My First Trip to Japan | JoCat Storytime

I want to tell you a story about my first trip to [Music] Japan so Eko and I always wanted to go her as someone who potentially wants to live there one day and me as someone who always wanted to see what the culture was about though I had flown internationally before this would be my first time in almost a decade since the last time I did combined with the fact that I am growing a developing hatred towards flying I was prepared for 15 hours of dread and it was Dreadful [Music] [Applause] I'm someone who cannot sleep unless they're laying down so the entire flight was just me adjusting and readjusting my position to try and get just a little bit of shut ey with zero [Music] luck but thankfully when it was finally over I had a lot of fun to look forward to right after we get through customs and grab our train cards and Wi-Fi box and cash and drag our very heavy bags through the city to our Airbnb the flight arrived at about 4 p.m. but we didn't make it to the place we were staying at until nearly 9:00 most of the time we had spent waiting in line for our train cards since there was only one terminal for basically everyone at the airport this was because there was a chip shortage for the sua cards that let you use the public transit in Tokyo and the only ones available were the welcome sua cards which only lasted 28 days but that was fine because that's about how long we were going to stay after all that was done we finally made it to our home base for the month an apartment in sumita city and also by a very convenient Lawson of which we would visit near daily whenever we would need a quick meal thank you Lawson employees you are our heroes so here we were finally in Japan we chose Tokyo because it's the most Foreigner friendly a nice baby's first Japan location especially considering Ekko is still learning the Lang and I know little to none of that language I can speak though there's a lot of English translations around for signage but most impressively the public transit was so easy to understand that as far as getting around goes we had basically no problems finding our way around the city so what did we do on our first day in this new foreign country to us ripe with centuries of culture and dozens of fun new things to do against the recommendations of a good friend of ours and basically everyone else who's ever been to Japan we went to kurushi I'm [Music] sorry in our defense we don't have a Kota Sushi anywhere where we live in the US without having to fly to another state and if we're going to take in what Japan has to offer why not their equivalent of a McDonald's right on top of that it also had the benefit of allowing people to order food without having to talk to anybody which is great for nervous foreigners with the language barrier who don't want to accidentally inconvenience anybody Ekko tried a lot of stuff I mostly had the meat oh and also every five plates you get a chance to win a gacha Pon of which I won on my first try the rest of the day we planned on getting a few things from Daiso and bookof plus in a sort of shopping district in eneno or maybe weno is the shopping district I don't know but it was a really nice place just about every few feet there was a store that caught our eye we even found a nice clothing store where I got this cute cozy sweater that looks like lowlevel RPG gear and it helped keep me warm the entire trip speaking of which I wish I could show you the absolute amazing fashion that was on display in some of these clothing stores if it weren't for our budget I would have personally gotten about a dozen outfits fun situation that happened while we were out I was feeling thirsty at one point so we stopped by a convenience store to grab something to drink I found a can of lemon water that looked pretty refreshing so we bought it found a nice spot to sit and refresh ourselves and went about our way in more of the shopping district but then I started to feel a bit [Music] woozy I go had a look over my drink and it turns out it was alcoholic and I hadn't even noticed now being a little tipsy in public was not a big deal but what was of note is that I had finally found an alcoholic drink that I liked some of you may remember I did a few drunk gaming streams in the past with my friends and know that I usually can't even stomach a few sips let alone the chugs I was taking for the Stream so this was a big deal to me it may come as no surprise to people who remember those streams as well that I am a huge lightweight so even this little drink with 5% alcohol content was giving me red flush and a warm cozy feeling the next day we did a bit more aimless exploring just to get a bit more of our bearings around the immediate area and somehow accidentally found ourselves at the Tokyo Sky Tree of all places [Music] it's not like it was all that far from our Airbnb but it was still a pleasant surprise to land there without really meaning to and inside was a lot of cool stores and food stands but most importantly and most dangerously got your pond [Music] machines they're literally all over Tokyo in fact on our way through some of the subway stations we came across dozens but here they were Stacks upon stacks of them much to the dismay of our wallets luckily we were able to hold some sense of impulse control but from that point on Eko devised a plan and began saving our 100 yen coins in a very special little pouch earlier that day Ekko also secretly got me a bunch of probably the biggest grapes I have ever seen in my life see we had decided to come to Japan in October because that would be the time when it'd be both grape season and Pimon season Ekko was interested in the lad fruits whereas I I don't like grapes but I do love grape flavors it's definitely one of my favorite fruit flavors and in America there's this one drink that I really like to get whenever we go to our local Asian market ramune and they had a grape flavor that I love I also love this candy that could be found in the same store called Hau and so for a long time I wondered a lot of Japanese grape flavored things sort of taste similar do grapes just taste different in Japan so this was my chance to finally