artsistory

[artsistory]

Home Home Home! (11.5.19)

After a long long time. We finally came home. 

We multiplied our luggage by so much.

We were blessed with an airport train that was Hello Kitty themed.

Airplane.

HOME!

Time to go to sleep. Goodnight. 

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The long, dark gashapon of my soul (11.4.19)

In the morning Harumi dropped us off at the mall. The merch in Japan is all too good to be true!

It was so hard to restrain myself from buying up literally everything I saw!! I was doing a pretty good job too until we found Gacha city.

There were way too many good ones to resist... how could you not want this??

Brandi and I had to spend all our remaining yen and so we tried for some games in the arcade! We lost all of them... 

The family came to pick us up and we got some conveyer belt sushi. Afterwards they took us to a really cool shopping street and it was like they read my mind when they took us to another gashapon store!! 

They even had a little museum with past collections and I screamed when I saw theses Silver Spoon ones.

Takeshi even got us into a really cool museum where they had a bunch of festival floats!

That night we went out for some fancy fancy wagyu! This steak was the best of my LIFE! No joke like tenderest meat in the world. 

Takuya, Harumi’s son, joined us as well! 

At the end of the night, I don’t think I’d ever been more stuffed!

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Gotta see the lake! (11.3.19)

Technically Brandi and I are already home... and racing each other to finish these blogs off... so sorry if they are slightly out of order! That’s my bad.

Today Takeshi and Harumi took us on a scenic drive around the lake! At the halfway point we stopped for some beef bowls! 

It was cool because the kids meal came with shin chan toys! 

We love Japan! Next we went to go on another ropeway! There was a long line but the ride up was so fun! They packed us in like sardines and everyone was screaming when the car swayed!

The view from the top was so beautiful!

Instead of a gate they had this shallow pool of water. Not a bad idea!

We ended the day at our favorite spot: Curry CoCo! It was a very fun day with our family!

Then after trolling for a restaurant without a wait, we settled on Curry Coco!! That place is the best. Never seen Ikumi eat so much!

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To Hikone! Away! (11.2.19)

Now for one real jam packed day! We had to leave our beautiful Hakone hotel to head down to Hikone! Hikone is where Ichan’s sister and her family lives! 

Our trek involved taking the dumb pirate ship across the lake to a bus which drove us an hour through the hills to the shinkansen where we had to stand for 90 minutes and then finally Hikone!

No time for relaxing tho! Ikumi’s sister and brother in law, Harumi and Takeshi, picked us up from the train station and after checking in, we went right to sight seeing! First stop is Hikone Castle! This place is old and iconic! Samurai live here! And Hikne has the best mascot, a seal samurai thing! We love him!

Every town in Japan has their own mascot. Wish we had collected merch from all of them! oh well, next time.

The castle was crazy inside! The main attraction were the super steep stairs to get to each floor. These samurai must have real strong glutes going up and down these.

The whole family!

Then we stopped by the nearby garden! The main attraction was this dog that hated me. 

Also whatever was making Danni so hype. I think it was exhaustion.

After some driving around and very confusing grocery shopping, we all went to Harumi and Takeshi’s house for some takoyaki dinner! We also got to meet our cousins, Yurie and Kento. And of course, their perfect babies, Mari chan and Ko chan!

Danni was in love. I made Ko chan cry. So you know. Good night. 

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Yoho Yoho! Hakone Lake for Me! (10.31.19)

Happy Halloween!! We did nothing spooky. The day started with Japanese hotel breakfast!

And then we took a silly tourist pirate ship across Lake Ashinoko. It was quite a nice ride!

You can see a ton of lovely nature. Can you see Mount Fuji!? Oh no! Do you see it? Ikumi can not see it. 

We hopped off the boat once we reached the other side of the lake to check out the town. It was a super tiny place. Just a few restaurants and a tourist shop or two. Plus something called a Ninja Boat??? Not sure what that was. 

The main attraction was a cool old shrine that has a tori gate right out into the water. And it’s tucked into the mountain so there’s a lot of good nature around too.

Danni found a snack! Don’t eat the leaf! Oh. Danni ate the leaf.

We had fun.

After some noods and ice cream, we were back on the boat! And guess what? We saw Mount Fuji! It’s all Ikumi ever wanted.

