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June 19th, Tuesday

There is a sense of excitement each time I wake up and realize I’m not in my own bed. This time, however, it was perhaps a bit more disorienting than anything.

I looked around my surroundings and remembered that I had reserved a spot in a capsule hotel. Although it may appear to be small in size, it’s actually spacious enough to sit upright with plenty of headroom. I had considered taking a shower in the morning, however I figured I might end up taking a bit longer than usual and head already taken one the night before. I didn’t want to make my friend wait for too long, so I quickly left to meet her at the hotel she was staying at. The reason why I wanted to meet her by her hotel was so that I could drop my luggage off to her. Although I had a reservation for an Airbnb that day, check-in wouldn’t be later until 4pm. My friend, Emma, was kind enough to allow me to keep my stuff in her room until I was ready to go to my Airbnb. This was great as it meant I wouldn’t have to spend money on a coin locker!

I had actually known Emma during my high school years. Although we didn’t talk much, we would keep in touch every once in a blue moon. So you can imagine how this would be extremely surprising seeing how this would be how we would meet each other for the first time! One would think it would be much more likely to meet up in an anime convention rather than in a different country altogether!

I had finally met up with Emma and we talked for a little bit, discussing how we should go about with our plans. When we had figured out our agenda for the day, she took up my luggage into her room and we set off to grab some breakfast.

On the back of my mind though, I was a little worried about my Airbnb reservation as the host had never once sent any messages to me regarding the reservation. Not only that, I had sent him a few messages as my reservation was coming up (including a message earlier this morning) hoping he’d be able to tell me how I’m supposed to access the apartment to begin with. Considering today was the day I’d be checking in, I was worried I would have to cancel the booking. I figured I’d give him a bit more time though and just hope he would respond soon.

Since Emma hadn’t tried omurice yet, I suggested the omurice restaurant I went to the night before. My memory as of late has been pretty poor, so I was a little surprised when I was actually able to find the restaurant in the cement abyss that is Akihabara. The only problem was that it wouldn’t be open for another hour. So we spent about an hour browsing the shops nearby.

When we went back to the omurice spot, I decided to go for a different dish than the one I had previously. This one in particular was interesting in the sense one half was topped with jjajang sauce. Although the dish itself was still pretty good, I wouldn’t see myself going back to eating that again in the future.

We then set off to go visit Shinjuku Gyoen Park, an iconic garden area featured in the movie Kotonoha no Niwa. On the way there, I was looking at all the vending machines, still determined to find one that had a hot beverage… and I finally found one! To no one’s surprise but perhaps my own, it really was hot! Emma last asked, “Why would you want to drink a hot drink on a hot day?” Good question — I don’t care, that’s why!

I had originally expected the park to be small, but when Emma and I took a look at the map, we realized it was ridiculously huge. It would take about 10 minutes before we finally found the bench the movie is well known for. Although that spot in particular was the main focus of our trip, we both enjoyed our time browsing the entire park. As I mentioned earlier, the park is enormous. If it were not for all the signs posted practically everywhere, one could easily find themselves lost in this park.

Having finished the Kotonoha no Niwa pilgrimmage, next up was Kimi no Na wa! We got off of the Shinanomachi station to check out two places featured in the movie: the pedestrian bridge and the stairs. The bridge was pretty much right next to the station. If I were to be honest, checking the bridge out in the afternoon probably made it look a lot more plain than I would have imagined it. If it were night time, I think there would have been a lot more potential for photos. Nevertheless, I took some pictures and went on the way to find the stairs.

We actually came across a small shrine what seemed to be squeezed in a cramped area. Once you passed the gate, however, it was clear they tried their best to give the shrine as much space as they could possibly give it. There was even a small fountain where you could purify yourself at. Just so I can say I’ve had the shrine experience, I looked up how to do the purification process and went with it. Along with the fountain, there were a lot of wooden wishing plaques (ema) that had drawings of the characters from the anime. Not too much of a surprise considering the stairs were just a little further down from the shrine.

