Japan Trip 2019-2020 Day 1: First Full Day December 28th, 2019

Due to jet lag, I had a pretty early start. The first thing my mom and I did was go to a cafe to have breakfast in Akihabara. I don't remember the name of the cafe but it is a franchise and a place my mom had been interested in going. It was a little disappointing since it smelled like cigarettes and had an intimidating atmosphere. But the food seemed pretty good. I got a warm strawberry milk while my mom got a breakfast menu with bread and coffee.

After eating, we went to Asakusa to take some pictures and explore. My mom wanted to get some instagram worthy pictures. Since it's not as crowded in the morning, we were able to get some good shots. After taking some pictures, we explore Nakamise dori and got ichigo daifuku. The ichigo daifuku was very good. On the way back, we took a taxi back to the hostel since we realized that it was a bit far. The taxi driver talked about how Sumo is the main thing people go see when they come to Asakusa other than the Nakamise dori area but other than that, there's nothing else.

 

After going back to the hostel, we took a quick break before I went to go get my haircut. By then, my roommates were already awake. Having roommates was an interesting experience. Majority of them were Chinese and they were pretty nice. I did feel different from them however because I'm not someone who tends to care much about appearance while most of my roommates spent hours doing their hair and makeup in which I had to go up a different floor when I wanted to brush my teeth or just wash my face.

So I left, I believe a little bit before 11am since that was when my mom scheduled my appointment. The salon itself was a bit run down but overall, I had an good experience. However, when I went go get my haircut in March of this year, my hairdresser was very surprised about the way the hairdresser that I went to in Japan cut my hair. It was just very different from the way she cuts people's hair from what I have been told. The haircut took probably about an hour and I really liked how my hair looked. 

After getting my haircut, we went to Tokyo Dome in order to know where everything was. For lunch, we had sushi. It was quite big so I wasn't able to finish it all unfortunately and I was also feeling a bit sick. 

  After we had lunch, I went to line up to get some concert goods. I lined up for a good hour or so. It went by pretty smoothly. One thing I liked is that there were stands specifically for those to pay with debit/credit cards. There were not as many people lined up there so it went by a lot faster. When I finished buying these goods, I tried to look for my mom but it took forever to do so. She wasn't very specific about where she was so I had a very hard time trying to find to her. While I was looking for her, I saw this girl who I believe is Fuwameru(ふわめる). For those who don't know her, she is a well known Yamada Ryosuke fan. She writes very obsessive tweets and instagram stories about him such as how much she loves him, how he looks in almost every picture and has been obsessing about what he looked like when he was younger. Basically, she's pretty controversial especially when she posted on her instagram story of Yamada's previous address although she did not disclose in full detail by putting circles and triangles. In summary, she is a crazy/obsessive Yamada fan. From what I saw, she was very small and didn't seem that much taller than I am. 

When I finally found my mom, she was very excited to see what I bought. I showed her the things I bought and then she made me take pictures with my Yamada uchiwa that I just bought. It was very awkward to do so because I don't like to show that I am a fan. I didn't realize what my mom was making do was something a lot of fans do when they take pictures. After this, we parted ways since my mom had to start heading to Osaka while I went back to the hostel to rest a bit. 

Around 4:30pm, I headed to Akihabara to go to the Hello! Project store. I was surprised that there was quite a few people there. It's normally quite empty so I wonder if it was just because of the time I went there or because it was getting close to New Years. I thought this was cute so I decided to take a picture of this. 

I regret not buying this since my hair was short at the time and I believe that these stuff were a bit pricey. After this, I went to Don Quixote to buy a towel since I did not bring one and the one I rented was taken away by the cleaning lady. It was quite hard to find where everything was since it's so big. For dinner I went had McDonald's because for some reason, I was craving it. I got a Filet-O-Fish, fries and the Sankaku Choco pie. For my drink, I got a Fanta grape. For the Filet-O-Fish, I noticed that it was less oily compared to the one in the United States. Also, I'm sure the size of the drink would most likely be a small here as well. Overall, it was good.

After having my dinner, I went home to rest for the big day ahead. That is it. I will try to have the next post out on next Saturday.

