[26.08.2009]
Today we went sightseeing around Tokyo, all in the name of H!P. To start off we decided to check out Ueno Park as everytime we passed through the station we could see the statue which Reina used in one of her HM@ Mou Tube videos. After getting off the train at Ueno we didn’t know which exit to take, although we somehow managed to take the right one – awesomes! After we found the entrance to the park we wandered around until we could find a trusty map (there’s almost as many street maps in Japan as there are vending machines…almost) as we knew the general direction we needed to go in but just wanted to be sure. The wooded area of Ueno Park was full of Cicada’s which did not please me in the slightest, but was a wet dream for zorrander. Needless to say, I kept my distance from them and flinched like a girly girl a few times when they flew past, but zorrander was getting as close as he could to them and taking photos. Don’t know why I’m so scared of them, but bugs / flying creatures scare the shit out of me…
saigō takamori statue
We found the statue we were after and took a few photos, then had a look at a small shrine that was nearby. One thing I do like about the Japanese culture is the Shinto religion and their places of ‘worship’. I don’t know why but I always feel a sense of peace when I go to them, so I was lucky to visit this one as it would become the one and only I went to on this trip (…). But this one had a pretty cool cleansing trough / fountain so I was happy enough with that.
grand fountain / national museum of western art – ueno park
After leaving the shrine we decided to take a walk to Shinobazu Pond which was not what I was expecting as it was completely covered with lilies and reeds. There really wasn’t much to see so we didn’t stay long before making our way back to the main park. The next place on our list before we left Ueno was a trip to the Hello! Project shop. I knew roughly where the shop is located in Ueno thanks to an online guide, but stupidly couldn’t remember if it was north or south of the station so had to ring gordokaba twice for directions *slaps self*. Funny thing was gordokaba was also unsure of which direction it was in, so after walking the wrong way for a while we had to turn around and go in the opposite direction lol. Once we got to the other end of the station I spotted the coffee shop that gordokaba had told me about, and it was plain sailing from there. After all that though, I wasn’t impressed with this Hello! Project shop and would say it’s the worst out of the three. It’s small and even though the stock is the same as the other shops, it just feels old and musty. I suppose it could have something to do with the ancient poster on the stairs outside…
faded poster fail…
Neither of us bought anything in the shop but zorrander picked up some fruit from one of the market stalls in the street outside, and I just bought a slice of watermelon. Fruit in Japan is GINORMOUS, and really refreshing in the Tokyo heat ♥
Upon leaving Ueno we decided to hit up Tokyo Tower as it’s one of those places you MUST visit whilst in Tokyo, even though it really isn’t that great. When I first travelled to Japan in 2006 I booked an ‘Ultimate Tour’ package and was fortunate enough to have my Tokyo hotel upgraded to a pretty darn posh one (female lift attendants in kimono anyone ^^). My upgraded hotel was right next to Tokyo Tower so I knew that if we walked from the station in the direction if the hotel, we’d get to where we wanted to be. It worked! We found Tokyo Tower and had a look around the two main observation decks, but we didn’t go up to the the highest one as we didn’t want to pay for it lol. Thing is, the view really isn’t that impressive. Okay, so I live in an area of the UK where there’s more green moorland and fields then houses, so seeing a place where there’s hardly any green areas is quite fascinating…for 5 minutes. Then it’s just boring shades of grey <_< The Landmark Tower observation deck was so much better because it’s on a harbour. Yokohama 1 – Tokyo 0!
yuke yuke monkey dance… ~samuii~
Inside the building at the foot of Tokyo Tower is the Guinness World Records museum (amongst many other things), which Morning Musume members have visited a couple of times. We decided that as we were there we’d take a look, but it wasn’t that amazing. Although it is fun recollecting about what H!P members do in these places though, and we had a laugh remembering them all standing on the scales next to this sexy guy…
them some moobs!
