Today we were free to visit Tokyo on our own. So we left at 9 a.m. and headed to Tamachi station to meet Jena’s friend Konomi. Then we went to Shinjuku, where Claire purchased her shinkansen ticket and we journeyed to the Harley Davidson store.
I bought my father a golden cigarette lighter patterned with an eagle-I hope that he likes it! From there we took the train to Ikebukuro in order to meet Ruth’s friends, David and Joshua. Most of us went to TGI Friday’s for a lunch of hearty burgers, then explored the 100 yen store.
After we all regrouped with full stomachs, we navigated to the Pokemon Center in Sunshine City. Everyone shopped to their heart’s content. It was a very large store with an enormous array of merchandise.
I bought a Lapras plushie! We also caught an unexpected concert of gospel music in the mall. The performers were fantastic-everyone was clapping and dancing to the beat.
Next we went to Asakusa and leisurely meandered through the winding streets, perusing the tourist trap gift shops. We also met a huge, adorable rescue dog. His owner was so nice-he took a picture of us with my camera.
Then we left David and Joshua to go to the Skytree, since David is afraid of heights. He really missed out! Although the Skytree isn’t the tallest building anymore, it was still an impressive sight to behold. Ruth, Jena, Bryce, Konomi, and I went up in the tower. Although the price was quite high-around 3000 yen-the spectacular views of the city made it well worth it. I took many pictures of the impressive skyline.
We also took a souvenir photo with my camera. It turned out great-we were all sitting on a plastic cloud.
I also visited many of the shops with Ruth, Konomi, and Jena-after Bryce left to get his fill of McDonalds. The Studio Ghibli store was definitely my favorite-it was absolutely magical! I walked around the store singing all of my favorite songs from the movies.
I bought two packets of origami paper themed after Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro and a fun gift for my brother. I was very happy! We also visited a cute TV character store in the Skytree-I got a Pokemon Skytree handkerchief in order to remember my time there. Even though the day was very exhausting and packed, we had a lot of fun exploring Tokyo. Now all I need is to see Harajuku and I will be content. A thank you to Konomi for leading us through the confusing maze of Tokyo transit-we couldn’t have gone very far past Tamachi station without her. She was a joy to have with us. Tomorrow we leave for Kyoto! More tourist experiences are on the horizon.
じゃあまた (See you later),
Amanda Rice
Okay, so the free day was amazing! We got up pretty early and left the house by 9AM. We met one of Jena’s friends at the stations and we were off to the races!…literally. Throughout the day we took so many different trains to all kinds of places. We went to the Harley Davidson Store to look around, then going to Sunshine City to find the Pokémon Store. On our way to the mall where it was located we saw a TGI Fridays….and I kind of died for a minute. I was so excited and relieved! AMERICAN FOOD AT LAST!!! A group of us went upstairs to eat and I got a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a Ginger Ale. AND YOU BETTER BELIEVE I ATE EVERY LAST BITE OF THAT MEAL. It was a beautiful thing.
Next, we went to the 100 Yen Store and I had the chance to buy a few things…my favorite? A fan for myself…because when one is in Japan it’s important to remember that air conditioning is not a thing. And when the rainy season is in full swing, humidity just hangs in the air. So when we got to the mall, it was super crowded but so nice. This was where the Pokémon Store was, and although I’m not a huge fan of it, I thought the store and decorations were super cool. Afterwards, in the atrium three floors below, there was a full blown gospel concert going on…and they were amazing! At the end of their last song, this HUGE jet of water shot up from the main floor fountain and reached the top floor terrace!
After this, we went to Asa Kusa where they had huge lanterns hanging from temple gates. And when I say huge, I mean HUGE. There was tons of tourist gift shops to explore and I was able to get some pretty cool things!
For the final event of the evening, we went to the Tokyo Skytree, which is the second tallest building in the world. Paying the money to go up to the first observation deck was definitely worth it; we had a view of all of Tokyo! We were also on the 350th floor. On the bottom of the 4-story observation deck, there was a glass floor, which I proceeded to walk out on and also panic a little bit on…I guess my fear of heights still exists…oops. I met up with some of the other students at McDonald’s downstairs and got a chicken sandwich with fries and a Sprite, and every bite of that was amazing. I typically don’t enjoy McDonald’s, but here in Japan, the quality is so high that it’s hard not to enjoy it!
This day was so much fun; I was exhausted, but it was just a great day hanging out with everybody and enjoying some good old fashioned American food and Japanese culture!
-Bryce
Today was our free day in Tokyo, and I was really surprised at the amount of activities we managed to fit into one day! We left the Friends Center at 9am and went to the Harley Davidson store so Amanda could get a gift for her dad, and then went to Ikebekuro. We had lunch at TGI Fridays because everyone was craving American food, stopped by a 100 yen store, and went to the mall so I could go to the Pokemon store. The mall was huge, and there was a Japanese gospel group performing when we left the Pokemon store, which is something I definitely wasn’t expecting to see!
After we left Ikebekuro we went to Asakusa, which had an awesome combination of history, culture, and touristy type shops. We were there for about an hour and a half before leaving for the Tokyo Sky Tree, which was absolutely beautiful. I decided not to go up to the observatory deck because I didn’t want to pay, but some others did, and they got great pictures! Instead, we wandered around the inside of the building and got more souvenir shopping done, before once again eating American food (this time McDonald’s…). Finally, we made it back to the Friends Center all alone again, after Ethan had the great idea to just ask for directions. It was a great day and I’m excited to leave for Kyoto in the morning!
