Japan Pictures Day 6: Yokohama

Friday the 30th. We started by going to a bank so Kerri could exchange some of her dollars into Yen. The bank had all these plushie dogs everywhere, that appeared to be the bank's mascot. XD

We ate combini breakfast and then headed to Yokohama via the train. We saw this construction sign in the video above (sorry about the shakiness) and I had to get a video! Kerri was the master of the train map by this time, and we figured we knew exactly what we were doing, so of course we got on the wrong train. :P

This is the Tokyo JR train map. It's pretty well labeled
and color coded to match the platform colors, mostly.

We didn't realize that an express train also stopped on the platform we needed to be on, so we ended up having to ride the train back from the "end of the line" (wasn't very far, really) and transfer once we joined back up to where the train we needed split from the express.

On the wrong train, but cute anyway. ;)

 

 

End of the Line. Never seen a train so empty!
Especially in Japan where there are people everywhere.

These pictures just can't do them justice!

When we got to Yokohama, the station had all these beautiful cut class panes/boxes and a tile/glass mural over some stairs. We got in a lot of people's way when taking pictures. XD You can click on them to see them larger.

So pretty and sparkly!

Another over here. I had to try and dodge
that woman on the phone as she paced around.

Swirly and gorgeous!

Large mural across the wall.

Getting in the way of people to take pics.

We saw this tree propped up, and I had
to take a picture for my dad.

Our goal for Yokohama was Landmark tower and Cosmo World which is right nearby the tower. We couldn't find any cops at the Koban, but we looked at their map and headed out. It was a fair amount of walking, and kind of tricky to figure out how to get on/off the walking paths that cross over the roads and under the highway. We passed a children's museum themed on "Anpanman" (Anpan is bread filled with anko, sweet red bean paste. Man just fits because of rhyme, so even though it isn't the Japanese term, that is really his name).

So cool to see the tree growing over
the wood support.

When we got to the tower, we were hungry, so we stopped at a place that wasn't quite AS expensive as all the rest of the places, and got some Oyakodon, which literally means "parent-child bowl." It is called that because it has both chicken and egg in it! *bu-dum-psh*

Oyakodon with an Umeboshi on the plate, or pickled plum.
The plum was better than the ones we tried at home,
but still really... odd.

 
 

There were waterfalls along the stairs and a moat
INSIDE the tower! So cool!

Waterfall down the stairs.

 My main goal in coming to Landmark tower was the Pokemon Center! I had gotten back into the games with Pokemon Black, and Pokemon X and Y would be coming out a few days after we would return from Japan, so I was really hyped up. My real goal was to get a realistic pokeball (that opens and closes, maybe has a figure inside, whatever) but didn't have any! They had other toys that got close, a mystery tin (random figures/stickers inside) that was about the right size, but not what I wanted. I ended up buying a whole ton of little pokemon figures, and a plush Umbreon (pokemon). All spotted by Kerri as I still wouldn't be able to call the credit union until night because it was still Sunday night/early Monday in Utah.

Curved escalator! What?!

Mind-blowing sculpture at the plaza of the tower.

I had to get a picture of Kerri taking a picture.

 Next we headed to Cosmo World, but as we left the building, we ran into some street performers (British and American, I think, but really good Japanese). They were pretty funny to me! They kept building up to a trick that one guy was going to ride a super tall unicycle and juggle while on top, but every time they said they were going to do it, they did a different trick instead. I kept laughing my head off; I bet everyone thought I was crazy! Finally they got down to the main trick, and Kerri filmed it.

I am going to post all three videos, even though nothing really happened in one of them, because it was funny to me to listen to the guy. I'll try and translate it for you guys, but it probably won't be as funny as I thought it was. :P

 "...Okay, here we go, Faster! Here we go, watch! One, two, san (three in japanese). It's pretty fast. Here we go, we're going to go faster! Watch, isn't it amazing? " *spins around to catch*

*spits out apple bits* "Ah, disgusting!" (the apple had been dropped quite a bit so it was dirty and bruised) "Yeah!" *me laughing like an idiot* "Everyone, wait for an amazing trick! This time I only ate the apple, but this next time I will stab it with the knife! This will be the last one because my right knee is angry" (see the braces on his knees) "But today I'm going to do it in one shot. Everyone is so good at getting all excited!" (he had asked us to clap for him last time) [some stuff I couldn't catch] "Ah everyone wait, stop, stop (in english). Does anyone know a [probably a doctor of some sort]?" Other guy: "Seriously?" [more stuff I couldn't catch].

