July 23; Sayonaro Nihon, mata aeru yo ne!

Day 16 in Japan; Day 168 in Asia

It was our last day in Japan. While Kristie went to the robot museum and Cat went to the Imperial Palace, I slept in to recuperate. Night buses, although good for budget travellers, aren't the most comfortable thing.

I did a bit of window shopping myself until reuniting with the girls at Ueno for out last night out in Japan. Before going shopping, I went to the bank to get some moolah. It was very efficient, people were very helpful (and spoke English!), and it felt very safe. 

safety first! Hard hate underneath the counter

beard papa cream puffs. delishhh

Ueno Market

takoyaki dinner! one more timeee. 

For our convenience, we spent the evening at the airport for our flight back to Hong Kong. Yay airport sleepovers!

buttons in the washroom stalls are cray

July 22; Hello Harajuku!

Day 15

Youth dressed in exuberant colours, frilly frocks and hair pieces flock to Harajuku on weekends. The Harajuku fashion was made popular to the western audience by Gwen Stefani and her entourage of Harajuku Girls.

In the stereotypical North American high schools, you've got your "freshmen, ROTC guys, preps, J.V. jocks, asian nerds, cool Asians, Varsity jocks unfriendly black hotties, girls who eat their feelings, girls who don't eat anything, desperate wannabes, burnouts, sexually active band geeks," etc etc. In Japan, you've got your harajuku girls as one of the many subcultures in youth culture. High school students in Japan wear uniforms, and so weekends are the optimal time for them to express themselves in their funky fashion.

On our journey to find the Harajuku girls:

so much shopping! We stopped here to shop for a bit

We saw a parade of colour so we followed them hoping to get to the famous Harajuku bridge where adolescence hang out in their sweet costumes.  They ended up taking us deep into the streets of harajuku with speciality stores filled with lolita things, vintage boutiques, Americanized shops, galleries, and cafes.  They stopped for a short photoshoot and then dispersed.

We eventually found our way to the Harajuku Bridge but unfortunately there were no costumed people on the bridge at that time but at least we got to see the parade. But anyways, next adventure! Yogogi park!

making wishes

On Sundays, Yogogi Park is a place where entertainers and friends gather to put on shows for anyone who is willing to listen/watch. Kinda like buskers, except they don't do it for money.

Its also just a really nice play to chill and blow bubbles.

major jam session

The park attracts many foreigners as well. Here are three of them: 

 

Toronto needs a place like this.

July 20; encountering americanism in Osaka

Day 13 in Japan; Day 165 in Asia

We decided to check out Little America today. In grade 11, I had to create a travel itinerary for Japan. I vaguely remember specific details about the imaginary trip I whipped up for my Travel and Tourism class, but I did remember I wanted to visit Little America. It's a place in Osaka that  showcases Japanese youth culture's fascination with America.  It definitely had a different atmosphere, unlike any other area we visited. I could feel the American -- the music, brands, fast food chain stores, multicultural shoppers. 

Baby The Stars Shine Bright! <3 A designer lolita brand

We made our way to the Dotonbori area to check out Osaka's downtown night life.

Along the lit up streets of Dotonbori,  we noticed there were fancy dressed males lined up with umbrella in hands, trying to talk to girls. They were male hosts. haaaa...

Not remotely interested in the hosts themselves, the whole business seems fascinating though.  Perhaps research for another day. 

July 19; Universal Studios Japan

Day 12

The three princesses woke up with a grand surprise: 

Tickets for Universal Studio Japan courtesy of fairy godmother Tita Cecil. 

Domo arigatou gozaimasu! 

I went to the Universal Studios in Florida around 8 years ago. That was ages ago, and although I don't remember much, I do remember liking it more than Disney world. I was thrilled to go back, especially in another country!

Featured on the City Walk: Hard Rock Cafe

Admission: 6400 Yen

Queues: The average wait time for rides was 10 minutes and the longest we waited was 25 minutes. We went on a weekday, so we hardly had to wait in typical amusement park lines, and because of that we got to go on all the rides we could have actually go on.

