Japan Trip ☠ Part 4
Been a while since I continued this hasn't it? Sorry... I was feeling a little unsure about writing today because things that happened and my point of view may have hurt some people's feelings, but I don't want to put it off, so here you go :D
For those who are just coming in:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Monday morning... I don't remember who woke up first. I'm not use to sleeping with another person in the same room with me, so I've no idea. Maybe I woke up when Doreen started waking up. Either way, I felt a lot better then I did when I woke up in the middle of the night.
When Dianna and I split up with her Mom, we talked about meeting early in the morning at a place in Ikebukuro called Jonathan's. I couldn't remember if we said 9AM or 10 AM, so I hurried to throw clothes on and head over there. It was really nice out. It was like a movie, everyone was nicely dressed - as with everywhere I've been in Japan, the sky was nice and clear and the air was fall cool. That was one thing that I noticed about Japan. Even though it was the end of December, the weather was cool, not cold.
Jonathan's is like a little cafe or diner where you go down a bunch of stairs. A man greeted me at the door and asked "One?" and I tried to explain that it maybe three, but I wasn't sure. He understood some English, but not a lot. Somehow we understood each other and he led me to a table to sit and brought me water. Everything on the menu looked really delicious, and they even had American breakfasts but I really wanted a Japanese-ish breakfast. I had no idea how to order though. No one came to take my order or anything, so I was just happily sitting at my table writing in my book, people watching and waiting for Dianna and Mom.
At one point, a young couple came in and sat down a few tables away from me. I watched them glance around at the menu then push a little button on the table and the waiter came over. MAGIC BUTTON THAT CALLS FOOD! Now that I knew how it worked, I pushed the button and the guy came over and was like :D? and I pointed at one of the pictures on the menu and said "Kore wa... eh... kudasai ^^;;" he nodded and said it would be just a few minutes (paraphrasing). Then I asked if I got coffee from him and he was like "no! Coffee's at the table over there!" Interesting. After he walked off, I got up to investigate and apparently by 'table' he meant an entire counter of like 15 different drinks. I got some juice and stared at the coffee machine for a long time trying to figure out how to work it. Sadly I pushed sort of the wrong button... I still got coffee, but it was not the right kind of coffee. I wasn't sure if it was okay for me to dump it out and start over, so I just took it and my juice back to my table. I put a bit of pixie stick sugar in it and kept writing.
A few minutes later my breakfast came! It's a soft fried egg, miso soup, rice, some kind of veggies and salmon. Salmonnnnn!!!!!! For breakfast! Am I in heaven or something?? Little tiny underground cafe of heaven?
One of my favorite things to do at home that I rarely get to do is sit in a cafe and people watch. I really don't have time or money to do that anymore so it's kind of sad. But it was fun to do here. There weren't too many people, but I tried to watch and learn a bit. One thing I already knew was that you do not stick your chopsticks into your rice to leave them there, so I was careful not to do that. Everything was so delicious though~ The salmon wasn't as good as the mackeral I had Saturday night, but it was still very tasty!
When I was finishing up I noticed Dianna and her mom come in and sit down. I was pretty sure we agreed on 9, but maybe it was 10, or maybe they forgot. I dunno. I got up and paid for my meal, then went over to say hi and apologize for loosing Dianna. But, apparently she's been here before and after she told everyone where I was just decided to skip on home. *shakes fist* TwT;; We sat and talked for a little while, then I got up to go back to the hotel.
Doreen had been packing up her things because her plane was super early in the morning, while mine was later in the afternoon. She was all finished, but realized (like I did the next day) that not all of it would fit in her suitcase. So we decided to take a trip to the post office. Now... I absolutely LOVE going to the post office. I don't know WHY and most people I meet tell me I'm crazy for it, but I always feel like I'm doing something super grown up when I go.
When she had everything that she'd be mailing off, we checked google maps for the post office and found one around the block. When I dropped off my key at the front desk, I told them that we were going to the post office and asked if there was anything we should look for. The girl wrote down the kanji for the post office and said that it would be hanging outside the door and told us it was just around the corner. It was very easy to find, especially since they wrote the kanji down. It was very easy to remember and spot.
We went in and stood there blankly for a while, wondering what to do. Like... really blankly. I was watching closely to try to figure out what to do. From what I saw, unlike the post office here, there's no line, but you take a number and wait for it to be called. But there were two different kinds of lines, so I wasn't sure which was which. So we decided to take a number and wait patiently. An older gentleman postal worker gestured for us to step up. He didn't speak English at all, but all I said was "EMS kudasai" and he showed us the boxes and we pointed to which one we wanted, paid for the box and stepped aside. While Doreen filled out the paperwork (we had to do it twice because we made a mistake originally), I packed the box and fit everything into it (mwahaha). Then we went back to send it. It took a couple times cause we made a few mistakes and were confused about a few things because of language barrier. It was a little frustrating because Doreen was getting more and more frustrated, while I was amused. I thought it was fun. Eventually, we got it all set and sent out then headed back to the hotel.
We stopped in a Family mart got a few snacks. There was so much stuff I wanted to try, but not enough time. Japanese food is really filling so you really only need one little sweet bread and be comfy till your next meal.
