Japan report - Week 3
DAY 15
Monday, Jan 11th, 2010
Today I would be going to Kyoto/Osaka to meet my Finnish friend, who is a transfer student there. The check out time of the hostel is 10am, but my friend couldn't meet me before 6pm, so I had several hours before my train would leave. Luckily I was able to leave my suitcase to the hostel, because I would've died if I had to take it with me, it's so heavy XD So I just took a few smaller bags.
My train would leave around 3pm, and I left the hostel at 10am. Because I had the bags I didn't really feel like I could do much during that time. So I went straight to Tokyo Station, left my bags on a coin locker and left treasure magazine-hunting. During my trip I always checked every magazine Yamada was in tried not to buy all XD, and this time I was looking for Shoroku. There wasn't even scans out, but I had seen the cover and it was so pretty I had to get it. I had looked for it the day before from regular magazine-selling shops, but couldn't find it. Near Tokyo Sta. there's a huuuge bookstore, that has like all magazines you could imagine. I went there, and looked for it, but just couldn't find it. It didn't help that all I knew was the name and cover, I had no idea what kind of magazine it would be (although Shogoku rokunensei sounds like some young girls'/school mag). I even asked the staff and found out it's supposed to be on the upper floor... with children's books XD But I couldn't find it there either!
But I didn't leave empty-handed XD I ended up buying Hanako, that I had been resisting for days, BUT it has 3 pages of Yamada, AND Kame AND Haruma ! Also, I kind of bought Fineboys (another men's fashion mag) for 2 pages of Yamada but BUT the pictures were so gorgeous I couldn't think reasonably! It did have Toma cover/pages too ! XD
It was only around 1pm, but I was afraid I wouldn't find my coin locker quickly or some other problems would come up, so I decided to head back to station. But I found my locker immediately XD Why was it so easy ! I didn't know what to do, and after walking around for a while I was too tired to continue, as the bags were quite heavy. So I just sat there and waited, mostly.
Finally it was time for my train to leave. I didn't reserve a seat, so I was glad I was there early to line up. And what did I do! Without realizing at all, I went to the only wagon in the whole 12-wagon train that was for smokers! I sat there for 5 minutes, but then I just had to leave. Luckily there were still empty seats on the next wagon.
My train trip went quite well. I ate a bento, listened to music, was looking outside, and was able to sleep for a while. I arrived to Shin Osaka around 6pm. I had misunderstood that you can go to Osaka Loop Line straight from Shin Osaka, so I was really confused at the station, as I couldn't find it. After a quick check from the map I decided to take a train to Osaka station, and got to the Loop line from there. Went to Kyobashi, where I had to change from JR to Keihan Line, which was kind of annoying, since I had the Rail Pass and now I would have to pay, but no can do. I finally got to the right station, and my friend was waiting there. We took a bus to her apartment to leave my stuff, then went to the shop to buy something to eat, walked around for nothing, and the rest of the evening we just spent at the apartment.
DAY 16
Tuesday, Jan 12th, 2010
We were supposed to go to Hiroshima at this trip, but in the end my friend couldn't, so we only went to Kyoto. I wanted to see Fushimi inari, that was in Memoirs of a Geisha, as well as Gion, but I didn't really have any other places I definitely wanted to go to. We took a train to Fushimi inari around 10am.
The train stations in Kyoto look so different to Tokyo, at least on this line. They look more old, traditional maybe, when Tokyo's stations are more modern. This line had trains that were actually painted as Thomas the Tank Engine, I have no idea why!! XD I'm sad I couldn't take a picture of it.
Here's a few general pictures from the temple area:
And here's the place that was in Memoirs of a Geisha, there's like hundreds of those torii gates after another, and we get to walk under them. It was really pretty!
Mostly this area had just temples temples and toriis toriis XD They were beautiful, but started looking the same after a while. So we decided to continue our trip and head to Gion.
Gion is a well-known Geisha district in Kyoto, and Memoirs were actually set on this area, so that's why I was really interested in seeing it. However, nowadays you can't really see geishas walking around (at least not during daytime), but I still wanted to see it. It started raining when we get there though, so it wasn't that fun :/ On the left, the "Geisha street" and on the right the main street of Gion:
We also went to see a temple, but as it was raining, it wasn't that nice outside, so we just took a few pictures and left.
We took a bus to Kyoto Station. We went around some shops, and from a cd shop I found Olympos, that was supposed to be released the next day XD ♥ Also I bought some post cards to send out and went to get something to eat. This time, just simply pizza, which was delicious, and a really tasty dessert with waffles and ice cream. I wrote my cards (only sent a few to relatives) and after eating we went to find a mailbox and sent them. After that we didn't know what to do. We went to see a few bookstores, because I was still hunting Shoroku, but couldn't find it. We almost went to karaoke too XD But didn't, and decided to head back.
