東京 Tokyo
Last week, I was fortunate to visit Tokyo for about 5 days. I needed to attend a conference for about 3 days, but decided to go to Tokyo a few days earlier so I could spend time with friends and explore more of 東京 Tokyo.
So, I packed my luggage for a 5 night and 5 day stay in 東京. Just to let you know, I first need to drive one hour to get to the main train station, then take a 3 hour bullet train to get to Tokyo station, and then an additional 40 minutes of subways and transfers in order to get to the place I would first stay at in Tokyo. All in all, it was a total of a 5 hour trip for me to get to the place where I'd be staying. Luckily for me, Kenyon was in town and I was able to hang out with him and stay at his hotel, The Tokyo Prince Hotel Park Tower. And may I say that is probably one of the nicer hotels in Tokyo =P. It's one of the hotels closest to Tokyo Tower located in Shibakoen, Shiba Park. After dropping of my luggage, we decided to walk around and look for dinner. We took a short ride on the subway to 六本木 Roppongi and walked through the area. There's a famous area here called 六本木ヒルズ Roppongi Hills where a lot of nice stores and restaraunts are located. It is believed that this area is where most of the foreigners are at. It was pretty nostalgic to see a lot of fancy cars like Rolls Rocyces, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Porsches. Reminded me of the time when I was back in West L.A. =). Anyways, Kenyon and I couldn't seem to find a place to eat until we crossed a Domino's Pizza. Ok, so for your information people, I haven't had pizza since October of last year when I last came to Tokyo. I did go home for a bit, but I didn't have really good pizza there, so that didn't count. So we ordered a large GIGA MEAT pizza and decided to walk the rest of the way back to our hotel since it didn't seem to far of a walk. On the way back, I was able to take a nice picture of Tokyo Tower at night.
So, after returning to the hotel, we ate the pizza like we had never had pizza before in our lives. After that, we watched Japanese T.V. and I showed Kenyon what Japanese television is really like. If you all have seen Downtown Gaki, then there's pretty much nothing else you need to see =p.
On Saturday, Kenyon and I decided to hit up お台場 Odaiba which is a large artificial island in Tokyo. There was a really good view of Tokyo's Skyline and Rainbow Bridge as well as a new train system and, one of my favorite places, Fuji TV station.
Notice the very miniature version of the Statue of Liberty here on the island. I have no clue at all why there's one here and I'm too lazy to find out =p.
While we were here, we visited the mall which had some decent stores. The one area that stood out was the Sony display area where you can test out all the new products and see the really, really expensive TVs. After the mall, we went to the Fuji TV Station building. I've seen this building on the variety shows on TV before so it was pretty cool seeing it in person. The building is interesting itself with its architecture and a sphere that acts as an observatory.
Many of my favorite TV shows are from the Fuji TV network. So, I was pretty excited to just visit the station. There was a section where you can look through the windows to see the various programs being filmed. Since it was Saturday, all of the studios were empty. It was alright though, I actually figured out a strategy for the crane games while I was there too. I was able to win to items, plush buses of my favorite show, あいのり Ainori.
After お台場 Odaiba, we took a train to 上野 Ueno and met up with Jules. We walked around the park in Ueno. We saw a few performances and one guy was fairly interesting in his Samurai outfit.
Looks pretty cool huh. We thought so to until he threw up a tube of toothpaste and tried to cut it in half o_O'. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination.
Afterwards, we met up with Keiko and Mizuho to have lunch. We all ended up going to TGIFridays and had a small lunch where Keiko and I gave Jules' number to one of the waiters. Note that this is the first of many times that we'd do this ハハハ. So afterward, Jules, Kenyon, and I went shopping for a small knapsack for Jules' brother and Kenyon's man purse. The shops in 上野 Ueno were pretty good actually. There were a fairly good amount of guys stores and the two were able to find the stuff that we wanted.
