Friday, November 26, 2010

Tokyo Trip Day 9: Tokyo - Brisbane

And then we come to our very last day in Tokyo. I don't really have anything exciting to report on this day as it pretty much consisted of us sitting in the airport. L headed out in the morning to shop around a little, while C and I waited around at the Hostel before we had to check out at 11am. We took our time dragging our heavy suitcases to the train station and onto Ueno where we would catch the Narita Express. In our whole walk there, we only had to take them down one flight of stairs, managing to find lifts and escalators instead.

It was nice catching the express train out to the airport. Even though it is a 70 minute trip, we were able to see the city end, the outer suburbs and then the countryside as we rushed on past. On the way in, we really missed it all as it was night time, and we were just excited to finally be there. C and I sat in the airport all afternoon, reading and doing puzzles just waiting for it to be time to board our plane. The real contrast with the airport is just the sheer size of the place. I mean there are many full restaurants upstairs as well as shops (where I spent the last of my Japanese money). Not only that, once you make it through airport security and customs, I had to catch the shuttle to the other half of the departures terminal to the bay where we would be catching our flight.

We finally boarded at 8.20pm Japan time. 9 hours later, and after much shifting around in my uncomfortable and tiny Jetstar Economy seat we landed on the Gold Coast. I really didn't get that much sleep. A quick taxi ride back to the car and we were finally on our way home. I dozed off while I was sitting in the back seat and it seemed that I was home in no time. Home and cuddling my kitty.

Tokyo Trip Day 8: Single Day

Our second last day was the day we had set aside for heading out on our own. The day when you can head back to places to pick up stuff that you didn't get when you were there and now that you had thought about it wanted to go back and get. My aim was to head on back to Harajuku and spend what was left of my money on some more Lolita bits and pieces. Especially since I had saved up so much and had not bought anything new for so long. Boy was it hard breaking my crazy lolita shopping habits. My first stop was back to Closet Child, since the first time that I went there I had so many bags already that it was downright difficult to look at anything while carrying them around with me. I was over the moon when I managed to find the Baby Vampire Requiem long JSK in Burgundy and it fit me. So I of course purchase it, along with a few cardigans and boleros and accessories. I then made my way over to La Floret to have a look at what was around. I picked up the Putumayo shirt that I had missed getting earlier in the week and then wandered over to Angelic Pretty. This time, there was an older woman there, maybe the owner of the franchise? who helped me out. She was lovely and made my shopping experience smooth and friendly, while I bought the dress that I had been thinking about all week.

I wandered around Harajuku for a bit longer, heading on down to try and find the metamorphose shop, but now that I look at the map, I probably did not go far enough. After picking up a couple of cute little accessories on the way back to the train station, I made my way to Shinjuku to meet up with L and ainead as planned. We were heading to the Alice theme restaurant for dinner. And my, was it a dining experience and a half. I had so much fun.

When you come out of the lift, there is a reception desk and what looks like a closed off room. You then find out that one of the walls that looks like a book opens out and you walk through to get to the dining area. Once inside we were directed to our little corner booth where our waitress, dressed in a cute Alice dress provided warm towels for us to wash our hands and handed over the menu - a book. The first page opens up as a pop up book, and then you get to decide what you would like. We weren't really sure what we were ordering, just that they had awesome names. I had 'The happy caterpillar' drink to begin with. We then shared an entrée which is set up as toasts with little books. Dinner was a diamond pizza dressed up as a card, and dessert was Alice and the Caterpillar. Everything was impeccable. It was all beautifully set out and presented, while tasting fantastic. I would definitely recommend it to anyone in the area, and surprisingly, it was not priced badly. I would really love to check out some of the other theme restaurants around Tokyo, but that will have to be on my next trip to Japan as I can guarantee I will be going back.


Once we made it back to our hostel, we borrowed the scales and proceeded to pack and weigh out bags. Coming in at just under 17 kilos I was ready to go in the morning.