We spent a fair amount of time in Tokyo Tower so thought we’d best get some nosh as we I was starving. I saw a sign for Pizza La and decided to try it as Buono! advertise them but…they weren’t that good <_< I’m not that fussy when it comes to food (except for seafood), but the only meat I like on my pizzas is chicken. They didn’t have any chicken toppings and the only one that didn’t feature pepperoni was potato and sweetcorn. POTATO AND SWEETCORN – WTF?! I ate it – it was really bizarre. We also saw a waffle shop called Pink Dot which Buono! also advertise for, so I tried one of them as well. It was bland (do you see a pattern forming?). Although I do have to say it was fun watching the Buono! videos playing whilst we were waiting for our food.
chocolate buono! waffle
The last thing we saw in Tokyo Tower – and the highlight of my day – was Pikachu! As soon as I saw him I wanted to run up and hug him, but that’s not really something that a 26 year old should do. Plus it would’ve gained me some unwanted ‘OMG! LOOK AT THAT STUPID GAIJIN’ attention. As my brain and my body was battling against sense and stupidity some little kids ran up to him and hugged him instead. Oh, how I wish I was a kid again T_T
I hope the guy in the Pikachu suit has been police checked!
Outside of Tokyo Tower we walked around the wooded area outside which Eri, Jun and Lin briefly passed through in Morning Days 1, then we decided to stop off at the Hello! Project shop in Shibuya before going back to our hotel. We met up with gordokaba in the evening and had dinner in a Sukiyaki / Shabu Shabu restaurant called Momo Paradise (awesome name). Quick note – when you go to a restaurant where people are queueing to be seated, don’t just stand / sit down in the queue and wait. That’s exactly what we did and we ended up waiting ages whilst watching all the people that arrived after us go in before us because we hadn’t told them that we required a table…FAIL! I know that Eri talks about Shabu Shabu quite often so I really wanted to try that, but zorrander didn’t think he’d like it so we went for Sukiyaki instead *starts singing Sukiyaki*. We didn’t have a clue what we were supposed to do other than put the meat and vegetables in the pan, so when we started running out of liquid and the pan started to burn I quickly ushered someone over (I didn’t want any flames like the Yakitori incident). Who knew that the two pots of liquid on the table were for topping the pan back up…duh ^^; The meal was really nice and myself and gordokaba ate a lot and drank a lot of beer (as usual). Japanese food is really appealing to me this time so I was glad that I was getting to try lots of different dishes. Sukiyaki goes on my list of food to eat again.
shibuya hello! project shop entrance
Upon leaving the restaurant we made plans for the next day where gordokaba would be joining us for more Tokyo sightseeing. I then wobbled back to the hotel and had a good nights sleep ^^
End of day 06
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USO!!!! Few questions really, firstly whats a kernow doing in Japan? Most Kernows never venture furthur than Plymouth, secondly what does chanponchan mean? I know it isnt an actual word and that one of the Musume’s mistakenly use it instead of a real word, cant remember when though. Finally what is a Kernow doing in Japan?
LMAO that’s so true! Kernow’s never venture further than Plymouth! Heck, I don’t even go that far if I don’t have too XD
Sadly I don’t live in Japan so I only go over there for Morning Musume themed holidays. If I could live there I would, but I don’t think that’s ever going to happen T_T
According to Risa chanponchan is the capital of China, just like je’mappelle is the capital of France and ha-hi-hu-he-ho is the capital of South Korea lol. That was the answers she gave on the Bakajo Test not long after she joined Morning Musume, so she was only 13. Still… <_<
Was trying to remember where I heard that, my H!P knowledge isn’t quite as encyclopaedic as yours. I’m the opposite way around, I’m a Geordie currently living in Kernow land, not a big fan of pasties or cider so I’ll be escaping soon hopefully. I fully intend to move to Japan once I finish uni, been teaching myself Japanese for a couple of years I’m getting better but apparently my accent is totemo mazui. Tried to get on a Japanese course at the big city Truro College but it was full.
Couple of questions. How do you find out about H!P events and is there an english page with details on how to get tickets and stuff?
I wouldn’t say I have encyclopaedic knowledge, just that I’m Risa mad lol. If you move to Japan after Uni what will you be doing out there? Teaching English? I would really like to go but I don’t want to teach as well…I dislike kids lol. I was thinking about buying a camper van / caravanette and working part-time jobs, staying for 90 days then doing a visa run (maybe spend 90 days in South Korea). I just haven’t looked in to it so I don’t know if they have camping sites in Japan >_<
Totemo mazui! Surely it's not that bad? I took a basic Japanese course in Plymouth and the intermediate started last week but I can't join as I need the tuition fee to go towards a possible trip to Japan in December. Is there no way you could attend that one? It's in the Swarthmore Centre on Thursday evenings 7-9pm if you're interested.