After the post office, we went back to the hotel to get ready to go to Odaiba. Doreen was still a bit frustrated with the post office endeavor but it really was a very long complicated, awesome learningprocess. Btw, since last night, I've completely lost my voice.
SO, off to Odaiba! I didn't know much about it, but Doreen had wanted to see it, plus apparently that's where Zepp Tokyo is. I hadn't known. So I was kind of excited to see it.
We had to take a few different trains this time, so we got on the awesome Yamanote Line to Shinbashi which is about 14 stops away from Ikebukuro, then we got on a different train that was a less mass commuting train. It had comfy seats and felt kinda like just a fancy train you pay a lot of money for to travel to different states here. For anyone who's nervous about using trains in Japan: this is the screen that's by every door that displays the station name. They also say it in Japanese and in English.
The fancy train didn't have very cool signs, but it was still really easy to find the stop we needed. On our way out, we found something AMAZING. Something I was so excited for I forgot to take a picture of it. It was a VENDING MACHINE. In JAPAN. With FOOD in it!!!! A vending machine with food! First one I saw! I probably didn't take a picture of it because for some reason, I wasn't hungry and didn't think to get anything out of it. Strange how in America I'm a snack-o-holic and in Japan I get my energy and power by breathing in the very air, ne?
Odaiba is south of the main Tokyo area, along the water. It's basically, if you know Baltimore, Canton/Fells Point at the harbor. It's very open, there are only a few very tall buidings and most of the area is very flat, wide walkways. I really had no idea where I was going, so I followed Doreen and just looked around and took in everything. It really was a perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky, cool, but not too cold kind of day.
The first thing we saw (or I saw that Doreen pointed out to me) was the Fuji Tv building. It's huge.
And there was a vending machine with a trashcan for bottles. Yay! I'd been carrying around a few at this point. *vending machine addict*
The area we were walking in was a touristy place I guess. There was a mall called Aqua City (which had the strangest layout I've ever seen in a mall), and lots of obvservation areas to see the Rainbow Bridge.
The closer we got to the Bridge, the closer we got to another thing to observe. I noticed it from a ways off and was really kinda confused.
Wut...?
ehhhh????
Wtf lady I definitely left you behind by several thousand miles. And you've shrunk. I don't really know why there was a statue of liberty in Odaiba, but... yeah. All the Japanese tourists were running over to take their picture with the statue, all posing like her too. I asked a family if they'd like me to take their picture for them because I noticed they were switching off (dad in picture, mom in picture) so I took one of all four(?) of them. Doreen took a few pictures of the area and I took a pic with the statue. And no, I was not going to pose like the statue of liberty. This one seemed more appropriate to my thoughts on the matter:
We walked out to the observatory deck and took pics of the Rainbow Bridge. It was really long and pretty, though I didn't really know what was so awesome about it... because I don't know much about anything touristy or the like, but I didn't find out how awesome it was til the sun set. There were little chirpy noises all around, but no matter how long I watched the trees I didn't see any of the birds. They sounded like Sparrows though, which was why I wanted to find them. I'm always interested in the same/differences of creatures from one country to another.
I was a little sad that Doreen kept wandering off on her own to take pictures. She's a photographer and such, but I kinda wanted to also hang out and have fun at the same time... *shrug* Oh well... I mean it's not like I have trouble entertaining myself. After taking pics of the bridge, we wandered around, pausing every so often to not get in the way of people's pictures. A small group of women were taking each other's picture and I asked if they wanted me to take one of all of them. I dunno why I kept wanting to do this xDD seemed like a nice thing to do for someone.. The ladies insisted on taking ours too with my camera, so we let them.
Walking down to the water was a lot of fun. The water was SO clear! I forget whether it was fresh water or salt water... I didn't stick my finger in it to check the taste (just how cold it was lol). At first I thought that the white stuff in the shore were trash or just rocks, but apparently they were shells! I really wanted to grab a bunch of the tiny ones to stick in a cute bottle and bring home to give to someone, but then we saw a sign that said that it was illegal to remove the shells....so I only took one... that I knew didn't have a living creature inside of it... >>;
I found the source of the little chirping too... and got a picture of the ILLUSIVE creature.
When we approached this sign, Doreen looked at it and was like 'what is up with this?! you can't do ANYTHING here!" LOL
After that we walked into Aqua City, which - as I said - had a weird layout. To get to certain areas you had to go through stores and strange maze like hallways. Japan is constant sensory overload, and I had a hard time finding stuff to focus on to look at. I wanted to be able to go through every store and look at everything, but unfortunately we were on a bit of a time crunch because Doreen had a concert to go to at Zepp Tokyo. I think it was Diru? It's been a while.... I'm pretty sure it was Diru.
