Today was our Tokyo free day, so me and Vincent when to Shibuya >:). This was the highlight of the trip for me. I love huge bustling cities, I love shopping, I love anime, it was perfect. Also not the mention this is where the Shibuya Incident took place >:))). We didn’t have much of a plan besides wanting to go to the nintendo store. Upon arriving we walked out of the station to see giant walkways stacked beneath freeways on top of intersections between skyscrapers. It was like a shot from a cyberpunk city during the day, absolutely insane urban architecture. We decided to start our adventure at Shibuya Scramble Crossing because that’s where we heard a lot of shops were.
Cool building that you would never find in the US (too much green)
After watching 50 bajillion people scurry across the street in 20 different directions, we headed into Shibuya 109. This store was 7 floors of every style of feminine clothing you can think of. We didn’t even look in the shops because we knew there wasn’t really going to be anything we wanted, but we still went to all the floors just to see it. After 109 we went to Magnent, which is owned by 109, and is for a more masculine audience. However they pretty much only sold designer clothing or streetwear designer that was way to expensive for me, even though they were sick ass clothes. After Magnet we walked over to the Nintendo store in Shibuya Parco and spent an obscene amount of money. Got some stuff for me and some stuff for my friends. After Nintendo we went to the Jump shop because we are anime fiends. They had some rlly cool stuff too, including printed JJK manga panels on canvas, which we each got one of. Then we were hungy so we got some italian food, it wasn’t the best food ive had but it wasn’t bad.
Conssss
Then we went to the converse store and I got Japan-exclusive white chucks that are sooo cool. After the converse store we headed back to Akihabara and got dinner with Maddy and Esther at this hotpot place connected to our hotel. It was quite scrumptious. Then it was bed time for the next day :).
Today was our free day in Tokyo, and Pavel and I were determined to make the most of it! We woke up early, and hopped on the train down to Odaiba and Diver City to see the one thing we’ve waiting for all trip: the life sized Unicorn Gundam Statue. The train ride wasn’t bad at all, and it was awesome seeing the water and bay as we rode over the bridge to the floating city.
Odaiba City, here we come!There was also apparently a smaller Statue of Liberty?
Getting off the train, we immediately went to Diver City and walked towards the front, where we were greeted by the looming form of the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam. It was large, just as big as I imagined, and my jaw dropped as I giddily stared up at the giant mobile suit statue. It was honestly beautiful!
Getting to see the life-sized Gundam statue was a trip highlight for sure!
After witnessing that and taking many pictures, Pavel and I went to a nearby restaurant for some fluffy pancakes before the mall opened.
They were delicious, and super fluffy! (I wish I could’ve finished them all!)
Once the doors to Diver City Mall opened, we darted up to the top floor where Gundam Base Tokyo awaited us! Filled to the brim with Gunpla and Gunpla models on display, it was a Gunpla fan’s dreamscape. I nabbed a few exclusives, and then spent the rest of the 1 and half hours there browsing Gunpla kits and spending a good chunk of money. I was so enraptured by the kits, I actually forgot to really look and pictures of the displays!
I did snag this awesome picture of a rotating Unicorn Gundam Perfectibility statue though!
After checking out, we exited the mall just in time to see the gundam statue transform! Its panels shifted and opened to reveal LED-lit areas underneath, representing its Psycho-Frame technology from the show. We were about to leave then for Yokohama to see the moving gundam, until suddenly another tourist from the East Coast told us it was closed this week for maintenance, which we verified. So unfortunately those plans were ruined, but that just meant newfound time for other things!
Namely, getting to finally try traditional taiyaki!
We instead went back to Shinagawa first, to see a statue outside of Kojima studios, and then went back to Asakusa to do some souvenir shopping! We found a lot of local shops that specialized in certain things, like Edo glass jewelry, chopsticks from baseball wood, and Japanese style fans! I spent a lot here as well.
Some more statue pictures, the transformed Unicorn Gundam and Kojima studios statue!
All the shops closed very early however, so by 6pm all of them were basically closed, so we wandered around Senso-ji temple for a bit before deciding to head to the Tokyo Skytree! It was a spur of the moment decision, so we walked across the Sumida river to the tower, which turned out to be a great time! The sun was also setting, making for some beautiful pictures.
