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dmjewelleHello, it's been a long time since the last post! I forgot there's another two days to go, and I've finally decided to do something with my life!
Today was a much freer day since all we had to do was meet up with CFers and go to Asakusa. Nadia and Luisa were pretty much conk from the Gazette live, so so much for going to Asakusa as early as possible....
Left the inn around 10.
Since you saw Asakusa at night a few entries back, now let's look at Asakusa in the ARRRGH SO MANY PEOPLE x___x
This is Raijin, the God of Thunder...
...And Fujin, the God of Wind! Not as pretty as the FF8 version. :(
Unlike Yasukuni, the road to Senso-ji has two rows of shops under some shade. There's soft-serve ice cream (had grape flavour I DIDN'T TAKE PUDDING FLAVOUR WHAT WAS I THINKINGGG), cheap yukatas and happis, one shop selling swords and bamboo shinai and shuriken and flintlock pistols (THIS SHOP HAS WHAT WE ALL WANT), some traditional Japanese desserts (would've brought back some if it didn't have a 4-hour time limit) and lots and lots and lots of cheap trinkets. If you don't want to look through the airport shops, this is your next best bet. Be careful of the tons of tourists walking around though - they're likely to trample you as much as the Japanese. Perhaps more. Outside the temple, rickshaws were lined up along the road if you're into the "let's sit a rickshaw/trishaw" sort of cheap thrills. There were female rickshaw pullers too, which I think could probably take out their colleagues in an arm-wrestling match. *awe*
The road also has junctions leading out to main roads. One side has a pharmacy. This side has actual yukata/kimono shops, as shown by the reclining statue on top of the shop. Apparently it's a famous shop, but we didn't venture further.
OH LOOK it's the 7 Gods of Fortune on a boat! SO KEWT!! X3
And...uh...this not-so-cute deity. >_>;;
I didn't go to Asakusa just to marvel at temple surroundings - I really went there to pray at Senso-ji. This may seem surprising because I knew a few of you never expected me to be Buddhist for whatever reason, but I pray to the Goddess of Mercy, and that's it. Outside the main temple is a...pedestally...joss-stick area....stone thingy....where it's said inhaling the smoke is good for your health, so I went and took a mouthful (weak throat and stomach and all), though the wisdom is highly suspect. Unless the joss-sticks themselves are made from something that's good for health, swallowing incense can't be good for anybody.
Outside the shrine there was also a place to put 100 yen and do those fortune-telling things Chinese temples are so found of. The honour system in Japan is MAD - the omikuji stall is unmanned, there's a slot for 100 yen coins, and they expect you to do this BEFORE you take an omikuji! The metal drawers containing fortunes aren't even locked or anything!! @@ The only thing you can't do is choose a stick since the container is sealed save for a hole big enough for only one stick to pass through. People who go to chinese temples will know what this is.
Anyway my fortune...was unbelievably AWFUL. Like BAD FORTUNE HELL COME FORTH kind of fortune. Like YOU GONNA STAY IN BED TILL THE NEXT YEAR kind of bad. Like fortune SO BAD I can't even publish it. Off to the omikuji rack it went!
Interestingly enough there was a message from the head priest nearby that reminded people that omikuji are just really rough guides and YOU are the only one who truly determines your fortune. Why I didn't take a picture of this profound message I'll never know.
So now we go slightly further behind the main temple, and pass by this nice pagoda!
There were these nice stones.
The actual temple itself forbids photography, so I'll try to describe the interior:
Firstly it's really quiet. Nothing at all like the tourist area since people would only go there if they REALLY wanted to pray, after all.
