#ueno ryo | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

goalhofer · 7 days

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2024 olympics Japan roster

Archery

Nakanishi Junya (Okayama)

Saito Fumiya (Gifu Ichi)

Furukawa Takaharu (Aomari Ichi)

Noda Satsuki (Kitakyushu)

Athletics

Higashida Akihiro (Nara)

Ota Tomoki (Hamamatsu)

Kasai Jun (Aichi)

Ogawa Daiki (Shizuoka)

Koyama Naoki (Saitama Ichi)

Hamanishi Ryo (Osaka)

Koga Yuta (Fukuoka)

Yamamoto Shouma (Osaka)

Nishi Yudai (Tokyo)

Yoshizu Takuho (Tokyo)

Takahashi Kazuki (Iwate)

Abdul Sani-Brown (Sakado)

Sakai Ryūichirō (Toyonaka)

Uzawa Towa (Miyagi)

Iizuka Shōta (Omaezaki)

Ueyama Koki (Matsusaka)

Satō Fūga (Tokyo)

Satō Kentarō (Tokorazawa)

Nakajika Yuki (Tokyo)

Izumiya Shunsuke (Yokohama)

Rachid Muratake (Matsuda)

Takayama Shun'ya (Hiroshima)

Tsutsue Kaito (Kumamoto)

Toyoda Ken (Tokyo)

Miura Ryūji (Hamada)

Aoki Ryōma (Kuki)

Akasaki Akira (Ōzu)

Ōsako Suguru (Machida)

Ikeda Kōki (Hamamatsu)

Kiryū Yoshihide (Hikone)

Yanagita Hiroki (Tokyo)

Kawabata Kaitō (Matsusaka)

Kawano Masatora (Hyūga)

Akamatsu Ryōichi (Gifu Ichi)

Shinno Tomohiro (Hiroshima)

Hashioka Yūki (Saitama)

Roderick Dean (Kobe)

Goshima Rino (Kanazawa)

Kokai Haruka (Myoko)

Morimoto Mariko (Osaka)

Tanaka Nozomi (Ono)

Goto Yume (Kakogawa)

Yamamoto Yuma (Nagoya)

Kabasawa Wakana (Maebashi)

Takashima Yuka (Hōfu)

Fukube Mako (Hiroshima)

Tanaka Yumi (Osaka)

Ichiyama Mao (Izumi)

Suzuki Yuka (Daisen)

Fujii Nanako (Nakagawa)

Okada Kumiko (Ageo)

Yanai Ayane (Fukuoka)

Hata Sumire (Yao)

Kitaguchi Haruka (Asahikawa)

Saitō Marina (Mito)

Ueda Momone (Itoshima)

Badminton

Kōdai Naraoka (Aomori Ichi)

Nishimoto Kenta (Ise)

Hoki Takurō (Yamaguchi Ichi)

Kobayashi Yūgo (Sendai)

Watanabe Yūta (Suginami)

Yamaguchi Akane (Katsuyama)

Ōhori Aya (Aizuwakamatsu)

Matsuyama Nami (Kitakyushu)

Shida Chiharu (Hachirōgata)

Matsumoto Mayu (Sapporo)

Nagahara Wakana (Akita Ichi)

Higashino Arisa (Iwamizawa)

Basketball

Yoshii Hirotaka (Osaka)

Togashi Yūki (Shibita)

Tajon Jacobs (Los Angeles, California)

Kawamura Yuki (Yanai)

Hiejima Makoto (Fukuoka)

Kai Toews (Kobe)

Hachimura Rui (Sendai)

Watanabe Yūta (Miki)

Yūdai Baba (Toyama Ichi)

Josh Hawkinson (Shoreline, Washington)

Keisei Tominaga (Tokyo)

Hugh Hogland-Watanabe (Honolulu, Hawaii)

Stephanie Mawuli (Nagoya)

Evelyn Mawuli (Nagoya)

Takada Maki (Toyohashi)

Yoshida Asami (Tokyo)

Machida Rui (Asahikawa)

Motohashi Nako (Asaka)

Yamamoto Mai (Hiroshima)

Hayashi Saki (Itoshima)

Miyazaki Saori (Saitama)

Miyazaki Yuki (Yokohama)

Todo Nanaka (Sapporo)

Akaho Himawari (Kanazawa)

Boxing

Harada Shudai (Tokyo)

Sewon Mensah-Okazawa (Kanoya)

