Londelaidian: Chillaxing, interspersed with sisterly catch ups and enjoyable outings

It's too hot in Tokyo at the moment... averaging about 35-38 degrees celcius each day. Still alright to go out and walk about a bit in, and thankfully it's not humid, but still... not the kind of weather you want to spend outside every day! The last five weeks or so (wow, has it been that long?!) hasn't been so busy though, and I've been able to do a lot of relaxing in amongst the outings!

The first two weeks after I arrived back in Tokyo I spent with my sister in her dorm room. It is pretty small, only big enough to fit a single bed, a desk, a mini fridge and a sink in, but we managed alright. We shared the bed, which took a night or so to get used to! She was very kind and gave me her pillow, and she used her giant, poofy Totoro slipper as a pillow for herself. It was lovely being able to spend the time with my sister, just lying in bed chatting before sleep, and then during the day just chilling on her bed while we were in her room. We started watching a Korean drama (which got a bit weird after a while, but don't most of them? xD) and played through Monkey Island 5 from start to finish, and I got to start culturing mushrooms on her smart phone. But, in amongst our lazing about and trips to the local supermarket, we did actually go out quite a bit!

Getting ready to go out

Sisters! <3

One of our earlier outings was to Shibuya, where we thought we'd do a spot of shopping. We headed to Shibuya 109, a huge 9 storey department store absolutely chockablock full of trendy clothes shops for young women, and found that we had arrived during their "7 Day Bazaar Sale", which meant the place was completely packed with girls looking for a hot deal. So of course we dove straight in! We went through every single store in the building, including two basement levels, and even though we didn't buy anything, it was lots of fun checking out the new fashions and weaving in amongst all the girls in cute clothes. It was incredibly noisy though, as each store had at least two attendants standing outside the shop and yelling at the top of their lungs to attract customers, not to mention the thousands of voices of shoppers and all the music in the shops adding to the mix. After we emerged, several hours later, we found a few other shops to browse (one of which I bought quite a bit from!) and then settled down for dinner.

Another day we headed out for karaoke, which was immense fun! Karaoke in Japan consists of renting a room and then selecting songs from a menu, which you can sing in the privacy of your own space, and then getting food and drink to enjoy as you do. We spent four hours in our karaoke booth, belting out all sorts of songs, most of which were English ones we had made a list of the night before, and then we also tried a few old Japanese songs we used to sing, and some new K-pop ones too! (Big Bang - Fantastic Baby was a favourite). Karaoke is a bit strange though, as they are almost all covers of songs without the vocal track (obviously) so for some songs, where we weren't too familiar with the verses, we would be left floundering through the lyrics, which resulted in some pretty hilarious vocals. One Eminem song we accidentally picked we just rapped through the whole thing, and strangely enough it seemed to sound fine! We also got a pizza and drinks to share, followed by chocolate puddings!

Singing karaoke!

After emerging from karaoke, we headed over to a nearby tofu shop we had read about, which sold all sorts of tofu goodies, including tofu doughnuts (which tasted almost like normal doughnuts, strangely enough!). The street ended up being full of interesting shops, including traditional sweet shops, clothing shops, and even a taiyaki shop (fish-shaped sweet pancake) which we tried... so good!

A few days later we headed out on another venture - this time to a public bath/natural spring. This was kind of a big deal for me, as I was nervous about going to a public bath, where everyone is naked together, but I was also excited to try it. We caught a free shuttle bus there, and once we entered it felt so calm and peaceful inside! The women and men had separate bath houses, so we were handed our towels and yukata, and then ushered into the female bath area. We weren't entirely sure what we were supposed to be doing, so once we saw other women walking around naked in the locker room, we decided it was probably safe to get changed. After a bought of giggles, we got undressed and wrapped ourselves in our towels. Then we shuffled through to the next stage, where you were supposed to leave everything behind except your tiny towel and start bathing! Once we were in though, it was fine. They have a large section filled with individual boothes, with shower heads, taps and buckets, and shampoo, conditioner and body soap to wash with. You need to make yourself completely clean before you enter the main pools of water. It was actually really nice washing like that, and the buckets of hot water were heavenly. Then we entered the main section of the bath house, which was pretty amazing. There were about 6 indoor pools, filled with different minerals and water jets, and some which were cold as opposed to hot (the hot ones were about 37-39 degrees celcius, and the cold about 20, which I think was for use after the sauna). Then there were also outdoor pools, and it was wonderful going in and out of the hot pools and then drying off in the warm air. At one point we considered trying the sauna, as neither of us had used one before, but as we opened the door, the blast of heat that reached us made us immediately turn back. I don't know how anyone can use those things, it felt hot enough to cook you. Unfortunately no photos... you can't take a camera in, for obvious reasons!

