Welcome to The Journey to Japan

Connecting to the Japan server…

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Connected! Entering the Narita channel…

June 15th, Friday

For a majority of my flight, I mostly kept to myself. I was just focused on trying to pass the time as much as I could. When I found out that I could not really charge my laptop, I was a little bummed thinking it’d be a much longer flight than I had planned. As I had mentioned in the previous post, the plane provided a wide variety of TV shows and movies. In fact, there were a few movies that I had been meaning to catch up on. So thankfully that helped!

About an hour before landing, I finally began talking to a gentleman named Roger, seated to my right. We were able to hold a nice conversation which helped kill time for the remainder of the flight. Though I felt bad for him as one of his daughters was not having a good day. His daughter was experiencing motion sickness like crazy and starting puking quite a bit. When we landed, we both said goodbye and I wished him the best as he still had a few more flights (he was going to a different country to visit family).

Getting off the plane was no hassle and it felt pretty relaxing being able to finally get off of my butt. It was only when I got to customs when I started to get somewhat anxious.

There was a little slip that you were required to fill out explaining your purpose in Japan. Among them was a name, address and telephone number of your accommodation. I was going to stay with a friend of mine that day, however I did not know her real name, address, nor her phone number. I was screwed!

It was getting hot in there too and I had been wearing a jacket. I probably looked incredibly shady with my forehead being covered with sweat…

After about ten minutes, I gave up and wrote down the accommodation details of an airbnb I would be going to later next week. It worked.

I found that the wifi in the airport was absolutely terrible and I did not want to have to struggle trying to find a stable wifi connection in Japan. So I went to a station that was selling one of those temporary sim cards that granted mobile data. It was unfortunate the only two options were 7 days and 1 month, but it was going to be worth the money I spent anyway.

Right after that, I went to finally redeem my Japan Rail Pass. The process itself was fairly easy and honestly the pass kinda looks neat (except for the fact that I accidentally wrote down Korean as my nationality and had to cross that out).

The next hurdle I had to tackle was trying to figure out which train I was supposed to take… but with the help of a few people nearby, I was able to finally determine which train I needed to take and was able to reach the destination I had needed to go.

After I got off of Kamatori station, I went to the Aeon mall that was right near the station. It’s impossible to miss, honestly. I went in in search of a place to start charging my electronics. What I ended up doing was looking around the mall as it was HUGE. It’s about five stories of completely different departments. Quite honestly a different world the moment you go into a different floor I also finally got to experience the Japanese toilet. It was certainly an interesting experience….

Eventually I found a place where I could sit down and finally relax. I needed to wait for a friend to finish working anyway so I sat down for a while and started chatting with a few friends that were still awake. Once I was done charging all my electronics, I used that opportunity to explore the mall a bit more and tried some doughnuts from Mister Donuts.

Finally the time arrived and my friend, Chamotea, was finished with work and guided me to her apartment where she lives. Don’t get any weird ideas though, we’re nowhere near any sort of romantic relationship. Considering her orientation, I doubt it’d even happen anyway. In any case, I got settled in the apartment and immediately left to go to an Izakaya that was nearby. The food there was extremely salty but considering that their primary source of money is from the booze, it wasn’t really such a surprise.

I was ready to pay my half of the bill, however it turned out they were not able to take card transactions. Thankfully, Cham was able to cover for me! Told her I’d pay her back when I get the chance.

Now with food in the stomach and the futon set out, I was ready to wind down a bit and finally hit the hay. I’m just surprised I had acclimated to Japan’s time zone so quickly.

June 16th, Saturday

I woke up at 5am. Had a dream that wasn’t exactly pleasant. I can’t remember any of the details other than the fact that something had gone slightly wrong during my Japan trip. I think I became anxious again. It was barely 5 hours of sleep so I fell asleep again until 7am. This time, I felt refreshed. My friend then offered and made a granola mixed with yogurt and bananas. A simple breakfast to kinda help start the day~

Now that I felt fairly grounded in Japan, I was ready to go out and experiencing a bit of the country here and there. The only sad thing was the rain that started to come out. It’s just a shame that’s the one thing I can’t plan ahead several months in advanced for. Although I typically am not inclined on using it, my friend had several spare umbrellas that were available and I took her offer.

