Friday, May 11, 2007
April 20, Last day…of shopping!
Slept in again, we were on vacation. We set the alarm for 6:00, then reset it for 7:00, then just turned it off and slept until 8:30. I think I got the tiniest cold in the world in Japan, going right from sore throat right to runny nose with neither aches nor pains to speak of. Yay for that and for warm lemon tea available in vending machines. Really nice on the throat.
On the way to the metro we stopped at a shrine we had walked by a couple of times. It turns out it was a shrine for travelers, and was generally visited by people who would be traveling soon, like us! So we offered some small coins and I burned some incense. I’ve always really liked the idea of burning a whole bundle of incense all at once. I’ve seen it a couple of times on video and always wanted to just grab a handful of incense and set it all on fire at once, so here was my chance! A small thing, but I liked it. Smelled nice, too.
Akehabra! It was nice to goof off there again, and we walked around checking out lots of different stores. Eventually, though, we realized the stores all pretty much fell into one of several categories.
1) Model shop: actually these are pretty impressive. There are lots of really pretty models and collections of things you can get from vending machines, like tiny little figurines and key chains. In fact, most of the gifts we got for people back here came from those vending machines, just cause they’re so ubiquitous and so very, very Japanese. So we hung out in a few of these places and went crazy buying little capsules with figurines and key chains and cell-phone accessories. As I write this, I have a couple of adorable little Gundam critters sitting on my desk. Really cute. After a while, though, all the model stores start to look the same.
2) Game shop. Lots of neat video games that either: a) are in America already or b) require too much Japanese to really understand, so I really couldn’t justify buying anything. It’s neat to see stuff that will be coming out in America soon, though, and most of the really good stuff does. After a while, though, all the game stores start to look the same.
3) Book stores. I could spend a fortune (I love books!), but it would all be a waste: I can’t read Japanese. After a while, though, all the book stores start to look the same.
4) Tech stores: Neat stuff. Cell phones that do more than I need and wouldn’t (probably) work in the US, personal organizers and PC stuff. I did see some HUGE monitors, though. Those looked amazing. Some places sold audio gear, too. Fun to browse through, but After a while…
5) Home appliance stores…nah.
6) Tech components…pass.
I could have spent more time in Akehabra, but the stores actually started repeating themselves pretty quickly. Not, therefore, perhaps that different from America.
Had some *tasty* curry, and miso soup feels good on a rough throat.
I got a trick box, which is a neat little device that requires 12 steps to open. It’s a neat souvenir, but I haven’t thought of anything to put inside it yet. :)
Also, did some video-gaming at a couple of arcades. The ‘Sega’ arcade was a little booring. I walked around and it was all games I’d played before, just a *lot* of them. Jess let me check out another one, though, (she’s so good to me!) where I got to play some fun stuff. Smaller, random games and a fighting game called “Melty Blood” that I had to play just for the name. ‘How’s your blood?’ ‘Mine? It’s a little melty.’ I just like that phrase. So yeah, even if I didn’t spend tons of money on any crazy souvenirs, at least I got to play some awesome games.
Anyway, we left Akehabra so we could do some more gift shopping in Asakusa, which Jess finally figured out how to pronounce. (a-sa-ku-sa, not a-su-casa. That’s Spanish popping up right there. Oh, and on a side note…when we first got to Japan, people would ask us questions and Jess instantly reverted to her most comfortable ‘foreign language.’ “Ah, you have customs form filled out?” “Si!”) Got some neat stuff (and neat wrapping jobs), and then called it a day.
Back at the hostel, for the *last time*, watching wacky Japanese TV (pet tricks, Quiz shows, and strange Anime). We’ll pack up tonight and get ready to head home. I say, glad to have gone, and glad to go back.
-N
Slept in again, we were on vacation. We set the alarm for 6:00, then reset it for 7:00, then just turned it off and slept until 8:30. I think I got the tiniest cold in the world in Japan, going right from sore throat right to runny nose with neither aches nor pains to speak of. Yay for that and for warm lemon tea available in vending machines. Really nice on the throat.
