Today was about as busy as I expected it to be, but boy I did not think it would physically affect my body as much as it did.
Today was finally our free day!! Which meant that me, Megan, and Chloe were up early in the morning to head to Kiyomizu-dera and rent kimonos for the morning! The store was certainly not prepared for a very tall American woman to walk in, so the kimono itself was a little tight and the shoes were a bit too small, but it was still fun to walk around and take lots of photos!! My feet were dying after three hours of waddling through thick crowds and cute stores trying to find some good spots to take pictures. But we did get a lot of really good shots!
After we finally peeled our kimonos off, we made the walk to the Kyoto Pokemon Center to see if it would be as busy as it was on Wednesday. To our surprise, there was no line or crowd at all! I was able to buy a couple small things, like another Made in Japan charm with Eevee on it and an adorable sleeping Eevee plush (Can you tell I like Eevee?). I really wanted a coin purse, but they were out of the medium size which was the only one that I wanted so my search for the perfect coin purse continues (and at this rate will likely continue until a day or two before we leave, with my luck).
Our other plan for today before we head back to the hotel to meet with KCG was to visit the Loutre Otter Cafe, which was one of the big wishlist items that we wanted to do, but unfortunately they were too busy. Hopefully we can go back on Friday and play with the otters!
Hanging out with KCG at getting to meet our teammates for the first time was super fun! They ordered lots of pizza and other sides (though there was only 1 pizza without a bunch of toppings that I don’t like that was swiftly devoured) and brought a lot of snacks and candy for us to try. There was also a small group of boys that were repeatedly eating wasabi, for reasons that will always elude me. Everyone from my team was super nice and I am looking forward to working with them for the game jam!
To end the night, a majority of our group hung out in Brody and Vincent’s room and played Jackbox party games and Mariokart 8 Deluxe while “drinking” (aka we bought some random stuff from the stores, sipped a little, and then forgot that we were drinking because we were very into the game). It was really nice to get to hang out with everyone because we’d been trying to do it for a while but had always come back to the hotel too exhausted to do anything. I’m a bit nervous for the game jam tomorrow, but I’m definitely looking forward to getting to sit down for a majority of the day!
I thought that today’s blog post would be super chill all the way through — we’re never that lucky, right? (Or unlucky, in my opinion!)
Today we took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima, the site of the first nuclear bomb dropped on Japan in the final days of WWII. While I was looking forward to a better look into the city’s history, I certainly didn’t think that I would be as affected emotionally as I was by this trip. After brunch, we first stopped at the A-bomb Dome, which is a building that was close to the hypocenter of the nuclear explosion that remained partially intact, miraculously. There was a man standing outside who was sharing information about his mother, who at 105 is currently the oldest survivor of the Hiroshima bomb alive today. He told us the story of how his mother developed bladder cancer twice due to the radiation caused by the blast, but that she made a full recovery and is still alive and healthy today. This was my first bitter taste of the overwhelming impact of this event.
Next, we headed to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, a museum close to the A-bomb Dome that houses many artifacts and personal accounts of how citizens were affected by the Hiroshima bombing. While I wasn’t prepared for this visit to be a particularly joyful one, I also didn’t think that I would find myself in tears twice while walking through the museum. Many pieces of children’s clothing that they were wearing when the blast occurred, as well as personal letters sent from parents to children and vice versa before and after the bombing detailing the devastation caused by the event were extremely difficult for me to read; as much as we are taught about the nuclear bombings in Japan and how much destruction they caused, reading from and listening to the accounts of children orphaned or severely physically damaged by the nuclear explosion makes everything feel a bit more real and all the more horrific.
To cool off after a pretty emotionally stifling experience, we decided to visit a nearby castle that also housed a shrine. We weren’t able to enter the castle itself due to the crowds, but we were able to walk through the gates and visit the shrine. The castle and the surrounding walls and buildings were incredibly beautiful (though not what you might have thought of when i said ‘castle’), and there was a river/moat with some koi fish and turtles in it that were very fun to look at! I personally didn’t pick up any mementos from this shrine, but there were some very cute carp figurines that held a fortune in their mouth that you could open, sort of like a more preservable (more expensive) omikuji!
For dinner, we headed to a local restaurant for some okonomiyaki, which was sort of like a noodle / egg / sauced up pancake that also included cabbage (and onions? i think?) that you could get a bunch of other toppings / fillings with. I only got pork added to mine, but Fabian and Skylar added seafood to theirs and said it was pretty good! Overall I liked it, but I didn’t like how the noodles on the edge were still somewhat raw and crunchy.