DAY 17
Wednesday, Jan 13th, 2010
We decided to head to Osaka before I was going back, since I would have to go through Osaka anyway to get to shinkansen. Again, we went to a bookstore among others, the place was huge and... OMG. After carefully going through almost the whole place, I FOUND IT. There was only one copy left! It was wrapped, so I couldn't even look inside, but I trusted in Yamada and just bought it XD And of course, when I later looked inside, the pictures were awesome. ♥ It was indeed a magazine for elementary schoolers, and Yamada was talking about what it feels like to go to Middle school (!), and there was even furigana next to kanji XD But umm, it had 4 pages with great pictures, and it has an useful way of learning kanji? XD So worth it. Aaalso, we went to check Osaka's Mandarake, and I got Tengoku pamphlet cheaply!
We were supposed to go to Johnny's Shop too, but I didn't have much money left (I left most to the hostel), so we didn't. We went to eat, I had delicious omurice. After it was already around 3pm, so I decided to leave back to Tokyo.
The train trip went well again, I managed to sleep most of the time. I was back at my hostel around 8pm.
DAY 18
Thursday, Jan 14th, 2010
I was going to meet my friend Ayako at Shinjuku station at 12. Once again I left an hour earlier to make sure I'm in time. Especially with Shinjuku sta. you'll never know if you'll get out of there or not... Surprisingly, I found the right place and well in time. Ayako came there soon. It was the first time we're meeting, but we recognized each other well! I didn't see it in the pics but she so much like Aibu Saki irl! First thing we did was to find a place to eat. I wanted to try out okonomiyaki, so we went to a restaurant closeby. We had both okonomiyaki, and similar to it, monja, but that was... not that good. They are both something the customers fry themselves on the pan in the middle of the table. Here's our okonomiyaki first in the making, and then ready XD It was goood!
After, I wanted to go to a bookstore AGAIN because once again I was magazine-hunting. This time the target was Peach Lemon with 3-pages of Yamada, but those pictures are to-die-for so not buying was not an option XD It was sold out on the first store we went to, but found it from another.
Next, we went to purikura. We felt still a bit awkward, so the pictures turned out superboring, we were just basically standing there XD Oh, well. Next up was of course karaoke! Oh how I love karaoke ♥ It was once again so much fun!
As I didn't manage to go to Johnny's Family Club when I was with Mariko, and she didn't have time to meet again, I asked Ayako if it was okay to go. She said yes, so we went to Shibuya to look for it. This time I had directions! But because of the lack of my homing instinct we STILL went to the wrong direction first XD We managed to find it in the end though. It's a really small place, it has lots of signed posters, JE cds and other stuff, and a huge TV screen that plays PVs and messages from the groups. When we went there, it was playing Takitsuba, but after that they played ONE DROP and had KAT-TUN's message so we watched that :D
Here's Christmas/New Year's messages from NEWS (Ryo was only in eito's), KAT-TUN and JUMP. I'll put the pics in a link for bigger, in case you want to see the pictures/text more clearly! They are so cute :D
Ayako isn't interested in JE, so we left quite soon, as I didn't want to bore her. I could've easily spent my whole evening there though, watching the TV XD We went to find some snack, and after that we headed to Ayako's home. Her mom was there to welcome us, and she was so so nice! I brought chocolate as a souvenir, and she was really glad. And lol she even gave me a few pages of Jin from Ginza mag XD Those pics are not pretty though! But I was really glad. She started to make dinner, as we continued chatting about Japan and Finland and even JE XD
The dinner was great, we had nabe! I was so full after I finished eating, as we also had tea and Japanese sweets and coffee and... Then we watched some TV and I miniflailed every time there was a JE cm. Ayako's mom said that she used to like Kimutaku :D She even had some of SMAP's cds. She knew surprisingly much about JE lol.
I spent time there until around 9.30pm, before I left back to my hostel. I had so much fun. :)
DAY 19
Friday, Jan 15th, 2010
This was the only day on this week when I didn't have plans with friends, so this was also my last shopping day. I was going to go visit JE shop for the second time, so I headed to Harajuku already at 10am. I have no idea what was going on, but there were surprisingly few people again! I didn't even need a ticket for JE shop, I went straight to the line, waited a few minutes, and got in.
In the shop there weren't any new pics except some KAT-TUN ones. I went through Countdown 08-09 (no new ones), Sports day, NYC Boys, KAT-TUN and NEWS pictures and only had a few marks in my paper. I thought that I probably won't be spending as much as last time. Then I went to the HSJ side, and my brain zipped. Even though I had bought most new Yamada pics, I just found more and more that I wanted! I NEEDED LOADS OF CHINEN TOO. And last time I didn't go through new tour shop photos in fear of spoilers either but now I did... Soon I was quite satisfied, able to think again, checked other pics the last time and went to the line. There was another girl ahead of me that bought like all KinKi photos from the shop, and I was looking at her pile of pics thinking "woah, someone went crazy." Then I decided to check my papers, still thinking "There probably isn't that much, maybe around 20." And then I looked at my HSJ paper. And it had marks one after the another and I was all WHAT DID I DO, then turned the paper around and IT WAS FULL OF MARKS TOO. I seriously don't remember choosing that many! XD BRAIN ZIP. In the end I left the shop with a pile not that much thinner than the previous girl's...
