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Japan Trip
Day Two Tokyo Harajuku, Ikebukuro
The plan was to go to Mt. Fuji and Hakone today. Yeah, no.
This pretty much sums up our attempt to go to Mt. Fuji today. Because of a typhoon, the roads were closed and we couldn't reach either Hakone or Mt. Fuji. Traffic was thick, so we were also stuck on the freeway. We ended up being trapped on the bus for four hours going nowhere. When the tour guide told everyone that Mt. Fuji was cancelled, the Cranky Pants gang went nuts. Cranky Pants yelled out "You're raping us!". It was hilarious. They were so pissed, like it was the guide's fault for bringing down the typhoon. The guide simply switched the free day (tomorrow) with this day and everyone settled down. Jeez. Talk about overreaction.
Snack break!
I got the most delicious rice cakes ever.
Lauren got a warm fish cake filled with sweet red bean paste.
The bus finally turned around and dropped us off in Harajuku. We ditched the rest of the tour group and went down the main street where we shopped at Kiddy Land, Oriental Bazaar, and tried and failed to find the Animate in the area. We did a lot of walking and it was very hot and humid. We finally called it quits on Harajuku and hopped on the train to go buy porn. I led the girls to Ikebukuro, on the way to Sunshine City and Otome Road (yaoi section). This is a really cool area. Lots of sounds, lights and color. Very energetic, which I loved.
Lookit the rabbit on the left!
In Mandarake, Lauren was overwhelmed by the choices. And also by the Japanese. When you first walk into Mandarake, which primarily sells doujinshi, you think you've hit the jackpot. There are probably tens of thousands of djs there. However, they're all marked in Japanese with very little English, so it's practically impossible to find fandoms and pairings. This is the only section where they have pictures of some covers. Everywhere else are just paper tabs written on in marker. So the end result was that she bought only 3 or so books, I bought 0, and Mara cleaned house (because she can read a little bit).
Next we headed over to Character Queen, which apparently has moved. We skipped that and went to Animate. I had to take a picture of this 'giant cosbaby', which truly was giant. The thing was as big as a 13" TV. After that, we were pretty tired and hungry since we hadn't eaten since the snack break on the freeway. So I suggested Sunshine City, specifically Namja Town. This probably would have been more fun for the girls if we hadn't been so tired. Lauren was pooped and probably hated me by that point, lol. But we explored Namja town, and had some ice cream which helped revive us a little.
The haunted house that Mara entered by herself since it turned out to cost $3/person to go in and Lauren was too chicken and I was too cheap.
Some spooky tree thing.
I feel like it's my obligation to win a prize from a catcher game when I go to Japan. Last time it was some green alien thing. This time it's a bear with a shower cap, sitting in a bathtub full of bubbles. I ended up using 8 turns and $13 to win her. Not too shabby.
Mara, copycat, had to go and win her own puppet dollie. Pretty cool. We left Namja town and ate at some restaurant in the mall which was so memorable I can't remember a single thing about it. Then we grabbed all fifty of our shopping bags and headed back to Sunshine dori to catch a movie.
Few things are cooler than seeing Transformers in Tokyo. I was psyched. And it was funny because I was sitting in the theater going, wow, their sound system is great; I'm hearing things I've never heard in 8 previous viewings. Well, duh. They had the volume on maximum or something. My ears were bleeding by the end. Also, Transformers is a pretty funny movie yet no one in the theater laughed except a couple of girls in our row who also understood English. That in itself was pretty funny.
My $6 Transformers movie program which I *love*. Hee. Some other stuff I bought during the course of the day:
A little bento box in case I decide to carry food around in my purse. Hey, it could happen!
My doll!
The most awesome Doritos bag ever. Too bad the flavor ended up being 'Doritos', lol. No flavor. Blah.
I've been looking for these Zumeed headphones for a while, but of course as soon as I buy them I find another pair that I like even better. So I'm selling these. If anyone's interested, $45 shipped per before they go to Ebay.
Next up:
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