Archive for shopping

Day 16/Random random/Uneo

{ August 6, 2007 @ 11:55 am } · { Tokyo, shopping }
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•    Morning
o    I woke up planning to go to yoyogi park by harajuku and just relax and people watch and eat breakfast but things didn’t go exactly as planned.  I went to the grocery store to pick up some breakfast, but it wasn’t open when I arrived, so I just caught the train and ended up at Shinjuku.
•    Shinjuku
o    I’ve never been to Shinjuku before… and it’s huge.  To get an idea of how large Shinjuku is, you have to realize that the station is so large that you can get lost it in.  There are at least 5 exits and they go to random places in Shinjuku.  I wandered around Shinjuku station and found a place to get breakfast… or rather, get some food which I would eat later.  I bought this small bread which had raisins and other fruits in it, some vegetables with something in them, and a drink.  It was such a French breakfast, but it looked delicious, so I was happy.
o    I then attempted to find a park to eat in and people watch, but this proved harder than I thought it would be.  After 20 minutes I found a shaded area off the beaten path a bit and sat down and ate breakfast.  It was amazing.  Bread in japan is better than the US… 7 times better, give or take.  Following breakfast I decided to head back to Harajuku to browse and just hang out.
•    Harajuku
o    I spend a few hours in Harajuku just looking at stores, looking at people, and walking around a small park.  Harajuku is the perfect place to just walk around aimlessly with no plans.  It’s not too large and not too small and new places that you didn’t see emerge before your eyes every time you come.
•    Shibuya
o    After enough time in Harajuku I headed to Shibuya to buy a pair of jeans.  I arrived in Shibuya station and walked out… and then I got asked to model.  Not kidding here.  I just walked out of the station and some guy from an emerging Japanese clothing brand asked me to do a 2 to 3 hour photo shoot for about $80.  I decided to accept the offer since I was going to be back in Tokyo when the photo shoot was happening… we’ll see what happens haha.  Who knows.  But first, hunger called.  I went to a small Japanese restaurant on the 7th floor of a building and ordered salad udon… or atleast that’s what it turned out to be… I just saw udon and risked it all.  I’ve been ordering most of the time by if the name sounds good or if the picture looks good… and I’ve never gone wrong haha.  Life is good.  After lunch I browsed shibuya 109 (2) to make sure that I didn’t want to buy any other pair of jeans instead, I went to jackrose and bought my planned jeans.  I browsed Shibuya 109 (2) some more and then headed back to the hotel to relax a bit.
•    Ueno
o    Even though the light was fading as I arrived at my hotel I decided to head to Uneo to get a brief glance at the park.  This was a great idea.  Ueno park is beautiful, serene, and all in all a great place to go.  I walked around, looked at the shrines, temples, and the sun setting in the distance.  I walked around the pond and just relaxed.  For dinner, I ended up going into a small restaurant by the side of ueno park.  I was drawn to this restaurant because of the sounds of a shimisen emanating from inside.  I asked how much it was to come in and it turned out to just be ten dollars which included a drink and a meal… wonderful.  I ordered a beer and sat down as a box was placed in front of me… what it contained I don’t know, but it tasted good.  What was better though, was the shimisen player.  She was probably in her 50s, but she had a great voice and played her instrument very well.  She was also rather funny.  After my dinner I explored Ueno a bit and ended up buying a present.  Then… back to the hotel to take a shower and relax… off to Hiroshima tomorrow.