Japan Trip 2019-2020: Arrival Day

During the last few weeks of winter break, I went to Japan for about a week to go to the Hey! Say! JUMP concert at Tokyo Dome and to binge buy all the things I have been wanting since my last trip. It was mostly a very positive experience and honestly, it was the first trip I genuinely had fun in over 10 years. This was originally a solo trip but my mom was quite worried about me so she ended up coming with me last minute.
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My flight to Narita Airport was around 11:16am. I left around 7:30am in order to be early as possible because my mom did not have an assigned seat. On the way, I thought I forgot my airpod and made my dad head back home. He was very mad because he tends to panic when things don't go his way and on schedule. On the bright side, my airpods were in my backpack so we did not have to head all the way back home. It took over a hour to get to PDX since it's super far away. The check in process was a bit confusing because my mom and I checked in online, however they wanted everyone to check in again using the kiosk.When we went to check in our luggage, my mom asked to see if there is seat on the plane and was just told that she'll know at the gate. This caused a lot of stress for her because she thought she couldn't get on the plane.

Security was quite different compared to the last time I was at an airport to board a plane. Basically, you did not have to take anything out of your carry on so it was quite easy. The scary part of security was that I thought was in trouble when I was going to the scanner thing where you go in and they check if you have anything in your pockets and such. I was just sent right next to it and a security guard just put rubbing alcohol on my hands and waited for a few seconds before I was excused. My mom just laughed and told me it was most likely because of my height and I was just too short for the mach
ine.

After going through security, my mom and I tried to find something to eat. I just ended up buying a yogurt and cookie since I was not hungry enough to eat a burger at Burgerville. It has been a while since I've last been at the airport so I was surprised at the amount of shops they had. When we got to the place our gate is, the first thing my mom did was ask about her seat. It turned out that she was be able to board and the only thing was that she could not sit next to me. My mom was very relieved about it because she just wanted to board the plane.

Normally, it feels like it takes forever for boarding to start by but this time, it felt very fast. I was surprised how fast and efficient it was to board the plane although it took forever for my section to get called. I think I accidentally cut some people in line because I didn't know where the line started. My seat was more in the back. After getting settled and put everything I wanted to use in the pocket, someone asked me if I could switch seats so their friend can sit next to them. Since I didn't have a reason to say no, I switched seats. They were very polite about it. The seats were very cramped. I feel like economy plus had a normal amount of space while economy was just cramped, but it also might've been the fact I had a big backpack with me. The person sitting next to me just watched YouTube videos or anime and drank a lot.

Despite the cramped seats, I did enjoy the flight. The food was good. I chose miso salmon made from a Japanese organic restaurant in Portland. The flight attendants were very nice and gave us a lot of snacks, up to the point where it was too much. I grabbed some snacks but didn't eat it all because I wasn't that hungry. The only downside was the USB charger plug was broken so I had to charge my phone from my portable charger. Also, they did not have an outlet so I could not charge my laptop. I did not sleep too much on the flight despite feeling tired and sick.

The flight was for about 10 hours. Immigration was smooth and easy. All I had to do was just scan my passport. I did panic about it a bit because it was not reading my passport but eventually, I was able to get through. There was a lady who was helping me with it and she was very nice and patient about it.

I was quite surprised to come out of the exit where TV shows such as Why Did You Come to Japan usually film and honestly got a little excited. It did take a long time to get out of the airport. My mom had to get her SIM card so she can use her phone in Japan but there was a lock that prevented any other SIM cards to be used on her phone so she decided to get a pocket wifi. Then, she had to line up to get her JR Japan rail pass since she was going to Osaka to see family. While I was waiting, I went to Starbucks and the konbini.

After we got everything done, we were finally able to hop onto a train and head to Asakusabashi. It took about a hour to get there because it stopped in every three stations or so. But it was an interesting experience. We passed by the town where my mom's friends family used to live. When we finally arrived, it was very easy to find the hostel since it was very close to the station. We checked in and went to get some food. We had some Takoyaki at Gindaco. It was pretty good. I just thought it was a lot bigger than the Takoyaki I usually eat.

The room we stayed in wasn't that bad. The only downside is how warm it was. I did not realize it was almost 80 degrees inside till the last day. But most of the people that stayed in my room was nice.
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I will try to post about each day of my trip once a week but if I can't, then it will be up eventually.

