I kind of feel weird calling this post Day 0, since Day 0 of AX was also yesterday. What a coincidence haha.
Well since I'm such a time traveler, it's already tomorrow in Japan, meaning it should be 6/30, and not 6/29 like us Americans are used to.
And a heads up for the next...week, maybe.
These posts will be pretty long, just cuz it's me being exposed to tons of new things at once, so it should slow down in a little, just bear with me for a week.
I woke up at 4 AM this morning, cuz I slept super early. It was harder than I thought to catch up to the local time.
It was really dark when I woke up, but 30 min later, BAM HOLY TITS SUN.
I was kind of hungry when I woke up, and breakfast wasn't gonna be served for another 90 min, so I broke out the ramen I was saving from last night and ate that while watching Guilty Crown.
Why's all the food so good here?
And pretty much I spent the next hour walking around the city around my area.
Also, there are a lot of cats in the neighborhoods.
There are tons of alleyways and it just pretty much comes down to a huge network of small roads with houses or some other kinds of buildings on the sides.
Also, TONS of vending machines.
I think people were giving me weird looks when I tried to take this shot:
I went back to go eat since it was already 6 ish.
My hotel serves breakfast only which leaves me to my yen and stuff to go buy food at the convenience store.
Which I TOTALLY don't have a problem with since the food is so GDLK.
The breakfast was pretty simple, just pick a drink and pick some bread and some potato salad.
Like I said before, the internet here is kind of bad so things don't really load the way they should. I can't even watch a Youtube video.
But I tried my best and I managed to find a small map of my area.
I found a local Jr. High School called Nishikasai JHS (I'm not a pedo tho) and I decided to go over to see what it was like.
The area was pretty well hidden with trees, but I went up a nearby apartment building and climbed 10 flights of stairs to get these shots.
And while I was up there, I also grabbed this view.
Then I turned around and realized that an elevator was behind me the entire time. Derp.
The library was also nearby, although I didn't go inside.
On the way back I stopped by the convenience store near my hotel and picked up these goodies.
I've never had Japanese style pudding before, and I gotta say, this stuff kicks your ass till diarrhea comes out your dick.
And I just picked out a random looking bread to eat. This one looked pretty good, so why not?
I bit into it and found a pleasant surprise.
The inside was filled with curry!
F YEAH!
Also at this point I really gotta say, Japan seems to have it so nice as a country.
I mean, America is nice and all but, let's just take a quick look:
- First of all, Japan uses the metric system. This is SO MUCH MORE CONVENIENT than the BS system we have to use in America.
- Everyone is super nice here and manners are like the top priority. This is something that I highly value and I'm super glad that Japan also prioritizes this.
- The food here is freaken delicious and cheap. Like I've already said before.
- While there is heavy urbanization here, the streets are kept extremely tidy. This is something I couldn't believe on my long morning walk through Nishikasai. For a country that smokes a shit ton, I hardly found any cigarette butts lying around on the sidewalk. And for a country that has vending machines on [literally] every corner, I hardly saw any cans around. I don't know if it's because they have some sort of advanced cleanup crew or the Japanese people just classify littering as super taboo, but damn, this is a clean area.
- There also seems to be a big sense of trust in Japan. The only thing I can base this argument off of is the fact that there are SOOO MANY bicycles around without locks. Seriously there was a corner with like 50 bikes (no joke), and they were just on their kickstands. Manners, man, you don't fuck around with those things.
- It may just be this area, but I'm just gonna assume for all of Japan, people here are really efficient. TONS of living spaces are crammed in one area, and yet people do fine. Hell, my hotel room is smaller than my side of the Middle Earth room I had. But everyone is doing fine. It seems that there isn't a single chunk of wasted space here, and that's pretty neat. Even the cars are compact, although I have to say that it doesn't seem like most are being used, since everyone's on bikes and shiet.
Anyways, I took a quick break after eating the pudding and the bread and looked at Google Maps around my area. I found many schools around the area, mostly junior high schools and elementary schools, but the closest high school I found was like a little over a kilometer away.
But I decided to walk that distance and go.
Because high school girls, that's why.
The walk was damn far and my feet hurt right now.
I took a couple of shots there and back but I'll get to those later.
I got to the school finally and I started to notice this theme of hiding schools behind trees. What's the deal man?
Luckily I could see better from ground level (the above shot was taken on a bridge).
The school was supposedly called Momijigawa High School, but I'll let the people who can actually read Japanese take care of that for me:
Unfortunately, there were no high school girls to be seen [sadface].
The school looked pretty empty.
But if you look reaaallllyy closely you can see some dude putting something in his shoe locker.
I left to go back, since schools don't usually get out till around 3 or 4 anyways.
