Japan: Ganbate!: Week ten: Going to sleep in Osaka and waking up in Tokyo

Ten is for Tokyo!

Hisashiburi forreal this time, everyone! Well, at least I have a good excuse this time. I just got back from Tokyo this morning at 7, and you should be proud--even after hardly any sleep on that dang night bus, I still went to both my classes, stayed (mostly) awake, began and finished my midterm for one of my classes, and uploaded my pictures while studying for my vocab quiz tomorrow, all without sleeping! Impressive, right? /zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Toshi (RA), Zach, me, Shara

/cough, Just kidding! Maybe. Well, let's get this thing started.

There was the Seminar House IV Halloween Party Tuesday! That was fun, lots of silly games put on by our wonderful RAs, and lots of delicious food from Costco <3 And I even won bingo, which is always a sign of a good day. I had to fit in all my homework I knew would be due while I was gone, so that wasn't very much fun, nor was packing. Wednesday everyone at Kansai Gaidai dressed up, which made for an interesting day--don't know why they didn't just dress up the next day, on actual Halloween, but whatever. These kids went all out, mostly because for so many of them it was their first Halloween. How sad! God. Well, at least they get to experience it now.

And then, that night, we headed out for Osaka station to catch the night bus. For our trip there we paid an extra $10 ($45 instead of $35) for what they call the "sleeper" seats, which ended up being like so: Three chairs, with a gap between each one, plus one against the window. They reclined much farther back, almost vertical (almost--kind of like a good recliner), and they even provided a fluffy little blanket, plus this bus had a bathroom. No power outlets, which sucks, but you win some you lose some. After picking up people in Kyoto (about a solid 45 minute bus ride), he finally shut off the lights, and we all curled up to go to sleep. I have officially decided, after scientific research (or, ya know, four rides back and forth on a bus) that the perfect equation to actually sleeping, thoroughly, on the night bus is this: two Benadryl's taken approximately 10 minutes before the lights get shut off + one 16 oz glass of alcohol (6% or higher) + something to wrap around your eyes + White Noise App = sleep! Otherwise, consider it all but impossible.

Tokyo Skytree

We woke up in Tokyo the next day at 6am, and decided to head over to the Tsukuji Fish Market. This is one of the largest fish markets in the world, and we all know how much I love fish, right? Hah. Anyway, it was kind of cool (I guess), to see all the horrible gore of chopping up little fishies and suffocating them. I don't want to sound like a hippie, but I'd like to just play ignorant and not know where my food comes from, so I'm glad I don't eat fish. It was smelly and violent and did I mention smelly? SO SMELLY. Whatever.

We headed over to Tokyo Skytree, now the highest building in Tokyo at over 2000 meters high, and for anyone who is planning on going, know that you technically should make a reservation. We only waited for an hour, but some days it gets sold out, especially if you go later in the day. It's $20 for adults to go up, and you probably will want to try to plan it around the weather. Since we knew it was going to be cloudy all weekend, we chose the best day we had, but it was still cloudy enough that we couldn't see too far out, and definitely too cloudy to see Fuji, which kinda sucked. For a mountain its size, it sure is elusive...

My bed at the hostel, first night

After Skytree we shopped around, got some cheap Chinese food for lunch, and looked around Akihabara for awhile. There are lots of electronic stores, video games and nerdy places, plus maid cafes galore if you're into that. Our friends had finally arrived, so we headed to our hostel to meet them there. Our hostel, Anne Hostel, was roughly $26 a night, and it wasn't that awful (despite what a headache check-in was because of our changing plans while making the reservation), considering how cheap it was. It was pretty central (right near Asakusa), and the first night I had a top bunk with a handful of my friends in a mixed room of 12 people. There were 9 in my party total (me being the only female), and for the remainder of my stay I was booked for a girl's room of 8 people. Honestly, I would have preferred having the room with my friends for a variety of reasons--not that any of the girls in my other room were skeevy or anything--but that would have kept my stuff at watch with others, and I would have been able to be woken up if my dumb iPod didn't go off (which it never does). But anyway! It was a pretty nice hostel, overall, with a little breakfast thing (toast, tea, hard-boiled/poached egg) in the morning, good facilities, all was dandy. My pillow was flat as a pancake but other than that, no complaints really.

Clockwise from me: Cody, Justin, Hideki

We went out for Halloween to Roppongi, and it was crazy there. My friend had already warned me about the men there being sketchy and being famous for taking people into a "second location" where the scam them, flat rob them, or God knows what else...but I had no idea how serious she was being. Everywhere you looked, there were Somalian men and other Africans shouting at you in a mix of English and Japanese, thick accented, grabbing at your arms, trying to get you to go into their bar/club/restaurant/shop. Everywhere. They would get close to you, shuffle around you, go for your shoulders, things that were just awful. I can't believe this is such a major issue there, but apparently it is, as there's signs everywhere warning you not to listen to anyone, never go to a second location, the whole Oprah spiel.

