Back to Tokyo--Asakusa, Ueno, Roppongi, and Shinjuku
Hey, Guys! I've been a little under the weather lately, so it took a while to get this up. I went to Tokyo last Sunday with about half of the group, and there was definitely a lot to write about. We hit about four of the major centers of Tokyo: Asakusa, Ueno, Roppongi, and Shinjuku. We stopped at a few other places, like Tokyo Station again, but mostly just to switch lines and go on another train. I'm not even going to try and remember all of the stops and line changes we made that day. The JR system is incredible efficient, but it's really, really complex. Here's an idea of what we were navigating through all day. It's probably too small to make out the writing, but we started over at the upper left-hand side, worked our way to the center, went up to the blue-green line on the upper right, came back down to the orange center, moved up to the orange-red area on the left, and finally headed home. A very long day.
We started off to an extremely early start by my standards. We were on the train leaving for Otsuki from Tsuru by 7:22 a.m.--meaning a 6:00 wake-up call. I haven't had to wake up that early in a long time. I remember why I loathed it in high school. Anyway, we all made it on the train okay, and everyone was pumped for a full day of sight-seeing. The ride to Otsuki took a while, so we all chatted and tried to catch up on sleep until then. Here's everyone excited on the ride over.
Andy and Krysta, acting exactly like they always do.
Asana, Natalie, and Preston across the aisle. The other tutors were scattered on the train.
We headed for Otsuki. Kawaguchiko would've taken us to Fuji-Q Highlands again. This was a random town we passed.
Any "Wicked" fans out there? I personally don't care for musicals or plays, but I found it amusing that this was hanging in the train. The picture on the right was Otsuki, the end of the line.
When we got to Otsuki, we had to buy another ticket and get on another line that would take us to towards Tokyo. I forget the name of the next stop--something like "Tozai" or "Toei." By the time we started getting in range of Tokyo, it was about 9:00 a.m. and we were starting to feel the beginnings of sleep deprivation. I persevered and distracted myself with grammar homework. Our tough, macho men were not so lucky. Here they are before....
And after...
Out like a light. Adorable. Preston was the only one who persevered, mostly because he has boundless amounts of energy hidden somewhere. It was a long ride to Tokyo--longer than it was supposed to take. Forget "two hours by train." I think it was closer to 10:30 by the time we made it to a cafe for breakfast. As the train was zooming by, though, I managed to take a few shots of passing districts. I have no idea where we were, but we definitely weren't in Tsuru anymore. At one point, we even passed through Musashi-sakai, and we all perked up a bit at the sound of the station being called. Ah, good times. Our old stomping ground.
Andy was making fun of me (when he was awake, that is) of taking pictures of every single building in sight, like it was some sort of Holy Grail of information, but who's laughing NOW, Andy? My C Drive is full of stuff like this for when I forget what it looks like. We finally got off somewhere. I honestly don't know where it was. It might have been Tokyo Station...it could have been Shinjuku. I just knew that I was starving, and we were getting food. However, the problem was that the cafe we stopped at conveniently ran out of everything but toast and coffee by the time it got to me. I was not going to pay six bucks for coffee and toast, so I didn't get anything, out of protest. But it was so HARD watching everyone else eat there BLTs and croissants. I won't whine, though. After all, it was a very late breakfast, so I wouldn't have to wait long for lunch.
Just some of the food that I didn't get to eat. Sigh...
Last time, told you guys that I wasn't able to take pictures at Tokyo Station because everything was so crazy, and I just wanted to get to my hotel. Well I wasn't so rushed this time, so I took a few pictures. There's also a video, for those of you who can watch it.
After breakfast, we took a train to Ueno, where we switched lines again to go to Asakusa. Now, Asakusa is an awesome place--my favorite part of Tokyo, so far. It was the old pleasure quarters and entertainment district during the Edo period, and it is one of the geisha districts of the city. I read a book called the "Scarlet Gang of Asakusa" for a class in America, so I had some background. Kind of a boring book, though. There were lots of old, traditional buildings, especially temples. The most famous one was the one that we went to: Sensou-ji. It's an ancient Buddhist temple that is dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon.
