6/25/17
We woke up late the next morning took our time getting ready.
When we did make it out of the hotel, we stopped at a little cafe that boasted italian coffee, but it was nothing special, and it tasted like all other coffee found in Japan.
After that we made our way to Shimbashi Station in Minato-Ku, Tokyo. This is the starting station for the Self-Driving Train that takes you to Odaiba. The driver-less train we took was the Yurikamome Line. It usually has a line of people waiting to take the "driver's spot" in the train with the big windows out front. We did wait an extra fifteen minutes so we could get the front seat on the next train.
I took video of nearly the entire train ride! My camera overheated near the end of the trip and stopped filming, and I had to ask Cormac to take video of the remaining few minutes. So of the entire ride I'm only missing 30 seconds to 1 minute of ride time!
Once we got to Odaiba we started walking around outside. It was overcast and it threatened to rain, but it made it much cooler than it had been the previous day, so we weren't complaining. It looks like it had rained that morning but it didn't rain for the rest of the day, so that was a nice bit of luck.
We went into the Tokyo Trick-Art Museum inside one of the buildings in the shopping centers, and there was quite the line to get in.
We waited in line for maybe twenty minutes, and when we got in it was quite a free-for-all to get pictures taken. There wasn't a lot of room to walk around. But because it is Japan everyone was nice and patient with each other. People made lines to take the pictures with the scenes they wanted. Strangers took pictures for each other. Even though it was crowded and you had to wait long times in some cases to take pictures, it was overall a fun experience.
For most of the time we were in such a rush to take a photo and get out of the way for the next person, we were unable to really monitor how the pictures were turning out. As a result a lot of them don't look great, but it was fun to take them anyways.
There was also a piece of art that was 3D and shifted as you moved. I was able to take some video of it.
After we finished with the Trick-Art Museum we walked around the Shopping Center in Odaiba for a while. While we were in the Venus Fort I showed him the creepy odds-and-ends shop called Strange Love that I had last been to the previous August (check out that blog post for more information). It was just as creepy as ever and still ridiculously expensive, but still one of my favorite shops in Tokyo.
We got some food and walked around for a bit longer, knowing we would have to get back to the car and drive back to Fukushima soon.
On the ground floor of one of the shopping centers there is a series of large rooms that act as a museum. At this time there was an exhibit of old Japanese cars, as well as a Delorian. I didn't think to take pictures of this exhibit, which I completely regret.
As we were leaving Odaiba and headed back to the train, we happened upon a street performer and his trained monkey! I filmed them, and paid some money for their performance. It was pretty funny, and I enjoyed it very much. Once again my camera was overheating, so I had to break the performance up into multiple videos and put them together after the fact.
From here we got back on the train and hopped lines for around an hour until we made it back to the rugby stadium, and back to my car.
When we got back to the car and the parking lot, I checked the paying machine so I could pay my bill and drive home. Now, the prices posted in the lot were reasonable. I expected to pay about ¥2,400 for parking in this lot overnight.
When I put in my parking spot, I saw that the amount I owed was over ¥16,300! Whaaaaaaat?! Holy SHIT! How could this happen? What the actual FUCK?!
I found that there was a small sign posted at the back of the parking lot. It said that on this particular weekend (rugby game weekend) they were increasing the price of the spots in this lot nearly 7 times it's normal cost!
I was freaking livid!
I think they should have posted this cost change somewhere where people would see it, not hidden in the back of the lot where nearly nobody would see it! It is the most dishonest thing I have ever seen in this country.
I made my way to the nearest combini and withdrew the nearly $150 to pay this fucking parking fee!
Cormac could see I was in no mood. I had previously told him that parking was on me, and that he didn't need to help. After this he felt bad and did help me with half the cost of parking. I felt bad and grateful at the same time. We left Tokyo is a much fouler mood than when we'd had an hour before.
Cormac, bless his heart, did his best to get it all off my mind. We turned our thoughts to more fun things as we got on the freeway to make our way back to Fukushima. Soon after we got on the freeway, we got stopped to a standstill. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper and moving at a snail's pace. We had gotten stuck in Tokyo traffic. We spent more than an hour in this traffic and made it about a 1/2 mile. We realized that the reason for the stopped traffic is because there was some construction going on and the construction crew was letting one car past at a time. It seemed like an extra-retarded way to do things, especially in a city as busy as Tokyo.
You would think that the events of the night, dishonest parking prices, and being stuck in Tokyo traffic for an hour + would be the end of my good mood, but really it was the opposite. Cormac had done a good job about talking to me and keeping my mind off the obscene amount of money we'd lost. We had fun talking about the rest of our fun trip, and talking about brighter things in general. I'm really glad he was there to share that experience with me
And I learned a lesson about being extra-careful about reading ALL the signs in a parking lot, especially if it's an event weekend. But even today (exactly one full year later) this memory makes my blood boil.
We finally made it back to Fukushima City in the wee hours of the morning and I stayed at Cormac's place so I could get a few hours of sleep before having to drive back to Minamisoma. It would not have been safe for me to drive alone at that time of night and after the long drive from Tokyo.
