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checheisacat-blog · 8 years ago

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Japan Trip 2016 Day 4: Shinjuku OIOI (Marui) Angelic Pretty, exploring Akihabara, Maidreamin Maid Cafe

On Day 4 the *plan* was to wake up early and get ready in lolita, then travel with my friend to the Angelic Pretty store in Shinjuku OIOI to line up for the Aquarium Carnival release.

Buuut it didn’t really happen that way LOL.

Our plan was to be at the AP store by 9 AM, but by the time I woke up (and then ACTUALLY woke up lol) and calculated the time it would take me to get ready in lolita, I knew there was no way we would make it lol. My friend Mika figured the same and we decided we'd get ready in lolita and go to the AP store anyway even if we wouldn't make it in time to line up for that ~release experience~.

Even though I was pretty lazy with my coord overall, it still took me longer than I would've liked to get ready. I blame the humidity (and my own stupidity for attempting to curl my hair LOL).

We left our bfs to explore and shop around Ikebukuro while we headed to the station! We decided to go the way of Ikebukuro station instead of Otsuka station this time since we needed to stop by the bank to change more dollars in yen.

They were giving away cute origami at the bank! I took a few as souvenirs.

And then we took the Yamanote line to Shinjuku! So many tall buildings. It really gives off the feeling of a bustling city.

Even the short walk to the OIOI (or Marui) felt sooo long though because of the heat, humidity, and all the stopping we had to do at the crosswalks.

I took this fabulous coord pic of my friend though!

And then we were in the mall! A lot of the stores have signs that say no pictures allowed, so I don't really have a lot of pictures inside the mall. It was amazing, though! There were so many different stores, I wish I had the time to look through them all! We had all agreed on a designated time to meet back up in Ikebukuro, though, which meant we didn't have a lot of time for leisurely browsing.

We took the escalator up to the floor that had the lolita stores and found the Angelic Pretty store! I kinda wish I had just snuck a picture of the store, but for some reason I decided not to be rude at that particular time LOL.

Turns out we really had nothing to worry about regarding the release since there were PLENTY of Aquarium Carnival items left in stock. To be honest, I wasn't really interested in the print myself, but had mostly gone to accompany my friend and look at their other stock.

My friend ending up buying the navy JSK and matching headbow though! I'm glad she ended up liking the print and buying it! However, going to AP wasn't useless for me at all since I ended up spotting the Wrapping Cherry cutsew OP in pink which was a BIG wishlist item for me. It was in the exact cut and color I wanted and it was the only one left! I decided to take it as a sign and bought it LOL. I debated getting some socks and accessories too but decided against it. They also had Twinkle Sky dresses for only 10,000 yen! Sadly the only colorway I was interested in (ivory) was sold out, so I ended up not getting it.

The shop girls were super nice to us (even though we were dressed in BTSSB and not AP LOL) and one of them agreed to take pics with us as long as it was outside the store! She was really cute, cheery, and helpful!

I also took a coord shot in the bathroom with my shopping bag!

We did a little bit of browsing around the floor but then it was time to go back to Ikebukuro!

After we all regrouped the next item on the agenda (set by my friend LOL) was to meet up with some more of her friends in Akihabara! So together we all took the train to Akihabara.

AKIHABARA!! I was really excited! Akihabara is pretty much Tokyo's epicenter of everything otaku-related.

AKB48 cafe! I'm a casual AKB48 fan, I know some of their more popular songs but don't know any of the member's names LOL.

And the Gundam Cafe!! I'm not really a gundam fan either LOL. We took a pic outside anyway!

We waited around the station a bit for Mika's friends to show up. They were both super nice! The one with the green wig is also named Mika LOL and the blonde one is Chi and she brought her daughter Kairi along with her (in a stroller)! With all of us finally together we started exploring Akihabara!

selfie!

And I got another coord shot! Although I kinda have a stank face LOL and a bad habit of touching my face in photos ahhh I need to stop doing that >_>

Akihabara was really an otaku's paradise! There were giant anime billboards and arcades EVERYWHERE. Not to mention a ton of maid cafes.

My bf had heard about the Final Fantasy XIV cafe in Akihabara, so the first thing we did was try to find that with navigation help from Mika's friend Mika (maybe I'll call her other Mika for the purposes of this post LOL).

The FFXIV cafe is called Eorzea cafe and it's located in a building called Pasela resorts! We actually found it pretty easily. But since it was a Saturday and we didn't have a reservation the cafe was all booked up for the day. It was pretty exciting just to see it, though! My bf (and me too, tbh) really wanted to eat there though so we made plans to come back during a weekday morning to try to get seats.

The merchandise displays and art!

On the first floor of Pasela resorts was a Honey Toast cafe!! I love honey toast. We didn't stop to eat though, since we had more exploring to do!

We walked down the main street of Akihabara (I don't remember what the street name is lol) and came across many arcades and stores!

The prizes for the arcade machines were all so cool, they even had large prizes like body pillows and posters. The prizes reflect what's popular at the moment, so there was a lot of Love Live!

