A Dark, Lonely Shinjuku and Ikebukuro

It's been four days now since the quake. Our town has been very quiet. There haven't been too many trucks coming by, but the earthquake hasn't stopped the baked sweet potato vendor from coming by twice since. The shelves are still empty at most of the convenience stores and supermarkets everywhere.

Since yesterday was relatively quiet and warm, I decided to head out to Shinjuku and then to Ikebukuro.

I went around 2:30 and the trains were pretty much empty.

Surprisingly, Shinjuku Station seemed even more empty. Usually there is at least three times as many people walking through this walkway over the Marunouchi train line. As it had been a day when people were instructed to stay home, the only ones out were pretty much only foreigners and couples because it was White Day, a day in which guys give girls gifts for what they received on Valentine's Day.

I stopped by Shinjuku ALTA to buy some cosmetics for a customer. There weren't that many people in there, but there usually isn't. I took this picture of the Liz Lisa display as seen from outside. So cute!

Then I headed over to Ikebukuro. Unsurprisingly, there were still plenty of people riding the JR lines. As you can see though, the lights on these buildings are not turned on. Since it had gotten cloudy, Ikebukuro seemed like a very dark place.

There were not so many people on the street heading to Sunshine City either. Normally these streets would be filled with shoppers. But no music played as you walked through the street, there were no maids handing out fliers for their maid cafes. In fact, there were hardly any people advertising their restaurants at all! Normally the street is lined with people shouting at the top of their lungs about the special deals and services their restaurant offers, but yesterday there were absolutely none. Surprisingly the arcades were still open, but only for a limited time.

When I got to Sunshine City, most of the stores were closed shut as in the picture above. It was a bit shocking to see store after store in this condition. I went over to the ALTA side and there were still up and running, luckily. I couldn't find what I was looking for though, so I backtracked and headed outside to Animate.

Pictures of Animate that I managed to take from the outside. I got inside of it just minutes before they closed at about 5pm I think it was. A lot of stores were closing up shop at 4 to 6pm. It was the strangest thing though, since they had an anime-sounding guy come on to tell us that they were closing and hoping we could meet again. Then they played this song about parting and meeting again. They played this over and over on a loop in order to drive customers out of the store. It was a bit surprising they let us all the way up to the fifth floor though as Donki had the stairs leading beyond the second floor blocked off.

A vending machine outside of Animate. Apparently the drinks taste horrible though.

After I checked out a few other nearby stores, I decided to start heading home.

Cute advertisement of fat kitty on top of an arcade.

All of Ikebukuro was so dark it felt so strange. Normally the entire place is so lit up that you might not even notice that it's night time. I was glad I had gone back to the train station when I did though, since I managed to catch the very last train out before they shut down the trains for an hour. When I got to my station, I stopped by McDonalds and grabbed us dinner. Walking home I noticed there were a lot of restaurants closed. Those that had remained open were completely empty. The area I live in, which can be a bit bustling in its own right around the "Ginza area," kind of felt like a dark ghost town.

Today we're staying inside for the most part again. Pretty much all of the major shopping malls have been closed again, too. Luckily there were no blackouts yesterday because of everyone's efforts to conserve energy. I hope today is the same.

A Big Shopping Trip

Today I went and hunted out a specific necklace for a customer, so it took me to quite a few places in Tokyo.

First I went to Shinjuku. I headed to Liz Lisa but they didn't have the necklace, so I went to MA*RS after to pick up another item. I was going to take a picture of the outside of the store but it looked like the shop staff were trying to watch me leave or something so I chickened out and just left.

It was such a beautiful day out! I think it was around 20 degrees (Celsius) out. It was so warm that for a little while I actually felt a bit hot in my cardigan. I hope the days after this continue to be this way.

It was also pretty windy as you can see from the girl's hair here. It almost looks like that one guy in the corner is trying to sneak into my photo. Hopefully these trees will have some green on them sooner than later! I headed across the street from here and into the station to hop onto the train to Ikebukuro so I could head to the Liz Lisa in Ikebukuro Parco.

I only took this one picture as I headed to Parco. I've seen lots of posters and such recently, especially in Shinjuku, of the new products they're adding to the Heroine Makeup line, and when I saw this big display of Lady Antoinette from Rose of Versailles I couldn't resist taking a picture of it. Maybe I should try their BB cream? I've always wanted to same flawless face and glow of a shoujo manga heroine.

Unfortunately the Ikebukuro store didn't have the necklace either, so next I headed to Harajuku.

