#i keep too many hatoful thoughts from the crowd & while this is just more hot takes than lore discussion you know you know

[vellichorom]

more based hatoful takes from yours truly, regarding considerably outdated lingo that was nevertheless used HEAVILY back in the day

[checheisacat-blog]

Japan Trip 2016 Day 3: Tokyo Tower, Imperial Palace, exploring Asakusa, Nakano Broadway

Day 3 we woke up bright and early to go on our tour!

We didn't have time to stop for a "real" breakfast so I ate this meal I got from a conbini the day before!  Anyone who's been to Japan knows that Japanese convience stores, or conbinis, are the BEST THING EVER and infinitely better than western convenience stores lol.  The meal came with inari, tempura, sushi, an egg, and some other things.  It actually tasted pretty good and was decently filling despite being less than $4!

We left our hotel to walk to the spot where our bus was supposed to pick us up, which was near the Sunshine City Prince Hotel!

The bus was actually really cute with green seats and little cupholders that looked like basketball hoops!  

A pretty nice view from the bus!

They also had a menu of souvenirs you could buy!  I didn't end up buying anything but now I kinda wish I did.

I brought some onigiri onto the bus in case we got hungry again since I didn't think we'd have time to stop for food while on the tour, which was slated to last for a few hours.  

This first bus took us to Hamamatsucho Station where we got our tickets and transferred to our actual tour bus lol.  I got to see the souvenirs in person!  I was too busy trying to find a bathroom and get in the right line for our bus to shop to look around much though.

Our tickets!  The bus is called a Hato Bus and the company that does the tours is called Sunrise Tours.  The tour bus was taking us to three destinations: Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Palace, and Asakusa.

First stop: Tokyo Tower!  We entered into the first floor (?) which had a food court!  There were hardly any people besides those on the tour, probably because it was still early in the morning.  I wish I had time to look around the food court more and maybe grab something to eat, but since we were on limited time we of course had to go up into the actual tower!

Our tour guide led us through!  She carried a stick with a Hello Kitty in a kimono attached the end so our (rather large) group would know who to follow.  Funny enough, she left for a few minutes and asked me to hold her Hello Kitty on a stick LOL I got to play tour guide for a few minutes.

When she came back, we got our tickets and a guide book to Tokyo Tower.  And up into the tower we went!

Even though we had just seen a view of Tokyo the day before, it was much less foggy and cloudy this day so we got to see an even more amazing view.

Walking around the floor we were on (can't remember which one it was but probably an observation deck?) there were also cute things to see like a model of the Tokyo Tower and a shrine!

My bf took the pic but there wasn’t much space to pack up for a wide shot so he cut off the first and last letters,now it’s just Okyo Towe LMAO

We were still walking around when we got a 15 minute notice to meet back at the tour bus.  It seemed like we were there for such a short time, I wish we had more time to look around and enjoy the view.  We actually weren't sure where we were supposed to go but somehow we got on an elevator back down to the bottom, after which we had to take a few flights to stairs to reach the first floor again.  

While trying to find out where the bus was parked, we saw this cool One Piece display in front of a gift shop that sadly wasn't open yet lol.  

This picture was actually taken from my bf's phone.  I keep forgetting to look through his album too for pics to put in these posts!

Anyway, we were back on the bus and onto our second destination: the Imperial Palace!

While we were on the bus, our tour guide gave us an overview of the Emperor and the Imperial family, and some history lessons.  Honestly, I don't remember much of what she said, although she did pass around some pictures which I took pictures of too LOL.

And then we got to the Imperial Palace!  

We followed our tour guide down and around this street that allowed us some nice views of the Imperial Palace.  It was really nice to see such a historical building and the enjoy the scenery!

It was pretty windy that day despite being so sunny and hot, but I still got some nice pictures!

After having some time to take pictures, we followed our tour guide down the street to where our tour bus was picking us up.

And then we were onto the last destination: Asakusa!  For this last leg of the tour, we were either allowed to walk through Nakamise Street and then meet back up with the tour bus to take us back to the station, OR we could stay in Asakusa as long as we wanted and find our own way back lol.  We chose to do the latter so that we could take as much time as wanted to look around and see other things around Asakusa besides that one street. If you're ever on a similar tour, I recommend doing the same since Asakusa has so much to see that you can't possibly fit into an hour and you'd save on the train fare you would otherwise spend going to Asakusa lol.  On the way back, the bus drives through Ueno and Akihabara but since we were planning on going to those places later it really didn't matter to us whether we saw them briefly on a drive through anyway.

