Tokyo Day 4 (Ghibli museum and host clubbing)!!

Wednesday, March 19

I was suuuuper tired for some reason this morning. 

So when I heard one of the hotel staff speaking in Japanese to some girl checking in, I was immediately mad at the girl for checking in at 6 am when people should be sleeping. 

But then she started tapping on my feet and saying "Cate!" And I realized it was Sayaka! I'd told her about my hostel and she'd decided to stay here tonight, but I hadn't realized she'd be coming in this morning!

She told me it was 8:40 am! Whoa! I checked my phone then and saw she and Minju had kept messaging after I'd fallen asleep last night and planned to meet at 8:30 instead of 10!! Whaaat?? Well, guess that wasn't happening.

It turned out Sayaka had come to check in and found out she couldn't until 4. And when I wasn't answering the messages this morning, she'd asked if she could come wake me up haha, so they let her. Whoops!

I got ready super fast and scarfed down toast on the way out. Sayaka and I ended up meeting up with Minju (who'd been waiting at a Starbucks) at 9:30, but Minju was totally cool with it! She's such a sweetheart!

And then we were off! We all got on the train. It was a while before seats opened up. Sayaka and Minju sat together and I was standing until another seat opened up. There was a lady between Sayaka and Minju, and me, but when she saw we were all friends, she got up and switched with me! It was so nice!!

Minju had brought a box with three of these weird bread on a stick things. She asked us what flavors we wanted. Sayaka and I both wanted strawberry, so I let Sayaka have it. I got chocolate and Minju got plain.

Then we got to the Ghibli museum stop. Minju had given Sayaka her 12pm ticket that she originally had before she bought the 2pm to go with me. So Sayaka was going to go first and Minju and I were going to continue down three stops to go to the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum (aka the Sen to Chihiro place).
We took a pink bus called the Coco bus to get there. It was so cute! The driver was really nice, too.

The Sen to Chihiro place was actually a collection of buildings. They were this famous politician's house, some shops, and a public bath. Hayao Miyazaki had come here and been inspired by the buildings and used them as a basis for the buildings in Spirited Away. So a lot of them look like the scenery in Spirited Away.

When we were inside the politician's house, this lady who was one of the staff was in one of the rooms upstairs. She told us that this was the room where the politician had died! He was murdered by angry townspeople who were mad that he had raised the taxes. The lady also said, once she found out that Minju was Korean, that lots of young Korean girls always come here because it's so similar to the setting of Spirited Away, lol.

The sakura fence on the way there

The drain covers here!

Cool shrine-like building

The politician's house

Behind the politician's house

The politician's house - and this is the doorway Haku stepped through in the beginning of Spirited Away and the one Chihiro let No Face in through!

Me by the doorway

Upstairs (where the lady was talking to us), also where Chihiro slept

Inside

Cute little doorway

The gate Chihiro had to go through to get to Kamaji!

The politician's backyard

Back of the politician's house

The train. At the entrance to the place, there's a photo of Hayao Miyazaki and No Face in front of this train.

Me being Chihiro

The little village

Kamaji's room!

Umbrella shop

The bathhouse!

The bar where Chihiro's parents became pigs!

Same bar

Entrance to bar

Entrance to bathhouse

Men's side

Women's side

Minju and me

Painting on the women's side

The men got Mt. Fuji on their side. No fair >:(

Floral shop

Ramune!!

 

Minju and I were super hungry, so we ate the bread on a stick things Minju had given all of us on the train. And I had two eggs I'd taken from breakfast this morning, so I gave Minju one and we ate those too. Then we looked at the plum blossoms before we left.

Pink plum blossoms!

White plum blossoms!

And Minju gave me green tea chocolate crunch bar she'd bought. So good!

When we were finished looking at everything, we had to go anyway because it was 1, and our Ghibli Museum tickets were for 2pm. So we hopped back on the train and headed back to the Ghibli Museum stop.
There, we took this adorable bus to the museum. Although I think the bus to the museum should be the catbus. That would be way cooler!