I was surprised to see a machine with Tales of the Abyss prizes! I wanted one so bad ;_; but I'm garbage at arcade machines so I don't even bother trying lolol. I wish they had the prizes for sale too, I would rather than just buy it than get frustrating trying to win it lolol.

We browsed some more along the street!

There was a FFXV display! This was before FFXV was released lol.

Eventually we came across a building that had a lot of Love Live stuff and a Love Live cafe!!

I really wanted to eat at the cafe but of course it being a Saturday and us not having reservations meant it was a no-go lol. I tried to ask the girl working at the merch booth on the first floor how to get reservations for the cafe, but she completely didn't understand my shitty Japanese and English mix and ended up calling her manager (?) over her headset saying "wakaranai" lolol I pretty much gave up after that. Although I probably should've gone to the actual cafe (on the 7th floor) to ask but I didn't realize it lol my mistake >_>

But I did snag one of those Snow Halation tote bags from the merch booth!

It was just a few days past Nozomi Tojo (one of the U's members) birthday, so there were a huge display dedicated to her!

In the same area there was an arcade machine with these Senor Sabotenders from FFXIV!! My bf tried unsuccessfully to win one lol.

At that point we were all hungry so we went into a curry ticket machine restaurant! Chi and her daughter had already departed by this point but we still had to wait a bit for the five of us that were left to be seated.

The wait was totally worth it though! The curry was super delicious!

Endless fukujinzuke!! I drowned my plate in it lolol and sent a pic to my sister.

After that it was time for more exploring! We went into a video game store that had demos you could play.

I saw a Carl's Jr. and took a pic of it LOL.

And more exploring!

I bought this EnStars pin for a friend of mine who lives in Oregon, but the one time she came to visit me I ended up forgetting to give it to her LOL so I still have it... somewhere.

We saw this takoyaki stand!! Even though we weren't that hungry bf and I decided to share one just to try it.

I only ate one or two myself but it was SO amazing, the best takoyaki I've ever had tbh! They were really generous with the portion for the price too.

And after a little more walking and saying goodbye to other Mika, the four of decided to go in a maid cafe! We settled on Maidreamin since there were signs for it everywhere and we just happened to be near one location.

The one we went to was located on the fourth floor of a building! Honestly with the huge signs everyone you won't have trouble finding a Maidreamin or any other maid cafe in Akihabara.

No pics are allowed in maid cafes, but I tried to sneak a few (not of the maids, but of the food and us lol) although looking back on it, all the pictures I ended up taking were really crappy lol.

There were some nuts on the table to snack on! We also got some tea.

The menu!

And a really zoomed out pictures of my parfait with my friend making a funny face in the background LOL.

That's pretty much all the usable pics I have tbh. I wish I tried to sneak more pics! But I'll guess I'll just the describe the experience instead. Their menu had some regular food and dessert you could order a la carte, or you could get a "set". There were different set prices, but the one I got was about $20 and came with the parfait, a souvenir, and a picture with a maid (and something else probably but I can't remember because I DIDN'T TAKE A PICTURE ahhh). My friends each got the more expensive set which came with more choice of souvenirs and a food item I believe? And my bf just ordered a dessert a la carte since he didn't really want a picture with a maid or a souvenir LOL. When they bring your food/dessert out they do a "Moe moe kyun" ritual type thing where they same some kawaii chant and do some arm movements and you have to repeat it after them. It was kinda charming but also kinda embarrassing lol. We were pretty much the only group in there, the rest of the customers were Japanese men by themselves, although as we were leaving a group of white tourist girls came in.

The parfait was actually surprisingly delicious! I did enjoy the maid cafe for the experience but I don’t think I’d do it again. I’m not really that big on overly kawaii or moe moe kyun type stuff and for the price I’d rather go to another themed cafe... where I can take pictures LOL. But that’s not to detract from Maidreamin in any way since they definitely delivered the maid cafe experience and the souvenirs were really nice.

My pic with the maid! Even though my bf didn't enjoy the experience he ended up taking this picture from me to keep in his wallet LOL.

After we left the maid cafe it was getting pretty late at night. We walked around the street some more and looked in a few more stores. I was getting tired at this point but I got some good pics of Akihabara at nighttime!

Selfie!

And a Kirby claw machine! Sooo cute ;_;

Our last stop was a Don Quijote! I only took one pic lol of these Fujifilm Instax cameras! I really wanted one but ended up not getting one at the time, although I do have one now that I got off Amazon for cheaper!

After that we were all really tired and decided to go back to the hotel and call it a night. It was a fun day! My first time wearing lolita in Japan (and I decided after that I didn't want to deal with the hassle anymore, especially since my hair had deflated and makeup had smudged because of the humidity), and first time at a real maid cafe! It was also really fun just exploring Akihabara, although it sucked to get turned away at cafes because of our poor planning lolol. The highlights of the day for me were finding (and buying) Wrapping Cherry, which is still one of my favorite dresses to wear, and eating that delicious, delicious takoyaki!

Our plan for the next morning was to wake up early to try to get into the Eorzea cafe (although since the next day was a Sunday idk if that was really such a good idea lol). Stay tuned to find out if that plan comes to fruition lolol.