Unfortunately I wasn’t the only one who wanted to make the trip to the stairs as there were a fair number of people who had been hanging around the spot for pictures. I found it difficult to take pictures without including the other tourists, but I managed what I could and was happy with what I got.

By now, the check-in time had long passed and the Airbnb host had not responded whatsoever. I needed to make sure that I would get a host quickly so I sent in a request through Airbnb support. I had a feeling that it would take a while so I might as well make the request as early as I could.

Having spent an entire day walking around a large park and the city looking for iconic spots, we were ready to eat something. Although you’d imagine this would be rather simple, I came to realize it really wasn’t — where in Akihabara would we eat?! There were a lot of places that seemed alright, however due to the premium Akihabara price it was given, we were fairly unsure if they’d be worth going to.

Emma looked around Yelp and thought she had found a good place, however she did not realize that it was going to be a standing restaurant. With our feet aching from all the walking, we went around and eventually sat at a tonkatsu restaurant called [gyu niku]. I got a set that was extremely large and had way too many sauces to use, but I still enjoyed it nevertheless! I probably had needed that entire meal anyway!

I was still unsure of what I would do for tonight as the Airbnb support had yet to fully respond to the issue at hand. I had thought about going back to the capsule hotel I was at the night before, but with a full meal in my stomach, I really did not feel like bringing my entire luggage back there. So, I went to the hotel that Emma was staying and checked to see if there were any rooms available for the night. Fortunately, they had a room one and I was able to get in right away. As soon as I got settled in my room, I let my friend Emma know so she wouldn’t have to worry about it. She was also nice enough to bring my luggage to my room! I had intended to meet at her room so I could pick it up, but I guess she figured it’d be easier for her to just bring it to me.

There was a club Emma wanted to check out and suggested it to me while I was in the hotel. She had tried going there last night, however they close at 11pm and was barely over 10 minutes too late.

Since it was 7pm when I had checked in to the hotel and had nothing better to do, I figured why not. There was nothing else that I had wanted to do, after all. Before we would go, though, both of us wanted to get some laundry done. I also wanted to figure out my airbnb situation before I left. As nice as the hotel was, I really did not want to spend more time there than necessary.

Almost as though they knew I had settled into my room, a higher level of support Airbnb had finally started messaging me about the situation. A representative named Jonah was assigned to my case and immediately began to help me figure out what was going on. Jonah had made a call to the host and even he was unable to get a response. Right after that, I got a full refund (in the form of a coupon for the next Airbnb booking), an additional $50 housing coupon, assistance searching for a place near where I wanted to be, and him going the extra mile by calling the host so I could get a faster confirmation. I was incredibly impressed with the help Jonah had given me and at the speed he had done it.

Now everything was set and I can go ahead and relax for the rest of the night until it was time to go where Emma had wanted to go, Club Mogra. The reason as to why Emma really wanted to go to this particular club was for one reason only: it played anime music.

I had intended to wait for my laundry to finish drying, however it still turned out to be a little damp, so I deposited another 100 yen to let it go for another half an hour. I wasn’t going to make her wait so I told her we should just go.

We entered the club and it was completely empty, to our surprise. Then again, it was a Tuesday night. Don’t think many people would risk drinking the night before a work day let alone bothering to going to Akihabara on a weekday night. We both ordered a drink and just hung around for a little bit enjoying the atmosphere of… just two people in an empty club with someone who had come in a little after us. It wasn’t long before the bartender handed a drink to the other gentleman who was in the club with us. We found out that he was actually the DJ for the club! But… where?

The DJ opened a door that was close to the bar and began to head down the stairs. Both Emma and I had assumed that was just a doorway to staff area, but we were wrong. Once you went down the stairs and entered through another door, the dance floor was there! With two people!

Okay, that was a little surprising, but it was still empty in the end. At least we were in the heart of the club! They were playing music from idol animes at first (Idolmaster, Love Live, etc), however it quickly shifted towards some of the older songs from 10~20 years ago. It was then Emma and I were starting to have a great time going on a bit of a nostalgia trip.