Tokyo Trip Day 7: Odaiba


Odaiba - reclaimed land. Basically they dump a whole heap of dirt in the ocean and call it an island. Which I suppose you really do need to do when you have so many people crammed onto an island as small as Japan is. That morning, we had woken at our capsule hotel to the soft floating of snow in the air. Glad that I was inside and warm, I took some photos from the building of some of the landmarks around the place. When you live in Australia, it is not often that you get to see snow.

But the snow was over by the time we were on our way. We hopped onto a train and then made our way to the private monorail that would take us to Odaiba. It's fantastic really when you find out that the monorail is run by a private company, yet the ticketing system is still the same easy to use process. You just don't get that sort of cooperation in Australia. Our first stop on the Odaiba line was Aomi where Venus Fort is located. The best way to explain Venus Fort is to think of DFO. It is similar in that all the shops there are your discounted stuff, however the labels inside are so much more high end. One dress that we admired was still $40 000 YEN on a 50% off sale rack. The biggest contrast with Venus Fort though, is the decor. Outside it is this big ugly shed with quite gaudy colours on it. But once you step in the door, you are transported to an Italian town, complete with blue skies, carved columns, open balconies, tiled and stone flooring and a gigantic water feature. The whole ensemble is complemented by light shows on the hour that turn the sky to orange or evening blue and light up the area with blues and pinks. It just blew my mind away at the architectural splendour. It is not very often that you see this sort of thing in person without travelling to Europe. It was pretty neat.



Our next adventure of the day was to head on over to the big Ferris wheel. We were informed that in 1999, it was the biggest in the world, and you can get quite a view from the thing. In fact, completely in line with the theme of Venus Fort was the huge hotel across the water that looked like it was a high rise building built into a historical French mansion.

But it was on our way back to the train, that I was exposed to one of the strangest things that I saw on my entire trip to Japan. Inside the huge car show room, was a section displaying cars in an obvious attempt to attract young girls in the various fashion scenes to purchase the vehicle. I really didn't think that words could do this justice, so I took photos... And yes, that it real angelic pretty tea cup lace on the front.



After all our exploration and shopping it was time for the relaxation part of the trip. We headed to oedo Onsen Monogatari. This is a traditional style onsen set up with an almost theme park quality inside. Upon entering, we were bid to take our shoes off and put them in a locker, taking the key with us. We then lined up to pay where we received another key; this one to our locker where we were to keep our clothing. We then picked up a Yukata, locked up our mini suitcases in another locker and made our way to the change room. This required that we strip down and don the Yukata. Note that you do not have to take your underwear off at this point, that comes later. Unfortunately for me, Yukatas are designed for Japanese women, not women like me with an arse, waist and hips; I spend the entire time trying to adjust my Yukata so that I was not flashing anyone. Our first experience inside was the rock pool, where you walk through the heated water over different sized rocks to massage your feet. While in this area, L tried out the doctor fish that eat away the dead skin cells on your feet; I find this just a little too creepy for me. Afterwards we made our way into the bathing area, where upon arrival you are handed a small towel and a large towel. The idea now is to put your locker key inside another small locker along with your Yukata and underwear and your large towel. The small towel you take into the bathing area with you. Once inside (naked of course) you must pick a cubicle and completely wash yourself; shampoo and soap is provided. And all the bubbles must be removed from your skin. We then spent the next hour trying out different pools as they are different temperatures. None of us were brave enough to try the outdoor pools as we had just about froze on our way into the place. There was no way that I would go outside already naked and wet.

Afterwards, we dried off, dressed in our Yukatas and headed back inside where there is a large dining area. The idea of the place is that the key to your locker is attached to a wristband which has a barcode. Every time you "spend" inside, your barcode is scanned and they you pay when you exit, thus eliminating the need for you to carry around a wallet while inside. I think it is pretty neat, and we all had a great time getting clean, warm and filling our bellies. We made our way back to our bedbug infested hostel for the night.

