Some leftover Tokyo pictures again

10 random pics from the Japan trip

I’m just gonna throw these here and that’s it.

Cat cafe

Here are a few pictures from our stay at the cat cafe.

The last two were my ultimate favourite ones! 😀

Ageha was okay, very interesting but smaller than I thought and the music was kinda bad actually. One DJ played awesome music for an hour but the others didn’t.. And it was so hot inside! Nonetheless, we had a fun time there and came home with the first train of the morning :’D

On Monday we met up with our friend and her husband and went to do some shopping and eat lunch in Shibuya. Later on we met up Kipsu’s new friend Tai and we went to izakaya together. He was a really fun guy and we spent 5 hours at the izakaya just talking and laughing! I tried chicken heart and ummm.. It was pretty disgusting xD

Yesterday I felt really sick so I stayed at home and slept and talked with Aleksi on Skype. I managed to visit Donki with the girls when they came back from exploring Skytree. But all in all it was good that I was able to relax and get better because I wouldn’t have been able to survive the whole day at Tokyo Disneyland today! I’ll write about Disneyland separately when I’ve returned to Finland because I want to add pictures I took on my phone!

From two to three

We took things easy once again with Juulia on our second day in Tokyo and hung out witj her friend Akane. We spent the evening at an izakaya having drinks, talking and laughing.

The next day I went to the airport to the airport to get Kipsu in the morning. She was pretty tired so we went to the local supermarket and spent time at home, talking to Aleksi on Skype and watching Monster’s University which I totally recommend.

The next day, on Thursday we did typical touristy things, explored Harajuku and e.g. spent time in the four leveled toy store kiddie land. Later on we went to the otaku/electronic district Akihabara which still does not appeal to me in any way xD

On Friday we went to sing karaoke and hung out at a cat cafe which I will post pictures of separately. The cats were so cute, I really miss my own cat now. Later we went clubbing first just the three of us at Club Atom and then together with our business partner at Club Vision which looked very cool but the music and people were kind of weird. Last night we went to see a gig as guests together with the same business partner. The show was great, especially the lights looked amazing. And it was also great to just see the show and relax as well as see business associates, the band and their management again. They’re great and friendly people. After the show we hung out at our partner’s house until the wee hours.

Today we are going to another club, called Ageha, which is the biggest club in Tokyo. Really looking forward to it! I’ve seriously gone clubbing here more in two weeks than I have in Finland for a year! But what can I say, it’s so different and interesting compared to what I am used to so I don’t mind!

On the fourth of January we went to visit Takuya in Kobe. We visited a Hawaiian restaurant, the food was great! And we had giant pancakes there for dessert, so good ;_;

For the rest of our stay in Kobe we just hung out and strolled around and then came back to Osaka. We went to the same club that we went to on New Year’s Eve and we thought it would be half empty. Turned out we were wrong and it was packed, just about as full as on New Year’s! We had a great time once again, this time we hung out with Japanese girls that were do adorable and nice!

On the fifth we just took things easy because we had to leave in the evening by night bus to Tokyo. The night bus was a very interesting experience, although quite an uncomfortable one. The trip took 9 hours and had three stops, one for almost an hour. The bus would have been relatively comfortable to sleep in if it weren’t for the awful draft from the windows. I did manage to sleep 3-4 hours and just kept my eyes closed for the rest of the time.

We arrived in Tokyo at 6:40am and we were going to get our appartment keys at 14:00. So we had 7 hours to kill, which we did by strolling around Shibuya and Shinjuku, realizing everything is a lot smaller than we remembered and shopping and going to cafes.

We had a minorly hard time finding our appartment and when we did we weren’t that thrilled since we were right at a junction road connecting our area and Kabukicho. We were a little nervous thinking the area is unsafe, but now that we have stayed here for almost the whole week, I can say it’s not bad at all and it’s actually a great location for a stay in Tokyo! And the appartment is really nice, although the gas stove and gas water heating are difficult to get used to.

