New Year’s Lucky Bags!

So yesterday (since I was too lazy to post yesterday and I am posting today.) we went shopping for fukubukuro, which is a “lucky bag” that they sell on newyears. They’re like grab bags! I think they do those at the Hello Kitty store in the U.S.

I couldn’t figure out what time places opened (Indio store, in particular) so we decided to leave for Shibuya at 9:30. Well we got to Shibuya and it totally was not crowded at all, and that’s because most of the stores weren’t even open yet. Shibuya 109 is closed on New Year’s too. We went to the Indio store and it was CLOSED so we decided to check back every half hour to see when it would open.

The ABC Mart shoe store was open so we browsed through there. My feet are unusually small even for Japanese people I think because they mostly had M/L shoes and I’m size S. We finally figured out that some shoes on the shelves were sold as-is (like, they weren’t display. you could buy those) so I bought some boots that were on sale for under $30. They’re very cute :] We managed to talk half Japanese/half English to the girl working there

Thenn we wandered back to Indio store. Still closed. We walked up the street and down the street and all around the street. I wanted to find this store called Dai Chu so we looked for that. We found a longgg line of people waiting to get into Parco Department store (not quite as long as Johnnys line!). We finally circled around twice and found Dai Chu but there was a small sign saying they were closed on Jan. 1st :[

Thenn we did more circling, wandered through a few arcades (won NOTHING!), kept checking the Indio store, then I remembered that there's another location in front of Shibuya 109 so we checked that and there was a small sign saying that they'd open at noon.

I was curious about the Bic Camera fukubukuros so I looked and they have like bags for digital cameras + memory cards ($90) and netbooks and TVs and tons of stuff

We stopped at a SEGA arcade and then my money got stuck in a capsule toy machine so I had to ask the guy to get it out for me T_T My Japanese was pretty fail. "Sumimasen, eigo ga wakarimasuka? (excuse me, do you understand English?)" "Iie (no)" "eeto, coin ga, coin ga, uhhh stuck? (uhh my coin got uhhh stuck?)" and he was like "oohhhh" and he got his keys and helped me he couldn't get the coins out so he just let me pick two toys since I told him I had 200 yen stuck in there

There was a crepe place there and I was STARVING so I got a strawberry jam cake crepe and shared it with Mom :]

We wandered around some more anddd eventually the Indio store opened. I got a pink Indio by RUSS-K grab bag for 5250 yen. It had two long-sleeved shirts, a down jacket, a blanket of some sort, a vest, and a hat :] One of the long-sleeved shirts (which is long like a dress) has a picture of a girl on it D: maybe I can wear a sweater over it haha.

Uhh so then we wandered back to the station and took the Yamanote Line to Harajuku. For some reason (maybe crowd control?) the trains in the clockwise direction dropped us off on the other side of the platform and directed us through a temporary exit and into the park-type area. We wandered around and tried to find kiddy land but we got kind of turned around and we eventually found it. There’s a bunch of people who set up booths along one of the roads so it was really crowded. Luckily they blocked off a lane so we could wander through that street.

At Kiddy Land I just shopped on the first floor and got gifts for friends and a 2010 PANDA diary for myself :]

Thenn we wandered down Takeshita Dori (the main shopping street) and it was crowded like crazy. I stopped by Liz Lisa/Tralala and wanted a grab bag but decided to go to the Mighty Soxer store first.

Mighty Soxer is at the complete OPPOSITE end of Takeshita Dori -_- there I bought $50 worth of socks and Mom said I can’t go back to get the other grab bag

Thenn we navigated out and I was like WAIT I need to find that one store where I can get another photo album (for Johnnys photos) and a ticket holder! Right when I said that Lisa called so I asked her how to get there. Then for some reason I thought I was going in the wrong direction so I turned around then after walking for a bit I was like WAIT NO I was actually initially going in the right direction so we turned around. For the record (so I can read this again and remember), the shop is on the same street as the Johnnys shop, past soft bank, on a side street. OK!

I went and bought photo albums and a ticket holder :]

Thenn we returned to Shinagawa and I called Lisa and she met us at our room. I gave her all the goods I bought for her :] And then we ate at T.G.I. Fridays because we were all STARVING.

There were these two Caucasian ladies there with two small girls who were climbing over EVERYTHING. And they were playing with the placemats all over the place o_o And they were there for like 2 hours because we saw them when we were walking to the hotel.

Anywayy Mom and I had yakitori :] It was like bell peppers and chicken and gigantic onion/leek type things over a really yummy rice. For dessert Lisa and I split a sundae (it was huge D:!)

Uhh then we said bye to Lisa and returned to the hotel for the day. We stopped at a bakery and bought some curry buns and chocolate danish for evening snack / breakfast.

Back at the room I tried on clothes and packed. TOKIO Dream Challenge was on TV at around 6 so we watched that. It was rather amusing…trying to make good Japanese confections that look like family restaurant-style menus, riding a trick bike, speed jump-roping, scooping up goldfish, etc. They had revenge for Johnnys soccer team vs. the national champ women’s soccer team. The Johnnys team had Nagase, Kokubun, Sakurai Sho, Tegoshi, and Murakami. When they went to go recruit Sho they caught Arashi after the filming of Arashi no Shukudai-kun and Nino was like “Akemashite Omedetou! ^_^” (happy new year!) haha.

The Johnnys team did pretty well. They went into sudden death overtime and the women scored one :[ so the Johnnys team lost. The women said they've improved though so they'd get another chance.

Soo after TOKIO Dream Challenge was "Hajimete no O-tsukai" which is like "My First Errand" which features little 3~5 year-old kids who go on their first errands. It's the BEST SHOW ever!