Secondly the Kuan Yin statue is flanked by about 5 buddha statues on each side. Each buddha is the protective deity to different animals of the zodiac, so if you're born in the year of the Pig and Dog, you get the really chubby and (^___^)-looking buddha. If you're born in the year of the Rat, you pray to the thousand-hand bodhisattva. If you're born in the year of the Rooster then you get the BUDDHIST GOD OF WAR I KID YOU NOT THE GUY HAS THE FACE OF A DEMON WITH HORNS ON HIS HEAD AND HE HOLDS A REALLY BADASS SPEAR. Which reminds of Mna since she's such a fighter-cock. |D Another deity had FLAMES behind her! I was just praying and wondering why was my buddha so normal looking next to all these BADASS DEITIES and Nadia said she liked my deity because it looked so zen and peaceful compared to all the other angry bodhisattvas (is that even possible?!). Lishen later told me that our deity was just being badass on the INSIDE. It doesn't need to LOOK badass to BE badass! Look how unperturbed it was among all those angry badass bodhisattvas! He's probably like the RIGHT HAND MAN of Kuan Yin or something!
...Or so we'll just keep believing.
Here is another temple that had construction work going on. So much for tranquility!
Ran back to Shibuya to meet![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_deru , ilunari , maiki and renkun14 - we were an HOUR LATE after all! >< To top it off, we went out through the wrong exit which made it harder to get to the Hachiko statue! I got a better view of the Shibuya Scramble, so all wasn't lost!
Went to a family restaurant, where I learned never to step into a family restaurant because these Japanese wackos only serve hamburger steaks which are made of BEEF which I CAN'T EAT.
So I merely stared longingly at Iluna's cheese hamburger steak while staring piteously at my "Indian pilaf rice with chicken curry":
While Deru has seafood gratin which I don't eat because I don't eat seafood. Well, everything in this dish at least.
We further explored Shibuya to find an Animate because I decided I wanted to get the Durarara!! ring I saw on Day 2, and while we didn't find an Animate that sold merch, we did hang around at a bookshop where we saw cosplay magazine previews that had OUR BUTLER. YOU KNOW, KAITO THE BUTLER ON WEDNESDAY? YEAH, he was cosplaying in MAGAZINES! The reason for Royal Servant's popularity was now quite clear to us. Deru just spazzed at all the seiyuu mags featuring Kamiya Hiroshi and all the other lovely guys she liked listening to. Life was good. There were also photobooks and DVDs of May'n's Asia Tour (the one where she performed in Malaysia to practically nobody) but that's not relevant...to my interests at least.
Then Nads and Luisa went off to Tower Records before it closes down in September while Ren headed back to prepare for exams, leaving the four of us...to be.
For the first time, let's look at Japanese traffic jams! Apparently this was near Vic's old hotel, so hey Vic, I went near your old hotel!
Overhead bridges in Tokyo have ramps! This made climbing up MUCH easier.
Only in Japan would a Mein Kampf documentary fly.
Oh look! A BECK movie!
Seeing as we couldn't find the Shibuya Animate selling merch, we decided to head to Akiba where we could just do all our shopping in one fell swoop. After putting my preorder for the Izaya ring, we explored and got something cheap for Fenix and we walked around and saw a Hatsune Miku car! Photos were in order-
GOD DAMMIT ILUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Much better!
Went into the mens' Toranoana and saw a cashier queue that actually looped around the store perimeter. Dozens of occasionally-overweight sweaty bespectacled backpack-wearing otaku carrying piles of doujinshi! It's the Japanese NIGHTMARE come true too! Sure there were women but it was obvious why they needed two Toranoanas next to each other - there's just TOO MUCH for each gender to put in ONE shop.
Walking past an Eva pachinko place, there were coin lockers outside for people to put their bags in except these lockers had a single running theme:
Translation: The locker gives me warmfuzzies.
Iluna and Deru were laughing at the other weirder quotes and took more pictures of the lockers.
Dinner was halal kebabs because I couldn't find the soba store we passed by walking INTO Akiba.
And crepes for dessert!
Akiba is also the ONLY place I see dustbins in abundance. Thank GOD.
While eating crepes we saw a motorbike speeding down the highway driven by a guy in black. CELTY IS THAT YOU!?
We also went to play crane games - Deru saw Bakemonogatari gashapon and decided to try her luck.
