Japan Trip 2023 Part 2

So, I'll be honest. I kind of forgot to write part 2 since I was preparing to go to the anime convention. It's been like four weeks, but hey, better late than never, right?

Well, let's get the show on the road.

Day Three

I forgot to mention this, but I bought a new pair of slip-on shoes since my Vans were not suited for extended walking. I don't think I said that my feet were killing me from how much I walked.

Anyways, I woke up with no idea on what to do. You see, I planned nothing and followed my friend's plan, but now that she was gone, I had to think for myself. After a while, I decided to go to Yokahoma to see the moving Gundam before it's taken down next year.

After two/three days of riding trains, I was decent at navigating the complex rail system, i.e. using google maps.

I planned to arrive at Yokohama one or two hours earlier to explore, but...I kinda got lost. So I just walked around. I have to say, traveling and walking in Japan by yourself makes you feel really lonely. Or maybe that's just me.

At least I got something nice to eat.

In case you haven't noticed, I love sushi. Japan has ruined sushi for me. I usually eat sushi like once a week, but after returning for Japan, I didn't eat sushi for a month because I knew that it wouldn't be as good and would cost several times more.

Gripes aside, I decided to make my way to the Yokohama Gundam Factory after.

I passed by the Marine Tower on my way to the dock. I didn't go in, but it was pretty cool.

It wasn't long after when I saw the Gundam. I can put into words how exciting I was. A smile literally broke out on my face and I forgot all about my worries.

I can't remember, but tickets were around $10-20 and it cost extra to go up to the dock-tower to get close up to the Gundam. It was like twice as much, I believe.

It's a Gundam!!!!

The show, what they call it when the Gundam moves, happens around every 30 to 60 minutes. The show ranges between 5-10 minutes, and there are also short "shows" to move the Gundam into a more suitable position for the following show.

Like this

After that, I still had some time until the next show, so I went into the shop, where they had diorama and sell exclusive Gundam kits and merch.

This is the 1/48 size kit of the giant Yokohama Gundam. I was really tempted to get this, but the box was way too big to fit into my suitcase. Not that it stopped from purchasing so much that I needed to buy a second suitcase to bring it home.

I really wanted to get the one on the right, but it's a vinyl disk and I'm not buying a record just to use this. Oh, but I was really tempted.

I left the shop with some a keychain and a bust model kit of the Yokohama Gundam.

By now, the show started.

I didn't bring a tripod, so I had to hold up arms during the entire show. Honestly, I'm surprised by how long I lasted.

With the show done, I went up to the cafe. I was not exactly hungry, and the food didn't look too appetizing or themed, so I bought an Blue Soda in an exclusive water bottle.

As you can see, the sun was starting to set. It wasn't even that late, only 4 pm. The next show started at around 4:30 or 5:00 pm, so I recorded that one, too. Unlike the first one, this one is the short one.

I wanted to stay to get a video of the night show, where the lights would be more prominent, but my dumb ass decided to go without wearing a jacket. The previous days weren't cold, so I thought I could get away with it.

Nope.

So, I decided to travel back before I froze to death for my stupidity.

After returning, I wanted to try some yakitori, so I went to a nice hole-in-a-wall place. It was very awkward because of the language difference. Thankfully, the elderly server had probably experience something similar, so she brought out a handwritten menu for me.

I got like six skewers, and most of them were chicken. I can't remember the exact names of the pieces I got, but I know I got cartilage and heart.

After finishing everything, I was only half full, but I left. I felt too awkward to stay. It was a really small place, and there were other customers. The staff would engage in conversation with the other customers, and one even sat down with them. It just felt so embarrassing for me to go alone, since it was more like a drinking place.

So yeah, I bought some food from 7-11 for the rest of my dinner.

The good thing about Japan is that even convivence store food tastes really good.

Oh, and here's the model kit I bought.

Day Four

I was incredibly excited for today because I was going to meet up with a friend and go to a Monster Hunter theme café. He's a navy, who was stationed in Japan, and he happened to have time off.

I had to reserve the café ahead of time so I toured Akihabara a bit before meeting up with him at the café. After entering an getting seated, I immediately started taking pictures of the decor.

I ordered two drinks: the Magnamalo Hellfire Soda and the Pukei-Pukei, 'Matcha custard milk.' My friend ordered the Razewing Ratha, which is the one in the back of the first picture.

For food, I ordered the Tail of the Legendary Dragon (Fatalis) and an Expertley Cooked Bone-in Meat, which was just chicken meatball formed around a bone and coated in bacon. My friend got the Diablos, 'Garlic Curry of the Desert Fierce.'