Here are some of my favorite shots going there and back:
^(This picture really reminds me of Katamari)
And by the time I got back to my hotel, it wasn't even 12 yet.
Multiple people tried speaking Japanese to me today and I just had to stand around with my mouth open leading like an idiot. Sometimes I think I know what they're saying, but I don't wanna go, "Hai," and make them think that I actually know Japanese, which would screw me over even more. For now I'll just smile and nod until I meet someone who can speak both nihongo and eego and I can just follow them around like a Siamese twin.
So by this time, I'm just like, so Japan's famous for their arcades...where the games at?
After an unnecessarily long search, I found that one of the closest ones to where I was at was called Warehouse Game Centre. But that was all I could find out. I didn't know the address, or where it was remotely close to.
But after some further digging, I found out it was near the train station, which was about a 5 minute walk from where I was.
My crappy internet couldn't load Google Maps properly, so I had to guess the general area, so that's where I went.
Well the good news is I found the train station.
But I couldn't find the arcade.
And after a long, frustrated, unsuccessful search, I went back.
This time I dug EVEN MORE and I narrowed it down futher.
And so I left again.
I went under the actual train station (which is higher than ground level), and I found a huuuge shopping district that went both ways from the center.
I went one way, no luck.
I went the other way, and there it was at the end.
The thing was, I wasn't even sure if it was open. Nobody was going in or out and I didn't know what the hours were. So I just left after saluting the tall, rusty building.
Then it was back through the shopping area that I just came through.
It was getting to 2 PM (lol no), and I was getting hungry again.
So back to the konbini.
I dunno if I already showed the inside, but here's what a part of it looks like.
Bread everywhere.
Oh yeah, I finally got the pictures of the ero magazines.
Do you wanna see it?
Are you SURE?
REALLY???
Ok just for you, here you go.
I felt like such a perv taking that picture.
I got some food again, and this time it was like soba with pork and eggs and stuff. Along with a bottle of Calpis.
If I'm not mistaken, this drink is pretty popular in the US as well, but I've never tried it before.
Well, it tastes like Milkis. That's pretty good.
And I'm pretty certain that the pork in the soba was the first meat I've had at all in Japan. Damn.
I had been walking all day and it wasn't even 3 yet.
I wanted to relax, but this was my whole full day in Japan!
AND MY FEET ARE BURNED OUT!
And the only thing I could think of doing next was doing the whole thing all over again.
But since I was burned out, and I couldn't really think of anything else to do, I just slept.
And I woke up now around 11.
Overall, a satisifying day in Japan.
Before I go, one last thing.
A couple of night shots.
My hotel serves breakfast only which leaves me to my yen and stuff to go buy food at the convenience store.
Which I TOTALLY don't have a problem with since the food is so GDLK.
The breakfast was pretty simple, just pick a drink and pick some bread and some potato salad.
AND YET IT WAS STILL GOOD.
Am I biased or something or is everything in Japan seriously this good.
At this point I also gotta say I'm pretty thankful that I at least look Asian, so people don't give me weird looks.
Another stroll through the city.
At that time of the day I got to see lots of students hurrying to school on their morning commute.
I even saw a schoolgirl running like hell down the street like straight out of an anime.
And a guy giving a girl a lift on his bike.
Some of the streets have, sort of, mini-parks that split the road.
And other than that, just looking at the streets is really interesting.
Like I said before, the internet here is kind of bad so things don't really load the way they should. I can't even watch a Youtube video.
But I tried my best and I managed to find a small map of my area.
I found a local Jr. High School called Nishikasai JHS (I'm not a pedo tho) and I decided to go over to see what it was like.
The area was pretty well hidden with trees, but I went up a nearby apartment building and climbed 10 flights of stairs to get these shots.
And while I was up there, I also grabbed this view.
Then I turned around and realized that an elevator was behind me the entire time. Derp.
The library was also nearby, although I didn't go inside.
At least, I think it's a library. That's what it said on the map.
On the way back I stopped by the convenience store near my hotel and picked up these goodies.
I've never had Japanese style pudding before, and I gotta say, this stuff kicks your ass till diarrhea comes out your dick.
And I just picked out a random looking bread to eat. This one looked pretty good, so why not?
I bit into it and found a pleasant surprise.
The inside was filled with curry!
F YEAH!
Also at this point I really gotta say, Japan seems to have it so nice as a country.
I mean, America is nice and all but, let's just take a quick look:
- First of all, Japan uses the metric system. This is SO MUCH MORE CONVENIENT than the BS system we have to use in America.
- Everyone is super nice here and manners are like the top priority. This is something that I highly value and I'm super glad that Japan also prioritizes this.