see if I might like Japanese grapes more than American grapes I believe these are concord grapes is that what they're called it's a different type of grape from the one that we have in America [Music] better than American grapes or about the same neutral still not a fruit guy I'm sorry I will happily eat them I'm excited alas I guess I just don't like grapes the next couple of days we decided to rest up and do some work in our apartment because yay being a YouTuber means you are never truly free but that evening we did go to what I personally consider to be one of my favorite places to go in that entire trip a local Yakitori isaka a bar that serves grilled meat on little bamboo skewers the food was great the drinks were great I even found another alcoholic beverage that I enjoyed so that was another win but the thing I liked most about it was the manager who was incredibly patient and accommodating to us from the instant we stepped in it was probably pretty obvious to him that we were tourists so even though we could not speak a word of each other's language he was nice enough to gesture to us each part of the bar for us to understand the regular procedure use the hand sanitizer pick a seat that leaves room for others order a drink before you order food but coolest of all he would point to each item on the menu which did not have an English translation and taught us how to read and pronounce each item including pointing to the display as to which one each item corresponded to I don't know if this was just because we were foreigners or if it was just standard procedure there but he would regularly check up on us to make sure everything was good on our end and if that wasn't cool enough at one point Eko had decided to translate the menu for my convenience because unab banga stupid American brain not knowing another language but one day we had come home from that restaurant and I had lost the menu which really sucked Ekko put a lot of work into that thing but then when we returned to the Yakitori place it turns out the manager had found and kept ekko's translated menu and held on to it for us this man single handedly watered my crops cleared my skin and cured my depression I love [Music] him another work day so nothing interesting going on but what was important was that today was burnable trash day if you're not familiar Japan has a very specific method of how they do waste disposal and it's your responsibility to categorize your trash sure they have sanitation workers pick up the garbage like normal but it's your job to make sure the right trash is stored correctly and in the right place in America we only really have trash and recyclables that is unless your local government decides to take the recycling bin away and make you drive all the way to the recycling center but anyway you usually just kind of throw everything in one place not so in Japan to keep things simple there are really two main umbrellas that all trash falls under in Japan burbles and recyclables easy enough just like the states but with the recyclables you have to separate them and store them a certain way for trash pickup like bundling papers together putting metal cans all in the same bag bag cleaning out any reusable cups so there aren't any food bits left in it and the like it was a very different way of doing things than Ekko and I were used to so it took a bit of time to figure out but once we did it was kind of nice knowing that our trash was going to the right places today was our first day of special plans Disney C it was one of the first available things we could book and thankfully it wasn't all that busy that day so we never really had to worry about crowds or too long of lines I think it was a bit more of a park park than a theme park as me and Ekko spent a lot of time just sort of walking around since the rides were fairly far apart we only really got to ride like four rides before deciding to call it a day which we were overall fine with but me personally I just wish there were more rides for the size of the park or if the park was a little smaller so there wasn't much walking needed between them we also grabbed a few souvenirs for some friends thank you for bringing me to France yeah we'll have to check for bed bugs later okay not a lot happened this day I mostly stayed in and near our Airbnb to sort of rested up after going to the Disney park yesterday while Ekko had a girl day where she went to toou and got some cakes she actually did quite a few girl days on our trip and if you want to hear about those feel free to subscribe to her Channel where she'll tell you all about it for me though it was it's nice to just have a breast day where I could wander and take in the local area where we were staying especially with how convenient the public transportation is okay speaking of can I just talk about the public transportation really quick because I think that was probably my single most favorite thing about staying in Japan or at least in Tokyo the fact that there are trains and buses everywhere that help you get where you need to go and how it makes just about everything within walking distance sure there are roads and stuff in the larger parts to the city where having a car would definitely be beneficial but me and Eko never had to step foot in a single car the whole trip say for once POR in America there are very few places where we have things like trains and bus stops they exist but really you'll only ever find them in certain very dense cities that have been around since the colonial era and even then a lot of them get replaced by roads and highways to get anywhere in America you need a car full stop and yeah there have attempts to add in more public transportation but for some reason it never really took off and it's a real mystery why no one truly knows it's it's a big mystery really but in Japan or at least in Tokyo you can get just about anywhere on foot there are train stations at just about every other block and navigating them is so simple and easy to understand that children can use it and do whenever we would go somewhere me and Ekko would occasionally see a kid no older than 10 get on the train all by themselves with no parents