September

It's already September! The last time I updated this blog was when I was in Japan which was in July. Guess what? I have actually been back from Japan for around 2 weeks now. It honestly feels nice to be back in the States. However, there are things I do miss in Japan such as the public transportation and the shopping but at the same time, it's nice to be back in the countryside where I can relax. The reason for this was because the city can be rather stressful especially for someone like myself who grew in the countryside in both Japan and the United States. To summarize my trip, it was rather long. I was there for 2 months and by the second month, I just wanted to go home where I can actually be alone because I didn't have much privacy since I shared a room with my mom and brother. But overall, I was able to experience so many things and go to places I've never been to. Like I mentioned in my last post, I went to Hokkaido and Tokyo which was a good experience. But the best thing I did in Japan was go to the Hey! Say! JUMP concert. I will write a post about my experience along with my experience going to a Hello! Project concert but to summarize both concerts, it was the most fun I had in a really long time.

Life Update: Japan!

I am currently in Japan! I actually been here for over a month now. It's been pretty fun though it's a little hectic. I was able to go to quite a few places here which is something I haven't really been able to do here so that was nice. During my first few weeks here, I was able to get a rail pass where I can travel basically all over Japan for 2 weeks. That was pretty interesting. I went to Hokkaido, Tokyo and Hyogo prefecture. I was really glad I was able to go to Hokkaido cause it was my first time and it sure was nice. It's such a nice place to go and I honestly considered living there. However the biggest thing I was able to do here was go to the Hello Project concert. The concert was just amazing! I'll write another post about it but oh god, it was exactly how you see in the videos. Their performance was just so powerful and I almost cried. It even amazed my mom who doesn't know any of the current H!P members other than Momochi or any of the songs. So that is what I've been up to here in Japan.

Finally!

 So last week, I finally got my copy of Tsumetai Kaze to Kataomoi and bunch of other things from my dad's business trip to Japan. 

 I just got the regular edition since those are the ones that comes with a picture of one of the members. This time, I got Ayumi. 

Also, I got some mangas. I got Non Non Biyori, Assassination Classroom and Watamote. First of all, I got 3 volumes of Non Non Biyori. I just loved the anime so much that I had to get the mangas. 

 The 2nd manga I got was Watamote or Watashi ga motenai no wa dou kangaetemo omaera ga warui. I got volume 8 which is the latest one. As usual, it was really funny but at the same, I feel like Tomoko is starting to have excuses on who to be friends with and she just ruins her opportunity to make friends.

The 3rd manga I got was Assassination Classroom vol 16.I originally saw this at Kinokuniya and although I haven't read volume 16 yet, might as well get it since I can just read when I'm done with volume 16

 

Lastly, I got this years Morning Musume'16 calendar. I really regret not getting this as I saw it but the thing is that I tend to hesitate and you can only buy it online. 

So those are all the things I got. I'm really satisfied with it and I already read some of the mangas and they're awesome as always. 

Japan Trip 2013: Being Stressed

When I was in Japan, I didn't have the best time there. It's not because the country is bad, it's just that the people I went with made me feel stressed. Still, I wanted to do blog posts of my trip because it was my first time going there in 4 years and during those 4 years, I was dying to go. Also I don't know when the next time I'll be going there because of the expenses and I can only go during the holidays when theres no school. Anyways, when I figured out that I'm going to Japan, I was very excited. I thought that I'll have a fantastic time there and get to eat all the food that I've been wanting to eat for years. 

I was wrong. As soon as I got to the airport, I remembered how bad of a time I had when I went to Hawaii with my mom and my brother. I started to feel less excited and when I got onto the plane, that's when I realized it's going to be hell. I ended up getting the airplane food and I realized that I couldn't eat it so my mom got mad at me. Also because of something I ate on the plane, I started to feel like I was going to throw up. I ended up not throwing up and I thought my headache would just go away but it never did. It led me not have any appetite during the whole trip. When we were at the hotel, I was treated pretty much like crap by my mom and brother. My brother would get pissed at me whenever I "followed" him and my mom always seemed mad at me for no reason. 

The next day when I went to the Hello Project shop in Akihabara, I felt like I needed to rush and buy everything in around 5 minutes. That led me to be in line again because I realized that I wrote down some pictures that were already sold out. After that, I didn't realize that it takes a long to get all the pictures so it took me an hour just to get my order. The people who were in front of me ordered what over 50 photos?? So my brother lost his patience and just left with my mom. 

