VACATION POST: Epic Adventures from Japan and Hawaii!
I’M BACK. FRICKIN’ FINALLY I’M BACK :DDDDDDD
So this entry is about my traveling and is full of text and picspamming…it has the potential to kill your internet speed for a few seconds but I say it’s worth it :3
If you're thinking "Oh damn it Kat, you weeaboo," You can skip to Day 13 where I'm in Hawaii being a Lostie [I got pics from the sets!!!]
If you're thinking "Oh damn it Kat, you Lostie," erm...skip Hawaii? I don't know, whatever.
I'm leaving this post public because I'm not posting on FB, so if you are a friend of mine who isn't on LJ please leave your name in the subject line so I can recognize you.
Day 0: The Night We Got There
So this woman who sat at the window seat was fucking crazy and wouldn’t let me sleep on the plane for some unholy reason, but the flight was fine for you know…11 hours. Customs and health were really easy to get through, even though I still had the sniffles [they’re still really worried about swine flu, it’s funny] and soon as we get out of the terminal this really adorable guy gives us our tickets to get to the hotel. OFF TO A GOOD START. So we took a bus to our hotel and there was a lot of rain and lightning, which I’m glad roxyryoko and gaarasyami told me about rainy season T_T
So this hotel we stayed at is very swanky, called the Park hotel Tokyo in Shidome, which is like two blocks away from Ginza which isn’t bad at all. But as soon as we got there we crashed. Sooo tired from the flight.
Here's our room. It was very high class and I just decided not to ask about the cost.
Most bathrooms in Japan have switched from the eastern-style creepy squatting ones to western-style. All hotels have ones with these buttons or variations of these buttons. Do not use them. They scare me. Maybe it's just because one of the first times I went on 4chan I saw this manga called Bidet and it scarred me :<
Day 1: “We’re In Serious Need of a Game Plan.”
The cool thing about paying for a hotel every day is that we get FREE BREAKFAST. So here’s more pics of our hotel:
Here's some views from outside the hotel. So close to the Tokyo Tower!!
Our hotel was right by the Nippon TV building. This is above the room they use for some talk show. At night it did this special routine for when it turned 8:00.
I saw this in the subway station. Apparently this is the new big thing in Starbucks Japan. Jelly. I tried one later on and it's not as disgusting as you'd think. You're surprised at first though when you drink it XD [think of boba tea!]
The first district we though would be nice to visit was Akihabara [hahaha no influence there on my part *cough*] and we took the train there. And let me just say that this district, if you are a technophile, audiophile, or just plain dork, will drain your fucking wallet. Everything is readily available and a lot cheaper than you’d imagine.
There’s this place called Yodobashi Camera that is godly. I’ll talk about that more later on also, but we just stepped in for a while today to look around the first floor since we didn’t know what was going on.
They also have a lot of stores that are JUST gashapon machines, which made me insanely happy. Some machines are these cool rolly ones that roll out pencil boards like these Kuroshitsuji one [dammit I didn’t get the Agni one D:]
Animate was really cool but they wouldn’t let me take pictures. There was a whole wall of Reborn which everyone seems to be really into right now, and a lot of other series didn’t have as much merchandise [even Bleach and One Piece!] If anything, there was the most KHR, Kuroshitsuji, and Gin Tama merchandise in the stores I went into. And Ghibli. Ghibli outranks everything but that’s probably because it’s a lot more popular with every age group.
I remembered there was a Jump Shop near Akiba so we took a train out to the Tokyo Dome.
It’s like a baseball stadium with a theme park inside!
The store.
Oh gee, look what panel is on the side [is shot]
Actually, in Japan there seems to be a larger fan base for 80 and not just 8059. I was buying so merchandise and this girl knew I understood her and said I was lucky because his stuff gets sold out O_O
Nerdtastic.
Me trying not to die at Taiko Drum Master, one of my guilty pleasure games.
And after that we went to this really pretty garden…Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens. I’ve been to so many parks I forgot the names. I took a lot of pics so here are just a couple.
And then we got some dinner and quickly crashed.
Day 2: “All the dudes remind me of Sandra”
Which is the first thing my mom said after getting on the train to Shibuya ;D
The only reason we went to Shibuya is because we were going to take a train out to Hiroshima except we’re geographically challenged and didn’t realize how far it was and how expensive the trip would be [$800 for both of us round trip!]
Shibuya is the teen hot spot everyone says it is, with the large department stores and their versions of malls [which are really just divvy’d up department floors].
We walked a long way down the main drag.
Interesting store I found. I wanted to go inside to see what the hell these people have invented so far in the world of sex but my mom said no XD
This store is evil only because I spent a lot of money here. It's called Kiddy Land and was listed in like every guide book we found so we guessed it was worth a damn. Technically this is outside Harajuku district, meaning we walked way too far.
I went in a drugstore to try to find some eyepatches but I found this instead. Apparently it has something to do with dieting? IDK.
This graffiti made me think of minivi for sure. It's just so beautiful XD
Since we weren’t really tired we went back to Ginza and checked it out since more stores were open in the afternoon. It’s very high class around here. All the stores are things like Burberry, Louis Vutton, and Coach except for this one toy store where we could you know, afford things. F you ever go out here, Ginza would probably be the best place to get a hotel only because they’ll be of a really nice quality and the Ginza, Shinbashi and Shiodome stations are all really close by and have the major subway lines go through them [“major” = Ginza, Oedo, Marunouchi, Hibiya]
Ginza at night.
