Our Final Night

Our next stop after Yotsuya was Ikebukuro to check in at the hostel. For some reason we got a bit confused with the trains though, but I can't remember why anymore... We managed to make it there in one piece though and before our luggage had arrived too. Seeing a Japanese person and not thinking "oh duh I bet she speaks English..." I checked us in in Japanese, we got our keys, and checked out our rooms. There was two bunk beds and we unfortunately had one roommate, though he was not there at the time (more on him later). It was mid-afternoon by then and we still had not eaten anything that day, so we went to a nearby restaurant. We got our meal tickets, sat down, and got our food within a few minutes.

Looking back at these pictures makes my mouth water!

After we ate, we headed back to Ikebukuro station and headed to Shinjuku to go shoe shopping. I still had not replaced my hole-y tennis shoes, so I decided I wanted to get new shoes before I left Japan. I was so tempted to buy those boots I had been longing to buy at that point, but I ended up not getting them and bought these new pink and black tennis shoes instead. Later when I tried them again though they seemed to be a little bit big...maybe I should have gone with the previous pair that was a little bit tight and I could break into. The ones I bought fit perfect at the time though, I don't know why they felt different later!

Beyond that, we started wandering around. I only took the above picture, which was the entrance to a karaoke parlor.

After it got dark, we headed back to Shinjuku station and rode the trains for the last time. Our luggage had arrived and so had our roommate. He was quiet and, to be honest, the exact definition of "otaku," who had clearly come to pay hommage to Japan. He had some anime character statue which he had set up on the only bureau in the room. We got on our computers to check what was going on in the world of the internet, and eventually got hungry. So, we headed out to see what our options were.

This was one of our many options.

However, we ended up opting for the bar called Beer Saurus across the way, located on one of the floors of the building in the above picture. The beer was very nice although there were not too many people so luckily it was not too smokey.

Our first drinks were as above: that ginormous mug filled with Hoegaarden and my tiny martini (I think it was). Don't remember the drink, but unlike other bars they definitely did not skimp on the alcohol!

After studying the menu for a while, we ended up ordering the "party" size of fish and chips.

And here's a bit of the decor inside of the bar. It was a really nice place, I wish we had discovered it sooner.

Unfortunately all good times come to an end. While we paid the bill, I noticed that the tip jar for the earthquake and tsunami relief was stuffed full of 10,000 yen bills (about $124 at the time of writing this entry).

We began our tipsy walk back to the alpaca...and discovered an arcade. I wanted an alpaca so we went in. Daniel won one last Rilakkuma keychain and then we attempted the big one.

This alpaca was the boss battle of all UFO catchers up until this point. It was stuck between a big Rilakkuma's legs (I think it was) and refused to budge. I think we spent close to 4,000 yen to win this giant alpaca, but win it we did! We went back to the hostel with our spoils of war and had an unfortunate terrible night. Neither of us got a wink of sleep that night. The beds were so uncomfortable and every time we turned over there was squeaking. Our jetlagged roommate was sound asleep though, so who knows if we woke him up or not. The entire night I found myself wishing there was a Glade or Febreeze air freshner in the room though...

Not to mention, the room one over from ours was filled with drunk Japanese people screaming the entire night. It died down eventually, but that was soon replaced by the sounds of retching as dawn approached.

Needless to say, that was not a very pleasant night.

The Edo-Tokyo Museum Part 1: Edo Japan

Warning: Long picture post ahead!

Sorry for the lack of updates. So much has been going on and everything has been pretty hectic. I have been missing Tokyo a lot and I don't really even know how to describe how I've been feeling.

This is a much overdue post. Back in January near the end of my semester Daniel and I visited the Edo-Tokyo Museum with my literature teacher and other students from my class. The Edo-Tokyo Museum was really interesting and I managed to take a lot of pictures. My teacher gave us a personal tour of the museum, so it was really educational. For those who want to go themselves though, there are English written on several plaques (though I feel like they had been a little bit different from what they actually said in Japanese). They also offer free tour guides in English. Unfortunately, the lighting in there was really bad, so a lot of my pictures did not come out as well as I had hoped.

Since there was two parts to the museum, I will split this into two posts. This post will be dedicated to the Edo period of Japan, where Tokyo was known as "Edo."

