Day 9 - Harajuku and Akihabara

Today was a day I wanted to get some shopping done! So I picked out some stores I wanted to visit in Harajuku, I had been wanting to go to the Daiso in Harajuku since I went to the one in Seattle. I also wanted to go to UNIQLO UT and buy some shirts. When we arrived in Harajuku the weather was a bit cloudy and there were not so many people as the weekend so it felt much more comfortable.


The basement of the Daiso Harajuku The first place we went to was the Daiso since that is near the beginning of Takeashita st. First thing you saw when you entered was a halloween display, but I couldn't find anything that was so special or something I couldn't get in America. There were also personal care items, phone straps/keychains and other misc sort of things. The second floor had all the cute character goods, partry goods, snacks and stationary. The third floor had house goods, crafts and organizational items. Then we went all the way back down to the basement where they have kitchen and bathroom goods. I got 3 towels, 2 phone straps, black q-tips, an onigiri bento, hime forks and hi-chew candy to name a few.

As we exited Daiso there was some light rain but nothing too heavy, we passed by the Marion and Angel Hearts crepe stands where everyone gets a crepe, but not me. j-j We then took a side road off of Takeshita street and made our way to UT. UT is pretty cool, they have 2 floors of men's shirts and 1 of ladies. They still had the big manga campaigne going on and I got a Lum shirt plus 2 others, and Shouma of course got a surfing shirt >< haha. We also went to the Northface store right next to UT, a favorite brand of Shouma's and he paid premium price for a small case.




Laforet having some sort of Avril exhibit

By the time we has exited the Northface store the rain had really started up, we turned the corner and walked down to the Kiddyland store, which was just as cute as I remember^A^ but with 1/3 the people which was wonderful. I felt like I could actually move this time. It's still rather small and cramped in there, but I went to every floor except the Snoopy floor and the baby/toddler toys floor. I bought an a green polka dot umbrella with a rabbit handle there for about 500Y. And I used it as soon as we left the store! hehe.

I had originally planned to try and get to the cake buffet today since I had already put it off, but as we passed a restaraunt Shouma exclaimed how he wish he could have sushi. I was like, well if you want to we can since I never had sushi in Japan before, and he was like no, you want the cake buffet we don't have to have kaiten sushi. So then I just said, hey I never had cake buffet but I never had kaiten sushi and it's something I had always wanted to do since last year.

And so we went in out of the rain and gloom. It had a nice comfy atmosphere and chefs preparing the sushi by hand, which was nice as I have heard some used forms or machines. Shouma put some green tea in my cup and I could add very hot water to it by a spigot coming out of the counter. There we lots of sushi going by as well as edamame, seaweed salad and desserts. I saw raw horse, but I thought best to avoid haha. Shouma picked out the sushi for us and I tried everything except the one with lots of mayo and veggies on top.

I tried this Uzura sushi and it nearly killed me, the natto didn't really bother me much, I would have liked to taste it by itself. But the raw quail egg taste just explodes in a bad way in your mouth. It's so salty and gooey its really quite wrong haha. I also tried squid and didn't care for the texture at all, or the taste much either. I ordered 3 desserts to get the taste out of my mouth and they were all very yummy hehe. The bill was about 3300Y.

After that we decided to head to Akihabara and skip Ginza, Shouma wanted to look at cameras again, but this time at Yodobashi.

Inside Yodobashi Camera

Just a few gashapon on the toy floor

Maids or cosplayers?

We exited Yodobashi from the wrong exit, we came in the entrance/exit that comes directly out of Akihabara station. So we went back towards Yodobashi and Shouma spotted something he really likes - Choco Cro crossiants. If you look really closely you can see their orange logo in the window, their shop is part of the Yodobashi building. We got 3 chocolate and 2 strawberry for 840Y and just as Shouma said they were some of the best sweets I ever had...

Day 8 - Shinagawa and Bic Camera

Last time I was in Japan I ate at TGI Fridays in Yokohama with Shouma. Being someone interested in america/american food he really liked Fridays and wanted to eat there again this time. I suggested we go back to the one in Yokohama but for personal reasons he didn't want to so we decided on the one in Shinagawa. I had never actually stayed in Shinagawa longer then it takes to transfer trains so I was looking forward to it. However our map pointed out besides restarants and the Shinagawa Prince complex there wasn't much to be done haha. Well we set out anyhow.