I just felt like I couldn't do anything I wanted to do with my brother around. I couldn't even order a parfait because my brother wanted it. Anyways, that led me to feel very stressed and at one point, I felt like I was going to die. Luckily I only got sick but I felt like I didn't belong with my family.

Japan Trip 2013: Getting sick in Japan

So today I would like to talk about getting sick in Japan and what my experience was like. So I started to feel ill the night I got back from Universal Studios Japan. I felt like I needed to throw up and I did. But then I felt like I had to throw up again which to me was weird. At first I thought I just felt bad and not sick because I ate more than I can and ended up riding rides that will make me puke after that. I usually feel a lot better after I throw up but I didn't. Then from what I remember, I think my mom realized that I was sick. 

The next day, I just relaxed and stayed at my grandma's house, hoping I'll feel better. I felt worse though. I had to throw up a few times and having to walk felt very painful. I had no appetite so I basically just ate jelly. I ended up making a mistake of eating some chips because I thought I felt a little better which made me feel worse. My mom called my grandma from my dad's side since she was a pharmacist and asked what kind of illness I might have. From what I was told, the illness I had was something that was spreading. 

I still felt like crap that night so the next day I went to a local hospital and had to have a Intravenous therapy. The cost for the hospital trip was 100 dollars and it was cheaper than I expected since the U.S is more expensive when it comes to going to hospitals with no insurance. 

During my last days of being in Japan, I began to feel better. I didn't have much of an appetite though but still, I didn't feel like I had to puke. I never figured out what I exactly had but I'm assuming that it was a stomach flu of some sort.

Japan Trip 2013:Osaka

This is my last Japan post until I go back to Japan again which I have no clue no when, but I also went to Osaka. I normally go to Osaka/Kansai since that's where all my relatives live. So this was my first time actually being to sight see in Tokyo. Anyways, today I am going to make a blog post about my trip to Osaka. 

On my first full day in Osaka, I went to Namba to watch a movie. The movie was Puella Magi Madoka Magica. My brother watched the anime so he wanted to watch the movie. Since I never seen the anime, I had no clue what was going on. After the movie, we just wandered around the mall, went to the arcade. On that very day, we had a haircut appointment so we kind of had to leave a little early especially since we were planning to ride the bus back. The haircut was very well done. I got a straight perm and it lasted for over 6 months and theres still a little bit of it left. Here is picture of the cake I ate before we went to go watch the movie. 

I actually wanted to eat a Parfait but my brother got pissed off at me for wanting to eat the same thing as him so I ended getting the cake. 

Before we went to a cafe, we were looking for something to eat and came across this. It looked pretty cool so I took a picture of it. 

For dinner, we went to Sukiya and I had a Gyudon. I thought it was pretty good but I didn't eat a lot of it because I wasn't very hungry. 

On the second day, we went to the Q's mall again and I had a another crepe. 

Although I stayed in Osaka for another 5 days or so, these are all the pictures I have of my trip and I will be planning to write about my trip to Universal Studios Japan next.

Late Birthday Haul

Even though this is extremely late and it is almost a month after my birthday, I still want to show you guys what I got.

 From my friends, I got some candy and a Hello Kitty piggy bank. All the snacks are so nice and I just love the piggy bank. I have not yet ate any of the candies and I will be willing to do that soon :) 

The next things I got are the things that my dad brought back from Japan. 

 The first thing is the latest Morning Musume'14 single! :) I think that both songs are great and I just like how different each song is. It also came with a picture of Kanon and a poster. 

  The 2nd thing is some of the issues of Watamote that I didn't have yet. Those who haven't seen the anime, I highly recommend it because it is very funny and those who are a little anti-social can definitely relate to it.

The 3rd thing I got was the 2014-2015 Hey! Say! JUMP calendar! I really like this years calendar and it has really good pictures. 

Japan Haul!

I made a video of what I got in Japan but there were some things that I didn't show on that video so I will show them on this blog. 

When I went to Akihabara, I went to the Hello Project shop. I thought I bought more but I didn't bother asking so these are the pictures that I got. The pictures on the bottom are the ones that I got for free. I was able to choose 3 pictures and I chose Kuduu, Fuku-chan and Zukki.. 

 I also got 2 Morning Musume photobooks. My mom actually bought them for me because I couldn't go anywhere because I was sick so I told my mom that I wanted 9th and 10th generation but they didn't have it so she got me these ones. I really like the pictures on both of these photobooks. They're so nice!

