Visiting Japan Day Four and Five: Exploring Tokyo and Return to Korea (Plus Cat Cafe Next Weekend)

 

So on our fourth day in Tokyo we decided to explore various areas that we found to be interesting.  We slept in and were getting a late start so ended up having Lydon and Kyle join us for our excursions.  First we went to Shinjuku to see the Shinjuku Gyoen Park which is where I previously went to view the cherry blossom, which of course are not currently in bloom.  It was still pretty and Ashley wanted a jump photo so we got some other English speakers (forget where they were from) to take the picture for us.  We didn't count on it being so hard but it took a while to get a picture with all of us in the air.  But still, it was a lot of fun ... despite the funny looks we were getting from the nearby Japanese people.  In return, we took a similar picture for the girls who took our picture.  After exploring a little longer we left and headed towards Harajuku.

So, Harajuku is a place that I can only describe as artsy.  There is a lot of fashion there but also places where you can buy traditional tourist stuff.  I like the feel of Harajuku but the streets are really crowded and it is easy to get separated from your friends if you are not careful.  Anyway some people bought souvenirs, but I kept looking at the gothic like dresses that I really wish I had the occasion to wear.  Oh well.  T.T  We did pass the shop where I had bought my maid outfit one Halloween but we didn't go inside.

After Harajuku, we headed to Shibuya to take pictures of the famous Shibuya crossing.  Again, I have been here before but I hadn't quite realized the significance of the place before.  Basically, it is a street crossing where all four sides of the street cross at the same time.  So during the walking times we'd run into the middle of the street and take pictures.  It took quite a few walking lights to get all the pictures we wanted but it was a lot of fun.  Kyle carried everyone on his shoulders (one at a time) to make the pictures more fun. ^.^  Poor Kyle.  At this point, Lydon and Kyle had also put on I Love Japan headbands which made the pictures even more silly.  There were quite a few Japanese people amused by our antic this time. 

After Shibuya, we headed to my favorite part of Tokyo, Akihabara, the electric town and also home of the anime fans.  This is the place you can buy lots of gadgets and anime toys, cds, dvds, manga, etc.  For an anime fan such as myself, I am always happy to go see Akihabara, or also called Akiba by some locals.  We checked out some of the stores .... which I resisted buying anything for myself though I did get a volume of manga for a friend.  We almost checked out a maid café (as there were lots of maids on the street advertising it) but they decided it was too expensive and we left.  I will have to try going to one sometime.  It is one of those things I still haven't done.  We also checked out an arcade where we did PuriKura (pictures that you take and make cute with words and designs).  It was a lot of fun though hard to fit all four of us as it was meant for only two people.  But we made it work.

After Akihabara, we headed back to Shinjuku to catch a robot show that a coworker recommended.  We didn't know where to go and asked some Japanese teenagers and they were nice enough to literally take us there.  This is not the first time a Japanese person has done more than just tell us where to go.  It happened once or twice earlier in the day too.  Anyway, I chatted with the teenagers for a while and they said that they didn't normally go to that area because it was dangerous though dangerous in Japan is probably still considered safe in America.  Sadly though, by the time we got there, the show was sold out so we headed back to the hostel where we hung out for a while before I crashed for the night.

Our last day, I slept in for the most part but we had to check out at 10 so we took care of there.  There was some drama that day but it didn't have anything to do with us so we did some last minute packing (not that I really unpacked at all) and headed off to Nippori where we had to transfer to catch our train to the airport.  Since we had time, we stored our bags in a locker and went to visit some temples.  At this point I said I was not going to buy something .... and we walk past a cat store .... meaning I bought a little phone charm and the lady gave me a free cat sticker.  As it was the only thing I actually bought for myself on this trip, I figured that wasn't too bad.  We visited some temples which had a lot of graves.  I tried not to take too many pictures in these areas to respect the dead but I couldn't resist a few. 

After exploring a few temples, some which were really big, we headed to the airport.  I was pretty hungry at this point so we stopped at McDonalds and I tried this egg burger which surprised me because it was really good.  Then I spent the last of my money (I was serious about only coming back with 50 cents worth of Japanese yen) on last minute souvenirs.  Our flight was on time and we got safely back to Korea.  The airports were again fairly empty and this time we got to sit on the bus on the way back to Suji where I then uploaded pictures onto Facebook and crashed for the night.  My trip made me a little sicker but it was too fun to worry about getting sleep which I am now trying to catch up on. ^.^

Also, as a side note, the following weekend (since I am only just now catching up on the blog .... hehe) Chris and I decided to check out another cat café which is really close to the cat café we used to go to.  This cat café was a lot nicer and even made us sanitize our hands before going in.  It seemed more spacious and even gave us toast instead of cookies.  They even gave us cat treats to give the cats which of course made the cats all flock towards us for food.  Then they ditched us.  The only thing I liked better about the previous cat café was the fact the cats would sleep in our laps.  But I did get a tiny gray and white kitten to play with my Pikachu phone charm.  It was really cute.  And when we left, they gave us a free photo of one of the cats and I happened to get the photo of the kitten who played with me.  ^.^  It was a fun time.