The Fatalis dish was basically roast beef in sauce. Honestly, it was not bad even if it was a little cold.

The bone-in meat was also good, but that's kinda hard to mess up.

My friend said the curry was good, but then again, it's hard to mess up curry.

For desert, we got dango.

All in all, the food was better than the Ghibli themed cafe I went to.

There was also some freebies that were given to us. It was luck-based, but I think I got something nice.

After that, my friend showed me some places to buy some artbook. To say I bought a lot would be an understatement. I'll show a picture of everything I got at the end, but after my shopping spree, we went to some claw machines.

My friend mostly played, but I did try my hand at one.

I succeeded.

Honestly, after trying it, I can understand how people can spend so much in the heat of the moment. I spent like 2200 yen to get Anya, but I saw her figure in a store for like 1700 yen or something. It's more for the experience than the monetary value.

Before going our separate ways, we stopped by an arcade. I watched my friend play Kantai Collection and that's it. Don't worry, I'll be playing tomorrow.

After separating, I was really craving some sushi and I wanted to get some good conveyor belt ones, so I found one near my hotel that wasn't a chain store.

It was crab season, so I got a lot of those.

I have a new kinda of sushi I like, flounder fin. It's really fatty, but it has a nice chew and flavor, especially torched.

I was really satisfied, but feared that I could no longer eat American conveyor belt sushi anymore. Well, not that I couldn't eat, but it did make it less exciting.

Also, you know those youtube videos where people go to a conveyor belt place and eat less than $12-15 dollars? Yeah, that wasn't me. Those video's lied to me!

But for real, I think it's because I just chose the most expensive options. I got ikura, uni, and other pricier fish. What can I say, I have expensive tastes.

Day Five

I was meeting up my friend again in Akihibara, but I still had some time, so I decided to get some stuff to eat.

The takoyaki was super good and really big. They also gave a lot.

I misread the sign and thought it said wasabi ice cream. Nope, it was warabi, a kind of mochi. It was still good, but I'm disappointed. I was so excited to try wasabi ice cream.

I visited some store again before I met up with my friend at the food floor of Yobobashi Akiba. We originally wanted to get some katsu, but the shop was really busy, so we had to choose something else. And guess what we chose?

Conveyor Belt Sushi. It was good, but not as exciting. Still nice to eat with a friend.

The previous place also had this, but I forgot to record it, so here's a video of me getting green tea.

We went shopping again, claw games and arcade. Only this time, I played.

I spent like 2700 yen and started an account. You need a card to record your information, which was 300 yen. And stamina is about 100 yen each, so yeah, I kind of feel this is much more expensive, though I'm not clear on the exact rates.

Anyways, here is my first ten roll.

After rolling, they print out the first copy of cards you got out for free, but if you want new cards for the ascensions, you have to pay extra for them to print it out. It doesn't affect gameplay, so yeah. Also, there's a card reader to scan what cards you have and I attempted to cheat the system, by using my friend's cards.

Well, I can use it, but I can ascend it beyond the first ascension, darn.

After that, we spent some more time until he had to leave. It was Sunday, so he was back on duty tomorrow.

With my friend gone, I just wandered around and stumbled into a model kit exhibition on the top floor of a Kotobukiya Building.

Once it neared dinner time, I went back to my hotel to store all my purchases. And I decided I wanted yakiniku that night.

Why do I keep choosing food that is best with friends. Maybe this is a secret signal from me.

I went to a place with only like four tables. It was run by two people, a chef and a server. Man, Japan really has the smallest shops.

These appetizers were really good, especially the two beef options. For the kimchis, I mixed them up with the cooked meat for more flavor and variety.

I didn't quite like the liver. One of them was a liver, but I don't know what the other one was. The texture reminded me of liver, not a fan.

Ah, the final bites. I was very reluctant to finish it.

I don't know what this is, I think it's tea mixed with dashi stock. Pretty good, if a bit hot.

The shop serve noodles as a finishing dish, either hot or cold. I chose hot. If I wasn't full after all the meat, I was definitely full after this.

Day Six

For my last day in Japan, I was meeting a distant relative who was living in Japan for the past few years. I don't count tomorrow since that's the day I was flying back.

We were meeting up in the evening at the Hachiko Statue at the Shinjuku Station, so I did my final shopping before meeting up.

I hadn't had breakfast yet, so I went to the Yobobashi Akiba mall again to try the internet famous Gyukatsu. You can choose from four different types of cuts, but I wanted to try them all, so I went with the greedy platter.

