It may seem hard to believe that I have not written anything about my trip to Japan since I’ve been back. To be honest, it’s really hard to compress 14 days of total fun in a foreign country in 700 words. So while this isn’t nearly the same, I’ve copied and pasted the little journal I kept on my iPhone here. If you want more details and more stories about what happened, you’ll have to talk to me in person. Evil? Yes.
Be warned…these are just quick notes so I wouldn’t forget things and not a James Michener novel of pseudo-greatness.
6/13 – Kamakura trip. Got in trouble at train station. Visited big Buddha, the hydrangea temple, and a few other shrines. Interviewed by tourism department to help boost kamagura prefecture. Want to go to Hakone and Fujisawa. Visited Shinjuku for dinner. Lot like Times Square. Ate tempura for the first time.
6/14 – Tokyo trip. Visited the Imperial Gardens and Tokyo Tower. Ate at Mos Burger. Visited Nakano and Mandarake. Spent too much money on nerdery.
6/15 – Shibuya and Hachiko. Went to Harajuku to find Meiji and got lost. Returned to Shibuya to find Squenix and failed. Had curry for the first time. Finally found Meiji. As we left, we walked RIGHT into the Harajuku station. Baka. Went to Akihabara and stopped immediately at Gundam Cafe. Had expensive but tasty tempura dinner. Went out for drinks at Gundam Cafe. Fuckers took me to karaoke. I actually had a lot of fun and kind of hope we do it again.
6/16 – Went to Hakone to see it covered in rain. Met a super nice woman at the train station in Odawara. She helped us find the right train and even sent a tour guide over to talk to us. Decided to walk the Historical Highway and walked a quarter of Hakone on the rain. Nabbed a bus back to the station, grabbed lunch, and headed back to hotel to get warm and dry. Saw pirates movie. Heading to McDonalds for dinner and then packing for Osaka!
6/17 – Travel day to Osaka. Walked a ways away to the Osaka Castle. Then had an ungodly expensive buffet dinner. I’m fairly upset about it.
6/18 – Hiroshima. Visited ground zero and Hiroshima Castle. Really offended some guy by sitting next to him on the streetcar. Couldn’t find a place to eat to save our lives. Ate dinner back in Osaka at a traditional restaurant with a low table and no chairs.
6/19 – Himeji Castle. Saw a group of protesters. Castle was under renovation, which kind of sucked. Toured the West Bailey where we had to take our shoes off and climb super steep and super narrow stairs.
6/19 – Trip to Himeji Castle. Paid 400 yen to go in and then had to pay another 200 yen to go up. The castle was under renovation, so we really didn’t get a chance to see it in its glory since it was tented. We tried to leave, but they wouldn’t let us and forced us into another tour, which was pretty cool. Had to take off our shoes and everything. Dinner was interesting. Only took Erin’s order and gave it to us in appetizer form. So I ordered gyoza, and it also came as an appetizer. We went to a cafe after for dessert.
6/20 – The plan today was to go to Nara, but it was raining everywhere so we stayed in Osaka and went shopping. Mostly just to the two Mandarake stores, and yeah, we got lost on our way back again. We went to a different place for dinner and it was much better. You ordered by machine and handed the ticket to the waitress. Loved that method.
6/21 – Travel back to Shinagawa. Our hotel room this time is far worse than before. Dirty, uncomfortable beds, and poorly working a/c. Even the tea isn’t that great. Went to Shinjuku and found Square Enix. Spent way too much money. Went to Shibuya to find Hachiko charm and failed. I was very overwhelmed by the masses of people! I tried to capture a pic of it, but it never really reflected what I witnessed.
6/22 – We decided to take it easy in Tokyo today. Since it was so sunny and clear, we went back to Tokyo Tower to see if we could see Mt Fuji. Unfortunately, we couldn’t. We did find a Hachiko charm in the gift shop! We then went to the local aquarium, which was amazing. James and Rin went out for karaoke while I stayed in the hotel room since I was not feeling well. Very sad I didn’t go.
6/23 – We woke up far later than we planned, so we didn’t make it to Kyoto until after 3. At least I felt better after 12 hours of sleep! After walking to the Kiyomizu temple and back, it was nearly 7, so no Nara for us this trip. The view from the temple was absolutely amazing and totally worth the very long uphill climb.
6/24 – Our last day in Japan. We had absolutely no plans other than to return to Akihabara and finish our nerd shopping. We went to Ikebukuro first just to walk around, and then we headed back to Akihabara. We were done with shopping very early this time so we waited for James at the Gundam Cafe and drank a few more Gundam drinks. Had fantastic tempura at the cafe we tried to find on Rin’s birthday and then headed back early to pack.
I have all the photos off my camera. I just need to sort them, see if I need to touch up any of them, and then upload them to Flickr. In the meantime, if you see me in person, I can show you all of them on the iPad. Mean, I know, but eh, them’s the breaks.
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