Day 9, Ginza walk, Godzilla, more Starbucks, and Karaoke!

Our Professor sent us to Ginza today for a school assignment. I started off by stopping at Starbucks and picking up a loyalty card (Update: they don’t actually have loyalty cards in Japan yet, but at least I can track the stores I went to and keep it as a souvenir).

Next we went to a cute sweets shop called Fujiya. There were so many things to choose from, so it was hard to decide. My daughter would’ve really liked it here. I gather that it is really popular in Japan as they had a huge sign on the skyscraper building and it was just a small shop on the bottom.

I still needed to find more store types for my assignment, so I decided to keep exploring. Google is fantastic, but it is still limited when you are trying to search within Google Maps for Japan locations in English. Sometimes you have to Google the store name (ex. Starbucks) or store type (ex. supermarket) and get the address and then use google maps. Also, it just doesn’t always work or can be somewhat frustrating, so I go with the old stroll ‘til you find method.

I end up strolling along and find some pretty cool things. Like this little tunnel filled with vintage posters.

I can also tell that I’m coming up on the upscale district as I pass by a Tiffany’s.

I also keep seeing flag signs for a museum with an Impressionism exhibit. I eventually make it to the Mitsubishi Museum of Art and decide to see if its in my Grutto pass (museum coupon book). It is not, but I’m such a sucker for Impressionist art that I go ahead. It was a small exhibit, but definitely worth it. And I was able to stroll at my own pace.

Upon exiting, I realized I wasn’t sure how far I had walked, so took a train back one to get back into the more concentrated area and maybe find a supermarket for the assignment. Instead I came across Godzilla and another Starbucks marked by a really cool display of Les Miserables.

By now, I’m very tired of walking and realize that I have to make it back to the hostel for Sumo wrestling tonight. I get back and get ready for Sumo and the second meet up with my Japanese buddies from Chuo University. Sumo wrestling gets cancelled, so I head off to meet my friends.

They end up taking me to a yummy Korean Restaurant and then we go to karaoke!

This one is the cheapest so far! It was only like $30 hr for all of us and that included unlimited drinks (soda/juice/coffee). It was a lot of fun. They sang ‘Let It Go’ in Japanese which was cool to hear and then we all sang it together in English. This ended my day. I was so exhausted that I just went straight to bed when I got to the hostel.

Day 21, Breakfast with a view

Today we woke up earlier than usual for a free breakfast buffet. The real treat was the sky high view! There was lots of great food and coffee here, but the view was amazing. I wouldn’t mind staying here and eating here every morning.

Today is my last day with my sister -n-law Teresa. We can’t decide what to do, so we just head out to Akihabara.  I wish I would’ve spent more time out here sooner. They have lots of cool things I could take home, but my funds are pretty much gone by now.  Its actually just fun to walk around and see all of the anime and video arcades. We open the door to a Pachinko place and immediately shut it, as it is deafening loud! Seriously, I wonder if they wear ear protection. Then we come across a vintage arcade place that is super cool!

We have dinner at a place where you order from a machine and hand your ticket to the cook. Then you go pick it up. It was really yummy, but the first place that seemed a bit on the unclean side. I suppose that’s because they didn’t have waiters and not everyone cleaned up after themselves.

After I say goodbye to Teresa, I head back to the hostel to try and get some homework finished and packing done. However, peer pressure calls me onward to one last round of KARAOKE!!! And yes, I comply!

Day 21, Coming home

I was really worried about the plane ride home, knowing that we’d have a 12 hour layover, after the 10 hour flight. As soon as I walked down the plane aisle and realized that I’d been assigned a middle seat, panic set in. I couldn’t control the anxiety tears. My classmates thought I was crying for leaving Japan. I quickly told them of my panic and claustrophobia for middle seats. The lovely Gaby switched gladly with me.  Thank you, Gaby! Now I know this for future and will request ahead of time an aisle seat. When we arrived at LAX, I tried my best to sleep in the airport chairs since the floor was covered in crumbs....ick. I got a little rest but not much. I decided to go get a spicy chicken sandwich and fries. It was soooo good and made me realize how much I love it here in America! That being said, I would love to move to Japan to work and live. I really would. That is for another time though.