The front of the temple has a giant hanging lantern with the kanji for thunder and lightning. Before anyone freaks out--no, that is not a swastika as in "Heil Hitler." It's what a swastika really stands for--a sacred symbol for good luck in Buddhism and Hinduism.
We passed under the giant lantern and were immediately assaulted by the huge crowds. Lots and lots of people. The strange thing is that there were a lot of Americans there, too. It was disorientating after being in a place where we're the only ones in town. Preston didn't like it--he said that it made us feel less special. I kind of agree with him. It was weird shopping in a stall and then hearing a pack of Americans wondering what the kanji meant on the other side of the booth. We decided to go shopping in the commercial area in front of the temple for about 45 minutes--not enough time to really see it all. I guess it's been a stopping area for pilgrims for centuries.
Nakamise-dori, the shopping area.
And side streets.
Around noon, we all converged at the temple steps, which is incredibly imposing. I don't think anything in America compares to how powerful and majestic it looked. I could stay there all day if I had to. Most of the temple itself was destroyed in the air raids during WWII, but they've managed to rebuild most of it as a symbol of rebirth. It's a real shame that the original isn't still standing. People seem to think that we only bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the war. Stuff like this proves that we destroyed half of Japan before that happened. One of the only places consciously spared was Kyoto for its cultural and historical importance. But that's a whole other tangent. To the left of the temple was a five-story pagoda dedicated to the Kannon Bosatsu, and to the right was a garden filled with statues of the Buddha.
The entryway to the temple and the main plaza leading up to it.
The pagoda. Incredibly breath-taking.
Near the steps of the temple. That incense was very important for later.
A guy with a monkey near one of the shrines to the right.
The statue garden to one side and another hanging lamp.
Once everyone had been accounted for, we set about entering the temple itself. To do that, we had to get some incense and take it over to the giant bowl in the center of the plaza (see above). In Shintoism, incense smoke is seen as purifying and spiritual, so everyone gathers around the censer and waves the smoke towards their bodies, breathing it in deeply. After that, we went over to a small fountain area to the right of the stairs. Water flows into a giant bowl out of the mouths of stone dragons. People pick up a tin ladle from the holder and wash their hands with the water. It's basically like "holy water" in Christian terms. Then you're supposed to drink from the ladle and either spit it back out or swallow it. I was leery of this step. I'm kind of paranoid about germs and stuff and who knows who drank from it before me, right? But I figured, "What the heck, I'm in Japan" and took a sip.
The incense urns at the base of the steps with purifying smoke.
The fountain for washing hands and cleansing oneself.
After all that, we were set to enter the temple itself. It had a huge ceiling decorated with the Kannon Bosatsu and a main area for praying. To the right of the entrance was a booth selling prayer beads and religious icons for way too much money. I threw some money into the cracks of the podium in front of the altar and clapped twice, as per custom. There was a little area in the back that I wanted to explore, but there was a huge sign in English saying, "Buddhists only. No tourists or photography, please." I suppose that makes sense, but I really like Buddhism, so I was a bit miffed at being excluded.
The Kannon Bosatsu on the ceiling.
The last area on the back wall was a fun little fortune-telling area called "mikuji." For 100 yen, you can participate in a lottery for one of one hundred different fortunes, all ranging from great to horrible. You deposit your money, shake a tin container with sticks inside, and one of the sticks will fall through a slit at the bottom. On the top of the stick is a number. Take that number and find the corresponding drawer above (1-100) with your fortune inside. I got Fortune No.99--The Absolute Best Fortune Ever, or "dai-kichi." Pretty cool! I never win at stuff like that. It says, and I quote, "The sun is shining so brightly that you will get the blessing of heaven. The moon is shining clearly again after a cloud passes. You may have rare treasure. Gaining fame, you can meet all your wishes." It then goes on to say that my wish will be realized, the sick will get well, the lost will be found, and what I'm waiting for will come. It's kind of ironic, though, since I got sick within a week of getting this.
