Tokyo~!

It's been a while now that I've been back in Tsu, but I finally have a chance to sit down and write this post!  I had tons of fun in Tokyo, and I really want to share about it with all of you.  :D  If you've already seen these pictures on Facebook, well, uh...you get more commentary this way?  And maybe some different pictures?  :D?  Disclaimer: All the place names I mention in here are in or near Tokyo.  If you want to know more about these places...Wikipedia or Google are your friends?  Also, this is going to be one of those ridiculously long entries, but you probably already knew that.

DAY ONE: FRIDAY


I took the night bus from Tsu on Thursday, so I arrived in Tokyo at 6am on Friday morning.  The bus was actually like 40 minutes early, so Yuri's sister Aya's boyfriend, Kengo, who was supposed to pick me up, wasn't there yet.  I made my way into Tokyo Station, but I totally didn't know what I was doing, haha, so it took Kengo a little while to find me.  But his English is like, better than mine, so we were able to figure things out.

The reason Kengo had to pick me up is because the Namiki family was all at a funeral for Yuri's grandpa, who had passed away a few days before.  His passing was a long time in coming so it wasn't much of a shock, but Japanese funerals are evidently very, very long.  So while they were there, I slept for four hours, took a shower, and then met up with Kengo again for a late lunch.  We hung out and chatted at the restaurant for a while until the Namikis came back from the funeral.  Yuri gave me a pretty hilarious play-by-play (complete with sound effects) of the very long, very traditional ceremony.

Since Friday was New Year's Eve, a bunch of people came over, and we played games, ate snacks, and hung out.  In addition to the Namiki family (including Yuri's brother who I haven't seen in years and his girlfriend), my friend Daisuke came over, as well as a couple of Kengo's friends.  In the end, there was a pretty decent-sized group of us.

The normal picture.

The...less normal picture.

So we played games up until it was almost midnight, ran into the room with the tv just long enough to watch the countdown, wished each other a happy new year, and ran out the door for karaoke, haha.  Some people had to go home because the trains were going to stop running, but those of us who could go were at the karaoke place until like 4am!  It was pretty awesome.

DAY TWO: SATURDAY

Needless to say, we didn't exactly get up early on Saturday.  Since New Years is Japan's biggest holiday of the year, everything was closed, so we ended up going to Yuri's brother's apartment, where we hung out, played video games, and watched a movie.  After that, we went home, had dinner, and relaxed.  It was a pretty chill day overall.

DAY THREE: SUNDAY

Lots more to report on this day!  We went to Yokohama to go to church.  Yuri's sister and mom had to be early, so Yuri and I killed a little time shopping before meeting up with them for lunch (church started at like 1:30 or something).  While we were there, Yuri got an interesting coffee stirrer.

Go picnic at night.  It's fun.

Anyway, the church service was nice.  It's a bilingual church, so I didn't have to struggle to understand the Japanese (actually, Yuri's sister was the translator that day), and it's a lot more modern than my church here in Tsu, so it was kind of a refreshing change.

After church, the four of us (Yuri, Aya, her mom, and me) met up with Kengo and headed to Odaiba!  It's such a pretty place.  I'm really glad we chose to go there!  (We did a little shopping too, but you know.)

Random Statue of Liberty.

Starbucks!  All I got was coffee and a pastry, but since I said it was to go, it came in a really nicely-packed bag.  That's Japan for you~

Yuri got Starbucks too.

Me, Yuri, Aya, Kengo, and Becky.  It was kinda cold...

There was this guy who was feeding the seagulls and taking pictures.  His pictures were much more amazing than mine, but this one still came out pretty nice, I think.  The sky was super pretty.

Me holding the Fuji TV building.

Rainbow Bridge, with Tokyo Tower in the distance.

The weather and time of day were perfect for pictures!

Random cute kid.  Kengo actually took this picture.

This tree thing lit up while we were outside.

It changed colors.

And there was this heart thing.

So Aya and Kengo took pictures with it.

So did Yuri and I.

Inside the mall-type place we were at, there was this diamond thing.

Full of fish.  Yes, real fish.

We did some other walking around, and when we came back outside, it looked like this.

And then we went back to the Namiki apartment, Yuri's brother (who we all call Bobo although that's not his real name) and his girlfriend came over, and we ate amazing cheese fondue and played some games.  It was a great day.  :D

DAY FOUR: MONDAY

Monday was another eventful day!  Yuri and I met up with Daisuke (my friend from college who had come over on New Year's Eve) in Ikebukuro.  We went to Mr. Donut, which is probably the most amazing donut shop ever.  