Outside of the museum

When we entered, we exchanged our tickets for a film strip! Apparently, it's super uncommon to get a character on your strip. Minju was really hoping for Haku, but she got scenery, haha. It was so funny how pissed she was!
I got Sophie, from Howl's Moving Castle!! It must have been Howl's Moving Castle day because Minju's scenery was from it, Sayaka got Markyl, and other people had Howl's Moving Castle film strips as well!

My film strip

 We weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum, which was a pity because there were some really cool things! My favorite thing was these 3D statues of Ghibli things (like the cat bus) that were all in different poses. Then they moved around really fast and a strobe light blinked on and off, so they became animated and looked like they were really moving!!
It was sooooo cool!

We also got to see a short Ghibli animation for free. It was about a boy and a rabbit who found a cane lying in a field and were fighting over it. It was cute!

Stained glass windows with Princess Mononoke pictures

The big iron guy from Castle in the Sky (on the roof of the museum)

Also on the roof. Also from Castle in the Sky I think.

Cute Totoro reception at the front of the museum!

 We went to the gift shop where Minju bought a book of the art of Spirited Away. Minju's in love with Haku, so since none of us got Haku film strips, she bought a pack of random Spirited Away film strips and hoped for the best. And she got Haku!!! We were so proud of her and she was ecstatic!

Then we took the train back to Shinjuku.

Cute bus in Shibuya

 We decided to go eat at a monja restaurant. Monja is the Tokyo version of okonomiyaki. It was delicious!
It was make-it-yourself monja, so we each picked what ingredients we wanted in it. Then we got a bowl of those ingredients and the batter and we got to make it!
I chose a bowl with noodles, shrimp, and octopus. Mmmm. Minju's had mochi, which made hers really good! We all tried each other's.

We got bibs to wear so we didn't mess up our clothes, lol.

My bowl! Yummy!

Let's do this!

My monja!

 We were all still hungry when we were done adn were thinking of getting dessert. But then they brought out kakigori!! Yay! It was on the house because it was happy hour. We'd also gotten free drinks because it was happy hour, so I got melon soda, of course! :)

It tasted like bubble gum

 And then it was host clubbing time! We walked around a bit, looking at the OIOI store (pronounced marui marui) Minju wanted to go to until 8ish and then we went hunting.
I'd heard Kabukicho was where all the host clubs are, so we headed there.

Pillow at a store in OIOI

I bought this shojo magazine because it had Kimi Ni Todoke on the cover!

And it came with a free book!

Kabukicho!!

Alpacas for Bridget

 The first thing we saw in Kabukicho was this SUPER bright robot cafe with huge moving robots! It was pretty creepy, to tell you the truth...

There's a real Japanese girl sitting inside. See her?

And here's a movie of it:

Don't ask. We were laughing at this sign when this old Japanese dude asked us if we wanted to go inside and see it...

 So we saw all these hosts on the street, but only two ended up coming up and giving us fliers and inviting us into their club. Rawr. This was harder than I thought it would be.
Finally, this one guy came over and asked us what we were looking for. He turned out to be a guide. He said he could hook us up with a host club and invited us to his office.
Thankfully, Sayaka is Japanese, so she talked with him and asked him how much it would cost. He said nothing, so we decided to go with him.
Minju figured out that he probably was paid by whatever club we ended up going to, because they would be happy he got them business.

Inside his office. Pictures of hosts covered the walls.

Minju and me waiting.

 There were other Japanese girls in there waiting for hosts too. The guy and this other lady who worked with him started calling host clubs. I said we wanted one for 500 yen, but none of the 500 yen ones wanted us. So they moved on to asking 1000 yen ones. So many host clubs turned us down! It was hard because we were an American, a Korean, and a Japanese. And neither Minju nor I are fluent in Japanese, although Minju is way better than I am!
But they finally found a club for us! The guy walked us over there and everything.

It was in a giant building of host clubs.

