2016年11月24日—25日
Tokyo, Day 4:
I gently woke up on a futon under the warmth of two layers of thick winter comforters, with big flakes of snow cascading onto the rooftops of metropolitan Tokyo.
In retrospect, it was really cute. I popped open the window for a few seconds to catch video of it because, being from SoCal, I've only ever witnessed snow falling from the sky, like, maybe twice in my life. But then I closed it real quick bc it was cold and I wasn't havin it lol. So I got ready, put my multiple layers on, put on my scarf and my face mask, and tried to quickly walk to my friend's workplace so I could drop off his house keys.
This time an older Japanese lady welcomed me at the door instead of the younger Japanese man, and she started speaking Japanese with me bc of course. When I asked「英語は話せますか」she called the guy whom I met previously. He whispered something to her in Japanese, and then she said 「ごめんなさい 」so I'm assuming he said something along the lines of "lmao girl he's not japanese u messed up"
After dropping off my keys, I knew I wanted to grab brunch somewhere as it was around 10 am but I didn't wanna go to Ueshima Coffee since I already went two days prior, so I found a sandwich board pointing to a basement that said "Coffee" so I was like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ aight why not.
Well...I forgot to mention that Sugamo is known as the Harajuku for the elderly. It's where all the elderly folk come to hang out and do elderly folk things like uh...try free samples of local delicacies or join tour groups, I guess. So this hidden coffee basement joint had like...3 or 4 other customers besides me and they were all elderly Japanese men. I just pointed at something on the menu which seemed decent. It was a set with coffee, a random salad with iceberg lettuce and cooked noodles in a french dressing (?), half an egg salad sandwich (??), thicc buttered toast, like the anime kind, but with condensed milk (which was actually pretty decent) and vanilla yogurt with fruit cocktail mixed in (???) like...........alright.......
I mean, it cost me like 500 ¥ so I'm not gonna complain about contemporary japanese brunch for the elderly. Afterwards I popped inside 7-11 real quick to figure out my plan for the day, gave up, and then figured I'll just get on the subway and go somewhere.
Tokyo, Day 4:
I gently woke up on a futon under the warmth of two layers of thick winter comforters, with big flakes of snow cascading onto the rooftops of metropolitan Tokyo.
In retrospect, it was really cute. I popped open the window for a few seconds to catch video of it because, being from SoCal, I've only ever witnessed snow falling from the sky, like, maybe twice in my life. But then I closed it real quick bc it was cold and I wasn't havin it lol. So I got ready, put my multiple layers on, put on my scarf and my face mask, and tried to quickly walk to my friend's workplace so I could drop off his house keys.
This time an older Japanese lady welcomed me at the door instead of the younger Japanese man, and she started speaking Japanese with me bc of course. When I asked「英語は話せますか」she called the guy whom I met previously. He whispered something to her in Japanese, and then she said 「ごめんなさい 」so I'm assuming he said something along the lines of "lmao girl he's not japanese u messed up"
After dropping off my keys, I knew I wanted to grab brunch somewhere as it was around 10 am but I didn't wanna go to Ueshima Coffee since I already went two days prior, so I found a sandwich board pointing to a basement that said "Coffee" so I was like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ aight why not.
Well...I forgot to mention that Sugamo is known as the Harajuku for the elderly. It's where all the elderly folk come to hang out and do elderly folk things like uh...try free samples of local delicacies or join tour groups, I guess. So this hidden coffee basement joint had like...3 or 4 other customers besides me and they were all elderly Japanese men. I just pointed at something on the menu which seemed decent. It was a set with coffee, a random salad with iceberg lettuce and cooked noodles in a french dressing (?), half an egg salad sandwich (??), thicc buttered toast, like the anime kind, but with condensed milk (which was actually pretty decent) and vanilla yogurt with fruit cocktail mixed in (???) like...........alright.......
I mean, it cost me like 500 ¥ so I'm not gonna complain about contemporary japanese brunch for the elderly. Afterwards I popped inside 7-11 real quick to figure out my plan for the day, gave up, and then figured I'll just get on the subway and go somewhere.
So I decided to go to Asakusa 「浅草」
And APPARENTLY everyone else had the same idea.
Like it's a weekday, Thanksgiving Day no less, it's terrible weather, like, why is you all??? up in here???
Like who is like "you know where I wanna go for Thanksgiving...TOKYO! Barbara, tell the kids, we're going to Japan" like what???
Anyway, I didn't know that there was so much more to Asakusa than just Sensoji 「浅草寺」but despite the awful weather, I still wanted to take my time visiting the temple so I walked up and down the main alley with all the lil shops and whatnot. I'll admit, despite me being a grumpy kid from SoCal who packed the wrong shoes, it was picturesque.
And APPARENTLY everyone else had the same idea.
Like it's a weekday, Thanksgiving Day no less, it's terrible weather, like, why is you all??? up in here???
Like who is like "you know where I wanna go for Thanksgiving...TOKYO! Barbara, tell the kids, we're going to Japan" like what???