or escort or anything they just know how to use the trains and buses it was especially helpful that all the signage was super Foreigner friendly since Tokyo had just recently renovated the city to be Foreigner friendly for the 2020 Olympics it was supposed to post before the yeah what made the whole thing even more fun was that at about every station there are desks with stamps for that station and each stamp had a different design and so it was m eo's mission to get a stamp at any new station we stopped at whenever possible we even got these cute little sketchbooks from one of the stores at the sky tree that we would put them in Eko is a lot fancier than mine because she would draw cute little doodles to represent what nearby attractions and things were at that station and what we did there but all this to say if there was one thing I could bring home from Japan to the US it would be the train system please please God please I just want trains please please no the next 4 days we didn't really do anything special spent it mostly just living in Japan we do work during the day head out to grab lunch at noon maybe explore a bit of the city come back to do more work go out for dinner maybe get distracted by an arcade for an hour or three check out some cinis and grab snacks then come back and get ready for the next day it was kind of nice to just wind down and take it all in I know to a lot of folk that might sound like we were wasting our vacation days but I don't know having to do something exciting and having a strict schedule every day during a time that you're supposed to be spent relaxing doesn't sound all that enjoyable to me now not everyone is able to spend a month on vacation whether it be because they can't afford it or their schedule doesn't allow it so I hope this doesn't come across like I'm saying the way we did it is the best way for everyone but we did plan for a whole month specifically because we like having days where nothing's scheduled and we can just sort of go about doing whatever we want without having to worry that we weren't maximizing our vacation time plus we did sort of have something special to do most of the days is Echo scheduled while I sat sucking my thumb in the corner because planning things is scary and I'm just a little guy it's my first day so we did at least have variety not just constantly on mandatory fun mode if anyone has ever had helicopter parents you know what I mean by mandatory fun this day we plan to go to the book off super Bazaar because I needed a second monitor to facilitate my work see I normally would bring my own monitor but I've had nasty luck with every single time fly with one doesn't matter how padded or protected it is the airline will always manage to break or bend my stuff so this time I said no more packing monitors I'll just get one in Japan and so we did bookof is basically a massive secondhand store with just about everything you can think of inside from clothes to bags to musical instruments to sporting equipment it's got everything we even found a few Pokémon plushes to bring home for some friends what wasn't so great about it was that while we were browsing we had a basket with a few items already and at some point we accidentally crossed a section where that item was supposed to be stored in and so it began beeping its alarm non-stop until an employee found us asking if we were going to buy it in which case we confirmed apologized profusely and immediately checked out so as to never bother them ever [Music] again M oh that's like a [Music] beet today was a special day we were going to the Pokémon Center because I had planned on grabbing a bunch of plushies to give to friends back home since there's so many Pokémon and they're not always so easily available to buy if you're in the US and in the cases where they are anyway it was really cool to see all the Pokémon merchandising they had keychains and stickers and jewelry and dozens of other things I hadn't realized were even in the realm of possibility of what Pokémon could make into a branded product what I really appreciated as someone who plays the games though was that the front of the store had a nice little mural with all the different generations of games being showcased what wasn't so nice was they had Pikachu singing the Pokemon Center theme on repeat the entire time pikik pikach pikik pikach my heart goes out to all the employees who have to listen to it for 8 plus hours a day every day all the time at one point it started to really get to us and Ekko started punching me in Rhythm to the Pikachu cries I don't get it Pokemon has a massive library of music please just let the employees listen to something else free them from this yellow Electric rat prison pikik Pikachu the next few days were what I was personally looking forward to the most from this trip because they were lined with visits to a bunch of themed cafes two of them being themed after my favorite video games you may know of them today though it was the Final Fantasy 14 aoria Cafe in Akihabara [Music] funny enough the very same building also had a Dragon Quest Cafe and one more themed Cafe that we were going to tomorrow but what really made this special was that we had the collab Cafe Queen herself Emy reichu with us [Music] too she had already been to this Cafe before but being a 14 player I was ready to drop some sick lore onto her ignorant mind the cafe itself was really cool they had 14 music playing which was always nice and the walls were covered in various official art and props evoking the game I ordered the fire dodo which was basically a deep fried chicken leg and he ands big ble acclaimed traditional cuisine of the mole tribe a bunch of sausages and some potato wedges and a cast iron skillet it was all right Ekko and Emily each got a fat cat meat bun Emily also ordered the rakka Greatwood I I ailo ailo ailo a essentially a small shrimp kich ciche and all three of us shared a faux Hol chocolate toast as well as the gild soaring cheese potatoes some cheese fries arranged like one of the attacks from the boss fight from shadowbringers yes the food was okay my personal favorite were the fries but the real stars of the show were the