Tag: Shopping

Day 11

We started out the day at a mall with a life-size Gundam statue out front. While I have never seen Gundam, I loved seeing the larger-than-life figure in person. It even moved a little, lit up, and played voice lines. There’s apparently another one that moves it’s arms or legs but it was closed for renovation for at least several weeks.

We also got to go to TeamPlanets – which reminded me of Otherworld in Ohio – a huge warehouse filled to the brim with different light, sounds, and tactile experiences. First walking in, we walked up a ramp that was running water continuously. Then we walked through a giant room covered in pillows and bean bags. Which was surprisingly hard to not fall over in, but it was so much fun.

My two favorite rooms came next: the mirror and light room, and the koi pond. There were thousands of lights dangling from the ceiling and mirrors on the floor and ceiling. The room had quite a few cycles that showcased different light patterns creating a number of kaleidoscopic sights. The koi pond was a large room filled with opaque water topped with koi made of lights. Being a big fan of water, I found the dark room very relaxing.

The Climb

I’ll be combining Monday and Tuesday into a single blog since they were both relatively uneventful (in comparison to most of the other days on this trip).

We started Monday with a trip to Ginza, as there’s a 12-floor UNIQLO store there that we both wanted to visit. The rest of the area was super expensive (think Dior, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, etc.) so we didn’t stick around for long, but the UNIQLO store was definitely worth visiting! I got some cheap shirts (including some Splatoon 3 collaboration shirts) and a nice pair of pants that I had bought previously in a different color. The whole place felt like it was trying to be an art exhibition while also being a store, which seemed like a product of the district it was in but it was kind of neat!

We were pretty beat after travelling to Ginza as it was a pretty far trip and the pure exhaustion from just how much we had been doing for the last three weeks was finally starting to catch up to us, so we revisited the pasta place I praised before for a mix of lunch and dinner and settled in for a night of self care. I dismissed my fear of the customs officers and broke out my switch dock so that Jessica and I could take turns playing Tears of the Kingdom on the TV in our hotel room. While I’m sure we could have dragged ourselves back out for another adventure, we were both pretty beat and I don’t regret taking a night to relax and prepare ourselves for what would come tomorrow.

We woke up a bit late on Tuesday morning and headed to Tokyo Tower for the dreaded 600-step climb to the top. I was much less excited than Jessica for the trek, but it ended up being a bit easier than I expected it to be! They had signs on the way up to question you about some fun facts about the tower, which was probably the only thing that kept me going as I got a second to breathe while Jessica translated the signs. At the top of the tower was a pretty cool view and a small shrine you could pray to, and on our way back down we stopped at some Hello Kitty themed gachapon machines and I got a picture of the statue inside the tower. Pretty cool!

We decided to stop in Ueno as we were coming back from the tower, since it was already on the way and we didn’t trust ourselves to have the energy to leave the hotel again once we were back and showered. We stopped in at a merchandise store outside of the station and picked up some miscellaneous goodies, and then went to visit Book-Off (a pretty well known secondhand store) with no luck.

After that, we took a walk through the park to find a cluster of public activities that featured two more Pokemon sewer grates (YES, I did go out of my way to find more. Don’t judge me.) and I’m REALLY surprised that we didn’t visit this area during the main portion of our trip. There were two museums and a zoo, all nestled into this absolutely gorgeous park that would have been lovely to explore compared to the other somewhat depressing museum we had visited instead. But seeing Diver City instead was worth it!

As we were heading back to Asakusa, the hunger began to kick in, and we ducked into a place that had dumplings for lunch. We ordered 12 dumplings and a large helping of rice, which also came with two fried chicken nuggets and some soup, and it cost us 820 yen in total, which was barely $3 each! I will always mourn the loss of super cheap but still good food now that I am back in America.

We finally got back to our hotel and were able to clean ourselves up and sit down and organize all of our stuff to prepare for the trip home tomorrow. It was quite the daunting task, but a necessary evil that I’m very grateful I left time for. Knowing that this was our last night in Japan made me sad, but deep in my heart I was ready to go home.

Food in Day 9: Second Free Day

For our second free day, Maddy and I went to Character Street in Tokyo Station to buy some (mainly from Ghibli) character-themed goodies. After that, we went back to Akihabara, looked through Radio Kaiken, went back to Mandarake to take our time looking through their merchandise, and various other stores in the area. After spending a lot of money and taking even more steps, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

Who makes a better breakfast than McDonald’s in Japan? My answer is no one, especially if you consider how cheap it is. I ended up getting a chicken McMuffin, a hashbrown, and some hot coffee. I personally did not appreciate how bitter the hot coffee was, but I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of my meal. The chicken McMuffin was savory and filling, and although I do not normally like mustard, the mustard in this sandwich was not too overwhelming so it didn’t bother me.