Deru: Dammit, failed!
Iluna: I donate 100 yen to you!
Deru: Dammit, failed!
Maiki: I donate 100 yen to you!
Deru: DAMMIT FAILED!
Iluna + Maiki: We donate 100 yen to you!
400 yen and still no figurine later we found the same gashapon boxes in ANIMATE for 500 yen. Oh irony.
En route back we stopped by the arcade to:
- Play some Taiko
- Watch some funky cuboid game (I can't remember the name now Iluna Maiki Deru somebody please help me)
- Watch some guy play DDRX2 (but failed the last stage on Hard awww)
- Watch people play Pop'n really quietly (you only hear the clicking of buttons!)
- Watch people play Guitarfreaks & Drummania XG (so advanced there's no numbers anymore!)
- Gaze in awe at table-flipping game that we didn't play because we ran out of 100-yen coins.
When I saw table-flipping game...I MEANT a table-flipping game. The Japanese think of everything!
We headed our separate ways back, but Maiki and I shared a train to Ikebukuro. I'm surprised SHE'S surprised I work in a hospital; I always thought my LJ made it quite clear I was working with nurses and all. ^^;; Had a quiet chat about stuff then also went our separate ways.
THE FIRST SIGN OF A STRONG BREEZE OH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
Tried torrenting in the inn's lounge. Not only does it not block torrenting, it also goes by really fast...until people started complaining their net was molasses slow. >_>;;;
So I washed up, and spent the night bumming online and emailing my dad back-and-forth. The end!
OR SO YOU THINK.
Just as I was getting ready to go online, I heard frantic footsteps heading towards the room, Nadia pushed the door open, and shouted:
"DM GET DRESSED, WE'RE GOING FOR KARAOKE WITH BELGIAN GUYS!! 8DDDDDD"
A few days back Nadia got to know these Belgian guys who were staying in the inn as well, but they extended their stay and had to move hotels. I should also mention that these two simply entered a bar and discovered their bartender was HARD GAY. Like the COMEDIAN HARD GAY. They asked him if he was HARD GAY and he just replied "FOOOO!" and then they took pictures (but didn't show us any. Sad). With no contact info we thought those guys were good as gone and that, "hey maybe we should karaoke someday" was pretty much an empty promise...until that night.
So we headed to one of those big karaoke places in Ikebukuro about 10 minutes from the inn. Unfortunately it was already 11 PM and the inn's curfew was 1 AM, so we said OK one hour karaoke and then we're outta there.
Obviously best impromptu plans ever.
Nads and Luisa.
One guy's Matthew, the other guy's...Lucien? Something like that.
Here's a video of them singing some Korn song. Clearly they have rhythm and coordination! They also have girlfriends!! Sobs.
And here's shots of the menu because it just looks THAT DELICIOUS but no time to order DOUBLE SOB.
At 12.30 we went CRAP WE NEED TO RUN and they VERY NICELY paid for us! *__* While waiting for the only lift in the building, it was full of young girls with middle-aged men and it was too full for us to go in so we had to wait for the next round. The girls apologized PROFUSELY for cramming up the lift. Only in Japan, ladies and gentlemen.
So we sprinted back to the inn and made it back by 12.50. Nadia might've bumped into one of those pimps and they were all "Oh my be careful miss!". SO POLITE.
And THAT was the actual end of the day. Next update: Meiji Shrine, and TONKATSU.
Today was a much freer day since all we had to do was meet up with CFers and go to Asakusa. Nadia and Luisa were pretty much conk from the Gazette live, so so much for going to Asakusa as early as possible....
Left the inn around 10.
Since you saw Asakusa at night a few entries back, now let's look at Asakusa in the ARRRGH SO MANY PEOPLE x___x
This is Raijin, the God of Thunder...
