Japan Trip 2014
Oct. 25th, 2014 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pacificpikachuSo, I'm back from Japan, and it was truly an awesome trip! Aside from two "speedbumps" of sorts (that didn't stop me from enjoying the trip), everything went incredibly smoothly and was tons of fun! ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pheonixxfoxx and I were constantly laughing and having a grand time. We made a good traveling combination, if I do say so myself!
- Our flight there felt incredibly long and tedious. We both felt like we were merging with the plane, and like nothing else existed outside of it. We joked about it feeling like the movie The Langoliers. But at least we had movies and games to play and whatnot. The airline fed us way too well, and by the end of the flight I felt quite sick from overeating. The flight took an extra hour or so, too, because of the typhoon--there were a lot of planes landing, so our plane had to circle around several times, and then wait to get to the unloading area. Then when we made it in, the customs/immigration line was super long! At least it went by quickly despite that--I think the whole process took about a half-hour. I was worried about missing the last train into Tokyo with all the things we had to do (exchange money, pick up our wireless, get our train tickets, etc.), but we managed to make it. By the time we got to Ueno, we were exhausted and disoriented, and it took us a while to find our hotel, but we finally did! We were too tired to do anything at that point, and just went to bed.
- The next day, we went to Akihabara for the first of several times. I remember one of the first things we did was go to an arcade, wherepheonixxfoxx won herself a Levi figure with some perserverence. We shopped at anime stores until we were just about ready to collapse. I remember having tons of bags I was carrying around. A random highlight of the day was finding a bright pink butt shrine, LOL.
- The next day was our first Pokémon Center trip! To the Tokyo Center, at Hamamatsucho. I completely filled two baskets and spent...a lot, haha. We got to see the Pokémon necklaces that were on pre-order in person. I had been planning on ordering the Umbreon/Espeon one and the Mew one, but after seeing them, the Mew one was so tiny I could barely make it out to be Mew and decided not to get that one. A friend of mine pre-ordered the Umbreon/Espeon one for me, though. :D
I think we went back to Akihabara briefly after Tokyo Pokémon Center, as we had a few things we wanted to pick up at a store there. Anyway, once we got back to Ueno, we noticed a bunch of people standing around looking at the sky. Initially we couldn't figure out why (I thought it was just because the moon was over Skytree and it looked pretty), but soon enough we figured out--there was a lunar eclipse going on! We waited around and watched the whole thing for about an hour, snapping pictures all the while. My camera wasn't doing so well with the moon pictures, but luckilypheonixxfoxx's camera did better. It was an awesome sight, and it was cool to see so many people watching it!
- The next day, we were on our way to the JR Ueno station (only about two minutes' walk from our hotel) when we discovered a huge toy store right near the station! It was several stories tall and truly awesome. I bought a bunch more Pokémon stuff there, and also had my eye on some other things that I decided to come back for later. Thus the sushi cat saga began. We found these sushi cat gashapon thatpheonixxfoxx loved, so every morning we would go and get more sushi cats out of the machine. She eventually got the whole set, though it took a while. Once we finished browsing the toy store, we took off for Ikebukuro.
At Ikebukuro, we found our first Book Off and looked at it for a bit. We also hit up several arcades, including one werepheonixxfoxx managed to win me a whole bunch of bird keychains in one play because they all stuck together. At the Sunshine City mall in Ikebukuro, we went to a Ghibli store, Toys R Us (more Pokémon merch), found the new location of Pokémon Center Tokyo starting at the end of the year, debated on going into Namja Town but ultimately decided against it, went to Coldstone, rested, and eventually left.
As we were wandering Ikebukuro a little more, we found another Animate, and we explored that. It was larger and more spacious than the Akihabara one. We tried to find Mandarake in Ikebukuro, but were unsuccessful. Some guys approached us and wanted to talk, and we did for a little bit. I don't know if they were just trying to be friendly, or trying to hit on us, or what, but after a few minutes the language barrier came into play and they backed off.
- The next day, we went to Shimbashi station to find an It's Demo for the cute Pokémon promotion that store was having. We had a tiny bit of trouble finding the store, which was in the station, but found it without too much trouble. The items were so cute, I picked up quite a few of them.
