Tokyo Winter Break – Departure + Day 1

Tags

109, Akihabara, maid cafe, Sephiroth, Shibuya, Square-Enix Character Goods Show Case, Tokyo

Alright, here come the day-by-day posts. It takes me a long time to do each post, so I will only post one day at a time.  In the meantime, there’s always the summary below this post.

Before leaving, we went up to a shop in the Transit Center to get snacks for the trip.  There I found Marias, these cookies/crackers.  I had been thinking of bringing Marias as omiyage, but decided against it given how fragile they are. It was surprising to find them, and I bought a pack.  These Marias are from Portugal.

Portuguese Marias from the Fukuoka Transit Center!

We left Fukuoka around 7PM via overnight rapid bus. The bus ride took 14 hours.  The older gentleman (or as I say, that ojiichan) in the seat in front of me didn’t turn off his light until midnight, and even then, he opened the curtain! I can’t sleep sitting up or even reclining anyway, but it was somewhat annoying.  In the evening they played some boring movie, but in the morning they played 「犬と私の１０の約束」, or, Ten Promises to My Dog. It’s a cute movie; really sad.

When we got to Tokyo, we hopped on a train and went to the hotel, the Hotel Mystays Ochanomizu.  It’s really close to Akihabara Electric Town, affordable, and comfortable. We checked in, dropped our stuff in the room, and had breakfast at the nearby Spanish-themed restaurant El Chateo del Puente. I had a dish that was called…something or other manchego. (Manchego = Spanish sheep milk cheese.) I don’t remember, but it was good!

Olé!

WARNING: This post is about to get really GEEKY really fast! If you can’t handle it, go do something that proves how much of a non-geek you are.

After breakfast, we headed on a train for Shibuya to go to the Square-Enix Character Goods Show Case.  Yup, that again. I got two chibi Sephiroths, an umbrella with various Final Fantasy critters like Mog and Cactuar on it, and took a better picture of the life-size Sephiroth statue in the floor there.

I left this one at full size for your viewing pleasure. ^o^

After the SE Store, I happened to spot the Soccer Shop Kamo and went in to see what they had. ^_~

Then, we went to Harajuku to walk around and see all the people in the crazy Harajuku fashion.  There weren’t too many people in extreme clothes.  Then again, there were soooo many people there that it was hard to distinguish one for the other.  It’s the closest thing to the Castlevania boss Granfalloon that I’ve ever seen.

Next, we walked around Shibuya in search of the famous 109 (sometimes pronounced as “ichi-maru-kyuu,” meaning “one-o-nine”) building, where all the trendy girls shop. There is now a 109-2 building across the street from 109 with shops for men. Their website linked above has a few sections in English. The intersection in the photo below, like many major intersections in Japan, is a six-way crosswalk.  That is, when the lights turn red, they turn red on all sides for cars, and pedestrians cross the streets in all directions.

Shibuya 109 and the super busy intersection

We had lunch in a restaurant inside 109.  I was surprised to learn the girls who shop there eat. *rimshot* Anyway, the Italian city of Genoa is written in Japanese as ジェノバ (“jenoba”), which is the same way that Jenova (Sephiroth’s “mother”) is written, so when I saw ジェノバ風えびスパゲッティ (Genoa-style shrimp spaghetti) I had to eat it! ^o^ It was green too!

After dinner we went to Akihabara.  Akihabara is known as the tech and nerd capital of Japan.  Well, of the world really. ^o^  There’s plenty of stores for all your gamer/otaku/pervert needs.  (If you’re the only girl in the shop, you should probably leave.)

In front of Akihabara Gamers

As we walked around, we happened to see a Kotobukiya, a store that makes and sells various model kits, figurines, and other fandom goods.  I picked up a Lightning (the protagonist of Final Fantasy XIII) clear file to add to my Pretty Clear File Collection, as well as a Rosch Elixir to finally have 8 Elixirs (enough to be entered in the drawing for FFXIII stuff or a PS3).

After that, as we were walking about, there were many young women out in the streets promoting various maid cafés.  A maid café is a café where all the waitresses dress as maids, call patrons ご主人様 (goshujin-sama, meaning “Master”), and act super cutesy.  The second girl who gave us a flyer led us to the café. They serve a bit of diner type food, but also lots of sweets. My friend tells me that girls go to maid cafés because they think it’s cute and/or funny. Since I don’t know much about all the different types of maid cafés, rather than give the impression that they’re all the same, I will leave this link to a blog post on Akibanana reviewing the MaiDreamin franchise: To Akibanana!

Anyway, there was a 500 yen minimum table charge, and one drink minimum (it didn’t have to be alcoholic).  We both got parfaits.  The parfaits came with a choice of commemorative photo or game time, which I assume means the maid will play some cutesy little game with you.  You can’t take photos of the maids with your own camera, but you can buy photos that they already have printed, or get the food items that come with the chance to take a picture with the maid of your choice.

Like the maids, all the sweets were put together to be as cute as possible.  When it came time to take a picture with one of the maids, I had wanted to take a picture with one of the cooks, but I said the wrong name.  The girl who came out didn’t seem too pleased. T_T Oh well. They draw a heart and write the name of the maid over all the photos. I would put it up here if I had a scanner, but since it’s just about 2 x 3 inches, if I took a picture of it it wouldn’t come out right.