My friend was getting ready to go to work soon so we went to this small place called Hotto Motto, which was a small mart that sold cheap bentos. There’s a small menu you would choose from and they would make it right then and there. The idea is to purchase the bento right before you go to work so that you would have something to eat by the time lunch came around. Honestly it was a neat idea! I also had noticed something there that I may try later.

From there, Cham and I split up as she had to go to work and I was headed to the Chiba station. I already had a few plans on what I wanted to check out there.

When I got to the Chiba station, I looked around for a place that had something simple for breakfast. While the granola earlier in the morning was good, I wanted something that was a little more filling. I eventually found a spot that had a really simple meal just for 500 yen (roughly $5). I went with a meal that had more granola (ahaha), tomato soup, salad, potato salad, half a strip of ham, and a small piece of bread. It was perfect for what I needed.

The first place I went to after breakfast was an owl shaped police station. It was something that a friend of mine had recommended me taking a look. I thought it was a unique station to one place thinking it’d be easy to search up online. Not that it was incredibly difficult to do so, but rather I found out there were more than one. My friend didn’t mention any specific one so I had to find out which one would be easiest to find. The police station was right next to the train station so it was easy to find. It’s just unfortunate I exited the wrong side and had to go back around so I could see it.

I was still unsure if I wanted to go to the Castle Ruins as it had rained a little bit, but it was starting to settle down. So what I opted to do first was go to one of the Chiba shrines. It was really interesting seeing the structures and all the different locations where you could make and offering and pray. Along the way, I decided to livestream a bit of my adventure through Instagram. It was fun being able to connect with a few of my friends and share the experience!

As I was still debating whether or not I wanted to go the Castle Ruins, I went about to go to the Chiba Science Museum. Along the way, I came across a small takoyaki stand. Considering that I hadn’t eaten for a while, I figured this would be the perfect little snack. When I asked if they accepted card transactions, I misunderstood and tried to give them my card when they actually only accepted cash. Thankfully there was a convenience store that was just right across the street with an ATM.

The people working at the takoyaki stand were all very nice and friendly. They were curious as to what my plans were for Japan. After a little chat, I asked if they were okay with me taking pictures. Not only were they fine, but they also suggested that I take a picture of them making the takoyaki! It’s small things like these that make my trips to new places worth while.

For a little while, I could not find the museum I was looking for. It was later that I found out it was located in this large building called Quiball. I honestly assumed the building was designed for some weird sport… It was also during this moment that I was really glad there are surprisingly many places that use English in their signs. I guess they’re really prepared for American tourists.

Upon entering the museum, something felt… off. It was not as though the museum was crap, but it was something about what they had in there. These small exhibits were kind of small. Lot of the signs weren’t at eye level. There were several little tables that were interactive, yet they were very simple. The more I explored the museum, the more I finally began to put the pieces together and realize what was wrong.

This museum was geared towards children.

While there are a few sections that I thought were fairly interesting (in particular, there was one that showed the evolution of certain technology), it was blatantly obvious the exhibits were created so children can see the marvel of scientific discovery. It didn’t take long before I just ended up leaving.

Fortunately, the weather had now proven to be rather promising and I had finally felt it was a good time to head towards the Chiba Castle Ruins.

It wasn’t really a long walk (about 15 minutes from where I was at) and I was able to find the place fairly well. The castle itself was hidden from the outside and you would only know it was there once you actually got inside the park. I spent a large majority of time going around and recording video of the place, including the interior part of the castle.

When I had finished looking around the castle, I noticed there were three people near this stand-like building doing… something. What caught my eye, however, were the fact they were Touken Ranbu cosplayers. Naturally, I couldn’t help but ask for pictures! As soon as I took a picture, another cosplayer came out. So… I took another picture. Then another cosplayer came out. I took another picture. At that point, I had to ask if they were doing some sort of photoshoot. Turns out they actually were! The small building had a traditional looking room towards the back and they were using that as their set for the photoshoot. There were also a total of 8 of them. I wasn’t gonna wait around to take pictures of the remaining three, so I gave them my card (to which, they ended up looking surprised when they realized this was not my first time taking cosplay pictures ahaha), and headed off. It was later I realized I could have asked for a selfie with them. Oh well.

