Japan Day 6: What's going on, Tokyo?!

Hi~  Tiffy and I are currently chilling in our room in Cerulean Tower Tokyo, watching Tokyo Hotel (Tokio Hotel actually) (a European band who look influenced by visual kei) on MTV Japan.  No idea why.  We were watching Fairy Tail earlier.  There was this really creepy villain who looked like the ugly child of Sephiroth and the Joker.

We woke up groggily at 5:30, and it was amazingly bright outside.  After our usual forever of getting ready, we went down to the breakfast buffet... which, by the way, was awesome XD  We were seated next to a couple from our tour group that I met in the elevator last night, Matt and Tracy.  The funny thing is, they graduated from the same university as us (but in 2006/7), Matt in CS and Tracy in Microbio, and currently live close to Tiffy's birthplace in Cali.  They met just before Matt's first day of college, started dating, and just got married ^w^  They're on their honeymoon -- congrats, you two~  They are pretty cute.  Matt is going for a Master's and then he'll work for GOOGLE.  Man, I bet he's pretty smart o__o;

We met our tour guide in the lobby, along with the other members of our group.  It turns out that a lot of the people we thought were in our group that we saw in the dinner restaurant yesterday were, actually, in our group.  One is a family of 5 -- two parents, two kids, and an older gentleman who looks Asian, but Maiko-san (our tour guide) speaks in English to him, so I wonder if he's Chinese?

Also, the two guys who were sitting at the table one over from us are also from our tour group.  Of everyone in the group, they seem very quiet.  I don't know how to talk to them, so I'll probably do my stupidly blunt, lack-of-social-skills kind of conversation starter XD;

Update: Yes she did exactly that.  lol  (Not until later, that information belongs in the next day's post XP)

There is also one man by himself, and another couple, and of course, Matt and Tracy.  And us :3

Anyways.......

Our tour guide is Maiko-san, and our bus driver is Nishimura-san.  We drove from Narita to Tokyo today to explore Asakusa, Ginza, and Shibuya.  Along the way, some interesting things Maiko-san told us about:

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The Keiyou line of metro goes from Tokyo to Chiba.  The 'kei' refers to Tokyo, and the the 'you' to the Chiba prefecture, where Narita is.

Train stations employ these people called Pushers.  They literally push people into the train cars during rush hour, packing everyone in so that the train can leave on time.  They are usually college kids; it pays decently, I think.  1000 yen per hour (approximately 10 dollars). 

Previously, during the Tokugawa period/reign, there were four classes:

- The ruling class, the samurais.  Not sure where the Imperial family fit in at that time, but we'll put them here, too.

- Farmers, usually rice farmers.  This is counterintuitive for me.  Actually, everything but the top class (samurais) is totally counterintiutive.

- Craftsmen.

- Merchants.  During the peaceful times, they were actually the richest class, because they could do business.  However, because they couldn't show off their wealth without offending the ruling class (samurais don't make much monies when there's no samurai-ing to be done, as there's no fighting in peaceful times).  So, they would spend their monies on little expensive things, like really fancy tables or extravagant lining on the inside of a common-looking jacket.

These classes were abolished in the Meiji era.

The weird horn building we've seen when we walked to our station in Akasuka is the Asahi Beer building.  They claim it's because they want to show their fighting spirit.  The building next to them is also a beer company's building, and it apparently looks like a glass of beer with foam at the top.

The reason why there are no trash cans on the streets in Japan is because of terrorism.

Ginza has the most expensive plot of land in all of Japan, right on an intersection in the middle of the shopping district, facing the Clock Tower.  One square meter costs 38 million yen.