First they had a very easy one in which the girl had to go across the street to go get umeboshi (plums) for her mom and get cake since it's her mom's birthday. She got the right umeboshi, but she got strawberry shortcake instead of a diff cake (called cabbage because it's a cream puff w/ matcha powder). She returned to her mom was like "isn't this the cake YOU like?" (because it's the mom's birthday) and the girl was like "yup! ^_^"

Thenn there was a really really sad one. I started crying. This boy had to take fish to the store to get it cut up into sashimi (his dad's a fisherman) but the boy doesn't like fish at ALL. He was carrying it down the hill and then the string for the box broke and the fish was all over the place and he had a real hard time picking it up because fish is so disgusting. There was a cat roaming around so he couldn't leave it there to get help. He eventually picked it up with sticks but he kept wiping off his hands on other things to get the fish out. He was crying too :[ He got an old guy who was nearby to retie the string for him

Along the way he stopped and got a dandelion flower. But thennn the box broke AGAIN and he finally abandoned the string and carried the box. He got it to the sashimi people and they cut it up but he started crying from watching it :[ he had to go to the market and get some apples and stuff so he got those, and he had to get baby milk for his sibling but he got two huge ones instead of one small one like  he was supposed to. And then  he was walking back uphill to his house, and the apples rolled down the hill! He had to run down and get them and they were in the dirt and he was all like T_T and trying to clean them off and ahh it was so sad. Then he was tired so he put down the bags AGAIN and the'n they rolled down the hill AGAIN. A nice man got them this time.

That kid couldn't catch a break. I was like bawling by the time that segment was over. Ohh but then he came home and he said "I got a present for you mommy" and he gave her a drink he bought at the vending machine. Then he said "I got another present for you" and it was the dandelion. AWWWWWW!

Uhh there were other segments w/ like a girl who had to run errands while her dad was jogging a short marathon and the store was closed so she was like D: what do I do!? But the lady opened the store for her.

There was a little boy w/ a 22 yr-old mom who had to take the bus to run his errand and each time he got on he went to the bus driver and asked "DOES THIS GO TO ___?" to make sure he was on the right bus :] the mom was crying when he was gone.

There were also two twins who had to go run separate errands on the same path but they were helping each other out. The little boy couldn’t carry all the bbq charcoal so the sister encouraged him lots :]

Thenn I think the other two…one was this boy who had to wait in line for some fish stuff but they sold out so he didn’t know what to do but they brought in more fish so he was okay. There was another little girl who had to run some errands including putting a hat on an ojizou-san (statue) and getting cabbage/onions from her grandma’s shed. Instead of going to the shed she went to the field and picked a HUGE cabbage and lugged it home.

Oh yeah and there’s one where this little boy had to go to his brother’s school/study place and take him a bookbag. So he went all by himself and when he called his brother’s name, he was like “[insertnamehere]! Gohan yo!” (Food!!) because that’s all he heard his mom say. So cute! :]

I love Hajimete no o-tsukai :]

Countdown Uchiwas and Namja Town

BTW I updated yesterday’s post with pictures.

This morning we woke up around 8:30-ish. We were planning on going to the bakery at 9, getting breakfast, then going to Namja Town at 11 or so to go eat.

Well, uh, I kind of messed up our plans I looked online to see when the Johnny’s Countdown uchiwas would begin selling (usually around 6pm-ish) but this year they started selling at 8:30am! So of course I wanted to go I dragged Mom to Tokyo Dome and we got there around 10:15ish. We got in line near the 1st base side. The line took 2 hours – it wrapped around the dome, turned back around, had a couple of switchbacks, and then finally made it all the way to gate 25 (outfield third base side). It was prettty cold. The wind was cold D: Mom was NOT happy to be standing in a line for 2 hours but she couldn’t let me go by myself to Tokyo Dome (understandable).  It seems like they only had one Countdown goods line today. They converted the main KinKi Kids line to half KinKi/half Countdown (so you could get both by standing in one line) and the back KinKi line was converted to Countdown. Interesting.

Soo I got myself the Arashi (<3), NEWS, KAT-TUN, and KinKI Kids uchiwas. I got Lisa one each (the aforementioned ones and V6, Tackey and Tsubasa, and TOKIO) and Haruka an Arashi one. They’re really pretty – the side w/ faces is silver and they’re in black, and the backside is all sparkly in different colors.

Sooo after that ordeal we were done by like 1-ish (which was my established limit for getting OUT of the line if it was too long. I swear through most of the line we had no clue where the end was ><), we took the Yamanote Line to Ikebukuro to go get some GYOZA! We’ve never been on the upper half of the Yamanote Line before!

We made it to Ikebukuro and somehow navigated to the East Exit. We went straight down the street and turned at Tokyu Hands and found Sunshine 60 which has Namja Town in it. Namja Town is on the 2nd floor. It costs 300 admission for adults.

Namja Town was very…interesting. It’s like a theme park with tons of food. Its mascot is a cat thing, too. Very interesting…nothing like I’ve seen before o_o.

Soo we found Gyoza Stadium, which has a TON of gyoza places with lots and lots and lots of regional gyoza. I think I had sensory overload or something. We finally found a small table and put our stuff down and ordered gyoza from 3 different places.

First, we got miso butter gyoza from one place. It was really really good. Unfortunately we’ve found that gyoza takes like a good 5~10 min to make D:

Then, we got some sort of cheese gyoza with Iberian pork (Spanish pork?). We also got ginger ale with that The lady there spoke English for me I accidentally only got three gyoza though :[

---- NYC Boys have glow in the dark outfits w/ Kouhaku HAHA and NYC belts ----

Uhh then for our third gyoza we got kurobuta (black pork) and fried rice. The fried rice was super good - it reminded me of Mom's :] I kind of misunderstood what the lady said so somehow I ended up with an extra coke but I drank it anyway.

