Japan, April 11th & 12th, 2013
Day 2.
Our plans for the day were: going to Keikarou and watching Platina Data. Since I didn't know how long it was going to take us the trip to Chiba, I only scheduled those places.
We had already watched (half watched) Platina Data the day before, so we were open to new options.
We woke up around 8~ or so in the morning and headed for Keikarou. We arrived around 10am (we didn't have an idea of what was the right time to get there) but when we got there there was something wrong. The place was completely empty and closed. I knew they opened later, but the strange part was that it was completely empty and with no fans around. Shippai!!! When we got close to the place to take a closer look, we found a calendar on the wall, next to the entrance door, with a big cross on certain days: Every Wednesday and Thursday since March. I knew they were closed on Wednesdays so I suppossed it meant Thursdays were closed too.
The good thing is that we got to take pictures at our free will.
We went back to Tokyo and decided to visit Ebisu Garden Place. That's a must for Hanadan fans!!! It is a really hard place to find!! It's not close to the station and you have to walk a life to get there. We almost lost our way but thanks to the 5 minute Internet of Tokyo Metro, we found the way.
When we arrived, there were a couple of young boys playing around the place, and a couple of fans who were planning on taking pictures too. We waited until the place was clear to approach the Clock and take the pictures. When we did so, we walked around the place. It's a really fancy place so there's not much to do. We just stopped at a Burger King to have a drink and some fries. It's weird because I can't really recall what we ate those days! I have the memory of eating certain things, but being there is like "I'm hungry, let's eat something!" but we didn't really mind about the time or place.
Since it was still early, and it was close, we headed for Shibuya. And thanks to technology! I'm going through the pictures taken that day and along with the picture comes the information about it: Date and time taken! We arrived around 6pm and it was already dark. It was packed, as usual, and just as we were walking past Hachiko statue, we saw the promotional truck (trailer, car, whatever) with the Kazoku Game pictures going around the street. It was the funniest part because we literally ran to get a better view! Just then I realised it would be going around in circles, so we waited for it to come back and took pictures of it from different angles.. We also caught a glimpse of a Keio Bus. Not sure what it was but it was nice knowing it has a connection with Sho kun ^^
Our next stop at Shibuya was Tower Records. I don't know if it was a good or bad decition, but I spent a nice amount of money there D: Had I known about Mandarake before, I wouldn't have spent so much there! Anyway, I bought a few singles, a DVD and 2 or 3 albums.
We returned to the Hostal 9.30pm tired but happy :)
Things to note about the day: We encountered a lot of Arashi Kirin promotionals, and even took a pictre at a supermarket with Matsujun promoting those shampoos. We also got to watch a bit of Breathless on a big screen at Shibuya.
Day 3.
Next day, April 12th, we had planned Tokyo Sky Tree, Ebisu, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Johnny's Family Club.
We had thought about going to Keikarou that day and reschedule things, but I heard from a fan that the best time to get to Keikarou was around 8.30~9.00 am and by the time we woke up we would be getting there quite late, so we decided to do the Tokyo Sky Tree instead.
It's not far from the Hostel, and we had to take a bus to get there. Don't remember the fare, but it wasn't much. We arrived around 11am, and got our ticket to enter the place at 1.45pm. So in the meantime we had the chance to visit the many places at the Sky Tree. There's a mall, a food court (where we had a delicious ramen!), a supermarket, a store enclosing all Tokyo broadcasting companies. We got souvenirs, picures, a full stomach, and such.
When it was time to go and buy our tickets there wasn't much line. But the elevators place was packed. We had to wait around 20 minutes to get into the elevator. It was amazingly fast and it even has a display showing the height and meters per second. We arrived soon to floor 350. 350 meters above land. I'm not afraid of heights, but it's still amazing the view. The day was a little foggy so we didn't get to see Mt Fuji, but it was a great view anyway. We also visited floor 451. Great experience!!
Our next stop for the day was Johnny's Family Club. Not really sure what is it about. With the limitations of my japanese, all we could do was look around the small place, watch the posters, the displays and that's it. We got pictures of the signed posters, the messages from the different Johnny's bands.. and that was it.
Then we set for the Karaoke place at the Himitsu no Arashi chan 5 year anniversary. It was this place where whenever someone played an Arashi song, they would show up and sing along. Their small concert venue. I had looked for this place through Google maps with a help of the street view and the reference of Jun saying "Isn't it Meiji-dori?" on the actual video. I had a hard time finding it since Meiji-dori is extremely long, but I knew it had to be somewhat close to Shibuya, so at the end I found the place. And there we were, standing in front of the "Araoke". Just it didnt read Araoke anymore :(
Anyway, we paid for an hour of karaoke and juice and headed for the small room. It was a funny experience because it's all in japanese and we had a hard time finding the way to play a song, but eventually we got it. We sang Arashi songs and one of Perfume (I actually just listened since I don't really know any Perfume songs) and one of Tegomasu. It had hiragana subs, so it wasn't that hard to sing along. Somehow you just have to get better at reading hiragana in a fast way! XD
After the Karaoke, we went to Shinjuku, more precisely, to Takeshita dori. It's a whole street of stores, non-official goods and pictures, lolita clothes, souvenirs, goods in general.. a nice place to spent most of your money if you let yourself go along the place. We had a crepe, rest a bit, and kept on walking. We got to this "Tokyo Plaza Omotesando Harajuku". It's a several storey building, with fancy shops and stuff. We didn't really buy anything. I was on my search for a nice case for my iPhone 4S, but those things are almost extinct. All you can find is cases for iPhone 5. We were really frustrated!
So that was for the day. We got back to the Hostel and got a nice pics of Asakusa lighted at night on the way.
:)