The tutors couldn't believe that I got that one on the first try. Apparently it's really rare. As soon as they saw it, they went "Aaa?!" "What, is this good...?" I got shocked silence and maybe a little envy. Everyone else in the group got either mediocre fortunes or the absolute worst fortunes ever. I think Andy's said something to the effect that demons would come to his house and steal his family. Poor guys. They all had to tie their fortunes to a bar at the exit so that they wouldn't come true. I kept mine, of course. No way was I leaving that one.
Where bad fortunes go to die.
We started to head out of Asakusa right after leaving the temple, but I could resist a few shots of shops on the way out.
It went from traditional Japanese utopia to...a Denny's?
From Asakusa, we backtracked to Ueno, one of the major areas of Tokyo. The tutors decided to show us the zoo there, famous for the panda bear Ling-Ling. Preston separated from us at this point, opting to meet up with some friends he had in Tokyo. We continued on to the park across the street from the station. Going up the steps, there are a lot of street artists painting people's portraits. I would have been tempted for the souvenir if I hadn't been with a group with a set schedule.
The park was filled with other things besides the zoo. We passes a few shrine-like areas and gardens. There used to be a temple around there to defend Edo castle, but it was destroyed during the Boshin War. Oh well. There were also several museums, a concert hall, the Shinobazu Pond (a reminder from when Tokyo Bay stretched that far inland), and a baseball park.
A statue of Saigo Takamori walking his dog. He was one of the major samurai at the turn of the Meiji era who started the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. You guys might remember him as Ken Watanabe's character in The Last Samurai. Horribly inaccurate movie, but interesting story.
One of the shrine areas.
The baseball field, with little kids warming up for their game on the sidelines.
A museum and a statue at the entrance of the zoo.
The zoo itself was fairly inexpensive (about 600 yen for adults) and an impressive size. I'm used to San Francisco Zoo, so that made it a little smaller in comparison. Now, I usually don't really like seeing animals in cages--it's a little depressing and sad. But everyone else was going and I didn't want to shun the animals out of principle, so I went to go see them.
The zoo was originally built in 1882, so it's really old. It's most famous exhibit, Ling-Ling, the Giant Panda, was in the news a while back for going to Mexico to mate with a female there, but nothing happened. Poor guy. When we actually saw him, he was in a sort of holding area outside of his main habitat...I assume because they were cleaning of something. I'll share some of the better pictures from zoo, since I took a lot of various animals. My batteries started to die by the time we left.
When you get your ticket, everyone gets a unique animal printed on it. Mine was this cute little tree frog. I think Andy got the ugliest monkey I've ever seen.
Me at the entrance and another pagoda.
Ling-Ling. He was chilling out, waiting for his habitat to be ready.
In order, a red panda, lots of birds, a lion, tiger, and gorilla (oh my!). I think the lion was a girl on loan from Yokohama.
Sorry, Mom. I tried to take pictures of giraffes. I really did. But they were cleaning their area when we got there, so I missed them! Sorry! After looking around quite a bit, we finally decided to get lunch. By that point, after my protest breakfast ages ago, I was absolutely famished, and anything sounded good. We went back to the cafeteria and I got this:
It's curry ramen--for those who can't decide if they want curry or ramen.
We didn't stay at the zoo that much longer. We have a theory that Daiichi (our guide) experienced some childhood trauma at a zoo or something, because he was very unenthusiastic about being there. He kept walking ahead of us, as if waiting to leave. We wanted to check out a few more of the habitats, but it was getting into the afternoon, so we decided to go.
Back to Ueno station and a long trip to Roppongi. I'm not sure who's idea this was. The thing I really wanted to do in Tokyo was see the Tokyo Tower and go to the top, but my camera was practically dead by then, so I decided against it. No point paying money to go to the top and then have no picture to show for it. When I told everyone this, they decided not to go there because I was the only one who hadn't seen it yet. Oh well. Next time, I suppose. But while we were in Roppongi, we hit a shopping area and checked out the sights. It was mid-afternoon, so the sky was starting to fade into sunset colors. A lot of rich people live in Roppongi, and I guess it has a pretty lively nightlife. We concluded pretty early on that everything was too pricey for us. I think our entire stay there consisted of walking around a mall once and then sitting on a bench for half an hour, deciding what to do.