Asakusa and Sumida have really gorgeous scenery and architecture!
The Skytree was great, and gave us a gorgeous view of the Tokyo skyline! I also get a pretty cool engraved medallion, and Tokyo-exclusive curry flavored pringles?
The Skytree view did not disappoint!
Once we finished there, we visited a few more shops in the tower in lower floors for merchandise, and once they closed we headed back via subway to the hotel to unload our haul of the day.
Today was our free day in Tokyo, so we decided to start the day with a quick trip to Starbucks for some drinks while we wait for the crepe place we intended to get breakfast at to open. By the time we had arrived at the crepe place I was pretty full on sugar, but luckily there was a beef skewer place just next door that was also opening, so I chose to get one of those instead. Nothing will top the beef skewer that I got at Nishiki Market, but it was still pretty good!
We also decided to visit Book-Off, a well known secondhand book/CD/video game store that held a surprising amount of Pokemon DS games. While most of them were 3DS games, I did manage to snag a copy of Pokemon Platinum for only $25 which I think is an unbelievable steal. The cartridge looks really cool too! I’m very excited to play it when I get home and see if there’s a save file on it (though I wouldn’t be surprised if they wiped it before putting it on sale). Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of it and am already in bed, so here’s a picture of a really cute cat statue that I saw later in the day instead!
We then took a train to Tokyo station to find Character Street, a well known chain of shops under the station featuring a lot of popular chain stores like Disney, Pokemon, Kirby, and more. I didn’t find too many things there that I really liked, but I did get a cute cat sticker, a pressed coin from the Pokemon store, and some cute sweets from the mini Kirby cafe!
After a pit stop in the hotel to devour our goodies, we made a change to our original plan to go to Ginza and decided to stay in Akihabara and visit the Muji and Uniqlo stores here. I didn’t find anything interesting in Muji, but this Uniqlo store did have the Splatoon 3 shirts that I was looking for so I picked up two of them!
Splatoon was truly my downfall today. After visiting the Uniqlo store, I took a trip to the floor below to look at some video games and Pokemon merchandise. While none of the Pokemon merchandise caught my eye, I did see something else that made me excited… the Splatoon 3 Special Edition OLED Switch. Yes, it’s something I passed up at the beginning of my trip, but here I would be able to purchase it tax-free and save nearly $100 compared to how much it would cost in America. Cloud my judgement with the Splatoon and Splatoon 2 art books thrown in… I stood no chance. But I got a really good deal on some really amazing merchandise that I know I’ll use! So I’m happy.
After lugging all of my Splatoon merchandise home, we had to find a place for dinner. We decided to visit a sushi place that our professor had recommended us. The food itself was really good, but somehow the server or the chefs managed to forget about half of our order, so we were stuck there for over an hour. It was pretty affordable, but unfortunately I’d never go back just because of the bad experience we had.
To end the night, me and a few others decided to have a movie night in Skylar and Liam’s room and watch Bullet Train, a comedy/action movie set in a Shinkansen in Tokyo. The movie was actually really funny, and I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would! Tomorrow we will be going to TeamLab Planets, which I’m REALLY excited for because it’s a really iconic location with a lot of good photo ops. I think we are also visiting Diver City, which will probably have some cool merch spots! I’m sad that my time in Japan is moving so quickly, but I’m having so much fun that I don’t regret any of it.
i’m writing the mandatory travel blog post. i’m doing it. i’m gonna stop staring at my screen and i’m gonna write the mandatory travel blog post. we’ll get through this. it’ll be fine.
i spent most of that morning packing, dropped down to the breakfast room to get a few rolls to sustain me, not much happened until it was train time.
the first crisis of the day was that i very quickly discovered that i had lost yet another train ticket. not the pass, just the ticket this time but that did mean that i didn’t know where i was sitting and that stressed me out for the whole trip. it was a nice view though, as always.
after we arrived at the hotel everyone very quickly realized the… choices that were made with the room’s design and tv content. since i’m the only person in this room i didn’t really notice and was mostly pleased with the place. just wish the desk had a better chair :’)
[mine as i found it.]
events transpired on this day. we went to two stores that everyone was really excited about but to be honest it didn’t appeal to me and in a few cases was pretty uncomfortable. i went to a restaurant and there’s a funny anecdote there that on another day i might have written about but due to my mental state just made me sad. it was a relief to get back to the room.
i like the view from my window. seeing the train platform enlightened as it slices the otherwise typical city. it’s very loud and crowded here which contributed to the day being overwhelming, but seeing it at a distance made it seem a lot more manageable. we’ll see.
