So, four months late isn't too bad. First off, this trip was two-weeks long, and though I've done day-by-day write-ups before, I really don't want to do the same for this one as I'm (I promise) trying to get back to other writing projects I've shoved to the side - you know, the kinds of things I originally meant to use this blog for. Why even do this post then? you ask. Well, because I'm still shit at taking pictures, so I need some way to brag about the things I've done (at least, that's why folks take vacation photos, right?). Plus, I need something to read to remind me of why I go to work in the first place. With that all said, let's get to the highlights of this trip. Side note: I know I said "highlights" but as I'm currently writing this, it's looking a little long to be called a "highlight."
Disclaimer: As previously mentioned, if you're here for vacation photos, well, I'm shit at remembering to take those. If you thought this was a travel blog and are here for advice, you've made a mistake and I'm sorry for wasting your time. If you've got a psychiatric condition making you easily amused by my bland jokes, horrible grammar, and terrible, rambling story-telling, well ... seek help or, I guess, continue right along as that's always easier than admitting you have a problem, although I always recommend finding something else to read (which, lucky for you, I do have book review posts if you need suggestions).
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| But first, all of my trinkets! |
To start, my friends and I originally planned this trip in 2020, but, you know, things happened. As some of them are teachers, we planned to travel over winter break, which is fine with me as I typically travel during the colder parts of the year - Japan/Korea in October/November, New York in September, Australia in August, Seattle ... all the time? However, none of those trips prepared me for this trip as exploring Tokyo in December turned out to be another monster entirely. Immediately off the plane on December 23, I was freezing. Aside from hiking Mt. Fuji, I don't think I'd ever experienced weather this cold. I also overestimated my new jacket's ability to keep me warm. Note to self: next time, buy the bulkier jacket despite it taking more room in your luggage, you moron. So, so cold. To make matters worse, it was also dry, a weather phenomenon I'm very unfamiliar with coming from Hawaii. Within the first 24 hours, tiny cracks formed on my hands. After a few days, it looked like I'd been in a couple fist-fights thanks to my knuckles' now bloody appearance. By that point, I'd bought a pair of gloves, not to save my hands from the cold, but instead so I wouldn't scare the locals when handing over cash. Eventually, I gave in and bought a huge bottle of lotion from a Don Quijote. After a couple days, my hands healed up and I got just a bit more comfortable with the cold (and learned how to control the hotel room temperature), just so you don't think I was miserable with the weather the whole time. Though, there was at least one other time the temperature took an unexpected dip but I'll get to that later.
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| At least I stared the trip with Famichiki! |
I just realized I'm writing out this two-week journey and I've completely forgotten to write about the food, which obviously is pretty important. If you're reading this because you know me (and not because you've accidentally stumbled across this page), you know I can live off of convenience store/ gas station food. It shouldn't come as a surprise my first meal after landing was some Family Mart Famichiki! Oh, how I've missed you. Plus, our flight landed late, and Family Mart was right down the road from the hotel. I'd also stop in at that particular Family Mart several times throughout our trip to pick-up a light breakfast and coffee, or just cans of whisky-highball and chips - just so you don't think I was living there.
Being the weebs we are, the first place we hit was Akihabara - home of manga, anime, weeb culture - where I began partially satisfying my addiction of collecting tiny, useless trinkets via capsule machines. Put a couple coins in the machine, twist the knob, and poof, here's a toy. That day, and over the span of our two-week vacation, I played so, so many of those machines - probably spending more yen on cheap toys than I did on food. I fed them all: from the standard mini-anime figures and toys to dumb, desk novelties like a bike-bell ring and a turnstile (yeah, it's just a turnstile) and even a smaller, working capsule machine. This is a new trip with friends I'd never before traveled with, though, so of course, I'm also going to find out what they obsess over, too. In a similar vein to my capsule machine addiction (we're friends after all), that thing turned out to be playing UFO/Claw Machines, and (at least for them) winning the prizes inside. Practically everywhere we went had a game center housing at least a dozen machines of different skill level, if not more, filled with winnable figurines (most of which I recognized this trip). At first, I thought we were simply trying to win prizes from machines ranging from the standard claw-grab or others which require the player to knock a box off a platform or navigate it past a set of sticks - you know, games I'm notoriously bad at - because what's better than displaying a trophy you hunted yourself (I finally understand what Big-Game hunters are all about). My EVA-01 model is a testament to that pride as not only did I find that particular one in a single machine in Asakusa (known more for their temples than game centers) but I scooped it up for under 2000yen - a definite win for me!
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| My only trophy |
My friends, however are apparently savants in the ways of the claw - winning half the figurines they brought back with them (enough to fill a suitcase, at least). What I didn't understand at the time was that this was about much more than displaying skills and winning prizes. Oh, so much more, but I'll get back to that (like these games I've probably wasted enough time on this subject).