Next I went to Takeshita to check out the clothing stores. There are a lot of shops that are quite cheap and really nice. However, I suck at shopping for clothes alone. The shops are so small, and sometimes it's confusing if you want to try something on, when you can't even find a fitting room! Sometimes you can't even try them on, one shop had a note that said "Do not try on tops" o__O So well, in the end I didn't buy anything...
And then I headed once again to my favourite place in Nakano XD I ended up buying two more clearfiles (Yamada and Chinen), an old NYC-era Potato they didn't have last time, Massu's WPD uchiwa (because it was cheap and it's so pretty), WPD phone strap I've been drooling over since forever, AND!! Omg I was so lucky. I was at the register, ready to pay, when I noticed a pile of staff on the desk. Under that Morimoto clearfile... is it... *moves it a bit* IT IS. THE PERFECT YAMADA UCHIWA I've been dying to get that's sold out everywhere!! I quickly asked what those were, and as the cashier said they're new stuff going on sale, I asked if I can buy one now. They said yes, and I quickly grabbed the Yamada-uchiwa with an over-enthusiastic "THIS TOO!" And umm, I have to say I still haven't checked the receipt how much it cost, but I don't really even care XD
After I left the shop, I did something I'm proud of: I actually went into a cafe alone! I know it's not a big thing, but for me it is. That kind of stuff, I don't know why but I can't do it alone. But now I did, and though sitting there alone eating felt a bit awkward at first, doing it felt really good in the end. :)
Then, I thought that maaaybe I could go check out Horikoshi (Yamada's school) - that's also in Nakano - now, as I felt too stalkerish to do that before. BUT then I realized that I'm carrying a JUMP shopping bag full of Yamada stuff XD They would never believe that I'm just some casual passer-by!
So I just went back to Harajuku trying to figure out souvenirs for my family. I went to a few shops, but didn't find anything good. Getting souvenirs is so difficult!
Before going back to the hostel, I went to Shibuya, walked around a bit and went to this store that sells Russ-K clothes :D That place wasn't as awkward as shops in Takeshita, so I managed to buy one shirt and a necklace. I really wanted another hoodie, but it was too expencive :(
I guess I've been way too Yamada-centric on this trip, as I felt like overall there were less cute boys in Tokyo than last time! But on the train back to the hostel I had a train!crush. There were two boys that came into a train, the other looked like Oshinari Shugo except cuter, and the other was just cute. XD The Shugo-looking one was standing his back towards me so I couldn't look at him much, but the other sat in front of me, and he was sooo cute! I tried not to stare too much, but still looked as much as possible, and tried to control my smile. He looked at me a few times too. I tried to listen to them talk, but couldn't hear much. The boy had such a cute smile omg! The moment lasted at least 20 minutes and I was wondering where they were going. Just when we arrived at Nippori, several people left and the boys would've just moved to sit next to me (so that the other could sit too) BUT I HAD TO LEAVE THE TRAIN. Damn it, I should've went all the way to Ueno!! But when I realized what happened, I had already stood up so it would've been awkward if I had just went back to my seat XD
At the hostel I quickly took a shower, and then watched Yamanade ♥
DAY 20
Saturday, Jan 16th, 2010
This was going to be my last full day in Japan, but also THE BANDAGE DAY. I met with Ayako at the same place in Shinjuku at 11am, and we went to eat sushi. It was gooood. Then we headed to Roppongi Hills, so that we would for sure be at the movie theater in time.
BANDAGE BANDAGEEEE. It would start at 1.10pm. So, it was the opening day, but the screening we went to was a special screening you had to apply for a lottery to get tickets for. And the whole cast would be there. I was about to have proof on something I had been wondering for years: Does something as amazing and gorgeous as Jin Akanishi really exist or is he just a robot or a hologram?
After more waiting they finally let us in. Our seats would be B-30 and B-31. B, that sounds good, right? But I had no idea. It was the second row!! And on the top of that, there was no-one in the first row, so that was kind of the first. The little stage was ridiculously close, like 2 metres away. The screen was way too close, but I couldn't care less, Jin would be there 2 metres away from me!!
