Osaka, day 1! - and a little bit of Yoyogi Park on a Sunday

Again I'm a week late with my blog. Oh well. I'll never get good at blogging :( 

From Monday to Wednesday (Thursday morning if counting our overnight bus ride home), Pernille and I were on a little trip to osaka. 

Though I will have to start this blog, with what happened Sunday. So, Sunday Pernille was out so I decided to go for a walk through Yoyogi Park, which is located more or less in the center of Tokyo, and right outside my front door! (Sch, we can all do a bit of boasting sometimes ;D).

I had only once previously been in the park and not on a weekend, so seeing it completely packed with people was a bit of a surprise. But a pleasant one. Everywhere people were having fun and enjoying life. 

There were people dancing, singing, playing instruments, games, eating and even a guy practicing stepping. 

But my favorite things would have to be the japanese rockabilly dudes that were dancing, looked like it was taken straight out of a japanese grease :'D and the four boys that looked like they were from a boy band, who were posing for a photographer. :'D

I found out after a while that there was a Laos festival too. So the parking lot close to the park was filled with great food! Nomnom, had homemade papaya ice cream! Mhmmm.

Oh, it makes me smile just thinking about that park that day. There's no way anyone could be in a bad mood, after walking through the place! 

After a while I walked back to Harajuku and went to a cafe. At the cafe I met a random Swedish guy and we started talking for a bit. Turned out he was in Tokyo for a business trip for a week, but didn't know anyone there, so he hadn't really bin out, so we went for a beer. That one beer turned into quite a few more and 2 bottles of sake, before going to another bar and eventually ending up at a karaoke place for 4 hours, with all you can drink. This was my first time drunk in japan so far. I didn't think it was possible :O seriously, all the alcohol here is so weak, it's like water... Or soda. But I guess anything is possible, when you haven't had dinner, or actually anything to eat that day. Oh well. 

I ended up being home at 4am... Which was probably the worst idea EVER!!!

Why??

Because Pernille and I had to get up at 5am, pack our stuff and be at the airport at 7am, to catch out flight to Osaka. 

I was sooo unbelievably drunk when I woke up after my 1 hour of sleep. But I managed to throw some shit in my bag and leave the apartment in time. 

While riding the subway I suddenly had an urge to throw up, so I managed to squeeze through some businessmen, out the door, and ran to the end of the platform before I through everything I had eaten the night before up (the Swedish dude and I had eaten ramen after our karaoke trip). Ew :( I never thought I would have to throw up in tokyo... And especially not at such a public place, in the morning :( bah.

Oh well, throwing up definitely helped me though :D. 

We eventually made it to Osaka, and found our hostel. It was located pretty centrally, but in a really poor neighborhood. This was the first time I had really seen the bad side of japan. It was such a dirty place and filled with slightly mentally sick people and just really really poor people :( 

We went for a walk around the place, but everything was closed down. It basically looked like it once had been an "in" place, but was now abandoned. It was really kind of scary and sad :( 

Even the 100 yen shop looked worn down, with it's missing "1" and yen sign...

After strolling around for an hour or so, we decided to go into Namba, which is the central part of Osaka. Luckily at this time I was feeling much better. I was a bit hungover, but nothing too bad, I was just super tired. 

In Namba we found a great shopping district, though while we were there, it started poring down. But luckily (and for some strange reason), the whole shopping district was under a roof. Woohoo, shopping in the rain <3 ;D

After a few hours we went home to try to get some sleep, before getting up early the next day for Universal Studios, which it be fair was the main reason we went to Osaka :D

The first day in osaka wasn't too exciting, not as exciting as the following two days at least. Tomorrow I think, I'll write at least one blog, on our Universal Studios experience, so check back for that. And for the last blog, I'll tell about my first Host Club experience! ;D 

Subway madness

I had my first "completely squashed in the japanese metro" moment today.

Was midnight and taking the subway home from Shibuya st. It was completely madness. 

I have never seen SO MANY PEOPLE in such a small space before. People everywhere. DRUNK people everywhere :'D

Was fun though. Except that a guy tried to sneak a hand a bit too close. Bah

Dunno if you can even get a sense of how squashed we were in these pictures:

And trying to get through Shunjuku st.