Clubs have never really been an interest of mine. Since it really was only just Emma and me at the club, I didn’t really feel up to staying and listening to loud music. Emma decided to stay for a while longer after I told her I was heading back to my room.

I wanted to leave in time as the hotel I was staying at served complimentary noodles in a certain time period. Wanting to get the full value of my night there, I made sure I got the noodles on time! Besides, most people know I have a hard time saying no to noodle dishes. Seeing how they had an onsen, I took advantage of that and bathed while it was still open. They also had an outdoor one which was really nice after a long day of walking around the humid heat.

Feeling refreshed, I prepared my luggage and watch a couple episodes of Rick and Morty (had no idea it was on Netflix until a couple days ago) before I decided it was time to head to sleep.

June 20th, Wednesday

Humidity sucks.

Even if the buildings are air conditioned, I always had that sticky feeling at the base of my neck. Having to deal with that almost every day was starting to get annoying. So much so I started taking showers at night and in the morning. It was the only way I would even remotely feel clean. There was some light rain outside, meaning it would continue to be humid even longer. I suppose it should not have been much of a surprise as June is Japan’s rainy season.

Both Emma and I had to leave the hotel and we didn’t really have a place to store our luggage. Thankfully all the train stations have coin lockers. It took a bit to figure out why one of them would not work, but we both eventually found vacant lockers to store our luggage. There was no way in hell either of us were going to drag around huge bags all over Tokyo.

Prior to meeting up, Emma had some plans to go to certain places, however a lot of what she wanted to do had relied on someone hanging out with her. The reason why we were able to hang out was because things didn’t go according to plan. Emma also originally wanted to go to Nikko, but she ended up deciding against that as it was going to be a bit of a trip. So, both Emma and I decided to the Tokyo Tower. I initially thought it would be a quick visit seeing how it’s like there similar to the Space Needle in Seattle. I later found out I was way off.

Tokyo Tower should be renamed to the Weeb Tower.

So first of all, the whole point of the Tokyo Tower is that it’s supposed to be a copy of the Eiffel Tower. From the way it looks in person, that part is blatantly obvious. It never ceases to surprise me just how much of a French wannabe both Korea and Japan can be. “Paris Syndrome”, a friend told me.

When we entered, we noticed there was a small Evangelion “event” going on. We went to check out the store that contained all sorts of Evangelion goods. There were a lot of interesting stuff! The only problem was just about everything was fairly expensive. The really good t-shirts, in particular, freaking costed an arm!

Still, I have to admit it was fun to browse around the shops. There was another section that was just a general anime goods store. I ended up getting gifts for friends.

There were still a lot more of the tower to explore, so we went up a floor where I was met with a large statue of a character from One Piece. It was at this point I learned there was an exhibit entirely dedicated to One Piece.

Emma wanted to go.

Although I have never seen a single episode of the show, I figured it’d be a great way to spend the day. It couldn’t hurt to check it out. The entry fee was only roughly $20 so it couldn’t be that bad.

We both had brought our umbrellas and thankfully there was a separate room that also contained coin lockers and a place to keep umbrellas. Emma had to also put her bag away, so she took my umbrella to keep it in the stand. There was a way to lock the umbrella, but I wasn’t concerned and did not want to keep yet another key on me. It was just another umbrella you could buy at any convenience store so I wasn’t concerned about theft.

Perhaps what was most surprising about the exhibit wasn’t just how weeb it is, it was how fun it was! I didn’t realize there were a lot of places that had mini games you could play! It wasn’t an exhibit at all, it was a small amusement/attraction park!

The first room you enter is a wide area that’s circular in shape. In this room, the walls are completely white and in the middle had a small platform with a pole extending upward, like a mast. When everyone had entered, projectors turned on to show some snail talk about… something. I don’t know enough Japanese to understand anime weebery.