For H!P events I use Hello! Online (www.hello-online.org) plus the Hello! Online Twitter, and I'm also a member of the H!P FC but that means jack as I can't read the e-mails I get lol. As for tickets, I usually ask someone on Hello! Online to help me out with the purchasing. There's a few good ticket re-sellers in Tokyo or we use Yahoo Auctions.
Plymouth is out of the question its about an hour and half drive away. Squeezing in my Japanese at the minute is difficult as I work night shifts and have college during the day. Can’t wait to study Japanese full time at uni next sept.
Think I’d be ok at teaching but then you might find a load of Japanese speaking with a geordie accent and drinking brown ale (which to be honest would be hilarious). I’d like to go over there as an engineer which is what I am now but by then I will have a degree in Japanese so teaching, translating or interpreting wouldnt be out of the question.
Going to get myself to an H!P event next summer before i start uni, managed to persuade a friend to come on a tour of Japan with me, I’m going to turn it into an Otaku crusade. He may hate me for it but whats friendship when Idoru’s are involved?
I’m trying to figure out where you live for Plymouth to be 1.5 hours away. I take it you’re right down in deepest darkest Cornwall? I also work night shifts and I’ve just started ‘training’ as an engineer! Very freaky!!! LMAO! Japanese people speaking with Geordie accents! I’m having visions of them walking around going ‘Byyyer Grooove’ (right place?). If you manage to live in Japan with a job you enjoy, that’ll be a lot better then going to teach English.
Ooh…planning in advance! I take it you mean a Wonderful Hearts concert? I’ve yet to go to one of them, but then I’ve only been to one concert and that was for Morning Musume’s Bonkyu Bonkyu Bomb tour. I agree with you 100%, friendship doesn’t matter when hot Japanese H!P girls are involved.
BTW – Who’s your favourite Hello! Project member? Someone from Morning Musume?
I thought the Ueno Hello Shop was the best one I visited (I also visited Harajuku’s and Shibuya’s). Structure-wise, it definitely looked poor but they had more goods than the other 2 stores. That was the store were I spent almost 10000yen on goods in one day. And I also got lost looking for the store. Till this day, I have no idea how I managed to find it.
I still haven’t checked Tokyo Tower. But out of everything in the tower, Pikachu as your highlight? lol
It’s such a bummer that you didn’t get to try shabu shabu. It’s really good. But I never tried sukiyaki.
I’m pretty sure that all three H!P stores in Tokyo sell the same items (unless they are store specific like the Ueno 8(?) years stuff), although what’s in / out of stock will be different in each. I think I prefer Harajuku the most because they display the outfits in the window and it seems really clean. Possibly because – if I remember right – everything is white / just off white. The steps outside, the floor, the walls…everything lol. I just felt like Ueno was clinging to the past. I know the cardboard posters have all the old members on but seriously, throw them out and get some new ones made!!!
Yeah, out of everything in Tokyo Tower Pikachu was the highlight!!! ^_^ It was only this trip that I realised they had a Family Mart in the building at the bottom, and I only noticed it because Pikachu was in front of it. If I had gone in to Family Mart then that might’ve piped Pikachu to the post for being the highlight >_< It really isn't an amazing attraction and if it wasn't a big orange-red / white take on the Eiffel Tower I don't think I would bother with it at all. In fact, next time I go to Japan I doubt I'll go near it unless whoever I'm travelling with really REALLY desperately wants to go up it.
Next time I will try Shabu Shabu. I will make sure of it. Sukiyaki is good though so you should try it next time.
Choose a favotite musume? Can’t I love them all? I’m a favorite of the old Musumes to be honest, my favorite at the minute is Nacchi as she is currently blessing my bedroom wall, always had a soft spot for Konno aswell but out of the current Musumes its a toss up between Ai-chan and LinLin.
I used to live quite close to Byker back in the day, the grove was actually in a place called Walker but ‘Walker Grove’ would sound a bit crap. I’m trying to make a website (quite unseuccessfully) with a Geordie Japanese twist, dont have any free time at the moment between work and college tho.
