review
Okay, so, finally! A rundown of my holidays.
So I took Christmas off using a voucher provided by the KEC, and together with JoJo, Amanda, and Julia we went to Arima onsen. It was a cold and rainy day, but the hot spring was death. It was indoors, and rather nice (kin no...something, I forget the rest), and had more than enough naked older women in there. ^^; Being naked in front of friends is quite the experience, let me tell you.
And I got way dizzy from the heat, but it was ok in the end. I can't find my towel though and I gotta so I can air it out since it's been in that bag for a week. ;_; Hahaha my room is a mess.
And now for my Tokyo-filled weekend!
JoJo and I both went to work on Friday, and ugh it sucked. But I played tennis for 5 hours with the girls (sooo cooool, it even snowed ;_;) and then rushed from work to the station to catch a train to Shinkobe. I happened to catch the same train as JoJo, with the crazy conductor. He was hilarious. "Tsugi wa Iiiiiitayado, Iiiiiiiiitayado deeesu" and such.
So anyway, we caught the shinkansen ok. Rawr bullet train. It made me feel a little queezy, but overall was fine. It takes three hours from Shinkobe to Tokyo Station, and we got into Tokyo around 8. Had to be at our hostel by 9 to check in, and I rushed us through the station so we, uh, missed getting our JR tickets. But the guy at Bakurocho let us through >.> And then we arrived at our hostel!
That is exactly how it sounds.
So after getting in and putting our stuff away we walked around the area to get food and found a nice Indian restaurant. It's the first one what didn't give me a tummy ache! Score! And then we returned to the hostel, I got my ass handed to me in spit, and we passed out.
So the next day we got up at like 9, and left the hostel around 10ish to go to the Imperial Palace. You can't actually go to the main palace except for two days a year--December 23 (his bday) and January 2. But we did get to go to the gardens around the Palance. Specifically we went to the Eastern Gardens, and they were very pretty even with the trees all dead and such. We wandered around there for a few hours, and then traveled south towards Tokyo Tower.
We didn't actually go into Tokyo Tower. Lines are long and while it was a beautiful day, we uh, wanted to do other things. So instead she took a pic of me touching the base! >.> Technically you're not allowed to, what with the bases being hemmed by five feet of flowerbed, but there was a little path and the rope had fallen down so I dashed up and touched it and then jumped back. Good times.
After that we went to Ikebukuro; more specifically, we went to go to Nekobukuro. On the top floor of the Tokyu Hands there, they have a place where you pay 600 yen and can spend as much time as you want with their 20 cats. Here are some images. It was really adorable and cute and fun, but the cats kinda ignored us. >.>
We stayed there for...almost an hour? Then went shopping around Ikebukuro a bit, and then headed out for Shibuya. Specifically, JoJo wanted to see the "Tokyo Times Square" and I wanted to see Hachikou. Turns out the two places are one and the same.
So we come out at Hachikou Square, and that crosswalk is HUGE. Peeps were all around the statue, but I still got my pic taken next to him. Then we traveled around, I bought JoJo the Starbuck's cheesecake I owed her, and we met up with her friend from home who is another JET. Then we spent almost an hour trying to find a karaoke place that had openings for two people.
Yaaah, on a Saturday night in Shibuya? Not freakin' likely.
So we headed back to Bakurocho and found a karaoke place there. We still had to wait almost an hour, but at least we could walk back to the hostel. We geeked it out and it was great, then we returned to the hostel and passed out.
Well, not before JoJo began to play The World Ends With You, and had a joygasm that it starts in Shibuya and she was all I WAS THERE AN HOUR AGO. ^^; Apparently your first mission is to clean Hachikou.
So we woke up around 9 again on Sunday, and we left the hostel around 10. We put our luggage in a coin locker, and then headed for the Edo Tokyo Museum. Unfortunately, it was closed (which in hindsight made sense, but I had checked the website the night before and they didn't mention a special holiday schedule so yah). So we headed for Akihabara earlier than expected.
The only other time I went to Akihabara was for Orientation when we first got here, and we went at night. It looks a lot different during the day. But we wandered around there for a few hours, and I bought a camera and Okami (in English, for 3500 yen, which I think is cheaper than you can find it back home?). JoJo also bought some stuff, and after around 2ish? we headed out for Harajuku.
Yes, there are lolis in Harajuku. Not as many as you might expect, but still. We walked around there for a few hours and went into some awesome shops with relatively cheap stuff, and I was gonna buy this one outfit at this store what was having a major sale, but this lady took the last one in my size. ;_; And you couldn't try things on in the store. But it had the best soundtrack ohmygosh. Badly done dance remixes of Disney songs, and listening to the singers try to pronounce some things was hilarious (for the record, they did an awesome job, but you could tell English wasn't their first language). We stayed in that shop far too long because of that soundtrack. >.>
We ran outta time though and had to hurry back to Tokyo Station to catch the shinkansen before 8. We got there around 7, and scurried for omiyage (well, I did), and some dinner. We managed to catch the 7:30 to Himeji, and settled back for our three hour ride home.
And I managed to spill my Dissida Potion all over the place. >.> I got Cecil/Chaos. Must get the reeeest.
And that was my holiday! Uh, if you want more details I can prolly provide, but this is basically it.
