Day 20 - Ghibli, and such.

Today was Ghibli day ^_^

The museum was much different from what I expected, although I'm not entirely sure what I expected, I guess. About 60% of the appeal of the museum is how it looks, inside and out... it's very awesome. They paid attention to detail. It feels a little steam-punky, though maybe a bit more steam and a bit less punk, but still. It's like steampunk in a pretty garden. Like Laputa! It's like Laputa. Or Howl's castle.

How appropriate :3

There were stained glass windows everywhere with Ghibli characters, and winding spiral staircases. Strangely, there was a "Mini Louvre" that contained copies of a bunch of Louve paintings in a very... interesting setting. I didn't really care about the paintings, but I enjoyed the weird atmosphere. It starts in a sort of european style, fancyish room, with lots of paintings. Then the next room is like a cave, or an old monestary or castle... there are two small rooms coming off of that area. One had a sarchophageos and was pretty straightforward. The otherone was weird and awesome. There was the Mona Lisa, and below her was a pile of what looked like stone wall rubble. Off to the right, there was a step up into a small room with a well(! but not a real well). When you look down in, you would theoretically be able to see yourself... it seemed like maybe they had a camera pointed up at you, or just a good mirror, but it was too dark to really see. But ALSO somehow they had a layer of water over it, which they dripped more water into periodically, for dramatic effect. What's the point of all this? What does it have to do with Studio Ghibli? No idea. But it was still pretty fun. The way out was still the castley-type walls, but they were all plastered with Napoleon Bonaparte posters. So strange...

A way to get into the Mini Lourve area that I didn't notice before was one of the aforementioned spiral stairs. It's basically a tall cage full of winding stairs, and it pops you out onto a balcony, which has a little 3-ft-ish tall hallway into the Lourve. Another of these staircases could be found outside the third floor, leading up the the roof, where there is a nice garden with... GIANT LAPUTA ROBOT. There I am with the robot! It was awesome. ._. Also on the deck by the stairs were these metal benches with cranks on them... turning the crank made a cool sound. I LOVE THOSE KINDS OF THINGS.

The museum was a little confusing to navigate, probably partially because the pamphlet wasn't that good... the map was fine, but only partially translated, so only partially helpful. I found my own way around. There were 2 main exhibit areas, which were both really cool. One was about animation itself, and had many displays showing animation at work. One of the coolest things, and also one of the display's centrepieces, featured 3D Ghibli characters in figure form on a big wheel. They would spin the wheel, then start the strobe, and of course they looked like they were really moving... but man, was it awesome. They also, of to the side, showed the individual characters and how they formed them, so you could try to see how it translated to motion. If only they allowed pictures anywhere in the museum :(

The upstairs exhibit was sort of like... a peek into Studio Ghibli planning and making a movie. It has what one could imagine to be an artist's, or even Miyazaki's, office, totally jam packed with books and trinkets and drawings and art supplies and stuffstuff. I love things like that. They had the walls covered in concept sketches from all the various films (Kiki had weird hair, originally...!). There were books full of planned shots from Spirited Away and others. It was all very nice. I liked the environment. I particularly liked the display on painting cels, which I found very interesting and cool. They also had the little colour chips of paint, and bottles of paint... <3

Finally, your ticket (which has film cells in it!) grants you admission to the current short film, which is an original Ghibli creation, and is only shown at the museum. They seem to get a new one every once in a while. I really liked the one we saw, even though it was in Japanese, so my true understanding of it was limited. The main character was a boy who looked a lot like Howl, who I love. He trades his giant turnip crop for a magic seed, which grows a planet. The time/environment is a very futuristic place, that still has countryside, apparently. It's a bit hard to describe. I really liked it, though.

After leaving the museum, I decided to walk to a train station (rather than take the cute shuttle bus, which is how I got there :<) through the park next door. There were some events going on, so there were lots of kids, which was pretty cute. I got a little lost in the park itself so I ended up walking most of the way alongside the park on the main road. There was what appeared to be some kind of a zoo or animal park at one point, but I didn't go.

Mitaka feels like kind of a strange place... everything feels sort of old and worn, but in a weird way, and I wasn't sure about how it made me feel. I didn't linger very much... I popped in one game arcade (and came out with prizes ^_^;) but then I just left. I went to Isetan since I had to stop in Shinjuku to transfer lines, anyway. I stocked up on melon pan and on some sweet potato pastires which, I found out later, have a surprise apple slice inside ^_^ So autumnal! I love the flavours of fall. I also got two tonkatsu bento boxes... one for dinner and one for the train to Nikko. It turned out to be a pretty damn good bento box... the only thing I didn't really like was the furikake on the rice, which looked like some sort of tiny sea creatures or something... I'm not sure. It's hard to be sure here. But I just brushed them off and ate the flower-shaped rice. ^_^

I came home kind of early, as I have been for the past few days... I think all this traveling is wearing me out. My throat hurt today, so I figured it was better just to come home a little early and chill out... and eat sweet potato pastry. ^_^

Tomorrow is Nikko day, and so also a very early day. Hopefully the weather will still be nice so we can enjoy walking around.