Yuri made fun of me for getting the cute bear donuts, but whatever!  Cute + delicious = world's greatest combination.  

Anyway, we had been planning to go to this gyoza restaurant/game/whatever place that Yuri likes, but at Mr. Donut they were playing a new Michael Jackson cd and Daisuke wanted to find it, so we ended up looking for a cd shop...and kind of failing, haha.  But then we happened to see a sign for a cat cafe!  Basically, it's a place where you can play with cats, and there are free drinks, video games, etc. while you're there.  (Only in Japan, I know...)  All three of us like cats, so we decided to check it out.  It was pretty cool!

This cat, Aisha, was super cute and soft.  And maybe annoyed that we kept bothering her.

This cat was pretty awesome too.

He tolerated Yuri okay...

...but he and Daisuke quickly became friends.

Especially when Daisuke gave him food.

Yup, Yuri likes cats.

I think this one was her favorite though.

Daisuke and Aisha.

Yuri and Aisha.  Everyone loves Aisha!

This gray cat was pretty cute too.

So cute~

Okay, enough with the cats.

After the cat cafe, we went to a story called Tokyu Hands and did a little shopping.  We also met up with Sachiko, another friend from college.  We decided to go take purikura (which is a word mashup of Print Club...basically like photo booths but like 1000x more advanced).  We took more than this, but these are the only two I have in digital form.

So shiny!  Complete with name mashups: Sachisuke and Yuriber.

Sac State!  Yay?  This one is currently my cell phone wallpaper~

After purikura, the four of us went to Dessert Paradise or whatever it was called, an all-you-can-eat place.  At first we ate regular food, like curry, pasta, etc.  But then...

Oh yes.

Daisuke smiles in real life, I swear...

After that, we went to karaoke!  Daisuke was part of our regular karaoke group in the States before he moved back to Japan in...January of last year, I think?  So he really wanted to go, and all four of us love karaoke, so we went.  And it was awesome.  It's nice when everyone at karaoke is bilingual, so we can do songs in both Japanese and English~

Did I mention that we love karaoke?  We were there for three hours and we easily could've stayed longer.

After that, Sachiko had to go, so Daisuke, Yuri and I did a little more shopping before parting ways.  It was a really, really fun day.  I definitely need to go to Tokyo again soon to hang out with Sachiko and Daisuke!

DAY FIVE: TUESDAY

My last day in Tokyo!  My bus didn't leave until 10:40 at night, so Yuri and I had all day to do as we pleased.  So, more for the experience than for actual shopping, we went to Shibuya.  You know that image you see in movies and stuff of Tokyo with a giant crosswalk with like fifty billion people and huge screens that look like Times Square or something?  That's Shibuya.  We did a little shopping around, including the fairly recent import, Forever 21, and the famous Shibuya 109 building, which is huge and crowded and noisy and full of obnoxious girly girls who all dress the same.  Needless to say, we didn't stay there long.  What I did buy in Shibuya: a cd and a camera.  This camera, to be precise.

Advertised by the ever-attractive Kimura Takuya.  The camera he's holding is my exact one, color and all.

So we left Shibuya and met up with Aya, Kengo and Becky for lunch.  After lunch, Aya and Kengo left to go to Hawaii for a wedding, so Yuri and I did a little souvenir shopping at a much more sane shopping place than Shibuya before heading home.  Bobo and his girlfriend Sayu came over, as well as Dai-chan, a family friend of the Namikis.  We had sukiyaki!

One last group picture.

And then my time ran out and Yuri took me to Tokyo Station to catch my bus.  I was a bit bummed to leave Tokyo, but even if I lingered, everyone had to go to work after the holiday, and Yuri had to go back to the States, so I really stayed as long as was worth it.  

Conclusion: Tokyo is ridiculously crowded (I have never seen so many people in my life), with tons of trains that I can't imagine navigating by myself but that are very convenient, more shopping (and advertising) than could ever possibly be necessary...a really different place than anywhere I've ever been.  And I loved it.  It was also just really nice to stay with the Namikis.  They've always been like family to me, and they treated me like family while I was with them.  I had a really, really wonderful time, and I can't wait to go visit again.

...and now I need to blog about all the various things that I've been doing since I got back from Tokyo, but that's gonna have to be a separate post.  This one is definitely already long enough.