Japan Trip June 2016

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checheisacat-blog · 8 years ago

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Japan Trip 2016 Day 3: Tokyo Tower, Imperial Palace, exploring Asakusa, Nakano Broadway

Day 3 we woke up bright and early to go on our tour!

We didn't have time to stop for a "real" breakfast so I ate this meal I got from a conbini the day before! Anyone who's been to Japan knows that Japanese convience stores, or conbinis, are the BEST THING EVER and infinitely better than western convenience stores lol. The meal came with inari, tempura, sushi, an egg, and some other things. It actually tasted pretty good and was decently filling despite being less than $4!

We left our hotel to walk to the spot where our bus was supposed to pick us up, which was near the Sunshine City Prince Hotel!

The bus was actually really cute with green seats and little cupholders that looked like basketball hoops!

A pretty nice view from the bus!

They also had a menu of souvenirs you could buy! I didn't end up buying anything but now I kinda wish I did.

I brought some onigiri onto the bus in case we got hungry again since I didn't think we'd have time to stop for food while on the tour, which was slated to last for a few hours.

This first bus took us to Hamamatsucho Station where we got our tickets and transferred to our actual tour bus lol. I got to see the souvenirs in person! I was too busy trying to find a bathroom and get in the right line for our bus to shop to look around much though.

Our tickets! The bus is called a Hato Bus and the company that does the tours is called Sunrise Tours. The tour bus was taking us to three destinations: Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Palace, and Asakusa.

First stop: Tokyo Tower! We entered into the first floor (?) which had a food court! There were hardly any people besides those on the tour, probably because it was still early in the morning. I wish I had time to look around the food court more and maybe grab something to eat, but since we were on limited time we of course had to go up into the actual tower!

Our tour guide led us through! She carried a stick with a Hello Kitty in a kimono attached the end so our (rather large) group would know who to follow. Funny enough, she left for a few minutes and asked me to hold her Hello Kitty on a stick LOL I got to play tour guide for a few minutes.

When she came back, we got our tickets and a guide book to Tokyo Tower. And up into the tower we went!

Even though we had just seen a view of Tokyo the day before, it was much less foggy and cloudy this day so we got to see an even more amazing view.

Walking around the floor we were on (can't remember which one it was but probably an observation deck?) there were also cute things to see like a model of the Tokyo Tower and a shrine!

My bf took the pic but there wasn’t much space to pack up for a wide shot so he cut off the first and last letters,now it’s just Okyo Towe LMAO

We were still walking around when we got a 15 minute notice to meet back at the tour bus. It seemed like we were there for such a short time, I wish we had more time to look around and enjoy the view. We actually weren't sure where we were supposed to go but somehow we got on an elevator back down to the bottom, after which we had to take a few flights to stairs to reach the first floor again.

While trying to find out where the bus was parked, we saw this cool One Piece display in front of a gift shop that sadly wasn't open yet lol.

This picture was actually taken from my bf's phone. I keep forgetting to look through his album too for pics to put in these posts!

Anyway, we were back on the bus and onto our second destination: the Imperial Palace!

While we were on the bus, our tour guide gave us an overview of the Emperor and the Imperial family, and some history lessons. Honestly, I don't remember much of what she said, although she did pass around some pictures which I took pictures of too LOL.

And then we got to the Imperial Palace!

We followed our tour guide down and around this street that allowed us some nice views of the Imperial Palace. It was really nice to see such a historical building and the enjoy the scenery!

It was pretty windy that day despite being so sunny and hot, but I still got some nice pictures!

After having some time to take pictures, we followed our tour guide down the street to where our tour bus was picking us up.

And then we were onto the last destination: Asakusa! For this last leg of the tour, we were either allowed to walk through Nakamise Street and then meet back up with the tour bus to take us back to the station, OR we could stay in Asakusa as long as we wanted and find our own way back lol. We chose to do the latter so that we could take as much time as wanted to look around and see other things around Asakusa besides that one street. If you're ever on a similar tour, I recommend doing the same since Asakusa has so much to see that you can't possibly fit into an hour and you'd save on the train fare you would otherwise spend going to Asakusa lol. On the way back, the bus drives through Ueno and Akihabara but since we were planning on going to those places later it really didn't matter to us whether we saw them briefly on a drive through anyway.

A map of Asakusa they gave us!

Since this is where we officially parted from the tour, I'll take the time to say that I really enjoyed the tour and I highly recommend it for first-time visitors to Japan who want to get an introduction to Japan and see some tourist-y desinations all in one day. The tour is really foreigner-friendly since everything was in English and the price was reasonable considering admission to Tokyo Tower was included! Here's a link to the Hatobus website if you're considering doing one of these tours yourself: https://www.hatobus.com/int/en/

Onto exploring Asakusa! Asakusa is a neighborhood in Tokyo which is pretty much quintessential Japan, or as close to as it as you can get in Tokyo. There's lots of shrines, landmarks, sightseeing and souvenir shopping! This part we got dropped off at was really beautiful, lots of nature and not too much of a crowd!

To be honest, I don't know much about Japanese religion or history but I still really enjoyed walking through Asakusa and seeing everything! I'll let the pictures do the talking LOL.

^The pic I took of my bf...

