May 23rd! The day I had booked for DisneySea and only day that was available for that! Also the only day that week that it rained in Tokyo. BECAUSE OF COURSE, WHY NOT. It turned out mostly okay in the end but I still had to laugh despairingly about it.

Went with a Mulan/Ping fit cuz ya girl had to rep her girl.
Covered it all up with a puffy jacket and umbrella and I was off!

Bonus pic of me on the train over

As this was my second go around at DisneySea, I decided to try for a more exploring-the-area route as opposed to the try-every-ride route I did last time. This ended up being a great decision when it came to how productive my day was.

One of the things I love the most about DisneySea is how freaking distinct each land looks and how cool they are. Wandering around the whole place to admire everything took quite a bit of time, since I took like ten thousand pics. Have a few from each land there!

That was a mix of Mediterranean Harbor (styled after an Italian port city) and American Waterfront (styled after an American port city). I took a pic of the toilet sign because they actually changed the language of each port city to match the country they were going for. So Italy had Italian! I love details like that, ugh.

And that was a mix of Arabian Coast (see name and it combines Aladdin + Arabian Nights) and Lost River Delta (Central America rainforest chic in the 1930's). I actually really love the Arabian Coast, it's just so pretty. There will be more pics later of the main attraction in Lost River Delta, cuz heck yes.

MERMAID LAGOON, MY LOVE. Very obviously themed after The Little Mermaid, so of course there was all the underwater motifs. Very kid-friendly and lovely to just spend a chunk of time exploring every corner of the place, even as an adult. I hadn't actually gotten to see some of the caves last time I came here, so this was a treat.

Mysterious Island is one of the more impressive looking lands, but that's mostly cuz of the bubbling water and volcano there (I am very easily pleased). It's also the most different from the Disney areas I've been to, cuz it's based on Jules Vernes books. Very steampunk.

Last was a mix of Port Discovery (modern/future marine life stuff) and the under construction section of Fantasy Springs (apparently gonna be based on Frozen, Tangled, and Peter Pan). Didn't have as many pics in these areas cuz they were either taken up by rides or I just thought it wasn't needed.

And with that, I'm gonna pass out cuz I'm very sleepy and typing nonsensical sentences that take me way too long to correct. I'll see if I have time before I get in the train to Kyoto to tell more. Night!

Rides I went on! The first two were on opposite ends of "white man fucked around in places he shouldn't be and found out" aka Hotel Hightower (Japan's Tower of Terror) and Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull.

Now in Disneyland's old Tower of Terror, before it got changed to the Guardians of the Galaxy ride, the story goes along the lines of a hapless family who was in a hotel elevator before it got struck by lightning and they fell to their death.

In Japan's Tower of Terror, an old white man kept stealing shit from different culture and finally got his comeuppance by getting his ass cursed in his own sanctuary. It's great and genuinely kinda terrifying, I love it. I mean, it's the stereotypical voodoo stuff, but it couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

My guy stole so much shit.

The Indiana Jones ride is based on the movie with aliens and Shia LeBeouf (sp?), so different storyline that I couldn't explain cuz unfortunately I didn't understand it. But man it looked cool.

It was actually really fun to go on the rides and see how the basic mechanics/routes were the same but the details transform it into a different ride. Like in Indiana Jones, where Murric has the giant god shooting eye lasers at the bridge, Japan gets a giant skull.

Or USA Tower of Terror has these glamorous hotel hallways being shown with the jump (iirc) but Japan has broken windows and debris. Looove it~

The other ride of note was the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride, which afaik only exists here. You go "underwater" in a submarine and get to look around the water at fish, treasures, blue merpeople, the kraken; you know, the usual. Got the heck scared out of me by a loud noise/jump scare and mmmmay have scared a child myself when I screamed. Sorry, kid.

Everything other than that was food and experiences, which I'm just gonna put here for you to see.

And that was my day at DisneySea! I could've lived without the sudden bad lower back pain near the end of the day, but I got what I wanted done and was quite satisfied with my time there.

I think the main thing I was miffed by was how little merch a gave a dang about at the park, cuz like 60% was Mickey's bear merch and the other 40% wasn't really of characters I love the most. So basically all of my money went to food. :')b

May 24th was PIKACHU AFTERNOON TEA. I was so excited for this one, you have no idea. Pikachu. Just gonna post pics, you don't need me talking except to say that the food was REALLY good and the yuzu muffin with the yellow Chantilly cream was the best. :9 Also I'm always surprised how filling afternoon tea is, considering it's just a bunch of finger foods.

I love Pikachu T^Tb

Aaand pausing again for the evening! Gotta wake up somewhat early tomorrow and try to go to Fushimi Inari shrine! We'll see how that is in the rain, wish us luck. :')

Quick, lemme do one more thing before I pass out from the exhaustion of walking 30 minutes with luggage to the ryokan I'm staying at right now (actually not as bad as it could have been)!

That very same day, my friend Sara was going to arrive in Japan! Her very first time here! And we were planning on going to the Pokemon Center near the airport and explore the Tokyo Daimaru (department stores) at the Tokyo Station!

We got as far as meeting up and getting a ticket with the time to go to the Pokemon Center before things Went Wrong.

Long story short, we decided to have a snack at the Lawson's and uh. Sara took apparently the one onigiri that was bad. And got food poisoning. And was basically down for the rest of the night (the poor thing).

Oh noooo

She managed to find a place to recover in peace (long story, not gonna get into it) and we continue on to our next day.

Next day was Peter Rabbit Garden Cafe and Teamlab Planets day and I took nearly one gigabyte's worth of pics and vids by the end of that day. Gonna do what I did last time and give a blurb, then just pics.