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first day of our tour around kanto and kansai japan :) last day that christine and i were in tokyo.

woke up early to get breakfast and then headed into tokyo on a nice air-conditioned bus.  no need to look up stations, switch metro lines and enter ticket gates. it was pretty nice :D our tour guide, Maiko, is very cute lol she sketches out rudimentary maps and other commentary on her dry erase board and uses premade butcher paper to tell us the history of japan :P

we hit a lot of places in tokyo that we hadn't been: imperial palace plaza, sensoji temple in asakusa, ginza fashion district and meiji shrine :D

imperial palace plaza was lovely.  the park is 3 miles in radius and contains lots of pine trees pruned to look like curvy banzai trees.  we first took pictures at the samurai facing in the wrong direction because the imperial family thought it'd be disrespectful for his horse's butt to be pointing in the direction of the palace :P  then we took pictures at the imperial palace.  not allowed in though lol but the palace is framed by a forest of trees, stone walls and a gorgeous moat :) it was funny to see all the asian tourists around.  christine kept saying how it was weird that we were in japan but all she could hear was chinese lol

went to sensoji temple in asakusa next.  this temple was very close to our hostel but we never visited. unfortunately, we didn't get any good pictures of the exterior since it's undergoing restoration but we did get pictures of the various gates and the 5 story pagoda nearby.  

japan's religious views are interesting.  maiko-san said that most japanese people in both shinto-ism and buddhism, with the former used for happy occasions and the latter for sad (death mostly).  the perimeter of the temple is contains an incense well, which if you waft the smoke towards you, is supposed to make you smarter, skin beautifuller (not a word lol) etc. lol i hope it can make me taller haha that'd be kind of nice.  And the good skin part would definitely be a plus XP 

there were a lot of fortune boxes as well. after donating 100 yen, you shake a metal tin box with numbered chopsticks inside.  the numbers correspond to a particular fortune that you obtain from a box.  apparently 65% of the fortunes are bad ones (says Jerry) lol if you get a bad one, you have to tie it up so that buddha can take care of it for you.  not sure how many good ones are there, but both christine and i got "regular fortunes".

christine's fortune: The jewel is hidden under the deep stone. let's stop trying to find it with non-skilled eyes, it is a vain trial.  the skilled jeweller can pick up the true and real material, it is impossible to the amateurs. the skied (yes that's what it said) jeweler's work will make up the marvellous brilliance.

*your request will be granted*the patient keeps bed long, but never hurt his life*the lost article will be found*the person you wait for will come but late*building a new house and removal are both well*marriage and employment are both well

(Why is the person I'm waiting for coming late?? QQ Our lives are bland.)

tiffany's fortune: to be rich or noble are given by God, you can't get them by your own endeavor and knowledge. although you work hard with your best, it doesn't come out so well without the help of God.  Coming fortune in fortune depends on all what you have done at past. if you be have your best to other, you can be rich and get honor by people.

*your request will be granted*the patient get well soon*the lost article will be found*the person you wait for will come*building a new house and removal are both good*it is good to start a trip*marriage of any kind and employment are both well

lol yeahhhhhh

lunch was japanese rice casserole :D  yummy. before and after lunch we wandered around the shopping strip around the temple.  found a kimono that i liked but didn't buy it.  christine and i both found hello kitty chopsticks lol and also got taiyaki--the fish shaped pastry :D really really good filled with red bean.  we ate it over the course of several hours because we were so full from lunch lol

after was ginza shopping district. BEST PART OF THE DAY lol not really for the shopping though lol although we did stop by uniqlo for you, wei :P  jerry had told us about the abercrombie and fitch in ginza and we HAD to stop by. apparently his friend said that it was the only one in asia and the most attractive people are there and they greet you with "what's going on?" lol ummm YEAH THEY DO! lol holy crap two asian guys in red plaid shirts, blue jeans and flip flops opened the door for us and we were greeted by a shirtless asian man with a six pack....and we got polaroids with him lol And we didn't ask for them, the girl standing there waved a camera around and sort of told us to get our pictures taken.  It was really weird.  He was shirtless.  It was really weird.  Because he had no shirt on, and we were getting a polaroid with a half-naked Asian man of questionable Asian-ness with a six pack, who put his arms around us.  then another male acting as an elevator  man took us up to the 7-11th floors for ladies clothing. could not stop giggling in there :P  

 (This is for you, Rebecca!)