I got a lot of Hello Project goods when I was over there. It's really hard for me to get them here in the States so I was pretty happy :) I got a t-shirt at the Hello Project store and it came with a picture of Zukki! 

 If you guys are thinking that I only got Hello Project goods, you are wrong! I also got some magazines such as Duet and Popolo. 

Lastly, I got some notes and a mechanical pencil. I love Japanese notebooks and stuff! They're so cute! ^-^

That is all the things I got pretty much! I really wanted to get a crap load of things but I just couldn't. My next Japan post will probably be about my time in Osaka so please looks forward to that!

Japan 2013: Tokyo

Instead of doing a blog entry about each day of my trip, I'm gonna talk about it as somewhat of a whole. I went to Tokyo and Osaka so I'm going to split it up. 

It was my first time going to Tokyo. I've been to Tokyo to ride a bullet train to Osaka but never actually went to any of the places.  This time I was lucky because our plane was scheduled to arrive around 11pm and the deal for our plane ticket that we got was to stay at a hotel in Haneda airport for the night. I thought it would be kind of lame since it was a business hotel but it was very nice and cute in a way. It was pretty small but we each had our own beds and the vending machines were very close to our rooms.

This picture doesn't really show how nice it was lol

In the morning, we ate at one of the shops in the hotel. There were a lot of shops and a mall but I sadly didn't get to look at them. Since I wasn't very hungry I had a yogurt drink. It was pretty good :) 

 Then, we just hung around there since they had wifi! It was impossible to find a place that actually had wi-fi in Japan. Even if a store has wifi, they won't let you use it if you don't have a contract with a certain phone company in Japan. But in the airport, we still had to register for something to use the wifi. 

On the way there, the station that we had to ride the monorail at was Pokemon themed :) 

 After we ate, we decided to leave a little early to Tokyo Station. We had to meet up with one of my mom's friends at around 11:00am so when we went there, we just looked at the stores while getting lost on the way there lol. While we outside looking for something to do, we heard a tourist saying that there is a section called Okashi land. We ended up going there and we bought some snacks that were just made.

 I got the freshly made Jagarikos! It was pretty good but I really liked the one my brother ordered which was like this chocolate dipped chips. It had this salty but sweet taste and the ice cream was awesome! And I took a picture of the menu. 

 

 We also looked around the character shops. They had stores like the JUMP shop, Hello Kitty, NTV, Fuji TV, TV Tokyo etc. I didn't buy anything from those shops but they were interesting to look at. 

When we met up with my mom's friend, we first went to eat some ramen. We went to this section that had a whole bunch of ramen places and there was even one that had a huge line which I regret not going because I heard it's a pretty famous place. Instead we went into one which didn't have a whole bunch of people. 

I ordered a Tsukemen which I had for the first time. Honestly, Tsukemen isn't really my thing. I honestly prefer ramen.

After that, we headed to Akihabara. I've always been wanting to go to Akihabara because of the fact it has things both me and my brother likes. 

 It honestly wasn't too anime-ish but I guess since Akihabara was mainly known for the electronics, I guess that's why. We first went into a card game shop. I waited for my brother there. Then we went to the Hello Project Store! I have been wanting to go there for 2 years and I finally did! :) It was very spacey and there weren't many people. One of the things I didn't really like though was the amount of time I had to wait to get my order. The people in front me would buy like 100 photos so it would take forever for the staff to find the photos. Also I had to line-up again because I didn't realize that the photos I chose were sold out. But there were only 2 staff so I can't really blame the staff. After being in the Hello Project Shop for maybe over an hour, we had Taiyaki.

                                                     I got the anko one! It was so good! 

We also went to some electronic shops and Don Quijote. It was my first time going to Don Quijote and it was pretty interesting. Since we went to the one in Akihabara, there were a lot of AKB48 things. I didn't take any pictures of it though. 

Since we were tired we went to a Saizeriya which is a Italian chain family restaurant. I never been there before so I have always been curious about it. I got a pineapple ice thing lol. 

 After that, we went to Animate. It was huge! I didn't look at the whole store because there were so many floors. And because it was getting dark, we decided to part with my mom's friend and go to Osaka. 

That is it for this blog post! I will be posting pictures of what I got at Japan and I will also write about my trip to Osaka so please look forward to that! :D