From there, we went on to Yokohama, which is quite a nice area. We passed the ferris wheel and ship and bay. Our goal was Yokohama Pokémon Center, which we found after some walking and wandering a huge mall. Yokohama is the largest Pokémon Center, and needless to say there were some items that I didn't find at Tokyo and picked up there. We also went by another Ghibli store, and went through the Jump store despite not currently being a fan of any of Jump's titles. We went to another Coldstone, too. Sunset and dusk in Yokohama were pretty!
- The next day, it was back to Pokémon Center Tokyo, as the Little Tales promotion was being released that day! It was very busy at the Center as a result.pheonixxfoxx played a little game that they had set up and won a prize.
When we got back to Ueno, we went to a cat café that was near our hotel. Overall, it was nice, and the cats were so cute! I had a few minor concerns about their health (some had some bald patches), but in general they seemed healthy and happy. It was fun watching them run and play. It got super busy around the time our hour there was up, so it was good timing to get out of there. We also went out late that evening, dropped by the toy store again, and got some pancakes and goodies at a fast food restaurant. I actually didn't up liking my pancakes too much, but it was still fun to hang out there and talk.
- The next day, I met up with my friend Kimberly and her roommmate, who have a corgi puppy named Beemo. We took this cool train over a bridge to Odaiba, and went shopping there. We wandered around for quite a while, but eventually found a dog-friendly café to eat at. I got this amazing fruit crepe thing. We went by several pet stores, too. I couldn't believe the prices of the purebred kittens, which ranged from $2000 to over $7000 (for a bengal kitten). At one of the pet stores, we were upset that one kitten didn't have water. Kimberly told a member of the staff, but he still didn't have water when it came time to leave, so we bothered them again about it. Finally they gave him some water. We went to see the Gundam statue at Odaiba, too, and took video of its hourly movements. We did some shopping at Palette Town (LOL), and then eventually parted ways, as we were exhausted.
- The next day was Ghibli Museum day. I was all nervous because a typhoon was supposed to come in that day and everyone was hyping the typhoon up, but it didn't end up being an issue. We took the train to Mitaka, and then the Ghibli bus to the Museum. It drizzled throughout the day with periodic moderate rain, but that was it while we were in Mitaka. While we waited to get in, we wandered around the park where the Museum is (it's just beautiful there), and found a bird café across the street. The bird café was amazing. The birds were so happy and well cared for and cute, and the food was all delicious and bird-themed, too. I loved it so much!
The Ghibli Museum itself was incredible! There were all kinds of amazing exhibits and artwork on display, and the Museum is beautifully designed. I'd love to go back again someday, although we explored it pretty thoroughly. I loved looking at the production artwork so much that I went through that section twice. It's hard to get a ticket to the Ghibli Museum (though if anyone wants to go I can tell you how to go about it cheaply), but it was well worth it. We got some things in the gift shop, too.
Heading back from the Ghibli Museum, I noticed Nakano is on the train route, and Nakano Broadway was one of our planned areas to visit. As we weren't sure if the typhoon would hit the next day (the day we were planning on going to Nakano Broadway), we decided to go there for a few hours on the way back, despite our feet being tired. We went and explored there and had a good time. Did yet more shopping, of course. We vowed to go back the next day, if weather permitted, as we didn't have time to see all of it.
When we got back, it was raining hard! Not typhoon-level hard, but definitely a downpour. We were worried about our paper bags. As we slept, apparently the typhoon/tropical storm passed, as in the morning the sky was clear blue!
- So, the next day we we returned to Nakano Broadway again and continued our exploration there. Found lots of nice anime merch and had a good time. That evening, we went to visitdenkimouse at her house (as well as espie, who was also there!). It was such a nice visit! I loved seeing her ferrets and beautifully arranged house, and we talked for hours. The only bad thing was that I sprained my ankle there when I misstepped walking down the stairs. It almost seemed inevitable--on the way there, before I sprained it, I was telling pheonixxfoxx about my ankle sprain in March and how awful that was. The sprain was painful, but thankfully I was able to get around on it and I was determined not to let it stop me from enjoying the trip. It slowed me down a bit, but that's all. It's still healing, though. Anyway, it was awesome getting to talk to denkimouse and espie and I'm so glad we got to visit! :D
- The next day, we went to Tokyo Bay Pokémon Center. It was a ways away and a lot of walking for my newly-sprained ankle, but we made it--just took it a bit slowly! I found a machine with metal figures in it, and I got a bunch of those for myself and for a friend. I really wanted a Sylveon coin. I took me tons and tons of tries, but finally when I had almost run out of change, I got one. Tokyo Bay Center was nice!