A bit of a better closeup of the entrance. I guess I felt a bit more comfortable taking pictures here since there were tourists everywhere with cameras. What's one more gaikokujin with a camera? A lot of people go there expecting to get their pictures taken anyway.

Display with a kind of creepy bunny in the window. I guess this store is called Wonder Rocket.

The stairs leading up to Body Line. I think that backpack hanging there off the store below it is one of those popular shark ones.

I don't remember the name of this store, but the costumes are quite impressive!

The last stop during my adventure: Liz Lisa on Takeshita Street. Unfortunately I couldn't get a clear shot because so many people just kept on walking by. Luckily they had the necklace, so I went home after I bought it. I was pretty tired by the time I made it home.

Yesterday

Waah, September's almost ending! Yesterday it was thundering in the morning and we thought it would rain all day, so we brought our umbrellas with us shopping. Luckily it didn't though. Also, I got the results of my Japanese placement exam! I tested into Japanese 4 (of 7 levels). Basically it's the class that bridges the gap between intermediate and advanced Japanese.

For the rice harvesting festival, I needed to get some rain boots and a dark long graphic t-shirt or something  that could get dirty and wouldn't be stained for life, so we headed to Ikebukuro since PARCO is still having their sale.

The first store I ended up checking out was Liz Lisa again since I saw they still had the lucky grab bags. I was hoping there would be no incidents like the misunderstanding that happened the day before, but the girl who rung me up the day before was there and she recognized me, pointing me out and saying I was the girl who came yesterday. As a result somehow though I ended up getting royal treatment?? I guess I've been accepted by them.

Today not only did I get this special gift bag, but...

I also got an actual regular shopping bag! And the girl who rung me up was even nice enough to wrap it up in plastic so it wouldn't get wet. She also gave me an advertisement for some special set they'll be selling next week, which involves a coat, a dress, and some panties-protector shorts which are actually separate from the dress for about $60 less than the normal price for them would be. She even talked to me and asked me about myself and stuff in Japanese while she wrapped everything up and stuff. Gosh, how nice. I almost asked to take a picture of her because she was so cute, but I didn't in the end.

I didn't get to find out what was inside of the bag I bought until I got home. What I got was...

This white Marilyn Monroe shirt. It's actually really nice. It was originally 5,145.

And I also got this adorable dress. It bunches up weirdly around my boobs though, but it looks great if I use the shawl I got with my dress from Cecil McBee. This dress originally cost 9,345 yen! I can't believe if it's a size 0 too. Good to know I can fit into a Japanese size 0, though I needed help to get it off.

Surprisingly, I got the same skirt I got from the day before again in this bag. Now I have 3 things I want to sell. I made sure to go for a light one this time so I could make sure I didn't get a purse again. I was hoping for two tops or two dresses.

Anyway, after Liz Lisa I browsed through all of the other shops and ended up choosing this top from Cecil McBee:

It's not something I'd usually buy, but I like it. You wear it off shoulder with this tank top underneath:

Pretty simple, and I can easily replace it with a different tank top if I want to.

After that, we looked around for some rain boots, but all the ones I saw there were really expensive, so we figured we'd go look at Sunshine City instead. On the way though, we stopped by the arcades so Daniel could try out the UFO catchers. He ended up winning another Rilakkuma~

So cute! This one's bigger than the other 3 he won and doesn't have a keychain.

After that we decided we were hungry so we went to a place I don't quite remember the name of anymore, but it had Ginza in the name. I got small spare ribs:

Very yummy~

After food we continued on our way to Sunshine City, but I spotted a shoe store having a closing sale so we checked them out and I found some rainboots!

They're black and sparkly.

We made it to Sunshine City but didn't go very far. I was already done with all my shopping and Daniel decided he just wanted to head to Uniqlo to get the few things he wanted to buy.

But I did pick up this cute cheap umbrella from a store called Shazbot. It's really long though, which I wasn't really expecting. At least it'll keep me super dry since it's so big.

So, we headed back to the Uniqlo that was right near where we had lunch. I got a crepe at Sunshine City before that though, which ended up almost becoming super messy. Didn't take a picture of it though. At Uniqlo, Daniel got some new clothes, including some pants. The pants were a bit long though, so we had to wait a half hour or so for Uniqlo's seamstress to tailor them to size. We grabbed a few drinks at McDonalds while we waited, headed back when it was time, got the pants, and headed home. Boy I was pretty tired.

