Akihabara, Packin Uuup

Boring post for today.  As expected we just went around Akihabara, a Tokyo area that has tons of anime, video game, pop culture stuff and arcades.  Its pretty busy for good reason.  Tons to look at.  Deals are slim kind of, in the sense that it's so busy that most hopes of finding a deal are dashed as they've been matching or exceeding internet prices.

For instance, a regular Game Boy Color console here was 22,000 yen or about $150.  When you can buy them used on ebay for like $70 or $80.  Its just supply and demand though as folks will pay premiums here to get a souvenir. 

On the other hand there are still plenty of fair priced things but just wanted to give an example as this was "once" a retro game deal haven.  

We played some claw games and lost them all, Japanese ones are interesting but more frustrating I think.  They usually involve budging items or trying to flip them bit by bit into a chasm with a very weak claw that can nudge but not really pick up and lift.

We did want to grab souvenirs for some folks and visited Don Quixote once again.  We got a roller bag for our extra stuff we're leaving with and picked up all the kit kat flavors we could there.  That store is so draining though, just jammed packed all 8 floors.

We were out for probably around 6 hours, maybe a little more before we came back.  Took part again inthe snack/cocktail hour.  We ordered ramen from Uber eats.  First order was cancelled.  2nd the delivery guy took forever trying to find the hotel and then we didn't have silverware. So food had been cold a good 40 minutes and it was just ok.  

A little sad we didn't have anything really mind blowing here other than all the meat we ate, but it is what it is.  Finding things with sore feat and places that arent full can be tough.  Plus having some sense of budget.  We had plenty of very good food and and tons of the best meat so really can't complain.

We have a taxi scheduled tomorrow at 6:30am tomorrow, Sarahs getting all the packed stuff squared away.  

Thanks again for reading if we don't post again!  Fun trip, looking forward to being home to relax and see our cats.

Hatsu Basho Day 12

Had our breakfast in the hotel.  Their buffet + breakfast is normally kinda spendy but was again free due to a redditor giving a Guest of Honor Hyatt award (ty Bryan from reddit).

Buffet was good but the eggs benedict was odd.  Nontoasted wheat bread base, weak hollandaise, and had Lettuce, parsley and very thin slice of ham.  Not sure if its a Japanese thing but was not a great benny.

Our hotel connects via basement level to subway.  We headed there for 2 train hops to Ryogoku, the Sumo district.  On our way out there were a couple rikishi (wrestlers) getting food.  The area has a ton of sumo stables so they're around.  We walked over to the stadium Kokugikan and gave our tickets and got right in around 11am.  At this point it was fairly empty even though the bouts start at 8:30.  That's because very few people care about lower divisions plus people are still working.  

This was a good time to get sumo souvenirs and check out the hall though.  Got a good chunk of stuff including a few fans and a towel to cheer on our favorite rikishi today.  Sarah couldn't help but get moisturizing face masks with some rikishi faces on them... so that'll be... interesting.  

Got a box of sumo trading cards.  We've done 2 of these before and they're considerably cheaper in Japan.  The resale price overseas 1.5 the cost.  First pack we lucked out and got a signed card by Oshoma.  He's kind of, normal? Doesn't stand out, but still really cool, and only 1:6 boxes have a signed card.

There's food around and drinks and we got a wagyu bento box for about 14 bucks and it was great.  

The box seat we had was pretty close to the dohyo (clay platform the matches are on).  We were row 11.  The box seats are for 1-4 people.  If you have 4 folks you all have to sit cross legged.  With us 2 it was roomy and we could have our goody bag and food no problem.

When we sat down the hall was probably about 20% occupied.  Around 2pm the 3rd highest rank Makushita ended and Juryo (2nd highest division began).  That's when it started to fill up.

Finally around 3:40 top division Makuuchi started and the hall was packed, fully sold out within an hour when tickets went on sale 2 months ago.

This was day 12 of 15.  The way tournaments work is that each rikishi has 1 bout a day.  Whoever has the best record at the end of 15 days wins, or there's tie breakers until 1 stands on top.

This tourney had a lot riding on it going in.  The single Yokozuna Terunofuji is retiring.  2 other rikishi had a chance to be promoted to Yokozuna (which is a lifetime appointment) based on their performances.  1 of those is already out of that running.  The other, Hoshoryu (Mongolian) is still in but things needed to happen.

He was 8-3 going into today.  There were 2x 9-2s and 1x 10-1 Kinbozan (Khazahstan).  He went against Kinobozan today and won which puts him more in contention now depending on what happens in the next 3 days.  The other 9-2s both lost so its a 4 way tie at 2nd (9-3 record) and Kinbozan still at 1st (10-2)

Matches take typically like 5 seconds or up to 30 seconds.  Its pretty unusual to go past a minute.  

Around us were: Australian couple behind and the guy kept pushing his socked feet into Sarahs back and I had to ask him not to.  Although he still kept brushing them up.