- Finally, we were nearing the end of our days in Tokyo, and it came to our day to ship all our goods back. I had so much that it made me really anxious! Just bags and bags of stuff. I was worried we wouldn't be able to find appropriately sized boxes to pack it all in, and that the shipping costs would be ridiculous. Well, just as we started our box search, we found an older man with some sort of garage or something filled with boxes, just a few doors down from our hotel. We found perfectly sized boxes among his stash and thanked him profusely. My stuff fit perfectly into the two boxes I got from him, so it worked out well. It took us two trips to the post office--and for the second trip we had to work together to carry my larger box there--but we managed to ship everything back successfully! I was scared my shipping bill would be something like $700-800, but it turned out to be only around $400, so that was great. It was a huge relief to get all that stuff out!
Because we had some extra time, we decided to spend the rest of our last full day in Tokyo at Akihabara and at that toy store. Akihabara becausepheonixxfoxx really wanted this ichiban kuji chair Levi figure. It seemed like all hope was lost because she couldn't find the store where she had seen it before, but in one our our favorite stores, we turned around and there it was. It was expensive, but she was happy to finally get it, after dreaming about buying it a few times and talking about it a bunch. :P We also went and got the last items we wanted at that toy store near our hotel that night.
- The next morning, we packed up, checked out of our hotel room, and headed out on the Shinkansen for Kyoto. It was so sad to leave Ueno! We had such a comfortable routine in Ueno, and I loved our hotel there so much. The Shinkansen journey was beautiful, though. We even got a good view of Mt. Fuji! I took tons of pictures of the scenery along the way. We checked into our hotel room, which was right across the street from Kyoto station. The hotel room was more spacious than the previous one. I was a bit annoyed that we got a smoking room rather than a non-smoking room as I requested, but the room was very clean and barely smelled like smoke at all, so it worked out fine. That evening, we went out to Kyoto station and looked around there, got dinner at an Italian restaurant (pizza), and watched the stairs lighting up, as the long staircase had multiple cool light animations. When we were back in our hotel room for the night, we laughed ourselves to tears over the Pokémon.com trainer builder's silly options, including "angry monobrow."
- The next day was our last Pokémon Center visit, at Pokémon Center Osaka. I spent a bunch there again, and picked up most of the big plush I had my eye on finally, as well as a few gifts and things people requested. It was sad to leave, knowing it'll be a while before I get to go to a Pokémon Center again. I got almost everything I wanted, though. :D
That evening, we went to the Kamo River. Google Maps initially led us astray, taking us to some random location like 15 minutes walk away from where we wanted to go. We saw some interesting sights as we wandered, though, and ended up finding a Book Off as a result. I got an Escaflowne artbook there for $1 (108 yen), andpheonixxfoxx got some books that were equally ridiculously cheap. Once we reached our destination, we ate at an awesome restaurant and I finally got some kitsune udon, which I had been wanting the whole trip. pheonixxfoxx had some sake and was quite giggly for the rest of the night. We went down by the river and watched a fire performer, and just wandered around taking pictures. Some of the scenery looked familiar, from Uchouten Kazoku. This was one of several places we went in Kyoto where there was Uchouten Kazoku-related scenery.
- The next day we decided to go to Kurama Onsen, about an hour away by train. The journey up there, and Kurama itself, were both stunning! It's a little mountain town and the scenery was incredible. We were both a little nervous about getting naked for the onsen, but it ended up being perfectly comfortable. It was really relaxing and beautiful there. We spent a few hours soaking in the onsen and taking in the sights, before we finally decided to leave the onsen. From there, we wandered the little mountain town of Kurama, which is known for tengu! The shrine at Kurama, going up the mountain, was quite splendid, and we explored it as much as we could. Just before we left, I found an Eizan Railway train ad for Uchouten Kazoku, which made me happy. Of course, the tengu of Kurama were mentioned in the series. :D I loved Kurama!
- The next day was rainy, but we went out and did stuff anyway. First we went to the beautiful Fushimi Inari shrine, known for its kitsune, and then to the bamboo grove and Togetsukyo Bridge in Sagano/Arashiyama. We took a bunch of pictures and enjoyed the gift shops at Fushimi Inari shrine, which is gorgeous. We weren't able to hike up far because we had a lot we wanted to do that day and because of my ankle, but someday I would like to hike up and see the view. I loved the bamboo grove in Sagano, but poorpheonixxfoxx was having some issues with her knees because of the rain and therefore couldn't appreciate it as much initially. We found this beautiful little shrine in the bamboo grove that seemed almost magical in the rain. Then we wandered to Togetsukyo Bridge, which, despite the rain and fog, still had a gorgeous view. I'm pretty sure it was also in Uchouten Kazoku, haha. I wanted to check out the temples and whatnot in the area, but it was getting late and we were both tired. We shopped a little at shops along the way, and headed back.