Shinagawa Station

When we arrived in Shinagawa Station we head left and walked all the way out of the station but couldn't see anything, and a map confirmed we went the wrong way haha. It seemed like there was a market of some sort going on down in the plaza below the exit but I didn't investigate. So we walked all the way back through the station and went out the right exit. All the restarants and hotels are across the street. We went to the Shinagawa prince hotel through this area of restarants and shops all around a plaza, it's hard to describe. I wanted to visit the sega arcade there and Shouma thought he knew where he was going but it just lead up past the theater, aquarium and into the residential backstreets.

Family Mart on a backstreet in Shinagawa

After our little tour of the neighborhood, which is always fun to see Japanese apartments and houses, we went back to where we started and decided just to find Fridays since we both were hungry at this point. Fridays is in a hotel next to the Shinagawa Prince. We went in and Shouma got an english menu because everyone thought he was a gaijin since he was with me. I noticed that same exact food in America cost atleast 200Y more here in Japan. The shotglass desserts were 480Y each, where as they are 2$ in America. I had a chicken quesadilla and Shouma had buffalo wings, a salad and steak with fries.

After ate we found the sega arcade and were quite disappointed, its very small! I wouldn't even call that an arcade it's just some games off to the side in a bowling alley. We played a racing game anyhow and Shouma gloated terribly when he beat me by literally one second. I wanted to bowl with Shouma but it was something like 20$ per game. And yeah I am poor. We left Shinagawa since there was nothing else there to do and we headed to Ginza.

Random plastic food display

Nice lights and fancy lady hehe

Shouma wanted to go back to the Bic Camera in Ginza to actually look at cameras. He decided a few months ago to be a photographer, but he had never actually owned a camera or knew what kinda of functions were good/important. So he spent a good long time looking at cameras, I wanted to excape and find some gashapon but he wanted me to explain which camera were good and bad. I like camera but I can't look that long! And then they ended not having any gashapon there (that I could find). After that we went back to the Imperial Palace grounds and lazed around some more.

At the Imperial Palace grounds I ate some ice cream out of a vending machince. First I tried vanilla ice cream inside some mochi rice. It's called mochi ice cream and that was pretty good as long as it didn't become too warm. The texture is better when its more cold. After I finished that one I went and bought a red bean ice cream monaka, and that was amazing for 150Y, I mean it really tasted good to me!

Ice cream vending machine at the Imperial Palace!

Day 7 - Ikebukuro and Sunshine City

Today we went to Sunshine city, also a place I was looking forward to alot! We got an earlier start today so we got to the subway at 10am. When we arrived in Ikebukuro Shouma showed me some of the west side before we went over the the east side when the Sunshine City is located. When we got to the East side we went into the Parco and Seibu departo looking for some sunglasses for Shouma. I got a few things from Loft, and I saw a Betsey Johnson (plus millions of other cute stores)




After we left Seibu and Parco we headed towards Sunshine city in a kinda indirect approach. First we stoped at the Don Quixote (Donki) to look at the suitcases because I was planning to buy one for all the items I was hording. Even though we didn't find a suitable case we didn't want to bring one all the way back to the hotel from there. We walked by a Wendy's and neither one of us were hungry but I took Shouma in since he had never tried it before. I order a frosty (called a Chocolate soft there) and a chili off the 99Y menu and boy I was in for a shock! The chili was SO much smaller then here in the US, it was about 1/4 of a cup. The frosty was smaller too but the chili's size was ridiculous. Atleast it tasted the same.


Inside the Wendy's in Ikebukuro

Next we went to Tokyo Hands, I would have liked to explore it more since the one we went to in Ginza was quite small, but Shouma was becoming antzy so we just used the bathroom and left. We crossed a few more streets to get to Sunshine city. Sunshine City looks very unassuming from the outside (and inside) it just seemed like a regular large office building, and I guess since it was a weekday there weren't many people going in. When we got in we had to walk by a bunch of bakeries with super cute cakes and pasteries, that was hard but I wasn't hungry! I found Alta and I knew it was large but I didn't realize it was so large! It is two floors of girls clothing and accesories and it's terribly cute as well. There are pink neon lights on the outside (it's like a mall within a mall). But anyhow the sheer size was bewildering so I decided just to focus on finding Swimmer. Swimmer is in the left half, 1st floor just to the right of the the esclators. I bought a cute bag, magnet and 2 hair bands.