One of my solo outings was to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, at which I visited two exhibitions. One was by a solo Japanese artist who looked at every day scenes and captured the 'magic' in them, making the ordinary seem interesting. There was also a room with two of her videos, consisting of short snippets of every day things - water dripping, children playing, cracking crabs open - that were played next to each other, so as you watched, you would get lovely overlaps of ideas and imagery. The other exhibition was the World Press Photography exhibit, which was amazing. Some of the most poignant and important stories of the last year, captured on film by incredible photographers. Of course, a lot of the content was not for the faint of heart, as many covered current wars, bombings, and attacks, but there were many other photos, too, showing sports, or lifestyles in foreign countries. A lot of them stunned me to think these things were still going on today. But I really enjoyed both exhibits for different reasons.

The entrance to the Photography Museum (no photos inside the exhibits...)

As some of you know, I am a huge Ace Attorney fan (a game on the Nintendo DS), so one of the places I knew I had to visit was the Cap Bar, in Shinjuku. You had to book a two hour time slot to attend, as the session was set up as an entertainment in itself. The staff made loud jokes and performed little skits referencing different Capcom games, including Ace Attorney. The room was amazingly decorated, with blue lights and figurines from all the different games in amongst the tables. Once the staff found out I was a huge AA fan, they brought over the little figuring of Miles Edgeworth to preside over our meal, which was hilarious. Although my sister and I couldn't really understand much of what was being said, it was still a lot of fun, and we were also given an English guide so that we knew what was basically going on. The food was all themed as well, so everything I ordered was AA related (obviously). The main meal we ordered was The Judge's Onion Rings, which came with a little potato croquette gavel. When this meal was ordered, everyone in the restaurant was made to stop and point at the onion rings, shouting "Igi-ari!" ("Objection!")

Discovering the Cap Bar from the street!

Playing a drum game before heading in (waiting for our time slot)

Anyone for a drink? (It is a bar...)

The booths for customers (we were sat at the bar)

Monster Hunter cats (and dragon), complete with "Famous Japanese Comedian!" as the guy called himself (he was actually pretty funny)

Edgeworth presides over the diners

Photo with my neighbour at the bar

Lauren with her drink - soda which you poured the calpis and honey into (we decided this was like "Ema Skye's science!")

My bubble tea (which I dubbed "Gumshoe")

Pouring her concoction...

A dragon watching us closely

Order in the bar! (Yay Onion Rings!)

Our Magatama dessert, which Edgeworth has joined us for

Harajuku is a major fashion and shopping district in Japan, which is famous world wide and visited by many people and celebrities, so of course I had to visit, too. It was a lot of fun checking out the main shopping street, chock-a-block full of people and with some pretty outrageous shops, including a huge costume shop full of sequined suits and leather shorts, accessory shops with Hello Kitty glasses, and many one-off designer stores, which don't even ship overseas so you HAVE to visit them if you want to buy their goods. We made sure to get a Harajuku crepe, too, as apparently that's the place to get them.

Entrance to the main shopping street in Harajuku

One of the shopping plaza entrances

A major highlight was going to the Hanabi (fireworks) festival on the Asakusa river. This festival has been going for centuries, and is played as a competition between different firework groups, so you get some pretty speccy firework displays, and it is one of the most famous and popular in Japan. As such, about a million people attend, which means it gets pretty busy! My sister and I caught the subway from Ginza, about 10 stops away from Asakusa, and got sardine-packed onto the train at that point. We kind of just looked at each other and said "See you at the other side," before stepping on and instantly being separated by the crush of people. At every stop after that, more people would try cram themselves onto the train. It was incredibly hot and sweaty too, which was a bit gross, but all I could do was laugh at the situation, it was so strange! Once we finally got off, the streets weren't much better. There was a bit of flow to it though, so we managed to get to the Asakusa markets and buy some shaved ice, to cool down. We soon returned to the mob on the street and waited. We heard the fireworks start just after 7o'clock, but it was all hidden by the buildings around us. As we waited with the rest, we discovered we were slowly moving forward, and that the police were creating divisions of people to lead across the bridge at a slow march, so they could see the fireworks for a while. Once it was our turn, the fireworks were indeed pretty and some were amazing, taking on the shapes of famous characters, or exploding in a dancing flurry of gold. At the other side we found a few food stalls and snacked on dinner while watching a few more fireworks through the gap in the buildings. Of course, one of the major features of the night was the clothing - a majority of people, male and female, had dressed up in summer yukata, and the evening was filled with gorgeous colours and beautifully tied dresses.