Soo after we ate all the gyoza we went to dessert republic. We got “okashi no ie” (sweets house) which was VERY cute. It’s like a strawberry shortcake that looks like a house. We also got chocolate mont blanc (?). They were very good :]

We wandered around a bit through the arcades and stuff. We played a game of taiko Our songs were Kiseki by Greeeen and Niji by Aqua Timez :] Thenn we went to the ice cream place and looked around but we didn’t buy anything. They had regional ice cream like crab ice cream from Hokkaido and wakame (seaweed) ice cream D:

Thenn we wandered out and we stopped at Loft (since Namja Town is in like a mall). I bought pencils for a friend who requested like $100 worth of pencils.

After that we walked to Tokyu Hands and I got pencils/pens/etc. for myself and a bead kit (parfait) and a little folder and yeah.

After Tokyu Hands we went back to Ikebukuro and went back to Shinagawa By the way, today we went ALL THE WAY around the Yamanote Line counter-clockwise. Amazing! At Shinagawa we bought Mom’s Suica card. Oh and they had this big bowl of noodles and inside was a stuffed fox x] I started cracking up when I looked inside. There was also a poster and inflated helicopter for Code Blue 2 (w/ Yamapi) so I took a picture of that too. I also took a picture of Nino w/ the Super Mario Bros Wii ad !

Uhh we went to ecute to look for something to take home and eat but didn’t see anything good so we went to Queens Isetan and finally found some dessert…I got a mango pudding and Mom got tiramisu pudding.

At the moment we’re watching Kouhaku :] NYC Boys wore glow in the dark/light up outfits and NYC belts. They sang Yuuki100%! I’m so happy :] I liked EXILE too and yeah At 11 we’re switching to Fuji TV to watch Johnnys Countdown. I’m going to wave those 4 uchiwas I waited in line 2 hours for

P.S. If you’re reading this, PLEASE COMMENT! D:

KinKi Kids Concert

Today was mostly filled with things associated with the KinKi Kids concert at Tokyo Dome :]

We had a later start today – we left around 9:30. Before then I was finishing math homework and we ate a maple melon bun for breakfast.

We took the Yamanote Line to Akihabara, then transferred to the Sobu line and took it to Suidobashi to get to Tokyo Dome. I waited in the goods line while Mom shopped/wandered around/waved at me. The goods line took almost 2 hours. I stood in it all by myself D:. Luckily I was standing behind a girl wearing a red hat and a red coat so Mom was able to spot me really easily.

Uhh while I was in the goods line I just listened to my iPod. I bought goods for myself, Haruka, Lisa, and Lisa’s friend Susie so I had lotssss of goods to buy! I bought six cellphone straps (even though the limit is 4. I went two different people). For myself, I bought a pamphlet, uchiwa, photos, and cellphone strap (2 so I could use one and keep one nice).

I had gotten into the line around 9:45 and I got out close to noon. When I was buying things my hands were freeeeezing! I met Mom in front of the baseball store and we went to the LaQua shopping mall to look around. Mom told me she had already bought the Rookies DVD for Dad. We went to the fourth floor and looked at the ABC Mart shoe store, but I didn’t see anything I liked and the goods I had bought were getting very very heavy/bulky so I wasn’t having a very good time with that. We went to UniQlo – which basically is like a shop with a ton of basics and stuff like that…like they’ll sell t-shirts or sweatshirts in 10 diff solid colors. I guess the closest thing to it is maybe like an Old Navy? Except Uniqlo is better of course :] We bought some sweatshirt/hoodies and I got a top and some leggings. Thenn we went to the bookstore where Mom had bought Rookies and I bought some magazines since they’re half the price of what I’d pay in California (import costs!). When I went to pay the lady asked me some question I didn’t know so I said “Eigo? (English?)” and then she was kind of like “nevermind” and I said sorry and she said “it’s okay.” I told Mom and she said that the lady said the same thing to her and that’s why she wanted me to pay this time

Soo after that I was getting exhausted from all my stuff so I suggested that we get some food. We wandered around and most of the places were full (did I mention that Tokyo Dome City was already pretty crowded?) so we decided to go eat in Shinagawa. We took the train back to Shinagawa and stopped at the market to pick up some food to eat. I got a rice ball w/ salmon in it and a tonkatsu sandwich and Mom got some sushi with natto in it (ewww!).

Soo we sat around bit. I started on my econ extra credit assignment. At around 3:20ish we left again. We stopped at the convenience store so I could get batteries for my penlight (basically a light you shine at the concerts). Thenn at Akihabara we found that the Sobu/Chuo lines weren’t running because of some accident at the station for Tokyo Dome. We waited in the train for probably around 10 minutes before it was running again. At Suidobashi we saw policemen at the platform and there was a big plastic bag of something black…interesting.

Soo we got to Tokyo Dome (again) around 4:15. We went up to Haruka’s hotel room in Tokyo Dome Hotel and met her/her mom/her older sister. We sat around and chatted there until 5, then we headed to the actual dome itself!

When we left the room this guy was in the hallway and asking if anyone was going to the 1st floor. We were, so we told him so and he led us to this back (service) elevator. He even walkie-talkie’d that he was on the 15th floor. Oooh. Then we got into the back elevator with these two hotel guys and we went to the 1st floor and exited out of a door with “private” on it. Ooooh. We didn’t have to deal with crowded elevators! Sweet! We’re still not sure why that happened.

Tokyo Dome is always pretty crowded but we made our way up to gate 40 (via gate 41 hahaha) and found our seats. Two girls were accidentally sitting in our seats because they misread their tickets I sat next to Haruka and Mom sat next to Susie (I think they were chatting :])

Soo. The concert!

KinKi Kids like to talk a LOT. And by a lot I mean A LOT. I think they talked mroe than they sang. They sang mostly songs from their J album, and their “intro” section was more like the length of an MC segment. It’s okay though becuase they’re funny. The stage was set up where parts of the front stage detach and “float” across the audience so the arena audience in the center can look up and see them from underneath. It’s rather interesting. They mostly performed from the front stage (outfield). Oh, and there were white floating inflatable rings (doughnuts?) around the stadium. Fun!

