Japan Blog day 3
Wow was today ever eventful, filled with some shopping, eating, and crying in the middle of a crowded subway station... but more on that later.
I woke up at around 6 am after passing out 7 the night before. I proceeded to the lobby where I got on the computer and talked with a few lucky people who were on aim or Facebook. After that I got ready for the day by eating the banana Noboru gave me and getting dressed. I decided today was a fine day to spike the hawk, so spiked it was ( I even got a few seemingly positive comments about it, although who can be sure with the Japanese?) I went outside the freshness burger and waited for Kyle to come and pick me up. It was much colder today than it has been for the past couple days so I got cold and decided to go inside the freshness burger and order a chai tea so that I wouldn't look like a bum. The guy behind the counter was very friendly and spoke a bit of English which was nice, although ordering food in Japan I have found is not particularly difficult. All you need is either the number or to say the katakana for example chi-a-e tea and then i made an s in the air saying 'small' to show the size, all the people seem to understand this ok. I sat inside for a bit longer (for the record Freshness Burger chai tea kicks ass) until Kyle arrived and we walked to a mysterious building I had come across the other day... I don't think I mentioned this building but it had statues of power rangers, tamagachis and mini gundams (I have pictures for when I get home and can upload them). Sadly instead of being a magical toy store it was an office building so we couldn't go inside, but I got Kyle to take my picture with a few of these status before we went back to the Freshness Burger.
We decided we would go to Harajuku today but first we would eat as food around that area is usually more expensive. We went in the freshness burger and I ordered a ma-shu-room ba-ga (mushroom burger lol) which turned out the be very very good. The nice (and did I mention punk? mohawk and all!) cashier brought us our food and we ate and talked for a bit. Once done we crossed the street to the station and got on the train for the next 8 or so stops. Once we arrived outside of Harajuku we exited and walked towards our destination stopping at a toy store on the way. The toy store was AMAZING!! I wish there was a toy store like this when I was growing up, It had 7 different floors, each with a theme more or less (such as a Pokemon floor, hello kitty, Disney etc.) we spent a good hour or so in there looking through everything. I wanted to get everyone something but sadly it was expensive as hell (a pencil was like 500￥ or $5!) but I manged to finally buy myself something, a mamegoma folder for only 120￥ and a new little mamegoma key chain for my rear-view mirror ( for those who don't know en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamegoma). I wanted a stuffed animal (the mamegoma ones were the only reasonable priced stuffed animals in the whole place) but I was worried that once I came home Sophia would chew it up so I decided not to (although if we go back.. I might not be able to resist). There were any adorable creations such as The Pig instead of The Dog and other strange stuffed creatures. I managed to find something small for Eric and something that maybe my brothers will like? not sure.. I'm trying to think of everyone but theres just so many people! D:
After we left the incredibly hot toy store we walked down the crowded way, full of designer clothing stores to Harajuku. Harajuku was PACKED, its a tiny alley full of young boys and girls and littered with trendy clothing shops (all which ask for a pretty penny, a reduced shirt I looked at was 50% off and still 7500￥!!!) Basically Harajuku was not as interesting as I thought it would be. There were lots of trendy, young kids mostly dressed like, well us : / I saw one Gothic Lolita as she pushed past me and a few kids with ripped-ish clothing but nothing too interesting in the long run. I personally am not much of a clothes shopper, well I like to shop for clothes but not when I know that they are out of my price range, so we mostly just walked past stores, while I took pictures here and there of things that caught my attention. Kyle mentioned that we can go back Sunday when all the hip, punky kids hang out so maybe I can be among my own kind! :D lol We basically walked around a bit more (thats Japan for you in one word, walking) and decided we were thirsty and should stop at a Japanese Starbucks.
At the Starbucks I ordered their in season "Sakura frappachino" which looked like a pink frap with pink sprinkles on top of the whipped cream. The flavor was interesting, kinda like a chai tea with rosebuds in it. I'm not sure if there was actual sakura blossoms blended in but I got a taste that there might have been. The sprinkles I think were also dried, crushed sakura blossoms but I'm not sure and may just be tasting that due to the name (the power of persuasion). Kyle and I sat around drinking and talking to pass the time (I had until 4 before I could check in, damn that time requirement!) and eventually decided to head home. Kyle walked me to the station and then once I was on my train we parted ways and I got aboard. I sat on the train as it got busy and then as it trickled out, I had quite a few stops and was determined to get the right one. Sadly, I thought my stop was Asakusa when it was, indeed, Tawaramachi (my hotel is called capsule hotel Asakusa so I assumed that would be my stop, not so). So thinking my stop was Asakua I got off and looked around me, it didn't look familiar but at this point, all the stations look the same to me so I exited only to find that the street around me didn't look similar. I desperately ran around the outside of the station seeing if maybe I had exited on the opposite side but nothing looked familiar and I began to get a bit worried, where the hell was I?! Let me assure you very little is scarier than being in unsure of where you are in the middle of a strange city where you speak very little of the language (man I thought I spoke alright Japanese, but being in that situation made me realize how little I truly know) I walked around a bit to see if further up any of the streets it began to look familiar but none of them did so I began to get really nervous.