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Where’s Mount Fuji?? (11.1.19)

We met up for breakfast, Richie and Ichan already had been up for many many hours! The breakfast at the hotel continued to be very good. Afterwards we headed out to the ropeways! On the way I got rejected by this kitter! 

RUDE! It did eventually let me give it pets but the rest of my family had already moved on so I have no photo evidence... On to the ropes!

The ropeways were very fun! Behold! Mount Fuji!

The topmost stop was closed because of all the volcano fumes! It made everything smell like egg farts! 

We had so much fun exploring!

We did all of the ropes and then it was time to have some lunch! We walked a bit down the road and found a good street with some restaurants. 

We had to eat sitting on the floor and both of my legs fell asleep! After lunch we went back to chill and take baths. During the start of my bath I was alone but half way thru 10 grandmas joined me! They were hilarious and I said the 5 words I know in japanese to them.

By the time dinner rolled around the little street was like a ghost town! Luckily we found one place that was open. Most people probably eat in their hotels. Afterwards we got cozy and played some cards.

After that I took another bath! Cant get enough baths. 

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Leaving Tokyo (10.29.19-10.30.19)

Oh no!! We forgot we had work to do!! So we spent the whole day working and packing! Very exciting, I know. But that night was our special wagyu shabu shabu night! We made our way to our favorite, Ikebukro, and dived into a meal of soupy meat!

Danni’s favorite was actually the fancy pork but that beef was so good! We are a family that loves hot pot. 

It was so good that this was the only photo we remembered to take. Sorry!

The next day, we woke up and left our lovely apartment to meet up with Richie and Ikumi. It was our final leg of the journey. Off to Hakone! 

Hakone is a tiny town on a lake known for it’s onsens and view of Mount Fuji. Richie picked it out because him and Ikumi love nature.

The hotel he booked was a traditional place with tatami mats and futons. They even gave us yukata to wear! We look gooood. 

What was a little frightening was that there was no shower in our room!! No private shower at all! All bathing would be done in the public onsen!! We were a little nervous to be naked with a bunch of people. Well not Danni but I was. Here I go!

There’s so many rules about the bath and we didn’t want to break any. I mean, look at this fool wearing her yukata sash tied the wrong way! I could offend 1000 Japanese ladies with my ignorance! But it was actually soooo nice! Soaking in a hot bath under the starry sky is just mmm! Relaxation. We got over the fear real quick.

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Back to Disneyland?? (10.28.19)

You can’t keep us away!! Ok so hear us out. Tokyo Disney has this thing where if you go to the park after 6pm, you can get in for like $40. And we didn’t get to try the shrimp popcorn because of the rain! So.... WE WENT BACK!

Lol. Richie and Ikumi had arrived in Tokyo and were already at DisneySea. So we decided to meet them there and watch Fantasmic. But first? Snacks! We got that shrimp popcorn and the coffee jelly and the teriyaki ghost bun and the honey popcorn! We were too busy eating to take pics so have a PR photo.

Cute, right?!?!

And then we waited for Fantasmic. We sat down with everyone in front of the volcano and soon Richie and Ikumi found us too. We had a pretty good spot for being only an hour early. Yeah, these locals go hard.

And Fantasmic was amazing! Totally worth it. Imagination! Hu HUH!

Again, not my photo. What up, iphone 6!!

Then we headed into the Miracosta hotel to see Richie and Ikumi’s sweet digs. The hotel opens right into DisneySea and it’s facade is disguised as all the Venetian buildings around the front of the park! The interior is all Disney Italian Medieval themed. So cool! This tapestry was in their room. 

Then we rushed back into the park because we couldn’t leave without going on our favorite ride one last time! SINBAD!! Can you tell our excitement?

And then we had to run out because the park was closing. Not before I found this perfect Chandu plush! I loved him and lowkey regret not buying him. 

That’s all she wrote folks!

[artsistory]

Back to Basics (10.27.19)

On our last day with Makana, we wanted to hit up Asakusa again. We only saw it at night with Hope and Victoria and thought it would be fun to check out in the daylight when the shops were open. It was crazy!! We had no idea just how poppin’ the temple would be since it was soooo empty before. 