So I took Christmas off using a voucher provided by the KEC, and together with JoJo, Amanda, and Julia we went to Arima onsen. It was a cold and rainy day, but the hot spring was death. It was indoors, and rather nice (kin no...something, I forget the rest), and had more than enough naked older women in there. ^^; Being naked in front of friends is quite the experience, let me tell you.
And I got way dizzy from the heat, but it was ok in the end. I can't find my towel though and I gotta so I can air it out since it's been in that bag for a week. ;_; Hahaha my room is a mess.
And now for my Tokyo-filled weekend!
JoJo and I both went to work on Friday, and ugh it sucked. But I played tennis for 5 hours with the girls (sooo cooool, it even snowed ;_;) and then rushed from work to the station to catch a train to Shinkobe. I happened to catch the same train as JoJo, with the crazy conductor. He was hilarious. "Tsugi wa Iiiiiitayado, Iiiiiiiiitayado deeesu" and such.
So anyway, we caught the shinkansen ok. Rawr bullet train. It made me feel a little queezy, but overall was fine. It takes three hours from Shinkobe to Tokyo Station, and we got into Tokyo around 8. Had to be at our hostel by 9 to check in, and I rushed us through the station so we, uh, missed getting our JR tickets. But the guy at Bakurocho let us through >.> And then we arrived at our hostel!
That is exactly how it sounds.
So after getting in and putting our stuff away we walked around the area to get food and found a nice Indian restaurant. It's the first one what didn't give me a tummy ache! Score! And then we returned to the hostel, I got my ass handed to me in spit, and we passed out.
So the next day we got up at like 9, and left the hostel around 10ish to go to the Imperial Palace. You can't actually go to the main palace except for two days a year--December 23 (his bday) and January 2. But we did get to go to the gardens around the Palance. Specifically we went to the Eastern Gardens, and they were very pretty even with the trees all dead and such. We wandered around there for a few hours, and then traveled south towards Tokyo Tower.
We didn't actually go into Tokyo Tower. Lines are long and while it was a beautiful day, we uh, wanted to do other things. So instead she took a pic of me touching the base! >.> Technically you're not allowed to, what with the bases being hemmed by five feet of flowerbed, but there was a little path and the rope had fallen down so I dashed up and touched it and then jumped back. Good times.
After that we went to Ikebukuro; more specifically, we went to go to Nekobukuro. On the top floor of the Tokyu Hands there, they have a place where you pay 600 yen and can spend as much time as you want with their 20 cats. Here are some images. It was really adorable and cute and fun, but the cats kinda ignored us. >.>
We stayed there for...almost an hour? Then went shopping around Ikebukuro a bit, and then headed out for Shibuya. Specifically, JoJo wanted to see the "Tokyo Times Square" and I wanted to see Hachikou. Turns out the two places are one and the same.
So we come out at Hachikou Square, and that crosswalk is HUGE. Peeps were all around the statue, but I still got my pic taken next to him. Then we traveled around, I bought JoJo the Starbuck's cheesecake I owed her, and we met up with her friend from home who is another JET. Then we spent almost an hour trying to find a karaoke place that had openings for two people.
Yaaah, on a Saturday night in Shibuya? Not freakin' likely.
So we headed back to Bakurocho and found a karaoke place there. We still had to wait almost an hour, but at least we could walk back to the hostel. We geeked it out and it was great, then we returned to the hostel and passed out.
Well, not before JoJo began to play The World Ends With You, and had a joygasm that it starts in Shibuya and she was all I WAS THERE AN HOUR AGO. ^^; Apparently your first mission is to clean Hachikou.
So we woke up around 9 again on Sunday, and we left the hostel around 10. We put our luggage in a coin locker, and then headed for the Edo Tokyo Museum. Unfortunately, it was closed (which in hindsight made sense, but I had checked the website the night before and they didn't mention a special holiday schedule so yah). So we headed for Akihabara earlier than expected.
The only other time I went to Akihabara was for Orientation when we first got here, and we went at night. It looks a lot different during the day. But we wandered around there for a few hours, and I bought a camera and Okami (in English, for 3500 yen, which I think is cheaper than you can find it back home?). JoJo also bought some stuff, and after around 2ish? we headed out for Harajuku.
Yes, there are lolis in Harajuku. Not as many as you might expect, but still. We walked around there for a few hours and went into some awesome shops with relatively cheap stuff, and I was gonna buy this one outfit at this store what was having a major sale, but this lady took the last one in my size. ;_; And you couldn't try things on in the store. But it had the best soundtrack ohmygosh. Badly done dance remixes of Disney songs, and listening to the singers try to pronounce some things was hilarious (for the record, they did an awesome job, but you could tell English wasn't their first language). We stayed in that shop far too long because of that soundtrack. >.>
We ran outta time though and had to hurry back to Tokyo Station to catch the shinkansen before 8. We got there around 7, and scurried for omiyage (well, I did), and some dinner. We managed to catch the 7:30 to Himeji, and settled back for our three hour ride home.
And I managed to spill my Dissida Potion all over the place. >.> I got Cecil/Chaos. Must get the reeeest.
And that was my holiday! Uh, if you want more details I can prolly provide, but this is basically it.