Our Travel Itinerary

Our trip home is going to be a long one. Here’s what it looks like. 

  • Leave Japan tomorrow a 2:55pm (about 10pm Wednesday vancouver time). 
  • Arrive in LA in LA at 7:45am Thursday. 
  • Leave LA for Seattle at 1:45pm (Yay super long layover!) 
  • Arrive in Seattle at 4:23pm (Allegedly) 
  • Catch a Greyhound from Seattle to Van at 8:50
  • Arrive in Van at 1:00am 
  • Die from exhaustion in my bed at 1:34am 

Things I’ll do during travel. 

  • Enjoy the comfort of my seat: 10 mins
  • Be uncomfortable in my seat: 11hrs 50mins 
  • Play Pokemon: 2hrs 
  • Play Radiant Historia: 5-6hrs
  • Try to sleep: 6hrs
  • Actually sleep: 1hr
  • Watch a movie with Vince Vaughn: 20mins
  • Rant to Nicole about bad movie: 3hrs 
  • Read Game of Thrones: Wild Card
  • Stare out the window blissfully: Like 2hrs 
  • Complain about how tired I am: 16hrs

Final Day: Things I’m Bringing Home

It’s finally time for us to pack our things and go home. Tomorrow we get on a plane and after hours and hours of travelling we will return home victorious. Have I changed? Has home changed? Not really no, it was only like ten days, Owen, stop being melodramatic. 

We’ve bought a bit of stuff while we were here so I figured I’d do an inventory of what I picked up (Leaving Nicole’s stuff out. She can do one if she damn well pleases.) 

Toys

There’s no hiding the fact that I’m a huge man-child. With that in mind here’s the wonderful wonderful toys I picked up while in Akihabara. 

Naruto and the 4th Hokage from Naruto. LOOK HOW COOL THEY LOOK.

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This weird cat thing that Nicole liked. We found out he’s a character in a manga.

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Some of my favorite pokemons. 

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Games

Wanted to buy a lot of games but most consoles are region locked. Fortunately PS3 isn’t so I picked up Basara 3. It’s like Dynasty Warriors but with Samurai.

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Music

I really wanted some good Jpunk or Jrock but had trouble finding it. So instead I picked up to Japanese Hip Hop albums.

Clothes 

We both ended up buying a lot of clothes. I found a cool jacket, a snazy blazer, some pants, and a few shirts I really wanted. Nicole bought a lot of shoes. Rather than showing you each piece (Because honestly I’m sure you don’t care. Humour me here) here’s a picture of me in some of it. 

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 Now for like a full 24 hours of travelling to get home. HUZZAH! 

Owen out. 


Day 9: Gundam Cafe

Today we went to the Gundam Cafe in Akihabara. I have put together a quick review for your viewing pleasure. 

First Impressions: “Oh my god, Nicole they’ve got Gundams” “That’s nice, Dear”. 

The Service: We decided to go during a busier time of day (Foolish Canadians) and were welcomed by a lineup. We ended up waiting nearly half an hour outside for a seat. That’s not terrible but it made me realize they just did not have their shit together. When we got in they sat us in a 4 person table and I was like “Shit yes fine by me” even though there was a perfect 2 person table right next to us. Looking around the room there was another couple at a four person table, a single woman at a four person table, and multiple other single people scattered about. In the end that worked for me but holy crap what a mess. Otherwise service was fine and quick. 

The Food: The options are a bit thin and some were pretty comical (One dish was supposed to represent Gundam Wing Zero) was just rice with chicken wings on either side. The other options were mostly pork and chicken curries that had little gundam faces on them. 

Nicole and I feeling a bit homesick or a bit sick of not knowing what exactly we were eating decided on a tasty bowl of nachos. The nachos were ok.

 

The Drinks: Their drink menu had a ton of specialized drinks named after each of the major characters from the various shows. Each drink was a fruity and delicious cocktail that I would drink again in a heartbeat. 

The Ambiance: The whole cafe looks a little bit like a modernized lazer tag place. Everything is vaguely spacey but there’s so much normal thrown around that it seems a little silly. There are a few Gundams hanging around as well as a large screen that seemed to only be playing an ad for their latest movie. Wasted potential when you think that could have been episodes of the show or just the hardcorest nastiest porn they could fine. Episodes probably would have been the better call…

One fun thing I noticed though is all the waitresses were in military outfits and would salute you. If you won a prize from the scratch and wins they give you after paying they’d all salute in unison and congratulate you. Super cute. 

You're not a gundam, you're a cup!

Souvenirs: Attached to the cafe there was also a small souvenir shop where you could buy gundam memorabilia. You could even buy do it yourself versions of their own recipes. I decided to avoid buying anything. 

The downlow: Aggressively Average. Wouldn’t say no to going again but wouldn’t put that much effort into it either. 

In the other news of the day I think we’ve both finished our souvenir shopping, but if there was anything in particular you were hoping for that you haven’t asked me for directly now’s the time to do it. Chances aren’t great I’ll bring it back but better chance than if you didn’t ask. 

Bye for now,

Owen

Day 8: Snow Day!

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The weather has been pretty excellent the entire time we’ve been here. For the most part it’s been sunshine and blue skies since we arrived. Of coure it’s been a little chilly but that’s not surprise considering it’s winter. 

That said this morning we woke up to completely snow covered streets and cold ass temperatures. We were both reminded that snow is very unpleasant and that we hated being cold. As such we took it pretty easy today and mostly enjoyed the luxuries of our little apartment. 

With that in mind I don’t have too much to share, so instead here’s a list of my favorite things of Japan. 

  • It smells good: You all already know that there’s great food here but what you probably didn’t know is that you can pretty much smell it everywhere you go. My nostrils have been pleasantly assaulted by the smells of delicious food every time I get off a train or wander down a new street. This is nice because I’m use to most train stations smelling like urine and dispair. 
  • Fun little music plays everywhere: I’m always hearing fun little jingles when a train is getting ready to depart or when I’m allowed to cross the street. We do this in Canada too for somethings but it’s so much more common here and the music is so much more ridiculous. For example when our plane landed in Japan what I can only describe as 80s hair metal victory music started playing. So awesome. 
  • Vending Machine menu thingies: There are a lot of restaurants in Japan. Many of them are these small hole in the wall diners that usually serve ramen or curry. Many of them don’t have servers or menus but instead of a little vending machine at the front. You put your money in, you select what you want, then you sit down and they bring it to you. Being a foreigner who doesn’t speak any Japanese has made using these a little more difficult than it should be but it’s made the whole dining experience way more efficient and I for one love it. Especially since it means I don’t have to talk to anyone to order my food. 
  • Giant Arcades: This is pretty self explanatory but I just love that I can pretty easily find 5 store arcades with tons of games. Most of them also have a casino section which is perfect for gambling away your life savings (Or like $20). Plus they all have the happy prize machines that have such soft adorable toys to win. 

With two days left I’m starting to wind down on this vacation but it’s been a blast so far. Still so much I’d love to see and I hope I can cram some of it in before I head home.

-Owen out