There were a lot of clubs and bars and people out, drinking and doing their own thing. Not like walking around somewhere in America on Halloween, because you're looking at a lot less skin, but it's definitely more than you normally see in Japan. Half of us split off to go to the bars, half went to the clubs. The bar nearby that had good reviews online was cool, but it was definitely an uh, older crowd--crawling with people, both Japanese and some obvious gaijin, in their late thirties, probably mid-fourties, all drunk and dancing and lurking on each other hard. It was both disgusting and hilarious (mostly horrifying though, but it was a good Halloween scare...), and a beer and a pina colada later, I was even propositioned to have sex with this middle-aged Japanese guy's also middle-aged, heavy-set girlfriend! When the butt-touching began, we decided it was time to meander elsewhere. We did meet some nice Canadians there too though, on vacation, who bonded with our Canadian (Adam), so that was cool at least. We bar hopped around, trying to find reasonable-but-not-too-sketchy places, got some Irish car bombs, and decided to get a drink from 7-11, some Wendy's, and just people watch. It was deliciously satisfying, hilarious, and an overall really good night. Trains in Tokyo stop at midnight as well, so we hauled (two) taxis back for the 6 of us, but it wasn't too unreasonable of a price--$26, split between three of us, so I didn't have to commit suicide later. A good night indeed!

Senso-ji

The next day we went around the corner from our hostel to Senso-ji, the famous big ol' lantern temple. It, like so many other things in Japan right now, is under construction, but the main things are still available and pretty once you get past the initial unattractiveness. It was pretty, a quick stop, and after appreciating the beauty for a moment we moved on.

Kitties at Nekobukuro Cat Cafe

We headed onward to Sunshine City Mall, which is this massive shopping mall with 60 floors in Ikebukuro, filled with restaurants and a planetarium and clothing stores and whatever, you name it they had it. Three of us hit up a Cat Cafe, Nekobukuro's Cat House, which two of us paid $5 for ("boy/girl couple discount price"), and my other friend paid $6 (the lonely cat-lover price?), and it was an unlimited amount of time until you left the room. It was a really nice little facility, with lots of awesome places for the cats, but it was kind of odd because of the way the cats have been raised. When you go to an animal shelter, cats run up to you, meowing, friendly, begging to be pet, but here, they are trained to respond to food and nothing else really, so they are actually kind of skiddish--they'll come when your palm is out flat with food, but if you pet them they run away, wanting to go back into hiding. It was kind of disappointing, but not really that surprising I guess, because if you train on the premise of food and not love, then that behavior is to be expected. There were five or six other Japanese people in there, a kind of high number considering it was a Friday afternoon, but they really are popular, because we passed several other ones on our trip here. (My friends also went to an Owl Cafe on Saturday, where they paid $3 for 3 minutes of holding the owl while drinking some tea. They said it was pretty cool, and that people there were also super friendly, so if you're more of a bird rather than a cat person, go for it you weirdo.)

After the Cat Cafe we found a sweet Mexican place that had a cheap lunch special, and I got a taco platter, which was pretty tasty considering everything I was eating was being made by a Japanese person. Tokyo really does have a massive variety of foods--I mean, Osaka does too, but if you want something "odd" (like Mexican food), then you have to be prepared to pay the price--but here it was fairly reasonable for a lot of oddball foreign food. We passed different Mexican places, hot dogs, bunches of Turkish and Greek food, whatever.

We split off to go to Yokohama Chinatown, which was only 25 minutes by Express Train. It was pretty, a lot like the other China town, just in a bigger, kinda less dirty feel. I got some more Kit-Kat's (all part of my grand scheme) special to Yokohama--strawberry cheesecake flavor!--and found some cute nicknacks before we walked over to the port side. It, too, was really pretty. Yokohama was all but completely made for dating, with its mini amusement park, beautiful waterfront parks surrounding it, and tons of cute places to go hang out and see. Truly made for the cutest dates possible, I was so jealous of all the girls there. Precious! Gah. Okay, I'm done. We went and met up with our friends again over by Shibuya station, the famous crosswalk, plus it's where the statue of Hachi(ko) is. This place really is insanely crowded, and when the light changes you better get moving, or else. We found a cheap place for dinner, a rice-gyudon-raw egg thing, which I was concerned about, but it was actually pretty tasty. It didn't make it taste like egg, just kind of made your rice not dry, and the best part is I didn't get violently ill. Huzzah! Some ~incredible~ Krispy Kreme later (did I say how incredible it was? Incredible!), we went back to our hostel to prepare for the next day.

