shibuya + yokohama + shibuya + roppongi hills
wow what a day!
today was the school trip to yokohama. everyone had to meet up at the hachiko statue in shibuya at 12PM, i took the bus (since i live pretty close), and got to the area an hour early or so. i just walked around the area to kill some time. i went to HMV to look through different CDs and such, and saw a huge promotion for the 'v for vendetta' movie that had just come out on dvd. there were masks everywhere! it was pretty cool. i looked thru the masks and the lady gave me a free cardboard version, it was alright and made me happy. then i went briefly through a silver store, then headed back to hachiko. there were a bunch of people there, but of course we waited an extra 30min for people that never showed up.. so we lost some time there. great. then we took a few trains from shibuya station to get to the city of yokohama. since we were on a tokyo subway, we had to transfer tickets to get to yokohama - using the JR train. no biggie, we just paid about 2 more dollars. once in yokohama we headed to the ramen museum. we were kept outside for a very long time. the first part i dont know why, then we all gave our money to the leader of the group (about $3 dollars) and finally we were led in. we had also received a menu and a map of where to get certain types of ramen - but the trick was that we only had 1hr.. nice.
once inside theres a gift shop right there. then you turn the corner and you can read about the man who invented instant ramen - but it was all in japanese. some american commercials with others were shown though. then you go downstairs and it looks like pre-war japan, with tons of ramen stops all around. each little restaurant served a certain type of ramen, but the lines were pretty long. so i didnt get a chance to eat. the place was surprisingly to all of us, very packed. i got a piece of bread with sugar and a milk to hold me off till lunch/dinner time.
after that we headed to downtown yokohama by another train, didnt take very long. downtown yokohama is very nice! nice open space even with lots of tall buildings. we went into this giant entrance to get to the 'landmark tower' the biggest building in japan. while in the entrance we rode on coveyor belts or whatnot - saw some pretty cool sights while going. theres a giant ferris wheel, an old ship, and a little amusement park right on the water (see the miechelle.com for more info on these). with us running behind on schedules again, we had to rush thru the landmark tower to get thru the other side. (no thanks to the 2 girls who made us wait 30-45min outside of the ramen museum...) inside the tower is very nice with lots of ritzy stores, we really wanted to go to the top. but nope. boo.
once we reached the pier we all bought tickets for the ferry, we were excited to see the ocean as well. there was a group of people singing pretty songs nearby too. it was cool. there were no seats on the ferry, a lot of us had to stand. seems like japan likes to stuff people onto anything. but on the way back we got seats, so it was cool. once back (we rode there and back) we played in this nice park area. we were excited to see grass, around school and such there is no grass. some kids laid down and took a nap. my friend christy and i went exploring. there are a ton of fountains and sculptures in the area, it was really pretty. after an 1hr 30min, we headed off to chinatown by foot - which wasnt far at all. its about 7:00 at this time and its getting dark pretty quickly, but really cooling off nicely. chinatown is so pretty at night - all glowy and such! we only had an hour here again, so a bunch of us (8) went to this nice fancy, but affordable chinese restuaruant. it was soo good! we all shared food from a few course dinner, all helped with a spiny table. so cool. the dinner took about an hour, which didnt give us much time to explore the rest of the area. so three of us sneaked off to 2 more stores before leaving, it was quick and i picked up a hello kitty round tin that says 'yokohama china town' and has these wafer/cookie things - so tasty.
off to the station to go back to shibuya. surprisingly the train was pretty empty at 9:00PM and so the temple students mainly owned the train, it was pretty cool. once in shibuya a bunch of kids left to go home, while the other half went to a 300yen ($3ish) bar to hang out and get some drinks. i only had 3 but they were tasty. megan also showed us a chinese drinking game, it was funny. (only did it with one shot haha). 2 shots, and one apple sour drink for me. then alex and i wanted a 'v for vendetta' mask so we rushed off to HMV (had no clue on when they closed, it was almost 10:00PM) we got there and used our combined japanese to find out how to get a mask. so we bought 2 dvds (getting 20% off) and got the mask all for $35. yay! then rushed off back to the bar to show our priceless findings.
after that we splited again and a few of us (abe, amy, megan, alex, tom, me) rushed off to roppongi to see a late movie. the last subway-train is at 12AM and we got it just in time. then ran a lot throughout roppongi to get to roppongi hills. sooo many steps up..! once there we got our tickets and watched the movie. the theater was packed for miami vice (with japanese subtitles), the movie was cool and a few of us kept nodding on and off throughout the movie, haha! the movie ended around 2AM with lots of other movies starting. movies go all night here in japan - its still seen as the same day. the tickets were expensive (about $18), megan paid for me and some other people. thank you so much! then we hung outside for a while, i went home at 4AM by taxi since i dont live that far from roppongi hills. the others had to wait till 5AM - when the subway starts going again. got home and went to bed.
