Japan Trip Update/Report

[Haley R]

The alien eating your phone is great! Sounds like things are going smoother now!

Today we mostly walked everywhere so it was an easy day getting around. The alien cord accessory was one of the main things I wanted here lol

 

[Haley R]

So fun, Haley! I love the photo of you with your cotton candy. Your smile says it all. Thanks for sharing it all with us.

No problem! Thanks for following along. The cool thing about the cotton candy is each color has its own flavor. The green was melon, pink was strawberry, and the yellow was lemon. The yellow was by far the best. There was a cotton candy that had 6 flavors but I’m glad we got the 3 flavors because it was a lot of cotton candy

 

[Haley R]

The alien eating your phone is so cute... as well as the PJ's... great up date...

I tried the jammies on last night and the shirt fits perfect but the shorts are a little tight. I’m still gonna keep them but it shows how different the sizes are here. I got a medium and the shorts fit like a small.

 

[LovesTimone]

I tried the jammies on last night and the shirt fits perfect but the shorts are a little tight. I’m still gonna keep them but it shows how different the sizes are here. I got a medium and the shorts fit like a small.

Good thing to know... jotting this down in the book.... We did find the same issue at Disneyland Paris.... the size's ran super small... We were looking for just some T-shirts... and we ended up getting T-shirts in the men's section... for a better fit... the ladies were not roomy enough for the "lady parts to fit in comfortably"

Hope you guys are having an amazing time...

 

[Haley R]

Trip Report-Day 3
First thing this morning we went to 7-11 to buy breakfast. We bought a banana, a bag of cut apples, an egg sandwich, chicken egg sandwich, beef short rib onigiri, and pancakes. Syth said the egg sandwich was his favorite. Mine was the pancakes because they came with butter and syrup already in between the pancakes so it was like a sandwich.

We then walked to Meiji-Jingu. It was okay. We didn’t feel like there was much to see. It opened at 9 which is when we got there and it got busy by 10 am. The garden path costs extra but our Airbnb host let us use her pass. I liked the garden area better than the shrine.

Next we went to Asakusa. The train ride was kind of long with lots of stops but we definitely have a handle on the trains now. The tourist center was a good area to see the skyline up high. This main street was SO busy and we didn’t like that at all. Way too many people and everyone is trying to get you to buy things. We did end up engraving our own chopsticks which look pretty cool. The Senso-ji temple had more guidance on what to do compared to Meiji-Jingu. We ate at McDonald’s in Asakusa and had no trouble communicating with staff. I was told before the trip you couldn’t order things a specific way but I got my burger with only cheese and had no issues. We ate upstairs in mcdonalds which was cool.

We then walked about half an hour to the Edo Tokyo Museum which was awesome! So detailed and the exhibits are fantastic. They had actual houses and miniature scale landscapes. It’s hard to describe but it was way cooler than I thought it would be. We were there for like 3 hours. This was my favorite part of the day.

The last thing we did was visit Akihabara. This was okay but I’m not a fan of anime so nothing stood out as amazing. We played a bunch of ufo claw games in the sega store which was fun. The best claw machines are the ones with snacks in them. They’re a lot easier to win. If you want to feel super incompetent as a human being, go watch some kids play video games in the sega building. They’re intense! We ate dinner at Denny’s and it’s not at all like Denny’s in the US. We ordered spaghetti with a heavy meat sauce, German potatoes and ham, deli style spicy chicken curry, and fried shrimp. Syth said the curry tasted inexpensive and it had chicken skins that he didn’t like. My potatoes were really good. The spaghetti was pretty normal but the meat sauce was interesting. This was the first place we went to where language was a slight barrier. The server didn’t speak English and we had no problems but this was the first time we had someone who didn’t speak English. The last thing we did was went to Akihabara Gachapon Hall and they had floor to ceiling gachapon machines. That was pretty fun. It’s easy to burn through money in there. I think we spent 2,000 yen which is like $20 on little toys lol.

One thing I hated about Akihabara were all of the maid cafes. There are so many “maids” standing on sidewalks trying to get you to come to their cafe. It honestly just ruined the whole experience of walking through Akihabara. I think it’s extremely weird to want to be served by girls who look 12. Sorry for my mini rant but it really did put a big damper on the whole area for me.

Sorry this was super long but I wanted to get all of my thoughts out there.

 

[amalone1013]

I'm enjoying following along! I know very little about Japan. I had never heard of maid cafes... The museum sounds like it would be right up my alley!

 

[Douglas Dubh]

Glad you enjoyed the Edo Tokyo museum. I really liked it and have recommended it a few times.

 

[CanoeRower]

I went to one of those maidcafes in Akihabara on Sunday and immediately regretted it. I kept going back and forth about whether to go to one but eventually tried it just to see what it was like as part of a Japan experience.

The one I went to was very loud as the maids lipsync to loud japanese songs...and I hate loud music of any kind.

