tokyo 2015-- day 5

i do not know how tokyo manages to produce such gorgeous days but, wow, does it ever! this kind of light makes you want to go out and DO stuff! (regardless of how your feet will protest. XD) so we limped through hamamatsucho

to the train station to begin a YAMANOTE LINE ADVENTURE!

in case you aren't familiar with tokyo metro, the yamanote line is the circular route that will get you to all of the major tourist areas (locals also use this train but it is not usually as direct of a route/is less efficient. it does connect to many other major subway lines, however.)

our first stop of the day was at yurakucho station! i had heard a rumor that people hang out under the tracks and drink from the vending machines after work (it's much cheaper to buy drinks out of vending machines than at bars. trust me.) but either we did not manage to find the right area (entirely possible), we were there at the wrong time of day or this no longer happens.

i believe that it will be worth a trip back to tokyo to further investigate.

it was fine that we could not locate the vending machines we had been looking for as there was ANOTHER reason for being at yurakucho station---THE HOKKAIDO ANTENNA STORE!!

a bit of background info-- antenna stores are small shops centered around regional specialties. they mainly sell foods and crafts and are extremely popular. we visited a hokkaido store so there were lots of lovely dairy items as you will see because...

WE GOT HOKKAIDO ICE CREAM there is ALWAYS a line for ice cream at this shop. FOR GOOD REASON! IT IS DELICIOUS!!

the way to obtain hokkaido ice cream is as follows. 1) insert appropriate amount yen into machine

2) choose a flavor! milk, milk and melon and melon were the available choices (melon is a hokkaido specialty as well!)  press the button and get a ticket! (i chose melon, leff picked milk and melon!)

3) hand the ticket from the machine to the nice lady behind the counter ET VOILA!! YOU HAVE AN AMAZING CONE OF SOFT SERVE HOKKAIDO ICE CREAM

i loved everything about this. i do not know how they did it but this ice cream tastes more like melon than a melon does. OISHII!!

there is other prepared food available at this antenna shop. leff snagged a sweet potato and chicken croquette. SO GOOD ALL FOOD IN TOKYO IS *AMAZING*

we wandered around the store picking up different items to bring back (mainly ramen and some REALLY COOL MELON CHOCOLATES that i will write about in a separate post (edit: melon chocolate post is here!) when i felt a slight tug on my arm. you see, there were samples of dumplings being given out and and an older japanese lady (who did not work there, she just enjoyed the dumplings) wanted to make sure that i tried them! "oishii! oishii!!" she smiled and gestured. i nodded and told her that i would like to try them, arigato gozaimasu! and so a path was cleared to make sure that leff and i could try the dumplings. THEY WERE SOOOO GOOD the old lady gave me a thumbs up when i grinned and said OISHII!!!

you see, OLDER JAPANESE LADIES HAVE GOT MY BACK!! XD  (also, i think that, in general, if you are appreciative of the food in japan (how can you NOT be?!?) and are positive about things, people will go out of their way to help/make sure that your stay is extra enjoyable.)

a small local food fair was going on outside of dosanko plaza but we were too full of hokkaido goodness to try anything. besides, it was time to board the yamanote line again, this time for akihabara.

sigh, akihabara. the only down side to this trip. it is otaku central which, fine. but IT IS WESTERN OTAKU CENTRAL which, no. no, thanks.

leff and i had agreed to skip this neighborhood but that was before he broke his headphones on the plane. so it was with some trepidation that we set out for yodobashi camera. it is SIX FLOORS OF TECH so overwhelming SO FULL OF WESTERN NERDS god.

this is not even the tip of the headphone iceberg, btw.

there were many, many options available. here i am wearing a set of earmuff headphones.

it felt as if we were there for years (i'm sure it was less than an hour) before leff settled on some sennheiser urbanites (i am jealous of that purchase, btw. love me some headphones).