[i think it looks like cake here. train cake.]
i went straight to bed after this. gnight y’all :2
Today was the day we said by to Kyoto and bullet trained back to Tokyo. It was really sad leaving Kyoto because we did so much there together, but I was reallly excited for Tokyo. We bussed to the train station in the morning and then rode the bullet train for about 2.5 hrs to Akihabara. After getting there we walked literally 30 seconds to our hotel, which was connected to the train station. This hotel was located in the perfect spot possible. There were so many cool places right next to it. We had a little bit to set our things down and eat before we met up outside the hotel to go to Mandarake, a second-hand anime/games/comics/manga/NSFW store, and Super Potato, a retro games store. Both of these stores were really cool. Mandarake was a bit overwhelming and we didn’t have all that much time in there, but I wish I had gone back later because it was super cool. One of the floors had straight up hentai though which was a bit odd.
Super Potato was also sick and had lots of cool little nick nacks, not to mention the immense amount of old games. I bought lots of candy there. After Super Potato we were pretty much free to do whatever for the day, so I went shopping with some others. I got some really cool HxH figures I had never seen before at this small little figure store next to Super Potato. After that we looked up the best anime stores nearby and decided on a place called Animate. It was like a 5 minute walk and was absolutely loaded with stuff, but not stuff I really wanted. It was really interesting because they didn’t have any figures or shirts really, but a lot of anime school supplies, stickers, and keychains. Unfortunately there was ZERO AoT merch, which I still can’t wrap my head around.
After Animate we went to this really cool store called Volks Hobby Shop, which did have figures. There was some really cool stuff there, even though most of it was outside my price range for a single statue. I did find this really unique figure series for Jujutsu Kaisen, and ended up getting the Sukuna one. They were like old button-eyed doll versions of all the characters, detailed with stitches and everything. I also got a funny Gojo figure sitting in a chair, he looks stupid :). After shopping we dumped our stuff at the hotel, chilled for like an hour, and then went to this sushi place that Toshi-sensei recommended. It was soooo good. I got some grilled fish, octopus, scallops, and fried diced squid. One of my favorite meals of the trip to be honest.
Today was mostly traveling, taking the Shinkansen to Tokyo and then from there taking the local subway to Akihabara.
The Shinkansen ride was about the same as before, but this time I bought an ekiben to take with me on the train! An ekiben is just a bento box that many people buy to eat on the bullet train, and so I wanted to try one at least once on this trip! The one I bought was fried chicken, teriyaki chicken, egg, and rice, and it was pretty good.
Ekiben on the Shinkansen, pretty good for a late morning meal.
Once we’d done all the train hopping we needed to, we arrived at Akihabara! It was such a stark contrast to Kyoto, having multitudes of high rise buildings adorned with electric billboards, anime posters and images, or some combination of both. What was also cool was our hotel was right next to the subway entrance. Very convenient!
We settled into the Remm Akihabara, and then headed out at around 4pm to explore as a group! We went to Mandarake and Super Potato, two of the main spots we wanted to hit here in Akihabara, but on the way to them me and Jas got a little lost! We ended up over-shooting by a few blocks because the streets were so crowded and we lost sight of the group, so we experienced the intensity of the popularity of Akihabara first hand.
The sights in Akihabara were very cool, here’s a sneak peak at the ramen place I mention later!
Inside Mandarake, it was like a used or rare toy shop on the 7th floor, and then the other floors had many other items and things like manga, figure statues, and more.
