This semester's schedule doesn't have any long breaks, but it does have several holidays, which I took extra advantage of this week. This was the most concentrated holidays at once, and my best friend from high school and I decided to take the opportunity to fulfill a long time dream of traveling Japan together.
Braden arrived Tuesday night, and despite jet lag's best efforts, he was able to join right in on the fun. On Wednesday we headed to Shibuya for Yakiniku, and then toured some hobby shops that I hadn't gotten a chance to see yet. We then made a stop at my dorm to meet up with my friends from here, and went to Shinjuku for dinner. This dish is called Gyukatsu; similar to Tonkatsu but very rare. It was tasty, but I like other meat dishes I've had here better. Finally, we had another classic konbini night, stopping at family marts for drinks and strolling around the area.
After doing some thrift shopping in Koenji with Kaiden and Matt on Thursday, it was time for our scheduled ride to the Daifukokou parking area in Yokohama. This parking area is one of the most famous spots in the world for car meets, but it is only accessible by car, as it is located within a car exporting district next to the ocean. The meets happen literally every night, and it was quite the place to be attending my first car meet. Jeremy, a car enthusiast originally from Denmark, offers tours to the car meets in his own modified ride, which can be seen in the top left of the last picture. These are some of my favorite cars from the night.
On Friday, we first made a stop at Senso-Ji, the most famous temple in Tokyo. It is located in Asakusa, and was super pretty. There is a long, narrow street leading up to it lined with shops.
I still hadn't gone to a pet cafe here, so after the temple we checked this one out in Harajuku. It had all types of animals: A fennec fox, ferrets, meerkats, a hedgehog, and a tiny monkey. We chose this one because we thought it had a capybara, but unfortunately it had died in September :( You could hold them all except the monkey, and could only pet the fox. It was cool to be able to hold these interesting animals, but I definitely felt bad for them as the enclosures were not great.
That night we went out to a club in Shibuya, which was located on a rooftop. The location was cool, but we all agreed that the music was really bad. Also, there were a ton of security guards and they wouldn't let us hang out in the hallway to the bathroom, or sit on ledges or couches in the club for whatever reason. There was barely anyone there as well (I wonder why). Here we are doing a wall sit waiting for our friends to get out of the bathroom.
After a full day of rest on Saturday, we met up again with Kaiden, Ian, and Matt for a hike at Mt. Takaosan. It is surprisingly steep, but has great views the whole way and you pass a cool temple. This is the most natural area we had been in yet, and it was very pleasant. The peak of the mountain is known for its view of Mt. Fuji, and it definitely didn't disappoint. However, I've brought a more professional camera to Japan than I normally use, and I'm having a bit of a learning curve. As a result, I sadly got zero recognizable pictures of Mt. Fuji. But this is why I brought it; so I could make mistakes and learn. However, I have the third to last picture of me in front of it. On the way down, we opted to ride in the cable car to save our knees. We then got yakiniku nearby, and ended up meeting this super fun baseball team in the last picture. They sat at the table next to us, and Matt and Ian were talking to them while we ate. They asked to get a picture with Braden and his muscles.
Hakone Open Air Museum was perhaps the first item on my Japan bucket list when I was preparing to go, and since I had decided to skip school on Monday and lose points, I figured I should make the most of it. On Monday morning we made the somewhat last minute decision to make the substantial journey and bought Shinkansen tickets to Hakone. Once we arrived, we had to take a bus to the museum, and this was the first time I had taken one. While the train stations are translated to English, the bus stops on Google Maps were not, and we had some trouble figuring out which bus to take. However, once we were on the right one, it was a beautiful ride. After a few stops in the small town, it began ascending a twisting mountain road with steep drop offs and tons of greenery. Our stop was somewhat out in the middle of nowhere, and we walked the rest of the way to the museum. If not simply the best museum we had been to, it was certainly the most unique. It was made up of very interesting statues and sculptures, placed intentionally and expertly around the grounds.
After our tour of the museum, we took the bus back down, and got off early to check out the beach. We caught the sunset there and the views were amazing. Finally, we headed back inland to Odawara castle, which had been lit up for nighttime.
On Tuesday, we had a more relaxed day with great weather and checked out the Edo Castle Ruins/Imperial Palace. They contained the last remaining guard house situated on a moat (not pictured), and very relaxing gardens. Most of what remains from the original structures though are these winding stone walls. Then, we stopped at Ebisu station to go into Yebisu Garden Place Tower, a free observation deck from the 38th floor. The views were incredible.
For Braden's last day in Japan, we reconvened with the gang as we had the day off of school again. We went to Kamakura, a rural town near Enoshima, where Matt and I already had been. We checked out the temple there, and also took a bus to a pretty bamboo garden. This temple was quite cool because it sat on top of a long a staircase and could be seen from far away. We all made prayers here, since it didn't have as long of a line as most temples. To make a prayer, you throw a coin in the wooden trough, bow twice, clap twice, make your prayer, then clap one more time. We also tried to visit a giant Buddha nearby, but it had just closed to the public for the day. I still managed to get a picture through the cracks in the entrance door. Next, we went back to Enoshima, which took a long time because of train delays. The light show on the island is no longer running, but this time we went to the far side of the island, which was very spooky and cool looking at nighttime. The only way to get there is a thin road on the edge of a cliff with a few street lamps. In the areas of the walk with stores, they were all shuttered closed, which felt lonely yet safe, like an escape from reality. The walk culminated in this long red bridge, with waves crashing nastily against the rocks under it. There couldn't have been a better way to end Braden's trip, and my unofficial vacation.