-Kami
Free day was fun! We ended up going all over Tokyo. A lot of the people in my group are craving food from home: I mostly eat Asian food of some variety when I’m at home, so it hasn’t been a challenge for me like it has for the others of the group. This meant that when several people were eating American food for lunch, I was more than happy to duck into a little cafe and eat curry! Afterward, Jena’s friend Konomi encouraged us to try getting purikura pictures -we went to a booth called Usagi and got a series done. They were amazing! We were all amused by the amount of retouching that was done.
After that, we met up with the rest of our group, as well as David and Joshua, two students who are doing a study abroad at Hakuoh University. From there, we went to Asakusa, where we split into groups. David and Joshua and I did a lot of eating! We tried taiyaki (I had the traditional red bean filling) and freshly made rice crackers and Baskin Robbins and snacks from Japanese Burger King (Hot Chicken Snack, anyone?). We then met up with the rest of the group and headed for the Skytree. David took a pass on it -the last time that they were there, there was an earthquake, and they were stuck in Tokyo overnight.
Our experience was wonderful -we got a fastpass and were able to avoid the line (oh, how we wanted those at DisneySea!) and go straight to the top. It took less than a minute for the elevator to go up 346 floors (we started on the 4th floor and ended up on the 350th).
-Ruth
I was very excited for our free day today! I had planned to meet up with my friend Konomi at the Tamachi station. When we arrived I was greeted with a very big hug from her. We were able to catch up on some while on the train to Shinjuku.
We stopped at Shinjuku for Amanda to find a lighter at a Harley Davidson store. (Yes, they have those in Japan.) It was a very nice experience to go to an American store in Japan. It is not as big as the stores in America (as to be expected) but it was still very similar.
After that, we took the train to Ikebukuro. We all split up for lunch. Konomi, Claire, Ruth, and I went to a curry place. We first had to put our order into a machine and get a ticket. Then we handed our ticket to the person behind the counter. It was a good thing Konomi was there or else I wouldn’t have known to order from the machine first.
After lunch, Konomi wanted to take us to a photo booth (called Purikura in Japan). We had to walk through a floor of claw machines and go up in the elevator to the correct floor. Once on the correct floor, we were greeted with a bunch of photo booths, school girls everywhere, a cosplay area, and a wall of lighted mirrors. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun and I was glad Konomi suggested to go.
Once the prints were done, we met up with everyone in order to go to the Pokemon store. The store was filled with Pokemon plushies and life size statues. I really felt like a little kid again while trying to take in all the stimuli. Sadly, they did not have my favorite Pokemon, Paras. But it was still fun looking at all the Pokemon.
After the Pokemon store, we traveled to Asakusa. Asakusa was filled with shops and people. I followed Konomi through the crowds of people and eventually we came across a small area that you could do Omikuji at. I decided to go ahead and try it to see how fortunate (or unfortunate) I was. I shook the container that held the sticks until one came out. However, the corresponding drawer to the stick didn’t have any fortunes in it. Therefore, I tried again and got 八十 (80). Thankfully there was a translation to the fortune and soon I realized that I had just got the best fortune you can get from Omikuji. I was very happy and surprised. Then Konomi and I went over and bought a charm and went back and looked at the shops again.
Eventually, we stumbled upon a place selling green tea ice cream and we decided to get some. It was so delicious! It was very soft and you could taste the green tea in it.
After Asakusa, we all went to the Sky Tree. I decided to go up to the first observatory. It was also Konomi’s first time going to the Sky Tree and I was happy that we could experience it together. It was very beautiful at the top of the Sky Tree. The lights of Tokyo were twinkling against the darkening sky. It was an experience I surely won’t forget.
A stop at the Tokyo Sky Tree wouldn’t be complete without visiting the Studio Ghibli Store. Therefore, after coming back to a normal height above ground, Konomi, Amanda, Ruth, and I traveled across the mall underneath the Sky Tree to the magical store of Donguri.
Sadly, we all decided we were tired and headed back to Tokyo Station. I was sad that Konomi had to leave. She was a great help to all of us today. She helped us find the correct trains and the shops. I was happy to have her help us explore Tokyo. It was a lot of fun and I definitely slept well that night.
-Jena
Today I was happy to have a free day and explore some of the Tokyo sights with my fellow travelers. First we visited the Harley Davidson store where Amanda bought a really cool lighter for a relative as a souvenir. After that we traveled to Sunshine City and got a taste of a bustling business and shopping center of Tokyo. Here we checked out the Japanese version of a TGIFridays (it wasn’t much different) and checked out a 100 yen store to pick up some little gifts for people back home. After all of that we stopped at the main attraction (for us at least) of Sunshine City, the Pokemon Store. I was also somewhat of a fan of Pokemon when I was younger, so it was a lot of fun revisiting some of the stuff I loved back then. Since my sister is now a fan of the show and video games, I was sure to buy a few souvenirs for her here.
After wrapping up Sunshine City, we traveled to Asakusa and explored the amazing shopping center and temples. This place came off as kind of touristy in the shops but the temples were amazing to look at. After Asakusa we took a quick trip over to the Tokyo Skytree. A few of us went to the top but I opted to stay behind and check out the mall. It was really nice and had a cool Studio Ghibli store. My sister is a big fan of those movies so I got her a few more gifts here as well. After Skytree we navigated our way back to the friends center (AKA asked a station guard) and went to bed. It was a very fun day exploring the city!
-Ethan
Japan Health Care Professions 2015 IUPUI 