Changing plans

Today the visit of Asakusa was scheduled, BUT.. the weather was windy, not very sunny and it seems like rain would start every second - btw, it didn't rain the whole day, but how could I know - so I would have been unable to take good pictures of the Kaminarimon-Gate, the shrine and the area overall, so I decided to go to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which is only approx. 500m away from my hotel.

It was very interesting. Especially that groups, who are going to visit this "sight" seem to be usual there, every member of the group that came right before me was wearing a suit, so I felt kinda underdressed.

There was also a small museum about the history of the stock exchange.

After that, I was able to see the area where the economical "magic" happenes. There was no magic actually, nobody running around screaming buy, buy, sell, sell (in japanese), somebody seemed like almost sleeping.

As my main plannings are almost done, there's only Asakusa - not possible today - and the Tsukiji Fish Market left, but some Book Offs that I didn't yet visit and some I'd like to revisit, so I chose Ikebukuru and Kichijoji.

Too bad i didn't find anything in Ikebukuro this time. After the Book Off I went to a restaurant to  eat something, I had a burger, it was really very tasty.

To get to Kichijoji I had to use the JR Yamanote-Line to get to Shinjuku, there I changed for the Chuo-Line.

I knew this connection already because I used this lines everyday doing my last Japan vacations.

At the Book Off the prices were medium, I bought Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 Professional, which I was searching for very long already, so I'm happy to have it now, the Book Off itself was a very good own, but because of the higher prices than normal I rate 4/5 STARS, although they had DQMJ2P.

After a coffee at the Excelsior Cafe I went home using the JR-Chuo-Line until Ogikubo and changed there for the Morunouchi Metro Line, that was cheaper than using the JR until Shinjuku and changing there.

I got up late today, so that was all I did today.

Hopefully the weather will be good enough tomorrow to go to Asakusa and Jimbocho, Booksellers district.

Stay tuned and good Night

No Way til Kyuden

Today I was kinda lazy, this morning.

I only got up for breakfast this morning and then I went to bed again, walking around so much is exhausting and vacation should have a relaxing part, too.

I finally got up at 12:00 because the Imperial Palace or at least a picture and the Godzilla statue was schedules for today. I good way to calm down you might think, I thought so, too... I was wrong, but you will see.

I used the Hanzomon Line to get to Otemachi, it's almost next to the East entrance of the Imperial Palace area. This area consists of the Imperial Palace (Kyuden), which can only be visited on two days per year, the Emperor's Birthday (23.12.) and New Year (02.01.), the second part is the Imperial Eastern Garden.

I entered the area by the Ote-mon (-mon means gate) and went through the Imperial Palace East Gardens, ending up at the Site of Edo-Jo in the north, is was a former defence tower in the Edo period, only the basement of this tower is left.

As there was no way to walk westwards to get a good view of the palace I went out nortwards, and went left, walking around the whole area I hoped to get a better angle to view the palace and to take a picture.
It was a long way, and the whole time runners passed by, kinda annoying,

I went round about 2 km without getting anything to see of the palace, except for KEEP OUT signs until I reached the Kokyo-gaien, a forecourt of the Sei-mon, where I was finally able to take a picture of one part of the palace, the Fushimi-yagura, which is a small building.

The whole Area is the Imperial Palace, so every building there is part of the palace.

After giving up to get a better picture or to see anything more of the palace - I had surrounded the whole area standing only a few hundred meters away from the Ote-mon - I went to a statue of a general, General Kusunoki Masashige.

After that I left the area and went to Hibiya, which was very close now, my aim was the Hibiya Chanter, where a Godzilla Statue is placed, it's placed there, because Hibiya and Ginza were the first areas destroyed by Godzilla.

After having a very delicious cheeseburger at Freshness Burgers, I used the Yurakucho Line to get to Iidabashi, where I located a Book Off this morning before I left the hotel.

It was not close to the exit I chose, it was directly next to this Metro exit, so I didn't have location issues to find it.

On 3 floors, they had a lot, but the sad thing was the small video game section, so I rate 4,5/5, still a great Boof Off, that I can definitely recommand.

