March 30, 2010
Going to the Holy Land.
I dont really write much nowadays so please forgive me for utter crappiness of write up.
Woke up around 7am to start making the final preparations for the trip and for the last checks of the stuff I'm gonna bring. Surprisingly, I slept pretty well considering my overwhelming excitement for the whole thing-looks like working out more than usual the night before got me tired enough to make me go to sleep soundly. Once finished, we immediately left home to fetch my cousin and his parents for his graduation in PICC, then head to Sforza's place afterward. Prior to all these, Sforza told me that he wasnt really sure if he's gonna go up until his doctor clears him on his check up-which is on the day of the flight itself, thereby making me pretty nervous even while we were driving to PICC. After dropping off my cousin and his folks, I immediately texted Sforza on his status, and he told me to just go to his place (without saying anything if he was cleared or not take note). Upon arriving in his home, I texted him again, only to get a reply saying he was on his way back(yep, this was just the start of sforza's trolling for the whole trip). Well, when he DID come back, he to get his last stuff packed, which really alleviated my apprehensions of him not going. Well, after that was over with, we immediately headed out for the airport on the urging of his mom. Going to the airport and doing all the processes was a pretty new experience for me, so I pretty much looked like a total doofus and noob while following sforza around and asking a lot of random stuff regarding the steps and sequence of the luggage, airport fee payments and the like. Surprisingly enough ,we got all the stuff done quite quickly, so we ended up having a light snack in Seattle's best iirc, then immediately headed over to the waiting area for boarding-with me all the while texting my folks that we are about to leave. Before we knew it, we were airborne and on our way to Japan. I for one, was also surprised how the flight didnt really affect me much as it does for other first timers, and that I was pretty much normal throughout the flight. During transit, I snapped some pictures of the horizon like a kid full of glee, and frankly really didnt give a damn of the people around me noticed. The Flight took around 3 something hours, and once I saw land masses, I couldnt help but smile as I finally reached the country which I dreamed of going to for so long. It was really a surreal feeling, as if I was in a dream.
Okay, emo stuff aside, we got off the plane, went to have our passports and documents checked, collected our luggage and stepped out of the airport. Sforza told me that I will be totally surprised when i get there, and boy I was. The moment we came out to open air, I felt this sudden sting on my skin and a chill throughout my whole body-yep it was stupidly cold, and I had to get used to it. During this time, weather in Japan has gotten quite erratic, fluctuating rapidly from cold to less cold, to stupidly cold again in a heartbeat. Walking through the cold, we proceeded to have some of our usd converted to yen, and then subsequently for he train. Buying a ticket here is quite different, as you are presented a machine with an initially very confusing interface complete with lot of buttons and holes, while the map layout of the train lines didnt help as well as they looked like something like a maze of pipes with kanji and what not written all over them. We then called up Cabs, and asked for instructions and confirmed ETA's and stuff. Somehow, we managed to get some tickets and got on the express bound for Osaka Station( also called Umeda station-take note of this. As this will be mentioned a lot later). The trip was pretty much me looking around the train and sforza reading his e-books. He later said he kinda got his left elbow stiff because of the way he held his DS. The train ride lasted around an hour, and once we arrived in Osaka/Umeda station, I had to again try to bear the stupidly cold environment, lug around an 11kg stroller plus a heavy bag and look for Cabs who was waiting for us there at the same time. We eventually met up, and had to transfer to another train(without buying a new ticket) to go to Shin-Osaka( where Cabs' place is) station this time around. Once out of the station, I noticed one particular thing: the streets were stupidly clean and everything felt ridiculously polished and done well with regards to the streets and stuff. We made our way to Cabs'place, all the while him and Sforza laughing at me for my various bodily responses to the cold. After dropping off are stupidly heavy stuff, Cabs invited us over to have ramen in one of the places nearby, in which the both of us heartily agreed. The meal was stupidly good, as the ramen easily, note easily, blew away almost all of the ramen thats served in the PH. It's kinda unfortunate that we didnt get a picture of this first meal, as we were really hungry and exhausted so we proceeded to dig in immediately. Once back in Cabs' place, we spent the remaining few hours listening to Cabs' instructions on how to use the washing machine, the shower, and the other utilities of the house. I for one was pretty drained, so I then slept after surfing a bit on the net and Raving on facebook that I was in Japan already.
