2010.07.29 Akasaka, Meijijingu-mae, Takadanobaba

Something about the pillow at the hotel didn't agree with me and I woke up with a super stiff neck!

Was feeling a little homesick or nostalgic for Hawaii since I had been gone over two weeks at this point so I started looking for a place where I could eat Hawaiian food. I remember seeing a place in Odaiba, but 800 yen for spam musubi had me having second thoughts. Found a place called Ogo Ono Loa located in Akasaka, but due to my negligence in writing down the directions more carefully and a rather violent rainstorm, I ended up walking around for about an hour with no results.

However, there was a group playing ukuleles and dressed in aloha wear performing a lunch time concert, so that was nice.

But it started pouring like 5 minutes later.

Rode the subway back to Inari-cho defeated and still hungry. Settled for McDonald's. The Chicken Aurora Burger wasn't as good as I had hoped.

Took a shower, changed and rested up since I had to go meet Junko, who's like the older sister I never had, at Ikebukuro Station in a few hours.

The plan was to go eat monjayaki at Tsukishima, but I made the mistake of telling her that I had plans to go do that the next night as well, so plans got changed. Stupid me. Instead, we went back to Akasaka to find the restaurant (and maybe have some Hawaiian food).

The stairs light up @ Akasaka Sacas!


Apparently, TBS has their headquarters in Akasaka, so there was a big crowd of girls taking picture of Arashi's costumes from one of their many shows they do. I didn't take any pictures of that. Sorry Arashi fans.


There was an Ultraman statue outside.


Walked down the street further...

THERE IT IS!

But they were closed until 6pm when they'd open for dinner so we still lost.

Defeated we went off to the Beer Garden which was located near the Yakult Swallows baseball stadium and in the neighborhood that the Imperial Palace is located in (Meiji-jingumae). Apparently, some important historical documents were signed in this building.



So not only was this a classy place with history, but there was entertainment as well! Unfortunately, there was another table full of people in front of us and dancing is kind of hard to take pictures of, but I took some!

First performance was drum/tambourine themed with lots of dramatic hopping. It was a lot better than I can describe it. Sorry.


Second performance added a female singer in an evening gown singing "When you Wish Upon a Star" in Japanese. Again, it was better than it sounds. Really!


Final number added flamenco dancers. All hope of taking any good pictures all but disappeared at this point.

Night view of the outside.

Shakas!

Junko being bitten by the bird.


It was still early so we went to a Horumon (guts) place right next to Takadanobaba Station. You can see it from the platform!

Apparently, Waseda University is near this area.

A peek at the menu and specials.



Round 1: assorted raw pig guts!

Round 2: Tofu and tsukemono, because vegetables are important too!

Round 3: Grilled extra chewy bits

Result: sore jaws from having to chew so much. Tastes so good it hurts!

2010.07.28 Ramen Museum, Machida, Shin-Okubo

Woke up around 4am(?) after going to sleep around 2am because of the stupid dryer taking hours to dry my clothes and packing. Barely made it to Nagoya Station in time to catch the first Shinkansen to Tokyo. Didn't have time to get a reserved ticket so I just ran towards what I thought were the non-reserved seats, but I ran to the wrong end of the train! Made it on board with 2 minutes to spare!

Had no clear idea how to get from Ueno Station to the hotel so I caught a cab, but due to the maze of one way streets ended up wasting 800 yen to go like 5 blocks.


Dropped off bags and caught Keihin Tohoku to Shin-Yokohama to meet Kurara. It seemed that Akina's work schedule had her starting at 1pm (instead of 4pm as previously thought) so her chances of showing up shrank to zero. I was disappoint.

Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum!



Puppet version of famous ramen person.


Kurara trying to ride the moped.




Kurara using the phone booth.




Ended up playing a jan-ken-po game. Win 5 times and get a special lollipop that looks like a bowl of ramen. Started off strong, winning 3 in a row but lost 2x in a row to what was probably the strongest, or second strongest player in the building. Trying to employ strategy and thinking may have been my downfall as well. Kurara did not fare quite as well and almost made the come from behind victory, but was ultimately defeated. I just barely ended up winning!

Not too sure about the flavor, but it seems to be green apple. Some possible other flavors mixed in, but green apple seems to be the main. At least it didn't taste like ramen.

Wakayama Ramen! Would have tried more but one bowl was enough to get full and it was super hot outside too. Maybe next time, I'll try and order several smaller bowls to taste different kinds?


Vintage-looking Coke Machine


After that, we went to Machida to check out the giant multi-floor Book Off. Next time I will buy way more stuff! The shelves were packed with people reading manga on the manga floor. Almost bought the entire series of Pumpkin Scissors. Maybe I should have.

Checked out the Don Quixote and it was jam packed full of stuff. Strangely enough, the electronics floor had no air conditioning. The top floor was the AKB48 Store and there was wall to wall otaku looking over their purchased pictures. I like AKB48 too, but not THAT much.

Escaped to another building and checked out Vanguard Village. All kinds of unusual goods to be found there. Again, I should have bought more stuff, but my thoughts kept returning to my heavy luggage.

Went to a cafe which was known for their pudding so we HAD to go there and I was not disappointed. We both got the 'never before seen' pudding ice cream and it was really good. Not sure why no one had bothered to make such a product available on a wider scale.



Kurara had plans to meet her friend, Anri (who lives in Shinjuku) for dinner so we went to neighboring Shin-Okubo to eat Korean food. Apparently, Shin-Okubo's kind of like a Koreatown for Tokyo.


Kurara takes Bi Bim Bap seriously!


Oshibori Origami?


It's a duck that likes kim chi, or something?


After, Kurara wanted to buy Korean Nori so we hunted down a Korean Supermarket before walking over to Shinjuku. As expected, Shinjuku was crawling with hosts and hostesses (and probably other similar people) looking for customers. I would probably like to try walking around Shinjuku sometime , maybe during the day (or early morning) when it doesn't feel so sleazy (if that's possible)

Random Shinjuku shots




I tried to take a pic of this platinum blond haired host but he moved too quickly, like a red panda or a weasel!

Some "street performer" was screaming into a microphone out in front of the station. Had it not been for the crowd (or my bleeding ears) I would have tried to take pics/video.

Got to the hotel and while the amenities weren't up to the previous hotel, this was the biggest room so far! Plus, I got a card key, so there was no having to drop off the key when I leave and no having to pick it up when I get back.




Fun first day in the Kanto region! If only it hadn't been so hot or if only I had more than 2 hours of sleep the night before. Oh well, it was still super fun!