...and the pic he took of me at the same time! LOL

After taking some pictures we stopped for some mitarashi dango! It was my first time trying dango and for 200 yen we couldn't resist. We actually dropped the first dango that we got (while my bf was trying to hand it to me) and I was upset lol but the lady working the stand insisted on giving us another one for free and refused to take the money my bf tried to give her lol she was so nice about it ;_; <3 She knew we were clueless clumsy tourists LOL.

There was a building next to it where you could sit down to eat and do some souvenir shopping! We sat down there to enjoy our mitarashi dango. It was really delicious! The sauce was a perfect mix of savory and sweet and complemented the chewy insides well. I would definitely get it again!

Afterward we looked around the street some more. This street actually wasn't very crowded, so we went along at a leisurely pace and were able to see a lot of things.

We saw a small takoyaki restaurant! Takoyaki is my bf and I's favorite food LOL it's kinda "our snack" (lame I know) since we bonded over our obsessive love of takoyaki. So of course we had to stop to try it! At first we thought of taking it to-go but then decided to eat at some of the tables outside since the shade was a nice break from the heat.

We drank some iced tea while we were waiting, which was really refreshing. And then we ate our takoyaki! They were lumpy and kinda fell apart while we were eating them LOL but they were piping hot since they were freshly made and the taste was delicious! I enjoyed it a lot!

While we were walking we saw a kamishibai! The kamishibaiya was really cute and funny and attempted to tell us the story in English since we were all tourists LOL. The story had to do with a boat of people being attacked by a monster coming out of the sea. It was really entertaining!

Afterward, we arrived at what I believe to be Kaminarimon and Nakamise Street! This area was packed with groups of tourists and locals (?) dressed up in kimono, in contrast to the relatively empty area we just came from. It was really smoky due to all the incense and that only added to the heat since there were so many people.

Incoming pic spam of all the things! I took lots of pictures, of course! You can see just how crowded it was.

We then walked down Nakamise street filled with souvenir and snack stores!

To be honest, a lot of souvenir shops on this street are really overpriced LOL probably because it's a tourist trap and there are so many people here on any given day that they can afford to keep their prices high.

I didn't buy anything except two toilet keychains with a golden poop inside LOL one for my bf and one for me. It was an impulse purchase, but I wanted a small souvenir.

Despite not buying much in the way of souvenirs, we did try a lot of different snacks and desserts! It was especially tempting to stop for frozen treats since it was so hot. The shaved ice was really fluffy and airy!

We had to stop to enjoy our snacks since we couldn't walk around while eating them LOL. Lot of places have areas where you can eat in the shade though, so it's not that much of an inconvenience. I don't really like eating while walking anyway, especially messy foods, because it's hard to balance everything without getting food all over your hands and clothes. And since I'm usually carrying an umbrella to shield me from the sun, it's pretty much impossible to eat while walking around LOL.

And we reached the end of Nakamise street!

We were done with Asakusa at that point, and headed to the train station!

A cool display in Asakusa station!

I was feeling pretty gross and sweaty at this point due to the heat, but there was still a lot of time left in the day since we'd got such an early start because of the tour. So we all decided to head to Nakano!

We were here specifically for Nakano Broadway! The best way I can describe it is like a long semi-indoor street mall filled with a lot of shops and restaurants. At the end there's an escalator that takes you up into a multi-floor mall filled with lots and lots of anime and otaku stores, including Manadarake! It's a lot of fun and a must-see destination for any weeaboos tbh LOL.

First, we took our time in the "street" area!

We realized we hadn't really ate a real meal since the day began, so bf and I decided to stop at a ticket machine restaurant for some quick food! We shared an udon and gyudon between the two of us! The food was really good, but it was super hot inside the whole rea, including in the restaurant, so it was hard to enjoy the hot udon LOL.

Then we walked around the shops some more!

^An “alleyway” leading out of the main part of Nakano Broadway and back outside.

After a little bit of window shopping my bf and I met up with our friends at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant! Even though we had just ate we decided to try a little bit of sushi just because.

Afterwards it was up the escalator and into weeb paradise LOL. This area was a lot less crowded and hot, which was a welcome relief!

Our first stop was Mandarake! I'm not much into manga or doujinshi, but it was still cool to look around, albeit a bit stinky LOL.

After a bit more looking around, I managed to find a lot of things I was interested in (I wasn’t sure if I would at first lol). I bought some Love Live merch of my favorite 2D idol, Maki Nishikino!

We also found a store with these gates which I assume are meant to imitate the Fushimi Inari shrine torii gates in Kyoto (although I didn’t realize this until afterward LOL). They were so small though, my bf couldn’t walk through them without crouching LOL.

Look at all his shopping bags LOL. He bought so many Final Fantasy plushies!

At this point we were tired so we took a break at these arcade machines, and my bf decided to play a few games while we were waiting for our friends to finish their shopping. I bought myself a vending machine drink and rested, then decided to look around some more.

I saw the Spank store! I don't know why, but I was nervous to take pictures and look around there, so I just took a quick glance through what they had. I regret not being brave enough to look around more thoroughly LOL.