Late that night, we went box hunting around our hotel's area but didn't have much success.
- The next day was another shipping day. I had been hoping to cram all my big plush into one box, but I was only able to find two boxes that the items fit in so I used those instead. Again, shipping the stuff wasn't hard and my shipping bill wasn't too terrible. We also finished quite early, so we headed back to Fushimi Inari shrine briefly to pick up something for a friend (and took some pictures in the sun while we were at it). Then we went out to Kinkaku-ji, the golden pavillion, which is quite an amazing sight! I'm so glad we were able to make it there after all! It seemed like our timing was perfect, as the lighting on the temple seemed just right. Took lots of pictures. There was a part where you could throw your coins into these bowls, and I got my 1 yen coin into the little metal one everyone seemed to be aiming for. I think it means I get good luck, or something? A few people applauded! I also got a fortune out of a vending machine, and mine was a good one. It also said, "Missing thing: Hard to find." so that made me a little sad. Of course, it didn't say it's impossible for me to find Tosca, so you never know... I also got a few things for my parents at the gift shop there.
- The next day was our last day in Japan...or so we thought! Anyway, we packed up and checked out of the hotel room, leaving our baggage with the hotel. We went out for a last little stroll, to the Buddhist temple Higashi-Hongan-ji. Just beautiful! We wandered around taking pictures and enjoying the sights for an hour or so. Finally, we headed out on the Shinkansen. It was rainy again and I was tired, so I didn't enjoy the scenery as much this time. Mt. Fuji was obscured altogether by clouds. From the Shinkansen, we experienced a little more difficulty getting back to the airport than expected. The minor delays we had were no big deal initially, but ended up being a problem when we got to the Keisei Skyliner station and their next train didn't leave for another 20 or so minutes. That put us at the airport at 6:33 PM, when we were supposed to fly out at 7:15 PM! D: We ran as fast as we could through the airport, but by the time we got there, we were a mere five minutes later than they would allow us to check in. We got very stressed out and upset, but Singapore Airlines did offer to change our flight to the next day for free. When it became evident that there was no other option, we accepted.pheonixxfoxx managed to change her US domestic flights to the next day for free as well, but I had more trouble in that department. (Delta wanted $200+ more from me to change my hour-long flight from LA to Sacramento, WTF...)
We initially thought we'd spend the night in the airport, but that seemed like a pretty miserable option. Ultimately, I found a hotel nearby and booked it online for about $80, so not too bad split between us. We took a bus there and found the hotel to have a very spacious room with everything we could possibly need there. We watched Natsume Yuujinchou for a while, then went to sleep.
We went to the airport in the morning and ended up hanging out there all day. Got some food, looked around, and so on. I went back to Delta's desk and they again said they couldn't change my flight for free. I had gotten a credit card number from my dad to charge the flight on if I needed to, but I decided as a last-ditch effort to see if I could change my flight on the Delta app. It turned out my LA to Sacramento flight I missed had been delayed, so I was able to change my flight for free, hoorah! So that took a lot of stress off of me, and meant that missing our flight didn't end up being a huge deal. :D
Anyway, the rest of the trip was just flying back. Again, Singapore Airlines fed us a ridiculous amount, and this time the flight went much faster than the first one. We parted ways in LA, and I flew back to Sacramento, where my mom picked me up. I've mostly been sleeping and resting ever since. I already got all four of my boxes I shipped home, so tonight/tomorrow I've got to sort all my ridiculous amounts of merch.
That summary leaves out a lot of our fun things, like in-jokes and conversations a little experiences we had along the way, but hopefully it'll help me remember what we did overall.
Overall, it was a wonderful trip and I'm truly happy I got to experience it! Ankle and flight delay (which ended up not being a big deal) aside, everything went so smoothly and we got to do and see so much! I'm thinking of going back to Japan again in Spring 2016 for the 20th anniversary of Pokémon, but we'll see what happens. :D I really feel we made the most out of our trip, and I'm never going to forget it!