One thing about Roppongi, though, is that it's incredibly modern in architecture and theme. Here of some shots of the surrounding area.
We also stopped in at TV Asahi, and Natalie and Andy posed with a Doraemon welcome-statue.
While we were there, the tutors were very enthusiastic about going to Coldstone Creamery. They have them here, I guess. I've never really been to one in America, personally, so I didn't know what the draw was. We went there, and I didn't feel like getting anything. First of all, it was cold, and secondly...it was 450 yen for the smallest size available. Kind of steep for ice cream, right? So I was talking to Andy in line (it was a long wait to get in) and I mentioned how I was trying to save money due to another bill I got in the mail for electricity and stuff. Andy: "Oh, you didn't know? You don't pay that. That's a receipt for Fumi-san that you've already paid with the $500/month." Me: "Oh...really? Excuse me, miss? I'll have a banana split." So I got some after all.
Coldstone was the building on the left.
We didn't stay at Roppongi much longer than that. It was getting late when we went back to Shinjuku. That's the point where my camera officially died, so no more pictures. Sorry about that. By then, I was so tired that I didn't care anymore and wanted to go sleep. We had school the next day, after all. So I wasn't very enthusiastic by the time we got there. I'd like to go again when I'm more awake. We separated into two groups: I went with Natalie to look at Kinkuniya (a huge bookstore) and everyone else went to a general shopping area. That was okay, but it was depressing knowing that DeathNote 13 came out in English while I was over here...and it's more expensive here. The Japanese version's only a few dollars (whereas it would be $10 in America if translated into English), but the English version was something like $16, due to it being translated, sent to America, and then sent back. So if I want to read it and UNDERSTAND it, I have to wait until July. Grr... I could get the Japanese one, but DeathNote's special, and I want to actually know what's going on and enjoy it.
By the time everyone reconvened, it was nearing 8:00. I desperately hoped that we were going back. But everyone wanted to go get sushi. I thought they were a little crazy--we have to get up EARLY, you guys! I guess Preston was with me on that. We took the train back to Tsuru together (with Ui) while everyone else went out to eat. We were hungry, but we had stuff at home, and I don't really like sushi anyways. That's a little sacrilegious over here, I know, but I can't make myself like fish.
We rolled back in by 10:30 or 11:00. I was beyond tired. I wish that I had been able to enjoy the last few hours a bit more, but my heart just wasn't in it anymore after we left the zoo. Oh well. I'll be back. So I'm sick right now (thank you, fortune) and need to go to bed. Bye!
We started off to an extremely early start by my standards. We were on the train leaving for Otsuki from Tsuru by 7:22 a.m.--meaning a 6:00 wake-up call. I haven't had to wake up that early in a long time. I remember why I loathed it in high school. Anyway, we all made it on the train okay, and everyone was pumped for a full day of sight-seeing. The ride to Otsuki took a while, so we all chatted and tried to catch up on sleep until then. Here's everyone excited on the ride over.
Andy and Krysta, acting exactly like they always do.
Asana, Natalie, and Preston across the aisle. The other tutors were scattered on the train.
We headed for Otsuki. Kawaguchiko would've taken us to Fuji-Q Highlands again. This was a random town we passed.
Any "Wicked" fans out there? I personally don't care for musicals or plays, but I found it amusing that this was hanging in the train. The picture on the right was Otsuki, the end of the line.
When we got to Otsuki, we had to buy another ticket and get on another line that would take us to towards Tokyo. I forget the name of the next stop--something like "Tozai" or "Toei." By the time we started getting in range of Tokyo, it was about 9:00 a.m. and we were starting to feel the beginnings of sleep deprivation. I persevered and distracted myself with grammar homework. Our tough, macho men were not so lucky. Here they are before....
And after...
Out like a light. Adorable. Preston was the only one who persevered, mostly because he has boundless amounts of energy hidden somewhere. It was a long ride to Tokyo--longer than it was supposed to take. Forget "two hours by train." I think it was closer to 10:30 by the time we made it to a cafe for breakfast. As the train was zooming by, though, I managed to take a few shots of passing districts. I have no idea where we were, but we definitely weren't in Tsuru anymore. At one point, we even passed through Musashi-sakai, and we all perked up a bit at the sound of the station being called. Ah, good times. Our old stomping ground.