Once the introductory video played (which was honestly well done), the door opposite to where we entered opened to reveal a small pathway leading to a 1/1 scale of several of statues of the characters. Honestly, it was impressive!

It wasn’t until we went up one level when Emma and I realized there were a lot of things you could do! They were all also free to play (which made the entry fee a lot more sense now). A lot of the attractions were well made and were fun to go through! One of them that stood out, however, was a scavenger hunt styled attraction.

This attraction was unique in the sense that you had to use one of their devices to find “ancient scriptures” that are hidden all throughout the entire attraction. These ancient scriptures were like large stamps. The only place you wouldn’t be able to find these ancient scriptures would be in any of the other attractions. They appeared to be easy to locate and with the thirty minute time limit we were given, we thought it’d be an easy task.

Yeah no, it was hard.

Emma and I were both surprised with how difficult it was to find them! It was well blended with the walls and you really had to pay close attention or you’d miss it.

Just as we were about to hit our time limit, we felt pretty confident about how many we had found and went to the check-in area.  We placed the snail in the spot where it counts how many ancient scriptures you had found with the device. It started making noise indicating it was counting, and then the screen stopped and popped up with the words:

“Rookie”

That was the rank we got. There were six ranks total and we got the FOURTH ONE. HOW MANY WERE THERE?! We both were completely flabbergasted. We were so sure we had gotten everything! We even scanned the entire exhibit twice to make sure! Needless to say, we were pretty salty with the result.

There was another attraction that was supposed to be some person’s casino. It was apparent that this exhibit really wanted to make sure you’d come back as with this particular one considering you could get a silver or gold membership card. Still, it sounded like a challenge so I was pretty pumped!

The games were really simple. There were four buttons of different color you could press. They represented different choices you could make. If you were lucky, you’d win a certain amount of money. The first two games, I had guessed correctly. I can’t remember what the third game was, but I was certain on a choice but I made a mistake and chose a different color. Turns out my first guess was correct. At the very least, I was also able to guess correctly on the last game as well!

After all the games had concluded, the results showed who had won the most money and it was me! I was pretty stoked and was ready to receive my membership!

Eeeexcept it wasn’t enough to even get the silver membership card.

Go freaking figure! That would happen to me!

We finished the exhibit off by going to this one attraction that appeared to be like the history of how all the crew got together. The attraction finished off with a small anime clip featuring the tower we were in. As expected of a shounen type anime, it was incredibly cheesy and over the top. It was fine though — the clip actually helped give the exhibit closure leaving us fairly satisfied with our time there. After Emma looked around the shop inside the exhibit, we left to head out.

Emma went to the coin lockers to grab her stuff and I went to get my umbrella so we could get going.

It was locked.

What the heck? Who would lock my umbrella? Emma made sure to remember which number my umbrella was on and it was there! But the key was gone!

Eventually we had to get a staff member to come by and unlock it with an extra key that they had behind the counter. It was certainly one of the more bizarre things I’ve had happen to me.

Now that it was time for us to be able to check in to our rooms, we ended up splitting up so we could drop our luggage off. We had planned on hanging out for a little while longer as there was still time in the day to do so. As to exactly what we would do, we left that up in the air. At the time, we were just more concerned on dropping our stuff off.

The Airbnb was roughly a 10 minute walk from the Akihabara train station. Getting to the rough location was no big deal (although Google maps seemed to insist on going in zig zags to get to the destination faster, making it unnecessarily difficult to navigate), but it took a bit of time finding the actual location of the apartment.

Several minutes later, I finally find the apartment! Now I just had to find the key hidden by the host. She had told me it was in a white cabinet next to the room. At the time I was looking for the key, it was starting to get dark. In this apartment, the stairs were narrow and had very little lighting. Imagine the video game “The Evil Within”… that was the kind of vibe I was getting while searching for the key, in the dark, by myself, in a cramped staircase, with my cell phone light on. The creepy factor of this building was gradually rising and I was starting to get a bit anxious and just wanted to get into the room as fast as I could!

