Tag: Sights

day twelve: succumbing to my (converse) demons

today was yet another later starting day. man, no disrespect to yuko, but i could get used to this! my day pretty much started when we all got together as a group so we could travel to diver city. it was a pretty long train ride, about 40 minutes, but it also gave us a great view as we traveled through tokyo and its surrounding sub areas. there were many cool views we could look at while on board.

once we got to diver city we made a beeline for the gundam statue, which was actually really cool. it was like 100 feet tall and to scale. i could feel fabian’s smile and absolutely positive energy just radiating from him. after we took a couple photos it was inside the mall to get some food. i got these chicken bites that were pretty good, but unfortunately my appetite is small. i only had about three of them before i was full.

after lunch it was just meandering around the mall, and i knew i wanted to get a couple souvenirs here. as i was looking around i managed to stumble across gundam kitty and i actually wanted to explode she was so cute. i made my way to the actual gundam store though so i could buy my brother something. and then it was there i saw it. as i was riding the escalator down i happened to catch a glimpse of a certain logo.

the converse logo.

and for those that don’t know, i might have a tiny problem. let’s just say i have 25 pairs of converse— well, 24 before today. anyway, i immediately raced into the abc-mart and what did my tiny little eye spy? a pair of deep navy converse, duel navy racing stripes on the rubber, with gold colored eyelets around the laces, and a white collar with another set of duel navy racing stripes printed on it. i was in love. i needed them, and so naturally i bought them.

after that devastating blow to my wallet, it was time for a museum. and i gotta be honest. i kind of just sat on the bench with sten for a lot of it. i wasn’t all that interested because it was all pretty depressing stuff about how we’re killing our planet and other various things. it was fine, just i was too excited for what was coming next.

next on the agenda was teamlabs and that is probably one of the biggest things i’ve been looking forward to this entire time. it’s basically a glorified photoshoot space, but i didn’t care because it looked so damn cool. we eventually get to teamlabs but we were split into two groups and our time slot was the later one. so we waited for about two hours until we could finally enter.

but man once we did, my breath was taken away. the mirrors made everything so trippy, and interacting with all of the different rooms was so fun. i was looking around in amazement and wonder the entire time. talk about an experience. we took several group photos, as well as plenty of individual shots too. the people i was grouped with, matched with the ambiance of teamlabs really made it such a fun activity. i definitely would want to do that again (lol i’d do the entire trip again) if i ever came back to japan.

it was pretty late by the time we got out, so it was mostly just back to the hotel and off to sleep. tomorrow is the last full day of the trip and i can’t believe how quickly it already got here. until then.

day eleven: yuko back from the past?!

no, not actually. today was just a very jam packed day in a short amount of time that it almost felt like the spirit of yuko was guiding us along. we set out for the imperial palace and it was something that i was looking forward to seeing because i knew it had beautiful gardens. so we started our day by taking a train ride and then walking a short ways to the entrance of the palace.

as we began along the path it was crazy seeing just how large some of the stones in the walls were. they were cut so perfectly, smoothed down so nicely, were even taller than me (cries in 5’2″), that i reckon they had to be at least 1.5 tons each. EACH. and there were thousands of these stones littered across the emperor’s property. yeah, apparently the emperor lives there and we were just waltzing around. granted thousands of people visit a day, but shhhh.

once we got to the gardens i was extremely happy because everything was just so pretty!!! i really enjoyed walking around and just taking in the peace and tranquility of it all. i got some lovely photos, and i’m pretty surprised at how nice some of them turned out.

after that we were on our own so about half of us headed down to shibuya so we could hit up a couple stores. me, jess, and skyler once again headed to a one piece store. and yes once again i spent an absurd amount of money. while there we happened to run into maddy, esther, vincent, and brody, but unfortunately maddy got spoiled something while she was looking around womp womp. i purchased some goody’s for myself, my brothers, and my boyfriend, and then we headed over to the mall where the rest of the group was.

as soon as we got to the mall i headed to the nintendo store to look around. i thought maybe i’d find something mario odyssey related, or something adorable that i’d just HAVE to spend money on. i found neither of those things. then i realized that i couldn’t find jess and skyler. assuming they left with the big group i headed over to the pokemon store. i searched high and low for something magikarp themed for my boyfriend but to absolutely no avail. i was truly gobsmacked. feeling dejected i headed back to the train station only to find out that apparently skyler and jess hadn’t abandoned me and were waiting for me at the malls elevators, while i was already at the train station. whoops. after we all got back in one piece 😉 i headed up to my room to decompress.