Sorry for the extreme derby facial expressions ;D

Karaoke, themed restaurant and Host Club scouting

So, this blog will be about 3 things:

1: my first karaoke experience

2: my first themed restaurant experience

3: Host Club scouting

;D 

(Oh, and all pictures will be crappy iPhone quality pics)

So, first of all my friend Pernille finally arrived (though at this time it's almost a week since she arrived, bah I'm so lazy), so it's time to experience some other things. 

1: KARAOKE

So the other evening we were talking around the Shibuya area, when Pernille got the idea that we should go karaokeing. Now, I am an unbelievably bad singer... I SERIOUSLY couldn't hit a proper tone if my life depended on it, and despite normally not being very shy, I am quite shy about letting other people (except my family) hear me sing, but I thought I might as well give it a shot, since we only were two. 

So she took us to one of her favorite karaoke places (from last time she was here), we payed 2400yen each for 2 hours (which probably was muuuch more than we should have, but we're foreigners =.='), but it was with all you can drink incl. (Though it is literally impossible to get drunk in japan, it seems).

We then went to our tiny room, ordered a couple of strawberry mojitos (omnomnom) and started making a list of songs. Ofc starting our with Let It Go from Frozen ('cause that's such a simple song. Duh ;D). I really thought I wouldn't do much singing, but we barely reached the course before I was singing my lungs out...!

OH MY GOD, karaoke is so much fun.m

So for the following two hours, we were pouring strawberry mojitos down and singing everything from Nirvana, Beatles and ABBA to Disney, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and One Direction. 

SO MUCH FUN!!! 

It's like all the shyness and the self awareness just vanishes within minutes, 'cause ofc karaokeing isn't about singing well, it's just about having fun with your friends! ;D

2: THEMED RESTAURANT

Today I had my first themed restaurant experience. We decided we wanted to do something different for dinner and try out a themed restaurant. There are quite a few of them here in a Tokyo apparently. So after a quick google search, we decided to go to an Alice In Wonderland themed restaurant in the Shinjuku area, since none of us had really spent too much time in that area. This particular restaurant is called Alice of Magic World. 

I must be honest, finding it was a freaking BITCH!!! We spent such a long time walking around looking for it. We knew the general direction, but had a hard time finding an actual address. So finally we walked into a random hotel and asked if they knew where the restaurant was. Luckily they did!! Woohoo! 

Ofc it was located in the basement of a shopping mall (which didn't look like a mall from the outside).

The entrance to the restaurant was SO cool. The door looked like a huge book, that slid to one side when approached.

When we arrived the waiter (or what ever he was), was on the phone (for quite a long time), yakking to someone who wanted to reserve a table, but he pointed at some chairs, so we took a seat and waited for him to finish up. He was really pretty nicely dressed, with a vest and a top hat (that had a playing card stuck to it), kind of madhatter'ish but without the craziness. 

After about 10 minutes of waiting we were shown to our table. Some of the tables were in small booths that looked like the maze in AiW. You can kinda see it in the picture. Our table was in the main part of the restaurant. The whole restaurant was really nicely decorated. They had really done a great job and paid a lot of attention to every little detail. Even the lighting in the restaurant was nice. In the background they kept playing songs from Disney movies, though not too loudly. Actually, the whole atmosphere in there was really comfortable. 

A girl dressed in an Alice dress came over with the menu and brought us some an appetizer. 

This is the menu. Wow!:

Anyway, it was apparently an Italian restaurant, so I ordered some pasta with tomato sauce and shrimp, and Pernille ordered some chicken and vegetables in cream. Don't worry, it tasted better and more interesting than it sounds ;D 

Ofc all the food and drinks are called something Alice inspired ;D so cute!

For dessert we both ordered chocolate cake. OMG IT WAS SO CUUUUUTE!!!

So, I must say my first themed restaurant experience was a success. Despite how hard it was to find the restaurant, it really was worth it!!!

KANPAI!!! 

3: HOST CLUB SCOUTING

So, the last thing I wanted to write about in this blog, was what we did after eating at the Alice in Wonderland restaurant; scouting for Host Clubs. 

Going to a Host Club is one of the things on my to-do list while here. It's completely unique to japan, and seriously is soooo far from anything I've ever tried before. 

For those of you who don't know what a host club is, its basically a club where you pay a guy to pretend he's your boyfriend for an hour or two. In the price a bit of alcohol is included, so you drink and talk, and it's his job to compliment you and make you feel comfortable. There is no physical contact and nothing sexual (though you could probably do it if you want. Lol). 

Ofc everything is absolutely fake, but as long as you know that, it should be okay ;D.

