9 posts tagged “shinjuku”
Yo everyone! I'm back in Japan again, with Jian and 2 other friends. We've only been on Japanese soil for a few short hours, and we've already accomplished a lot of activities! I'm kind of at a loss for words right now, so let me summarize today's activities with bullet points:
- We landed at Narita International Airport 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
- However, while on the Airport Limousine shuttle bus, we got stuck in traffic due to a car accident on the freeway.
- So, we had to travel on local streets, which took us for-ev-er to get to our hotel.
- Our hotel room is smaller compared to our last room, but it's still quite comfortable and roomy.
- Went shopping in and around the main department stores near our hotel.
- Ate traditional Japanese "tapas" style dinner, with mass quantities of beer.
- Walked around Kabukicho after dinner.
- Had a quick drink at a local bar in Kabukicho.
- One of our friends drank beer with hemp oil in it...called "Spirit of Hemp". It tasted like butt. (not that I'd know what that tastes like...but the essence of dirty butt.)
Check this out! Metropolis put together a condensed guide to nearly all the popular districts of Tokyo.
Each district is separated into individual guides. Each guide provides a list of: popular shopping boutiques, shopping malls (shopping centers), restaurants (by type, including vegetarian) & bar/club/nightlife...and under each listing is a short description along with the address and telephone number. Under the restaurant and bar/club listings, each description provides a price listing ($ ----> $$$$) from cheap to expensive. Each guide also comes with a map of each district. Also, as general information, the guides provide useful travel tips, a listing of popular sightseeing destinations, a listing of reccomended hotels and lodging, as well as useful information such as: car rental, currency exchange, Embassy telephone numbers, Emergency information, ATM/Cash machine information, translation services and weather information. Click on the links below to check out your desired district destination...............
SHINJUKU
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/shinjuku.html
HARAJUKU
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/harajuku.html
SHIBUYA
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/shibuya.html
YOKOHAMA (I highly reccommend this city area because it's my dad's hometown!)
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/yokohama.html
AKIHABARA
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/akihabara.html
ROPPONGI (including TOKYO MIDTOWN)
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/roppongi.html
GINZA
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/ginza.html
EBISU
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/ebisu.html
ASAKUSA
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/asakusa.html
AKASAKA
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/akasaka.html
USEFUL TRAVEL TIPS
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/travel_tips.html
HOTELS & LODGING
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/hotel.html
SIGHTSEEING
http://metropolis.co.jp/vg17/sightseeing.html
Hey, I just found a great article on the Pingmag website! It's all about making public-friendly graffiti using plain ol' ordinary gaffer's masking tape. Yes, masking tape...
Article: Gaffer Tape Art in Tokyo’s Train Stations
Brought to you by: Pingmag
Written by: Ryoko
Translated by: Junko
Article Snippet:
"....Shuetsu Sato took matters in his own hands and started taping signage in huge Japanese characters with masking tape in clever ways, just so passangers could find their way around. His transient tape art became so popular that film artist collective TrioFour eventually made a documentary about Sato’s unique guide system...."
Please check out the full article here.
My notes:
I personally love graffiti....tasteful graffiti....like the one's that are meant to be art (not just some random 'hood tag). I thought this article was very interesting because the guy...Shuetsu Sato....uses regular old masking tape and not the traditional spray paint or those fat-tip Sharpie markers. And this guy is NOT doing this to get recognized and be famous. He's not even trying to be artsy-fartsy. He's just trying to make ordinary peoples' lives more easier, comfortable, simpler. This guy, Shuetsu Sato, created easy to read, soft on the eyes road signs and station signs...which turned out to be very popular and also considered as art....He pretty much created his own "font" if you will...and I really think it's cool that deep down inside, this guy just wants to help people navigate around busy stations. I highly reccommend checking out the You Tube docu-video in the article.
We're going home today. It's sad. Well, actually, I'm the only one that's sad. I really don't want to leave this place. I want to stay here forever. Ok, maybe not forever, but for an extensive period of time perhaps. I think Jian is soooo ready to go home. He's been ready to go home since 2 days ago. Seriously. He's so burnt out and so "done" with all the cramped spaces, the hordes of people swarming the streets, the hot sticky weather...but me, I could seriously live like this. I love being/living in a crowded, busy metropolitan town. I already take the train to work (here in America), so I'm already accustomed to taking the train (and making transfers).
