In Tokyo
Well... I made it to Tokyo. Got a headache lugging around Dax through Nagoya and Tokyo. But Tylenol quickly took care of that. I still have a lingering cold - it's just a cough. But now it's like my ears won't pop. It's really annoying. But the best, the BEST, thing so far is the bed in my hotel room. It's been so long since I slept in a REAL bed, it's so comfortable, it's hard to get up! My futon back in my apartment is fine, but there's nothing like sleeping on a mattress again.
When I got here none of my outlets in my room had 3-prongs so I went to Akihabara to pick up an adapter. It'll be great at my apartment too so I can finally use a socket closer to my table. No more tripping over the cord at night! I picked up my Tales magazine at the huge Animate store. Actually after I've been around I`ve decided Akihabara has the biggest Animate store but I actually prefer the one in Nagoya. It's stocked better and only has 3 floors... I'm sick of those narrow stairways. It's embarrassing trying to squeeze past all these people going up or down the stairs. Very gaijin of me.
I took my big Tokyo tour yesterday (Christmas day for me) and had a pretty good time. There were two other single people besides me, as in people not already part of a group, not people who are in a relationship. One was a middle-aged guy from Venezuela and the other was a man from Senegal the same age as me. He speaks beautiful French. So we made a cute little group. Carlos had to be 5'10" and Badu was close to 6'5", I looked like a midget. Besides drinks I only spent 10 bucks the entire trip. I found a button with my name in hirigana on it. I could never get anything with my name on it as a kid, so I found it entertaining. There was a dog store in the souvenir section of Asakusa Temple, it was amazing! They had stuffed animals of around 40 breeds of dog. I took a picture, don't know how well it turned out though. I half want to go back and get one of the papillon ones, but they start at 40 bucks. They even had Japanese-style dog clothes. I kind of wanted to buy something for Earl. Duke is to sensitive but you can get Earl in and out of clothing. He looks so indignant afterwards too. So cute! Actually... I guess I could get Duke into it, he wears a rain jacket and life jacket after all. But to get back to the subject, I bought a stylized Papillon cell phone strap. It's cute.
The trip started out at Meiji temple and it was nice to go back after 6 years, part of the temple has been refurbished and now they're accepting French wines and not only sake for company donations, it's great to see the wine barrels next to the sake barrels.
Next was the East Imperial gardens. Not much was blooming, of course. Just the Camillias, some Winter Sakura trees and oddly, a few daffodils. I should come back during my spring break. The palace is open only two days of the year. One was two days before I arrived and the next is the day I leave... I dunno. I don't think it's worth sacrificing my shinkansen ticket and paying for another night at the hotel, in my gut opinion.
Next was the buddhist Asakusa temple. It's famous for it's huge paper lantern gate with the kanji for lightning written on it. It has a huge avenue of souvenir shops, which I mentioned above. It was so busy it took me about 20 minutes to get to the middle gate! Unfotunately I didn't have time to go RIGHT UP to the shrine, but I've got a few good pictures. I also bought a fortune, it has an English translation, but it would be hard to find your fortune if you can't read kanji numbers. Anyway, I got the "best fortune" which is apparently especially good from Asakusa. Apparently this temple loves to give out "bad fortunes." So I get a lucky charm for my wallet that'll last until next Christmas.
After that was lunch at a hotel, it was overlooking a garden on the bay, it was gorgeous! Took a few pictures of that too. Lunch was good.. But it was kind of cheapened by hash brown thing they served with it. Reminded me of the hash browns you get at McDonalds.
Then it was time for a cruise around Tokyo bay. Had a really good view of Rainbow Bridge, and the rest of Odaiba. After the cruise we actually went to Odaiba but we only spend half an hour there. Barely saw anything besides the replica of the replica of the Statue of Liberty in France. LOL Oh. And I went to Toys R Us with Carlos and Badu. They were under the impression things were cheaper in Japan. HA! Sometimes you can find an equivalent price but on the whole things are about 10 bucks more expensive.
So, good tour. I think I may goto Tokyo Tower tomorrow. I really don't know what else to do. Fuyu Comi doesn't start until Sunday so that'll keep me busier. But I'm still pretty lonely. I don't take being alone very well. So I'm a little sorry for myself right now. Ungh... I never thought I'd miss work, but here it is. Miserable at work, miserable on vacation... The thing is I DO want to stay in Japan, maybe if I can make it for a year... I think that'll be okay. My fortune says that employment is favorable, maybe I'll get out of Toba in April! LOL I'm going to start sending applications out when I get home to Ise. Just in case my company can't find me a different position.
I find myself oddly looking forward to the Star Trek MMO. I don't know why I should, I've never enjoyed a Star Trek game before. Saying that, the last one I really tried to play was on the Game Gear. But having my own Star Trek ship and crew is like the answer to one of my favorite daydreams. I heard they might have Defiant-class ships available eventually and that would be so awesome! Plus they're designing their own ships, which is fun too. But in the beginning the races available don't include Trills or Bajorans, which is too bad since they're my favorites. They do have Andorians though! It's why I love DS9 the best out of all the Star Trek series, huge space battles and lots of coexisting species.
