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Japan Day 5 - Laundry, shopping, and adventures in alone-land
This morning Nykkel and I went on a new adventure - finding the coin laundry the Kimi had maps to and doing laundry. Actually, the first part was pretty easy; I let Nykkel lead and I just followed him while absentmindedly staring at stuff all over the road. The second part wasn't too hard either, the only weirdness being that you had no choice what temperature or anything the machine was washing your clothes with. You just kinda put in 300 yen, bought a detergent packet for 30 yen, and hoped your clothes came out okay; then you put them in a dryer where it was like 100 yen for 10 mins, which meant that half an hour cost another 300 yen. It worked pretty well though, and if I've counted correctly, I won't have to do laundry again during the trip. (Nykkel will, but he's also staying 2 days longer than I am.)
Came back to the ryokan to drop off clothes and by then it was like noonish. So we embarked on another adventure - getting lunch (curry!) and then getting our Japan Rail Passes. Actually, the rail pass wasn't so bad either once we figured out where the JR Travel Center was. I went first and did all the talking. It wasn't so bad. We got our passes to start tomorrow, going from the 6th to the 12th, which means that I'll be using mine to get a Narita Express ticket on the last day I'm here, I think. We're definitely doing a trip to Gifu... just gotta figure out if we're gonna try to go to Kyoto tomorrow or not. I should check the weather.
Anyway, after that we went to Harajuku. I decided we should go to the Meiji shrine so I could get a traffic omamori to hang in my car... and so Nykkel could see the shrine since he'd never been there before. It was neat of course, I love how you suddenly feel like you're not in a city anymore when you're there. We saw all these crazy goth kids on the bridge coming out of the shrine, they all had weird black eye makeup, I dunno what the deal was with that.
Our destination was the Harajuku Bookoff, but the quickest way there I knew of involved walking Takeshitadori. I think it may have scarred Nykkel for life, although I *love* Takeshita, it reminds me of a more extreme, very Japanese version of South Street. Hehe. So we walked down it and I didn't stop anywhere to look at stuff... then we got to the Bookoff. Sadly they don't do the 250-750 thing there, just 350, and all the CDs in that section sucked... I was actually done looking through stuff fairly quickly but I kept waiting around for Nykkel to be done. He took a really long time looking through the entire store, and eventually I noticed it was almost 4:30pm and we'd been there for over 2 hours and I wanted to leave, so he said "Go ahead and leave. I'm headed to Mandarake in Shibuya next." So I said "Okay, see you later" and bought the few things I'd picked out and just... left!
I of course had no intention of going to Mandarake since what do I care about anime stuff (for the most part)? But I wasn't sure where I was going.. I wandered Takeshita again and played with some sticker machines (not purikura), and then got on the Yamanote, intending to go to Shinjuku maybe, or maybe Ikebukuro and then the Tokyo Dome to shop a little, or... wasn't sure... decided not to get off at Shinjuku... kept going... then on the way into the Takadanobaba station I saw a book-off!
Well. I had never a) gotten off the Yamanote at Takadanobaba and b) never known there was a bookoff there, so hey. I decided to get out of the train and go hunt down the bookoff! It was really spontaneous and independent of me and I was kinda happy about it. I walked about half a mile from the station up the main street and didn't see it, so I doubled back down along hte tracks... was about to give up when BLAM! there was a Book-Off right before my eyes!
It wasn't a big book-off. They barely had anything there, there was a small CD and video section, but eh... it was the principle. I didn't buy anything. I was still happy.
I came back to Ikebukuro but first stopped in East Ikebukuro because I wanted to hit up Animate and see if they had Pop'n'Music stuff. They did. (I got lost coming out of the station at first though, just wanted to remember that) I got some stuff for DJ, and some more buttons for myself. Sadly, I now have triples of this one button (I think it's Rie-Chan but I'm not sure) but I did get the cool Tran button and some others. I also got a taiko no tatsujin deck of cards! It's soooooo cool!
I forget what I did after that. I stopped in the Sanrio store and got a catalog, and I stopped in at GEO and looked around but found nothing, and I stopped in at the UFO catcher places but didn't see anything worth going for so I didn't. Then I came back to the ryokan and dumped my backpack there and rubbed my feet - I think I literally had been walking around for almost 8 hours straight at that point!
Headed out to Shinjuku with just my handbag... my plan was to get kaiten sushi for dinner and to wander around west Shinjuku in the area near the Virtual On version of Shinjuku Sportsland, and maybe play some UFO catchers. Well. The first cool thing is that I found the cool kaitensushi place that DJ and Dave and I had gone to (I have a picture of one of the sushi chefs from there from my last trip)! Its called Himawari Sushi apparently, and they had totally upgraded it and it looked much more yuppie now than it did before... but I know it was the same one because it had the same sushi chef that I have a picture of :) I didn't make a big deal out of it or anything though, I just came in, sat down, and ate a whole bunch of yummy sushi. Mmmmm. Kaiten sushi in Japan is much more acceptable to do alone than it is in America, lemme tell you.