Maddy and I found this interesting steak place in Akihabara that was on the second floor of a building of restaurants. I ordered a rice dish with steak, cheese, garlic chips, and a fried egg. The sauce on the steak was so good, and the met itself was delicious. The yolk of the egg was runny which is exactly how I like my eggs, and the garlic chips paired well with all of the flavors present in this dish. They also gave me a side of broth which helped to mellow out the powerful flavors of my lunch.

Before dinner, we stopped to get boba. I got matcha with brown sugar and pearls. It was so good. That’s all I have to say. You know it’s good when I don’t have any words to describe it.

For dinner, Maddy, Vincent, Brody and I went to go get hot pot. We got a good variety of meats and vegetables. All I can say is that it was good, but definitely on the pricier side in comparison to the other meals I had eaten on this trip. The broth was also less flavorful than I had expected, but that’s on us for getting the normal broth instead of the spicy.

That was a good way to end our last free day.

CyberConnect 2 !

To start off the rainy morning, the group headed to Unreal Fest! Unreal Fest was held in a venue in Akihabara not far from the hotel, so despite the typhoon weather, the walk wasn’t bad at all. Once inside, we were able to wander the game showcase area to playtest tons of cool projects. One of my favorites was a cinematic, journey-inspired sea life game where you played as various sea creatures. Starting off as a small fish, you soon transitioned to a dolphin, a large school of fish, and more as you swam through beautiful oceans with an amazing orchestral soundtrack. Another favorite of mine that I saw was a small puzzle game called On The Rocks. I believe this was the result of a game jam, and it involved using pinball-like mechanics to transport a marble into a glass at the bottom of the level. What made it so interesting, however, was the various movement mechanics that were derived from simple just tilting paddles. It was also a very fun experience that I definitely think had potential to be developed further.

After Unreal Fest we had some free time, so Esther, Vincent, Brody, and I got some udon for lunch nearby and then went for some final shopping in Akihabara. I went back to a store I had visited a few days prior to get a gift for a friend and found something called a “Zeldabox” from the 2003 Wind Waker release and it was such a good find.

Inside is 2 small figures, a Wind Waker guidebook, a poster, and a cd with select songs from the franchise :0

I was also so excited to find a 1999 copy of Majora’s Mask for the N64 for relatively cheap.

Finally, we concluded our final day in Tokyo with a visit to Cyber Connect 2’s Tokyo studio. Cyber Connect 2 is responsible for the development of popular anime games such as the Naruto, Demon Slayer, and Jojo games. We got a tour of the studio where we could see the workspace layout and artists and designers at work. Cyber Connect is known for its gorgeous animation work and translating the art styles of manga and anime into games.

Broke x2

Today we visited the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo! While we weren’t able to get actual tickets inside the palace, we spent the morning exploring the beautiful imperial gardens. The most memorial portion of the gardens was the koi pond. It was serenely calm, had a small waterfall and various flowers and plants scattered on its banks. Hence the name, there was also koi fish in the pond! I’m continuously awed by their vibrant colors and spent a while just sitting on the bridge watching them. I also made a pill bug friend!

After exploring the gardens for a while, we then headed over to Harajuku to grab lunch. We found a food court that had a really cool decora-themed interior. I got a korean corn-dog and fried seaweed 🙂 I will also never stop talking about the street fashion in Harajuku and I could easily spend all day people watching to observe the fits.

The group then headed to the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya, known for its large Torii gates. We spent some time at the shrine observing the gorgeous scenery and paying respects to the local deities.

After the shrine,Vincent, Brody, Esther, and I decided to hang around the Shibuya area since we were already here. Esther and I were told about Shibuya 109 (a shopping complex specifically for women’s clothing), and we’re immediately eager to check it out. In Shibuya 109 I found my dream store :0. The store was a blend of goth, punk, and skater styles and definitely embodied my dream style. Sadly, everything was so insanely expensive else I could have easily bought out the entire store. I followed them on Instagram though and I will be back someday with more money. Shibuya 109 was still a successful venture and I ended the day with a few new articles of clothing I was super excited about.

Attack on Gundam

Giant gundam statue in Daiba City

Today was another big day for us. I started the day by getting breakfast with the gang and then shopping at this used figures store called Radio Kaiken, which was insane. They had so much cool stuff there and I really wish I had millions of dollars to buy all the figures :(. I got some stuff for me and some gifts for friends before we needed to go back to the hotel and head for Daiba City. We took a train over to Daiba to see a giant Gundam statue and do some shopping at the Daiba mall. The Gundam was so cool and we stayed for when it “transformed” into a different gundam (its head thing moved). I got some japanese manga books in a store in the mall of volumes I’ve already read, which were cool collectibles.

Big Earth

After the Gundam figure we went to Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. It was really cool and had lots of interesting exhibits, and robots. There was this giant earth ball that you could walk around on a spiral staircase which was sick. They also had a this game thing that let you create an earth to try and get to survive 50 years by giving it a path to take and hoping it wouldn’t be destroyed by bad events. I got my earth through all the bad stuff :). There were some cool AI exhibits that learned from the people that interacted with them, but they were so scary to look at. Uncanny valley was doing its work for those robots.

