Last day in Paradise

Today it's the last day in Japan, well not quiet correct because tomorrow will be a half day, before my airplane goes back - never mind.

My luggage is finished and packed - only bath stuff, some cables and my pyjama are left. I have 2 bags with almost 22kg each.

There was only a bit cash left, 820 were saved for the Airport Limosine to Haneda for tomorrow, and only a few was possible to avoid breaking the 430€-customs barrier, so I finally sent my postcards, which were pretty hard to find. Then I went to Shibuya only to check the Mandarake and the Book Off there, if they had some interesting games, they didn't, but on my way there I noticed the Monster Hunter fanfare, very nice to hear this while walking thorugh the streets, to sad I have to go back to Germany tomorrow, because Monster Hunter 4G is released next week, SAT October 11th.

At the Mandarake I saw something totally terrible, which I can't write about, but believe me, it was horrible and almost unbelievable that figures about this "stuff" exist. But there was also some great stuff, e.g. a Ghostbusters figure.


I had lunch at Mc Donalds (only cheap chance for lunch) - my colleague was with me, there were 2 seats empty an the window, but not next to each other, so I noticed loudly that there would be 2 seats, but separate, by doing this I unwillingly "forced" the man between these seats to move to the right, sorry my fault.

After lunch I went back to Suitengumae to try a geocache next to the Tokyo City Airport Terminal (TCAT) - the hint was in front of "A" - there were many "A"s, some places would also have been plausible, but finally me and my colleague found it.

When the cache was finished, it was time for me to rest a bit in the hotel, playing some MonHun 4, and waiting until 7PM. At this time I went to the tempura restaurant, where I have been dining several times already, for my last diner.

The day is fading, so I will go to bed soon to ensure waking up at 7:30AM - my bus to the airport goes at 9:30AM - the online checkin has been already done, so I'm ready for getting back to Germany.

Trophy list:

only a few things kept unfulfilled, but there's always a next time for Onsen (although I already enjoyed one in 2010), Mt. Fuji, Nomihodai/Tabehodai (All-U-Can-Drink/Eat) and maybe 1-3 others.

I also wanted to go to Mt. Takao; the Ghibli Museum which was sold out already when I tried to get tickets this week; maybe watching Sumo (when on vacation in Sept again); Kyoto; Osaka; Yokohama; National Museum in Ueno - So you see there's still enough left for the trips to Japan.

I hope you enjoyed reading my vacation diary, although it's not completely finished - getting back can also be kinda hard, at least I'll write about it. too.

See you again - bye bye until next time.

Tsukiji Fish Market - new Approach - NO TUNA AUCTION

While writing it's Friday, only today before I have to get back - sad but OK, I'm missing my games, DVDs,... *hours later after telling other non living things* ...and maybe some friends of mine ;P

OK, let's talk about Thursday, after being rejected on Wednesday to see the tuna auction I at least wanted to see the fish wholesale market, so went to Tsukiji after finishing breakfast.

Nobody there to stop me - good feeling - I entered the Tsukiji Fish Market,... I smelled fish, hard to believe but true, guess why.

The area looked a lot dirtier than I expected but still it was awesome to all the different kinds of fish and seafood, most of them still alive. I was wet, everywhere water was pumped, thrown (ice) on the ground or else and it smelled very strong like fish, so I didn't stay in the tight ways too long, also because I feared to be driven over on every corner or to hit something with my fat butt... or my camera bag.

As you may know I made a list of some things that I wanted to see, visit, try or whatever, fresh sushi was one of these things, so I got in a queue on the restaurant area of the market to get sushi.

2.300 Yen for what you can see on the picture, a lot, but it is worth paying this price. It was the best sushi I've ever had, such a great taste, awesome, can't describe it, you have to try it yourself.

When I was done with my meal and had taken enough pictures I took the Hibija Line to Akiba, because I was chasing a rare game for Nintendo GameCube, I kinda got it after some hours, I've been searching for it for years - only need to find a way to play it on my PAL GC. Doing my search I've been to Super Potato, Mandarake, Book Off, "nameless" shop, but finally found it in the RetroGame Camp Akihabara, great, can't wait to try it at home.

