Tokyo and Yokohama

Another Trip to Tokyo
Last Saturday I went to Tokyo to visit my friend since it may be the last time I see him. We were supposed to do some things I wanted (such as go to the zoo, go to this big park, go to a temple, etc), but that ended up getting ruined because it rained all day. He had told me that it would rain all day the day before, but I still went to Tokyo because I wanted to hang out. The day was still fun, though, despite the rain.

I got to Tokyo around 11am. The first thing we did was eat ramen at a ramen restaurant that he claimed to be really good. So, we went to a restaurant called Washo (I hope I got it right) in Sangenjaya near Shibuya. We arrived minutes before it opened and thank goodness, too, cause it's one of those small ramen shops so there were very many chairs and it would have sucked if we had to wait outside in the rain. The ramen was pretty expensive, but I gotta admit it was probably the best ramen I had since I came to Japan. Totally worth the money.

After lunch we went to Shibuya (still raining at this point). We first tried finding a place that sold bento boxes because I wanted to buy one. We ended up not finding much. Oh, almost forgot. When we got off the station at Shibuya we went to check out the Hachiko Statue that's right next to the station. If you don't know who Hachiko is I recommend looking up his story. One of the best true dog stories in my opinion. It's actually my favorite. My friend wasn't very excited about it because he comes to Shibuya a lot so he sees it a lot. I was a bit too excited when I saw it lol My friend then went and told me a sad fact about Akita Inus (which is the breed that Hachiko was). Apparently, because of the war a lot of people let their dogs go (I forgot why) and the dogs became feral so the government decided they would kill them. Only the rich people managed to hide their dogs and there ended up only being 24 left. I'm glad they didn't go completely extinct. (There's a little 2 cents for you).

After walking around Shibuya we decided to go to Akihabara to do a favor for a friend back in the states. When we got to Akiba (Akihabara, I will just be calling it that from now on since it's easier to write) we went straight to Kotobukiya which is one of the many buildings in Akiba. This building had a lot of anime/manga related stuff. We went upstairs to where the "Tales of" shop. It's just a small section on the second floor that sold merchandise from the Tales Of video game series (which is becoming one of my favorites). I couldn't get what my friend wanted, but was able to get something that would her happy. On the same floor there was a small section that sold Nyanko-sensei stuff. One of my favorite anime characters x3 I had to control myself from buying anything lol I already have like 3 keychains of him so I think that should be enough xP After we left Kotobukiya (still raining btw) we headed to the Sega building which is just an arcade building. We went there to look at the UFO Catcher games. While I was there I saw this really awesome Nyanko-sensei merchandise, but the game cost 200円 per game so I had to resist. Me and my friend ended up watching this guy try to get one of those huge cat-head plushies. How this game worked was you had to puncture holes on to a paper to the point where it just rips off and the prize falls. It's a lot harder than it sounds. We watched the guy for a long time. He didn't give up. He won it in the end. It sucked for my friend because he was gonna try it after the guy gave up, but he didn't. My friend says once you've spent a lot you won't stop knowing you're close. We left the Sega building and found another building that had those UFO Catcher games. I saw the Nyanko-sensei merchandise again, but this time the game was 100円 so I decided to try it. I had no idea how to win it and neither did my friend. We tried, but I think we ended up messing it up completely so I didn't end up winning it. I lost 1800円 trying, but I guess the experience was kinda worth it... I still think about that merchandise... After that we went to another building with those games. But we didn't stay too long. We decided to go back to Shibuya after that.

Back in Shibuya we walked around a bit. We stopped by a Book Off. We stayed there for a little bit. Then we went to a shop that I totally forgot was called. I found some really awesome bento boxes there. After looking around for a little while we met up with my friend's girlfriend then we went to eat Shabu Shabu for dinner! I was super excited especially after being bummed that I didn't get the Nyanko-sensei thing and that I wasted 1800円 trying. It was great having Shabu Shabu again. I made sure that I would have it one more time before I left Japan because I don't know if I'll even have the chance to have it back in the US. We went to a different place then the first time we had it together. It was all you can eat which was the best part! It was so good. I absolutely love Shabu Shabu! I also realized that Shabu Shabu's probably the most expensive meal I've ever ate. It's around $25. I totally think it's worth it, though. If I was rich I'd eat it every day lol

After dinner I said goodbye to my friends and headed to Kumarae which is where my other friends (who are also Tsuru exchange students) were. We booked the same hostel. When I got there, though, I got lost for like 15 minutes. The map the website had was completely off. I freaked out, too, because I kept calling them but no one was answering. Eventually, someone finally picked up and I was able to get to the hostel safely.
The next day we went to Sensoji temple and then Yokohama!

