Hello-Goodbye~

Hello~

So this is the last post I have before I start addressing life at my university in Akita! :D

Our last day was one that we had left completely open, so we could be flexible about what we wanted to explore in Tokyo.

A couple days prior, my friend's father, who had also accompanied us so far on our Japan trip had discovered this street in Tokyo Station which was, as he described it, "Always full of cute things...and screaming children". XD Of course, my friend and I had to take a look at the street! But before we set off for the day, we had say good-bye to our lovely hotel room and check-out. (We left out luggage in her father's room, since he was staying an additional day before heading off to explore Kyoto. ^^)

We discovered this as we were leaving, packet with materials with which we could write a letter to ourselves in the future. :3

Why don't American hotels provide such fun things to their guests?? XD

We were so excited to discover this, but then we realized that, unfortunately, the letter to the future thing only worked domestically, and neither of us knew the mailing address that we could use in Akita. So, we ended up leaving it behind. :(

In order to prepare ourselves for the night bus trip to Akita later that day, we decided to go on an epic quest to find the place where the bus would stop. Unfortunately, we got some rather vague directions that said that the stop was somewhere near the Yaesu Central Exit at Tokyo Station, across from the Bridgestone Museum of Art. 

 Yes, Bridgestone, like the tire company...

they apparently own a fine arts museum in Tokyo! XD

Because of this search, we ended up walking through part of the Ginza, which was interesting. We saw sights such as this elaborate clock that chimes loudly every hour with a different tune built to commemorate the current Heisei era. :)

An Heisei clock...you must know what this makes me think of! 

I'll give you three seconds (or the equivalence of how long it takes for you to scroll down XD).

You knows it! Hey! Say! JUMP, the boys of the Heisei era, of course! ^-^

Anyways, after some difficulty, we managed to locate where approximately the stop would be - we figured that if there was a bus that was loading at 9:10PM, we should be able to find it before it left at 9:40PM. XD

With that, we set off for that cute street in Tokyo Station. :D 

It's called "First Avenue Tokyo Station"! :3

We quickly found it and were immediately amazed by the wonderful shops lining this street! There were stores for Shounen JUMP (for those manga fans out there!), Studio Ghibli (anime this time!), Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma (if you don't know what that is, it's adorable! ^^), and one for each major television station featuring merchandise from current shows. :D

Because of this, throughout the entire trip, I had Kis-My-Ft2's "WANNA BEEEE!!!" (those capitalizations and explanation points were not my idea...XD), firmly stuck in my head! X_____X

You see, "WANNA BEEEE!!!" is the theme song to TBS's currently airing drama, "Beginners!", starring Kisumai's Fujigaya Taisuke (♡!) and Kitayama Hiromitsu. :D Unfortunately, the TBS store was also one of the first stores we walked by, so it was firmly entrenched within the first couple minutes of our trip. XD

For some reason, the pirate theme for this police-themed drama actually kind of works. XD

Although I keep thinking that Johnny Depp made pirates cool first. (Sorry Taipi! X____X;;)

Anyways, I was particularly insistent on visiting this First Avenue Tokyo Station because I had a very specific target in mind! 

We had visited this street earlier, but hadn't had much time to actually look at the stores. However, during the previous brief visit, I noticed that there was an NTV store too! ^^

NTV is the station that broadcasts 24 Hour Television, the annual charity telethon. For 24 Hour Television, they usually sell a T-shirt to help raise money for charity. This year, the hosts are Arashi, one of my favorite Johnny's bands! 

Yay for Arashi! ^^ Though that wheelchair drama for 24 Hour Television 

starring Nino will probably make me cry, even if he has atrocious blonde hair in it. *sigh*

Since they got Arashi, the 24 Hour Television people had Ohno Satoshi, Arashi's resident artist, to design the T-shirt! :D 

Aren't they cute? :3

Seeing how it had a cute design, was designed by Riida, and was going to go to help others through charity, I decided that I wanted to buy one, even if it was a tad expensive. So, (since they only come in men's sizes, apparently) I got a yellow one in a small! XD 

Not only is my T-shirt the traditional 24 Hour Television color, it is also Nishiki-colored AND it will help brighten up my wardrobe in Japan - I realized that most of the clothes I brought are either in blacks or grays. XD

I think Nishikido Ryo, the Yellow Ranger, will be proud of me! XD

Anyways, after wandering around the First Avenue Tokyo Station, my friend and I became hungry, so we ended up going back to the Yaesu Underground Street. We decided to try out his one bakery because every time we had walked by it so far on our trip, there would be HUGE lines in front of it. We were curious as to what the fuss was all about! ^^

It's called the "Sandog Inn"...XD 

We literally thought people were lining up in front of a hotel the first time we walked by.