Thanks for reading! 

Day 19, Slight embarrassment

Today we took our finals. Right after the final, I use a bathroom that I haven’t used yet in the school. I was having trouble finding the flusher, so I panicked and pressed a button. Not just any button though….a red button. Serioulsy, Andrea? Its red, how could you press it? As soon as I did, I knew that it was not the flush button. I find the actual flusher and its just hidden by the seat lid…it’s a perfectly normal flush handle. Meanwhile, there’s a really loud beeeeeeeping on this floor. There is NO ONE up here, but my classmates, so I just wait. I wait and wonder what their policy is when that button is pressed. I mean, is an ambulance automatically called?  A lady rushes through the elevator (14^th floor, mind you). I try to catch her to let her know its me that pressed it. I finally get my point across to her in the bathroom and “Gomenasai” (Sorry) profusely. She tells me “Daijoubu, Daijoubu” (Its ok, It’s ok) . I was so embarrassed, but she was so nice and acted like this has happened before.

Next, a few of us finally ride the Tokyo Dome roller coaster. I haven’t ridden one in years, so I’m super excited. I had wanted to go to the Mt. Fuji Amusement Park, which has some of the best roller coasters, but its about 3 hours away, so time and money didn’t allow this time (this time ;-) ). It was totally worth it and gave me a great adrenaline rush to go back to the hostel and get started on some homework. errrr.

Later that night there is a farewell party for us at the university. Everyone gives a few words on their experiences in Japan and how much we’ll miss it here. Then I go out for one last time with my new friends that I met at Chuo University. 

Day 18, Souvenir Shopping

Today I really needed to find some souvenirs for my family. I headed out to the Asakusa outside market mall. Its really big and has tons of traditional items in it, but by now I’m running low on funds and really need a deal.

I come across some vending machines with new canned coffee brands and buy two because I’m so excited to try more!

I also find the old vintage amusement park, Hanayashiki. It has a haunted house and some charming old style rides. I’d love to take my family here for fun.

Next I discover my new favorite treat, taiyaki. Its like a warm waffle with gooey sweets inside. I get the chocolate one and it is sooooo delicious!

Day 17, Moomin Café with my new friends

I’m pretty exhausted today from all of the travelling this week. I secretly want to skip class, but I don’t. After eating lunch at the best university cafeteria ever, I meet up with my friends. They have decided to take me to the café that caused me to have a double take last week when walking by it. At Moomin café, you sit and eat with giant stuffed Moomin characters. I have never heard of this until Japan. It is quite popular here. Its very tasty and I just love my lovely latte dusted with a Moomin character.

Later that night, I meet up with them again and we all go to Skytree. We are all too broke to actually go to the top, so we just enjoy the really cool mall inside it and eat some yummy ramen!

Day 16, Hiroshima, then back to Tokyo

My strategy for waking up at 3:30am to avoid everyone in the communal bathrooms totally worked! However, this also means that I only got about 3 hours of sleep. Can’t win them all. I’ll take privacy any day.

Today, some of us left early to go to Hiroshima. We visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum. It is a very deep, somber, and fairly silent few hours. I chose not to take pictures today. It is one thing to learn about this in school, but quite another to be at the memorial and see some of the items for yourself. I will say that the biggest thing that got to me was anything to do with the children, especially the clothing. I really could not look at it all. This is all I will say about it for now.

We go to an outdoor market mall to find something to eat. I search for some okonomiyaki, but Google Maps keeps taking me in crazy circles and that darn arrow will just not point in the right direction. I settle for some curry, which is delicious, but I did have my heart set on the famous okonomiyaki.

After this, it’s a long sleepy ride back to Tokyo. I take advantage and head to snoozeville and welcome the thought of returning to my other dorm room "home".

Day 15, Kyoto >>>>Bullet Train!

Today we rode in a bullet train to Kyoto. You really couldn’t tell that we were going 180+ mph. It was a very smooth ride. Some nice bragging rights.