But we soldiered on! Danni and I had to stop to get some sweet dongos before we got too far. This place is famous! They’ve been making dongos the same way since the Edo Period!

We did some shopping around and found a few cool things. There was a whole shop selling the plastic food that restaurants use to display their stuff in the windows! And Makana took some moody pics of us browsing the luck charms.

We wandered around the shops and the temple until we got hungry. We took a quick lunch break at Ichiran, a classic! We can always depend on ramen. 

Then we ventured across the river to the giant gold poop! 

Supposedly, it is a “golden flame” but come on... its a poop. It was built for the 100th anniversary of Asahi beer and that’s exactly what we were there for! Next door is the Asahi headquarters and the public can go up to the top floor and have a beer with the view! It’s p nice.

Though we were very tired from all the sightseeing, we decided we had to show Makana REDACTED Street before he left. And while it was supposed to be for him, we ended up finding a new store that had an entire Yuri on Ice section, the biggest we’d ever seen! So I think we mostly just tortured him while we combed over each and ever item. BLLEP heaven!

Makana bounced to meet up with a friend so Danni and I wandered around a bit. We found some Hello Kitty taiyaki! 

And then headed on back home. We said goodbye to Makana and crashed!

[artsistory]

Kawaii Halloween!! (10.26.19)

We took it realllly easy in the morning. Well, Danni and I did. Makanakai was out at like 7am. He met up with David and his friends and went all over the place. 

We ended up bouncing around 2pm and headed towards the Ota Memorial Museum to see some cool ukiyo e paintings. The exhibit was awesome! It was all dedicated to this one man who specialized in warrior and monster pictures. He’s known for this bad boy! Really put us in the Halloween spirit. 

Then we met up with Makanakai and wandered around the LaForet mall which has a ton of avant garde designer stuff. Also this guy.

Plus Danni found her perfect jacket. If only she had $2,000.... Anybody want to donate to the baby jacket fund??

We were getting a bit peckish so next up was our favorite sushi place, Genki sushi! Yes. Again. It’s good!

As you can see, we ate a lot.

After dinner, it was time for our reservations at the Kawaii Monster Cafe! This place is known for having a crazy interior and rainbow spaghetti. But during Halloween, they crank it up a notch!

We bought masks for the occasion.

There was a live DJ and he played all the faves! You make me feel, mighty real!!

And even though we were stuffed, we had to get some spooky dessert. Ghoulish ice cream!!

And then the performers came out! They were amazing! And we were even pulled up to dance on the cake with them. 

Danni fell in love.

What a great Halloween!

And back home by 11 before the trains stop lol!

[artsistory]

Disney Day 3! We’re Wet. (10.25.19)

So... We knew it was going to rain today. We bought ponchos and everything. But we had no idea, what was truly in store for us. The problem? None of us had waterproof shoes.

We woke up at dawn. Suited up. And were ready for the fight!

So dry... So naive...

As we waited for the gates to open, we started to realize that this wasn’t just wimpy California rain. This was big boy rain. But we were dedicated to seeing the day through! We had rides to ride. 

As the gates opened, we ran straight for the most popular ride on our list: Sourin’ Over the World!! We thought we’d have a good chance because we were near the front and there were bound to be less people because of the rain. Nope! The line was at 70 minutes! And our fastpass was already down to 2pm. We’d have to stick it out till then. And our shoes... were only getting soggier. 

Next up was Indiana Jones!! And with the rain blasting down, it was only a 5 minute wait! We ran through the line and got on! It was so fun!

Next door, we noticed that Raging Spirits was empty as well. We were sure it would be closed down as it is an outdoor roller coaster but NOPE! We were already pretty wet at this point and thought how much wetter could we get? Turns out... much much wetter.. We road it twice! It was stupidly fun to ride with the rain blasting our faces. 

As the storm raged on, we headed towards our favorite ride, Sinbad! But the warm indoor ride only revealed to us just how wet we’d become. At the point, the shoes were a sponge and our feet were in the soup. The cold soup.

We consoled ourselves with Chandu curry puffs as we slowly began to realize that we would never make it to 2pm. We were soaked chickens! And it was time to go home. We tried our best!!