We ended up getting a relatively inexpensive lunch there. :) The only difficulty was that neither my friend nor I could really read the labels on the pastries, and when we asked the workers what the signs said, they could only explain it to us with broken English. So, we decided to just dive right in and choose what looked yummy! XD

 My two pastries and iced coffee! :D

I liked the first pastry I tried a lot better. It had a filling that tasted suspiciously like red bean, 

though the worker had told me that it was filled with a Japanese bean. *Hmmm...*

By this time, we had split off from my friend's father, so we decided to go on an adventure by ourselves! *so independent!* LOL jk 

My friend had heard of this place called Ikebukuro, which was like a female version of Akihabara, since Akihabara is supposedly geared toward guys. As soon as I heard that, I thought, "Ohh...So, today we're visiting the land of yaoi! XD". I will say right now, that my thoughts then were not wrong! ^^;;

 Here goes! Our last grand Tokyo adventure! ^^

(You can totally see how excited we are for it! LOL)

Soon after walking out of the Ikebukuro JR Station - we were in search of a certain street that my friend had heard about - we stumbled across someone's wallet that had been left on the ground. Using my kanji-reading Chinese skillz, I was able to make out that the wallet belonged to some high schooler from his ID card. However, all the money in it had already been taken. D:

We figured that since this wallet had this kid's ID card and stuff still in it, though, (and since we did not have need of a boy's wallet) we should find the nearest police station and hand it in.

Thankfully, it was right across the street! XD

Once we got to the police station, things started to get hairy. 

Pretty much as soon as walked into the station, it became clear that the police officers did not speak English. So, my friend and I tried to convey as much as we could that we had found the wallet on the street and wished to turn it in to the police. (A much more difficult task than you would think...XD)

One of the police officers (the guy on the far left in the picture below) handed us a form and then asked, "English?" We nodded and said, "Yes! English!" 

As soon as we said that, we literally saw the police officer's face fall (it was kind of adorable, actually), and once we looked at the all-Japanese form, we understood why. So, the officer got on the phone (probably to ask his superior what he should do), and soon the phone was handed over to my friend. According to her, the police officer on the other end of the line also did not speak much English and seemed to be asking her if she wanted a monetary reward for finding the wallet. My friend finally managed to convey that, "No, we don't need the money - we just wanted to return this!" and we were allowed to leave the station. However, before we left, I asked if I could take their picture! Technically, this counts as part of our Japan adventure, so I figured, "Why not?" XD

"Crazy tourist chick. Why is she taking a picture of us?" 

Not knowing much about Ikebukuro before arriving, I wasn't sure what to expect. But, when we left the police station and started walking toward our destination, we were greeted by sights such as these:

 All the stores you could imagine.

 "Sunshine City", which looked an awful like a more contained, less intense Akihabara. XD

 A Hello Kitty store!! *squee* :3

And a ton of arcades! I'm sure there was one just as shiny every couple feet. ^^;;

Even the Denny's here are tricked out. - __ -;;

The new Rurouni Kenshin movie being advertised alongside The Avengers movie. XD

And of course, advertisements for the Eito Rangers movie. :D

Eventually, we made it to Otome Road, the street that is supposed to be the female equivalent of Akihabara. :) As soon as we got there, I was like, "Yups...This is it! XD" Because I started seeing things like this: 

 Apparently, this is anime about a group of idol singers is really popular right now! 

I've seen their faces EVERYWHERE! XD

We ended walking into this store:

 Super intense, multi-level, anime/manga store, check! ^^

Although I don't have much extensive knowledge on anime/manga, by this time (and also after experiencing Akihabara), I was starting to recognize various characters, which made this trip infinitely more amusing, even as all the yaoi made it slightly awkward. XD

Unfortunately, Otome Road is not nearly as expansive as Akihabara, and really just has a few shops down a road, so we only visited a couple shops, like these,

 See all the merchandise...

 Remember the 9-story Mandarake store from Akihabara? 

This one is not nearly as intense. ^^;;

Although it does have a super sketch entrance. XD

After tiring ourselves out from even this small excursion, we arrived back at the hotel, where I took pictures of the surrounding area from the 15th floor lobby. (Our room had these strange curtains which could not be opened, so we hadn't had much chance to see what was outside. XD)

 Skyscrapers galore! 

Apparently, Chiyoda, where our hotel was, is the business district of Tokyo. :)

 Which is why you get many salarymen here, like this guy. XD

After meeting up with my friend's father, we went out to eat, we randomly entered this one restaurant because the food looked cheap. XD

Why didn't I notice that it was a bar when we first walked in?? 

The kanji for alcohol is RIGHT THERE! XD

We didn't realize that we had walked into a sketchy bar that apparently was a popular salarymen hangout spot. XD In addition to all the beer being served, the restaurant was also filled with the smell of smoke from the men smoking. 

However, the food we got was actually really delicious! :D

 My dinner, yakisoba! ^^

According to one of my friends that I've met in Akita, yakisoba differs from place to place, and each place has its own special recipe! Isn't that cool? I hadn't known that when I had gotten my dinner, but it seems that for my last dinner in Tokyo, I had gotten a taste of its special flavor! ^-^

Anyways, that wraps up my last Tokyo adventure! From now on, it'll mostly be talk about Akita! ^^ Thus, this is kind of our "Good-bye" to Tokyo and "Hello" to Akita - a reference to the Coming Century song, "Hello-Goodbye" (more Youtube butts)! XD

I didn't know that this one day would end up having such a long post! I hope you aren't bored from reading it! XD

Bye-bye for now! :D