After they sang Missing (I think it was Missing…the song w/ English lyrics?) there were these little juniors on stage who were doing back”dancing.” They ended in this pose and it was really cute and then Koichi and Tsuyoshi went around and was talking and Tsuyoshi asked one of the kids how old he was and the kid was 11 and they were like “wowwww so young/little!” One of the kids was 8 D: And then they asked one of the backdancers their age (32 hahaha). It was funny.

The MC part was very very funny. First a bunch of people were going to the bathroom so they started talking about the toilet for a good 10-15 minutes. Oh, and by the way, if they run out of things to say, they start to repeat what they’ve already said. Then they were making fun of DBSK (Tohoshinki) and how they acted on Music Station. Poor DBSK – they’re Korean so their Japanese isn’t good (mata, sayonara!)

We got to see NYC Boys/Hey! Say! 7 (the younger half of HSJ) perform their countdown segment. KinKi were having trouble remembering Nakayama Yuma’s name. He was like “It’s Nakayama YUMA.” He needs to get more of a personality. Chinen’s hair was cute hahaha. Mostly Yamada spoke. They had to explain to KinKi their groupings (Nakayama Yuma w/ B.I. Shadow, NYC Boys, and Hey! Say! JUMP (chicchai half)). It was rather amusing. And so then they performed a part of NYC (someone messed up and started singing “give me give me” part haha) and Ultra Music Power. Haruka and I were of course squealing over them

Thenn they like introduced TheyBudou who was backdancing. Yara Tomoyuki and two other guys were dancing too. I think that…whoever gets on stage with KinKi is bound to get teased. They had all the members do self-introductions and everyone got picked on. Poor Yamamoto Ryota had to do it a few times D: First he sounded weird in the mic, and then he was like “my favorite food is…” so they made fun of him for being a girly guy. Poor Ryota :[

Mom's snoring.

The MC was...very long. Very very long. Good thing it kept my attention. We got two encores and it ended around 9-ish. I liked the general setup - live band/orchestra, lots of lasers, smoke, fire, the works!

After we managed to get out (we were pushed by the wind force at the doors!) we made our way to Tokyo Dome Hotel. Susie thought I was going to KinKi w/ her tomorrow (I didn't know that! I must not have been listening or something) but I can't because I have to keep Mom company during New Years Eve.

Haruka/Mom/I went to the 43rd floor to a place called Artist's Cafe or something and we met Haruka's mom and sister for dinner. The real menu was already over at 9 so we just ordered things from the midnight menu to share, like some pizza with prosciutto (sp?), fries and onion rings, salad, pasta, etc. I drank ginger ale :]

We had a nice chat w/ them and then had to leave when it was getting close to 11. Mom and I somehow got home – the Sobu line skipped Akihabara so we got off at Tokyo.

No pictures today - it’s well past midnight and I need sleep. COMMENTS ARE APPRECIATED!

“She Loves Me” and Koyama Ramen

RESPONSES: Sam: no a lot of Japan is more urban/city-like. We just went to visit a historical village :]. Alex: We know enough Japanese to get by!

Today was yet another fangirl-filled day!

This morning Mom got up to exchange the Shinkansen tickets for 9:22 instead of 7-whatever AM that we had. I slept :] When she returned we ate breakfast – strawberry yogurt and half a cheese pastry thing.

We then caught the 9:22 shinkansen from Nagoya to Shinagawa. Before we got on I bought some tonkatsu sandwiches which we split on the trian. I slept most of the ride <3.

We arrived in Shinagawa (Tokyo) around 11:03ish. It was pretty easy to find the Hotel Pacific Tokyo because it’s right across the street from the central exit of Shinagawa Station. We lugged our luggage up this very long ramp (-_-) and in broken English/Japanese we managed to store our luggage there until check-in at 2. I called Lisa and met her and her friend in Shinagawa Station. Mom took a picture of Lisa and her friend, and then her friend left and Mom left me in Lisa’s care to go see Yabu’s musical .

Soo then Lisa and I took the Yamanote Line to Yurakucho and wandered down the block a bit until we found Theater Creation (what an odd name!). It’s a pretty small theater – only one level. Very nice The doors didn’t open until 12:30 so we took pictures of the posters then walked to a place called First Kitchen to grab a small bite to eat. I got fries and melon soda (both small-size!). We sat on the 3rd floor to eat – it was a smoking floor, but it wasn’t that bad.

After we ate we went back to the theater and bought programs for 1500 yen. Thenn we went to our seats. Our seats were very very good – 8th row, one and two in from the aisle

Soo the beginning of the musical: Goseki as the newsboy-type character came riding through the audience on a bicycle. He told the audience (much to their delight hahaha) stuff like not to use cellphones/take pics etc. He messed up his lines in the beginning hahahah it was so funny. Goseki is so awesome Then he rode onto the stage and rode around the rotating stage set and then came out w/ Kawai on his back. Then the other people/characters came in and the musical began.

Something interesting was that the band was suspended above the stage – like an “attic” or “balcony.” All the music was live I liked it.

Soo I guess I should mention that the play was called She Loves Me – you can Wikipedia it if you’d like :] Yabu was Georg, and the newsboy (as I mentioned) was Goseki, and Kawai was the other worker at the perfume shop. Also, that one Shounentai guy Uekusa Katsuhide was the other worker in the perfume shop.

Overall the play was very cute and very funny. There were a few messed up lines which made it even more funny. Kawai made amusing mess-ups and even at one point he stuck out his tongue when he messed up. During the Christmas scene, when everyone said “Merry Christmas!” and drank their champagne, Yabu like started cracking up (you know how when you laugh when you’re drinking and you like basically spit everything up everywhere? That’s what he did). There was champagne on the ground from when they opened it AND from Yabu spitting up all over the place. The main female role was laughing hahahaha.  And then Goseki was wiping up the champagne.

