So we finally reached Hachiko! We traded taking pictures with some other friendly American tourists. For those who are wondering what I’m talking about, Hachiko is the name of a very famous Japanese dog. The story is that Hachiko would always come to greet his master, after his long day of work, outside of Shibuya station. But one day, his master did not return. He had tragically suffered a brain hemorrhage and died. But for the next 9 years of Hachiko’s life, the dog continued to come to the station to meet his master, at the precise time when his train used to come in every day. Hachiko was given away after his owner passed but would escape to carry out the loyalty for his master. He noticed that his master no longer lived in their house but would go and search for him at the train station where they had spent so many years together. Over the years, many of the daily commuters had noticed Hachiko and would even feed and nourish him during his wait so his story became publicized. The statue remains fixed where Hachiko would always stand and is a symbol of loyalty to the Japanese people.
From there we kind of wandered to other highlighted prefectures. We visited Akihabara, the biggest electronics district in Japan that is also home to many anime, manga, and gaming shops to geek out in. We got to Ueno park pretty late in the day so it was actually kind of creepy with a bunch of weird, half drunk guys out. So I went around taking pictures, camera in one hand, mace in the other. xD By the end of all that, we were pretty much dead on our feet so we went back to Hatagaya and collapsed at our hotel.
The funny thing about visiting other places is that it makes you appreciate things about your home that you normally take for granted. Tokyo is fun for shopping and for a short vacation but honestly if I had come to Japan and just gone to Tokyo, I think I would have been disappointed. My vacation made me realize how much I love Kobe: the towns, the accent, even the familiar voice announcing my train station. You just can’t get a good feeling of Japan from Tokyo like you can from the less well-known prefectures. I’m happy to say it made me realize how much I love the Kansai region and that I picked the right place for my study abroad in Japan! Yay!
The next day, I kind of ventured out on my own. I went to the Ginza district of Tokyo, which is another big shopping area known for more expensive brands: Louis Vuitton, Apple, Sony, etc. I actually didn’t know how to get there so I asked a policeman at a Kouban (police box) for directions and he was this old Japanese man and was really awesome. He told me exactly how to get there. He was so nice and helpful! He seemed surprised that I could speak Japanese and kept switching back to English out of habit of talking to many English-speaking tourists haha. So I did some more shopping; got a few more articles of clothing and did some accessory shopping at a Forever 21 there and just kind of wandered. I met up with my friend midway through the day to hop a bus to Tokyo Tower. It looked exactly like the Eiffel Tower but... in Tokyo. *G* We rode up to the main deck and spent a lot of time taking pictures of the skyline and ourselves with the skyline.
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| Tokyo Towaa! |
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| The view from the main observation deck =) |
When I had taken my fill of pictures, I left to meet up with a few other friends to go out drinking. It was fun to kick back and chat for a few hours. We went to an Izakaya (bar) for nomihoudai until I had to go home to re-check in to the hotel. By the end of this day my feet were killing me so I took a long soak in the tub (much cleaner than American Hotel bathtubs). But I still woke up with aching feet so I took it easy for my last day in Tokyo. I debated going to Tokyo Disney but decided in the end it would just be too much walking for me to handle. And Studio Ghibli was sold out for all the days I was there *tear* so I went to Asakusa with some friends to visit the Sensoji Shrine, known for the 2 mighty gods, Raijin and Fujin, god of thunder and wind respectively. It’s the largest Buddhist temple in Tokyo and also contains a beautiful 5 story Pagoda.
After perusing around the temple and taking pictures because it was a gorgeous day, I went to Harajuku to check out a bit of the nightlife, and then left to get my bus to Sendai!
The bus system was insane. The company had about 50 buses all going in different directions, and they were all late. There must have been about 2000 people waiting outside in the bitter cold for their buses. You had to sign in first when they called and then wait for the bus to be called by megaphone, which was hard to hear besides the fact that they were announcing in Japanese. So I got closer to the speaker so I could hear more clearly and bunkered down on my bag to wait because no way I was standing for that long. About an hour later, I heard my bus call and staggered to my swollen, aching feet to limp to the bus where I slept uneasily for the six-hour ride. Not the most comfortable part of my trip. It wouldn’t have been so bad if my feet weren’t painful to move in any direction. So when I got off at 6am, I could barely walk and basically limped slowly to the subway and took one line to meet my friends. *しんどいわ*
Word of the day: しんどい, Shindoi. This is an expression you use when you feel you can’t go any further like, “I’m beat!” or “I’m exhausted!” It has a feeling of, “I am going to die if I go any further. ~_~” Very useful. =3
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