i knew beforehand that they drove the wrong way here and that schoolgirl outfits existed
but actually seeing both things is really really weird
everything is also really expensive, and food portions are smaller, too. transportation is surprisingly expensive, too.
also i'm in chiba which is borderline boonies; i went to a place called plaza capcom and they had zero sf4 machines
tons of prize grabbing machines, though
akihabara tomorrow. i'm boned because i'm used to 1000won being equivalent to a dollar, 100 won being 10 cents. 100 yen is a dollar now, so i'm gonna be spending this stuff like it's monopoly money.
well, i meant i had gotten used to 1000 won (korean money) being a dollar, and now i gotta get used to 100 yen being a dollar. also it's more like 74 yen is a dollar, which is even WORSE for me.
Akihabara is the best. Also you need to get to Harajuku uf you care about clothing at all.
Like, how do you find your way in Tokyo? Is it easy to tell where the buses and trains and stuff go? Also, where do you sleep?
Busses can be a pain, but most major train stations will have maps in the latin alphabet as well as in Kanji. Which is nice until you end up at a small station and it's all Kanji. >.> That being said I think I may have had the most fun my first trip there getting lost.
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Weakupedia posted... i knew beforehand that they drove the right way here and that schoolgirl outfits existed
Japan was my FAVOURITE country i visited when i was travelling, unsurprisingly. Make sure you check out Harajuku and Shibuya in Tokyo. Kyoto is freaking awesome as well, but Tokyo is easily the best city i've EVER been too.
Go to Roppongi in the evening to find hot and horny japanese girls that just love white guys.
From: ZFS | #018 Japan good times. Kyoto best place to visit.
This. Also if you do make it to Kyoto go to the Beer Garden at the top of the building that the Kyoto Tower is one. That was probably the most fun night I had in Japan (goes to hunt down pictures.)
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Go to the big arcade that has is multiple stories with bowling, and billiards, arcade games, and crane games (I completely blanked on what it was called) and just get the attention of the guy walking around the floor and ask him how to do it. It's actually a lot more fun to get stuff out of those when you know the general idea from the start and don't end up spending $15 on one doll.
Although, the general trick is to flip them over by getting the claw behind an ear or something.
Oh, and for anyone planning on going to Japan and looking to travel around a lot, there's a train pass you can buy that lets you ride the Bullet Trains. You aren't allowed on the super-fancy ones, but it's still really cool. The pass is kind of expensive, so if you only plan to go to Osaka or Tokyo and just jump around to the nearby cities it's not worth it, but it's really nice for going from Tokyo to Hiroshima and stuff like that. Saves you tons of time and the trains are very nice to ride on.
I felt like a dick one time because I completely passed out on one of them with the seat reclined almost all the way back and during my slumber the train went from almost empty to almost completely filled.
Here's the site about the pass: http://www.japan-rail-pass.com/train-japon/ Also, you have to order like 2 months to be safe (1 month might be okay) before you leave, as they mail it to you. You can't buy it as a foreigner once in Japan. Like I said, expensive, but if you plan to go to more than 2-3 cities and are only going to be there a 1-2 weeks it's really nice.
Oh, and the Kyoto Train station is really confusing. I got lost or "stranded" on the other side of Kyoto about 3 times. It's literally impossible to walk around...which I discovered the hard way.
From: Mr_Vaga | #021 Oh, and for anyone planning on going to Japan and looking to travel around a lot, there's a train pass you can buy that lets you ride the Bullet Trains. You aren't allowed on the super-fancy ones, but it's still really cool. The pass is kind of expensive, so if you only plan to go to Osaka or Tokyo and just jump around to the nearby cities it's not worth it, but it's really nice for going from Tokyo to Hiroshima and stuff like that. Saves you tons of time and the trains are very nice to ride on.
I felt like a dick one time because I completely passed out on one of them with the seat reclined almost all the way back and during my slumber the train went from almost empty to almost completely filled.
Here's the site about the pass: http://www.japan-rail-pass.com/train-japon/ Also, you have to order like 2 months to be safe (1 month might be okay) before you leave, as they mail it to you. You can't buy it as a foreigner once in Japan. Like I said, expensive, but if you plan to go to more than 2-3 cities and are only going to be there a 1-2 weeks it's really nice.
Oh, and the Kyoto Train station is really confusing. I got lost or "stranded" on the other side of Kyoto about 3 times. It's literally impossible to walk around...which I discovered the hard way.
Got one of those last year, was definitely worth it.
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i've only been in chiba for the past 16 hours, so i haven't seen too much of actual japan yet!
also, if anyone is familiar with the area, do you happen to know the name of that multi-story arcade in akihabara? also that store that sells like every game from every generation?
From: Weakupedia | #025 also, if anyone is familiar with the area, do you happen to know the name of that multi-story arcade in akihabara? also that store that sells like every game from every generation?
Went to both but don't recall the names. >.< You should take a million pictures so I can nostalgia trip though.
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Akihabara is alright, but a little overrated. It's kind of toned down since there was a murder there a few years back. Lots of Dragon Quest stuff there though >_>
Unless you wanna get harassed by big nigerian bouncers, avoid Roppongi at night.
Do: Check out Meiji Shrine. It's beautiful. Check out Tokyo Tower at night. If I recall, it's only 500 yen to visit the top observation deck.
Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro are all nice.
Tokyo is awesome. This time of year its pretty neat because its brown and stuff.
I'm trying to find a blog of when I was in Japan a few years back.
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"Don't freeze up girl, you're looking quite a sight." - Adam Ant. "Baby, can you dig your man? He's a righteous man." - Larry Underwood
i'm going to akihabara to indulge my high school self, i probably won't be able to convince myself to buy anything other than small trinkets, though.
this is my schedule for the week:
akihabara/harajuku today, yokohama on wednesday, shibuya/roppongi with a couple my japanese friends on thursday, tokyo on friday, kyoto/osaka saturday, nerima on sunday, korea on monday.
life is good
i am going to be poor before i get to korea, though
I'd shift your schedule so that harajuku and shibuya are on the same day, since they're right next to each other. Harajuku isn't particularly big anyway
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"Don't freeze up girl, you're looking quite a sight." - Adam Ant. "Baby, can you dig your man? He's a righteous man." - Larry Underwood
Yeah, Akihabara is cool, but gets overhyped a bit. Still definitely worth it. As far as the multi-floor arcade...um, could be several. I know there's a Sega Arcade that's several floors. Akihabara is really for the manga anime crowed more than it is for the videogame crowd. You can probably find any manga, anime, action figure, model kit, etc, you could ever want there.
Also, you should go to the red light district just for fun. Kind of fun to just see what all there is, although if you really want to you can go sit in a bar and pay 6000 yen an hour + pricey drinks to have Japanese girls dressed up in skimpy outfits flirt with you the entire time. I had some extra cash and really wanted to go to one simply to see what they were like, but the group I was with was 3 girls + me at the time, so that didn't really fly.
If you're in Tokyo on Sunday DEFINATELY go to Harajuku, there is a bridge in the district where every Sunday loads of Japanese youth dress up in cosplay and just hang out.
it's true, all japanese people are good at street fighter
i'm 1-9. lost like 4 times to a pretty good akuma player (i kept eating crossup tatsu for some reason), got frustrated and left, went to another arcade and beat some average akuma player, and then i lost 5 times to who i am convinced was kiryu whatshisface. :( at least i got a cool SSF4 player card!
went to harajuku first today, it's a lot like korea's myungdong (i doubt anyone has heard of that place), but smaller and with more black dudes trying to pull you into weird places. it was cool, but since i'm not really into japanese fashion and most of the stuff they had was clothes, i didn't really spend too much time there. they have some hilarious comedy shirts, but they're like $30 a pop. ate at the mcdonalds there and finally got my ebi burger. tbh it just tastes like a slightly less fishy filet-o fish. also it was like $8 for the combo with no refills.
AKB48 is stupid huge here. there are cafes devoted entirely to them and everything. holy crap.
went to akihabara next. it wasn't as nerdy as i had expected, but still had maids all over the place (on a tuesday afternoon, i wonder what this place is like on the weekends). found a cool place with a bunch of retro games, almost bought my cousin a copy of Super Star Wars with the box and everything for 2600 yen (about $35) but decided eff that i'm poor and got him a tiny boba fett figurine for like $10. they also had FF4-6, smrpg, chrono trigger all boxed and with manuals (used) for $20-30, many of which i was tempted to buy just for the sake of owning them.
walked around, checked out a few arcades (played the table flipping game! ahahaha), lost a bunch at street fighter, went into like ALL of the model/figurine shops. those places have so much cool stuff. i'm not really into anime these days, but maaaaaan i wish i had money. took a bunch of pictures even though i wasn't supposed to, i'll probably post them up later.
my favorite store was probably the Kotobukiya store. They're the guys that make all those cool figurines of anime, VG, and comic characters. 5 floors dedicated to their own products, it was like nerd heaven. they even had some dynasty warriors stuff, which is strangely the thing i was most hyped for (anime, manga, and video games are all cool...until you realize you can't understand or read any of it); they had DW7 nendroids (big head figures), and i really wanted the zhen ji one, but they were all out of stock. :/
they had a cool display at the top floor of a bunch of super detailed star wars stuff, i took a ton of pictures of that. then we finished with dinner at some pretty delicious noodle place. not sure what i had is called, suika? or something
transportation is really expensive here, it was like $10 to get from chiba to here and another $10 to get back. but i'm finally back at my brother's dorm and i'm ready to ktfo.
- typical frilly frenchdress maid - schoolgirl maid - catgirl maid - teacher maid (this one threw me off the most)
one girl tried to rope me with moe by going "shuu!" at me as she thrust her flyer at me. thought that was funny. i also saw a really excited japanese dude in his late 20s wearing a business suit walk up to one giggling and really excited. that was kind of creepy but also funny.
From: Weakupedia | #044 really excited japanese dude in his late 20s wearing a business suit walk up to one giggling and really excited. that was kind of creepy but also funny.
this is how japanese men practice game. I just feel sad at the thought of a japanese dude coming over to this country and trying to deal with american women.
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oh yeah, heard some japanese music that i liked enough to ask a store worker who the singer was. he said her name was misa, guess i'll be checking her stuff out
From: Weakupedia | #044 i also saw a really excited japanese dude in his late 20s wearing a business suit walk up to one giggling and really excited. that was kind of creepy but also funny.
oh crap you saw me
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