In the end, we lasted like 2 hours lol. And then the horrid slimey public trans trek back home. I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life!

We peeled off our socks (and our wrinkled foot skin for good measure), took warm showers, and called it a day!

[artsistory]

Disney Day 2! To the Sea! (10.24.19)

We couldn’ do it... We couldn’t wake up at 5am again! So like fools we slept till the ungodly hour of 6am... But back to Disney we go! 

The day began like the one before, a very long multi train ride! But this time, the train was Disney themed!!!

And we entered Tokyo Disney Sea! Disney Sea is a whole new theme park unique to Japan. It’s sea themed!! And known for being the most immaculate and picturesque Disney parks in the world. It’s beautiful!!

We had much less of a plan this time and didn’t have the advantage of being there when the park opened. So, the shows and fastpasses were all booked up! Uh oh! Trying to figure out and entirely new theme park is hard!

We ended up in the American Waterfront area which is hilarious because it is USA themed. There’s an old timey New York street and a replica of the Queen Mary.

Soon enough we found our way to the Mysterious Island where the Volcano is! It’s all steampunky in there and very cool. The best ride, Journey to the Center of the Earth, was closed for remodeling but we could still go on 2000 Leagues under the Sea! 

Makana loved it! We were really feeling the atmosphere of the place. Did I mention the front is entirely Venice themed? Haha! Deja Vu amiright??

We even rode the gondolas, something we didn’t do in real Venice. It was pretty fun saying “ciao ciao” with our Japanese gondoliers. They even sang for us!

Somehow lunchtime rolled around and we had secured reservations at Danni’s favorite spot: Magellan’s. They have the best creme brulee in the world! It was so beautiful inside. We felt very legit because we requested the secret room and got to eat in the wine cellar behind a moving bookcase. It was very exciting and I definitely didn’t fall asleep in the waiting area before our meal!

After lunch, we somehow got mixed up in Leonardo’s Challenge which was a scavenger hunt all around the Renaissance themed parapets dotting the coastline. It was very fun and we absolutely won probably. There was no way to know because everything was in Japanese. 

We also made it to Danni’s favorite ride, Sinbad’s Adventure which is a banger and a bop from start to finish. That song they sing in there will be with me forever. Also, Chandu is the only cat I will ever love.

We wanted to hit up Soarin’ Over the World, Indiana Jones, and Raging Spirits which are all different than what we have at home but we missed all the fastpasses and the lines were never less than 70 minutes! Oh god! So we rode the Tower of Terror twice instead! They have a completely different story since the Twilight Zone isn’t a thing in Japan and I love it. 

Also we got many snacks, obviously. Japan Disney is known for their different flavored popcorn and the best was Chinese Chili! Yum! They also had these fun ice creams. 

After a few more rides, we felt thoroughly pooped. All this going hard and getting up early was a lot! We headed back in the early evening with plans of hitting the park at opening tomorrow to catch all the things we missed. 

[artsistory]

Disneyland Day 1! (10.23.19)

It’s here! What we’ve all been waiting for! Tokyo Disney 3 Day Extravaganza!!!

It began with waking up at 5 AM!! We had to arrive before the park opened and it takes an full hour of public trans to get there. So at the crack of dawn we got ready and went.

We thought we’d be there pretty early but by the time we got to the front gate, a big line was already forming!! Japanese people go HARD at Disneyland. 

Thankfully, Danni did her research and we knew exactly what we had to do. When the gates opened we ran right to Tomorrowland to get Monsters Inc fastpasses and then get in line for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, the two best rides in the park!

Our first ride was Hunny Hunt! The line was super short since it was so early but it wasn’t going to stay that way. This ride blows the Pooh ride back home out of the water! The sets and graphics are crazy and the whole ride smells like honey!!

We then met some friends in Fantasyland and rode a few rides while we waited for our fastpasses. Don’t underestimate Danni on the teacups. She whipped that cup around so fast, I thought I’d barf.

We rode the Haunted Mansion which was all decked out for The Nightmare before Christmas. There’s a few extra rooms that we don’t have back home! Then on to Monsters Inc! This ride is so crazy! You get flashlights and shine them all around the fast paced ride which triggers all sorts of things to happen! So coooool.

