amazing-vee:
Our shinkansen journey from Tokyo to Hiroshima was interesting. We watched in fascination as the city of Tokyo thinned out into suburbs, and smaller towns, and finally, into a more rural district. We were taking the train from Tokyo, to Kyoto, to Hiroshima, and we weren’t scheduled to get into…
Glorious. Absolutely glorious. I completely feel her pain—this is the kind of shit that can be SO FRUSTRATING for a foreigner in Japan, and yet…what can you do about it, ya know? It’s just the way things are.
The fact that ATM’s close, though: that’s just plain fucking monstrous!
amazing-vee:
When I refer to my trip to Japan, I often say that we spent three days in Tokyo, which is incorrect. In actuality, Dan and I had just two and a half days in Tokyo, and we genuinely wanted to make the most of every instant. We planned on leaving the city in the mid-afternoon, and we wanted to make…
I didn’t get to go to either of these places either. Thank god I’ve got amazing-vee to fill the gaps in my Tokyo knowledge! :D
amazing-vee:
Having seen the vast majority of the Tokyo we wanted to see, Dan and I decided, on a whim, to check out the Roppongi district. This was largely driven by a pamphlet we found indicating that Roppongi was the ‘international’ district of Tokyo.
They were overstating it. Roppongi wasn’t terrible, it…
This is great info that I can’t provide myself. I never went to Roppongi since I’m not into the night life. My completely uninformed opinion is that, unless you’re huge on clubbing and/or shady-ass foreigners, it’s probably not the place for you. But hey, I could be wrong!
amazing-vee:
The Internet cafe was easy to find, and Dan and I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult to get on a computer, e-mail my friend, and check Facebook real quick. We were wrong.
I’d like to take a few moments to talk about the language barrier in Japan. In Japan, English is a compulsory topic…
Even if you’ve studied Japanese, this kind of thing happens aaaaalll the time. It’s best when both sides can just laugh it off. :P
amazing-vee:
Near the Harajuku district is a beautiful forest that houses the Meiji Shrine. For anyone who doesn’t know, the Meiji Restoration was the period in which Japan ceased to be an isolationist nation and began to reform and modernize their society. These changes were led by Emperor and Empress Meiji,…
I laughed my balls off at the restaurant story. Most restaurants in Japan are like, orgasmically good, so my friends were just really unlucky. Usually pointing at the pictures on the menu works, I swear!
amazing-vee:
Day 2 in Tokyo was just as insane for Dan and I as our first day, but I’m going to give you the abridged version here. This was the day that Dan and I made a lot of mistakes, which I’ll get to in a later post. Anyway, the very best thing about day 2 was our visit to Harajuku.
After our first…
More from my best friend!
amazing-vee:
Before I came to Tokyo, when I pictured the city in my head, I pictured Shibuya. I didn’t know that I was picturing Shibuya, but I was. Train stations so busy that the employees have to shove people into the cars, the world’s busiest crosswalk, and people and lights everywhere! That’s Shibuya…
This one made me giggle. I’d forgotten about all the sulky youths hanging around Hachiko and making fun of tourists who are having their pictures taken. Those little shits are mean! It’s all part of the experience, I guess?
amazing-vee:
After spending some time in old Tokyo, Dan and I wanted to see a little bit of new Tokyo. So we hopped back on the subway and set our sights on Ginza, a fashionable, expensive district.
Ginza was much closer to the traditional idea of a 21st century metropolis and was therefore somewhat less…
I never actually made it to Ginza, so this is informative for me as well! ^_^
