Konokoi

Well, the moment we’ve been dreading has finally come upon us — it’s our final full day in Japan.

We checked out of the Sakura Hotel today and managed to get our now 4 pieces of heavy luggage to Shinjuku Station. Quite the ordeal that was almost as tiring as our first day.

Rather than decide to find another hotel, we decided to stuff all of the luggage into a set of large lockers. We had no way of knowing if any of it was going to fit, but luck was on our side and it did.

After that, we decided to eat some lunch at an oknomiyaki resturant. You usualy have to make your own, and that’s what we ended up doing. It was a scary but rewarding experience. Scary in that we were constantly checking around us to see what other people were doing without being obvious, not wanting to look like complete gaijin newbs, but still being like “wait, which part goes first? are we supposed to mix the ingredients? If so, do you mix in the bowl or on the stove top? Am I doing this right?!”

The one in the picture is the one I made. Mayonaise, sauce topped some lettuce, corn, other vegetables, egg, shrimp and cuttlefish. Delicious. And I took some notes for when we attempt to cook our own again. :)

After some shopping and having dinner, we headed to a nearby arcade when suddenly Bryan spotted… TAIYAKI!!!!

I’d been looking for a place to get some of this since we got here, but I resigned myself to accepting that it was either kinda rare or out of season.

Enter Bryan to save the day!! I walked by the place without realizing what it was, so it’s all thanks to his mad observation skillz. ♥

After Ginza we headed to Ueno’s shopping district! We were headed to the Hello! Project store (which was pretty similar to the last one we were at), when I saw this lovely Blythe doll!

It didn’t have a price on it, so I dont think it was for sale :< I guess that’s good, though, I might have wanted it so bad I’d have gotten it even at in unreasonable price! She’s got an Alice in Wonderland theme going, which is one of my (many) weaknesses.

We went shopping in Ginza! Well, not really, we’re not rich enough for that.

But we went to a specific shop to buy something. On our way back to a station I saw this poster for Hikki’s new English album and I had to have a photo.

I ♥ Hikki! Kinda sad to know she was in New York promoting the album while we were all the way in Japan for once, lol,

We found some empty frames in Ginza station, so we thought we’d immortalize Bryan by putting him in one of them!

So today we went to see the Imperial Palace, but it was kind of far to get a good photo with my iPhone.

Bryan took a lot if good photos with his camera, though, so those will me up later on Flickr.

This photo here is from a fountain plaza we found just across the street from the palace area! It was really pretty, Bryan got lot of good photos of that, too ♥

We’ve seen a lot of one of our favorite Hello! Project idols, Suzuki Airi, advertising Pizza-La, a Japanese pizza delivery chain. Obviously, we had to try it out.

Fortunately, there was one just a few blocks away from the Sakura Hotel, so we started our day there.

This picutre is probably the closest Jenni will ever get to eating meat. XD

On Shaun Inman’s recommendation, I finally made it to the 8bit Cafe in Shinjuku! It was a very small place, but that made it seem a lot more cozy.

They had all kinds of retro gaming memorabilia there. Along the bar, there were a lot of action figures and lots of old handheld games. Unfortunately, they were getting ready to close by the time we were done with our food. :(

I must definitely return here.

Forgot to post this last night! We went to the 8-bit Café last night and they had such cool stuff lining the walls!

There was anything from retro game stuff like a Power Glove (which Bryan tryed on), to books, to this sketch pad which was filled with drawings and messages from past customers!

Bryan and I made our own page in there headed “Things We Did In Japan,” so be sure to look for it if you ever go. :3

So we came to Akihabara again! it’s cold and windy out, so I’m glad we’re mostly doing stuff indoors.

Bryan’s going to try this game out, where you play as a gundam/mecha type machine in this pod that simulates how it might look/feel if you were actually the pilot of one of those.

So for Bryan’s birthday we’re gaming at arcades, and then later we’ll be visiting this 8-bit café he’s been wanting to go to :3