drinks each one themed after a different character location or job from the game in really clever ways too I got the gunbreaker and Crystal Tower Ekko got the White Mage and Crystal Tower Emily got the Samurai and draon and each one was super cool and unique in how they were themed around their names sake Crystal Tower for example had this rock candy pillar sticking out of the drink just like the tower itself the gunbreaker had popping candies that you could throw into the drink like how gun Breakers load cartridges into their gun Blade the White Mage had a cute little Rose representing the blood ly you use to devastate all within your path Samurai was basic and boring just like the job in the game but my favorite was the draon where you had a blueberry soaking in Cherry syrup to represent the accursed eye of nidhog and I was basically nerding out about all of this at both Ekko and Emily the whole time we were eating each drink also came with some mystery coasters as well which had extremely nice promotional art from the various characters expansions patches and events from the game now Emily had already been to this Cafe before but it was real fun as a person who actually plays the game to be able to share how much thought and fan service went into all the dishes and drinks in order to elevate them Beyond just being named after their subjects if you want to see her review as a connoisseur of themed cafes she actually did a video that included aoria Cafe which you can find here in case you wanted to know her perspective as a general customer as for me though I am extremely biased due to being a big fan of the game so I absolutely loved it even so I think it's very clear that a lot of love effort and expertise went into making this not just as a good Cafe on its own but as a good piece of 14 fan service as well and after we finished eating Ekko and Emily fought in a great battle to the death on who would pay for the check we ultimately came out on top due to our Superior numbers and then was time for the gift shop which had all manner of great merchandise there were job stone magnets and posters and plushies and all sorts of stuff I grabbed a bunch of job stones for my friends and raid group shout out to the Lam Walkers thank you for being the coolest most attractive bunch of players I could ever ask to raid with but what really caught my eye were two beautiful lore books the first and second edition of the encyclopedia aoria volumes of information about the 14 world including its history cultures down to minute details like each Region's diet and this stuff is like drugs to me so I had to get them it was only when I unwrapped and opened one later that day that I had realized the very stupid and in hindsight very obvious mistake that I had made I had just bought a lore book of a Japanese game from a Japanese Cafe in Japan what language did I think it was going to be in they sadly didn't do refunds which was fine but it meant I had these massive books that I could not read because I'm stupid stupid I eventually gave them to my good friend shenpai when we got home but until then I had two heavy physical hard cover copies of shame to Lug halfway across the planet as a constant reminder of my hubris after the cafe though we had a fun time exploring Akihabara mostly playing at the arcades and spending a lot of change we had saved up over the past couple of weeks there no y you got it you got the first [Music] try so this day was a bit hectic but it was the nature of reserving spots for themed cafes you'll know what I mean soon first up on the agenda was The Monster Hunter Cafe in the very exact same building as the final fantasy one and Emily was happy to join us for this one too and much as I love the Final Fantasy Cafe and it was definitely impressive in kid it out the Monster Hunter Cafe is the absolute Pinnacle of what you can do with the idea the venue was bigger they had more seating space there were way more and larger decorations all over the place weapons and armor displayed everywhere they even had a barbecue spit listen I'm not saying the Final Fantasy Cafe wasn't a five out of five what I am saying is the Monster Hunter Cafe is a 6 out of five as for the food Emily and I both ordered the teostra fire mapo chicken katsudon served with rice and Curry and I got what I believe to be mandatory for every Hunter the expertly cooked bone and meat yep it's the well done steak M so tasty Ekko got the smoked salmon Carpaccio which was themed as an arzer Ro's favorite food and the Yogi's special bunny Dongo it's Dongo for drinks I ordered the mega potion which was a citrusy drink representing the main potion with additional syrups you could mix in possibly to stand in for the buffing potions like hot and cold drinks or armor skin from the game I personally only really added in the blue syrup which was blue syrup according to the menu whatever that means the other two were not my cup of tea Emily got the rawing ratha which was a strawberry soda with Cola popping candy and more of that mysterious blue syrup while Ekko had the kaguro Violet tea an iced tea with soda and violet syrup I still had room for food but withheld because we had plans to go to another Cafe soon after this one why I'll get to it but Ekko was ballsy enough to order a dessert because she has a sweet tooth that must be saded or else she'll explode so she got the Kieran lightning strike parfait G which is the G rank version of a much smaller inferior parfait I presume funny enough it had the exact same kind of rock candy that was used in the Crystal Tower drink from the aoria cafe thusly I conclude that the crystal tower is a massive kierin horn and that one day aoria will face a very rude awakening when they find the ginormous horse buried under morda overall this Cafe was amazing and I actually have a hard time deciding if I like it more than the aoria cafe the presentation was definitely a step up but it's not like the aoria cafe was lacking in the visual Department if I had to pick a favorite I think aoria just about Beats it out on account that I think I preferred the food and drinks on their menu just a bit more than the Monster Hunter one the steak was middling