[Journeys in Japan] 2016.08.14 Roppongi Hills + One Piece Tower
Facebook's "On this day" informed me it's been exactly a year since my friends and I went to Japan in the summer. I never took the time to write about my trip and as this year's summer draws to a close, I thought I should try and write about it. I had a really great time in Japan and I don't want to forget it. Looking at the photos Facebook showed me taken a year ago today, I've already begun to feel like I've forgotten what went on, so I better get to it!
8/14 was the second to last day of our two week stay in Japan. I'm starting with this day and will try to move forward with the days and then backtrack. So many things happened on each day that I feel each can have their own theme anyway!
We went to the Studio Ghibli Exhibit in Roppongi Hills. As we exited the train station, there were giant inflated Doraemon characters above us when we took the escalator.
There was an army outside too! It was quite crowded in this area which led me to believe some sort of special summer event was going on. Summer events were going on everywhere, I thought!
We met up with JA's friend who works as a flight attendant and we made our way to the exhibit which was at the top of this high building that I'm now thinking was possibly Mori Tower. I took some shots of the exhibit and the view of the city below.
The view from above
Like a fantasy land, right?
It moved up and down!
After that we ate at the cafe that was serving special Ghibli-themed food.
I got this cheesy egg toast from a movie I don't know! Maybe you can help me?
We went outside to explore a bit. I was trying so desperately to figure out what the event going on was because I didn't know Mr. King was the "ambassadors" for the event, so to speak.
I didn't take many pictures because I'm more interested in spending my time exploring, but there were lots of stalls and games going on. There was a stage for live performances. I wanted to try and find where Johnny's were going to perform, but I couldn't figure it out. As I am writing this, I've since learned that I think the event is TV Asahi's Summer Station (eng) I think it was much like FujiTV's Odaiba festival. It's a shame that I didn't know as much TV as I do now, otherwise I think I could have really navigated and enjoyed the event much better! Oh well.. Maybe sometime again in the years to come!
We sat in the park for awhile to rest from walking before our group split up. Jessica and I wanted to go to the One Piece Tower, located in Tokyo Tower!
It was late in the day already but we wanted to go no matter what and do what we could. I'm really glad we went! We managed to catch a live show.
The tower was actually closing soon so Jess and I rushed through all the attractions and tried to do whatever was still open. We hit the store and spent some time there buying goods. On the way to the store a guy told us how he saw(heard) us during the live show earlier, saying "You two are probably the biggest One Piece fans I have ever met.." It's 'cause we were squealing too much. Whoops!
There were sooo many nice things on sale!! I bought quite a few things SOLELY because handsome. (The hostel mates I came back to after we returned agreed with me that that was reason enough.)
I bought this not knowing what it was until I opened it. I paid for a handsome pic of Sabo & I'm ok w/ that. pic.twitter.com/iHTdIBRAlc
- Hikarii @ CR Expo (@Hikums) August 15, 2016
Please welcome this ridiculous gigantic expensive Ace keychain I don't need but bought BC handsome to my bag family. pic.twitter.com/6FIK2QAn6p
- Hikarii @ CR Expo (@Hikums) August 14, 2016
and this handkerchief I literally bought just because handsome pic.twitter.com/CnqwWNkqkJ
- Hikarii @ CR Expo (@Hikums) August 14, 2016
J and I continued breezing through all the attractions we could. We saw stamp rally stations and just stamped whatever we had available for the heck of it. I can't remember if we collected them all, but we got a lot! We also went through some nice visual attraction stuff that would take you through parts of the plot of One Piece.
This Ace would be waiting for you as you walk through.
It was an incredible shame we had to rush, but we still had a great time. We regrouped at the hostel once the Tower was closed for good and ended the night with an unexpected... cosplay karaoke!!
I believe it was near midnight at the time so the special rate for a room was going on! The four of us grabbed whatever costumes looked interesting and we wore them as we sang anime and Japanese pop songs. I sang a Chinese one or two with YaLi (=
Cosplay karaoke pic.twitter.com/eQJdIAayHM
- Hikarii @ CR Expo (@Hikums) August 14, 2016
All in all, a perfect group thing to do to end a day towards the end of our trip! I really had a great time!