Super Potato was a cool collection of super old and retro games/merch that you could buy, and a cool retro street fighter type arcade setup on their top floor. It was very cramped and tight though, and the humidity was kind of through the roof, so I found it a little packed-in, but still a cool experience.
The arcade area at Super Potato.They even had a self-playing Pong machine!
Afterwards, we all split up and I joined some of the group for ramen at this nearby apparently famous place. It was pretty good, and honestly I really enjoyed it! I had a regular size, but they went up all the way to Mega and even “Manly” size, whatever that means.
Here’s the regular sized ramen I ordered on the left, and on the right the Mega sized ramen one of our friends accidentally ordered!
After that, I wandered around a bit and explored a few shops/arcades, and then headed back to the hotel. A pretty good first day in Akihabara!
Today we said goodbye to Kyoto and returned to Tokyo to stay in Akihabara for the rest of our trip. Akiba is considered the anime capital of Japan, loaded with merchandise to the brim, so I was excited to visit a lot of stores and look for anything niche and cool that I could snatch up.
The train ride from Kyoto to Tokyo didn’t hold anything interesting, but it was another pretty look at the scenery as it changed from more rural to more urban. Thankfully our hotel was only a couple minutes’ walk from the Akihabara station, so we didn’t have to do much walking and spent most of our transit on trains. We got a short bit of time to chill in our very interesting hotel rooms (Seriously – there’s a window between the bedroom and the shower that’s only blocked by the shower curtain. Kind of weird right??) before we headed out to explore some of the shops around our hotel.
I didn’t find anything of interest to me that didn’t seem super overpriced at most of the stores we visited, but Animate held a treasure trove of goodies for one of my favorite games right now: Project Sekai Colorful Stage. It’s a mobile rhythm game that I’ve been playing a lot over the last year, and it’s impossible to find merchandise of it in America, so it was one of the biggest things I was looking for when I came here. I also found a small store that was selling some really cute keychains of a couple of my favorite characters, so of course I had to pick those up too!
We ate dinner at a fried food restaurant that served fried chicken and shrimp, along with fries. We accidentally ordered WAY too much chicken but it was all very good! We then decided to go to Game Panic, a crane / rhythm arcade center that we ended up accidentally spending three hours in. Skylar won two things from the crane machines, but me and Megan had no luck. The rhythm games were super fun though!
Tomorrow we’ll hopefully be visiting Character Street in Tokyo for some more goodies, but the rest of our day is pretty open. We might do some karaoke or something else, who knows! I’m just happy I don’t have to wake up at 6 am tomorrow.
Before the long train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto, Brody, Vincent, Maddy and I went to the Shinigawa Aqua Park. We saw many amazing aquatic animals I had only seen in movies and video games (mainly Animal Crossing). Afterward, we hopped on the train, where I spent the whole time gawking at the scenery. We ended the day with a 10-course meal at our welcome dinner in Kyoto.
Pictures from the day
To start out the day, I had a matcha cake roll that I got from 7-11 the previous night. It was super yummy and only a little sweet. It was effortless to eat before Maddy and I headed out to meet up with Vincent and Brody for an actual meal
Matcha cake roll
In terms of real food, I ended up getting pork fried rice. The green onion, egg, and pork combination was incredibly satisfying to eat. The addition of the rice make the dish filling, making it perfect to have before the long train ride that awaited.
Pork fried rice
The last meal of the day was the 10-course meal that we had as a part of our welcome dinner to Kyoto. We started out with a few small dishes including squid, pickled vegetables, bok choy, and pork. As the soup was cooking, we were given a small assortment of sushi. The soup was a type of fish soup, but I, regrettably, do not recall what it is called. After that, we had more pork that we dipped into hot oil to cook ourselves. That was followed by a salad that I did not end up eating due to my allergy to raw vegetables. After that, we had shrimp tempura with fried lotus and pepper. That was followed by more sushi, which we got to see prepared by a professional chef. After that was a tofu dish with a gelatin soup base on top. After that was another soup that was followed by ice cream. Everything that I was able to eat was delicious. I wish I was able to eat more of the delicious dinner, but sadly, I am allergic to life.
