[Day 2] Jiyugaoka Has Lots Of Nice Things
Mar. 25th, 2012 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmjewelleI was looking forward to the day because I got to meet up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_deru!
Unfortunately Fate loves making life hard for me too!
Bonus: This is me all dolled up because Japan is a good place to put on makeup - no heat, no sweat, my liquid eyeliner doesn't even come off when I accidentally rub my face! Don't mind the blush: Nadia put that on to give me the illusion of rosy cheeks. Children in Japan have rosy cheeks because their blood circulation is a lot better than mine. All *I* got was windburn.
Meeting up with Deru was *hard*. For starters her phone was wonky so I had no idea whether she got ANY of my SMSes/emails (she didn't), and I had limited access to MSN - I had to get online just to tell her where to meet up and at what time, and at the Shibuya station I had JUST given up all hope when I received 4 missed calls, called her back, and...she didn't receive a SINGLE CALL. FML. But we met up, and I was SO relieved I huggled her quite tightly for a while. ><
After that, our trip to Jiyugaoka could begin in earnest!
...Could begin in earnest in the RAIN, that is. It was raining the WHOLE day. Like it started in the morning with 2 seconds of snow (!!!), and then it just rained. If it rained for 12+ hours in KL we'd have a massive flood and you know it.
There were about 7 of us for the trip: Nads, me, Deru, RMAF girl, Layla, Sherlyn (?), and a guy named Clay. We went to Jiyugaoka because Nadia wanted to take us somewhere for lunch.
Someplace VERY PINK with a LOT of cakes, in any case!
My lunch set! Shared it with Deru. Mmm, ham.
With so many cakes on display, OF COURSE we were going to eat some!
Note: Due to the abundance of chestnuts, Mont blancs are EVERYWHERE in Japan. I guarantee if you go on a Mont blanc marathon, you'll end up extremely sick of the cake by the end of the day, and you'd only have covered a fraction of Tokyo.
Look, Adele is posing with her poster! Hahaha we are so clever.
RMAF girl left for Ghibli museum after lunch, and we had lots of time to burn, so we took a walk around Jiyugaoka.
It looks nice, but I will point out NOW that wearing this when I was there would have been impractical as all hell. Seriously, it's 7 degrees Celsius. I did see quite a few ladies tottering about in kimonos (and ONLY kimonos), but it was pointed out that kimonos are made of silk, so they might've been toasty warm for all I know.
Apparently an ex-prime minister of Japan lives in the area. Not like we'd know, but there are some *nice* houses around.
Suddenly we turned a corner and stumbled into Little Venice! Yeah, we don't know what happened either.
I like looking at empty desolate playgrounds; don't ask me why.
This cozy little stationery shop was quite a treasure trove: It had a collection of pocket-sized cameras. By pocket-sized I mean it wouldn't look out of place as your KEYCHAIN, it could take pictures in 4 lomo-like settings, pics are stored in an SD memory card in the device, and you'd transfer out the pics to your PC via USB cable. It was pretty cheap too - I do regret not buying the camera shaped like an oversized pair of spectacles so you could take pics AS YOUR EYES SAW IT. Oh well.
This is a tea shop of DOOM. They have several hundred blends of tea separated by category (caffeine, non-caffeine, traditional, non-traditional, etc), and you can open the tins to smell the blend before deciding to buy. Deru bought a blend that smelled EXACTLY like chocolate, and everyone bought a blend or two. I was just cold and sleepy and I couldn't get free cups of tea, so the experience was wasted on me.
After everyone spent an hour or so on TEA (Cumberbatch in my head yay), we kept on trudging in the cold rain-
...Wait, we're still in Japan, right? The tea place WAS in Japan, right? Cold depressing spring rain also happens in Japan, right??
...RIGHT?
Someone tell me I'm right! @@
Yeah I'm still in Japan - only here would they have this stowed in a corner (presumably to display some other fine day).
They had English tea fare, but you MUST order tea with your cake - no "scones with water" BS here; the english tea experience is a requirement. From L-R: Deru, Clay, Sherlyn, and Nads being shown the menu and what tea we should have with our scones.
Well...*I* had scones. It was glorious and had chocolate chips in them. The boss was an elderly Japanese man who spoke English, so he had a nice chat with us about where we were from and stuff, and he even TESTS his kitchen's food to make sure it's up to snuff! It's simple fare, but in a nice warm place like this sometimes simple is best. <3
The stairs lead to the 2nd floor Salon, which was closed, so let's talk a bit about Clay: Clay is a Singaporean marine engineer. His company has a contract with the US Navy, so Clay will get in a boat, go to some US Destroyer battleship, and do their repairs. Let's reiterate: Clay fixes US Navy boats for a living. What is his Jrock Fandom? [ViViD]. A marine engineer who was in the Navy for his National Service who fixes US Navy boats likes ViViD so much an idol shop in Harajuku gave him a free ViViD poster after he HUGGLED. THE. POSTER. If that does not spell [Took a Level in Badass], I don't know what will.