We make a stop at the Imperial Palace and stroll in and out of the buildings and along the grounds. My favorite were the nightingale floors that chirped as you walked on them. They actually built this into the floors as a security system. Google it. Its pretty cool.

I also go to the traditional tea house here and have to sit on the floor. I have some wonderful matcha tea and enjoy my surroundings.

After arriving at our new hostel, some of us take a glorious 2 mile hike to check out some of Kyoto’s landscapes. The hike was totally worth seeing the bright orange Buddhist Temple and all of the beautiful scenery. The architecture and flowers were truly breathtaking.

We will be staying one night in Kyoto at the new hostel. I’m not really crazy about this hostel for a couple of reasons. The first one is evident by the stinky feet smell. This one requires you to take your shoes off at the door, which is fine, except that most of the people staying here have been “backpacking” all day. This actually means sweating all day, which equals lots of stinky feet odor released into the air.

Another reason is that this one does not have private bathrooms in the room and it does not have a ladies floor. This means that, even though the shower and toilets are lockable, all of the bathroom areas are communal between male and female. This immediately gives me great anxiety. I do not wish to brush my teeth next to a man in a towel. This did not happen, but it certainly could. To avoid all of this, I plan to wake up at 3:30am and avoid everyone in great hopes that no one else thinks of the same thing.

Today was a total of 9 miles of walking. Today I geared up with my walking shoes, but I still have some major blisters going on. Yay!

Day 14, Cinnamon Life Cereal, YUM!

A taste of home

Eating a bowl of Cinnamon Life cereal right now and it is so amazing. I have had lots of good food here and I still have more things that I want to try, but I saw that cereal and knew I had to have it. Sooooo good. Today I’m focusing on my homework, so we are staying in most of the day.

I am very impressed with the focus on recycling here. There are absolutely no trash cans on the streets and it is the law to recycle. Teresa has been telling me about the weekday scheduled recycling days. She has to be up at a certain time to put the specified category out for the day (bottles, etc.)

We venture out to the mall. More matcha lattes and patries!

I feel a little light headed today, so my body is telling me to start drinking more water in this crazy humid weather. I have probably walked at least 3 miles every day and it is very hot here!

Day 13, Karaoke!

Today is just a chill day. I wake up and work on some homework.

Later we go check out the Festival this weekend. There are lots of food and some games for the kids. I try squid (I think) on a stick and it is really tasty but chewy.

Next we run on down to a Karaoke spot and stay for 3 hours! It was so much fun. I know Teresa doesn’t care for karaoke much, so I was glad she obliged me. She did get her rap on though!

Day 12, Odaiba Island

Today we take a water taxi to Odaiba Island. I was a little worried about what a water taxi really was….under water? I guess that would be a submarine.  I just figured there wouldn’t be much space or that it would sink or something. Once we got inside, however, I was relieved. It is very spacious and they even serve coffee! After a while they opened up the roof deck. This was the best part. The smell of the sea air, the nice breeze, and the wonderful view.

Once we got there, we went to a science museum and Panasonic. Obdaiba Island seems like it has a lot of cool things to see, so I’d like to come back here again someday.

I leave to meet up with Teresa for the weekend and I forget where the subway station is located. Google maps leads me to a bus station (hey, the bus and subway kinda look the same, so it was user error this time!). I end up asking several people for help because I have never ridden a bus here. The schedule and Google are very confusing, so I ended riding about four different buses before I figured out where to finally get off to ride the subway. I definitely got lost in Tokyo this time.  I have to admit, at first, I was a bit overwhelmed and could feel the nerves kicking in. I just used that handy mantra and decided to make it an adventure instead. I knew eventually I’d make it to my destination. It was all feeling great and then I got off at a stop and the building behind me was playing the theme song from “The Neverending Story”.  It made me crack up laughing, so then I really knew I was gonna be good. The rest was just fun times.

Day 11, Company visit to Prometric

Today we visited a company called Prometric. They proctor testing all over the world. I’m not sure how much I can share, but it was very interesting to visit a Japanese business and hear their perspective on things. They also had an informal discussion with us about Japanese culture. They were all really nice. Surprise!

