Adventures in Nagoya!: Tokyo Day 1 (Arrival)!!

So after I came back from church this morning, I ate breakfast with everyone. We had freshly made bread, courtesy of Yuko (mmmm) and jello and salad.

Then I finished packing and cleaning my room. I vacuumed too! My room was sparkling by the time I left.

Yesterday I had bought two chocolate chip melon pan when I went to Daiso to get the sunscreen and aloe (which btw aloe in Japan is like water, so it's really hard to put on! Which sucks because my sunburn was probably a second degree burn. I woke up with my face on fire this morning and Yuko commented on it again :/ ), so I decided to make them both into pb&j sandwiches to eat on the Shinkansen.

I went to the kitchen to use the peanut butter before I finished the jar of jelly I had in my room. Everyone laughed at the fact that I was putting peanut butter on chocolate chip melon pan, haha.

At noon, I left for Tokyo!!!

(Going to Tokyo!! And look! My shirt even says "Tokyo"!)

Miya was sad I was leaving. Ken was in the shower when I left, so I didn't get to say bye to him.

As I was walking to the station with my huge suitcase attracting plenty of stares, I realized that everyone had been home with the car, so I probably could have asked for a ride. Ah well. It was good exercise!

I was kind of hot, though, because it's 57 today and the sun was bearing down on me. It's supposed to be in the high 50s to mid 60s all week in Tokyo, so I almost left my jacket home. But you know, there could always be a freak snowstorm or something... So I brought it.

And apparently it's going to rain Wesnesday and Thursday! Fml.

At Ichinomiya Eki, I took the JR to Nagoya. I got there half an hour early because I wasn't really sure where to go. But it was super easy to find the Shinkansen ticket area and my train platform and my car number. I didn't even have to ask anyone!

There were a few trains before mine so I went to where I had wifi and called my family because they were all home for Spring break and I hadn't talked to them in over a month!

Then I headed up to the Shinkansen platform. The train before mine was leaving and mine came shortly after.

(The platform!)

There was a little stand selling souvenir sweets. Because Nagoya's regional flavor is red bean, there was a buch of red bean flavored sweets.

(I still really want to try those kit kats! If they're not cheaper in Tokyo's Kit Kat museum, I'm buying them on the way back!)

(My Shinkansen coming in!)

(Bound for Tokyo!)

It was all pristine and polished and modern in the Shinkansen!

And there was more leg room than in an airplane!

The bathroom area looked like the set of Star Trek (the good one, with Chris Pine (and the only one I've seen, haha))

(Outside the bathroom)

(Inside the bathroom. The red and green buttons were for opening and closing the automatic door)

Aaaaand, it turns out my seat was a window seat!!! Yayyyyy!!!!

The Shinkansen had such a silent departure! No voice over the loudspeaker saying the doors are closing, no final bell ringing, and no loud buzz as the doors closed. Gosh! Then we silently slid away from Nagoya.

(Bye JR towers)

(Bye twisty tower)

I saw a bunch of cool looking shrines and buildings on the way over and mikan greenhouses!! I wonder if there's such a thing as mikangari?

At one point we passed a huge lake with a place for boat racing!

So I was writing on my phone when I just happened to look out the window, and bam, there was Mt. Fuji! I can't believe the guy next to me hadn't said anything! I heard cameras clicking, but nobody was freaking out like they had on my flight down. The Shinkansen is too silent. It's eerie.

But I still managed to get pictures!

(Edited a bit because it was so foggy out)

Keniichiro had told me to try to sit on the left side so I could see Mt. Fuji, so I'm really happy my seat happened to be on the left!

I studied kanji on the Shinkansen. It's funny how many I know now. I haven't looked at the cards I made since my flight over, but I know so many now from seeing them around town, in the songs we sing at church, and in the manga I read!

(More scenery)

The guy next to me got off at the first stop, about half an hour before we reached Tokyo.

Then we made another stop about ten minutes later.

And next was Tokyo! It's amazing how it takes 6 hours to get to Tokyo by bus, but the Shinkansen was only an hour and a half!

To be honest, though, I'd thought the Shinkansen travelled closer to warp speed. I thought things would be whipping past me so fast, I'd barely be able to see what they were. But no, it's not that fast yet.

First thought when I exited the train and headed down to Tokyo station?

Soooo crowded!!! And so many gaijin (foreigners)!

I saw Tokyo banana souveneirs the minute I stepped off the Shinkansen, haha.

I went to the information counter and the lady there spoke English! Whoa! I forgot that most Japanese people in Tokyo can speak English.

She told me how to get to Asakusabashi, and when I asked if I could put money on my Toica card and use that, she told me I could use my Shinkansen ticket to ride the subway one time!! Whaaat?

I bet I could've used it from Ichinomoya to Nagoya and not had to have paid. Oh well. Now I know.

I'm so glad I've lived in Japan for two and a half months prior to coming here, or I would've been cometely overwhelmed by the trains/subways!

When I was about to board the subway to Akihabara, I dropped my wallet and this guy alerted me and pointed to it, while another guy picked it up and handed it to me! So nice!!

When I got to Akihabara, I saw right away it was everything I thought it would be.

(The tracks were coated with anime posters...)