The female role was very good at singing and her outfits were so cute

At the end of the play, there was a showtime segment – Yabu and Goseki and Kawai and Uekusa sang assorted songs – Rain Dance, Star Time, Crazy Accel, and uhh I don’t know the one song Yabu sang or the song that Uekusa sang (I assume it’s a Shounentai song?).

I got excited whenever people came down the aisles since they were basically within hands’ reach ! Yabu/Goseki/Kawai SO CLOSE! ! Yabu’s gotten better at singing. He sucked when he was little

During the showtime Uekusa came out w/ Yabu and he said something along the lines of “Yabu’s so nervous today…because his mom, dad, and grandma are here!” and three rows ahead of us and across the aisle (we could both see them) were Yabu’s parents and grandma. His mom looks really young (Yabu is 19) and we’re not sure where Yabu got his height from At the end of the show everyone stood aside to let them leave first

Uhh so yeah the musical was from 1 to 4. At 4 we got out and went back to Shinagawa and met Mom in the hotel room. Mom had bought some arare (like rice cracker-things) and tangerines so we ate those. I called Haruka so I could meet her tomorrow before the KinKi Kids concert.

Mom said when she was checking in, she was chatting with the bellman about Johnnys. Apparently there’s a rumor that Higashiyama from Shounentai would take over Johnnys when Johnny dies? And the bellman knew about Tohoshinki/DBSK and Fahrenheit too hahahahaha. And I guess they talked about shopping too. I’m sooo amused.

A little before 6 we left the hotel, said bye to Lisa, and Mom and I headed out to go eat at Koyama’s mom’s ramen restaurant. We took the Yamanote Line to Shinjuku, then transferred to the Odakyu Odawara line. We took the rapid express to Sagami-Ono, then transferred to the local line until Sobudai-mae. At first we went out the wrong (south) exit but we found our way

Koyama’s mom’s ramen place wasn’t too crowded – it was full but there was no line outside. Mom and I sat at the counter. We got coke and gyoza and mabo tofu ramen and it was soooooo good. The mabo tofu ramen has meat in it and it’s thicker and kind of has some heat to it and it’s delicious The gyoza is really really good too. We were sitting next to Korean fangirls I think and I saw other people walk in who looked foreign. Above me was a 24-hour TV poster with Koyama’s autograph On the TV there was some baseball thing with Kame pitching o_O.

After we finished eating Mom paid and I gave Mrs. Koyama the keychain I bought in Las Vegas so she could add to her keychain collection Then we took the trains (very long, but at least we could sit this time. The trains on the way to the restaurant were packed so we had to stand T_T) back to Shinagawa.

And nowww we’re back in the hotel room and I think I have to finish my math homework…?

Shirakawa

I’ll type this out first and then add pictures after I shower :] I’ll add pictures for yesterday too since I didn’t feel like it yesterday.

Soo today we went to Shirakawa…

The alarm went off at 6:20-ish, but I went online and looked up train/bus schedules and we didn’t have to take the train to Takayama until 8:43 so I went back to sleep Then we took the train to Nagoya, and then the train to Takayama and got there around 10:52. While we were on the train Lisa called and asked if I wanted to see Yabu’s play tomorrow because her friend’s flight got cancelled. I said I’d call her back at the bus station (I said yes). We went to the bus ticketing station area for the Nohi bus (for some reason between Saturday and today the bus station moved from a tarp to an actual building…) and we bought tickets to Shirakawa for 11:50.

We waited around in the waiting room (hahaha) for the bus. There were neat little vending machines in the waiting room – a cup noodle one where you buy the cup noodle and then there’s a hot water dispenser, and another one where it’s like a microwave and you buy frozen foods (hot dogs, yakisoba, takoyaki, fried rice) and you have to wait like 2 minutes for it to heat up. I wonder what it tasted like…

There was a superrrr long line for the 11:50 bus, and they actually had to get two buses because there were so many people. We got onto the second bus so it was only like 5-10 minutes delayed. The bus ride was about an hour long and there was a lot of snowwww. And lots of tunnels. I slept through the tunnels because they were boring :[

Thenn we got into Shirakawa-go. It's a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site and has all these gassho-style old buildings - basically, they have thatched roofs that look like "prayer hands." They're pretty cool. It was actually snowing there which was neat We got off at the bus stop, picked up a map, and wandered around. We crossed this longgg suspension bridge which scared me but it was pretty stable. At a local omiyage place we had to buy umbrellas because the snow was getting in my face and in my glasses :[

We went to this temple/house called Myozenji. Admission was 300 yen for the house and the temple - it's owned by this guy who actually lives there we read online that he speaks English so we spoke English to him since it was easier We got to tour 4 floors of the house (it's 5 floors high). The house is uhh...very flammable. Completely wooden. At the top they house silkworms

We then went into the adjacent temple, and then went into the kitchen, where they had a fire burning. Above the fire was some big wooden contraption that stops the sparks from reaching the roof but lets smoke through, and the smoke acts to strengthen the wood (?) and also polishes the wood (? that's what the guy said). It was very interesting! The guy was nice :]

After that we decided to go get some lunch, so we stopped at this place called Hanaichirin for food (it smelled good from the outside). It was this little place with two tables, and there was a grandma/guy (I didn’t see him. He may have been grandpa or father. Not srue) and a little girl who was SO CUTE! She served us tea We ordered a set w/ soba and a rice bowl w/ two skewers of hida beef kushiyaki (basically like grilled-ish). It was VERY VERY GOOD. The beef had some crushed peppers on it so it had some heat, but the flavor was amazing. And the girl was sooo cute. We asked her her name - Ami – and her age – 7 (though at first she said 6 and then she corrected herself haha). While we were eating she and the grandma drove off and then came back…Mom thinks they went to the bathroom o_o.

