Day 4: Toyko

Yesterday we took the train to Shinjuku to have a look about the place and went to a fancy department store where there were many beautiful things such as these toasters:


Shara & Webber bought some cool stuff including a new alarm clock, but when we took it to the counter they couldn't find a new clock and seemed embarrassed they had to give us floor stock. Then the cashier brought in an extra person to help her find a spare box, and when they couldn't be found a 3rd person helped wrap it beautifully in foam.
I bought the cup man featured in a previous post, I did explain him in my email post but apparently that doesn't go through. When I next go downstairs to the free wireless hotspot I will email a better picture to myself and then download it in the hotel room then upload it to the blog SEE THE WORK THAT GOES INTO WRITING THIS BLOG JUST FOR YOU?
I gave the cashier a ¥10,000 note and she had to check it with another employee, count the change with him and then count it again with me.

We walked for a bit to look for Kinokuniya, a 7 floor bookstore, but while I was taking the above photo for a cat cafe Webber was trying to figure out where we needed to go. A middle aged man asked us in English if we needed assistance, then told us where to go. I felt bad that I had left the little gifts of chocolates in the hotel room.

In Kinokuniya we were looking for the Maru book, but discovered on the magazine floor ther were ONE MILLION MAGAZINES ABOUT DOGS & CATS. I bought a magazine called CreatCat which cost ¥880 and is worth every single yen (this was also the cheapest one), and Shara & Webber bought one called Corgi Style (there were at least 3 just about corgis).
Luckily my cat magazine had a feature on Maru, along with other famous television/internet cats, so we were able to muddle together with the sales staff what book we wanted. The book was only ¥1600 which was way cheaper than Amazon, so if you ever need books about Japanese cats I suggest you come straight to the source.

At some point I took this photo of a little fruit market stall, just look at the price of those watermelons! About $30! And the apples are massive, if you can compare the oranges and grapefruits on the left.

And then we had planned to walk to Harajuku before catching the train back, but the maps on the street in Tokyo are a bit crazy because they are oriented to the street which means they are not always with north at the top. So when we knew we had to travel south, we started off and started walking only to discover after a couple of kilometres we had just been walking back north towards Ikebukuro. We were too tired and just went back to the hotel.

In the evening we went back to Tokyu Hands department store to buy all the presents and fun things we saw when we went earlier to go to Nekobukuro. We spent ¥11,000 so we could get the tax back, but in the end it was only ¥600 back oh well.

One of the really great things about Tokyo is that there are heaps of super cute lady european bikes everywhere with baskets, nobody locks their bikes because nobody would steal it because that would just be terribly rude.

cupman

this is how medicine works

breakfast times!

This sushi guy had bits of seaweed mixed into the rice perhaps? There was nothing inside and it tasted weird so I gave it to Shara - 1 star

I like these weird triangle guys! You have to read the instructions for opening because the rice is wrapped in plastic and the nori and separated, so you have to construct it yourself. I was a bit scared of these though because I know that having a plum inside is very popular but this guy had a picture. It was kind of sweet, maybe teryaki? - 3 stars

This triangle guy had a picture with mayo so you can't go wrong! It had tuna and was delicious! The only downfall was that soy wasn't included - 4 stars

Shara bought this without realising that it was coffee (despite all the coffee beans on the packaging). This came in a plastic bag and was in 2 types of plastic case and also had plastic on top of the cream. The cream was the bulk of the cake but it was fresh, and the cake had a very light flavour - 5 stars

Shara had this as her breakfast dessert but I had some too. It was a crepe but inside was a piece of sponge, some cream, some crunchy crepe covered in chocolate and some custard! Amazing!! - 4.5 stars (Shara rated it 4.5 stars too)

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Yesterday we spent about 5 hours watching tv after lunch which was insane but also so amazing. It's fun to try and figure out what the hell is going on.
When we went to Namjatown we were unsure if we should be spending ¥300 on entry to what was probably just a food court but WHOA it was so amazing I mean you got a cute ticket to put through train ticket gates and the section before Ice Cream City had a WWII themed section with lots of skeletons without heads, but there was calypso music playing everywhere? I guess it's because Japan.

I'm not sure what we are doing today, everything has been amazing without even trying!

Japan.

Food Review: Tokyo 2

Weird spicy chips

I was emboldened from the last spicy chips I ate that weren't really spicy at all, and I thought these would be a piece of cake. The first few were not too spicy, and so I ended up eating about a third of the bag. Then my mouth went on fire, and hasn't really gone out yet. Really tasty though. About as hot as red hot cheetos, but definitely more delicious.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Weird panda biscuits

These were fake Hello Pandas, just small biscuits with chocolate on one side. However these guys have white and milk chocolate, which I don't think Hello Panda has? Anyway the white chocolate made these totally delicious. Would eat again.

