Traveling Through Japan

After some complications with my camera I lost all of my pictures of my final days in Japan.
Suffice to say I had a lot of fun and met a lot of nice people.
I only walked around Akihabara for about 5 hours before I ate my dinner and headed of
to the before mentioned 'Bar My Place' owned by Kento Yamada.
It was an amazing bar with great drinks and friendly company. Music was played, laughs were shared and plenty of drinks for everyone. If any of you plan on visiting Japan or even the Philippines check out his bar, you certainly won't regret it.
I'm going to put up a link here so you guys can check it out:
Bar My Place

Anyway thanks for tuning in, yes I am home and I had a wonderful time.

So before I start in, I will inform you all that I didn't get that many pictures of Shibuya but there are two reasons for that. First of all, my camera died at some point and there is no way I'm paying $5 for 2 AA batteries, and secondly a lot of the stores and such I saw were all American based like Forever 21, Levi, Gap, and stuff like that. So without further ado, here are the pictures and stuff I have for you.

So first thing is the first glimpse of Hatagaya. This is actually a little far out from Shibuya.

I had to take a train to Shinjuku from Yokohama, so that cost me around $10. After that I had to switch train lines and go to Hatagaya which was $1.50ish. Then I had to turn around and go to Shinjuku to change lines and go to Shibuya, then I could walk around, then come back the same way. I ate up close to $25-30 just getting from place to place. So anyway I ninja'ed this picture of some convenience store goods. I found that a bunch of the places I go won't allow me to take pictures, I even asked to take a picture of some Kobe beef and they said no! I don't know, maybe it's a cultural thing but at any rate I don't understand.

And this is a picture of a series of stores in the station:

Some walking around pictures of Shibuya:

The best part of my day comes in right here. I found this restaurant with some good looking pictures of food which is when I took this picture:

If you look carefully there is a vending machine looking thing next to the store. I was baffled so I told the person behind me that they could go ahead. He puts his money in, hits a button and out comes a ticket that looks similar to a train ticket. He then went inside. I decided to follow suit, so I put my money in, pressed a magic button, got my ticket and went inside. I didn't say a word but the lady takes the ticket she sees in my hand, sets a drink down for me and minutes later out comes this meal:

Awesome food and possibly the best innovation ever.

That's all I have for today folks but tomorrow I go to the land of the おたく(in essence, nerds): Akihabara
Good night and make sure you read tomorrow!

Finally to today! I was in a near panic last night and this morning trying to make sure I caught the right train and didn't make Chris wait too long. This area I got off at was particularly large and intimidating at first. I was late and didn't know where my hotel was that I was supposed to meet him at. i eventually called him from a pay phone where I found out the my hotel wasn't even a block away! We proceeded to go to his house.

We hung out here for awhile and talked shop about Japanese and his job and what I can expect. He also showed me some mad kung fu skills along with some of his musical recordings. We went to the コンビニ(convenience store) and he showed me just how large some of the containers for alcohol can be! After that we went to a Japanese fast food restaurant similar to McDonalds where I got a teriyaki burger.

I caught a pic of an energy drink in a vending machine that says "tough man" which I thought was pretty funny. These pictures were taken just under the station where we met Chris's wife.

After we all met up we went walking off to Chinatown!

At the restaurant they brought me to I had Taiwanese noodles that were really good. I took this last picture on the way back to my hotel:

I had soo much fun with Chris and his wife I only wish I had a better way to thank them for taking the time to show me the fascinating things they did and walking back to my hotel with me. Thank you to Chris, his wife Kyoko, Q-San, and Takacoma so far for all of their help and consideration. どうもありがとうございます！Thank you so much!

Saturday! I finally got to meet up with my penpal and his friend that I was acquainted with. First thing is first though, my breakfast, the stations, and my first look at Ayase:

I took a few pictures while being lost on the way to my hotel. I figured out why I keep getting lost. Some maps are upside down!! I noticed when I finally saw a map with a compass and north was pointing where southwest would be on American maps!

This place seemed more peaceful than Ikebukuro even, there were gardens and everything was quite, even during the night! After I dropped off my luggage at the hotel I headed back to the station where I would meet my penpals. I was early so I got a slice of pizza from a nearby bakery, I don't know why pizza was at a bakery but I'm not complaining. It had a few odd ingredients but it was super delicious.