Poster in the elevator. Japanese people REALLY REALLY love Obama. I mean, everyone does, but there is some weird shit out here.
Day 3: “We just paid $20 for a crack boat.”
So before we flew out here my mom said we needed to do one thing that was really goddamn ridiculous so we could never live it down. I couldn’t think of anything. She thought of Puroland.
Puroland, or Promise Land, is a Sanrio theme park that DOES rank as the most ridiculous thing anyone could ever do over the age of ten. After about a 30 min train ride we got there, paid for the minimal ticket and basically went shopping and on a boat ride. ninjayaten , I WANT TO TAKE YOUR DAD HERE :DDDD [also I need to see you after New York because I got you a gift :3 ]
[I swear to god only Japan can think of pink penguin trnasvestites]
The sad thing was I could understand the boat ride, so I was laughing like a crack addict because it was just so ridiculous!
Then we got cake and bought gifts and left.
Cinnamonroll always makes me think of my old rommate and this pillow she had. The green stuff is Suntop Melon, tihs melon soda that I imagine Powerthirst looks like. It might be poison. Or crystal meth.
And we found Daiso! You know that $1.65 store in Mira Mesa that’s part of Marukai? That’s technically a Daiso. Here’s a pic.
105 yen! For like, everything!! [except Hard Gay hats were more money, but I knew my friend would like it]
Then we took a train to Asakusa [there’s also a city called Akasaka so it got confusing on the subway map] and went down Nakamise Shopping Arcade which is a giant tourist trap, and then we went to Denny’s.
Denny’s is nothing like American Denny’s. Instead of Grand Slams and cold pancakes you get steak, miso, and lots of ice cream. I got omurice, which is this rice omelet with some unidentifiable sauce and ketchup in the rice and was really good. minivi is going to mock me now because I said something with ketchup in it was good D:
Day 4: “Sorry, I can only read your last name.”
This laptop was haunting my mother’s mind. It’s so tiny and a good price, even if it was only in Japanese she still wanted to buy it, so we went back to Akiba and got it for her. The shop clerk was very nice and I could read his last name, Maeda, but got stuck on the first name probably because I want to block everyone named Kouhei out of my mind. So she’s trying to buy the thing and I went exploring to the other floors for a good laptop case and my own personal gains, then I got to the sixth floor and flipped out because it was gorgeous and had plastic nonsense and more gashapon.
And so Kouhei gave us this card and said we hade 13500 yen we got back to spend at the store, so we had to go back the next day XD
For lunch we went to this nice little café in Roppongi, this confusing district which was a giant alleyway and had good food. TACO RICE. Not tako as in octopus but the Japanese are even better at Mexican food what the hell.
And then we took a train to the Tokyo Tower, where I got a lot of really good pics of the city.
This is the mascot of the Tokyo Tower. He has a brother and they are the Roppon Brothers. They frighten me 'cause they're kind of penisy.
[this was a fun one]
…and a lot of cemeteries D:
[lots more I didn't post]
Day 5: “Never let Yoko run a train station”
We had to check out of our hotel and go to a different one, the Keio Plaza Hotel in the middle of Shinjuku. We had a strange 70s console in the night table O_O
After that we went back to Akiba to blow our $135 card, but that was really difficult because the Shinjuku Station is hellish. People say Grand Central Station or union Station in Washington DC is bad? No. This beats all of those [I know, I’ve been to both]. Let’s say…although soghunx might be the only one to understand this, if the station was an elevator, it’d be THAT elevator. It’s a nice station, lots of shops and fancy tiles, but trains are so hard to find and the whole station is a labyrinth. Gun. So we got there eventually for sure.
We also took a train to Harajuku for a while, but it’s not a very nice place. You’d expect a lot more people to be dressed in decora or J-Rock clothing but I only saw one girl and she was hideous looking, it’s a very crowded place, and all the clothes that are worth a damn are expensive. It’s not really worth the trek to be quite honest :|
After that hellhole we just stayed in the hotel for dinner.
Cuuuuute bunny I saw in Shinjuku station on the way back, some shoe store mascot.
Day 6: “These dudes don’t remind me of Sandra, they remind me of Rika.”
Which I’ll explain later.
So we thought the Imperial Palace was actually accessible like morons but you can only look at the outside if it’s not New Year’s or the emperor’s birthday. So…not very exciting!!
We met some Jews. British Jews! David and Yaakov will never be this cool : (
Then we went shrine hunt for a little while, and this reminded me of churchillclaps because everything is gorgeous and great for photography. Many of mine are relatively faily so I give you flags instead.
I wanted to look at downtown Shinjuku a little bit, so we walked over there and it seemed very busy.
And we saw a lot of very cute men. They were all dressed similarly and had the same kinds of hairstyles and formal attire and we thought it was just some type of fashion statement.
We then saw these.
O_______________________________________________O
With a phrase like “exploring human sense” my mother wasn’t convinced they were just hosts. And neither was I after looking in this one store.
My mom said I should take pictures of the pretty boys and I'm like "Why do I have to?"
"Because you're good at stealth and stalking"
[hears
eskimo_kieran laughing and would just like to say in advance SHUT THE HELL UP]
And I did it anyway :<
HE is actually my favorite guy from the whole trip. GUH. FILTHY MANWHORE.
