nothing but trouble... (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} deedlelu) wrote in ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} egl,@ 2008-02-27 11:34:00 |
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Lolitas Vacation in Japan, Part 1
pawteegal, swdpunk, maetel9, and I took a 2-week vacation to Japan in January, full of shopping, food, shopping, more shopping and even more shopping. I took tons of pictures so I'm breaking these up in a few batches. These are the first 3 days.
Tuesday, January 8th
So, one gets very bored during 12 hour flights, but somewhere in the middle, as we were flying over alaska, I look out the window...
Flying over ice plates! How awesomely cool is that??
The clouds made some neat patterns, yeah... just as long cat, long flight is looooong.
But finally, after all that madness of sitting in one place without moving around (I cant sit still very long!) First glance of Japan. I was soooo exited!
*sings* youuuu are the suuuun beneath my wiiiiiings ~ ~ haha
Upon landing the sun took a beautiful bright RED color, and hence I fully understood the Japanese national flag.
End of day notes:
Lynda (Pawteegal) and I meet Victorial (swdpunk) and Alice (maetel9) in the airport. We took off at noon on monday from the west coast and landed in Japan 4:30 pm on tuesday. By the time we got through customs, picked up bags, met up, got cash, and took the limo bus to our living quarters it was pretty late. And, I say living quarters because we actually rented 2 weekly apartments which turned out to be much cheaper and spacious (in relative terms) than a hotel. Yes, we didn't get fresh towels every day, but we had a mini kitchen and fridge! (In truth, we mainly ate out...). So, the limo bus dropped us off NEAR our apartment, but it was up to us and Lynda's GPS to find it. Little did we know it was through a maze of alleyways in the CENTER of the block in Akasaka. Luckily a little old lady walked around with us until we found it. Knowing where the place is was half the battle. The other half was figuring how to get inside! All I'm going to say is that thanks to the help of a few strangers who knew little or no english, we got INSIDE the building and to our rooms (I started to worry that we were going to spend the night outside!). After dropping off all our stuff Victoria and I were so pumped we had to go explore and get some (korean?) food. You can sleep when you're dead, right? Anyway...
Wednesday, January 9th
Our first meal together was at... DENNY's! Well, Denny's there is much different than Denny's in the states. I had a very tasty plate of lobster spaghetti with a huge claw sticking out the middle. (I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures). Can't find THAT at your local Denny's!
The waitress was so nice, she offered to take our picture. (I'm sure she was thinking "oooh those silly gaijin!)
Alice luuurvs her kiwi drink
Lynda was obsessed with "drinking" weird sauces... so here we go. Sauce 1, tabasco.
Sauce 2, house sauce?
Neon melon sodas are sooo goooood.
Then its off to our first shopping experience! And first train experience...
We stop at shibuya to transfer to Yokohama but we wanted to go see hachiko.
Even the locals seemed to be taking their picture with hachiko, so I didn't feel so bad.
Giant loli is almost as tall as the statue. (just kidding v!)
Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures at the shops, but this is the result. (2 coats, 2 skirts and a cutsew for me. But I arrived in japan with 3 days of clothes!)
After shopping we headed out to Ebisu for Lynda's haircut... (slight resemblance?)
Hot shoulder pads...they were very nice and relaxing. We were able to use the computer at the salon to make contact with home since we hadn't been able to find a way to call.
Then we headed out to eat dinner with the stylist crew and had chanko nabe, possibly one of the tastiest meals ever.
Group picture! (I put on my new coat)
On our way back home we ran into the first of many free hugs kids. They seem a little bit better adjusted than your typical "free hugs" kids you find, say, at conventions in the states.
That guy behind Victoria was saying "daaaaaaaamn."
They were very friendly :D
So, home, and TV, and WTF? I tried to find a vid on youtube to show how weird and disturbing this thing looks in motion to no avail. If somebody finds something post it.
End of day notes: My first full day in tokyo went great. I had so much fun, the trains were a little puzzling at first but once you get the hang of it its really easy to get around. Going into brand stores for the first time was amazing, I'm sure I looked like a gasping fool for the first day but everything was so jaw-dropping. We visited the Vivre Mall in Yokohama, quite an experience. Malls in Japan are nothing like they are here, all the stores are totally open and each plays their own music so sounds blend as you walk from store to store. Ebisu was quite a nice area and the restaurant was very tradional, toilet and all. Everything in Japan is so much cleaner than here, and people go out of their way to make sure your experience as a consumer (local or not) is very accommodating. I really miss getting a washcloth before my meals!
Thursday, January 10th
Not morning lolitas...