...And Fujin, the God of Wind! Not as pretty as the FF8 version. :(
Unlike Yasukuni, the road to Senso-ji has two rows of shops under some shade. There's soft-serve ice cream (had grape flavour I DIDN'T TAKE PUDDING FLAVOUR WHAT WAS I THINKINGGG), cheap yukatas and happis, one shop selling swords and bamboo shinai and shuriken and flintlock pistols (THIS SHOP HAS WHAT WE ALL WANT), some traditional Japanese desserts (would've brought back some if it didn't have a 4-hour time limit) and lots and lots and lots of cheap trinkets. If you don't want to look through the airport shops, this is your next best bet. Be careful of the tons of tourists walking around though - they're likely to trample you as much as the Japanese. Perhaps more. Outside the temple, rickshaws were lined up along the road if you're into the "let's sit a rickshaw/trishaw" sort of cheap thrills. There were female rickshaw pullers too, which I think could probably take out their colleagues in an arm-wrestling match. *awe*
The road also has junctions leading out to main roads. One side has a pharmacy. This side has actual yukata/kimono shops, as shown by the reclining statue on top of the shop. Apparently it's a famous shop, but we didn't venture further.
OH LOOK it's the 7 Gods of Fortune on a boat! SO KEWT!! X3
And...uh...this not-so-cute deity. >_>;;
I didn't go to Asakusa just to marvel at temple surroundings - I really went there to pray at Senso-ji. This may seem surprising because I knew a few of you never expected me to be Buddhist for whatever reason, but I pray to the Goddess of Mercy, and that's it. Outside the main temple is a...pedestally...joss-stick area....stone thingy....where it's said inhaling the smoke is good for your health, so I went and took a mouthful (weak throat and stomach and all), though the wisdom is highly suspect. Unless the joss-sticks themselves are made from something that's good for health, swallowing incense can't be good for anybody.
Outside the shrine there was also a place to put 100 yen and do those fortune-telling things Chinese temples are so found of. The honour system in Japan is MAD - the omikuji stall is unmanned, there's a slot for 100 yen coins, and they expect you to do this BEFORE you take an omikuji! The metal drawers containing fortunes aren't even locked or anything!! @@ The only thing you can't do is choose a stick since the container is sealed save for a hole big enough for only one stick to pass through. People who go to chinese temples will know what this is.
Anyway my fortune...was unbelievably AWFUL. Like BAD FORTUNE HELL COME FORTH kind of fortune. Like YOU GONNA STAY IN BED TILL THE NEXT YEAR kind of bad. Like fortune SO BAD I can't even publish it. Off to the omikuji rack it went!
Interestingly enough there was a message from the head priest nearby that reminded people that omikuji are just really rough guides and YOU are the only one who truly determines your fortune. Why I didn't take a picture of this profound message I'll never know.
So now we go slightly further behind the main temple, and pass by this nice pagoda!
There were these nice stones.
The actual temple itself forbids photography, so I'll try to describe the interior:
Firstly it's really quiet. Nothing at all like the tourist area since people would only go there if they REALLY wanted to pray, after all.
Secondly the Kuan Yin statue is flanked by about 5 buddha statues on each side. Each buddha is the protective deity to different animals of the zodiac, so if you're born in the year of the Pig and Dog, you get the really chubby and (^___^)-looking buddha. If you're born in the year of the Rat, you pray to the thousand-hand bodhisattva. If you're born in the year of the Rooster then you get the BUDDHIST GOD OF WAR I KID YOU NOT THE GUY HAS THE FACE OF A DEMON WITH HORNS ON HIS HEAD AND HE HOLDS A REALLY BADASS SPEAR. Which reminds of Mna since she's such a fighter-cock. |D Another deity had FLAMES behind her! I was just praying and wondering why was my buddha so normal looking next to all these BADASS DEITIES and Nadia said she liked my deity because it looked so zen and peaceful compared to all the other angry bodhisattvas (is that even possible?!). Lishen later told me that our deity was just being badass on the INSIDE. It doesn't need to LOOK badass to BE badass! Look how unperturbed it was among all those angry badass bodhisattvas! He's probably like the RIGHT HAND MAN of Kuan Yin or something!