It wouldn’t be long before Cham would be finished with work, so I started heading back to the station closest to where she lived. I hung out at the Pasta Cafe that was in the Aeon mall outside of the station. It was a comfortable spot to charge my electronics and finally have a clear mind to work on the post. Though I guess it wasn’t clear enough as I’m going through what I had typed, I’ve come to realize I had typed complete garbage. The only reason why I’m not doing such a massive edit is simply due to the sheer size of all these posts and how long I’ve already spent making these posts. Anyway…

When Cham finished, we met up in the mall and started making plans on what to do for dinner. Cham took me to this cafe/restaurant place called Hoshino Coffee. I don’t normally indulge myself with a lot of coffee, but I could tell these places that I’ve been going really know how to make quality coffee. My assumptions were on the spot. The food and coffee were all really good! I had something called Hikoba coffee and it had a nice mild flavor without it being too bitter. The atmosphere was really nice and I enjoyed my time there~

What I didn’t realize, however, was things are definitely done differently in Japan. One, we had to go up and pay at the counter — the waiters/waitresses don’t go to your table and give you a check to pay right there. Two, there are a lot of places that don’t accept card transactions and only accept cash. Was glad that I got some withdrawn earlier in the day, or I would have had to depend on Cham again.

We then went to go visit a mall that was a few bus stops down and hang out there for a little bit. One of the first places we stopped to check out was a hobby shop. There were a lot of figures and other miscellaneous items, such as Gundam kits, BB guns, and small puzzles. Cham had found a few blind boxes she wanted to purchase. To her surprise, when she did actually open the blind boxes, she got exactly what she had wanted! We joked about how I was a lucky charm for her. If only I knew just how much of a lucky charm I really was…

Later, we went to a place called a “dagashi“, a traditional Japanese candy store that often sells cheap (usually), traditional Japanese snacks. I wasn’t interesting in a lot of them, but I got a few items. I actually saw some sugar candy that looked similar to the ones referenced in Spirited Away (those little star candy things). I bought two bags because I honestly thought they’d look extremely cute with my nendoroids!

Cham wanted to go to the grocery store in the lower level for some smaller snacks and other miscellaneous items just in case we would need them later tonight. Her reason was the fact most places, including restaurants, don’t actually stay open late. With that in mind, we got half a watermelon, some gyoza, and a couple other items before we finally started heading home and turn in for the night.

June 17th, Sunday

Another day, another adventure. I had hoped that it would be spent with Cham, but she was still fairly tired from work the previous day. So after I had gotten dressed, I just walked around the area I was familiar with and used that time to catch up with my mother and a friend.

After passing by that one bento mart I had mentioned a while back, I decided to buy the little thing of kimchi. I was far too curious to pass up the opportunity. I was also feeling a little hungry and wanted to try out a “Japanese” KFC and ordered something they called a “Sand Box”. Although its presentation seemed to differ ever so slightly, it still tasted exactly the same. In the “Sand Box”, it included a piece of chicken, a chicken sandwich, some pie, and a potato… wedge? It definitely tasted similar to it, but was not in the same shape at all

I went to check up on Cham after I had finished eating to see how she was feeling. She told me that she still felt a little tired and wanted to stay home to catch up a bit on some house work. I was more than capable of walking around on my own, so I packed my nendoroids and started to head toward the train station.

So I went to the Chiba Prefecture Makuhari Seaside Park. One of the obstacles I didn’t realize I would come to face would be something pretty simple… With the way these pictures were taken and the places they would be taken at, it’d be hard to tell if the pictures were from Japan or some park around the States. I suppose that’s one of the downsides of having your subjects be as small as the size of your palm. When something that small goes into focus, the background will be thrown into bokeh oblivion making it practically impossible to tell where they were at.

I kept going around the park hoping to find something else to take pictures of, or even perhaps a good angle where it would be obvious that I took them at Japan. As I walked around, I saw two Haikyuu cosplayers and had begun to wonder if they were just… hanging out there. The way the two were sitting on the bench suggested they were having their pictures taken, but I couldn’t see any photographers nearby. I wanted to take pictures but wasn’t sure if I’d be interrupting some shoot, even though the photographer was nowhere to be seen.