Day 19 - Kamakura

So! Today I went to see another very big Buddha, this time the largest outdoor Buddha. It's in Kamakura, which takes about an hour to get to from Tokyo on the regular train, with stops. So it's not bad at all. We didn't even know there were green cars on that kind of train, so we sat in the regular part of the train, but it was fine because we had seats. I spent a good portion of the ride watching this really cute baby next to us ._. it was so cute!

I actually wore a light sweatshirt for most of the day today because it was very cool. It rained all morning but eventually let up, which is when we left. When we got there, we went down a shopping arcade by the station and ate at a good Chinese restaurant, though it was definitely Japanese-style Chinese. I only sort of understood what I was ordering, heh. But it tasted good. Then we went back to the station and took a bus over to the site of the big Buddha.

It was really cool! :< It had a nice patina on it and was just very nice to look at. The surroundings were also very pretty... the trees there were nice. There was also a big hill (small mountain?) in the background. You could even go inside the Buddha! We went in and climed up the little staircase. Inside they had a display about the way the Buddha was cast and put together in sections. There was another staircase that led a little further up, so you could look out some windows in the back of the Buddha, but it was blocked off. ._. I did a thing where you try to stick a 10 yen coin somewhere inside the Buddha, which is maybe supposed to bring luck? But you can't just set it on the ground or something, you have to find a spot on the inside of the sculpture. I found a little creavace and stuck it in :< but I liked seeing where other people managed to get theirs.

Afterward we walked down the street to Hase-dera Temple, which is home to a very large statue of Hase Kannon, a Bodhisattva. Sweet potatoes are big in these parts, probably moreso right now because of autumn. ._. I got some sweet potato chips and cakes at a little shop. A few stores down we got hot, giant rice crackers... like the ones we got in Asakusa, only big. They wrap it in a piece of nori. Even though I was so full, I ate one anyway. So good ^_^ That's me with my half-eaten giant cracker. I look a little weird in that picture but oh well. :<

We got to Hase Kannon, which ended up being really awesome, and not just for the statue. The grounds of the temple were awesome, built into a hill. The whole place was a garden which apparently is all abloom (abloom?) with peonys and other pretty things during the spring. Even now, there were nice flowers and trees all over. There were these caves with many alcoves full of statues... I really enjoyed ducking my way through there. It feels like a secret only you know about :< except everyone knows :<<<

The Kannon statue was huge and awesome, all covered in gold leaf. You couldn't take photos inside the cave or any of the temple buildings ._. so no pictures of the cool stuff. But outside the statue building, there was an area overlooking the sea, which was very nice. There was a hawk flying overhead which was a little terrifying o_o;

After exploring the grounds (and its giant spiders x_X; eew) we got back on the bus and went back to the station. We walked down to the main street for shopping for souvenirs, etc. It was divided in the centre by a sidewalk lined with cherry blossom trees... obviously Kamakura would be really awesome in the spring time. We got some dove-shaped cookies that are a thing there, and also they're cute ._. We also explored some stores full of pieces of a particular type of carving from Kamakura, which is all a deep red colour. Mrs. Black got a nice vase on sale for a good price... generally the pieces are very expensive.


At the end of the street was a shrine, which we decided to investigate. It ended up being a really beautiful place. The pond had awesome birds I've never seen before ._. and there was a gigantic ginkgo tree (it's on the left in the photo). The main building sat at the top of a set of stairs, which is picturesque, if not a little tiring, heh. I remember reading somewhere that at this particular shrine, there are practicing monks... and indeed, when we went there, there were chanting monks. There was also another monk in a side room using a computer, which was kind of funny :<

We wound back down the street and cut over to the busier arcade that we had eaten at earlier. I had been looking for some soft-serve in a flavour I was in the mood for, and when I found a store that specializes in different types of honey, I knew their ice cream would be for me. So I had honey flavoured soft serve... it was really good! Just enough flavour. ^_^ We looked over some awesome umbrellas, too, but like all the awesome umbrellas I've seen in Japan, I didn't choose to invest in one. They can get quite expensive. Mrs. Black got one, though, to replace one she left in a cab (oops). Umbrellas are a big deal here because of the urban environment, I guess, and they're just very practical. People mostly carry the long umbrellas with a handle. There are umbrella lockers in a lot of places like museums, and most stores have at least an umbrella stand, but usually it's a plastic bag system. There are long skinny plastic bags and underneath, a trash can for the used bags (only!). Some places have fancier versions where you stick your umbrella right into a hole in a box and pull it out sideways, and you have a bagged umbrella. I like all these sorts of things :< Kind of like how I like coin lockers, hee.