So then after we ate, we saw people wandering up this trail (which I thought was closed during the winter, but we only saw a sign saying “No Cars”) so we decided to follow them. It was all snowy and it was a fairly short hike but somewhat slippery.  We got up to the top viewpoint and figured out that the group of people we were following were Korean. Well actually I got confused because some people were speaking Chinese, and this Korean lady was on her phone and she was using random Japanese words, and they were taking pictures and the people were like “one more!” But uh I THINK they were Korean. I feel dumb for not knowing. Anyway, the fact that they’re not Japanese might explain why they were hiking up a snow-covered path that probably shouldn’t be hiked up

Soo we took pictures – asked one of the Korean guys to take our picture. Then we hiked down and I fell on my butt hahaha. I kept standing to the side to let people pass, and then like RIGHT as they passed I would sink another 6 inches into the snow. I think the people who passed by me felt bad – one guy was like “daijoubu!? (are you okay?)” and I’m like “daijoubu =_= (I’m okay)” OOH MIURA HARUMA IS ON TV! anyway and another guy was like “sumimasen! (Sorry!)” when he passed and I fell into the snow D:

Here’s a picture of a random building.

So when we finally got down the hill, it was around 3:15 so we decided to go to the bus stop for the 4 o’clock bus because we wanted to make sure we wouldn’t miss it We stopped by a tsukemono place and got some mountain veggie tsukemono (tsukemono is like pickled stuff) and some other unknown food that the ladies said was sweet. I told them we’d try it out :] We got a little turned around going back to the bus stop but we eventually go there. Mom waited in line for the bus and I went to go buy some omiyage. I bought some cookies and a Hello Kitty charm and some miso. HAHA Tanaka Koki and Akanishi Jin were just in a commercial and I thought Jin was a girl

Soo then I paid for my stuff and then I stopped at a food place and bought two Hida beef croquettes for 200 yen each because I wanted to have the croquettes that I had seen being sold all over Takayama/Shirakawa. It was realllyyyy good. I went back to the bus stop and somehow Mom ended up at the front of the line because the people in front of her left hahaha.

At 4 the bus came and they stuffed it full of people (including putting down the little aisle seats) and some people had to wait for another bus to come. I slept most of the way except when we had to stop for the bus driver to tell people waiting at the bus stops to wait for another bus.

The bus arrived at Takayama around 5:10ish and then we waited in the station for the 5:43 train and took that back to Nagoya. I slept very very well We took the Chuo Line to Kanayama and went to the JR office to reserve tickets for Tokyo tomorrow, except we got tickets for 7am and Mom decided she doesn’t want to wake up that early so she’s going to go exchange them tomorrow.

Right now we’re in the hotel watching some game show with a bunch of comedians doing odd games.

I’ll publish this and go back and add pictures :]

Nagoya Shopping + Concert

I got to shop today

We woke up at like…6-something? Even though the alarm was set for 8 -_- stupid jetlag. Anyway, we got up and had cup ramen for breakfast (heh) and watched TV and stuff. There was this thing called 30 people 31 legs which is like a 3 legged race except it’s 31 legs ._. it’s a nationwide competition and different elementary schools (usually 6th grade) represent their prefectures. It’s an interesting competition except everyone cries when they lose :[

Soo then around 9:15 we left the hotel. There's this little setup at Kanayama Station with people selling stuff like jewelry and purses and whatever so I bought earrings for Silver (dangly!). Then we took the train to Nagoya and from Nagoya we decided to go to the Nagoya Johnnys Shop. At first I tried to find the Indio store but we couldn't find it yet and everywhere was closed so we decided to just hop on the subway to the Johnnys Shop. We took the Higashiyama subway line to Shinsakaemachi.

Once we got to Shinsakaemachi we just followed some other girls down the street and found the Johnnys shop pretty easily. It didn't open until 10:30 but there was a short line of girls waiting so we waited for around 45 minutes to get in. They let a group of us in and we got papers to write down our photo orders and stuff. It got pretty crowded pretty fast so Mom waited on the side while I picked out the photos I wanted and paid for them. I got 30 photos :] that’s pretty conservative, I’d say! While I was paying I turned around and the line was really long so I got in the line to pay pretty quickly and at a good time

So thenn we took the subway back to Nagoya station and wandered around a bit. We went to the Indio store in some subway mall called Termina (?). At Indio there was a lot of stuff on sale so I bought a skirt, a jacket, and a long-sleeved shirt. After that we stopped at a tonkatsu place to eat and we both had roast katsu. It was nice because they offered us brown rice which we got. The sesame dressing for the cabbage was super good too…there was also a little grinder/crusher/pestle thing to crush sesame and use w/ the katsu. That was new to me!

Thenn we wandered through the department store and I wanted to go to Tokyu Hands but it was soooo crowded so we looked around and I’ll buy stuff when we get to Shibuya. Tokyu Hands, by the way, is like the best store in the world. It’s a “Creative Life” store but they have a ton of stuff for the home and for DIY (do-it-yourself) stuff and yeah. It’s pretty awesome

At 2:45 we met w/ Lisa at the JR Central Tower entrance area. We then took the JR Tokaido Line to Kesadera to go to the Nihon Gaishi Sports Plaza to see Kis-My-Ft2 The show is called Kis-My-ft ni aeru de SHOW. It’s like a pun. Or a play-on word. Yeah. On the train Lisa gave me omiyage from the Uchi/Question?/FiVe concert! When we got to the concert venue the previous (1pm?) show was still going on. I bought some goods – uchiwa, pamphlet, eco bag (even though I told myself no more bags…), and photo sets. The shirt was sold out :[ Thenn we waited around until like 4:30 when we were finally let in. While we were waiting outside it was superrr crowded and people were pushing and grrr >:[ there was some guy dancing outside too hahaha.