It turns out the photographer was just really far away from the actual subjects. This photographer in particular was using a telephoto lens, so she needed to be pretty far. It’s either that, or she really wanted to get the entire surrounding in with the composition. Regardless, I thought it was kind of funny having run into cosplayers two days in a row.

I still had quite a bit of time to kill after I had finished going around the park. I had originally planned on going to the Chiba Zoological Park the day after, but since I didn’t really have much else to do, I just went. Figured knocking this out ahead of time would also make it a little easier to focus on going to Tokyo the next day.

On the way there, I had to pay for a separate ticket as the monorail towards the zoo since this was not covered by the JR Pass. The process was simple and I was able to get by easily. I mean, you would think it would be easy.

It was not.

Entering the rail was actually very easy. I went to a ticket station and inserted the ticket in the gate to pass through and board the monorail. When I got off the monorail, I noticed the gates were there and assumed I’d be able to pass through the gate since I had already paid for it.

Nope.

Okay, I guess I was supposed to take the ticket out from the other end of the gate after I had originally inserted it in? (After having to do the same thing later in the future, this was exactly what I was supposed to do) In that case, I’m pretty screwed. So I figured I would use the Suica card Cham had given me. That should work. I even made sure to add funds in there.

Nope.

I realized fairly quickly that the Suica cards only work when you use it to enter and exit. Has to be both. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be able to know how much to charge you exactly. The gates were fairly empty so there were no staff members immediately present to assist me. So I ended up pressing the intercom button to have someone help me.

I explained the situation to him and he seemed to have grasped the situation with the little Japanese I knew. Then he started saying something I was unable to comprehend and kept repeating it. For the longest time, I thought he asked me to stand in front of the camera and show my Suica card? I kept going back and forth from the intercom with the guy’s voice progressively getting a little louder each time. Thankfully there was someone who was passing by who showed me that the gate was going to stay open so I could pass. I was incredibly embarrassed, but very thankful!

Never again…

The zoo was okay. It was actually fairly empty which I thought was surprising, considering that it was Sunday. I suppose it’s just not the right time for it to be busy. Otherwise, the zoo was exactly what you’d expect. I don’t really go to many zoos, so I’m not sure what design would be unique to Japan, but it was still pretty interesting. The one thing that I was interested in, however, was checking out the Red Pandas! It took a while, but I finally found them and it made the zoo feel 200% more worth going there.

Just when I felt I had finished my rounds with the zoo, they had announced they were going to close soon. There was also a small gift shop right at the entrance of the zoo. I figured that I should get some souvenirs and give them away when I got back home. During my trip around the zoo, I noticed there was a red panda hand puppet and I thought that was cute, so I got that along with a small red panda plushie and a red panda key cover (which I would later give to Cham).

When I boarded the monorail, I noticed there was a small child who had been crying for a while. All I could gather from the mother was that she kept saying “We’ll do it later, okay?” I knew I had something that could easily make the child a little happier and had tried to come up with how to properly say what I wanted to. Once I figured out the wording, I brought out the hand puppet and started talking to the little boy. After I “talked” to the little boy, I let him play with the hand puppet for a little while. About a minute later, the mother was about to give the hand puppet to me but I told her that the boy could keep it. The mother had asked me roughly 10 times if it was okay before she finally accepted the fact that I, indeed, wanted to give the hand puppet to her son. I couldn’t help but feel compelled to take a picture of her and her son, so I asked if I could take a picture. I also gave her my business card right after I took the picture. I figured she might thank me a bit later, which would help me find her easier and give her the picture of her and her son.

I had finally arrived at Chiba station and I took that opportunity to take a small break in a place called Common Cafe. There, I had a blue mountain coffee accompanied by their desert of the day: mont blanc. I wanted to work on this post for a little bit and recharge both my electronics and myself before I would go back to hang out with Cham.

