Jun 19, 2015 1:36 PM
My Experience in Japan (Part 2 of 2)
Anime Relations:
Love Live! School Idol Project, Date A Live, Shingeki no Kyojin, Kantai Collection: KanColle, Amagi Brilliant Park, The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls, Shokugeki no Souma
Day 17 – Kyoto, Japan - June 3, 2015
Leave Matsuyama by train to Kyoto. We had emotional goodbye to our Japanese friends and our international teacher at the Japan Rail Station. It was a three hour ride to Oyama and another two hour ride to Kyoto by train. We checked in a hotel and then drop by a sushi go round to eat for dinner. I had about fourteen sushi plates.
Later that night, the rest of us wandered around the city of Kyoto and go shopping for any souvenirs.
Snack – Green Tea Chocolate Bar
Sushi-Go-Round
Streets of Kyoto
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Kyoto Arcades
Day 18 – June 4, 2015
Traditional Japanese Breakfast that consist of Salmon, egg and, took the subway to Kyoto tourist attraction.
The first was the Golden Pavilion area. There were many international tourist and Japanese junior high school students. I really wanted to buy one of those lucky charms, but I was in a hurry to catch up with my group.
We later went to the Nijou castle and it was different from other Japanese castles. There were girls in kimonos. Return to the hotel by 3:00 to rest a little before meeting up on 4:00.
Afterwards, I went back to the nearby mall to shop around and find dinner on my own, which was at the First Kitchen for western-style food. I went to the arcade in attempt to win an anime character figurine, but failed miserably, so I ended up buying the character figure in a nearby anime store. The character figurine was Umi Sonoda from Love Live School Idol Project, which is currently one of the most popular anime in Japan. Additionally, I bought two Tales of 4-koma manga. I just thought they could be cheaper here than in Tokyo.
Golden Pavillion
Shogun House Garden
Nijou Castle
Dinner
Sonoda Umi and Tales 4-koma
Day 19 – June 5, 2015
I had American style breakfast in the morning. We took a two hour train ride to go to city of Nara. There were hundreds of deers everywhere living among side the people there and they are approachable. What surprised me more is that these deers are the most formal animals I've ever seen. I really saw a few of them "bowing" to us when we get close to them while eye contacting. You may have to be a bit careful when feeding them because they may gather around you for more food. Also, you better make sure to hide your important papers especially money, so they won't eat them.
A tourist attraction is the Tōdai-ji Buddhist shrine. Inside the shrine lies statue in the middle. One of the supporting poles has a hole mainly for people to squeeze through and if successful, their next life will be granted enlightens. After leaving the shrine, we briefly scattered around the city to find food to eat. While on the way back to Kyoto, I finally saw the Nintendo HQ in person.
Afterwards, we took a train to another tourist attraction, Fushimi Inari Shrine. I bought two lucky charm amulets. The first one is for matchmaking and the second is for general good luck. As we climb up the hills of the shrine area, we took a brief view at the city of Kyoto before descending back down.
For dinner, I got a taste of Japanese style McDonald’s and walked around the districts of Kyoto for most the night.
Breakfast
Train
Nara
Nintendo HQ
Fushimi Shrine
Japanese McDonald’s
Lucky Charm Amulets
Day 20 – Tokyo, Japan - June 6, 2015
We leave Kyoto for Tokyo by noon. It was my first time taking the Bullet Train. We arrive in the capital of Japan by 4:00. We transported to one of Tokyo’s subway lines to Asakusa district, the traditional part of the city.
We checked in a rather small hotel, which happens to be close the Bandai Headquarters and the Tokyo Sky Tree. After we our brief meeting in the hotel lobby, we looked around in the streets of Asakusa to find dinner. We went to family owned restaurant.
After dinner, we eventually scattered around the district on our own. I followed the map closely, so I wouldn’t get lost as practice for tomorrow. I became more confident to explore Tokyo by myself.
New lesson learned: Do not leave tips in Japan. You would most likely be chased by a staff restaurant member to give back your tip thinking that you "accidentally" left your money behind. That's exactly what I witnessed today when a Ramen shop owner called after one of his foreign customer to bring his tip money.
Japan Rail Bullet Train to Tokyo
Dinner
Asakusa
Streets Asakusa
Day 21 – June 7, 2015
Free day in Tokyo.