I'm trying to figure out what to do with my pictures, as I want to share them but I have over 2000 photos... So I'll see what I can do about that.
pheonixxfoxx and I were constantly laughing and having a grand time. We made a good traveling combination, if I do say so myself!- Our flight there felt incredibly long and tedious. We both felt like we were merging with the plane, and like nothing else existed outside of it. We joked about it feeling like the movie The Langoliers. But at least we had movies and games to play and whatnot. The airline fed us way too well, and by the end of the flight I felt quite sick from overeating. The flight took an extra hour or so, too, because of the typhoon--there were a lot of planes landing, so our plane had to circle around several times, and then wait to get to the unloading area. Then when we made it in, the customs/immigration line was super long! At least it went by quickly despite that--I think the whole process took about a half-hour. I was worried about missing the last train into Tokyo with all the things we had to do (exchange money, pick up our wireless, get our train tickets, etc.), but we managed to make it. By the time we got to Ueno, we were exhausted and disoriented, and it took us a while to find our hotel, but we finally did! We were too tired to do anything at that point, and just went to bed.
- The next day, we went to Akihabara for the first of several times. I remember one of the first things we did was go to an arcade, where
pheonixxfoxx won herself a Levi figure with some perserverence. We shopped at anime stores until we were just about ready to collapse. I remember having tons of bags I was carrying around. A random highlight of the day was finding a bright pink butt shrine, LOL.- The next day was our first Pokémon Center trip! To the Tokyo Center, at Hamamatsucho. I completely filled two baskets and spent...a lot, haha. We got to see the Pokémon necklaces that were on pre-order in person. I had been planning on ordering the Umbreon/Espeon one and the Mew one, but after seeing them, the Mew one was so tiny I could barely make it out to be Mew and decided not to get that one. A friend of mine pre-ordered the Umbreon/Espeon one for me, though. :D
I think we went back to Akihabara briefly after Tokyo Pokémon Center, as we had a few things we wanted to pick up at a store there. Anyway, once we got back to Ueno, we noticed a bunch of people standing around looking at the sky. Initially we couldn't figure out why (I thought it was just because the moon was over Skytree and it looked pretty), but soon enough we figured out--there was a lunar eclipse going on! We waited around and watched the whole thing for about an hour, snapping pictures all the while. My camera wasn't doing so well with the moon pictures, but luckily
pheonixxfoxx's camera did better. It was an awesome sight, and it was cool to see so many people watching it!- The next day, we were on our way to the JR Ueno station (only about two minutes' walk from our hotel) when we discovered a huge toy store right near the station! It was several stories tall and truly awesome. I bought a bunch more Pokémon stuff there, and also had my eye on some other things that I decided to come back for later. Thus the sushi cat saga began. We found these sushi cat gashapon that
pheonixxfoxx loved, so every morning we would go and get more sushi cats out of the machine. She eventually got the whole set, though it took a while. Once we finished browsing the toy store, we took off for Ikebukuro.At Ikebukuro, we found our first Book Off and looked at it for a bit. We also hit up several arcades, including one were
pheonixxfoxx managed to win me a whole bunch of bird keychains in one play because they all stuck together. At the Sunshine City mall in Ikebukuro, we went to a Ghibli store, Toys R Us (more Pokémon merch), found the new location of Pokémon Center Tokyo starting at the end of the year, debated on going into Namja Town but ultimately decided against it, went to Coldstone, rested, and eventually left.As we were wandering Ikebukuro a little more, we found another Animate, and we explored that. It was larger and more spacious than the Akihabara one. We tried to find Mandarake in Ikebukuro, but were unsuccessful. Some guys approached us and wanted to talk, and we did for a little bit. I don't know if they were just trying to be friendly, or trying to hit on us, or what, but after a few minutes the language barrier came into play and they backed off.
- The next day, we went to Shimbashi station to find an It's Demo for the cute Pokémon promotion that store was having. We had a tiny bit of trouble finding the store, which was in the station, but found it without too much trouble. The items were so cute, I picked up quite a few of them.
From there, we went on to Yokohama, which is quite a nice area. We passed the ferris wheel and ship and bay. Our goal was Yokohama Pokémon Center, which we found after some walking and wandering a huge mall. Yokohama is the largest Pokémon Center, and needless to say there were some items that I didn't find at Tokyo and picked up there. We also went by another Ghibli store, and went through the Jump store despite not currently being a fan of any of Jump's titles. We went to another Coldstone, too. Sunset and dusk in Yokohama were pretty!