Tokyo Trip Day 6: Daikanyama

Back into the swing of the hard-core shopping, we started out our 6th Day in Japan (Wednesday) with a trip back to Shinjuku. This time, it was only myself and ainead as L had come down with a nasty head cold and cough by this stage and all she desired to do was take it easy for the day and sleep. Our aim was to find the Odakyu fabric and craft store not to far from the JR Train East Exit. Our first trip around the block and we ended up walking right past the entrance. Back-tracking we found that it is in fact two stores with multiple levels; one for craft and the other for fabric. We hit the craft one first. Working our way down from the top, I think I ended up getting something on each floor; from craft books, to gorgeous buttons and printed laces to hair pieces. We then hit the fabric store where I got the cutest strawberry fabric and an alice printed tartan fabric. I am going to make me some skirts.

After filling my little suitcase with crafty goodness, we made our way to Ebisu. From there we strolled our way over to the Daikanyama area where our goal was to find the trendy zakka stores of the area. Zakka is a Japanese term meaning 'many things'. The Zakka aesthetic movement focuses on simplicity and authenticity in design, decor and fashion. It relies on the use of natural or basic materials and natural fibres. There were some great stores we browsed through, and I bought some of the cutest Alice inspired jewellery, but much of the items that we loved were made of glass or breakables and it was just not feasible to get them home to Australia in our suitcases. We actually found that the Daikanyama area looks to be something a little like Paddington, in that it was once just a small suburb but now it is starting to become a trendy and high income sort of area with lots of little cafes and restaurants and high priced designer homewares sort of stores. It was interesting to see though.



Once our feet were starting to ache from our travels, we hopped on the train and made our to Asakusa, our home for the evening. We had dinner at the local McDonalds where *culture shock* smoking is allowed inside (EW!) and then perused the department store across the road, where I managed to find the clay for making Deco sweets at 30% off. Our last stop for the day was the post-office. I had been a little worried over the amount of heavy items I had purchased so far on the trip; ie all my books, magazines and writing paper; so we stopped for me to post them on home. Turned out there was 6 kilos of stuff that I was sending, and I am rather pleased that I did.

We then made our way to the capsule hotel where we would be spending our evening. We stayed there so that we could say that we had stayed in a capsule hotel, however I would not recommend it. We had to stay in the one in Asakusa because many of the capsule hotels do not allow women; this one happens to have an entire floor devoted to women only. But it was definitely not the best night's sleep I have had. I bashed my head on the TV on the way in, but found that it was surprisingly spacious inside. Unfortunately I do not thing the mattress had been replaced in quite some time. While warm with clean sheets, the mattress had a definite hollow our in the centre so it pretty much felt like sleeping on the floor. Not to mention that whole place reeked of cigarette smoke from the years of people smoking inside. I was actually rather glad to get out of the place the next morning.

Tokyo Trip Day 5: Hanegi & Shinjuku

Our 5th Day started out with a relaxing walk through Hanegi park at Umegaoka to view the Ume (plum) blossoms that are currently in season. The flowers are beautiful and I got to play with my camera quite a bit (hence the mass amounts of photos), but as the park is situated on the edge of a hill, it was bloody freezing up there. I tell you now, so glad that I had put on quite a few layers that day. Unfortunately, because it has been so much colder this winter than in the past, the poor trees had not completely bloomed. We were told that it generally only snows once over winter and that is normally around December / January. It makes me feel better that its not just the Australians who found it just a little chilly over there. And believe me when I tell you that some days we felt like we were almost frozen solid.


Thankfully though, most places that you go are actually heated. *some to the point where it is downright hot inside*. The nicest though are the trains, that have heaters under the seats. If you are lucky enough to snag a seat (avoid peak times) then you end up with a toasty arse and legs. So very nice, but it does make it feel quite a bit colder when you go back outside. I felt like the entire time over there I was constantly taking off my coat inside to try and regulate my body temperature.

After all our photos at Hanegi park, we hopped on a train and made our way back to Shinjuku, where we walked on down to Shinjuku Gyoen Park to stroll around the various gardens. Ironically, there were Ume blossoms in flower there too, and wile there wasn't the variety of trees on display, they were in heavier bloom. We wandered through the traditional Japanese Gardens and made our way towards the tea house to do a traditional tea ceremony. I have discovered that Green Tea is really not my thing, but I poured it down at any rate. And it was very beautiful inside.