Soon some woman announcer - apparently someone famous - got to the stage and said welcomes and that the cast would appear there now. I started shaking, and my heart was racing like crazy when Jin walked to the stage. At that moment all my dislike towards his hair and his stupid hats went away. MY GOD HE WAS G O R G E O U S. He looked a bit different in a way that if I had seen him on the street, he wouldn't have struck to me as Akanishi Jin right away. But he looks better irl I can tell ya. The announcer was interviewing the cast, asking about the movie mostly, of course. I was supposed to do a report of what they talked about and such, but my mind went completely blank, I missed basically everything anyone except Jin said, I was just looking at that beautiful thing in front of me. When he wasn't talking, he was looking around at the audience a lot. As this is quite a formal situation, they weren't like waving and peace'ing out to people XD But apparently it was okay to wave from the audience, as I saw many people doing that. So when Jin was looking at my direction, I waved and he noticed me. My heart stopped at that moment. This was Jin - one of the most gorgeous men ever, the boy I had been in love with for years - looking at me straight in the eyes. And. then. he. smiled. a. bit. And then you can imagine how I felt.
The interview lasted for around 20 minutes, I'd say. Jin was totally as awesome as I thought he would be, and even more. He was smiling almost all the time, he was making jokes a lot, and he was just really adorable. Seriously, all haters should just go die, this boy is not a bitch at all. He was just. So Jin. He would make some random comments every once in a while, and the whole crowd cracked up. I love his humour. ♥
So, then they left. And the movie would begin. I won't talk about the story for now, as I don't want to spoil, but overall I really enjoyed it! Judging from the trailer I thought the whole movie would be sad, angsty and even boring. But it wasn't. I really liked it. And Jin was amazing as Natsu! I didn't expect he would be that good. In the character I didn't see Jin at all. I really liked Kitano Kii too! Also, I was really disappointed at Olympos when it came out tbh, but the movie made me see the songs in a new light, and now I really really like almost all of them! Well, Hatachi no Sensou was amazing right away, but this movie made it even better!
After the movie we went to Harajuku, once again to look for souvenirs. I did find something with a little help from Ayako. :) Also, I got *coughs* myself a few little souvenirs from an idol shop in Takeshita. I went in to find one specific papapic for my friend, but couldn't find it. Papapics are unofficial, a bit evil and should not be supported but I forgot all that when I got to the Yamada wall XD There must've been like hundreds of pics and this is Yamada we're talking about, they were almost all great. I went through the wall for at least 15 minutes, but then I gave up, because I didn't want to keep Ayako there for too long. So I only took a few pics. But I could've taken like, all.
It was my last night, so of course I wanted to spend the rest of the time in my favourite place! So we went to, guess where? We went to have dinner, and had oyakoyaki. It was delicious! Then for the last time I went to spend my almost last money on the second hand shop, and bought two dvds. So here's what I had got on my last day:
It was already kind of late, but I didn't want to go back just yet. Although apparently Shibuya had prepared for my leaving too, they had taken down the Hidarime ads :( NYC was still there though :D The big wall of the station looked like this now, could've been a lot worse:
After wandering around a bit we decided to go take one last purikura. Now that we had spent time together, we already felt so much more relaxed than last time! So here's the finished product XD
I was supposed to wake up reeeally early the next day, and it was already late, so we decided to head back to hostel/home :( I said baibais to NYC, and then later to Ayako at Yoyogi. I continued the train trip alone. When I changed trains in Nippori, this really tall Japanese guy, I'd say around 25-30 years old, started talking to me. He was asking where I'm from, where do I stay, how do I know Japanese, why do I like Japan, what music I like, who I like in JE, all that XD He was a bit... idk, distracting, because he was asking me go out to dinner and such o__O But other than that it was nice to talk in Japanese, and anyone who chats with me about Yamada even for a bit is nice in my eyes XD At my station I just had to quickly clearly say that No I can't see you when I come back to Japan sorry byee.
And when I got back to the hostel I had to pack pack pack. I got everything in my suitcase and two bags surprisingly well!
DAY 21
Sunday, Jan 17th, 2010
My plane would take off at 12, so I woke up already before 7 to get ready, pack my last stuff and head to the station. I survived quite well with my luggage! The train ride from Tokyo to Narita would take around an hour, so I slept most of the time. I found the right place in the airport quickly, I'm proud! There was only one problem: my suitcase was too heavy XDDD So I had to take out a few magazines, threw them in a plastic bag and carried them to the plane, that was enough :D After security check I shopped for the last souvenirs before getting to the plane. It was right on time and everything went well.
I kind of felt good going back home, but at the same time I still had the strong feeling that this place is my another home. I would come back. For sure I would come back, and the next time I would stay even longer. When the plane took off, tears started just pouring out. But it was a good feeling. I knew I would miss this place like crazy, but like last time, also this time I would come back soon and again have the best time of my life.