View from a terrace on Sunshine City

After we left Alta I shopped at Loft again haha, and got some postcards and a portable ashtray for Shouma. We went and looked at the facade of Namja Town but I just could go it because I wasn't hungry at all, and whats the point of paying admission into a food theme park if you're not hungry? T_T Shouma wanted Starbucks so we sat on a terrace along with many other people and sweated in the heat. Shouma was looking for sunglasses so we went to one of his favorite stores Murasaki Sports located in Harajuku, there was also one in Seibu in Ikebukuro but they didn't have what he wanted. We breezed through Takeshita Street and went to the Murasaki sports located about halfway down, he bought sunglasses there, but we also looked as the Murasaki Sports at the end of Takeshita Street haha. As we walked back up the street I noticed my ankles had become swollen so we had to end the day and head back to the hotel.

Takeshita street Harajuku

Day 6 - Shimbashi and Odaiba

The breakfast provided by Toyoko Inn

Today I went to visit Odaiba, I wanted to visit Decks and AquaCity and just see a place I had never seen before. We left a bit later then usual, at 12, and it was very hot! We needed to change trains at Shimbashi and Shouma suggested we walk around Hama Rikyu garden since we already there. It wasn't the best day for strolling through a garden however. There were many older people and foriegners visiting, but the garden itself wasn't as amazing as the guide books may lead you to believe. There are some areas that seem to be completely unkempt, but it's only 300Y to enter so you might as well visit if you are near. We only managed maybe 30 minutes in the heat so we went back to the station, got lost, then went off to Odaiba.

Shimbashi

Hama Rikyu


The train ride to Odaiba is rather fun, you get nice city views, and can watch the Rainbow Bridge as you approach. It's very amazing to think Odaiba was built on garbage. Also since Odaiba is such a dating/tourist type of place, you don't really realize that people live and work there! I passed many condos, high-rise apartments and even a school. As we exited the train we came out right in front of a hotel, we could immediatly see the Fuji TV station to the right and turning to the left there is the mini Statue of Liberty. So I snaped some photos of these Odaiba icons.



Shouma really likes(liked) Kua Aina burger, so when we spotted this very notably facade he got excited and our lunch spot was decided on the spot. I wasn't hungry so I just had an orange juice. He had a burger, and popcorn shrimp. This branch is decidely more expensive, but Shouma says that the food is actually not as good as the one in Yokohama.


Then we did a little shopping in AquaCity. I got some window gel clings and Shouma got a air freshener with a Hawaiin picture on it in some random trinket shop. I looked around Claires and they do have some cute stuff, but I wanted to save my money. Then we went down to the boardwalk and stared at the ocean, the heat ruined that too tho. We went to decks next and enjoyed a bit more shopping. I saw some really cute bags and clothes, but I can't shop too much because nothing fits and Shouma gets bored by it. I saw Joypolis, didn't go in, and walked through the Showa era floor and got a gashapon.


Decks and some apartments

Joypolis

Then I went to Toys R Us, which I had been excited to do for a long time. I always loved Toys R Us (before it changed and became not so cool) and I worked there once so I really wanted to see the Japanese version. First off was a big section just for Pokemon and also a large baby section. But they have sooo much cute stuff in the girls section and some next models in the boys. I bought some stuff, and enjoyed going there. There main difference between the two is size, and cuteness.

I didn't get home until after 8pm and so we just got take out gyudon from Yoshinoya for a quick dinner. It was a fun day, but it would have been really fun if the heat would have been tolerable.

Day 5 - Harajuku, Shibuya, Ginza

Today I had plans to meet up with a friend to walk around Harajuku with, however we ended waiting in different spots and missed each other completely. The heat was very bad, but still there were many people hanging out in Harajuku. I hung around the station for about 25 minutes before I turned around and decided to head to Ginza.

Some harajuku fashion

Before I got to Ginza, Shouma took me around Shibuya for a little while. When we first came out of the station it was bewildering as I realized at was at the Hachiko crossing that is so famous in movies and photographs. So after I stared dumbfounded a bit, I took a couple pictures and the light quickly changed. Then people were going every which way, in front of you across, around and there were also bicylces zig zaggin through. I wish I could have talken a photo or video like other people, but photos and videos just don't capture the feeling right. Especially if you have been waiting to see it, it's something very different for anything else. Well after I crossed I walked to Center Gai.