Then we went to teamLABs, which was another highligh of the trip. This place was so cool I was surprised. They had LED light shows in giant mirror rooms, water exhibits with interactive fish holograms, procedural flower projector domes, floating flower gardens, and a room full of giant balls. Each exhibit was unique and interesting, which made for some really cool photos.

teamLABS exhibits

Broke ?

Today, Esther and I spent our free day in Akihabara shopping! As a huge anime and game nerd, I was clearly very excited to get my hands on as much merch as I could from my favorite franchises.

We woke up relatively early to go to Tokyo Station and hit up Tokyo Character Street! Character street is filled with shops for Japanese franchises and characters like Sanrio and Hello Kitty, Studio Ghibli, Sumikko Gurashi, and more. My personal favorite was the Ghibli store, and my wallet hurt a bit after getting lots of gifts for friends there.

After spending some time at Character Street, we took the subway back to Akihabara where we spent the day going in the larger stores such as Mandarake, Animate, and Super Potato, as well as going to any and all smaller hole in the wall shops we could find. My personal favorite was a building we stumbled across called Radio Kaiken that turned out to be floors and floors of some of the coolest figure collections I’ve seen.

Some highlights from the shopping include:

  • Berserk figure
  • Majoras Mask Soundtrack
  • Original Ocarina of Time guidebook for the n64
  • Elden Ring Art Book
  • Pokémon White
  • lotsssss of Hunter x Hunter merch

We ended the day with some yummy hotpot and empty wallets, but it was very much worth the financial hit.

Kyoto -> Akihabara

Today we travel from Kyoto to Tokyo for the second half of our time in Japan. Morning gets off to a slow start as we pack up and head to Kyoto Station to board the Shinkansen bullet train. Train ride goes smoothly as I doze off listening to music.

As much as I love Kyoto, Tokyo is definitely my favorite place I’ve visited, and I am very excited to be able to spend more time here. I’m extra excited as I’ve yet to visit Akihabara district. Once at Akihabara, we make our way to the hotel which is conveniently right next to Akihabara station. While it’s not as unique as the design of the Kyoto Anteroom Hotel, the shower has a window that looks over the city for an amazing view.

Once settled in a bit, we took a group trip to Mandarake, a massive 7 floor store with retro anime, games, television and movie merch.

Afterwards, me Brody, Esther, and Vincent got some delicious sushi! This restaurant was recommended to us and it was right next to the hotel. I tried eel for the first time and actually really liked it!

We then went out for a little more shopping where I got a bilingual copy of The Ghost in the Shell manga, and saw some cool zelda posters 🙂

Invading the Emporors Abode (He was not there)

Bridge going to front gate of imperial castle

Today we went to the imperial castle, but we weren’t able to actually go in because it was too busy. We got to wander the premesis and look at all the pretty architecture and gardens, which was lowkey better. This place was absolutely insane. One of the most beautiful places I have ever been. There were gardens and fields and old buildings and new buildings and shrines and so much more, all sitting in a giant moat. The highlight for me was the koi pond/flower field. It was soooo pretty and looked especially cool with the giant buildings in the background. My favorite part of the scenery was seeing the dicotomy of the natural, old stuff with the industrial, new stuff in the background. It made it feel like some gateway to another world.

Picture I thought was cool, showing what I mean by the dichotomy

After the imperial castle we trained over to Harajuku to see a Shinto temple. Before that it was lunchtime and we had about an hour to find somewhere to eat and do whatever. We walked around this cool side street with a bunch of little hole-in-the-wall places but ended up eating in a food court because it was easier and had options (*cough* *cough* esther *cough*). I got a yummy corn dog and then a strawberry & banana smoothie at a different place when we were walking back, it was sooo good. We met up with the gang and then walked across the street to the Shinto temple and massive wooden Torii gate.

Big torii gate

The Meiji shrine was really cool but it was getting hot so we called the day and all split up to do our own thing. Since we were like 2 stops from Shibuya it was time for round 2. Me and Vincent went back to this record store that had a bunch of ghibli stuff. I got 2 cds as gifts and he got 3 ghibli vinyls. Then we tried to go to this big music store but it was like impossible to get in even though it said it wasn’t closed, so we assumed the workers were just doing inventory or something. We found a different music store but it was really small. Then we went into a different record store that had a lot more western music and modern music than the first, but nothing I was dying for. After shopping we met up with Maddy and Esther to get dinner, which took far longer than it should have cuz we were being stupid and undecisive. After dinner we trained back to Akihabara and crashed.

Record of the Incident on May 30th, 2023 at 12:00pm.

Shibuya Scramble Crossing, Shibuya, Tokyo

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 :).