The original plan for post-dinner was to head back to the Shinkansen station and shop in that area for an hour and a half until we could jump on a train. I, of course, wasn’t happy with knowing that we had the opportunity to visit another Pokemon Center (yes, there is one in Hiroshima) and didn’t take it, so me and 7 others (Vincent, Brody, Esther, Chloe, Megan, Skylar, and Liam) decided to take taxis to the SOGO shopping center and press our luck. I had learned earlier that day that a TCG promotion had begun yesterday, which was why we were unable to get into the Pokemon Center in Kyoto yesterday, so I was worried that we would meet the same fate here. Thankfully, we made it to the Pokemon Center with plenty of time to spare and NO LINE!! So worth it!
The only problem with making this detour was that now we had to make it back to the train station with almost no time to spare. We wanted to take another taxi, but we realized that it would likely take too long, and finding the subway was a complete nightmare in the basement of Hiroshima. That left us with one option: to walk (or, more accurately, aggressively speed walk) for 30 minutes to make it to the station and avoid missing our train. And we did! And my legs were on fire. We technically made it there 2 minutes late, but that’s only because we made a wrong turn when trying to get into the station itself, which I think is pretty passable given that we were originally going to be 5 minutes late by Google Maps’ calculations.
Personally, it was 100% worth it. There ended up being a ticket issue last minute anyways, so we could have spared a couple of extra minutes, but I’m very proud of myself for taking the risk and making the trip a little bit more interesting (and expensive). The train rides back home were pretty uneventful, and I’m ready to just crash into my bed and wake up early tomorrow morning for another super busy day!
Another early morning today, heading towards a temple for some mediation! As a nice change of pace from the packed schedule of the previous day, we began the day with 2 Zazen mediation sessions. A monk taught us the practice of Zazen mediation, which involves sitting upright cross legged and in a focused stance. By counting to 10 repeatedly, we are able to meditate and clear our minds of troubling thoughts. During the first session, my legs fell painfully asleep so I was a bit distracted. However, for the second session I adjusted my seating position and found a way to sit comfortably and actually mediate. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and a very relaxing way to start the day.
After meditation, we headed back the the Kiyomizu temple area for a tea ceremony. While the other group participated in the ceremony, we explored the area a bit further and got a stunning view of a pagoda-style buddhist temple.
Then, it was our turn for tea! During the ceremony we learned how to make traditional matcha tea and the steps of conducting the ceremony, and we even got to taste the tea and a Japanese sweet. Another relaxing and enlightening activity!
Finally, we ended the day with some delicious food at Nishiki market before resting and then going bowling with some people from KCG. While I definitely wasn’t the best at bowling, I also wasn’t the worst and by the last game I had improved a lot!
So after our temple day, we had another early morning wake up. I got up at 7 and headed down for breakfast at 730am. I’m started to get used to the time zone which is cool but I kinda liked waking up that early. It was nice to have so much time to relax and see empty places. Also it’s gonna make readjusting to New Jersey so much harder.
Now that I’m done with my tangent, our first activity of the day was a Zazen mediation with a monk. Zazen is a mediation style that has the participant cross their legs, breathe through their nose, have a straight posture, and eyes half closed. We walked into the temple to be greeted by the head monk who would direct us. We took off our shoes and walked into the temple. He told us some history of the temple and zazen, gave is a demonstration, and we started. Two 15 minutes sessions were planned for us.
The first 15 minutes went fine for me, however I lost feeling in my left leg since we were sitting with each foot on our thighs. Also the monk was walking around with this wooden stick ( that I’m currently forgetting the name of) and if you wanted you could bow down and he would hit your shoulders with the stick to refocus you.
The second session was better since I did a regular criss cross Apple sauce pose for my legs but my shoulder did really hurt near the end so I volunteered to get whacked. It actually felt really good on my shoulders. After our meditation we all got some goodies from the temple and left.
Here’s Ritchie meditating. ( Photo creds to Todd)
After mediation we headed back towards the Kiyomizu temple area ( from the day before) and had a tea ceremony! We had to split up into 2 groups since we’re a large group so half did tea first other did some walking and then we switched. I was in the walking group first and we got to see some more temples and cool old architecture. We also saw a Pokémon sewer cover! It was a 40 minute walk. I didn’t expect to be outside that much so I ended up with a little red on my face but it’s ok.
