May – June 2023 Japan Trip (Day 7-8)

Day 7 - Pandemonium

2 June, 高島平 -> 大宮 -> 渋谷 -> 三河島

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it was raining. I hate rain.

Honestly, it wasn’t that big of a surprise. A tropical storm was heading towards Japan, and we had been on a lookout for the past few days. It was also the reason why we decided to visit other prefectures on Day 10-12 (5-7 June) instead of putting it earlier in the trip, as we didn’t want the bad weather to completely destroy our schedule.

We were supposed to visit Yokohama (横浜) and Kamakura (鎌倉) on Day 7. The main reason we chose to visit those places, and on that specific day, was for the Yokohama Port Opening Festival, which also featured firework displays. Our original plan was to have lunch at Shibuya (渋谷), and then go to Yokohama and Kamakura. However, lots of things were happening during the trip and that caused a lot of changes to our plan, and that is why you want your schedule to be as flexible as possible.

As mentioned on Day 5 (31 May), due to some unexpected reasons, I would need to visit Saitama again. I chose to visit it on Day 7, which coincided with our schedule. The resolution was simple: I would split off and visit Saitama, while the rest would go to Shibuya. After that, we would either meet up at Shibuya or Yokohama.

However, we would be switching to a different apartment on that day as well, so we would need to carry the luggage with us. Normally, we would lock our luggage somewhere close to the urban centre, so that we could retrieve it easily. This time, we would lock them at Shibuya station. However, since I won’t be directly heading towards Shibuya, I had to employ the help of Thomas, who would lock my stuff for me instead.

Furthermore, the firework show was cancelled due to the heavy rain, which meant that we had less incentive to visit Yokohama and Kamakura. We still had not completely ruled out the possibility of visiting the two places, however, as there were also other attractions that we wanted to visit.

Having sorted out the schedule, we packed our belongings, checked if we had left anything in the apartment, and said goodbye to our place of residence for the past five days.

Rain was a major inconvenience. Our umbrellas weren’t large, so all our luggage got wet while we were carrying them to the metro station. After reaching the station, I handed my luggage to Thomas, and we parted ways. While the rest of them took the metro, I took the bus.

My turn for “Bocchi the Travel!”. (Go read Day 6 if you’re confused.)

The destination was Ōmiya. For my revisit, I decided to use a similar route (bus -> Saikyō line). The bus stop was right next to the station so I didn’t have to walk very far, and it didn’t take me very long to reach Ukimafunado (浮間舟渡) station, where I switched to Saikyō line. The main issue with Ukimafunado station though (and train stations, in general), was that the tracks were exposed to the open sky, which meant that rain, in combination with gusts, could pour inside the platform diagonally. Furthermore, the train for Saikyō line was infrequent: the next train would arrive in 15 minutes. Even though I was sitting away from the tracks, I was still exposed to the driving rain and got all wet. It wasn’t fun.

After arriving at Ōmiya (again!), it was time to finish off the two tasks: visiting Surugaya and playing CHUNITHM.

Even though it was raining, the Surugaya I was heading towards was very close to Ōmiya station. It only took me a moment of outdoor walking before I reached the mall where Surugaya was located. Surugaya wasn’t as big as other second-hand retail chains like BOOKOFF, but still had its fair share of second-hand items, so I still visited the retail chain frequently. I was also supposed to visit BOOKOFF, but I forgot about that amidst the bad weather.

The shop was gigantic. It spanned the entire fifth floor, and there were numerous shelves dedicated to CDs. I spent a lot of time scanning the shelves to look for what I wanted, primarily rhythm game OSTs. I was able to find most discs, except for one, which I could not find from the shelves. I assumed that it was bought by others (the website only updates occasionally so it could have been bought), but as of the time of writing, the disc was still available according to their website (the website had updated, as the disc I bought was updated as well). Oh well.

A pleasant surprise was that I found some more discs that weren’t on my list, but I also showed interest in (mainly Doujin CDs and albums). It was a treasure house, and the more you looked, the more you would find, and the more you would buy.