Plus, the trains in Japan are so much more efficient and on-time and comfortable, and it hardly ever smells. Back in America, the trains...especially BART trains....are so out-dated. They're often late, or broken, or ticket fares are expensive, and they are FILTHY! There was even an article published in an SF newspaper about how the BART trains seats haven't been cleaned in 20 years. Ah-ha! So that's why it always smells like farts! Plus, there's ALWAYS some really dirty homless people who like to sleep on BART and make you feel real uncomfortable and you can't say anything to them because some people are just plain CRAZY.
Enough of my complaining. Back to my original story: I love the whole atmosphere. I love the compact spaces, the clean streets, the better cars, the way-ahead-of-our-times electronics & technology etc. I love the lifestyle there. The whole atmosphere and lifestyle fits my style perfectly. I don't want to say too much because it's really long-winded and boring, but basically. I love the organized, clean, friendly environment. That's exactly how I am, and yet I feel like I don't fit in because it's not like that at all here in America.
Jian had tons of fun too. I seriously think that Jian could live there with me. I believe that this type of lifestyle would suit him as well, but he's more concerned about the job market and his job environment, since he doesn't like to wear suits or work in a cubicle, or work real late hours etc. Also, the hot weather, to him, is unbearable. It'll drive him nuts. To quote Jian: like Hong Kong, he'd love to visit those places on vacation, but never live there.
Altogether, this trip was so much fun and such an eye-opening experience. It's the first time that I've ever been on a real vacation with Jian, and more importantly, the first time we've ever traveled outside of the country together. Sure, we've driven down to Los Angeles before, but that was just to see my family, so it never really felt like a vacation......more like a family gathering. Also, this experience really made me feel like my parents are starting to trust Jian a little more now. My parents have always encouraged me to travel and go overseas, especially when I'm young and I don't have a house mortgage to pay or when I don't have to raise kids, but they've never really talked about me going places with my boyfriend. I tend to generally get this vibe that my parents aren't too cool about me going on trips ALONE with my boyfriend, but since we talked to them about it first, I think they feel more comfortable about it.......like we're sort of getting their "blessing" before we just run off and do something outlandish. And Plus, since we paid for everything out of our own pockets, that was a way to show our parents that this was a well-thought out plan. I think that gave me more confidence and it really made the triangle relationships between my boyfriend and my parents more firm.
In the end, this was a great trip. This trip really helped me figure out a lot of things in my life that I wasn't sure about before. For example, I can now clearly define my personality and my ideal type of lifestyle. I now firmly believe that I want to live and/or work in Japan. I say "and/or" because I don't have to live there right away. I could always wait and then retire there also. But ever since my return from this vacation, I really feel good. I feel like there is a purpose and a plan for me out there. Out.
Today we visited Daikanyama. Daikanyama is a nice, casual district and is smaller in comparison to the more popular districts. It's pretty quiet and calm compared to the busy streets of Shibuya or Harajyuku. The shopping and cafe scene is just starting to grow there, and right now it's not nearly as famous as Shibuya or Harajyuku, but it's starting to get more noticed. Out of all the places we've been to, Daikanyama was Jian's most favorite place to visit. It was so much more relaxed walking around without having to fight your way through a sea of people crossing the street. And you get the enjoyment of browsing through some really cute and obscure boutiques. Scattered in between all those cute little stores, you can find some more famous and recognizeable brands like: A.P.C., Evisu Tailor (a.k.a. Evisu brand jeans), Vivienne Westwood Red Line, and Colour By Numbers.
But, we didn't go there just for the shopping. Our original intent was to find the Evisu brand jeans store. This store is called "Evisu Tailor" (pronounced like the district of Ebisu, but with a 'V' sound). The whole purpose of finding this store was because this brand has become very popular over the years due to their success in creating denim goods that have a long-lasting quality. Also, this jeans company only uses custom-quality denim (i.e. raw denim, selvage denim etc). You can also buy this brand of jeans, in America, at any official PUMA brand stores. BUT...............there was a reason why we chose to go to this store. We were in search for the perfect pair of jeans for Jian. And plus, Jian really likes this jeans brand and really wanted to get his hands on a custom-pair of jeans that you can't find in America. So, we found the store and Jian bought his most prized pair of jeans, and needless to say, he was overjoyed.