Soo. The concert. It was pretty fun. Our seats weren’t too bad – aligned with center stage, so often there was someone right below us dancing/singing toward us. Unfortunately, we didn’t get anyone’s attention D: Ohh and the carts were like right in front of us so we saw a few people up super close (I think Tamamori, Kitayama, maybe Fujigaya? I forget). It was prettttyy close. The music was all super good of course – they did fairly well on their roller skates. There was a little game part where they sang the part to Kis-My-Calling and instead of Nikaido’s part they had to say different things and it was amusing because the audience got to sing the names (Ki Kitayama, S Senga, M Miyata, Y Yokoo, Everybody Kis-my-Show Time!, F Fujigaya, Ni ____). It was amusing. Miyata sang Koi no ABO hahaha. I liked the senpai segment. There were also VTRs with like Yara Tomoyuki (that’s his name right?) and Uchi Hiroki. My summary is wayyy out of order. We got a few signboards thrown our way but none close enough D: Tamamori practically knocked someone out with one of his and he apologized hahaha. Ohh and when Kitayama came by on a cart, a girl held up her towel and he wiped his face on it. I bet that made her happy And the people sitting in front of us were pretty obnoxious – they had like 20 uchiwas and kept switching seats to be closer to center. Big deal! There’s only 4 of them. They seemed to be Tamamori/Miyata fans or something. Anyway, the concert was fun. My feet were hurting. I liked their songs, especially Kis-My-Me-Mine, Kis-My-Calling, Smile, Inori, Smile, ahh there’s too many to name…Fire Beat, Chikara, Tension, yeah. Too many to name. There were like, 3 encores? It was nice

After we left we packed like sardines onto the stupid train and then rode it to Kanayama and there we got off and ate Chinese food. I had mabo tofu and I barely ate like half of it because I was starving but they still gave a lot (when we were ordering I didnt’ want to share ). Thenn we parted at the station and now I’m here typing on this blog. Awesome.

Takayama Day Trip

Yesterday Nino was on TV

Today we went to Takayama :]

Sooo the alarm went off at 6:20. We got ready and then around 7:20 we caught the train to Nagoya, then took the Ltd. Express Hida train to Takayama. The trip was around 2 hours and 20 minutes or so. I was sleeping, and then Mom woke me up and there was snow all over the place outside. It made me super happy !

Oh, something weird about the trip to Takayama is that from Nagoya to Gifu we went backwards. Then we went forwards again. I think the train like switched tracks or something. It was rather odd.

We got into Takayama around 10:04ish. We went to the Family Mart across the street and bought some arare (rice crackers) and stuff and then the lady there helped me get some minutes for my prepaid phone she was pretty nice. Then we went to the bus ticket place and got a 2oo yen ticket for the bus from Takayama to Hida no Sato. The lines for the bus were under a tarp and we were in line D…

Thenn we got onto the bus and rode for around 10 minutes to Hida no Sato. Two summers ago when I came to Japan w/ the student group we came to Hida no Sato, but it was wayyyy different coming during the winter! There’s snow everywheree and it’s soooo pretty. We went in and asked this lady to take our picture and then (this is a VERY EVIL marketing scheme) she took a picture with HER camera. And then on our way out she showed us the print which was super nice and of course we bought it -___- 1000 yen.

So we took like the 1 hour walking course around the village. It’s a historical village w/ lots of buildings from around the Takayama area. It was pretty empty but there were a couple of groups of people there (some Europeans speaking an unfamiliar language!).

Toward the end of the course there’s a place where you can make your own Sarubobo souvenir. Sarubobo is like this monkey w/o a face. It’s super cute. It’s specifically for the Hida/Takayama area So between a snow globe, a doll, and a cellphone strap, Mom and I made a cellphone strap. The lady instructed us alllll in Japanese and toward the end I was having difficulties understanding instructions =_= oh but when we went she gave us tea, and it was reallllyyy good. It was like savory tea. The sign said shiitake mushrooms. It was so good ! Anyway, I made a blue sarubobo strap (luck for better grades) and Mom made a red one (luck for family).

Thenn we left and the lady tracked us down and showed us our picture which we bought We wandered into the gift shop but didn’t really see anything we HAD to have. thenn the bus wasn’t supposed to come for a while (1:09) so we wandered down the hill – which had NO sidewalks, btw – and came to this teddy bear eco museum. We didn’t want to pay admission so we looked at the shop and were like “ehh” so we wandered out. And then there was a bus stop there and we were contemplating waiting there to take the bus to Matsuri no Mori but I looked at the “wandering map” (that’s what it said on there!) I picked up at the station and it looked like we could walk pretty easily to Matsuri no Mori.

Uhh. That was my mistake :[ we walked for around 45minutes down roads without sidewalks and like uphill and downhill and ahhh. Matsuri no Mori is wayyy out of the way. We got there around 1:40? Mom wasn’t happy and I felt bad :[ We were hungry so we wanted to eat, but the restaurants were already closed T_T so we just sat there and pouted and then I went to a vending machine and got melon soda because I was actually hot after having walked. I got it from one of those vending machines that pours your drink into a cup !

Sooo then we went into Matsuri no  Mori which is like a “cave” but it has all these festival floats on display, and at certain times of the hour they have the floats highlighted and they have a little mechanical act thing (mechanical dolls/movements acting stuff out). There too they tried to take our picture before we entered but we were like “no that’s okay…”

We hung out there for a bit. One of the floats had like a peach baby that spit out omikuji (fortunes). I picked up two (heh) and they were both medium luck. Mom picked up one and it was big big luck!

Thenn we went to the gift shop. There was like NOBODY there by the way. Nobodyyyy at all. Practically. It’s pretty out of the way. I bought some cookies to give to my teachers who wrote letters of recommendation for me. Then we went and waited for the bus. It was prettty cold. The bus came at 3:17 and we rode it back to Takayama. We were having issues figuring out how much the bus fare was -_- this number on top kept going up…like there was like a 1, 2, 3, …, 11, 12 and underneath the numbers other numbers kept adding up until there was “200″ under 5 of them and “100″ under 1 of them. Anywayyyy we thought it was 600 yen but I asked the driver guy and he said it was only 200 yen.

