Lacquered Nothings~ Musings of a wanderer

Picture time!!

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 15:51:02 GMT

Enjoying the space at our cheap hotel in Kyoto!

Our feast that night- convenience store food from Seven-Eleven!

In Miyajima- like i said there were deer everywhere!

We were attacked.. they tried to eat anything they could.

More anti-smoking signs.

Everything there was just gorgeous.

Five story pagoda.

Close-up of the five story pagoda.

Baby deer!

Everything was sooo beautiful.

Enjoying tea with Linda!

Oh how they:ve grown!

Carl killed a mosquito in our room.

Our Sunday in Harajuku!**

Coolest man ever, drawing little pictures for people outside the station.

This is Maria. He:s a solo artist or something, he gave us a flier.

Man dancing to his ipod, he was pretty amazing.

Dance man dance!

Singing away.

Posing with Linda!!

Free hugs!

Showing off the clothes

Showing off the clothes and the bike

Video:s taking too long to download so that;ll have to come later.

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 15:17:50 GMT

Watched Practical Magic with Carl while we ate McDonalds, then joined in chatting with the UK and Swedish people.. the one guy from London was showing us these hilarious videos he found on YouTube, i:ll have to find them and post them later.
Bought a little flash drive in Ikebukuro today. i was just going to get a cheap one since i already have one at home but they had a Nightmare Before Christmas one!! Uploading pictures right now to my photobucket. Hm hmm...

In the meantime i found the video the British guy was showing us:

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:55:53 GMT

Back from Okayama!!
It was good to see everyone again (and good to have some home-cooked food again too!) They took me to a sushi place for dinner, and then we had some beautiful (and delicious) cake when we got back home.

Went to Harajuku yesterday to see all the people dressed up by the Meiji Shrine. It was really fun, took some pictures and video so i:ll post those once i get a jump-drive to load them from my laptop to this computer. Jessie:s been in Kobe visiting a friend, so last night Carl and i went back to Arty Farty again. Stayed out late and missed the last train, but we found another place called The Annex which is open til the trains start running again so we danced with all the crazy people there. There was my special Dancing Man who danced on the round fountain table for hours. He kept pulling me up onto the table to dance with him, and we:d flail in the bubbles and foam that would go off occassionally. It was fun but exhausting.

Just a bit ago i was bringing back some lunch from the convenience store for me and Carl. i turned the corner just a street away from the hostel, and i heard a little "honk!" so i looked up, and there was this big truck sitting at the stoplight, and the driver was grinning as big as possible and waving at me. Slightly confused and wondering if i:d seen him before, i grinned and waved back.

Today we:ve decided will be a relaxing day.. just a little looking around, take some purikura, and then come back here to watch a movie on my laptop.

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 03:05:21 GMT

Back in Tokyo early.. we cancelled our reservations in Kobe. i think we were a little over-ambitious in our plans, and didn:t consider that we:d be hauling our 50-plus pound suitcases everywhere we went.
Stayed in Miyajima the night before; i:ve never seen anyplace more beautiful. And there were deer everywhere! We were attacked.. they kept trying to eat the tags off of our suitcases, and when i was helping Jessie ward the deer off from her suitcase, i turned around to see a deer with my Plastic Tree poster halfway down it:s throat! i was sure i wouldn:t get it back, but after playing tug-o-war with it, i got it back relatively unscathed.
Woke up the next morning with about 10 mosquito bites concentrated on my lower calves.

And now for some pictures!! (haven:t gotten them all uploaded yet.. they:ll come in time)

The aftermath of my lunch on the plane. Absolutely delicious, and notice the baby Ben&Jerry:s ice cream. Cherry Garcia. Yum.

On our way for our first day of adventure!!

Jessie taking a smokebreak in the rain in Harajuku.

They have funny anti-smoking signs.

Jessie and Carl with the Suica penguin outside of La Pausa (the pizza place)

Carl and his ever-growing pile of shit in our little bitty room.

Nighttime crowd in Shibuya.

Everybody at The Lock Up! From left to right: me, Carl, Nana, Ryo, Hide (he looks angry behind Keiko!!), Keiko, and Jessie.

