So my friend Liz and I planned a trip for a group of 10+ ppl to go to Osaka(16ppl) and Tokyo (12ppl). We actually pulled it off w/o missing any of our buses and we all got rooms in the same hotels!
So much happened on this trip that I really can't give you a good recollection of it. But I did go to a lot of shrines and temples, including the oldest shrine and the famous Asakusa shine in Tokyo and some great temples in Osaka (where we got to go to the top of the pagoda!)
I got a fortune at the Asakusa shrine. It was bad :( It told me that "the person I was waiting for would not come!" In addition to that, "I'm too impatient and my boat wouldn't come and if I got on a boat, that boat would sink" (my words) "also it was a bad time to build or take down a house". Pretty bad. It was the second to worst fortune one could get. When you get a bad fortune you tie it to a string in the shrine so it won't follow you home. That's what I did. I really didn't want my boats to sink.
I also went to my first night club in Osaka. Very interesting scene, night clubs....
Anyhooo!
We stayed in a separate room in Osaka. The Mikado hotel had an onsen bath. Onsens in Japan are hot springs, but there also large bathtubs where this water can go. At an onsen you wash first before getting in. With a bunch of other strangers, who also happen to be completely naked. Or maybe wrapped in a towel(occasionally).
In Tokyo, we stayed in the Shinjuku area in two different types of rooms. Some of my friends stayed in the Hotel's Mix-dorm room, while the rest of us stayed on a wooden capsule floor. Capsule hotels are hotels where you rent basically the bed space which is a large box w/ your bed and a light. These hotels are usually cheap and only open to business men, but we got a cool hotel called Acc Inn Shinjuku. Yay!!! 20-31 bucks a night!!Ace Inn was pretty nice and the ppl were quite cool. I personally recommend it for a cheap night sleep. It was quite clean also! and there were coin showers and laundry. I actually did some trip laundry there!
So in Osaka we went to the aquarium. That was a lot of fun. I used my telepathic powers to get a turtle to pose w/ me but my friend didn't take the picture in time. So you just have to take my word for it. We also went to this wicked awesome placed called Den-den town. Den = electricity. So double the den = double the awesome.
There were shops of all sorts lining the streets. There are shops called Maid shops where girls dressed in maid costumes serve you food. You actually don't have to buy anything, but you have to pay a cover fee to stay there! And you're charged hourly! Crazyyyyy.
In one store in Den-Den town, which I actually went to twice, there was a PS3 game called Bayonetta! I loved it!! I couldn't understand the story so much, but the main character was really cool and had the craziest moves and attacks. I think if my PS2 dies again, I'll upgrade to the PS3 and after KH3, this will be the next game I buy.
Osaka was a really fun place with its variety and World's Largest Ferris Wheel. I wound up in the Valentine's day cart with 4 boys! Oh me, oh my. After that I found some ninjas to pose with and a shuriken (throwing star) game to play (300en/a round). I wasn't very good for the beginning but my friend Adam went twice and won a Dragonball pillow. I was very jealous.
On our first day in Osaka, we saw this dance performance on the street. Needless to say, it was weird. Nothing like Nagoya. Naked man painted white dressed like a bunny, woman dressed like a cat weird. I still don't understand it.
After going to the shrines and castles of Osaka we took an overnight bus to Tokyo. Not the most comfortable and restful ride we ever had, but it was the cheapest overnight bus, I've ever bought tickets for.
Tiredly, we arrived at Ace Inn and put our stuff down. We couldn't check in at the 6am that we reached there, but we were able to use the lounge and computers, which made everyone a bit less cranky.
Some of us then set out to explore Tokyo. We bought day passes for the subway (in Osaka we bought an Osaka 2-day visitor's pass, which was good for all the trains and had discounts to all the big things in Osaka. It was a lot more helpful in helping us plan than our Tokyo train only tickets). We hit the town in Tokyo in much smaller groups, 3-5 ppl instead of 7-10 we had done before. Shrines, castle, bus tours, Disneyland, everyone had a different experience. We all made it back to the hotel in one piece and we usually saw each other or ate together at least once a day. It was a good time.
Tokyo was a bit more unorganized than Osaka, but it allowed for self-planning.
We went to the famous Meijii Shrine. We thought about going to the fish market, but it was hard enough waking up at 9am, much less 4 to get to the 5am show!
My friends Tana and Doro went with me to meet with my penpal, Yoshiko, who I hadn't seen in about 4 years! It was very nice to go to Tokyo Tower with her and catch up. The four of us had dinner at the Curry Lab in the bottom of the tower. It had been raining and foggy, so we didn't spend a lot of time in the observatory of the tower. But on clear days, you can see in all directions. That night Tana, Doro, and I found 3000yen! Some guy just threw it down outside of the tower. When we looked for him, he was gone and we were left with about 10bucks each!
I went to Disneyland on the last day, but as time was short, my friend and I only go to ride 3 rides. We did have an interesting conversation with a high school couple on an 1 hr wait for Thunder Mountain. The guy was a self-proclaimed soccer superstar. We went through our list of talents. After I said no to a couple of talent questions, I was asked if I could cook. When I gave the affirmative, it seemed like his nod meant that I was satisfactory as a human being/female.
The bus ride back to Nagoya was quite relaxing. The chairs could recline and had a leg rest! There was aisle space between every chair! I actually slept!! It was great. I also got to read my friend Tana's notebook, which was the most hilarious thing I've read in a long time. I'm still sad I didn't get to finish it. We've made an agreement that I can do voice acting her future cartoons. Getting the bus was a bit stressful for me. As we all know, I'm pretty bad at directions. If you have ever received driving directions in a car from me you'll know I still mix up Left and Right. So when 11 ppl are asking you where to go and you don't know (because you've never been there before either), you get stressed out. Luckily we made it to the bus terminal before the bus arrived and got in our seats. The ride back was a bit long, but very nice and I recommend Tokai Super buses to everyone!
Well, that seems like enough for now. Ninja House and Strawberry picking are next.
Love,
~Ama