When I had finished Akiba, I took a short stop at the hotel, before heading for Shinjuku to meet with a friend of mine. We had coffee at starbucks and delicious food in a restaurant that she had recommended, we ate yakitori, tempura some other stuff (unknown name) and drank sake and ginger ale. The offered food was typical for Kyushu - I didn't know what that actually means, but everything looked great and had an awesome taste and that's all that matters! (not making someone sick matters too, but that's not the point ;)

That's all for now, should be enough, too, I mean it's 4:14AM and I should get some sleep before I'll pack my stuff after waking up.

Tsukiji - 2nd try since 2013

On wednesday I approached the Tsukiji fish market, I stayed up all night from Tuesday to Wednesday just to get ready and be there at the right time to see the tuna auction, which starts at 5:20 or so.

Last year I "failed", because it was the Golden Week, with 3 holidays, so the market was closed last year, but not this time...
I started at 4:15 (?) passing the Hachobori station and 2 others until I reached the entrance area at 4:45 (3,5-4 km) when a security guy gave me a sheet of paper how to behave, the dos and don'ts in this area right before he told me I was too late..., only 120 persons to view the auction per day, the thing is that the first persons come at 3:30 to get in line, too bad, especially because the internet says being there between 4:30 and 5:00AM ensures to see the auction - WRONG INFORMATION!!!

The following was funny, i was pretty awake, because of having all the Mountan Dew, Monster Energy and other taurin and coffein drinks to pass the night, so I had some fun with my Canon and the remote control.

After a while I finally went back to hotel, keeping in mind that I won't go through this struggle this year again, maybe next year / whenever there's the next trip to Japan. Funny fact - irony - when I started walking back it started to rain..., but it was OK, it's round about 26° and more every day so it was more refreshing than I thought. I arrived at the hotel when they started to prepare the breakfast, on this day I was one of the first, normally I'm one of the last, I just like sleeping when I'm on vacation and this is OK!

When I got up at 2PM to avoid wasting the day, my target was Kichijoji, one reason was the CAPCOM PLAZA, the other a little shrine and German breads. To get there I couldn't use Metro only, so I had to take the JR in Shinjuku. Suitengumae-Otemachi (Hanzomon-Line) - Shinjuku (Marunouchi-Line) and then the JR-Chuo-Line which I still remembered very well, because 2010 and 2012 I took this line daily to get from Higashi-Koganei into the inner city.

After arriving in Kichijoji I went straight to the Book Off - in the ENGLISH BOOK section they had some German Manga of DRAGONBALL. Afterwards I ran directly to the CAPCOM Plaza to accomplish 2 "missions" that I had planned - "Play an ARCADE" and "Win a PRIZE GAME" - both finished, but see yourself, for the Airou (Felyne) I needed only 4 tries (400 Yen), I never won such a game before, so I was pretty proud. There were many arcades, also other machines for gilrs to take pictures with a separat area to style up before taking this puricura(?) - only allowed combination: Girl/Girl, Girl/Boy, Group of Girls/Boy but not Boy/Boy, that was permitted.

After going around I saw a "TED" plush doll (Seth McFarlane-Movie "TED") and then after all I found the perfect arcade for me, ULTRA STREÈT FIGHTER IV, sure I took Gouki/Akuma although I'm not the best using the arcade controller I remebered his moves very fast and also managed the Super and Ultra Combos until... a new challenger appeared, I lost..., but at least I got 1:3 and he was suprised about the Super Combo... and countered with his own Super/Ultra Combo.

Look at his face

Look at the Combo Counter and also how exhausted he is

After leaving the arcade temple I went to Kiddy land right next to it, because I've of the shop and wanted to see it myself - toys for children and grown ups, too - bought a JODA-Star Wars-Cup just because Joda said: "Do or Don't, there is no TRY!" and maybe bacause I like Star Wars...

At the same floor there was a Junkudo (book store) where I bought the biography of Steve Jobs (in english, japanese - pas possible) before I went to Shibuya, the Book Off was reopened finally, seems like they are starting to get a totally new corporate design (Book Off in Shibuya is teh flagship store)

BTW: WISE TRUTH

Except for him:

After that I went back to my hotel.

For diner I went to a cheap restaurant which I had already passed several time, where a huge pile of Soba was offered, so I tried it and also a ramen, so I took 2 whole meals, expecting they were small just because of the price - my failure, I had to eat 2 full dishes, I was tasty and yummy, sure, on my way back to the hotel (1,2km) I felt like the wolf, whome mother goat had put stones into his stomach, so getting back was difficult and also painful.

When relaxing in the hotel I watched some German TV shows via www.myspass.de before I finally went to bed.