look, i CANNOT complain about the customer service at yodobashi. it was exceptional. our clerk made sure that we got the gaijin discount (for larger purchases, make sure to whip out your passport. duty free is the way to be.) as well as an additional 5% off. just, he was amazing and filled out all the paperwork that we would need at narita.

but, yes, i was overwhelmed. that store really took a lot out of me. so we took a break next to this banana can for a while (pretty sure i drank a cc lemon)

before deciding to head to laox for kit kats and maybe also the gachapon store. BIG MISTAKE OH MY GOD HUGE MISTAKE

we passed the fucking sega building. look, there it is. woo. no fucks being given by me at this point. i had to dodge too many women dressed as maids handing out flyers to care.

and i balked at crossing the street to laox. i just knew. the crowds in this area were TERRIBLE and i'm not talking about the crush of people. it's just...westerners on vacation. WESTERN NERDS ON VACATION they are so fucking loud and IN THE GODDAMNED WAY and GOD I HATE AKIHABARA it is a real life representation of what i imagine hell to be.

but to laox we DID go. and it was miserable. a million floors of cheap tat. i did buy some kit kats and some post cards but, wow, we had to crash next to this mini gundam for a while to rest.

but then two american nerd boys started LOUDLY geeking out over it (of course they fucking did) and i was so irritated that i was all "you KNOW that big one is in odaiba, right, (implied newb)?" which, of course they didn't. of course not. why would you EVER prepare for a trip? they wanted directions. i didn't give them directions other than "look it up". lol

we never made it to the gachapon store. no regrets.

but hey! the yamanote line can get you the hell out of dodge! so we left akihabara as quickly as possible and headed to shinjuku which is WAY more my speed. (i once had a couple of pieces in a gallery in this neighborhood.)

would you guess that the first place we stopped in shinjuku was a park? of course you would! japanese parks are incredible and shinjuku goen is no exception to this rule! the crows were even there to greet me!

sadly, this is the only photo of mine that worked. but i think you can guess at how peaceful this place is.

notes on this park:  a large picnic was taking place. so even though it was not hanami season (we missed the cherry blossoms by a few weeks), i DID get to see blue plastic tarps being used on the ground! 

also, a group of people all gathered around one specific plant and took its picture. if you see a group of people doing this in japan, it is worth investigating. the plant in question had flowers that were a different color than the norm for its species. i would not have noticed this otherwise.

somewhat rested, we thought it time to tackle shinjuku proper. SO much more fun here. the crowds move the right way and there is no inappropriate western screeching. people still geek out though.

i love shinjuku. we did not spend enough time here to do it justice.

i will admit we got a *tiny* bit lost since we were looking for piss alley but that's ok. here's the view of the buildings near donki (did not go to donki. had seen enough cheap tat at laox, thanks.)

but getting lost took us RIGHT WHERE I WANTED TO GO which was to see if the godzilla was still at the hotel gracery/toho cinema! IT WAS OMG IT WAS!!!!!!

as i have mentioned, i am a godzilla fan from WAY back. you wanna make me happy? just show me the toho logo (man, that's a thing of beauty, isn't it? (i am looking forward to the new toho godzilla next month!))

i am SO GLAD that i got to see the godzilla. (we almost booked at the gracery because of the godzilla room. lol)

but hey! guess what!

we DID manage to find piss alley! :D

i know, i know, tokyo is trying to rename this as "memory lane" but, come on, it's piss alley! you go there for two things:  yakitori and beer!

here is our beer.

and here is our yakitori!! SOOOOISHIIIIIII!!! (sooooishii being a word i made up in tokyo by combining "so" and "oishii", naturally. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

that is actually three kinds of yakitori, negi (japanese leek, close to green/spring onion in flavor but more mild), chicken and chicken skin.

the smoke that charcoal grilling produces is the greatest advertisement for yakitori. i am NOT kidding you. (if i wore perfume, it would be one that smelled like yakitori smoke. XD)

the shops in piss alley are very small. and, boy howdy, are we ever americans! XD but we "sumimasenned" like CRAZY so no one was bothered. in fact, everyone was quite fun about it. normally, i would feel claustrophobic in places like this but i had a great time. the beer was super cold, the yakitori was delicious and for the first time on this trip, i started to feel like i was in tokyo.

we called it an early night (the jet lag was pretty bad on this trip. when we go back, we'll be there a minimum of two weeks so we can properly adjust and not feel so disassociated all the time.) and picked up some drinks at lawson.