He was amazing!! i gave him a hug..

..and people passing by decided to follow suit!

The Nightmare display at La Floret!

Hitsugi:s outfit. i took pictures of the others too but i:m only posting his.

Nighttime in Ginza.

Ginza again. That:s Jaye on the right.

The creepy cupid at Arty Farty.

Jaye and Carl at Arty Farty.

Off to Okayama to visit the fam!!

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:33:16 GMT

First off- YAY FREE WIFI!! i get to use my laptop now. ^o^

Said our sad goodbyes to everyone we'd met at the hostel. Jaye was leaving today too, so we checked out and went to the station together. We got off together at Ueno too, and said our goodbyes there before parting ways. Found our shinkansen, and headed to Kyoto.
i don't think we're going to be doing anything special tonight. We're in an actual hotel this time, and we're just glad to have space to move, and to sprawl out on the floor. i'll miss meeting all the neat people though.
Hadn't eaten all day, so once we checked in we headed down to the Seven-Eleven to get some food. Sooo wonderful! i think my stomach's shrunk, we've only been eating little miniscule meals on the go and we've been walking continuously (i actually think i only ate once yesterday), but i've been doing completely fine with it. i'm actually over-stuffed from our conbini food- some inari and rolls, a small salad, and mango pudding. Oh! And there was a wonderful thermos of hot water and some green tea and a tea set waiting for us in our room.
Tonight we're just going to rela~~x.

And some note-worthy moments i forgot to mention:

*If i don't return home, it's because the Middle Eastern men have taken me. Friday night when we were walking back to the hostel, we passed these two Middle Eastern men walking in the opposite direction, and the big fat one stops when he saw me, whipped around, and said, "Ah-LLAH!!" i was frightened to say the least, and Carl said he was sure the guy was going to try and eat me. Then the next night as we were walking back, we passed another ME man. This one was on his cell phone, but as i passed him his jabbering got all excited, and Carl said he stopped and watched me walk away.

*Also Saturday night, we were on the train back to Nishikawaguchi (our stop), and when we arrived at Kawaguchi we voiced our excitement at being one stop away. Well, that stop came. And went. We'd been chattering away and didn't realize it was our stop until the doors closed. We figured it'd be an easy fix- just get off at the next station, and jump on the next train back. Too bad that train was delayed about 40 minutes. Go us!

Pictures to be posted later! And the Unfortunate Tales of Jacob, Jun, and Stewart to follow eventually.
Laundry time!

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:11:49 GMT

Sunday:
Yet another early start (perhaps a bit too early), Carl Jessie and i headed to Akihabara to have a look around. i was hoping to find one of those electronic English/Japanese dictionaries, but after seeing the cost i decided i:d better wait. We stopped in a cute little store, bought some little gifts, walked around a bit more, then came back to the hostel.
We decided later to go to Ginza just to look, since buying anything there would put me in debt beyond belief. We invited Jaye, the girl from London, to come with us since she:s been here for nearly 20 days on her own and hadn:t gotten to see any nightlife. Jessie ended up not going, saying she didn:t feel well, though Carl and i were pretty sure she was experiencing culture shock.
Ginza was pretty fun. We found a 5-story toy store near the station where we spent most of our time, since it was actually affordable. After that we just walked down the street and window shopped.
After that we made our way to Shinjuku and Carl led us (or more technically, we wandered for nearly an hour trying to find it) to Arty Farty- a crazy dance club he:d come to last time he was here. It was fun but we left late and the train we were on stopped at Akabane, a good 5 or 6 stops away from ours so we had to fork over money for a cab. It was fun though.