Woke up early in the morning to have breakfast and went our separate ways to explore around Tokyo. I visited the Akihabara district early since it was my most desired place to go. The district is known for being the capital of electronics and anime. As expected, there are anime advertisement everywhere are and there were cute maids handing out advertisement cards to customers. Most of the anime advertisements are Spring 2015 animes such as Grisaia no Rakuen, Shokugeki no Souma, High School DxD. In elevators, there was Hestia from Danmachi advertisement. Additionally, there were tons of interesting new eroge Bishoujo games I wanted to try so bad, but they’re all in Japanese language only and I was mostly concern about region locking.
As for Doujins, I spotted a lot of them particularly involving Danmachi, Kantai Collection, Touhou Project, Shokugeki no Souma and TheIdolm@ster.
The character figurines widely vary in Akihabra stores. I wanted to get Shimakaze and Kongou figurines, but the former was a little too pricey and the latter is not available until October 2015. In addition, I saw other character figurines I like such as Kurumi, Yoshino, Cecilia Alcott, Meiling Hong, Aya Shameimaru, and Luka. I couldn’t snap pictures inside the stores due to its strict “No Photography” rules. I even saw extreme ecchi versions of the character figurines.
While walking whether outside the streets or in anime stores, I often hear opening themes of animes that I most recently watched like TheIdolm@aster: Cinderella Girls.
Seriously, that place is like Anime Expo all year long.
I really wished I had more time to explore around this amazing district, but I had other places to visit in Tokyo since we only had one full day.
The biggest highlight for me in Akihabra. I finally got to experience a real Maid Cafe. As expected, the cute girls are in their maid outfits greet their customers by saying "welcome home, master."
There were menus on how many food or drinks. I went with the deluxe version, so I can have the ultimate experience. It includes a food, latte, dessert and a picture with any maid I want.
The maid who served me is named Yuki Hime (literally "Snow Princess"). She was the only maid who was able to speak English and have conversation at times. Everytime she brings the food. We would chant "Moe Moe Kyuuuuun" together to make them taste even better.
They offered me a special chopstick since I'm a visitor from the U.S. That goes to show that it's one of the most foreign friendly cafes.
I'm glad I chose this maid cafe first. I would personally recommend to anyone who wants to first experience a maid cafe.
I went on to explore many parts of Akihabara as possible. I ended up buying a female character figurine from Amagi Brilliant Park, three photos of Japan and two visual novel games.
Needless to say, Love Live! School Idol Project is currently the most popular anime in the country.
I left Akihabara at 4:30 pm to go back to the hotel in Asakusa to rest a little and meet up with a small group. We took the train to make a brief stop at Ueno station to have ramen for dinner.
Afterwards, we took the subway to Shinjuku, the least safest district of Tokyo due to the presence of Yakuza. We may have pass a couple of those members nearby because I was able to notice their tattoos on their arms. Fortunately, they all just ignored us and mind their own business as long we leave them alone. Incidents between Yakuzas and Tourist are extremely rare.
We made our last stop to explore in Tokyo at the Shibuya district. Shibuya is known to have an active night and the world’s busiest intersection.
We eventually went back to the Asakusa hotel by midnight to prepare our departure from Japan in the morning.
Breakfast
Bandai Building
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Akihabara
@Home Café: Moe Maid Heaven
Ueno District
Dinner – Ramen
Shibuya District
Day 22 – June 8, 2015
The day that we had to leave Japan and go back home in the U.S. We took a different train route from Asakusa that goes to the Narita Airport, which is about forty minutes. We arrived the Narita International airport about an hour and half early. I bought thirteen volumes of my favorite cooking manga while looking for quick breakfast. We eventually boarded in our JAL airplane back to Chicago, USA.
The flight was mostly smooth. The only movie I watched was a real live action of the shoujo romance manga, Strobe Edge.
We arrived in Chicago in the morning. After getting passed the border security, more than half of us went their separate ways while the rest of us return to the campus to meet up our families.
JAL Plane back to Chicago
Souvenirs
And thus, our Japanese journey has come to an end.
In conclusion, Japan is truly one of the safest countries to visit for any visitors. Just remember to carry your passport close to you at all times when you're in Japan. The people are very formal and easy to get along with minus the language barrier. Just make sure to avoid any touchy subjects and be mindful of their gestures. It's not as expensive as many people think it is. The only real expensive places near tourist attractions. If you want to go cheap as possible, either go to Seven Eleven or a 100 yen shop. The Japanese food especially, the rice and fishes are top quality in terms of tastiness compare to here in the U.S.
