Nihon 2-nichi-me: Things are not what they seem XD

oh anime, how you've lied to us about everything...about maid cafes, akihabara and cute japanese guys in general.....i am so disappointed T_T  I am disillusioned TTwTT

The morning started off well---christine and i slept in, took way too long to get ready and headed out to mcdonalds for juu-san ban (#13), people watching and lots of secondhand smoke -_- ugh smoking is japan's one biggest vice...and it's big enough to make me miss the US. at least i don't have to eat my sausage mcmuffin indoors with tobacco smoke.

The plan was to visit Ueno Park, Tokyo University and shop the rest of the day in Akihabara...yeah, things change lol

We got to Ueno Park on the Ginza line.  It was beautiful and green and contains many museums, temples and even a zoo.  i imagine that without all the humidity and heat, it'd be really pleasant to walk around for long periods of time :P one plus and oddity: no mosquitos.  all sarcasm aside, Ueno park was a good start to the morning. we saw a chinese/japanese trick show, drank water from a temple, mulled over the beginnings of our manga story inspired by the statues in the museum of art and listened to a japanese guy play the bagpipes.

Inside Ueno Park, we first strolled along the lovely tree-lined walking areas in the main part of the park.

There were several temples and museums in the park, as well, although we didn't actually go into any of them.  We stopped by the first temple to wash our hands with water and drink some of it.

And then we headed down to the lake, which looked more like a forest of huge lily pads.  The lake had boats you could ride on, gigantic koi and little turtles in the water, pretty flowers, and a nice trail around it to walk on.  And there was this HUGE black bird, I think a raven?  If you think the black birds at home are big, you should see this thing.  Tiffy said it looked like a black parrot.  The only unfortunate thing was that it was an overcast morning, both hot and muggy =w=;  Still, it was quite nice there~

The gate that spawned a story idea was actually from the museum of western art.  It's kind of weird seeing western art in Tokyo (rather, that we went to see some western art in Tokyo).  The first odd piece was a group of men who looked like the bringers of death, and then the gate to hell mentioned previously.  Our story idea involved two tourist girls in Tokyo see the statues, take pictures, and then when they look at their pictures later, they see that the images moved.  They return to investigate, only to discover that the gate to hell is opening, and the bringers of death came to life.  Then there's a Japanese girl who gets involved and we have to save her from the bringers of death, work with her to close the gate because she's some prophesied something or other, and of course one or more of the bringers of death fall in love with the each of the tourist girls, so it gets complicated XP

never made it to Tokyo U.  it looks really close on google maps, but in reality, christine and i weren't ready to wander around with our aching feet and no particular direction to go.  doubt the guys would be cute anyways. boys in japan = FAIL. they have nice clothes and awesome hair but then you see their faces and it's just so sad :( lol the boys are lucky.  the girls are so cute here!  Definitely agreed -- lots of cute girls, 0 on the cute guys.  What's with that?


took the Hibiya line to Akiba after. we saw...nothing.  dunno why, but we were expecting lights and anime stores and maid cafes around. all we saw were business buildings and curry shops *sigh* since akiba is famous for their cheap electronics, we ended up in this giant electronics department store where we proceeded to the 6th floor to check out the anime/figurines section.  so disappointing. lol well i managed to find some stuff but christine didn't have a lot of luck.  it was all kind of sad really.  it was really strange to see grown men buying figurines of busty teenage girls and getting excited over the little toys in the coin machines. that impression did not go away when we managed to find the maid cafe. so saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad

Tiffy got a really cute Hello Kitty camera case though ^w^  But yeah... those machine things hate me.  It was interesting to look around, though -- and yeah, it was weird to see a bunch of older men or men in business suits wandering around looking at anime figurines.  There was one guy who spent a long time at the capsule machines, and he was holding this big pile of capsules with anime figurines inside o_o;

 


oh and christine can tell you about the maid cafe lol lesson learned: two girls should never go in there together and in general, girls should not go in at all :P  Haha... yeah, that was pretty interesting.

So apparently the way to find a maid cafe is to wander around in front of the JR Akihabara station.  There will be a cute girl who looks totally out of place handing out fliers, typically wearing some kind of maid outfit.  (This we found out by pretending to inspect little notebooks next to a stand selling "Pocket Wi-fi" devices and leeching off their internet and trying to be inconspicuous but totally failing...)  So, we went over there and lo and behold, cute girl handing out fliers for this shady little maid cafe just across the street called Pinafore (which is an article of clothing, by the way).