Breakdancing

Ono Hiroto (Tokyo)

Nakarai Shigeyuki (Sapporo)

Yuasa Ami (Kawaguchi)

Fukushima Ayumi (Kyoto)

Canoeing

Tanaka Yuuki (Tokyo)

Haneda Takuya (Toyota)

Okazaki Haruka (Tokyo)

Yazawa Aki (Iida)

Climbing

Narasaki Tomoa (Utsunomiya)

Anraku Sorato (Yachiyo)

Mori Ai (Mito)

Nonaka Mihō (Tokyo)

Cycling

Arashiro Yukiya (Ishigaki)

Ōta Kaiya (Okayama)

Obara Yuta (Hashikami)

Nakano Shinji (Hanamaki)

Nagasako Yoshitaku (Kasaoka)

Imamura Shunsuke (Ukiha)

Hashimoto Eiya (Gifu Ichi)

Kuboki Kazushige (Furudono)

Nakamura Rimu (Kyoto)

Kawaguchi Urara (Hyogo)

Yonamine Eri (Osaka)

Sato Mina (Chigasaki)

Ōhta Riyu (Ageo)

Kakita Maho (Kitakyushu)

Ikeda Mizuki (Ōnojō)

Uchino Tsuyaka (Fukuoka)

Kajihara Yūmi (Saitama Ichi)

Hatakeyama Sae (Yokohama)

Diving

Shō Sakai (Sagamihara)

Tamai Rikuto (Takarazuka)

Mikami Sayaka (Yonaga)

Enomoto Haruka (Utsunomiya)

Arai Matsuri (Itami)

Equestrian

Kawai Mike (Valkenswaard, The Netherlands)

Ōiwa Yoshiaki (Münsingen, Germany)

Tomoto Kazuma (Motosu)

Kitajima Ryūzō (Kobe)

Tanaka Toshiyuki (Fukuoka)

Shibayama Haase-Takashi (Kobe)

Satō Eiken (Ogawa)

Sugitani Taizō (Izumi)

Fencing

Kanō Kōki (Ama)

Minobe Kazuyasu (Echizen)

Yamada Masaru (Toba)

Iimura Kazuki (Kyoto)

Matsuyama Kyōsuke (Tokyo)

Shikine Takahiro (Ōita Ichi)

Nagano Yūdai (Ibaraki)

Yoshida Kento (Morioka)

Yoshimura Miho (Tokyo)

Azuma Sera (Wakayama Ichi)

Miyawaki Karin (Tokyo)

Ueno Yūka (Hita)

Emura Misaki (Ōita Ichi)

Fukushima Shihomi (Munakata)

Takashima Risa (Ōmuta)

Ozaki Seri (Sapporo)

Field hockey

Nakamura Eika (Tochigi)

Asai Yū (Hiroshima)

Suzuki Miyu (Gifu Ichi)

Nagai Yuri (Kakamigahara)

Nagai Hazuki (Kakamigahara)

Oikawa Shihori (Tokyo)

Kozuka Miki (Nikko)

Kobayakawa Shiho (Matsue)

Mori Kanon (Hiroshima)

Toriyama Mai (Tokyo)

Tanaka Saki (Morika)

Urata Kana (Osaka)

Shimada Amiru (Ōtsu)

Omoto Sakurako (Iwakuni)

Hasegawa Miyu (Matsue)

Ogawa Rika (Gifu Ichi)

Golf

Matsuyama Hideki (Sendai)

Nakajima Keita (Saitama Ichi)

Yamashita Miyū (Neyagawa)

Sasō Yūka (San Ildefonso, The Philippines)

Gymnastics

Hashimoto Daiki (Chiba Ichi)

Kazuma Kaya (Funabashi)

Oka Shinnosuke (Kamakura Ichi)

Sugino Takaaki (Kamakura Ichi)

Tanigawa Wataru (Funabashi)

Nishioka Ryusei (Higashiosaka)

Kishi Rina (Toda)

Nakamura Haruka (Osaka)

Okamura Mana (Yokkaichi)

Ushioku Kohane (Nagoya)

Mori Hikaru (Tokyo)

Handball

Nakamura Takumi (Fukuoka Ichi)

Yasuhira Kosuke (Takaoka)

Sakurai Tomoya (Mito)

Okomoto Daisuke (Yamaguchi)

Fujisaka Naoki (Fukui)

Takano Sota (Tokyo)

