Nihon e ikimashou! Day 7

[spiderpig]

The next day we meet Yan Wen at the Harajuku Station exit facing Snoopy Land (or... well, that Snoopy Place) and I apologise for being late because I overslept. Running gag for the day. Then it's crazy shopping time! My cousin already arrived here way earlier than us and already checked out where most of the better places were for shopping.



Yes, shopping.





I'm embarrassed to say but I really let myself go on this one. We walked past dozens of shops where I exercised extreme restraint but when we got to Hanjiro (curses to my cousin for finding that place!!!!!!), which Esther introduced me to, I pulled out my wallet. I spent 16,000 yen on clothes there its insane. I never spent that much on clothes. I got my pinstriped vest, a dress shirt and two jackets. It was a crazy haul and the guys paled in comparision to my shopping skills. I say, my innate womanly senses have awakened.

There were awesome posters there too, which the guys said that they'd come back to buy since they'd get messed up if they bought them now.









Around now, it's time for us to meet Hans at the Takeshita-dori exit. We all push past the massive throng of people at Harajuku Station before making it to the meeting place. Hans is waiting inside the station (past the ticket barriers) so we all buy tickets and get in there. We take a train down to Shibuya where we walk a fair bit to Mo~ Mo~ Paradise. :D

Hans happened to find it (another branch) one day, if I remember correctly, and like zomg its the most awesome tabehoudai shabushabu ever. We like meat. Meat is murder. Tasty, tasty murder.






I was positively drooling by the time we got to our table because I could smell the beef being cooked. >D Seriously, I won't go into the details of teh crazy massacre we ensued upon the beef but each of us downed at least 5 plates of beef each. Though I must add that we ate lots of greens too!

Still, it was kind of gross eating that much. Hans started the ball rolling by being the first to scooping up all the fats that melted off the beef and Yan Wen immediately was entranced by it. He was obssessed about scooping the oil out. Hahhahaha. Our grandma would be proud of us! Both us us were all "AHH OIL!!! FATSSSS!!!" and madly scooping.


That was one of the best meals ever. I love Mo~ Mo~ Paradaisu~~~~~!

For dessert we went and had sinful crepes. :D~~ But before that, Yan Wen left his camera up at the restaurant so I went back up with him to get it back. Then it was crepe time. Where I was disgusting. >o< No really. My crepe was like all over the place and grossed everyone out.



I AM SORRY.

Then we went to HMV to show Hans the World of Golden Eggs . After a bit of walking, we go separate ways at Shibuya station because Hans needs to get back and pack for his Kyoto trip the next day and the guys want to go shopping. I take like, a crazy mad photo with him (PROOF THAT I HAVE MET HANS "SLIMU" TSENG!!!!!!) and hurrah the guys go shopping back at Harajuku.


We walk around some more and end up in Akihabara again.

Heading first for Yodobashi for my computer accessories and Yan Wen's Miyazaki puzzles. Leon decides to go his own way for a while because he has nothing he wants to buy there. So we have some cousinly time for an hour or so looking for our puzzles and laptop cases.





We gape over more figures and seriously spent a lot of money there. I left with my Meido Saber figure and my Race Queen Rei figure and Yan Wen grabbed the Ichigo figure. I think Leon bought an Evangelion figure. Or not. It's rather funny because Yan Wen insisted on using his GO! card to pay for the stuff (since he had limited cash left) and the minimum amount we had to spend in order to use a credit card in the store was 5000 yen. I actually only had the Medio Saber figure, but upon hearing that, Yan Wen insisted I get something els. I reached out for a couple of Pinky:Sts because they're dirt cheap in Japan but he made a derisive sound so I put those back and instead grabbed the Race Queen Rei. :D()

Then we head down to K-Books where I splurge on the first two volumes of ROBOT and the Range Murata artbook.

After we leave K-Books, and every other shop starts closing for the night (yeah, they all start closing around 8pm, which is really annoying) .





And then we find Tora no Ana and Animate. I go slightly nuts when I find Animate open. I figured that they'd be closed but no they were fucking open.




Immediately I drag Yan Wen inside and we head straight up to the Character Goods section (because that's where the action's at!!!!) and we splurge every single last bit of our money there getting wappens, an umbrella, a tote bag, and random stuff which usually are kinda useless. :D()

We're starving on the way back, and decide to hit Lawsons to grab some combini food before heading back. As we pay for our food, Yan Wen pokes me about asking for a cardbox because we have absolutely no space in our suitcases for the figures that we bought. I grimace. Dude. This is going to be embarrassing. I go up to the visual-kei rocker counter guy and ask if he has any boxes.

Now the word for boxes is "hako".

The guy asks me if I want pigeons. "Hato". =A=;;;

So we go back and forth a few times, me insisting that I don't want "hato" but "HAKO" and he comes out with a mid-sized cardboard box. With a lot of strange looks from him and his counter-friend. :D()()() I ask if he's got anything bigger and he says no. So I thank him, pray to God that he doesn't think I'm a hobo and all three of us exit the shop.

I could have buried my head in a hole if it wasn't for what happened later.

When we reach the hostel, we dump our stuff at a table and begin unpacking. We warm up our food in the microwave and begin chowing down our spagetthi and Yan Wen's mochi.

After we're done, we start to pack out stuff into the box we just got. And then we realize that it all can't fit in. We need a bigger box. So Yan Wen and I head out again (Leon's looking after the stuff) into the cold streets of Asakusa and try a different combini.

I get the same "hako"-"hato" jibe again and the same weird looks and finally we emerge, relatively unscathed with a Del Monte banana box. Yes you read that correctly. =A=;;

We successfully manage to dump everything into the box after some Tetris action of fitting stuff in, and then Yan Wen goes up for the night with the box.

So basically the next day I take a plane back and I'm back in sunny, hot Singapore. If you want more pictures of any of the places I visited, comment and I'll post up more pictures ASAP ne? Plus, accomodation, food tips and stuff - if you have any queries feel free to ask. I'm by no means an expert but I hope that my experience in Japan can be of some help! <-- Tachikomatic Days paragraph LOL.

Comments

[ellynethegreat.livejournal.com]

amagawdddd! u're blogging aout japan :D i miss those days.