Two patrons paid for the “15 Minute Dream Time,” which included the maid bringing this to everyone’s attention, lowering the lights,  popping open a bottle of champaign, and proceeding to have everyone in the bar (maids and patrons) make the champaign more delicious with magic.  The magic consisted of putting your hands together in a heart shape and saying “moé moé kyuuun!” The maids also had patrons do this “spell” on their own drinks.

After that, we went back to the hotel.

~End of Day 1~

Weekend in Hakata, Day 1

Tags

Canal City Hakata, Final Fantasy, Hakata, Sephiroth, Yoshitaka Amano

I’m gonna catch up one day, I …no, I won’t swear cuz being honest, I will perpetually be playing catch-up with this blog.  ^^;

Two weekends ago was a 3-day weekend thanks the national holiday 体育の日 (taiiku no hi), Health and Sports Day. Wikipedia tells me it commemorates the opening of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Anyway, a friend told me about a Yoshitaka Amano (the illustrator for all Final Fantasy titles, and the character designer for many of the early FF’s) exhibit in Hakata.  I dug around the internet and found the event sponsor’s site.  Turned out you could get free Amano goods just for RSVPing on their site! Even better still, Amano himself would be there! So off we set to the Fukuoka Koutsuu Building!

Cassie & I in front of the exhibition hall

While I hadn’t been the biggest fan of Amano’s style, I must say I got a new appreciation for his works after seeing them in person rather than in game illustrations and such.  I guess it’s because at a small size, the etherealness of his works (which is one of the things I don’t like, the other being his fabric fetish) is exaggerated.  Another thing I liked was that there were pieces that had these grotesque looking fairies.  I’d never seen something like that in Amano’s work, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Some people got to meet Amano and get an autographed drawing.  I don’t know if they were people who bought a print, or if they paid expressly for the opportunity.  For those that did not have the chance to get his signature, there was a “janken taikai,” or “rock-paper-scissors tournament.”  I was wondering how that would go, given that there were maybe 100 people there.  Turned out, everyone played simultaneously against (Amano’s assistant?) Mariko Suzuki! Unfortunately, neither myself nor my friend won, but 7 or so of the people who won in janken got to meet Amano & get his signature.

While trying to get a good photo of Amano-sensei, I snuck a photo of Amano’s orginal Sephiroth illustration, since it luckily was next to the stage. ^o^

Yoshitaka Amano (the man in the center)

Even with too much fabric and bling, Seph is Seph. If only I had 668,000 yen to spare…^o^

Supposedly, all JETs develop a “Japan hobby.” I decided that mine would be collecting pretty clear files (plastic things closed on two sides that serve as folders; they don’t really have 2-pocket folders here.  I haven’t seen any at least).  There were different clear files with Amano artwork, but one didn’t get to choose.  I got a black & white one, not sure what it’s supposed to be.  But the fact that it’s a promo item makes it cool.  And the fact that I was able to read the event sponsor’s site and know what to do! (Ironically, while my ability to read Japanese has gotten much better, it feels like my ability to speak is going down! I think it’s because the Japanese class I go to is in plain form, and I’m used to speaking in polite form, so now I’m all mixed up! >_<)

Clockwise from Right: Free Vampire Hunter D poster all attendees got; clear file; promotional postcard with Vampire Hunter D artwork.

After the exhibit we went to eat お好み焼き (okonomiyaki), which is fried cabbage with mayonnaise and one’s choice of toppings, sometimes called “Japanese pizza.”  Since we were in Hakata, I took the opportunity to go back to Yodobashi Camera to get my 100,000 yen gift certificate for signing up for internet there.  I have until December 31st to decide what I want to use it on.  I’m thinking either iTunes cards or a good pair of speakers for my computer.  Although I’m also contemplating the Final Fantasy XIII PS 3 bundle. ^o^ Even though I barely have time to play quick games like Dissidia. Oh, how Square-Enix has entrenched itself in my soul! It’s as bad as Apple’s hold on me!

Anyway, at Yodobashi Camera’s instrument section, this young dude sat down at an electric piano and played “The Prelude”! Then he started playing other themes from Final Fantasy.  He had the same bag & poster from the Amano exhibit. The Geeks gather! Reunion!

*ahem*

Then, we went to Hakata Station’s info booth to find our way to Canal City Hakata. We picked up clear files with maps of the Hakata area. Very convenient and a great addition to my clear file collection!

Canal City Hakata is basically a mall with rad architecture.  I think there’s a hotel, too.  Every hour there are water displays along its canals.  There was also this robot randomly rolling around the hallways.  But before I propagate the “Japan is full of mechas” idea, some may be surprised to learn that things like each adult having their own laptop and home internet are NOT the norm in Japan, or at least, not here on Kyuushuu. (So what if they had a scale model Gundam in Tokyo?) I don’t know if this is because everyone has the internet on their phones, or if people don’t like computers, or they think it’s too expensive, or what.

Looking down to a stage area

All your mall are belong to us!

There was a Timberland Store in Canal City, and I was much amused to see the red fleeces and coats that are the “civilian” versions (so to speak) of the City Year uniform.  After that, we went back to my apartment.  But not before I put us on a train going in the wrong direction. ^_^;;;;  Luckily, since I know the stop immediately after Hakata going away from my place is Yoshizuka, we didn’t waste too much time.  Still felt like an idiot though. Oy gevalt…