So after the shopping, we headed back to the hotel so I can change and then took a train out to 渋谷 Shibuya where we met up with Keiko, Mizuho, Taiko, some foreigners whose name I have already forgotten, and lo and behold, San Diegan turned Australian, Dallas. We all met up at the famous dog statue of ハチ公 Hachiko and headed out to a bar. At the bar, it was all you can drink for 3000円 for 2 hours. Not much to talk about really here except for practicing my Japanese. I can't get enough of the reaction from Japanese people finding out that I can speak Japanese fairly well =p. So other than that, I'll just post pictures of some of the people I hung out with this night.
Mizuho, Kenyon, and I
Jules, me, and the San Diegan turned Aussie, Dallas
Keiko and I also gave Jules' number to one of the waiters at this place too. =D
After the bar, everyone mostly left except for Jules, Dallas, and I. We decided to hit up club in 六本木 Roppongi and meet up with one of Dallas' mates, フフフ。 =D
The club had its moments, however, there were just a ton of foreingers that were there. I'm alright hanging out with a few of them and so forth, but I'd rather be kickin' it with the Japanese folks. Anyways, did my thing, gave some homegirls a good time, but I just wasn't feeling it with anyone. So, as a nice gesture, played the wingman role for Dallas' mate. It was mostly to kill time since the trains end at midnight in Tokyo and the next train doesn't come until 5 in the morning @_@. So, it was an all nighter or the usual for people in partying it up in Tokyo.
Next day, Kenyon and I visited 原宿 Harajuku. Here, we went to check out the hardcore youth dressed up in their costumes. After that, we headed out to the shrine and were able to catch a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony. Next, we went down 竹下道り Takeshita-dori where I did some shopping and so forth.
After 原宿 Harajuku, we ended up in 秋葉原 Akihabara to look for something for Carrie. I need to come back here to get a hold of some of the electronics stuff there. This area is an electronics district as well as a anime, manga, and game district. THe really funny thing here was the huge crowd of photographers following a group of maid cosplaying girls.
Once night came, the two of us were a bit hungry and looked for a reasonable place to eat. We then headed to 銀座 Ginza to look for something. 銀座 Ginza is a very nice place to shop and such, however, we were quite lost at looking for something to eat. So, we headed to another area called 日本橋 Nihonbashi where we were able to find a really good place for かつ丼 Katsudon. After all this, we decided to go to Tokyo Tower since it was so close to the hotel anyways. It's a really cool looking tower, especially in the evening.
So, after my weekend of fun, I had to head out to my conference in 新宿 Shinjuku that would last for three days. Not much to say here except for 1,000 foreigners in a 東京 hotel. Much of the fun stuff happens at night anyways =).
So, Jules and Keiko came to hang out at night and a small group of us went to have dinner at El Torito in 渋谷 Shibuya. After dinner, we decided to hit up another bar and pretty much drank our brains out thanks to this little guy:
The drink was called 天国への階段 Tengoku he no Kaidan a.k.a. Stairway to Heaven. So, we tried the drink and literally labeled it as the worst drink in the world. So, we asked the bartender what the hell this drink was and homie told us that it was Absinthe. When I heard that, we were bugging out. It was funny. So, two more people were coming and we told them to order that drink. They did and we had a pretty good time after that. I was able to make friends with the bartender. He was a cool guy and I also gave him Jules' number.
Yuta - the bartender, Shoutaro, and me
The rest of the night was kinda hazy for everyone else after that. I was pretty happy and just enjoying myself. The other folk were tripping out a little. But it was all good and fun. Nothing too much, just some folk running after other folk saying some funny things. The train was kinda funny too. Me, Jules, and two other people walked around back in 新宿 Shinjuku looking for another bar, but we just ended up walking around the red-light district of 歌舞伎町 Kabukicho.