So since we already were in the Shinjuku area (which is where the largest Host Club district is located), we thought we might as well go for a walk and get a feeling for it, before we try it ourselves. Especially because we are both kinda nasty and quite unattractive looking today ;D. 

Turning into the area called Kabukicho, the first thing that meets your eye is: PICTURES OF GUYS/HOSTS EVERYWHERE. Seriously, you can't look anywhere without looking at a picture of a guy. All with great hair ofc ;D. Wow, that was so weird and kinda unexpected too. 

Walking around the district you see quite a lot of the guys standing outside the Clubs too. 

I rarely feel awkward, but I must say I did feel a bit awkward walking around, because even though we didn't get approached, everyone knows what's going on. It's really not a secret.  So happy we were two. :'D 

After walking around for about 20 minutes we decided to go home. It was a bit awkward since we ofc weren't going to a club today. 

If we had been japanese women we probably would have been approached, but we'll probably have to do a bit of research on how to get in. 

Anyway, I can't wait! Again, it's soooo far from anything I've ever tried before which is why I really want to go!!! 

Asakusa; temples, sharks and a giant golden radish!

So, it's been waaaay too long since I last wrote a blog. So much has happened since! 

Here's a (kinda) long blog on my Saturday last week. I thought about writing a bunch of what's happened since then, but then the blog would be waaaaay to long. So... That's for a (near) future blog too ;D

These japanese rickshaws were everywhere and a guy really tried to convince me I should try it, but I'm waaaay to shy (and maybe a bit too self aware) to do that!

A few days after I went to Shibuya (my last blog), I went to a part of Tokyo called Asakusa, which is more the "traditional japan". It's got so e beautiful temples and the whole place had a different feel to it. Ofc, it was also completely packed with people, since it was a Saturday and the weather was amazing.

When I first got there I went to see the Sensō-ji temple. As you can see in the pictures, I couldn't really walk around and enjoy the view on my own, since it was absolutely packed, but it still got a few nice pictures, and I got to see part of a ceremony, though only from a distance. 

After spending about half an hour at the temple, I tried to get lost around Asakusa. When lost is always when you see the most fun and unexpected things and even though I never really got lost (apparently it's just not possible for me in Tokyo), I did get to see some beautiful little streets... Or what ever I'm supposed to call them, not really sure street is the right word :'D

Decided to walk down to the water after that and went for a spontaneous water cruise. Water cruises are SO underrated. Even if they're a really touristy thing to do, you really get to see a lot of the city, and from a different view than you normally would. It took 90 minutes and was a bit pricy, but worth the money. Especially since I sat with some Americans and we talked about what we had experienced so far. They were some of the first strangers I really got to talk to! Woohoo :'D

Ofc, it's jnit just the water cruise that's interesting by the water, there's some artsy-fartsy giant golden radish-looking thing (some people have other ideas if what it looks like ;D), which I'm still not completely sure what is, though I think it has something to do with art... Or beer! - like I said, I don't really know. But then again, I haven't actually really looked into it. 

Anyway, here it is, with Tokyo Sky Tree in the background too, which was the next thing I visited:

Like I wrote, Tokyo Sky Tree was the next thing I visited. Tokyo Sky Tree is a tower which is mainly used as an observation tower, broadcasting and has a few restaurants... And it's supposed to have a great view of Tokyo ;D. With its 634m it's the tallest tower, but the second tallest structure, in the world. So ofc I warned to check it out for myself ;D and you can probably understand. Haha

Anyway. When I got there, I had again forgotten that it was Saturday, so with a line that would probably have taken me a few hours to get through, I desided to skip it and do it some other day. Instead I found an aquarium which was also located in the tower, but farther down. 

Woohoo, more spontaneous stuff!

The aquarium turned out to be super cool. It was quite small but was probably the most beautiful aquarium I have ever been in. 

It was sepparated into 7 (if I remember currently) different rooms. The first one just had small ranks (kinda the size of what you would have at home... If you had a big home ;D). But where really well decorated, and set up so that they were super eco-friendly and didn't need much maintenance since they basically took care of them selves. 

Coooool!!! Or rather SUGOI!!! Haha :'D 

Farther in there was a room with jellyfish. More different jellyfish than I have ever seen before. Some of them no more than a few mm vide. So cute! - if you can call a jellyfish cute... I'm not really sure :'D

Anyway, was

What came after was the really cool part; an AQUA LAB!!!!!!!