So we dashed in a Lotteria and got some fries and Suntop Melon and my mom said the thing about kitsunenohikari . Also, your username is so long compared to most people I know XD
Day 7: “SMALL BELL.”
We took a bus out to Mt. Fuji! It’s really beautiful out here!
At this halfway point this guy kept shouting SMALL BELL except you know, the L’s came out like R’s and we expected a cute little bear but got a bell ._________.
I got Elliot this little prayer charm that just says WIN on it and I thought it was hilarious. And I almost bought this for
se_amor :
But my mom just glares and is all "WTF are you doing, the gay from your friends is rubbing off on you ins't it" [she's not homophobic, but is disturbed by the levels of *intimacy* my friends and I have XDDDDDDD]
Then we took a sky gondola ride then a boat ride [yes, I was still thinking I’M ON A BOAT] but the only thing you could see was fog because it was still rainy season so that was lame.
REALLY EXCITING, RIGHT? [headdesk]
But at least we could view this nice shrine instead.
They sold these wood tablets you could write on for a prayer or good wishes or something, but I didn't have any change :(
And at our new hotel, I braved every social boundary I had and WENT TO THE GODDAMN PUBLIC BATH. That was pretty bold. Basically you just sit in a giant hot spring with naked people, but as long as you just don’t pay attention it doesn’t matter. It was very relaxing and I’d probably do it again [I’m not an exhibitionist, I swear DDD: ]
Day 8: “This makes you a pedophile.”
We woke up really early to catch a bullet train to this place called Takayama, where in the station I was stalking this adorable Starbucks guy.
[realizes I just might be a stalker, YOU. STOP LAUGHING.]
And there were some cute high schoolers but my mom told me I was too old and I had to stop looking because I’m a college freshman. DAMMIT.
Bullet trains are called that for a reason. One passed the station and didn’t stop at the platform and scared the crap out of me. But we got on and made a stop at Nagoya for a few minutes then got back on with this family from LA.
Takayama is more of a countryside place [except there was a pachinko palace and those things are everywhere] and we walked around for a bit to see some old houses and festival floats. I am not good at culture. Pop culture maybe, but when we were listening to the woman talk about the old house I'm just like "Please make it stop." However, this cute bird distracted me for a while.
[Didn't realize why I should be excited about the bird until two days afterward]
Day 9: “The Dessert Forest beckons you!”
In the morning we did more of the same, walking around Takayama, and the damn computer where you pay for the internet ate my 200 yen. Found a shop that was like a storefront for someone’s work you would find on Etsy and got some hair clips.
You know how in “hipster style” or whatever the hell it is there’s always a random item that’s put on shirts and jewelry and pillows? I guess the new random item is matroyshka dolls. I can’t blame designers, they really are adorable.
We took another bus…man these bus rides were long, like 2 hours each, but this one was to this place called Shirokawa. Let’s see…there’s a reason I didn’t take pictures. If you’ve ever read the book Choke by Palahniuk [oh god I already hear some squeeing] you know what Colonial Dunsboro is like. This was the Japanese equivalent to that. So we found this restaurant along with some friends we made, this Italian couple that was very nice, and I was the translator for ordering. This was in the middle of nowhere. I HAD to translate XD
After a goddamn TWO HOUR trip to Dunsboro…Shirokawa we went to this place that made pretty paper. I got the name mixed up. The place was called Gokayama but my slash goggles were on somehow and I’m like “Gokuyama?” and then was greatly disappointed : (
Buuuuuut when we got to make paper I made up for it!
We took another long bus ride into this place called Kanazawa, which looks like a small city but there’s a lot going on. When we drove down the street to get to the new hotel it was full of trees and small shops and it reminded me a lot of Hillcrest Wait, who am I kidding, I’m going to Cal. That’s next to the intensely magnified Hillcrest XD
And we got to the Miyako Hotel and walked around outside for a while. The train station there is really intense, kind of looks like the big glass building for SFO airport. They have this clock outside of it that tells the time using a water fountain!
There were a lot of malls too, ones that are a little more like malls and not like Shibuya 109. We went in this one called Forus which had a lot of small boutiques like this one:
Matroyshka pillows!!
And on the fifth floor, the men’s section? Every clerk was unbelievably hot. And I didn’t bring my camera there. The sixth floor was funny because next to the arcade they had this:
Namco Dessert Forest! They had cakes and crepes and…ice cream cones full of pasta. I got some of this apple sherbet which was yummy.
Day 10: “Kyoto: Origin of the Hooker Heel”
We took a tour of this garden in Kanazawa, shit, forgot the name of it. It was really insanely hot out and I didn’t go walking around the palace we went to afterwards. Can you blame me? We don’t even get to go IN the damn palace. Why would I just stare at the wall around it. Also, there was this pottery culture heritage whatever I WANTED TO STAB MYSELF.
Me: "Do you think he rents this place out for birthday parties? I want to paint a ceramic kitty."
Mom: "FFFFFFFF, BE QUIET. Take a picture of the sexy pottery man for me."
He could be sexier. She's weird.
There was another train to be taken, guh. We went to Kyoto where we were separated from the Italians, who kissed us on the cheeks goodbye [and YES, SANDRA, I AM AWKWARD IN EVERY CULTURE] and went to the New Miyako in Kyoto which was air conditioned so I was just happy about that.
