Yesterday!

I had so much fun yesterday! After some crazy email tag, it was decided that I was going back to Tokyo to meet Hiroshi, someone I'd met in Switzerland when I was an exchange student! So, I took the train to Mito and then I wanted to get there fast, so I asked the ticket helper guy and he got me the fastest ticket to Ueno. The train was called like, the Super Limited Express Hitachi or something like that. Hehe. The train was so nice! Padded, comfy seats that even reclined a bit. And a person with a drink/snack cart came down the aisles. Probably the nicest thing was that you can buy reserved seats, so instead of having to scramble and look for space, you have an assigned seat only for you. Instead of taking 2 hours to get to Ueno it took just about 1 hour. And it was nice because there were no stops between Mito and Ueno, it was direct. So I got to Ueno at 3:34PM and then headed to the pay phones. I called Hiroshi and I was able to meet up with him within 5 mins. I recognized him as soon as I saw him. It's funny how people change, but stay the same. I hadn't seen him in about 10 years, I think.

Anyway, we started out by going to Asakusa shrine. It's beautiful. So many people, so many souvenirs. I really liked it. I got some good pics.

Then after that we walked a bit, then somehow Akihabara was mentioned and we decided to go there. So another train ride and we were there. It looked so cool. That's where all the electronics stores and anime stuff is. We looked at a few stores as we walked and then we saw Rajio Kaikan. We went in there and looked at electronic dictionaries since I'd wanted one for awhile. Then we went upstairs and saw different areas. One had all these little anime figurines. Some were cute, some where disturbing. I didn't wanna go up and stare, but I swear one of the figurines was doing something super obscene. I was probably right. Then we were going down one hallway and there were these huge glass cases full of revolvers. It was sooo weird! Some of them were enormous! Then we went out and went to another store. We looked at dictionaries again and at cds and things like that. I didn't see anything I wanted so we left. We kept seeing the girls dressed in French maid outfits advertising the maid cafes standing in the streets. For anyone who doesn't know what a maid cafe is, it's a small cafe that serves drinks and food, but the waitresses basically call you master and act really subservient and speak super, super politely. It's strange, yes, but interesting. I think the girls will hang out and talk and flirt a lot with tables of guys. At least that's what it seemed like. But they didn't hang out with us too much since Hiroshi and I were together. We did get kind of a shock though... the prices are insane! For non-alcoholic drinks like coke, melon soda, etc the price is 600 yen (over $6). For an alcoholic drink, the price is 1500 yen (over $15). Hahaha. So we didn't even look at food. We decided to have one drink and go. And we decided to get a picture with one of the girls even though that cost another $5. Something neat that you can do there is make a dvd. You can pick one of three anime scenes and basically try your hand at being a voice actor. They had mic stands set up in the middle of the room so I think you had to do it in front of everyone. Which would be embarassing.

So then we left and went back to Rajio Kaikan where I bought my dictionary! It's so exciting. I can draw kanji on it and it'll tell me what it means! Awesome. But the manual's entirely in Japanese as well as the menu, so it'll take some time for me to figure out how to really use it. Haha.

Ok so then we went back to Ueno to try to find a restaurant. It had started raining quite a bit, thank god Hiroshi had an umbrella. So we walked for a bit and then found a place that I thought looked king of boring, but I agreed to go inside. I'm glad I did because it was really nice and the food was good and pretty cheap! It was called Negishi. I had a chicken dinner. I don't really know how the grilled chicken was seasoned, but it was nice. It came with barley rice, tororo(this kind of gruelly, sticky, cold yam mixture which tastes really good despite its description), ox tail soup, and a small portion of greens. Everything was good. Hiroshi was laughing at me though because I still haven't quite mastered the art of eating with chopsticks. :P I thought I was doing pretty good, dammit! :) I had a glass of nice red wine too and this cold tea which was soooo good. I don't know what kind it was though. :( Hiroshi had the same dinner set as mine except instead of chicken he ordered beef tongue. Ugh. He insisted it was good, though! He refused any alcohol because he says he's weak and goes red after one drink. Hahaha. Japanese people are so cute. I found out something shocking. He said he'd never been to a club before. Ever. So he'd never gone dancing. I still can't believe it. So I convinced him to go to a club next weekend. Should be fun! Then by the time we were done at the restaurant it was after 9 so we had to go home. He had work and I had to sleep. Lol.

The train home was so confusing! I was walking through the cars trying to find mine after I'd asked like 2 different people. Then the train ended. I had to walk outside and then it looked like there was another train in front. So weird!! So I asked another girl, but thankfully she spoke English and she said that yeah, you do have to get out and go on the other "train". I still don't know if it was 2 trains or just looked like 2 trains. That was soooo bizarre. I eventually found my seat and everything was ok. Barry had to pick me up from Mito station because I got there at about 11pm and the last train to Naka was at 10:30pm plus it was raining and soo cold! So I bought a drink from McDonald's and waited there. Then it was back to the apartment and I didn't stay up too much longer. I was too tired.

I'm watching my Koda dvds right now. They're great. Before that I watched the True Blood season premiere. It was really good, but surprising! So much is different from the book already. And some of Eric's raw fury was unleashed. So exciting!