The one thing I refused to skip was the bookstore! I love books! When I go to NY I try to go to Kinokuniya to look at their books. I didn't see the manga I collect in Japanese, but I did find the kid's section! I was even more excited when I found Eric Carle's A Very Hungry Caterpillar in Japanese! I was like 'OMGOMGOMG Look what I found Doreen!!' and she was like '...okaaaay lol'
On our way out, I really wanted to stop here, but Doreen mentioned that she was in despirate need of yen-cash and that we needed to find a 7/11 or an ATM that accepted international credit cards. Now... Odaiba is a man made area, and a touristy place, but it's not like Tokyo where there's as many 7/11s as there are Starbucks in NY. I asked if she needed it for the live, but she said no, so I suggested we do it later after the live. She didn't want to wait, so we spent pretty much the rest of the afternoon wandering around looking for either. And I discovered palm trees in Japan!
So anyway, we wandered around for quite some time. It was difficult because neither of us knew how to ask and receive direction. I mean, I could ask in cave man talk 'doko 7/11?', but if they go 'oh yeah go there and then cross the street and turn the corner and its right next to this store', my head would just explode. Of course, that didn't stop me from trying, because I was too excited to really care whether my head exploded. Doreen had a small, though not very detailed map, so we started to head towards somewhere that may have a 7/11. We started to cross a bridge over a highway type of road, but noticed a sign that neither of us could read but it looked like construction sign. A couple was coming towards us from the other side, so I stopped them with "すみません。。。だめ？" with my arms crossed like Taina taught us on Sunday. They were like "はい。。だめ。" So we were like well, damn now how are we going to get across? We walked down to the street looking for a way to cross the big street. I noticed a tour guide bus and I was like 'lets ask!' and Doreen was like '-.- nooo....', but of course, I still asked. I caveman talk asked him if he knew where a 7/11 was and he basically went '(´▽`) かわいぃぃぃぃ..." but then either tried to tell us that he didn't know where one was, or there wasn't one. I think it might have been that there wasn't one in Odaiba. I next asked how to get across the street and he didn't really know how to explain but he pointed a lot and told us something about an international exchange.
After thanking him, we started to go towards the traffic light he'd pointed to. Doreen was apparently more frustrated then she seemed because she threw her hands up and went 'why doesn't anyone speak English here?!' Which...amused and confused me. We're not in an English speaking country... Why should they accommodate us? Oh well... I laughed it off at the time.
We found a convenient store, but sadly, it didn't take international credit card. I told her that if she needed it so bad I'd lend her the money and she could just pay me back when we got back to Ikebukuro and could use the atms there. She said she wanted to keep looking so we wandered around more and finally found the International Student Exchange office. After talking to someone who spoke very good English in the office, we learned there was an exchange service inside Aqua City, but no 7/11. On the way out, I told Doreen, I'd exchange my extra USD for yen and she could just pay me back later, so we went all the way back to Aqua City to go look for the exchange service. It took a little while, but we finally found it! And we learned that Doreen didn't need to borrow money because they could somehow get the money off her card or check or something.... I wasn't really paying attention.
After that, we realized we were STARVING and decided to walk down to the food court. Now, I really wanted to eat Japanese food, but HOW COULD I PASS UP TRYING AOI'S FAVORITE MCDONALD'S SANDWICH?! I couldn't, okay? Nor could Doreen, so we happy giggled and subtly fangirled as we ordered the Salt and Lemon chicken sandwich, fries and soda.
McDonald's in Japan is very interesting and VERY different from McDs in America. When we walked in, all the staff members greeted us together and the person that took our order seemed very excited to talk to foreigners and asked where I was from. After ordering, we were like 'dodedo...' and they were like 'oh no you go sit! we'll bring you your food!' and I was like 'O_o omg what no way!' and they were like 'uuhh yeah :D?' So we went to sit and waited for our food.
Doreen was impressed that the soda had ice in it. In Europe, having ice in restaurants is rare. (zomg new cultural knowledge) So, the sandwich was delicious! I had that sandwich 2 other times before I left!
After we ate, we sat and talked for a while and Doreen expressed her thoughts on the fact that we didn't get to go to the onsen. She wasn't too happy with that, but we did leave kind of late to go to the post office, which took quite a while. She also wasn't happy that Jess, Coral and Tiara decided not to go, because they seemed all for going before. I told her that not everyone felt comfortable being naked with other people who they know, let alone who they just met. This didn't seem to make sense to her, but she also thought it was hilarious that I wanted to get dressed behind a door instead of in the middle of the room like her. As much as I was kind of sad that we didn't get to hang out with the three of them, I totally understood not feeling comfortable doing onsen with basically strangers and was a little disappointed in the fact that Doreen seemed more irritable at not getting to go then she was concerned that she didn't take their point of view to heart. But maybe I just worry so much about bothering other people....
So, to break the awkward grumbly silence after I explained this to her, I got up to find the bathroom. Easy to find, I walked in and was instantly smacked in the face with PEPTO BISMOL PINK. The WHOLE bathroom was pink!! The walls, the tiles, the stall doors, the counters. Everything was pink! Both stalls were taken, so I waited until one was vacated. The first one was this adorable little old woman who, when she came out, tried to tell me something. Unfortunately I was just like 'w'? gomen... wakarimasen.... But I figured out afterwards that she was telling me that something was up with the toilet flush cause it didn't suck down all the toilet paper, so I guess she was embarrassed. Whatever, as an American, I'm use to this sort of thing and it just needed one more flush. xD
After returning to Doreen, she said there was one more thing she wanted to see before the concert, so we tossed our trash and headed outside. By this time it was almost 5PM, so the sun was down and I learned what was so significant about the Rainbow Bridge!
