Visiting Friends

I mentioned before that Louise and Sheila had come to visit myself and, of course, Japan. A few days after then, after the Yokohama trip, Imogen, who had also be visiting friends in Osaka, came up to join us. Picking her up from the station was a bit of a palava but she managed to make it to the Tatami house alright (the hostel Hannah and I moved out of but which Louise, Sheila and Imogen were staying in).

On January 6^th all the Brits went out to Asakusa for the day. That was Me, Hannah, Myra, Louise, Sheila and Imogen. We went down a famous and terribly packed street full of old style shops selling overly priced touristy

stuff. At the end was a temple which was also packed because it’s still the New Year. We prayed and then got fortunes which had English on them for once (mine was fairly average), and then food at the mountains of food vendors off the side. OMG I love Japanese food stalls. Then it was off on a mission to find a shop that sells plastic food because we’d heard there was some in the area, and we found some and I got an ice-cream and steamed buns! PLASTIC FOOD IS SO COOL! It looks like real ice-cream but it will never melt! Mwahahaha!

After that the other headed home so Myra, Hannah, Cheese (who joined us after the plastic food hunt) and myself went to a wander towards the Sky Tower. The Sky Tower is even taller then Tokyo Tower but it doesn’t open until later this year though. BUT we did find a fandom play park in the shape of a boat with a slide! Japanese slides are awesome fun because they’re more like conveyor belts then slides XD I’m not joking, it’s really weird to go down them.

The following day on the 7^th I met up with Louise, Imogen and Sheila at Daimon and we went to the pokemon center, which is so expensive when you don’t have money but full of so much shiny stuff!!! We wandered over to the harbor bit before going to Daimon Jinjya which was probably just like any other shrine except that it had a woman with a monkey performing out the front…I felt really bad for the monkey being dragged around by the woman and made to do tricks for peoples entertainment. The shrine though had loads of Jinzo who are gods which tend to have bibs and hats and these ones had little windmills. They’re offerings for him as he’s normally associated with death, the afterlife and in particular of taking care of the spirits of dead children and aborted foetuses. Random fact of the day XD

On the 9^th, a Sunday, Hannah, Louise, Imogen and I went to Harajuku! I love Harajuku! Louise and Imogen really wanted to go shopping though so Hannah split up so she could go see the shrine in the park. Harajuku was as packed as ever. Oh! I met Gabe who was also coincidently in Harajuku! It was brief but nice…for some reason though the others just avoided him :/ We basically just went around the awesome shops and I got a nice dress for 1000yen, and spend another 3000 odd in Body Line (I love that shop too much I think).

Louise and Imogen also spent stupid amounts of money in there. Although what was really cool was a random guy in…well, I’ll put up a photo, was standing outside Body Line for most of the afternoon posing for the tourists. Hahahah. Ohh Japan you are so strange but I love you.

When it was starting to get dark Imogen, Louise and I wandered over to Shibya, which is only a 15min walk away, and we took pictures of the crossing again and then had to say bye on the train beca

use they were leaving the following day. I thought about it but Louise will have graduated and Imogen is going to America next year so that was probably the last time I saw them ;_;

We did try to arrange to meet briefly the following day so I could help them post a parcel but in my hurry I jumped on the wrong train and was late and missed them. Was really angry with myself and just had a shite day until I phoned Areal to find out about his adventures snowboarding in the mountains which cheered me up. Oh yeah I don’t think I said. Areal walked from Kyoto to Nagano where he snow boarded for about a week and then got the train into Tokyo and then the shinkansen back to Kyoto. Everyone thought he was going to die in the mountains, instead he just lost a stupid amount of weight, was really loaning traveling by himself, but I think also had an amazing experience walking Japan and through the mountains and then meeting people at the ski lodges. I admit I’m still jealous and a part of me wishes I’d done something like that. But I like my warm showers and the chance to go to Comiket ^o^