japan trip part two: tokyo again
This is part two of my Japan / Taiwan trip. Part one is here.
Last I left off, I wasn't liking Tokyo so much. I was tired, hot, cranky, and overwhelmed. After day one, I genuinely thought I wasn't cut out for international travel. But day two was when we started to get our bearings and enjoy ourselves a little more.
We woke up at 4am, despite getting to bed at a normal time. We showered and headed over to a well-known ramen shop called Ichiran (they have those in the United States too).
On the way there, we got to see one of Japan's most amazing phenomenons: its drinking culture. Because we left the apartment at 6am, we saw a couple get out of a taxi, drunk out of their minds and stumbling. We walked a little further and saw a man balled up in the fetal position on the sidewalk. This is a thing in Japan. If you haven't heard about this, here's some reading on it: https://unseen-japan.com/japanese-drunk-roadside-sleeping. It was beautiful, hilarious, and slightly depressing.
Anyway, we eventually reached Ichiran, and the place was empty because it was so early. Later in the trip, I saw another Ichiran with a line out the door, so I'm glad we got in there quickly. They seat you at a private booth. The ramen was the best I've probably ever had in my life. Only one place comes close and that's Ramen Nagi in San Diego:
lots and lots of green onion
After the ramen, we headed towards Akihabara (the weeb neighborhood) and stopped in for coffee. The coffee was whatever, but I noticed the store had a small room in the corner with glass walls, where a bunch of salarymen were smoking. They deadass have dedicated smoking rooms inside coffee shops lmfao. Japan keeps surprising me in such a wonderful way.
We did some shopping in both Akihabara and then Ginza. I got a bunch of Pokemon stuff, skincare, stickers, and souvenirs at Don Quijote (a massive "everything" store) and then some clothes at Uniqlo.
Later, we put in a reservation at this Udon noodle place. It was okay - nothing worth mentioning. As we were waiting for our reservation, we stopped in an Irish pub and saw other white people there enjoying the Dodgers game. It was a really freaky feeling to be ripped out of Japan just by walking into a bar.
We also walked around and stumbled upon this block party / training experience that was being put on by the local fire department. They had simulations for house fires, performing CPR, and shooting a fire hose. This is me shooting the hose:
It was hella fun and such a cool thing to find, only because we explored the neighborhood. Also especially fun because we were a little lit from the Irish pub.
Then we ate Udon, went back to the apartment to take a nap, then woke up for our Sumo Wrestling show. We didn't actually get tickets to a match because it's hard to actually acquire tickets, but they also offer showings, where they teach you about Sumo and how the matches work, along with some audience participation. I got these photos of the 2 wrestlers performing the show and then looking kawaii:
they kept saying "kawaiiiiiiiii" while posing lol
To end the night, we left the show sprinting through the pouring rain to try Japanese McDonalds. It was just fine, nothing mindblowing. I had a teriyaki burger and this ginger, soy-sauce-marinated chicken sandwich. I probably wouldn't get it again, since there's a million other good foods you could eat in Japan.