Last week in Japan - Tokyo!!! (Part 1)

Found this pic of me and Chris someone took. I really like it even thought I wasn't particularly fond of Chris...

And one with Hotaru!

Luv her

Sunday, May 18

We went to church and Mom and Bridget met Father and my other friends. Then we hopped on the Shinkansen to Tokyo!!

Cute chick cakes at Nagoya Station

Yeaaahhh Shinkansen!

We saw Mt. Fuji on the way!!!

I was so pissed about this. What a beautiful picture this could have been (with the reflection and everything!) had that stupid telephone pole not gotten in the way!

Adorable coin lockers in Tokyo

And a Pokemon store!

 We headed to Asakusa where we were all staying for the night.

And a pig restaurant!

We saw a tank of about eight squid outside a sushi restaurant. When we passed it later, there was only one left. :,(

 Some sort of festival was going on because there were a bunch of men without pants...

I found out later in my mom and sister's hostel that it was the Sanja Matsuri (Three Shrine Festival), which is one of the three great Shinto festivals in Tokyo and is held in Asakusa every year.

Okay, enough pantless men pictures!

Whoops, guess I was kidding

After we checked in to my mom and sister's hostel, which was right around the corner from the festival, we went to enjoy the festivities (and most importantly, eat festival food!)

Love their hair! We saw them again in Harajuku (apparently they're pretty famous, the guy's in a band!)

I got okonomiyaki to eat. They made it weirdly here, using an actual pancake as the base. That's cool because I like pancakes, but I felt like I needed syrup with it!

And of course, I got a whipped cream chocobanana!

Then we went to go watch the parade.

People carrying in lanterns

And then we went back to get some sleep.

Panda bus!

The pig restaurant has pig and chick lanterns!

And a giant pig lantern!

The sky tree looked all pretty lit up :)

Mom and Bridget came with me to check into my capsule hotel before they headed back to their hostel. I was so excited!!!! My first time staying in a capsule hotel!

Lawl, Engrish

When I first got to my hallway, I opened the door and this is what I saw:

 

The rooms were tiny!!! I had no freaking clue how I was supposed to fit in one of those little squares. And to make things worse, I had one on the bottom, so I had to get down on my knees to crawl in!

My selfie. Gosh, such a tiny door!

Inside my capsule

It ended up not being that bad at all! I got a free towel (my mom and sister had to rent towels at their hostel) and free slippers. Then at the bath (which was a public bath where I was naked with a bunch of old ladies), there was free soap, shampoo, and conditioner! And there was an onsen where I took a nice, long soak. It was beautiful. And then I got to go into my nice quiet room, which was actually quite large inside (I could sit up with room above my head as well as lie down spread Eagle with room to spare) and was able to sleep peacefully!

Yeaahhhhh, in a capsule! Most Japanese people have never slept in a capsule (and told me I was brave and adventurous for doing so), so I feel lucky ;)

Monday, May 19

Today we woke up to do a whirlwind one-day tour of Tokyo!

Asakusa coin lockers

 I met my mom and sister at Asakusa's giant Don Quixote. While there, I ran into Ryan, Josephine, and Jose from Nanzan! Whoa!! It was totally crazy. We talked for a while before we parted and then I saw Mom and Bridget and we left.

New raspberry kit kats, OMG!

Dice you could roll with different sides, where you tell a story about whatever you land on (like something romantic). This one is first H, whatever that means...

Something you're proud of

Don Quixote has some really special merchandise...

The first part says "kaupa," which means "bulbourethral gland." If you don't know what that means, don't ask (I warned you)

Cute boxers

 First stop, was Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, where I've been already.

But last time, I didn't know to look under the lantern to see the wood carving!

Ta-da!

Cool mural at the station

 Then we went to Ueno Park, so I could go to that temple in the middle of the pond I'd wanted to see during my last trip, but hadn't had time to check out.

Turtles!

Next, it was the Tokyo Metropolitan Building!

I got to wear a happi and pose with this cute cow!

 Then Harajuku, where my sister and I took cute purikura and went shopping!

Look!! I'm on the sign for Takeshita Street!

 I went to the hoppe store to buy a hoppe key chain because I love Miyabi's hoppe collection!

"All this hope is making my face ache"

Don't ask...

And of course, I got a crepe. This time I went to Santa Monica Crepes!

Oreo and caramel ice cream mmmmm!

 

So I went to the bathroom nearby where there were pink stalls. And I was so shocked! There was graffiti! This was my first time seeing graffiti in a Japanese bathroom!!

The one part I could read said "A high schooler shouldn't be writing on walls," because whoever wrote the above message had written that she was in high school

 And then Shibuya!

The crossing

Hachiko bus!

See the Domo bus??

 Last stop, Ginza! We were exhausted and our feet were aching! But we went to Ginza because I hadn't been there yet and had sushi there.

Pretty blurry, sorry :/

Weird tofu cube appetizer we didn't order, but had to pay for...

 We waited forever for the guy to come take our order, before I finally realized there was a pinpon thing on the table! Crap. Lol. So we rang it and the guy came running.

Ahhh it was so good!

Yummy dessert. The same as what I had that time with Manaka's family and Father at that Chinese restaurant

Then we went to our new hostel for tonight, Anne Hostel, which is where I stayed last time I was in Tokyo!