Tokyo Times: Part 1

Some icy fruity things at Sensoji.

Okay, so Portland is still my favorite city in the world, but Tokyo is a very close second.

At the end of last month, five of my friends and I took an overnight bus to Tokyo, where we spent three amazing days doing pretty much every touristy thing there is to do in Tokyo (with the tragic exception of the Parasitology Museum).

Here’s a quick rundown of the weekend (or at least the beginning of it).

Thursday, 11:20pm. Just barely make it in time to board the night bus at the Osaka Sky Building after accidentally taking the wrong train and getting trapped in the subway. Soon realize that between the driver’s recklessness, the lights shining right in our eyes, and the lack of legroom, we will not be sleeping much.

Friday, 6:00am. Arrive in Tokyo and make our way to Ikebukuro, where our ryokan is located. Within minutes of disembarking the bus, we discover who is not a morning person, and I have my very first encounter with a squatting toilet. Oh joy.

A ryokan is a traditional style Japanese hotel. Ours was pretty bare-bones (five futons and some public bathrooms) but they gave us these sweet yukata to wear!

So photogenic!

After dropping our bags off at the ryokan, we headed to Akihabara, which is the place to go in Tokyo if you love electronics or anime porn. I’ll let you guess why I was there.

This girl gave us stickers.

It’s fun to walk around Akihabara because there are all these girls dressed as maids and stuff handing out flyers. And yes, we went to a maid café. And no, it wasn’t as creepy as I thought it would be. We got delicious desserts and drinks, and the maids all said “nyan” at us a lot. You’re not allowed to take pictures inside the maid cafés, but if you buy a Polaroid with one of the maids they give you a wide selection of animal ears to wear.

...Yes, of course I did that. When I find a scanner or get back to America, I’m showing that Polaroid to EVERYONE.

My friend Sean, and in the background, naked anime chick!

After we had exhausted the delights of Akihabara, we continued onward to Asakusa to visit the Sensoji. It is a pretty impressive sight, for a number of reasons. First there’s these big lantern things.

Thanks, Japanese ladies, for adding to the drama of this photo.

Then there’s these guys in short shorts who want to carry you around.

These aren't even the shortest shorts I saw men wearing in public.  More on that later.

And then, there’s what seems like a mile of shops filled with omiyage (souvenirs) or candy or other little knickknacks. 

And lots and lots of tourists.

And THEN, on top of all that, this lady was there.

I have so many questions.

I mean, DAMN.

After a brief nap at the ryokan and the second most welcome shower of my life, we once again ventured out into Tokyo. This time, we headed to Shibuya, which is what you are probably thinking of when you think of Tokyo.

Poor Hachiko had to deal with this every day.

Unfortunately, after the excitement of getting through that giant crosswalk fades, we realized that there is actually not much to do in Shibuya except eat and shop. And since I was the only girl in the group of five, we decided to eat.

Fun fact: in Japan, instead of saying “buffet-style,” they say “baikingu.” That means “Viking.” I take this to mean that you’re supposed to guzzle your food like a goddamn Viking. And that is what we did at the underground Indian restaurant in Shibuya. (And Ali Davis, if you’re reading this: just as we were leaving a music video from Endiron started playing, and I made everyone stay and watch it).

And thus ended our first day in Tokyo. Further adventures will be recounted in further blog posts, but for now I will leave you with this image:

The best part?  It's a chain.