There’s this alleyway that’s famous for this geisha house and lots of restaurants so we went to one of those. Not the geisha house. It’s funny, because Japanese people are very concerned with differentiating geishas and “geisha girls” or oiran. I looked it up later on and learned about those women during the allied occupation of Japan who dressed like geisha and were really just hookers, or oiran from the Edo period who were only different by geisha from the way they tied their belts.
And then there was this ice cream that comes in a balloon. I didn’t know what it was and I just bought it because there was a cute polar bear on it, but I couldn’t open it and it was pissing me off. I asked the front desk for scissors because I didn’t want to keep biting it open. My mom was laughing the whole time because she said I bought a condom full of ice cream and I told her to STFU and help me open it.
Day 11: “We just spent five hours in a train station.”
Sadly, the most exciting thing about Kyoto is the train station. There’s lots of really nice shops and a good department store but there is NOTHING to do there, and this is the point where I got lazy because I took no pictures in this godforsaken city. I’m joust going to…bypass 11. I just can’t bear to do it.
Day 12: “Oh jesus, it’s 48 hours.”
We took a shuttle to the Kansai Airport for our flight to Honolulu, but before that we had time to kill and went to this place called UNIQLO. It’s like if American Apparel was worth a shit, and I bought some nice clothes there.
The shuttle was bumpy, and they really like putting love hotels near airports.
Airport security is really nice out there. They don’t make you take your shoes off and security doesn’t bitch at you for no good reason.
So we took the plane [8 HOURS GUH] and it’s magically 11 am in Hawaii when it was really 3 am in our minds, and then we realized “Oh shit, we’re in America. Vending machines aren’t readily available and everyone is a douchebag.”
So we got some food, chilled at Waikiki Beach [which is still very nice and clean compared to Oceanside but is super crowded] and slept.
Day 13: “This is probably the dorkiest thing I will ever allow myself to do.”
So you’re spending a few days in Hawaii to just chill, your mother needs to remember how to drive for a few minutes and you want to do some things that don’t involve a lot of money. This is when you go find Lost locations.
First was the barracks, or the yellow houses, or just Othersville at this YMCA:
Have a survivor you need to imprison? Use the assembly hall!
We were going to see the Fuselage but those bastards at the airfield had it tarped up D:<
Bastards!
However, there’s this plane they shoot as the interior of the yellow jet all the drug Virgin Mary statues are in.
Here’s the main beach!!
The kitchen <3
We sat around and had some sandwiches and saw a lot of turtles in the water :3
I love these beaches so much out there...
I didn’t take pics but we stopped by Turtle Bay, which has this nice public beach that you can go snorkeling in [you might remember it from Forgetting Sarah Marshall] and I got SUNBURNT LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER because I put enough sunscreen on but I’m just naturally…white XD
I’ve been here before, but we stopped by the Bydo-in Temple since the koi like getting fed and it was technically a Lost location because it was used for Jin and Sun’s wedding.
Except this time there were ungodly amounts of birds that flew in your face D:
Next stop: Windward Community College! It's what's used as the Santa Rosa Mental Institution :)
I actually don't think I look completely fucked in this picture. Most I do. Eheheh. Give me a dead Charlie to talk to!
Since we still had the car for a few hours we went to this burger joint called The Counter which is like Berryswirl if it sold burgers. And it’s owned by Daniel Dae Kim so I had no problem when my mom told me to pay for dinner.
And we went to Toys n’ Joys! It’s this big game/anime store that I love!
I don’t love these bananas D:
Apparently they used this store in Ji Yeon! I had no idea! I guess this is where the panda was purchased.
Day 14: “It fucking BURNS.”
Meaning my back. It was red like a goddamn crayon color.
So no beach that day! We took a bus to Chinatown for this good restaurant that had mock sweet n’ sour pork and cheap dim sum.
Ala Moana has also become somewhere that is mildly unpleasant. Not only has it gotten a little pricier since I’ve been there but there are more IDIOTS walking around. Maybe that’s just Hawaii in general. I’m not sure if I ever care about going back.
And all the flies don’t help either. They just swarm everywhere, even in this one Whaler’s General Store there were flies IN THE WHOLE PLACE.
And then the next day we went home. I know I was gone for 18 days, but since I lost a few days going back and forth traveling it doesn’t really count. The first Monday and Tuesday especially. Also I got back the 2nd, but I said the 3rd so I could sleep a lot of that day XDDDDDDDD
So…yeah! That’s my trip! I had an awesome time! I’d recommend that a lot of people make a trek out there because there are a lot of fascination things to do!!
In other news, I caught up on things:
1: KHR: WOOOO YAMAMOTO.
2: OP was sad, Bon Clay better make it back okay :(
3: Reading! Over the trip I read Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. It’s a very strong collection of short stories all together.
What I need to catch up on:
1: Kuroshitsuji and Nougami Neuro
2: Weeds, Nurse Jackie [which I didn't think I'd like but is really enjoyable], and True Blood [why does Lafayette have to be gay, he's so gorgeous :O]
3: Magazines. I have two Entertainment Weeklies and a Rolling Stone to read.