later that night a bunch of us got together in liam and skyler’s room to watch the first half of the new d&d movie. it was pretty outrageous, kinda predictable, but it was goofy and fun. i really enjoyed watching it with everyone, even though towards the end of the night i was pretty tired.

day three: temple run

i’m currently writing this at 9:17 pm, and i swear to god i could pass out at any given second. this long and eventful day started bright and early, meaning i had to wake up at 6 am, which is extremely early for me. i somehow managed to stay conscious long enough to get ready, eat breakfast, sit through a brief introduction with our guide, and then we were promptly on our way.

after a quick bus ride we were already at the kinkakuji temple. it was absolutely breathtaking. just walking into the entrance and seeing the main building was so beautiful. as much as i could have spent an entire day in the courtyard alone, yuko had a strict schedule to keep us on. we were quickly swept away to the main attraction: the golden pavilion. it was constructed in the 13th century and made from solid gold. the gardens and pond that surrounded it were gorgeous, and it was so cute to see the wildlife that lived peacefully there. walking around the entire stone path, at one point managing to lose a couple hundred yen trying to land a coin in a bowl, yuko lead us through the rest of the temple.

next up was the bamboo forest, and i was particularly excited for this one. not only was it going to be awesome as hell, it was also going to be shady and keep us cool from the suffocating heat and humidity. as we were driving there that’s when we all noticed just how many vending machine’s were posted up on almost every street corner. seriously. i didn’t realize japan happened to be the vending machine capital of the world or something, jeez. anyway once we got to the bamboo forest i was actually just floored. it was gorgeous. i could’ve gotten lost wandering around forever. however that was quickly dashed when yuko began dragging us along to the next stop.

following the forest was kiyomizu dera temple which was probably my favorite that we visited. between the traditional styled architecture, the bustling shops and stalls, and the gorgeous view of kyoto once you climbed to the top of the temple, it was just wonderful. as we were ascending the steps, and the hill (??? idk it was an upwards slope of stores) i saw so many things i wanted to buy, but again yuko had other plans. we quickly took a group photo, and headed up the rest of the way to the top of the temple. there was a lookout point that we could see all of kyoto from. the photos really don’t do it justice. once we were done we were allowed 30 minutes to shop around before meeting up for the next shrine. i stuck with belle, megan, and jess for this time and made notes for what i would come back for on our free day.

the final stop with yuko was the fushimi inari shrine. there are over 10,000 tori gates to go through, and that would take over two and a half hours which was time we didn’t have to spare. so instead we took the extremely abridged route, and only went through about two hundred. i liked the omokara ishi part a lot, it was a wishing stone and depending on how heavy the stone felt when you picked it up was an indicator of how likely it was to come true!

to round out the day we watched the demon slayer: mugen train movie, which was pretty interesting since i haven’t seen season one. i sat next to jasmine and kept asking her questions about what was happening and going on. it was very entertaining. then the class made the collective decision to get food at a malls foodcourt where we got to spend our first little bit of isolated time with toshi (my beloved). i got indian and received the largest piece of naan i’d ever seen in my LIFE. belle took a photo of me, skyler, and jess with each of our naan’s, which will stick with me forever.

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.

Day 10

I was very excited for this day because I had heard that the Imperial Palace gardens were pretty. The giant stones that made up the walls were incredible and the koi pond was mesmerizing. I loved the waterfall and all of the trails that surrounded the flower beds nextto the pond. One of the things I was shocked by was the number of times each shrine has burned down. I think the most we had heard was eight times, I don’t remember how many times the Imperial Palace burned but it wasn’t nearly that many times.

After a brief lunch of ricotta and banana pancakes, we all met at the final shrine of the entire trip. It reminded me significantly of the backyard of the house I grew up in with the thick woods aesthetic and the river running through it. Something I was surprised by was the giant row of barrels that once held wine – although I cannot remember the story behind it. While this shrine was not as staggering as the shrine on the cliff or the one with over one thousand gates or statues, I thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity of this one.

Day 9

For the free day in Tokyo, I traveled solo to Shibuya to see the Hachiko memorial statue and the famous Shibuya scramble crossing. I remember reading the heartwarming book Hachiko when I was around 10 in school. At the end I found out that there was a statue of the loyal dog in Japan at the station he would wait at for his owner after he left for work. His owner ended up passing while at work and never came back; so the dog never left. After reading about it, I always wanted to get to see it in real life.