I went to the subway official and began to ask about Asasuka capsule hotel but he had no idea what I was talking about and I tried to sign and tell him that I thought it went the wrong way. He kept saying something and looking at me weird and another official walked up to see what was wrong. I was trying to explain myself and getting frustrated and began to cry cause I was so freaked out being in a completely new and huge place, by myself with no idea where I was (lame I know ;-;). The guys freaked out and took me to a lady official who spoke slightly better English (of course today I took out my hotel documents from my purse, they would have come in helpful to show them the address *bonks head*). The woman asked some questions and wrote some things down and gave the paper to the guy who walked me outside and pointed me to my "hotel" sadly, that hotel was not mine! I tried to tell him that it wasn't my hotel but neither of us understood eachother, thankfully I got an idea. I searched my wallet and found the receipt for freshness burger from earlier (its right across the street from my hotel), and showed it to the official (pretty smart eh?). The prefecture was printed on the top, in Kanji so I couldn't read it, but he could so he was all "oooooh" and directed me to the train again repeating over and over to me the name of the stop (they also reimbursed my railway card for my mistake). I thanked all of them profusely and ran to catch the train. On the train I met a few Swedish men who had lived in Japan for a few months, it was strange really, a whole group of white foreigners on the same train bench, and they assured me that my stop was the next one (the Tawaramachi stop). After I got off the stop I was right across the street from my hotel and practically skipped with joy to the 7-11 where I bought a plain rice ball and a calpis for my meager dinner.
So here I am, tired and typing on the public computer. I've finally figured out this whole capsule hotel system despite how unnecessarily difficult it is. My funds are running low already (I put my hotel money aside so never fear! I have that safely stowed away in my wallet so I won't accidentally spend it) On a side note there is a news report on the Western boats attacking Japanese whale ships and everyone in the room looked over at me lol! but that's pretty much all I have for today, I was gonna post some weird things I've noticed about Japan but I feel that it should wait another day as this post is already long enough.
Stay safe my friends!
Ja ne!
I woke up at around 6 am after passing out 7 the night before. I proceeded to the lobby where I got on the computer and talked with a few lucky people who were on aim or Facebook. After that I got ready for the day by eating the banana Noboru gave me and getting dressed. I decided today was a fine day to spike the hawk, so spiked it was ( I even got a few seemingly positive comments about it, although who can be sure with the Japanese?) I went outside the freshness burger and waited for Kyle to come and pick me up. It was much colder today than it has been for the past couple days so I got cold and decided to go inside the freshness burger and order a chai tea so that I wouldn't look like a bum. The guy behind the counter was very friendly and spoke a bit of English which was nice, although ordering food in Japan I have found is not particularly difficult. All you need is either the number or to say the katakana for example chi-a-e tea and then i made an s in the air saying 'small' to show the size, all the people seem to understand this ok. I sat inside for a bit longer (for the record Freshness Burger chai tea kicks ass) until Kyle arrived and we walked to a mysterious building I had come across the other day... I don't think I mentioned this building but it had statues of power rangers, tamagachis and mini gundams (I have pictures for when I get home and can upload them). Sadly instead of being a magical toy store it was an office building so we couldn't go inside, but I got Kyle to take my picture with a few of these status before we went back to the Freshness Burger.