Besides visiting Akihabara, I knew there would be one other thing I needed to do on this trip - smoke a cigarette. This was, after all, the place I had my first smoke. I'm not some desperate addict, though. I was going to wait for just the right time to savor this indulgence I've denied myself for about three years now. So, on our second night (okay, so I didn't wait that long), after a few drinks at a small, basement-level bar near the hotel, that nice vacation-plus-alcohol buzz told me it was time. My first task, because of the signs everywhere asking folks not to smoke, was to find exactly where it was appropriate to smoke. After several attempts going back-and-forth with the hotel concierge, I finally got directions to an approved smoking area - which I never found (including Japanese, I am also bad with directions). Eventually, we just stopped at some random intersection where other people were smoking, and I lit up there. If you're curious, yes, three years of abstinence was enough to re-experience that "very first drag" feeling I felt 15 years ago. I didn't even finish the stick, stomping it out halfway through and thus satisfying three years of cravings.
Nearby our hotel was also a chain sushi restaurant which we stuffed ourselves at a couple of times. They had a couple of sushi sets and bowls to choose from, but I really liked ordering each piece individually. Luckily, they made that easy through a menu link you could access with your phone. I feel horrible comparing them like this, but, to me, ordering sushi is like ordering at Taco Bell - I'm gonna choose a bunch of stuff off the menu and be satisfied with what I get, even if I'm given the wrong order. Besides the typical nigiri, some standouts were the extra-large eel nigiri (which, I forgot what the difference was between it and the unagi I'm used to eating), the egg nigiri (I don't know what it was but I ordered it multiple times on both visits), and the sardines. We did also order the most expensive ... cut (is that the right word?) of the tuna nigiri (nope, I also don't remember the cost per order). Like a good cut of steak, it simply melted in my mouth. Unfortunately, because fish dissolves faster than beef, I guess, I was then left with just the feeling and taste of rice in my mouth, so that was kinda weird.
After a couple days, the rest of our party arrived in Japan (because, weirdly enough, other people care about their jobs), and we headed over to Mitake to visit the Ghibli Museum. From the outside, the Ghibli Museum looks right out of a Ghibli film - fantastical architecture blended with natural elements.
Since photography isn't allowed inside, you're just going to have to believe what I tell you (not something I typically recommend). On the first floor was a general look at animation - some still frames and lights projecting reels of finished work. On the second floor, you could walk through what I assumed to be a re-creation of Hayao Miyazaki's room when he created the different works Studio Ghibli is known for - rooms displaying books on history, motion, art, and politics - that all went into creating the stories and animation. An example of perhaps a studio's artists' workspace followed: work benches, shelves, and walls covered in papers and sketches and colors. Further on was a small gallery of framed stills of different animations. One floor up, the third floor held a cat bus big enough for several children to play upon at once, as well as a gift shop and a bookstore. Further up a winding staircase, on the roof, sits a small garden and a giant mechanical statue you could pose with as you could still take pictures outside.
I guess now is a good time as any to mention I am a horrible travel companion thanks to my child-like attention span. From somewhere on the first floor, I'd stared enough at the animation reels and wandered off, only to be enamored with the artists' rooms, thus missing a rare group photo my friends managed to take on the roof (I swear I was on this trip). Oh, almost forgot, back on the first floor is a small theater to watch an original short animation that, as far as I know, you can't see anywhere else (or at least I didn't try hard enough when I went looking for it). And, of course, no theme park is complete without a small food court. Despite being terrible at drawing, I'm definitely a fan of the "artistic process" (I guess it can be called), and I loved seeing those rooms stacked with books on different subject matter because all of that goes into creating, not simply how skilled you are with your hand. If you're a fan of the Studio Ghibli films and like those "how is it made" type of tours, then definitely check this one out. I also really should've re-watched some of the movies before the trip.
With nothing else around in the area, we walked through a nearby park before hunger struck and we set out - back to Shinjuku for dinner. With six people in our group, I opted for Tokyu Kabukicho Tower again as someplace with not only a lot of food options but also a lot of seating. Oh, I didn't mention that we'd been there before. Anyways, it's this huge tower with, I guess, suites on the upper floors, but who cares about that. On the bottom floor is a giant ... to call it simply a "food court" is an understatement even though that's what it is, a giant food court featuring 10 restaurants each specializing in a Japanese regional cooking style (I think anyways, my Japanese is trash). Up on the second floor are several dozen capsule machines with different collectable toys and more UFO machines including one featuring GIANT STUFFED ANIMAL prizes! We ended up eating ramen from one of the vendors, a dish I'm never disappointed with in Japan, along with some other sides I don't remember (huh, maybe I'll talk more about food later).
