Chibified

This past end of January and early February I decided to go on a trip to trip to Japan by myself.  This is the first time I’ve traveled international by myself but as I have had previous experience traveling and getting around Japan, I wasn’t worried. I wanted to have the freedom to just do whatever I wanted in Japan and do whatever came to mind that day as I had no real set plans which is hard to do when you’re with other people. This was going to be quite the journey for me with new experiences and twists and turns that come with being in Japan.

I traveled on United in business class again. The perks of traveling in business class are very nice and make the 8 hour trip easier. As you may have read in the Japan 2009 – Day 1 post, there was lots of food to enjoy during the flight.

It started off with various warm nuts accompanied by Master Shiraz 2007 Southeastern Australia red wine before takeoff.

After we were in the air for a while, the flight meal would be served. It started off with yaki tofu with surimi, garlic chive and tomato layer egg, edamame, and pickled vegetables (Japanese style). Not pictured was a sweet roll and seasonal greens with a roasted garlic red wine vinaigrette dressing.

For my entrée I had soy sake braised short ribs with deep fried red potato, braised daikon, shiitake mushrooms, and baby bok choy. It was delicious and the meat was tender.

For dessert I had a slice of tiramisu cake with green tea.

The pre-arrival snack was chicken katsu, which is always delicious and a nice way to end the flight. I notice a grain of rice sticking on top of the plate now lol. Don’t know why I didn’t take it off before I took the picture.

Btw, during the flight I don’t do much lol. Either I read the newspaper provided on the plane, play the PSP or DS, watch something on my video player, listen to the music provided by the plane, or sleep lol.

As the swine flu wasn’t the big thing in Japan anymore, though still a possible threat, I didn’t have to go through the extra step of submitting a piece of paper saying that I don’t have swine flu or any other disease/sickness.

I went to get my JR/Suica pass, as it’s the best deal for a visitor such as myself who is only staying in Tokyo, and proceeded downstairs to wait for the train as I had arrived about an hour before the next train to Tokyo. While I was downstairs I noticed the old smoking area, a enclosed area on the train platform, had changed to a non-smoking waiting area with chairs.

As this was Japan, one thing I always have to do is get a Kit-Kat bar; just to let you know, I never eat Kit-Kat’s in the US lol. The reason for it is Kit-Kat bars in Japan have unique seasonal flavors that you most likely won’t find elsewhere; I noticed a local Japanese super market started carrying the unique flavors but a bit more expensive than in Japan due to it being a import.

There was a shop on the platform that sold various snacks, drinks, magazines, and cigarette’s. I was surprised to find not just one but two flavors available. I had sparkling strawberry and milk coffee. Not sure about the whole “sparkling” part of the strawberry but it had a nice tart flavor which I liked. The milk coffee was just a hint of coffee.

I wanted to drop off my suitcases at my hotel first before I headed out to Akiba for the night, as I arrive in the later afternoon and it was getting dark by the time I reached Ginza on the Yamanote line to get to my hotel. I was staying at the Shinbashi Atagoyama Tokyu Inn for the whole trip. Though it wasn’t easy to get too, the reason was due to a lack of landmarks on the map that I downloaded from the hotels website. So let me tell you this now, there are two cities at the Ginza stop and one leads to Ginza and the other leads to my hotel. I ended up going to Ginza and I walked around Ginza for more than an hour with luggage in hand and boy did I explore Ginza. I even found the headquarters for the Yakult drink while I was there. But man, I was tired and so confused that whole time. The reason I kept walking around was because I was looking for Tokyo Tower as it is within walking distance of my hotel and I kept looking and looking for it but the tall business buildings blocked my whole view. Eventually, with the help of a nice bookstore owner, I was able to find my hotel. I also bought a drink at a konbini that I passed on the way as I was super thirsty. All that walking would have big repercussions later on my trip.

After checking and dropping off my luggage, I left for Akiba. I walked around in a few stores as the one hour of being lost cost me time and most stores were closed already. On the recommendation of another blogger, I decided to eat curry at Go!Go!Curry! at Akiba which you would recognize by a giant gorilla sign over the door.

It was quite busy when I passed it the first time so I decided to go later. I still waited a bit to get in and when I went in I found out it was another restaurant where you order through a machine by putting money into first, select what I want, then hand the ticket to a employee. The curry was some of the best I’ve ever had, it was rich in taste and thick. I was actually surprised when I saw it in front of my as the sauce was so thick it covered the rice and I thought I only had the chicken katsu with cabbage on the side lol. I eventually ate everything, pretty decent size for 700 yen, and found that I had sauce left. As I sat there looking at my leftover sauce, I saw someone nearby ask for more cabbage. Of course, I didn’t know whether or not I could ask for more and not get charged extra so I just ate the delicious sauce by itself. I ate at the same restaurant with Tomoyo a few months later and did ask for more cabbage which was free and boy did I eat a whole lot of cabbage mixed with their delicious curry :9.

Eventually most stores closed and I hung out at a few arcades before leaving back for my hotel. This was my favorite game at Akiba called Razing Storm. It’s a shooter game with a bit of Metal Gear Solid thrown in. Plus it’s pretty easy to get very far without dieing, though it still has its challenges. I was quite happy when I found out that they brought the game in at a local arcade.

As a Family Mart konbini was just a block down from my hotel, I decided to stop inside and look for any tasty desserts to eat back at my hotel. I found Dole fruit gelato that had strawberry, mango, and apple flavors so I decided to try it. I also found a melon drink so I decided to get that as well. I was quite full and I knew my fridge wasn’t cold enough to keep the gelato frozen so I ate the whole box lol. I liked the mango flavor the best, though I am a mango fiend xD. I liked the melon drink, which had a rich flavor of melon but a bit too sweet.

I was quite tired from all the walking so I decided to get some sleep after I finished eating the gelato.

Related posts:

1. Japan Trip January 2010 Part 2
2. Japan Trip January 2010 Part 4
3. Japan Trip January 2010 Part 3
4. Japan Trip January 2010 Part 5
5. For Those Hungry Otaku in Japan