A map of Asakusa they gave us!

Since this is where we officially parted from the tour, I'll take the time to say that I really enjoyed the tour and I highly recommend it for first-time visitors to Japan who want to get an introduction to Japan and see some tourist-y desinations all in one day.  The tour is really foreigner-friendly since everything was in English and the price was reasonable considering admission to Tokyo Tower was included!  Here's a link to the Hatobus website if you're considering doing one of these tours yourself: https://www.hatobus.com/int/en/

Onto exploring Asakusa!  Asakusa is a neighborhood in Tokyo which is pretty much quintessential Japan, or as close to as it as you can get in Tokyo.  There's lots of shrines, landmarks, sightseeing and souvenir shopping!  This part we got dropped off at was really beautiful, lots of nature and not too much of a crowd!

To be honest, I don't know much about Japanese religion or history but I still really enjoyed walking through Asakusa and seeing everything!  I'll let the pictures do the talking LOL.

^The pic I took of my bf...

...and the pic he took of me at the same time!  LOL

After taking some pictures we stopped for some mitarashi dango!  It was my first time trying dango and for 200 yen we couldn't resist.  We actually dropped the first dango that we got (while my bf was trying to hand it to me) and I was upset lol but the lady working the stand insisted on giving us another one for free and refused to take the money my bf tried to give her lol she was so nice about it ;_; <3 She knew we were clueless clumsy tourists LOL.

There was a building next to it where you could sit down to eat and do some souvenir shopping!  We sat down there to enjoy our mitarashi dango.  It was really delicious!  The sauce was a perfect mix of savory and sweet and complemented the chewy insides well.  I would definitely get it again!

Afterward we looked around the street some more.  This street actually wasn't very crowded, so we went along at a leisurely pace and were able to see a lot of things.

We saw a small takoyaki restaurant!  Takoyaki is my bf and I's favorite food LOL it's kinda "our snack" (lame I know) since we bonded over our obsessive love of takoyaki.  So of course we had to stop to try it!  At first we thought of taking it to-go but then decided to eat at some of the tables outside since the shade was a nice break from the heat.

We drank some iced tea while we were waiting, which was really refreshing.  And then we ate our takoyaki!  They were lumpy and kinda fell apart while we were eating them LOL but they were piping hot since they were freshly made and the taste was delicious!  I enjoyed it a lot!  

While we were walking we saw a kamishibai!  The kamishibaiya was really cute and funny and attempted to tell us the story in English since we were all tourists LOL.  The story had to do with a boat of people being attacked by a monster coming out of the sea.  It was really entertaining!

Afterward, we arrived at what I believe to be Kaminarimon and Nakamise Street!  This area was packed with groups of tourists and locals (?) dressed up in kimono, in contrast to the relatively empty area we just came from.  It was really smoky due to all the incense and that only added to the heat since there were so many people.

Incoming pic spam of all the things!  I took lots of pictures, of course!  You can see just how crowded it was.

We then walked down Nakamise street filled with souvenir and snack stores!

To be honest, a lot of souvenir shops on this street are really overpriced LOL probably because it's a tourist trap and there are so many people here on any given day that they can afford to keep their prices high.  

I didn't buy anything except two toilet keychains with a golden poop inside LOL one for my bf and one for me.  It was an impulse purchase, but I wanted a small souvenir.

Despite not buying much in the way of souvenirs, we did try a lot of different snacks and desserts!  It was especially tempting to stop for frozen treats since it was so hot.  The shaved ice was really fluffy and airy!  

We had to stop to enjoy our snacks since we couldn't walk around while eating them LOL.  Lot of places have areas where you can eat in the shade though, so it's not that much of an inconvenience.  I don't really like eating while walking anyway, especially messy foods, because it's hard to balance everything without getting food all over your hands and clothes.  And since I'm usually carrying an umbrella to shield me from the sun, it's pretty much impossible to eat while walking around LOL.

And we reached the end of Nakamise street!

We were done with Asakusa at that point, and headed to the train station!

A cool display in Asakusa station!

I was feeling pretty gross and sweaty at this point due to the heat, but there was still a lot of time left in the day since we'd got such an early start because of the tour.  So we all decided to head to Nakano!

We were here specifically for Nakano Broadway!  The best way I can describe it is like a long semi-indoor street mall filled with a lot of shops and restaurants.  At the end there's an escalator that takes you up into a multi-floor mall filled with lots and lots of anime and otaku stores, including Manadarake!  It's a lot of fun and a must-see destination for any weeaboos tbh LOL.