We decided we would go to Harajuku today but first we would eat as food around that area is usually more expensive. We went in the freshness burger and I ordered a ma-shu-room ba-ga (mushroom burger lol) which turned out the be very very good. The nice (and did I mention punk? mohawk and all!) cashier brought us our food and we ate and talked for a bit. Once done we crossed the street to the station and got on the train for the next 8 or so stops. Once we arrived outside of Harajuku we exited and walked towards our destination stopping at a toy store on the way. The toy store was AMAZING!! I wish there was a toy store like this when I was growing up, It had 7 different floors, each with a theme more or less (such as a Pokemon floor, hello kitty, Disney etc.) we spent a good hour or so in there looking through everything. I wanted to get everyone something but sadly it was expensive as hell (a pencil was like 500￥ or $5!) but I manged to finally buy myself something, a mamegoma folder for only 120￥ and a new little mamegoma key chain for my rear-view mirror ( for those who don't know en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamegoma). I wanted a stuffed animal (the mamegoma ones were the only reasonable priced stuffed animals in the whole place) but I was worried that once I came home Sophia would chew it up so I decided not to (although if we go back.. I might not be able to resist). There were any adorable creations such as The Pig instead of The Dog and other strange stuffed creatures. I managed to find something small for Eric and something that maybe my brothers will like? not sure.. I'm trying to think of everyone but theres just so many people! D:
After we left the incredibly hot toy store we walked down the crowded way, full of designer clothing stores to Harajuku. Harajuku was PACKED, its a tiny alley full of young boys and girls and littered with trendy clothing shops (all which ask for a pretty penny, a reduced shirt I looked at was 50% off and still 7500￥!!!) Basically Harajuku was not as interesting as I thought it would be. There were lots of trendy, young kids mostly dressed like, well us : / I saw one Gothic Lolita as she pushed past me and a few kids with ripped-ish clothing but nothing too interesting in the long run. I personally am not much of a clothes shopper, well I like to shop for clothes but not when I know that they are out of my price range, so we mostly just walked past stores, while I took pictures here and there of things that caught my attention. Kyle mentioned that we can go back Sunday when all the hip, punky kids hang out so maybe I can be among my own kind! :D lol We basically walked around a bit more (thats Japan for you in one word, walking) and decided we were thirsty and should stop at a Japanese Starbucks.
At the Starbucks I ordered their in season "Sakura frappachino" which looked like a pink frap with pink sprinkles on top of the whipped cream. The flavor was interesting, kinda like a chai tea with rosebuds in it. I'm not sure if there was actual sakura blossoms blended in but I got a taste that there might have been. The sprinkles I think were also dried, crushed sakura blossoms but I'm not sure and may just be tasting that due to the name (the power of persuasion). Kyle and I sat around drinking and talking to pass the time (I had until 4 before I could check in, damn that time requirement!) and eventually decided to head home. Kyle walked me to the station and then once I was on my train we parted ways and I got aboard. I sat on the train as it got busy and then as it trickled out, I had quite a few stops and was determined to get the right one. Sadly, I thought my stop was Asakusa when it was, indeed, Tawaramachi (my hotel is called capsule hotel Asakusa so I assumed that would be my stop, not so). So thinking my stop was Asakua I got off and looked around me, it didn't look familiar but at this point, all the stations look the same to me so I exited only to find that the street around me didn't look similar. I desperately ran around the outside of the station seeing if maybe I had exited on the opposite side but nothing looked familiar and I began to get a bit worried, where the hell was I?! Let me assure you very little is scarier than being in unsure of where you are in the middle of a strange city where you speak very little of the language (man I thought I spoke alright Japanese, but being in that situation made me realize how little I truly know) I walked around a bit to see if further up any of the streets it began to look familiar but none of them did so I began to get really nervous.
I went to the subway official and began to ask about Asasuka capsule hotel but he had no idea what I was talking about and I tried to sign and tell him that I thought it went the wrong way. He kept saying something and looking at me weird and another official walked up to see what was wrong. I was trying to explain myself and getting frustrated and began to cry cause I was so freaked out being in a completely new and huge place, by myself with no idea where I was (lame I know ;-;). The guys freaked out and took me to a lady official who spoke slightly better English (of course today I took out my hotel documents from my purse, they would have come in helpful to show them the address *bonks head*). The woman asked some questions and wrote some things down and gave the paper to the guy who walked me outside and pointed me to my "hotel" sadly, that hotel was not mine! I tried to tell him that it wasn't my hotel but neither of us understood eachother, thankfully I got an idea. I searched my wallet and found the receipt for freshness burger from earlier (its right across the street from my hotel), and showed it to the official (pretty smart eh?). The prefecture was printed on the top, in Kanji so I couldn't read it, but he could so he was all "oooooh" and directed me to the train again repeating over and over to me the name of the stop (they also reimbursed my railway card for my mistake). I thanked all of them profusely and ran to catch the train. On the train I met a few Swedish men who had lived in Japan for a few months, it was strange really, a whole group of white foreigners on the same train bench, and they assured me that my stop was the next one (the Tawaramachi stop). After I got off the stop I was right across the street from my hotel and practically skipped with joy to the 7-11 where I bought a plain rice ball and a calpis for my meager dinner.
So here I am, tired and typing on the public computer. I've finally figured out this whole capsule hotel system despite how unnecessarily difficult it is. My funds are running low already (I put my hotel money aside so never fear! I have that safely stowed away in my wallet so I won't accidentally spend it) On a side note there is a news report on the Western boats attacking Japanese whale ships and everyone in the room looked over at me lol! but that's pretty much all I have for today, I was gonna post some weird things I've noticed about Japan but I feel that it should wait another day as this post is already long enough.
Stay safe my friends!
Ja ne!