Safe and sound

After a long journey we have finally arrived home.

And I'm enjoying my bouts of culture shock from my own country.

In the end we sat around in trains, planes and around the airports for about 20 hours. It was quite interesting, seeing as we decided not to sleep at all during the last night. Smart, huh? But we made it home and my bags are almost unpacked, and no, of course I haven't changed ebookers to be my homepage. I should probably inform you now that I've already planning my next trip.

Anyway, from my part this is possibly a concluding entry. There might be more pictures and such, but I will not continue of my daily life. The journey will continue in Finland and from Finland as soon as possible, but for now I will continue writing a blog in a different address (entries will be highy irregular and possibly cease during the more exciting times of my life (read: matriculation examinations) and I should stop advertising another blog now). You can find it in my profile shortly. (Just click my name at the bottom of this post and it'll be there.)


Now I'll leave all of you numerous readers with a piece of my journey as a parting gift and stop writing this in preferance of my relatives' company.

When you go to Japan you don't come back empty-handed.

1003

Toda, on the 14th of August, a Saturday, we were met with several great adventures! Mia and I took the metro to Shinjuku and went to the Government Office Building to see what Tokyo looks like some 170 metres above ground. It would've probably been more impressive during the evening but even now the view was great:

After returning to Shinjuku Station we found a bakery and then headed back to our hostel to eat and wait for Akane to arrive. She arrived fourish and after re-packing our things we left for Harajuku -to shop.

I bought lots of stufs but I won't even try to get them to fit into one photo. VIP you-can-only-see-these-things-live-purchases.

5+4

The fifth day before we leave (Thursday 12th of August) was spent in SHIBUYA. Wow, thats' news. Akane had left for her other relatives and so it was just the two of us again -and it felt weird. We'd gotten used to Akane's presence, jokes and knowledge of Japan so quickly it was weird to not know where to go anymore. So we just wondered around Shibuya 109-2 and a few shopping streets (which Shibuya is full of) and went to purikura.

The fourth (Friday 13th) we went to Hakone, a traditional little town a few hours' trainride away from Tokyo. We met Akane and her aunt Tomoko at Hakone station (fashionably half-an-hour late... As we hadn't counted the extended stops to the amount of time we'd need to get there) and took a bus to go to an onsen where we spent the whole day. And a big thank you for Tomoko, who took us there, showed us around and payed for our lunch *ww*

Here's Hakone for you, people!

(My camera died pretty soon after we'd come and Akane is about a hundred kilometres away so you'll have to wait a while for more pictures.)

T-o-k-y-o

So, on Thursday we went to Shibuya. Again. And shopped. Again. Oops. But before that we went through Harajuku more throughly than the day before and found several items of interest -mostly stuff we'll never actually need, but which are supercool and awesome and must-have. I don't even know anymore what I have bought on which day as I haven't taken a photo every night of my day's productivity, but I'll try to get a collection pic of everythingat some point.

After Harajuku's famous shopping street we fought our way through the nine floors of Shibuya 109, trying to find dresses. Few were found with reasonable price (but the ones that cost over 10 000 yen were unbelievable... Though sadly not in our budget).

In the evening we went to purikura, again and several times.

On Friday was AKANE'S BIRTHDAY! So we had to celebrate, of course! So we went to find some acceptable beverages and headed for karaoke for four hours! And although my voice didn't function properly afterwards it was totally worth it! In the evening we went to purikura once thrice more and did some birthday pimping to the pictures. Here's my collection (they're a third of all we've taken as we have already divided them between the three of us):

(The one on the left is me and Rosa two years ago but the others are all ones we've taken here.)
And I have to say. This is how natural purikura makes you (I look like a Tarsier):

On Saturday we met Akane's cousin Megumi and ran around Shibuya for a change. We went to the Disney shop and found several potential shopping centers to go through still. Sadly I was feeling quite shitty and we headed home a little early.

During the evening we had a birthday dinner (for both Akane and Tsutomu, Akane's uncle) featuring yakitori, after which there were huge fireworks everywhere around Tokyo.

On Sunday we went to Akihabara, the electronic appliance paradice *ww* I bought several somethings, including the cd's of Home Made Kazoku and Utada Hikaru, and a few headphones. We got a little worked up in the cd store and remembered that there was this huge-ass selling-used-cd's-store Tsukiya in Shibuya. So we were off there again. And so all in all I bought these CDs:

I also found shoes which are my newest lovers right now:

Then we went to purikura, as we were close by. (No pattern here, no.)
Monday we used by going to Disney Sea. Unbelievable, you had to wait for two hours to get into the rides, but they were worth it. I won't even try to explain how awesome they were.