Having successfully found the key, I immediately unlock the door and head inside. It was very cute! The first thing you see is a small living room with the kitchen to the left. Across the entrance was an open door, which revealed the bedroom with a very inviting queen sized bed! To the right was where you would find the sink, entrance to the lavatory and the bathing/shower area.

I went to go check the bedroom out and thankfully there was a small desk where I could use my laptop. Since there was quite a bit of time before Emma and I would regroup, I decided to spend most of my day just relaxing in the Airbnb. This was my first time using Airbnb so the experience was kind of thrilling!

I also noticed there was a door that had been closed. I had wondered if it was a small closet and got curious. Discovered that it was actually a second bedroom and remembered that the listing did mention that this apartment did have two of them. The thing that made it a bit creepy was with the curtains drawn over the backdoor, it was completely dark… it eventually led to a dilemma. If I leave the door open, it would look like it’s a dark void just waiting to take in its next victim. If I closed the door, it would seem like it’s hiding something… or someone. I ended up just closing the door, trying to forget about how horror it kinda felt.

I actually took the time to take a shower in the apartment… but I was having a bit of issue trying to figure out exactly what was… normal? If that makes sense at all. The main reason why I was unsure was the fact there were some foam padding on the floor. I couldn’t tell if that was there for comfort, or for some other reason I was unaware of. Eventually I just said “forget it” and went with it. Everything went fine as long as I made sure to remember where my head was… the light to the shower room was extremely close to where the shower head was. It gave me the impression that you were supposed to shower sitting down.

Finally, it was time to go back out and meet up with Emma. Hilariously, she had taken a nap when she arrived in her room whereas I was just messing around the room, still being kind of creeped out.

When we met up, we realized we didn’t really have a set plan as to what we would do. So we just went around the shops in Akihabara and browsed for a while. There were a few things that I thought about purchasing, but decided against it as I didn’t want to carry to much back home. There were a few items I wanted to purchase later, but ended up forgetting until I got back home. One in particular was the Ryougi Shiki nendoroid at Mandarake. It was still fun though, going around all the different shops and gawking at the prices. There was one shop that was filled with all sorts of wacky, boot-leg looking figures that gave the both of us a lot of laughs!

A few hours passed and I was starting to get a little hungry. As to exactly where I wanted to go, I intentionally was being pretty picky. Seeing how I was in what would be almost any anime otaku’s dream city, I wanted to eat in a themed cafe. I thought about trying the Square Enix Cafe, but it looked like you needed a reservation for that. There was a Visual Arts x Animate cafe I had passed by, but it was already closed before I even met up with Emma. There was even a different animate cafe that seemed to have collaborated with Good Smile Company, but I was unable to make a reservation in time. Eventually I came to settle with trying out the Persona 5 themed cafe in one of the Sega buildings. I had to grab some cash from an ATM so I told Emma to go ahead of me.

I later met up with Emma at the lobby outside of where you would actually enter the cafe. Apparently before you enter the cafe, they have you make an order so they can prepare it by the time you arrived.

The menu was pretty neat! Each item was themed after a character and each item you ordered came with a free coaster. Although a small gesture, it was nice to know there was added value to whatever you ended up ordering!

What I ended up ordering was Makoto and Haru’s drink (lactic acid drink + cola jelly and tea). Emma decided on Yuusuke’s drink (lactic acid drink + soda pop jelly… seems like a redundant flavor ahaha).

Once our order was confirmed, they had us go through the door to finally enter the cafe. It almost felt like going into a different world as the environment almost totally changed once you went through the door; the walls were draped with black curtains with an escalator descending down to where the tables were set up.

When we entered, we were the only ones there except for three others. It was nice being able to practically have the entire cafe to ourselves! It allowed me to be able to take pictures comfortably without having to worry about getting in the way of others.

The coasters I obtained were of Futaba and freakin Morgana. We were there late at night as it was, so I could just hear Morgana telling me I need to go back to the apartment and sleep already. So in an act of defiance, I decided to order the Ren parfait!