Anyway, I didn't know that there was so much more to Asakusa than just Sensoji 「浅草寺」but despite the awful weather, I still wanted to take my time visiting the temple so I walked up and down the main alley with all the lil shops and whatnot. I'll admit, despite me being a grumpy kid from SoCal who packed the wrong shoes, it was picturesque.
To be honest I did the touristy thing where I stuck around for like 15 minutes and then left lol. I was just over the wet inconvenient snow, so I wanted to just check it off my list and then check another thing off my list, which was Tokyo Tower. Well, that's a little difficult to get to by subway, at least for me, who's used to the simplicity of the Taipei metro system. I got as far as Daimon station「大門駅」and walked to Zōjō-ji 「増上寺」where I could get some nice shots of the temple with Tokyo Tower in the background.
Then I went back to Sugamo because Alfredo said he had a half day at work and could show me around for the rest of the day. I went to Ueshima Coffee first, however, so that I could charge my phone. When I got to his workplace, I was able to reunite with another Soka student who works as a teacher there as well, Minami. It was nice to catch up, even if for a little bit. They had just finished celebrating Thanksgiving with the preschool students, I guess, so they offered me some leftover mashed potatoes, which was thoughtful of them. The rest of the teachers at the school are all graduates from Soka University of America, so it was nice being in that sort of environment.
After that, Alfredo took me to some of his favorite places in Tokyo, so we first went to Harajuku, where I half-seriously contemplated buying this cool black bomber jacket with gold accents and like tigers and dragons on it, it was so dope.
After that, Alfredo took me to some of his favorite places in Tokyo, so we first went to Harajuku, where I half-seriously contemplated buying this cool black bomber jacket with gold accents and like tigers and dragons on it, it was so dope.
Then we walked through Yoyogi Park, where Alfredo took me to see some LED fountains. He told me that it's pretty much Tokyo's version of Central Park and that it's super fun to come here on the weekends when there's a festival going on, or during the summer. Of course, it was already night time, but it was nice to get away from the bustle of Tokyo for a lil bit. We then walked to Shibuya through a blue lit winter wonderland, which I later found out was a light installation called Ao no Dokutsu 「青の洞窟」. Ao no Dokutsu started back in 2013 and this year it has been installed in Shibuya near Yoyogi.
Then we walked through Shibuya where I passed by the Hachiko statue one more time, but this time I actually had my Hachiko hat with me, so I had Alfredo take a picture of me wearin the hat next to the statue. Afterwards we were getting hungry and Alfredo told me he knew of a good sushi joint where the sushi is delivered to you on a track similar to the bullet trains here in Japan 「新幹線」and I wanted something warm like soup, but he told me they got soup there too and I was like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ what are we waitin for tho let's go
The sushi joint we went to was called Genki Sushi. Each place setting has a touchscreen tablet that you order from, and you face a wall with three levels of tracks with plates whizzing by holding everything from simple things like nigiri sushi to karaage, hamburger sushi (???), ramen, udon, desserts and coffee, it was...magical. Some dishes even allow you to play a small game after ordering where you can win prizes like...I think a discount on your bill? Or maybe a free dessert? ionno i didn't win lol
After walking around for a little while (and Alfredo showing me where they have Taco Bell in Tokyo, apparently it's a real bougie establishment with like, beer and wi-fi and whatnot) Alfredo decided to take me to Odaiba 「お台場」 which he said is where the rich people like to go when downtown Tokyo is getting to be too much for them. He told me there's this giant gundam animatronic there, as well as a number of upscale shopping centers, and from Odaiba we can get a good view of the Tokyo skyline with the Rainbow Bridge in the foreground and Tokyo Tower in the background.
We took the train across Tokyo Bay to get to Odaiba, which is a man-made island clusterf*ck with deep history and lots of...weird, commercialized developments. Such as a replica Statue of Liberty, a number of themed shopping malls like the Venetian-themed Venus Fort, Aqua City, Diver City, etc.
We took the train across Tokyo Bay to get to Odaiba, which is a man-made island clusterf*ck with deep history and lots of...weird, commercialized developments. Such as a replica Statue of Liberty, a number of themed shopping malls like the Venetian-themed Venus Fort, Aqua City, Diver City, etc.
I tried to get some decent photos of Rainbow Bridge but honestly my fingers was cold and I wasn't havin it, and since it was dark, it was hard to get the sliiiiight difference in color of the lights. Alfredo said it's usually more rainbow-y but it looked more pastel that night. Then we caught the giant gundam, which has a show with lights and a projection showing a specialized video clip type of thing. Even though I didn't grow up watching or playing with Gundam, I still appreciated it. The Gundam animatronic is 18 meters tall, and when we were there we actually met one of the key animators on the Gundam animated series, chatted for a while, and he shared some videos he took on his phone.
(Sorry for filming in portrait, it was too tall to film in landscape oops)
Anyway, right when I finished taking that video, my phone died and we figured it was getting late, so we decided to head back to Sugamo. Before we got home, tho, we made a quick stop at Seiyu, the Japanese Walmart.