Here's the bridge during the day:
And here it is at night!
I waited for Doreen to finish taking pictures of the bridge. Actually I thought I lost her for a while cause I have such HORRIBLE night vision that I have difficulty focusing on certain things that make various people stand out (like Doreen's hoodie under her jacket, or the fact that she's NOT asian). I was pretty sure that Doreen didn't have this issue, so I found a place to stand where I could be easily spotted and people watched. It was adorable to see all the Japanese families and friends running around, posing for pictures. It's even more adorable when stereotypes are proven right, like the way they all pose for cameras.
Once Doreen found me again, we walked... somewhere. I think we took the train to another stop, but I don't remember now. We took an escalator down to this very Americanized mall called Pallete Town, and it was around this time that I noticed less families and more young people. And many of them were giving me the stink eye, which I thoroughly ignored till later.
The first store we came to was Kawaii Paradise, which is a Hello Kittie lover's dream. It was a HUGE Hello Kittie store, set up for kids. So it was kind of like a Play room more then a store I guess. I was too mortified by the pink to venture in. I followed Doreen around cause she seemed to know where she was going till we came to this GORGEOUS fountain in the middle of an open room. She told me that it was supposed to be lit up like a cool light show, and was unhappy that it wasn't. Later we learned that the light show started at 5:30 and we'd gotten there early, so we did get to see it, but she didn't get the pictures she wanted (that I know of...).
After that, we went off in search of a coin locker to stuff her bag in. Unfortunately, we waited too long because everyone else going to the concert had done the same thing, so we spent a while wandering around looking for an empty one. Finally, the looks I was getting was starting to bug me, so I turned to Doreen and was like 'Why does everyone look like they're going to attack me or something?' and Doreen just went 'you're wearing a gazette shirt', as if that explained it. Since I'm not really a Diru fan, and didn't know the inner workings of it's fans until Jess explained it to me when I saw her next, this didn't really make sense, but I was still like .....okay...?
I don't really remember what happened after that.... oh no wait! Yes I do! I got sucked into the arcade. Here's the problem with hanging out with me: if you have plans, or a deadline for when you need to be somewhere, you have to TELL me. In detail. Like 'We need to be here at this time, so we should leave at this time, because it takes this much time to get there.' Otherwise, I have no concept of time and you'll lose me when something catches my attention... such as a big room with shiny flashing lights and machines. Doreen didn't tell me when the concert was, or when the queuing started, so I really just got sucked in staring in at all the games. I wanted to do the photo booth which her, but she kept saying 'no' and, while I was playing a game, suddenly said 'I have to go or I'll be late, so I'm going to leave you.' and I was like 'o_O oh... you should've told me sooner, okay...' She made sure I knew how to get back to Ikebukuro then wandered off. Which dropped me back into the 'well, I don't like going places by myself......' so after the game was finished, I headed back to the train station to go home.
I got on the train and sat in the corner so I could spy on people. Everyone was subtly staring at me, but would whip their heads away when I looked up. It was around 6-6:30PM so the train was full of business workers on their way home. The woman sitting diagonally from me finally looked at me and said "あ，あなたはアメリカ人ですか?" to which I replied, "はい，アメリカ人です," smiled and bowed my head a little. She made an 'ooOOoo...' sound, then ignored me for the rest of the ride. It was another '....okay..?' moment, but it still made me a little happy because she was the only person - besides that one guy in that bar - that verbally acknowledged my existence without me first approaching them.
On the way home, I got to experience Tokyo train rush hour. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I got squished a bit, but everyone was minding their own business and being polite about everyone's space. Most were on their phones or DS's, and I noted that many of the business men were watching Anime on their phones, which made me laugh (in my head). I got off the train at Ikebukuro and finally made it out of the station without getting lost. I don't remember what I did before Doreen came back, but I'm pretty sure I collapsed in the bathtub, happy to have alone time. I do like going out and doing things with people, but it drains me quite a bit, so curling up in the bath and recollect myself. Afterwards, I turned my computer on to check my mail and such. Hanako had invited me to come over her house, and I really did want to go and meet her and see her adorable dog, but I was just so exhausted and in pain from the live still that I couldn't.
Somewhere in the evening, I discovered that distressedcoma was in the same hotel, and that she had one of the new Ongaku To Hito magazine who's scans weren't up yet, and she said it was okay for me to come up and see it. At this time, Doreen was back so I told her where I was going and headed up the elevator to Toki's floor. We sat in the lounge area of the hostel and talked for quite some time and oogled over Ruki's tongue in the magazine.
Everything else that night was an exhausted blur... and I don't think anything else happened. So this is all that happened on Monday.
I enjoyed Odaiba quite a bit, though it was a little too touristy for my tastes. I'm sure you can understand why I kept put it off. I didn't want any feelings hurt, but this is what happened, and after the passed couple day's events, I decided it was not necessary.