We continued to walk around Daikanyama a little more. We wanted to explore and take a peek at this budding district. We walked down to the BEAMS P.O.V. store and there we saw 2 girls posing for pictures. They didn't look like professional models though. They looked more like 2 girls trying to put together a portfolio to become models. On a serious note though, these girls looked sooooooooo stick thin, and they were posing in bikinis, so you could see their rib cages, their hip bones, their collar bones. I mean, they looked anorexic....these girls could even put Nicole Richie to shame! That was not cool. I'd rather be healthy and have people call me chubby or fat rather than look like I'm on the verge of dying from starvation.
Today we went to Tokyo Tower. The view from atop is so beautiful. Even though you're only looking down on all of the skyscrapers, it still is so eye-catching. It's like you're a world away....being so high up and it's very quiet. You can see all of the cars whizzing through the highways and you can see people walking all over the streets. From the top viewing deck, you can see so clearly, to as far as Odaiba (and the Odaiba ferris wheel)! If you use their viewing stands, you can almost clearly see Shibuya, Shinjyuku, Mount Fuji, Yokohama, to name a few. Things seem so different from the top view. You can see well-kept gardens and greenery atop business offices, and playgrounds and tennis courts atop school facilities. You can even see all the large Shrines and cemeteries from the view above. It seems very cheesy, but it's actually pretty cool. And it's a great escape from all the shopping and eating and busy districts.
Visiting Tokyo Tower was the most tourist-y thing we did throughout the entire trip. Although we had originally planned to visit the Imperial gardens at the Imperial Palace in Marunouchi and see the Meiji Jingu Shrine and all, we got side-tracked everyday and kind of pushed it off. So this was the only tourist trap we saw (besides the shrine right smack-dab in the middle of Harajyuku). Later that day, we ate lunch at the cafeteria in Tokyo Tower's gift shop place. There were a lot of typical "food court" style restaurants (i.e. chinese food, McDonalds) but we found a really cool restaurant called Tokyo Curry Lab. This place is so awesome! Not only do they serve the best tasting curries, but their restaurant atmosphere also looked really cool. The whole restaurant looked like a cross between a science laboratory and a gourmet test kitchen. It was quite interesting. The seating area is like a bar-style. You sit at the counter and all the wait-staff service you from behind the counter. and in the middle, there's a walkway with an automatic door that leads to the kitchen. Which by the way, the kitchen is encased in glass, so you could see all the chefs cooking. Infront of each seat there's a small display screen that shows some sort of artsy-fartsy animation. Very futuristic I might add. Here is a rough sketch of what the restaurant's layout looks like. I'm not good at drawing, so this is my really lame excuse for a diagram: This is a picture of the actual storefront. After Tokyo Tower, we decided to go back and do some more damage to our wallets. It was time (again) for some serious toy shopping....and I don't mean just any kind of toys. I'm talking about serious collector's toys and custom toys and limited edition toys and stuff like that. If you know Jian, then you'd know that he's a collector of toys. Not just any toys, but toys from his childhood, designer toys from famous artists, and limited edition toys designed by his favorite brand name. Let me tell you, this place had it all! The toys, I'd say, were reasonably priced, and by reasonably priced I mean that they were all listed at MSRP (Manufacturer's Standard Retail Price). Most places, especially online toy sites and stores that import toys from other countries purposely inflate their prices (to adjust to the import tax and shipping-handling fees). There are even some toy stores in Japan that sell their own toys at outrageous prices. Shopping at Mandarake Nakano was fun. This place isn't really famous, and it wasn't crowded. It had a very casual atmosphere, so you can shop in a more relaxed way. Some of the cool things at Mandarake Nakano were: Some stores had clear display cases where people could showcase some of the items they wish to sell. How it works is first, you rent a space/display case. Then you can display the stuff you wish to sell in the rented space for a selected period of time. People can come and take a look at your stuff. If they wish to buy one of your items, then they fill out a ticket with the space # and the description of the item. The store will then contact you to let you know that someone has bought your item. It's becoming a trend now to sell your stuff this way. It's so much less of a hassel to do it this way then to do it on eBay. Because on eBay, people are always worried about legit buyers and sellers. Some sellers only take PayPal; some only take cash etc, etc. When you sell your stuff in these rented spaces, it's pretty much like consignment selling. You can set one price (there's no auction/bidding) and people just pay direct cash. You can also arrange to meet with the buyer, so you can see them face-to-face. This makes the whole transaction of monies more legit and safer. There were also a few stores that sold doll parts and accessories. You could buy furniture and clothes for dolls, and you could buy specific doll parts, so that you could piece together your own customized doll....but these are for action figure type plastic dolls only. So, if you were looking for a specific piece, but didn't want to buy the entire set just for one piece, then you could buy them individually. It saves you money that way too.