About an hour of staying in the cafe, I left to go meet up with Cham at Daiso in the Aeon mall. She had an idea of where to go for dinner and took me to a sushi place called Yamato. I had questioned place at first, but she reassured me that it would be very filling.

Not only was the sushi incredibly delicious, but it surprisingly was very filling! I enjoyed my time there at Yamato and was very pleased we had gone there. The night had also felt very nice considering the day was fairly warm throughout.

Normally we had taken the bus to and from that area, but since the night was so nice, Cham decided to just walk back home. I’m always down for walking as I would prefer that if it’s less than half an hour away. Not a big deal, after all.

We passed by several vending machines and I had commented how surprised I was seeing so many of them practically everywhere. I then remembered how there are times when a character would get a beverage that was hot. I made it somewhat of a mission to find a drink that would come out hot, however I think they changed all the vending machines to only distribute cold beverages. Honestly, it made sense considering that it’s almost summer and most people would rather drink something cold. Still, it would mean that it’s something I’d be missing out from this particular experience.

The kimchi I had bought earlier was still in the fridge and I was still kind of hungry. Curiosity was killing me so I decided to give it a shot. While the flavor was not bad, it wasn’t exactly note worthy. In essence, it was almost what I had expected. Definitely less sweeter than I thought it would be, but it tasted exactly like what kimchi from a restaurant would taste like. It was far too fresh and had not fermented long enough to have decent flavor.

Having checked off another item from the bucket list, I went back to sleep, excited to see what the next day would provide.

June 18th, Monday

Even after I had woke up at a decent time, the check-in at the capsule hotel wouldn’t be until 1pm. So Cham and I took our time getting prepared for the journey ahead.

Connecting to Ebisu Chanel…

Connected

Although the trip to Ebisu (where the hotel was at) normally would not have been a big deal, an earthquake with a magnitude roughly around 6.1 had struck Osaka, causing some of the public transportation to have delays. Cham and I took that as an opportunity to hang around for a little while longer before we would grab lunch from Aeon. Cham had suggested the udon and I figured it would be a nice meal to start the day off. Although I was misspoke while ordering, the udon that I had was incredibly delicious! It was definitely much better than any udon I have had in a very long time.

Now that we were set and ready to go, we boarded the train to head towards Ebisu so I could check into the capsule hotel that I had booked.

After having taken the train for quite some time at this point, I’ve really come to appreciate the ease of mind not having to deal with driving myself. Although if I were to be honest, I think the convenience of being able to drive in America far outweighs anything Japan can offer. There is a certain soothing effect driving can have sometimes. I just wish there was a train to Seattle as I hate driving there.

Tokyo was a great example of everything I hated about driving in Seattle (though the one thing Tokyo had over Seattle was they had almost no hills to deal with). When we got out of the station in Ebisu, I noticed there were a lot more cars driving around. Just like Seattle, there are almost no parking spaces that are easily noticeable. To make it worse, I noticed most of the parking spaces are located in really tight alleyways with just enough room to allow for one car and someone to exit out.

Anyway, it didn’t take long before I was able to find the place where the capsule hotel was located at. During the check-in process, I had to show them my passport to prove my identity. Standard procedure, of course. Hilariously though, they were speaking Japanese just well and fine to me until they saw the passport. As soon as they handed the passport back to me, they were trying to explain their rules in English.

I couldn’t help but laugh a bit but tell them they could go ahead and proceed in Japanese (even if I wouldn’t understand half of it, the rules they were referencing was displayed on a piece of laminated paper right on the desk… and it’d go by much faster). After they were done, I couldn’t help but poke at them a bit more. I had asked them if they were surprised that I was American and their response?

“Um, actually yeah.”

I probably would have enjoyed chatting with them just a little bit longer, but Cham was waiting for me outside the building so I quickly went to put my luggage away so we could continue hanging out.

Cham had suggested we go to a nice little cafe called Espresso D’Works so she could also get a small pick-me-up from a coffee. They also had some dutch pancakes that seemed pretty delicious. As some of you already know, I already have a soft spot for cafes so this was pretty much a no brainer anyway.