The building

 The club was called Club Paradise. We rode the elevator up to the floor it was on. When we got up, we walked in and there was a line of hosts clapping that we had to walk through, haha. Then we were seated at a booth facing three tables next to each other, which a chair at each on the other side. I was happy we were all sitting together!
Then we picked what combo we wanted. Combo C was the only option that came with snacks, but the drink was just soda. I wanted alcohol. So I picked A, which was sake mixed with tea of Calpis. I had it mixed with Calpis. Minju and Sayaka chose A too. Then three guys came over to pour our drinks (they were amazed at the amount of sake I could drink haha) and we all did cheers.
Then the guys started talking to us. We each got a guy. Mine was pretty cute. He had red hair. He asked if he could sit in the booth next to me. Then we talked about a bunch of different things. He was really patient with my basic Japanese.

I was telling him about the penis festival and trying to find a picture of it, when he got tapped. Then he had to do cheers with all of us and he was switched out with another guy. It was all so rushed! Each guy was only there for about 15 minutes. I got about 4 guys total I think. We all got the business card of every guy there, even though we only talked with one at a time.
One of my guys was really quiet and I had to be the one making conversation the whole time. That was annoying.
The last guy I got was really cute. Sayaka's last guy (Taiyo) was too. Both of them could speak a bit of English. Taiyo had come first so I'd been talking to him when my guy showed up. And Taiyo and I had totally bonded! He was funny. First he asked me if I thought his haircut made him look gay, haha. Then he told me he liked Avril Lavinge. I was like "ME TOO!!!" He also liked Sum 41. I asked him if he knew Home Made Kazoku, and he said he did! And started singing Nagareboshi! Ahhh!!
He also liked Naruto and had read the latest chapter!
I was talking to Taiyo and my guy about Sensoji temple, but I'd forgotten the name again. They couldn't remember the name either! Even when I showed them a picture! And they said they'd never been there. I was like, "But you guys live here!"
And Taiyo was all like, "I bet you've never been to the Statue of Liberty" and I had to admit that even though I'm in New York every year, I never have been to the Statue of Liberty, lol.

It was a lot of fun! And it was over too fast. After all the hosts had gone back to the back, a guy came out and asked us all who we'd liked best, and we showed the business card of who we liked best. I chose Taiyo. Then the guys we'd all chosen came out to talk to us one last time and exchange numbers and take a picture. Taiyo added me on Line and told me he wants to practice Japanese and English with me. Then they walked us to the door and carried our coats and purses! :)
It was sweet, even though I know it's all just a scam. They want you to come back and request a guy (which costs way more than 1000 yen), but then you get to talk to just that guy the whole time.

It was Sayaka's first time going to a host club and she had a lot of fun. She and Minju both thanked me for taking them. :)

Then we walked around a bit more, took purikura, and then headed back to our hostels. I also got an anpan because I was kind of hungry. Sayaka and I both traveled back to Anne Hostel together. On the way home, she taught me the word "charai" which means playboy-like, haha.

Giant Don Quixote in Shinjuku

My anman

Mmmm, so warm!

I felt pretty happy after all that sake, haha. And the problem with getting tipsy in Tokyo is you do stupid shit like let your pristine Rilakkuma train pass get dirty and lose your cute Line bear iPhone earplug. :(((
I was really disgruntled about that. I looked around for the Line bear the next day, and couldn't find him anywhere!

My collection of business cards from a fun night out! (The guy in the top right corner was my first guy, the guy in the middle was my last guy, and the guy in the bottom left corner was Sayak's guy, who I chose)

Our purikura :)

Also, on the way home, we saw a businessman faint at the train station! He was walking and just fell over. Two people went over to help him. To me, it looked like he died... 0.0 He was just lying there face down, not moving at all (even when people were shaking him), still holding his briefcase.

Also, at Asakusabashi, outside the train station, Sayaka and I saw a bunch of drunk salarymen, haha. They were pretty funny.