Rating: 5 stars

Asahi Peach Juice

We were a little worried that this would end up being a Calpis-esque milk drink (which is okay, but a little weird and not that refreshing imo), but it was actually just peach nectar I am pretty sure. Had lumps of peach pulp in it too. This was totally totally delicious and I want to drink one million of them. A+ best beverage in Japan so far

Rating: 5 stars

Fanta weird energy drink thing

They have heaps of awesome Fanta varieties in Japan, but I had never seen this guy up until now. Judging by the branding and the relatively small size of the can, this was some sort of energy drink. It tasted pretty good for an energy drink. It tasted like green jellybeans! Probably got a bunch of shit in it that is going to give me cancer but whatever if I get tired and there is a vending machine around I am going to drink this again.

Rating: 4 stars

Namjatown

Last night we went to Namjatown, it was real great! It is an amusement park that is in the place we are staying that is run by Namco. It's basically a repository of arcade games made by Namco that you have to pay to get into, but it also has GYOZA STADIUM and ICE CREAM CITY, which are collections of many different stores that sell gyoza and ice creams respectively. Lyndal found a super fun drum game and played it (the people in the video are very bad at this game). Judging by ads on TV this game is coming out on DS shortly so if you know what it is called you should tell us immediately. [Addendum I have just found out that this game is called Taiko Drum Master and it is out on PS2? It is fun and I want to buy it]


This was a burger store at Namjatown. Should we have eaten here? Yes that burger does have corn in it. They also sold an America burger with a USA flag in it and some cheese with "HERO" burnt into it, p. great.


These cats were all over Namjatown, together with a really surly cat with a monocle and a pocket watch. Is this some secret mascot for Namco I don't know about? Anyway these cats are hilarious.


All of the stalls in Gyoza Stadium have these info sheets that tell you how big their gyoza are etc. We chose this lady because when we walked past she rushed out and told us that her gyoza were NUMBER ONE, which was good enough for us. Also this lady was literally half Shara's height.


She recommended the regular gyoza, so I tried that. Very salty and garlicy but I liked em 4 stars!


She also recommended the garlic butter gyoza, and Lyndal got excited and ordered that. It turned out that garlic butter gyoza is just regular gyoza but with a lump of butter and some dried garlic on top. Still the gyoza themselves were good and she liked them well enough, so she gives this 3.5 stars.



I ate this icecream. I got it from a place specialising in soft serve in Ice Cream City. They had like ten different soft serve machines to dispense many many flavours. This is chocolate and strawberry. It was pretty good 4 stars. Shara and Lyndal bought some crepes from Ice Cream City that will be reviewed at a later date, when we get the photos off Shara's camera.



We did not go to this restaurant but maybe we should have so that we could have eaten rice in the shape of a cat and a gigantic goblet full of jelly and icecream?


On the way back we saw this guy standing around a courtyard in a mall at 9pm. He was trying to catch a bug in the net he is holding. This appears to be his job. Also the courtyard was very large and encompassed two floors, so the bug could just fly away. Japan

This guy was delicious 10/10

Dese are the guys at the cat cafe

IMPORTANT

for your information

YOUR BUTT X 1

Hi we have been watching Japanese TV for three hours now. It is p amazing. Anyway I have to talk about things or something. I think I have to review things. Listen up these photos are all unedited as there is no editing software on this tiny computer. So I am apologising in advance HOW EMBARRASSING like seeing someone WITHOUT THEIR MAKE UP. Anyway I ate this thing it was 1100 yen or something. It was pretty great the lettuce was hot though. The meat lump and rice was most delicious and the pasta, which was eggplant, actually tasted like fish, weird. That is the only thing I have a photo of yet so I will just say what happened today.