4: Writing. I have a fic to finish for khr_undercover . Honestly? It might be one of the best things I've ever written. Sadly everyone might guess which one is mine when it comes down to that game XD
Livejournal, I don’t think I’ll have time to look through all the past entries. I subscribe to a lot of friends and communities so it’d take forever. Starting today I’ll be back on track with all of you though :)
So this entry is about my traveling and is full of text and picspamming…it has the potential to kill your internet speed for a few seconds but I say it’s worth it :3
If you're thinking "Oh damn it Kat, you weeaboo," You can skip to Day 13 where I'm in Hawaii being a Lostie [I got pics from the sets!!!]
If you're thinking "Oh damn it Kat, you Lostie," erm...skip Hawaii? I don't know, whatever.
I'm leaving this post public because I'm not posting on FB, so if you are a friend of mine who isn't on LJ please leave your name in the subject line so I can recognize you.
Day 0: The Night We Got There
So this woman who sat at the window seat was fucking crazy and wouldn’t let me sleep on the plane for some unholy reason, but the flight was fine for you know…11 hours. Customs and health were really easy to get through, even though I still had the sniffles [they’re still really worried about swine flu, it’s funny] and soon as we get out of the terminal this really adorable guy gives us our tickets to get to the hotel. OFF TO A GOOD START. So we took a bus to our hotel and there was a lot of rain and lightning, which I’m glad roxyryoko and gaarasyami told me about rainy season T_T
So this hotel we stayed at is very swanky, called the Park hotel Tokyo in Shidome, which is like two blocks away from Ginza which isn’t bad at all. But as soon as we got there we crashed. Sooo tired from the flight.
Here's our room. It was very high class and I just decided not to ask about the cost.
Most bathrooms in Japan have switched from the eastern-style creepy squatting ones to western-style. All hotels have ones with these buttons or variations of these buttons. Do not use them. They scare me. Maybe it's just because one of the first times I went on 4chan I saw this manga called Bidet and it scarred me :<
Day 1: “We’re In Serious Need of a Game Plan.”
The cool thing about paying for a hotel every day is that we get FREE BREAKFAST. So here’s more pics of our hotel:
Here's some views from outside the hotel. So close to the Tokyo Tower!!
Our hotel was right by the Nippon TV building. This is above the room they use for some talk show. At night it did this special routine for when it turned 8:00.
I saw this in the subway station. Apparently this is the new big thing in Starbucks Japan. Jelly. I tried one later on and it's not as disgusting as you'd think. You're surprised at first though when you drink it XD [think of boba tea!]
The first district we though would be nice to visit was Akihabara [hahaha no influence there on my part *cough*] and we took the train there. And let me just say that this district, if you are a technophile, audiophile, or just plain dork, will drain your fucking wallet. Everything is readily available and a lot cheaper than you’d imagine.
There’s this place called Yodobashi Camera that is godly. I’ll talk about that more later on also, but we just stepped in for a while today to look around the first floor since we didn’t know what was going on.
They also have a lot of stores that are JUST gashapon machines, which made me insanely happy. Some machines are these cool rolly ones that roll out pencil boards like these Kuroshitsuji one [dammit I didn’t get the Agni one D:]
Animate was really cool but they wouldn’t let me take pictures. There was a whole wall of Reborn which everyone seems to be really into right now, and a lot of other series didn’t have as much merchandise [even Bleach and One Piece!] If anything, there was the most KHR, Kuroshitsuji, and Gin Tama merchandise in the stores I went into. And Ghibli. Ghibli outranks everything but that’s probably because it’s a lot more popular with every age group.
I remembered there was a Jump Shop near Akiba so we took a train out to the Tokyo Dome.
It’s like a baseball stadium with a theme park inside!
The store.
Oh gee, look what panel is on the side [is shot]
Actually, in Japan there seems to be a larger fan base for 80 and not just 8059. I was buying so merchandise and this girl knew I understood her and said I was lucky because his stuff gets sold out O_O
Nerdtastic.
Me trying not to die at Taiko Drum Master, one of my guilty pleasure games.
And after that we went to this really pretty garden…Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens. I’ve been to so many parks I forgot the names. I took a lot of pics so here are just a couple.
And then we got some dinner and quickly crashed.
Day 2: “All the dudes remind me of Sandra”
Which is the first thing my mom said after getting on the train to Shibuya ;D
The only reason we went to Shibuya is because we were going to take a train out to Hiroshima except we’re geographically challenged and didn’t realize how far it was and how expensive the trip would be [$800 for both of us round trip!]
Shibuya is the teen hot spot everyone says it is, with the large department stores and their versions of malls [which are really just divvy’d up department floors].
We walked a long way down the main drag.
Interesting store I found. I wanted to go inside to see what the hell these people have invented so far in the world of sex but my mom said no XD
This store is evil only because I spent a lot of money here. It's called Kiddy Land and was listed in like every guide book we found so we guessed it was worth a damn. Technically this is outside Harajuku district, meaning we walked way too far.
I went in a drugstore to try to find some eyepatches but I found this instead. Apparently it has something to do with dieting? IDK.
This graffiti made me think of minivi for sure. It's just so beautiful XD
Since we weren’t really tired we went back to Ginza and checked it out since more stores were open in the afternoon. It’s very high class around here. All the stores are things like Burberry, Louis Vutton, and Coach except for this one toy store where we could you know, afford things. F you ever go out here, Ginza would probably be the best place to get a hotel only because they’ll be of a really nice quality and the Ginza, Shinbashi and Shiodome stations are all really close by and have the major subway lines go through them [“major” = Ginza, Oedo, Marunouchi, Hibiya]
Ginza at night.