Next is Tuesday, which is the last day... but it's a fun day that I got to hang out with Jess, Coral and Tiara before I went home!
For those who are just coming in:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Monday morning... I don't remember who woke up first. I'm not use to sleeping with another person in the same room with me, so I've no idea. Maybe I woke up when Doreen started waking up. Either way, I felt a lot better then I did when I woke up in the middle of the night.
When Dianna and I split up with her Mom, we talked about meeting early in the morning at a place in Ikebukuro called Jonathan's. I couldn't remember if we said 9AM or 10 AM, so I hurried to throw clothes on and head over there. It was really nice out. It was like a movie, everyone was nicely dressed - as with everywhere I've been in Japan, the sky was nice and clear and the air was fall cool. That was one thing that I noticed about Japan. Even though it was the end of December, the weather was cool, not cold.
Jonathan's is like a little cafe or diner where you go down a bunch of stairs. A man greeted me at the door and asked "One?" and I tried to explain that it maybe three, but I wasn't sure. He understood some English, but not a lot. Somehow we understood each other and he led me to a table to sit and brought me water. Everything on the menu looked really delicious, and they even had American breakfasts but I really wanted a Japanese-ish breakfast. I had no idea how to order though. No one came to take my order or anything, so I was just happily sitting at my table writing in my book, people watching and waiting for Dianna and Mom.
At one point, a young couple came in and sat down a few tables away from me. I watched them glance around at the menu then push a little button on the table and the waiter came over. MAGIC BUTTON THAT CALLS FOOD! Now that I knew how it worked, I pushed the button and the guy came over and was like :D? and I pointed at one of the pictures on the menu and said "Kore wa... eh... kudasai ^^;;" he nodded and said it would be just a few minutes (paraphrasing). Then I asked if I got coffee from him and he was like "no! Coffee's at the table over there!" Interesting. After he walked off, I got up to investigate and apparently by 'table' he meant an entire counter of like 15 different drinks. I got some juice and stared at the coffee machine for a long time trying to figure out how to work it. Sadly I pushed sort of the wrong button... I still got coffee, but it was not the right kind of coffee. I wasn't sure if it was okay for me to dump it out and start over, so I just took it and my juice back to my table. I put a bit of pixie stick sugar in it and kept writing.
A few minutes later my breakfast came! It's a soft fried egg, miso soup, rice, some kind of veggies and salmon. Salmonnnnn!!!!!! For breakfast! Am I in heaven or something?? Little tiny underground cafe of heaven?
One of my favorite things to do at home that I rarely get to do is sit in a cafe and people watch. I really don't have time or money to do that anymore so it's kind of sad. But it was fun to do here. There weren't too many people, but I tried to watch and learn a bit. One thing I already knew was that you do not stick your chopsticks into your rice to leave them there, so I was careful not to do that. Everything was so delicious though~ The salmon wasn't as good as the mackeral I had Saturday night, but it was still very tasty!
When I was finishing up I noticed Dianna and her mom come in and sit down. I was pretty sure we agreed on 9, but maybe it was 10, or maybe they forgot. I dunno. I got up and paid for my meal, then went over to say hi and apologize for loosing Dianna. But, apparently she's been here before and after she told everyone where I was just decided to skip on home. *shakes fist* TwT;; We sat and talked for a little while, then I got up to go back to the hotel.
Doreen had been packing up her things because her plane was super early in the morning, while mine was later in the afternoon. She was all finished, but realized (like I did the next day) that not all of it would fit in her suitcase. So we decided to take a trip to the post office. Now... I absolutely LOVE going to the post office. I don't know WHY and most people I meet tell me I'm crazy for it, but I always feel like I'm doing something super grown up when I go.
When she had everything that she'd be mailing off, we checked google maps for the post office and found one around the block. When I dropped off my key at the front desk, I told them that we were going to the post office and asked if there was anything we should look for. The girl wrote down the kanji for the post office and said that it would be hanging outside the door and told us it was just around the corner. It was very easy to find, especially since they wrote the kanji down. It was very easy to remember and spot.
We went in and stood there blankly for a while, wondering what to do. Like... really blankly. I was watching closely to try to figure out what to do. From what I saw, unlike the post office here, there's no line, but you take a number and wait for it to be called. But there were two different kinds of lines, so I wasn't sure which was which. So we decided to take a number and wait patiently. An older gentleman postal worker gestured for us to step up. He didn't speak English at all, but all I said was "EMS kudasai" and he showed us the boxes and we pointed to which one we wanted, paid for the box and stepped aside. While Doreen filled out the paperwork (we had to do it twice because we made a mistake originally), I packed the box and fit everything into it (mwahaha). Then we went back to send it. It took a couple times cause we made a few mistakes and were confused about a few things because of language barrier. It was a little frustrating because Doreen was getting more and more frustrated, while I was amused. I thought it was fun. Eventually, we got it all set and sent out then headed back to the hotel.
We stopped in a Family mart got a few snacks. There was so much stuff I wanted to try, but not enough time. Japanese food is really filling so you really only need one little sweet bread and be comfy till your next meal.