Sugioka Naoki (Kariya)

Yoshida Shūichi (Wakayama Ichi)

Adam Baig (Fukuoka Ichi)

Tokuda Shinnosuke (Iwakuni)

Watanabe Jin (Ōita)

Motoki Shida (Mito)

Tamakawa Hiroyasu (Tokyo)

Yoshino Tatsuki (Misato)

Judo

Nagayama Ryuju (Bibai)

Abe Hifumi (Kobe)

Hashimoto Soichi (Tokyo)

Nagase Takanori (Mito)

Murao Sanshirō (Tokyo)

Aaron Wolf (Tokyo)

Saito Tatsuru (Osaka)

Tsunoda Natsumi (Yachiyo)

Abe Uta (Kobe)

Funakobu Haruka (Fujiyoshida)

Tashiro Takaichi (Tokyo)

Niizoe Saki (Kashihara)

Takayama Rika (Tokyo)

Sone Akira (Kurume)

Pentathlon

Satō Taishū (Aomori Ichi)

Uchida Misaki (Kumagaya)

Rowing

Furutu Naoki (Tottori)

Miyaura Masayuki (Mito)

Arakawa Ryūta (Yokohama)

Hirouchi Emi (Kyoto)

Ōishi Ayama (Nagoya)

Rugby

Ishida Taiga (Kumamoto)

Ishida Kippei (Amagasaki)

Tsuoka Shotaro (Fukuoka Ichi)

Matsumoto Junya (Kagoshima)

Josua Kerevi (Viseisei, Fiji)

Fukushi Moeki (Hyogo)

Taninaka Kippei (Hyogo)

Noguchi Yoshihiro (Tokyo)

Ueda Kazuma (Hyogo)

Maruo Takamasa (Tokyo)

Okudaira Yu (Hyogo)

Koga Yoshiyuki (Tokyo)

Yoshizawa Taichi (Tokyo)

Utsumi Hanako (Yokohama)

Ōtani Mei (Kyoto)

Kajiki Marin (Fukuoka Ichi)

Saegusa Chiaki (Sapporo)

Tanaka Emii (Uozu Ichi)

Tsutsumi Honoka (Ureshino)

Nakamura Chiharu (Yokohama)

Nishi Arisa (Tokyo)

Hara Wakaba (Niigata Ichi)

Hirano Yume (Tokyo)

Matsuda Rinka (Fuchu)

Mizutani Sakura (Mie)

Sailing

Tomizawa Makoto (Kashiwazaki)

Okada Keiju (Kitakyushu)

Iitsuka Shibuki (Yokohama)

Tanaka Misaki (Higashiura)

Nagamatsu Sera (Ōita Ichi)

Oura Nishida-Capiglia (Mie)

Yoshioka Miho (Fujisawa)

Shooting

Okada Naoya (Tsuyama)

Yoshioka Dai (Kyoto)

Nobata Misaki (Ōita Ichi)

Skateboarding

Nagahara Yuro (Hakuba)

Onodero Gin'u (Yokohama)

Shirai Sora (Sagamihara)

Horigome Yūto (Tokyo)

Hiraki Kokona (Tomakomai)

Yosozumi Sakura (Iwade)

Kusaki Hinano (Tsukuba)

Yoshizawa Koko (Sagamihara)

Akama Rizu (Sendai)

Nakayama Fūna (Toyama Ichi)

Soccer

Leo Kokuba (Chiba Ichi)

Suzuki Kaito (Shizuoka Ichi)

Nishio Ryūya (Osaka)

Sekine Hiroki (Shizuoka Ichi)

Kimura Seiji (Chiba Ichi)

Kawasaki Sota (Kōfu)

Yamamoto Rihito (Yokohama)

Joel Chima-Fujita (Tokyo)

Fujio Shota (Osaka)

Saitō Kōki (Tokyo)

Hosoya Mao (Ushiku)

Nozawa Taishi (Naha)

Araki Ryotaro (Kumamoto Ichi)

Mito Shunsuke (Yamaguchi Ichi)

Takai Kota (Yokohama)

Ōhata Ayumu (Fukuoka Ichi)

Hirakawa Yu (Kashima)

Keiji Sato (Tokyo)

Uenaka Asahi (Fukuoka Ichi)

Yamada Fuki (Minakuchi)

Uchino Takashi (Chiba Ichi)

Yamashita Ayaka (Tokyo)

