Saturday, March 31, 2012

Tokyo Part 4: Imperial Palace and Odaiba

Imperial Palace
Since Tuesday was our 'free day' we didn't have anything planned, so some of us decided to go to the Imperial Palace. It's right outside Tokyo station(which has bagels! and paninis! and awesome-ness...) and the walk to the palace is gorgeous! It was a sunny day, and we really ought to have brought some bento's to eat in the park.
The funny thing about the imperial palace is that you can't actually go in. It looks really pretty on the outside, and you can see this from the entrance. But once you enter you're basically just walking around the palace. But there's a kofun, and a garden(which would have been nice if anything were alive), and a nice big open (dead)grassy area. We even saw sakura! On one tree. But still, it was free and pretty and a nice relaxing time.
Odaiba Shopping Center


Afterwards, we decided to hit up Odaiba, which is a man-made island with a futuristic amusement center. Everything was soooo American! It was like a mixture between California and New York. There was even a Statue of Liberty. There was a really cool view of the rainbow bridge over the beach and a teleportation center! Which turned out to be a regular old station. Hehe gotta love waseigo >_>
View from Odaiba


Friday, March 30, 2012

Tokyo Part 3: Akiba!

Soooo the day after Harajuku we went to Akihabara! We decided to progress from crazy fashion to crazy otaku. Akihabara, or Akiba for short since the name's so freakin long, is like the den-den town of Tokyo. Or, to be more accurate it's actually the other way around since Akiba is *much* larger. It was definitely one of the most crowded places we visited, probably second to Shibuya. So many electronics, a 4-story adult-entertainment store, arcades and of course--maid cafes! We were determined to find a nice maid cafe, especially since most of the people in the group had never been to one. Here I shall tell of one of the most awkward experiences I have had in Japan. We had found a small cafe tucked away down some random road, and were greeted by some of the maids who escorted us. It was small, but we figured we would try it out. Bad decision! We should have known by their lack of uniform dress, and the sketch location, but it had just opened or something because it was a total disaster. When we arrived, some lady working there yelled 'English?' and we told her Japanese was fine. The maid who waited us reading off a script and stumbling over her words, and to top it all off the food was expensive! I know this sounds harsh, but you really go to these types of cafes for the experience, and it's just not worth it if it's not perfect. But that's the hard part, see, is actually *leaving* a maid cafe. It's like they have you cornered. Maids are just standing around looking at you, and they even hang around the elevator and the entrance. So we sucked it up and Gaijin Smashed the place; just fled out avoiding any eye-contact. Pretty embarrassing, but how are we to know? We're foreigners...
So anyway, we ended up finding one of the most famous cafes in AKB, where the maids all wore cute outfits and had shriekingly high-pitched voices and even said little 'spells' before giving us our food. The catch is that you have to pay like 1000 yen just to sit there for up to 2 hours, and they make you order food or drinks twice. Since everything on the menu is about 500-1000 yen, it was pretty pricey. But I'd say it was worth it. It was crowded and smokey and I felt a bit rushed by the maids, but overall it was too cute of an experience to have passed up on! Depending on the food, the chants change, but one that stuck with me was 'oishiku nare moe moe kyu~!' which basically makes the food more delicious by making cute sounds. Yeah, everything was moe-moe rabu-rabu nyan-nyan kyuu~to!  But it was... another maid cafe experience. Must say the one in Osaka was more personable and way cheaper, but Akiba was fun nonetheless.

Also, sorry for the lack of pics! We couldn't take any with the maids(standard policy), and nothing else really caught my eye. So here's a pic of me standing next to the Bandai center, which was actually in Asakusa, but it seems to fit with the otaku vibe...

Tokyo Part 2: Harajuku!

Ok, so this was the one place in all of Tokyo I was most excited to see. Why? Because of the crazy street fashion! I've read books on Tokyo fashion and the crazy colorful, vibrant, youthful spirits that flock the streets of Harajuku decked out in the coolest outfits. Thanks to Belle and Sebastian (the song 'I'm a Cuckoo' in particular) I knew the gang gathers on Sundays, and so we planned to go on the second day of our trip. But it was a total letdown! It was cold and rainy, and I think because of this I didn't even notice any crazy fashion, besides Lolita(which is not that rare in Japan, anyway). I was bummed, but I ended up walking around the city and shopping all day with my bestie Tif. It's a pretty great place to shop, and especially cheap for Tokyo, but it was a bit reminiscent of Shinsaibashi in Osaka. That's the thing about Tokyo--besides the lack of Kansai-ben(Kansai dialect), it seems like a combination of Osaka and Kyoto.  
St. Patty's Parade
We went on the 18th, and for some odd reason there was a St. Patrick's day parade(a day late?) with a bunch of foreigners and green! It added a nice care-free vibe to the mix, but the loud drunk guys walking around with cups of beer in their hands were a bit trashy...
Also, before we went shopping we went to the Meiji Jingu shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji.. which is apparently the most famous shrine in Japan? I didn't think it was too special, having seen a million shrines and temples in Kyoto, but the cool thing about it is it hosts a lot of weddings! I saw 2, which I actually thought was one really long wedding. Notice the mix of traditional wear and western-style suits in the picture? I felt bad for them because it was raining on their wedding day. But it was a really unique sight, and definitely the first wedding I've seen in Japan.
Wedding(Bride)
Wedding
Best place to shop