In the end, I bought way more discs than I initially anticipated. The cashier was very friendly. He talked amiably and confidently, and he also gave me a very large bag to carry the discs as well. It was a good shopping experience.

Yeah, I bought a lot of CDs. Maybe too many.

Anyways, that’s the primary objective. Carrying my bag of CDs, I went to a Taito station nearby to play a round of CHUNITHM. I got the in-game title for visiting Saitama.

I could play a couple more games, but I decided against it for two reasons. First off, the CHUNITHM cabinets in Taito station were still running on old architecture. It was running on 60 Hz, while the new architecture was running on 120 Hz, and the difference was detrimental to my gaming experience. Secondly, and the most important reason was that there was a massive storm that was approaching.

I left the arcade and looked for lunch via Google Map. I looked for restaurants selling soba, but all of them were far away, except for the standing up soba that we visited earlier on. I didn’t want to walk in the rain for too long, as I didn’t want my bag of CDs to get wet, but I didn’t want to revisit the standing up soba restaurant as well. So, I looked for alternatives.

There was a restaurant selling Tendon (天丼) and it wasn’t very far away. However, the rain became heavier and was pouring down from the sky. I was worried that it would turn torrential soon and cause train services to stop, and I didn’t want to die in Saitama. So I decided to head back to Tokyo before having lunch.

I sent a message to others and asked for their location. They were having shabu-shabu in Shibuya (according to them, it took them half an hour to find lockers, and then they headed to lunch directly). They planned to stay there for quite a while as well. Therefore, I made the decision to go back to Shibuya and have lunch there, then meet up with them later.

Shibuya was along the Saikyō line, so I didn’t have to transfer between lines. I arrived at the platform and boarded the express train for the Saikyō line. Even though it was an express train - and it skipped a couple of minor stations in between, Saitama and Tokyo were still far apart, and it took around 40 minutes to reach Shibuya.

I arrived in Shibuya. Using Google Maps, I found a soba restaurant in Shibuya, so I headed towards the restaurant. Shibuya is one of the most complex stations in Tokyo, and it is easy to get lost in it. Fortunately, I didn’t get lost and found the restaurant.

However, I saw a construction ladder at the front door, and the interior looked a bit messy. It seemed to be undergoing minor renovations as well. I didn’t want to disturb the restaurant owners (and I don’t like talking to strangers), so I left the restaurant.

It was still raining, and winds were also blowing sideways, so I just went to a random curry restaurant next door. I guess I didn’t have a choice when there was a massive storm approaching, though I checked its rating to make sure that it wasn’t too bad.

To order food, you buy a ticket from a machine, take a seat, and wait for your food to show up. I still haven’t had Tonkatsu (pork cutlet) on the trip, so I decided to go with a Katsu curry. The curry was decent, but I found the Tonkatsu too soggy. Overall, it was pretty average, and I would certainly prefer having shabu-shabu for my lunch instead.

After finishing the meal, I sent them a notice. They were still having their lunch, so I needed to wait for them to finish their food. Thomas also added 500 yen to the ledger, and I worried that he was trying to scam money (he twisted his ankle while carrying my luggage, and he claimed that it was a good opportunity to “scam” money). I later figured out that it was the fee for using the locker.

I sat at the restaurant for some more, and then decided to head to an arcade, which was at a distance from the restaurant. The rain had stopped for a moment, but it was replaced with gusts instead. The wind was strong, and it even broke a tourist’s umbrella. Luckily, my umbrella didn’t break apart, and I would rather be blasted by wind than get me and my CDs wet.

I stayed at the arcade until they finished their food, then I met up with them at TSUTAYA. Bosco helped me to carry my CDs by putting them in his backpack, which was great (mine was full, and I should bring a bigger one for my next trip). At that point, the rain had come back and was pouring heavily, and it was evident that we weren’t going to Yokohama and Kamakura. To minimise the time being outdoors, we decided to do a quick tour of Shibuya’s indoor shopping places.