Day 14/Shibuya

{ August 5, 2007 @ 1:44 pm } · { Food, Tokyo, shopping }
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• Morning/Afternoon
o Nate and I woke up at around 12… We both managed to make ourselves look slightly awake and then we headed out to meet Iori for lunch. On the way, we ran into her mother, and so we all headed together to meet Iori. We had a nice simple lunch of lots of random Japanese foods (umm… udon, miso soup, the usual suspects,) Iori had to go back to driving school, so Nate and I headed out to Shibuya to look at clothes and just relax.
• Afternoon
o Shibuya is amazing. Nate and I arrived at Shibuya station… at the famous intersection that you often see in photos of japan. This is the intersection where hundreds of people cross it ever few minutes. There are so many people that you can’t see the ground at times. I really don’t miss the ground that much. Another fact of shibuya is that the girls are def more attractive than Osaka… granted, Osaka isn’t bad in that respect at all, but Tokyo in general wins. Osaka sure as hell beats the US, but this isn’t tough ahaha, I’m such a horrible person. I’m going to come back to the US, and look at the percentage of people that are overweight and just close my eyes and hope things will change. Ok, enough about how the US fails. Nate and I walked around Shibuya and I managed to buy a shirt that wasn’t $100… to my relief. Shibuya is rather expensive, more so than Harajuku. Nate managed to buy a $100 pair of jeans and a $100 hoody… but I’d be more lenient with my money if my parents gave me unlimited funds too haha… but enough about that, since he usually pays for my lunch when we hang out I’m in no position to complain. We went to a Korean barbecue place to get a drink after shopping for a while. The weather was so hot, so we were just looking to have a beer and sit and talk for a while. Yet, as we sat down and I ordered two beers in Japanese… hell yeah… the waiter put down the coals in the barbecue so we were rather obliged to order something. We ordered a plate of meat that neither nate nor I really knew what was in it. Luckily, we asked about one suspicious looking piece of meat and it turned out to be stomach… close call, we didn’t end up eating it. The rest of the meal was delicious, but decidedly more Japanese looking than Korean looking. We headed back to Roppongi to meat Iori for dinner.
• Evening
o Iori was exhausted, so we took a quick trip just one metro stop away for dinner. We had Korean barbecue again haha… didn’t plan it. It was better this time and decidedly more Korean. I just had a simple dish and we all shared a bit of meat on the barbecue and a few dishes. Afterwards, I took the long trip back to my hotel and by the time I got there it was almost midnight. Sleep was easy.

Day 13/Harajuku/Roppongi

{ August 5, 2007 @ 1:12 pm } · { Food, Tokyo, shopping }
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• Morning
o The trip to Tokyo was mostly uneventfull… I took a few trains and a shinkansen and had a tasty bento box along the way. I wish I’d seen mt fuji out the window, but I fell asleep for part of the trip, so didn’t notice.
• Arrival
o I got into Tokyo a bit after two… and realized I had to walk ten minutes to my hotel… grrr… that’s going to suck when I have to take my suitcase back to the train station to go to Hiroshima. Shortly after arriving I headed to Harajuku to meet up with Satomi. We browsed Harajuku for clothes, talked, and just hung out. We bought some famous harajuku crepes… which were amazing. These crepes consist of crepes that are wrapped up in the shape of an icecream cone and stuffed with fruit, icecream, whipped cream, and mine had cheesecake… it so delicious, probably the least healthy thing I’ve eaten in japan so far. Granted, beer isn’t especially healthy, but it sure has less calories. We followed the crepes up by shopping some more and I bought a pair of black leather shoes (or atleast black… leather… maybe). Harajuku has amazing clothes and accessories at reasonable prices… and everyone looks as though they have watched too much anime and wanted to dress as their favorite characters; I love it. Satomi and I hung out for a few hours and then she had to get back to school, so I headed back to my hotel to take a shower. I arrived at my hotel and phone rung… it was Nate… we decided to meet in Roppongi.
• Night Time
o It took about an hour for me to get to Roppongi with the help of two trains and a bus. I arrived at Nate’s apartment (or rather… the apartment of his ex girlfriend where he’s staying.) We just talked for a bit and then decided to grab some dinner; it was about 9 oclock, so we were both game for a bit to eat. Iori (nate’s ex) arrived as we got to the apartment, and we headed out. We went to a bar/restaurant… in that there were drinks, smokes, and small dishes… but somehow we made it into a dinner. Iori stuck with one drink, while nate and I ended having two… no matter how non intoxicating rum and coke may be. Yet…. As with most things, it tastes better in japan. I don’t remember all the dishes we got, but one was raw horsemeat which was delicious. It was just like sashimi. After dinner Iori was a bit tired so she headed back to the apartment while Nate and I headed out to a bar. We headed to the wallstreet bar where the bouncer asked me “how old are you?”… “20” I answered and yep “forgot my id”…ahahaha. He looked at me and gave me this ‘I don’t believe you’ look, but still let me in. Nate and I started with a carona each and we just sat at the bar and smoked a cigarette. Nate ran into a salaryman that he’d met before and we all talked for half an hour or so as the night went on… the guy was so happy to meet me and see Nate again that he bought us all a shot of whiskey (shots go for ten dollars)… but I wasn’t stopping him. We had another carona… and just hung out at the bar… which was basically a club by this point, everyone was dancing (or… in their inebriated state… I’m sure they thought they were dancing.) I decided to be adventurous and ordered a b52 since I still wasn’t feeling much… this turned into a great idea. While ten dollars for a shot is indeed insane, this was just beautiful. The b52 is a mix of kahlua, ameretto, and one other liquor which I forget… it is then lit on fire… and drunk straight down with a straw…. Smooth… intoxicating, and delicious. The only way to go. At 2 am, we both were a bit tired, so decided to get a snack at first kitchen. We both got these tiny pizzas and then headed back to Iori’s apparment to crash.