Have you ever heard of Mandarake? Maybe from the back of a hobby magazine or in an advertisement somewhere? Well, Mandarake is a toy store chain....kind of like Toys 'R' Us, but filled with designer toys and collector's items and comics galore! We only know of 2 locations, one in Shibuya and one in Nakano, but we never got a chance to visit the one in Shibuya, so guess where we went?! N-AK-A-N-O! Yay! We visited Nakano, and we saw a small religious group singing "It's A Small World" in Japanese right infront of the main gate at the train station. Anyways, to get back on topic, we visited a shopping center called "Nakano Broadway". This place s pretty large (4 floors worth of goods) and long, and the Mandarake shopping place is at the back of the entire building. It's 4 floors with nothing but toys, hobby supplies, comic books, anime, cds, cosplay costumes and the like. It was so awesome. And it's not as overwhelming as Akiba was. Mandarake Nakano really focused on custom/designer toys and lots of vintage toys from the 60s, 70s and 80s. So many shops had toys on display that really brought back a lot of fond memories of cartoons from our youth.
Today's the day where we just felt like blah. No, not really...I just wanted to say that for the hell of it. But anyway, we headed back to Harajuku and Aoyama. Today's the day where we could go back and get the last minute stuff we wanted or to get the stuff we were thinking twice about getting the first time. There wasn't much going on today except some casual browsing and walking down Omotesando in the Harajuku part. During the other times we visited Harajuku, we mostly walked around Meiji-dori and Harajuku Street. Today, we really focused on Omotesando Hills and a lot of the back and side alleys because that's where most of the cool, underground urban stores are. Most of the shops we were looking for were all in the back alleys, in the most un-noticeable places (not in some over-priced, stuffy shopping complex). And they don't have very big or ornate storefront signs either....sometimes no signage at all.
After visiting Harajuku...again...we walked all over Aoyama (wich isn't that big of a district...but it's not small either). We of course had to visit the BAPESCLUSIVE store again. And we met the same sales clerk that helped us out the last time. I couldn't believe he remembered us. I know it's only been 3 days and all, but there's so many customers coming in and out of that store, and there are a lot of tourists who visit that store too, so I was a little surprised when he was acting so familiar with Jian. One thing I regret though is that I didn't ask for his name. This sales clerk guy was so friendly and so nice to us, and he tried so hard to speak to us using the limited amount of English he knew. He helped Jian try things on; he helped us pick stuff out, and he would even give us advice on things that don't match. He was trying so hard and I really admire him and appreciate that he tried to make us feel welcome and feel comfortable. In contrast, when we visted the BAPE Store in Harajuku, the sales clerks weren't exactly friendly, but they weren't mean either. They were just really quiet and hard to talk to.
Here are some actual personal pictures of the 100% Chocolate Cafe:
Pictures of Marunouchi (Tokyo's business district):
These are pictures around Ginza (the most expensive piece of real estate in all of Japan...and quite possibly the world). These are just a few of the interestig and really innovative cars of Japan. Good luck finding cars like these in America. These cars not only look cool, but they're also fuel efficient, have high performance and high horsepower and they also have models/makes that cater to specific types of people (i.e. the sportier cars are geared towards guys, the cute small cars are geared towards women etc).