On the way to the metro we stopped at a shrine we had walked by a couple of times. It turns out it was a shrine for travelers, and was generally visited by people who would be traveling soon, like us! So we offered some small coins and I burned some incense. I’ve always really liked the idea of burning a whole bundle of incense all at once. I’ve seen it a couple of times on video and always wanted to just grab a handful of incense and set it all on fire at once, so here was my chance! A small thing, but I liked it. Smelled nice, too.
Akehabra! It was nice to goof off there again, and we walked around checking out lots of different stores. Eventually, though, we realized the stores all pretty much fell into one of several categories.
1) Model shop: actually these are pretty impressive. There are lots of really pretty models and collections of things you can get from vending machines, like tiny little figurines and key chains. In fact, most of the gifts we got for people back here came from those vending machines, just cause they’re so ubiquitous and so very, very Japanese. So we hung out in a few of these places and went crazy buying little capsules with figurines and key chains and cell-phone accessories. As I write this, I have a couple of adorable little Gundam critters sitting on my desk. Really cute. After a while, though, all the model stores start to look the same.
2) Game shop. Lots of neat video games that either: a) are in America already or b) require too much Japanese to really understand, so I really couldn’t justify buying anything. It’s neat to see stuff that will be coming out in America soon, though, and most of the really good stuff does. After a while, though, all the game stores start to look the same.
3) Book stores. I could spend a fortune (I love books!), but it would all be a waste: I can’t read Japanese. After a while, though, all the book stores start to look the same.
4) Tech stores: Neat stuff. Cell phones that do more than I need and wouldn’t (probably) work in the US, personal organizers and PC stuff. I did see some HUGE monitors, though. Those looked amazing. Some places sold audio gear, too. Fun to browse through, but After a while…
5) Home appliance stores…nah.
6) Tech components…pass.
I could have spent more time in Akehabra, but the stores actually started repeating themselves pretty quickly. Not, therefore, perhaps that different from America.
Had some *tasty* curry, and miso soup feels good on a rough throat.
I got a trick box, which is a neat little device that requires 12 steps to open. It’s a neat souvenir, but I haven’t thought of anything to put inside it yet. :)
Also, did some video-gaming at a couple of arcades. The ‘Sega’ arcade was a little booring. I walked around and it was all games I’d played before, just a *lot* of them. Jess let me check out another one, though, (she’s so good to me!) where I got to play some fun stuff. Smaller, random games and a fighting game called “Melty Blood” that I had to play just for the name. ‘How’s your blood?’ ‘Mine? It’s a little melty.’ I just like that phrase. So yeah, even if I didn’t spend tons of money on any crazy souvenirs, at least I got to play some awesome games.
Anyway, we left Akehabra so we could do some more gift shopping in Asakusa, which Jess finally figured out how to pronounce. (a-sa-ku-sa, not a-su-casa. That’s Spanish popping up right there. Oh, and on a side note…when we first got to Japan, people would ask us questions and Jess instantly reverted to her most comfortable ‘foreign language.’ “Ah, you have customs form filled out?” “Si!”) Got some neat stuff (and neat wrapping jobs), and then called it a day.
Back at the hostel, for the *last time*, watching wacky Japanese TV (pet tricks, Quiz shows, and strange Anime). We’ll pack up tonight and get ready to head home. I say, glad to have gone, and glad to go back.
-N
Labels: Akehabra, Arcades, Asakusa, Japan, Tokyo
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
April 8 Another successful day. We got up early again but mostly lounged around the Ryokan and took another bath, though this time in larger, sex-divided, shared baths. We were lucky, though, and had the places to ourselves. Jess got to warm up under the steaming spray of hot showers. Good way to kick-start a day.
