Alpha's J-Adventure 2 - Final Update (P28) All Updates (P1)

Sad it is over. Best read ever. Thanks for the effort, you made many of my dull boring days better with your updates. I spent like an hour admiring the pictures and reading your posts. Thanks!

Hey hey, the posts are not over!! 4 to go, don't forget that!

day 15,16,17 and 18!

15 is done, but will post in morning.

Great work Alpha. Sorry it didn't work out with your girl!

Great thread

Thanks, Alpha.

This has been a brilliant read. Nice one, Alph.

Day 15 - Yokohama

Woke up quite early today but was straight onto MSN to catch my friends back at home. I wasn't going to meet Yuka till the evening so I had a whole day to myself, asked my Japanese friend for suggestion and she suggested, Yokohama. Not knowing much about Yokohama, I checked the map to see how far it was, about an hour, I set off shortly after.

For breakfast today I had Gyudon from Yoshinoya, pretty much beef, onions and rice in a bowl. Really nice food, good for a quick breakfast that isn't 9 parts sugar 1 part awesome. I've stopped eating Mister Donut because there is no real need now.



From Ueno station it's about 40 minutes to Yokohama, the ride was really nice, clear blue skies and a nice view on the way, I would have taken photos but the train was quite busy. When I arrived at Yokohama, I was expecting it to be less built up and more of a costal type town, wrong!

Yokohama station was VERY busy, the area was surrounded by roads, bridges and water. I was dissapointed, I was expecting something different but went all that way for what seemed just like another shopping area.





To make the best of the day, I decided to have a look around, first stop was Yodabashi, a huge department store. I was just browsing when I saw something at the end of the aisle, I moved quite fast when I realised what it was...



PIKMIN!! These are the new Pikmin plushies, the shop display was awesome, the toys were all in the box as if they was in the ground so you had to pick them out, just like picking a vegetable out of the ground! I got 3, one of each main color and each type. They had the purple and white ones aswell as olimar and the huge enemy but I didn't have much money or room to get them home.

After Yodabashi, I walked around the station towards the dock, hoping to find the giant ferris wheel / amusement park I had seen on a poster at the station. I didn't find that but instead, found a ghost town shopping center, it was deserted and I didn't like it, still, nice view.



I walked back to the station ready to go home when I saw a large area map, the giant ferris wheel was another station away, too far too walk so I hopped on the train to Minato Mira station. On the way there, two american tourists were laughing at something on the train, one look and I couldn't help but to laugh.



The kid was fast asleep with his head back, a lot of people were looking and laughing along with the americans, they even started posing with the kid and taking pictures. They found it a lot more funny than it probably was.

When I arrived at Minato Mira station, it was at the bottom of a shopping center called Queen's Square. I didn't want to look around the shops in here so headed out side, outside the main doors, I could see the ferris wheel and amusement park!





Just outside was an ice cream shop, it was quite hot and I really wanted an ice cream so went and got one. Really nice ice cream, very soft and milky, great flavor, maybe the best standard type ice cream i've ever had!





I ate the ice cream quite fast and headed straight to the amusement park, I had to pass through a small village type area with a few kids rides to eventually cross the bridge to the main park of the park.





When I got there, I couldn't find the enterance to the Roller Coaster, I asked a group of Japanese people and they offered to show me where it was since they was going there too, really nice of them. The roller coaster was fun but not anything special, just a typical big drop one, no loops.





After that the sun was starting to set, I wanted to see the park in the dark so had about half an hour to waste, didn't want to walk around there cause it was getting cold, also, I spotted an arcade. In the arcade were old machines but some really interesting ones. First I saw some traditional japanese type guitar hero game, keyboard mania and the sequel to samba de amigo, played with a tamborine, very tiring, I actually gave up after 2 songs.




I played in the arcade for about half an hour before going back outside, it was darker and the lights were on. I decided to walk around a bit, have a look at the surrounding areas and take more photos. Near the park were a few landmarks including a giant boat.





I walked around for about an hour before I had to head back to Ueno to meet Yuka. Me and Yuka went to a really nice resteraunt, the food was from Okinawa, an island to the South West of Tokyo. The dishes were all pork based and the food was 'sumo food', it was good and thankfully, neither of us started to look like a sumo afterwards, felt like one, was filling!



Yokohama was good but I think I wasted a lot of time at the main part of Yokohama, Minato Mira is the place to go, looking at a map afterwards, I noticed there was a lot more places I could have gone around there, a lesson to learnt, don't go somewhere in Japan without an idea of what you want to do or see there!

Great post Alpha, that last pic is lovely, and a great way to finish it off. Looking forward to the rest of them!

I love how the massive ferris wheel is just a big clock.

Roonmastor wrote:I love how the massive ferris wheel is just a big clock.

I'm impressed as well

T9Flake wrote:

Roonmastor wrote:I love how the massive ferris wheel is just a big clock.

I'm impressed as well

That's good to hear.

You'd be arrested for taking pictures of kids on trains in London, Alpha.