As usual, the atmosphere the cafe had provided was pretty superb. While some of the seating arrangements were odd (mine, specifically, as it was a small chair with no back support), everything appeared to be really comfortable! I think the only real complaint I would have had was the table we were seated at was incredibly small. Arranging the food and the drinks proved to be difficult, however we managed to get by without too much hassle.

Before we would go out to the Akihabara area, Cham had scouted out a place called Yebisu Garden Place. It looked like a nice spot and there were reviews from people saying that spot alone can fill up your entire day. Curiosity piqued, both of us went to go check out the place.

While there wasn’t much of a garden, there was something else… a LOT of European inspired architecture. Honestly, the entire time Cham and I were around the area, we had forgotten we were in Japan. When we weren’t focused on taking pictures and generally hanging around, we would be reminded that this location is in fact in Tokyo from small things: the people, the signs, the random vending machine that broke the immersion.

Although the claim that Yebisu Garden Place could “keep you busy all day” seemed a little exaggerated, we did spend quite a bit of time going around the place. However Cham and I felt like it was finally time to leave after about an hour of exploring the area. It certainly would have been much better had it not been for the drizzle and showers that came down periodically.

Connecting to Akihabara Channel…

Connected.

Ah alas, perhaps the most anticipated part of my blog I assume most of you readers have been holding your breath for. Yes, after Yebisu Garden Place, I finally went to Akihabara! Was it awesome? Was it super cool? Did I buy a bunch of stuff?!

Meh, it’s okay. It’s extremely crowded and filled with a bunch of cosplaying girls desperately trying to get people to visit their cafes. For people who are still incredibly into anime, I suppose they would lose their mind if they visited the place. I haven’t been watching as much anime these days, but I can still appreciate it.

Cham showed me around some of the places she frequently visits. During these little tours, it had become very apparent Japanese people not only are unbelievably up front with their pornography (easily available to grab in convenience stores), some of the doujin places Cham had taken me had an entire wall of porn. It’d be one thing if it were in one section that was easily avoidable, but you had to pass them in order to purchase your items! Never fails to surprise me…

As much as I would love to detail the rest of the shopping experience (or rather, the lack of actual shopping) we went through, I think it would be better off to just spare you the rest. I mean, it’s not like shopping is fun to read about. Unless you’re weird.

The day was coming close to an end and we still haven’t eaten dinner. Cham took it upon herself to take me to one last place before she would leave back home. She had mentioned a place that specializes and only makes omurice. It was a hole-in-the-wall kind of place and recently started. So it was thanks to that the restaurant wasn’t busy and we were able to comfortably get our food and sit wherever we had wanted.

You ordered your food by selecting an item from a machine after depositing some cash into it. There were even options on the machine that allowed you to get extras on top of whatever you had ordered. Once you had decided, you would take the ticket (along with whatever change you would have) and take it to any of the chefs behind the counter. In what felt like lightning speed, they made the omurice ready to eat! This was my first time eating omurice and I was severely impressed! Not only was it delicious, but it was at a portion that would fill me right up!

Now that dinner had been finished and over with, it was finally time to part ways with Cham and conclude the night. In a way, I was relieved as I would no longer have to worry about imposing onto Cham. Nevertheless, I was still extremely grateful she had me in her place! From what I’ve heard about other people she had shown hospitality to, I’m confident to say I may perhaps have been the perfect guest!

Connecting back to Ebisu Channel…

Connected.

After having settled in my capsule hotel, I began chatting with a few friends of mine as it was still only around 9pm (of which a friend had jokingly chastised me for and demanded I go out for a little longer). I laughed it off and continued to work on the post as much as I could.

I later found out that a friend that I knew from several years back was also visiting Japan! Since this was a rare opportunity, we began coming up with plans on what to do and when. My friend was already in the area so meeting up was going to be incredibly easy. I seriously could not have asked for anything better!

Some of the things that I had wanted to do involved visiting spots that were featured in Kimi no Na wa and Kotonoha no Niwa and I mentioned that to her. My friend agreed on checking those places out and our plans were set! The only thing that was left for me to do was continue writing a bit and actually watch Kotonoha no Niwa. I had watched the other movie on the plane, so now was the only time I’d get to become familiar with the spot I’d soon go to check out.

Now connecting back to Akihabara channel…