After that I wandered around! I played a few UFO catcher games but I sucked at all of them; there wasn't really much inspiring in the way of prizes anyway. I got a PNM card at last and played a couple games in various arcades. And then I did something dumb... I went into Yodobashi, where I'd bought a IIDX controller last trip... and they had ALL the Karaoke Revolution games and the microphone... so uhh... I saw them... I walked out... I went around and played arcade games... and came back about 45 mins later and just went ahead and bought the Karaoke Revolution microphone and a few of the games. (No, I am not crazy enough to get ALL of them.) I had a somewhat amusing conversation with the store clerk; as usual he asked if I had a point card, I said I didn't need one, he laughed and asked if I lived in Japan; I told him no, I live in America. Then I asked if I could use a Visa card; he said yeah, and asked something I didn't understand, then he laughed again and just went ahead and rang it up. (My guess is it was that whole "ikkatsu" thing again.) He asked if I had a Japanese PS2 and I said of course! and he asked if I liked Japanese videogames and I said that they were really fun. It was just kinda weird. I guess I was so much in alone-mode that I just enjoyed having a conversation with someone even if I was an idiot.
But the upshot is... I have Karaoke Revolution... the Japanese version... and you are all invited to come over and play once I get back to Seattle! The catch is, of course, that you have to be able to read Japanese for most of the songs, but uhh, that shouldn't stop anyone, right?
The other upshot is... I think I got most of my shopping for the trip done already... and even if I haven't, I need to cut down on it :) Even making an effort to shop for good prices on stuff, I'm still spending a bit much for a girl who just quit her job. On the other hand, I don't expect to spend as much in the next few days; I've covered most of the stuff that was on my list. So hopefully I'll be a bit more reasonable.
Right, so I wandered around a little more after that and then I came back to Ikebukuro and to the internet cafe and that's where I am and I should go back to the ryokan so I can go to sleep and in theory wake up and go somewhere cool on JR tomorrow... well... I wonder what the heck Nykkel did today. And I bet he's already asleep, so I hope he wakes me up tomorrow before he heads out somewhere :)
I'm hoping the weather is okay on Wednesday to head to Chiba for the Fighters game. And hoping we can go to the Ghibli museum fairly early (our tickets didnt have a time on them for some reason) so I can spend the time to trek out there and all. I would have gone to the game today if I hadn't waited so long at Bookoff... sigh. Though they lost to the Marines, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't.
Hmm, almost time up. Signing out.
Came back to the ryokan to drop off clothes and by then it was like noonish. So we embarked on another adventure - getting lunch (curry!) and then getting our Japan Rail Passes. Actually, the rail pass wasn't so bad either once we figured out where the JR Travel Center was. I went first and did all the talking. It wasn't so bad. We got our passes to start tomorrow, going from the 6th to the 12th, which means that I'll be using mine to get a Narita Express ticket on the last day I'm here, I think. We're definitely doing a trip to Gifu... just gotta figure out if we're gonna try to go to Kyoto tomorrow or not. I should check the weather.
Anyway, after that we went to Harajuku. I decided we should go to the Meiji shrine so I could get a traffic omamori to hang in my car... and so Nykkel could see the shrine since he'd never been there before. It was neat of course, I love how you suddenly feel like you're not in a city anymore when you're there. We saw all these crazy goth kids on the bridge coming out of the shrine, they all had weird black eye makeup, I dunno what the deal was with that.
Our destination was the Harajuku Bookoff, but the quickest way there I knew of involved walking Takeshitadori. I think it may have scarred Nykkel for life, although I *love* Takeshita, it reminds me of a more extreme, very Japanese version of South Street. Hehe. So we walked down it and I didn't stop anywhere to look at stuff... then we got to the Bookoff. Sadly they don't do the 250-750 thing there, just 350, and all the CDs in that section sucked... I was actually done looking through stuff fairly quickly but I kept waiting around for Nykkel to be done. He took a really long time looking through the entire store, and eventually I noticed it was almost 4:30pm and we'd been there for over 2 hours and I wanted to leave, so he said "Go ahead and leave. I'm headed to Mandarake in Shibuya next." So I said "Okay, see you later" and bought the few things I'd picked out and just... left!
I of course had no intention of going to Mandarake since what do I care about anime stuff (for the most part)? But I wasn't sure where I was going.. I wandered Takeshita again and played with some sticker machines (not purikura), and then got on the Yamanote, intending to go to Shinjuku maybe, or maybe Ikebukuro and then the Tokyo Dome to shop a little, or... wasn't sure... decided not to get off at Shinjuku... kept going... then on the way into the Takadanobaba station I saw a book-off!
