Today was definitely one of the best days of my
LIFE.
In the morning, we visited the American Embassy in Japan which was quite puny compared to the British Embassy. BUT, they had these cool stickers that changed to blue when exposed to light for a period of time. :D
After that, we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, or as it said on our schedule, "will visit 'the Edo Tokyo Museum'." It was quite interesting and had lots of cool but expensive items in the gift shop-- I bought four postcards. :) There were TONS of school groups at the museum, too. A bunch of elementary school girls started following me around and whenever I looked back at them they would start to giggle amongst themselves... once they pointed to me and said "かっこいい！" (
kakkoii, meaning 'cool') :D
Much later in the day after wandering about Shinjuku (the part of Tokyo I'm currently in-- staying at the Keio Plaza Hotel) for hours and buying super cute sleepy rabbit-filled stationaries in デパート (
depaato, department stores) we took the JR (Japan Railways) subway to
Akihabara!
Akihabara, commonly called Akiba, is a place in Tokyo filled with anime and manga and EVERYTHING LIKE THAT AND IT'S TOTALLY OVERWHELMING. I bought loli-filled magazines and figurines which made me super happy. :> And there was stuff about the upcoming anime Oreimo (Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai - My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute) and Hanamaru Youchien (Hanamaru Kindergarten) and B Gata H Kei and Working!! and Toradora! and Hayate no Gotoku! and Strike Witches and Tokikake (Toki o Kakeru Shoujo - The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and Paprika THEN THERE WAS A DVD OF SUMMER WARS THAT I
REALLY WANTED TO GET... but it was close to $90. so yeah, I didn't get it, obviously. :< (yay for run on sentences!) BUT IT WAS FANTASTIC AND AMAZING AND WONDERFUL. Really fantastic. Like, indescribably fantastic. Especially since we weren't supposed to leave the hotel, and asking directions from confused Japanese people that only speak a tiny bit of English was pretty interesting. :) But really, Japanese people are
so nice. On the way to Akiba, a man lead us all the way around the train station (to a different building, actually), helped us get our tickets and even board the yellow line train! And on the way back, a group of super funny high school boys rode the train back with us to Shinjuku after finding the right train for us to get on.
Oh yeah, I also bought some keychains of
Bakemonogatari and
K-On! characters and stuff. And I got some presents for people too. Well, two so far. Just little ones though. I don't really know where to put all of these EXCITING bits of information, so I'm just typing them down here in this paragraph as I think of them... Also: people in Japan wear masks over their faces in the streets so they don't get OTHERS sick. And nobody locks their bicycles. Their whole culture is based on respecting, caring about and trusting others... it's great. :)
Here are some pictures of Akihabara. Sorry they look kinda squished-- resizing them is a ton of work, plus I can't do that on this computer.
Oh yeah, the picture of the Hanamaru Youchien mousepad above was about $9, while the soundtrack was only $8... doesn't make too much sense. Either way, it's way overpriced.
Here's the magazine I bought:
Yes, it did come with that figure. :) :D
...and that's my adventure so far. Tomorrow, I'll be meeting my host family!!! ドキドキわくわくだよね。