Then we were like “ahhh so hungry and fatigued” so we tried to go eat ramen but places didn’t open until 5 (talk about bad timing!). Sooo there was this self-serve cafe in front of the station and we went there and had beef curry. The beef curry was SO GOOD…notice that this was our first real meal in Japan -_- The pickled uhh stuff was really good too. I don’t know what it was. The ice water was good too. We sat there for a bit, then went to the Daily Yamazaki (convenience store) and bought cup noodle and some drinks and choco pie .

Thenn we caught the 4:42 Hida express train back to Nagoya. I slept almost all the way to the point that I didn’t even realize when we were going backwards between Gifu and Nagoya. Some of the people who were on the train to Takayama were on the same train back – some group of people who spoke Japanese and some odd other language, and a couple of guys (one who was wearing like pink plaid hahaha). Then we got off, and I like uhhh didn’t quite step off the train right? So I kind of fell to the ground and somewhat twisted my ankle but it isn’t sprained or broken, it just hurts. It’s okay Mom was like “I’ve never seen you fall like that before!” :[

Then…we took the Chuo line back to Kanayama and now we’re in the hotel and we’re watching Tensai! Shimura Doubutsuen Korean Jingu dogs have double eyelids! And Pan-kun the monkey was playing with an owl. And Becky and DAIGO were playing with puppies hahaha.

I’ll update this with pictures.

In Nagoya!

We made it here in one piece :]

So…we got on the plane around 11:35ish and then we took off around 10 minutes after that. The plane ride was pretty comfortable since we got upgraded to business class, except there was a very screamy baby in our section. That baby practically shrieked when it cried :[ but our section was kind of  nice because it's two rows and then it's blocked off so it feels like it's just a little private area.

Mom and I were very very happy to see that one of the movies offered on the plane was ROOKIES -Sotsugyo- so we watched that at the same time. It had English subtitles. Very good movie I can't wait for Dad to be able to watch it too. Mom also watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince since she never got to see that. We both watched Hexagon Quiz Show. For food we had this beef thing with potato gratin and it was good. The salad was fair and it came with this crab thing which was good. Dessert was this apple thing and that was good too :] Thenn before landing we both had pork katsu sandwiches.

I slept for a few hours, tackled calc homework, started English brochure, and that was about it. I forgot my flashdrive at home :[ so I need my dad to upload/email some files to me.

Soo we landed around 4:00PM Japan time..which is uh 11:00PM US time? Yeah that must be right. When we landed there were the airport people waving at us with Santa hats. It was SOO CUTE hahaha. And some of the guys were wearing like reindeer hats. Very cute it made me happy. So then uh we went through baggage claim and immigration and stuff like that. Then we went to the JR (Japan Railways) station to get our rail passes. We also got tickets from Tokyo to Nagoya (via Shinkansen).

Sooo then we waited for the Narita Express and I got my hot milk tea <3 it was good. I used my Suica card. I tried to use my cellphone but since I haven’t used it in a year, my hours expired :[ The Narita express came, and it was fairly crowded. Mom slept and I played games on my iPod (Finger Physics is fun).

Then after the Narita Express we navigated through Tokyo Station. It’s so dang crowded -_-  I think I rolled my suitcase over some guy’s foot. Oops ><. We just barely caught the Hikari 252 Shinkansen for Nagoya. We sat near the door so that was good. Sooo that took nearly 2 hours and we arrived in Nagoya around 8:21. Oh and on our way I saw the Nihon Gaishi Sports Plaza where we’re going to see Kis-my-ft2 on Sunday

Thennnn we had to find our way to get to Kanayama Station. I found what I think is the JR line but it was called Home Rider and all the seats were reserved so we just bought tickets which were 310 yen each and we hopped on for one stop. I need to investigate a more efficient (?) way to get from Nagoya to Kanayama. It’s only one stop!

Then we got off and looked at a map and figured out that our hotel is out of the south exit. It shares a building with some art museum. Weird. We checked into the hotel (Hotel Grand Court Nagoya) and we’re on the 21st floor woahhh it’s high!

And of course, as soon as we got into the room, I turned on the TV. It took me like 5 minutes but I finally found Music Station Super Live JUST IN TIME to see Arashi perform Believe and Everything! And thenn EXILE performed Someday and Iforgottheotherone and since then I have seen KinKi Kids perform Swan song, NEWS perform Koi no ABO, Big Bang perform Gara Gara Go, and TOKIO’s on right now… Yayyy.

…I’ll be awake until this thing is over at 11 (it’s currently 10:27). Then I am taking a shower and at 12:38 I’m going to watch 0-gou shitsu no kyaku (the guests of room 0) which will have Yokoyama Yu and Shige in it !

I think that if I lived in Japan I’d watch wayyyy too much TV.

Tomorrow we’re going to Takayama. I hope it’s snowing.

Almost Leaving!

So…we’re still at LAX :[ Our flight is scheduled to leave at 11:35AM (it's currently 10:45...)

But...good news! When we checked in, we were upgraded to business class because they overbooked economy (we booked premium economy class). We got to go through a special business/first class line for security so everything went pretty quickly and now we're sitting in the SkyTeam lounge waiting 'til it's closer to boarding time. Yay :]

That’s about it. Nothing new really to say. I’m eating peanuts.

Concert Report Index

NEWS Concert 12/30
FiVe/Question? Live 12/31
NEWS Concert 12/31
Countdown Concert 12/31-1/1
NEWS Concert 1/1
Tackey’s show (Kakumei) 1/2
Hey! Say! JUMP Concert 1/3