us buy a ticket. I tell him "I know what I'm doing, thanks.." but he keeps trying to touch the buttons on the screen or us lolol it was awkward. Not scary, just awkward. He gets a little too close to Ben though, and that would have been ugly lol So, we go on our merry way and then we see him AGAIN at the Akihabara stop harassing more people!! WTF! lolol So weird...
Anyway.....
We went back to Super Potato and Kotobukiya and then we shot over to Shibuya to have some drinks at a bar Ben wanted to visit called Good Beer Faucets. It was a cool place and we spent a nice night here =) 

                         











Having had a couple of drinks lol we made our way back to Shinjuku and even though I was tired, I wanted to make the most out of the last night we had here so we stayed up late and I spent all the yen I had left in the arcade!! HEAVEN! XD
I played ALOT of Taiko Drum (and this game was at the entrance to the arcade, and Ben said while I was playing, a group of kids called me "gaijin-sama!" which means "foreigner" but in a honorable way haha with the -sama at the end of it =/) that was pretty funny. They were probably jealous of my drumming skills! lol



To my surprise, there was a Mario Kart arcade game and me and Ben played, it was so cool! However, after our game was over, since nothing was in English, I accidentally bought a game card lolol but its still cool!
Then, I really waned to win a Gloomy Bear plus from one of the crane games so since I had yen to burn, I tried. Since I had a couple beers in me, I wasn't thinking straight haha but I kept playing until I won, screaming profanities at the machine lolol After I spent a good amount of money in the machine, one of the workers came up to me and showed me how to win it. After another try to two, I WON! I was so happy, I thanked the worker many times, it was very nice of her to help me, but I think that is part of their job if they see someone putting a lot of money in a machine lol I spent a good $50 to get that Gloomy, but he's so cute!!









Godzilla Gloomy! XD
While I was doing this, Ben was hard at work on another machine winning LOADS of candy lol he was doing really well and then ran out of yen and this woman played right after him and won all the candy he was working hard at to get...poor Bennie. He won some little slimes (Dragonquest) too!
And so, thats how the night ended. We went back to our hotel rooms and I tried to stay awake until morning because we had to leave the hotel at 4am since our fight was at 6:30am. So to stay awake, I packed everything up that night. I think I ended up getting 1 hr of sleep lol but this was a good thing, since I wanted desperately to sleep on the plane home. 



Wednesday, October 9th, 2013
Like I said, I ended up getting 1 hr of sleep lol but all of my bags were packed (and stuffed to the brim!! I swear, if I was to buy another thing...lol) I woke up at 3am since our cab was going to be at the hotel at 4am. We made our way down to the lobby and it was a ghost town in the hotel, no one was even at the front desk at that time lol I was a zombie and my feet and ankles were killing me and swollen from all the walking =( but our cab came on time, and we got to the airport fast.



Sayonara Hotel Sunroute, Shinjuku! ='(

We all had just enough yen left to pay for the cab lol we waited on line at customs for awhile then made our way to our gate to wait. We were able to see the sun rise while we waited which was nice =) I also had some yen left (I think close to $10 worth) so I asked ben to see if any of the shops in the airport had Japanese kit kats and to get me as much as I could with the money I had left lol since I didn't buy any kit kats while in Japan since they were expensive where I saw them (the only candy store I went to was one in Oshiage station and there all the kit kats were in really big boxes) I also looked for them in Lawsons but they didn't have good flavors (they love kit kats in Japan and make awesome flavors! Some are weird, like chili, squash, and sesame seed, but they're some very yummy ones like sakura, green tea, strawberry, pumpkin...) so anyway, Ben came back with a HUGE box of ichigo (strawberry) kit kats and they were so yummy!  


Our flight home was at 6:30am, so we were all settled in, ready for take off, but this plane was an older model than we arrived in, so it was smaller, less leg room, dingy and dirty...flight attendants weren't nearly as helpful and attentive as on the flight there. And the food (dunno how it was possible) was worse lolol the only highlight was a Japanese style cream filled pastry they gave us lol made me miss Caffe Veloce =( And, the benefit of not sleeping at night was that I actually SLEPT on the plane! It was on and off but this 12hr flight wasn't NEARLY as unbearable lol 


And so, we returned to Newark and it was about 6:30am when we landed, so its like we didn't lose any time at all during the flight! Time travel is amazing lol Filled out the customs forms (which I messed up on lol I hate forms) then we went to customs check out and I wasn't looking forward to it (I've heard back things lol) I was so exhausted, lugging around all my baggage on my achy feet, I give the guy my customs paperwork, he looks at it, is about to hand it back to me and I'm about to roll away and then he goes "Wait - you have candy??" with a very blank expression I said in monotone "Yes. I have candy." "It's only candy right?" "Yes." and I lifted up a bag I had from the airport of the kit kats I had bought (I was NOT opening up my bags to show him candy...I would have never been able to get everything in there again and I might have had a nervous breakdown right there lol) then he just let me go. Thank goodness. We called ahead to have our cab be here for when we landed but of course, they weren't there. I called a couple of times to tell them the ramp we were at and all. I think we ended up waiting about an hr for it to show up. And then we were on our way HOME! It was a bittersweet feeling. I wanted to be home, someplace familiar but I really missed Tokyo. I still do. I think of it everyday and I cannot WAIT to go back! I don't even mind the long flight to get there, its so worth it =) And now that I've survived being in a plane for such long hours, the sky is the limit!! Europe is next! Can't wait for my next vacation far, far away! Exciting!

Thank you to all who read this blog  and for taking the journey with me! This was a trip of a life time for me and a dream come true for me. I can't thank Ben enough =) I hope to visit Japan again SOON! 




SAYONARA MINNA-SAN! Dewa mata!
Goodbye everyone! See you soon!