Obsessions for weeks: 6/03/08 - 6/21/08

Mario Kart (Wii)



The Wii Wheel is fun but damn is this game hard! I guess I'll just need some time to really sit and play though but there are so many other distractions such as...

...Mario Party 8 (Wii)



Boo no longer reigns supreme and H1's Yoshi has been kicking ass! Well, as long as that damned Mario hasn't been cleaning up too much then I'm okay with that. Heh.

The World Ends With You



Initially, this game was a tad annoying and might still be with some of the horrid j-pop songs tossed in there but it's fun now, in a weird way that I can't explain.



Surprisingly, there's no character I really love but memories of yen and Tokyo in 2007 keep me interested. Also, I can collect 300 pins in the game and if anyone knows me, they know I love a pin. Wheeee!

Currently listening to: "Nobody Knows" by Suga Shikao

The Kyoto-Ho to Tokyo-Ho Japan Chronicles - Day 12

Day 12 - Thursday, June 7th

The last thing that happened in Kyoto was that we got liquored up at 10 AM on our final day there. Thanks to some sake happy old women selling the good stuff at the market in Kyoto Mall, we were drunk off 3 samples of high class sake. Fun times with the cute old ladies. Oh those bitches will try to sell you anything after they've made you proper drunk.

We took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo and this time the kids next to us were not noisy. It was fairly uneventful save our sushi bento boxes we ate for lunch on the train.



Once we got to Tokyo, we made our back to Akihabara to the Capsule Hotel to drop off our gear, then headed off to Ginza to go to Japan Sword.

Japan Sword, according to Frommers, is one of the most well-known sword stores in Tokyo and is like a museum of antique swords and armour. They weren't kidding. We got the tour and I couldn't gaze for too long because that place was beautiful and their collection was nothing short of amazing and that's an understatement. I was unworthy. Also, the prices on those antiques made my head hurt.

The main point of this trip was to buy Bunji his functional katana. And although I promised him a Hattori Hanzo from Okinawa, I didn't quite make it and decided this was second best. It's not due here until the 18th, so we'll see... I'm nervous that he won't like it. But at least it's not zinc alloy! It'll have to do until I can afford the real thing.

After much stressing about dropping all that cash, (and who am I kidding, I stressed the entire rest of the day), we made our way back to Shinjiku so that Beetchie could check out the Gay scene once more now that we had more time.

Oh did we see plenty of the gay boys. They were fabulous. We hung out there for a while with a bunch of English speakers (all theatre actors) from all over including Europe and America. Those boys were bitchy but cool. And we ran into celebrity when we met the voice actor for Zero from Tekken 5! Ha.

And then it all went downhill. We met a bridge and tunnel rat. But he posed as a New Yorker, tricked us and touched us. ::shudder:: Just kidding. That Jersey-ite was cool enough and very happy to see us as we were him.

We returned to our capsule and settled in for the night - our second to last in Japan.

The WTF Moment of the Day:

The Cost of our 100 yen piggyhs rose. We may have won 7 pigs for 100 yen but the pain, grief and suffering of carrying said pigs more than took its toll on us. Beetchie was ready to ditch their little piggyh asses when we got back to Tokyo because the locker we offloaded them in tricked us and cost us so much money to bail them out, it wasn't even funny.

We were under the impression that every day after the initial 4 days would cost 100 yen. Oh, were we wrong. The total cost of the extra 2 days those pigs were in the locker came up to 2000 yen.

WTF.

But, I, being a lover of pork, could not leave their little porky selves behind. Not to mention I had some presents in the locker with the piggyhs that could not be left behind. I like to feel that I went to Sanrio Puro Land for a purpose other than trauma.

The Shooed Away Incident Count:

2 times -

1. For some reason the ever so reliable Japanese metro was not so reliable! It got to a station stop before the one we needed and for some reason could not go further. We were booted off the train because of course, we didn't understand that we had to get off until the conductor came around and gave the sign for no, which oddly likes like you're going to get your head chopped off.

2. This time we actually we got shushed and yelled at. Apparently this woman thought we were speaking too loudly (we were talking in hushed tones) when she was trying to sleep at a capsule hotel.

And then I heard in perfect English, mind you, that "some people had to work". Yet, 10 minutes after we went to bed I didn't hear anything when two other girls came in practically shouting to each other for five minutes.

Racist effin' Japanese biatch.

I could very well respect her need to go to sleep because of work but the attitude was highly unncessary. Seriously, you're at a capsule hotel and you don't expect to hear noise? The fact that you're in a cube surrounded by other cubes in extremely close quarters with a place with no curfew, means your ass is going to be disturbed by people shuffling around with their coming and going.

And I did not need to hear about people and work. I know about work and I know about going in for 7 AM and leaving the next morning at 4 AM only to go back to work 2 hours later. On a Saturday. Whatever, her stupid cranky ass should have found itself home or in a better hotel if she was so concerned about waking up at 7 AM after going to bed at 10 PM.

That stupid bitch is still making my blood boil. Could you tell?