By now, we were all tired, so we got on the train back to our hotel! I got some pretty good pictures of us waiting at the station LOL.

^added in that pic just because my bf looks cute LOL

We had to do a transfer in Takadanobaba! We didn't leave the station, but I took lots of pics with the signs LOL.

Something we discovered is that even though our hotel is in Ikebukuro, it's easier to get off at Otsuka station since it's actually closer to our hotel than Ikebukuro station! Otsuka station is a lot less crowded and the walk back is a lot calmer.

A bakery inside Otsuka station!

The only pic I got of the area outside Otsuka station lol aaand it’s blurry.

The street our hotel was on!

Kind of a funny/silly story: the first time we walked to Otsuka station, we saw this run-down, kinda scary Coca-Cola building a little bit down the street from our hotel. My bf said something along the lines of “What would you do if you came to Japan and this was your hotel? Cat would be pissed!” and it kinda became a running joke among us every time we passed it LOL (it was funnier in real life I swear).

After dropping our purchases back at our hotel and resting for a bit, bf and I decided to go to the Ikebukuro Parco for the Evangelion store to get souvenirs for his brother and his brother’s (now ex) gf. We had to rush though, since the mall was closing soon by the time we decided to go. I was confident I could get us there in time though, and I did! Although it took us a lot of running up and down stairs and I was sweaty again by the time we actually got to the store ><

These goods were designed/illustrated by Yurie Sekiya, the artist behind Peropero sparkles!! I love her art so much and Peropero sparkles is sooo cute, I wish she did merchandise for an anime I actually like though LOLOL

I'm not into Evangelion and neither is my bf lol but the store had such a wide selection of eva goods! If I were into eva this store would seem amazing.

While walking through Ikebukuro back to our hotel, we saw a street performer!

And then we decided to go to Matsuya again for a quick dinner since we were hungry from so much walking around LOL. We were really tired and walking anywhere else seemed like too much of a pain. Thank goodness for this Matsuya! We shared a gyudon (see a pattern? LOL) and some hamburger steak dish?

The Angelic Pretty Aquarium Carnival release was the next day, and my friend and I decided we wanted to go if for no other reason than to experience an AP release LOL. We decided we would go to the AP in Shinjuku OIOI since that is the only store that doesn't require you to dress in AP apparently lol. Since we had to wake up early to get ready for that, I was ready for some much-needed sleep!

That wraps up day 3! We did a lot this day. I really enjoyed this day a lot despite the heat and my constant whining about it LOL. The highlight for me was walking around Asakusa and trying so many different snacks!

Japan Trip June 2016

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checheisacat-blog · 8 years ago

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Japan Trip June 2016 Day 2: Pokemon Center, Laforet in Harajuku, Sailor Moon exhibit, meeting Misako Aoki, Closet Child Ikebukuro

Day 2 was our first full day in Japan and it was full of activities!

The view from outside our hotel window!

My bf and I decided to try the ticket machine restaurant that was right next to our hotel called Matsuya, mostly for a convenient breakfast that was cheap and fast. We ended up liking it a lot and eating here multiple times during our trip whenever we wanted food in the early morning or late night and didn't feel like walking anywhere LOL.

I've never eaten at a ticket machine restaurant before! The way it works is that you choose what you want to order at a machine (it looks kinda like an arcade machine LOL) and insert your money (cash only) straight into the machine. The machine gives you a ticket with your order on it, which you give to the attendant who will make your order and bring it out! Really fast and efficient!

The tickets!

I ordered a pork belly rice bowl and bf ordered beef with curry. I ended up liking the beef more than my pork LOL they both tasted pretty good though and were filling with was nice! The meals all come with miso soup too. They give you a lot of food for a low price!

Afterwards we met up with my friend and her bf and we were on our way!

Since our hotel is so close to Sunshine City we decided to cut through there on our way to Ikebukuro station. Sunshine City is a pretty big mall that has a lot of attractions in it! The highlights are the Pokemon Center, two small indoor amusement parks called Namjatown and J-world, an aquarium, a planetarium, and an observatory. They also have a lot of cool shops and restaurants! I'd definitely recommend visiting here if you ever go to Tokyo since there's so much to do. I got lost in Sunshine city a few times because it's so huge but by the end of the trip I think I managed to be able to navigate it somewhat lolol.

The escalator leading to the Pokemon Center was decorated with Pokeballs!

We found the Pokemon Center! It's actually the largest Pokemon Center in Japan. My bf ended up loving this place so much lol by the end of the trip he had bought hundreds of dollars worth of stuff.

They had a collection called PokeNeco Dolce which is really pastel and girly and CUTE. It was my favorite thing at the Pokemon center! You'd never see this kind of cute Pokemon merchandise in the US lol ;_;

My bf and I ended up getting the matching boy and girl Pikachu plushie keychains lol his is hanging in his car now and mine is sitting in my room since I don't wanna get it dirty.

There were a lot of cute Pokemon things around the Pokemon center too like this wall with all the Pokemon and some arcade machines we couldn't really figure out lol.

We looked at some other shops and cute things around Sunshine City and Ikebukuro while going to the station! Exiting from Sunshine City actually puts us right in the middle of a street with a bunch of arcade machines and shops in Ikebukuro! So it's convenient to cut through the mall especially since we were there in summer and it was humid and hot outside.

