Wanderlust V2 - Japan & Beyond

Our next adventure was to Harajuku. Sadly it would be our last day at Toco, so we took hasty pictures of everything there! Oh how I would miss Toco! But on to wonderful Harajuku!

Our main goal there was to go see Fairyland store, which has a lot of Soom Ball Jointed Dolls. Of course I am always looking for lolita, gothic lolita, and Gyarus! J was purely uninterested in them and shook her head every time I try to go get pictures.
 This day we weaved a different path through the neighborhood in which we met a cat who was patiently waiting at this gate. We wondered why he didn't just go in? If he was simply more polite than the usual cat? He has such a consternated look. I think he may be a Scottish Fold.  Another cat themed item on this trip was the new being polite on the train posters.

We didn't spend a whole lot of time in Harajuku that day. We mostly went down Takeshi street, where J bought some socks for her mom. I didn't see my arm warmers for some reason along the way, which I looked for. It was massively packed, and we shuffled slowly down the street. They even had police directing foot traffic, keeping each direction on it's perspective side. You've seen this photo in an earlier entry. That was the day I went. I repost it just to show the amount of people down that street. If you wondered if Tokyo was normal a few weeks after the Massive earthquake... here's part of the proof. No one cowers in their homes, refusing to leave.. Oh no we go shopping haha :)


Finally I show you Soom. J and I chatted on whether we could take pictures. The shop was small and we didn't see any signs. Finally after much staring and debating, the shop lady anticipated our excitement! She said we could take picture and take our picture in the store!! It really was lovely. J bought an alfit and helped me afford a blond wig. It ended up not really fitting but it was lovely and cool to buy something actually at a soom store!!


We ate crepes and searched for a Lawsons to buy our Ghibli museum tickets! :) After that we called it a day! We did end up walking about a bit more, but it was mostly shopping about. ^^  Next entry will be a bit more exciting! UENO and HANAMI!! :) I didn't see any real lolita taking picture opportunities here ;p It gets better! :)

Again I pretty much came up lacking on recoding my trip in an interesting fashion, instead I splashed some photos and cryptic messages. I tend to get distracted on trips or lazy. I’m not sure which. Even J stared at me in shock as I squirreled away my hundreds of photos without sharing any at all. I did manage to put some on facebook, but facebook is definitely not as poignant as a journal or blog. It might be something with pc/back lit screens. It’s direly hard for me not to be ADD when staring at a computer screen and being a mere click away from the teeming internet. My mind wanders when trying to read on monitors as well. I notice I have no issues with my kindle, unfortunately it’s not primed for long-term typing. And just to let you know it works superbly in Japan .


Anyways, I’m putting forth effort to try and recreate my trip and share the experience with random daily posts interjected in between. Never quite the same as recording it in real time, but it wil have to do for now. Also I could never really make a food blog for japan because I tend not to be very hungry in Japan yet I get 30x more exercise than at home. I lost 7lbs alone for two weeks of stairs and walking, that’s even after resting a lot & finding shortcuts due to J’s feet issues.

I do have to say Japan feels like a dream now. Even as I keep in touch with Percy who is there, working. It’s like I’m clinging to a faded dream. I really had to mention this so you know how strange it is to reach back in time to write entries about my trip. The memories are moist and slippery like the ocean. I had remarked to Tony that it was like taking a trip to the beach. I would come home tired and still feeling phantom waves. Arizona feels eerily real, dry, and extremely solid. Japan was moist and by the last week of my trip, constantly shaking, swaying from earthquake aftershock.



PRETRIP: I’ll start with fleshing out some of the strange outbursts I posted before my trip.


I started out planning my trip last year. Oddly after my last trip I thought I was spoiled on Japan due to getting terribly ill. Kind of like getting food poisoning and never eating that food again or for years to come. Moist climates tend to turn me into a quivering mess of infected sinuses and being sick. Last year I visited in April, checked the weather religiously in Tokyo. It was supposed to be mild and sunny, when I got there it had been freezing and raining 80% of the time. I got extremely ill and sprained my knee as well. I was croaking and hobbling around like an injured frog halfway through my trip!


