(no subject)
PART 2
so during those first 2 weeks we had the afternoon and evening to travel to where we wanted within tokyo, soooo the first place we went was the edo museum. but before that we had to get tickets for the train. the train ticket buying station had and english version of the map, sort of, which was lucky, since not all of them do (gotta memorize certain kanji). we put our money into the machine and it gives us a ticket...take the ticket to the gate and stick it in, walk through the gate, and take your punched ticket out at the other side of the gate. it's super fast, and people with cell phone there can just hover their phone over the gate sensor to pay for the ticket.
so we take a train to the edo museum and make our way to the doors, along the way we meet some elementary school kids who wave at us as they go by. inside were tons of miniture town models, life-size kabuki theaters, and relic displays of tokyo's history (it used to be called Edo). we got an english guide tour which took about 2 hours, but was pretty interesting. im not a history buff, so i dont remember the details!
the next day we go to akihabara. our group finds the right train stopping point and waits to get on. the train to akihabara is pretty crowded in the afternoons, so we end up standing up and getting squeezed in. 10 minutes or so later we are in akihabara...after we get our english maps, we split up into groups of 2 and wander around...
josh and i went to an arcade first, and i saw some cool games as usual. then we went looking for an electric dictionary, which would be handy in class next year. joshua buys his in 5 minutes or less...i take my time, relatively, and get mine in 15. we both would end up havin the same problem, but more on that later.
so then we look for food...we wander around for a while and ask this guy on the street where a good place is. he points us to this building and we go to the 5th floor, only to find out the food is like 80 dollars at the cheapest...so we go out and get some udon instead.
after that we wander around looking for gifts for people and i didnt have too much luck, but did see a lot of interesting stores. hentai shops, full of animated porn, are in many buildings here, and inside them, are many guys. they dont look creepy either, just normal dudes, some in their school uniforms or business suits.
there are also some maid cafes sprinkled about. maid cafes are like restaurants where japanese girls in western style maid outfits dine with you. you can feed them, they can feed you, and you can talk to eachother. some places even offer massages! but no sexual favors i think - so me and josh went there, but when we got the the door, we saw a sign that said "no cameras" sooo we got discouraged and wandered off. we would try again another day.
akihabara is like an outdoor version of Fry's Electronics, but spanning 10 square blocks or more outside. i saw plenty of computer part stores, crazy video game stores with doujinshi games, hacking programs, cds, dvds, and other things. surprisingly, i didnt see a store dedicated to artbooks or anime plushies like i usually see at anime conventions, but maybe i was just in the wrong place. it was easy to get lost there.
so me and josh wander around until we get lost, and we end up asking this random guy at an eye patch work shop (!) where to go. he takes his eye patch template piece of cardboard and draws a makeshift map on it. josh ended up keeping this throughout the whole trip for some reason...
so we get tired and take the train back to shinkoiwa. next thing you know we are in the J-dream lobby again with about 4 other classmates talking the night away until like 2am. every now and then going to the "conbini" (convenience store) down the street, known as 7-11, to get some food.
the next day was supposed to be the trip to tsukiji fish market for some of us, but after akihabara, i was too tired to get up. but from what i know, its this huge outdoor warehouse type of place where fisherman bring their fish to be sold by auction, for the most part. there are fish all over the place, and you would be dodging fish that merchants are tossing back and forth and such. also, there are some good sushi bars in the area, of course!
more later...
so during those first 2 weeks we had the afternoon and evening to travel to where we wanted within tokyo, soooo the first place we went was the edo museum. but before that we had to get tickets for the train. the train ticket buying station had and english version of the map, sort of, which was lucky, since not all of them do (gotta memorize certain kanji). we put our money into the machine and it gives us a ticket...take the ticket to the gate and stick it in, walk through the gate, and take your punched ticket out at the other side of the gate. it's super fast, and people with cell phone there can just hover their phone over the gate sensor to pay for the ticket.
so we take a train to the edo museum and make our way to the doors, along the way we meet some elementary school kids who wave at us as they go by. inside were tons of miniture town models, life-size kabuki theaters, and relic displays of tokyo's history (it used to be called Edo). we got an english guide tour which took about 2 hours, but was pretty interesting. im not a history buff, so i dont remember the details!
the next day we go to akihabara. our group finds the right train stopping point and waits to get on. the train to akihabara is pretty crowded in the afternoons, so we end up standing up and getting squeezed in. 10 minutes or so later we are in akihabara...after we get our english maps, we split up into groups of 2 and wander around...
josh and i went to an arcade first, and i saw some cool games as usual. then we went looking for an electric dictionary, which would be handy in class next year. joshua buys his in 5 minutes or less...i take my time, relatively, and get mine in 15. we both would end up havin the same problem, but more on that later.
so then we look for food...we wander around for a while and ask this guy on the street where a good place is. he points us to this building and we go to the 5th floor, only to find out the food is like 80 dollars at the cheapest...so we go out and get some udon instead.
after that we wander around looking for gifts for people and i didnt have too much luck, but did see a lot of interesting stores. hentai shops, full of animated porn, are in many buildings here, and inside them, are many guys. they dont look creepy either, just normal dudes, some in their school uniforms or business suits.
there are also some maid cafes sprinkled about. maid cafes are like restaurants where japanese girls in western style maid outfits dine with you. you can feed them, they can feed you, and you can talk to eachother. some places even offer massages! but no sexual favors i think - so me and josh went there, but when we got the the door, we saw a sign that said "no cameras" sooo we got discouraged and wandered off. we would try again another day.
akihabara is like an outdoor version of Fry's Electronics, but spanning 10 square blocks or more outside. i saw plenty of computer part stores, crazy video game stores with doujinshi games, hacking programs, cds, dvds, and other things. surprisingly, i didnt see a store dedicated to artbooks or anime plushies like i usually see at anime conventions, but maybe i was just in the wrong place. it was easy to get lost there.
so me and josh wander around until we get lost, and we end up asking this random guy at an eye patch work shop (!) where to go. he takes his eye patch template piece of cardboard and draws a makeshift map on it. josh ended up keeping this throughout the whole trip for some reason...
so we get tired and take the train back to shinkoiwa. next thing you know we are in the J-dream lobby again with about 4 other classmates talking the night away until like 2am. every now and then going to the "conbini" (convenience store) down the street, known as 7-11, to get some food.
the next day was supposed to be the trip to tsukiji fish market for some of us, but after akihabara, i was too tired to get up. but from what i know, its this huge outdoor warehouse type of place where fisherman bring their fish to be sold by auction, for the most part. there are fish all over the place, and you would be dodging fish that merchants are tossing back and forth and such. also, there are some good sushi bars in the area, of course!
more later...