and the chicken KATU although good I feel I could get chicken KATU like it anywhere so why was I saving my appetite well because an hour after our time at Monster Hunter was finished we needed to get to the Kirby Cafe by the Sky Tree because that was literally the only time we were able to NAB when reservations opened up I remember staying up at 3:00 a.m. to help Ekko book this thing and having two or three of our selections iMed immediately getting snatched up by someone before we finally got one we tried to book a threepers seat so Emily could be included but every single threepers slot was booked immediately and I mean immediately not to mention you have to include your name in Japanese so Ekko and I were frantically trying to translate our names so that we could type it out in Katakana it was probably the most stress our relationship has ever been under thankfully we did secure the spot but the only time slot we could safely grab was unfortunately only 2 hours after the Monster Hunter Cafe and we weren't able to include Emily who is very understanding and didn't mind thank you for your sacrifice so that we could enjoy Kirby so off we went walking fast cound to the subway on the right side the trip had very few to no interruptions and we actually managed to make it there early we got a seat inside not too long after and this place although small was very cute at the front we got to take pictures with a giant plate while wielding A giant fork and spoon next to Chef Kirby and Wadd D and decorating the center of the cafe was wispy Woods the most beat up Kirby boss of all time my favorite part of the cafe was the atmosphere some Jazzy Kirby tracks were being played all the while we were [Music] [Music] there for our meals Ekko ordered the Wadd D lunch boox which had a salmon and avocado rice bowl while I had the Kirby lunch box which was another Rice Bowl but with hamburger steaks and lots of veggies I split it with Echo because I didn't quite like half the contents of the bowl and I may not have been the only one because it's apparently a beef bowl now instead which I would have much preferred thankfully it wasn't the only thing I had to eat as I ordered the Kirby burger that came with pasta and corn patach the pasta and corn patach were good the burger was not the bun was and the meat tasted dry Ekko said the salmon and avocado Bowl was the best restaurant food she had ever had but now we faced a new problem having eaten at two cafes in just a few hours we were stuffed but Ekko was determined to not leave until she had a dessert we almost got the kbby cake but it was strawberry flavored and I am not a fan so Ekko would have had to eat the whole thing herself which was not happening she got the Kirby's fluffy pancakes and instead which was still strawberry but far more manageable for one person I helped a bit with the sides though Eko says it was okay but no regrets and then it was off to the gift shop which had tons of adorable Kirby memorabilia and most importantly Kirby gachapon overall it was a pretty good Cafe but I feel the food at least aside from a few standout dishes could have been better the change in menu items since we've been there probably indicates that they were thinking or being told the same thing what else that was nice about the Kirby Cafe is that it was directly connected to the Sky Tree Mall to the point the exit out of the gift shop leads directly into the mall itself so we browsed the mall a bit made some impulse purchases walked off two cafes worth of food and overall had a nice time out back-to-back experiences aside I'm still glad we got to do them both at some point while we were hanging out with Emily there was a conversation along the lines of oh EO you like sandre are you planning to visit the cinema Roll Cafe there's a cinema Roll Cafe so today we went to the cinemar Roll Cafe in the shuku mall it was a walk-in so No Reservations needed it was also fairly small but not very packed so we were able to get seating fairly quickly sitting all around the cafe were some cute little Cinema roll plushes which gave me anxiety considered there were some very stain prone food around and the boy's basically a canvas waiting to be painted on regardless I got the spaghetti with meat sauce that was apparently a collaboration at the time with tonu konu who is a apparently a character from the manga don't call it a mystery I have no idea what the manga is about I am only learning about this now as I'm writing this script Ekko meanwhile got the blue curry in the sky which was a pretty basic rice and Curry dish with a few bits of meat thrown in for drinks I got some sort of blue drink of which I cannot for the life of me find what it was called but I remember it being okay while Ekko got this mustache drink the vien coffee we also both got a dessert since we didn't really have anywhere else to be that day so might as well I got a of Pancakes while Ekko got a parfait basically all the food at this Cafe was really really good so Props to the cooks there was an adorable little corner merch store that had a load of roll themed items and I had to hold Ekko back from grabbing just about everything off of the shelves it was a humble little cafe that was nice enough to stop for food now after we were done though it was time for our special thing so I mentioned earlier that Echo was collecting the 100 yen coins each time we got change it wasn't just to make some of our transactions and nice even amount although we did do that sometimes but more specifically to save them all for one very important thing what is my purpose gotcha Pon let's go today was our designated gachaan day where we would be spending pretty much all of our saved up change about 20,000 yen worth [Music] half of the day was dedicated to feeding gacha Pond machines and collecting their precious little toy poops we were ecologists on the hunt and our Quarry was a Wilderness of plastic we bounced around both the Shinjuku mall and the arcades and akih Haba basically until there were no more machines we were interested in and we got loads of cute little things that will forever decorate our house and accessories once we did have our fill of choking hazards