I am seizing this brief moment in time before they start airing the new episode of Sprout, that new drama starring Chinen Yuri of Hey! Say! JUMP and a bunch of Johnny's Jr., in order to blog about all the exciting events that happened today! Although I haven't seen any of the previous episodes of Sprout
Exhibit A: OMG! OMG! IT'S CHINEN UP THERE!! d^-^b
Exhibit B: *trollerface* Chinen.
Exhibit C: I wonder if more of this will happen...I think I may die if I see Chii kissing someone!
He's the adorable one!! XD
Edit: Just found out that this sports program is that Going! program that Kamenashi Kazuya appears on occasionally. *must-split-attention-between-blogging-and-Kame* A difficult task indeed. YARGHHHHH!!
Johnny's baseball boy, Kame, doing what he does best for Going! :D
Sportscaster Kame in a pretty suit. ^^
Now, can you see why this task is so difficult??
Anyways, today, we decided to take it pretty easy. We're still getting over jet lag and not sleeping for a day (neither my friend nor I got much sleep on the plane), so we decided to just explore the area surrounding our hotel and to take the Tokyo Free Walking Tour, which took us around the area surrounding the Imperial Palace. :)
When we looked around our hotel, we hit upon what I think is called the "Yaesu Underground Street" - at least that's the name I came up with after literally translating the kanji on the sign using my Chinese skillz. XD
It's kind of like the underground streets in Taiwan! ^^
Basically, the Yaesu Underground Street is like a giant underground mall that's right next to Tokyo Station, which was convenient because we were supposed to meet the Tokyo Free Walking Tour people in front of Tokyo Station at 1PM. :3
This should give a good idea as to the scale of this place!
There are several streets arranged in a T-shape. :)
There are several streets arranged in a T-shape. :)
Some highlights:
SMAP!! ^^ Of course they would be here. Of course.
The funny thing is that I saw the TV version of this ad just earlier today! XD
There was also an exhibit on the Olympics.
I guess the Olympic fever is high here too! ^^
A bookstore where I saw a FINEBOYS magazine with a Nakajima Yuto spread in it! ^^
(A picture from this spread was posted earlier on this blog here. :3)
We also discovered the awesome cheapness of Lawson's!
We had udon at this make-your-own udon shop! Very yummy~
Assembly line where you made your own udon! ^^
What the shop looks like from outside, if you ever get a chance to locate it!
After all that, it took all the time from 12:20PM, when we ended our meal, to 1:00PM to actually find a way to the meeting place of the Tokyo Free Walking Tour, despite Tokyo Station being right next door. X____X
We had to find a gate that was on the other side of the station, and purely navigating the GINORMOUS Tokyo Station was enough to seriously hold us up.
Tokyo Station Marunouchi Central Entrance - our starting point! ^-^
Apparently, Tokyo Station is under renovation in order to make it look like it did several decades ago. :)
Gyoko-dori, a street that formerly was solely for the emperor and his family's use when getting to Tokyo Station, but is now open to the public.
The bridge to the Imperial Palace. :)
This building was built to commemorate the crown prince and princesses's wedding!
A popular wedding site. :D
The park where the previous building is located was constructed to commemorate the current emperor and empress's wedding! They must love building stuff when people get married! XD
The guard tower near the Ote-mon Gate to the Imperial Palace. :)
Ote-mon Gate...and a lovely picture of our head tour guide and a random tourist! XD
Our tour guides were all very knowledgeable and nice, so that was a wonderful plus! ^^
A secondary gate. They take their security seriously here! ^^;;
A statue of a fish with a head of a lion that was originally on top of the roof of the gate that was used to ward off fires. This one fell off into the moat, however, so they put it on display here and replaced it with a fake. XD
Rocking our free TFWT uchiwa at our resting stop during our 2-hour long tour! ^^
A guard gave us this thick, plastic ticket at the gate of the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace.
The beginning of a LONG string of guardhouses. This one is the Doshin-bansho Guardhouse, which is where everyone (except the shogun) had to get off their horses/sedan chairs in order to proceed to the palace. It is also emblazoned with the symbol of the Tokugawa family. Talk about a flaunting of power! XD
This is the Hyakunin-bansho Guardhouse, which used to house 100 ninja bodyguards for the imperial family.
However, security in this place has long since taken a far more technologically sound route. :P
O-bansho Guardhouse. I believe only a certain number of subordinates from the imperial family's visitors could proceed beyond this point. All the extras had to wait outside - which sounds rather suckish...especially if the weather was as hot and humid as it was today. >.>
This is the Fujimi-yagura, a guard tower from where one used to be able to view Mt. Fuji...
until all the skyscrapers got in the way. XD
This is the site of the Matsuno-o-roka Corridor, the location of the inciting incident of the 47 Ronin legend. If you don't know about this infamous historical event, look it up NOW! There is a Hollywood film coming out in December starring Keanu Reaves and a whole bunch of famous Japanese people (like Akanishi Jin!) about this incident!
This is the site of the remains of the Tenshudai, a guard tower which used to be the tallest building in Tokyo.
The view from the Tenshudai, which looks over what used to be the infamous Ooku, where the emperor's harem was kept. XD I geeked out because I immediately thought of the Ooku movie starring Arashi's Ninomiya Kazunari and Kanjani8's Okura Tadayoshi! XD
Cute hero!Nino before he went and chopped off his hair... - ___ -;;
...into that hairstyle. *sigh* It was so good before, Nino! WHY????? D:
Tacchon's appearance in this movie made me feel like a failure as a girl.
How can he be that much prettier than me?? D:
Oh, stop rubbing it in, already, Tacchon!! >.>
Anywhos, hopefully by now, the title of this post is pretty clear. I got my Ooku geekathon out of the way, saw a lot of gardens (and ancient security measures), and fangirly squeed over Sprout! XD
Speaking of which, I think I may become a fan of this series! ^^ Despite coming in circa episode 4 or 5, to my best knowledge, I was able to make out enough of the Japanese to get seriously hooked! I love the characters - Chinen's actually brilliant as Souhei, and Jesse Lewis isn't as creepy-glarey as I feared. XD The girl also doesn't look as much like Chii as in the promotional pictures, which was a HUGE relief - After all, how weird would it be if Chii had to kiss someone...who looked like himself? O____O;; The love story is compelling, and it's a treat to see Hasshi, Yasuken, and Juri on screen as minor characters - their acting also seems pretty natural, despite none of them really having much prior acting experience. ^^
The only minor problem I had was the theme song, Hey! Say! 7's "Hana Egao":
Seriously, what's with that super awkward cut in the song??
I'm sure people who HADN'T heard the song previously would've noticed! XD
That aside, though, Sprout was a wonderful way to end my day! XD
Also, in other news, I have started a scrapbook that I have named "JAPAN book 2012". :D
With all that to process, I think it's a good time say: Bye-bye for now! :D
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