- The next day, it was back to Pokémon Center Tokyo, as the Little Tales promotion was being released that day! It was very busy at the Center as a result.
pheonixxfoxx played a little game that they had set up and won a prize.When we got back to Ueno, we went to a cat café that was near our hotel. Overall, it was nice, and the cats were so cute! I had a few minor concerns about their health (some had some bald patches), but in general they seemed healthy and happy. It was fun watching them run and play. It got super busy around the time our hour there was up, so it was good timing to get out of there. We also went out late that evening, dropped by the toy store again, and got some pancakes and goodies at a fast food restaurant. I actually didn't up liking my pancakes too much, but it was still fun to hang out there and talk.
- The next day, I met up with my friend Kimberly and her roommmate, who have a corgi puppy named Beemo. We took this cool train over a bridge to Odaiba, and went shopping there. We wandered around for quite a while, but eventually found a dog-friendly café to eat at. I got this amazing fruit crepe thing. We went by several pet stores, too. I couldn't believe the prices of the purebred kittens, which ranged from $2000 to over $7000 (for a bengal kitten). At one of the pet stores, we were upset that one kitten didn't have water. Kimberly told a member of the staff, but he still didn't have water when it came time to leave, so we bothered them again about it. Finally they gave him some water. We went to see the Gundam statue at Odaiba, too, and took video of its hourly movements. We did some shopping at Palette Town (LOL), and then eventually parted ways, as we were exhausted.
- The next day was Ghibli Museum day. I was all nervous because a typhoon was supposed to come in that day and everyone was hyping the typhoon up, but it didn't end up being an issue. We took the train to Mitaka, and then the Ghibli bus to the Museum. It drizzled throughout the day with periodic moderate rain, but that was it while we were in Mitaka. While we waited to get in, we wandered around the park where the Museum is (it's just beautiful there), and found a bird café across the street. The bird café was amazing. The birds were so happy and well cared for and cute, and the food was all delicious and bird-themed, too. I loved it so much!
The Ghibli Museum itself was incredible! There were all kinds of amazing exhibits and artwork on display, and the Museum is beautifully designed. I'd love to go back again someday, although we explored it pretty thoroughly. I loved looking at the production artwork so much that I went through that section twice. It's hard to get a ticket to the Ghibli Museum (though if anyone wants to go I can tell you how to go about it cheaply), but it was well worth it. We got some things in the gift shop, too.
Heading back from the Ghibli Museum, I noticed Nakano is on the train route, and Nakano Broadway was one of our planned areas to visit. As we weren't sure if the typhoon would hit the next day (the day we were planning on going to Nakano Broadway), we decided to go there for a few hours on the way back, despite our feet being tired. We went and explored there and had a good time. Did yet more shopping, of course. We vowed to go back the next day, if weather permitted, as we didn't have time to see all of it.
When we got back, it was raining hard! Not typhoon-level hard, but definitely a downpour. We were worried about our paper bags. As we slept, apparently the typhoon/tropical storm passed, as in the morning the sky was clear blue!
- So, the next day we we returned to Nakano Broadway again and continued our exploration there. Found lots of nice anime merch and had a good time. That evening, we went to visit
denkimouse at her house (as well as espie, who was also there!). It was such a nice visit! I loved seeing her ferrets and beautifully arranged house, and we talked for hours. The only bad thing was that I sprained my ankle there when I misstepped walking down the stairs. It almost seemed inevitable--on the way there, before I sprained it, I was telling pheonixxfoxx about my ankle sprain in March and how awful that was. The sprain was painful, but thankfully I was able to get around on it and I was determined not to let it stop me from enjoying the trip. It slowed me down a bit, but that's all. It's still healing, though. Anyway, it was awesome getting to talk to denkimouse and espie and I'm so glad we got to visit! :D- The next day, we went to Tokyo Bay Pokémon Center. It was a ways away and a lot of walking for my newly-sprained ankle, but we made it--just took it a bit slowly! I found a machine with metal figures in it, and I got a bunch of those for myself and for a friend. I really wanted a Sylveon coin. I took me tons and tons of tries, but finally when I had almost run out of change, I got one. Tokyo Bay Center was nice!