"... eating the apple. Everyone keep going!" Other guy: "Yeah! You can do it" (In English) "Okay, everyone, are you ready?" *stabs apple* *everyone cheering* "Thanks ev-" *spits out apple pieces* *me laughing like a maniac again* "Everyone! No matter what hard times come, do your best and keep going! Look at today's special trick: Grilled apple" *me once again laughing like a hyena* "One two three, let's go"

Cosmo World, on either side of the river.

 So we finally headed for Cosmo world, but we really wanted to see it at night. Good thing as we wandered through the little kids area, we ran into a character artist. Kerri really wanted to get one, but I refused to do it with her, so I just sat with her and waited. It was pretty cute, and I've never seen her hair so brown as what the guy drew.

Riding a mechanical giraffe? Not really, I just sat on it.

In the ferris wheel, looking down at the pool for the
roller coaster below.

As we got close to the ferris wheel (that was at one point the largest in the world) we were surprised by a roller coaster that seemed to dive right down into the pool, with a splash and everything! It was so cool that we went to go ride it first (not quite dark yet). It cost like 700Y ($7) a person, and was super short. Even the water plunge wasn't that cool from in the cars. Oh well.

Next was the ferris wheel! It was a "clock" ferris wheel because it made one revolution per minute and had 60 cars. The view was great and the lights were pretty.

View of the ocean and the city lights. Sorry it's blurry.

Landmark tower is on the left. The tower is
full of offices or something, and the
5 bottom floors are the Plaza where you shop.

Take out in the plaza.

After wandering around some more, we got hungry and headed back to the Landmark tower to get dinner. Everything was so expensive that we got take-away tonkatsu bentos. Then we went and got Boba drinks for dessert.

 

Boba drink store.

Whatever this little ghost is, they had signs
all over giving suggestions on where
to clip it, like your sunglasses,
as a pinky ring, as an ear cuff, etc.
One was to clip it to your chapstick,
which I did and there it has stayed to this day!

After drinks, we headed back to the hotel. We packed up to leave the hotel the next day, and I checked my email to find a response from my mom saying she would call the credit union in the morning.  It would be Midnight in Japan, so I was glad she was going to do it for me. I was also pretty mad still, and getting mad at people, justified or not, doesn't really make them want to help you. :/

Here is a pic of my leg that is covered
in mosquito bites. But not just any mosquitoes,
yellow tiger or something. The bites itched,
but also filled with a fluid of some sort (not
pus) that wouldn't go away. I still have
marks on my skin from where they were.

Japan Pictures Day 5: Ikebukuro, Yoyogi Park and Harajuku

Day 5: Ikebukuro again, Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park, and Harajuku again!

It was Sunday in Japan, but still Saturday night in Utah when we got up. Because of that, we were just in time to watch the Relief Society broadcast live. After fighting with my tablet and lds.org, we ended up watching it on byutv.org.

Before leaving the hotel for the day, I checked my email for my parents' help, couldn't get the Visa phone number to work for Japan and ended up calling international to the US. They directed me to the Credit Union's lost card number (because it was outside of work hours in Utah) where the girl was able to clear up a hold on my card, but I still couldn't get any money! Bah!

After that, our plan was to try not spending the entire day shopping, because it was Sunday after all, so we decided to go to Yoyogi park and see the Meiji shrine. First things first, though, we decided to stop by Ikebukuro to see if my markers had been found and turned in.

Theft is almost non-existent in Japan, so I had some good hope. First I stopped by the little Conbini where I had tried their ATM, but they didn't have anything. So next we went to the Animate store and they had them! I was so happy!

Not sure what was going on. a bunch of people in the
middle of the street, chanting together and
bouncing the gold thing slowly moving down the street.