What surprised me most about the Gardens was the constant ongoing work there. Sure, it is run by the government which means that it has decent funding, but as you look around, you notice that there are workers trimming trees, work trucks passing by, new bridges being built and a new greenhouse being constructed. What stuck me, is that most of it is not to replace existing structures or pure maintenance work, but progress, ie the creation and development of new gardens. It's something that you would not normally see in and Aussie national park or garden.



After a few hours of strolling to our hearts content, we made our way back to the city proper for some more shopping. Who would have thought? One shop that I spotted along our route was an Innocent World shop. I was over the moon, because we had not been able to find the one in Harajuku; so I stocked up on super cute accessories. After checking out a few more shops, we made our way back to Minowa for a unique dining experience.

Ainead and L, took me to an Izakaya, where the general idea is to purchase a number of small meals and share them amongst your group. We sat in our own little booth with closed doors while L proceeded to regale us with anecdotes about her Japanese toilet experiences.

Japanese public toilets differ greatly from Australian ones. For a start, you cannot always guarantee a European style toilet, but when you do; most are a cut above. While being very clean, the seats are heated, they make trickling noises when you sit to disguise your private business and they include accessories such as a bidet and a "lady shower". Then comes the flushing, some flush after you have stood up and others flush as you pass your hand by a sensor (no touching required). What really puzzled me at first were the hand basins. I was trying to press buttons to get soap and turn on the tap. It turned out that they are also motion sensor. I felt like an absolute idiot when a young Japanese lady showed my how to use it. It's all very clean and hygienic when you think about it, as the only thing you are really touching is the lock on the door. Who knew I had so much to say about loos in Japan?

Tokyo Trip Day 4: Ikebukuro

Our first stop of the day was to the Loft store above the Seibu Department Store. After perusing and shopping to our hearts content purchasing cute bento boxes, onegiri makers, erasable pens and stationary, we headed into Tokyu Hands. I can tell you now that I am going to have some awesome lunches once I get started on making up my own bento boxes; I got the cutest little sandwich puff makers and hello kitty shaped rice balls and cut outs as well as traditional shaped ones. Tokyu Hands is more of a department store like Myer or Target with a toy section, home-maker section, bathroom section and so on. Though, to put a black cloud over my day, while inside, my wallet was stolen from in my bag, as I stupidly left it unzipped while walking around. Thankfully the only money inside was the amount I had put aside for shopping that day, and not the whole of my savings for the trip. The real blessing was that my passport was not taken, and I had removed all the cards from my wallet; and put my bank card in with my passport. I am not really sure why I did, but I tell you now that I was so happy that I did.
Afterwards, we made our way to over Sunshine City. Slowly, shopping our way to the top, we made it on up to Namjatown - the goal of which was Icecream City. 300 YEN entry, and you get a pass to look around at all the games on offer and entry to the wonderland of icecream available. Throughout the place there are very cute kitty statues and differently themed areas encompassing the mascots. As well as food. I chose the super cute cat pancake ensemble. It seemed appropriate as it matched the neko theme. There are also lots of game machines and treasure-hunt style games that you pay extra to play; as well as purikura. We shopped our way back down to the bottom and after checking out a few more stores, we headed back to the hostel with sore feet and started unpacking and admiring our purchases for the day.

It's a bit of a culture shock when it comes to purchasing items in Japan. Packaging seems to be a very non-existent issue over there. In Australia we go light on the plastic bags and a lot of things are bundled in together; and in some cases they make you pay for the plastic bag too (a rip off in my opinion when they have not cut the stock prices down to accommodate the new fees). In Japan, everything is individually wrapped, then they wrap your purchases up in a bag or plastic sheet and then put it into a plastic or paper bag with handles so that you can carry it around. We made sure to toss all our packaging before coming home, that way it lightened our suitcases of the extra bulk and we would not be polluting Australian rubbish bins with all the extra plastic. Talk about wastage.