Anyway, we made it back to Shibuya without incident. We stopped at the Tokyu food show (I WILL MISS FOOD BASEMENTS A LOT) before grabbing a cab. I got a mango mousse thing at the basement, but it was nothing to write home about, uh... as it were. The fresh mango on top was awesome though.

Tomorrow is Ghibli day! I fell asleep writing this post so I'm actually finishing writing it on Ghibli day, heh.

[Day 17 - Sumo ^_^] and [Day 18 - Shopping in the rain, again]

So remember my plan to stay indoors all day yesterday because it was supposed to rain all day? Well, it didn't rain. Not even a little! I'm glad it didn't, but on the other hand...

Yesterday I went to the Tokyo Edo Museum, which is right next to the sumo arena. The museum was really well done and had interesting exhibits, and many of them even had English signs, which was nice. You could get a free tour guide who speaks English, too, but I didn't feel like it ._. I was kind of mad because I was carrying around my slightly heavy bag because I couldn't find any coin lockers, which seemed weird. After halfway through the museum I left the exhibit area to go eat at one of the museum restaurants and I found... coin lockers. Yay! I was only sad I didn't find it sooner. >_>

The museum had a lot of replicas, both life-size and scale models, of Edo-period buildings and homes, which were all very interesting. The models that had tiny people in them had binoculars so you could view it as if you were looking out onto real streets and such, which I liked. The little people... :< There was also a live traditional dance performance, which was interesting. I only watched part of it because there were no more seats, and I was hungry ._.;

The restaurant was at the top of the museum and had a nice view of Tokyo. I had cold soba with tempura. I don't think I'm a cold noodle fan. I liked the tempura though. I think one of them might have been okra (!) or a type of pepper the Japanese use in cooking... I forget its name... but either way that was definitely my favourite piece. It had bite, but not really spice, and it had a really good flavour. Now I'm going to look for okra dishes ._.

I met the Blacks at the sumo place around 3.30 or so. There were crowds outside lining the sidewalks, hoping to catch and glimpse and a photo of the wrestlers as they walk in. I saw a couple, all wearing yukata, and all very large men.

Our seats were near the top but they were nice and plush, and we could see the action well. We got some french fries which turned out to be amazing french fries ^_^ so then I got more french fries ^_^;;;; and we watched all the matches til the end of the group for that day. There is a lot of ritual and ceremony in sumo; of the time we spent there, I'd venture to say only about 15% was actual wrestling. The matches only last a few seconds, maybe a minute at the most, but that's once they actually start. Beforehand they do a whole ritual of basically trying to psych each other out, as well as purifying themselves and the ring, etc. The ring is on a mound about two feet tall, and a lot of the time they get thrown off of it or onto the edge of it or something, and it always looks painful. ._. It also looks painful for the judges and spectators who sit on the floor and get sumo wrestlers flung at them >_>

I didn't get any good photos cos my camera just wasn't capable from that distance, but Mr. Black took a ton. I definitely enjoyed sumo a lot more than I anticipated that I would. I'm glad they put a short time limit on the pre-wrestling waffling around, though. There used to be no time limit at all, so they could just walk back and forth as long as they wanted. Then they imposed a 10 minute limit, then 7,5, and the current 4. It still feels like quite a long time because they usually use almost every last second. Enough time to get a snack though, I guess. ^_^;

Afterward I decided to go back to Akiba, to hit up another maid cafe or two and to look intently for some figures, which I did first. I found a good store that does buy/sell/trade so you can get a good deal on a used figure, which I did. I got two Kujibiki-An figures and a fig of Souseiseki ._. She's so cute! I wanted to get her sister, too, but she was more expensive... I guess I'll try to get it another time, some day somewhere. In hindsight it probably would've been better to get Suiseiseki instead of one of the Kujibiki figs, but... oh well.