We stopped at this cute store called Sanrio Vivitix that had a lot of Sanrio products (obviously)! I didn't buy anything but I got an outfit pic in their mirror bwahaha.

We took the train from Ikebukuro to Harajuku! First train tickets and first time riding the train! It was really cool to see how fast and efficient the trains run. I was nervous to ride the train and it was a bit difficult to buy our passes at the train station since we had to look up where we were and where we wanted to go and figure out how much money to put in the machine.

HARAJUKU! It was really amazing to get to experience the ~famous~ Takeshita Dori even though it's mostly tourists now lol. When I first saw the Takeshita Dori sign I felt like crying tears of joy LOL so silly.

We looked around the shops briefly, but didn't buy anything. I was excited to see a Wego since I'd bought some stuff from there online, but it turned out to be kinda silly since there are Wego stores EVERYWHERE in Japan lol it's kinda like the Japanese Forever 21?

We stopped for a famous Harajuku crepe! It was delicious but pretty small lol. There were so many choices but I think we just went with a strawberry crepe to share. In Japan it's rude to eat while walking so you're supposed to finish eating before you start walking again. Something I didn't know before this trip!

After walking through the length of Takeshita Dori we went to Laforet! It's a huge mall with somewhere around 7 or 8 floors and a ridiculous amount of stores. They have a lot of J-fashion stores! I wanted to explore here but we didn't have much time since we were meeting up with Mika's friend Mary again.

LOOK AT ALL THE PRETTY LOLITA DRESSES ON DISPLAY AHHH

The stores I knew I wanted to go to were Swimmer and RoseMarie Seoir and I went to them both! I wanted to check out some lolita stores too but I didn't think we'd have time for me to browse since I'm a super slow shopper and need lots of time to make decisions LOL. The stores are all pretty small and aren't actual invididual stores like in American malls. They're more like huge booths with partitions separating each other.

I bought a cute waterbottle from Swimmer! Convinced myself it was a practical purchase since I wanted a waterbottle to carry around while walking so I wouldn't get dehydrated. I also ended up buying a dress and accessories from RoseMarie Seoir (formerly known as Syrup) lol I really wasn't expecting to spend so much so early in the trip but it's one of my favorite brands and a dress I was eyeing for a while so I tried not to feel too bad. It's their cats and teacups print in the Marie dress cut!

Me with my shopping bag!

We looked at a few more stores around Harajuku and then went to the station where Mika's friend Mary showed us how to get train cards/Pasmo so we didn't have to buy the individual tickets every time lol. It was really helpful!

What you do is load up the card with money (I think we put in 5000 yen initially) and whenever you go to the station just scan your card at one of the entrances. Then you can board whatever train you want and when you exit at that station it automatically calculates the price and deducts it from your card! Super neat.

We took a selfie in front of a vending machine in a station LOL

Afterward we went to Roppongi to go to the Sailor Moon Exhibit in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower! It was a lot of walking and it was pretty humid so I felt kinda gross and sweaty by the time we actually got to the building lol.

The outside of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower!

The Mori Tower is a very tall building in Roppongi that I believe has an art gallery/museum and a place where you can enjoy the view of Tokyo from high up!

We went inside the Mori Tower and bought our tickets to the Sailor Moon exhibit! We had to take a long elevator ride to the get to the floor the exhibit was located on, which brought us super high up in the building.

Our tickets to Sailor Moon Exhibit included access to a museum of Sailor Moon art and merchandise, access to a shop of Sailor Moon goods, and entrance to the Chibiusa Cafe!

The exhibit was full of a lot of really cool things! I'm not a hardcore Moonie but I watched Sailor Moon as a kid and enjoyed the exhibit for the nostalgia factor. I've always admired the wands and other props, they look so beautiful in real life ;_; I don't collect them myself but I understand why people would, they're so detailed and pretty!

Past the exhibition of merchandise, wands, etc. there were displays of artwork from Naoko Takeuchi! It all looked super ethereal and beautiful. I love the distinctive style of her art!

The view out of the windows was also amazing! It was pretty cloudy/foggy that day but the view of Tokyo was pretty cool since we were high up. You can see Tokyo Tower!

This display of Princess Serenity and Tuxedo Mask was so beautiful!

I went inside the gift shop but then left after looking around a bit because I had to go to the bathroom. I didn't realize that you were only allowed in the gift shop once and it totally sucked because I wanted to get a souvenir but I wasted my chance LOL I was pretty bummed out about it but I ended up getting a Sailor Moon souvenir later on at the bottom of the Mori Tower so it was alright!

Anyway we were feeling pretty thirsty from the long walk and all the walking around the exhibit so my bf and I decided to get in line for the Chibiusa Cafe. We joined up with the rest of the group before going inside although it was pretty hard to explain in my practically non-existent Japanese that we were meeting up with people and needed a table for 5 people lol

They had display models of all the food near the entrance to the cafe so you could see what you were ordering! They also gave out menus to people in line. All the food was super cute so I had trouble deciding what to order lol.