First, we took our time in the "street" area!

We realized we hadn't really ate a real meal since the day began, so bf and I decided to stop at a ticket machine restaurant for some quick food!  We shared an udon and gyudon between the two of us!  The food was really good, but it was super hot inside the whole rea, including in the restaurant, so it was hard to enjoy the hot udon LOL.  

Then we walked around the shops some more!  

^An “alleyway” leading out of the main part of Nakano Broadway and back outside.

After a little bit of window shopping my bf and I met up with our friends at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant!  Even though we had just ate we decided to try a little bit of sushi just because.  

Afterwards it was up the escalator and into weeb paradise LOL.  This area was a lot less crowded and hot, which was a welcome relief!

Our first stop was Mandarake!  I'm not much into manga or doujinshi, but it was still cool to look around, albeit a bit stinky LOL.  

After a bit more looking around, I managed to find a lot of things I was interested in (I wasn’t sure if I would at first lol).  I bought some Love Live merch of my favorite 2D idol, Maki Nishikino!  

We also found a store with these gates which I assume are meant to imitate the Fushimi Inari shrine torii gates in Kyoto (although I didn’t realize this until afterward LOL).  They were so small though, my bf couldn’t walk through them without crouching LOL.

Look at all his shopping bags LOL.  He bought so many Final Fantasy plushies!

At this point we were tired so we took a break at these arcade machines, and my bf decided to play a few games while we were waiting for our friends to finish their shopping.  I bought myself a vending machine drink and rested, then decided to look around some more.

I saw the Spank store!  I don't know why, but I was nervous to take pictures and look around there, so I just took a quick glance through what they had.  I regret not being brave enough to look around more thoroughly LOL.

By now, we were all tired, so we got on the train back to our hotel!  I got some pretty good pictures of us waiting at the station LOL.

^added in that pic just because my bf looks cute LOL 

We had to do a transfer in Takadanobaba!  We didn't leave the station, but I took lots of pics with the signs LOL.

Something we discovered is that even though our hotel is in Ikebukuro, it's easier to get off at Otsuka station since it's actually closer to our hotel than Ikebukuro station!  Otsuka station is a lot less crowded and the walk back is a lot calmer.

A bakery inside Otsuka station!

The only pic I got of the area outside Otsuka station lol aaand it’s blurry.

The street our hotel was on!

Kind of a funny/silly story: the first time we walked to Otsuka station, we saw this run-down, kinda scary Coca-Cola building a little bit down the street from our hotel. My bf said something along the lines of “What would you do if you came to Japan and this was your hotel?  Cat would be pissed!” and it kinda became a running joke among us every time we passed it LOL (it was funnier in real life I swear).

After dropping our purchases back at our hotel and resting for a bit, bf and I decided to go to the Ikebukuro Parco for the Evangelion store to get souvenirs for his brother and his brother’s (now ex) gf.  We had to rush though, since the mall was closing soon by the time we decided to go.  I was confident I could get us there in time though, and I did!  Although it took us a lot of running up and down stairs and I was sweaty again by the time we actually got to the store ><

These goods were designed/illustrated by Yurie Sekiya, the artist behind Peropero sparkles!! I love her art so much and Peropero sparkles is sooo cute, I wish she did merchandise for an anime I actually like though LOLOL

I'm not into Evangelion and neither is my bf lol but the store had such a wide selection of eva goods!  If I were into eva this store would seem amazing.

While walking through Ikebukuro back to our hotel, we saw a street performer!  

And then we decided to go to Matsuya again for a quick dinner since we were hungry from so much walking around LOL.  We were really tired and walking anywhere else seemed like too much of a pain.  Thank goodness for this Matsuya!  We shared a gyudon (see a pattern?  LOL) and some hamburger steak dish?

The Angelic Pretty Aquarium Carnival release was the next day, and my friend and I decided we wanted to go if for no other reason than to experience an AP release LOL.  We decided we would go to the AP in Shinjuku OIOI since that is the only store that doesn't require you to dress in AP apparently lol.  Since we had to wake up early to get ready for that, I was ready for some much-needed sleep!

That wraps up day 3!  We did a lot this day.  I really enjoyed this day a lot despite the heat and my constant whining about it LOL.  The highlight for me was walking around Asakusa and trying so many different snacks!

Japan Trip June 2016