Haha, yeah... we took a couple pictures, but one "not bad looking" guy told us not to take pictures XD;  He was actually pretty good looking, but you know, he didn't have the fobby Asian look.  So I don't even know if that counts.  But yeah... he was cute >w<  I just wish I'd gotten a better look at him.  And all the girls working there were tall, skinny, and cute.

walked to the sony building after where we played on musical steps! stairs now are forever ruined for me as i now expect them to play a musical scale and light up when i step onto them. soooooo fun :D   Yeah, when we were walking on the other stairs in the store, I was so disappointed that they didn't light up TT__TT  Although the interesting thing is that their basement floor sells so much random stuff, including stationery, toiletries, makeup, clothes, and cookwear.  They even had these pretty pop-up cards (I would totally like to make one/get one someday~)  Sony, I didn't know you were so diverse.  On one of the other floors, they had conveyer belt desserts and awesome headphones.  Tiffy and I went down the line trying headphones.  I collected a bunch of new Japanese music~

Check out me and Tiffy playing on the stairs XD

And also a lovely shot of my back ;;  Point being, the stairs make a scale :3  (Almost, anyways.)

visited sanrioworld after :] lots of pink and hello kitty pretty much :D  I was kind of disappointed with that, actually.   Last time I went, I think they had cuter designs.  They had some stuff that was a collab wiith one of the lolita fashion designers, so I really liked that -- not this time.  I dunno, maybe Sanrio is going... south?  Away from what I like, anyways.  And they didn't have any Chococat merchandise at all.  At all.  AT ALL.  AT ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL. Q___Q  I love me my Chococat.

But they did have a wall full of strawberry-decorated items.  This is for you, Huai ^w^

Oh, and something interesting happened one of the shops in Ginza, a jewelry shop called Tenshodo.

meiji shrine was after. it's weird and pleasant to see how untouched and quiet it is in the park despite the fact that it's near harajuku. absolutely purty-ful :D and christine and i came up with more ideas for our manga story haha

Wine Barrels

Sake Barrels

Main Part of the Shrine

It was very beautiful there, with a forest of trees completely donated by the shrine-goers.  So actually, the forest isn't natural, but it's pretty nonetheless.  It would make a really good photoshoot place, along with Ueno Park.  There were also 2 Shinto gates (Torii) that supposedly purify people and keep evil out of the sacred place.  We did the water pouring/drinking thing in front of the shrine for the 2nd time that day also, so we were extra purified :3  Maiko-san showed us how to do a Shinto prayer: make your offering by throwing the money into this table thing with rows of slots for the money to go into, bow twice to show your utmost humbleness, clap twice to get the deities' attention, close your eyes and make a wish with your hands together, and then bow again to show respect.  Outside the main shrine, there were also wooden tablets you can buy.  You write your wish on it, along with your name and address (so the Shinto deities can find you to grant your wish), and tie it to the stands they have there.  We didn't really get time to do that, though.

Well, our manga storry had to do with the Torii gate.  We thought it would be interesting if a human couldn't pass through it because of something he did in the past, despite trying to come clean, and somehow that ties into bringing the bringers of death to life :3  Er, calling them into this world, I guess you could say~

tonight we are lounging in our 21st floor room in Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel in Shibuya in provided nightgowns :P tired.  we came back from exploring shibuya 109, one of the top fashion stores in tokyo and watching the crazy amount of people cross streets at tokyo's most famous and crowded crossing.  oh shibuya 109, you make me glad i am not a japanese female.  i am neither fashionable, rich or energetic enough to make it through your gazillion floors of expensive "sale" clothes and yelling sales ladies.

tomorrow is hakone park and atami hot spring hotel :)  And karaoke!!!  Haha, watch us be the only ones who sing ;;  Except Matt knows some Japanese, so hopefully he can embarrass himself with us :3