When I got here none of my outlets in my room had 3-prongs so I went to Akihabara to pick up an adapter. It'll be great at my apartment too so I can finally use a socket closer to my table. No more tripping over the cord at night! I picked up my Tales magazine at the huge Animate store. Actually after I've been around I`ve decided Akihabara has the biggest Animate store but I actually prefer the one in Nagoya. It's stocked better and only has 3 floors... I'm sick of those narrow stairways. It's embarrassing trying to squeeze past all these people going up or down the stairs. Very gaijin of me.
I took my big Tokyo tour yesterday (Christmas day for me) and had a pretty good time. There were two other single people besides me, as in people not already part of a group, not people who are in a relationship. One was a middle-aged guy from Venezuela and the other was a man from Senegal the same age as me. He speaks beautiful French. So we made a cute little group. Carlos had to be 5'10" and Badu was close to 6'5", I looked like a midget. Besides drinks I only spent 10 bucks the entire trip. I found a button with my name in hirigana on it. I could never get anything with my name on it as a kid, so I found it entertaining. There was a dog store in the souvenir section of Asakusa Temple, it was amazing! They had stuffed animals of around 40 breeds of dog. I took a picture, don't know how well it turned out though. I half want to go back and get one of the papillon ones, but they start at 40 bucks. They even had Japanese-style dog clothes. I kind of wanted to buy something for Earl. Duke is to sensitive but you can get Earl in and out of clothing. He looks so indignant afterwards too. So cute! Actually... I guess I could get Duke into it, he wears a rain jacket and life jacket after all. But to get back to the subject, I bought a stylized Papillon cell phone strap. It's cute.
The trip started out at Meiji temple and it was nice to go back after 6 years, part of the temple has been refurbished and now they're accepting French wines and not only sake for company donations, it's great to see the wine barrels next to the sake barrels.
Next was the East Imperial gardens. Not much was blooming, of course. Just the Camillias, some Winter Sakura trees and oddly, a few daffodils. I should come back during my spring break. The palace is open only two days of the year. One was two days before I arrived and the next is the day I leave... I dunno. I don't think it's worth sacrificing my shinkansen ticket and paying for another night at the hotel, in my gut opinion.
Next was the buddhist Asakusa temple. It's famous for it's huge paper lantern gate with the kanji for lightning written on it. It has a huge avenue of souvenir shops, which I mentioned above. It was so busy it took me about 20 minutes to get to the middle gate! Unfotunately I didn't have time to go RIGHT UP to the shrine, but I've got a few good pictures. I also bought a fortune, it has an English translation, but it would be hard to find your fortune if you can't read kanji numbers. Anyway, I got the "best fortune" which is apparently especially good from Asakusa. Apparently this temple loves to give out "bad fortunes." So I get a lucky charm for my wallet that'll last until next Christmas.
After that was lunch at a hotel, it was overlooking a garden on the bay, it was gorgeous! Took a few pictures of that too. Lunch was good.. But it was kind of cheapened by hash brown thing they served with it. Reminded me of the hash browns you get at McDonalds.
Then it was time for a cruise around Tokyo bay. Had a really good view of Rainbow Bridge, and the rest of Odaiba. After the cruise we actually went to Odaiba but we only spend half an hour there. Barely saw anything besides the replica of the replica of the Statue of Liberty in France. LOL Oh. And I went to Toys R Us with Carlos and Badu. They were under the impression things were cheaper in Japan. HA! Sometimes you can find an equivalent price but on the whole things are about 10 bucks more expensive.
So, good tour. I think I may goto Tokyo Tower tomorrow. I really don't know what else to do. Fuyu Comi doesn't start until Sunday so that'll keep me busier. But I'm still pretty lonely. I don't take being alone very well. So I'm a little sorry for myself right now. Ungh... I never thought I'd miss work, but here it is. Miserable at work, miserable on vacation... The thing is I DO want to stay in Japan, maybe if I can make it for a year... I think that'll be okay. My fortune says that employment is favorable, maybe I'll get out of Toba in April! LOL I'm going to start sending applications out when I get home to Ise. Just in case my company can't find me a different position.
I find myself oddly looking forward to the Star Trek MMO. I don't know why I should, I've never enjoyed a Star Trek game before. Saying that, the last one I really tried to play was on the Game Gear. But having my own Star Trek ship and crew is like the answer to one of my favorite daydreams. I heard they might have Defiant-class ships available eventually and that would be so awesome! Plus they're designing their own ships, which is fun too. But in the beginning the races available don't include Trills or Bajorans, which is too bad since they're my favorites. They do have Andorians though! It's why I love DS9 the best out of all the Star Trek series, huge space battles and lots of coexisting species.