Under exposed and angry cat. There is an angry rock star chair on TV right now singing. A hugely muscular man just did aerobics with three children and then a talking cactus appeared. TODAAAYY or MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY as Hollyoaks would say. Today we got up at 9am which means we slept for 10 hours! If there are crazy typos in here it is because this machine will not inform me of them. So we got up and then spent three hours trying to decide what to do. We eventually decided to go to Gyoza Stadium and Nekobukuro. We did go to Nekobukuro which is a cat playground but have not gone to Gyoza Stadium yet. Nekobukuro would not Lyndal and me enter as a couple which is rude we could have saved 200 yen! It was pretty amazing and we met many angry cats. There was one trapped in a train! There was a huge fluffy Maine Coon tried to bite Lyndal, me and also another lady! Hilariously there was one of those cats with a squished face but it was all shaved. I have photos of all these cats but due to their uneditedness I have only included this guy. There was also a Jose guy and some happy cats ho were trapped in their weird cat rooms. We were there at dinnertime so we got to give everyone a little bit of kibble. Sorry I am majorly distracted by the most amazing show which is teaching Japanese children English. Ha-ha-ha-ha I'm Happy!

Before we did this we spent about an hour walking around an AMAZING store where we decided to buy EVERYTHING! We haven't done this yet but we will OH WE WILL. I can't tell you about this look I have to stop typing TV is too amazing

Things about Japanese TV

I believe there is a lot that can be learned by watching a country's television shows. Here are some things I have observed about TV in Japan:

• There is writing all over the place. Hardly anyone says anything that isn't accompanied by some sort of writing on the bottom of the screen. Or the side. Or in the middle.
• Everyone says "ehhhhhhhhhh~" a lot. A LOT.
• There is an ad with some some dude just making a mii on his Wii. It goes for like 30 seconds, and has been repeated several times. The Wii was released four years ago.
• There is a show where people (I assume celebrities?) do karaoke to the themes of famous animes.
  
• Almost all ads in Japan feature women. Most have both men and women in them, but there are almost no ads with only men in them. Many beer ads do not have men in them, which is totally weird coming from Australia. There is an ad for whisky which has a woman being all "whisky~!" and drinking it up, which surprised me quite a lot.
  
• Japanese people love watching shows about food. They seem to be far more interested in watching people eat food rather than cook food, too.
• News and current affairs shows here seem to rarely show graphics. If they want to show a graph or something, they print it out on a bit of paper, and then point at it with a stick. This is one of the weirdest things.
  
• Japanese TV has the worst production values I have ever seen. All TV shows fit into one of the following categories: shows where people make food, shows where celebrities eat food and other celebrities watch them; shows where one celebrity goes somewhere in Japan or somewhere else in the world and does something ridiculous, while other celebrities watch; soaps about samurai that look like they were made by a cable access channel; news and current affairs shows that point at charts with sticks; shows about animals; anime. For this reason I posit that Japanese TV networks are the most profitable companies on the face of the planet.
• In Japan they show advertisements for elevators in primetime television.

Classic Japan

presented without comment

coffee

One of the things I forgot was big in Japan is COLD MILKY SWEET COFFEE IN A CAN! I absolutely love this stuff and you can buy about one million types in Japan, most are ¥ 120 for a ~200mL/7oz can and available from every vending machine everywhere.
So here are my first round of reviews of coffee & a couple of other milk-based beverages.


Boss Coffee - ¥100
My first drink bought in Japan! Purchased from a vending machine at Narita Airport railway station. Webber suggested I purchase this brand because Tommy Lee Jones endorses it on television.
It was a touch too watery, but the flavour I am familar with - 4 stars


Starbuck's Orange Chocolate Coffee - ¥ 160
Had high hopes for this, but it just tasted like Cointreau? Not really like coffee or chocolate either. I was worried it might have been alcoholic, but it was too cheap - 2 stars


Georgie Emerald Mountain Blend - ¥120
Here is where I learned a valuable lesson: check what colour the price of the drink is, if it's blue then the drink is cold, but red means it's hot. So accidentally I bought a boiling hot coffee (I couldn't hold it, and had to just put it in my bag).
Once it cooled down enough to hold and drink, it was kind of gross. I think maybe it was not milky enough for me - 3 stars


Quality Coffee - ¥100
This was the type of quality you can expect from a cheaper coffee in a can. It wasn't sweet enough for me, won't purchase again - 2 stars


Cocoteen Ice Cocoa - ¥ 120
This was delicious! It really tasted like cocoa I have made at home from American recipes, where you cook it on the stove.
Also, I impressed Shara & Webber with how thick the cans are. You cannot crush these with your hands! Exiciting - 5 stars


Maxim Strawberry Latte - ¥ 200
There was lots of weird powdered drink in sachets, like Twining's English Breakfast with milk. I thought Strawberry Latte sounded relatively safe, and it was basically like drinking a hot nesquik - 3 stars.