Famous image of Shibuya

Walking down Center Gai was very interesting as well, there were girls and guys dressed very Shibuya kei everywhere, hip hop music blasting and men shouting to get people into their stores. It was rather narrow and a but shabby but also very exciting. Shouma dicided to eat at Lotteria and just wandered over, so I quickly took a pic of the exterior before someone ran me over from behind. I got inside and I saw a Center guy!

Center Gai

Center guy inside Lotteria

I got the gourmet cheeseburger, it was really small but just like everyone says - amazing. The meat is tender and the cheese is real cheese. It's really good for a fastfood burger, but it is expensive as well. I had a melon soda to drink with it and fries with butter and soy sauce flavor. After we finished eating we headed back to Shibuya Station and got on a train to Ginza. I wanted to go to Tokyu hands, and the one in Ginza is closest to my hotel. You can really tell you are in the fancy part of town as soon as you get out of Ginza station. Everyone is impeccably dressed in designer wear, and the shops look so polished and have many attendants. Well Tokyu Hands in Ginza, or Ginza Hands as it's so called was small compared to others so I didn't find much to buy.

A street in Ginza

After Ginza Hands we went shopping at the Bic Camera in Yurakucho, and that was crazy busy! Especially the first floor, where all the new phones are and the aisles are narrow and everyone is trying to get up to the next floor. It was fun to look around but I felt pretty sad that I didn't have enough money to get something. The Laptops and cameras are so amazing and far ahead of what we have in America! After that we went to a Starbucks, I got a matcha frappachino and we drank our drinks at the Imperial Palace Gardens again hehe.

We went back to the hotel and rested until about 8 pm when we went out ot have dinner at an Izakaya near the hotel. It was very fun, the interior was a traditional wood and there were a good amount of people inside. There was a group of oyaji and they were very noisy. We ordered salmon fried rice, gyoza, yakitori, salad, ochazuke, tamagoyaki and I had black sesame ice cream. Of course afterwards we visited some conbini and went back to the hotel and to bed.

The Izakaya

Yakitori

Shouma buying some vending machine drinks

Tokyo Day 3 - the Imperial Palace

Today I woke up about 7am and went to eat the breakfast provided by Toyoko Inn. They have croissants and a savory type of bread. Shouma wouldn't wake up early so I went and eat by myself, it was kinda fun to be the only white girl amoung many Japanese business men haha. I didn't bring my camera so I don't have a pic of the food, but I will get one tomorrow. When I went back to the room I ate half of the chestnut daifuku I got the night before. It was really good!

Then we got ready and rode the train to Tokyo station which was only 2 stops away, it was full but not packed haha. We got lost in Tokyo station for awhile but it was interesting just looking at everything and all the people. When we got out we wandered a little bit before going to the Imperial Palace grounds. Marunouchi is kinda a stuffy place and has a pretty western look.

Tokyo Station

We had to walk quite a few blocks because Shouma wanted McDonalds, which was fine with me, but it seems that type of food is not appreciated in downtown Tokyo haha. I wanted to try a Tsukimi burger, but I knew I couldn't finish it so I got a Chicken Shaka cheese flavor and a McBakery Chocolate Danish. They were both good, and the chicken was bigger then I thought it would be. It's about the size of a large chicken patty. The cheese flavor was good but not quite strong enough for me.

My lunch
Then after a bathroom break at a very clean restroom we walked over to the Imperial Palace grounds, it was quiet warm and there wasn't as many white gaijin as I thought there would be. I walked all the way up to the gate only to find it was closed today! haha. They said they are closed every friday, but I thought they closed every monday, huh. Anyhow I got a few nice photos even though it was closed.

Looking towards Marunouchi

Since it was so hot I just headed for a area with lots of trees and sat in the shade for a looooong time. Lots of people were also relaxing, and talking and eating ice cream. I saw a cicada shell for the first time, laying in the grass, but also there were ants everywhere. I started to head back to the hotel a little after 3pm and took the subway instead of the trains, it took longer but it was less busy. Now I have been watching TV and relaxing in my hotel until 7 and then I will go eat dinner at Skylark Gusto.

Where I was just chillin' all day ha!