The parfait was impressive! It looked really nice and was well presented! I was enjoying my time with the parfait until I started getting to the last bit of the parfait. I don’t mind jelly most of the time, but since it was a coffee flavor, it just came across as extremely bitter leaving the overall impression of the parfait to go down a bit.

It was nice though being able to just relax in that environment! A nice calming night to conclude the adventure for the day. There was some sort of game you could play through an app they had for the cafe, but I really did not want to go through the struggle of trying to understand how to play something that’s not in English. Besides, it was starting to get to that time where we should sleep. You win this time, Morgana.

Ironically, I went to the cafe thinking I’d be eating food. I didn’t really want to spend too much on the food so I only had the drinks. On my way back to the apartment, I knew I was going to regret it if I didn’t get anything extra to eat so I stopped by a convenience store to grab something quick I can microwave and eat.

The vibe the apartment building originally gave off earlier seemed to have amplified now that it was actually dark. When you go through the entrance, a light automatically comes on. You would imagine this would make you feel a little safer, however the light did the opposite for me! Now that the stairs are revealed, you find yourself going up, straying further from what seems like the safest part of the building into a darker abyss to later be fully consumed by darkness as you fumble around for the key.

I was clever enough to leave the the lobby light was on so entering the apartment room would not feel as creepy. Unfortunately the closed door still added a bit to the creepy factor essentially negating the comfort of light.

The rest of that night was spent eating the food I bought earlier and chatting the night away with Nightmaren. Even though I was getting spooked by just how dark the apartment can get at night, I was able to get myself fed and prepared enough for the next day.

June 21st, Thursday

Thank god the apartment looked much less creepy in the morning.

Today was the day the photoshoot I had booked (using the credits Airbnb gave as an apology for the Japanese Airbnb cancellations). I had enough time to check out a cafe that was suggested to me by an old friend of mine who’s visited Japan a couple times. When I had prepped myself, I left to the Shinjuku area to visit a Final Fantasy cafe called Artnia.

When I first saw the “building”, I was unsure if it was indeed the cafe. It was odd considering that it was shaped as a large pill. Even though I saw pictures of it on Google Maps, I was still in disbelief as it just came across as the weirdest looking building. Once I entered the cafe, however, I was met with a very serene environment!

From where I had entered (there were two entrances), all the Dragon Quest and Square Enix merchandise were located on the right. It was kind of sectioned off in a way where it wasn’t in a completely different area, but noticeably separated from the cafe lounge. The calming mood carried throughout the building as they played piano covers of their popular songs. I had even recognized a few of the songs.

I sat down at the bar area and made my first order of a cappuccino. Admittedly, the biggest reason was so I could get coffee with some art on it. Since I was at the bar, I was able to see that they used stencils to make the art. In addition to the cappuccino, I also ordered a chocobo pancake (it was a chocolate version). One thing that I’ve come to realize at this point is that Japan really does focus a lot on the aesthetics of their food over flavor. Perfect for taking pictures! Midway through finishing my pancakes, I made another order for a cappucino so I could get another art. When I asked if there was a specific design I could request, they informed me that they randomize the designs so it was not possible. At the very least, they ask which series you would like (Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy).

When I had finished eating my pancakes and drinking my cappuccino, I used the time I had to explore the other part of the cafe. Inside was “The Crystal”, a reoccurring legendary elemental object in the Final Fantasy franchise. The Crystal was set up beautifully with it suspended in air by wires. With it, there were cherry blossom-like petals that were also suspended in air. As if that weren’t good enough, a stream of pellet sized droplets flowed around the crystal acting as a barrier. I honestly would have never realized its significance if I had not played the trial version of FF14. It was easily clear from this display just how so many of the games from the franchise focused on the importance of crystals.

Anyway, having finished taking pictures, I decided to make a really quick stop back at the Airbnb. When I had taken a selfie in the cafe, I realized I had not shaved at all. The last thing I wanted was to look unkempt! I thankfully had enough time clean myself up meet up with the photographer in time!