We started with TSUTAYA, the place we were located at. We had a tour of the CDs and DVDs that they were selling. There were a lot of CDs for idols, but I didn’t know much about idols, so I just walked around. There was a section for an idol group named “22/7”, an approximation of pi, but I somehow misread it as “24/7”.

We moved on to Shibuya 109, a popular shopping centre. We planned to walk around a bit, but as we visited each floor, we realised that the shopping centre was intended for ladies (as virtually all shops were for ladies). We ended up visiting only the capsule machines located on the top floor.

We also visited MEGA Don Quijote Shibuya, a discount store chain selling a wide range of products. We checked out the foods and cosmetics inside the shop. I planned to buy some snacks as souvenirs but couldn’t find suitable ones.

Bosco suggested visiting IKEA - he bought a plant-based ice cream in IKEA on his last visit. All of us agreed, and we headed on to IKEA to try out its food. I ordered a plant-based, kiwi-flavoured ice cream, for a low price of 50 yen (it was the cheapest expense in the entire trip). Not only was it ridiculously cheap, but it was also delicious - the combination of kiwi and ice cream worked surprisingly well, and the ice cream actually tasted good. Highly recommended.

The weather condition was deteriorating. We decided to make one final visit before leaving Shibuya.

For our last attraction, we headed to Tower Records Shibuya, a nine-storey flagship store for Tower Records. You might be able to find a wider variety of discs here. On the other hand, there are more customers, and discs go out of stock much faster. Sometimes. it’s better to purchase CDs in Shinjuku, as discs that are sold out in Shibuya might be found in Shinjuku instead.

We walked around the store to check out all the discs. Peter asked us to help him buy two CDs from Kessoku Band, both of which could be found right at the entrance of 4/F. For some reason though, we did not buy the discs. It’s probably due to the rain, or that we were just being lazy. We were not worried about them going out of stock though - one of the CDs was just released, and they could be found in every CD shop we visited, including those in Ikebukuro and Akihabara.

The rain was torrential. Some train services had stopped due to the storm, but we weren’t affected by it. We headed back to Shibuya station to retrieve our belongings, and took a train to Mikawashima (三河島), where our new apartment was located.

Also, we found this while exiting Mikawashima station.

The check-in process for the new apartment wasn’t as straightforward, and it was probably for the better. All registrations were done with a tablet, and we were told to enter everyone’s information. We were furiously typing when a British guy came downstairs and greeted us. He asked us what we were doing, and told us that we only had to register a single person’s data. It saved us a lot of time. Thanks, British guy! We waved our goodbyes to him, finished checking in and went upstairs.

We finally reached our apartment, which would be our place of residence for the next five days.

The apartment was an upgrade to our previous one. To start, a passcode was used to unlock the door instead of a key, which was more convenient. Instead of a massive room in our previous apartment, the new apartment was divided into three rooms (two bedrooms, one living room). However, the overall space was even bigger than our previous apartment. Also, the apartment had even more equipment compared to the previous one: it had a stove, some cutleries, and even a washing machine, usable for free. It also had a bathtub, which I didn’t use. Furthermore, there were enough seats for everyone to sit around the table and watch TV together (there was only one sofa for the old apartment), which was also great for discussions and working. The only downside was that there were only four beds and one of us had to sleep on the floor. Guess who chose to sleep on the floor? Yeah I did, but there were two sockets right next to it, as well as a personal table. It was a decent tradeoff.

There was also a maruetsu nearby. Unfortunately, the store closes at 10, and we often come back after 10. We could only restock our supplies in the morning.

Anyways, we allocated the beds, unpacked our luggages and headed downstairs for dinner.

It was raining heavily, and it was getting late, so we looked for restaurants nearby. There was a Monjayaki restaurant opposite the street… no, we weren’t having Monjayaki two days in a row. We went to a Chinese restaurant nearby. There always seemed to be a Chinese restaurant nearby, for some reason.

