Trip to Tokyo mid june 2008
finally i've finished writing about my trip, hope u guys have fun reading it ^_^**
I'm back !!!! (against my will...) from the wonderful Japan!!.... ^______^....
the trip was sooo great!!!! everything in Japan is great!!!!(i sound like a traitor..) the people, the place, the food, the shopping....
anyway, i want to write about every detail in my trip and doing it here is perfect :) cos my whole trip was kinda whorlled around japanese showbiz ppl..
so on june 3 i arrived in Narita Airport around 6pm. couldn't do much on that day anyways, just made way by bus to our hotel in Shinjuku. (i think staying in shinjuku was pretty cool cos there's a lot of shops there too, and the shops close relatively later, and there's some place for nightlife and lots of restaurants, so when i went back to my hotel every nite, could still do some late strolling around the place)
ramen dinner
on june 4 i went to Harajuku!!( haha! checked that it wasn't a public holiday and no concerts, for the sake of waiting less for the Johnny's shop apparently) i arrived at 10 am, the little park where they hand out tickets to get in the shop was relatively easy to find, things look kinda closer than they seem on the map, so i got a ticket for 11am, the guy that handed out the tickets was really kind, he tried to say a lot to me (in jap of course), and when i went away, he chased after me to give me another ticket seeing i had 3 ppl. (so each ticket admits 2 i presume), ppl were lining up for the 10am section already, altho it wasn't a public holiday, there was quite a crowd of girls in uniforms.. (i'm kinda guessing they skipped skool?!? to shop??) o well, so i just shopped around till 11 and went back, lined up to get shown to the shop, even tho i got an 11 o clock ticket, they still separate those in smaller groups so those that came earlier in line went in first..
johnny's shop is just along the road beside this shop
i've read that it could get super crowded inside the shop, but i was lucky i guessed, there weren't thaaat much ppl, so i could easily go back to see different photos if i missed them, actually there weren't much variety of goods to buy, just lots of those round paper/plastic fans, some photos albums, ticket holders...(most of the same pattern), and some concert goods, mostly hand torches (not bearing their faces), so i didn't get any torches, altho i do regret now.. anyway, i spent an hour looking at the photos and choosing out other stuff at the basement floor, then was brought up to line up to pay, the ground floor is an exact imitation of the basement, with the same products and photos on the wall, so i guess usually when it's super crowded ppl are just shown to one floor. the queue to pay almost took longer than choosing the pics.
i bought about 70 pics at 150yen each, bought one of those big paper fan (500yen), small plastic fan (500 yen), and one NEWS photo album (800 yen)...all added up to >12000 yen!! wooo... anyway it's all worth it, cos i can't stop looking at the stuff now, and i DO regret not buying more. so the whole Johnny's shop shopping experience took me 2+ hours, which is not too much i suppose, and it was nice, really nice, get to see some other ppl who like JE stuff (ALL girls :p , or female i should say, cos some fans were older than my mom i think.. not discrimination, haha, i actually think it was pretty cute, they were buying stuff from the older groups...so i was thinking, I hope i could love Ryo-chan and NEWS and Kanjani8 all my life too ^_^'' and stay so enthusiastic..)
having done my MAIN activity i happily shopped around Harajuku that day, and that place is Super pretty, the buildings were all nice, the streets were clean, the people!! o man, even the normal people on the streets looked like models, u could see everyone was quite concerned about clothing, they all matched their clothes well, and hats and accessories and shoes and bags..they were so pretty. GUYS were really cool, any of them could be a movie star (that's what i was thinking..), not to say our JE boys weren't special, they are pretty and cool and talented of course..hahah.. but guys on the street were cool too, even when they may not be pretty. if u know what i mean. the streets around Johnny's shop are nice, i bought a lot of clothes hoping to look more Jap , the prices are much more affordable, so buy more before u walk over to Omotesando. there's this shop on Omotesando tho, called Kiddy Land, which has a lot of anime products (if u like ALL things Jap like me, can go shop for some anime stuff too). there are other shops around the Johnny's shop that sell unofficial JE stuff, but i didn't go in those, thought i might as well buy official stuff whilst i'm in japan, but i DO regret not going in to see them.. anyway, cos my mom and sister were completely uninterested, so i couldn't waste more of their time)
big arashi commercial
tons of skool kids on a skool day
omotesando hills where some parts of Kurosagi was filmed
i went to Tsukijishou fish market and Tokyo Tower and Roppongi on june 5, Tsukijishou is an old market where they sell lots of foodstuff, and sell fish! so i went there for a nice sushi lunch,
then went to Tokyo Tower, met lots of students again, some skool excursion i think, then went to Roppongi to shop ( not too cheap...so i didn't buy much) the TV Asahi building was there, lots of Doraemon stuff :) other than that, not too exciting, cos i didn't watch any of their doramas this season. so today was less JE, just wrote it down for the sake of completeness. BUT the most important event that night!!! watching Last friend on TV in the hotel! !! altho i couldn't understand every word..but i was already ecstatic to have an hour of Ryo on TV.... ^___^....