I also found a few places that are nothing but capsule machines, which was exciting because all the machines I've been finding have been the same stuff over and over. The specialty capsule places have some of the current but less widespread. I was happily surprised that every capsule I got was the one I wanted. There are usually about 4-8 different possible designs. I seem to have unusual luck with the capsule machines, like back at Asakusa when I got the gyoza-headed Kitty bag :<

I found three (!) more maid cafes, and took photos at each. I only went into one, because honestly, I've been pretty hesitant about going into the maid cafes. At this one there were girls eating there, at least, but I always feel bad because I'm not just a girl but a gaijin. I'm also always afraid that I'm going to misinterpret something about the cafe before or during going in, so that I'll embarass myself or others. I went to Cafe Doll, which actually has my favourite figure of all my figures. The maids were really cute .__. just like at Jam. After overcoming the initial language barrier (happy hour is 500 yen, she says), I sat at a little tiny table and ordered picture pancakes, which they put a picture on in chocolate. What I didn't realize is that they bring it to your table and ask you what you want the picture to be :< and then draw it there :<<< the maid... So I asked for... a kuma. (:<) It was cute. She gave him a :3 face instead of a :< face but it was still very cute. All in all, the maid cafe was a pretty nice experience, but you definitely pay for being waited on by cute maids. >_>

There was also an abundance of maids out on the streets that night, probably because it was Saturday, and they were all passing out fliers. I took a lot of them because a maid gave it to me, heh. There was also one that was a ticket to do the lotto game, which was run by another maid, but I got a red ball so I just got a cracker as a prize ._. I got up the courage to ask one of the street maids if I could take her photo because you definitely can't in the cafes, but the street is a little borderline, so I thought I'd give it a shot. She was so shy and cute and she didn't know why I would want to take her picture. I tried to tell her it's because she's so cute, without sounding too creepy... hope it worked >_> She let me take her picture though ^_^

The other person that let me take their picture was the terrifying Suigintou-san. He (he!) was scary as hell, but that's why i had to take his picture. He was wearing a Suigintou costume (which, for those who don't know, was the second costume I've made for myself), but with weird shoes, and a generic loli headband instead of the regular one, which also had cat ears. And he had sparkly make-up on. He was terrifying. He even had props to pose when I took his photo, lol. I can't tell how serious he was about his cosplay o_o;;

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Part two of this epic entry is about today. First I went to the Meiji Shrine, which is one of the bigger and more famous shrines in Tokyo. There are usually some weddings there but as it was pouring, I wasn't very hopeful. But...! I saw two ^_^ Well, at least one, though I'm pretty sure the second one was also a wedding... I don't know what else it would have been. One of the brides was all in white kimono, and the other was in a vibrant red one. Both were really pretty. I liked the guys, too ^_^; There was also some sort of ceremony or ritual happening in the shrine itself that I didn't understand, but it involved a few priests and a giant drum, so I was happy to watch it anyway.

I ate at the restaurant on the grounds, which was promising enough. My remaining skepticism mostly faded when I sat down and saw the food other people were getting nearby, which looked very good. My food, however... sucked. Totally. This is the only time I can say I've had an outright bad meal in Japan. The tempura was greasy and soggy...! Two things tempura should never be. Eew. And all the soggy greasiness dripped down onto the rice, so eating that wasn't too enjoyable either. They didn't give me a spoon for the miso, and I wasn't inclined to ask for one. The sides were tofu, which I don't enjoy no matter what, pickles (which looked pretty bad even for pickles), and something or other else. It was unidentifiable, but also not appealing. To top it off, it was a pretty damn expensive meal. I was pretty mad about that whole thing.

I walked back to Harajuku in the rain. Rainrainrain. It poured all day. A few times it went down to a mist/drizzle and I didn't put my umbrella up. The streets were packed as usual, but with umbrellas in the mix, it's even more chaotic, as there is now a third dimension in play with bobbing and weaving. Somehow everyone manages, though. I found a lot of fun little stores tucked here and there, as well as the stores on the main street. I found this store with interesting clothes, and when I went inside and talked to the owner, I found out that he designs and makes everything in his store himself(!) so they are all originals. He has piles of semi-complete clothes and pieces of things with his sewing machine near the cash register. He loves rock, which is sweet, because I also love rock. The little space in his store that isn't full of clothes is full of posters of bands like Pantera (lol), etc. I tried on a bunch of his stuff, and went for a sweatshirt with bunny ears on the hood (I couldn't resist >_>). It has a very punky attitude. The only problem was that, on the ears in particular, it said some things that probably wouldn't be... uh... appreciated in America. It was nothing really bad, just nothing I should be wearing around everywhere. He brought out a baggie full of different patches with the phrases on it that are found all over his clothes, and we worked together to decide a solution. He did it in about three minutes for me on the machine... ah, true customization. :3

He was really fun to talk to, and drew me a map to the post office. While he was drawing it we were both singing along to "November Rain" because that song is sweet. ._. lol He also told me that if I ever design any cool characters, he would buy them, because he's looking for new characters for his clothes. So now I'm thinking about clothing characters... heh