Well. I had never a) gotten off the Yamanote at Takadanobaba and b) never known there was a bookoff there, so hey. I decided to get out of the train and go hunt down the bookoff! It was really spontaneous and independent of me and I was kinda happy about it. I walked about half a mile from the station up the main street and didn't see it, so I doubled back down along hte tracks... was about to give up when BLAM! there was a Book-Off right before my eyes!
It wasn't a big book-off. They barely had anything there, there was a small CD and video section, but eh... it was the principle. I didn't buy anything. I was still happy.
I came back to Ikebukuro but first stopped in East Ikebukuro because I wanted to hit up Animate and see if they had Pop'n'Music stuff. They did. (I got lost coming out of the station at first though, just wanted to remember that) I got some stuff for DJ, and some more buttons for myself. Sadly, I now have triples of this one button (I think it's Rie-Chan but I'm not sure) but I did get the cool Tran button and some others. I also got a taiko no tatsujin deck of cards! It's soooooo cool!
I forget what I did after that. I stopped in the Sanrio store and got a catalog, and I stopped in at GEO and looked around but found nothing, and I stopped in at the UFO catcher places but didn't see anything worth going for so I didn't. Then I came back to the ryokan and dumped my backpack there and rubbed my feet - I think I literally had been walking around for almost 8 hours straight at that point!
Headed out to Shinjuku with just my handbag... my plan was to get kaiten sushi for dinner and to wander around west Shinjuku in the area near the Virtual On version of Shinjuku Sportsland, and maybe play some UFO catchers. Well. The first cool thing is that I found the cool kaitensushi place that DJ and Dave and I had gone to (I have a picture of one of the sushi chefs from there from my last trip)! Its called Himawari Sushi apparently, and they had totally upgraded it and it looked much more yuppie now than it did before... but I know it was the same one because it had the same sushi chef that I have a picture of :) I didn't make a big deal out of it or anything though, I just came in, sat down, and ate a whole bunch of yummy sushi. Mmmmm. Kaiten sushi in Japan is much more acceptable to do alone than it is in America, lemme tell you.
After that I wandered around! I played a few UFO catcher games but I sucked at all of them; there wasn't really much inspiring in the way of prizes anyway. I got a PNM card at last and played a couple games in various arcades. And then I did something dumb... I went into Yodobashi, where I'd bought a IIDX controller last trip... and they had ALL the Karaoke Revolution games and the microphone... so uhh... I saw them... I walked out... I went around and played arcade games... and came back about 45 mins later and just went ahead and bought the Karaoke Revolution microphone and a few of the games. (No, I am not crazy enough to get ALL of them.) I had a somewhat amusing conversation with the store clerk; as usual he asked if I had a point card, I said I didn't need one, he laughed and asked if I lived in Japan; I told him no, I live in America. Then I asked if I could use a Visa card; he said yeah, and asked something I didn't understand, then he laughed again and just went ahead and rang it up. (My guess is it was that whole "ikkatsu" thing again.) He asked if I had a Japanese PS2 and I said of course! and he asked if I liked Japanese videogames and I said that they were really fun. It was just kinda weird. I guess I was so much in alone-mode that I just enjoyed having a conversation with someone even if I was an idiot.
But the upshot is... I have Karaoke Revolution... the Japanese version... and you are all invited to come over and play once I get back to Seattle! The catch is, of course, that you have to be able to read Japanese for most of the songs, but uhh, that shouldn't stop anyone, right?
The other upshot is... I think I got most of my shopping for the trip done already... and even if I haven't, I need to cut down on it :) Even making an effort to shop for good prices on stuff, I'm still spending a bit much for a girl who just quit her job. On the other hand, I don't expect to spend as much in the next few days; I've covered most of the stuff that was on my list. So hopefully I'll be a bit more reasonable.
Right, so I wandered around a little more after that and then I came back to Ikebukuro and to the internet cafe and that's where I am and I should go back to the ryokan so I can go to sleep and in theory wake up and go somewhere cool on JR tomorrow... well... I wonder what the heck Nykkel did today. And I bet he's already asleep, so I hope he wakes me up tomorrow before he heads out somewhere :)
I'm hoping the weather is okay on Wednesday to head to Chiba for the Fighters game. And hoping we can go to the Ghibli museum fairly early (our tickets didnt have a time on them for some reason) so I can spend the time to trek out there and all. I would have gone to the game today if I hadn't waited so long at Bookoff... sigh. Though they lost to the Marines, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't.
Hmm, almost time up. Signing out.
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Man, why do the Japanese have so many different style of food that are just fun to eat?
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(...of course, I can't stand it now...)
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So it could be that different is good. Or maybe I just like eating in groups, too ;)
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However, most restraunts in the US are based around the sit-down diner style, as opposed to, say everyone eating stuff from the same pot, or sitting at a counter behind which the chefs are cooking.
(I realize that I'm generalizing horribly, but I would still argue that percentage-wise, you see more of the second type of establishments in Japan).
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