Few quotable stuff on this day:
Sforza: OMG mark in an airport!
Arch angel: WTF is this! Wtffff!!!!(referring to the cold)
march 31, 2010
Den-Den Town!(part one)
Waking up pretty early, I immediately got up and started looking around the room to check if I was dreaming or not. Upon confirmation that I really was in Japan, I stood up and did a few exercises to get myself going, took a bath and headed out to walk around the vicinity of Cabs' place. Though it was cold, the area was really clean-and it was more apparent in the daytime. I went to a 7/11 shop to get some grub for me and Sforza, and then proceeded to have my very first, well, small conversation in Japan. The coins I had pretty much had 100 or 50 or 10 written on them, but my first 5 yen coin was so worn out, I really didnt see the chinese character for 5 anymore-so hence i tried asking the cashier how much was the damn thing by saying “Ikura Desu Ka?” meaning “how much is this?” and got a normal response. I immediately headed back to the pad, and arrived just in time to see Cabs and Sforza just wake up. Cabs gave us a map on how to go to Den-Den from Shinsaibashi station(which he recommended because it was the “scenic route” to Den-Den). After having breakfast, we set out for Umeda station first, which was only a few minutes away from Shin-Osaka, to have more of our usd converted. We got pretty decent rates, and upon finishing that task, and receiving specific instructions from Cabs on going to Den-Den, we set off and Arrived in Shinsaibashi station via Subway(note that the train we tool from airport to Osaka, to Shin-Osaka and back to Osaka on the next day was the JR line. The subway we took is the Midosuji line, and has stops that are very close to Den-Den. Upon arriving in Shinsaibashi, I immediately whipped out the map, and followed the exact path that our benefactor instructed us to take. Since this was the first time we were walking to Den-Den,(not to mention this was the long way to it) the walk seemed like forever for us-although there were a lot of various stores and food stalls along the way which caught our attention and at times, made our mouth water. As we went on, and not to brag, I was pretty glad that I have this very good sense of direction for navigating, so we ended up in pretty much all of the specified landmarks that are on the way to otaku heaven. We passed Dotonburi bridge, which was perpendicular to Dontonburi street(Dotonburi street is like a few blocks full of food stalls and yummy stuff) nad took some pictures of the area, including of the Glico guy that kinda relates to Osaka already. Surely enough we finally came to Den-Den, and starting looking over the first few shops that were open ( as some were still closed, even when it was around 10:15am already).
One of my first and foremost tasks to accomplish was to get kamen rider game cards for my karate sensei, So when we came to the first shop we encountered, I was lucky enough to see a whole rack with a plethora of these cards. Sensei didn't really mention a specific card to get, so I just got the ones that looked cool, and got him some that had good “stats”. Getting that over with, We just window shopped the first store, and I realized how it literally pwns the shops here in PH. The first shop we came to had like, 3 floors of pure otaku goodies, from playing cards, figma, figurines, kits, nendos, accessories, and even model cars-it was stupidly mind blowing, and they also had like a good 10 more of those shops! As we passed each shop, there were lots to see, video games, gaming accessories, cute girls giving out fliers for their respective cafes, lotsa vending machines, people shouting to announce sales in their shops, moar figs, and kits. We even got to finally see the kotobukiya shop that was in the vicinity, and man was it good. It literally was an AC kit heaven, and not only where there AC kits, but they had a plethora of pretty good figures as well. Leaving kotobukiya satisfied even by just staring, we went on to find interesting stuff like this shop having a lot of specialty t-shirts for a lot of games and anime, a shop where they sold second hand figures and collectibles, AV shops(yummy), and this one particular building that even had a yaoi section(lol iraya). After looking around for a while, we then decided to grab some lunch, but didnt know where since we were still overwhelmed by the sheer number of food installations in dotonburi. Alas, we ended eating in mcdonalds, in which sforza tried their texas burger, which he gave the thumbs down, and me just going for a fillet o' fish sandwich. After a much needed meal and rest, we went back to Den-Den, and basically revisited all of the shops we looked at, and the others that just opened. After much procrastinating, Sforza and I finally bought some stuff that arent