Tokyo Trip Day 3: Harajuku

Now this was my day in Lolita heaven...

It started off with a little drama. We headed back to Akihabara for L to purchase a new camera. While standing at the train station with a Canadian tourist who had lost his way and was trying to make sense of his map; another tourist passing by suddenly collapsed and proceeded to have a seizure. In Australia, people would immediately stop to see what is happening, lend assistance and call the ambulance. However, in Japan, most people just take a quick look as they walk by and continue on their way. L and the Canadian helped the victim by pushing him into the recovery position while trying to communicate with the nearby Japanese staff to call the Ambulance. Thankfully another tourist who spoke Japanese and decent English sopped by and was able to assist. All seemed to work out when the Ambulance came, but it just goes to show you how helpful most Aussies are when it come to a crisis.

Finally back on our way after a short stop in the Yodabashi toy section, where we lamented the lack of coolness in Australian toy shops, we made our way to Harajuku. The land of Lolita. Harajuku is home to cosplayers and fashionistas for just about every walk of Japanese fashion. Including those who like to dress their tiny dogs in tiny clothing all for a little fame and attention. And my, do they milk it too.
My excitement escalating, we headed towards Kiddy Land. We are talking about 6 floors entirely filled with toys and cuteness. Each floor is divided up into sections. For example, there was a Lego floor, a Hello Kitty floor and a Snoopy floor. I got the most awesome writing paper in the different sections, and saw some of the cutest and most bizarre toys around.
But then it was onto the wonderland of Lolita shops in La Foret; Baby The Stars Shine Bright, Angelic Pretty, Metamorphose, Putumayo. I can tell you now that I lightened my wallet and stocked out my Lolita wardrobe. The best part though, is that most of the stores I shopped at had a sale rack, which I of course used to my complete benefit, and took some of their excess stock off their hands.

It's really strange some of the comparisons that you start to make while shopping in Japan. I simply adore the etiquette that is ingrained in their society. From simple things like lining up for the train, and waiting for those already on board to de-board before getting on right through to the shopping. I really hate in Australia that people will line up for a train at the station, and then will not get out of the way for others to get on their train even though they themselves are not catching it - just blocking the way. The only difference I noticed with Lolita shops was in Angelic Pretty. Now, I do not speak much Japanese at all. I can say "excuse me", "I'd like this" and "thank-you" but you can get a long way with just gestures. The ladies in Metamorphose and Baby were lovely, but in Angelic Pretty, I found them rather rude and a little stand-offish. To be fair, when I went back later in the week, there was an older woman there who served me and she made the experience lovely. Putumayo and MAM had the best customer service by far. And event though we could not understand each other, it made my shopping experience so much better. If only customer service in Australia was at such a high standard. But maybe I just shop in the wrong sort of shops here.
My bag and arms full, I made my way around to Closet Child. This is where you can pick up second-hand Lolita dresses. They are all in fantastic condition and at a really great price. Not to mention that there is quite a range available and you are able to try some item on. I found it fantastic that I was able to pick up some items that I had been longing to have for quite some time. (And now they will be listed onto my poupee account and get me heaps of ribbons so I can dress up - pathetic addiction, I know)
My poor feet aching, my arms lagged with goodies, we made our way back to the train station, only to be side tracked by the fabulous MAM Maximam store, tucked away in a small alley. Exhausted, but happy I made my way slowly back to the hostel where I went to sleep with a filling suitcase and a happy smile.

Tokyo Trip Day 2: Nakano and Akihabara

I thought I would start out by telling you a little about our hostel room. For a start, it was fantastically cheap, costing me 3500 YEN per night. The beds were clean and warm and even through they could be a little hard, when you are exhausted from a day of shopping it really does not matter. We were also able to get a private room for the three of us, so no sharing a huge dorm room with a bunch of unwashed miscreants from all over the world. On the other hand, it also had its quirks. The bathroom, where it was not physically possible to completely stretch out and soak those aching shopping muscles, the hand basin tap that splutters and sprays water all over you, and the loo. The loo where even though there is a privacy lock, there was not enough room for your knees to fit behind the door when sitting. It really takes privacy out of the whole bathroom experience. Unfortunately, we later discovered that the beds were riddled with bed bugs and we all ended up bitten.
(view from the tiny balcony attached to our room)

But, bright eyed and bushy-tailed we made our way out into the big world of Japan...