okada junichi selling pepsi
function going on at TV Asahi building foyer
diiner that nite
on June 6 i went to asakusa which is a place where there are traditional Jinjyas
this is where they filmed tiger and dragon
the theatres in which traditional japanese comedians go, also part of the tiger an dragon dorama.:)
and (i met a lot of students Again!! more skool excursions!) and allow me to say this, even those japanese skool boys are very cute!!! i'm not a pedophile..
well, the place sells everything, there is a shop that sells photos of old old tv stars too ^__^
and some stores sell JE stuff!! some official, some self made (the official stuff are more expensive than the JE shop tho) and not complete. then i took a boat to Hinode, the boat trip took an hour, but u could tour around the shoreline in the seabreeze. then i went to Shiodome from Hinode, look what i saw at the Hinode station!!!
Shiodome is not really a tourist spot, it's a lot of commercial buildings that look really nice and futurish, with the skytrains running through, but guess what !!
the NTV building is there!!!!
gokusen promotions
i swear i didn't intentionally go there. and what more! they were promoting TOUCH eco!!!!!! ok, don't get too excited, I did NOT meet any kanjani8 members..haha, but their promotion posters were all over the place, and they had stalls where ppl could play eco games.
boards showing news clippings of touch eco promotions
unfortunately, the posters were not for sale :( they were really cute, with the kanjani members pouring water on each other's head and some weed grows off their head >__<'' so cute!!
not a good view cos it was high up the wall
then went to Daiba, and the first stop was FUJI TV station!!!!!! haha!!! more TV towers, well all the doramas i watched this season were from Fuji~!! of course including my Ryo-chan's Last Friend!!! big big poster on the foyer!
also other doramas
there was also a small spot introducing the dorama here.
(in conclusion of the 3 TV stations i went to, Fuji was the best! largest shop, a hall just for promoting it's shows, and their a cute dog mascot around everywhere :) ) sadly, the Last friend's poster was also not for sale!!! and they don't start making dorama goods until after the show, so no last friend's goods either.. booo ,
another nice poster not for sale
the rest of Daiba was shopping and looking at Rainbow Bridge (where they film a lot of dorama scenes and the statue of Liberty)
i was there the whole day...
on 7 june, i went to Daikanyama, which is a place where rich ppl live, so naturally they sell expensive stuff. but it's still nice to look around the place, cos Japan is really pretty everywhere, every place is worth a visit, after that i went to Jiyugaoka where it's another shopping place, shops are not as nice as those in Harajuku, and ppl are less cool too, much more older people and families. went to a place called Sweets Forest for ice cream :) and there wasn't much more to do there, so went the evening shopping in Shinjuku for more shopping.
8 june , sunday at 8 am, the 13hours of the Touch eco show started. I COULDN'T WAKE ON TIME !!! missed the first 45 minutes of the show, well, it was really hard to wait for Ryo to appear for seconds..and he bearly talks like he always is..so the camera usually just pans over him.. anyway, had to leave...another day of wild shopping in Shibuya, lots and lots of pretty ppl on the streets, the girls were like Barbie dolls!! and guys were just plain cool. man, what is this place.
lots of commercails
9 june, after some final shopping in the morning, left our hotel at 2 for the airport and back home :(
Afterthoughts:
1. I don't see that much of the TV ppl as i thought i would, no big commercials of any NEWS ppl or Kanjani8 ppl, except Tegomass promoting their new single. (which is pretty sad...really want to see more of them) , the most commonly seen face was Yukie Nakama, she was on a lot of commercials. and Miura Haruma as well. and arashi, but in Shibuya there was a big UFO commercial!!
2. not much TV commercials , saw Pi's Toshiba commercial once, and quite a lot of Touch eco commercials. and some UFO commercials.
3. i only saw ONE small small Russ K shop in shibuya, (which happened to be part of a brand called Indio??) i didn't get anything cos there were too few stuff to choose from, there was this catalogue too, but from my limited jap, it seems u have to buy all the clothes from that season to get the book.. wow.
a small part of the store
4. are NEWS still the spokespeople for Lawson's?? cos i've went to like 5 to 6 Lawson's but there was not even a tiny pic of NEWS anywhere..just naruto
5. soo...my conclusion is japan is super fast moving, they don't show their commercials for long, and they have too many tv ppl even those that are famous aren't like seen everywhere. but I saw a lot of Ryo-chan actually,,hehehe. more than any other NEWS or kanjani or Kat-tun member..maybe because my eyes are like a rador that only chase around him.. making this trip very satisfying.
日本が大好きだ ！！！