Sailor Moon burger with chicken nuggets and some fruit salad thingy?

Tuxedo Mask spaghetti with rose petals!

Outer senshi curry! I wish I had ordered this lol.

They also had cute themed drinks and desserts!

My bf and I shared the parfait and the burger! I wasn't feeling that hungry I guess but if I could go back I would totally order everything LOL. The burger and star-shaped chicken nuggets tasted really good!

I also liked the parfait and it was super pretty to look at LOL and humongous. My favorite part was the sorbet on top! I wasn't too big on the jelly stuff at the bottom but it was still good overall!

An amazing and totally coincidental thing that happened while we were eating was that we saw a girl who looked /exactly/ like Misako Aoki who was waiting in line and sat at the table next to us. Then we really she was the ACTUAL Misako and my friend Mika and I started freaking out and wishing we had dressed in lolita fashion that day LOL.

With help from Mary we managed to ask her for pictures! Ahhh I can't believe this amazing coincidence LOL my lolita dreams came true. I got really flustered and totally embarrassed myself fawning over here OTL we were both super giddy and giggly afterward which must've been kinda uncomfortable for Misako lolol oops. She was super nice about it though! She’s also really tiny and young-looking in real life like damn she was super cute LOL

Afterward we left and started heading back to the station! At this point we split up with Mary to go back to our hotels. We also got some ice cream and drinks at vending machines (of course lolol).

I didn't get any pictures of this part because I was holding a lot of shopping bags and was pretty tired LOL but after we got back to Ikebukuro we visited the Closet Child! It wasn't too crowded but there was a pretty big selection since it's not as picked-over as the one in Harajuku. I tried on some dresses and ended up getting an Emily Temple Cute dress and some smaller items.

Afterward we all decided to retire at the hotel since we had to wake up early to go on a tour the following morning. The tour required us to be at the bus stop by 7 AM so we decided to wake up at 6 and since we were still fighting jet lag we decided to go to sleep early.

That wraps up day 2! It was a really fun and eventful day. The highlight was definitely the Chibiusa Cafe and meeting Misako Aoki!

Japan Trip June 2016

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checheisacat-blog · 8 years ago

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Japan Trip June 2016 Day 1: Flight from LAS to NRT, exploring Ikebukuro, Nomihodai at Kin no Kura

Hi everyone! This is the first in the series of posts about my trip to Japan from 06/07/16-06/23/16. I'll be blogging about one day of the trip per post (or whatever fits within tumblr's limits lol) and probably go into a lot of meaningless details since I'm writing whatever I can remember lol.

ANYWAY.

I traveled last year in mid-June with my boyfriend Earl, my friend Mika, and her boyfriend Ralph. I'll probably refer to them from here on as "bf" and "my friend and her bf" since idk I don't like using people's names when I'm not talking directly to them LOL. It was me and my bf's first time to Japan, but my friend had been there multiple times in the past so we let her have the reigns when it came to booking flights, hotels, shuttles, etc. and planning what we were going to do each day. I was really glad to have her help since I was pretty clueless lol. The only time I'd been out of the country before this was to stop in Mexico during a cruise for a few hours, and I'd never traveled longer than 5 days before (which was with family) so I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. I didn't do /as much/ research beforehand as I probably should've so I relied on my friend's expertise a lot lol. My bf is pretty laid-back when it comes to traveling and usually lets me make all the plans/decide what to do so he was fine with whatever lol.

So our departing flight was scheduled to leave 7:35 AM from Mccarran airport in Las Vegas. We were scheduled for a 3 hour layover in Vancouver, from which we would leave at 1:40 PM and land in Tokyo at 3:45 PM there. I woke up around 3 AM on the day we were supposed to leave lol although my bf didn't sleep at all, he opted to stay up playing video games instead of only sleeping a few hours, and also so that we wouldn't accidentally oversleep and miss our flight lol. We took a cab from my house to the airport at about 4 AM and arrived there about 3 hours ahead of when our flight was supposed to leave.

But of course we were delayed at baggage check-in since apparently Air Canada's system was down or something? Sooo the trip was already off to a good start LOL. We ended up sitting at baggage for close to 2 hours until they got their system back up. The whole time I was really worried we would miss our flight and we were all pretty irritable and tired and just wanted to get on the flight already. Thankfully they delayed the flight so everyone could check-in their baggage, get through security, and get to their gate. After some trouble we finally got on our flight!

The flight from Vegas to Vancouver was pretty uncomfortable lol. It was a 3 hour flight but the seats were small and you couldn't really sleep on them comfortably. Also the water tasted super disgusting. They didn't provide anything in the way of entertainment. So basically a standard short flight lol

When we landed in Vancouver, we got some food that tasted pretty mediocre and looked around a bit. The Vancouver airport has an aquarium, but I didn't get to see it or take a picture lol. I thought about getting some souvenirs like idk maple syrup, but decided against it since I thought I could buy whatever I wanted on the layover on the flight back (which turned out to be a mistake but whatever lol). The flight leaving out of Vancouver was delayed a bit too, but we eventually got on our plane to Tokyo!