After our walk we had the tea ceremony. It was a fantastic experience where the host showed us the proper way to prepare matcha tea and how to act in the tea room. She was so pretty in her kimono and spoke very good English. After her presentation we got the opportunity to have some tea sweets and make our own matcha tea. I haven’t had matcha tea before but it was really good!
After the tea ceremony we headed to Nishiki market around 12:30. It’s a very famous market with a lot of food vendors. I got some snoopy themed taiyaki and some steak on a stick. This is where we were let free to explore until about 6pm.
In my free time, Kat and I decided to go to the nearby Pokemon Center. It was about 5 minutes away by walking but we had to wait 50 minutes to get into the store. Once we got in I grabbed some cool items and some plushies and waited 45 minutes to check out. It was a cool center because it was Kyoto themed with a traditionally dressed Pikachu and the legendaries from Pokémon Silver and Gold which was based in Kyoto.
After our Pokémon adventure, Kat and I met up with Belle and Chloe to head over to our next required activity, bowling at round One. Round One is a super large entertainment complex filled with arcades, claw machines, gambling, bowling, etc. We bowled 3 games with some of the Japanese students. I was in a group with Belle, Chloe, and one of the KCG students who was from Sri Lanka! Her name was Maruni. I bowled pretty bad the first 2 games. I was starving and hangry. Once I got some fries I was doing really well. We finished bowling, said goodbye to the KCG students, and went downstairs to game.
There was some really cool rhythm game machines that I played on for way too long. They had the classic DDR but they also had games I’ve never seen in the states. It was so cool and I even found a game that reminded me of a game I play on my own computer, Osu! I was pretty good at that one. We played for about an hour and a half then headed home around 10:30pm. We walked back to the subway and went back to the hotel. I went to bed around 12:30 and passed out.
What a cool day of traditional and modern things! I had a blast and am now very very tired and a little sunburned but it’s ok. See ya next time blog!
Our first full day in Tokyo, Esther and I explored Shibuya since that’s where our hotel was. We crossed the Shibuya Scramble, saw Hachiko, and wandered the streets. My wallet hurt a bit after going to the Once Piece store, Nintendo Tokyo, Shibuya Parco, and many other stores.
5/19 – Harajuku
The day after, we went to Harajuku! This was my personal favorite place I have visited so far, and has been a lifelong bucket list item of mine. The most fascinating thing about Harajuku (and all of Tokyo so far) was the street fashion. It does not even compare to clothing in America, with almost everyone you see being well dressed, classy, and with an amazing fashion sense. I could people watch and admire outfits here for hours. We did some shopping and visited the iconic Takeshita street. It was a gorgeous district and I would love to visit again.
5/20 – Shimokitazawa
Then, we visited Shimokitazawa! Before heading there, we made a quick stop at FromSoftware’s head office in Tokyo. As a huge soulsborne fan it was so cool to see where some of my favorite games were conceived, even if the studio itself was closed to the public. Next, we took a quick train ride to Shimokitazawa, the vintage shopping district. The fashion here was also insane, and I purchased a really cool semi-designer piece for a good price! That night, we also visited Shinjuku and got to experience the nightlife scene in Tokyo.
Overall, these early days were filled with exploration and wandering, and I had a great time doing my own thing and experience the city for myself.
On the last day of our Hostel stay, Belle and I had a biiigggg day planned. That plan being the Pokémon Cafe!!
Belle and I moved out of our hostel and dropped our luggage at the luggage holding area. From there we headed for the train station in Asakusa. We once again ran into the festival from my last post but we tried to avoid the traffic as much as possible. We went to like really small shop on Orange St that had all these old DS games for like ¥300! It was so cool. However the weather was hot, so we headed for the station to go to Nihombashi. We boarded the train without issue and got off at our stop. We arrived a bit early so we walked around Nihombashi.
Nihombashi seems to be a very business centered town so we really just saw buildings. Once 10am came around, we went to the the Pokémon Center! I spent a lot of money but it was so worth it. I got some goodies like pins, a nice shoulder bag, and a sticker! We also met up with Fabian and Pavel!
After waiting for a while in the line to check out, we went to the Pokémon Cafe! And let me tell you it was quite the experience. We ordered order food from the iPad and got it pretty fast. I ordered a soufflé pancake and a chocolate milk au lait for my first order and hot chocolate and the chocolate parfait for dessert.