The next night, the same group minus some people went out again to a bar, this time we went to another all you can drink bar and had a karaoke night until early in the morning. The conference in between was a bit brutal because of the schedule I was running. But, it was expected. I had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to next month when I do it for another weekend again. =p
Peace , <3 , & 幸せ
So, I packed my luggage for a 5 night and 5 day stay in 東京. Just to let you know, I first need to drive one hour to get to the main train station, then take a 3 hour bullet train to get to Tokyo station, and then an additional 40 minutes of subways and transfers in order to get to the place I would first stay at in Tokyo. All in all, it was a total of a 5 hour trip for me to get to the place where I'd be staying. Luckily for me, Kenyon was in town and I was able to hang out with him and stay at his hotel, The Tokyo Prince Hotel Park Tower. And may I say that is probably one of the nicer hotels in Tokyo =P. It's one of the hotels closest to Tokyo Tower located in Shibakoen, Shiba Park. After dropping of my luggage, we decided to walk around and look for dinner. We took a short ride on the subway to 六本木 Roppongi and walked through the area. There's a famous area here called 六本木ヒルズ Roppongi Hills where a lot of nice stores and restaraunts are located. It is believed that this area is where most of the foreigners are at. It was pretty nostalgic to see a lot of fancy cars like Rolls Rocyces, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Porsches. Reminded me of the time when I was back in West L.A. =). Anyways, Kenyon and I couldn't seem to find a place to eat until we crossed a Domino's Pizza. Ok, so for your information people, I haven't had pizza since October of last year when I last came to Tokyo. I did go home for a bit, but I didn't have really good pizza there, so that didn't count. So we ordered a large GIGA MEAT pizza and decided to walk the rest of the way back to our hotel since it didn't seem to far of a walk. On the way back, I was able to take a nice picture of Tokyo Tower at night.
So, after returning to the hotel, we ate the pizza like we had never had pizza before in our lives. After that, we watched Japanese T.V. and I showed Kenyon what Japanese television is really like. If you all have seen Downtown Gaki, then there's pretty much nothing else you need to see =p.
On Saturday, Kenyon and I decided to hit up お台場 Odaiba which is a large artificial island in Tokyo. There was a really good view of Tokyo's Skyline and Rainbow Bridge as well as a new train system and, one of my favorite places, Fuji TV station.
Notice the very miniature version of the Statue of Liberty here on the island. I have no clue at all why there's one here and I'm too lazy to find out =p.
While we were here, we visited the mall which had some decent stores. The one area that stood out was the Sony display area where you can test out all the new products and see the really, really expensive TVs. After the mall, we went to the Fuji TV Station building. I've seen this building on the variety shows on TV before so it was pretty cool seeing it in person. The building is interesting itself with its architecture and a sphere that acts as an observatory.
Many of my favorite TV shows are from the Fuji TV network. So, I was pretty excited to just visit the station. There was a section where you can look through the windows to see the various programs being filmed. Since it was Saturday, all of the studios were empty. It was alright though, I actually figured out a strategy for the crane games while I was there too. I was able to win to items, plush buses of my favorite show, あいのり Ainori.
After お台場 Odaiba, we took a train to 上野 Ueno and met up with Jules. We walked around the park in Ueno. We saw a few performances and one guy was fairly interesting in his Samurai outfit.
Looks pretty cool huh. We thought so to until he threw up a tube of toothpaste and tried to cut it in half o_O'. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination.
Afterwards, we met up with Keiko and Mizuho to have lunch. We all ended up going to TGIFridays and had a small lunch where Keiko and I gave Jules' number to one of the waiters. Note that this is the first of many times that we'd do this ハハハ. So afterward, Jules, Kenyon, and I went shopping for a small knapsack for Jules' brother and Kenyon's man purse. The shops in 上野 Ueno were pretty good actually. There were a fairly good amount of guys stores and the two were able to find the stuff that we wanted.