Day 6/Umeda/More Shopping

{ July 27, 2007 @ 5:37 am } · { Food, Osaka, shopping }
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• Morning
o I woke up this morning and low and behold… my jet lag is almost completely gone. I woke up around 7… so that was good. Last night I had been really worried that I was running out of money too fast, but as I was calculating it this morning I realized I was perfectly on target haha, so my worries were for nothing. That was probably the best part of my morning. After that I took a nice shower and met someone else from the US who almost went to Amherst college, so we talked a bit… cool guy. I decided that today I would see the Umeda sky building, which is an amazing building in Osaka that overlooks the entire city. It also has two escalators that connect he two buildings that compose it .
• Off to Osaka
o I decided to take the train to Osaka (surprisingly enough) because it’s free… yes, all trains are free when you have a jr pass… only $500 and your soul. Ok, just kidding. Anyway, I took the train to Umeda (center of Osaka), which took about 15 minutes and arrived at the station at about 9 oclock ish. I was too early for the umeda sky building, so I decided to get some breakfast a drink from a vending machine. Wow… I love the vending machines. For breakfast I had a strawberry yogurt thing… for $1.50… mm, yum, strawberry. By the time I was finished the umeda sky building had opened up, so I traveled to the top for a nice sum of $4 (500 yen) because I said I was a high school student… ok, morals down 5 points… but I’m not too worried. The view was amazing… you could see all of Osaka and they even had free binoculars at the top.
o I decided to look at a few shops after the tower and I arrived a place called comme ca isms which I had been before. The only difference was this come ca isms stores had 6 floors… count ‘em. It was rather amazing and I ended up buying this really nice hoody for a reasonable price. Did I mention how much I am liking the clothes here… I know, probably not enough. After shopping at comme ca isms I headed to this underground mall to explore and possibly shop more. I ended up having a nice conversation with this cute girl who owned a shop selling jewelery… I was trying to find a present for my sister, but unfortunately she didn’t have anything… still, talking in Japanese always makes my day more interesting. I’ve been doing a lot of it.
o The mall didn’t really have anything I wanted to buy… or rather, anything I could buy but it did have something better…, which came in the juicy package called food. Wow, Osaka is the master of food. I paid about $4 for a huge lunch that included all the essentials: miso soup, little bit of salad, random veges, curry, rice, random Japanese fish… and water. Wow… I was exstatic and full.
• Back from Osaka
o Oh, this is a great story… I had two fun encounters on my way back. First… got to the train station and was rather confused as to which train to take… but help came. Back story… bording the escalator after a bunch of Japanese school girls one of them tripped and I said something along of lines of “careful… that’s dangerous” or something like that. They turned in my direction and said something like “he knows Japanese… amazing…wow… ahhh” anyway, long story short… as I’m looking up at the train schedule really confused I decide to ask for help. I turn to one of the girls and ask her what train to take to shinimamiya station (in Japanese)… she looks rather confused, but another girl seems to know what’s up… so I ask her. After a bit the whole bunch of school girls trails after me to the train schedule and finally we figure out which train to take. Ahaha, hilarious.
o As I’m taking the train back, I see a kid who’s shaking his shirt after getting into the train and I say something along the lines of “hot isn’t it” and he responds back… yeah, just a bit. We hit it off… and have this conversation for the next few stops about where I’m from, the weather, layers of clothing, japan, cellphones the us, all kinds of random stuff… it just felt great to be able to speak so much Japanese.
o Following this I arrived back at my hotel just in time to write all of this down… I think I’m going to head off to this park by my hotel… which no doubt will be extremely hot and I’ll die of lack of water hahaha, I’m not too worried.

