This is just a chronicle of my trip to Japan. Forgive my writing skills as I am rather rusty (not that I ever was skilled, However).
The starting leg of the trip has already turned sour. My sister dropped me off at the wrong airport, and insisted that I had nothing to worry about. Turns out she wasn't listening properly and I WAS indeed in the wrong airport, as I had a domestic connecting flight(through Cairns), but I should have stood my ground. Ended up having to hail a cab as trains didnt start until a fair while later. It did NOT say fresh. NO fluffy dice. I feel I've been had. Protip: Research Sydney before you research Tokyo. Sydney Airport Protip Fee: 18 dollars.
Small issue popped up at the metal detector. Hmm, a lock in my jeans pocket... Oh shi- Forgot to double-check the suitcase because I was too busy marvelling at the novelty of domestic airports. I hope the Jetstar baggage people are trusty. Oh well, not that people would want to steal my obviously non-designer clothes. It is rather embarassing to admit I failed at such simple tests of Common Sense, but when you blog, you should blog your fuck-ups too. Here have some photos of my luggage, of course taken at Sydney International Airport.
It seems Jetstar has its own house brand of handwash. Oh Jetstar, u so krazeh. On the other hand, the seats of the Airbus 321 were spacious enough for me. Jetstar is very minimal in terms of what they provide. Fine by me. I am sitting next to a friendly young woman who works for a foreign embassy in Tokyo. I didn't want to practice my 日本語 as I didn't want to try it on a 外人.
0900hrs (sorry, actually 0800hrs due to Australian Time Magic, I mean, timezones)
Touched down at Cairns airport. In here they have enough sense to place the two airports within reasonable walking distance of each other. Checked my luggage. All ok. Now to wait 5 hours for my connection to Japan...
After showing off my airport sleeping skills (the movie "The Terminal" is based off my life story), I uneventfully board my plane, but alas, there is noone sitting next to me. I was hoping to polish my language skills on the plane. Instead, I go through my budget, sd well as read some ripped pages from Japanese magazines that I prepared before I left. Lastly, I also make sure I know what to do when I touch down as knowing what to do is generally considered a Good Thing (tm). I cannibalise some of the energy of the laptop to charge my phone.
The volume and detail of my posting should dwindle once I am doing something other than catching planes and sleeping.Touched down in Narita Airport and caught a Keisei Limited Express train from the Airport Terminal, it costed me 1000jpy. I'm currently on the Keisei train. Am I suspecting too much or have I been sniffed out as a foreigner? The seats are VERY hot. I choose to stand than to have my backside roasted. having a backside tends to be useful.
I get out at Nippori and make my way to change over to the JR company's Joban line. To do so, I speak to a ticketman at a counter, to whom I hand over my Keisei ticket, and some money (it was 150yen, I believe), and I am on my merry way.
I get on the JR train. The seats are not as burninating. It's not to far to Minamisenju, and I am soon outside the station ticket gatges. I buy a SUICA card for convenience. It takes my 2000JPY and spits back a card with 1500JPY in it. WAIT, NOW I'M LOST. I look around, no recognisable features around, except for the instructions from the hotel. BUT THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE FOR TOKYO METRO NOT FOR JR.
2230hrsI finally make it to the Hotel. Thankfully, I had loaded the locale with Google Maps beforehand on my trusty N900 (on which I have typed the entire blog this btw) and used a compass, combined with the instructions I received to guide me to where I needed to go (thank you, Morgan). I can't stay much longer on the PC, running out of power. Tomorrow I must get a power adapter from Akihabara.
I dutifully wake up at 0730 as part of the wake-up early master race, partly because I need to go to Akasaka to meet a friend who has been extremely kind as to provide me with tickets for the Miku Live viewing in theater for tonight, so I hop on the Tokyo Metro, Hibiya Line, then transfer at Hibiya for the Chiyoda line, (if it sounds confusing, that is because it is) and make it safely to my awaiting friend at the other side of the gates at Asakusa. I pay her back for her favour and she gives me the tickets. Yay. But she has to work at 1000hrs. So, I bid her farewell and I go back into the Metro, destination: Akihabara. Incidentally, Metro 2033 is also based off my life, but this time based on my time battling the waves of Japanese people at peak hour).