kamen rider playing cards: a megurine luka nendoroid and a snow miku nendoroid. Feeling satisfied for the day, we then proceeded to walk back to shinsaibashi station, only to find out that we overshot the entrance as it was pretty well hidden, so we ended up walking another whole station's distance, and we finally were able to get back to midosuji line to Shin-Osaka. We also passed by Lawson's-one of two convenience stores(other one being Family Mart) that can more or less make you survive even if you bought food and stuff there alone(we literally lived off of these for the entirety of the trip for our breakfast and food cravings), and got a strawberry flavored hagen daz(with reference to ryougi shiki in the anime kara no kyokai-watch it.) and some sushi like stuff for sforza. We then got in contact with cabs, and set to meet him over in Umeda to get some earphoness for myself and dinner afterwards. Upon meeting in Umeda, Cabs took us inside a very well known place there, which is Yodobashi Camera-think of it as like an sm there of sorts. All I could say was the place was amazing. Floor B2 was for computers cellphones and watches, B1 was for computer consumables, 1st floor was for computers, 2nd floor was for cameras, 3rd was for house electronics and appliances, 4th floor for audio/video stuff, 5th for otaku stuff and video games, and the higher floors are restaurants, event floors and parking spaces. Okay, before I get carried away, so I got my earphones, and then we went to look for a place to eat. It took us a good 30 minutes to decide, and it ended up being this ramen place that had a long line outside. Turns out that the line moved pretty fast, and that the orders were processed even while you were falling in line. Okay, remember what I said about the first ramen we got being able to blow away any ramen here in the ph? Well, the ramen we got here even blew that one away. The ramen here was so good. DAMN good. And can I say DAMN good again? Yep, the meal here was SO good, I left that place smiling like an idiot. Not to mention their tea was also damn good, and their side dishes/appetizers were so DAMN good too. After the meal, we immediately went back home to rest up and just literally bum out till we fall asleep. Hence, the end of the second day-and what a day it was.
Going to the Holy Land.
I dont really write much nowadays so please forgive me for utter crappiness of write up.
Woke up around 7am to start making the final preparations for the trip and for the last checks of the stuff I'm gonna bring. Surprisingly, I slept pretty well considering my overwhelming excitement for the whole thing-looks like working out more than usual the night before got me tired enough to make me go to sleep soundly. Once finished, we immediately left home to fetch my cousin and his parents for his graduation in PICC, then head to Sforza's place afterward. Prior to all these, Sforza told me that he wasnt really sure if he's gonna go up until his doctor clears him on his check up-which is on the day of the flight itself, thereby making me pretty nervous even while we were driving to PICC. After dropping off my cousin and his folks, I immediately texted Sforza on his status, and he told me to just go to his place (without saying anything if he was cleared or not take note). Upon arriving in his home, I texted him again, only to get a reply saying he was on his way back(yep, this was just the start of sforza's trolling for the whole trip). Well, when he DID come back, he to get his last stuff packed, which really alleviated my apprehensions of him not going. Well, after that was over with, we immediately headed out for the airport on the urging of his mom. Going to the airport and doing all the processes was a pretty new experience for me, so I pretty much looked like a total doofus and noob while following sforza around and asking a lot of random stuff regarding the steps and sequence of the luggage, airport fee payments and the like. Surprisingly enough ,we got all the stuff done quite quickly, so we ended up having a light snack in Seattle's best iirc, then immediately headed over to the waiting area for boarding-with me all the while texting my folks that we are about to leave. Before we knew it, we were airborne and on our way to Japan. I for one, was also surprised how the flight didnt really affect me much as it does for other first timers, and that I was pretty much normal throughout the flight. During transit, I snapped some pictures of the horizon like a kid full of glee, and frankly really didnt give a damn of the people around me noticed. The Flight took around 3 something hours, and once I saw land masses, I couldnt help but smile as I finally reached the country which I dreamed of going to for so long. It was really a surreal feeling, as if I was in a dream.