I made many fond memories during my time there and I hope I can visit my favorite country again soon. This is the most fun learning experience yet and visiting has changed me a lot for the better.
Leave Matsuyama by train to Kyoto. We had emotional goodbye to our Japanese friends and our international teacher at the Japan Rail Station. It was a three hour ride to Oyama and another two hour ride to Kyoto by train. We checked in a hotel and then drop by a sushi go round to eat for dinner. I had about fourteen sushi plates.
Later that night, the rest of us wandered around the city of Kyoto and go shopping for any souvenirs.
Snack – Green Tea Chocolate Bar
Sushi-Go-Round
Streets of Kyoto
Kyoto Arcades
Day 18 – June 4, 2015
Traditional Japanese Breakfast that consist of Salmon, egg and, took the subway to Kyoto tourist attraction.
The first was the Golden Pavilion area. There were many international tourist and Japanese junior high school students. I really wanted to buy one of those lucky charms, but I was in a hurry to catch up with my group.
We later went to the Nijou castle and it was different from other Japanese castles. There were girls in kimonos. Return to the hotel by 3:00 to rest a little before meeting up on 4:00.
Afterwards, I went back to the nearby mall to shop around and find dinner on my own, which was at the First Kitchen for western-style food. I went to the arcade in attempt to win an anime character figurine, but failed miserably, so I ended up buying the character figure in a nearby anime store. The character figurine was Umi Sonoda from Love Live School Idol Project, which is currently one of the most popular anime in Japan. Additionally, I bought two Tales of 4-koma manga. I just thought they could be cheaper here than in Tokyo.
Golden Pavillion
Shogun House Garden
Nijou Castle
Dinner
Sonoda Umi and Tales 4-koma
Day 19 – June 5, 2015
I had American style breakfast in the morning. We took a two hour train ride to go to city of Nara. There were hundreds of deers everywhere living among side the people there and they are approachable. What surprised me more is that these deers are the most formal animals I've ever seen. I really saw a few of them "bowing" to us when we get close to them while eye contacting. You may have to be a bit careful when feeding them because they may gather around you for more food. Also, you better make sure to hide your important papers especially money, so they won't eat them.
A tourist attraction is the Tōdai-ji Buddhist shrine. Inside the shrine lies statue in the middle. One of the supporting poles has a hole mainly for people to squeeze through and if successful, their next life will be granted enlightens. After leaving the shrine, we briefly scattered around the city to find food to eat. While on the way back to Kyoto, I finally saw the Nintendo HQ in person.
Afterwards, we took a train to another tourist attraction, Fushimi Inari Shrine. I bought two lucky charm amulets. The first one is for matchmaking and the second is for general good luck. As we climb up the hills of the shrine area, we took a brief view at the city of Kyoto before descending back down.
For dinner, I got a taste of Japanese style McDonald’s and walked around the districts of Kyoto for most the night.
Breakfast
Train
Nara
Nintendo HQ
Fushimi Shrine
Japanese McDonald’s
Lucky Charm Amulets
Day 20 – Tokyo, Japan - June 6, 2015
We leave Kyoto for Tokyo by noon. It was my first time taking the Bullet Train. We arrive in the capital of Japan by 4:00. We transported to one of Tokyo’s subway lines to Asakusa district, the traditional part of the city.
We checked in a rather small hotel, which happens to be close the Bandai Headquarters and the Tokyo Sky Tree. After we our brief meeting in the hotel lobby, we looked around in the streets of Asakusa to find dinner. We went to family owned restaurant.
After dinner, we eventually scattered around the district on our own. I followed the map closely, so I wouldn’t get lost as practice for tomorrow. I became more confident to explore Tokyo by myself.
New lesson learned: Do not leave tips in Japan. You would most likely be chased by a staff restaurant member to give back your tip thinking that you "accidentally" left your money behind. That's exactly what I witnessed today when a Ramen shop owner called after one of his foreign customer to bring his tip money.
Japan Rail Bullet Train to Tokyo
Dinner
Asakusa
Streets Asakusa
Day 21 – June 7, 2015
Free day in Tokyo.
Woke up early in the morning to have breakfast and went our separate ways to explore around Tokyo. I visited the Akihabara district early since it was my most desired place to go. The district is known for being the capital of electronics and anime. As expected, there are anime advertisement everywhere are and there were cute maids handing out advertisement cards to customers. Most of the anime advertisements are Spring 2015 animes such as Grisaia no Rakuen, Shokugeki no Souma, High School DxD. In elevators, there was Hestia from Danmachi advertisement. Additionally, there were tons of interesting new eroge Bishoujo games I wanted to try so bad, but they’re all in Japanese language only and I was mostly concern about region locking.