- Finally, we were nearing the end of our days in Tokyo, and it came to our day to ship all our goods back. I had so much that it made me really anxious! Just bags and bags of stuff. I was worried we wouldn't be able to find appropriately sized boxes to pack it all in, and that the shipping costs would be ridiculous. Well, just as we started our box search, we found an older man with some sort of garage or something filled with boxes, just a few doors down from our hotel. We found perfectly sized boxes among his stash and thanked him profusely. My stuff fit perfectly into the two boxes I got from him, so it worked out well. It took us two trips to the post office--and for the second trip we had to work together to carry my larger box there--but we managed to ship everything back successfully! I was scared my shipping bill would be something like $700-800, but it turned out to be only around $400, so that was great. It was a huge relief to get all that stuff out!
Because we had some extra time, we decided to spend the rest of our last full day in Tokyo at Akihabara and at that toy store. Akihabara because
pheonixxfoxx really wanted this ichiban kuji chair Levi figure. It seemed like all hope was lost because she couldn't find the store where she had seen it before, but in one our our favorite stores, we turned around and there it was. It was expensive, but she was happy to finally get it, after dreaming about buying it a few times and talking about it a bunch. :P We also went and got the last items we wanted at that toy store near our hotel that night.- The next morning, we packed up, checked out of our hotel room, and headed out on the Shinkansen for Kyoto. It was so sad to leave Ueno! We had such a comfortable routine in Ueno, and I loved our hotel there so much. The Shinkansen journey was beautiful, though. We even got a good view of Mt. Fuji! I took tons of pictures of the scenery along the way. We checked into our hotel room, which was right across the street from Kyoto station. The hotel room was more spacious than the previous one. I was a bit annoyed that we got a smoking room rather than a non-smoking room as I requested, but the room was very clean and barely smelled like smoke at all, so it worked out fine. That evening, we went out to Kyoto station and looked around there, got dinner at an Italian restaurant (pizza), and watched the stairs lighting up, as the long staircase had multiple cool light animations. When we were back in our hotel room for the night, we laughed ourselves to tears over the Pokémon.com trainer builder's silly options, including "angry monobrow."
- The next day was our last Pokémon Center visit, at Pokémon Center Osaka. I spent a bunch there again, and picked up most of the big plush I had my eye on finally, as well as a few gifts and things people requested. It was sad to leave, knowing it'll be a while before I get to go to a Pokémon Center again. I got almost everything I wanted, though. :D
That evening, we went to the Kamo River. Google Maps initially led us astray, taking us to some random location like 15 minutes walk away from where we wanted to go. We saw some interesting sights as we wandered, though, and ended up finding a Book Off as a result. I got an Escaflowne artbook there for $1 (108 yen), and
pheonixxfoxx got some books that were equally ridiculously cheap. Once we reached our destination, we ate at an awesome restaurant and I finally got some kitsune udon, which I had been wanting the whole trip. pheonixxfoxx had some sake and was quite giggly for the rest of the night. We went down by the river and watched a fire performer, and just wandered around taking pictures. Some of the scenery looked familiar, from Uchouten Kazoku. This was one of several places we went in Kyoto where there was Uchouten Kazoku-related scenery.- The next day we decided to go to Kurama Onsen, about an hour away by train. The journey up there, and Kurama itself, were both stunning! It's a little mountain town and the scenery was incredible. We were both a little nervous about getting naked for the onsen, but it ended up being perfectly comfortable. It was really relaxing and beautiful there. We spent a few hours soaking in the onsen and taking in the sights, before we finally decided to leave the onsen. From there, we wandered the little mountain town of Kurama, which is known for tengu! The shrine at Kurama, going up the mountain, was quite splendid, and we explored it as much as we could. Just before we left, I found an Eizan Railway train ad for Uchouten Kazoku, which made me happy. Of course, the tengu of Kurama were mentioned in the series. :D I loved Kurama!
- The next day was rainy, but we went out and did stuff anyway. First we went to the beautiful Fushimi Inari shrine, known for its kitsune, and then to the bamboo grove and Togetsukyo Bridge in Sagano/Arashiyama. We took a bunch of pictures and enjoyed the gift shops at Fushimi Inari shrine, which is gorgeous. We weren't able to hike up far because we had a lot we wanted to do that day and because of my ankle, but someday I would like to hike up and see the view. I loved the bamboo grove in Sagano, but poor
pheonixxfoxx was having some issues with her knees because of the rain and therefore couldn't appreciate it as much initially. We found this beautiful little shrine in the bamboo grove that seemed almost magical in the rain. Then we wandered to Togetsukyo Bridge, which, despite the rain and fog, still had a gorgeous view. I'm pretty sure it was also in Uchouten Kazoku, haha. I wanted to check out the temples and whatnot in the area, but it was getting late and we were both tired. We shopped a little at shops along the way, and headed back.Late that night, we went box hunting around our hotel's area but didn't have much success.