Okay, emo stuff aside, we got off the plane, went to have our passports and documents checked, collected our luggage and stepped out of the airport. Sforza told me that I will be totally surprised when i get there, and boy I was. The moment we came out to open air, I felt this sudden sting on my skin and a chill throughout my whole body-yep it was stupidly cold, and I had to get used to it. During this time, weather in Japan has gotten quite erratic, fluctuating rapidly from cold to less cold, to stupidly cold again in a heartbeat. Walking through the cold, we proceeded to have some of our usd converted to yen, and then subsequently for he train. Buying a ticket here is quite different, as you are presented a machine with an initially very confusing interface complete with lot of buttons and holes, while the map layout of the train lines didnt help as well as they looked like something like a maze of pipes with kanji and what not written all over them. We then called up Cabs, and asked for instructions and confirmed ETA's and stuff. Somehow, we managed to get some tickets and got on the express bound for Osaka Station( also called Umeda station-take note of this. As this will be mentioned a lot later). The trip was pretty much me looking around the train and sforza reading his e-books. He later said he kinda got his left elbow stiff because of the way he held his DS. The train ride lasted around an hour, and once we arrived in Osaka/Umeda station, I had to again try to bear the stupidly cold environment, lug around an 11kg stroller plus a heavy bag and look for Cabs who was waiting for us there at the same time. We eventually met up, and had to transfer to another train(without buying a new ticket) to go to Shin-Osaka( where Cabs' place is) station this time around. Once out of the station, I noticed one particular thing: the streets were stupidly clean and everything felt ridiculously polished and done well with regards to the streets and stuff. We made our way to Cabs'place, all the while him and Sforza laughing at me for my various bodily responses to the cold. After dropping off are stupidly heavy stuff, Cabs invited us over to have ramen in one of the places nearby, in which the both of us heartily agreed. The meal was stupidly good, as the ramen easily, note easily, blew away almost all of the ramen thats served in the PH. It's kinda unfortunate that we didnt get a picture of this first meal, as we were really hungry and exhausted so we proceeded to dig in immediately. Once back in Cabs' place, we spent the remaining few hours listening to Cabs' instructions on how to use the washing machine, the shower, and the other utilities of the house. I for one was pretty drained, so I then slept after surfing a bit on the net and Raving on facebook that I was in Japan already.
Few quotable stuff on this day:
Sforza: OMG mark in an airport!
Arch angel: WTF is this! Wtffff!!!!(referring to the cold)
march 31, 2010
Den-Den Town!(part one)
Waking up pretty early, I immediately got up and started looking around the room to check if I was dreaming or not. Upon confirmation that I really was in Japan, I stood up and did a few exercises to get myself going, took a bath and headed out to walk around the vicinity of Cabs' place. Though it was cold, the area was really clean-and it was more apparent in the daytime. I went to a 7/11 shop to get some grub for me and Sforza, and then proceeded to have my very first, well, small conversation in Japan. The coins I had pretty much had 100 or 50 or 10 written on them, but my first 5 yen coin was so worn out, I really didnt see the chinese character for 5 anymore-so hence i tried asking the cashier how much was the damn thing by saying “Ikura Desu Ka?” meaning “how much is this?” and got a normal response. I immediately headed back to the pad, and arrived just in time to see Cabs and Sforza just wake up. Cabs gave us a map on how to go to Den-Den from Shinsaibashi station(which he recommended because it was the “scenic route” to Den-Den). After having breakfast, we set out for Umeda station first, which was only a few minutes away from Shin-Osaka, to have more of our usd converted. We got pretty decent rates, and upon finishing that task, and receiving specific instructions from Cabs on going to Den-Den, we set off and Arrived in Shinsaibashi station via Subway(note that the train we tool from airport to Osaka, to Shin-Osaka and back to Osaka on the next day was the JR line. The subway we took is the Midosuji line, and has stops that are very close to Den-Den. Upon arriving in Shinsaibashi, I immediately whipped out the map, and followed the exact path that our benefactor instructed us to take. Since this was the first time we were walking to Den-Den,(not to mention this was the long way to it) the walk seemed like forever for us-although there were a lot of various stores and food stalls along the way which caught our attention and at times, made our mouth water. As we went on, and not to brag, I was pretty glad that I have this very good sense of direction for navigating, so we ended up in pretty much all of the specified landmarks that are on the way to otaku heaven. We passed Dotonburi bridge, which was perpendicular to Dontonburi street(Dotonburi street is like a few blocks full of food stalls and yummy stuff) nad took some pictures of the area, including of the Glico guy that kinda relates to Osaka already. Surely enough we finally came to Den-Den, and starting looking over the first few shops that were open ( as some were still closed, even when it was around 10:15am already).