Misc photos

presented without comment

Food Review: Tokyo 1

We have been eating quite a lot of things, but many of the pictures are stuck on our phones at the moment and Lyndal and Shara haven't got around to reviewing stuff yet. In the meantime, here are some things that I have eaten.

Weird spicy chips

I got these at Lawson Station (Lawson Station is the best convenience store btw) for about ¥280 (pretty expensive). They are some sort of spicy crisp, but they are way less spicy than the bag makes out. I am a wuss when it comes to hot things but these are no problem. The aftertaste feels a little lacking though. Maybe it tastes... prawny? I dunno. Still good, though. Shara and Lyndal seemed to really like them.

Rating: 4 stars

Meiji Chocolate

This isn't super good chocolate or anything, but it's only ¥100 for a chocolate bar, which is pretty cheap. Enjoyable enough.

Rating: 4 stars

Bag of French Crullers

Shara bought these from Lawson Station (Lawson Station is the best convenience store) for less than ¥300, which seems super cheap to me! I have never eaten a cruller so I can't say how authentic it tasted, but I thought it was real nice. It was megasweet and kind of crumbly. It kind of dissolved in my mouth which was interesting. These tasted like the waffles we used to buy in Shin Osaka JR station which are AMAZING, so they are good. GG Japan.

Rating: 5 stars

presented without comment

They are pretty excited about the world cup in Japan. They have a clay jar that you can speak messages into and then I guess the players receive those messages? There is also a camera at the bottom of the jar so we got to see many people's upside down faces. I hope they didn't tell the Japanese soccer team all their secrets because now we know them too! Anyway the reason why your country was eliminated from the world cup is that you did not send the team your support via an earthenware jar and also they are not very good at football.

IMPORTANT

Hi there was an ad just on with a disembodied head floating above the Hudson River. Dialogue was as follows:
"I am a boiler!" *spurts steam out of nose*
"Miura boiler!" *more steam*
"Please don't forget!"
"I am a boiler!" *a lot of steam*
"Miura boiler!"
"Have a nice day!"
Ad ends. This was preceded by an advertisement featuring a fish with a man's head, a la seminal Dreamcast game Seaman.

japan

Do u wanna eat this parfait? Lyndal claimed she was going to but it turned out she was all talk.

In Japan they show the weather updates with Van Helsing playing in the background for some reason.

shara is snoring it up big time now

Day 1: Tokyo

Hello and welcome to the first blog entry of our trip! You excited? We began last night flying out from Sydney to Tokyo at 10pm, arriving at like 6am. It was the worst flight! We flew Qantas which was pretty good but I can never sleep on planes. I was too uncomfortable to be able to get any sleep. I got a little drunk and had some phanergan but all that did was make me too drowsy to do anything, so I just spent nine or so hours with my eyes closed half listening to podcasts. Shara and Lyndal both foolishly became ill before leaving on the trip so I don't think their trip was much happier.

As soon as we got to Tokyo airport all of the escallators started talking at us which is always exciting. We took a train to the place in Tokyo we were staying which was maybe a bad idea because it seemed to take like 2 hours and cost 3,000 yen each ($45). We were too tired to figure out a better way though. We got to our hotel at about 9am, and were told that we couldn't check in until 2pm. They took our bags and we sort of walked around for a bit. We found many great things in the department store next to our hotel but most of them were two million dollars. At some dude at our hotel's recommendation we went up to the top four levels of the department store, each of which was filled with about 10 restaurants. It was a kind of weird thing, where all of the restaurants were pretending to be outside and had all of these faux-outdoor fittings like brick walls and lanterns, even though we were inside on the 12th floor of a massive building. Japan is weird. We walked around looking at all of the restaurants' plastic food (restaurants in Japan often advertise their food by putting plastic versions of their dishes in the front window), and then picked the weirdest restaurant and went in for lunch to kill some time. Shara and Lyndal got some real weird things (reviews pending), but I was not hungry.

After this we walked all around Ikebukuro, and went into all of the convenience stores we saw while we waited until we could check in. Finally at 2 we were able to get into our room. We stayed there and watched Japanese game shows for a bit. In between rounds they play Organ Donor by DJ Shadow which is p. weird. Lyndal took some shampoo in her bag and it exploded. She kept it in a plastic bag though and on the bright side now all of her stuff smells like shampoo.

Now everyone else is sleeping (Shara is snoring and it sounds like "shhhhhhh... pshhhhhh") and I am megatired too so I am also going to take a nap. Sorry this wasn't a very exciting entry but we will hopefully do more interesting stuff when we don't feel like wanting to die!

Look at this amazing vest!!

What

What