Clay also liked the toilet, the cover automatically opens when you enter! He liked it so much he pranced to the toilet a 2nd time and said, "Imma gonna go enjoy the toilet again!" Oh Clay, you're just so entertaining. <3
We sat until 6, then we had to go because they were closing up - that's the downside about Spring, I don't recall anything closing so early when I came to Tokyo in summer the last time. NOT THAT I THINK SUMMER IS BETTER FOR IT. >_>
If they've been knitting since 1945, that's got to be one HUGE sweater. *ba dum tish*
It's old-fashioned, but...I actually LIKE the clothes! ;__;
We then took off to Kabukicho to meet up with the rest of the Singaporean crew going for The Gazette's concert tomorrow. Layla had booked a room in an izakaya for dinner, so off we went!
This Okama Bar actually...piques my curiosity. @__@
The izakaya was located in a nondescript office building next to a dance studio. Here is the entrance!
And here is the strange Samurai Warriors tie-in!
Here a pic of the Shinjuku skyline!
This was our appetizer: Some salmon, some cold pasta.
Deru and I shared a few dishes: Tofu stuffed with cheese (?!), gyoza, and some yakisoba.
Someone ordered this plate of sashimi, and I'll let the video explain why everyone was squicked by it:
We tried killing the fish - whacking it on the head, piercing its head - but when nothing helped we just asked the staff to take it away. Not that anyone had any appetite by then, mind.
Deru called up the Kimi Ryokan to check if they had extra rooms, but they didn't, so me and Deru left early to walk her to the train, and I just headed back because at least I'd have an excuse to wash up and wind down earlier :D
Ironically, I couldn't find this fantastic transparent umbrella for cheap ANYWHERE. Dad was so disappointed :(
And that's it for Day 2! Next up: The Gazette's Anniversary concert, and my first brush with Japanese assholicry. It exists! OAO
_deru!Unfortunately Fate loves making life hard for me too!
Bonus: This is me all dolled up because Japan is a good place to put on makeup - no heat, no sweat, my liquid eyeliner doesn't even come off when I accidentally rub my face! Don't mind the blush: Nadia put that on to give me the illusion of rosy cheeks. Children in Japan have rosy cheeks because their blood circulation is a lot better than mine. All *I* got was windburn.
Meeting up with Deru was *hard*. For starters her phone was wonky so I had no idea whether she got ANY of my SMSes/emails (she didn't), and I had limited access to MSN - I had to get online just to tell her where to meet up and at what time, and at the Shibuya station I had JUST given up all hope when I received 4 missed calls, called her back, and...she didn't receive a SINGLE CALL. FML. But we met up, and I was SO relieved I huggled her quite tightly for a while. ><
After that, our trip to Jiyugaoka could begin in earnest!
...Could begin in earnest in the RAIN, that is. It was raining the WHOLE day. Like it started in the morning with 2 seconds of snow (!!!), and then it just rained. If it rained for 12+ hours in KL we'd have a massive flood and you know it.
There were about 7 of us for the trip: Nads, me, Deru, RMAF girl, Layla, Sherlyn (?), and a guy named Clay. We went to Jiyugaoka because Nadia wanted to take us somewhere for lunch.
Someplace VERY PINK with a LOT of cakes, in any case!
My lunch set! Shared it with Deru. Mmm, ham.
With so many cakes on display, OF COURSE we were going to eat some!
Note: Due to the abundance of chestnuts, Mont blancs are EVERYWHERE in Japan. I guarantee if you go on a Mont blanc marathon, you'll end up extremely sick of the cake by the end of the day, and you'd only have covered a fraction of Tokyo.
Look, Adele is posing with her poster! Hahaha we are so clever.
RMAF girl left for Ghibli museum after lunch, and we had lots of time to burn, so we took a walk around Jiyugaoka.
It looks nice, but I will point out NOW that wearing this when I was there would have been impractical as all hell. Seriously, it's 7 degrees Celsius. I did see quite a few ladies tottering about in kimonos (and ONLY kimonos), but it was pointed out that kimonos are made of silk, so they might've been toasty warm for all I know.
Apparently an ex-prime minister of Japan lives in the area. Not like we'd know, but there are some *nice* houses around.
Suddenly we turned a corner and stumbled into Little Venice! Yeah, we don't know what happened either.
I like looking at empty desolate playgrounds; don't ask me why.