After the visit, I went back to the hostel to get out of the dress clothes and then I went to an amazing sushi go round restaurant. This one was a bit more expensive then the first one I tried, but I think I liked the sushi better.

Day 10, Clover Café and Rest!

Today I decided to skip out on Sumo. I wanted to go, but there was a mix up with the scheduling and they put it on the optional list for today instead. I decided to get some much needed rest.

After class, we head to the Panasonic living building, but soon learn that it is closed on Wednesdays. I go straight back to the hostel, which really means a quick detour to the Clover Café (they were open this time!). This place was on my checklist and it tasted soooo good! Oishii! And Kawaii!

After this I walk a little bit and discover this interesting café. I decide not to go in since I’d just had a Clover Latte and I’m also not really feeling this place.

Now its straight to the hostel for a long nap. Gotta keep that grumpy monster at bay!

Lost in Translation: Japanese Marketing that would fail in the US

Calpis – This is absolutely my favorite new soda in Japan. It reminds me of a white Sobe, but carbonated and a little bit sweeter. You can also buy it non carbonated. 

However, no matter how tasty, every time you ask for this, as an English speaker, you can't help but snicker to yourself. The pronunciation for this product would not work at all in the US.  

If you are still not getting it, let me spell it out for you….it sounds like “cow piss”. And the ad below, makes it even more hilarious: "Fill the world with _____". 

So no matter how you try to say it, that’s what you get. The name would have to be changed if they wanted to sell it mainstream in the US. And oh how i wish they would! It is sooooo good!

Day 8, Taiko drums at Tama Campus

Breakfast at a new coffee shop chain, Doutor. I have a Matcha Latte and a tasty treat to go with it.

Today we visited the main Chuo University campus, Tama. We met other students here and tried our best to put together some origami. We decided to be ambitious and try to make a semi-hard one. It didn’t turn out so well, so I opted to make a little samurai hat. It looked ok.

Next they invited us to listen to a group of students play Taiko drums. I must say they are very talented. They were all very passionate and engaged in the songs. It isn’t just drumming, its about their leg and arm movement and their melodic, rhythmic chanting. It was really cool to watch. And then….they let us play…hahaha. It was very fun, but also laughable. Clearly, they practice A LOT! I wish I could’ve gotten some pictures of them, but I wanted to pay attention and wasn't sure if it would be rude or not.

After a long day, a few of us decided to hit the supermarket for some sushi before bed. I thought it was interesting to see the fried food out in the open and then a packaged pair of fried eggs.

Day 7, Navy Base

Its hard to tell by this photo, but this shower room is really spacious. Its nice to take a shower without bumping your elbow against the wall. The bathtub is also much deeper than a typical bathtub in the US.

Today Teresa took me to the Navy Base. It was just like being in America again. I didn’t know I would miss hearing a southern accent until I heard it from the taxi driver. It felt like I was home.

We made a stop at Starbucks to get a Matcha Latte (sooo good). I gotta drink as many as I can since we don’t have these in the US.

Next we go grab lunch at a Japanese Curry restaurant, Coco’s. You get to pick the level of spicy 1-10. You can’t even eat a certain level until you’ve had a level 5, I think. I get pressured to not eat more than a 3, so I order a 4. I definitely should’ve went with a 7. It was really tasty. Maybe I’ll be able to go again before I leave.

We head to the mall to look around. Check out the amount of bikes outside of the mall. This just shows how much they ride bikes here.

Next we go check out a supermarket to see how different it is from the US. The fruit is really expensive. A watermelon is about $12. They individually package all of the fruits and veggies.

As a person that doesn't read Japanese, Teresa says you just have to use pictures and guess by looks what it is you need. One example, is that they thought these fish cakes were some sort of candy. They tried them because of the One Piece ad.

One Piece is one of the longest running anime and you see it in advertising for everything, everywhere. 

One Piece seen in Coke and air freshner products. These are just a few examples.

The hot dogs they sell here are also either really small or really big. There isn't anything that compares to US hot dogs. These are accompanied by some quirky ads. One is from a video ad played in the store. And the other is showing a dish for kids where the small hot dogs are cut to look like little characters.