Visiting Japan Day Three: Tokyo DisneySea

 

So, after a hectic day before, we decided to sleep in.  Besides, neither of us wanted to get on another rush hour train.  That was a nightmare.  So we caught up on a little bit of sleep and left probably around 9 ish to head back towards Tokyo and Maihama.  I think we got there around 11 AM but I honestly don't remember the exact time.  There was a food place right there which had an excellent egg and bacon sandwich.  Even thinking about it now makes me want another one.  It was so good.  At first, we weren't sure where to go but we ended up needing to take the special Disney train to get there.  But it was definitely worth it.  Tokyo DisneySea was BEAUTIFUL.  I mean really beautiful.  Though we did end up doing a lot of walking back and forth.  Also, it was nice that Tokyo DisneySea was not as crowded as Tokyo Disneyland was the day before and we were able to get through the lines much quicker.  We could get through lines in like 20 minutes instead of two hours.

 

We went straight to Journey to the Center of the Earth as the man we talked to the night before highly recommended it.  After we got our fast pass for that, we went to explore Mermaid Lagoon and Triton's Kingdom as we both wanted to see Ariel.  It was mostly for little kids but we did get on a few rides.  It was really colorful and it was interesting to see their interpretation of where Ariel grew up.  Flounder's Flying Fish was a really slow .... I mean really slow .... roller coaster.  Jumping Jellyfish only went up and down but you could see all of Triton's Kingdom well on it.  Ariel's playground was a bunch of places kids could walk through and we explored that a bit as well.

 

I really enjoyed the Under the Sea show though it only covered the story up to the part where Ariel decides to become human.  Sadly we couldn't take pictures of the theater.  Basically, they used puppets about the audience and on the ground level too.  Ariel herself was floating around on wires doing lots of spins and stuff.  I really enjoyed it though I couldn't tell if the voices were all recorded (as the songs definitely were the recorded English movie recording) or it the actors and actresses actually spoke the Japanese parts.  We did meet Ariel later in the day and she spoke both languages fluently.  I really liked her because she was really in character.  She talked about if we saw Prince Eric to tell him she needed her dinglehopper back so she could brush her hair.  ^.^

 

We also went to the Arabian Coast area which is centered around Aladdin's story.  There was a two tiered Caravan Carousel there where I could ride on Genie.  Ashley chose to ride on an eleplant.  We got on Jasmine's Magic Carpets which is just a normal carpet ride where you can control if you go up and down and can tilt a little.  Sinbad's Storybook Voyage was another water ride like Pirates of the Caribbean that made us sleepy but the tiger was really cute. ^.^  I enjoyed the Magic Lamp Theater about a story where a magician steals the lamp from a boy and the boy rescues Genie and becomes Genie's new master.  I was really glad that I could actually understand a lot of what they were saying. 

 

Somewhere in the middle of the day we watched one of the water show parades about mythic creatures.  The floats were really cool and it was fun to watch the people on jet skis and the kites flying around in the air.  Sadly though I had a speaker in front of me so many of my pictures are not centered.  But the floats were awesome.  They even moved and breathed fire.  The unicorn even blinked.  Many of the animals such as the dragon and unicorn flapped their wings too.  They were really colorful and I could have watched them for a long time.

 

The Journey to the Center of the Earth was probably my favorite ride as it was a ride where you could see all the crystals and stuff they expect in the center of earth and how we have to race through time to get back to safety.  It was slow at first but I was surprised just how fast we were going by the end of the ride.  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was a submarine like ride where you explore under the sea.  They used bubbles in the glass to make it feel like you were really under the sea. 

 

Near the end of the day, we got on Storm Rider where we are passengers on a bad storm destroyer mission that goes bad.  It was really bumpy and we got wet but I found it a lot of fun.  Ashley also managed to somehow get me on Raging Spirits which is a roller coaster that does a 360 degree loop.  Now, I have never been on a roller coaster that had a loop before and, if you know me, you know by know that I was freaking out.  And worse yet, I had to take off my glasses so they didn't fall off on the ride, so I was going in blind.  But despite that, it was actually really fun and I'm glad that Ashley made me get on it.

Then we went and saw Fantasmic which is the water show that I think MGM in Florida has.  It was done a little differently, as the whole show was completely on the water.  It was a lot of fun to watch though I think the dragon was cooler in the Florida show.  Sadly they cancelled the fireworks that night, something about whether conditions though it wasn't that windy.  So we hopped on the Indian Jones ride before heading home.  We ended up skipping the Halloween water show because we just didn't have a good view earlier in the day.  So we got to head home a little earlier than planned.  But it was definitely a fun filled day and like I said before, the park was just beautiful.  We hung out with the hostel people for a while though I eventually went to bed.