We also got a dance from Pikachu!!! At the end we got some merch and headed back for Asakusa to pick up our luggage. After getting our luggage back in Sumida, we met up with Jess, Fabian, and Pavel to travel to Shinagawa for our first class meetup! Everything went pretty smoothly other than the train being busy. We arrived in Shinagawa and checked into our rooms.
After putting my stuff away it was already time to meet for class. Jas and I headed downstairs to meet everyone. As a class, we headed to the station to exchange our JR rail passes. It took a while and everyone was starving so at around 7pm we went to dinner at the hotel’s food court.
I have a side tangent though. This hotel was so extra. There were 11 IMAX theaters, 2 FLOORS of bowling, an aquarium, 7/11, multiple restaurants, many parlors, and golf simulations. It was insane. Side tangent over.
For dinner I got just a slab of pork and that was good for me. After dinner I went to 7/11 and got some ice cream and dango once more. I also saw that they had avocado Doritos and melon KitKats. I didn’t know those existed but they sure did!
After 7/11 , I went back up to my room, took a shower, and went the bed.
Next morning I got up at around 5am and decided to do laundry. The laundry was fine but the dryer was not the best. I had to use a hairdryer today my jean shorts.
After 11am checkout, Belle, Cam, Jess, Skylar, Liam, Chloe, and I went to the aquarium! It was really cool and they had capybaras! I love capybaras! They also had really cute otters that out on a little show for us. We were there for a little while then headed back to the hotel for class to meet.
We went to the rail station and went on the Sinkansen line. We waited then got on the train to Kyoto. Goodbye Tokyo! see you in a week!
The train ride was fine, it was cool to see other little towns outside of Tokyo. The ride was long but we had Zelda! After getting off the train we were greeted by KCG staff directing us to our bus for our luggage. We all packed our luggage into the bus and headed to dinner!
Dinner was at this fancy traditional Japanese restaurant where we had a 10 COURSE MEAL. It was so cool and such an experience. Pictures will be added below. I’m a very picky eater but I tried as much as I can to have a bite of everything. My favorite dish It was an amazing experience but I was so exhausted after the long day of travel and Aquarium and now so much food in my tummy so we headed to our new home for a week.
The new hotel is nice. The room is like a studio but with 2 beds. Jas and I watched some tv then went to sleep.
Okay! See you tomorrow blog!
Here are photos of Pokémon Cafe, Aquarium, Our hotel is Shinagawa, breakfast before the Shinkansen, our ride to Kyoto, the big dinner, and our new hotel.
For the first time, I was able to sleep in until 8! Previously, I had been waking up at 5 or earlier. We made our way to a bakery where I ate french toast and other bake goods. I also had a delicious smoothie and tried yuzu juice.
After, we checked out of our hotel and split up into groups. I was a part of a large group that went to the aquarium that was attached to the mall connected to our hotel. We were immediately welcomed by a swing boat type ride which we of course had to try.
While many of the earlier exhibits were more sparse and appeared to create a flashy vibe opposed to showcasing the animals, there were some interesting animals there.
This fish looks like he is eating sand.
Some of the later exhibits featured larger animals.
However, the most impressive exhibit by far was the penguin one (no biases here). I’ve never seen a penguin exhibit featuring different species of penguins in one exhibit space. They had King, Gentoo, African, and the rare Northern Rockhopper penguin native to only a few remote islands in the middle of the Atlantic. Truly a treat to see!
There was also an otter show where the otter did various tricks such as sorting garbage, speaking, and eating a shrimp larger than its head. However, we had to leave before seeing the penguin show in order to get to Kyoto…
I had to buy a bag from my favorite anime of all time, Pingu. A true masterpiece.
After riding the Shinkansen and playing more Hearthstone, we were greeted by KCG staff in Kyoto. They kindly guided us to a restaurant where we were treated to a traditional 10 course meal (+desert). This was a very new experience for many and not all of the food was everyone’s favorites, however, this was an amazing experience to experience the foods of a different culture. Personally, this compared to the Chinese banquet dinners that my extended family puts together for Chinese New Years so I was willing to try most foods. Familiar foods of Tempura, Sashimi and Sushi were also served following ice cream for desert. We also had the opportunity of making sushi under the direction of the head chef where I went first and had a great amount of difficulty putting on my glove (and ripped it). All things considered, I think I did a decent job.