This cozy little stationery shop was quite a treasure trove: It had a collection of pocket-sized cameras. By pocket-sized I mean it wouldn't look out of place as your KEYCHAIN, it could take pictures in 4 lomo-like settings, pics are stored in an SD memory card in the device, and you'd transfer out the pics to your PC via USB cable. It was pretty cheap too - I do regret not buying the camera shaped like an oversized pair of spectacles so you could take pics AS YOUR EYES SAW IT. Oh well.
This is a tea shop of DOOM. They have several hundred blends of tea separated by category (caffeine, non-caffeine, traditional, non-traditional, etc), and you can open the tins to smell the blend before deciding to buy. Deru bought a blend that smelled EXACTLY like chocolate, and everyone bought a blend or two. I was just cold and sleepy and I couldn't get free cups of tea, so the experience was wasted on me.
After everyone spent an hour or so on TEA (Cumberbatch in my head yay), we kept on trudging in the cold rain-
...Wait, we're still in Japan, right? The tea place WAS in Japan, right? Cold depressing spring rain also happens in Japan, right??
...RIGHT?
Someone tell me I'm right! @@
Yeah I'm still in Japan - only here would they have this stowed in a corner (presumably to display some other fine day).
They had English tea fare, but you MUST order tea with your cake - no "scones with water" BS here; the english tea experience is a requirement. From L-R: Deru, Clay, Sherlyn, and Nads being shown the menu and what tea we should have with our scones.
Well...*I* had scones. It was glorious and had chocolate chips in them. The boss was an elderly Japanese man who spoke English, so he had a nice chat with us about where we were from and stuff, and he even TESTS his kitchen's food to make sure it's up to snuff! It's simple fare, but in a nice warm place like this sometimes simple is best. <3
The stairs lead to the 2nd floor Salon, which was closed, so let's talk a bit about Clay: Clay is a Singaporean marine engineer. His company has a contract with the US Navy, so Clay will get in a boat, go to some US Destroyer battleship, and do their repairs. Let's reiterate: Clay fixes US Navy boats for a living. What is his Jrock Fandom? [ViViD]. A marine engineer who was in the Navy for his National Service who fixes US Navy boats likes ViViD so much an idol shop in Harajuku gave him a free ViViD poster after he HUGGLED. THE. POSTER. If that does not spell [Took a Level in Badass], I don't know what will.
Clay also liked the toilet, the cover automatically opens when you enter! He liked it so much he pranced to the toilet a 2nd time and said, "Imma gonna go enjoy the toilet again!" Oh Clay, you're just so entertaining. <3
We sat until 6, then we had to go because they were closing up - that's the downside about Spring, I don't recall anything closing so early when I came to Tokyo in summer the last time. NOT THAT I THINK SUMMER IS BETTER FOR IT. >_>
If they've been knitting since 1945, that's got to be one HUGE sweater. *ba dum tish*
It's old-fashioned, but...I actually LIKE the clothes! ;__;
We then took off to Kabukicho to meet up with the rest of the Singaporean crew going for The Gazette's concert tomorrow. Layla had booked a room in an izakaya for dinner, so off we went!
This Okama Bar actually...piques my curiosity. @__@
The izakaya was located in a nondescript office building next to a dance studio. Here is the entrance!
And here is the strange Samurai Warriors tie-in!
Here a pic of the Shinjuku skyline!
This was our appetizer: Some salmon, some cold pasta.
Deru and I shared a few dishes: Tofu stuffed with cheese (?!), gyoza, and some yakisoba.
Someone ordered this plate of sashimi, and I'll let the video explain why everyone was squicked by it:
We tried killing the fish - whacking it on the head, piercing its head - but when nothing helped we just asked the staff to take it away. Not that anyone had any appetite by then, mind.
Deru called up the Kimi Ryokan to check if they had extra rooms, but they didn't, so me and Deru left early to walk her to the train, and I just headed back because at least I'd have an excuse to wash up and wind down earlier :D
Ironically, I couldn't find this fantastic transparent umbrella for cheap ANYWHERE. Dad was so disappointed :(
And that's it for Day 2! Next up: The Gazette's Anniversary concert, and my first brush with Japanese assholicry. It exists! OAO
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 01:47 pm (UTC)Now I want to go to that scone place, haha.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 01:52 pm (UTC)Find St Christopher's in Jiyugaoka! I have no idea how to get there, honestly, but it's in the area!
no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 01:56 pm (UTC)St Christopher is about an hour away...that's long for scones but they look good so I might have to go sometime.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 03:27 pm (UTC)...and to think, at some point, in the kitchen, some Tokyo chef is going "What, they sent it back? ANOTHER ONE? What IS it with gaijin and their inability to eat fresh food?"
OTOH, oh you Japanese pastry chefs and your obsession with making cakes that look too good to eat.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-25 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-31 04:24 am (UTC)I JUST CANT
Did you guys paid for the sashimi afterwards? D:
I want some tea blends too ;n;