After the post office, we went back to the hotel to get ready to go to Odaiba. Doreen was still a bit frustrated with the post office endeavor but it really was a very long complicated, awesome learningprocess. Btw, since last night, I've completely lost my voice.
Click to viewSO, off to Odaiba! I didn't know much about it, but Doreen had wanted to see it, plus apparently that's where Zepp Tokyo is. I hadn't known. So I was kind of excited to see it.
We had to take a few different trains this time, so we got on the awesome Yamanote Line to Shinbashi which is about 14 stops away from Ikebukuro, then we got on a different train that was a less mass commuting train. It had comfy seats and felt kinda like just a fancy train you pay a lot of money for to travel to different states here. For anyone who's nervous about using trains in Japan: this is the screen that's by every door that displays the station name. They also say it in Japanese and in English.
The fancy train didn't have very cool signs, but it was still really easy to find the stop we needed. On our way out, we found something AMAZING. Something I was so excited for I forgot to take a picture of it. It was a VENDING MACHINE. In JAPAN. With FOOD in it!!!! A vending machine with food! First one I saw! I probably didn't take a picture of it because for some reason, I wasn't hungry and didn't think to get anything out of it. Strange how in America I'm a snack-o-holic and in Japan I get my energy and power by breathing in the very air, ne?
Odaiba is south of the main Tokyo area, along the water. It's basically, if you know Baltimore, Canton/Fells Point at the harbor. It's very open, there are only a few very tall buidings and most of the area is very flat, wide walkways. I really had no idea where I was going, so I followed Doreen and just looked around and took in everything. It really was a perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky, cool, but not too cold kind of day.
The first thing we saw (or I saw that Doreen pointed out to me) was the Fuji Tv building. It's huge.
And there was a vending machine with a trashcan for bottles. Yay! I'd been carrying around a few at this point. *vending machine addict*
The area we were walking in was a touristy place I guess. There was a mall called Aqua City (which had the strangest layout I've ever seen in a mall), and lots of obvservation areas to see the Rainbow Bridge.
The closer we got to the Bridge, the closer we got to another thing to observe. I noticed it from a ways off and was really kinda confused.
Wut...?
ehhhh????
Wtf lady I definitely left you behind by several thousand miles. And you've shrunk. I don't really know why there was a statue of liberty in Odaiba, but... yeah. All the Japanese tourists were running over to take their picture with the statue, all posing like her too. I asked a family if they'd like me to take their picture for them because I noticed they were switching off (dad in picture, mom in picture) so I took one of all four(?) of them. Doreen took a few pictures of the area and I took a pic with the statue. And no, I was not going to pose like the statue of liberty. This one seemed more appropriate to my thoughts on the matter:
We walked out to the observatory deck and took pics of the Rainbow Bridge. It was really long and pretty, though I didn't really know what was so awesome about it... because I don't know much about anything touristy or the like, but I didn't find out how awesome it was til the sun set. There were little chirpy noises all around, but no matter how long I watched the trees I didn't see any of the birds. They sounded like Sparrows though, which was why I wanted to find them. I'm always interested in the same/differences of creatures from one country to another.
I was a little sad that Doreen kept wandering off on her own to take pictures. She's a photographer and such, but I kinda wanted to also hang out and have fun at the same time... *shrug* Oh well... I mean it's not like I have trouble entertaining myself. After taking pics of the bridge, we wandered around, pausing every so often to not get in the way of people's pictures. A small group of women were taking each other's picture and I asked if they wanted me to take one of all of them. I dunno why I kept wanting to do this xDD seemed like a nice thing to do for someone.. The ladies insisted on taking ours too with my camera, so we let them.
Walking down to the water was a lot of fun. The water was SO clear! I forget whether it was fresh water or salt water... I didn't stick my finger in it to check the taste (just how cold it was lol). At first I thought that the white stuff in the shore were trash or just rocks, but apparently they were shells! I really wanted to grab a bunch of the tiny ones to stick in a cute bottle and bring home to give to someone, but then we saw a sign that said that it was illegal to remove the shells....so I only took one... that I knew didn't have a living creature inside of it... >>;
I found the source of the little chirping too... and got a picture of the ILLUSIVE creature.
When we approached this sign, Doreen looked at it and was like 'what is up with this?! you can't do ANYTHING here!" LOL
After that we walked into Aqua City, which - as I said - had a weird layout. To get to certain areas you had to go through stores and strange maze like hallways. Japan is constant sensory overload, and I had a hard time finding stuff to focus on to look at. I wanted to be able to go through every store and look at everything, but unfortunately we were on a bit of a time crunch because Doreen had a concert to go to at Zepp Tokyo. I think it was Diru? It's been a while.... I'm pretty sure it was Diru.
The one thing I refused to skip was the bookstore! I love books! When I go to NY I try to go to Kinokuniya to look at their books. I didn't see the manga I collect in Japanese, but I did find the kid's section! I was even more excited when I found Eric Carle's A Very Hungry Caterpillar in Japanese! I was like 'OMGOMGOMG Look what I found Doreen!!' and she was like '...okaaaay lol'
On our way out, I really wanted to stop here, but Doreen mentioned that she was in despirate need of yen-cash and that we needed to find a 7/11 or an ATM that accepted international credit cards. Now... Odaiba is a man made area, and a touristy place, but it's not like Tokyo where there's as many 7/11s as there are Starbucks in NY. I asked if she needed it for the live, but she said no, so I suggested we do it later after the live. She didn't want to wait, so we spent pretty much the rest of the afternoon wandering around looking for either. And I discovered palm trees in Japan!