YOU HAD BETTER BELIEVE IT WAS SUNTORY TIME

and spent the remainder of the night watching a great travel show (sadly, the name of which escapes me. it's about three people (one lady, two men (one older)) looking for plaques in rural japan. they drove a large golf cart? if anyone knows the name of this show, i would REALLY appreciate a note in comments as i can't find ANYTHING about it online.) and writing out postcards.

not pictured:  the most ridiculous cards that leff could find at laox. he spent the night laughing about writing "hello from japan. we saw NONE of these places." 

oh yes! also that night leff thought that a pair of his trousers that were hanging up to dry were a ghost. LOL YUUUREIIIIII XD XD 

TOMORROW ON RAKKA AND LEFF GO TO TOKYO: IT IS MY BIRTHDAY IN JAPAN (but not the states, intl date line, ya know?) SO WE WENT TO SHIRO-HIGE FOR TOTORO CREAMPUFFS OH MY FUCKING GOD, we walk around the burbs a bit then head to another garden where HAHAH WE WERE THERE FOR THE EARTHQUAKE (it was fine. no one was hurt) AND THEN A BRITISH PUB IN TOKYO THAT MADE ME FEEL LIKE I WAS IN A MURAKAMI BOOK IT WAS THE GREATEST BIRTHDAY EVER CHECK BACK TOMORROW!!!

a short break from travel updates so i can post something specifically for chotda

i had hoped to tweet real time photos of the vending machines that i used while i was in tokyo but my phone did not work. bah. still! as requested by chotda, here are pictures of all the vending machines that i personally used while in japan.

i drank a LOT of cc lemon. sometimes i bought two cc lemons at a time from one vending machine.

also, i did not see any really strange machines. most sold drinks. the "craziest" ones i could find vended cigarettes or ice cream. i think the golden age of crazy-go-nuts japanese vending machines might be over. 

still, you can't beat cc lemon on demand. 

tokyo 2015-- day 4

after the CROWDSCROWDSCROWDS and intense foot pain at skytree, leff and i decided to have a buffer day. tokyo is not all hustle/bustle/flashing lights/shopping malls, after all. so we hopped a train to nihonbashi to see one of the quieter neighborhoods.

we had one particular destination in mind, ITAKURAYA!!!! what was the attraction to this small shop, you might ask? well, itakuraya makes NINGYO-YAKI IN THE SHAPE OF SHICHI FUKUJIN, the seven lucky gods!!

the little cakes are filled with anko and cooked in iron molds over, i believe, charcoal (could be wrong about that) and they are DELICIOUS *and* beautiful! (i am a major fan of red bean paste AND luck so this was SO up my alley.)

here are the shici fukujin at the front of the store.

and HERE is a short video about itakura-ya if you would like more information! i loved this place. the staff was incredibly kind and helpful! they even heated our prepackaged god heads up for us to enjoy at the park! :D

here are our god heads. are they not AMAZING?!

so tiny and delicate!

and STUFFED with anko!! :D

i LOVE how each face has such personality!

leff and i hung out in the small local park for a while just resting, drinking cc lemon (of course. ha!) and watching some birds act out an attenborough nature documentary. seriously relaxing.

there was a benkei statue across the street from the park commemorating the birthplace of edo kabuki and ALSO a hokusai samurai portrait embedded in the pavement (this makes sense as nihombashi was a samurai town during the edo period! (although maybe it was a hokusai kabuki portrait, now that i think about it. either one would make sense, really.))