I mean seriously. How many aquariums do you know, that have a freaking aqua lab. Soooo cool!!!! 

Yay. If it wasn't for all the people. I would have tried to get a better picture, but it was hard to get one, that didn't have too many random people in it. *insert sad face*

The rest of the aquarium had different kinds of fish ranks (obviously), a pretty big tank with penguins and (yayay) SHARKS!!!!! Though unfortunately not very many :( but at least I got to see two different types <3

So happy I went there, and generally just had a great day in Asakusa!

To end the night, I took part in a local Shinto Festival, where I met some really nice Jaoanese girls. But I'll write a blog on that alone later on!!!!

Shibuya 109 - first real wtf japan moment

First of all, I'm gonna apologize, my pictures in this blog will be sorta crap! 

Oh, and I might swear a bit too. ;D but... What the fuck!

Anyway, yesterday it decided to stroll 'round Shibuya. I was there at 11'ish, so there weren't tons of people. But I decided to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks and go sit by the window, so I could have a good view of the famous Shibuya crossing. Even at this time, it was crazy seeing so many people cross at the same time; they looked like small ants! 

I then went inside Shibuya 109, which I had read was a 7 story shopping center aimed for women 25 and under. But I must say, I hadn't really expected what I saw. 

As I said, this was my first real "what the fuck, japan!?" moment. The reason? 

Well...

The ground floor of Shibuya 109 has some pretty expensive shops, as far as I could see, and some pretty boring clothes, so I went up one floor without having a look at the shops. 

The place is filled with a bunch of small shops. Each shop selling super small clothes. I mean, I'm not small, but in sure as hell am not big either, and there's no way in hell I'd be able to fit ANY of that clothes... I guess it really was for small Asian girls (not sure women would really wear any of it, lol) after all :(

But anyway, what surprised me the most, were the girls working there. Every girl was dressed and makedup (dunno if that's even a word, lol. Made up?!?!?) to look like they were 16 tops, and they were barely wearing anything. I guess it's said that sex sells - just wondering why, at a shopping center aimed for women.

I was a bad girl and snuck some pictures of the people working there

I mean seriously, what the fuck?!?!?!?

Besides that, the workers there were crazy. At one shop, a women literally pulled me in the shop, stuck some clothes in my hand, almost started screaming "SO KAWAII" "perfect", put some other shit in my hand, pointed at my sunglasses on my head, screamed "omg, soooo kawaii. SO CUTE!" (Again, wtf?!?), and tried to show me more stuff, before I finally escaped after telling her I wasn't going to buy anything... 

Bah, a bit too much. 

But the clothes was cool :D

Actually, to be honest, most of the clothes there was really cute and cool. I wish I had tons of money to go On a shopping spree. But unfortunately, if I want to travel for a whole, I don't :(

Yes, as far as I can see, the shop on the left, is called Titty & co. - again, wtf?!

Ofc, there was some (in my opinion) ridiculous stuff too:

Seriously... I can't stand Hello Kitty >.<'

Soooo pink and fluffy.. Lol

Well, when I finally reached the top floor, I was super hungry. Luckily there was a restaurant there, that served pasta. I ordered a 3-course lunch (was 1000yen), and had a view of Shibuya and the crossing from 7th floor. Not bad! - especially not, when the pasta, which was the main course, was some of the best pasta I've ever had eating out, and the dessert was a banana tiramisu with vanilla and chocolate ice cream.. Omnomnom, my mouth waters from thinking about it!

Nomnomnom <3

Well, that was that for today! 

Oh, just another small, but in my opinion, funny thing;

I got a worker from Microsoft to look up and show me where the nearest Apple store was. 

Tihihi. *giggles* ;D

Weird emotions and sushi-noobiness!

Today has been such a weird day! 

Couldn't sleep last night before 5am, which ofc meant I first woke up today at 2pm. Bah, already half the day GONE! Urgh.

I woke up and felt really down. Was so annoyed with my self that I was feeling down, especially since I didn't know why. It took ages for me to get out of my bed, so it was 5pm before I finally was out of the door, ready for my morning coffee. >.<'

The weather was really windy and gray, and apparently there had been an earthquake... Or so I'm told - I was sleeping! ;D

Took the train to Akihabara, though wasn't too sure that was where I wanted to be, when not feeling at my best. Akihabara was crazy. But again, a good crazy. Only saw about two streets, but loved what I saw! Though I'll do a longer blog at some other time on Akihabara, probably after spending some more time there! 

