Click here for more pictures of Tokyo ^__^;
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February 14, 2009 - Leaving for Tokyo
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February 14, 2009 - Leaving for Tokyo
My family and I decided to go take a short vacation to Tokyo for my brother's birthday week. =) We left last Saturday, around 11:00am, but we stopped by at a mall in Morioka (which was two hours away from where we live) to eat lunch. It was a long road trip, but we finally got to Yokota Air Base at around 8:30pm, and ate Burger King for dinner. Haha. (: We slept at Yokota's lodging, which turned out to be extremely big. o_O* But it was only for the night. =P
February 15, 2009 - Roppongi & Tokyo Tower at Night
On Sunday morning, we ate brunch at Subway in Yokota's BX. =P Then we headed off to Tokyo! We had to stay at Hardy Barracks (the Army lodging) for the night, which was in Roppongi. Man, when I first saw it... I thought"This looks like prison." Hahahaha, but it wasn't that bad. After getting checked in & settled, my family and I decided to walk around Roppongi. :) It was pretty awesome to see a city again, after living in a rural area for eight months straight. We stopped by at Hard Rock Cafe, and my mom and I took some pictures- along the way-- of course. *;] While walking around, we could see Tokyo Tower in a short distance, so we decided to try to find it. BAM! We ended up taking 15 minutes to get there. (: It was magnificant-looking!! =D However, it was expensive to actually ride to the top of the Tower, so only my mom and brother went. That's okay though, because my mom got awesome scenery pictures! =) After going to Tokyo Tower, we ended up going to this plaza place. I forgot what it was called, but we ate a restaurant there called "Asian Diet." It was SO expensive, and only served small portions. =( But.... hey, we were in Tokyo.
February 16, 2009 - Akihabara, Tokyo
I think we started off our day a little late. We woke up and had to pack everything to go to The New Sanno (the actual hotel we were gonna stay at), which was a different part of Tokyo. We couldn't get a room until 3pm, so we decided to eat lunch at their main restaurant. After that, there was nothing really else we could do... so we took the subway for the first time! XD We went to Akihabara, which is famous for its electronic goods. (*That's also where nerds go often! Hahaha, just kidding!) Luckily, we never got lost along the way--- we were just slightly confused. *;] We went around the town for several hours... looking at cameras, laptops, etc. I wanted to get a mini laptop, but there wasn't any that suited my expectations. =P Oh well, maybe next time. Oh, and my brother wanted a toy really badly, so we went in an Anime shop. Oh gosh! -__-' There are some amazingly strange otakus in the stores... and too much otaku merchandise! (Btw, if you don't know what an Otaku is... just google it. Hahaha.) Anyway, we ended up staying at Akihbara until night time. My dad and my brother ate ramen for dinner, while my mom and I ate at a Sushi Donburi place. (: It was oishii! ^__^;
February 17, 2009 - Disney Sea, Tokyo
So on Tuesday morning, my family and I got up to go to Disney Sea! =) It was our first time taking the JR Line in the subway stations. :) It was weird though because Disney made us ride on their train, which was a lot more expensive than Tokyo trains! It was crazy! >_<" However, Disney Sea was pretty fun. (: We got to see some Disney characters and ride on some rides! :] Oh... and lunch was pretty expensive as well, for again, another small portion of a meal. I was disappointed that 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was closed... I wanted to go in the submarine. =( Boooo! But at least my brother and I got to go to Mermaid Lagoon to watch Ariel's show and ride on Jumping Jellyfish. Hahaha! x) Ohhh! & I'm glad we got a Fast Pass for Indiana Jones because the line was CRAZY LONG. xP My brother and I also wanted to go to Storm Rider but there was no more Fast Pass, and the line was amazingly long too. -__-' Ohh yeah. & The gift shops are too expensive; a lot of them sell the same things. =( I don't know if it's been too long since I've been to Disneyland, but I don't really remember if it's always been that way. =P Anyway, my family and I ate dinner in one of the restaurants right outside of the Fireworks Show. (: Not surprising anymore... but dinner was yet again expensive. *sigh* I had a great time overall though! =) I was exhausted by the end of the day!