CosmoKramer wrote:

T9Flake wrote:

Roonmastor wrote:I love how the massive ferris wheel is just a big clock.

I'm impressed as well

That's good to hear.

You'd be arrested for taking pictures of kids on trains, uploading them onto your computer and then spreading them across the internet for other males to enjoy in London, Alpha.

Fixed.

You didn't buy the 2 best Pikmin? Mr Purple and Freaky Mr White?

Shame on you, Alpha.

(Nice pics, as usual).

Where's the last 2 days?

Day 16 - Tokyo Disney Sea

Today me and Yuka had planned to go Tokyo Disney Sea. I woke up hoping the weather wasn't crap, opened the window hoping for the best and... Clear blue skies, awesome! I had to be up really early, I woke up at 6 and had to meet Yuka at Koshigaya at 8, now, the problem with that was, when I left, I forgot which Koshigaya I had to meet her at. There are 3, shin-koshigaya, koshigaya and kita-koshigaya...

I went to kita-koshigaya, the wrong one, already I was late, so ran back to the train and went to shin-koshigaya, go to the meeting point (starbucks) but no Yuka... I waited 5 minutes and still, no sign of her, went to a telephone box, no answer... At that point, I thought she had got fed up of waiting, went home and was ignoring my calls.

Thankfully, wasn't the case, she was just late herself. We got some snacks from the convienent store and then got on the train, it was going to take a long time because of our meeting point, so about an hour. I prepared myself with those maple sandwhich things again.



The train ride wasn't too bad, Yuka was tired and fell asleep while I was enjoying the view, for just one moment, I could clearly see Mount Fuji in the distance. When we arrived, we bought our tickets and headed for the monorail station.



The monorail takes you to Disney Land or Disney Sea Tokyo, it took about 20 minutes to get there, or so it seemed. The train was really nice, the windows and handles were shapped like Mickey Mouse.



When we got there and passed the ticket area, there was a giant globe display, there was actually a long que to line up and take pictures with this thing. I didn't bother.





After going through the main gates, there was a large lake in front of us, just as we got closer, a show started with dancing and singing characters on a boat.





After the mini show, we went to the Mountain area, from the enterance, it was just a short walk.



In the Mountain area, we went on the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride twice and the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride. Both were really cool, rides. JCE was like a ghost train type ride, go through in a car slowly looking at thens then suddenly, the car picks up a lot of speed and it turns into a roller coaster coming out of the mountain twice. 20,000 was more of a on track look around ride but it was really cool because you were in a submarine, shared with 4 other people, each got a window seat and a controller to guide a light around to look at things. It was lots of fun, even better the second time we went on it when we were the only ones in the submarine...

The next area we went to was the Little Mermaid place, it was for kids but also really nice, one of the best and most interesting places there. We walked around and only went on rides that wasn't too childish. There was an inside area like an underwater cave, that was really good. There were fountains that shot water in bursts out and over people into holes. Yuka was trying to be clever and dodge them but didn't notice the fountain on the group going up and got soaked






After the first area, we went to the Aladdin area for some lunch. The Aladdin area is themed like the setting of Aladdin, the music from the cartoon was played in a traditional instrumental style in the background to match the setting, it was really nice. We had a curry for lunch, I had chicken curry and Yuka had the 25th anniversary special, not sure what it was but it was 3 times the cost of mine.





Lunch was really good but the portions weren't that big. We went on a carosel in the area then to a 3D magic show which was really cool, I wish I got that on video. Basically, when we got in, a snake in a pot told a story before we were taken into a theatre, then, actors did a show and on the screen above, there was a 3D animation of the genie so he was a character in the performance, it was really good!



After the show, we got a snack from the food stand, some churo(?) type thing, was really good but can't remember the name. It was like what I had a mister donut but sesame seed flavor and hot. From the Aladdin area, we walked round to the Indiana Jones area, there was two rides here, a roller coaster and the Indiana Jones ride.





The roller coaster was ok but not that scary, it was fast and did one loop but that was about it. I was worried my bag would fall out from by my feet on the loop but thankfully, it didn't. The Indiana Jones ride was really cool, you went around like in the first two rides of the day but in an Indiana Jones themed place in a car shaped cart. The end of the ride was the boulder dash from the first film. Great ride!

From the Indiana Jones area, we went to the Tower of Terror ride, basically a lift drop. This ride was one of my favorites, the area where you had to queue was really interseting, the whole building was themed like a hotel full of historic and cursed relics. When you first go into the main queuing area, there is a little performance giving you some back story to the ride with a very cool illusion trick. The lift drop itself is brilliant, when you got to the top, you can see the whole park clearly out of the top window for just a second before falling down. Went on this alot of times, it was really nice at night time so we could see all the lights and candle display on the lake.





After the Tower of Terror ride, we repeated a few rides. We later went back to a fast food place to eat to catch the show inside the main hall, as we got there, just out side there was a really nice performance of the disney xmas carol, great timing.





We watched that then went in to eat, had to wait about 10 minutes for the show to start but we managed to catch the last one of the day. It was a good show, nice to eat and watch a performance, the food wasn't so great but the overall experience there was nice. The Apple Pie was amazing.