It’s already the 11th now instead of the 6th the day that I just told about but I need to catch up later since I have to start getting ready.

New year

On the first day of January we hung out at home watching the restf of the Walking dead season and in the late afternoon we went to eat karee and to stroll around Namba parks and Namba. It was so dead almost everywhere because of the national holiday and Japanese traditions related to it. There were more people at dotonbori though, so we hung out by the river. And we also went to take some purikura!

And I hit my knee somewhere during New Year’s eve and the bruise looked so much worse this day! XD

On the next day we went shopping all day because the sales started. Just found one shirt and a pair of sunglasses though, but it was fun. We ate ramen that tasted like pure perfection before going home!

Today we slept in quite late and then went to Umeda. We visited a ferris wheel that was so scary because it shook at the top and we werer scared we would die. We ate at an Asian-Western fusion restaurant that had quite odd but interesting food choices. Went shopping at Donquiote and I found my first souvenir! And we went to take some purposefully awful purikura.

Ended the night with card games and drinks and more food at an izakaya.

Now I am going to sleep! We are visiting Takuya in Kobe tomorrow and then we’re going clubbing again! Then it will be our last day together in Osaka and we’ll leave for Tokyo by night bus!

First days

My plane trip here was pretty much okay. I sat next to a Norwegian navy officer and we talked about culture, our countries, politics, global issues as well as our personal lives pretty much throughout the whole flight. I watched Inception and a third of Turbo. I only managed to sleep for thirty minutes which really backfired later on.

When I arrived in Narita, it was 10am on the 30th of December. I quickly found a baggage delivery service and sent my bag to Osaka. Only 1790 yen wtf! So cheap! It costs more than 2000 yen to send it from Kansai airport to Osaka city.

Anyway then I hopped on the train to Tokyo station where I had to catch my Shinkansen train to Osaka. When I came to the platform my mood grew a lot worse because I was only able to get a non reserved seat ticket. The line to the non reserved seat cart was so long, about a hundred people waiting ;_; Damn you Japanese holidays! I managed to atleast get in the train, but I had to stand the whole time. I felt so nauseous throughout the whole trip, but it was the worst from Tokyo to Nagoya, the first 1,5 hours. I was so afraid I was going to pass out and at the time it felt like the longest 1,5 hours of my life. But I got through it and at Nagoya a bunch of people left so I could get a better place by the door and my nausea got better. After another hour I was at Shin-Osaka station and I took a subway to meet Julle.

We checked in at our appartment and then went for dinner to an izakaya with Julle’s mom, sister and brother. I had a great time and the food was so good, the downside of the dinner was my absolute tiredness. I really felt like I was going to fall asleep between bites.

After that we just came home and went to sleep since we were both exhausted.

In the morning we woke up at nine and decided to just take it easy since we were both a little sick and watched half of the new season of Walking Dead. Later on in the afternoon we took an almost three hour nap so that we would be able to stay awake until the year changes. We went to Giraffe at 23:30, which is the biggest night club in Osaka and it was PACKED. The whole atmosphere was incredible and they played such awesome dance music! We had such a great time and came home at 5am. And that’s when I dropped my toothbrush in the toilet xD nice way to start the new year!

Video of the countdown last night!

Travels

The realization of my upcoming trips is slowly creeping up on me. I still find it hard to comprehend that I will be leaving for Japan in mere 12 days. There’s quite a lot to prepare as I will be staying three weeks. The only preparations I have managed to do are booking accommodation and flight tickets.

When I come back, I will have to start writing my thesis pretty much immediately as well as the planning for my trip to the States in March. There’s a lot more to prepare, even though I will only stay a week. I’ve never been to the West coast and we need to look at different hotels since we’ll be changing locations frequently, as well as rent a car etc, look at directions etc!

Anyway, I am slowly getting excited for both, although my mind is pretty ocupied with last minute Christmas preparations as well as long and tiring work shifts this week!