Friday, December 30, 2005
Ta-da-ima! I'm back!!!! Nihongo sugoi! Hon-to-ni ne! Watashiwa shiawase~
^____________________^
Whee, first trip to Japan 23rd December 2005 to 28th December 2005, five days of pure blue skies and frosty air.
Initially I was a little nervous, long-ish flight and with my mother..... '__'
The horror....and totally not up for being uprooted in the middle of December with little warning....yeah I do like my non-change environment.
So bundled into the car and Mother hands me a package and says ooooo, it was so cute she couldn't resist, and ta daa....a Mac Idog. o.0.
For real. It was a little blue metallic dog which started to make alot of noise. Kawaiie ne. Fits neatly in the palm of your hand and you can hook it up to an Ipod and it'll play music and dance! And you can stroke it and it'll sorta yip...musically. Like a mini Aibo dog (which I saw in Japan!!)
Being in an airplane is funny. It's like the gravity suddenly sucks you down and your body feels letargic and sleepy and sick-ish. Can never drink anything until they serve lunch and I just curl up and want to sleep it off. Plus it's rather cold, the bad kind of cold where it seeps into your bones and your toes, but we got the new 707 flight with the sleeping seats and nicer blankets which made it better to curl up under. The satay served in business class is also rather nice but their main course has become funkier. Hmm.....
We arrived around five and then waited for the bus to the hotel. After having spent the whole flight without cigarettes Mother took in 3 sticks within the half an hour wait. >__< I had to breathe in the second hand smoke of ALOT of smokers who had gathered around the corner. Then two hours on the bus. It seems though the bus and train system of Japan always run on time....big difference than from here heh? Good good......and they are very polite wishing us good trip everytime we stop somewhere to pick up people. So tired when we finally arrived and drudge over for dinner.....in a restaurant which closed at 10....wow they eat early....
No sleep.....><
Whee! First day in Japan! And we are off to Harajuku and Omote-Sando to see the cosplay teens. The we spotted Kinokuniya! And entered a supermarket...eh....ehhhh?? Where are the books......Weird to find a supermarket with the same name as one of Japan's biggest bookstores.
Day 1:- ooo....Omote Sando is one posh street. Major brand names all around. Prada, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent...and all with their own buildings!! Wow. One of the most expensive districts in Tokyo and they can afford their own buildings all designed as one of a kind. From Solid stones and black windows to clear crystal walls, every building was like a work of art.
Harajuku became slightly more teenage-ish with shops catering to funky styles. I saw a goth! A girl decked out with black lipstick and eyeshadow and spiky hair and dark clothing. But that was basically it. I think the cold pretty much hampered creative stylings. According to the books, most of the cosplayers hang out at the corner near the Meiji temple. Climbed several stories in a building full of the shops for the teens, but not really my style. At the top was a sort of anime museum, more of the olden works. Wasn't spectacular though they did have this interesting installation displaying fishes and a garden scene.
Mother went back to the hotel after lunch and Dad and I made our way to Shibuya. Walking around slightly lost because most of the streets in Japan have no names or clear signs so maps don't help much. The cab drop us off at .....a very bright flashing place. o.0. Music blaring, ads flashing across screens, waves of people walking really fast. How did we miss all this !! Swept in the crowd, we attempted to find Mandarake, reputed mega store of manga and anime. Walking walking.....into the lift and into the basement and....ooh....oooooooo.....manga! Hidden underground and we chanced into it by accident cos the other people pressed the button to go down while we were wondering cos there weren't any store listed in B1 floor and in fact it was in B2. There were stacks of manga and shelves of figurines at exhorbant prices. Bliss~ I wandered amazed with a goofy smile on my face thinking....this is heaven.....and this is...guy's heaven? o.0....hen...tai......very very very graphic hentai....o.0.....where is my manga?? What is that girl doing....ew..ew....ew....
There were eight shelves full! With no warning! With people just browsing!
TT.....out of Mandarake with a Clamp X-1999 illustration and Tactics character guide books....