Hirao Chika (Matsudo)

Shimizu Risa (Kobe)

Minami Moeka (Yoshikawa)

Kumagai Saki (Sapporo)

Takahashi Hana (Kawaguchi)

Tōko Koga (Osaka)

Kitagawa Hikaru (Kanazawa)

Hasegawa Yui (Sendai)

Miyazawa Hinata (Minamiashigara)

Seike Kiko (Tokyo)

Nagano Fūka (Tokyo)

Momoko Tanikawa (Nagoya)

Fujino Aoba (Machida)

Hayashi Honoka (Uji)

Ueki Riko (Kawasaki)

Tanaka Mina (Kawasaki)

Hamano Maika (Takaishi)

Shū Ohba (Fujisawa)

Moriya Miyabi (Nara Ichi)

Ishikawa Rion (Akita Ichi)

Chiba Remina (Tsukuba)

Surfing

Inaba Reo (Ichinomiya)

Connor O'Leary (Cronulla, Australia)

Kanoa Igrashi (Huntington Beach, California)

Matsuda Shino (Yokohama)

Swimming

Matsuyama Riku (Saitama Ichi)

Takehara Hidekazu (Munekata)

Taniguchi Taku (Hyogo)

Terakado Genki (Mito)

Murasa Tatsuya (Nagoya)

Mano Hidenari (Yokohama)

Matsumoto Riku (Tokyo)

Minamide Taishin (Kainan)

Matsumoto Katsuhiro (Iwaki)

Watanabe Ippei (Tsukumi)

Hanaguruma Yu (Sakaide)

Mizunuma Naoki (Moka)

Honda Tomoru (Yokohama)

Seto Daiya (Moroyama)

Matsushita Tomoyuki (Utsonomiya)

Kanagimoto Kōnosuke (Imari)

Higa Moe (Hiroshima)

Kobayashi Uta (Nagano)

Shimada Ayano (Mie)

Wada Ami (Nagano)

Yasunaga Mashiro (Tochigi)

Sato Tomoka (Tsukuba)

Kijima Moeka (Hakusan)

Yoshida Megumu (Nagoya)

Ebina Airi (Sapporo)

Matsumoto Shiho (Shizuoka Ichi)

Hirai Mizuki (Kariya)

Ikee Rikako (Tokyo)

Suzuki Satomi (Onga)

Aoki Reona (Tokyo)

Tanigawa Ageha (Osaka)

Narita Mio (Tokyo)

Kobori Waka (Nara Ichi)

Mitsui Airi (Yokohama)

Makino Hiroko (Tokyo)

Ōhashi Yui (Hikone)

Igarashi Chihiro (Yokohama)

Shirai Rio (Takarazuka)

Ikemoto Nagisa (Nara Ichi)

Masuda Aoi (Kurashiki)

Table tennis

Shinozuka Hiroto (Nagoya)

Harimoto Tomokazu (Sendai)

Togami Shunsuke (Tsu)

Hayata Hina (Kitakyushu)

Hirano Miu (Numazu)

Harimoto Miwa (Sendai)

Tennis

Nishikori Kei (Bradenton, Florida)

Taro Daniel (Bradenton, Florida)

Naomi Osaka (Los Angeles, California)

Uchijima Moyuka (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Aoyama Shūko (Osaka)

Ena Shibahara (Rancho Palos Verdes, California)

Triathlon

Kenji Nener (Perth, Australia)

Odakura Makoto (Tokyo)

Takahashi Yūko (Mitaka)

Volleyball

Nishida Yūji (Inabe)

Ōnodera Taishi (Natori Ichi)

Fukatsu Akihiro (Hiroshima)

Miyaura Kento (Kumamoto Ichi)

Ōtsuka Tatsunori (Osaka)

Yamauchi Akihiro (Aichi Ichi)

Sekita Masahiro (Tokyo)

Takahashi Kentarō (Yamagata)

Takahashi Ran (Kyoto)

Yūki Ishikawa (Okazaki)

Kai Masato (Tokyo)

Yamamoto Tomohiro (Ebetsu)

Uchida Akiko (Tokyo)

Ishii Miki (Fujisawa)

Kojima Manami (Sendai)

Fukudome Satomi (Tokyo)

Araki Ayaka (Tokyo)

Wada Yukiko (Tokyo)

Tominaga Koyomi (Komae)

Hayashi Kotona (Osaka)