Tuesday was a day when -actually for the first time during our trip- we did nothing. We wonderfully overslept as the day before we'd been walking a bit and our legs were about to fall off. Then we ate, packed or suitcases, weighed them for several times, decided to send a post-package to Finland (me and Mia) and ate again. Then went to bed. Interesting is life.

Wednesday was the day of our changing accomodation. We had been sleeping in the corners of Akane's relatives for long enough and headed for Shinjuku after posting our package. We had to look for the hostel a little as the exit from which it is easily accessible was closed.

We found it and it was slightly... Interesting. Not horribly bad but not worth five stars either. But it'll be enough for us to stay for the next five nights after which we'll head home...

You've got the rhythm in you ♥

AND WE HAVE ARRIVED IN TOKYO!

We arrived by bus yesterday, and I have fallen. Hard.

At the moment we're living at Akane's relatives house! THANK YOU FOR HOUSING US ♥

This tells you our feelings (this is the view from our balcony ON BOTH PICS):

Today we went to the must-see Harajuku!
...And shopped. A little. Everything being stuff we have no use whatsoever! And went to Purikura several times:

We snacked at McDonalds, tasting the Teriyaki-burgers, then continued to Shibuya. We spent some time at Karaoke and then ran through the Shibuya 109.

Just tell me, how can you not love this place?

Cosplay World Summit 2010!

So, the Cosplay World Chanpionship was here in Nagoya at the same time as we.

Of course we went to see it, what did you think?

It was WOW. Like, a bit different from the finnish cosplay happenings. Two to which I've been, if my memory is functioning correctly.

But on Saturday we saw the Red Carpet parade (took no pictures as we sat in a cafe for all of it watched from a distance) and the parade at the Osu district.

Here are the best parts of the parade:

There were even more good ones but I don't have the patience time to go through all those pictures again.

In the evening we had a modest party at our hostel and ended up teaching a Finnish driking game to the other guests and employees at the hostel.

On Sunday we went to Nagoya Science Museum in the morning and accidentally met our Korean friend from our hostel there! We looked through only a few floors of the museum as we had only limited time before the last planetarium show of the day began. We got to see the worlds' largest planetarium and listen to Japanese explanations of the Sun's orbit etc.

After that we travelled to Oasis 21 where the Cosplay Chanmpionships would take place. As we sat on broad stairs and waited for the program to begin a certain cosplay caught my eye:

After falling in love with this guy I stalked several wonderful cosplayers but didn't get the chance to ask for pictures as the actual program began. In short: Finland sucked, Korea, Japan and surprisingly one of the European contestant pairs rocked.

Shopping

So we've been around the Osu shopping area. Enough said.

Mia's bought another pair also but I can't be bothered to go up to our room AGAIN and dig them from her suitcase. But here's the other pair she bought:

What I've bought include two pairs of shoes (as my old ones broke down on me) and a SET.

It's a t-shirt, a black 3/4 sleeved thing and a SCARF WHICH I LOVE.

Stoooopid entry, I'll give you the Cosplay World Summit Update of Destiny (covering two days) next time!

4th largest city in JPN!

Nagoya baby, we have arrived! Finally some big city style!

We came on Tuesday, and had no real problems finding our hostel (and no problems getting there otherwive, THANK YOU MY NEW SUITCASE ♥). The journey there was interesting though, we had just exited Kanayama Station (our closest JR station) when a horde of men walked past us wincing KAWAII! and repeating it again when Mia turned to look at them. (For those of you who do not know what 'kawaii' is, it's a word for cute, used e v e r y w h e r e.)

And after about 30 seconds we got a random guy trailing after us in the traffic lights, supposedly selling us the idea of internet cafe (like, we have HUGE SUITCASES, we probably are not going to want to go to an internet cafe now? Logic yeah), not realizing we also speak a little Japanese. That was a hilarious start for our stay.


Wednesday we went to visit Nagoya Castle, and the TV-tower of Nagoya, thus filling our cultural part of the stay. We also ran around the Osu distrct (shopping area) for quite some time.

Nagoya Castle:

TV-tower:

Osu area (photo from another day, we went during the evening so it was too dark to take decent pictures):

Our Thursday was spent mostly in Nagoya Station, where were these wonderful elitistic shopping centers (think of Gucci, Burberry, Chanel, Prada.... oh yes) where we wouldn't buy anything but spent the day window-shopping. And we ate STRAWBERRY CAKE at a really upscale cafe, paying only about 5€ for it.... I love the exchange rate, even when it sucks. (=It used to be a LOT better, but as Greece went bananas we got mixed in the consequences >8[ )

Friday we went around the Sakae area (on of the central areas) and, for a change, ended up shopping. We spent A WHILE buying underwear (I love Japanese shops *--*) and found shoes! I've no idea which shoes were bought when so I'll just add all the pictures at the same time (see above).