Tokyo! Part 1: Asakusa and the hostel

Asakusa(yellow horn from Asahi biru)
Sooooo I've finally done it! I've made countless plans that didn't fall through, but this spring break I finally managed to visit Tokyo.
I took a night bus both ways... I know I didn't get to experience the shinkansen(bullet train), but it was so cheap! Like, less than 4000yen each way cheap. I thought I could be productive and study or read on the way, but I soon realized that night buses are for SLEEPING. Seriously, don't plan on doing much else on one. But anyway, after about 10 hours of being on a bus, we finally arrived at Tokyo Disney. Random. It was not particularly close to our hostel and we did not actually go to the park. But we took full advantage of arriving there and bought a lot of Disney stuff from the gift store! We are such tourists >_>
Anyway, when we arrived at the station, we were confused and exhausted. We ended up riding the loop line from the wrong direction until it looped around to our destination... which took longer than an hour, but none of us had enough energy to transfer trains, which would have saved a lot of time.

A note about the weather in Tokyo: when we arrived in mid March it was cold and rainy. It rained for about 2 days and never got much warmer than 50 degrees. We didn't pick the best time to travel, but oh well.しょうがない... 
Sensouji at night
We stayed in a hostel in Asakusa, which seems to be a popular place for travelers. Its near the Yamanote line, which means it's pretty close to all of the major places like Akihabara, Shibuya,  Harajuku, Shinjuku and Tokyo station. Our hostel was conveniently located next to a 100 yen Lawson's, which meant I ate cheap bread products for most of my meals. Needless to say, it wasn't the healthiest of trips...
About Asakusa: It is pretty boring. No offense. I mean, it's pretty enough. It's got the Asahi Beer headquarters, a shopping district, and a really pretty temple(Sensouji) which lights up at night. But, like a lot of Japan, everything closes really early and it was pretty uneventful. 
And about hostels... Yeah. Um, we didn't have the greatest of experiences. I went with a group of 2 other girls and 3 guys. The three of us girls got a 4 person room, so they threw someone random in with us each night. And just our luck, we kept getting sketch old guys. One of them, who stayed for a couple of nights, walked in and stripped to his boxers right in front of us. Weird! But all things considered, there was internet(for the most part), a lounge, and some cool people. We were thankful to get back to our warm beds in Sem house, but it wasn't torture in the hostel. Especially not after we found a nearby bath house...

Friday, March 23, 2012

Horyuji in Nara

Recently I took a field trip with my art class to Horyuji in Nara. It's basically a very old temple with a lot of Buddhist art and interesting architectural structures. There's a pagoda, a worship hall, and a lot of other complexes. It was a really pretty place, but the weather was terrible! That being said, I don't have a whole lot to say besides boring historical facts. Also, we were unable to take pictures within any of the structures(pretty standard in Japan), so I can't show you any the great sculptures.Sorry!
I had previously only been to the Daibutsuden( Great Buddha Hall) in Todaiji in Nara, and I must say I prefer it to Horyuji. Mainly because of the deer. But I plan on returning to Todaiji in April or May for Golden Week, so I'll have more on that later! 

Kurama!

So... Japan is like 70% mountainous and this combined with their belief in the sacred nature of mountains(kami living in them, shugendo, etc) leads to an abundance of shrines and temples almost everywhere you look. I'm not that big on the outdoors, but I've been hiking up a lot of mountains recently! In late February I took a trip with my friend Coco to Kurama-yama, which is a bit out of the way near Kyoto. It was snowing quite a lot! I was excited to discover that the mountain is famous for its tengu shrine. Tengu are creatures with either crow beaks or long noses which are believed to live in the mountains and transform into priests, tricking those passing by in search of directions. 
Tengu statue
The hike was fairly long, and at the end we were exhausted. Luckily the entire area is located on one street, and at the end of it was an onsen. This was my first experience at an onsen(a public bath/hot spring) and I was a bit confused at first. I was on my own since Coco went to the men's section, and I had literally no idea what to do. I  ended up asking a random woman where to undress. If you're not comfortably being naked around people, or being surrounded by naked people, I would suggest not visiting one. However, I had a great time! It was cold and snowing, but somehow the outside bath was still piping hot. It was so nice to sit back and relax in the hot water in the middle of the mountain whilst watching the snow fall. I hope to visit a few more onsen during my stay!

Fushimi Inari in the snow!

Since my photostream no longer works, I thought it'd be cool to post about kinda old events so I can share pictures! Also, my computer was previously broken and I prefer not to blog from slow computer labs....

Anyway, shortly after I came back from Winter break(February 18th to be specific),  I took a trip to Fushimi Inari. I was told it would snow, but when I arrived most of it was melting. It was a bit of a let-down at first, but then we found a secret path sloping down the mountain which led us to... a winter wonderland! It was so pretty! 
Since then snow would fall from time to time, but I have a feeling spring is finally on its way. I can't wait for warmer weather!