the wallet abuse was not over you see we were at an [Music] arcade and although the gachapon was no longer interesting us the various prize games were still ripe [Music] and not to brag but I was a master of crane games on more than one occasion I managed to first try prizes that were giving Ekko tons of trouble what can I say I have magic fingers it was a good day and makes me wish we had these kinds of arcades in America oh I want this meat it's such a cute meat yes y only took five oh it's so cute look you can take them bone out round meat oh that's suggestive yes I was going to say that looks very sphincter all throughout our trip we often would stop by any restaurant we'd come by that looked interesting to get food unfortunately sometimes that can be playing Russian roulette with your stomach and because of this at some point I had unknowingly eaten something bad and I got food poisoning which laid me out for nearly the whole week I would spend the following 4 days in bed doing nothing but sleeping and and occasionally messing up the bathroom but not me this is my video now ha I went to Daiso and I got a bunch of meds to try and help him feel better because there wasn't much I could do to heal him otherwise so I decided to go out and have a girl day that way he could just have the room to himself I went to an Ikea and I got a hamper I also went to donot which is this huge Superstore where I got some really cool colored contacts but then at one point my phone nearly died so I had to hunt down to McDonald's specifically so I could charge it because I know they have outlets and charging stations once I felt like my phone was charged enough that I could use Google Maps to get home I made my way out to the train station and then halfway there I realized that I forgot my bag my contacts and everything that I just bought at the McDonald's so I took off running back to the McDonald's desperately hoping that no one stole all of my stuff it was all exactly where I left it should I explain what the big poop is here no okay I also went out and I scouted the big poo also known as the Asahi beer hall for some super secret plans I have later scoot so yeah I was out of commission for 4 days to the point we basically had to cancel any plans we had for that week another day for me to rest and although it did suck that I basically had to give up a couple of days of this vacation we even had to cancel going to a Ramen Festival we had plan and what really sucked on top of it all was the weight loss I've never really shared this part of myself publicly because it's kind of an insecurity of mine but I've always had a hard time staying at a healthy weight I used to be underweight fairly often as a kid and although I'm doing a lot better now I'm still a decent few pounds short of where I'd like to be it doesn't help that my main job involves sitting at a computer for hours and my main hobby involves sitting in front of front of a television for hours and I just picked up another hobby that involves me sitting at a craft desk for hours I sit around a lot but since our trip began I had been eating 3 to four meals a day regularly walking everywhere going up and downstairs all the time carrying around all our prizes and souvenirs I'm not saying it was a workout but it definitely put me on a healthier routine and I actually started to gain some healthy weight which is why it was extra sad that while I was resting up I could only stomach eating l like two crackers for a given day because anything else would have been too much for me and so I had lost a lot of the weight that I had gained which was kind of sad why not exercise at home today I was feeling marginally better but a bit under the weather still we finally got beef bowl which I am still surprised it took that long to finally stop by a place considering would tug at eeko each time we pass by asking if we could go please please please and I'm not kidding tied with the Yakitori Place beef bowl is probably my number one favorite thing to eat ever to the point we proceeded to go there the next 3 days in a row I love it so much we now make beef bowl at home in America and although it's not nearly as good I still love it beef bowl my beloved since I was feeling almost back to 100% we decided to celebrate we would spend the day at the [Music] arcade and can I just go on another happy tangent real quick and say I love Japanese arcades sure we have a few back home in the US and they're fine and all but something about the fact so many of the ones in Japan have prizes attached I don't know I want more of them Echo too maybe even more so it's kind of dangerous we spent so much time and energy trying to get this one bunny suit chicaa fujiwara we don't even watch or read Love is War Ekko just really wanted it and got so tantalizingly close but we ultimately gave up when we had spent a collective 30 tries which probably amounted to the same amount of money it would have cost just to buy the figure but to Echo it wasn't about the figure it was never about the figure it was about winning what I personally love about the arcades is they almost always had a tao machine and I love Tao I love Rhythm games but especially Tao something about having physical sticks to bang the drums plus whoever's in charge of Licensing the music for the game did a fantastic job because they have Banger after Banger after certified Banger they even got cloa tracks in there that's how you know it's a good game y yay one thing I feel important to mention I've been talking positively about my and ekko's experiences so far because it was positive but make no mistake we have no delusions that Japan is some perfect Paradise like any country it has its own social economic and political issues its work culture its Rocky history with women and LGBT people the state of its economy and that these are problems that Japanese people are entirely aware of as well I'm not bringing anything new to the table here I personally don't feel informed or qualified enough to speak on them as I'm just a foreigner I am by no means trying to romanticize Japan I'm also not trying to say that America is that much better either we got our own problems and some of