When I returned to the states I was hospitalized. At that time I found out my gallbladder was a poisonous time bomb and ready to explode. Finally the myster was solved after years of wrong diagnosis and pain and meals of the mildest foods such as plain oatmeal. I got surgery and spent 3 weeks of dizziness + wretching + not eating due to my infections. At that point, I said I would not ever be going back to Japan again…


Flash forward a few months. I can’t tell you the exact moment or even the ballpark of that moment.. but suddenly I was planning to go to Japan again. My mind probed that thought like a sore tooth, testing it to see if it might fall out. Money had been the root of my evil since I live paycheck to paycheck with no credit card to my name, and a host of bill collectors chasing my tail. I started checking airplane ticket prices on Vayama and other travel booking sites… I met J at some point and began talking about it with her. At some point we talked about going together. I suggested September, a nice amount of time away in hopes of saving and T graduating + getting a nice job. I ended up pushing the trip into March/April using my tax return. Kinda dumb of me since our cars needed to be repaired, bills needed to be paid, and even my computer is on death row, having days of blanks screens or burning out my video cards… Also at this point both our family members were low on cash and immediately assumed we must have extra money since I was going on an expensive trip. Indeed it was quite the opposite since I was spending any extra monies on the trip itself. As well as that the week before I was leaving, a couple of my utility companies picked up the scent of money like chum in the water and threatened imminent shut down of said utilities if certain amounts of money were not coughed up. I manage to pay the minimum they would allow, but it nicked my funds considerably and I had no back up to speak of.


Well as you already know, the month we were leaving, Japan was ravaged with a huge earthquake that resulted in a devastating tsunami. Then the nuclear plant had problems. I began haunting NHK world, cnn, and bbc news, as well as Japan travel forums. I also doggedly tried to find out info from my acquaintances in Tokyo at the time as well. I was obsessed with Japan’s well being. I had a weird familiar feeling. My dad later commented we had a lot of drills in Korea, mainly air raid drills. In Korea we lived in Pusan right next to the ocean and all it’s tribulations.. So I could sympathize.


So for weeks I checked information and first hand accounts. I hadn’t canceled my trip as of yet, neither did J on the basis that I was still attempting to go even if we had to go south to Kyoto. I decided to go about half a week before the plane dates. Even then another earthquake 6.5 off the coast of Sendai happened. Knowing the intensity of it in Tokyo and that the plant had not gotten anymore worse than it had been. We went to Japan in agreement we could handle anymore aftershocks. This became a story in itself because our first big aftershock in Tokyo caused J to panick and for me to feel a bit weird because I was very calm about the whole thing… To J’s credit, she began accepting the aftershocks more after that but I think never fully.






Well more later! I’m feeling like I might of started rushing things in an attempt to write faster so I will stop for now 

We went to our new stay today! It was fairly cheap, but it's a take care of yourself kind of place. More like a guest home for those who are staying in Japan for a while. Guest home is misleading too I guess! They are like apartments,but you get a room and you share the bathroom & shower on your floor. There's also a kitchen as well as washer & dryer for a fee. It was a heck of a time getting over here, mainly because it's so far from the train station. It's got lovely wooden floors and closet and the shower is super hot and strong! :) I mean you adjust according to taste :)

We also went to Harajuku today! It was seriously crowded and on the way home we were squashed, with men in white gloves standing by to shove if needed. We did purikura again ( print party was packed, but there was one down an alley)! Visited Daiso ( 100 yen store) in which I bought some tissues which were well used. I pat myself on the back for such a level headed purchase. We also had green tea cheesecake crepes and Jess used a squat toilet for the first time! :)

Well that's all for now! Should I leave something like.. pictures?? YAH!

Gotta look cute right?

SO BUSY!

Cute matching couple!

Hello!! I decided to try and liven things up with more Japan pictures.. I have a ton of these so I think I could do this for a while! I decided to go for some fancy treats! One being waffle store and the other being traditional fish snack.. If you are not a fish lover, I can manage your face crinkling up in disgust! But really I'm talking about Taiyaki. Taiyaki is a fish-shaped cake filled with red bean paste or other goodies... I definitely remember munching on a custard filled cake. I can't remember if I simply pointed or struggled with some katakana.. Or heard someone order custard and used the same words to order mine. Regardless I ordered one. It was hot and fresh and delicious. I was feeling kinda chilled and tired from walking a lot. I couldn't settle on anything to eat.. and a gentleman was passing out free samples..I scooched over to the window and stared creepily into it while a lady made Taiyaki and observed people ordering. Ever heard that saying? When in Rome, do what the Romans do? Same thing here. If you aren't extremely well with Japanese language, you might be able to grasp by seeing and then doing. Of course I have some photos so you don't have to read me blathering on about food haha:) Oh I blurred out the sample guy's face, because he was giving out samples, not trying to pose or anything ;p  This place made them on large griddles specially shaped as fish, no machines, even though it looks like it. It's like a turnable waffle maker :) The cakes are actually waffle like, but very thin crispy shell with heavy filling inside. I love the golden flaky crunch paired with custard. 

So just need things to come together now! Need boss to approve time off, need to see if my aunt is going to be there, and need my taxes not to owe anything! Wish me luck!

I leave you with a picture again from my last trip of a lady making breads!! :) This is somewhere in Tokyo amongst my wanders in the multifloor shopping centers that are abundant in Tokyo!!

Baker in Tokyo! My face pressed up to this glass! Photo by: ME