Markers found, we went back to Harajuku where Yoyogi park is located. We looked up one of the shops that we had missed before, called the Oriental Bazaar. We spent some time there, looking at all the traditional items, like chopsticks, Kimonos and such. I got a little coin purse because I really needed a way to keep the coins separate from the bills. In Japan, they don't have any paper money below a 1000Y ($10), and all those below are coins. They have 500Y, 100Y, 50Y, 10Y, 5Y and 1Y, all as coins, so most change is in coin format. It was super useful, so even if I never use it again, it was worth the purchase.

My lunch at "Jonathan's Cafe" that
started with a D and was some
kind of pasta/cheese dish

Finally we headed into Yoyogi park. Inside is the Meiji Shrine, where Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken, are enshrined. In Japan, they used to track the years by saying how far they were into an Emperor's reign. The Meiji era was the one where Japan emerged as a modernized nation in the twentieth century. The emperor died in 1912, and the original building was destroyed in the WWII air raids.

Now a whole ton of pictures. You have been warned.

The first Tori gate was huge! Look at the
people in the back.

I liked this bridge because it was curved.

Kerri from behind. Actually I was
aiming for that decoration on the bridge.

I may have been trying to get Kerri in as many pictures as
I could. These are barrels of Sake that were donated
from all the regions in Japan to the shrine.

And this side is all wine.

The path was so WIDE!

This is a purification area. You fill the cup with water,
pour it over one hand, switch hands and pour it over
the other, take some in your hand to rinse your mouth
and then tilt the whole thing up so the last water
rinses off the handle.

Here I am doing the rinsing. With my cool hat.

Once again caught Kerri at the next Tori gate

A shrine girl doing something I couldn't see.

The main shrine gate. The ends of the beams are
painted white, which makes a neat effect.

There was a wedding procession when we arrived.
The bride and groom are under the parasol, and behind
the guy carrying it was a whole train of family members
in nice clothes, though not traditional.
The man in the white at the right is the priest.
They had just finished the marriage and they were headed
to take pictures, from what I understood of the Priest's words.

You could buy these wooden slates to write a prayer or
wish on, and the priests would pray over them.

This one in Japanese

This one looks Arabic

And English

I like lanterns. I took a lot of pictures of lanterns.

I took a gazillion pictures of Kerri here, with her camera,
trying to get a good one. I like the perpective it gives
of the size of the lantern.

One of the lanterns on the path as we left.
It was getting dark, so it was lit.
I only come up to halfway of the whole
height.

It was just starting to get dark as we left, but we discovered they were closing the park, so it's good we got there when we did. Even then, it was only 5:00 or 5:30 and it would have been sad to just go back to the hotel, so we headed toward Takeshita street again. There was a 7-11 there, and we figured I could call Visa again while Kerri browsed the shops.

I found a quiet-ish alley and called again. The Indian guy I got tried to be helpful, but wasn't really. I ended up calling back and got a different lady. We finally determined that while the hold was removed by Visa (they had called my Parents' place to confirm a transaction, but I was in Japan and my parents were on vacation as well), the Credit Union itself was blocking the transactions! I had talked to the Credit Union TWICE to make sure they wouldn't do that! ARGH! And it was still early Sunday morning in Utah, so I was going to have to also go all of Monday in Japan mooching from Kerri. Okay, I had like 53Y, but that's the same thing. We couldn't even get me some "Emergency Cash" that is part of the Visa benefits, because the Credit Union would have had to approve it. So upsetting!

I got sweet potato, with sweet potato ice cream
and an actual sweet potato that you can see here.

After hijinks finding Kerri again, we found a larger ACDC Rag store where I got a cool sweater. Then we got crepes that were fun and delicious. It was still not that late, but we were tired, so we made the trip back to the hotel and slept.

Kerri got Strawberry Cheesecake, with an actual
slice of cheesecake in it.

Kerri got these cute "Mameshiba" treats at
Animate while I got my markers back. They
were like marshmallow with chocolate inside.

Kerri also discovered this gel at the 7-11 that she
ended up liking enough to get more to bring home.