Meh, since I'm on the topic, of course you can't go to Japan without eating ramen (and if you can, well, what the fuck is wrong with you). Actually, our first night there we headed over to a counter near the Shinjuku train station with some fancier options than you'd usually see at other spots. Though I just got the basic Shio Ramen, I did also get a charsui bowl on the side. Throughout our trip, we stopped at a couple other spots for ramen which never disappointed. I'd like to skip ahead though to talk about the last bowl of ramen we ate on our last night in Japan. It was within walking distance to our hotel, and the ramen was so good. What I really liked though was the side bowl of charsui fried rice, and the BIG! whisky-highball I ordered, perhaps the biggest of all the drinks I ordered through the entire trip.
So, mentioning UFO games and prizes again, I learned later I could simply buy these same prizes from not only tiny shops specializing in anime figures but also from second-hand shops, some of which even allowed folks with too many figurines to sell off the pieces they no longer had interest in. It was in these shops I bought a majority of figurine souvenirs. I was also happy to pick-up the Chainsaw Man "Denji/Pochita" figure (I'd been feeling particularly worried about leaving Candy behind before getting on the plane) and the "Itachi's Death" figure which was such a fucking good scene in the Naruto manga/anime. We also visited some other well-known shops for limited-quality items such as my other, still-in-box EVA-01 (now I really want to re-watch the Neon Genesis: Evangelion series), and another Gundam model kit to add to my growing, still-unbuilt model kit backlog. The biggest issue with this new addiction is that, unfortunately, I now have to carve out not only the time, but the space to display them properly - one of which I am severely lacking. Seriously, I've seen online and even first-hand how to properly display these works of art, and I am just not at that level.
For anyone who said the mall experience is dead, well it is alive and well in Tokyo. We spent the whole day at both Sunshine City in Ikebukuro and Diver City in Odaiba. Both malls had a huge variety of shops, large food courts, and enough game centers to keep us occupied for hours. Sunshine City had a Pokemon Center I spent a while wandering through, a huge Bandai/Namco pop-up store, as well as a giant selection of capsule machines that ate a chunk of my yen.
Towering outside the Diver City mall was a giant Unicorn Gundam statue that lit up at night. To further my Gundam obsession, inside was a Gundam Base store where I picked-up another model kit and some cheap stands (as if I ever plan to not only put the figure together but also display them).
We also spent several hours at Tsukiji simply walking and eating everything in sight - which is obviously the big thing to do. Besides the obvious attraction of fresh fish and other seafoods, we also got to taste karage whale, wagyu beef grilled right in front of us, and green tea (which I feel like I should learn to actually brew instead of relying on teabags). Surprisingly, there were also a couple stalls selling cooking knives of various shapes, sizes, and prices. Despite my love of knives, I should really learn to cook before dropping a couple hundred dollars on tools like these.
Another of the few places we managed to travel as a group was Asakusa. Best known as the home of the Senso-ji Temple, we actually didn't pay a visit until later that night. We spent most of the day roaming the streets and checking out the variety of shops. We returned later that night to the temple to pull fortunes for the New Years ... which did turn out so well for me. At least it was fun figuring out how to tie the fortune to the stand, though I still feel like a lot of that bad fortune still followed me home.
That same day, we also rode the elevator to the highest observation deck of Tokyo Skytree. Umm, as cool as it was to look out over Tokyo, after a few minutes I really didn't care. If you like that kind of stuff, or have a really good zoom on your camera (apparently they're good enough to see license plates on cars from 450 meters), then it might be worth going to the very top. Just know that getting back down is going to take some time.
Skipping ahead toward the end of the trip, we also spent a day wandering Ueno Zoo, which I'd forgotten was so big. Of course, the biggest attraction was the giant panda exhibit, but you know what, fuck those bears and all the attention they were getting from the public. I preferred watching the smaller red pandas instead, scuttling back and forth through different parts of their enclosure. I was also really cool to walk through the pitch-dark buildings housing animals either nocturnal or not used to/ fond of sunlight or lights in general. Also, the giant birds! I've seen hawks and vultures on TV, soaring through the air, but you don't quite understand how big those birds-of-prey are until you see them up close. I'm no longer afraid of them swooping down and snatching my dog - I'm afraid they could lift me into the air.
Selfishly, I also convinced the rest of our group to hike all the way to the Tokyo National Museum to see just one particular exhibit - the swords. I've definitely said it before, but again, I love seeing the weapons we use/d to kill each other, and so arms are the one thing I always expect to see at a history museum. On display were different swords, armors, and even a naginata which, surprisingly, was used before the spear in Japanese warfare (at least, according to the placard in the glass case).
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