I bought a ton of souvenirs for other people, and a few other things for myself, then I went back... fortunately the rain slowed down so the walk was fine. Still no Harajuku girl photos... stupid rain :(

Now it's bed time... tomorrow is the trip to Kamakura. Big Buddha awaits ^_^; Also, the image upload for my blog is being weird, so fewer pictures in this entry than intended... sorry. It's probably a long enough entry, anyway. ;p

[Day 16 - Shopping in the rain] -and- [Day 10 - Shimabara and Kumamoto :<]

I didn't do much of note today... I switched my Nikko day with a shopping day from next week because it's raining today (typhoon's comin in... it's pouring right now >_>) and it's supposed to be decent weather next week. Also, Mrs. Black can come to Nikko, too, if I go next week, which is an added bonus for both of us... she really wants to go there, and I like having a traveling partner. So my new itinerary looks like:

Sat - Tokyo Edo Museum, Sumo, Akiba (horray for staying indoors during the typhoon...)
Sun - Harajuku :< and Meiji
Mon - Kamakura
Tues - Studio Ghibli Museum, last minute souvenir shopping
Wed - Nikko, packing
Thurs - Playing with the puppy (:<), packing, going home

That's it! Today I shopped in Shinjuku and Shibuya. It looked like they were setting up for a festival in Shinjuku, but it's probably tomorrow... and it will be raining.... I might stop over depending on how the day goes and how hard it's actually raining.

I went back to OIONE up to the goth/loli/etc floors and got myself a sweet jacket ^_^ I got another jacket later at 109 ^_^;;; fall's coming... jacket season! I've also been having a lot of Krispy Kremes... there's one nearby, and if you're waiting in line to buy something, and they are making donuts (they always are), a lady comes out with a tray of hot donuts and gives you a free one :< Nom!

The rest of this entry will be me talking about my day 10, going back and filling in some of the gaps of my blog when I couldn't use the internet.

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Shimabara greeted me with the usual blast of humidity, which I'm used to by now. It turned into rain later, which I'm also used to >_>

But I did everything before it rained, except getting back to pick up my bags at the hotel. I started off by seeking out the big reclining Buddha, which is one of the big Shimabara attractions. The way there is through a covered shopping arcade (those are common in Kyushu, it seems...), which was nice. There were many regular stores and also some carts and shops selling fresh produce and, most of all, flowers. There was a small garden with some little fishes in it, which was a nice break in the shop row.

Near the end of my shopping arcade trek, there was much to-do over a high school (? maybe? middle school?) taiko(?) drum group, which was really cool. I filmed part of their performance, so I have something better than my blurry photos to remember it by (I was being jostled a lot by little old ladies -_-;). They were fun to watch, though I didn't know why they were there. I had also passed a group of Japanese cheerleaders on the way to the arcade (so cute ^_^;)... hmm...

I made it to the Buddha site, which was a shrine with a huge cemetary, which was cool in itself. At the main buildings of the shrine there were some other statues that were also really nice... I would've gone just to see those and the vastness of the cemetary, with a big mountain in the background (very cool about Shimabara). I wound my way through the cemetary, where the stones were so close together that you could really only walk on the prescribed path to the Buddha unless you were trying really hard. Then it was up some stairs to the Buddha, which was really cool. It's the longest or second longest reclining Buddha in Japan, and the carving was really fine. I couldn't fit it all in one camera frame because you could only step back about 10 feet from it >_> but I did my best, and took a movie to remember later.

Walking back through the arcade, it turns out that all the high school orpossiblymiddleschool action was revolving around a store. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but it appeared that they rented out or were loaned a store for a few months, and bought, made, or were given some wares to sell, and this was their big opening day. Everything in the store was well priced, and all the school girls (and a few school guys) were all cute and eager. I got a lunch bag (¥100) and a really cute little figure which I think is Jizo (¥300). I hope the girls didn't mind that I took their picture... at least I didn't take one of the cheerleaders, though I probably could have... they were all peppy and stuff.

Also, finally, my duffel bag being unable to accommodate my growing Kyushu souvenir pile along with what I had brought along, I bought an inexpensive rolling bag at a department store, which was a tremendous help for the rest of my journey. It will probably also prove useful on the way back to the US. Also in the department store, I tried the cup-dispenser-type vending machine for the first time. They carry hot and cold drinks. I don't like coffee and it was hot out so I got peach Hi-C. Peachy deliciousness ^_^ The cup falls down, then the ice, then the drink. It's cheaper than the regular vending machines because there is less waste, I suppose... providing a paper cup is probably cheaper than a plastic bottle, ne? At any rate, I like the cup vends. On the way out of the store I got a pastry with some shredded veggies and... ham?... in the middle. However, the binder for the veggies ended up being more mayonaisey and less cheesy than expected, so I only ended up eating about half ._. They love mayo here, heh.