- The food here is freaken delicious and cheap. Like I've already said before.
- While there is heavy urbanization here, the streets are kept extremely tidy. This is something I couldn't believe on my long morning walk through Nishikasai. For a country that smokes a shit ton, I hardly found any cigarette butts lying around on the sidewalk. And for a country that has vending machines on [literally] every corner, I hardly saw any cans around. I don't know if it's because they have some sort of advanced cleanup crew or the Japanese people just classify littering as super taboo, but damn, this is a clean area.
- There also seems to be a big sense of trust in Japan. The only thing I can base this argument off of is the fact that there are SOOO MANY bicycles around without locks. Seriously there was a corner with like 50 bikes (no joke), and they were just on their kickstands. Manners, man, you don't fuck around with those things.
- It may just be this area, but I'm just gonna assume for all of Japan, people here are really efficient. TONS of living spaces are crammed in one area, and yet people do fine. Hell, my hotel room is smaller than my side of the Middle Earth room I had. But everyone is doing fine. It seems that there isn't a single chunk of wasted space here, and that's pretty neat. Even the cars are compact, although I have to say that it doesn't seem like most are being used, since everyone's on bikes and shiet.
Anyways, I took a quick break after eating the pudding and the bread and looked at Google Maps around my area. I found many schools around the area, mostly junior high schools and elementary schools, but the closest high school I found was like a little over a kilometer away.
But I decided to walk that distance and go.
Because high school girls, that's why.
The walk was damn far and my feet hurt right now.
I took a couple of shots there and back but I'll get to those later.
I got to the school finally and I started to notice this theme of hiding schools behind trees. What's the deal man?
Luckily I could see better from ground level (the above shot was taken on a bridge).
The school was supposedly called Momijigawa High School, but I'll let the people who can actually read Japanese take care of that for me:
Unfortunately, there were no high school girls to be seen [sadface].
The school looked pretty empty.
But if you look reaaallllyy closely you can see some dude putting something in his shoe locker.
I left to go back, since schools don't usually get out till around 3 or 4 anyways.
Here are some of my favorite shots going there and back:
^(This picture really reminds me of Katamari)
And by the time I got back to my hotel, it wasn't even 12 yet.
Multiple people tried speaking Japanese to me today and I just had to stand around with my mouth open leading like an idiot. Sometimes I think I know what they're saying, but I don't wanna go, "Hai," and make them think that I actually know Japanese, which would screw me over even more. For now I'll just smile and nod until I meet someone who can speak both nihongo and eego and I can just follow them around like a Siamese twin.
So by this time, I'm just like, so Japan's famous for their arcades...where the games at?
After an unnecessarily long search, I found that one of the closest ones to where I was at was called Warehouse Game Centre. But that was all I could find out. I didn't know the address, or where it was remotely close to.
But after some further digging, I found out it was near the train station, which was about a 5 minute walk from where I was.
My crappy internet couldn't load Google Maps properly, so I had to guess the general area, so that's where I went.
Well the good news is I found the train station.
But I couldn't find the arcade.
And after a long, frustrated, unsuccessful search, I went back.
This time I dug EVEN MORE and I narrowed it down futher.
And so I left again.
I went under the actual train station (which is higher than ground level), and I found a huuuge shopping district that went both ways from the center.
I went one way, no luck.
I went the other way, and there it was at the end.
The thing was, I wasn't even sure if it was open. Nobody was going in or out and I didn't know what the hours were. So I just left after saluting the tall, rusty building.
Then it was back through the shopping area that I just came through.
It was getting to 2 PM (lol no), and I was getting hungry again.
So back to the konbini.
I dunno if I already showed the inside, but here's what a part of it looks like.
Bread everywhere.
Oh yeah, I finally got the pictures of the ero magazines.
Do you wanna see it?
Are you SURE?
REALLY???
Ok just for you, here you go.
I felt like such a perv taking that picture.
I got some food again, and this time it was like soba with pork and eggs and stuff. Along with a bottle of Calpis.
If I'm not mistaken, this drink is pretty popular in the US as well, but I've never tried it before.
Well, it tastes like Milkis. That's pretty good.
And I'm pretty certain that the pork in the soba was the first meat I've had at all in Japan. Damn.
I had been walking all day and it wasn't even 3 yet.
I wanted to relax, but this was my whole full day in Japan!
AND MY FEET ARE BURNED OUT!
And the only thing I could think of doing next was doing the whole thing all over again.
But since I was burned out, and I couldn't really think of anything else to do, I just slept.
And I woke up now around 11.
Overall, a satisifying day in Japan.
Before I go, one last thing.
A couple of night shots.