- The next day was another shipping day. I had been hoping to cram all my big plush into one box, but I was only able to find two boxes that the items fit in so I used those instead. Again, shipping the stuff wasn't hard and my shipping bill wasn't too terrible. We also finished quite early, so we headed back to Fushimi Inari shrine briefly to pick up something for a friend (and took some pictures in the sun while we were at it). Then we went out to Kinkaku-ji, the golden pavillion, which is quite an amazing sight! I'm so glad we were able to make it there after all! It seemed like our timing was perfect, as the lighting on the temple seemed just right. Took lots of pictures. There was a part where you could throw your coins into these bowls, and I got my 1 yen coin into the little metal one everyone seemed to be aiming for. I think it means I get good luck, or something? A few people applauded! I also got a fortune out of a vending machine, and mine was a good one. It also said, "Missing thing: Hard to find." so that made me a little sad. Of course, it didn't say it's impossible for me to find Tosca, so you never know... I also got a few things for my parents at the gift shop there.
- The next day was our last day in Japan...or so we thought! Anyway, we packed up and checked out of the hotel room, leaving our baggage with the hotel. We went out for a last little stroll, to the Buddhist temple Higashi-Hongan-ji. Just beautiful! We wandered around taking pictures and enjoying the sights for an hour or so. Finally, we headed out on the Shinkansen. It was rainy again and I was tired, so I didn't enjoy the scenery as much this time. Mt. Fuji was obscured altogether by clouds. From the Shinkansen, we experienced a little more difficulty getting back to the airport than expected. The minor delays we had were no big deal initially, but ended up being a problem when we got to the Keisei Skyliner station and their next train didn't leave for another 20 or so minutes. That put us at the airport at 6:33 PM, when we were supposed to fly out at 7:15 PM! D: We ran as fast as we could through the airport, but by the time we got there, we were a mere five minutes later than they would allow us to check in. We got very stressed out and upset, but Singapore Airlines did offer to change our flight to the next day for free. When it became evident that there was no other option, we accepted.
pheonixxfoxx managed to change her US domestic flights to the next day for free as well, but I had more trouble in that department. (Delta wanted $200+ more from me to change my hour-long flight from LA to Sacramento, WTF...)We initially thought we'd spend the night in the airport, but that seemed like a pretty miserable option. Ultimately, I found a hotel nearby and booked it online for about $80, so not too bad split between us. We took a bus there and found the hotel to have a very spacious room with everything we could possibly need there. We watched Natsume Yuujinchou for a while, then went to sleep.
We went to the airport in the morning and ended up hanging out there all day. Got some food, looked around, and so on. I went back to Delta's desk and they again said they couldn't change my flight for free. I had gotten a credit card number from my dad to charge the flight on if I needed to, but I decided as a last-ditch effort to see if I could change my flight on the Delta app. It turned out my LA to Sacramento flight I missed had been delayed, so I was able to change my flight for free, hoorah! So that took a lot of stress off of me, and meant that missing our flight didn't end up being a huge deal. :D
Anyway, the rest of the trip was just flying back. Again, Singapore Airlines fed us a ridiculous amount, and this time the flight went much faster than the first one. We parted ways in LA, and I flew back to Sacramento, where my mom picked me up. I've mostly been sleeping and resting ever since. I already got all four of my boxes I shipped home, so tonight/tomorrow I've got to sort all my ridiculous amounts of merch.
That summary leaves out a lot of our fun things, like in-jokes and conversations a little experiences we had along the way, but hopefully it'll help me remember what we did overall.
Overall, it was a wonderful trip and I'm truly happy I got to experience it! Ankle and flight delay (which ended up not being a big deal) aside, everything went so smoothly and we got to do and see so much! I'm thinking of going back to Japan again in Spring 2016 for the 20th anniversary of Pokémon, but we'll see what happens. :D I really feel we made the most out of our trip, and I'm never going to forget it!
I'm trying to figure out what to do with my pictures, as I want to share them but I have over 2000 photos... So I'll see what I can do about that.
