Hello sunshine!
I wonder if I'm really philistine, or is it that the only beauty I can appreciate is that found in words?
Day 1
- Walked around Tokyo station, had dinner and shopped a bit before braving the rain to catch the night bus. Didn't get much sleep.
Day 2
- Had a -very- full breakfast before splitting up to walk round Umeda for a bit. I went to Yodobashi Camera and when I came back most of the others had already gone to Umeda Sky Building. So I took a nap after check-in.
- Dinner was okonomiyaki. We played "I Never" and the loser had to help finish some of my beer.
Day 3
- Kiyomizu in the morning, followed by lunch in a stairwell which was totally spectacular.
- Split up between Gion and Ginkakuji. I went to Gion because I had no money.
- 八坂神社, followed by a walk round the restored streets of Gion, and the 鴨川。Some people were excessively interested in watching others makeout.
- Attempted to take a bus to 嵐山、but then realised that it was too far away. So we took a train back from 烏丸。
- Dinner at some place at Osaka Station, where I had 鉄火丼 for the umpteenth time.
- Sat around talking while waiting for the rest to come back
Day 4
- 大阪海遊館
- Hilarious episode during lunch.
- デンデン町 and maid cafe (e-maid)
- Dinner was more raw fish on rice at 道頓堀
Day 5
- Supposed to go to Pokemon Centre but didn't.
- Lunch at 道頓堀 again, before I left for 神戸
- Ate some street food while admiring the Kobe Luminarie
- Dinner at Sumire's house
Day 6
- Shinkansen to Hakone. Refer to other peoples' accounts of the whole fiasco. The people in my area were generally sleeping throughout the whole ride...or at least I was.
- Walked around Hakone for a bit; I got cold so I went back early and stopped for a nice warm cup of 甘酒 on the way back :)
- Went to the onsen for a bit before dinner, which was -very- hilarious. We played "I Never" again, which spawned some really strange forfeits.
- Played cards till the wee hours after dinner. I fell asleep halfway.
Day 7
- Train back to Tokyo
- Walked like hell from 鶯谷 to our hostel at Asakusa
- Dinner at some weird udon place, then walked around for a bit.
- Attempted to go karaoke. Walked around more. I was tired so I went back to the hostel for a nap.
Day 8
- Went out with Miho's mother to see my school and dorm. Not very pleasant, unfortunately. Well luckily I'll only have to be there for a year.
- Had 回転寿司 for lunch at 上野! Then walked around アメ横 for a bit
- Shopped by myself at 浅草, then went back to the hostel and slept till the others came back.
Day 9
- Went out with Jacq and Hiro
- Attended a lecture at 慶応義塾 on the topic of 政治・思想. It was rather repetitive.
- Left halfway to go to 渋谷in the rain.
- Lunch, then karaoke.
- Sat around at some 喫茶 playing pictionary, before Jacq and I went back to hostel to swindle people into believing that we went to a Love Hotel.
Day 10
- Studio Ghibli in the morning! Very nice place with lots of cute stuff and amazing displays of the strobe effect. 三鷹is a beautiful area as well, and the air is clean :) Should have gone to 井の頭公園 though.
- Lunch at 大戸屋
- Went to 新宿, 歌舞伎町 where we ran into some other RJ people. One of the strangest things in the world has got to be the feeling of running into acquaintances in a red light district...
- Crepe at 新宿！ My first time eating a crepe in Japan!
- Whale meat for dinner at 浅草。It was rather interesting...whale meat tastes like raw tuna/salmon when raw, and when cooked tastes like really tough beef. I ordered whale cutlets, which were not particularly good. The 白水 sake that I ordered turned out to be more 水 than anything else....Though I must say it was an interesting experience..
- 見学 at a pachinko parlour where I was smart enough not to waste my money on those yen-eating machines XD
Day 11
- 鷲宮神社 in -rural- 埼玉. The ride was looonng and expensive. The shrine itself was quite cool, with -interesting- emas etc. Pity most of it was closed up for renovation or something. Watched Maid Guy for most of the ride. It was really amusing.
- Oh and I got my shittiest おみくじ here..小吉
- Tendon at 秋葉原
- Maid cafe again...mail:lish this time. I had a cup of tea.
Day 12
- Walked around 浅草 with Jacq. We had choco bananas!
- Shopped at 原宿 by myself..large haul :) And really really cheap accessories =D Weird black men kept calling out to me though, so I was quite freaked out.
- Tried to save money by walking to 新宿, unfortunately I got lost and ended up at 千駄ヶ谷 where I had to take a train to 新宿
- Shopped at 新宿 for a bit, then went off to meet Jacq at 秋葉原 where we attempted to enter a cat cafe only to find that it was closed for the day :X
- Had 回転寿司！
Day 13
- Outing with Shibushibu/Shibumaku friends. Met at 上野 then had lunch at Sweets Paradise, where we had to queue for a longer time than our lunch actually lasted -.-
- Split up again, some went for karaoke while I chose to go with the group walking around アメ横。
- Met up with the rest and went to 上野公園 ostensibly to sit and talk. Engaged in many weird deeds instead...
- Since Chang Xing was emo that he hadn't had 回転寿司 for the whole trip, some of us went for 回転寿司 somewhere in 浅草。
- 蝦蛄 is quite gross.
Day 14
- Went out with Miho and her family. My roommates were all gone by the time I woke up, and I was late for my meeting.
- Since I was late I was unable to charge my phone, and I lost my room card as well :(
- Shopped at 原宿 again. Apparently there exist 100yen プリクラ, albeit with lower image quality and crappy functions.
- Lunch was 回転寿司 at 渋谷！For the 4th time!
- Then made my way to 高田馬場 to meet Warren and Chang Xing. My phone was flat by then so I had to rely on the pricey payphones to contact them. Turned out that I'd missed them by a bit, so I spent a cold hour waiting at the nearby Macs.
- After much trouble and freezing in phone booths, I managed to meet them. We proceeded to 上野 for dinner, and to a １８禁 shop.
- I was locked out of my room so I hung around the boys' room, where various people attempted to burn my eyes by threatening to change in front of me T_T
- Played cards (which had become the usual nightly activity) for a couple of hours, before everyone came back and we went off to play with fireworks at the ungodly hour of 1am -.-
- As expected, we got into some shit with the police.
Day 15
- Last day.
- Set off remaining fireworks in broad daylight
- I spent some time emo-ing about not wanting to go home in the hostel lobby, as I thought it was quite lame (and smokey) to set off fireworks in daytime when next to nothing can be seen at all.
- Made our way to the airport."
So that's my account, cleared of sensitive information and biased opinions. I would have added more details were I a less lazy person, but then I am not. So it shall remain as such - detail-free.
I should really do something about my purikuras, maybe scan them in when I find enough energy to drag my lazy self to the scanner.
Now I'm fantasizing how it would have been like had I extended my trip. Instead of being stuck alone in my room being a sad emo freak, I would have been....playing cards? Enjoying the cold -.- ? Roaming around temples? Maybe I would have been shopping more and more, overloading my already overweight luggage (the total weight of all my baggage turned out to be something near 30kg).
This is unrelated..but I feel the need to question why SO MANY OF MY FRIENDS ARE SO SELFCENTERED?