But I couldn't linger because I had to hop on another line to my hostel so I could drop off the mammoth suitcase I was carrying.

(The posters all over the stairwells at Akihabara station. I didn't see them at any other station...)

I switched to the yellow line and went one stop to Akihabarabashi. So my hostel's only three stops from Tokyo station! Nice!

Before I'd left home, I'd written down the directions to the hostel from the station. They were really good directions and I found the place easily.

(The outside)

When you walk in, there's a sign telling you to go to the 4th floor to check in.

(The super cool elevator!)

The hotel staff were all really nice and spoke English. After I paid, they showed me to my room. I'm on the second floor and I share a room with nine other girls. There was another girl in there watching a movie on her bed when I walked in. I didn't even notice her until 10 minutes later because she was all hidden behind her curtain and didn't even speak to me at all.

(My bed! So cute. I'm on the top bunk)

Rashaa had decided to stay at Anne hostel too and had gotten in last night, so I called her and she was here waiting for me, so we headed out. I'd heard the best time to go to Harajuku is Sunday afternoon, so that was the first thing on my list.

We hopped on the JR (because according to Rashaa it's cheaper than the subway here, and I like that it goes to all the big wards that I want to visit) and went back the way I'd just come, but passed Tokyo and went all the way to the other side of the loop, where Harajuku is.

Harajuku station opened right onto the famous Takeshita street!

(Takeshita street!!!)

So we took a picture in front of the street. It's on my camera. I was proud of myself for asking this Japanese guy in Japanese to take it, because there are sooo many foreigners here who don't speak a lick of Japanese!

I constantly felt like I was in NYC the entire time, seeing skyscrapers and dirty streets and hearing English being spoken all around me.

We walked all down Takeshita street looking at all the shops. I definitely saw some pretty crazily dressed people! And a lot of people with rainbow hair, haha!

At the end of Takeshita, we crossed the main road to Harajuku street and walked down that a bit. Then we went back and walked down the main street. It ended up at Yoyogi Park! Yay, I wanted to go there!

The sunset was beautifullll!! I got some great shots of it on my camera.

But here's one of it once we entered the park:

So we walked through a bunch of Yoyogi Park, but not all of it because it's a huge park. It reminded me so, so much of Central Park, being a big park in a giant city. And plus there were a ton of drunk Americans with their Japanese friends who knew English drinking and wearing green or the Irish flag and celebrating St. Patrick's Day, haha.

We came across a bunch of pretty plum blossoms and took pictures by them.

Then we headed to the lake. The fountain changed colors! It was so awesome.

(All my different fountain pix)

It was so warm today and such a nice night!!

There was this huuugeee line of girls outside the park, so Rashaa and I followed the line to see what the girls were waiting for. It turned out to be the release of some album of this singer who was on tour. Lameee!

(These girls were dressed all Lolita-ish. I don't know how they go out in public like that!)

Then Rashaa and I decided to go get crepes, because I've been withholding from eating crepes until I got to Harajuku, where crepes are famous!

We stopped at Angels Heart, because I'd heard good things about their crepes.

But I ended up going to the stall next to it, Marion crepes because they were cheaper and had a flavor I wanted and they had no line, while Angel Hearts had a huge line. But Rashaa decided to wait on Angels Heart's line and get a cheesecake crepe.

(Angels Heart)

(The Banana Melba crepe I got)

(Mah delicious crepe!!)

(Itadakimasu!)

There was a giant three floor Daiso, so I stopped in there while Rashaa finished her crepe.

(Pretty sure these aren't finger sacks...)

And no surprise, everything I bought was pink!

I love this case, it's much cuter than my other one! And the jewel heart thing is ink to use with my inkan!

We went into a McDonalds to sit down and figure out what we wanted to do next. I was still hungry since I hadn't had dinner, and I've been wanting to try the teriyaki burger that's only at Japanese McDonalds, so I got one.

(Cute limited time only sakura drink)

(My teriyaki mcburger)

I can't believe I shopped at McDonalds... It's the first time I've eaten there since I was like 6 or 7.

Then Rashaa and I decided to go one stop over to Shibuya because it was close and I wanted to see it at night.

We crossed the famous Shibuya crossing!! I got a movie of it on my camera. We both felt it was a lot smaller and faster to cross than we'd imagined. Then I wanted to go up to the famous Starbucks that overlooks the crossing, so we did. I took a movie of the people crossing from up there.

Then I ate my burger. It tasted really good! Like actual teriyaki chicken. And I was really enjoying it until I got a bite with Mayo. And then I saw it was coated with mayo. Ughhhh. Mayo was spilling out everywhere and my camera fell in it and it was gross. The burger was super unappetizing after that.

While we were up there people watching, I saw Rana and Ben walking below!!!

I ran down and jumped in front of them, scaring them out of their skin, haha!

They came up to talk with Rashaa and me for a bit and then left.

Rashaa and I went to Forever 21 then to look around for a bit, and then we decided to head home. I was glad because I was feeling bad after the crepe and the mayo.

The train we took back only went halfway. So at the last stop, they made everyone get off and then we had to wait outside for another train. It sucked!

But we made it back to the hotel before I got really sick, so that was good!

I like my bed a lot, it's really cozy! I just wish they'd turn off the room lights :/