We made our way to our hotel afterwards and am about to retire for the night as of the writing of this. Stay tuned, the Kyoto action has only just begun!
Today was by far my most anticipated day of the entire trip, and I can confidently say that it was 100% worth the hype.
After taking a quick pit stop in Asakusa to visit a retro game store we had managed to miss yesterday, me and Megan headed to Nihombashi to meet up with Fabian and Pavel for our Pokemon Cafe reservation. After spending an embarrassing amount of time (and money) at the Pokemon Center Tokyo DX, which was connected to the Cafe, we were able to check in for our reservation at 12:30 and get seated.
Honestly, the food in my opinion was REALLY good. I got the Pikachu themed meal, which featured an omurice shaped like Pikachu’s head, with an egg tail, a pokeball topped mac and cheese, and a hamburger patty on the side. There was also a salad (which I didn’t try) and a fried shrimp (which I did try and really like), but I think my most favorite part was the mac n cheese. The shells were shaped like Pikachu although it was hard to tell under all of the cheese, but it was super cute!!
Pavel ordered the Eevee themed dish, which I believe was a bread bun with clam chowder and something else with shrimp in it. Megan opted for the Pikachu soufflé pancake, which I ordered later in the meal and fell in love with. Fabian decided to order one of the special sets, which was a Pikachu themed ramen bowl that came with this cute Pancham steamed bun. We also all got our own themed drinks, which included a latte with a picture of Rayquaza drawn on it, Sprigatito and Fuecoco soda floats (melon and apple themed respectively), hot chocolate, and this cute drink set where you mix your own chocolate milk. But the best part about the entire experience was hands down the show.
Right after making their last call for orders, a large Pikachu comes out from behind the kitchen and puts on a show for all of the diners. Typically he’s wearing Pokemon Cafe attire, but because of the special event he was wearing a Chinese-themed outfit that was still super cute. Remember how I said that the seats we had been given were important? We ended up being right next to a majority of the show, which meant that the experience was AWESOME and felt super personal for me.
After a lot of speaking in Japanese that I didn’t understand, a lot of cute running and dancing around the cafe, and a performance of ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’ (a true classic), he scurried back to the staff room so we could finish eating and make our way to the ever-looming merchandise wall.
I am not ashamed to say that this was, and likely will always be, the most expensive day of my trip in terms of merchandise. While it wasn’t outrageous, I did purchase quite a handful of small goodies and trinkets that I certainly don’t need, but definitely wanted. The picture shown is not just of the Pokemon Cafe merchandise (the Pikachu ditto plate, the small chef pikachu keychain, and the gengar silverware), but also of some things I got from the Pokemon Center next door (gachapon figurines, a very fluffy pastel Rowlet, and a hefty hoard of charms and stickers). Some other small wins from today were a Korok keychain that I won from an LoZ ichiban kuji (a lottery with a set number of prizes) and a Mega Lucario keychain that I found on the ground very far from any Pokemon Center or other merchandise store. There’s also some small things that are not pictured because I had forgotten to include them, which are a canvas tote bag and a pair of wooden chopsticks themed after grass types in Paldea.
In a daze from the heaven that I had experienced for the first half of the day, Megan and I worked our way back to our hostel to pick up our lugggage and then turn around and jump on another train to head to the first planned event of our trip by the school at the Grand Price Hotel Shinagawa. By this point, my brain was in a fog and my feet were killing me, so after heading to exchange our JR rail passes and grabbing dinner as a group I was ready to crash. My inner child has been fully satisfied by this experience, and I am so grateful that I was able to live it with my friends and fulfill it to its fullest potential.
Tomorrow we will head to Kyoto to meet up with the KCG students that we’ll be doing the game jam with. I’m very nervous, but also pretty excited to see how different the vibe is in Kyoto compared to Tokyo. I think we are also going to the aquarium attached to our hotel tomorrow (if my feet can handle it). I am quite literally fighting the urge to nod off as I write this, but as always, I’ll end with some extra photos.
Ever stumbled into one of the largest festivals in the city you’re visiting by pure chance? It’s pretty incredible.
We started Day 3 with another visit to the Tokyo Skytree, both to visit a small coffee shop that we wanted to eat breakfast at and to clean up any loose ends we might have missed in the massive mall. After we had our fill of expensive boutiques and character stores, we decided to explore the other side of Japan: the traditional shrines.