Rides:                                                             
Shrek 4D Movie.

Since we were in Universal Studios Japan, the movie was in Japanese, no subtitles. It's not difficult to understand the premise of it though. Don't wanna give away any spoilers but at one point it smelt really good.

Terminator 2 3D ( for papa john!)

Mix of on screen action and live action. 

Way better than expected. They even hired a Caucasian guy to play Arnold.

Space Fantasy:

Space Fantasy is an indoors roller coaster that turns you around as you ride along the tracks to look at planets in outer space. One of my favourite rides I've ever been on. Ever.

Spiderman 4D:

I was really excited about this one cause it was Spiderman and the one in Florida had fire. 

No spoilers, but things got hot.

Back to the Future:

You sit in the DeLorean in a motion stimulated room and time travel. Cool concept but I admit it was a very rickity ride.

The Mummy Museum:

Mike Myers

Hand to hand with Eiji Wentz and Teppei Koike

We didn't actually go in the museum but had fun on the exterior where the walls were decorated with celebrities hand prints.

Jurassic Park The Ride River Adventures:

playing dentist with Rex.

It starts with a peacefully ride along the prehistoric jungle, but then things escalate. 

There were dinosaurs and water. We were very enthusiastic about getting splashed.

Jaws: Very similar to the one in Florida. Kristie really wanted to go on this one and Cat really wanted to get out of that one. It was great.

Hollywood Dream:

This was the only real outdoor roller coaster in the park. It was really fun and one of a kind. Before riding, you get to choose what you want to listen to. Some options were: Eminem, Bon Jovi, J-Pop. I chose The Beatles. 

Backdraft: This was more of a walkthrough than an actual ride. Still pretty cool to feel the heat and watch the set explode.

After riding all the rides we wanted to go on, we decided to explore the children's section.

Hello Kitty Dream:

 a teacup ride expect in a cupcake.

Sesame Street Carousel:

Like the name says, it's a carousel. We were perhaps the oldest...

Beside the rides, there were some cool photo opportunities too:

Moving dinosaur

                                         Jaws.

Spidey

It was an option to get a professional photo with Jaws and Spider Man, but for a cost. I think one photo was 1150 Yen (~$12 CND)

Snoopy World: they had a lot of models and cute stuff. I enjoyed taking pictures with them.

ball pen and bubbles area we (obviously) couldn't get into.
looked like fun though.

ugh, kids

break :)

Shows:

R&B Jukebox:

Four (American?) guys performed a medley of songs of R&B songs recent and not so recent with songs from artists from Bobby Brown to Enrique Iglesias, to songs from " Love In This Club" to "Forever".  It was actually quite entertaining.

One Piece Skit

 completely in Japanese and not enough gestures for me to make sense of it. 

Universal Studios helped movies create some fantastic sets. Some of these sets were emulated in the park.
Spider Man's New York neighborhood complete with the Daily Bugle and sketchy alleys:

 

Jurassic Park: 

 Amityville:

Waterworld:

and even Hello Kitty world. Its a really nice place to walk around.

As for fooooood, there were some restaurants and snack bars scattered around the park.

American Graffiti's Mel's Drive-In:

Coca Cola endorsed restaurant

Hello Kitty snack bar

Not an actual restaurant, but a takoyaki museum on the City Walk. 

Well Universal, you've been great.

Our day didn't end after the amusement park. We were invited to Tita Cecil's friend's place for dinner. (Yay, pinoy party!) She was so nice to invite us to her place. She made a homecooked meal and desserts. It was great. We spent the rest of the evening chatting with a mini Filipino community (I admit, I'm surprised to see that the Filipino community exists in Japan), I tried to befriend the adorable munchkin, and even got to hear Cat speak a bit of her own language (she refuses otherwise).

Such an awesome day. Oh fairy godmother Cecil, how will we ever repay you?