On the first day, Maddy and I went to Shibuya. We saw the famous crossing and explored the area. We went to the Mandarake in Shibuya and other stores, such as the Pokemon Center, the official Nintendo Store, and the Mugiwara Store known for its One Piece merchandise.
More importantly, for breakfast, I went to 7-11 and got a melon Fanta and a tuna and mayonnaise rice ball. It was a very good start to the day. The melon Fanta was very refreshing and sweet drink, and the rice ball had an umami flavor that paired well with the drink. The rice ball was also incredibly easy to eat and was almost criminally convenient.
For lunch, I ate pork oil noodles with a side of rice. We were able to order our food using a screen, so there weren’t any issues ordering our food. The noodles were savory and filling, so I wasn’t able to finish my side of rice. Still, the pairing fit well together because the rice helped balance out the strong flavor of the noodles.
Pork oil noodles with a side of rice
Second Day: Harajuku
The next day, we headed out to Harajuku. We did a lot of walking around, checking out shops, and looking at the amazing outfits people in the area were wearing.
For breakfast, we stopped by 7-11 again. I picked out a ham and cucumber sandwich, steamed bread with egg, and a yuzu and lemon soda. The cucumbers on the sandwich made eating it feel more refreshing to eat in the warm morning air, and the ham added the necessary flavor. The yuzu and lemon soda was very tangy and unlike any soda I’ve ever had in the U.S. Lastly, the steamed bread with egg was sweet, light, and fluffy; a perfect way to finish off breakfast.
Pork ham and cucumber sandwich steamed bread with egg, and yuzu and lemon soda
After walking around for a couple of hours before the stores opened, Maddy and I wanted to sit down somewhere so we didn’t burn ourselves out. So I got Maddy to go into McDonald’s because an enticing ad depicted a delicious-looking peach drink. The ad worked because that’s what we both got (plus hashbrowns). The hashbrowns were typical McDonald’s hashbrowns: yummy and salty. The peach drink was lightly sweet with a strong peach flavor, and there were peach chunks on the bottom that added a refreshing feel to the sugary drink.
McDonald’s peach drink with a hashbrown
For lunch, I got udon with spicy cod roe and a side of rice. Thankfully, I was able to eat everything this time around. The strong umami flavor of the spicy cod roe was nicely balanced out by the rice. Sadly, although good, it was not spicy as I was expecting it to be. The egg yolks made the dish more savory, and all the toppings added more texture and umami flavor to the dish.
Udon with spicy cod roe and a side of rice
Third Day: Shimokitazawa and Shinjuku
On our third day, we went to From Software headquarters to bask in excellence and pray some of their game design skills to impart to us for just being in their presence. After getting a glimpse of a Sanrio-themed train, we went thrifting at Shimokitazawa. Afterward, we went to Shinjuku on a whim and experienced the lively nightlife there.
More importantly, the first meal of the day, which was in Shimokitazawa, was an omurice dish with demiglazed beef that came with some broth and a small salad. The salad had a tangy dressing that paired well with the lettuce which was a good way to start off the meal. The beef made the omurice incredibly savory, and combining it with the ketchip-covered rice helped to lessen the strong savoriness.
Omurice with demiglazed beef
For dinner in Shinjuku, I had fried rice and pork dumplings. The fried rice had a very subtle flavor, but was filling and delicious. The pork dumplings were very juicy and paired well with a good dipping of soy sauce.
Fried ricePork dumplings
Day 4: Meeting Up with the Class
On our last early day, we traveled over to Shinigawa to meet up with everyone else. After struggling with our heavy suitcases and miscommunication about which hotel we were in, Maddy and I decided to visit The National Art Center (mainly because John Wick 4 took place there).
For breakfast, I had some discounted goodies for 7-11. The first thing I ate was a chocolate-coated donut. It was sweet and crunchy, but it was a little bland. For the price, I would be willing to buy it again. The second batch of goodies I had were honeyberry and cream cheese-filled rice cakes. Although the flavor was wonderful, I did not enjoy the texture of the cream cheese. However, for the price, I cannot complain.