Visiting the shrine was actually an afterthought to the ramen shop that we wanted to visit for dinner, a place that looked like a small local store that turned out to be full of tourists like us. But the food was good! As someone who’s never had real ramen before (and ordered a dipping ramen instead of the more traditional pre-mixed bowl out of a need for control) it was definitely an intimidating experience, but it really was delicious. As we were eating, we heard a group of men chanting outside as they slowly passed the shop… but we didn’t think anything of it.
To end the night, we decided to visit the Senso-Ji temple, a Buddhist temple that was sprawling and breathtaking. It wasn’t super busy because it was so late at night, but there was a drum performance happening which we stopped to watch amongst all of our picture taking. We did notice that there was a banner displaying the dates from May 19th to May 21st, and were surprised by the idea that we had managed to visit the shrine during a festival! We decided to go back tomorrow to see the shrine during the day, and look at what festivities they might have during this celebration.
We could never have been prepared for the gravity of what we had so luckily stumbled into, which turned out to be Asakusa Sanja Matsuri: one of the biggest and greatest festivals that Tokyo had to offer.
To say that there were a lot of people there was an understatement. Towards the beginning of the day (up until 11:30, maybe noon?) we were able to get up close to a lot of the main attraction, which was a parade of shrines being carried throughout various parts of the temple grounds with lots of chanting, deaf-inducing whistle blowing, and good atmosphere. But once we had left the main area and began to wander through the side streets, which were packed with stores and restaurants, the crowd became an ocean. The festival is said to attract over 1.8 million visitors in its 3 day runtime, and I truly believe it now that I’ve been in the middle of it.
Getting to see something so integral to the culture and religion of Japan was truly fascinating, and we are incredibly lucky to have accidentally walked into it on a whim. It was also fun to walk through an area that we had previously seen closed up and ghostly the night before, now alive with people and chock full of goodies to buy (which I obviously partook in). But eventually my social battery had reached its limit of being shoulder to shoulder with strangers, and we hurried back to our respective hotels to recharge as we had on days prior.
For dinner, we decided to head to an American-themed diner for a look at Japan’s perspective of our culture (and also, admittedly, for a bit of familiarity amongst a lot of exhaustion for new foreign food on my part). It felt like being tossed 30 years into the past, and the atmosphere was cozy and fun despite not being something I think I’d ever find in the U.S. today. I had a cheeseburger and fries which was a very enjoyable meal, and we exchanged a conversation with one of the waiters who was curious about why we were in Japan (and probably why we were choosing to eat American food in Japan when we certainly have enough of it back home).
We ended the night by walking along the Sumida River and taking a peek at a couple of smaller shrines, though we could only access one of them as the others were gated off due to the time. It’s nice to experience such a saturated area of culture and then contrast it with the ability to quietly experience the edges of it solo, without the fear of being judged for being unfamiliar with the details.
Tomorrow begins my daily blog posts, which I am praying I will be able to keep up with. I am visiting the Pokemon Cafe tomorrow, which is my most anticipated event, so I’m sure there will be lots of pictures! I’ll end with some more miscellaneous pictures from the festival (I could create a photo album of pictures just from today, seriously.)
Day 1: We were gonna go to Ueno but Belle and I ended up waking up at 4am.. the time difference really hit. We were up for a while seeing if there was anything to do but nothing was open until like 930-10am. We met up with Jessica and walked around a bit. We ended up going to a Starbucks connected to the Sky Tree and getting some coffee.
Photo creds to Jessica
After an hour, the SkyTree opened up! We ventured in and spent our WHOLE DAY there. There were so many stores and shops, as well as desserts and foods. Literally any thing you wanted to buy or eat was there.
For example there was the Kirby Cafe, Pokemon Center, Snoopy Store, Marvel Store, Hello Kitty Store, Kirby Cafe store, book stores, clothing stores from Uniqlo to lolita to Diesel, food that ranged from ramen to a cheesecake drink. It was a fun but overwhelming experience. It was like a dream but also a nightmare as I stumbled through my coin purse trying to count.
Me being wayyy too excited about Kirby
After shopping around for hours we were exhausted but we still wanted to see the view from the sky tree itself. We planned our adventure to the sky for 630pm so that we all had time to go home and take a little nap.