Ahhh.....and shabu shabu for dinner is so nice. Delicious kobe beef stewed in sauce. Yummy~
Day 2:- A day at Ginza, a reflection of Omote Sando. Major shopping malls like Matsukoshi and Matsuya, the Sony building, Mikimoto building etc. We saw the new Sony walkman and Aibo robots in the Sony building. Very nice. I rather liked the purple walkman, and the dog is so cute! Going for like 300,000 yen. Woah. Very woah.
We had lunch on top of this building where the menu was in Japanese and the waiter ended up running to other tables on our directions to see what others are having! It was so funny. Then dad and I went to Rappongi Hills, relatively new to Tokyo with these huge buildings and statues scattered around. Also made a stop at the International Hall where they have light shows and concerts. It was cool....but I was starting to get a little bored of all the shopping malls. And crowds. Especially in a thick coat it can get quite suffocating.
Day 3:- THE NIHON KIIN! Took us a major long time in front of the help desk trying to find out where the Japan Go institute was and they didn't really know what we were talking about. Then they found it quite near to the hotel (which was New Otani Hotel by the way, a whole little city on its own with restaurants and gardens and shops and wedding chapel beneath it).
Dad and I took a walk in the Koi Garden.....ooo, so cold! And the fishes are HUGE! and they come swimming to us with open mouths waiting for food. ^^....cute.
Then at the Nihon Kiin. Wah. On the side of Gobancho road, we enter this nondescript building with bright letters on the side of the wall. There were people reading in the lobby and we saw a pro teaching a class in a glass windowed room. Cool. Later we came back down to see him playing a simul with the entire class! And automatic reactions, he just went to each table and made a move without even thinking! T__T I want to staaaaaay.
On the second floor there was the Nihon Kiin store with a whole wall of Go Books! and people playing! EEEEE......There was a tourney going on with teens my age but we can't go and see cos they were all students and we weren't ..... -.-''''
Sighie. Atleast the japanese book I brought along helped a bit as I gestured wildly about a Kaya Board and yuki grade shell stones and Keyaki Gosu. Took us awhile but finally! We were shown a beautiful Kaya 2 sun Table board.....*glowy eyes* and the stones are so beautifully patterned.....and they didn't accept credit cards.
Ahhh.....but there weren't any way for us to transport it back anyways cos 2 sun board is huge. It measures 45 cm on one side alone at more than two inches tall. But so.....beautiful....*weepy eyes*
MMM...mother said we can order it online then. Strange though, cos the set sold at the Nihon Kiin is for 110,000 yen while the one found at Kuroki Goishi is at standard price of 75,000 yen, discounted to 58,000 yen. Almost half price?? Weird...
And missed the Go Museum too cos they closed on Monday. ><.
Still happy to be there though. And see people playing, even if from a distance.
We went for a walk in Shinjuku then, the most expensive district in Tokyo eventhough the shops around didn't seen as posh as Omote sando or Ginza. Visited Kinokuniya of course, and picked up Hikaru no Go illustrations, Bleach calender, and Angel feathers illustration (which turned to contain about 20 pages of 'adult cg' yaoi hentai...)
TT....I just liked the feathers......TT........
Good ramen lunch in a little shop, very typical cos there weren't even any tourists around.
And into Kibukicho! The red light district with neon signs and posters of blonde japanese girls all around. Relatively safe in the afternoon, it 'comes alive' during the evening. But awwww, we saw a little pet store with a puppy of curly fur wrestling with its toy. So cute! Right amidst all the smiling girls and bishonen boys, there is even a pet massage palor. *Chuckle*
Dinner was with Dad's broker in the Ginza district. Mimaki san from Toyo Group has worked with Dad on the tokyo side for some time. He was also the one who found manga of Akazukin cha cha and Slan dunk for me like four years ago.....*sheepish*
He explained his daughter then was 10 and didn't know what they were. She's now 14 and manga crazed ^^.....Ah and so nice, received a huge bag full of manga he took his daughter to buy. There were two huge books of new manga stories, free gifts of a note pad and a scarf, as well as a clamp illustration book and the latest manga magazine showcasing the top 100 listing of Anime characters. Top on the list is Gundam Seed. ^______^ dinner was looking good!