February 18, 2009 - Ginza, Imperial Palace, & Shibuya
My family and I went to Ginza on Wednesday morning; we bought a one-day pass subway ticket so we could easily get around Tokyo for a cheaper price. (: For lunch, we ate at a bento restaurant under the Tokyo Monorail. It was pretty cool; the old lady waitress was really kind. ^-^* Soon after that, we went to go look for the Sanrio Store! (Muwahaha... yes, it's because I wanted to go there! =P) Finally we found it... but I didn't really have a lot of time to pick out the things I wanted. So I just rushed and got whatever I thought was cheap. 0=) After that, we took the subway to the Imperial Palace. Turns out, it closes at 4pm... and it was barely 3pm. Our feet were so tired by the time we got there. My brother and I just sat on a bench at a resting place, while my parents took pictures around some of the places in the gardens of the Imperial Palace. Since our feet hurt so much (I guess we aren't used to walking a lot), we decided to take a rest back at the hotel. We were supposed to meet my uncle for dinner at Shibuya. So we left our hotel at 6pm and took the bus there. I haven't seen my uncle in ten years, so it was nice to finally be united again. :) Ohhh! At Shibuya, there were soooo many people. It was crowded and so busy! But guess what?! I got to see the Hachiko statue! ^-^* But then... we walked to this restaurant on the 14th floor of a building. MY GOSH. It never gets old, does it? Yeppp, dinner was yet again--- expensive. We had like 8 pieces of sushi for over ten dollars! So crazy! O_o* However... our waiter was soooo "good-looking"! HAHAHA. He reminded me of one the celebrities I watched in a Korean Drama. =P His facial complexion was so white and smooth, LOL. And his hair was cool.. and he had a cute smile. I know, I know. -__-' I'm lameee! But common! I never get a chance to bump into a guy that actually IS my type- physically! Hahahaha. Good part about the night was that my mom took a picture of me and him! *;] Here:
Seeeee. Isn't he good-looking?? Hahaha. I think so! =P BUT ANYWAY. Moving on... After dinner, we were all still hungry after eating that TINY portion of food. So we stopped by Krispy Kreme Donuts and bought two boxes! Haha! xD & Since we were already at Shibuya, we decided to drop by some of the stores to check out what they were selling. My mom and I ended up buying boots for less than 30 dollars! =) YAY! At least THOSE weren't as expensive as the food we ate! =P But it was getting pretty late, and we all had a subway to catch. So, we said our farewells to my uncle & we went our separate ways. 0=)
February 19, 2009 - Pokemon Center, Roppongi Daytime, Harajuku, & Shibuya
Thursday was our last free-time day at Tokyo. To make my little brother extra happy, we decided to take him to the Pokemon Center in Hamamatsu. (: Man... when we got there, I think I was as excited as my brother was... hahaha. xD It was Pokemon everything! =D Everything was totally kawaii! After shopping around, my brother was even happier because he got to play his favorite game... PokeChips! =) My dad and brother wanted to go straight home after that because they wanted to rest and didn't want their feet to hurt anymore, haha. =P But, my mom and I told them we should all go to Roppongi and eat lunch and take pictures. I told my dad that we should take the subway, but my dad insisted on walking there because he thought it was nearby. -___-' Oh boyyyy, was he wrong! Hahaha. We ended up going to a Shrine and took pictures there... and we ended up walking back to Tokyo Tower, which was a 30 minute walk from Pokemon Center. x_x" It was just another 15-20 minutes to actually get to Roppongi! AHH! My mom and I were pretty bummed because we were going to take a one-day pass to go to a bunch of last-minute stops in Tokyo. BUT OUR FEET WERE ALREADY ACHING BADLY! Good thing we had Pepper-Lunch for lunch, because that made us feel better. *;] What sucks was that we ended up going to the same places in Roppongi; since the observatory room for Tokyo View was expensive. x_x" GOSH, why can't Tokyo be cheaper!? xP
Lol... but anyway. After that, my mom and I took the subway to Harajuku. =) I wish we went on Sunday, but that's okay cause we still saw a lot of people dressed weird. xD Haha. There were a lot of foreigners too, for some reason. It was funny though because even their stores were weird. They had a store with a statue of a dressed-lamb in front of it. o_O* Lol, but the good thing about it was that it made Harajuku UNIQUE! :] Oh yeah, and also because they had stores with posters of my favorite celebrities! Hahaha (: & I bought a dress/shirt for only five dollars! Too bad our feets hurted though... cause I wanted to see what else Harajuku had in store... but everything seemed too far apart to go to. =P So instead, my mom and I went back to Shibuya to take a picture of the busiest intersection in the world! =) Haha! xD Here it is from Starbuck's point of view!
After taking video/picture of Shibuya crossing, we went around Shibuya for a little bit. & We bought a new box of Krispy Kreme Donuts... =P Our feet were beginning to be incapable of walking any further.... haha XD So my mom and I decided to go back to the hotel. (: That was basically the last thing we did at Tokyo. :] On Friday, we left The New Sanno and drove back home to Aomori Prefecture. It was snowing hard, and we ended up getting stuck in traffic... It ended up taking 12 hours to get back home... but at least, my brother got to play in snow for his birthday. Hahaha *;] I miss Tokyo & the city life already... now it's time to get back to REALITY.
The End!