Google Maps, as great as it is, doesn’t always make it easy to find where your destination should be at. Even more so at a foreign country.

The place where the photographer suggested meeting up at was near the Hachiko statue (located close to the Shibuya station). For those of you who don’t know, Hachiko’s statue is a famous spot to meet up at due to the legacy the dog is well known for. It took a little bit, but I managed to find my photographer, Stuz Photography!

Stacey, my photographer, was an absolute charm to chat with! I think it was due to having similar interests, but the back and forth we had was extremely entertaining! I recall how she had mentioned the experience being rather relieving knowing she can be totally herself. Having done a few photoshoots myself at this point, I can easily understand how liberating it would feel knowing you can easily connect with the person you’re taking photos of!

So the whole point of this particular Airbnb experience was for Stacey to:

• One, give me a bit of a tour of the places she’s familiar with.
• Secondly, provide context and a bit of history of said places.
• Lastly, and of course naturally, take pictures of you in that area!

The last few days had been really sunny so I had worried about that leaving an impact on the pictures, however today was one of the few that were actually cloudy! For those of you who don’t know why that’s actually really nice, the clouds act as a natural diffuser and spreads light around much more evenly. That way, there are no harsh shadows that would cause a much wider contrast on the face. It’s just so much easier to take photos when it’s cloudy!

First few pictures Stacey took were of me walking through the infamous Shibuya crossing! It was kind of thrilling having to wait for Stacey to get prepared and trying to act natural for the camera. Although I have an idea of what makes for a good pose and how to appear candid, I still felt odd being in front of the camera rather than behind. At the very least, Stacey seemed to have been impressed and enjoying taking pictures! Her energy and enthusiasm was definitely very contagious! So much so that when she asked me to strike a pose this time, I did the most natural one of all, THE DAB.

After taking a few pictures of the crossing myself, we took the train to go to the Harajuku station. Upon leaving the station, we crossed over to check out a small alley full of different shops and restaurants decorated with bright colors. It was interesting seeing them all in such a cramped spot! Stacey then surprised me by bringing out her polaroid camera to take a picture of me in the Harajuku alley! The reason why she did that was so clients would be able to have a physical object to carry at the very least. An interesting and clever way to add value to the experience!

It was right around this time when I discovered that another one of my Airbnb reservations had been cancelled. This time I really was surprised. I had not expected this considering the host was fairly responsive when I first sent messages to him. I was kind of frustrated knowing that I’d have to deal with this again, however I decided to forget about it until I was back in the apartment.

We eventually took a small break in a place called “Cookie Time“. The reason why easily became apparent the moment we walked in and even more so when Stacey told me why.

Everyone saw us coming in and welcomed us… IN ENGLISH! Stacey later told me that she found out about the chain and was ecstatic. She herself is originally from New Zealand and CookieTime is a chain that’s from there. Imagine her reaction when she found a piece of her home close to where she lives in Japan! The people who were working there were all very nice and I had a great time being able to actually chat with them too ahaha.

In that store, they had cookie dough that you could eat. The interesting part is they used a recipe that didn’t include eggs so you would not have to worry about getting salmonella. So I decided to go for a menu item that was called “Half and Half”, where I can get one scoop of cookie dough and one scoop of ice cream. It was kind of interesting as they both looked exactly like ice cream, but whenever I ate the cookie dough, I would be slightly surprised forgetting it wasn’t ice cream.

Once finished, we headed out to go towards the Meiji Shrine. Along the way, there was a guy just dancing away to some music he had playing while wearing a mask. Although the mask itself was a little creepy looking, the guy himself was fairly mesmerizing! He had a lot of energy and was fairly engaging to the crowd (as much as he could without actually speaking a word). As we went on, there was another street performer playing on an instrument called a hang drum. I had recalled seeing the instrument being played on an old youtube video and was fascinated to see it in person.