I forgot to take pictures of my penpals right away so bear with me. We first went to Asakusa, home of the Senso-ji. We went there are walked about a bit while they showed me how they toss their coins into an opening and pray. They also tried to explain to me the statues and various other things about the temple.

I didn't take a lot of pictures but we went to a sushi restaurant and I tried shrimp of all things! (my friends and family know that I don't normally like shrimp) I also had eel, barbecue eel, an omelette roll, some type of fish soup and more things I can't remember. However this is a picture of a piece of barbecue eel sushi:

Next we were off to Akihabara, and the sad part about this is that most of our time was spent in shops there and they didn't allow pictures so I took this picture just as we got out of the station:

Finally a picture of my pen pals! We were taking a train to Odaiba to an おんせん(Japanese spa). People usually relate that to a the outdoor bath, which would not be incorrect. It was a very large deal for me to get used to the fact that I would have to be naked around a lot of other people but it is a difference in cultural perspective. No one else was being weird about it so once I got rid of my American perspective I enjoyed the experience soo much more. I obviously couldn't take pictures in the bath but I have some of the building and such.

I will introduce them as they introduced themselves to me for the sake of privacy if they so desire
On the left is Q-san and on the right is Takacoma.

On the way home Takacoma had to take his leave to attend to other business but Q-san informed me that her would still like to drink so we hit up a bar and grill less than 1 minute on foot away from my hotel. I tried a few foods that I don't remember the names of but I had gyoza, edamame, natto, potato salad, and a form of やきとり(fried chicken). We both drank more and we ordered this fancy sake that came in a bamboo container(very expensive!).

After all was said and down Q-san made sure I got back to my hotel ok and we took one last picture together.

Now onto the post about what I did today!

Sorry it took me so long to get back to the blog. I had so much going on that I couldn't find any time to make this post. Each post takes close to an hour between uploading pictures, inserting them in the right order and telling a little bit about what's going on in them so I will be doing 3 posts tonight.

Ok so let me start off with a shot of the station I arrived at in Shinjuku. This place was huge! I got lost trying to find an exit!

And a few shots on my way to the hotel:

After I dropped off my luggage I forgot to leave my back pack there so I had to carry it around, which became pretty heavy with most of my travel stuff in it. I found this temple, I don't remember which one it was, and also some scenic spot that said it was some kind of center but I don't know much about it. Also some shots of walking around:

I found people trying to sell discount DVD's, I don't know what of but they were kind of comical. In these back streets I found a big billboard for host clubs which also amused me. I settled on a little restaurant in a back street that specialized in curry:

I kept waling around Shinjuku where I found super huge buildings and a crazy elevated walkway that was almost like it's own city above the normal city. I also found more giant department stores and once again, sorry guys no pictures:

I came to this little coffee shop where I got my much needed caffeine.

After that my hotel was ready so I went back and passed out until around 10PM. I decided to go out and see if I could take neat night pictures of this giant city however I was targeted by seedy gentlemen due to my がいじん(foreigner) status as they tried to get me to follow them to their establishments. They stressed the part where I should go alone. Overall I would say to beware if you are visiting and definitely don't follow them. It really got annoying when at every intersection there would be 2 or 3 people confronting me about their bars or whatever they were peddling. After only a handful of shots I sauntered back to my hotel discouraged.

Here are the few pictures I managed to get before I went back:

On to the next post!!

Due to unforeseeable circumstances my posting will be a little late. First off, it turns out that the first hotel having the right power outlet for my laptop was a fluke, so I need to get a power cable in order to continue posting. When I arrived in Shinjuku at 10am, the hotel told me that I could not check in until 3pm! I had to wander around Shinjuku with my heavy backpack for hours! When my room was finally ready, I accidentally fell asleep. Well I have to get off of here before my laptop dies but when I return later on with a power cable.

Hello everyone, I got a lot of positive feedback on the last post, it makes me happy that you are enjoying what I'm doing.
I got lost a whole bunch today but the result was still a lot of pictures.
I should probably start the pictures off with what I ate after I left you all last night:

The sandwich was an assortment of korokke (croquette) and some kind of egg salad, I don't know, but it was delicious.
The chips were absolutely the best chips I ever had, they were pizza flavored but the part that caught me off guard was how strong the flavor was!! I bought these items at a local コンビニ or convenience store.