So after the shopping, we headed back to the hotel so I can change and then took a train out to 渋谷 Shibuya where we met up with Keiko, Mizuho, Taiko, some foreigners whose name I have already forgotten, and lo and behold, San Diegan turned Australian, Dallas. We all met up at the famous dog statue of ハチ公 Hachiko and headed out to a bar. At the bar, it was all you can drink for 3000円 for 2 hours. Not much to talk about really here except for practicing my Japanese. I can't get enough of the reaction from Japanese people finding out that I can speak Japanese fairly well =p. So other than that, I'll just post pictures of some of the people I hung out with this night.
Mizuho, Kenyon, and I
Jules, me, and the San Diegan turned Aussie, Dallas
Keiko and I also gave Jules' number to one of the waiters at this place too. =D
After the bar, everyone mostly left except for Jules, Dallas, and I. We decided to hit up club in 六本木 Roppongi and meet up with one of Dallas' mates, フフフ。 =D
The club had its moments, however, there were just a ton of foreingers that were there. I'm alright hanging out with a few of them and so forth, but I'd rather be kickin' it with the Japanese folks. Anyways, did my thing, gave some homegirls a good time, but I just wasn't feeling it with anyone. So, as a nice gesture, played the wingman role for Dallas' mate. It was mostly to kill time since the trains end at midnight in Tokyo and the next train doesn't come until 5 in the morning @_@. So, it was an all nighter or the usual for people in partying it up in Tokyo.
Next day, Kenyon and I visited 原宿 Harajuku. Here, we went to check out the hardcore youth dressed up in their costumes. After that, we headed out to the shrine and were able to catch a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony. Next, we went down 竹下道り Takeshita-dori where I did some shopping and so forth.
After 原宿 Harajuku, we ended up in 秋葉原 Akihabara to look for something for Carrie. I need to come back here to get a hold of some of the electronics stuff there. This area is an electronics district as well as a anime, manga, and game district. THe really funny thing here was the huge crowd of photographers following a group of maid cosplaying girls.
Once night came, the two of us were a bit hungry and looked for a reasonable place to eat. We then headed to 銀座 Ginza to look for something. 銀座 Ginza is a very nice place to shop and such, however, we were quite lost at looking for something to eat. So, we headed to another area called 日本橋 Nihonbashi where we were able to find a really good place for かつ丼 Katsudon. After all this, we decided to go to Tokyo Tower since it was so close to the hotel anyways. It's a really cool looking tower, especially in the evening.
So, after my weekend of fun, I had to head out to my conference in 新宿 Shinjuku that would last for three days. Not much to say here except for 1,000 foreigners in a 東京 hotel. Much of the fun stuff happens at night anyways =).
So, Jules and Keiko came to hang out at night and a small group of us went to have dinner at El Torito in 渋谷 Shibuya. After dinner, we decided to hit up another bar and pretty much drank our brains out thanks to this little guy:
The drink was called 天国への階段 Tengoku he no Kaidan a.k.a. Stairway to Heaven. So, we tried the drink and literally labeled it as the worst drink in the world. So, we asked the bartender what the hell this drink was and homie told us that it was Absinthe. When I heard that, we were bugging out. It was funny. So, two more people were coming and we told them to order that drink. They did and we had a pretty good time after that. I was able to make friends with the bartender. He was a cool guy and I also gave him Jules' number.
Yuta - the bartender, Shoutaro, and me
The rest of the night was kinda hazy for everyone else after that. I was pretty happy and just enjoying myself. The other folk were tripping out a little. But it was all good and fun. Nothing too much, just some folk running after other folk saying some funny things. The train was kinda funny too. Me, Jules, and two other people walked around back in 新宿 Shinjuku looking for another bar, but we just ended up walking around the red-light district of 歌舞伎町 Kabukicho.
The next night, the same group minus some people went out again to a bar, this time we went to another all you can drink bar and had a karaoke night until early in the morning. The conference in between was a bit brutal because of the schedule I was running. But, it was expected. I had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to next month when I do it for another weekend again. =p
Peace , <3 , & 幸せ