additionally, many people (mainly women) were in traditional outfits.  how cool to just stumble onto this place! (here's a nihombashi history if you would like to read it. i'm absolutely fascinated by it now!)

another thing that gets my full attention is YAKITORI!!! i believe this is my most favorite of all japanese foods and since smelling the YAKITORI BONFIRE in hamamatsucho the previous day, i had it on the brain! so when leff and i passed a tiny shop selling yakitori WE WERE SO EATING THAT RIGHT NOW

we stood outside of the shop and enjoyed the HELL out of these! LOOK AT THAT NEGI  SOOOOISHIIII!!!

some older japanese ladies were very amused at how much i was into this. so i just told them it was oishii!! and kind of smiled and they beamed it me. XD THIS IS WHEN I LEARNED THAT OLDER JAPANESE LADIES HAVE GOT MY BACK!

but back past the pipo-kun we went.

because the hamarikyu gardens were calling our names. can you BELIEVE that this amazing garden is RIGHT in the middle of tokyo?!

a brief aside:  leff noticed early in our trip that the crows in tokyo caw like someone is doing a bad crow impression. bwahahah it's TRUE though! just listen!

i love the crows of tokyo. the little old ladies and the tokyo crows and i will TAKE ON THE WORLD XD

anyway, there is such a beautiful "floating" teahouse at hamarikyu.  we did not get matcha as it was too warm that day but OH I WILL GO BACK ONE DAY AND HAVE MATCHA HERE

this view is with my back to the teahouse facing the entrance. it's just...you know?

the gardens are quite large! in fact, we did much more walking here than we had planned. still, there was a very nice breeze and the grounds were gorgeous so who was complaining?

there were also plenty of places to sit. leff went to this kiosk

and got me a crunchy matcha ice cream sandwich. SO GOOD so refreshing.

while i was eating this, a young japanese couple dressed in traditional wedding garb were having their photos taken. THIS GARDEN AMIRITE SO RITE

you know what else is here? yeah, a 300 YEAR OLD PINE TREE all of this picture, right? all of those clumps of pine that look like different trees? NO THAT IS THE SAME TREE IT IS *AMAZING*

this garden has an area where the shogunate used to launch ships. history is everywhere in tokyo but you don't really think about it until it confronts you. it's constantly surprising.

i was also surprised by the quality of light here. this picture does NOT do it justice but, as jens was saying to me, it is very similar to italian light.

after the park we decided that a curry was in order. thankfully, coco bananas (ha! i just call it that, it's really coco ichibanya and it is GOOOOD) was on the way back to the hotel.

this picture, i know, it's not the best. but I LOVED THIS SAUSAGE CURRY SOOOO MUCH

added bonus:  got to eat it with a spoon. see, my hands were ALSO swollen due to a bad heat rash (hahahaha I WAS FALLING APART XD) so it was increasingly difficult to use chopsticks. (not a problem normally)

i dropped the word OISHII on the way out the door and WOW it is amazing how knowing one word will make people so happy/make them respond to you so positively.

we finished our buffer day with some more ice cream PINO! PINO IS PERFECTION

TOMORROW ON RAKKA AND LEFF GO TO TOKYO: WE GO ON A YAMANOTE LINE ADVENTURE WOO WOO FIRST STOP THE HOKKAIDO ANTENNA SHOP!! and then akihabara which OMFG I HAAAAATE AKIHABARA but we were not there too long BUT THEN SHINJUKU FOR ANOTHER PARK AND GODZILLA ON THE TOHO CINEMA/HOTEL GRACERY THEN PISS ALLEY FOR BEER AND YAAAAAKITOOOORI it was an amazing day (aside from fucking akihabara. dude, fuck akihabara.) CHECK BACK TOMORROW!