Today (though right now i guess it:s technically yesterday..):
Woke up late for the first time since we:d been here. We invited Jaye to come with us to Harajuku to karaoke and take purikura, but she didn:t have the money so she stayed behind with Jessie (who still wasn:t feeling well). So it was just Carl and i for the day. We first went to Harajuku with the intentions of going to karaoke again and take some purikura, which we didn:t after being distracted by shopping again (i only bought some small gifts for people, and a small thing for myself) and by that DAMN claw-machine that we each spent about ￥1000 on trying to get one these little grab bags.. we came sooooo close to getting it, freaking out and cursing the machine the whole time. But alas we still failed.
Went back to Shinjuku afterward to hang out at Arty Farty again, and to wander around as well. We met Tim from London, he was incredibly nice, and insisted on buying us some Red Bulls (which is probably why i:m still up). We chatted with him for a while, which was nice since it took our minds off of Jacob, Jun, and Stewart. Their most unfortunate stories will have to be saved for another time, it:s quite heartwreching..

Off to Kyoto tomorrow (today)!!

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 04:40:49 GMT

Friday:
After much-needed sleep, we woke up early Friday morning to get ready for our day of shopping. We went to Harajuku first, buying some fun-colored umbrellas just outside of the station since there was a steady sprinkle by the time we got there. We went to Kiddy Land first, where we spent forever on all 4 floors.. i got most of my souvenier shopping done there. :) Still have to go back, there was just too much to look at.
Made our way to Takeshita (?) street, where all the really amazing shops are. Spent most of our time there. i had to refrain from buying soooo many clothes that i saw (since i spent about ￥12000 on an h.Naoto hoodie at Kiddie land) but i did indulge in a pair of pants since Body Line was having a HUGE sale.. they were originally ￥9900, but i got them for only ￥3000.
Had the most amazing pizza at a place called La Plausa (sp?).
Made our way to Shibuya, but didn:t stay there long since we were getting really exhausted. We just meandered around Shibuya 109- this pretty popular mall- before heading back to freshen up.
Feeling much better we met Ken:s friend Keiko at our station. She took us back to Shibuya to meet her friends at a suprise place. Turned out to be the most amazing club/restraunt i:d ever been too, called The Lock Up. It:s themed kinda like the Haunted Mansion- you go into the entrance and walk down this winding hallway and things keep popping up at you. When our waitress went to seat us she handcuffed Carl (much to his dismay, but we forced him!) and lead us to where everyone else was waiting. Each table is in a room designed kinda like a jail cell, and every hour all the lights go off and people dressed as monsters start running around and wreaking havoc and scaring people in their cells, then the waitress come and fight them off.
We talked and drank with everyone, they were all really nice- Nana, Ryo, Hide, Keiko.. We finally had to leave before we missed the last train.

Saturday:
We met everyone again on Saturday, around 11am in front of Harajuku station. We first took some really fun purikura pictures, and then went to karaoke. i actually did sing along with some of the songs, but i refused to use a mic. After that we went to Book Off, which i:d been really looking forward to so i could get my CD fix, and the good thing is is that it:s all really cheap. Some CDs i got were only ￥250 (but i still spent close to ￥7000!) After that we went to La Floret, looked at the h.Naoto store (as well as other clothing stores). They had a little "museum" dedicated to Nightmare:s previous tour, and they had their outfits on display and samples from their new single you could listen to.
Found this one CD store, where i dropped another good ￥13000. Jessie and i are going back there on the 27th to get Plastic Tree:s new album, because then we:re able to go back on the 1st to go to their meet-and-greet!
One by one people had to leave for work or whatever, first Ryo, then Nana, then Hide. Keiko, Carl, Jessie, and i went for dinner at Jonathan:s, then we took the train to Meguro to go to... yet another CD store, where i dropped another good amount of money.
Completely worn out from walking all day carrying increasingly heavy bags we decided to call it a day.

Our プリクラ(purikura)!

Oh where to start...