These are some random pictures around our hotel in Shinjyuku. We found a Sizzler's restaurant!!! What the hell?! And it was just in some random place. There are also some random buildings that we thought looked cool. Did you see the cars????? Oh my lord they look like toys...or something you'd see a bunch of clowns driving around in a circus...but we saw real, grown men driving these dinky little tin cans. But they looked interesting anyway. Plus, I just had to take a picture of the advertising truck with an ad for Kat-Tun's new cd single. In case you're wondering, Kat-Tun is a really, extremely popular boy band. They're popular amongst young children, teens and full-grown adults alike. Yes, a lot of older moms like these youngster boys also. Robbing the cradle eh? Anyways, here are the pictures:
Ok. It's day one. We arrived at Tokyo Narita airport approximately one hour ahead of schedule. Wao! Sooooo lucky!! But I was sooooooooooooooo miserable on the plane. I had such a bad allergy attack. I couldn't stop sneezing and blowing my nose, and my nose wouldn't stop dripping. I even took allergy medicine before the flight because I know I'll get sick from the recycled air on the plane, but it still didn't help things, and I got really sick anyway. I'm so lucky that it was just a temporary thing, and I'm feeling much better now.
Ha ha...this is a picture of Jian at Narita airport. We were in line waiting for the Airport Limousine bus to take us directly to our hotel. Did I mention that we are staying at the Keio Plaza Hotel:Tokyo ? Oh My God! This hotel is freaking awesome! It's a 4-¶ hotel, but we got a really kick-ass package deal from our travel agent, so our room was cheap as hell. (The only thing that raped our wallets was the plane tickets.)
The Weather Channel said it was going to rain quite a bit this week, but we are so fortunate to have such FANTASTIC weather!! It's been in the mid 70's degrees (farenheight): not too hot but not too cold, and the wind comes at just the right times to keep you cool.
Yea! We got to see a glimpse of the Tokyo Stock Exchange building while we were on the freeway...I'm not sure where the Stock Exchange is exactly located, but I'm guessing it's somewhere in the Ginza area? Hmmm...but it was an interesting sight so see, considering that most of the freeways are blocked by high retaining walls (probably used to keep out the noise and to keep roads safer.)
This was one of the intersections in Ginza we passed by on the freeway. You're probably wondering why the streets seem so empty, especially since it's a Saturday and nobody has to work or go to school. Well, to tell you the truth folks....NOT ALL STREETS IN TOKYO ARE CROWDED AND OVERRUN WITH PEOPLE. That's mostly in the Shibuya area (and on weekends). Don't believe everything you see in movies or on TV. Even though Tokyo is packed, it's not overly-crowded every day you know. So, we took a picture of this non-descript intersection. It looks pretty peaceful in a townfull of chaos.
This was our first official meal in Tokyo. We ate at a food court in Isetan shopping center. The restaurant was called "Laranje", and the food was yum + cheap!!! The best part, we didn't even have to read the menu. The waiter knew some English, so all we had to do was point to the pictures on the menu. This was our meal: seafood spaghetti and an ice coffee. The pasta was soooo cheap, only 7 bucks! But we got raped on the ice coffee. It was 4 bucks a piece, and it wasn't very big. All in all though, it was really nice and relaxing. We ate a lot on the plane, so we weren't really starving. This meal was just the right size.
Ok. I just HAD TO take a picture of this. It's soooo funy. It's like the versus to the "Evander Holyfield x Undefeated" shirt. And look at the Ninja at the top...I knew my dad wasn't lying when he said he was going to send his personal Ninja to follow us!!!! This picture was taken in some alleyway next to the Sakuraya Hobby Shop...which was right next to Kabuki-cho (a.k.a. "Kabucho"). Speaking of Kabukicho......................it's not very big, but it's so freaking jam packed with Host/Hostess clubs and TONS of restaurants. There have been many rave reviews of the restaurants there by many newspaper food critics. While there, I tried looking for the famous Prince Club. There's a guy there, he's the most popular "host" at the club, and he formed a boyband with other hosts from the club. The boyband is called...what else..."Prince Club" and they have a recording contract under Avex.
Soooooooooooo folks, it's hecka late. We gotta get up bright and early tomorrow to meet our good friend Mister Donut!! Then we're off to the Harajyuku area! Ja~~~~~~~~~
Out.