And I have to say, when I got back to Helsinki-Vantaa airport, knowing that my family and several friends were waiting for me to get back, and knowing that yuumei_nata would be there at the airport, waiting for me, felt really good. ♥
Monday, Jan 11th, 2010
Today I would be going to Kyoto/Osaka to meet my Finnish friend, who is a transfer student there. The check out time of the hostel is 10am, but my friend couldn't meet me before 6pm, so I had several hours before my train would leave. Luckily I was able to leave my suitcase to the hostel, because I would've died if I had to take it with me, it's so heavy XD So I just took a few smaller bags.
My train would leave around 3pm, and I left the hostel at 10am. Because I had the bags I didn't really feel like I could do much during that time. So I went straight to Tokyo Station, left my bags on a coin locker and left treasure magazine-hunting. During my trip I always checked every magazine Yamada was in tried not to buy all XD, and this time I was looking for Shoroku. There wasn't even scans out, but I had seen the cover and it was so pretty I had to get it. I had looked for it the day before from regular magazine-selling shops, but couldn't find it. Near Tokyo Sta. there's a huuuge bookstore, that has like all magazines you could imagine. I went there, and looked for it, but just couldn't find it. It didn't help that all I knew was the name and cover, I had no idea what kind of magazine it would be (although Shogoku rokunensei sounds like some young girls'/school mag). I even asked the staff and found out it's supposed to be on the upper floor... with children's books XD But I couldn't find it there either!
But I didn't leave empty-handed XD I ended up buying Hanako, that I had been resisting for days, BUT it has 3 pages of Yamada, AND Kame AND Haruma ! Also, I kind of bought Fineboys (another men's fashion mag) for 2 pages of Yamada but BUT the pictures were so gorgeous I couldn't think reasonably! It did have Toma cover/pages too ! XD
It was only around 1pm, but I was afraid I wouldn't find my coin locker quickly or some other problems would come up, so I decided to head back to station. But I found my locker immediately XD Why was it so easy ! I didn't know what to do, and after walking around for a while I was too tired to continue, as the bags were quite heavy. So I just sat there and waited, mostly.
Finally it was time for my train to leave. I didn't reserve a seat, so I was glad I was there early to line up. And what did I do! Without realizing at all, I went to the only wagon in the whole 12-wagon train that was for smokers! I sat there for 5 minutes, but then I just had to leave. Luckily there were still empty seats on the next wagon.
My train trip went quite well. I ate a bento, listened to music, was looking outside, and was able to sleep for a while. I arrived to Shin Osaka around 6pm. I had misunderstood that you can go to Osaka Loop Line straight from Shin Osaka, so I was really confused at the station, as I couldn't find it. After a quick check from the map I decided to take a train to Osaka station, and got to the Loop line from there. Went to Kyobashi, where I had to change from JR to Keihan Line, which was kind of annoying, since I had the Rail Pass and now I would have to pay, but no can do. I finally got to the right station, and my friend was waiting there. We took a bus to her apartment to leave my stuff, then went to the shop to buy something to eat, walked around for nothing, and the rest of the evening we just spent at the apartment.
DAY 16
Tuesday, Jan 12th, 2010
We were supposed to go to Hiroshima at this trip, but in the end my friend couldn't, so we only went to Kyoto. I wanted to see Fushimi inari, that was in Memoirs of a Geisha, as well as Gion, but I didn't really have any other places I definitely wanted to go to. We took a train to Fushimi inari around 10am.
The train stations in Kyoto look so different to Tokyo, at least on this line. They look more old, traditional maybe, when Tokyo's stations are more modern. This line had trains that were actually painted as Thomas the Tank Engine, I have no idea why!! XD I'm sad I couldn't take a picture of it.
Here's a few general pictures from the temple area:
And here's the place that was in Memoirs of a Geisha, there's like hundreds of those torii gates after another, and we get to walk under them. It was really pretty!
Mostly this area had just temples temples and toriis toriis XD They were beautiful, but started looking the same after a while. So we decided to continue our trip and head to Gion.
Gion is a well-known Geisha district in Kyoto, and Memoirs were actually set on this area, so that's why I was really interested in seeing it. However, nowadays you can't really see geishas walking around (at least not during daytime), but I still wanted to see it. It started raining when we get there though, so it wasn't that fun :/ On the left, the "Geisha street" and on the right the main street of Gion:
We also went to see a temple, but as it was raining, it wasn't that nice outside, so we just took a few pictures and left.
We took a bus to Kyoto Station. We went around some shops, and from a cd shop I found Olympos, that was supposed to be released the next day XD ♥ Also I bought some post cards to send out and went to get something to eat. This time, just simply pizza, which was delicious, and a really tasty dessert with waffles and ice cream. I wrote my cards (only sent a few to relatives) and after eating we went to find a mailbox and sent them. After that we didn't know what to do. We went to see a few bookstores, because I was still hunting Shoroku, but couldn't find it. We almost went to karaoke too XD But didn't, and decided to head back.