Cant get much farther south than me, I’m about 10 miles away from Menspants (Penzance). What kind of engineering you doing in Jannerland then? Somekind of marine engineering? I’m an aeronautical engineer, working on helicopters. You familiar with Culdrose?
You can love all of them if you want but man, what is it with all the people ‘near’ me liking the old members? *shoots a look at sonofgodzilla <_<* Ai-chan and Lin Lin eh…I give you props for that, but if you had said Aika I would've told you ‘DO NOT PASS GO. DO NOT COLLECT £200!!!’ or ‘GTFO’. Which ever rolls off the tongue first lol. If you can’t tell, I don’t like Aika…
I checked out your website after you first commented on my blog. I like the look of it and I was in stitches at most of the things on there. Seriously… ‘do while you poo’! I’ve been trying to figure out what the proper phrase is but I can’t make head nor tail of it, care to enlighten me? I hope you persevere with it as it’s different and pretty darn funny. Doing phrase card practice whilst in the sea off the Cornish coast…AWESOMES! Don’t laugh at this but I actually googled Menspants just to see if that’s a real name. We live in a county containing such wonderful place names like Crapstone and Greensplat, there was a possibility that Menspants exists. I couldn’t find it though…
Ahh Culdrose. Went to the Navy Days thingy down there once and it rained and blowed a gale the whole day! <_< I wanted to join the Navy to do marine engineering (with aeronautical as my second option) but couldn't because my eyesight didn't make the grade. Where I work I'm just learning basic mechanical engineering which I'll get an NVQ for. I don't actually think I'll be able to do much with it outside of the factory but it's a start. I feel I'm too old to go back to college, or it could be that the young people at college would piss me off big time.
BTW – I'm not Cornish which is why I take the piss out this place / the locals as well. Although I have successfully managed to pick up a Cornish / Plymovian accent due to taking the piss all the time and my boss being from Plymouth. Mind you, I'm from Bristol so I already had a Janner-esque accent before I came down…
Does anyone like Aika? I think some guy did once but I think that was Tsunku and even he regrets it. I really used to hate Koharu and her massive gums for some reason but shes grown on me. Maybe if i told her that she’d stay.
Bleh your a Briztolian me babber. Haa bis? I hate living in Cornwall, I hate pastie, I hate shit roads, I hate “BIG” city Truro. You know Cornall is peitioning to become its own country? It’d be a third world country within a week. Think I’d like Penzance more if it really was called Menspants. Had enough of the Navy aswell. Bah to it all!
I have a friend who is a marine engineer in plymouth called Stuart Redford but I think he’s finished his training now.
I’m 24 and going to college at the moment, its not too strange to be a mature student, theres a woman in my class who is 49. I cant wait to go to uni next year. Hopefully going to study Japanese and Cultural studies, then i’m emmigrating and never comming back.
I have some class ideas for the site but no time for the page, think i’ll start it again after college, living off 4 hours sleep a day during the week and i’m either really tired, angry or just cant be bothered. I wanted to make the site because I was sick of boring monotone Japanese lessons.
I dunno when I thought of the ‘do while you poo’ bit could be a variant of ‘drink while you think’.
Oh yeah. What do you think about the ‘Learn Nihon-go for a poo’ pun? None of my friends get it, but then again none of them speak Japanese.
QFT!!! I really want to use that in my sig on Hello! Online but I think I’ll be moaned at by various people. I wouldn’t actually give a shit, but I don’t like intentionally causing a ruckus if I can help it.
If I thought you could get Koharu to stay by telling her that I’d personally pay for the international phone call. Heck…I’d probably go as far as to pay for a flight so you can tell her in person!!! I still wish she wasn’t graduating. Me babber? I’ve have never heard that saying but since reading it I’ve used it a lot ^^; I actually don’t mind living in Cornwall as I don’t have deal with something’s that the rest of the country do. Like…I don’t have to wear a stab vest whilst I’m out walking my dog because the chance of a chav knifing me is very slim. Mind you, I’m in the ‘out back and beyond’ so it’s probably not as safe in places like Truro (does Truro have chavs?) or Menspants.
4 hours of sleep? I work 12 hour shifts so that wouldn’t cut it for me. I usually have 7 hours a day and anything less makes me kinda cranky. How many hours do you work for a day?
I love this pun. I suppose it’s not easy for people to understand if they know nothing about the Japanese language, but I lol’d!