And just about froze our arses off! Thankfully the concept of layers was already with us, and we were rugged up to the nines. Our first stop was Nakano, specifically the Nakano Broadway. Now I should point out that this was a shopping trip to Japan with the purpose to firstly blow a lot of that hard-earned cash in my savings account, and secondly to have the experience of visiting Japan.
Nakano broadway is a multi-story building with a whole bunch of shops in it. Specifically, a whole lot of shops with collectibles. We are talking Anime, Film, Gaming figures and whole lot more. It was a unique experience. I have never in my life seen so many collectibles in one place. Not even all the stalls at Supanova can compare to the sheer quantity of stores and items. I tell you know that if you are heading to Japan for collectibles, head to the Nakano Broadway first.

Our next stop was Akihabara, (photo #2) where you can get basically similar sort of stuff as at Nakano, but brand new and on a whole different scale. I snagged a beautiful new Pullip doll to add to my collection as well as some awesome figurines and cute little anime characters.

TIP - If you are going to do some hard-core shopping, take your small wheely carry-on suitcase with you. Yes it can be annoying dragging it behind you; and you feel a little silly; and it is a pain in the arse to lug it up the stairs, but your arms will thank you for the break from carrying everything in their individual plastic bags. It was truly the best advice I had before I went over. Everywhere I went, my suitcase went.
And another evening of 7-11 food picked up on the way back to the hostel, where we all crashed into our beds with aching feet and muscles.
(the cutest signage I have ever seen which tells you how to use the Tokyo subway system properly. I simply adore the cartoon animals.)

Tokyo Trip Day 1: Brisbane to Tokyo

It began with a wakeup before the sun. My bags were packed, my cookies baked and my clothing all laid out ready to wear. Abby decided that since I was up at 3.30am, I should play and pet her. At 5am L and ainead rolled into my driveway. We stuffed my mostly empty suitcase in and were on our way to the Gold Coast airport. It was a surprisingly quick trip, though it could have been due to the mounting excitement of our trip.

Bag checking was quick and painless ans we set in for the wait until we would board our flight. 9 Hours. Need I say more? I cannot think of a more boring was to spend my day. Thankfully after only three hours sleep the night before, it was not too tough on the system and I managed to catch up on my sleep.

We landed at Narita airport and suddenly felt the cool breeze of a Japanese winter hit us as we stepped off the plane. Navigating our way through the airport proved rather simple, and we quickly found our way through to the customs declaration. Blissfully, nothing was wrong and we proceeded through to collect our baggage and hop on the next Keisei Sky Liner express to Ueno.
A short walk later, we hopped on the Hibiya line and wand our way to Minowa; providing my first glimpse of the city night in Japan. After dragging out suitcases up three flights of stairs, we headed towards our hostel. The map made it look like only a couple of blocks, but in reality, and when you are dragging a heavy monster of a suitcase, it took us an age. We checked in, ditched our bags and gave in to the rumble of our stomachs.

Here is where the words 'gourmet' and 'starving' come into contrast. By this point it is 10.30pm and it has been a very long time since lunch. So the 7/11 down the street starts to look the best viable option. What I have come to learn is that eating out in Japan can be very cheap. 105 YEN for 1 onegeri. Very tasty and very filling. I wasn't quite that adventurous on our first day and instead opted for a rice ball. I think my dinner cost me a grand total of 320 YEN. Last of the big spenders I know. But by eating on the cheap, I have been able to get the full and fantastic experience of a trip to Japan, and could afford to bring back fantastic goodies to fill my wardrobe and room. (Suitcase capacity permitting).