...Or so we'll just keep believing.
Here is another temple that had construction work going on. So much for tranquility!
Ran back to Shibuya to meet
_deru , ilunari , maiki and renkun14 - we were an HOUR LATE after all! >< To top it off, we went out through the wrong exit which made it harder to get to the Hachiko statue! I got a better view of the Shibuya Scramble, so all wasn't lost!Went to a family restaurant, where I learned never to step into a family restaurant because these Japanese wackos only serve hamburger steaks which are made of BEEF which I CAN'T EAT.
So I merely stared longingly at Iluna's cheese hamburger steak while staring piteously at my "Indian pilaf rice with chicken curry":
While Deru has seafood gratin which I don't eat because I don't eat seafood. Well, everything in this dish at least.
We further explored Shibuya to find an Animate because I decided I wanted to get the Durarara!! ring I saw on Day 2, and while we didn't find an Animate that sold merch, we did hang around at a bookshop where we saw cosplay magazine previews that had OUR BUTLER. YOU KNOW, KAITO THE BUTLER ON WEDNESDAY? YEAH, he was cosplaying in MAGAZINES! The reason for Royal Servant's popularity was now quite clear to us. Deru just spazzed at all the seiyuu mags featuring Kamiya Hiroshi and all the other lovely guys she liked listening to. Life was good. There were also photobooks and DVDs of May'n's Asia Tour (the one where she performed in Malaysia to practically nobody) but that's not relevant...to my interests at least.
Then Nads and Luisa went off to Tower Records before it closes down in September while Ren headed back to prepare for exams, leaving the four of us...to be.
For the first time, let's look at Japanese traffic jams! Apparently this was near Vic's old hotel, so hey Vic, I went near your old hotel!
Overhead bridges in Tokyo have ramps! This made climbing up MUCH easier.
Only in Japan would a Mein Kampf documentary fly.
Oh look! A BECK movie!
Seeing as we couldn't find the Shibuya Animate selling merch, we decided to head to Akiba where we could just do all our shopping in one fell swoop. After putting my preorder for the Izaya ring, we explored and got something cheap for Fenix and we walked around and saw a Hatsune Miku car! Photos were in order-
GOD DAMMIT ILUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Much better!
Went into the mens' Toranoana and saw a cashier queue that actually looped around the store perimeter. Dozens of occasionally-overweight sweaty bespectacled backpack-wearing otaku carrying piles of doujinshi! It's the Japanese NIGHTMARE come true too! Sure there were women but it was obvious why they needed two Toranoanas next to each other - there's just TOO MUCH for each gender to put in ONE shop.
Walking past an Eva pachinko place, there were coin lockers outside for people to put their bags in except these lockers had a single running theme:
Translation: The locker gives me warmfuzzies.
Iluna and Deru were laughing at the other weirder quotes and took more pictures of the lockers.
Dinner was halal kebabs because I couldn't find the soba store we passed by walking INTO Akiba.
And crepes for dessert!
Akiba is also the ONLY place I see dustbins in abundance. Thank GOD.
While eating crepes we saw a motorbike speeding down the highway driven by a guy in black. CELTY IS THAT YOU!?
We also went to play crane games - Deru saw Bakemonogatari gashapon and decided to try her luck.
Deru: Dammit, failed!
Iluna: I donate 100 yen to you!
Deru: Dammit, failed!
Maiki: I donate 100 yen to you!
Deru: DAMMIT FAILED!
Iluna + Maiki: We donate 100 yen to you!
400 yen and still no figurine later we found the same gashapon boxes in ANIMATE for 500 yen. Oh irony.
En route back we stopped by the arcade to:
- Play some Taiko
- Watch some funky cuboid game (I can't remember the name now Iluna Maiki Deru somebody please help me)
- Watch some guy play DDRX2 (but failed the last stage on Hard awww)
- Watch people play Pop'n really quietly (you only hear the clicking of buttons!)