How do you feel about Tokyo Disney Sea?
The one and only shoe picture we took
I would guess that if you REALLY wanted to jump in front of the train those doors wouldn't stop you.
I guess Disney parks in tokyo is owned by the Japanese rail companies instead of Disney themselves.
The train to the park was very cool indeed, even the hand and windows loops looked like mikey!
I love this picture
We weren't too far from tokyo
It was a very long train...
Closer...
...and closer...
And we arrive
So happy!
The excitement broke Alice's neck!
Big globe! There was a line to get your picture taken with it, we said screw it!
So, where to?
I see a crowd...
End of disney parade, looks like we are in the right place!
Bye bye!
The volcano was steaming over at pirate cove!
I took a lot of pictures of the buildings, they were just as beautiful and detailed as Disney's Main street but at full size.
Buy it!
I'm calling this the Steampunk area.
Off to a few rides
10,000 leagues under the sea ride
In line for the ride
As expected from disney, the lines are peppered with fun things to look at. (well that and going during down season means practically no lines)
We ran into a cute lolita on the ride, we were all so excited and she wanted to have a picture taken with us.
Then its off to mermaid land (Lynda's second home)
Aww dear sea horse
I wanted to have Lynda posing as Ariel but somehow I don't think that would fly.
Mesmerized by mermaids..
Dragged by Lynda to the mermaid live show, it was actually really neat.
While we waited for the show to open, we rode in a pufferfish.
I TOLD you not to eat fugu.
Aladin land!
Carousel time! The genie mount was a little creepy...
So I went with a griffin instead.
Line of lolis!
Those are hookahs on the table
I tried to capture the roller coaster in motion upside down but I got trigger happy.
Oooh, this looks mystic... like... like... Indiana Jones!
NOOOOOOO the ride was closed for repairs ;_;
Oh well, we settled for pictures in front of the ride. *cries*
His plane... Anybody catch the joke in the name? (I didn't, they had to point it out)
Fascinating fish.
This ride was lame during the day but the lights at night make it really fun. Check out the whirl pool.
Just like being home...
The outside of Tower of Terror, fun fun ride.
The inside looked very cool, made to look like a hotel from early 1900's
I would like a room please.
The "elevator" that dropped you from really high up. Freefall fun!
Close-up (the pictures they snap of you are expensive so I settled with a picture of the monitor, lol)
Chip with no Dale! I chased this guy around for a picture and he eluded me twice, I didn't let him get away the 3rd time.
And then we saw Marie <3
She was so cute! She wanted to get her picture taken with all of us so purely by hand gestures (since they cant talk) she made another tourist take a picture of us, haha!
Lynda got Marie ears and I got some mikey hand earmuffs. Totally impractical but they were cute and my ears were freezing.
Pirate cove! My favorite area :D
Lynda said "aww too bad none of us are wearing Alice and the Pirates" ... I said "WRONG!" *opens up sweatshirt*
Ahoy! I wanted to go up there soo baaaaad.
Lets do a quick comparison...
No barrel, bench will have to do.
Arrrr
Well, bench was too tall for the likes of me and Alice.
View of the entrance from Pirate cove
More of pirate cove...
Steamboat (and gondolas in the background) I really wanted to ride both. Although its probably good I didn't ride the gondola. With my balance (or lack of) I would have ended up a wet loli.
The world's only gyoza dog. (Its just a really long loooong gyoza)
Going back to the round boats and the whir pool... see it looks much cooler at night.
Delectable, Ambro-- AMBROSIAL?? is that even a word? (actually, it is. I just looked it up)
After one last run of Tower of Terror, Victoria walk out and see the lake in the middle of the park on fire. ON FIRE!
Giant and awkwardly moving dragon. (it was on fire too)
Then we say goodbye to Disney Sea and head home...
To find... The mermaid. A pub. Thank. God.
Then we went to eat some Yakitori and have (another) big glass of beer. Mmmm. Beer.
Weird things lynda eats, part 2. Sauce (or salt rather) 3, Sauce 4, malted vinegar. (good on fries btw)
Mmmm Fried Natto. It was very nutty tasting.
We passed this place many times, I kept picturing the girls hanging out outside the door looking at us and saying "are YOU bad enough to be a badd girl?" XD
End of day notes: Disney sea was a blast! It was even cleaner than Disney at home. To such a degree that if you dropped a single piece of popcorn an attendant would be by in minutes (if not seconds) to scoop it up. People in Japan are really good about not littering. The weather was fantastic. It got chilly in the evening but during the day we were fine with just sweaters.
I hope the pictures were fun to look at, more of our trip coming soon! :D