Andy was making fun of me (when he was awake, that is) of taking pictures of every single building in sight, like it was some sort of Holy Grail of information, but who's laughing NOW, Andy? My C Drive is full of stuff like this for when I forget what it looks like. We finally got off somewhere. I honestly don't know where it was. It might have been Tokyo Station...it could have been Shinjuku. I just knew that I was starving, and we were getting food. However, the problem was that the cafe we stopped at conveniently ran out of everything but toast and coffee by the time it got to me. I was not going to pay six bucks for coffee and toast, so I didn't get anything, out of protest. But it was so HARD watching everyone else eat there BLTs and croissants. I won't whine, though. After all, it was a very late breakfast, so I wouldn't have to wait long for lunch.
Just some of the food that I didn't get to eat. Sigh...
Last time, told you guys that I wasn't able to take pictures at Tokyo Station because everything was so crazy, and I just wanted to get to my hotel. Well I wasn't so rushed this time, so I took a few pictures. There's also a video, for those of you who can watch it.
Click to viewAfter breakfast, we took a train to Ueno, where we switched lines again to go to Asakusa. Now, Asakusa is an awesome place--my favorite part of Tokyo, so far. It was the old pleasure quarters and entertainment district during the Edo period, and it is one of the geisha districts of the city. I read a book called the "Scarlet Gang of Asakusa" for a class in America, so I had some background. Kind of a boring book, though. There were lots of old, traditional buildings, especially temples. The most famous one was the one that we went to: Sensou-ji. It's an ancient Buddhist temple that is dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon.
The front of the temple has a giant hanging lantern with the kanji for thunder and lightning. Before anyone freaks out--no, that is not a swastika as in "Heil Hitler." It's what a swastika really stands for--a sacred symbol for good luck in Buddhism and Hinduism.
We passed under the giant lantern and were immediately assaulted by the huge crowds. Lots and lots of people. The strange thing is that there were a lot of Americans there, too. It was disorientating after being in a place where we're the only ones in town. Preston didn't like it--he said that it made us feel less special. I kind of agree with him. It was weird shopping in a stall and then hearing a pack of Americans wondering what the kanji meant on the other side of the booth. We decided to go shopping in the commercial area in front of the temple for about 45 minutes--not enough time to really see it all. I guess it's been a stopping area for pilgrims for centuries.
Nakamise-dori, the shopping area.
And side streets.
Around noon, we all converged at the temple steps, which is incredibly imposing. I don't think anything in America compares to how powerful and majestic it looked. I could stay there all day if I had to. Most of the temple itself was destroyed in the air raids during WWII, but they've managed to rebuild most of it as a symbol of rebirth. It's a real shame that the original isn't still standing. People seem to think that we only bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the war. Stuff like this proves that we destroyed half of Japan before that happened. One of the only places consciously spared was Kyoto for its cultural and historical importance. But that's a whole other tangent. To the left of the temple was a five-story pagoda dedicated to the Kannon Bosatsu, and to the right was a garden filled with statues of the Buddha.
The entryway to the temple and the main plaza leading up to it.
The pagoda. Incredibly breath-taking.
Near the steps of the temple. That incense was very important for later.
A guy with a monkey near one of the shrines to the right.
The statue garden to one side and another hanging lamp.
Once everyone had been accounted for, we set about entering the temple itself. To do that, we had to get some incense and take it over to the giant bowl in the center of the plaza (see above). In Shintoism, incense smoke is seen as purifying and spiritual, so everyone gathers around the censer and waves the smoke towards their bodies, breathing it in deeply. After that, we went over to a small fountain area to the right of the stairs. Water flows into a giant bowl out of the mouths of stone dragons. People pick up a tin ladle from the holder and wash their hands with the water. It's basically like "holy water" in Christian terms. Then you're supposed to drink from the ladle and either spit it back out or swallow it. I was leery of this step. I'm kind of paranoid about germs and stuff and who knows who drank from it before me, right? But I figured, "What the heck, I'm in Japan" and took a sip.