6/24/17
So I'll say right off the bat, I don't remember so much of how this day began nor the Rugby. We had plans to go see a Rugby game in Tokyo between Japan and New Zealand. I had plans to take 5 people from Fukushima City to Tokyo, but at the last minute, 3 passengers decided they weren't ready to wake up or something (maybe sick?) and skipped my ride. So it was only Cormac and myself that made the 5 hour journey to Tokyo.
We drove the Expressway for most of it but the closer we got to Tokyo, Google maps had us take more local roads and highways. It took a really long time, but we made it with time to spare. We ended up parking about a half mile from the stadium in a nice little neighborhood.
I found a good parking spot that said they charged ¥28,000 (~$24 at that time) to park for 24 hours. I expected to stay in Tokyo for about 36 hours, so this price seemed fine to me. (Narrator: "Little did she know the drama that would arrive from this decision. Read the the next blog post for the conclusion to this.)
We walked from the parking lot to the stadium and met up with our other friends who had traveled separately. I watched some YouTube videos about the basic rules of Rugby, and we hung out. We were about 2 hours early for the game, but it was still fun to socialize.
The Rugby game itself was kinda boring. Japan got creamed by New Zealand. This was fine, I didn't have a preference one way or another, but one of our friends is a Kiwi, so he was super pleased that his team won.
After the rugby game, we all boarded a train and rode into downtown Tokyo, where the rest of our vacation would commence.
I was in the mood to go buy some things in Harajuku and I had a list of places that I had been wanting to go check out.
By the time we actually made it to Harajuku a lot of time has passed and the sun was close to setting, it was starting to get darker.
One of the first places was a store in Harajuku called Alice on Wednesday. It, obviously, sells Alice in Wonderland merchandise. I LOVE Alice in Wonderland, so this was a necessary addition to my Tokyo trip. It is located just off the main road in Harajuku. It is a small street, it could be an alley. The street is so narrow that it is hard to take a good picture of the building. But I was able to manage. You will also notice that many of my pictures are rather blurry. This is because the interior of the store was also pretty dim, and it made it pretty hard for my camera to take clear photos.
The outside of the store has multiple doors, and most, if not all but one of them, are fake. The door most customers use to get into the building is a tiny door, reminiscent of the scene in Alice in Wonderland where Alice shrinks herself in order to pass through a door much smaller than herself. In this case you just need to crouch or crawl through. Here are a few different pictures of the exterior of the building and what the door looks like from the inside. You can see that there is a narrow, and jagged hallway that you must also pass through before you can stand upright and shop.
The entryway of the store.
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There are 3 floors in this shop. There is a narrow staircase that is square-shaped that goes to the upper floor and one floor that goes down. The floor in the basement was not really Alice in Wonderland themed, it was just white. White lights, walls, and floors. And it was a room dedicated to Alice in Wonderland snacks and drinks. I ended up buying a small bottle of soda with a tag on it that said "Drink Me."
Going to the upper floors, there were lots of rooms which had things like bags, jewelry, hair accessories, notebooks, key chains, dishes, and much more.
One of the rooms was Mad-hatter themed, which had many different kinds of accessories. It had a large desk on which many accessory displays were set up. Along the walls it had various paper items, such as notebooks, journals, folders, writing utensils and things like that. Above the desk there was a large lamp or chandelier that was shaped like the Mad Hatter's iconic hat. There was also a stained glass window behind the desk with another image of the iconic hat. It was a really cool room.
On another floor there was a Queen of Hearts themed room. This one had a rather large stained glass window that had hearts and the other playing card suites. In front of the window there was a large heart-shaped throne. I got a picture of Cormac sitting in it while I shopped the amazing amount of jewelry and accessories that were in this room. I bought quite a few Alice in Wonderland themed necklaces and earrings. I think this room was my favorite.
When you traveled to the different floors, the staircases were also themed. There was a stone-walled staircase that had many framed pictures of various Alice in Wonderland characters; such as the White Rabbit, the Jabberwocky and the Cheshire Cat. The Cheshire Cat picture was partially 3D, and was lit up from the inside. All through the building, there were about a dozen doors that were all shut, some were locked and some were just cleverly hidden by drapes. I mistakenly thought one was meant for customers and opened it only to discover a supply closet. I saw an employee emerge from another door and was able to peek behind her and saw a stockroom. It was a pretty fun-looking place.
The other staircase was garden themed. It had pictures of the singing flowers, as well as mushroom reliefs with the Blue Caterpillar. It was really neat.
After buying the items I wanted, I was headed out the small door and saw another door that was even smaller! Looked like a door for a mouse.
When we emerged from Alice on Wednesday, it was pretty dim outside. The sun had fully set, and the sky was quickly darkening. At this time I'd say it was only ~7:30 pm. But the time zones for Japan are a joke, and you can read more about that on the blog post "First Day of School" from June 2013. Specifically the comment at the bottom by my friend Dave.