The Day's Eats:

1. A Cheese stick. Which was kind of like a cheese cake/cream cheesey thing on a thin layer of sponge cake.

2. My high class custard roll.

3. Sushi Bento. That was some good sushi. And it was a lot.

4. Shabu Shabu. Oh the good times. We had the kimchi broth and the pork broth. And we ate 25 pieces of beef and pork per person. 25 pieces of meat each! Ugh. It was 2100 yen for all you could eat in 90 minutes. Those peeps cut us off after the 4th round but luckily for them, we couldn't handle much more after that.

The Tokyo-Ho Japan Chronicles - Day 2

Day 2 - Monday, 5/28

We awoke at 5 AM to go to one of the largest and best Fish Markets in the world -  the Tsujiki Fish Market. It was a bit underwhelming at first but we weren't exactly sure we had run across it. The streets are filled with little shops selling packaged goods from seasoning to dried fish.

I was half expecting fresh fish strewn about in these stalls but found nothing at first. As we walked further we realized we were exactly where we needed to be. I found my fresh fish eventually including a bunch of other strange things I'd never seen before and can still not properly identify.



I guess for 200 yen you really can buy nothing but bullsheet.  Just kidding of course.  Man, if someone were to prepare this for me, I'd be all over it.

I managed to not be killed on those busy streets but I did not escape my foot being caught on a plastic thing on a shady corner and taking a really bad spill that had my knees badly bruised and hurting for a few days. I also twisted my foot which seemingly cleared up after 2 days but I must have busted it up something fierce because it started to hurt again 3 days ago. I'm in pain as I write this. Weak. We can catagorize that as the 1st incident/misadventure for the day.

Next we went to Asakusa for the giant temple there, known as the Sensoji Shrine.

Sensoji is crowded, has tons of tourist stalls selling all manners of trinkets to traditional clothing and of course, street eats leading to the giant shrine, pagoda and gardens.

At the entrance of the actual temple is this massive lantern that could kill a small village if it fell on it. On either side, are the Japanese gods of Wind and Thunder. It's a great spot and here are some pics for you guys to see. I'll send the entire set when I upload them to shutterfly sometime this week.

How I can just kill a man...or tiny village, or two little girls from NYC.

Various shops when you get inside!

All part of the temple grounds.

Incident number 2 involved Beetchie drinking the shrine water when really all you are supposed to do was intake, spit and not swallow. You'd think that swallowing the germs of millions of people would deter anyone but anyway....

We then went to Ginza to catch a Kabuki show but a wrong turn took us not to the Kabuki theatre but a high class theatre featuring Japanese Traditional Dance. We went, and were amongst of sea of upper class Japanese elite all decked out in suits and many of the women were wearing kimonos. And in we bounced, two kids from NY looking like two hot messes. Yeah, we were stared at but that's okay because our yen paid for our seats...up in the balcony...off to the side but whatever!

The show was decent. Beetchie's convinced it was a slow version of the L-Word.

Our day ended on a high note. We ate at this little place in the area near our Oakhotel Inn.

Quote of the Day:

"The Holy Water, it burns!" - Beetchie

Things We Observed This Day - Volume II:

1. Those Japanese wrap everything up. Everything! They enjoy present wrapping, I guess. And it's so easy to be conned by two little old people when they're so sweet. Curses on them!

2. The Subway is on time. Always. Though I mean, I did see a minute late train. Shameful! Transfers are rough though and costly. It costs you to transfer subway lines. Ugh.

3. You may not be able to smoke and walk but you sure can smoke and bicycle. Those bullshitters.

4. 230 dollar pair of chopsticks that I really wanted but could not justify spending that money on them. Oh but how that pure silver sparkled...

The Day's Eats:

1. Sushi donburi breakfast at 6.30 AM from the Tsujiki Fish Market. Yes, X. Fresh fish from one of the best fish markets in Japan that early in the morning = good times.

2. Sweet potato soft serve ice-cream and tofu soft serve ice cream

3. Street eats of fresh red bean soft cookies

4. I finally ate manju on a stick! and hated it. The coating of that weird bean powder really didn't sit well.

5. Beetchie had a No. 6 which was a Teriyaki McDondalds Burger which turned out to be a weird sausage patty and anything but beef. I had a No. 2 which was an Fillet o' Ebi. I'd have to say I got the better eats this time around.

6. Flan from the high class cafe in Ginza.

7. Awesome food from the man we now fondly refer to as Hattori Hanzo. He fed us grilled mackerel, various meats on sticks and some bad assed fish balls - yum, and for some reason scalloped potatoes with pasta sauce?

The For No Reason Picture(s):

1. Here, have a ninja on a rooftop!



2. And this thing!

Within the vicinity of a Temple, no less. For shame.

The Shooed Away Count:

2 times -

1. At the Fish Market.

We ended up in an area we were not supposed to be at which was closer to the warehouses for arrival of the fish and shipments. Yeah. I knew it was too busy for us to be there! Beetchie made us get shooed away not to mention almost killed.

2. Our trip to try Pachinko in our neighbourhood.

The place was closed and we barged in there, wondering why it was so hard to get in. Beetchie insisted we push our way through the giant curtains and my ass almost tripped again.