Sarina Koga (Saga Ichi)

Mayu Ishikawa (Okazaki)

Nanami Seki (Funabashi)

Inoue Arisa (Maizuru)

Nichika Yamada (Nagoya)

Miyabe Airi (Kobe)

Water polo

Watanabe Taiyo (Kyoto)

Ogihara Daichi (Kagoshima)

Kai Inoue (Los Angeles, California)

Date Kiyomu (Osaka)

Nitta Ikkei (Kanazawa)

Nishimura Towa (Kyoto)

Tanamura Katsuyuki (Ishigaki)

Adachi Seiya (Kakamigahara)

Suzuki Toi (Yamagata)

Takata Mitsuru (Hiroshima)

Inaba Yūsuke (Toyama)

Ōkawa Keigo (Tsuchiura)

Araki Kenta (Fukuoka Ichi)

Weightlifting

Miyamoto Masanori (Naha)

Murakami Eishiro (Toyama Ichi)

Suzuki Rira (Shiroi)

Wrestling

Sogabe Kyotaro (Matsuyama)

Higuchi Rei (Ibaraki Ichi)

Kiyooka Kotaro (Kōchi Ichi)

Takatani Daichi (Kyōtango)

Ishiguru Hayato (Tokyo)

Fumita Ken'ichirō (Kōfu)

Kusaka Nao (Takamatsu)

Susaki Yui (Matsudo)

Fujinami Akari (Yokkaichi)

Sakurai Tsugumi (Kōchi Ichi)

Motoki Sakura (Saitama Ichi)

Ozaki Nonoka (Tokyo)

Kagami Yuka (Yamagata Ichi)

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tinyapartments · 4 months

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notes from our first trip to japan

luntian and i booked this trip very late because we had to make sure we were fully covered—she was awaiting the bar results and looking for a job as a new lawyer when we decided that we were going to japan to witness her dear friend’s wedding. given that it was both our first time visiting the land of the rising sun, there were expected back and forths on flights, airbnb bookings, and visa applications, but i knew we were both stoked to go.

japan in springtime is chilly, our friends who had been there warned us enough times. and this was what i was afraid of as someone who does not do well in the cold. the only preparation that i personally did for this trip was to stuff my packing cubes with uniqlo heattech, which i will only wear half of for the duration of the trip. i was happy to experience the springtime chill in japan without feeling like i will keel over to my death.

march 29, our flight left at 2pm and we arrived in narita at almost 8pm. a late admission if you will, but i had relinquished all the navigating to luntian since she is so much better at it than i am, and so i was quite surprised to realize that narita was still an hour or so train ride to tokyo. i was hungry (we both were), and since it was my first time traveling abroad after the pandemic, japan’s airport confused the hell out of me. what was i expecting? that the people would speak english to accommodate my poor bilingual ass? my years of watching anime rendered me useless when we were figuring out where to get our pre-booked skyliner tickets to ueno.

the train station was an entirely different hurdle: japan’s railway system will eat you whole. as i stood in the middle of ueno station in front of the gigantic rail pass map all i could think of was demon slayer’s mugen train arc and how the train itself was alive and ate almost all the passengers. i thought to myself: we are never getting out of here. i wish i could chalk up the exaggeration to simply hunger and exhaustion that night, but during our week-long trip, i never got the hang of the train station. and that’s just in tokyo.

for our first meal in japan, we went to mcdonald’s. tired from lugging our bags, navigating (this was mostly luntian), and arguing (because i was practically useless haha), we gave up and ate at the first thing we saw when we got off at ogikubo station. the design of the fast-food joint was fascinating but unsurprising given japan’s culture: the tables are arranged for solo diners. people would come in, order up, and eat their food alone while watching videos on their phones. it is quite lonely living in japan.

march 30, for our first morning and the rest of all the mornings we will spend in tokyo, we had breakfast at convenience stores (we actually had our first breakfast at lawson, and they had this decadent matcha pudding that i could not find in family mart, much to my disappointment). when we were still planning this trip, luntian and i already agreed that we would scrimp up on our food budget. it was quite a surprise to me that not only was convenience store food delicious, but it was also comforting. i looked forward to the mornings we spent walking toward family mart and planning ahead on what to get. but as creatures of habit, our breakfasts mostly consisted of the usual items: an onigiri of any kind, hot coffees, berocca (may baon kami!), seaweed soup, and a vanilla pudding for me. sometimes we’d share a melonpan or a chickenball skewer, but most of the time we ate the same thing every morning and none of us complained. i would do the same thing again when i come back.