DAY 17
Wednesday, Jan 13th, 2010
We decided to head to Osaka before I was going back, since I would have to go through Osaka anyway to get to shinkansen. Again, we went to a bookstore among others, the place was huge and... OMG. After carefully going through almost the whole place, I FOUND IT. There was only one copy left! It was wrapped, so I couldn't even look inside, but I trusted in Yamada and just bought it XD And of course, when I later looked inside, the pictures were awesome. ♥ It was indeed a magazine for elementary schoolers, and Yamada was talking about what it feels like to go to Middle school (!), and there was even furigana next to kanji XD But umm, it had 4 pages with great pictures, and it has an useful way of learning kanji? XD So worth it. Aaalso, we went to check Osaka's Mandarake, and I got Tengoku pamphlet cheaply!
We were supposed to go to Johnny's Shop too, but I didn't have much money left (I left most to the hostel), so we didn't. We went to eat, I had delicious omurice. After it was already around 3pm, so I decided to leave back to Tokyo.
The train trip went well again, I managed to sleep most of the time. I was back at my hostel around 8pm.
DAY 18
Thursday, Jan 14th, 2010
I was going to meet my friend Ayako at Shinjuku station at 12. Once again I left an hour earlier to make sure I'm in time. Especially with Shinjuku sta. you'll never know if you'll get out of there or not... Surprisingly, I found the right place and well in time. Ayako came there soon. It was the first time we're meeting, but we recognized each other well! I didn't see it in the pics but she so much like Aibu Saki irl! First thing we did was to find a place to eat. I wanted to try out okonomiyaki, so we went to a restaurant closeby. We had both okonomiyaki, and similar to it, monja, but that was... not that good. They are both something the customers fry themselves on the pan in the middle of the table. Here's our okonomiyaki first in the making, and then ready XD It was goood!
After, I wanted to go to a bookstore AGAIN because once again I was magazine-hunting. This time the target was Peach Lemon with 3-pages of Yamada, but those pictures are to-die-for so not buying was not an option XD It was sold out on the first store we went to, but found it from another.
Next, we went to purikura. We felt still a bit awkward, so the pictures turned out superboring, we were just basically standing there XD Oh, well. Next up was of course karaoke! Oh how I love karaoke ♥ It was once again so much fun!
As I didn't manage to go to Johnny's Family Club when I was with Mariko, and she didn't have time to meet again, I asked Ayako if it was okay to go. She said yes, so we went to Shibuya to look for it. This time I had directions! But because of the lack of my homing instinct we STILL went to the wrong direction first XD We managed to find it in the end though. It's a really small place, it has lots of signed posters, JE cds and other stuff, and a huge TV screen that plays PVs and messages from the groups. When we went there, it was playing Takitsuba, but after that they played ONE DROP and had KAT-TUN's message so we watched that :D
Here's Christmas/New Year's messages from NEWS (Ryo was only in eito's), KAT-TUN and JUMP. I'll put the pics in a link for bigger, in case you want to see the pictures/text more clearly! They are so cute :D
Ayako isn't interested in JE, so we left quite soon, as I didn't want to bore her. I could've easily spent my whole evening there though, watching the TV XD We went to find some snack, and after that we headed to Ayako's home. Her mom was there to welcome us, and she was so so nice! I brought chocolate as a souvenir, and she was really glad. And lol she even gave me a few pages of Jin from Ginza mag XD Those pics are not pretty though! But I was really glad. She started to make dinner, as we continued chatting about Japan and Finland and even JE XD
The dinner was great, we had nabe! I was so full after I finished eating, as we also had tea and Japanese sweets and coffee and... Then we watched some TV and I miniflailed every time there was a JE cm. Ayako's mom said that she used to like Kimutaku :D She even had some of SMAP's cds. She knew surprisingly much about JE lol.
I spent time there until around 9.30pm, before I left back to my hostel. I had so much fun. :)
DAY 19
Friday, Jan 15th, 2010
This was the only day on this week when I didn't have plans with friends, so this was also my last shopping day. I was going to go visit JE shop for the second time, so I headed to Harajuku already at 10am. I have no idea what was going on, but there were surprisingly few people again! I didn't even need a ticket for JE shop, I went straight to the line, waited a few minutes, and got in.
In the shop there weren't any new pics except some KAT-TUN ones. I went through Countdown 08-09 (no new ones), Sports day, NYC Boys, KAT-TUN and NEWS pictures and only had a few marks in my paper. I thought that I probably won't be spending as much as last time. Then I went to the HSJ side, and my brain zipped. Even though I had bought most new Yamada pics, I just found more and more that I wanted! I NEEDED LOADS OF CHINEN TOO. And last time I didn't go through new tour shop photos in fear of spoilers either but now I did... Soon I was quite satisfied, able to think again, checked other pics the last time and went to the line. There was another girl ahead of me that bought like all KinKi photos from the shop, and I was looking at her pile of pics thinking "woah, someone went crazy." Then I decided to check my papers, still thinking "There probably isn't that much, maybe around 20." And then I looked at my HSJ paper. And it had marks one after the another and I was all WHAT DID I DO, then turned the paper around and IT WAS FULL OF MARKS TOO. I seriously don't remember choosing that many! XD BRAIN ZIP. In the end I left the shop with a pile not that much thinner than the previous girl's...