Japanese couple and Japanese woman to our left.  Only interaction was they had a mystery bento box trash in their seat and asked if it was ours.  I showed here we had ours in our trash and it wasn't.

Single Australian dude in the box to our right.

Entire 2 rows of seats in front of us was a group of elderly Japanese folks who we were genuinely scared were going to injure themselves getting in and out of their seats.  One guy did trip and fall but was ok.

Getting out was crowded but orderly.  We opted not to take the trains back as they were jam packed with folks from the tourney hall.  Took a cab, the guy was super fun and got pissed at a cab in front of him that made him slam his breaks.  It was funnier than it sounds.

Back in time for snack and cocktail hour at the hotel.  Tasty, had iced lattes.

Had a reservation at the rooftop bar.  It was up a level from the lobby and is exposed to tge air, but our seats at the window had heat blankets.  Sarah had a "Yuzu Tokyo Mule" and I had a hot negroni.  Plus some karaage (fried chicken thigh).  Drinks were a little too flavorful for us.  But it was fun too.  Also they had Charlie Chaplain movies projected on a while which I thought was a great idea when your playing music anyway.  Need to watch more of them I've only seen a few.

Otherwise just planning our last day tomorrow which is just going to be last minute souvenir and snacks.  While we had a list of things going into Japan that we wanted to try we certainly didn't do all of them or even most (foodwise) but not really any disappointments there.  

And then the next day it's off to the airport in the early morning.

Thanks to everyone reading the blog, hopefully not too tedious.  One more to go to!

Back to Tokyo

That means we're on our last leg here for the trip sadly.  We took the Shinkansen out of Kobe.  The trip took about 2.5 hours.  We tried the green car this time.  Its a little more expensive because the seats are nicer and you can get food/drink as well as attendees who collect trash.  In the end not worth it.  The seat wound up feeling narrower as your can't lift the middle armrest.  The food options were small, we got a cheese and sausage snack pack.

Japan got us again.  We got the pack and the 2 types of cheese were parmesian with layers of cod on the outside and camembert also with cod layers.  You couldn't see that in the pic.  They were fine-ish with the cod but we learned you could peel it off and they were better.  Also the parm and camembert tasted basically the same.  But not a land known for its cheese.

Our transfer after the shinkansen was delayed due to someone... dying on the train tracks.  Not our station but that line.   Accident or not accident, grizzly.  

We then taxid the rest of the way.  Park Hyatt Kyoto was a fancy hotel and so is the Andaz Tokyo (also in Hyatt family) in some different ways.  They room is big for Tokyo, especially considering our first hotel.  We're on the 47th floor of the Toranomon Hills Tower with a huge window view north into the city.  Tokyo Skytree and Imperial Palace/Gardens are clearly visible and we could spend a lot of time staring out at it.  But that time will have to be split with the massive tub in here.

We did have to leave quickly after getting here though.  We had to get out to Mitaka for the Ghibli Museum.  I'd also gone years ago and similarly, cant take pictures inside to share.  Our timeslot at 4 gave us just 2 hours to when they close, but that was enough time.

When you get inside they give you a movie cell which doubles as a ticket to see an animated feature they only show at the museum.

The animation was an adorable one.  Boro the Caterpillar is 15 minutes about a caterpillar who comes out of his egg and slowly starts to experience the world.  The only audio is done by human voice into mic, which was pretty cool.  He learns what other caterpillars eat, and predators, and eventually gets himself inside a delicious dandelion flower.  Hard to describe but it was a lot of fun.

We got a pair of pins from the shop and then realize we hadn't eaten anything otherthan bread at breakfast time and the fish cheese...

The line for food had died down at the Ghibli Cafe so we got a hotdog and chicken straps, which were really good!  

The museum had a special exhibit for The Boy and the Heron which won the academy award for best animated film and which Sarah and I both saw and kind of hated it.  Without spoilers our issue is summed up by:

It's a fantasy world without discernable rules.  That makes it like someone telling you a dream for 2 hours where stuff happens and has no point.

But, the movie was still beautiful and the exhibit was paintings used in the animation in one way or form.  For instance some were used as background that would pan and have layers above it like clouds.  Others may have been used as design pieces for other animators to pick up and use as reference.  Very neat.

The rest of the museum is fairly small.  There's a room displaying sort of a history of animation through flipping images and light tricks.  Basically to show kids how our eyes perceive still images as moving and the tricks used to do that.  

Another section shows replicas of artist rooms with inspiration books and sketches used for movies that's supposed to feel like your in their workspaces.  And it does seem that way.

We left a few minutes before close and made our way back.  Travelling is tiring work and the one meal was starting to wear off.  When we got back to the hotel building we checked for food.  1st floor had Bebu Burger: American Soulfood.  We needed our souls back so we ordered some to go.  When we got up to the hotel lobby (above us on the 50th floor) they were doing their daily snack and drink lounge.  So we got some wine and a latte and ate some snacks to prep for the burgers we were going to eat soon.