This flight was a lot more comfortable. I'd never been on an overnight flight before but they provided (small) pillows, blankets, and screens with entertainment and also served two in-flight meals. I napped a bit but mostly entertained myself with the games and talking to my friend since both of our bfs were sleeping lol.

The meal was surprisingly edible. They give you a choice of meat or a vegetarian option. It comes with a "main course", a salad, dessert, piece of bread, water bottle, and optional beverage. I asked for both apple and orange juice since that's the kind of person I am lol. The beef option I got was basically gyudon, and it was actually decent! Really small portions though lolol.

A few hours before we were supposed to land, they served "breakfast". I chose the chicken option this time which was basically bland chicken over rice with some seaweed over it. The vegetables and onions on the side were okay though.

After what seemed like an excruciatingly long flight we finally landed in Tokyo! I was surprisingly not feeling as dead as I expected lol. We saw some cool things at the airport but I didn't wanna stop to taking very many pictures since we still had to get through immigration/customs which I was nervous about lol it went off without a hitch though!

I also saw my first Japanese vending machine! I was super excited over these like a stupid tourist LOL I basically ended up taking a pic of every vending machine I saw. At the end of this series of posts I might just make a post dedicated to all these vending machines.

My friend booked us our shuttle from the airport to our hotel with Airport Limousine. Well, not actually to our hotel lol. We were staying at a hotel called Hotel MyStays but they didn't have a shuttle there so we took the shuttle to the Sunshine City Prince Hotel a few blocks down from where our hotel was.

I got my first vending machine drink while we were waiting for the shuttle at the airport! It was a magical experience.

We saw lots of cool things on the ride over! Most of my pics are blurry though lol since the shuttle was traveling pretty fast and I was using my phone camera. It took about 2 hours I believe? We left a little after 5 so by the time we arrived the sun was already going down.

Caught a glimpse of Tokyo Disney!

Dragging our luggage through the street was an... interesting experience. It totally sucked lol especially since we had no idea where our hotel was from where we were dropped off. My friend ended up going off to find it while we waited with our luggage in the middle of the street lol. It ended up being not far at all but it felt really far due to having to drag all our luggage.

We eventually got to the hotel though! You have to go up through an elevator to even get to the lobby lol I wish I took a pic of this part but I was too busy handling my luggage. My friend checked us all in! Since the rooms are small it's two people to a room, so we got two separate rooms.

Here's the room my bf and I stayed in! We were prepared for it to be small but it still kinda took us by surprise since we were trying to figure out where to put our luggage and the eventual mountain of souvenirs we would accumulate LOL. It was actually a really nice room though! They had a lot of amenities like a stovetop, microwave, coffee maker, iron, and TV. It took us a while to figure out the Japanese air conditioning lol which was desperately needed since it was summer and really humid, especially compared to where we live... in the desert.

The bathroom was really tiny lol. I think I hit my knee in the shower literally every day for the first week we were there LOL and I'm not even bigger than the average Japanese person, I'm just not used to tiny showers. It must've been a lot worse for my bf since he's a lot bigger lol. The toilet was nice though and came with all the amenities that Japanese toilets usually do, like buttons to control the heat, flushing, etc.

After we all settled in and showered (I felt really gross lol) we headed out of our hotel to explore Ikebukuro a bit before calling it a night! It was nighttime by this point but we were meeting Mika's friend Mary who was living in China at the time but came over to Tokyo for a few days to hang out. It took her a while to meet us though so we wandered around Ikebukuro to gawk at stuff like tourists lol.

There was actually a King of Prism Cafe and I took of picture of it even though I didn’t watch KoP until like 9 months later LOL it’s seriously awful

We saw some arcade machines which quickly became my bf's favorite thing!

We ended up walking all the way to Ikebukuro Station lol which is pretty far from our hotel actually.

After we met up with Mary we all went to eat at a restaurant called Kin no Kura, which is an Izakaya! We did Nomihodai/all you can drink although I don't really drink lol although it included non-alcoholic beverages as well. My bf and I weren't really hungry lol we were more tired. I was feeling pretty cranky from being awake for so long and my bf was practically falling asleep at the table. We powered through it though and ate a bit just to have something in our stomachs.

I look so awful and angry LOL. Too bad this is the only pic of us there, I didn't really feel like taking pictures haha can you tell I don't deal with tiredness very well? I want to go back to this place to experience Nomihodai without being super cranky and tired LOL the drinks were actually pretty good.

Anyway after a long ass day we finally went back to sleep. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to sleep but I ended up falling asleep pretty quick. I woke up in the middle of the night a few times and ended up waking up early, which I expected due to jet lag.

So that's the end of Day 1! Sorry this post isn't very interesting lol the day wasn't that eventful since it was mostly consumed by traveling. I'm glad we got to our hotel mostly without a hitch though and I was super ready to conquer Tokyo the next day!

btw I took LOTS of pictures during this trip (over 3000 lol) but I'm gonna try to narrow down the pics I put in these post, mostly because it's tedious as hell to add pictures into tumblr posts LOL. I'll do my best to show pictures of all the important stuff though!

Here's a general rundown/outline of my trip and how the posts will go!

Japan Trip June 2016

#japan trip

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