So anyway, we wandered around for quite some time. It was difficult because neither of us knew how to ask and receive direction. I mean, I could ask in cave man talk 'doko 7/11?', but if they go 'oh yeah go there and then cross the street and turn the corner and its right next to this store', my head would just explode. Of course, that didn't stop me from trying, because I was too excited to really care whether my head exploded. Doreen had a small, though not very detailed map, so we started to head towards somewhere that may have a 7/11. We started to cross a bridge over a highway type of road, but noticed a sign that neither of us could read but it looked like construction sign. A couple was coming towards us from the other side, so I stopped them with "すみません。。。だめ？" with my arms crossed like Taina taught us on Sunday. They were like "はい。。だめ。" So we were like well, damn now how are we going to get across? We walked down to the street looking for a way to cross the big street. I noticed a tour guide bus and I was like 'lets ask!' and Doreen was like '-.- nooo....', but of course, I still asked. I caveman talk asked him if he knew where a 7/11 was and he basically went '(´▽`) かわいぃぃぃぃ..." but then either tried to tell us that he didn't know where one was, or there wasn't one. I think it might have been that there wasn't one in Odaiba. I next asked how to get across the street and he didn't really know how to explain but he pointed a lot and told us something about an international exchange.
After thanking him, we started to go towards the traffic light he'd pointed to. Doreen was apparently more frustrated then she seemed because she threw her hands up and went 'why doesn't anyone speak English here?!' Which...amused and confused me. We're not in an English speaking country... Why should they accommodate us? Oh well... I laughed it off at the time.
We found a convenient store, but sadly, it didn't take international credit card. I told her that if she needed it so bad I'd lend her the money and she could just pay me back when we got back to Ikebukuro and could use the atms there. She said she wanted to keep looking so we wandered around more and finally found the International Student Exchange office. After talking to someone who spoke very good English in the office, we learned there was an exchange service inside Aqua City, but no 7/11. On the way out, I told Doreen, I'd exchange my extra USD for yen and she could just pay me back later, so we went all the way back to Aqua City to go look for the exchange service. It took a little while, but we finally found it! And we learned that Doreen didn't need to borrow money because they could somehow get the money off her card or check or something.... I wasn't really paying attention.
After that, we realized we were STARVING and decided to walk down to the food court. Now, I really wanted to eat Japanese food, but HOW COULD I PASS UP TRYING AOI'S FAVORITE MCDONALD'S SANDWICH?! I couldn't, okay? Nor could Doreen, so we happy giggled and subtly fangirled as we ordered the Salt and Lemon chicken sandwich, fries and soda.
McDonald's in Japan is very interesting and VERY different from McDs in America. When we walked in, all the staff members greeted us together and the person that took our order seemed very excited to talk to foreigners and asked where I was from. After ordering, we were like 'dodedo...' and they were like 'oh no you go sit! we'll bring you your food!' and I was like 'O_o omg what no way!' and they were like 'uuhh yeah :D?' So we went to sit and waited for our food.
Doreen was impressed that the soda had ice in it. In Europe, having ice in restaurants is rare. (zomg new cultural knowledge) So, the sandwich was delicious! I had that sandwich 2 other times before I left!
After we ate, we sat and talked for a while and Doreen expressed her thoughts on the fact that we didn't get to go to the onsen. She wasn't too happy with that, but we did leave kind of late to go to the post office, which took quite a while. She also wasn't happy that Jess, Coral and Tiara decided not to go, because they seemed all for going before. I told her that not everyone felt comfortable being naked with other people who they know, let alone who they just met. This didn't seem to make sense to her, but she also thought it was hilarious that I wanted to get dressed behind a door instead of in the middle of the room like her. As much as I was kind of sad that we didn't get to hang out with the three of them, I totally understood not feeling comfortable doing onsen with basically strangers and was a little disappointed in the fact that Doreen seemed more irritable at not getting to go then she was concerned that she didn't take their point of view to heart. But maybe I just worry so much about bothering other people....
So, to break the awkward grumbly silence after I explained this to her, I got up to find the bathroom. Easy to find, I walked in and was instantly smacked in the face with PEPTO BISMOL PINK. The WHOLE bathroom was pink!! The walls, the tiles, the stall doors, the counters. Everything was pink! Both stalls were taken, so I waited until one was vacated. The first one was this adorable little old woman who, when she came out, tried to tell me something. Unfortunately I was just like 'w'? gomen... wakarimasen.... But I figured out afterwards that she was telling me that something was up with the toilet flush cause it didn't suck down all the toilet paper, so I guess she was embarrassed. Whatever, as an American, I'm use to this sort of thing and it just needed one more flush. xD
After returning to Doreen, she said there was one more thing she wanted to see before the concert, so we tossed our trash and headed outside. By this time it was almost 5PM, so the sun was down and I learned what was so significant about the Rainbow Bridge!