this is the pot calling the kettle black I liveed the first 11 years of my life in an Asian country I know firsthand what differences in culture a few thousand miles of land can be we just wanted to enjoy that freshness of a different culture for a bit before returning to our normal lives not trying to say anything more than that but I just wanted to mention that somewhere in here in case people got the wrong idea that this video is Japan good America [Music] bad today was a very special day for Eko because we were finally going to Sido which is a massive Art Supply and station store where I had to hunt her down several times because she kept escaping to look at another random part of the store and who could blame her this place was full of so many tempting supplies to grab hell I haven't touched anything traditional in years and I still fell victim to the Allure of shiny new art supplies and so I grabbed some cute little stamps sketchbooks and even had a few reference books for poses and outfit designs this one's my favorite building itself was structured into having several floors each floor specifically containing a certain kind of Art Supply like the bottom floor was for stamps stickers and sketchbooks the next floor would be something like paper of various weights thickness and material and the next floor would be all pens pencils scissors and paper Guillotines it was an artist wallets nightmare if you want to see specifically each and every item we got and also a few more art stuff we came across just during our stay Eko actually has a video going through each and every one of them it was about this time as well that we were thinking despite coming here with plenty of space in one of our suitcases for all the stuff we wanted to take back home with how heavy all our things were getting and how much space it was all taken up we would likely need to buy another one and eventually did thankfully we only needed that one today was real special though not one that we planned so Ekko really wanted to go to the asaii Beer Hall Asahi being one of the largest drink producing companies in Japan think the Coca-Cola Company or PepsiCo if they also produced alcoholic drinks they're also responsible for my new favorite drink of all time now melon cream CPUs soda which I would have to grab anytime I saw it in a vending machine no matter what seriously if anyone knows how I can get this in the US please please tell me anyway being such a massive company they have a couple of massive buildings in sum by the river which are supposed to symbolize a tall glass of beer and what I assume to be a shot glass with foam whisking over the top of it tapping together for a chear and yeah it's supposed to look like foam at least that's the intention but oh no Ekko wanted to go to the sky room a restaurant they had at the very tippy top of the beer glass which has a gorgeous view of Tokyo the food there was okay nothing mind-blowing but a pleasant enough meal I had a sausage link and some pizza while Ekko got a couple of alcoholic drinks because she was very nervous for some reason and it was there while we were enjoying our food out over the beautiful Tokyo Skyline that I was thinking out loud this would have been a great place for me to propose sorry I don't have a ring but we'll consider this our engagement trip if that's okay my heart is like a jar pickles kind of sour kind of sweet soaked in Bride no sandwich to Paar with lower than a side dish no deep fry that I can call mine my heart is like a jar of Capers a ball of salt that won't go by itself no pasta to compliment contemplating time spent sitting on the market shell so yeah Echo proposed to me right then and there look it we took pictures a place we would highly recommend if you're ever in Tokyo thank you Asahi skyro [Music] we wandered the city a bit more and when we were hungry again decided to stop by a Ramen place at the recommendation of my best friend buddy pal friendo shenpai hey look at that you're in the video two times in a row it was called ichiran and it was located in shabuya the big city it was quite a long line when we got there too but when you go in they assign you a seat along this lineup where each person has their own little space to eat ramen and in the center is where they took your order to print food they give you a little paper menu where you get to pick your noodle size firmness how much broth you want the concentration of the broth how many contents of food you want in it the works and I know I've said this a lot for a lot of the food here in Japan but this is the best noodle dish I ever eaten in my life thank you so much Shen for recommending this place Ekko and I were lamenting on the verge of tears recalling this part to write for the video because the noodles were just that good speaking of food today Ekko wanted to go to a very specific onigiri place called onigiri Bongo in toshima which was a bit out of the ways from where we were staying but Ekko insisted we had to go and she wasn't the only one because when we got there there was a hefty line to get in like we thought the ramen place was long this was long this place had a reputation for being probably the best onigiri place around and you could tell because we got got there at around early evening time and by the time we finally made it in the sun was gone and credit to them the rice balls were absolutely delicious was it worth waiting several hours Eko thinks so she sure does she says it was worth it that's what Ekko says I'm not saying they weren't delicious probably the best onti I have ever had would I be willing to wait the 2 to 3 hours again we'll be ordering online next time the final special planned event for our trip the jibli museum which we weren't able to get any pictures for since they had a no camera policy once you were inside the building we were able to take some of the outside which still looked beautiful what with all the greenery and overgrowth around the building if you don't know Studio jibli yes you do shut up liar inside were various rooms and displays of the process the studio goes through to make their films including entire albums of concept art individual frames of animations and