wow what a daaaaay!!!
today was the school trip to yokohama. everyone had to meet up at the hachiko statue in shibuya at 12PM, i took the bus (since i live pretty close), and got to the area an hour early or so. i just walked around the area to kill some time. i went to HMV to look through different CDs and such, and saw a huge promotion for the 'v for vendetta' movie that had just come out on dvd. there were masks everywhere! it was pretty cool. i looked thru the masks and the lady gave me a free cardboard version, it was alright and made me happy. then i went briefly through a silver store, then headed back to hachiko. there were a bunch of people there, but of course we waited an extra 30min for people that never showed up.. so we lost some time there. great. then we took a few trains from shibuya station to get to the city of yokohama. since we were on a tokyo subway, we had to transfer tickets to get to yokohama - using the JR train. no biggie, we just paid about 2 more dollars. once in yokohama we headed to the ramen museum. we were kept outside for a very long time. the first part i dont know why, then we all gave our money to the leader of the group (about $3 dollars) and finally we were led in. we had also received a menu and a map of where to get certain types of ramen - but the trick was that we only had 1hr.. nice.
once inside theres a gift shop right there. then you turn the corner and you can read about the man who invented instant ramen - but it was all in japanese. some american commercials with others were shown though. then you go downstairs and it looks like pre-war japan, with tons of ramen stops all around. each little restaurant served a certain type of ramen, but the lines were pretty long. so i didnt get a chance to eat. the place was surprisingly to all of us, very packed. i got a piece of bread with sugar and a milk to hold me off till lunch/dinner time.
after that we headed to downtown yokohama by another train, didnt take very long. downtown yokohama is very nice! nice open space even with lots of tall buildings. we went into this giant entrance to get to the 'landmark tower' the biggest building in japan. while in the entrance we rode on coveyor belts or whatnot - saw some pretty cool sights while going. theres a giant ferris wheel, an old ship, and a little amusement park right on the water (see the miechelle.com for more info on these). with us running behind on schedules again, we had to rush thru the landmark tower to get thru the other side. (no thanks to the 2 girls who made us wait 30-45min outside of the ramen museum...) inside the tower is very nice with lots of ritzy stores, we really wanted to go to the top. but nope. boo.
once we reached the pier we all bought tickets for the ferry, we were excited to see the ocean as well. there was a group of people singing pretty songs nearby too. it was cool. there were no seats on the ferry, a lot of us had to stand. seems like japan likes to stuff people onto anything. but on the way back we got seats, so it was cool. once back (we rode there and back) we played in this nice park area. we were excited to see grass, around school and such there is no grass. some kids laid down and took a nap. my friend christy and i went exploring. there are a ton of fountains and sculptures in the area, it was really pretty. after an 1hr 30min, we headed off to chinatown by foot - which wasnt far at all. its about 7:00 at this time and its getting dark pretty quickly, but really cooling off nicely. chinatown is so pretty at night - all glowy and such! we only had an hour here again, so a bunch of us (8) went to this nice fancy, but affordable chinese restuaruant. it was soo good! we all shared food from a few course dinner, all helped with a spiny table. so cool. the dinner took about an hour, which didnt give us much time to explore the rest of the area. so three of us sneaked off to 2 more stores before leaving, it was quick and i picked up a hello kitty round tin that says 'yokohama china town' and has these wafer/cookie things - so tasty.
off to the station to go back to shibuya. surprisingly the train was pretty empty at 9:00PM and so the temple students mainly owned the train, it was pretty cool. once in shibuya a bunch of kids left to go home, while the other half went to a 300yen ($3ish) bar to hang out and get some drinks. i only had 3 but they were tasty. megan also showed us a chinese drinking game, it was funny. (only did it with one shot haha). 2 shots, and one apple sour drink for me. then alex and i wanted a 'v for vendetta' mask so we rushed off to HMV (had no clue on when they closed, it was almost 10:00PM) we got there and used our combined japanese to find out how to get a mask. so we bought 2 dvds (getting 20% off) and got the mask all for $35. yay! then rushed off back to the bar to show our priceless findings.
after that we splited again and a few of us (abe, amy, megan, alex, tom, me) rushed off to roppongi to see a late movie. the last subway-train is at 12AM and we got it just in time. then ran a lot throughout roppongi to get to roppongi hills. sooo many steps up..! once there we got our tickets and watched the movie. the theater was packed for miami vice (with japanese subtitles), the movie was cool and a few of us kept nodding on and off throughout the movie, haha! the movie ended around 2AM with lots of other movies starting. movies go all night here in japan - its still seen as the same day. the tickets were expensive (about $18), megan paid for me and some other people. thank you so much! then we hung outside for a while, i went home at 4AM by taxi since i dont live that far from roppongi hills. the others had to wait till 5AM - when the subway starts going again. got home and went to bed.
wow what a daaaaay!!!