Like no, seriously, Seiyu is owned by Walmart. Like I found "Great Value" brand potato chips and whatnot.
I went because I wanted to pick up some odd flavored Kit Kats because Japan is pretty much known for that, and I saw the usual suspects, matcha and strawberry, the baked cheese ones, and I almost bought some matcha ones when I noticed the price was the same as the matcha kit kats in Taiwan so I was like lol nah I'm good. I ended up buying a bougie dried cranberry and almond type of kit kat. Alfredo recommended me some chocolates filled with cognac liqueur called Bacchus so I got those as well. After we got home, I packed my things and slept knowing I'd be leaving in the morning :(
Tokyo, Day 5:
I woke up, left Alfredo's studio, dropped off his house keys at his work place, and had a quick breakfast of kare-pan 「カレーパン」and iced coffee from Family Mart. I noticed I had a few moments to kill so I used the wi-fi available near Sugamo station to flex on Snapchat and message my friends and family, wish them a Happy Thanksgiving and whatnot.
With instructions from Alfredo to get on the cheap train to Narita instead of the expensive one marketed to tourists, I got on the Japanese local train to Narita. The ride took about an hour if I remember correctly, and some ojisan was falling asleep on my shoulders the closer we got to the airport. I recall the homie Jon experiencing something similar when he was visiting Tokyo as well. I got to the airport in a timely fashion and with some time to kill, I picked up some lunch and tried to get rid of my coins at a convenience store. I ended up buying some potato snack my Japanese classmate from New Zealand introduced to me, and some pocky to eat on the plane home lol.
Like no, seriously, Seiyu is owned by Walmart. Like I found "Great Value" brand potato chips and whatnot.
I went because I wanted to pick up some odd flavored Kit Kats because Japan is pretty much known for that, and I saw the usual suspects, matcha and strawberry, the baked cheese ones, and I almost bought some matcha ones when I noticed the price was the same as the matcha kit kats in Taiwan so I was like lol nah I'm good. I ended up buying a bougie dried cranberry and almond type of kit kat. Alfredo recommended me some chocolates filled with cognac liqueur called Bacchus so I got those as well. After we got home, I packed my things and slept knowing I'd be leaving in the morning :(
Tokyo, Day 5:
I woke up, left Alfredo's studio, dropped off his house keys at his work place, and had a quick breakfast of kare-pan 「カレーパン」and iced coffee from Family Mart. I noticed I had a few moments to kill so I used the wi-fi available near Sugamo station to flex on Snapchat and message my friends and family, wish them a Happy Thanksgiving and whatnot.
With instructions from Alfredo to get on the cheap train to Narita instead of the expensive one marketed to tourists, I got on the Japanese local train to Narita. The ride took about an hour if I remember correctly, and some ojisan was falling asleep on my shoulders the closer we got to the airport. I recall the homie Jon experiencing something similar when he was visiting Tokyo as well. I got to the airport in a timely fashion and with some time to kill, I picked up some lunch and tried to get rid of my coins at a convenience store. I ended up buying some potato snack my Japanese classmate from New Zealand introduced to me, and some pocky to eat on the plane home lol.
that moment when u realize all the souvenirs u bought are edible and thus expendable oops
I got on the plane and three hours later I was back in Taipei! Although I came to Japan with practically no plan, I still had a great time and managed to use my time wisely, which is what I normally forget to do when I'm traveling by myself. Usually, I'll waste the first two or three days doing virtually nothing because I'm tired or too nervous to go out and converse with people because I don't like being that American.
Anyway, I think I might like to return to this even when I'm here in Taipei...? I know I said this is more of a travel blog but I wouldn't mind taking my "travel life" and expanding that to my life here in Taipei. Lord knows I be too broke and socially anxious to actually go out and do things, but after going to Tokyo, I've had this renewed urge to go out and actually experience and explore things (within budget and reason lol).
So who knows! Maybe I'll blog more on here. I def need to work on my English, because just writing these blogs have been a struggle, but maybe that's a good thing. Since coming back I've taken myself on more dates, explored more of Taipei, met up with a friend from university. I don't know, I feel like this new winter term is giving me a new start.
With 5 am gradient indigo skies,
和平/PK
Anyway, I think I might like to return to this even when I'm here in Taipei...? I know I said this is more of a travel blog but I wouldn't mind taking my "travel life" and expanding that to my life here in Taipei. Lord knows I be too broke and socially anxious to actually go out and do things, but after going to Tokyo, I've had this renewed urge to go out and actually experience and explore things (within budget and reason lol).
So who knows! Maybe I'll blog more on here. I def need to work on my English, because just writing these blogs have been a struggle, but maybe that's a good thing. Since coming back I've taken myself on more dates, explored more of Taipei, met up with a friend from university. I don't know, I feel like this new winter term is giving me a new start.
With 5 am gradient indigo skies,
和平/PK