I spent about 5 hours in Akihabara, from 1000hrs to 1500hrs, as I visited: Yodobashi Camera (bought a power plug adapter), Sofmap, some Duty Free stores, Comic-Zin (where I bought my Madoka Magica Manga), Toranoana, Gamers, Tower Records (????P's Unplugged stray, sadly, they ran out of posters...), Kotobukiya (where I bought an Evangelion AT Field umbrella as a gift for someone), K-Books (very tempting, but I managed to keep my head, unlike a certain magical girl), ?????, many small stores, Animate, Yoshinoya (where I couldn't order as I couldn't read the kanji), some revolving sushi place (where I ate lunch, place is meh). At Uniqlo, I find that (at least for tops) I am too tall for size S, and too thin for size M. I buy some "premium" undershirts (quite nice, actually) and underpants (striped! shimapan!). I also learnt how to say "try on clothes" in Japanese. Useful if you intend to buy clothes, I think. No maid cafe yet. Too scary.
I returned to the hotel and then went to Mikupa Live viewing in theather. I buy my Miku Soda (thinly disguised Melon Fanta, with some topping) and a chilli dog, which promptly found its way into my scarf. FFFFFUUUUUU. In terms of the live itself, the 30 minute wait was kinda retarded, and the production values were lower than last year, but I guess a live is a live. I quite enjoyed it.
First Day's damage:13669jpy = ~165AUD.Today I woke up quite early, at about 8am, and researched about places to go, potential choices being: Ginza (Uniqlo flagship), Yurakucho (Muji flagship), Ikebukuro ("Fashionable" place + Otome Road), and returning to Akihabara a second time. I decide on Ginza.
As I leave, with a can of coffee from the vending machine (BOSS is apparently "the Boss of them all since 1992", according to the machine). I stumble upon a German couple, who were planning on walking to the Tokyo Sky Tree and Ueno, and after that, Odaiba. I join them, and we start walking. This happens to be their 4th time in Tokyo, if I recall correctly. On the way, we stop at a Japanese confectioner (at my request) to buy some seasonal Japanese sweets. Much to my surprise, I am able to ask the nice lady at the counter about her recommendation, to which she answers "well, I actually think everything in the store is good, but if you think of the season, probably these are best" I buy one of each. I think this is a sakura mochi with a bean filling salty leaf on it. The leaf balances the mochi quite well.
The walk is rather long, but it's ok. We manage to go to 3 different Book-Offs along the way... We also drop by at the Japan Post office, to check the exchange rate. It seems like it is rather competitive, though not as good as the one Melvin can get me (loses by about 0.5 to 0.2 yen per dollar). Ueno Station is HUGE. They even have some guys selling bread inside the station. Influenced by my female companion (who bought 4), I decide to buy one too. IT COMES WITH A COOLING ICE PACKET WTF.
We drop by at Universal Design, where they display an array of devices made for the disabled. Canes for the bling with vibration feedback if you have the cane in the walking strip, chopsticks with better grip, pens that can be held with feet, mouth, anything. However, the main attractions are Zepp Tokyo (where the Live Stage for Mikupa was) and the shopping center, apparently called Venus Fort. Apparently Japanese has a colony in Venus. Japanese Science is truly advanced. Advanced Japanese Teleporting technology is also on show at Tokyo Teleport Station. Makes me wonder where it goes to.
We go to Akihabara, waiting for a German engineer friend of theirs who works in Tokyo. We drop by Sega Club while we wait. I want to play Project Diva, but the line is TOO LONG. I decide against it. Another day. About Half an hour later, the man in question makes his appearance, and they take me around the small streets (but not before going for some nourishment at a Chinese establishment). At Gee Store, where they pretty much sell all the current Cospa goods, they let me try on a sample. I don't like the silhoette, it's rather baggy in my opinion. I buy some laughing man stickers (for someone).
So we go to Don Quixote. If you think 2 dollars stores in Australia had variety, you know NOTHING. This store sells things such as: Akihabara goods such as Moe Curry, Moe Cookies, Evangelion bike helmets, bicycles, a vast variety of toiletries, TVs, home appliances, perfume, costumes, masturbation aids, porn, AKB48 goods, cushions, stationery, brand name bags and watches, etc. And they also house a maid cafe and an arcade. No wonder Don Quixote was bonkers. I play BlazBlue CS, as Project Diva is also being taken up here. I can't dragon punch... One great thing about Don Quixote is that one of the fighting game arcades is single player only, and you can pick from a selection of games. This means you can practice to use the stick without getting clobbered by someone else, like I just did.