Another place on my Japan bucket list was Shibuya crossing. I’ve gotten to see it in so many different movies and television shows. Fortunately for me, it was right next to the Hachiko memorial statue. Right at the crossing’s peak, it has up to 3,000 people crossing at once. I got to cross it and got to see a birds eye view of the crossing.

Afterwards I walked thirty minutes to get to the Gotokuji temple, known for holding hundreds of lucky cat figures. I knew heading into the country, I wanted to buy one of these figures as well as one for my friend. It was almost overwhelming seeing all of the figures and I enjoyed finding hidden figures that other people left.

Food in Day 11: Gundam, Museum, and teamLabs

Today, we went to see the life-sized Gundam in Odaiba, Tokyo. We also had lunch in the Diver City Tokyo Plaza and looked around the mall before heading to the Miraikan Museum of Science and Innovation. There were many cool exhibits there, including a jarring robot controlled by A.I, pieces about how humans should evolve to live in sustainable prosperity, a scale model of a living quarters in the International Space Station, and an interactive game to promote medicine. After that, we went to teamLabs Tokyo and went through all of the art exhibits that make use of your eyes, ears, and touch for a complete experience.

McDonald’s again? Yes, McDonald’s again! This time, I got a sausage McGriddle with a hashbrown and a caramel latte. I’ve never had a McGriddle in the U.S. so I cannot really compare the two, but I thoroughly enjoyed the one I had here. It was a good mix of sweet and savory, and the hashbrown helped to tame the strong flavor of the McGriddle. The caramel latte was also super good. 10/10 breakfast. I would definitely go to McDonald’s in Japan again because (spoiler alert), I never got the chance to go back after this breakfast.

For lunch in Odaiba, I had this noodle dish native to China. Why am I having a Chinese dish when I could get a Japanese dish in Japan? Honestly, I think the better question to be asking is, “Why have you eaten McDonald’s so many times in Japan?”. So obviously, although I do appreciate all of the authentic Japanese food I’ve had here, I also enjoy trying other food while I’m here. For all I know, the Chinese food they have in Japan is better than the Chinese food in America. And boy, if this noodle dish is any indicator of how much better Chinese food is in Japan, then it is way better. It was hearty and savory and mellow and just good. It was yummy. I would go back to Odaiba again just to have these noodles again.

For dinner, Brody and I found this cafe connected to a few soccer fields. Side note, I think this idea is brilliant. Imagine how much money you would make from soccer moms who want to grab a good dinner together as a group and gossip as they watch their children. I think it’s an incredibly smart idea, and if that already exists in the U.S., then I’m upset that I didn’t get to witness that as someone who played soccer for six years. Anyways, this meal was super good. Chicken, rice, and raw egg. Where can you go wrong with that?

I was super excited to go to Unreal Fest the next day as well as go to CyberConnect2!

Food in Day 10: Downtown Tokyo, Harajuku, and Shibuya

The first thing we did after having breakfast was go to the Tokyo Imperial Palace. We walked around, observing the architecture, gardens, and koi fish before we went to Harajuku to visit the Meiji Shrine and have a lunch break. After that, the class split up, and Brody, Vincent, Maddy, and I went back to Shibuya. We visited a record shop before Maddy and I split off to look around in Shibuya 109 before we reconvened, had dinner, and went back to the hotel for yet another late-night meeting.

Guess what I got for breakfast?

Wow! You got it! I got McDonald’s again! This time around, I got the red pepper Shaka Shaka chicken with fries and an iced latte. The seasoning that came with the Shaka Shaka chicken was super good. It was just a tad spicy, and it was very flavorful. I put a little bit of the seasoning on my fries as well because it was so good. The latte was also good because it was less bitter and not hot coffee.

In Harajuku, we found this unique Pink Panther food court that had a stage for performances. During performances, photos and videos were not allowed, but because we went to eat in between performances, I was able to take pictures. I got a tornado potato and a Korean hot dog with cheese on the top and a hot dog on the bottom. I was not a big fan of the potato tornado. It was incredibly messy to eat, and it was mildly sweet when I was expecting a salty potato treat. Thankfully, the Korean corn dog was incredibly good, and I would highly recommend anyone who likes corn dogs to try it out. It was major upgrade from just a regular American corn dog. This may even ruin them for you as it did with me.

In Shibuya, after a lot of walking to find somewhere to eat, we finally out this barbeque place. Honestly, it was not the best considering the price. It was very tasty, but I’ve had the same amount of tasty but with more food for a lesser price on this trip, so I didn’t see it as worth the price. Vincent may fight me about that though.

Afterwards, we rushed back to have our meeting and get as much sleep as we could before our long trip to Odaiba tomorrow.

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.