One of my first and foremost tasks to accomplish was to get kamen rider game cards for my karate sensei, So when we came to the first shop we encountered, I was lucky enough to see a whole rack with a plethora of these cards. Sensei didn't really mention a specific card to get, so I just got the ones that looked cool, and got him some that had good “stats”. Getting that over with, We just window shopped the first store, and I realized how it literally pwns the shops here in PH. The first shop we came to had like, 3 floors of pure otaku goodies, from playing cards, figma, figurines, kits, nendos, accessories, and even model cars-it was stupidly mind blowing, and they also had like a good 10 more of those shops! As we passed each shop, there were lots to see, video games, gaming accessories, cute girls giving out fliers for their respective cafes, lotsa vending machines, people shouting to announce sales in their shops, moar figs, and kits. We even got to finally see the kotobukiya shop that was in the vicinity, and man was it good. It literally was an AC kit heaven, and not only where there AC kits, but they had a plethora of pretty good figures as well. Leaving kotobukiya satisfied even by just staring, we went on to find interesting stuff like this shop having a lot of specialty t-shirts for a lot of games and anime, a shop where they sold second hand figures and collectibles, AV shops(yummy), and this one particular building that even had a yaoi section(lol iraya). After looking around for a while, we then decided to grab some lunch, but didnt know where since we were still overwhelmed by the sheer number of food installations in dotonburi. Alas, we ended eating in mcdonalds, in which sforza tried their texas burger, which he gave the thumbs down, and me just going for a fillet o' fish sandwich. After a much needed meal and rest, we went back to Den-Den, and basically revisited all of the shops we looked at, and the others that just opened. After much procrastinating, Sforza and I finally bought some stuff that arent kamen rider playing cards: a megurine luka nendoroid and a snow miku nendoroid. Feeling satisfied for the day, we then proceeded to walk back to shinsaibashi station, only to find out that we overshot the entrance as it was pretty well hidden, so we ended up walking another whole station's distance, and we finally were able to get back to midosuji line to Shin-Osaka. We also passed by Lawson's-one of two convenience stores(other one being Family Mart) that can more or less make you survive even if you bought food and stuff there alone(we literally lived off of these for the entirety of the trip for our breakfast and food cravings), and got a strawberry flavored hagen daz(with reference to ryougi shiki in the anime kara no kyokai-watch it.) and some sushi like stuff for sforza. We then got in contact with cabs, and set to meet him over in Umeda to get some earphoness for myself and dinner afterwards. Upon meeting in Umeda, Cabs took us inside a very well known place there, which is Yodobashi Camera-think of it as like an sm there of sorts. All I could say was the place was amazing. Floor B2 was for computers cellphones and watches, B1 was for computer consumables, 1st floor was for computers, 2nd floor was for cameras, 3rd was for house electronics and appliances, 4th floor for audio/video stuff, 5th for otaku stuff and video games, and the higher floors are restaurants, event floors and parking spaces. Okay, before I get carried away, so I got my earphones, and then we went to look for a place to eat. It took us a good 30 minutes to decide, and it ended up being this ramen place that had a long line outside. Turns out that the line moved pretty fast, and that the orders were processed even while you were falling in line. Okay, remember what I said about the first ramen we got being able to blow away any ramen here in the ph? Well, the ramen we got here even blew that one away. The ramen here was so good. DAMN good. And can I say DAMN good again? Yep, the meal here was SO good, I left that place smiling like an idiot. Not to mention their tea was also damn good, and their side dishes/appetizers were so DAMN good too. After the meal, we immediately went back home to rest up and just literally bum out till we fall asleep. Hence, the end of the second day-and what a day it was.