We walked around the neighborhood for a bit, looking for a place to eat. Unfortunately, it looked like nothing was really open. We saw this awesome roller coaster across the street, but it looked like the place was closed too. So instead we ate at one of my favorite places in Japan. ‘The Mart’. It goes by many names: 7 Eleven, Lawries, and some others I can’t remember, but they’re all essentially interchangeable. They have a fairly wide arrangement of candies, sandwiches, and simple Japanese staple food, and that’s what really makes them so much fun. It’s all well and good to check out the high-level restaurants from the country you’re visiting, but every once in a while it’s nice to buckle down and just much back some ‘grub’. Gotta get the full experience, y’know? Anyway, I found a ‘sandwhich’ that I’d heard of before with noodles in the middle (can’t remember the name), and melon bread for desert. I’ve been reading a comic about Japanese breadmaking due to my recent obsession with bread. And yes, there is a Japanese comic about everything. Jess, on the other hand, had a corn dog. What can I say, she’s an American.
We saw a lot of Tulips, too, which Jess really liked because she’d never seen them ‘wild’ before. After some light strolling, we took the Metro back to Asakusa to drop off our big packs while we took the day pack out to meet ‘E’.
E is a guy that worked at Raytheon for a while, and that I ran into on occasion, and who is now getting his Doctorate at Tokyo University. We’d been in touch for a while and we decided to meet up for a while and check out the Tech district, Akehabra. It’s was some pretty cool shopping, lots of strange Japanese video games and Comic stores, lots and lots of electronics; mostly cameras that are too elegant for me, cell phones that are too complicated for me, and digital dictionaries that I don’t yet need. Definitely fun browsing, though.
We had lunch at a little restaurant where Jess had a Salad and I had some sashimi.
Earlier we stopped at a KFC so Jess could get some nuggets. Silly.
We left the electric district to find a Temple complex and got distracted by a kitty, who let Jess pet him again, and an awesome playground. Jess and I goofed off in the tetrahedron of fun and then went down an amazing slide. It had rollers! You really flew down that thing. Fantastically fun time, though Japanese swings, it seems, are not built for American hips.
Found the temple (shrine?) complex and just looked around for a while, getting some neat pictures of the cherry blossoms and marveling at the altars again. E also introduced us to the proper way to throw coins and offer prayers at shrines. Good practice, and a nice way to get rid of change. We also walked through an old Confucian temple, less bright and shiny, with black stain all over the walls, but Jess liked it because it hat a lot of trees.
After that we went back to Asakusa, where our hostel was, and also, just down the street, where you could fine the Asakusa temple complex, one of the most famous sights of Tokyo. Pretty touristy, with all the alleys and streets leading up to the temple selling Japanese trinkets and gifts, but certainly a fun place to do some shopping. We came back here at the end of our vacation to do some shopping for gifts to bring back.
We bought some treats with sweet bean paste in them that were being made fresh. Those things are DELICIOUS when warm. Next we walked into the main Senso-ji temple complex having arrived, evidently, on Buddha’s birthday. Lots of visitors and excitement all over, it was fun. I got my fortune told, which you do by shaking up a container full of sticks until one comes out. Then you read off the number and look for the drawer with that number in it, and pull out the ‘fortune sheet’ on top. I got a ‘best fortune’! I’ll take a picture of that later for posting, I still have the sheet! And worry not, if you don’t like you’re fortune, you can tie it to a rack off to the side to ward off bad luck. I kept mine.
Then there was some sort of ceremony involving a cart with a traditional-style koto drum /wood block/flute band, a guy with an umbrella, and several girls dressed up as what I believe were either herons or cranes. I didn’t understand what was going on, but it was pretty fun to watch. After that, we wandered around and had some dinner and talked about Japan with Elliot. I also had my first run in with the *amazing* Japanese style toilet seat at the restaurant. Heated, with ‘spray’ and ‘air dry’ options. I also learned what the Kanji for ‘stop’ was, if you catch my drift. After that, we wandered back to the hostel and conked out. Sleepy us. Blame the jetlag.
