Day 5 Notes — The Yamanote Line

I took the Super Hitachi from Mito Station to Ueno Station today. The Joban “rapid transit” is 2 hours, but the Super Hitachi is 1 hour, but I think it stops running around 21:00 hours so I couldn’t take it back home and had to endure the 2 hour train ride, but whatever, it wasn’t terrible this time since it was past rush hour and I got to sit down.

I bought some interesting candy on the Hitachi. Some kind of bean paste candy wrapped in what appears to be a leaf. I ended up getting it by mistake — kinda. I was hungry when the cart came around and the box was the first thing that caught my eye. I asked the woman if it was a Bento. She said “hai.” I think Bento means a lunch of some kind, but I guess not. The desert inside is really sweet and leaves quite an aftertaste so I don’t totally recommend it.

While on the Super Hitachi I had a Tokyo guide handy and I started to go through and find all the things I wanted to see: Tokyo Tower, the Imperial Palace, Shinjuku, and Harajuku.

I managed to hit all of those places and get back to Akiba and buy myself some anime toys — because that’s one of the reasons why I came to Japan!

I started my trip at 11:30 am and got into Ueno around 12:30. From there I took a short jaunt on the Yamanote Line to Tokyo station and walked out to the Imperial Palace Garden. It’s Edo period old, I believe and surrounded by a moat. You enter via a bridge. There are giant walls made out of dark gray stones. Nature has been tamed and manicured inside. The trees are groomed to look nice. There are fields of grass(?) that you can go and lay on.

I walked through the garden snapping pictures as I went. I snapped some movies too.

I decided to get out of there and back to Tokyo station ASAP because I had a lot I wanted to see and not much time to do it. I walked through a Tokyo department store by the station. I wanted to look for a hoodie, mine is getting wrinkled, stretched, and worn out. I wanted a new one and if it was Japanese, hey, it might be interesting. The problem is that their X-Large is just a large. I would need an Extra-Extra-Large, but they don’t have it.

Oh and we did try looking at Jusco. It was funny to me when Bernadette mentioned it. If you’ve ever seen Kamikaze Girls there’s a gag that runs throughout about Jusco. Momoko is a Lolita and she believes the clothing from Jusco is abhorrent and tasteless. I’m glad to say I’ve been to a Jusco.

I’m not stylish enough to go to those upscale department stores by Tokyo Station. I’m a nerd after all. I sit behind a computer. I value what my mind can think up and solving problems. I take note of interesting fashion, but as for me, my fashion…you could say it’s Jusco.

After Tokyo Station I zipped off to Tokyo Tower. I’ve always wanted to see Tokyo Tower ever since I watched the movie Always Sunset on 3rd Street. It’s a Japanese movie about life after the second World War as Tokyo is reconstructed. It’s about a family that runs an auto mechanic shop and their neighbor who’s a writer. They recreated old Tokyo in CG and included a half finished Tokyo Tower, and so it interested me to actually see it. So I did today.

It’s totally a tourist trap. It’s Japanese kitsch that’s for sure. It’s a place to take a girlfriend or your family since that’s what most people did. You buy a ticket outside of the tower — it’s 1000 yen for an adult. Stand in line. Get on an elevator. Go to 150 meters above the city and snap photos. You can also then go to the “special observatory” which is smaller. It costs 600 yen to go up to 250 meters above the city. The real cost is that you’ll wait an hour to do it — at least I did. I had to do it — if I’m coming out to see Tokyo Tower then I’d damn well better go all the way to the top! I snapped a lot of photos and movies. I spent maybe 2 hours there and watched the sunset from 150 meters in the air.

When it turned dark I navigated my way back through the Tokyo Metro and Yamanote Line to Harajuku. I wanted to see two things there: Lolitas and the large temples there. I didn’t see the temples, but I definitely saw a few Lolitas. I’ve read a lot about their sub-culture. Its like a wacky form of youth rebellion for girls. If you think about it, Japanese women work crappy jobs and then they’re expected to fire out babies. If you don’t like to work crappy jobs or your role in society, then what can you do? So some girls rebel by putting on bloomers, bows, and frilly frocks and pretend they live in the Rococo era. Definitely watch Kamikaze Girls if your interested to know more about Lolitas. It’s not a costume, it’s just every day clothing to them, but when you get into anime and Otakus there’s a warped version of Lolitas.

I walked thorough Harajuku really fast just because, if I couldn’t see the temple, then there wasn’t really much of a reason to be there. I wouldn’t try to snap pictures of the Lolitas, and that proved to be difficult because there’s a shitload of people all over the place there. If Akiba is the mecca for otaku; Harajuku is the mecca for the fashion elite in Tokyo. There are shops just like the Loax building, Softmap, and random back alley anime figure stores, but instead of selling toys and the ilk it’s frilly clothing and lingerie. Some stores scream Victorian era or pink. Neon fucking pink. To your face.

I did a ring around the main shopping district and then I was out of there and back on the Yamanote Line heading to Shinjuku. I only bothered to go into a department store and grabbed some sushi for dinner. I looked through the men’s section for clothing but again it’s expensive. There wasn’t much of a selection for me. A lot of it was formal business suits and clothing for older men. I maybe turing 30 soon, but I’m not during into a dinosaur.

So after Harajuku and shopping around and looking at the guys and girls in Tokyo, I can fairly say that I’m not as cool — I have no fashion sense but maybe one day I should upgrade my fashion.

I need to visit Shinjuku again and Harajuku to see the temple there.

After I finished my whirlwind Yamanote Line tour, I took the Chou Line back to Kanda station and then the Yamanote Line in the opposite direction to Akihabara and bought myself some toys — I need to spend some yen after all. I got some of those Figma figures with the bendy arms and legs. They should be fun to play with. If you’re curious they were of Yui from K-ON! and Haruhi from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Of all the characters they have there, I know who those characters are and I like both of them as characters to a certain degree (even if Haruhi is a flaming, PMS bitch).

I went home on the Joban rapid transit line and got back to Mito a little after midnight.

I walked maybe 15000+ steps — according to my pedometer. That’s a lot of steps, but that’s Japan.