Just a couple steps further and you could see the giant torii gate serving as the entrance to the Meiji Shrine area. It was absolutely massive! So much so that it forced Stacey to use her wider lens just to be able to get me in a frame with the gate. It also reminded me I desperately need to get myself a wider lens…

The area that surrounded the shrine was a large forest which gave the impression that as soon as you passed through the torii gate, you were entering into a whole new world. It was also nice to be under some shade as the sun was starting to peek from time to time.

When we finally got to the actual shrine itself, Stacey suggested taking pictures of me doing the purification. Thankfully I had already taught myself the process allowing Stacey to just go ahead and take her pictures. It was still odd being in front of the camera rather than behind, but that didn’t stop us being extremely chatty. It was hilariously because of that though that we were told later to quiet down. I never imagined myself being that loud of a person, but I think the kind of energy both Stacey and I had might appear to some others as a bit more obnoxious.

Honestly, the shrine was much larger than I had imagined and it was a lot to take in at first! It was another instance of where I really wished I had a wide angle lens because I just did not have the space to be able to walk back and take a proper picture of the entire area. I definitely will have to start saving up a bit to get myself a wide angle lens. I feel like with how cramped most of Japan is, I’ll need it if I go again.

Having finished our tour around the shrine and the rest of the forest, we made our way to the Shinjuku area for our final destination: the Piss Alley. The reason why it was called that, according to Stacey, was because a long time ago, when the alley was first developed, there were no bathrooms nearby. With the alley being filled with bars serving cheap beer, many customers would often walk off to the distance to urinate the inexpensive alcohol away.

Now that I’ve been through the alley, I can easily see the appeal for some people. There were all sorts of small bars and bbqs going on. The amount of smoke coming out from the stalls were almost impressive. You could literally smell the excessive salt being used on the food as you passed by each place.

Once we had gone through the entire alley, the photoshoot tour had finally reached its conclusion! One of the things Stacey was telling me was how she had gone through “trials” with herself to see if this would indeed turn out to be 3 hours long as she had advertised in the Airbnb Experience page. I can certainly tell you that this tour was almost exactly that! I was impressed with how much thought Stacey put into this tour. If one thing is for sure, I will easily recommend Stacey for any photoshoot!

Since I did not have anything planned, I tagged along with Stacey for a little while longer to shop around Bic Camera. She needed to find more film for her polaroid camera and the shop had a wide variety. It was a little startling to find out that the store is more of a electronics store than it is a camera store. The name was extremely misleading! Certainly explains why the other Bic Camera stores I’ve seen always appeared to be quite large.

Finally, it was time for us to part ways and go our separate paths. I was glad to have gotten Stacey as my photographer. I felt like I got more than just a nice tour and pictures. I definitely got to experience how it should feel like to be a client with a photographer. While I’ve always been confident in my ability to socialize with others well, I think this was able to give me a whole new perspective to think about.

I guess I was thinking about that too much as, according to my notes, I had gotten lost. I actually don’t remember this bit, but it probably wasn’t that big of a deal. Pretty sure it just meant that I had to walk a little longer than usual to get back to the Airbnb with creepy vibes. Before I actually got back though, I made a stop to the convenience store to grab myself dinner and a package of instant ramen. Figured if I have a kitchen to work with, might as well use it.

This time around, I spent some time messing around with the nendoroids and took a few pictures of them. It was about time that I actually took them out to do a few more pictures. While I was doing this, I was chatting away with Nightmaren. This time it helped to chat so both of us could figure out what to do on Saturday (that would be the first day Nightmaren would be available after arriving). Of course, while I’m chatting away, I’m taking pictures of my nendoroids and heating up the convenience store bought food. Knowing how my life is like, you would think something tragic would happen. Luckily nothing did. Instead, I just got further creeped out by the apartment. I even showed Nightmaren how the apartment looked before you turn off the lights and especially after.

Having thoroughly spooked myself again, I head to sleep realizing shortly before entering rem sleep that I actually don’t have much planned for the next day…

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