Chocolate coated donut and rice cakes filled with honeyberry and cream cheese
For lunch, I had soba noodles with shrimp tempura. It was amazing. No qualms at all. There were seasonings readily available, so I added some to add a little more flavor. I didn’t believe the dish could get any better, but the seasoning made it reach new heights. I may also be biased though because I was incredibly hungry and tired, and food always tastes better when hungry and tired.
Soba noodles with shrimp tempura
After meeting up with the rest of the crew, we all got dinner together at a food court near the Shinigawa Prince Hotel, which is the hotel we were staying at for the night. I got takoyaki with spicy cod roe. The spicy cod roe was also not spicy this time around, and there was nothing to balance out the strong umami flavor of the cod roe. The takoyaki itself was delicious and I highly recommend it, but everything together was not as good as the spicy cod roe with udon and a side of rice I had a few days ago.
Takoyaki with spicy cod roe
After this, Maddy, Vincent, Brody and I went on a little night adventure around Shinigawa, had a meeting about Magic Makers, and then head to bed. The official trip begins!
Today is the day we travelled from Shinagawa to Kyoto via bullet train. Our original plan was to get on a train at 11am after checking out of the hotel around 10am. However, the trains were all full at 11 so we had to switch to a 2pm train. This game us roughly 3 hours between checking out of the hotel and heading to the train station. So after eating some ramen at the food court within the hotel, me and my group went to the aquarium!
Lunch before Kyoto!
The aquarium was so cool to see! There were all kinds of animals there, not even just fish. It was a tad bit pricier than typical aquariums in the U.S., but the quality of the exhibits and, from what I can tell, the treatment of the animals is far better. There were capybaras, stingray, sharks of all kinds, jellyfish, coral reef fish, otters, frogs, piranhas, and even more. We didn’t get a chance to see the bigger fish, like the dolphins, because the exhibits were later, but I’m ok with that. We did get to see an otter show, which was so cute!
Otter show! The otter was catching a ball thrown at him 🙂
The aquarium was split into many different sections, including a jungle section which included most of the land animals. We also saw another group of students in the aquarium at the same time as us! My favorite animal exhibit was either the seals or the otters because they were sooo cute. After seeing all the exhibits we went through the gift shop to look around, but things were a bit pricey (as to be expected). After leaving the aquarium we went to 7/11 to get ice cream, which was super tasty, then we headed back to the hotel lobby to wait until we went to the train station. The train ride went pretty smoothly with the group and was a nice, comfortable ride (I played Tears of the Kingdom the whole time).
One of the seals doing laps upside down!
After arriving in Kyoto we met up with our friends from KCG and loaded our bags into the bus we would take to the hotel later. Before going to the hotel we had dinner in this really fancy restaurant that must have costed a lot of money, so I am very thankful for the opportunity! The dinner was 10 courses and each were so, so good. The first course was an assortment of seafood and vegetables. I got to eat 7 baby squids because no one liked them :). The second course was an assortment of fish served with wasabi and shiso, which was very scrumptious. Dish three was vegetables boiled in a really yummy broth that was set on a flame on our table! Dish number four was a pork belly and lettuce plate that very special instructions. The server came and lit the fire under neath a bowl of oil, then we put all of our lettuce in the bowl and waited 3-5 minutes. After the time was up we were able to put the pork belly into the oil one slice at a time to cook it, then dip it in the sauce to eat. This was one of my favorite dishes of the night! The fifth course was a salad with avocados, lettuce, and tomatoes. Course six was tempura shrimp and vegetables, which was absolutely amazing. I wasn’t a huge fan of the circular vegetable but everything else was yummy. Course number seven was a tofu gelatin dish that I did not enjoy very much, as much as I hate to say it. Dish 8 was sushi made right in front of us by the head chef of the restaurant! Some students even made the sushi themselves! The sushi was great and the staff were wonderful. Course 9 was an egg broth that was very good. The final course was desert, which was vanilla and soy ice cream! Really liked this one, haha :).
The many courses of the night! (Reverse order, starts with 10)
After dinner we got on the bus from earlier and headed to our hotel! I took a bath, had a meeting, then clonked out! Day 2 done 🙂