Peter Rabbit Cafe was cuz I found out about it and knew Sara loves bunnies. The food was tasty and the decor was absolutely top-notch. The area it's in is also really cute with lots of nice stuff to browse through, but unfortunately I didn't have time to check them out. But Cafe!!

Teamlab is something I've loved ever since the first time I was introduced to their art exhibits the first time I went to Japan by myself. It's gorgeous and I could happily spend hours in their larger exhibits, which I definitely did this time. Have a few pics, out of the hundred or so that I took.

Dinner was okonomiyaki and I got mine topped with scallop, garlic, and squid. Nom. <3

Aaand with that, I'm gonna pass out. Night!

Ooh we saw a vid about the team labs exhibit, I’m glad you were able to go!

lochnessasaur: it's so pretty, you guys should try going if you like stuff like that!

we aren't sure if it'll still be open when we go but it's on the list!

afaik, it's open to the end of the year, so y'all should be good to go o0

o/

NEW DAY, and I'm actually pretty well-rested so next set of days gooo

May 26 was my first official full day with Sara, so of course we went to a bunny cafe. It was cute! Most of the rabbits were either chill or all over us for treats, lol. The staff seemed to be very attentive and loved the rabbits, so that was nice.

We then wandered around Akihabara and Ueno, just enjoying the walk around (plus popped into Don Quixote, which Sara had never been to and was quite impressed by). We were supposed to go to Ueno Zoo, cuz zoo, but both realized too late that the (pretty big) zoo closed at 5 and it was like 3 something. :') So we just kept on wandering!

Found a cool outdoors fair with pottery and wares from all over Japan. I got a cute piece of cloth meant for wrapping bento/gifts, but which I just looked the pattern of, and Sara bought a small plate with a nice maple leaf imprint on it.

Plus food!

Then we hit upon the temple that was there, crossed to a HUGE lake filled with lily pads, and ended the day at the Ueno Don Quixote (sadly not as impressive). Sara split off to go back and rest and I went off to tire myself out some more plus get tonkatsu. Overall pretty good day!

Sorry all of these pics are uploading outta order

Saturday May 27th was going to be mostly spent with an internet friend doing Anime nerd shit while Sara wandered around found nature nerd shit before we got together to eat at a very fancy izakaya.

I started off at the Meiji Shrine, cuz I'd never been during a time that it wasn't filled to the brim with people who wanted a new year shrine visit, so it was nice to wander! Sara and I got some pretty omamori and then separated to do our respective stuff.

And of course the first thing we did was go to a My Hero Academia Cafe. Cuz I love Kirishima. :')b The food was eh but hanging out with Sush for the first time was fantastic, I'm so happy I got to meet her finally!!

Then it was wandering to Asakusa via the Sumida River Walk, hitting required areas of interest that I actually hadn't explored before, so that was pretty cool~

The next bit I didn't take pics of but I essentially went through a bunch of animanga secondhand stores to buy a bunch of gifts and requests for people and more or less completely forgot to look for stuff for myself. XD

FANCY IZAKAYA TIME. Guys, it was so tasty. Feel free to ask me what we ordered, I think I remember what 90% it is, but just know that I ate a lot and liked pretty much all of it, esesh the braised beef stew. So good. Also decided to order a mikan fruit wine and holy crap it tasted like juice? Dangerous.

Total cost was like $140 and Sush couldn't believe us when we said that in USA, the same stuff would cost 50-100% more.

I'm going to get through Tokyo time tonight if it kills be at 1 am, dammit

Oh, one last thing about Saturday! We wandered around Shinjuku, specifically Kabukicho area, to digest and also for shits and giggles. Sush gave us some real interesting facts about the hosts around the area and how much they try not to interact with foreigners cuz it's hard to verbally manipulate them outta money if they can't understand, lol.

Also, I forgot to take a picture of it, but there sure was a host club where all the hosts dressed up as the middle schoolers of Prince of Tennis. :') Also also: Godzilla!

Sunday was hang out time with my high school friend + hubby! I hadn't seen her since Christmas last year, so hanging out was, of course, a treat. <3
We decided to mostly stick in the Tokyo Skytree area, cuz there was quite a lot to explore and eat. So much eating.

We basically just ate the whole day, interspersed with some shopping and walking to digest.

Skytree has a lot of nerd shops, btw. I accidentally forgot to replenish my wallet or else I would've bought so much more shit. Look at all this stuff I couldn't buy cuz I was broke after eating all the food!!

Okay a good chunk of those things I couldn't and wouldn't actually buy, but I did really want that SatoSuguShoko card set. May be going back to the Skytower to get that and a set of knives my brother wants.

Outside of the Skytree there were at least two events happening. One was a Taiwanese food event and it was so packed. I kinda wanted to check it out, but we had also eaten tempura and then ice cream pretty recently. The other was a DOG ADOPTION FAIR. LOOK AT THESE CUTIES.

Tragically didn't have many pics but here~

Then I found out the Skytree has a planetarium so off we went cuz I love me some pretty star things and a place to relax.

I ended up trying to stay awake as much as possible (it was so difficult, I was so relaxed) cuz they actually have some pretty interesting information, like the history of astrology, some of the different contributors to astronomy, and how stars are actually placed in the universe.

Then it was back to eating, haha. I heard that Indian food was really good here! So we found one that had good reviews and mmmm worth it.

Twas a good time, hanging out with them :< I miss them!

I am starting to pass out, which is fine timing, cuz I need to make a new Plurk later for our moving to Kyoto~

NIGHT?