Senso-ji

 

  Before heading to Yokohama me and the other Tsuru exchange students decided to go to the Senso-Ji temple which is famous for it's large lanterns. When we got there it was really crowded. You had to carefully maneuver your way through people. At the gate there was a large lantern and behind that were a bunch of shops. That's also another reason why it was so crowded. The shops were lined up and the path between the shops were pretty narrow. And since this was a fairly famous temple it's no surprise that it would be crowded. I was just a little overwhelmed because I didn't expect it to be that crowded. We didn't check out all the shops, but saw some pretty nice ones. There was one shop that sold samurai swords (katanas), but of course they were insanely expensive. Pretty awesome to look at, though.  We eventually reached the end where the temple was. Before the temple was another large red lantern (pictured above). We didn't go directly into the temple, though. We took a little detour where there were more vendors. We also saw a monkey show. A monkey was doing a bunch of these tricks that were super cute and very impressive. I felt sorry for the monkey, though, because the whole time it had a rope lease one. I guess it was for the safety of the audience just in case the monkey suddenly went crazy. After watching the monkey we went into the temple. We ended up going through the wrong way, though, but we weren't the only ones so we didn't care lol Once you've seen a lot of temples it doesn't become as impressive, but still cool to look at. After we got out some of us went to buy some food. On the way out of the temple we stopped by a place that sold these really good snacks. I can't really describe it very well but it's like a fried snack. Sorry, I somehow really can't explain it... but it was delicious! When left Senso-ji we headed out to Yokohama.

Yokohama
We got off near where China Town was. It's probably random that we decided to go to China Town in Japan, but we desperately wanted to eat freshly made pork buns and apparently China Town had some really good ones. We walked through the street and checked out some interested shops. Most of the shops we looked through were kind a Indian and Hawaiian themed. We also went into a shop that sold panda-related stuff. After awhile we finally found the place that one of the exchange students went to when she came here with her host families. Honestly, I thought the price was high, but it sure was delicious! It's been so long since I had freshly made pork buns! So satisfying lol

After eating we headed out of China Town and walked to where the ocean was. It felt nice seeing the ocean again. It also was really cold lol All of us girls decided that we wanted to go to the ferris wheel so the only guy who was with us decided that he wanted to go check out the shops in China Town. The walk to the ferris wheel was really long. Also, at that point my feet were starting to hurt because we walked most of the day (and I stood up about half of the train ride to Yokohama). I don't remember how long the walk was exactly, but it was long. We got really excited when we finally made it to where the ferris wheel was. It was huge ferris wheel. Probably the biggest I've ever seen. It cost 1500円 to ride which is super expensive... but we wanted the experience so we bought tickets. The wait was a little long, but not too bad. When we finally got on the ferris wheel we got excited. The view from there was awesome. I thought it would be disappointing because it was dark, but it was actually really cool. The lights from buildings and other rides that were there were nice. It took 15minutes for the whole thing to go around. Definitely worth the experience. After the ferris wheel we made the long trek back to China Town.

We stopped by Starbucks before heading back into China Town. I bought maccha latte cause I love maccha. We stayed in starbucks until we finished our drinks (it was cold outside so we wanted to warm up a bit inside). The tables we sat at were checkered patterns so me and my friend decided to play checkers! lol we used 10 and 1 yen coins. People looked at us in either amusement or confusion lol it was fun XD After starbucks we headed back into China Town and checked out some more stores. The guy who was in China Town while we were at the ferris wheel told us that he found a shop where the entrance was a panda head and you walk though it's mouth. I thought that was pretty amusing so we went to to it. It's a lot cooler when you see it in person lol After that we headed back to the train station where from there we headed back to Tsuru.