There were many places in the shopping arcade pumping in water from the Shimabara fresh water springs, which are another great thing of note about Shimabara. You're supposed to drink from those little fountains, but... I didn't. Even when I read somewhere that you are allowed to/supposed to do something, I'm often still unsure about it unless I see a Japanese person do it first, heh. I'm afraid of offending someone, or possibly their religion. I always feel a little bad when I go to shrines and take photos... oh, well. I do it anyway.

I walked down the street to the "carp stream," which supposedly holds about 1500 koi. I reached one end and there was a group of fish, but I didn't see any a little further down. Walking down further meant getting further from the other places I was trying to go, and it wasn't really worth it for the carp, so I enjoyed the little group for a while before moving on. Also it was hot... ._.;

I walked in the nice heat to an area that has some old samurai houses, which were really cool... old thatched rooves and everything. You can even go inside. The one I went into had a life-size diorama of the samurai and his family eating, which was cool. Also, down the middle of the street there, there's a channel through fresh water constantly flows, which back in the samurai days provided the households with fresh water.

I walked back to the hotel after that... I wanted to make sure I got a ferry to Kumamoto. It started raining on my way back, but it wasn't so bad. I didn't visit Shimabara Castle, which I could see lit up from my hotel window the previous night, but I saw it from pretty much every angle except up close, heh.

I took the ferry to Kumamoto, which was a pleasant ride, though it was too hazy for photos of the distant mountains to come out. ._. Then I had to take a bus to the centre of town. At first I found Kumamoto a little depressing, because it seemed a bit industrial and devoid of bustle (I like bustle...!) and also the weather was dreary, which didn't help my perceptions. My hotel room wasn't too bad... no window though, haha. Such is the business hotel. It was clean and contained a bed and that was good enough for me. But all this combined with having a difficult time finding accommodations in Beppu (apparently, it was a holday weekend! >_>) made me sort of sad and irritated.

I went downstairs to the convenience store for a snack, and when I looked out the window... hustle (e.g. bustle)! It was raining but I just went :< toward the bustle, without my umbrella and camera ._. which was unfortunate but oh well, such is the impromptu magnetic pull of bustle. I walked down a small, busy street and found... a covered shopping arcade! What a surprise! What was nice about it, though, is that it was around 9 or 10 and totally full of people. The arcade and the many side streets coming off of it were full of restaurants, bars, clubs, and some of those more dubious clubs with the pictures of pretty ladies on the outside :< hee

As I walked down the arcade I saw lights... sound... ye..no! Pachinko, damn. But then...! Crane machines ^_^ This place was a bit different... the people who own it made up their own games, usually involving moving some mundane object (like a slipper) rather than the prize itself. Then, you get a prize for completing the task. Yes, I got a thing. ^_^; Partially because the guy who worked there was nice to me and kept moving the thing to help me get it more easily, hee. It would've been impossible otherwise, though.

I also found a cute bakery that features many animal-shaped baked goods. My favourite were the turtle-turtle-turtle stacks, which was a big, medium, and small bread stacked on top of one another, each made to look like a turtle. They actually looked like they might have been melon pan... o_o; all sugary and stuff, and their shells were coloured. I wanted one as a souvenir but, as you could imagine, it wouldn't have kept well. Instead I bought a kuma-shaped bun (in Kumamoto :<) and a mango-apple juice box and took it back to my room for dessert. ^_^

The kuma bread is the only evening Kuma(moto) picture you get, because like I said, I didn't have my camera. His eyes look a little creepy because they got messed up on the way home ._. but I promise it was cute!

After this novel of an entry, I'm going to bed. Back to early days starting tomorrow. ^_^

Day Fifteen - Odaiba

So today, it rained. This was day 2/2 of making up for lost sleep, and it was nice ^_^ it also worked out for the best because it rained all day until around 4 ._.

Because it was raining, I chose an indoor thing to do in Tokyo, which was going to the Odaiba area. It's an artificial island that contains many futuristic, industrial, and otherwise interesting buildings. This includes the Fuji (as in TVs) building, which is all these pieces at 90-degree angles, with a big sphere set amongst them. To get there, you have to take this new train system that's pretty cool, actually... it's unmanned, and all new and modern. You go all woosh up and over the bridge to Odaiba ._. woosh...