We walk in, but I don't think they said the classic "Goshuujin-sama, okaerinasai~" (Welcome home, master~).  They did say something, but I was too busy laughing in embarrassment because we were the only two girls in the place, other than one tomboy-looking girl who came with a guy.  Everyone else was a 20-40 year old guy, probably an otaku.  One guy came in with his girlfriend, and it seemed like a surprise for him or something, because he almost fell over as he walked in XD  He totally reminded me of RAN.  Next maid cafe, we're going with a harem of guys -- Ran, Wei, Daniel, Jordan, Faruk, Scott... who else?  I guess I just want to see your reactions to the maids XD  Ran, I expect you to use your KOKORO and DOKI DOKI lines.  Probably not at this maid cafe though, the girls weren't cute enough =\  Nor did they wear the "typical" maid outfit.

based on our internet mooching at the laptops in yodobashi, tokyo station seemed like a good place to go to get the souvenirs we didn't manage to get so we headed there.  summary: nothing. again. in purchases technically.  we managed to find a japanese soup rice restaurant (dashi chazuke) which was surprisingly good. you choose the dish from a vending machine and hand the receipt to the cook, who will make it for you. no need to speak japanese lol the meal itself reminded me a lot of viet food: rice and canh (soup) so it was nice :)

See our vending machine!  You can also pick between three sizes, all the same price, and they serve it in a bowl of rice with toppings, a few side dishes, and then a teapot of soup stock (not actually tea, which is what we had been expecting).

Sometime along the way, there was this... dude on the subway.  He had cool punk hair, decent fashion... okay face.  By okay I mean not cute.  He kind of looked like Domyouji from JDrama Hana Yori Dango.  But he kept looking over at us (said Tiffy), and when we changed lines he also changed to the same train -- didn't get off at the same stop though, luckily~

we are heading back to tokyo station for the ghibli museum bus tomorrow so i'm excited that we're going to stop by this pastry shop that makes shaved ice with red bean cake :D very good!


at this point, christine and i have been slightly disheartened by our lack of souvenirs for our friends and family so we go back to harajuku.  found a takoyaki and ramen shop! might head back there before sunday to try the food. but yes we definitely left with stuff before coming back to the hostel.  christine struck up a conversation with a nice japanese lady in her shop :D  Well, she started talking to me first, actually.  She asked me if I was Japanese, then when I said we were American, she asked which Asian I was.  Then we just sort of talked in half Japanese, half English (more like 90-10, really) about where we were from, what languages I speak, where we're going, etc.  It was fun, though it revealed to me how much Japanese I/we don't know XD  She was really sweet, though. Cute old lady :3

We also stopped by the shop we saw yesterday with the cool pointy clothes and figured out the brand.  It's called Antebellum Gothique (I really like the name ^ ^), aka Mari's Rock.  Here's the shirt Tiffy liked... it's cool, isn't it?  (Yes, I snuck a picture XP)

Oh, and this is completely random but... somebody please explain to me -- what exactly is a womb sale?

another thing to check off our list: photobooth pictures! hidden in an alley that we overlooked on our first trip to harajuku, we found a shop full of fancy photobooths.  those things are absolutely blinding lol and difficult to use. although we were hesitant to take pictures in our gross, sweaty conditions, we didn't need to worry at all. those photobooths, through magic or whatnot, airbrushed the crap out of you.  walking in sweaty with minimal makeup and messy hair, the pictures made it look like we got ready like 5 min before....and made our skin flawless AND eyes bigger. don't know how that's possible, but my eyes looked HUGE!!!!!!!! if only cameras could work like that all the time :P


the night ended with us trudging back to the hostel with swollen feet.  dinner was sandwiches, onigiri and ice cream from 7-11.  i talked to jerry and he's in japan now! i hope that we'll be able to meet up :D i really want to eat ramen and takoyaki :D 


P.S. oh and i just found this....i wonder if anyone will be adventurous enough to try it with me: ice cream ramen :P   Let's do it~~

And as a special ending, we salute you good night with an airbrushed, eyes-enlarged photobooth picture XP