Poster in the elevator. Japanese people REALLY REALLY love Obama. I mean, everyone does, but there is some weird shit out here.
Day 3: “We just paid $20 for a crack boat.”
So before we flew out here my mom said we needed to do one thing that was really goddamn ridiculous so we could never live it down. I couldn’t think of anything. She thought of Puroland.
Puroland, or Promise Land, is a Sanrio theme park that DOES rank as the most ridiculous thing anyone could ever do over the age of ten. After about a 30 min train ride we got there, paid for the minimal ticket and basically went shopping and on a boat ride. ninjayaten , I WANT TO TAKE YOUR DAD HERE :DDDD [also I need to see you after New York because I got you a gift :3 ]
[I swear to god only Japan can think of pink penguin trnasvestites]
The sad thing was I could understand the boat ride, so I was laughing like a crack addict because it was just so ridiculous!
Then we got cake and bought gifts and left.
Cinnamonroll always makes me think of my old rommate and this pillow she had. The green stuff is Suntop Melon, tihs melon soda that I imagine Powerthirst looks like. It might be poison. Or crystal meth.
And we found Daiso! You know that $1.65 store in Mira Mesa that’s part of Marukai? That’s technically a Daiso. Here’s a pic.
105 yen! For like, everything!! [except Hard Gay hats were more money, but I knew my friend would like it]
Then we took a train to Asakusa [there’s also a city called Akasaka so it got confusing on the subway map] and went down Nakamise Shopping Arcade which is a giant tourist trap, and then we went to Denny’s.
Denny’s is nothing like American Denny’s. Instead of Grand Slams and cold pancakes you get steak, miso, and lots of ice cream. I got omurice, which is this rice omelet with some unidentifiable sauce and ketchup in the rice and was really good. minivi is going to mock me now because I said something with ketchup in it was good D:
Day 4: “Sorry, I can only read your last name.”
This laptop was haunting my mother’s mind. It’s so tiny and a good price, even if it was only in Japanese she still wanted to buy it, so we went back to Akiba and got it for her. The shop clerk was very nice and I could read his last name, Maeda, but got stuck on the first name probably because I want to block everyone named Kouhei out of my mind. So she’s trying to buy the thing and I went exploring to the other floors for a good laptop case and my own personal gains, then I got to the sixth floor and flipped out because it was gorgeous and had plastic nonsense and more gashapon.
And so Kouhei gave us this card and said we hade 13500 yen we got back to spend at the store, so we had to go back the next day XD
For lunch we went to this nice little café in Roppongi, this confusing district which was a giant alleyway and had good food. TACO RICE. Not tako as in octopus but the Japanese are even better at Mexican food what the hell.
And then we took a train to the Tokyo Tower, where I got a lot of really good pics of the city.
This is the mascot of the Tokyo Tower. He has a brother and they are the Roppon Brothers. They frighten me 'cause they're kind of penisy.
[this was a fun one]
…and a lot of cemeteries D:
[lots more I didn't post]
Day 5: “Never let Yoko run a train station”
We had to check out of our hotel and go to a different one, the Keio Plaza Hotel in the middle of Shinjuku. We had a strange 70s console in the night table O_O
After that we went back to Akiba to blow our $135 card, but that was really difficult because the Shinjuku Station is hellish. People say Grand Central Station or union Station in Washington DC is bad? No. This beats all of those [I know, I’ve been to both]. Let’s say…although soghunx might be the only one to understand this, if the station was an elevator, it’d be THAT elevator. It’s a nice station, lots of shops and fancy tiles, but trains are so hard to find and the whole station is a labyrinth. Gun. So we got there eventually for sure.
We also took a train to Harajuku for a while, but it’s not a very nice place. You’d expect a lot more people to be dressed in decora or J-Rock clothing but I only saw one girl and she was hideous looking, it’s a very crowded place, and all the clothes that are worth a damn are expensive. It’s not really worth the trek to be quite honest :|
After that hellhole we just stayed in the hotel for dinner.
Cuuuuute bunny I saw in Shinjuku station on the way back, some shoe store mascot.
Day 6: “These dudes don’t remind me of Sandra, they remind me of Rika.”
Which I’ll explain later.
So we thought the Imperial Palace was actually accessible like morons but you can only look at the outside if it’s not New Year’s or the emperor’s birthday. So…not very exciting!!
We met some Jews. British Jews! David and Yaakov will never be this cool : (
Then we went shrine hunt for a little while, and this reminded me of churchillclaps because everything is gorgeous and great for photography. Many of mine are relatively faily so I give you flags instead.
I wanted to look at downtown Shinjuku a little bit, so we walked over there and it seemed very busy.
And we saw a lot of very cute men. They were all dressed similarly and had the same kinds of hairstyles and formal attire and we thought it was just some type of fashion statement.
We then saw these.
O_______________________________________________O
With a phrase like “exploring human sense” my mother wasn’t convinced they were just hosts. And neither was I after looking in this one store.
My mom said I should take pictures of the pretty boys and I'm like "Why do I have to?"
"Because you're good at stealth and stalking"
[hears
eskimo_kieran laughing and would just like to say in advance SHUT THE HELL UP]
And I did it anyway :<
HE is actually my favorite guy from the whole trip. GUH. FILTHY MANWHORE.