The incense urns at the base of the steps with purifying smoke.
The fountain for washing hands and cleansing oneself.
After all that, we were set to enter the temple itself. It had a huge ceiling decorated with the Kannon Bosatsu and a main area for praying. To the right of the entrance was a booth selling prayer beads and religious icons for way too much money. I threw some money into the cracks of the podium in front of the altar and clapped twice, as per custom. There was a little area in the back that I wanted to explore, but there was a huge sign in English saying, "Buddhists only. No tourists or photography, please." I suppose that makes sense, but I really like Buddhism, so I was a bit miffed at being excluded.
The Kannon Bosatsu on the ceiling.
The last area on the back wall was a fun little fortune-telling area called "mikuji." For 100 yen, you can participate in a lottery for one of one hundred different fortunes, all ranging from great to horrible. You deposit your money, shake a tin container with sticks inside, and one of the sticks will fall through a slit at the bottom. On the top of the stick is a number. Take that number and find the corresponding drawer above (1-100) with your fortune inside. I got Fortune No.99--The Absolute Best Fortune Ever, or "dai-kichi." Pretty cool! I never win at stuff like that. It says, and I quote, "The sun is shining so brightly that you will get the blessing of heaven. The moon is shining clearly again after a cloud passes. You may have rare treasure. Gaining fame, you can meet all your wishes." It then goes on to say that my wish will be realized, the sick will get well, the lost will be found, and what I'm waiting for will come. It's kind of ironic, though, since I got sick within a week of getting this.
The tutors couldn't believe that I got that one on the first try. Apparently it's really rare. As soon as they saw it, they went "Aaa?!" "What, is this good...?" I got shocked silence and maybe a little envy. Everyone else in the group got either mediocre fortunes or the absolute worst fortunes ever. I think Andy's said something to the effect that demons would come to his house and steal his family. Poor guys. They all had to tie their fortunes to a bar at the exit so that they wouldn't come true. I kept mine, of course. No way was I leaving that one.
Where bad fortunes go to die.
We started to head out of Asakusa right after leaving the temple, but I could resist a few shots of shops on the way out.
It went from traditional Japanese utopia to...a Denny's?
From Asakusa, we backtracked to Ueno, one of the major areas of Tokyo. The tutors decided to show us the zoo there, famous for the panda bear Ling-Ling. Preston separated from us at this point, opting to meet up with some friends he had in Tokyo. We continued on to the park across the street from the station. Going up the steps, there are a lot of street artists painting people's portraits. I would have been tempted for the souvenir if I hadn't been with a group with a set schedule.
The park was filled with other things besides the zoo. We passes a few shrine-like areas and gardens. There used to be a temple around there to defend Edo castle, but it was destroyed during the Boshin War. Oh well. There were also several museums, a concert hall, the Shinobazu Pond (a reminder from when Tokyo Bay stretched that far inland), and a baseball park.
A statue of Saigo Takamori walking his dog. He was one of the major samurai at the turn of the Meiji era who started the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. You guys might remember him as Ken Watanabe's character in The Last Samurai. Horribly inaccurate movie, but interesting story.
One of the shrine areas.
The baseball field, with little kids warming up for their game on the sidelines.
A museum and a statue at the entrance of the zoo.
The zoo itself was fairly inexpensive (about 600 yen for adults) and an impressive size. I'm used to San Francisco Zoo, so that made it a little smaller in comparison. Now, I usually don't really like seeing animals in cages--it's a little depressing and sad. But everyone else was going and I didn't want to shun the animals out of principle, so I went to go see them.
The zoo was originally built in 1882, so it's really old. It's most famous exhibit, Ling-Ling, the Giant Panda, was in the news a while back for going to Mexico to mate with a female there, but nothing happened. Poor guy. When we actually saw him, he was in a sort of holding area outside of his main habitat...I assume because they were cleaning of something. I'll share some of the better pictures from zoo, since I took a lot of various animals. My batteries started to die by the time we left.
When you get your ticket, everyone gets a unique animal printed on it. Mine was this cute little tree frog. I think Andy got the ugliest monkey I've ever seen.
Me at the entrance and another pagoda.