They also don’t sell many gallon or half gallon sized ice cream. Most of what I saw was a pint or less. They also had individually packaged soft serve cones.

Another odd size is the ice. Look at the small bags of ice they sell.

Some more interesting items:

gum that's called "watering kiss mint"

Plenty of fresh fish/seafood and packaged sushi

Wall of canned and bottled coffee

Day 6, Themed restaurant

Today was the first day that I slept in past the blazing 4am sun! It felt great to sleep in. We started the day with some canned Boss black coffee (sooo good).  Then we walked from her house to the subway.

Being in Yokosuka with Teresa helped me slow things down a little bit. I was able to chill and enjoy things a little more; aka walking slowly to the subway instead of rushing to keep up with our professor.

Fire hydrant with cool decoration

Delivery bike for a restaurant

One cool thing I discovered is the meaning of the yellow strips of dots on all the sidewalks and subway walkways. Its for the visually impaired. They use these dots to guide them along the street and to know where the platform for the subway ends. There is also a sound at the street crossing when its safe to walk. And there are sounds of birds chirping that guide people throughout the subway station.

Tonight, they took me to a place called The Lockup. They “arrest” you and then take you to a cell to dine. Everything is themed. Then when you’re almost done eating, the “show” begins. The “prisoners” are let loose and raid the jail. They are all dressed up in costumes, one of which reminded me of a hollow from the anime Bleach. This made it a lot of fun as they try to scare you by opening your cell and jumping on top of your cell with no roof. Then we played darts and did one round of karaoke.

 

Quirky advertisement for the day

Day 5, My Company Visit, “Career Woman” shoes, and The Beginning of the Weekend!

Company Visit

The company I work for in the US has many locations in the world. Today I visited one of the sites located in Japan. I can’t go into much detail here, but I’m very appreciative that they would take the time out of their day to show me the facility. It gives me a new layer of understanding for our business. Something that was cool that I can share is that I rode on an industrial elevator. It was basically a huge room that we rode to the next floor. It was a little surprising to see and unnerving at first but definitely cool to ride.

“Career Woman” Shoes = spending about $18 on some hideous crocs

And of course, in Japan, I know that they dress up for work, so I came prepared. I was gonna try to do the “Career Woman” thing which entails wearing heels. What I should’ve done was wear my walking shoes and then put on my heels when I arrived. I just thought, I see all these ladies doing it, I’ll try it. What?? Are you crazy, Andrea! That’s right, I stupidly walked from my hostel to the subway and then to school (I was late that morning) and then to the subway again to visit my company. All in all, it was probably 40min of walking. I was completely miserable by the time I got to my company. It required my utmost attention just to stay focused on what they were saying, while I was battling the heat and my feet. After it was over, I went to eat sushi with Joe, and on the way, we stopped at the closest place and got me some uber ugly black crocs. He probably has a photo of this, just ask.

I really don’t know how they do it. Next time I come back, I’ll have to survey women wearing heels.

 I will say that I have observed that most of the “career woman” shoes are low heels and they let the heel slip giving that cobble sound. Someone said this was for air ventilation, but I believe its for comfort.

Off to Yokosuka! Weekend with family.

I’ve been in Japan a week, and I can’t believe that I haven’t seen my family yet! So now, after putting on some better shoes, its off to Yokosuka (1hr 30min by subway). Unfortunately, my brother is out to sea, but I do get to spend time with my lovely sister-n-law, Teresa. It is also nice to get away from the dorm room life for the weekend! We take the subway and then ride in a friend’s car which was really cool. We have dinner at a place that reminds me of Waffle House inside. They bring your order out on a super hot plate that cooks your meat. I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture. We hit a few more spots and then its off to bed for this exhausted girl!

Quirky advertisements for the day

Quirky ad for 0% alcohol drink. That piece of chicken is ridiculously big.

Which Karaoke? A Look At The Consumer Decision Making Process

Which Karaoke? A Look At The Consumer Decision Making Process.