We were getting hungry at this point, so we decided to find some food. We settled on a little Italian restaurant on the main road in Harajuku called La Vongole, which has since closed. It sits right across the street from the Desigual store, and is right around the corner from Alice on Wednesday.
Another beautiful example of Engrish.
We ordered our dishes, Cormac got spaghetti and I got a chicken alfredo pasta. They came in the cutest seashell-shaped plates!
The restaurant was advertising a tea that I had never heard of before, Butterfly-Pea Tea. I was curious so I ordered it.
When it arrived, the tea was bright blue, and had a lemon to the side. The waitress told me to wait, and handed me a little instruction card for the tea. I read the instruction card, and pulled out my camera to film the fun process. See below!
As you can see, the tea starts out as a bright blue, but changes to a bright purple when the ph of the tea becomes more acidic with the addition of the lemon.
It's such a little thing, but I think it was so fun!
After we were done eating, we still wanted to do things and make a late night of it, instead of turning in. So we did a quick search on google maps to see what was nearby and open. Cormac suggested going to the Kawaii Monster Cafe. I had never heard of it, but he insisted because he saw a video once and had been wanting to check it out. We were lucky at how close it was. Less than 2 blocks away.
We walked in and were greeted warmly by the hostesses. They lead us to a large table in the back of the main room. It was kindof garden-themed. We passed many differently themed rooms and booths, but only this one had customers in it. It was so crazy! Even so, there was alot to look at and take in!
This is the path from our table out towards the main stage.
It's a bit hard to see, but we were seated in front of a mirrored wall.
We were too far from the performing stage to see anything, so we spent times eating our desserts at the table, and standing in the aisles to watch the show. The show was a woman dressed in a Caberet-style dress and lip-syncing as she danced on the rotating cake/carousel stage. There was also someone dressed as a giant cat dancing as well. It was so wild! Here are a few animations I made. It takes several stills that were close together and puts them together so you can get an idea of what the performance was like. I also have one short video of one of the performances.
Here are a few stills of the performances.
After some of her performances, Cormac was smitten and asked to have a picture taken with her.
And what the hell? Me too.
We finished up our desserts. Cormac got a slice of rainbow-cake. I got a cup of hot chocolate and a small dish of Tuna Tartar. It was pretty tasty. I tasted Cormac's cake, but it was kinda dry and I didn't care for it.
In addition to the performers; the waitresses were also dressed pretty quirky and fun!
We stayed for maybe an hour and watched a few more shows. It was pretty fun. The lighting in the cafe was dark, so my pictures aren't the best, but they're good enough. One thing I loved was the different rooms. The night we were there, it wasn't busy enough to open the side rooms, so they sat empty. But it worked out because I was able to get clear photos of those rooms. The lighting changed the colors of the rooms, so it's a bit picture heavy, but you get the idea.
I also really liked the restrooms. They looked so cool!
After we left the cafe, it was time to try and find lodging. We had planned on checking out the famous "love hotels" in Tokyo, and you do not reserve them ahead of time. So we went in search of some. We walked down less-popular roads in search, and we found plenty. Sadly, because you cannot reserve a room ahead of time, and it's "first-come first-serve", most all the hotels we came across were already booked up.
This shop was quite strange, what with the logo and the mannequins. But I loved it!
Harajuku: Where the Cute an Bizarre come together.
This really fancy vending machine.
We walked around for an hour and a half or so, and at this point it was after midnight.
This is just a really pretty building we passed.
We finally found a hotel with a vacant room, and you picked the room from a wall of the lobby. There was a grid which showed a small picture of each of the rooms. Most of the rooms were taken, but there were two vacant rooms. One, by the picture was a plain, boring room. The other, however, had a large fish tank. I asked Cormac if he wanted to stay or keep searching for a cooler hotel. He said he was getting tired, and that a large fish tank in the room was cool enough for him.
We booked the room and went up.
It was a really cool room. When you walked in the entry way, you could either go straight into the main room or go to the restroom and tub-room down a hallway to the right. In the hallway to the right, if you were standing in the hallway, the sink and mirror were on the wall to the left, and the toilet was in a small room behind a door to the right. Straight ahead was a fairly large tub room. The tub was made of wood and was really nice. The tub was on the right side of the room, and to the left was the fish tank.
Back out to the entryway, you go straight to the bedroom/main room. Straight ahead was the small tables, and to the right was a mini fridge and an electric kettle. Normal things for a hotel room. To the left you see the bed. And that is when I realized that you could see the same fish tank to the right of the bed. The fish tank took up a space in the wall, so you could see right through to the tub room.
There was really pretty art on the walls, that looked like it was frosted glass with paint, and it was back-lit. It was a really nice room and it was a nice stay. I took a bath and relaxed and tried to massage my feet in the hot water and make the aches and pains of walking all over Tokyo go away.
After that we turned off the lights and spent the night staring at the fish in the fish tank. It was lit-up with a black light as well as a normal light, so it made the fish glow. it was really cool!
It was after 2 am before I actually got to lie down and go to sleep.
When we woke up, our Tokyo trip continued and it was so much fun! But that is to be explored in the next post. Peace!