After we had awoken, it was time to go up! It was really cool and the elevators up to the viewing deck had different themes of the seasons. The views were really cool but sadly it was cloudy. We did see the transition from day to night time though! After this excursion, we all went home and passed out again. Also fun fact, we ended up going around the Sky Tree’s 11 anniversary! Also the top deck was Disney themed.
Ritchie really enjoying the Sky Tree and it’s views!
That was all day 1! Already so much but we continue.
day 2: We wake up once again at 4am, it’s rough but we play Zelda and try to sleep. This day we actually had a plan for breakfast! We all ( being Belle, Cam, Jessica, Liam, and myself) planned to go to Hoshino Coffee in the sky tree. We met up ( after some difficulties) and went for breakfast. We really wanted the big soufflé pancakes but those were only on holidays so we mostly just got some French toast. It was ok, I felt bad for the staff because there definitely weren’t enough seats for us.
After breakfast, we walked around the Sky Tree again! This time finding more stores and showing Cam and Liam the crazy food market and dessert options. I ended up buying some dango! It was really good and seems ritchie liked it too. It had the consistency of mochi but was sweet in flavor almost like brown sugar.
As one could guess, we did some more shopping. This time I got some baby books to practice Japanese! It was Pokémon themed how could I not?! It was funny because we also found Minecraft books and diary of a wimpy kid in Japanese. It was cool to see! After that we got some food and headed back home for our siestas for the day.
After a nap, Belle, Jess, and I went to Asakusa for ramen! It was a cute shop with mostly foreigners but it was yummy! We looked around the area and stumbled upon the Senso-ji Shrine. It was night time so the lights were all on and it was pretty empty but it was super pretty.
We saw some signs that a festival was happening and decided to check it out the next day. It was an accident that we stumbled on to one of Tokyo’s largest festivals that happens every year on this weekend.
Before we get there however, I NEED to talk about the Asakusa Don Quixote. It was CRAZY. Literally anything you could need or want was in the 4 story building. From bicycles, to chargers, to clothes, to beauty products, to food, to alcohol it was all there. It was also very cramped but cool to go through.
The lit up Don Quixote store
After Don Quixote we dispersed and went to bed.
Day 3: If you think it’s crazy now, just wait. Belle and I woke up at a normal time today!!! Seems our bodies are finally adjusting. After being in bed for a bit we headed out back to Asakusa for the festival. At this point we thought it was gonna be a little crowded but manageable but oh boy we’re we wrong. It was around 10am when we arrived at the temple and it was already packed. We also saw a lot of girls in Kimonos and a lot of traditional clothing. We met up with Skylar and explored the area.
Walking into the temple at around 10amRitchie having a fun time seeing and participating in the festival!
Apparently we ran into the one of the biggest festivals in Tokyo ( as I said before) but I was not expecting what I saw. There were tons of people and apparently the event draws around 1.8 millions viewers. There were little shops everywhere with food and fortunes to get. We all got our fortunes and all got normal fortunes. At least it’s not a bad one!
After that we saw and heard drums and chanting. The festival is about 3 temples and their shrines. Therefore, there were mini shrines that went around with chanting and clapping to celebrate. Accompanied with that were these carts with taiko drums from different families.
One for the many many shrines moving about the dayA taiko cart!
The crowds would shuffle around to see all the different mini shrines and drums. It was amazing and I felt so lucky to have seen it. Jessica ended up join with us at about noon for the rest of the day.
After getting a bit tired from the crowds we walked around the festival area to see all the stores. There were a lot of different stores with food, souvenirs, kimono rentals, and more. As a snack I got this 500 yen pancake with mozzarella cheese in it. It was very yummy.
We walked around a lot, bought some gifts, and once again needed a little break from the action. It had been a long day at that point of walking around and seeing so many cool things. We all went to our hotels and rested for a little while.
After a little break, Belle, Jess, and I went to this cute little American themed diner. The staff seemed so happy to see foreigners and even tried to speak English to us! It was funny to see how American culture is perceived and our food. I got Mac n cheese and it was ok. Definitely not my good ol’ box of Kraft! After dinner we did some walking to local shrines in our area and a walk down by the Sumida river. It was a nice temperature outside for a walk. We saw one temple that still have ladles and water out so we practiced cleaning our hands properly. We walked around, planned for tomorrow ( Pokemon Cafe!) and went to bed.
Wow. That was only 3 days and so much has happened. I would love to go into every detail but then this would be more like a dissertation than a blog. I’ll leave you with some more photos I took as we went around. See ya next time!