First I went to Venus Fort, which is a big shopping mall with an old Roman theme, like the Caesar's Palace shopping mall in Las Vegas, except smaller. It was a good place to kill a couple hours, even though I didn't get anything. Across the walkway from VF is the Toyota showroom/info center/entertainment place, where you can do things like go on a ride where you sit in a hybrid car, which I did not do. I spent no time in the Toyota place, really, except walking through it to get to the giant ferris wheel.

Supposedly, it's the tallest ferris wheel in the world, as of 1999 (I think). I'm not sure if it still has that distinction, but it's still pretty cool. It was a nice ferris wheel and gave good views out over the water to Tokyo. I went up around dusk, so the lights of the city were just coming on. The whole thing made me feel kind of nostalgic and, of course, made me think about Honey & Clover :<

... :<<<<<<

Anyway... after that, I made my way over to Sega Joypolis, which is a sort of indoor theme park. Like most theme parks, it's the kind of thing where you pay a high admission price, and then everything inside costs money, too. I got the "passport" which lets me go on any of the rides without paying more, but everything else... food, video games, carnival games, etc... costs more money, of course. Annoying. ALSO ANNOYING which made me really sad, is that they were doing this stamp program where you get a stamp card and try to fill it up by going on a bunch of rides and playing 2 carnival games. Then you turn it in and get... something or other. I got my card filled up by 9.30 and headed back to the card place... it was gone! You had to do it by 9! ._. I was really sad about that. I don't know why it made me so sad, rather than just mildly annoyed.

Other than that, my experience was pretty good, although it made me miss my friends... everyone there was doing everything in pairs at least. I went on the spinning roller coaster, which was actually really painful... very very jerky. It's unfortunate, because it would've been fun. I also went on a bunch of virtual reality rides where a bunch of people sit in a car or something in a dark room in front of a screen and the car moves around, etc. Those were all pretty enjoyable. I also did three different things that were similar, except they were games... two shooters and one hang-gliding game. Those were interesting though not as enjoyable.

The only thing I actually skipped because I was alone was probably the coolest thing there (sadly) but it also had the longest line. It was a half pipe with giant snowboard shaped things attached to poles in the ceiling. One person stood on each end of the board, facing out in opposite directions, and the arms swung them back and forth, while they tried to spin the board around. There were four going at the same time and the team with the most points at the end won. It looked pretty sweet, I have to say.

I came away with some prizes, all won in the carnival area (I bought carnival tokens to get some stamps on my card, but... we know how that turned out >_>) and I have to say that Joypolis was fun... definitely a good way to spend a rainy day.

After all that, I came back to Shibuya again, cos all the restaurants in Odaiba were closed ._. I ate Italian again .____. mostly because I wanted to eat at a nice-ish sit down place after walking around all day, and it was the first and possibly only one open. There are a lot of places to eat that are open late or 24h, but most of them are very casual, or stand up places, or those little shops with one small counter with just a couple of stools. Wasn't in the mood for that. The place where I ate was called La Bohemme, I think, and the food was good and reasonably priced. I had some risotto... nom ^_^;

It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, but I'm going to Nikko, which is north of Tokyo, and home of the infamous "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" monkeys, among many other cool things. I'm pretty excited about going, even though it's likely that it will rain for at least part of the day. I walked through a bamboo forest in the rain in Usuki, so some temples and such in Nikko shouldn't be too bad.

Day Fourteen (!) - Ueno, the pandaless wonder :<

Hello. ^_^

I really enjoyed my trek across Kyushu, but I have to say, I'm pretty glad to be back in bright and busy Tokyo after all of that.

Today I went to Ueno, which is mostly a park, with many museums and some shrines both in and around it. Also, there's a zoo! BUT. Oh, that damn zoo.

Mrs. Black came with me at the start of my day... I slept in to make up for the previous night so we got going around 1 or so. We were going to go to Ueno Zoo to see... PANDAS. YES. I heard the zoo wasn't that good except for the fact that it had pandas, and that was worth $5 to me. :< But when we got to the zoo... no pandas! There was a sign saying that there has been no panda exhibit as of April 2008, when... the panda... died. ._____.;;;; It died! There's no more panda! Needless to say, we were sad and disappointed, because we really wanted to see a panda. But at least we didn't pay admission first.

Instead we went to a nearby shrine, which is unusual in that your admission fee lets you actually go inside and view artifacts and get an up-close look at the relief carvings, lauquer, and gold leaf that make up the structures. We took off our shoes and went inside. There were some cool things on display, including a very old map of Japan done in metal. You weren't supposed to take photos inside but I snuck in a few covertly... the negative side to doing that is that framing and focus of the shots is sort of a mixed bag. The rest of the grounds were nice, and included a hundred or so very VERY big stone lanterns, as well as, unusually, about 50 copper lanterns. This is one of the main attractions. I certainly is the only shrine I went to where I saw copper lanterns, and they were huge like the stone ones! They were really pretty. A sign said they aren't used for regular lighting, but only when lighting fires for rituals, etc, or something to that effect.