When we first entered, we crossed over a replica of the Nihonbashi Bridge. Right below it is a stage as you see in this picture. Shortly after we arrived, a man came out and started playing the shamisen. It was a very lovely performance.

I believe this was a model of the other side of the Nihonbashi Bridge. Such a busy place.

The details on a partition.

Closeup of the detail on a different partition.

I believe this was a replica of someone's mansion. Maybe a daimyo?

Samurai armor.

A life-sized peek into the daily life of a home during that time.

Some porcelain plates and jars (?) from the time.

A page from a book.

I think this was a painting of the fire department.

This is a life-size model of an artisan of some sort, if I remember right.

Pictures detailing the various types of work the common people did during the Edo period.

A display of how the the mass-production of wood block prints worked, with each block printing a different part of the image.

Different pictures that were mass-produced through their printing technology.

A novel from the Edo period. They were quite known for their pictures.

Another picture novel.

A boat.

A little history of the different types of coins.

This might have been a model of the black market area? I do not quite remember anymore.

I do not really remember what this was...

Daniel trying his hand at carrying water buckets on his back.

A mikoshi (portable shrine).

A really elaborate model of a bridge and port that connected to it.

Close-up of one of the boats. It was impressive how detailed each model was.

Popular hair styles worn by women of the Edo period.

A woman's kimono.

A close-up of another woman's kimono.

The above three images are life-size models of a high-ranking courtesan and who would typically be included in her entourage. The platform shoes they wore are incredible.

A painting (or maybe wood print) of a high-ranking courtesan.

I believe this is the sort of kimono a courtesan would wear.

I do not quite remember what this model is supposed to be.

A model of priests carrying a mikoshi (a portable shrine, like I mentioned above).

I am assuming this is a model of a festival honoring a god of some sort. In this case, a chicken god...?

Reunited in Shibuya!

It's been a long time coming, but a few of us who participated in Nogyaru rice harvesting decided to meet up for a girl's day out in Shibuya! Naturally the entire event turned into a huge photo session for everyone, so I managed to take quite a few photos. It was all brought together by Maki, so I'm so grateful to her that I got to see everyone again.

Maki managed to reserve us our own snug little corner in a restaurant called PUBLIC HOUSE. Once everyone who could come was assembled, we started off with brunch!

Mayu and I got this hamburg dish. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish it. There was just way too much food!

Everyone else got this spaghetti dish. I kinda wish I had gotten it too considering it looks delicious even now!

The desert. I was a bit too full to get one myself though.

A picture I managed to snap of Mei and Nami during our conversing. We talked about a lot of things, from differences between America and Japan, to job searching, to dieting and exercise, and naturally a lot more topics came up. I managed to learn a few new words too!

All of us assembled. From left to right: Me, Mayu, Maki, Nami, and Mei.

On our way out of the restaurant.

Some of the graffiti that can be found around Shibuya.

An advertisement for EXILE's new album. I tripped on the sidewalk and twisted my ankle shortly after this shot. Unfortunately it still hurts a bit now.

 View of Shibuya as we crossed an overhead walkway.

Advertisement for the new Dissidia game that came out. 

Art meets Mode advertisement.

Naturally, the next place we went was an arcade so we could take purikura!

A couple of the purikura machines. There were so many that it was hard to choose which machine to use!

A sign advertising their stamp card services.

After we chose a random one, the purikura machine gave us this pack of eyelashes as a gift. No one really wanted them, so I ended up taking them.

 Deciding how to divide up the purikura...

Which turns into an opportunity for a silly photo!

The purikura we took together.

After purikura, we decided to head into the next building over for some karaoke.

We got the party room! Which was a bit unfortunate for me since we sat all the way in the back. I had some trouble reading some the lyrics because they were blurry for me without my glasses.

Everyone wanted to hear me sing in English, so I kicked our karaoke session off with Bad Romance.

Other songs we sung were AKB48's Heavy Rotation and the classic Stay Away by L'Arc~en~Ciel. Surprisingly, Shoujo Jidai and KARA songs were also sung (in their Japanese versions, of course).

After our hour and a half of fun we all headed our separate ways. However we did leave with plans to meet up again next day to do cherry blossom viewing. I'm really looking forward to it!