When we finally made it home though, I started coughing and my head feeling really icky. x.X I was afraid I was getting sick, so I ended up falling asleep really quickly and early last night. Luckily I haven't really been coughing today.

Nogal

Sunday we ended up just staying in all day and lazing about. Nothing too exciting, until I saw on Ameba that Fujita Shiho had updated her blog about harvesting this year's rice. Who's Fujita Shiho? She's the leader of a movement called Nogal, which is dedicated to spreading awareness about the agricultural crisis in Japan and educating about the unnecessary anxiety towards rice and other healthy food through the means of growing her own rice together with other famous models who have a particular fashion sense called gyaru (gal). They also have the goal to create a newer, more stylish image for farming.

Anyway, she updated her blog and wrote about how she was taking applicants for people who wanted to participate in this year's harvest festival. I wasn't sure how much of a chance I had, but I applied anyway. The application consisted of usual things such as name, phone number, address, and age, as well as whether we like rice or not and our reason for wanting to participate. I ended up writing a little mini-essay to introduce myself and that even though I'm foreign I know Japanese and am interested in gal style, and told her I've been following her activities for the past year and have read her books, written essays, and even given presentations on her work. We also had to include a picture of ourselves, so I ended up getting dressed up just to take a picture. XD

This is the picture I ended up choosing to send in along with the rest of my application. I was really unsure whether I had a chance or not, but my chances would remain 0 if I never sent it in at all, right? And that was pretty much all the excitement for yesterday, although while we were falling asleep we felt our first earthquake! That was an experience. It was pretty short though.

Today I got up as usual, checked my email, and found out from their newsletter that Ikebukuro PARCO is having a sale in nearly every store to support a baseball team. I noticed that Liz Lisa was having lucky bags as their participation. ...how could I resist!? So I headed over to Ikebukuro by myself since Daniel was at school. I was curious how much my commuter pass is going to cost, so I decided to go to the ticket counter and purchase it. My pass is 6,450 yen a month. Much better than 24,000 a month, right?

Anyway, I headed over to Ikebukuro PARCO, went over to Liz Lisa, and got myself one of their lucky bags.

The letters are shiny. :D Inside were three items. I was hoping for two dresses, but instead I got...

A purse that was originally priced at 8,295 yen.

This adorable skirt originally priced at 6,195 yen.

And last, this fluffy sweater originally priced at 7,245 yen.

The skirt alone was worth the whole bag. It's so cute! I'm not sure if I have anything good that would go with it though. I don't really dig the bag, and I'm not sure what to think of the mint-color sweater. I'm thinking I'll just sell the two on eBay or something. But for that, I need a scale to calculate shipping with. I wonder if I can find one to buy around here or if there's one I can just randomly use...

Right as I was about to try on the skirt, my phone started vibrating. I was getting a call. I picked it up nervously and answered in Japanese and got a long explanation...the conversation is now a blur in my memory, but my heart must have stopped when I realized it was Fujita Shiho and she had told me I had been accepted to join in with the harvesting of the Shibuya Rice. I was speechless and shaking all over, that's how shocked I was!! I remember her asking me how I found out about it, and I told her it was from her blog, and she asking to make sure I know when and where they're meeting in Shibuya, and she mentioned that it's cold in Akita this time of year so I should dress accordingly and make sure I wear something easy to move in and have long shoes I don't mind getting dirty, but I asked and rain boots work as well.

I was trembling with excitement after the phone call. I couldn't believe I had talked on the phone with Fujita-san herself and that I had actually been accepted!!! Waaaaaah! (≧∀≦) She even wrote about me briefly in her latest blog post today. She only said that "a foreign girl living in Japan had applied" though, so nothing too amazing.

So, on Friday night I'm going to meet up with possibly Fujita-san herself along with the 39 other girls who had been selected in Shibuya and we're all going to get on a bus and go to Akita to go harvest rice all day on Saturday. Saturday night there'll be a barbecue and we'll head back to Shibuya on Sunday. I'm guessing it's going to be an all night trip to Akita though. Akita's pretty far from Tokyo. I hope they give us blankets or something.

But that's about it for my day today. The skirt fits great though not sure what to wear with it, and I'm still extremely excited. What an opportunity! I need to find something cute and functional to wear, since we're creating an image of stylish farming. The weather report says that the highs will be low 70s and lows will be high 50s, so I'm thinking shorts with tights + rain boots, plus a long shirt if I can find a cute enough one. And gotta figure out what to wear on the bus too! Gotta buy rain booooots.