The second day in Tokyo, we decided to go out for some karaoke. There was also a tsunami approaching, so it was starting to rain, but we had plenty of time to get our karaoke on. J

Just from the short time we had been here, we had already spotted a few karaoke spots near our hostel. We set out for those, but soon found out that they were closed due to the impending storm. Downcast (I was at least; karaoke is my thing and I’m in Karaoke capital of the world!), we headed back to the hostel. Someone in our group asked the front desk if they knew of any that were open. They pointed us towards the Rainbow Room, which is still in walking distance. We grabbed a stream of wind and rode our umbrellas to the Rainbow Room.

Private room karaoke – So the difference in karaoke here is that most of them only have the private rooms. This means that you and your group are the only ones in the room singing karaoke. They give you a list of English questions, such as the number of people in the group, how many hours you’d like to sing, and what you’ll be eating and drinking.  Even though the questions were in English, this part still took a while to understand the pricing. It seemed kind of high until they told us that everything was unlimited during those two hours. Then everyone was on board, we paid, and they took us to our room.

This part was a lot different then I’m used to, so I wasn't sure if I would like it this way or not. The room was fairly small, so the setting seemed a lot closer than normal. The room was just big enough to hold a big booth table and a giant TV. You ordered off of the menu on a phone by telling them the number beside the item. This process took a while as well, but we were fine once we got the hang of it.

The 2 hours flew by, we did a lot of group singing, but I did fit in one, CCR “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”….classic. It was a lot of fun, and we all enjoyed it, but there are so many places to sing karaoke, that I’d like to check out other places.  Maybe there are some that are cheaper?  I also wouldn't mind singing out in the open or at least in a bigger room. It was a little cramped for this claustrophobic girl. And there is something about singing in an open room that is easier than a small, more intimate setting. Maybe its because you don’t know them and so you don’t care because you’ll never see them again?

Of course, the advantage of the private room is that you can bully your friends into letting you sing more and hog it the whole time, which is my plan next time. ;-)

Day 4 , Shinjuku - City view and BIC Superstore

Shinjuku

Today, after class we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to see a panoramic view of Tokyo. It was really cool to see the city that way. They had a map pointing out the main landmarks. I’d like to go back at night to the North tower and see what it looks like then. There was too much fog to see Mt Fuji. I am hoping to go there when we get our JR pass the last week. Its about 3 hours away from our hostel. I’d also like to go to the amusement park there and ride some roller coasters….its been way too long.

BIC Camera, Superstore

I had no idea BIC Camera was a mall in itself. One of my classmates needed to get a SIM card there, so I just assumed it only had things like that. We were trying to stay together as a class so we could do our assignment together, so I decided to go here too. 

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We had trouble finding it, so I used Google Translate (love it!) to ask someone. Let me tell you, Japanese people are so helpful! If I could draw better, I'd design a cute superhero to represent how amazingly helpful and nice they are. An employee from a different store gave us directions. As we were walking off, she realized she gave us the wrong directions, so she ran after us and walked us in the right direction. This is not the first time this has happened and I know it won't be the last. I can't think of a time in the US where this has happened to me. There is some great customer service in the US, but I don't believe someone would leave their post and walk me to where I needed to go. 

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I'm glad I went to BIC, because its incredible the things I saw there. It has 4 or 5 floors separated into categories such as Electronics, Video Games, Housewares, and Clothing. I just went to the Electronics floor and the Video games/Toys floor. I was amazed to find a cassette-CD combo player, and it was about $40!

Then I pretty much stayed in the toys section the rest of the time. We had to compare US products to Japanese products, so it was easy for me to pick out things here (I have a 6 yr old daughter). They have LEGO “Elves” here, which I just discovered via Google that it is in the US too. It’s a new theme for 2015. I haven’t seen it in the stores in Nashville yet, but they are on Target’s and Amazon’s sites.

They pretty much have the same LEGO toys here, but I did see a few things different like this "Creator" Edition. 

The neatest thing in there was the arcade area for kids. Its just so different looking from the states. Check it out. This is just one side of it. My memory was too full to do any more video.

Mario and Lugi gum

Stopping real quick at a mini convenience shop in the station, I see lots of unique things. I forgot to take a picture of my hello kitty water, but here’s a picture of some Mario and Luigi gum.