Seeing Akihabara definitely put me in a better mood, but was still not feeling right. I still had no idea why. 

After walking around for a few hours taking pictures, I decided to go to a sushi place. A sushi-go-round place (loving that expression). :'D

After sitting down, I realized I had no idea how to start. Meaning where we're the chopsticks, what was I supposed to drink, what sushi was good, etc.

After a few seconds (of probably looking super confused), the guy next to me kind of pointed to where the chopsticks and the cups were... Which ofc was right in front of me, but a bit hidden. He then proceeded to gently push the green tea powder over to me, though while looking the other direction, as if he didn't want to be too obvious helping me. I was such a Tokyo-sushi-noob! 

I took my first bite of a great looking sushi piece, but first too late realized it was smeared in wasabi, though under the fish. My mouth was burning! Out of the corner of my eye I could see the guy trying to hide a smile. 

After a few minutes he started talking to me..... In japanese. I understood that he was telling me, that if could order sushi without wasabi, but I didn't want to seem too noob'ish, so I said "nono, sushi good, wasabi ok!" Or that was at least what I said in the third try, after figuring out his English was just about as good as my japanese! :'D

The rest of the meal we kept trying to communicate in English/japanese (much to the amusement of the people sitting next to me). Not sure any of us reeeeally understood each other, but who cares! All good all good.

I left the place, and decided to head home. I found myself smiling a bit and generally feeling much lighter (not physically obviously, since I was stuffed with raw fish and rice). I realized that the reason I had been feeling down, was most likely because I had spent 3 days without talking to a soul.

I've always preferred being alone in stead if surrounded by people. But I must say, not being able to talk to anyone makes you really really lonely. Something I've never really tried before, since I've at least always got my mom at home to talk to...

Anyway, this is the end of a weird weird day, and this is my last night at this hotel. 

Tomorrow and the day after, I'll be spending at my host's places that'll be fun and different! :'D

First impressions!

So, as my second day is about to come to an end (it is currently midnight), I shall write my thoughts about japan so far!

The flight coming over from Heathrow couldn't have been better. I doubt the plane was 1/3 full, so had three seats by the window for my self, unfortunately I didn't get to sleep much. Only about 2 hours, which ofc was when they served dinner, so was starving for the next 10 hours ><'

Getting the subway from Haneda airport to my hotel, was a bit harder than I first thought it would be. 

First of all, basically everything was in japanese and figuring out what ticket to get + figuring out what trains to take with the ticket I had bought took some time. But despite not talking very good English (if any at all) people were really friendly and helpful. 

Though when I finally got off at the right station, finding the hotel was the real struggle. It wasn't really located where the map said it was. 

I guy asked me if I needed some help, and ended up taking me to my hotel, even carrying one of my heavy bags. He ended up telling me him and his wife would love to take me out for dinner one of the days.

Omg, japanese people are the most friendly people ever!!!! 

First day was more or less spent sleeping, when I finally got to check in (3pm), hadn't slept for over 27 hours (and hadn't showered for the same... Mhm, so.... Smelly! ;D)

Day 2 started quite early (6:30am), played a bit in Pokemon on my 3DS before finally getting out of bed an hour later :'D. Went down to my local cafe (if there is such a thing, lol). Took the train to Harajuku afterwards, though got there too early since everything was closed. Apparently it first opened at 11am... I hadn't really realized it was Sunday :D

Had a mango smoothie from StarBucks. Nomnom!!!

Walked around Harajuku and suddenly the place was completely PACKED with people. Apparently it's Golden Week, so everyone (almost at least) is off... I've never seen so many people in such a small place before! Was absolutely insane. Especially when still as tired as I was! 

Here's a picture I took, not sure you can quite sense how packet it actually was!

Tried to find a place to buy a pre-paid data SIM card for my ipad or a pocket wifi thingy... No luck :( 

Anyway, that just about sums up my trip so far. Still soooo freaking tired. Hopefully I'll be more fresh tomorrow!

Oh, and I had my first real japanese meal today. Here's a picture from halfway through it ;D

Omnomnomnom!!!!!!!

Anyway, a quick list of my first impression of Tokyo:

- never have I seen such well dressed men!

- the women too

- Asian men have the BEST hair ever... They just really know how to style it

- japanese women have great socks

- everyone is so friendly

- the food is great

.... I love this place! 

Now I'm off to bed...nightly night <3