rhea and ryo’s wedding was one for the books. the ceremony was at the infamous meiji jingu shrine. we lined up behind the bride and groom and walked around the public square (tourists were taking pictures of us, fellow tourists! haha) to get to the small temple where the wedding rites would take place. the ceremony was short, formal, and nothing less than cathartic. i could not understand a single word that the minister was saying, but the silence and the uniform gestures as well as the rituals (drinking sake and clapping to a beat) that even we as guests had to participate in was unforgettable. the reception was at meiji kinenkan hotel where we gorged ourselves on an eight or ten-course meal. i will never allow myself to forget about the lobster thermidor.

after the wedding, luntian and her friends had planned to meet in shibuya at night time. i was excited to cross the popular shibuya crossing. to my extreme horror, shibuya was swarmed with people. shibuya was teeming, filled to the brim, however you want to call it. you could probably stop walking in the middle of the road, and the sheer force and volume of people passing through would still carry you across. my probinsyana ass was not prepared for it, but i embraced it anyhow. we bought cheese pancakes from a hole-in-the-wall shop manned by a turkish guy. i greeted him with a most likely mispronounced marhaba (i only got to module 2 of turkish in duolingo), and he asked how to say how are you in my language. we had late dinner with amie at a small ramen diner where we had to google if it were rude to share your bowl with someone else. google said it depends. before heading home, our group had managed to take a shot at hachiko’s statue which was packed when we arrived.

march 31, this was probably one of my favorite days in our trip. we had a late start since the previous day was packed and we were recovering our spirits from how busy and crowded shibuya was. luntian and i agreed to never go back there for the rest of our trip. we went to the nearby mall and shopped at uniqlo (mostly items we will still need for our trip and some pasalubong for our parents). in the afternoon, we went to yoyogi park to participate in hanami—the activity of hanging out at a park by the cherry blossoms. we were disappointed, however, as the cherry blossom trees in yoyogi park weren’t in full bloom yet when we got there. we walked around the park, enamored by its enormity, while we waited for jake’s response on where exactly to meet up. jake, luntian’s friend from way back, is a graphic designer who had been living in japan for five years or so. he invited us to come over to his house which he and his partner, zach, had just recently built.

he finally spotted us while we sat on one of the benches at a nearby dog park within the park (it’s a really huge park). we took the bus to their house, which was also in the ogikubo area. their house sat in a very quiet and suburban area (which is how the entirety of ogikubo looked like, i suppose). it was the only house with a dark façade in an entire neighborhood of white japanese houses. on their fence was an embossed lettering in bronze metal (or was it gold? hard to tell in the night): zach and jake. i raved almost endlessly about this detail like i was the longtime friend he hasn’t seen in a while. inside was a cozy house with the kitchen counter overlooking the open dining and living area. jake baked and cooked as a hobby apart from his dayjob as a graphic designer. there we were greeted by their three adopted cats: snuffy, luca and oreo. jake fed our hungry stomachs with roasted chicken and tomato pasta—a simple but hearty dish akin to a mother’s cooking. while eating, i noticed his small collection of filipiniana books. i promised him i’ll send him more filipiniana books when i come home (i’m working on it!).

april 1, following jake’s recommendations, we went to kichijoji after another round of convenience store breakfast. it was just two stops from ogikubo and i must say that kichijoji was one of my favorite places that i went to in tokyo. not only is it much less crowded than other districts, but if personal and pasalubong shopping plus a gastronomic trip were the goals, kichijoji will never disappoint. from dry goods to dessert trucks to stationery stores, kichijoji got ur back. we were happy to find loft in there as our friends back home had pasabuy requests. i went crazy at the stationery portion in loft, needless to say. we had late lunch at yoshinoya since it was the nearest and possibly cheapest restaurant around. we had to make it to ueno by 7pm for a group dinner with rhea and ryo.

rhea and ryo booked an izakaya for our dinner. it was there that i learned izakaya were after-work restaurants that were usually for drinking and decompressing. essentially, what elbi square was to us in college. after that, they took us for a nighttime walk to ueno park where cherry blossoms were almost in full bloom and lanterns also dotted the trees. after walking the entire stretch of ueno park, the group decided to walk to akihabara and go to the gacha games. the walk to akihabara wasn’t short, but as someone who went to college in up los banos, it was fairly tolerable. our group of 15 charged toward akihabara, and it were only luntian and i who didn’t win at any gacha/claw games. she quietly threw a tantrum for the rest of the night.