On Saturday, because we already had our Japanese friend, a Tokyoite actually, with us on the trip, luckily was able to book us a highway bus, round trip, for $42, to Fujiyama, a famous area to see Mt. Fuji from. It was a two hour bus ride away, each way, and I did manage to sleep through a lot of it luckily. Japanese highways literally have huge walls blocking either side of the road, I guess to block out noise (even though there doesn't seem to be houses nearby) or prevent accidents, but it makes for an extremely boring ride, even during the daytime when you're going through gorgeous country areas. Such a shame. The bus dropped us off at a bus station, where there were free postcard/tickets to take you to another area to go see Fuji-san. It was cloudy and rainy though, and though the sun was desperately trying to peek out, there wasn't much luck on the sun's side that day. When we rode our cable car to the top of the mountain, usually an ideal place to view Fuji from, we could see it, and it was massive and breathtaking and beautiful, white-capped, but it was definitely extremely cloudy.

Fuji-san from Fujiyama

My camera struggled to pick it up half the time because of the brightness of the clouds, which is a shame, but hopefully my friends with me got some decent pictures with their stronger cameras. It was really incredible though, and I feel again like I did with Daibutsu--it was gorgeous, breathtaking, and something that is all but impossible to get onto film and be able to express. It truly was beautiful though, take my word for it. We also did some great souvenir shopping in this area, found a lot of cheap but cool stuff, and got free postcards in celebration of Fuji becoming a World Heritage Site! Yay Fuji! We got some delicious dinner from Fire House Burgers, a famous place I found online, and it was so good. Real meat-meat, finally! So satisfying. We also tried to go out and see the Rainbow Bridge that night, but unbeknowest to us, it's only rainbow colored three days out of the year, so instead it was just a regular bridge with a Statute of Liberty in front (this is probably the millionth Lady Liberty I've seen, I don't know why they have so many of her). It was a fun night though, regardless, spent with good people.

Vegetable tempura, Harajuku

Sunday we went to the Manekeneko "birthplace", Imado Shrine. This is one of two temples where it's believed the Manekeneko began, and the other one is just too darn far outside of Tokyo, so we tried this one instead. It's really charming, and I liked it just for all the cat stuff. We saw some Playstation Fair outside in Akihabara, and then headed to Meiji Shrine to get a few quick pictures. It has a really pretty front gate, but beyond that it isn't anything too incredible, but if you're nearby I suppose I'd stop in just to say I did. We meandered off to Harajuku in hopes of seeing some weird people, but disappointingly enough, we didn't see very many. Lots of oddball shops next door to each other, like Lolita next to goth, but it was pretty cool either way. There are some good places to souvenir shop nearby too, like Oriental Bazzar, which had cheap "pretty" stuff, like pictures and wood block prints, so if you want decorating grown up stuff, there's your place. We got some tempura for lunch, and I got the vegetable tempura bowl, and let me tell you, if you want people to eat vegetables, just dip them in tempura batter and call it a day--it hides the taste of even the most unpleasant veggies. I ate squash, pumpkin, mushroom, eggplant, sweet potato, and something else I couldn't even identify! Impressive, especially if you know me. Pretty tasty. We tried finding weirdos over by Nakano Broadway, but they weren't there either (just a crap ton of figurines and flea-markety like stuff).

Monja

We got some monja, which is a kind of Tokyo version of okonomiyaki, so it's a flat-top fried batter with whatever you choose in it. I got a cheese one (after having to ask them to remove the mini shrimp--easily explained "allergy", but having them remove the fish flakes on top confused them thoroughly. "Just cheese?!" /sigh), but my friends got a curry flavor one and a "traditional Japanese" one, which they said both were delicious. You pour it out in front of you, in this special little order where you put mostly the stuff on top down first, creating a volcano center, then pour the batter in the center. You let it bubble and cook for a few moments, and then you can start eating it by scraping it up with the little spatula-like thing they give you. It was pretty tasty.

Monja before you pour it out

The next day, Monday, we went first to put our stuff in a coin locker at the station so we wouldn't have to lug it around. May I warn you that if you want to conveniently do this to do it early in the day? It was only 10 and almost all the lockers were full, except for the small ones big enough to fit a handbag. Luckily, my friend and I found one big enough to share and split for just $5 total--not bad for an all day rental. Oh, and keep in mind how FREAKING HOT the stations are. They are either cold and miserable or hot and stuffy, there is never a pleasant medium. Jesh.

Kumamon wants longevity, too!