He also has a son, 15 and looks like an anime bishonen......*drools*. It was also his birthday today, hmmm, he was turning 16? So we felt rather bad that Mimaki san was missing his son's birthday. And he was doing all his can to fix the ordered dinner cos Mother don't like sushi or raw food of any kind so he was trying to get fried fish or the like for our dinner. It was interesting food. We even had the dangerous Fuku fish (the delicacy which you can die from if not prepared correctly) but the monk fish tasted way better (like fried chicken!)
Mimaki san also suggested going to Odaibha and Akihabara when he heard we were going to visit Asakusa the next day. Dad didn't want to visit Akihabara cos it was just electronics district but there were major manga stores there.
Better nights now, sleep throughout the night...mmmm.....and lovely dreams.....
Day 4:- Asakusa with the famed Sensoji temple which is a Buddhist temple rather than a Shinto Shrine. It was a tourist attraction and the first place I saw swarming with foreigners. The path towards the Templed was decked with little shops selling cute souveniers and there were lovely traditional paper fans with intricate drawings. We bought a little box of 'kuih' looking delicacies for Grandma. There were little colored balls which we assumed was sweet. The temple itself was huge, consisting of several buildings and towers with different deities often having their own little stand around the compound. Dad went for a little fortune telling by shaking the box ful of sticks where you shake out a coded stick and read the fortune from the box. It was a good one too because it told of realising dreams. I prayed before the god instead, asking for good health and longetivity for the family, happiness for my friends and hopefully a good road ahead for my new start at university. The thanks for the past year's good days, the chance to gain memories and the ability to see another year came next. Then we wandered around the area before heading to Akihabara. Took us some time to locate Daijin Kai, the road often shown with the electronics stores cos the general Akihabara area was businesses....mm, not very interesting though we did catch sight of a shop selling Katanas. And so. Akihabara was rather like China town with cheaper electronics sprawled in identical shops. Though little alleys and bought couple decks of anime cards from a shop. The second floor above had tons of figurines and yet again smiling teenage girls and anime dolls baring everything.......*cough*
The same continued as we came upon other stores. There was only like this one building filled with manga and anime through 8 stories but mainly animes like Galaxy Angel and other cute little girls... '__'. Did I mention there were only guys through all 8 floors? Gundam was pretty big too. Then all the other stores had massive 'No under 18' signs eventhough the outside featured artwork of anime girls, we supposed the inside was filled with hentai............*cough cough*
And so this was our last day. Had a pretty poor dinner cos we couldn't decide where to go, so took teriyaki style steaks. mm.....gotto say the icecream was great.
Woke up at 5! Darn. Cos we got an early flight that was direct, and since it took two hours to go to the airport we had to leave by 6. Sleepily woke up and finished packing and got onto the bus and into the plane. And yawned.
Oh yeah, found a beginners' go book in one of the airport shops. Anyway anyway, the flight back was way better cos I felt less nervous. And was able to watch the japanese movie 'Shining boy and little Randy'. Rather plotless, it centers on the emotions around the character rather. Yuuya Yagira who received an award at the Cannes I think, was playing Tetsu, the boy who became a Mahout to be closer to the elephants. It ended so sadly! I was crying....badly, tears everywhere and blinking furiously cos I didn't want people to see ><. Everyone always say I'm silly to cry at the movies but it's really sad! How can you not be emotional. It was he finally achieved everything and made a heart opening speech and his family finally see how he has grown and how he loved them and the next second he is on his bike and crashed into a car and it ended with him dead. At age....uh....17 or something. And the elephants all reared at the moment he died. And at the funeral Randy the elephant passed the mahmout rod over to the youngest brother and backed away. And then it ended the scene back in Thailand were we see a young baby elephant who the headmaster of the school and Tetsu's friend called Tetsu, so we presumed he has been reborn as an elephant....
Yes I was crying TT......
So sad.....
And well....I'm back ^^.
Mused by Sukunami Taka around 2:21 AM
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