For the Spring break between school years, friend Steve decided to visit Japan and see the sites. We decided to meet in Tokyo and travel from there. I left Matsue around 8pm on an overnight bus to Tokyo. I had to leave an enkai (party for teachers at my high school) early, and was pretty bummed about it. I missed Heather singing karaoke I hear... :( On the plus side, I had an excuse to leave without eating these beauties:
I thought they were tempura vegetables until I saw the giant eyes staring at me. I almost had it in my mouth... Maybe if I had eaten it without noticing the fact that they were ENTIRE FISH complete with GIANT EYEBALLS! I would have liked them and been fine. However, I noticed, and therefore my brain said "No way, Jose!" and they did not enter my mouth. There be bones in there man! And anyone who knows me knows I don't touch bones!
Anyhoo. 12 hour journey by bus to Tokyo, and I arrived at Shinjuku station at 8am Saturday morning. I had some time to kill until things opened, and I found a locker to store my suitcase in for the day since I didn't want to be dragging it all around Tokyo until we could check into the hostel that evening. I went to a cafe to drink a matcha latte and eat my calorie mate (mmm chocolate!) and read. Around noon, my friend Kenji met me at the station to show me around Shinjuku. We walked around the station and around Kabuki-cho (on the look out for Yakuza!) and found a cat cafe! Yes, a cafe devoted to playing with cats! GLORIOUS! I made him stop and we spent an hour chilling with lots and lots of cats. Sadly, you couldn't pick them up which I really wanted to do.
The sign pointing the way to the cat cafe!
Lazy cats!
The cats were pretty lazy and didn't seem to mind the tons of people around them. They ignored you unless you had cat food to give them. Lol. For those who wonder about why such a thing exists, Tokyo is jam packed with people living on top of each other in tiny little apartments that don't allow pets. Love cats but have no where to keep one? Come visit the cat cafe for 1 hour a week and it's like you have tons of them. Plus, you don't have to clean the litter box. lol. When we left we got a fancy brochure listing all the cats and their names and likes. Adorable.
After hanging out around Tokyo with Kenji, we parted ways and I went to meet Steve at the station by our hostel in Kinshichou. I may have taken a few wrong trains but I got there in the end! Woops. Steve and I set off for our hostel, which was a capsule inn! (
Capsule Inn Kinshichou) The front desk person was super nice and explained everything and showed us to our capsules. Steve and I dropped off our stuff and then went for dinner.
The hostel was pretty cool. Capsule Inns in general usually only allows males due to the shared dressing/bathing spaces. This hostel's 6th floor was for women only and had a special lock and key. They didn't have a bathing room for women in the hostel, but you could go outside and next door and use the public women's bathhouse for free. This was the Japanese style shower and big communal tub deal. It was pretty pleasant actually. The hostel gave you a towel to use and a yukata to wear after your bath. I felt so fancy!
My key bracelet. The small key is to my locker and the big key is to open the door to the girl's floor. I was in capsule 616 (6th floor, 16th capsule)
The "door" to my capsule, and my little TV. I got 2 channels.
Jorgie showing off my tiny shelf and the controls to the TV, radio, alarm clock and light.
The capsules from the outside. There's mine, 616. It wasn't hard to get into it but exiting was complicated due to the funky stairs. It's entirely possible I fell getting out the first time, but I'll never say for sure.
My little capsule :)
So Steve and I saw a lot in Tokyo. We went to Harajuku, Yoyogi Park, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Mitaka, and lots of other places. We did a lot and yet there's so much we missed. What can you do!
Meiji Shrine
We got to see 2 weddings at Meiji Shrine. Nothing screams intimate wedding like tourists snapping your picture. I guess that's what you get when you decide to get married at one the biggest and most famous shrines in Tokyo.
We walked around Yoyogi park checking out all the different people. There were families, people having hanami (cherry blossom viewing parties, a little bit early, most of the trees hadn't bloomed yet,) cosplayers, and this adorable skateboarding dog.
He was excellent. He pushed himself along to keep up with his owner. Adorable!
At the entrance to the park there were a few different groups of greasers who were playing Japanese and American 50's music and dancing. It was pretty ridiculous and cool.
We walked through Roppongi all the way to Tokyo Tower. Bit of a hike, but really cool. Plus I found Dr. Peps on the way, so totally worth it.
Steve is just too cool. We went into the shops at the bottom but didn't go up to the observation deck.
We walked around the Imperial Palace gardens.
So many precisely groomed trees!
We found the Evangelion store in Harajuku. For those who don't know, Evangelion is one of my favorite animes.
The Hachiko statue at Shibuya station. One of the more popular meeting places in Tokyo, and famous story about a faithful dog named Hachiko.
Glorious Dr. Peps! I only found it in Tokyo.
We also went to visit the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Studio Ghibli is basically Japanese Disney. They've made amazing animated films such as Ponyo, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and countless others. The museum is pretty small and famous, and you have to buy your tickets in advance. In Japan, you can only buy them from Lawson convenience stores, and probably travel agents... I bought our tickets a month in advance. When you buy your tickets, you buy them for a certain entry time, and that's when you get to enter the museum.
We got to Mitaka a couple hours early and wandered around, checking out the sites before going to the museum. The museum was pretty small, but super cute and cool. The layout was awesome. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures inside the museum, so I don't really have many. We got to watch a cute little animated short about a puppy that you can only see at the museum, and sit in a cat bus! Exciting! I wish I had a picture of that. There was also a surplus of animation information that was really nice to see as an animation major.
One of the giant robots from Laputa. He's up on the roof!
Totoro and the dust balls welcome me to the museum.
Steve on the stairs to the roof top garden.
Laputa cube! Only makes sense if you've seen the movie I think.
Stairs to the rooftop garden and the Laputa robot.
Cute fountain you could pump and play with and the outside cafe.
The museum.
After Tokyo, we took a train to see Fuji-san. more to come!