We did some omiyage shopping in this big outdoor shopping area, and I found a very cute Kumamon hoodie for just $20. Lots of good shopping here, tons of food--it was a very happening area (which I can't exactly remember the name of, I just know it was somewhere near Ginza). We went to try to find kitchen town after this, hoping to find the place where they make all the fake plastic food displays, but instead we just found some kinda pathetic excuses for kitchen stores, so keep that in mind if you wanted to find the store with the "giant chef head". Eh. We headed off to Old People Town, better known as Sugamo. They are famous for their red underwear, believed to help with longevity and whatnawt. It was a really cute little shopping area, with really cheap tapestries and wall scrolls, huzzah! So many cute things.

Spam burger, courtesy of Freshness Burger

We went to Hipster Town next, or Shimokitazawa, because I unfortunately hang out with some closet hipsters here (hah hah...no but seriously). It was...hipster like. Lots of used and vintage clothing, coffee shops, little bars, weird stuff, Indie music. Just like someone would imagine with their reputation. It was cute, I suppose, and I did get to try some Freshness Burger (a mostly Tokyo chain), where I ordered a Spam burger. Mmm good! Makes me miss home.

We wrapped it all up by visiting Shibuya one last time, saying goodbye to faithful Hachi, and grabbing some doughnuts for the road. Back on the night bus, a sleepless ride later, I arrived back in my room by 7:30, just enough time to shower, eat, and head to school. Midterms and midterms later, here we are, with a crappy week filled with papers and work, but it was definitely a great vacation. It was weird to be surrounded by SO many foreigners, and it was crazy how many people (both foreign and Japanese) spoke English. Kind of made a bad thing of our habit of just talking about people two inches away from us...whoops!

Mango/Banana Vending Machine

The Tokyo subway system is insane, let's just say that much. If you're going to be coming on vacation, look into the passes you can get while still outside of Japan with your passport, because if not it will quickly add up. We bought the TOEI/Metro pass ($10) 3 days of the 5 days we were there because you definitely use that up, plus some of the places farther outside that a lot of people want to see you may have to pay for on top of that just to get outside of the major metropolitan area. Transportation adds up fast in Japan, period, something I've been trying to emphasize even in Osaka and Kyoto, and Tokyo was no exception to that rule...just in a much more complicated manner. I've never done so many transfers in my entire life, there was at least two or three for everywhere we had to go, which just means you're doing a LOT of walking, even if you just counted the steps you take inside the station, I'm sure it adds up to miles, up and down stairs and around corners and across entire stations and back up and back down and...you get my point, right? I think I gave myself shin splints or something, I literally have bruises up and down the tops of my feet, and I wore what are (normally) pretty comfortable boots all week. You should probably bring real shoes, like tennis shoes or even Crocs, anything with support. You won't regret it. Oh, and foot deodorant. That's important too.

Do you see the old lady with purple hair?!

I've seen some grandma's here rocking crazy fashion and, sometimes, some odd hair, but nothing compares to Tokyo's grandmas. I saw green hair, some with blue stripes, others with purple, or wearing crazy plaid or colors that match their hair, or something along those lines. It kind of catches you off guard when you see a sweet, short little hunched over person walk past you rocking a punk rocker 'do.

Random!

Have I mentioned they back their cars in everywhere? Don't know why. Even on spots that are supremely daunting or with their massive friggin' mini-van-mobiles.

My friend, a Japanese guy who drives, says in all his years of driving (he's 25), he's never seen a single car accident. Apparently they aren't too common, as this is kind of a common theme if you talk to Japanese kids. Lots of bike-car/people-car accidents, but car-car collisions are more uncommon. Odd, considering how terrifying they drive. Perhaps it's just because of their awesome car technology here. Who knows.

The other weekend, I got my money out from the bank account I opened here, on a Saturday around 1pm, out of my bank's ATM. Can you believe I got charged a service fee, just got doing the transaction on a Saturday...? NO ONE was there, it is just the machine and me, and yet, boom, service fee, 175 yen, which is as much as I get charged for taking money out of my own account from America. I do NOT understand the point of this, and if you are ever to come here, make sure you don't open a bank with Sumitomo, it just isn't worth it. Find a different one who charges less stupid fees, or have a good bank in America if you're just here for a semester or so.

Their money is freakishly crisp, clean, and straight. Japanese people are super against fussing up their money, so even the men carry long wallets to fit the bills. It's nice but kind of makes you feel guilty when you just want to fold it and carry it somewhere more convenient. Also, having "big money" be coins is super weird--you drop a coin in America, you can be upset if it rolls down the drain, but lose a coin here, it could be $5. This happened to me in Miyajima, actually, where it fell into the bay, but luckily it fell onto a step, so with the help of a friend keeping my balance and fighting against the crashing waves, I managed to grab it (despite cutting my wrist up on the dang barnacles) and save my 500 yen coin ($5). I was always a penny pincher in America, but I can't imagine how weird I'll look when I come back, flailing around to save pennies and dimes.