After the show we walked around the park a bit more, it was really nice walking around in the dark because of all the lights. We went on a few more rides, the queues weren't so bad, half an hour max. Later in the evening there was an xmas candle light show on the lake, it was beautiful, boats went round the lake filled with candles, making reflections on the water and then a giant xmas tree of candles in the middle of the lake came in and lit up. Hard to describe but it was really nice to see that show.





It was getting late after the light show so we did a few more rides before heading back to the train to go home.



Disney Sea Tokyo was brilliant, it wasn't very busy so we got on a lot of rides, the weather was great, clear blue skies. We was very lucky to be there in November, it was xmas season there and also they were celebrating the 25th anniversary. The shows in the evening were really nice, the candle show especially, that was beautiful. Overall, it was a really nice day with Yuka.

I thought it would be like sealife centre, how wrong i was..



Prof Layton mansion.

shas'la wrote:I thought it would be like sealife centre, how wrong i was..

Haha, I thought that too, I was expecting a giant killer whale swimming around in that lake dancing to popular Disney tunes. Aparently there is only one Disney Sea in the world, exclusive to Tokyo, glad I went, I can go Disney Land in a few places.

Two more updates incoming, second one includes some amazing food and the last one has few pictures since I wanted to spend time with Yuka rather than behind the camera.

shas'la wrote:I thought it would be like sealife centre, how wrong i was..



Prof Layton mansion.

That looks like one of those massive evil mansions from the old films.

Great update Luke, what are things like now you are back home? surely it must be wierd readapting to the sleeping patterns and the culture back here!

Day 17 - Back to Akihabara

Today would be my last full day in Japan. Yuka had arranged with her teachers at uni that she wouldn't be going in for the last few lessons so she could spend time with me, we planned to meet in the afternoon leaving me some time for last minute shopping.

First thing I had to do today was get some more money, straight to the bank and walked out with 21,000 yen and a big smile on my face. Over the last few days, money had been tight, there was a day when I was left with just 40 yen!

Since it was my last day, no need to guess hard about where I went for breakfast, Mister Donut! I had my two favorite donuts, the Honey Churuo and the Strawberry Cream Puff along with a tall glass of Vitamin C.



After breakfast I went to the large toy shop in Ueno, I decided to buy the keychain I wanted even though it was horribly over priced.



I then straight to Akihabara. I was annoyed that on my return to Akihabara, most of the things I planned to buy had sold out, Mario Keychain sets and to my horror, Mame Shiba!! Some new toy had replaced the giant stand, something about a rabbit wanting to be a monkey.



Went to a gashapon shop and bought a weird little squid thing and a tofu figure, just wanted to buy some random keychains because I love these sort of things.



Moved on towards Yodabashi, on the way, I saw the Mega Man Energy Tank drink! Didn't try it because I wasn't thirsty and didn't want to bring it around with me, no bag.



Went to a game shop after that and picked up two very cool DS games, Game and Watch Collection 2 and Exclimation Warriors, both Club Nintendo exclusive games.



I got to Yodabashi and was looking for Mame Shiba, sadly, all sold out here too. Saw some more Pikmin plushies but didn't buy any more, there were loads of plushies here, I wanted them all but didn't have much room in my travel case for goods.




In Yodabashi I left with just a new type of toy, a spinning pen, it's basically a pen with weights in it to make it easier to spin. Was really cheap and kinda fun to mess about with when bored. Of course, when I later tried to spin it, it flew half way across the room hitting the tv...



From Yodabashi I went to the station and headed to the Panda Bridge exit of Ueno station, the reason I went here was because there are a load of snack stalls selling all sorts of snacks. I was in a hurry so didn't take a picture but I got this, no knowig exactly what it was and entierly lured by the Suica character and the fact it came with a badge and it was a money tin full of mystery snack.



Suica is the mascot for the travel card system in Tokyo, makes a good souvinier. From the station I hurried back to the hotel to tidy up before Yuka arrived.

Had a really nice time with Yuka when she arrived, it was just like being with her in London, it was sad that it would be the last time we could spend time together like this but we enjoyed it the best we could.

We later went to dinner, Yuka reccomended a Korean BBQ Style place very close to my hotel, it was really nice how she had done tons of research for a nice place to eat, she had about 10 different places all printed out with maps ect.

Dinner was AWESOME! If you ever go Tokyo, you have to go to this place. When we went in, the waiter showed us to our table, in the middle was a large pipe, didn't realise what it was for until we ordered and the waiter came back with a cooker and lots of meat.



We ordered a meat selection dish to share, it was lovely, just take a look at the pictures.



After dinner we went back to the hotel to spend the rest of the evening together. After Yuka had left, it sunk in that it would be the last time we would have time like that together, not about the sex but just being with her having fun and just being in each others company. It was really upsetting for both of us when she had to leave.

Today was the best day in Japan for me, the time spent with Yuka was perfect, just like old times.

Tokyo Disney looked great. Great photos man.