I had fried rice with shrimp, which wasn’t what I wanted to have, but I ordered the wrong one. It was pretty good. The owner also knew how to speak Mandarin, and Thomas was able to talk to her in fluent Mandarin. Through the television installed inside the restaurant, we got to see how big of an impact the storm had: rivers had overflown its banks, submerging areas nearby. A lot of train services, including services near Tokyo, had stopped due to flooding, and warnings were issued to various cities.

Thankfully, we were not severely affected by the storm, and after the dinner, we went back to the apartment safe and sound.

We all gathered around the television in the apartment, which was broadcasting situations from various cities. Shibuya, which we visited earlier, was flooded. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if we decided to also visit Yokohama. There were more warnings to evacuate people who were in danger of the flood. Even though we were relatively safe (we were on the 7/F), we still looked at the warnings in case of any emergency. After some time, I got a bit tired, so while others were still on the lookout, I decided to go to bed.

At around 2 am, two emergency warnings were sent to our phones, but I somehow managed to sleep through it. Fortunately, the warnings weren’t relevant to us, and all of us survived the tropical storm.

Day 8 - Split Ways

3 June, 三河島 -> 秋葉原 -> 浜松町 -> 築地 -> 三河島

When I saw the massive storm yesterday, I thought that the bad weather would continue. Fortunately, the rain had stopped, and the weather was clear once more. We were finally free from the rain.

We didn’t plan anything for today. The main reason was that everyone had different preferences and different plans: Tommy wanted to buy figures, Ming Hin wanted to walk around Tokyo, Bosco and Thomas wanted to go shopping, I wanted to visit the arcade. Rather than travelling around as a group, it would be far more efficient to just split up and let everyone follow their own plans. Thus, we decided to split up on Day 8.

Even though we were splitting up for the day, we still decided to have dinner together in Tsukiji (築地).

We visited Sushiro on Day 5 (31 June). However, the restaurant was closing, so we didn’t order much food before they stopped accepting orders. Bosco and Thomas didn’t even order any sushi - they only had a bowl of udon. As a result, we decided to have sushi for dinner once again, in a sushi restaurant in Tsukiji. Bosco, Tommy and I had actually visited the restaurant on the first trip as well, and the quality was pretty good. That was why we chose to visit it again.

Bosco and Thomas headed towards Toyosu (豊洲) to buy things. The rest of us headed to Akihabara for lunch.

Recommended by Peter, we visited Takemura, an ancient restaurant selling Japanese pastries. According to the reviews, the quality of food was great, and so we were encouraged to visit the restaurant. In hindsight, maybe we shouldn’t have pastries for lunch, but it’s the food quality that matters the most.

It was also a place for anime pilgrimage, but I think that the abundance of tourists might have interfered with the operation of the restaurant. As a result, customers weren’t allowed to take photos inside the restaurant. It was also clearly written in the menu, in both Japanese and English (however, taking photos of the food is allowed).

Right at the start, all of us were served with a salty drink. It seemed to be for getting rid of any bad breath so that you could enjoy your meal with a better taste. After that, Tommy went with an anmitsu with ice cream, while Ming Hin and I ordered oshiruko. On second thought, having anmitsu seems to be better. Maybe I will visit it again in the future.

Pastries come in small servings, so I don’t recommend having pastries as lunch. The sense of hunger had crept into the dining experience, and it seemed that Ming Hin didn’t quite enjoy the meal - he said that the food wasn’t filling.

Servings aside though, the red bean soup was pretty smooth, and the mochi was super chewy and stretchy. The pastry also came with some small seeds which had a strong flavour to it, but I wasn’t sure what those were. Anyways, the food quality was great, and I would recommend coming over - just remember to have some food before visiting Takemura.

The three of us split up yet again: Ming Hin decided to walk around Tokyo (he wasn’t interested in Akihabara), Tommy went to the main street to buy anime merch, and I decided to look around in the arcades.

