Ueno Park

On Sunday morning I got to sleep in (finally!) It had to be about 2 or so before I finally made it to Baba to pick up mom. It was New Years Eve so the shops and places were starting to close down. It was weird that everything shuts down for New Years instead of Christmas. It was also very weird seeing half of the city closed for the holiday. The trains and convenience stores were open, but that was about it.

Anyway, I dragged mom to Ueno Park to see whatever was there. I had also never been there so I thought it would be a good experience. My original intention was to visit the Robot Exibit which was going on at the Museum of Natural History. When we got there though, we found out that all the museums were closed. Even the Ueno Zoo was closed. The only thing open was a shrine and a children's amusement park. We tried these free samples of Yaki-panda (literally "fried panda") on the way to the shrine, then on the way back we stopped and bought some. It was basically Taiyaki but with panda shapes instead of fish.

Next I figured that at least some of the shops in the black market district should be open, so I dragged mom to the other side of the train station. The main street vendors were packed with people. I have never seen that many people that close together before except on the train! Everyone looked like they were trying to get a deal on some fish and lobster products. We ended up stumbling on a cheap clothes shop and mom bought a yukata among other things. I then dragged her around Ueno until we ended up back at the station.

I decided that ice cream would be good at that point so we ventured off to Harajuku to get some Crepe action. Takeshita-dori was packed with foreigners and locals alike looking for some sweet gothic clothing. I ignored all the stuff and made my way to the Crepe shop. The one I had was strawberry cheesecake with vanilla ice creme and sprinkles. The true path to my heart is with awesome food and that is exactly what I got. After that we then weaved our way through the crowd to the end of the street. At the very last store before we got out onto the main street, mom spotted a rack of belts. She ended up buying one that looked a little short, but could still be worn.

The path to Shibuya took us by all sorts of cool places. We skipped out on visiting Omotesando (which I got shot down the next few days by my host family) and arrived in Shibuya. Basically I wanted to show mom the biggest intersection in the world and the Hachiko. After seeing those two we ventured down a random street out of that part of the city. We passed a fugu (blowfish) place on the way there (which I want to return to at some point). Upon reaching a large intersection with no more Christmas lights, we decided to turn back towards Shibuya. On the way back I found a Cold Stone Creamery! I have yet to eat there, but will most definitely make a date of it in the near near future. We also got a good view of the intersection from that building.

Upon arriving at the train station we headed back towards Baba. I made a quick stop in Shinjuku to pick up some DVD-R's and while I was there showed mom around Kabuki-cho. I also made her play the 10 yen claw game which she managed to lose 4 times in a row. We finally returned home around 10ish. At that point I was hungry so I took mom to experience Japanese fast food (aka Yoshinoya aka cheap beef on rice).

It turned out to be a bad idea. Mom just had the green tea that they give you and apparently it made her sick. The next day I arrived in Baba around 2 again to find mom half asleep and looking horrible. Apparently she had gotten an upset stomach probably because of a combination of jet lag, weird food, and inconsistant meals. We chilled around her place. I ended up going to the arcade for a couple of hours to kill some time. I am getting pretty good at that gundam game!

Once mom was feeling better we headed off to Yokohama. We started off by walking outside from Yokohama station to Chinatown but quickly regretted that decision. You see, Yokohama is by the bay so the wind is very strong. That coupled with the fact that neither of us had a hat or gloves made it a very cold day. We got to see the amusement park and large hardware store, but that alone was not worth the coldness. As soon as we found a train station, we got on and headed for the actual station.

Yokohama was not as cool as I remembered it. Most of the stores were food places, and most of them were selling roasted nuts or some sort of Manjyuu out front. I bought an an-man which was plenty for me. There was not too much shopping left to do so we skipped most of the shops. We did manage to find a really cool temple and then a demonstration with the paper dragon thing. Feeling a little down, we headed home.

Back at the hotel we waited for New Years to roll around. Mom took a nap and I headed down to the bar for a couple of drinks and a chat with Kanjina, Adam, and Josh. Once 11 came everyone gathered outside for the Niji-no-kai New Years Bash. The meeting place was near the East exit of Shinjuku, but we all met in Baba first to go over together. I got to see some old friends that I never get a chance to talk to. It was basically a meeting of all the foreign students that don't have a family to spend New Years with.

The party ended up being really lame. New Years came and went with only a little cheering and stuff. As for the after party, Niji-no-kai wanted 3000 yen to attend the nomi-hodai. That wasn't gonna happen. Everyone parted ways and I ended up going home early.

On New Years Day I figured nothing would be open and I was right. The city was almost shut down. For breakfast I was woken up at the ungodly hour of 10 and ate a traditional New Years meal with my host family. I took it slow once again and eventually made it to Baba around 2. I wanted to take a walk to see what was open so I made the trip to Nakano on foot. Mom accompanied me (although she was not pleased by the distance we walked). On the way there I found a Super Famicom 4 player adapter for only 280 yen! Score! At Nakano, most of the things on Broadway were closed (most notably Mandrake). We had the creme filled pancake things and then hopped a train back home. We ended up watching tv the rest of the night.

Today most of the shops were still closed. However, this is the only day that the imperial palace interior is open. The emperor and royal family make an appearance in front of their citizens. I really wanted to go, so we did. Even though there were thousands of people there, I ran into non other than Eric McEver and his host mother. He was one of the few really tall people there. We talked while waiting in the hour long line to get into the palace grounds. Along the way there was a security checkpoint and tons of guards everywhere. Once inside, we squeezed our way to the front center and waited another 50 minutes for the royal family to make their appearance. It was pretty spectacular. The emperor made a little speech about how he was glad everyone showed up, wished everyone a happy new year, and stated that we should all work together to make the world a better place. Everyone waved and then the family disappeared. Sadly, because of this event the gardens were closed. Mom and I instead walked to Tokyo Tower, took a couple of pictures, then went to Hamamatsucho station and back to Baba.

Mom got changed, grabbed her stuff, then followed me home. I got to show her where I have been living for the past 3 months. We got to have dinner with my host family (which was excellent) and talked for quite some time. I got to be head translator for the night. It was a lot of fun trying to decypher what my host parents were trying to say and actually turn it into English. Once dinner was over I escorted mom back home and then returned home myself.