These next pictures I took while I was walking around:

I found a store I wanted to go to and I forgot to take a picture of the outside but it was a media store, like DVD's, CD's, and games:

And being that it is Japan there was no lack of dating sim games:

After I left there I set out to find the BicCamera store, however this proved difficult and instead got lost and took pictures along the way.
First one being a McDonald's I found:

At the exit where the cars pulled out, there was a flashing light and an alarm telling you there was a car about to pull out.
Right beside the McDonald's there was this roadside shrine. I couldn't tell you what they are actually called because I forgot.

I followed some residential road because I thought I was clever and found a shortcut, I was wrong but at least I got some pictures.
I also found a school on this road, I made sure there was no one out in the yard so I didn't look like a creeper.

After a few turns and about 40 minutes later I found more populated roads:

I found a department store that I wanted to check out called Marui however the symbol is OIOI. It's the Brown building in the first picture.
I also took a picture of the signs indicating what is on which floors.

I took pictures of a few of the floors, the first one being a men's fashion store, the second one they called an "exciting book store"? They had approximately 6 different songs playing in this store at the same time. Then there are picture of an 'As Seen on TV' type of store.

When I stumbled out of there I actually found the Bic store I was looking for, however when I asked, they told me I could not take pictures in there so you have to settle for an outside shot.

I also have a picture of a populated street and a pachinko parlor on my way to the hotel. I bought a headset at the Bic store and for some reason I took a picture of that as well.

I got a cheap laugh at this picture

And after a short rest (I had walked for about 6 hours) I headed off to a たこ焼き (fried octopus) stand. After I ate it I didn't feel very good, in fact, I still don't feel very good, but the food itself was delicious.

I did more walking to counter act the fried food I just ate but it didn't help

I must make mention that the policemen are really nice. When I saw two of them standing outside of their こばん(police box) I gave them a slight bow and an おはよう(good morning) to which they gave a much deeper bow and said おはようございます(a MUCH politer way of saying good morning) I was mildly embarrassed because I felt like I was rude but I have the ignorant American status working in my favor.

I made one last venture out into the night and I stumbled upon an area that I didn't even see before this point and it was just west of my hotel! It was all aglow at night however I only got one picture because it was raining and I didn't want to damage my camera.

Now I didn't know at the time but this could be called the um..."entertainment district" of Ikebukuro. This was evident by some signs I saw and the increasing number of 'short stay hotels.' So that's all there is to say about that. I wandered back here around 8:30 to start work on this post.

I will finish up here because I have a big day ahead of me, I leave from here to Shinjuku by train and I have to explore the vastness there in 1 day only. おやすみなさい Good Night.

I apologize for the late post but it took a little extra time to get here than I thought.
I didn't get a whole bunch of picture tonight because I was running around terrified (lol)
So far my most frequently used phrase is "______はどこにありますか？” This translates to "Where is _____?"
Everyone has been really helpful but I digress, let's move on to what you really want...pictures.

This is a picture I took when I stepped out of the gate in Detroit.
The following pictures are also of bits of the airport however I didn't have long before I was led to the next frightening flying machine.

This was the last I saw of America for about 13-14 hours when I landed in Japan
I took these pictures at the Narita Airport when I wasn't being hurried along :

This is Kento Yamada, I met him on the long flight and he gave me his business card.
He also bought me coffee at the following Starbucks and helped me get onto the right
railway. Super nice guy! I will scan his business card when I get home but his bar is called
'Bar My Place'

This train took me from Narita Aiport to Nippori Station

These are pictures of the Ikebukuro Station I took when I was trying to find my way out.
They had a bunch of little shops leading to the exit.

This was literally the first thing I saw when I walked out of the exit

Last but not least the hotel room, it is kinda small but I like it...well not at first because I felt like I was burning alive but yes, now it's ok.

Thank you to everyone that helped get me here!
I am signing off now because I am sweaty and smelly and I need to shower.
おやすみなさい Goodnight!