Japan has a lot of luck-based machines: claw machines, pachinko, and gashapon. These machines are ubiquitous, and you can find them anywhere, especially for claw machines. If you visit any arcade in Japan, chances are most of the areas will be occupied by claw machines, across multiple floors.

Manufacturers would produce dolls or figures of anime characters, exclusively for claw machines (it isn’t limited to just toys though, it can be posters, food, etc.). These toys (or prizes) are not for sale, and you won’t be able to find them anywhere other than claw machines (or maybe second-hand stores), and this attracts people to spend money on claw machines.

There are some great things you can do with claw machines in Japan. When you win a prize like a doll, if you don’t like it, you can usually swap it with any doll inside the machine (if you don’t like any dolls in the machine, then it’s more of a problem on your side: why would you play it then?). Furthermore, some staff may straight up give a free prize to you if you sink too much money into a claw machine. This ensures that all players are satisfied while playing claw machines, especially when they sink a lot of money into it.

However, claw machines, and a lot of its variations, are essentially slot machines, hidden under the facade of skill-based games. This makes it really easy for people to sink a lot of money into getting the prizes. Furthermore, due to laws in Japan, the production cost for the prizes must be kept at below 800 yen, and this led to varying quality of the prizes. For the same amount of money you spend in a claw machine, you can usually get a higher-quality toy in a shop.

This is also why I refer to claw machines (alongside pachinko and gashapon) as the biggest scams in Japan. However, I won’t stop anyone from playing them though. If you have fun playing claw machines, or if you adorn a certain doll, or if you just want to seek some entertainment, then go ahead.

So far, I still haven’t spent a single dime on claw machines in Japan. But maybe one day, when I become too fixated on a certain prize in a claw machine, I would have a go in one of those machines.

Maybe.

Anyways, my main objective wasn’t to play claw machines, but to enjoy myself with some rhythm games. I started with GiGO 2, but as it turned out, the entire building was reserved for claw machines, so I moved to GiGO 3 (there were 5 buildings in total, but GiGO 4 closed down during the pandemic).

It was Saturday, and there were a lot of people. At first, there were still some arcade cabinets available. But as more people came, queueing became necessary. Queueing is a straightforward process: you write your name on a sheet, and you cross your name when it’s your turn. While it isn’t necessary to queue when you are the only person waiting, I still wrote my name - in katakana - on the sheet to maintain the order.

I played CHUNITHM to finish the collaboration event with Bocchi the Rock!. I collected the remaining two characters (Ryo, Ikuyo), but there were still more to it.

The collaboration event also introduced new nameplates to the game. You can unlock them by levelling up characters and progressing in the in-game map. To level up a character, you need to play the game with the character selected. You can progress in the map just by playing the game, but it is more grindy than levelling up the characters.

I didn’t want to spend too much on grinding the event. Therefore, I decided to only focus on levelling up the characters, and to progress in other in-game maps instead (I worked on the collaboration event with NEEDY GIRL OVERDOSE). After playing a couple more games, I managed to get the nameplate.

Right after I got my nameplate, Tommy somehow managed to find me, after checking multiple arcades (I never told him where I was). I planned to play other rhythm games after finishing the collaboration event, like O.N.G.E.K.I. (which is exclusive to Japan) and Beatmania IIDX, but I guess I didn’t have time for that.

Pastries weren’t filling enough for lunch, and both of us were hungry, so we decided to head to Deniz Turkish Kebab to have some kebab wraps. The restaurant was run by foreigners (possibly Turkish), so we could use English to order food.

I went for a kebab chicken wrap. The chicken wrap was gigantic, the chickens were nice, the sauce was delicious and worked wonderfully with the ingredients inside. The chicken wrap was only 600 yen too, which was inexpensive. Overall, it was a good meal.

Meanwhile, according to Bosco, Thomas mocked a random Japanese person. Thomas thought that the Japanese person was Bosco. Luckily, the Japanese person didn’t understand what Thomas was saying.