That's all for now.

Tomorrow it's time for Asakusa and Kappabashi, where plastic food is offered.

Bye-bye.

Some hours ago there was a small earthquake, it shook for 1 minute, surprising, that it was my first earthquake even if I have been to Japan three times already.

Anger issues in a crowded street VS Calm in a park

As it is Sunday, the Yoyogi Park is a good sight to visit on a sunny Sunday.

The park , but the Takeshita-Dori isn't.

The Yoyogi Park was the main issue of today.
To get there and to save money and also to add something more to the duty list, I started in Shibuya, with the Hanzomon Line I was able to get there directly.
As there are 16 exits, it was really very easy to take a wrong one - I took one and went in the wrong direction, instead of walking left, I walked right.

A short stop at the Book Off and the Mandarake is always possible, when you're in Shibuya.
The price of the games is a bit higher than in other Book Offs, but the product range, the quality and also the amount of articles over 3 floors is just amazing, it's hard to leave this store without having found something, 5/5 STARS.

As the articles of the Mandarake always change, on this vacation I think the Mandarake in Akiba has impressed me more this time than the one in Shibuya.

From Shibuya I had to go around 1 km parallel with the JR tracks, after a few minutes the area didn't look the big shopping district Shibuya.

I entered the Yoyogi area at the south, where the Tokyo rockabillies meet every Sunday. They call theirselves the Toyko Rock'n'Rollers. The also have jackets with LEBELS on their backs, I guess it should mean rebels, but who knows, but them. I waited until they started dancing, I guess I waited 20 min., it reminded me of waiting for the Gundam on Odaiba, every 2 minutes it seemed like they prepared for starting up, but they didn't, the girl there changed her top for several times until they finally started to move/dance to 50s/60s music.

After that the anger started, I went to Takeshita-Dori (Takeshita-Street). You should never enter this narrow street on a Sunday, it feels like whole Tokyo is willing to visit this street at the same time.

The stores couldn't catch my interest either, so I tried to get trough as fast as possible.
Around the whole Harajuku area were thousands of people, it increased my anger, when they didn't move just because someone was yelling his products into the street.

After all I finally could return to the entrance of the Yoyogi Park, which I entered imidiately.
At the Meiji Shrine I bought 2 charms like I did my 2 visits before.

The shrine was named after Emperor Meiji, who opened up Japan to the rest of the world. This time took place in the early 19th Century and was called Meiji Restoration, a good and accurate movie about this topic is "THE LAST SAMURAI" with Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe, who was dubbed by the famous japanese opera singer Toru Tanabe in the German version of this movie.

Compared to the noisy Takeshita-Street, the Park is calm, relaxing and refreshing.

This time I saw a Wedding again, it seems like everytime I get there, there is a Shinto wedding, maybe always on Sunday or weddings are schedules there over and over the whole time.

I finally left the park through the north exit. Only e few hundret meters further there was Book Off, so I went in there, it's a small one and I rate it with only 2/5 STARS.

As I was almost in Shibuya and it wasn't too late, so went to the Book Off there, too.
I finally found a game guide for Paper Mario Sticker Star, which is pretty helpful, if you want to find all the hidden stickers.

3 Floors, huge and amazing selection, medium prices, but still 5/5 STARS.

After that I used the Morunouchi Line to get back to the hotel, I changed for the Hanzomon Line in Otemachi, so I arrived at around 8 PM.

Tomorrow there's a National Public Holiday, so I'll go to Tokyo Central, taking pictures of the Imperial Palace, the Edo Castle and also will visit the Hibiya Chanter, where a small Godzilla Statue is located.

CYA

Memories of LOVE HINA at TODAI

This morning breakfast was served until 10AM, so got there at 9:57AM... after the 2 entries yesterday and the mall hopping on Odaiba I was kinda exhausted, so I needed enough sleep.

After endless thinkings about what to do today, I finally decided for Ueno to see the park and the Todai, the Tokyo Universaty, so not too much for this day to reach the hotel soon and to relax - won't happen, but you will read later.