Next I went to Takeshita to check out the clothing stores. There are a lot of shops that are quite cheap and really nice. However, I suck at shopping for clothes alone. The shops are so small, and sometimes it's confusing if you want to try something on, when you can't even find a fitting room! Sometimes you can't even try them on, one shop had a note that said "Do not try on tops" o__O So well, in the end I didn't buy anything...
And then I headed once again to my favourite place in Nakano XD I ended up buying two more clearfiles (Yamada and Chinen), an old NYC-era Potato they didn't have last time, Massu's WPD uchiwa (because it was cheap and it's so pretty), WPD phone strap I've been drooling over since forever, AND!! Omg I was so lucky. I was at the register, ready to pay, when I noticed a pile of staff on the desk. Under that Morimoto clearfile... is it... *moves it a bit* IT IS. THE PERFECT YAMADA UCHIWA I've been dying to get that's sold out everywhere!! I quickly asked what those were, and as the cashier said they're new stuff going on sale, I asked if I can buy one now. They said yes, and I quickly grabbed the Yamada-uchiwa with an over-enthusiastic "THIS TOO!" And umm, I have to say I still haven't checked the receipt how much it cost, but I don't really even care XD
After I left the shop, I did something I'm proud of: I actually went into a cafe alone! I know it's not a big thing, but for me it is. That kind of stuff, I don't know why but I can't do it alone. But now I did, and though sitting there alone eating felt a bit awkward at first, doing it felt really good in the end. :)
Then, I thought that maaaybe I could go check out Horikoshi (Yamada's school) - that's also in Nakano - now, as I felt too stalkerish to do that before. BUT then I realized that I'm carrying a JUMP shopping bag full of Yamada stuff XD They would never believe that I'm just some casual passer-by!
So I just went back to Harajuku trying to figure out souvenirs for my family. I went to a few shops, but didn't find anything good. Getting souvenirs is so difficult!
Before going back to the hostel, I went to Shibuya, walked around a bit and went to this store that sells Russ-K clothes :D That place wasn't as awkward as shops in Takeshita, so I managed to buy one shirt and a necklace. I really wanted another hoodie, but it was too expencive :(
I guess I've been way too Yamada-centric on this trip, as I felt like overall there were less cute boys in Tokyo than last time! But on the train back to the hostel I had a train!crush. There were two boys that came into a train, the other looked like Oshinari Shugo except cuter, and the other was just cute. XD The Shugo-looking one was standing his back towards me so I couldn't look at him much, but the other sat in front of me, and he was sooo cute! I tried not to stare too much, but still looked as much as possible, and tried to control my smile. He looked at me a few times too. I tried to listen to them talk, but couldn't hear much. The boy had such a cute smile omg! The moment lasted at least 20 minutes and I was wondering where they were going. Just when we arrived at Nippori, several people left and the boys would've just moved to sit next to me (so that the other could sit too) BUT I HAD TO LEAVE THE TRAIN. Damn it, I should've went all the way to Ueno!! But when I realized what happened, I had already stood up so it would've been awkward if I had just went back to my seat XD
At the hostel I quickly took a shower, and then watched Yamanade ♥
DAY 20
Saturday, Jan 16th, 2010
This was going to be my last full day in Japan, but also THE BANDAGE DAY. I met with Ayako at the same place in Shinjuku at 11am, and we went to eat sushi. It was gooood. Then we headed to Roppongi Hills, so that we would for sure be at the movie theater in time.
BANDAGE BANDAGEEEE. It would start at 1.10pm. So, it was the opening day, but the screening we went to was a special screening you had to apply for a lottery to get tickets for. And the whole cast would be there. I was about to have proof on something I had been wondering for years: Does something as amazing and gorgeous as Jin Akanishi really exist or is he just a robot or a hologram?
After more waiting they finally let us in. Our seats would be B-30 and B-31. B, that sounds good, right? But I had no idea. It was the second row!! And on the top of that, there was no-one in the first row, so that was kind of the first. The little stage was ridiculously close, like 2 metres away. The screen was way too close, but I couldn't care less, Jin would be there 2 metres away from me!!