So we dashed in a Lotteria and got some fries and Suntop Melon and my mom said the thing about kitsunenohikari . Also, your username is so long compared to most people I know XD
Day 7: “SMALL BELL.”
We took a bus out to Mt. Fuji! It’s really beautiful out here!
At this halfway point this guy kept shouting SMALL BELL except you know, the L’s came out like R’s and we expected a cute little bear but got a bell ._________.
I got Elliot this little prayer charm that just says WIN on it and I thought it was hilarious. And I almost bought this for
se_amor :
But my mom just glares and is all "WTF are you doing, the gay from your friends is rubbing off on you ins't it" [she's not homophobic, but is disturbed by the levels of *intimacy* my friends and I have XDDDDDDD]
Then we took a sky gondola ride then a boat ride [yes, I was still thinking I’M ON A BOAT] but the only thing you could see was fog because it was still rainy season so that was lame.
REALLY EXCITING, RIGHT? [headdesk]
But at least we could view this nice shrine instead.
They sold these wood tablets you could write on for a prayer or good wishes or something, but I didn't have any change :(
And at our new hotel, I braved every social boundary I had and WENT TO THE GODDAMN PUBLIC BATH. That was pretty bold. Basically you just sit in a giant hot spring with naked people, but as long as you just don’t pay attention it doesn’t matter. It was very relaxing and I’d probably do it again [I’m not an exhibitionist, I swear DDD: ]
Day 8: “This makes you a pedophile.”
We woke up really early to catch a bullet train to this place called Takayama, where in the station I was stalking this adorable Starbucks guy.
[realizes I just might be a stalker, YOU. STOP LAUGHING.]
And there were some cute high schoolers but my mom told me I was too old and I had to stop looking because I’m a college freshman. DAMMIT.
Bullet trains are called that for a reason. One passed the station and didn’t stop at the platform and scared the crap out of me. But we got on and made a stop at Nagoya for a few minutes then got back on with this family from LA.
Takayama is more of a countryside place [except there was a pachinko palace and those things are everywhere] and we walked around for a bit to see some old houses and festival floats. I am not good at culture. Pop culture maybe, but when we were listening to the woman talk about the old house I'm just like "Please make it stop." However, this cute bird distracted me for a while.
[Didn't realize why I should be excited about the bird until two days afterward]
Day 9: “The Dessert Forest beckons you!”
In the morning we did more of the same, walking around Takayama, and the damn computer where you pay for the internet ate my 200 yen. Found a shop that was like a storefront for someone’s work you would find on Etsy and got some hair clips.
You know how in “hipster style” or whatever the hell it is there’s always a random item that’s put on shirts and jewelry and pillows? I guess the new random item is matroyshka dolls. I can’t blame designers, they really are adorable.
We took another bus…man these bus rides were long, like 2 hours each, but this one was to this place called Shirokawa. Let’s see…there’s a reason I didn’t take pictures. If you’ve ever read the book Choke by Palahniuk [oh god I already hear some squeeing] you know what Colonial Dunsboro is like. This was the Japanese equivalent to that. So we found this restaurant along with some friends we made, this Italian couple that was very nice, and I was the translator for ordering. This was in the middle of nowhere. I HAD to translate XD
After a goddamn TWO HOUR trip to Dunsboro…Shirokawa we went to this place that made pretty paper. I got the name mixed up. The place was called Gokayama but my slash goggles were on somehow and I’m like “Gokuyama?” and then was greatly disappointed : (
Buuuuuut when we got to make paper I made up for it!
We took another long bus ride into this place called Kanazawa, which looks like a small city but there’s a lot going on. When we drove down the street to get to the new hotel it was full of trees and small shops and it reminded me a lot of Hillcrest Wait, who am I kidding, I’m going to Cal. That’s next to the intensely magnified Hillcrest XD
And we got to the Miyako Hotel and walked around outside for a while. The train station there is really intense, kind of looks like the big glass building for SFO airport. They have this clock outside of it that tells the time using a water fountain!
There were a lot of malls too, ones that are a little more like malls and not like Shibuya 109. We went in this one called Forus which had a lot of small boutiques like this one:
Matroyshka pillows!!
And on the fifth floor, the men’s section? Every clerk was unbelievably hot. And I didn’t bring my camera there. The sixth floor was funny because next to the arcade they had this:
Namco Dessert Forest! They had cakes and crepes and…ice cream cones full of pasta. I got some of this apple sherbet which was yummy.
Day 10: “Kyoto: Origin of the Hooker Heel”
We took a tour of this garden in Kanazawa, shit, forgot the name of it. It was really insanely hot out and I didn’t go walking around the palace we went to afterwards. Can you blame me? We don’t even get to go IN the damn palace. Why would I just stare at the wall around it. Also, there was this pottery culture heritage whatever I WANTED TO STAB MYSELF.
Me: "Do you think he rents this place out for birthday parties? I want to paint a ceramic kitty."
Mom: "FFFFFFFF, BE QUIET. Take a picture of the sexy pottery man for me."
He could be sexier. She's weird.
There was another train to be taken, guh. We went to Kyoto where we were separated from the Italians, who kissed us on the cheeks goodbye [and YES, SANDRA, I AM AWKWARD IN EVERY CULTURE] and went to the New Miyako in Kyoto which was air conditioned so I was just happy about that.