 

[Haley R]

I'm enjoying following along! I know very little about Japan. I had never heard of maid cafes... The museum sounds like it would be right up my alley!

Did you look up what they are? I think it’s super weird. Everyone just ignores them when they walk by but I find it slightly disturbing. The museum seriously was amazing!! And everything is in English as well as Japanese

 

[Haley R]

I went to one of those maidcafes in Akihabara on Sunday and immediately regretted it. I kept going back and forth about whether to go to one but eventually tried it just to see what it was like as part of a Japan experience.

The one I went to was very loud as the maids lipsync to loud japanese songs...and I hate loud music of any kind.

Yeah it just doesn’t look like a great experience

 

[Haley R]

Well I slept in until 9 this morning and it felt so good! We were gonna go to the war museum but I needed the sleep and my knee is acting up. We have a reservation at the Pokémon cafe at 1 so we’ll head that way a little before and go to the imperial palace.

 

[amalone1013]

Did you look up what they are? I think it’s super weird. Everyone just ignores them when they walk by but I find it slightly disturbing. The museum seriously was amazing!! And everything is in English as well as Japanese

Yeah, they sound very strange to me...

 

[AngelDisney]

Well I slept in until 9 this morning and it felt so good! We were gonna go to the war museum but I needed the sleep and my knee is acting up. We have a reservation at the Pokémon cafe at 1 so we’ll head that way a little before and go to the imperial palace.

I will be booking the Pokémon Cafe next week. Look forward to reading your report on that experience. Have a wonderful time there!

 

[Haley R]

I will be booking the Pokémon Cafe next week. Look forward to reading your report on that experience. Have a wonderful time there!

Omg do it! It was amazing! So much fun and we spent way too much money there lol.

 

[nono]

I’m still gonna keep them but it shows how different the sizes are here. I got a medium and the shorts fit like a small.

So, would you say 1 size up from American or 2? Asking for a friend...

 

[Haley R]

So, would you say 1 size up from American or 2? Asking for a friend...

I would say just one. The thing is the shirt would’ve been too big if I went a size up but the shorts would’ve been better.

 

[Haley R]

Trip Report-Day 4
We slept in this morning because we were super busy the last two days and I had knee problems. I didn’t get out of bed until around 10:30 am. Syth went to 7-11 earlier in the morning for food. I ate a Caesar salad and a bag of cut up pineapple. We tried buttered potato chips that oddly tasted like cheddar.

Our first thing was our Pokémon cafe reservation. We took two different trains and we love taking trains now! It’s so much fun. I highly recommend the metro pass if you’re in Tokyo for 1-3 days. When you use google maps it shows a blue M if it’s a metro line so you have to pay attention to that.

Now to the Pokémon center. It is absolutely adorable inside with a huge store. They have miniature plushies and every single Pokémon available. My favorite is Raichu and I couldn’t find him anywhere so I asked a staff member and she went to the back and found him which made me so happy. I had to ask her at first if she spoke English (eigo hanasemasu ka) and she made the hand signal for a little but we had no issues. We ate at the Pokémon cafe which was so cute. I had the Gengar grape smoothie and omg was that good. Syth ordered a latte and they steamed a design into the foam. Our meals were just okay but we knew coming in that it was more for the atmosphere. A giant pikachu comes out and dances which is fun. At the end we bought a pikachu dressed as a chef because why not? We spent a lot of money here, I’m not gonna lie.

Our other major thing was the baseball game at Tokyo Dome. Before the game we rode a roller coaster that went through the top corner of the dome! This cost us $20 so pretty expensive. For dinner we had noodles, popcorn, and a hotdog in the dome. All were decent and reasonably priced. The hot dog was only $3! They gave us FREE under armour jerseys for the game! These things would’ve cost at least $50 in the states but here every single person was given one for this game. One thing I thought was interesting was how many people came with suits on. I’m assuming they came straight from work. Our host said everyone here works nonstop. The game was fun and I love that they do chants when their team is batting. I thought it was funny that there were cheerleaders and they did a routine after one of the innings. It was fun to see how different baseball is in Japan. It’s mostly the same but there are some small differences. We left after inning 5 because we were pretty tired and have an early morning tomorrow. Overall a pretty fun day!

 

[amalone1013]

I was just reading about the Tokyo Dome and that coaster the other day. I don't even know how I ended up there other than the black hole of google...

 

[caylene44]

Okay, that Pokemon cafe is beyond adorable! My BF is a HUGE Pokemon fan so added that as a must do for our trip. This is the reason why I love reading TRs, so many things out there you don't come across via Google alone.

Thank you for keeping this updated as you go, it's so fun to follow along "real time"!

 

[Haley R]

I was just reading about the Tokyo Dome and that coaster the other day. I don't even know how I ended up there other than the black hole of google...

It was a lot of fun. I highly recommend it. Our game was kind of boring because there were hardly any hits and our team was losing but it was still fun. We didn’t get as much time in the theme park area as we wanted but that’s because we forgot the printed baseball tickets and had to go all the way back home to get them