Soon some woman announcer - apparently someone famous - got to the stage and said welcomes and that the cast would appear there now. I started shaking, and my heart was racing like crazy when Jin walked to the stage. At that moment all my dislike towards his hair and his stupid hats went away. MY GOD HE WAS G O R G E O U S. He looked a bit different in a way that if I had seen him on the street, he wouldn't have struck to me as Akanishi Jin right away. But he looks better irl I can tell ya. The announcer was interviewing the cast, asking about the movie mostly, of course. I was supposed to do a report of what they talked about and such, but my mind went completely blank, I missed basically everything anyone except Jin said, I was just looking at that beautiful thing in front of me. When he wasn't talking, he was looking around at the audience a lot. As this is quite a formal situation, they weren't like waving and peace'ing out to people XD But apparently it was okay to wave from the audience, as I saw many people doing that. So when Jin was looking at my direction, I waved and he noticed me. My heart stopped at that moment. This was Jin - one of the most gorgeous men ever, the boy I had been in love with for years - looking at me straight in the eyes. And. then. he. smiled. a. bit. And then you can imagine how I felt.
The interview lasted for around 20 minutes, I'd say. Jin was totally as awesome as I thought he would be, and even more. He was smiling almost all the time, he was making jokes a lot, and he was just really adorable. Seriously, all haters should just go die, this boy is not a bitch at all. He was just. So Jin. He would make some random comments every once in a while, and the whole crowd cracked up. I love his humour. ♥
So, then they left. And the movie would begin. I won't talk about the story for now, as I don't want to spoil, but overall I really enjoyed it! Judging from the trailer I thought the whole movie would be sad, angsty and even boring. But it wasn't. I really liked it. And Jin was amazing as Natsu! I didn't expect he would be that good. In the character I didn't see Jin at all. I really liked Kitano Kii too! Also, I was really disappointed at Olympos when it came out tbh, but the movie made me see the songs in a new light, and now I really really like almost all of them! Well, Hatachi no Sensou was amazing right away, but this movie made it even better!
After the movie we went to Harajuku, once again to look for souvenirs. I did find something with a little help from Ayako. :) Also, I got *coughs* myself a few little souvenirs from an idol shop in Takeshita. I went in to find one specific papapic for my friend, but couldn't find it. Papapics are unofficial, a bit evil and should not be supported but I forgot all that when I got to the Yamada wall XD There must've been like hundreds of pics and this is Yamada we're talking about, they were almost all great. I went through the wall for at least 15 minutes, but then I gave up, because I didn't want to keep Ayako there for too long. So I only took a few pics. But I could've taken like, all.
It was my last night, so of course I wanted to spend the rest of the time in my favourite place! So we went to, guess where? We went to have dinner, and had oyakoyaki. It was delicious! Then for the last time I went to spend my almost last money on the second hand shop, and bought two dvds. So here's what I had got on my last day:
It was already kind of late, but I didn't want to go back just yet. Although apparently Shibuya had prepared for my leaving too, they had taken down the Hidarime ads :( NYC was still there though :D The big wall of the station looked like this now, could've been a lot worse:
After wandering around a bit we decided to go take one last purikura. Now that we had spent time together, we already felt so much more relaxed than last time! So here's the finished product XD
I was supposed to wake up reeeally early the next day, and it was already late, so we decided to head back to hostel/home :( I said baibais to NYC, and then later to Ayako at Yoyogi. I continued the train trip alone. When I changed trains in Nippori, this really tall Japanese guy, I'd say around 25-30 years old, started talking to me. He was asking where I'm from, where do I stay, how do I know Japanese, why do I like Japan, what music I like, who I like in JE, all that XD He was a bit... idk, distracting, because he was asking me go out to dinner and such o__O But other than that it was nice to talk in Japanese, and anyone who chats with me about Yamada even for a bit is nice in my eyes XD At my station I just had to quickly clearly say that No I can't see you when I come back to Japan sorry byee.
And when I got back to the hostel I had to pack pack pack. I got everything in my suitcase and two bags surprisingly well!
DAY 21
Sunday, Jan 17th, 2010
My plane would take off at 12, so I woke up already before 7 to get ready, pack my last stuff and head to the station. I survived quite well with my luggage! The train ride from Tokyo to Narita would take around an hour, so I slept most of the time. I found the right place in the airport quickly, I'm proud! There was only one problem: my suitcase was too heavy XDDD So I had to take out a few magazines, threw them in a plastic bag and carried them to the plane, that was enough :D After security check I shopped for the last souvenirs before getting to the plane. It was right on time and everything went well.
I kind of felt good going back home, but at the same time I still had the strong feeling that this place is my another home. I would come back. For sure I would come back, and the next time I would stay even longer. When the plane took off, tears started just pouring out. But it was a good feeling. I knew I would miss this place like crazy, but like last time, also this time I would come back soon and again have the best time of my life.
And I have to say, when I got back to Helsinki-Vantaa airport, knowing that my family and several friends were waiting for me to get back, and knowing that yuumei_nata would be there at the airport, waiting for me, felt really good. ♥