Tommy had found what he was looking for, and we decided to walk around Akihabara a bit more. We visited Lashinbang, a retail chain selling anime goods and books, and Sofmap Amusement, a store selling video games and anime merch. The games and books that were on display were intriguing, but everything was written in Japanese, and I don’t think playing an RPG game in an entirely foreign language is a good idea. I also didn’t see any goods that I was interested in, so I didn’t buy anything.

After visiting the shops, we walked away from Akihabara and towards Kanda. That was when we received a call for help from Ming Hin: the battery of his phone was running out of charge. So, we hurried over to Hamamatsucho (浜松町) to save his phone.

We took a train from Kanda. However, none of us were paying attention, and we managed to miss the train stop. We alighted at the next station, and turned back to Hamamatsucho. This time, we paid close attention, and we didn’t miss the stop. We met Ming Hin at Hamamatsucho, and Tommy lent his power bank to Ming Hin.

We planned to visit Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden, but it seemed to be used by film crews, and we didn’t want to disturb them. Hence, we visited Shibakoen instead.

Along the way, we saw 8 tourists on the road, wearing costumes of cartoon characters, driving go-karts around the streets of Tokyo. I told Peter about it, and he mentioned that he also saw something similar on his visit. (After the trip, I did some research online and found a company called “STREET KART Tokyo Bay”, which provides go-karts for driving around in Tokyo. You need a driver’s licence though.)

Shibakoen provided a good view of the Tokyo Tower. We took some pictures, headed towards the bayside, and strolled along the shore. In the meantime, we had a discussion on Japanese and its various glyphs. Ming Hin couldn’t recognize them, so I taught him a couple of them.

We decided to meet up at 8, so we walked to the nearest station and took a train, and then met up with Bosco and Thomas at Tsukiji. They had done quite a lot of shopping.

We headed to Sushizanmai, a famous sushi chain based in Tsukiji. As you might have guessed, we were visiting the main branch of Sushizanmai, which served better sushi than its other branches.

Due to the pricey ingredients, sushi can be considered a luxurious food, even in Japan. However, Sushizanmai manages to provide good quality sushi while still being reasonably priced, making it a great and popular choice for locals and tourists alike. As a result, Sushizanmai Main Branch is very popular all day long, and we had to queue for both of our visits.

We didn’t worry about the store closing though, as Sushizanmai Main Branch is open 24 hours. We didn’t need to rush through the food, we could sit for as long as we wanted to, and we could add new orders whenever we liked.

There was also a statue of Kiyoshi Kimura, the founder of Sushizanmai, in front of the restaurant. He was doing his signature pose, widening both of his arms in front of him.

We queued for around 30 minutes, and then we were led to the top floor of the restaurant. We were served with green tea, and then we started ordering using a tablet. There were regular combo sets, and you could also order sushi separately. However, there were also seasonal menus, and there were also campaigns, which served time-limited food and combo sets.

I went with two combo sets and a couple of nigiri. I also ordered some California rolls later on, but I did not take a picture of them.

You can also choose to add wasabi to your sushi while ordering, and they would hide it under the seafood.

I don’t speak sushi-ese, so I can’t identify every sushi I ordered. However, all of them were fresh and delicious, and I especially liked the taste of toro. Out of all sushi, my favourite one was seared toro (炙りとろ), which was fatty and rich in taste, and the searing gave it an extra texture and flavour.

For the sushi that I ordered, it was 4520 yen in total - a bit expensive, but we got to sit down, chatter while enjoying the sushi. No one was rushing, and we had a great, enjoyable meal - much better than our experience at Sushiro.

After the meal, we had a brief tour of Ginza (銀座). We walked all the way to Shimbashi station (新橋駅), and then took a train back to our apartment.

We sat around and chattered a bit. I asked for name suggestions for new emotes in our private Discord server, but Thomas kept coming up with questionable names like “nijika_goodbye_world” and “nijika_shi_ne” (which I did not use). After adding the emotes and chatting some more, I finally went to bed.