even Recreations of hay miyazaki's office the whole building was laid out like a cozy building from one of their films very Whimsical very colorful very dense with detail and clutter and plenty of activities for kids too including a fluffy cat bus play place which it was kind of envious I kind of wish that I could go into but I'm too big and it was for kids so we just kind of watch them have fun there was a section of the museum all about the illusion of Animation itself it was a dark room with various rotating diaramas old film machines just a bunch of cool old Tech that would have been used to make animations before the streamlining of digital media came along and at the very back of the building they even had a theater for attendees to watch a cute little short film about two children a human and a rabbit and their rivalry over a playground area this is going to sound cheesy but that signature ji Vibe the atmosphere the feeling of Whimsy and Nostalgia and childhood Wonder was just about everywhere in the building and that includes the cafe outside as well yep the jibli museum has its own theme Cafe the straw hat Cafe which was h i I didn't really like the food I think the only thing that looked good to me were the French fries which were extremely unflavored and soft but whatever that wasn't really a place to get lunch anyway regardless though the museum itself was a great experience and we got to keep our tickets as a souvenir which each one was a few frames of film from one of the movies look I got a bunch of fish I think it's from Pono that's the only movie that exists with fish in [Applause] it this was our last full day in Japan and we wanted to take care of a couple of last things firstly we wanted to dispose of all of our plastic containers from the accumulated gachapon that we had played so we hauled a massive plastic bag full of them went to the Sky Tree and deposited them into one of these large recycling stations that would have given us special bonus gachapon PS if only our phones were Japanese and worked with the app that you needed alas we were content with just plain old recycling for now secondly we needed a pack our stuff and thankfully with the extra bag we grabbed we were able to fit just about everything without too much trouble third there was a place I wanted to go to finish some business I had started you see in the aoria cafe they stamp this little card for each drink you order and once you reach a certain amount you get a reward in my case pin of one of the at the time seven main city hubs and so Echo and I ordered some drinks chugging them down like we were grinding for an achievement and managed to reach the reward and NAB a pin which I decided to go for the objectively best City Hub the cherium from shadowbringers and you can disagree but you're wrong and lastly we wanted to stop by our favorite bar one last time in Japan there's a tradition called omag basically giving your host or co-workers small usually inexpensive souvenirs as momentos from a trip we wanted to give the people people of the Yakitori Place some items we had brought from the US an American dollar some ranch and senton candles from Louisiana we actually brought quite a few things for this tradition mostly for the place we were staying at but this Yakitori restaurant left such an impact on us we thought it necessary to give our thanks there as [Music] well it was time to go home and as such we had to do something we never had to do the entirety of our trip we we had to get in a car yeah much as we probably could have walked our way to the airport using the Metro we didn't want to have to haul our luggage all the way up and down so many stairs again so we grabbed an Uber and got an extremely polite and friendly driver who spoke English incredibly well much as he would hesitate to ever admit himself he even offered to take care of our heavy luggage and was surprised and seemed to panic a bit when we were so eager and ready to load it ourselves not waiting to inconvenience him as we were saying goodbye to Tokyo he made the drive so pleasant and calmon it was nice to have a full conversation with a Japanese person is the final Capstone thing we did on a trip like a host asking us if the stay was satisfactory I'll never forget how happy he was to hear that we had a good time staying in Tokyo for the second time this trip a middle-aged Japanese man single-handedly repaired my house solved my finances and rebooted my favorite franchise I love him he dropped us off at the airport I was kind enough to even load our luggage onto some trolleys which was a surprise to us jeez these are so so convenient why don't we ever use the airport trolley back home we checked our bags hustled through security waited in a building with a very yonic ceiling and then we flew back that was it we said goodbye to Japan it was a good trip I look forward to going back someday soon [Music] the trolley is $7 [ __ ] love no more it's just too much it's just too much I don't want to hear a word no more I'm done but I just can't let go oh you no I don't want I don't want I don't want I don't want I don't want fall in love no more I don't want I don't want I don't want I don't want I don't want falling no bite the bullet face the fs that I lost everything that I had when we split into different PS Hur so much I could only laugh you can remove me with a tap gone packing up another rap done driving into a dead call the sack off track I've been falling off for y but nobody in this world do me dirty like you what why you trying to fix what a bro when I'm run it I'm a jump ship you don't need to come with stay where you are don't stop re opening my stes is watering all we just can't miss love like a curse I will never live can't follow what I miss but I just can't seem to quit this addiction make it stop no more it's just too much it's just too much I don't want to hear a word no more I'm done but I just can't let go of you no I don't want I don't want I don't want I don't want I don't want fall in love no more I don't want I don't I don't I don't I don't [Music] fall I like you I like you I'm excited

2024-12-12 09:12

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