As for Doujins, I spotted a lot of them particularly involving Danmachi, Kantai Collection, Touhou Project, Shokugeki no Souma and TheIdolm@ster.
The character figurines widely vary in Akihabra stores. I wanted to get Shimakaze and Kongou figurines, but the former was a little too pricey and the latter is not available until October 2015. In addition, I saw other character figurines I like such as Kurumi, Yoshino, Cecilia Alcott, Meiling Hong, Aya Shameimaru, and Luka. I couldn’t snap pictures inside the stores due to its strict “No Photography” rules. I even saw extreme ecchi versions of the character figurines.
While walking whether outside the streets or in anime stores, I often hear opening themes of animes that I most recently watched like TheIdolm@aster: Cinderella Girls.
Seriously, that place is like Anime Expo all year long.
I really wished I had more time to explore around this amazing district, but I had other places to visit in Tokyo since we only had one full day.
The biggest highlight for me in Akihabra. I finally got to experience a real Maid Cafe. As expected, the cute girls are in their maid outfits greet their customers by saying "welcome home, master."
There were menus on how many food or drinks. I went with the deluxe version, so I can have the ultimate experience. It includes a food, latte, dessert and a picture with any maid I want.
The maid who served me is named Yuki Hime (literally "Snow Princess"). She was the only maid who was able to speak English and have conversation at times. Everytime she brings the food. We would chant "Moe Moe Kyuuuuun" together to make them taste even better.
They offered me a special chopstick since I'm a visitor from the U.S. That goes to show that it's one of the most foreign friendly cafes.
I'm glad I chose this maid cafe first. I would personally recommend to anyone who wants to first experience a maid cafe.
I went on to explore many parts of Akihabara as possible. I ended up buying a female character figurine from Amagi Brilliant Park, three photos of Japan and two visual novel games.
Needless to say, Love Live! School Idol Project is currently the most popular anime in the country.
I left Akihabara at 4:30 pm to go back to the hotel in Asakusa to rest a little and meet up with a small group. We took the train to make a brief stop at Ueno station to have ramen for dinner.
Afterwards, we took the subway to Shinjuku, the least safest district of Tokyo due to the presence of Yakuza. We may have pass a couple of those members nearby because I was able to notice their tattoos on their arms. Fortunately, they all just ignored us and mind their own business as long we leave them alone. Incidents between Yakuzas and Tourist are extremely rare.
We made our last stop to explore in Tokyo at the Shibuya district. Shibuya is known to have an active night and the world’s busiest intersection.
We eventually went back to the Asakusa hotel by midnight to prepare our departure from Japan in the morning.
Breakfast
Bandai Building
Akihabara
@Home Café: Moe Maid Heaven
Ueno District
Dinner – Ramen
Shibuya District
Day 22 – June 8, 2015
The day that we had to leave Japan and go back home in the U.S. We took a different train route from Asakusa that goes to the Narita Airport, which is about forty minutes. We arrived the Narita International airport about an hour and half early. I bought thirteen volumes of my favorite cooking manga while looking for quick breakfast. We eventually boarded in our JAL airplane back to Chicago, USA.
The flight was mostly smooth. The only movie I watched was a real live action of the shoujo romance manga, Strobe Edge.
We arrived in Chicago in the morning. After getting passed the border security, more than half of us went their separate ways while the rest of us return to the campus to meet up our families.
JAL Plane back to Chicago
Souvenirs
And thus, our Japanese journey has come to an end.
In conclusion, Japan is truly one of the safest countries to visit for any visitors. Just remember to carry your passport close to you at all times when you're in Japan. The people are very formal and easy to get along with minus the language barrier. Just make sure to avoid any touchy subjects and be mindful of their gestures. It's not as expensive as many people think it is. The only real expensive places near tourist attractions. If you want to go cheap as possible, either go to Seven Eleven or a 100 yen shop. The Japanese food especially, the rice and fishes are top quality in terms of tastiness compare to here in the U.S.
I made many fond memories during my time there and I hope I can visit my favorite country again soon. This is the most fun learning experience yet and visiting has changed me a lot for the better.
Posted by
SilentSnake
| Jun 19, 2015 1:36 PM |
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