It was really good, but I may have gotten too much because the flame went out before I finished.

So yeah, did some final shopping and bought a second suitcase before returning to the hotel and meeting my distant relative.

Oh, here's some of the funny things I passed by and took a picture of.

Final pic of Akihabara.

Here's Hachiko Statue. I think they are taking it down in the near future.

Funny story. My relative asked me what kind of food I like, and I said sushi. So he wants to take me to a sushi place. Guess where he took me? Kura Sushi, a chain conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

At least I can saw I tried pufferfish. Not a fan. It's like more chewy flounder fin with less flavor. In fact, I don't think it has any flavor.

My relative showed me some interesting stores around Shibuya/Shinjuku. I want to show the pictures, but then I realized I'm the photos, so yeah. Not showing them, but here's two without me.

Yeah, we went to a pokemon store. The rest of the floor was filled with anime/nintendo shops too. And thus, my final day in Japan.

Day Seven

I woke up around 9 am, and my flight was in 6 pm. The hotel offered a service to leave your luggage until you need to, so I did that after I checked out.

I hadn't eaten yet, so I decided to finish Japan like how I started, with ramen.

I ordered karaage with my ramen. I don't remember what ramen I ordered, but I do remember a story.

You see, I packed most of my things the previous night, so I could just check out and be done with it. I forgot that I packed my yen bills into my backpack, too. So you see, I didn't have any money to pay!

Luckily the chef/maybe owner was Chinese, or at least spoke it. So after explaining it to him, and leaving a $20 as a collateral, I rushed back to the hotel to get it. I came back and paid my bill and got $20 back.

The funny thing is, that when I entered again, I looked right and saw the vending machine where you ordered your ramen and a slip comes out. And I could only think "Oh, no wonder I was the only one that asked for a menu.

So yeah, never making that mistake again.

I wanted something sweet and so I entered a nearby sweets shop and got a chestnut sundae. Pretty good. The chestnut was nice and soft and not too sweet. I took off the cherry though since I didn't like the taste of artificial ones.

By that point, it was like 2;30 pm, and I wanted to have 3 hours of down time in the airport, so I picked up luggage and went to the airport.

I was pretty excited because I paid for admission for JAL's Sakura Lounge. But before going into the lounge, I stopped inside a store.

And here's the Sakura Lounge. When I arrived, there was only a few other people, it got pretty full hours in. There were still a lot of room though.

I stayed on the first floor for most of the time, browsing on my phone and laptop. I don't if it was just me, but the wifi did not work for my phone. My laptop was fine with the wifi though.

I had just eaten, so I wasn't that hungry, even two hours later. However, I knew my plane was boarding soon, and I wanted to get some food since I paid for it.

There a whole other side, which I didn't take a picture of.

I made two trips. I ordered the curry and the Japanese set. Curry was okay, not that amazing compared to the previous one I have. The Japanese set was kind of disappointing. Almost everything was cold except the rice and soup. Among the six side dishes, there were highs and lows.

After eating, I made my way to the gate. And it didn't take long before boarding. Unfortunately, unlike my plane here, I did not have an empty seat next to me.

Sayonara, Japan.

And here is the reason why I booked JAL. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a foodie. So of course I had to book a Japanese airline just to try the food.

Dinner

Breakfast

So, thirteen hours later, I arrived in Boston, dead tired. And this is where my troube begins.

While making my way out of customs, I was pulled aside by an officer asking to see my passport. When he saw it, he said, "Oh, you're American." in surprise. By that point, I think he didn't care anymore and we just went through the rest of the procedure, where my luggage was scanned and stuff.

I thought, finally. Surely, this was the only time I will be stopped, right?

NOPE!

Since it was an international flight, I had to go through the TSA, but when I entered the line, a lady stopped and asked to see my ticket. I was the only one she asked, no one else. After seeing it, she saw that I was carrying too many bags and forced me to cram one of them into my packed backpack. And then warned me I cannot unpack it until I got on the plane.

I finally made it to the gate, where I had to wait five hours before I could board the plane. So yeah, I was dead tired at the point, but I didn't dare to sleep since I was traveling alone.

Five hours passed, and I finally board the plane that took me home.

According to my calculations, I stayed awake for 29 hours.

Conclusion

Japan is awesome and I'm definitely going back again. But I'm going to book business class and never going to Boston ever again.

Oh, and here was my haul. The items on the left side are present I bought for my friends.