It started with taking the Hibiya Line from Ningyocho directly to Ueno.
After leaving the station the orientation was guaranteed thanks to the map app.

I went southwards and finally getting close to the Ueno Park, when a sign appeared, the Kanji for Root, Origin or Book, there was a Book Off, it had to be visited.

The offered many products, also many different kinds of articles, very structured, so I'll give 5/5 STARS, also because the prices were better than in other Book Offs, e.g. several DS games were 500 Yen less.
I found an artbook from God Eater Burst, a nice gallery, awesome CG pics, concept arts, overall a great artbook for only 500 Yen instead of 1600.

I went out and headed back to the entrance of the park, the park is very big and has many areas, one of those is a zoo, which I viseted 3 years ago, it was somehow sad to see the animals in their too small cages, compared to the ones in Leipzig these were tiny.

I came to a pond, which looked very calm, it gave me a relaxing mood, too, but when I saw the polluted edges and the fish that ate the swimming garbage I felt sad again.

In the area with the boots I saw a couple, that tried to "destroy" the ropes of the edge, at least it looked like this, because they were hitting the borders over and over, maybe they were unable to turn or even control the boot, but it was funny to take part. She was rowing while he relaxed, took pictures and gave wrong orders, it looked like: this way, this way - it was the wrong way - not like this, not this LEFT, the other LEFT (maybe right or straight), then they changed and finally left the edges for some seconds just to bump in there again.

After leaving the park I had my first Sub at Suway for weeks. Then I went down a road which seemed somehow endless and also felt wrong but I was when I finally arrived at the main gate of the Todai, the Tokyo Universaty, it's the number one of all japanese elite universaties with very difficult entrance exams.
It's world-famous and also appeares in manga and anime just like LOVE HINA, which I read 8 or 9 years ago, great memories about that manga came up.

When I started going on just to have a look around it was hard define, if I still was on the campus, seems like I was, when I saw some students practise some football. It looked funny, because they were not really muscle-packed, so nobody of them looked like a real football player, especially not as linebacker or so.
I mean, a tackle would hurt - I guess - but one wouldn't expect, that such thin guys are able to smash someone down.

After a while I found a way out, which was the one, that I entered, I was thinking about walking 2 km northwards to a Book Off, 2 km eastwards to a Book Off or 2,5 km southwards to Akiba and a bit more than just a Book Off... U can guess, where I went, 50 km westwards for ...a Book Off, no I went to Akiba.
By doing this I passed another entrance to the campus, the Akomon, which means red gate.

On my way to Akiba I also dicovered a shrine/temple and didn't just pass it, but went in.
It was the Kandamyojin-Shinto-Shrine, which was built in 730, sometime destroyed and then has been rebuilt.

I also found a Tanuki there for the first time ever, I wished to see one on my trips before, but I never saw a statue before. A tanuki is a legendary figure, it's appearance is based on a  raccoon dog, it's a symbol for luck and wealth. A characteristic is a big "part" of its body. It was also used in games like the Super Mario series, Mario had a raccon suit, which was wrong translated, it was a tanuki suit, in the latest games like Super Mario 3D Land it was correctly, by not tranlating the "animal" and calling the suit tanuki suit. I hope that's not confusing, if it is, just ask me.

Round about 500 m later I arrived at Akiba, went to some shops, also the Book Off, which I rate with 5/5 STARS, I mean, it has 6 floors full of everything that you, someone, an otaku or whoever need or doesn't need. Another premiere of this day was the first Starbucks of this trip, I passed approx. 20 of them but didn't enter before. I had a grande Caramel Macchiato with extra cinnamon and a donut, just spectacular.

This was followed bya some shops, hobby here, figure there, you know, Akiba-Style-Shops.
Finished all preparations already, so the next day with Harajuku and the Yoyogi Park can come... after 7/8 hours of sleep.

3 Malls and a Gundam

Today there was only one thing on the list, Odaiba.

It was a bit diificult to get there with the subway (Metro), but I was relaxed, because the day before I started sleeping very early.