There’s this alleyway that’s famous for this geisha house and lots of restaurants so we went to one of those. Not the geisha house. It’s funny, because Japanese people are very concerned with differentiating geishas and “geisha girls” or oiran. I looked it up later on and learned about those women during the allied occupation of Japan who dressed like geisha and were really just hookers, or oiran from the Edo period who were only different by geisha from the way they tied their belts.
And then there was this ice cream that comes in a balloon. I didn’t know what it was and I just bought it because there was a cute polar bear on it, but I couldn’t open it and it was pissing me off. I asked the front desk for scissors because I didn’t want to keep biting it open. My mom was laughing the whole time because she said I bought a condom full of ice cream and I told her to STFU and help me open it.
Day 11: “We just spent five hours in a train station.”
Sadly, the most exciting thing about Kyoto is the train station. There’s lots of really nice shops and a good department store but there is NOTHING to do there, and this is the point where I got lazy because I took no pictures in this godforsaken city. I’m joust going to…bypass 11. I just can’t bear to do it.
Day 12: “Oh jesus, it’s 48 hours.”
We took a shuttle to the Kansai Airport for our flight to Honolulu, but before that we had time to kill and went to this place called UNIQLO. It’s like if American Apparel was worth a shit, and I bought some nice clothes there.
The shuttle was bumpy, and they really like putting love hotels near airports.
Airport security is really nice out there. They don’t make you take your shoes off and security doesn’t bitch at you for no good reason.
So we took the plane [8 HOURS GUH] and it’s magically 11 am in Hawaii when it was really 3 am in our minds, and then we realized “Oh shit, we’re in America. Vending machines aren’t readily available and everyone is a douchebag.”
So we got some food, chilled at Waikiki Beach [which is still very nice and clean compared to Oceanside but is super crowded] and slept.
Day 13: “This is probably the dorkiest thing I will ever allow myself to do.”
So you’re spending a few days in Hawaii to just chill, your mother needs to remember how to drive for a few minutes and you want to do some things that don’t involve a lot of money. This is when you go find Lost locations.
First was the barracks, or the yellow houses, or just Othersville at this YMCA:
Have a survivor you need to imprison? Use the assembly hall!
We were going to see the Fuselage but those bastards at the airfield had it tarped up D:<
Bastards!
However, there’s this plane they shoot as the interior of the yellow jet all the drug Virgin Mary statues are in.
Here’s the main beach!!
The kitchen <3
We sat around and had some sandwiches and saw a lot of turtles in the water :3
I love these beaches so much out there...
I didn’t take pics but we stopped by Turtle Bay, which has this nice public beach that you can go snorkeling in [you might remember it from Forgetting Sarah Marshall] and I got SUNBURNT LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER because I put enough sunscreen on but I’m just naturally…white XD
I’ve been here before, but we stopped by the Bydo-in Temple since the koi like getting fed and it was technically a Lost location because it was used for Jin and Sun’s wedding.
Except this time there were ungodly amounts of birds that flew in your face D:
Next stop: Windward Community College! It's what's used as the Santa Rosa Mental Institution :)
I actually don't think I look completely fucked in this picture. Most I do. Eheheh. Give me a dead Charlie to talk to!
Since we still had the car for a few hours we went to this burger joint called The Counter which is like Berryswirl if it sold burgers. And it’s owned by Daniel Dae Kim so I had no problem when my mom told me to pay for dinner.
And we went to Toys n’ Joys! It’s this big game/anime store that I love!
I don’t love these bananas D:
Apparently they used this store in Ji Yeon! I had no idea! I guess this is where the panda was purchased.
Day 14: “It fucking BURNS.”
Meaning my back. It was red like a goddamn crayon color.
So no beach that day! We took a bus to Chinatown for this good restaurant that had mock sweet n’ sour pork and cheap dim sum.
Ala Moana has also become somewhere that is mildly unpleasant. Not only has it gotten a little pricier since I’ve been there but there are more IDIOTS walking around. Maybe that’s just Hawaii in general. I’m not sure if I ever care about going back.
And all the flies don’t help either. They just swarm everywhere, even in this one Whaler’s General Store there were flies IN THE WHOLE PLACE.
And then the next day we went home. I know I was gone for 18 days, but since I lost a few days going back and forth traveling it doesn’t really count. The first Monday and Tuesday especially. Also I got back the 2nd, but I said the 3rd so I could sleep a lot of that day XDDDDDDDD
So…yeah! That’s my trip! I had an awesome time! I’d recommend that a lot of people make a trek out there because there are a lot of fascination things to do!!
In other news, I caught up on things:
1: KHR: WOOOO YAMAMOTO.
2: OP was sad, Bon Clay better make it back okay :(
3: Reading! Over the trip I read Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. It’s a very strong collection of short stories all together.
What I need to catch up on:
1: Kuroshitsuji and Nougami Neuro
2: Weeds, Nurse Jackie [which I didn't think I'd like but is really enjoyable], and True Blood [why does Lafayette have to be gay, he's so gorgeous :O]
3: Magazines. I have two Entertainment Weeklies and a Rolling Stone to read.
4: Writing. I have a fic to finish for khr_undercover . Honestly? It might be one of the best things I've ever written. Sadly everyone might guess which one is mine when it comes down to that game XD
Livejournal, I don’t think I’ll have time to look through all the past entries. I subscribe to a lot of friends and communities so it’d take forever. Starting today I’ll be back on track with all of you though :)