Ling-Ling. He was chilling out, waiting for his habitat to be ready.
In order, a red panda, lots of birds, a lion, tiger, and gorilla (oh my!). I think the lion was a girl on loan from Yokohama.
Sorry, Mom. I tried to take pictures of giraffes. I really did. But they were cleaning their area when we got there, so I missed them! Sorry! After looking around quite a bit, we finally decided to get lunch. By that point, after my protest breakfast ages ago, I was absolutely famished, and anything sounded good. We went back to the cafeteria and I got this:
It's curry ramen--for those who can't decide if they want curry or ramen.
We didn't stay at the zoo that much longer. We have a theory that Daiichi (our guide) experienced some childhood trauma at a zoo or something, because he was very unenthusiastic about being there. He kept walking ahead of us, as if waiting to leave. We wanted to check out a few more of the habitats, but it was getting into the afternoon, so we decided to go.
Back to Ueno station and a long trip to Roppongi. I'm not sure who's idea this was. The thing I really wanted to do in Tokyo was see the Tokyo Tower and go to the top, but my camera was practically dead by then, so I decided against it. No point paying money to go to the top and then have no picture to show for it. When I told everyone this, they decided not to go there because I was the only one who hadn't seen it yet. Oh well. Next time, I suppose. But while we were in Roppongi, we hit a shopping area and checked out the sights. It was mid-afternoon, so the sky was starting to fade into sunset colors. A lot of rich people live in Roppongi, and I guess it has a pretty lively nightlife. We concluded pretty early on that everything was too pricey for us. I think our entire stay there consisted of walking around a mall once and then sitting on a bench for half an hour, deciding what to do.
One thing about Roppongi, though, is that it's incredibly modern in architecture and theme. Here of some shots of the surrounding area.
We also stopped in at TV Asahi, and Natalie and Andy posed with a Doraemon welcome-statue.
While we were there, the tutors were very enthusiastic about going to Coldstone Creamery. They have them here, I guess. I've never really been to one in America, personally, so I didn't know what the draw was. We went there, and I didn't feel like getting anything. First of all, it was cold, and secondly...it was 450 yen for the smallest size available. Kind of steep for ice cream, right? So I was talking to Andy in line (it was a long wait to get in) and I mentioned how I was trying to save money due to another bill I got in the mail for electricity and stuff. Andy: "Oh, you didn't know? You don't pay that. That's a receipt for Fumi-san that you've already paid with the $500/month." Me: "Oh...really? Excuse me, miss? I'll have a banana split." So I got some after all.
Coldstone was the building on the left.
We didn't stay at Roppongi much longer than that. It was getting late when we went back to Shinjuku. That's the point where my camera officially died, so no more pictures. Sorry about that. By then, I was so tired that I didn't care anymore and wanted to go sleep. We had school the next day, after all. So I wasn't very enthusiastic by the time we got there. I'd like to go again when I'm more awake. We separated into two groups: I went with Natalie to look at Kinkuniya (a huge bookstore) and everyone else went to a general shopping area. That was okay, but it was depressing knowing that DeathNote 13 came out in English while I was over here...and it's more expensive here. The Japanese version's only a few dollars (whereas it would be $10 in America if translated into English), but the English version was something like $16, due to it being translated, sent to America, and then sent back. So if I want to read it and UNDERSTAND it, I have to wait until July. Grr... I could get the Japanese one, but DeathNote's special, and I want to actually know what's going on and enjoy it.
By the time everyone reconvened, it was nearing 8:00. I desperately hoped that we were going back. But everyone wanted to go get sushi. I thought they were a little crazy--we have to get up EARLY, you guys! I guess Preston was with me on that. We took the train back to Tsuru together (with Ui) while everyone else went out to eat. We were hungry, but we had stuff at home, and I don't really like sushi anyways. That's a little sacrilegious over here, I know, but I can't make myself like fish.
We rolled back in by 10:30 or 11:00. I was beyond tired. I wish that I had been able to enjoy the last few hours a bit more, but my heart just wasn't in it anymore after we left the zoo. Oh well. I'll be back. So I'm sick right now (thank you, fortune) and need to go to bed. Bye!