Japan Entry 3

Holy crap, I'm tired right now. I woke up at 6 a.m. for no other reason than a splitting headache caused by the horrible pillow at the hostel and the rock-hard matress. I'm pretty sure beanbags do not make tight places to rest your head. I swear ima cancel a hostel booking if I find they've got pillows like that. Anyway, I got up and, once sleep turned out to be impossible, I instead watched A Single Man to kill the time until checkout. The movie itself was pretty good, and I really liked Colin Firth's strong performance, but Julianne Moore is pretty fucking terrible. Sure, I bought Firth's affection for Moore's character Charly, but it was a one sided ordeal and the movie really lost something because of it.

Once done with the movie and some convenience store breakfast, it was time to check out and head to the next hostel I'd booked which was... really far away, as it turned out. Lugging the child-sized suitcase onto the subway once again, I reached the correct station after 3 changes only to get totally lost. The fun thing about the hostel website I keep using is that the directions are so terrible that you only get a "6 minutes from ____ station by foot" and shit. Like... seriously? After much searching, and asking a bunch of people on the street, I strolled in to find out that check in wasn't until 3:00 pm (it was 11:30 am). Luckily, they had one room open so I was able to dump my luggage and change my shirt before heading back out to Ueno/Akihabara/Harajuku. The room itself is bigger than the last, the bed is bigger, and it has its own bathroom attached to the room. Feels kinda worth the extra $15 a night.

Hopping back on the train after asking the clerks at the desk about attending a baseball game (I thought there was one tonight, but there's actually one tomorrow), I headed back to Ueno to conquer the museums that I had missed the previous day. Finding the park is extremely easy because it's about the only place with trees that I've seen (besides Harajuku) in the city. Giant lush foliage pops out when it's squeezed amongst skyscrapers and department stores, and the park is certainly a welcome break from the hustle bustle. The only issue, same as yesterday, is the heat which hasn't let up one bit so walking around to get photos becomes a race against how sweaty I feel like getting. Today wasn't a day for heat, so I hoofed it fast over to the Nat'l museum and paid my entrance fee.

Once inside, I perused the main exhibit and looked at a wide array of armor, Buddhist sculptures, poetry from the Edo period and more. Every time I travel with my parents anywhere, one of the first destinations would be the museums, so this was a kind of comfortable feeling to combat any homesickness I've been feeling. I think it's the brand new place, but I've been yearning for my bed and to not spend so much freaking money every day, but I'm still having an amazing time.

After the museum, I walked back to the station and searched for an ATM. I'm not sure who decided all this, but I've only come across one money machine that'll even take foreign credit/debit cards which seems very silly to me. Without money, the Ueno markets just across the street from the subway station were a lot less fun. Sure, it was nice to see the fish vendors and clothing shops (one place had a giant shipping box full of shirts which had a sign on it that said "ATREASUREHUNT!"), but not being able to buy anything soured the experience. I wanna go on a treasure hunt'n'stuff.

Back on the subway, I went over a couple stops to return to Akihabara in order to get to the one ATM that seems to take my card, and I withdrew money. However, unless I wanted to get a shitton of coins as change for buying a subway pass, it would be necessary to break the large bills the machine gave me. After looking through the terrifyingly weird video game stores for a gift for Josh, I settled on a cocktail and some ice cream at the Gundam Cafe since I knew it'd be a regret of mine if I didn't go (pic below). The cocktail was delicious, but pretty damn expensive. I really hope the rest of the bars aren't like this.

It was now pushing 7 but Harajuku was calling me, so I changed lines a couple of times (after semi-understanding a Metro Information person's instructions) and stumbled out onto the bustling shopping district. This was the first time I'd even been out past 7, which is apparently where all the younger people are hiding. During the day, I only really see families and older citizens, but here in Harajuku were people of my age and slightly older, dressed up and enjoying themselves. It was pretty fun to walk around and people watch as well as check out the shops, but I'm going to go back tomorrow to do some shopping. There were a lot of closed shops, and I couldn't find the Stussy store so... tomorrow.

Satisfied that I'd be back tomorrow, I jetted off to Akihabara to play some arcade games against competition that would supposedly be there. They were, but I simply couldn't beat the guy holding down the machine, so I gave up and grabbed dinner. A lot of the ramen shops here have a machine where you insert money and choose your selection, which then prints out a ticket you hand to a cook. It's a pretty cool system, and the people behind the counter more assemble the dish rather than cook it, each part being prepared separately at all times in order for a speedy order. This was the first time eating Ramen, so I had to work on my noisy eating. It's odd trying to slurp food when it's been ingrained in us that this is a show of poor manners, so I had some difficulty but I'm fairly certain I didn't insult the chefs at all.

I'll probably just give up on the arcade idea. It's kind of expensive to play, and Street Fighter is pretty dead in the places closest to me. Everyone seems to have moved on to games like Virtua Fighter, and I really don't feel like learning a new game so fuck that. I'll just save my money and spend it on clothing or gifts instead. Being an adult is hard.

I'm supposed to see Shohei tomorrow, we'll be checking out Shinjuku and hitting up some bars in the evening, I'm fairly certain, so it's exciting to finally talk to someone in person who I know.Hopefully I'll catch him on Skype tonight but maybe not. In any case, check below for photos from the day, and I'll try my best to update tomorrow or the next day. Still not sure where I'm sleeping tomorrow.

GT

WHY men want sex

Pachinko is really big gambling here. Near Ueno.

PACHINKO

Fish in the Ueno street markets

Akihabara architecture

Ueno park exit graffiti

Nat'l Museum stuff

Nat'l Museum stuff 2

Nat'l Museum stuff 3

Ueno Market

Nat'l Museum

Whale

Sculpture, and then more museum.
  

 Blogspot sucks at adding pictures in the order I upload them.