We did a ton of stuff though. We first met up at Tokyo station, and when I got there, only Shaun and his ex-neighbor in Hawaii Shugo were there. Kyoko, a girl he met in Hawaii as well (lol) arrived a few minutes later. From there we tried to decide where to go, and Kyoko said there was a festival going on in Asakusa, Sanja Matsuri, so we decided to head there, as much as I dislike Asakusa. It wasn't much different from the time before, aside from being more packed. It didn't really feel much like a matsuri, though I think we just went at a low point. It felt more like they were just doing a bit of an attention-grabbing show for all the tourists there to attract more people or something. XD We only saw a couple of floats, but they were fairly small. There were probably more later.
This was some park-like area that was closed off, probably because of the festival. It looked really pretty though.
We walked through the main street, and after looking at a couple of the shops, we tried to find a place to eat. We got just outside of the main area and found an okonomiyaki place. There was a bit of a line to go in, but we decided to wait. About 15 minutes later, the people in front of us went in, and this lady that works there poked her head out and told us that the wait would be 30-40 minutes and that we should go somewhere else, and then shut the door on us. O_o We were like "Uhhh okay?" Glad we were given the choice to wait? That was really strange. Talk about being rude. She said it to the two Japanese, not to Shaun and I, so I don't think it was a racist thing, but...okay. We headed off to find a different place to eat. Eventually we came upon another okonomiyaki place and decided to eat there (since we were, you know, allowed in). We ended up ordering four things and splitting it between everyone, which I HATE doing since it somehow leaves everyone hungry, and this definitely did. I originally ordered yakisoba thinking we were all ordering our own thing, but then they started sharing theirs and the yakisoba was split up too, so no one got full. D: Although I think they didn't give us much to begin with. Expensive place too. Shaun was awesome and said he would treat everyone to the meal since we had all traveled to see him (which makes no sense since he traveled all the way from Kyoto, but he insisted), so that was nice.
After we left that place, we decided to go somewhere else. It came down to Shibuya and Odaiba, and I was like "OMFG ODAIBA LET'S GO" since Miho had told me about how fun it was and I really wanted to go to the Fuji TV place. So we went there. I didn't realize it was such a trip. @_@ We had to take a couple of different train systems to get there, one of which was like 300-something yen for like 3-4 stops, yeesh. That particular ride was really fun though, as we were basically on a monorail and went through the city and went through Rainbow Bridge (like, we were inside of the part right underneath the road). It was really cool.
I took a bunch of pictures of the ride, but since I'm lazy, I'm only uploading this one. It's Ginza.
When we arrived, we decided to head to Fuji TV first. We got there around 5:45 or so (we were at that restaurant for a long time), and the main stuff closes at 6, and even though we were still there before 6, they weren't letting people go in. D< That was so ghei. We went up to the next floor to check out the merch shop, which of course was still open since they make money there. They had a bunch of cute plushies and stuff of the various Fuji TV mascots, like the blood type animals that they have every morning with the news. xD Since we couldn't do anything else there, we went to another area.
Fuji TV! It looks like a space port.
Inside the tunnel, going up to the gift shop. Kyoko in the foreground, Shaun in the background.
Shaun's picture. Shugo in the foreground with me attempting (and failing) to cover my face.
This is just outside of Fuji TV, but yeah, a small Statue of Liberty. Ooookay Japan.
Rainbow Bridge.
Rainbow Brudge again with Tokyo Tower in the background. It's really hard to see, but it's that little dark line right in the middle. I just thought this scene was very...Tokyo. Like if I were to take a picture that I thought would be THE picture to represent Tokyo, it would be this one, with Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge, and the city all in one shot.
There's a shopping building in Odaiba that's sooo awesome! It's just really neat. Only pictures can really explain, but they had just a bunch of stuff everywhere. One area was like a mini food court (if you can even call it that), and the tables and chairs were all school desks. They had a chalk board on the wall that was written on like when the students draw on it for fun. It was so cute. There were just places like that all throughout the building.
Blurry picture is unfortunately blurry, but hopefully you can see how festive the place looked.
There was this painting on the wall with an antique children's bike in front of it, I guess it was supposed to look nostalgic. XD But the painting was neat.
The awesome place that had the school desks for tables.
Shaun wanted to get a picture of us pretending to be sleeping in class. This would have been a much better photo if it had been taken higher so you could see Shugo sleeping while sitting up, haha, but it's still cute.
After we left there, we decided to go to the Ferris wheel nearby. I found out as we arrived that that's where Zepp Tokyo is, lol. >_> *remembering for future reference* We decided to take a ride on the Ferris wheel, and this time Shugo decided to buy tickets for all of us, so again, got out of paying, whoo~! xD That was really nice of him. It was 3000 yen for the 4 of us, and we got tickets for the line that lets you ride in the cars that are clear (versus the typical colored ones that only have windows at like waist level). Granted, the wait is longer since they only have a few of those, but it was neat. You could see through the floor, lol. By the time we were in it, it was dark, so we could see the city lit up. It was so cool. Definitely worth the wait. Dare I say that it might even be a better view than Tokyo Tower? Can't say 'til I go, but it was a great view. I know Shaun got lots of pictures then (I took a lot of them lol), so I'll have plenty to show. :3 The ride itself was...I'm not entirely sure. I want to say like 20 minutes? Maybe longer. It was a pretty big wheel.
Shaun and Shugo posing in front of the wheel. Taken on the way there.
Getting closer.
Almost there!
I was (pleasantly) surprised to find this! If there's ever a concert I want to go to that's being held there, I now know where to find it.
On the ferris wheel.
The city looks so awesome lit up at night! You can see Tokyo Tower lit up in the background.
After the ride, we went into the building next to it to take purikura. Sadly, the machine didn't have an option to mail the pictures to our phones, so I can't show you them, but they were great. I love doing stupid poses and silly backgrounds and whatnot. There was one frame that was basically a tray with two sushi on it with small face holes, and Shaun made this "O_O" face in it. xDDD It was great. Since I was one of the people to edit the photos, I had a ton of fun. There were Hard Gay stamps, like a stamp of glasses and the hat, and another with a small body doing the "FOOOO" pose. So since Shaun had talked about the HG clip where he invites himself to some girls' purikura session, I totally put the HG set on him. XDDD Amazing.
YES.
Since it was getting late and we needed to leave so Shaun wouldn't miss the last Shinkansen back to Osaka, we started heading back. They had to go in the direction to Shinkiba though, which is the opposite of me, so I just took the Rinkai line straight back to Omiya. We had good timing with the trains, as there was a rapid for my route as soon as we got there.
That was basically it. It would have been great if Fuji TV had been open longer, but alas, I'll just have to go back. At least I'll have another chance to bring my camera, derp.