-N
We walked around the neighborhood for a bit, looking for a place to eat. Unfortunately, it looked like nothing was really open. We saw this awesome roller coaster across the street, but it looked like the place was closed too. So instead we ate at one of my favorite places in Japan. ‘The Mart’. It goes by many names: 7 Eleven, Lawries, and some others I can’t remember, but they’re all essentially interchangeable. They have a fairly wide arrangement of candies, sandwiches, and simple Japanese staple food, and that’s what really makes them so much fun. It’s all well and good to check out the high-level restaurants from the country you’re visiting, but every once in a while it’s nice to buckle down and just much back some ‘grub’. Gotta get the full experience, y’know? Anyway, I found a ‘sandwhich’ that I’d heard of before with noodles in the middle (can’t remember the name), and melon bread for desert. I’ve been reading a comic about Japanese breadmaking due to my recent obsession with bread. And yes, there is a Japanese comic about everything. Jess, on the other hand, had a corn dog. What can I say, she’s an American.
We saw a lot of Tulips, too, which Jess really liked because she’d never seen them ‘wild’ before. After some light strolling, we took the Metro back to Asakusa to drop off our big packs while we took the day pack out to meet ‘E’.
E is a guy that worked at Raytheon for a while, and that I ran into on occasion, and who is now getting his Doctorate at Tokyo University. We’d been in touch for a while and we decided to meet up for a while and check out the Tech district, Akehabra. It’s was some pretty cool shopping, lots of strange Japanese video games and Comic stores, lots and lots of electronics; mostly cameras that are too elegant for me, cell phones that are too complicated for me, and digital dictionaries that I don’t yet need. Definitely fun browsing, though.
We had lunch at a little restaurant where Jess had a Salad and I had some sashimi.
Earlier we stopped at a KFC so Jess could get some nuggets. Silly.
We left the electric district to find a Temple complex and got distracted by a kitty, who let Jess pet him again, and an awesome playground. Jess and I goofed off in the tetrahedron of fun and then went down an amazing slide. It had rollers! You really flew down that thing. Fantastically fun time, though Japanese swings, it seems, are not built for American hips.
Found the temple (shrine?) complex and just looked around for a while, getting some neat pictures of the cherry blossoms and marveling at the altars again. E also introduced us to the proper way to throw coins and offer prayers at shrines. Good practice, and a nice way to get rid of change. We also walked through an old Confucian temple, less bright and shiny, with black stain all over the walls, but Jess liked it because it hat a lot of trees.
After that we went back to Asakusa, where our hostel was, and also, just down the street, where you could fine the Asakusa temple complex, one of the most famous sights of Tokyo. Pretty touristy, with all the alleys and streets leading up to the temple selling Japanese trinkets and gifts, but certainly a fun place to do some shopping. We came back here at the end of our vacation to do some shopping for gifts to bring back.
We bought some treats with sweet bean paste in them that were being made fresh. Those things are DELICIOUS when warm. Next we walked into the main Senso-ji temple complex having arrived, evidently, on Buddha’s birthday. Lots of visitors and excitement all over, it was fun. I got my fortune told, which you do by shaking up a container full of sticks until one comes out. Then you read off the number and look for the drawer with that number in it, and pull out the ‘fortune sheet’ on top. I got a ‘best fortune’! I’ll take a picture of that later for posting, I still have the sheet! And worry not, if you don’t like you’re fortune, you can tie it to a rack off to the side to ward off bad luck. I kept mine.
Then there was some sort of ceremony involving a cart with a traditional-style koto drum /wood block/flute band, a guy with an umbrella, and several girls dressed up as what I believe were either herons or cranes. I didn’t understand what was going on, but it was pretty fun to watch. After that, we wandered around and had some dinner and talked about Japan with Elliot. I also had my first run in with the *amazing* Japanese style toilet seat at the restaurant. Heated, with ‘spray’ and ‘air dry’ options. I also learned what the Kanji for ‘stop’ was, if you catch my drift. After that, we wandered back to the hostel and conked out. Sleepy us. Blame the jetlag.
-N
Labels: Akehabra, Asakusa, Japan, Playground