Japanese people really go in on the accessories and costumes. Everyone has headgear and lanyards and matching cutesy outfits. Since it was Halloween, adults are allowed to wear actual costumes too. And the cosplay was crazy impressive. You couldn’t really tell the difference between the actual characters and the park goers sometimes. All this to say, I was feeling left out so I bought one of the most popular items, a 101 Dalmatians headband!

I couldn’t get Makanakai to buy this one.

And since we got most of the popular rides out of the way in the morning, we took a more leisurely run around the park in the afternoon. Main Street is all under a covered market. Looks so pretty!

We also had to stop by Country Bear Jamboree which was killed back home but still going strong in Japan. It was a blast from the past for sure! And almost totally not terrifying to see those giant animatronic bears singing California Girls in Japanese on stage. 

I honestly think my favorite ride was the Tiki Room! I love the original and all but in this one, Stitch crashes the party and they sing Aloha Komo Mai all together! Stitchey is very popular in Japan.

And let us not forget all the dope snacks at Disneyland! They have such weird and good food! Like these mochi aliens! Hello!!

Also these pizza spring rolls. What?

It was super fun just to run around the park and see everything. The magic was real. 

Especially when we rode Splash Mountain with this man that Danni may or may not have elbowed his wife earlier in the day for crowding up on her at the Small World line.... A magical night!

We ended the night with the Electrical Light Parade which is still going strong over here. It was beautiful! And also, if you are up front, everyone remains sitting which is wild. It’s all so organized! California would never.

And then we slumped all the way back home to do it all over again!!

[artsistory]

Akihabara with Makaka (10.22.19)

Today Danni woke up really sick! Ha! Oh well. At least she can fit in with the locals now.

Vending machine chic.

Did we mention there are tons of vending machines in Japan? They’re everywhere!

Sick or no sick, we still had things to do so we hopped the first train to Akihabara! We thought it would be fun for Makanakai’s first stop in Tokyo to be Electric Town!  

We wandered some of the fun anime shops until we got hungry. So next stop was the Honey Toast Cafe! It’s a Tokyo thing to make giant crazy desserts out of toast. 

After our sweets, we wandered a few more shops and got entirely overwhelmed at the gigantic Yodabashi Camera. It’s like 7 stories tall! They take their electronic stores very seriously in Akihabara. 

After all that, we called it an early night in order to get ready for DISNEYLAND tomorrow! 

[artsistory]

Makana is here!! (10.21.19)

A new day dawned and a new adventure was to begin. Makanakai was coming! But first!

Shopping! TBH most of our time in Japan has been spent frantically trying to fin presents for all our friends and family. We’ve been to every mall in the city! Today we headed down to Sunshine City. This one is really close to our new place and has some real gems like the Pokemon Center!

They also had some choice Ghibli merch. 

Before we knew it, Makanakai was at the station and we ran back to pick him up! Yay! 

Our first stop? The tiny udon shop we had found before! It was just as tasty!

And then we promptly returned home and crashed. Well, mostly Makana crashed but can you blame him? That flight over is really a one way ticket to dog meat. 

[artsistory]

TIRED (10.20.19)

Hey! It’s Brandi. I’ll be writing the next couple blogs so get excited! Today we did NOTHING. We said goodbye to Hope and Victoria and then somehow... died? I dunno. The day was a loss. 

[artsistory]

All of the lights (10.19.19)

Today we had tickets to go see some good digital art! The museum was pretty far out on the docks but there were a lot of great sights along the way such as: a bug gundam and the statue of liberty? Victoria and Brandi made a quick pit stop and when left unsupervised Hope and I were basically forced to ride the ferris wheel. 

Then we waited in a rainy line to get into the museum. The line looked huge but it moved pretty fast. They herded everyone in like cattle but once inside it wasn’t too bad as there are so many rooms to explore!

Basically its a big warehouse full of light tricks. Hard to get pictures in the dark but we had a lot of playing playing and running around. 

One room was a teahouse where the tea grew digital flowers! 

Another was like Kusama x1000000

After that we went back for more conveyer belt sushi and then back home to pack up Hope and Victoria! Boo! We are so sad they’re leaving. Although I enjoyed the opportunity to flex my packing skills.