With the Asakusa Line from Ningyocho until Gotando, there I had to walk 500-600 meters, I walked next to a small river, which I guess looked beautiful at the beginning of April when in Japan the Hanami, the cherry  blossom viewing is celebrated.

After this short walk I arrived at Osaki station, there I caught the Rinkai Line to get to Tokyo Teleport.
It was very hard to understand the speakers announcing the stations.

When I got out of Tokyo Teleport station I looked around first to define the order in which to visit the malls.

The Venus Outles was the first mall to visit, the way to get in there was easy, using the escalator on the left side of the building, because the outlet part on the 3rd floor caught my biggest interest and maybe my only, one of the others was Venus Family, children's stuff.

Nothing to find for men, only some Italian shoes for 40.000 Yen instead of 45.000, huge discount..., so I headed to the 2nd floor, VENUS Grand, also nothing for me, so I started trying to get out, I wasted approx. 15 min. to find a way to get out, I didn't find any exit on the 2nd or 1st floor, so I finally had to go back to the 3rd floor and then using an elevator to get to a special elevator exit, which could not be reached from the 1st or 2nd floor, weird.

While searching the exit I discovered a torture store on the 1st floor - THE PINK HORROR (sounds like an announced MMA Fighter) - the Hello Kitty's Kawaii Paradise, I think even small girls think that's too much.

After finally getting out the Diver City Tokyo was the next schedule. I bought a pair of shorts at the Old Navy store next to the entrance, because I needed some, the old ones were not really cool anymore.
Some stores had some really freakin' names and it was a mall so there's not so much to, but the fact that vthe ramen was awesome, cold but after one put the soup to the udon noodles it was allright, really great taste.

Strange names, right?

Compared to the Venus Mall, it was easy to get out, I also took the perfectly right one, because in front of this exit was the Gundam, a huge "robot", in the manga and anime it's called Mobile Suit, so it's kinda machine, which is controlled by humans and no robot. Every 30 or 60 min. a small "show" is started, when the Gundam moves its heads and steam (water) comes out of its arms, legs and chest.
I waited around 20 min. to the Gundam's move, and its move were kinda GUNDAM STYLE...

Right behind the statue, there's a Gundam Café, where you can buy some merchandising and for sure a coffee.

Then I went to the Fuji Television building, crossing a huge group of girls, with 1 man hidden on there - maybe his name was Waldo - who were waiting for whatever, maybe the new japanese Justin Bieber had a show.

At Fuji Tv I climbed up all the stairs, this view reminded me of some Sentai series. I guess some scenes have been shot there.

Next to the entrance there were two figures of the beloved anime franchise ONE PIECE and in the there was a shop, where some ONE PIECE and Fuji TV stuff was sold.

After Fuji TV there was only 1 mall left, Aqua City Odaiba, which I already knew from last September, so I went in and instantly "ran" to the Capcom store. This year they exhibited a new armor, the Lagiacrus armor instead of the Jinouga Armor. The Lagiacrus Armor is the Armor of the Flagship Monster of Monster Hunter Tri. As last year I took many pictures this year, too. They also moved a display case for me, giving me the chance to take some pictures of the armors back.

The rest of the mall was not that interesting to me, it was a mall so there's nothing left to say.
When I went out to get to the Joypolis, which is next to the Aqua City Odaiba it already started getting dark.
The Joypolis closed at 6:00 PM and the last chance to enter was at 5:15 PM, but I think I didn't miss anything, it seemed to be an ARCADE store with attractions.

Even if it were possible to enter it, I guess I wouldn't have paid any tickets for something like that.
So I went off to the beach and took some photos and went back to the station crossing the Gundam again with its lights on.

On Odaiba was only 1 thing left, a picture of the big ferris wheel.

At around 6:30 PM I finally left Odaiba taking the Rinkai Line for Gotanda again.
Close to the Osaki station (maybe 200m) there was a Book Off, which I visited as it was to be expected.

To make it short... 4/5 STARS

CYA tomorrow, I'm not sure where the wind will take me then.