Tokyo

Okay, finally moving onto my Tokyo post! I guess my last update was probably on the train, I'm guessing. I keep forgetting where I left off because I wait too long between posts. XP

I left you on Monday, the 10th.
Arrived in Tokyo about dinner time. Dumped all my stuff in my room, and went to find dinner and walk around a bit. There was a shopping area that I looked around after I stopped at a café.

On Tuesday, I took a tour of the Imperial Palace. It was a cool place, but very modern compared to the palace in Kyoto. It was neat to be in the place of where the Emperor lives today.
Took a train to Akihabara - the electronics/Anime shopping area. Maaan, I feel so jipped. Anime stuff is so cheap in Japan! Figures I saw for $30 or even $100 on ebay and at Fanime are the equivalent of about $15 over here. And there were a bunch I'd never seen before. Heheh. I was able to get a few figures that I'd been wanting for a long time. >:3 (Like demon Kurama, and Greed-Ling)
Although I really wish I could read the signs. I went downstairs to check out one of the B1 shops, took a couple steps, and turned around and fled back upstairs again.
And I remained paranoid of stairs for the rest of the day.
I always like to go in the arcades too. Ellen and I ganged up in Kyoto and won a few things. I mainly failed on my own, except at one machine where I won 4 different Eevee evolution plushies.
Japanese arcades are very interesting and rather addictive. They're set up to be more tricky than our arcades, but the prizes are a lot better than the pointless garbage in most of our claw machines. Their machines only have two claws. And some of them only have one claw, and you need to try to flip something off of a hook. There are many other variations as well. You can go through money pretty fast in those places, since it's about $1 per play. But at least you do get to win things.
Back at the Shinjuku station, I wandered around for an hour and a half trying to find the freaking exit that led to my hotel. That place is an evil maze. It's some sort of miracle that my very first evening in Japan, I ended up right at the exit near my hotel... Finally I had to go outside in the rain and walk along the street to my hotel.
I don't really mind getting lost on foot, because I can always backtrack easily and start over. It's getting lost in machines (cars, trains) that scares me. And thankfully that never happened in Japan. The two times I lost my way, I knew that If I backtracked (or asked for directions) I could get reoriented again. XP Thank goodness for that, at least.

Wednesday
GHIBLI MUSEUM! Heck yeahhhh!
Joined the big line out front and waited eagerly to get in. I was there very early, and was one of the first people in. And as such, I was one of the first people in the theater.
The short film playing that day was Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess. It was one of the strangest, wackiest things I've seen in a long time, but it was so fun to watch! Every single frame of animation just screamed Ghibli. From the slurping eggs, to squeezing in through the window, to the dough guy glopping along.
Spoilers in the following paragraph~
It was about a Baba Yaga (a sort of Russia witch. This one was kind of like Yubaba) who brings life to a little egg and dresses it in a dress (she reminded me of Ponyo) and made her work for her all day. Then a big mound of dough, that was supposed to make bread for the witch, came to life, and the dough man and the egg girl escaped and fled to a village of rabbit people who were harvesting wheat to bake bread. The Baba Yaga follows, because she wants her bread. She catches up and shoves the dough guy in the oven, while the egg girl tries desperately to rescue him. Finally the door opens, and the dough guy emerges, this time as baked bread. He pulls off a little braided piece of bread from his chest and gives it to the Baba Yaga, who eats it and finally leaves.
XD So goofy. A lot of fun to watch too.
It's so not fair! I want to see all of the shorts! Why can't you see them anywhere besides the ghibli museum? TT^TT
The museum itself was interesting, though more about filming and such than Ghibli itself.
At the Ghibli Museum gift shop, I spent more money than I ever have at one place before. And the stuff wasn't as expensive as I was afraid it might be, so I was able to get more stuff than I thought I could. Like a statue of the Barron, and one of San, and No Face (I should have gotten that Laputa pendant...).
The line for the café was an hour long, so I just went to the little side booth and got a hot dog. Then I started talking to some fellow tourists, who were from Oahu. That was fun.
After I left I went to the Pokémon Center just for fun. I was lucky that there was some cool Mewtwo stuff, because of the new movie coming out (I'm still really mad that they're screwing up Mewtwo though, with that ugly form. Those jerks).
Harajuku was next. It was mainly just an ordinary shopping area. There wasn't too much there that I found interesting, except this awesome cat pillow (which I was actually able to shove in my bag for the return trip). Then this random black dude on the street stopped me and basically asked me to dinner. So, that's the first time that ever happened, and I was super awkward and ended up just kind of not committing to anything, and slinking away. I probably seemed pretty stupid, or rude or something. Though I won't ever know what his reasons for talking to me were, so I'm not sure how I should feel about the whole thing.
Walked around the Meiji Jingu shrine area, but the shrine was closed already so I went back to my hotel.

Thursday
Last full day in Japan. Went to Aakusa, this great shopping area with a bunch of Japanese crafts. There's a lot of cool stuff to see, and you can watch them make some of the food. I got a couple snacks to try. At the station, I got some melon juice, which was soooo good. Why dont they sell melon juice around here? And I got this sweet potato chestnut thing, which was amazing. And there was these amazing taiyaki, with this thick layer of custard inside... Why can't I get any of that in America? TT^TT I've gotten taiyaki here before, but not as good as that one.
When back to Akihabara to try (and fail) to pick something up for Ellen. This Japanese boy helped me look for a bit too, but by then I'd already scoured all of the shops. Another instance where I wish I was able to understand more of what he was saying. Sorry. TT^TT Thanks for trying to help too!
Made a brief stop at the Shibuys station, to see the statue of Hachiko (If you don't know the story, look it up!!)
And then went back to Harajuku to explore the shrine. Spent the rest of the evening walking around Shinjuku.

Friday
Finished packing, and then went out to get a big brunch (Tempura and this amazing udon soup, with the best udon I'd had so far).
Then off to the airport for the long flight to Canada. By the time I got there, I was very sleep deprived, but I had to wait in the airport for 8 hours for my connection flight. So I tried to sleep. It's really weird to sleep in a place like that. Especially when this family chooses to sit 2 feet away from you.
I suck at napping, but my sleep deprivation let me pass out a bit in the airport, and on the final plane ride home. That was enough to keep me going and show my parents all of my crud that I brought home.

Actually, my jet lag vanished pretty darn fast. I slept in a lot yesterday morning, but I'm pretty much back to normal.