april 2, we went to disneysea! we actually had not planned on going prior to our flight, and just made a last-minute decision on this. we had already passed up a day tour of mt. fuji as we weren’t sure of the odds of the mountain appearing (we should have gone because luntian’s friends saw mt. fuji), so we didn’t want to miss going to another cliché tourist destination in japan. i have been to two different disneyland parks in my lifetime, but luntian is a disney parks virgin. on the discussion of waiting for the light show at the end of the night or going home early to beat the swarm of park-goers on their way home, it was a no-brainer: we’ll watch the light show. it was a good decision nonetheless because luntian bawled to pieces when moana showed up at the performance.

we actually shared this disneysea trip with mac, one of luntian's friends, whom we accompanied to tokyo, tokyo (didn't know there was such a place! now the fast-food joint in pinas makes more sense!) before going to disneysea to hunt for onitsuka sneakers. we enjoyed the entire disney trip like a proper throuple (kimmy). after the amusement park, we shared a table with fran and ysa (more of luntian's friends) at isomaru in shinjuku. we talked about how fran and i are similar while ysa and luntian shared the same peculiarities.

april 3, with our return flight the next day and the question of what the hell to do with our luggage, we decided to take this day slow: we went to a self-laundry and washed all our clothes, packed our luggage more mindfully (instead of just buying another suitcase—essentially my idea because i give up too easily haha), and check in to a hotel in ueno where the skyliner station to narita is at. scrimping on food has left us with enough money for taxi fare to ueno (we didn’t want to lug our stuff from train to train anymore) and a one-night hotel check-in, thank god.

for dinner, we went to ichiran ramen house. the toll of walking long stretches, socializing with friends, and navigating a new city for almost a week was starting to catch up on our thirty-year-old bodies, and we wanted some good old broth to resuscitate what’s left of our energy. ichiran succeeded our expectations: a rich and hearty broth, starchy al dente noodles, and a serving of tender chashu pork were all we could ever need at that moment in time. and i was happy to discover that it isn’t expensive as well (clearly, i did not do any iota of research before this trip). we went back to ueno park to see the cherry blossoms once again and were pleasantly surprised to see that the small fair had started, and we were successful in the search for tanghulu!

april 4, we had quite a bit of time since our flight leaves at past 7pm, so luntian and i were happy to finally do something we’ve prioritized but didn’t have time to do on the early days of this trip: visit museums! it was a good thing that the tokyo met was just inside ueno park. we went there and looked at the free exhibits but again, we made another surprise discovery: the worcester art museum happened to be touring and they brought the original water lilies by claude monet. at first we brushed it off because it was a paid entrance, and we just roamed around the free calligraphy exhibit. but after a while, we were convinced that this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a monet painting in the flesh. what were the odds that they toured during our trip, too! so we threw caution to the wind and raced to the ticket booth. not only did we catch water lilies by monet, but we also saw original pieces by cezanne, metcalf, and pissarro. i felt as pretentious and as genuine of an art hoe all at once.

the walk back to the hotel was accompanied by the view of cherry blossoms during daytime. i think it was the first time in our trip to have come close to cherry blossoms in full bloom during the day, something that i probably need to have more appreciation of. it’s actually luntian who keeps on looking for parks where they are in full bloom to take pictures of whereas i would be happy enough to just sit on a bench and read a book. we walked around ameyoko in ueno as the last destination for our trip. it was the only place we were able to find souvenir magnets. everything else was expensive in ameyoko though, so we didn’t buy anything else than the magnets that our friends and parents wanted.

the trip back home went without a fuss except for the long line at the check-in counters. i must note that only the philippine flight was not allowed self check-ins in at the airport, so the wait was really a long one. i left luntian for a bit to continue a personal traveling tradition—buying books at airports/other country’s bookstores. i bought sayaka murata’s life ceremony, which, little did i know, happened to be what luntian was reading on her kindle. we were equally surprised by this serendipitous turn of events.

we knew we were home because the first thing that greeted us was the april heat in manila. the moment we landed, we took our jackets off while promising ourselves we would keep coming back to japan (hopefully with our families next time!).

#tinyapartments #japan #travel #spring #2024 #blog #tokyo

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