- Watch people play Guitarfreaks & Drummania XG (so advanced there's no numbers anymore!)
- Gaze in awe at table-flipping game that we didn't play because we ran out of 100-yen coins.
When I saw table-flipping game...I MEANT a table-flipping game. The Japanese think of everything!
We headed our separate ways back, but Maiki and I shared a train to Ikebukuro. I'm surprised SHE'S surprised I work in a hospital; I always thought my LJ made it quite clear I was working with nurses and all. ^^;; Had a quiet chat about stuff then also went our separate ways.
THE FIRST SIGN OF A STRONG BREEZE OH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
Tried torrenting in the inn's lounge. Not only does it not block torrenting, it also goes by really fast...until people started complaining their net was molasses slow. >_>;;;
So I washed up, and spent the night bumming online and emailing my dad back-and-forth. The end!
OR SO YOU THINK.
Just as I was getting ready to go online, I heard frantic footsteps heading towards the room, Nadia pushed the door open, and shouted:
"DM GET DRESSED, WE'RE GOING FOR KARAOKE WITH BELGIAN GUYS!! 8DDDDDD"
A few days back Nadia got to know these Belgian guys who were staying in the inn as well, but they extended their stay and had to move hotels. I should also mention that these two simply entered a bar and discovered their bartender was HARD GAY. Like the COMEDIAN HARD GAY. They asked him if he was HARD GAY and he just replied "FOOOO!" and then they took pictures (but didn't show us any. Sad). With no contact info we thought those guys were good as gone and that, "hey maybe we should karaoke someday" was pretty much an empty promise...until that night.
So we headed to one of those big karaoke places in Ikebukuro about 10 minutes from the inn. Unfortunately it was already 11 PM and the inn's curfew was 1 AM, so we said OK one hour karaoke and then we're outta there.
Obviously best impromptu plans ever.
Nads and Luisa.
One guy's Matthew, the other guy's...Lucien? Something like that.
Here's a video of them singing some Korn song. Clearly they have rhythm and coordination! They also have girlfriends!! Sobs.
And here's shots of the menu because it just looks THAT DELICIOUS but no time to order DOUBLE SOB.
At 12.30 we went CRAP WE NEED TO RUN and they VERY NICELY paid for us! *__* While waiting for the only lift in the building, it was full of young girls with middle-aged men and it was too full for us to go in so we had to wait for the next round. The girls apologized PROFUSELY for cramming up the lift. Only in Japan, ladies and gentlemen.
So we sprinted back to the inn and made it back by 12.50. Nadia might've bumped into one of those pimps and they were all "Oh my be careful miss!". SO POLITE.
And THAT was the actual end of the day. Next update: Meiji Shrine, and TONKATSU.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 04:30 pm (UTC)SHIBUYAAA!! ..ok frankly im just excited cause it's the setting for TWEWY...<-owata
no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 04:33 pm (UTC)WHY YOU SAVED IT (屮ﾟДﾟ)屮
no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 04:57 pm (UTC)Julien/Julian was the guy's name, the one that paid for us! Man he was SO nice, I am so tempted to trawl thru all the Julian's in Belgium to find him.
And the karaoke place really had so much good food =_=;; next time next time!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 05:23 pm (UTC)why are the gods caged? D: is it some kinda god-zoo?
But damn,
those creeps look good :E oh, the e ran in front of the p,those crepes look good.. :E are they really as delicious as advertised in anime?no subject
Date: 2010-08-16 11:25 pm (UTC)And yes those crepes are damn good.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-17 04:47 pm (UTC)I think it should be the former, I know I'd be rather pissed at standing there all day, hundreds of people gawking at me =w=+++
no subject
Date: 2010-08-17 02:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-17 03:10 pm (UTC)FANTOI GAME STILL NO. 1. T^T99
Karaoke = NAAAAIISSS~ T^Tbb; Polite pimp = ...8D;;
no subject
Date: 2010-08-18 01:38 am (UTC)