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 14:15:24 GMT

(First off, a note: since this keyboard is different and the colon key is where the apostrophe should be, anyplace an apostrophe is needed there will be a colon, since i:m too lazy to stop and look for the apostrophe key every time i need it)

Now,
wow. It:s only been two days?? It feels like i:ve been living here.
The plane ride to LA was uneventful (save for the 3-year-old behind us who literally ~~cried~~ screached the entire trip).
Until restlessness set in, the flight to Narita was quite nice. We found comfy pillows and blankets waiting in our seats, and were treated to a nice hot towel before we took off. The food was wonderful, both lunch and dinner, and the interactive TVs on the back of each chair helped to ease the boredom.
Upon arriving at Narita we collected our luggage (after nearly freaking out at not having found Carl:s stuff at first). Then we exchanged our money, and picked up our railpasses. Then the fun part of finding the right line to take set in, and we went up and down elevators and escalators with our luggage, we finally decided to give up on the (free) JR line for the night and purchase tickets for the line suggested in the directions we printed of f from the hostel.
And wow, this place is something. It looks pretty sketchy, but all the people here are really nice. There was the couple here last night- the guy from America and his Chinese girlfriend- and the girl from London in the ~~room~~ boarded off area next to ours. This place used to be an old house, and the rooms have been sectioned off into little "cubbies", essencially, with just big panels of wood. Our 3-bed private room is tiny (and not very private). There:s a set of bunkbeds, and then a mat for one more on the floor. We had no room for our luggage, so we put them on the bottom bunk. Jessie has been sleeping on the top bed, and Carl and i have been sprawling out on the mat on the floor, which works out fine because we have the fan blowing right on us (it:s rainy season right now, so it:s humid as hell!). Only thing is that we:re longer than the room is, so when i:m stretched to full length my feet stick out under the wooden plank on hinges- aka our door.
i:m not complaining. It:s livable, we:re only sleeping here.. i mean it is inconvenient at times but it was only 13 bucks a night. It:s a neat experience; like Jessie said, "It:s kinda like camping."
No pictures or video at the moment.. wifi isn:t free. There:s a computer here in the kitchen/common area, and it:s 100 yen for 20 minutes to use the internet and i have no way to load my pictures from my camera.
i:m actually almost out of time as it is (that, and i:m really beat!) i:ll write of our adventures from the past 2 days soon!!

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:42:18 GMT

Confirmed our flight this morning, finally got everything smoothed out with myjapanphone.com so my temporary phone will be waiting at the hostel when i arrive (i'll let everyone know the number when i get it, since all incoming calls are free to me ^^). Have our two-week unlimited railpasses,and we have all of our hostel reservations made, and one night in a gorgeous ryokan- and still in total rooming cost us each less than $250 for the whole two weeks! We're not sleeping at all Tuesday night, that way it'll be easier to fall asleep on the plane. That and we're using that time to plan out every point in our trip.
All that's left is packing! And dying my hair.. but that's not really a necessity.
And still, i really don't feel any excitement. It's not odd though. i tend to not get worked up over big trips until a few hours (or even a few days) after i'm there. It was the same last time i went, which was almost 3 years ago. i'm looking forward to this more, i think probably because this is truly my trip now.. everything has been paid out of my pocket with my hard-earned money (yeah, it's possible for me now since i'm not working for minimum wage at Pizza Slut anymore).
And as a reference for anyone looking to take a (relatively) inexpensive trip to Japan, here are some helpful links:

www.bt-store.com
-That's where we got our plane tickets. Gotta grab them quick though. We dallied and missed the $600-some ones (with tax, just over $800) and had to get the ones that were $100 more. But that's still a few hundred dollars cheaper than the norm.

www.japanvacation.net/jrpass.htm
-The Railpass. If you plan on travelling around a lot and sightseeing, this will definitely pay for itself. It's about $250 for one week, unlimited use on almost every JR rail. Definitely handy.

www.hostelworld.com
-If you're looking for a cheap place to sleep, you can't beat a hostel for price. Keep in mind, this is NOT a hotel. Rooms are TINY, bathrooms are shared, and often times they offer mixed-dorm rooms as well. But the prices are dirt cheap, and it's not like you'll be hanging out in the room all day anyway.

www.myjapanphone.com
-If you just can't stand to not have a cell phone (or are doing business, or need to keep/get in contact with people) since cell phones from outside the country won't work. Make sure to get your order in about a week in advance, just to be sure you can get it in time. They'll also deliver it to your hotel so you can get it when you arrive.

That's all the wisdom i have to offer.
My next post will be made from the future!