Here's the bridge during the day:
And here it is at night!
I waited for Doreen to finish taking pictures of the bridge. Actually I thought I lost her for a while cause I have such HORRIBLE night vision that I have difficulty focusing on certain things that make various people stand out (like Doreen's hoodie under her jacket, or the fact that she's NOT asian). I was pretty sure that Doreen didn't have this issue, so I found a place to stand where I could be easily spotted and people watched. It was adorable to see all the Japanese families and friends running around, posing for pictures. It's even more adorable when stereotypes are proven right, like the way they all pose for cameras.
Once Doreen found me again, we walked... somewhere. I think we took the train to another stop, but I don't remember now. We took an escalator down to this very Americanized mall called Pallete Town, and it was around this time that I noticed less families and more young people. And many of them were giving me the stink eye, which I thoroughly ignored till later.
The first store we came to was Kawaii Paradise, which is a Hello Kittie lover's dream. It was a HUGE Hello Kittie store, set up for kids. So it was kind of like a Play room more then a store I guess. I was too mortified by the pink to venture in. I followed Doreen around cause she seemed to know where she was going till we came to this GORGEOUS fountain in the middle of an open room. She told me that it was supposed to be lit up like a cool light show, and was unhappy that it wasn't. Later we learned that the light show started at 5:30 and we'd gotten there early, so we did get to see it, but she didn't get the pictures she wanted (that I know of...).
After that, we went off in search of a coin locker to stuff her bag in. Unfortunately, we waited too long because everyone else going to the concert had done the same thing, so we spent a while wandering around looking for an empty one. Finally, the looks I was getting was starting to bug me, so I turned to Doreen and was like 'Why does everyone look like they're going to attack me or something?' and Doreen just went 'you're wearing a gazette shirt', as if that explained it. Since I'm not really a Diru fan, and didn't know the inner workings of it's fans until Jess explained it to me when I saw her next, this didn't really make sense, but I was still like .....okay...?
I don't really remember what happened after that.... oh no wait! Yes I do! I got sucked into the arcade. Here's the problem with hanging out with me: if you have plans, or a deadline for when you need to be somewhere, you have to TELL me. In detail. Like 'We need to be here at this time, so we should leave at this time, because it takes this much time to get there.' Otherwise, I have no concept of time and you'll lose me when something catches my attention... such as a big room with shiny flashing lights and machines. Doreen didn't tell me when the concert was, or when the queuing started, so I really just got sucked in staring in at all the games. I wanted to do the photo booth which her, but she kept saying 'no' and, while I was playing a game, suddenly said 'I have to go or I'll be late, so I'm going to leave you.' and I was like 'o_O oh... you should've told me sooner, okay...' She made sure I knew how to get back to Ikebukuro then wandered off. Which dropped me back into the 'well, I don't like going places by myself......' so after the game was finished, I headed back to the train station to go home.
I got on the train and sat in the corner so I could spy on people. Everyone was subtly staring at me, but would whip their heads away when I looked up. It was around 6-6:30PM so the train was full of business workers on their way home. The woman sitting diagonally from me finally looked at me and said "あ，あなたはアメリカ人ですか?" to which I replied, "はい，アメリカ人です," smiled and bowed my head a little. She made an 'ooOOoo...' sound, then ignored me for the rest of the ride. It was another '....okay..?' moment, but it still made me a little happy because she was the only person - besides that one guy in that bar - that verbally acknowledged my existence without me first approaching them.
On the way home, I got to experience Tokyo train rush hour. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I got squished a bit, but everyone was minding their own business and being polite about everyone's space. Most were on their phones or DS's, and I noted that many of the business men were watching Anime on their phones, which made me laugh (in my head). I got off the train at Ikebukuro and finally made it out of the station without getting lost. I don't remember what I did before Doreen came back, but I'm pretty sure I collapsed in the bathtub, happy to have alone time. I do like going out and doing things with people, but it drains me quite a bit, so curling up in the bath and recollect myself. Afterwards, I turned my computer on to check my mail and such. Hanako had invited me to come over her house, and I really did want to go and meet her and see her adorable dog, but I was just so exhausted and in pain from the live still that I couldn't.
Somewhere in the evening, I discovered that distressedcoma was in the same hotel, and that she had one of the new Ongaku To Hito magazine who's scans weren't up yet, and she said it was okay for me to come up and see it. At this time, Doreen was back so I told her where I was going and headed up the elevator to Toki's floor. We sat in the lounge area of the hostel and talked for quite some time and oogled over Ruki's tongue in the magazine.
Everything else that night was an exhausted blur... and I don't think anything else happened. So this is all that happened on Monday.
I enjoyed Odaiba quite a bit, though it was a little too touristy for my tastes. I'm sure you can understand why I kept put it off. I didn't want any feelings hurt, but this is what happened, and after the passed couple day's events, I decided it was not necessary.
Next is Tuesday, which is the last day... but it's a fun day that I got to hang out with Jess, Coral and Tiara before I went home!