Afterwards, Mrs. Black left to take care of some things... it was her daughter's birthday today. :< I continued on through the park, deciding to choose one of the many museums to go to. I chose the biggest one, the Tokyo National Museum, which is supposed to be very good. While looking at the Ueno Park map, a Japanese man approached me and asked if he could talk to me, as he was practicing his English. I said yes, and so he asked me several questions about where I was going, if I was in Japan on vacation, etc. He was surprised to hear that I like the craziness of Shibuya :< He offered to come to the museum with me to continue the conversation, as he is a member there, but I declined.

I went to the museum by myself and it was very large, consisting of four separate buildings. I only made it to one building, and part of it was a whirlwind tour, at that, since I was running out of time before they closed. ._. I did get to see a lot of cool things, though, including their current exhibit of awesome statues and other artifacts from a temple in Kyoto that is being renovated, which is the only reason they allowed the items to leave the grounds. The statues of Buddha and related figures that they had were awesome. Most of them had inlaid crystal eyes, which I have never seen before. It made them look almost alive. No photos allowed in that room, of course :<

After I sort of ran around seeing as many rooms as I could before closing, I left to go take a look at the big pond of the park, with a shrine in the middle. The pond is sort of divided by paths into three sections. One is open for renting little boats, and the rest is entirely covered in enormous lotus leaves. Huge! Without the flowers, so many lotus plants with the giant leaves and the pods were almost gross :< I was torn about how interesting versus icky I found them. However, there was some nice animal life... really big fish, lots of turtles ^_^ , and some ducks. The shrine itself was not terribly interesting, though it's sort of hard to describe why, so I'll leave it at that.

I spent the rest of the evening at a shopping arcade near the park, which consisted basically of three parallel streets (plus some cross streets) of stalls and shops. Lots of fish and some fruits, veggies, and mushrooms for sale. The stores were mostly clothing or cosmetic stores offering discounted merchandise. Some were more regular clothing stores. There were also a lot of pachinko/slot places mixed in, heh. One street had a bunch of capsule hotels (I'm dying to try one of those >_>) and other facilities to appeal to the male on his own for the evening. All in all it was a nice area to spend the time as it got dark, since it was full of people and energy. One of the fruit vendors was selling skewers with a big slice of fresh fruit on it for ¥100. I got a nice slice of pineapple ^_^ it was yummy.

Afterwards I went back to Shibuya seeking food, where I went to a really nice restaurant-sized cafe and had pasta with sauce. I like that you can usually get some kind of a set of food at most restaurants, or you order something and it ends up being a set. I guess since more traditional Japanese meals consist of several components, that often translates into other kinds of eating establisments. At the very least, you often get a "mini salad," which can be any number of things, but ever since Fukuoka, I always try the little salad. At the museum in Fukuoka, there was a tiny mound of salad consisting of shredded cabbage or lettuce and shredded carrot, with some sort of peanuty dressing... really good. I've received the tiny salad at a few other places, and it always has some kind of great dressing, so I always eat it. My pasta set tonight came with a little bowl of chips and a little bowl of salad (really little... a 3-or-so-inch dia. ramekin) and the pasta, which was really good.

I finished off the day with a strawberry parfait at the Blue Seal Cafe, which is now my favourite place to get ice cream. ^_^ They even have flavours from Okinawa, and there's good people watching from the second floor eating area.

So, tentative plan for the last week of my trip:

Thurs - Roppongi and/or Odaiba(?), cos it's raining.
Fri - Day trip to Nikko
Sat - Sumo day! With dinner and/or shopping afterwards.
Sun - Harajuku, for another attempt at seeing some Harajuku girls, plus shopping and the Meiji Shrine.
Mon - Day trip to Kamakura with Mrs. Black
Tues - Stuido Ghibli Museum!
Wed - Shopping in Shinjuku (and picking up some melon pan :<), probably packing.
Thurs - Packing, then going home ._.

Man, I've been so tired... I'm falling asleep here >_> oh well. Here I go!
(actually, I did fall asleep writing this, which was probably obvious. But now I fixed it! ^_^;)

Back in Tokyo ^_^

Hello everyone...! I finally made it back to Tokyo... and the internet, heh. I'm going to put up an entry (or two?) tomorrow some time. But right now, my eyes are closing... sleepy time. ._.

I'll leave you with one photo of some deer in Nara (more tomorrow).