My Tokyo trip (23rd sept- 1st oct 2017)

I’m back from my second trip to Japan and it was way better than the first one: I had lots of fun, I bought too much otoge merch and I’ve seen many amazing places. Life seemed easier than last year, probably because my speaking skills improved and I could communicate easily with people. (for my friends who don’t know, I’ve self studied Japanese and my speaking skills are bad… like, really terrible! But I’ve worked on it before leaving, improved a bit, and this time I could have at least decent conversations!). Also, the weather was really nice, it rained just one day… a completely different experience, compared to the constant rain and suffocating humidity of last year.

I arrived in Tokyo on a Sunday morning, after the usual day-long flight.

I thought it would have been a lot more crowded, but there weren’t too many people around; my hotel was in Asakusa bashi, a quiet zone I personally like a lot, because it’s far from the most chaotic places, but still close to Akihabara (which I could reach just by walking) and Ueno.

After my first stop at a near konbini, to eat something and try to look like a decent human being, I went to Akihabara to officially start my trip!

Akiba was amazing as I remembered it to be, I started shopping like I was in paradise! (I’ll do later a separated post about the merch I bought). I missed those shops, I remembered each one of them immediately, as if an year didn’t pass at all. Walking the same streets again made me so nostalgic!

(don’t mind the wrong date and hour, we were just too lazy to set the correct ones! yes, we’re terrible adults like that)

The next day, was dedicated to Ueno’s zoo.

I’ve been to Ueno’s park last year, but I didn’t have time enough to visit the zoo too, so I took the chance this time; it wasn’t small as I thought, it took me about 4 hours to see every animal.

I’ve never seen a tiger so closely! The lion was amazing too! My personal favorite was the polar bear tho, it was adorable!

Then I went to Rejet’s main office, where I took lots of pics! Well, there’s nothing interesting there, but I just wanted to see that palace with my own eyes…. at 7pm, the lights were still on both floors, they’re working really hard!

(There’s a restaurant right in front of the palace and the owner looked at me like I was a crazy stalker LOL)

I went to Odaiba for dinner, it was very cool! The giant robot and the illuminations really impressed me. Sadly, I didn’t have enough time to explore it, I just went to a few stores, had dinner, and everything closed at 9 o’clock! It’s a pity, but time really flies, there are too many places and I can’t stay there for too long…

The 4^rd day was dedicated to Ikebukuro: the otome road, the Animate, book offs, Rejet shop… it was a long, busy day that made my wallet cry, but my soul was really happy!

Stellaworth was amazingly beautiful to see, but so expensive I couldn’t even touch the merch, let alone buy it; I’m sad I couldn’t take photos, it was like heaven… and there were all the Dynamic chord’s members signs! (I admit I stared at them way too long!)

Sadly, Thursday wasn’t as good: it was raining a bit, so we decided to visit Nakano Brodway, which is indoors.

There are mostly manga and action figures there, since there are plenty of Mandarake which sells 2^nd hand merch at low prices. This kind of stuff doesn’t interest me a lot, but there was also a shop full of otome related stuff and I did some good shopping! Also, I bought a really cheap ps3 project diva game, which I can’t wait to play soon!

In the late afternoon, we planned to visit Ueno’s and Asakusa’s book offs, but it was raining really hard and I decided to give up; I spent a quiet evening relaxing and tasting weird snacks we bought at the near konbini. I honestly needed a quiet time, after all that endless walking for hours everyday!

On Friday, we went to Asakusa to buy presents and explore all those traditional streets. It was really amazing, the weather was perfect and I really enjoyed my time there.

When we’ve been at the temple last year, it was raining so hard I could barely take some pics; this time, I had no problems visiting every temple and shopping! The atmosphere there is really soothing, it’s crowded but still respectful.

We went to Sumida next, the river at sunset was a very pleasing sight.

I loved the Skrytree too, but I admit I preferred the Tokyo Tower: it was way taller, but still…not as romantic? I mean, for me the Tokyo Tower is more symbolic.

On the last day, I went to Shinjuku. Sadly, I couldn’t enter the Otomate store, because I needed to make a reservation………. and it honestly unnerved me.

I get it, I need to reserve for the Otomate cafe, it makes sense, but why for the store too? It was almost empty, there would have been absolutely no problem if I just walked in, buy some stuff and exit a few minutes later! It’s not like I’m planning to stay there for one hour, come on!

Otomate doesn’t want my money, probably.

At least, I saw the giant Godzilla at noon, with the “fire” out of his mouth!

After that, I spent my last afternoon and evening in Akihabara, where I bought my last merch and went to karaoke with my friends.

I had so much fun, we even took videos of us singing Quartet night’s God’s star! I don’t think I’m ever going to watch them again, I would probably die of embarrassment…….. but it was worth it, the perfect conclusion of an amazing trip.

I was really sad, when I started packing to go home: I loved Japan even more than the last time, and I really wished I could live there.

Maybe I will someday, who knows?

In the meanwhile, I can still enjoy going there from time to time; I don’t think this was my last trip, but it’s still too early to plan another one. Maybe in a couple years, I’ll walk the streets of Tokyo again!