Tasty snacks, solid burgers and very good wedge fries, which we both feel usually aren't amazing but these were great.

Our sumo tickets were delivered to the hotel by the site we ordered them from.  Great service buysumotickets.com.  We'll be going there sometime tomorrow and we have to check the stats from yesterday.  We didn't catch up on the last 2 days now.

Dragon Quest Island

The most fun we've had in a long time.  We went to a theme park Nijigen no Mori, and specifically Dragon Quest Island, which I'll explain more after a meme and the boring part where I talk about us waking up.

Woke up and taxid to the bus station, and had a got a ticket one way to Awaji Island, which is famous for its onions.  The bus rolled up and looks like this:

We already had tickets booked for DQ Island, although that didn't matter as a weekday in winter is a slow day for tge park.  Nijigen no Mori (which means 2D forest) is a really pretty park that has multiple themed outdoor parks based on video games, anime, and Godzilla.  Some have obstacles courses, ziplines, water guns, interactive outdoor screens.  Each one takes at least a few hours and are fairly physical, not rides so to speak.  

DQ Island is based on the long running video game series.  Players pick a starting class that's available.  Sarah picked Mage and I picked Goofball (joker/jester class).  You get a guide book in English and to take notes in and a wristband with a medal and an nfc chip.  So you tap it on various things to interact.

Backing up, the first thing we did was make snowglobes.  This was the only even remotely disappointing thing.  As it was like 18 bucks a person and the snowglobe was this really cheap plastic home snowglobe you put acrylic dragon quest guys in and pick your glitter.  And then you just put a sticker on it, it's ok.  

Backing up again... you start in a castle and the people working there are dressed as guards and guide you to the screen to make your character.  You then get ushered to a room where the king explains that evil Zoma is attacking the land and you have to save them with the orb of light etc etc.  You leave the castle and it's a village, Onogard.  It looks like a village right from the games.  You can go in houses and there are screens you tap the medal to speak with villagers.  They have quests like get 3 of these herbs in chests amd you need to go around town trying to find the chests.  

On top of that there's secret medals that can help you level up.  Sometimes you have to leave the town (there's an exit gate you tap the medal to get in and out of) and you go to the north forest.  Which is part of the park but with monster statues that you sometimes have to fight.

It was great. Words can't describe how fun it was.  And that's EVEN with our feet and legs being exhausted and now we were playing a theme park game where the main event was walking.

For breakfast we got a popcorn bucket shaped like an Onion Slime King.  Which needs double explaining.  Awaji is known for its onions, they're very sweet and flavorful, and so in this Dragon Quest Island there are slimes (which are traditionally blue or metal and are common low level enemies in the games) that are shaped and look like onions.  The popcorn was also onion flavor and we thought it could use a little more onion honestly.  

We did a side quest that took a little longer and had us walking up and down the hill in the north forest again.  We killed the dragon and got the orb.  And finally it told us we were ready to face Zoma.

We headed to Zomas keep and a robed masked woman (who was very nice) got us ready to face him (lined us up with another group).  The final battle was a screen with Zoma, and you have attack buttons you have to hit in the right order as they light up.  When he attacks it blasted cold air on us which was a nice touch.

In the end we got em.  It ranked us along with the 2 other people (we did better than them hohoho).  Left and got our picture taken and the classic "Would you like to buy your photo?" Which of course we did because its going to go on our next Christmas cards.  Then to get more of our money it spat us into the cafe with themed food, which of course we ate.  And then it spat us into the gift shop where of course we bought stuff because if you spent 2000yen you got stickers amd if you spent 5000yen you got a bag, and if you spent 10000yen you got a better bag.

And then we did the random prize raffle 3 times and won awesome onion slime prizes.

And we had to stop at the godzilla Cafe so Sarah could get a godzilla creme puff and a godzilla teacup.

It actually wasn't that much money than you exchange rate but also didn't even care.  We got to be outside with not too many people having a great time.  A+ theme park.

The ride back was tricky though...the timetable wasn't obvious and there was no bus stand to get tickets.  A very nice Chinese/Hong Kong guy helped us out even though he spoke little english and i spoke no Chinese.  I saw he had tickets and asked where he got them and said they bought in advance.  He realize we were going to Kobe and let us know there bus he was on was going to Osaka.  We thanked him and walked away, but he came running after us even though his bus was almost there to tell us he found the time for our bus.  Very cool.

We had to wait another hour but was alright.  We grabbed food at the same curry place as its quick, got asliced beef steak in the chinatown Kobe meat stand and then went back to pack and eat.  

Hopefully the photos convey better than the descriptions.

Spicy metal slime curry.  Wasn't very spicy, had 2 quail eggs, was very tasty considering theme park food.  Onion soup

Hamburger steak with an Awaji onion and onion soup.  Also very good