Day 5/Osaka/Shopping…

{ July 25, 2007 @ 10:42 pm } · { Food, Osaka, shopping }
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• Morning
o I take back much of what I said yesterday. I think that I just got off on the wrong foot in Osaka… probably just the fact that the portion of town in which I’m situated seemed so sketchy just didn’t bode well with me. Yet, what the town has in sketchiness, the hotel makes up with the quality of people. I’ve met a guy from Australia, 3 guys from korea, and 3 girls from korea. Everyone has been really nice and helpful and clearly just looking to have a good time. I was using the showers this morning and I find it’s such a freeing thing to not have to worry about what you look like. The showers here are basically a lot of shower heads on the far side of one wall and on the other side is a large bath for soaking (not for cleaning). You shower yourself off, and soap yourself off and thien just like the hotsprings you soak for a bit. It’s relaxing and very freeing because everyone is naked, so you don’t think anything of it. Anyway, wearing clothes doesn’t change how we look underthem haha, so we might as well get used to how we look. I’m going to go in search of breakfast (not really sure what the menu is this morning… I’m going for a rice ball maybe and some pocari swear (ion refilling drink…tasty)… and then shopping in a less sketchy district.
• Shopping
o I think I’ve figured out what I don’t like about Osaka… I don’t like the fact that it’s really complicated to navigate. In Tokyo (for the one day I was there) I had no trouble getting places… but in Osaka it’s rather difficult. Yet, I’ve come to the conclusion that Osaka is not as good as Tokyo, but not a bad place either. I went to Shinsaibashi to go shopping and when the 3 hours or more was over I came out with a pair of pants, a vestish thing, and a shirt. Together the cost was about $95, so I think I’m doing pretty good… my guess for how much the jeans would cost was around $80, so I’m def beating my estimate. After shopping and probably losing about 5 pounds in sweat I decided that the best way to fix this loss of body fat was to go eat something. I went to this hotel restaurant where I was about to get a lunch special for about $12 that was delicious. I honestly can say I don’t know what was in it other than soba, random vegetables, and random fish. I really have no idea, but it was delicious except for one little bowl of something. The American menu they had looked more expensive and didn’t seem as tasty, so I decided to risk it and order something on the Japanese menu… def a good choice.
o Finding the subway to get back to my hotel was a bit of a chore, but people are so kind, so once I had a few sets of directions I was able to find it easily. I have a million pictures to post online, so now I must go.
• Dinner etc
o I was debating going to a club this evening, but I never got around to it… instead I decided to go to a bar and maybe meet random people… the plan didn’t really go as planned. I went to a bar in the shinsaibashi district called penguin something. It was hilarious… they had the penguin movie (I forget the name) playing on a tv… some trance music… an attractive bar tender, but I just ordered a rum and mused about the day. I wasn’t feeling anything, so I decided to head to another bar and see if there was anything more interesting, but I didn’t spot anything good. Thus, I headed to a Korean barbecue place which was rather fun. You got your food uncooked and then you cooked it over the coals… I just ordered a bit of meat and rice and a beer. I’m really a fan of Japanese beer. It’s rather cheap and much better than what you find at college haha. I headed back at around 12.