Japan 2014: Day 1-1.5
Sep. 27th, 2014 12:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rose_of_painFirst let me start this off with saying how much of a big step this was for me. My parents were non-stop worrying and paranoid over this whole trip from the very beginning planning stages which resulted in me panicking and I almost gave up on it a few times, convinced by their way of thinking that I was in over my head and not capable of doing such a big trip on my own. After all, I've only ever traveled alone by myself once and that was just a quick weekend trip to NYC where I had friends with me the entire time once I got there. This was only my 2nd time being out of the country and the first time being on a plane alone, the first time booking hotels on my own, etc etc. It was A LOT of firsts. But you know what? I did it. It wasn't as hard as they made it out to be. I was never in fear of my safety. I did get a little lost a few times but I very easily corrected myself (just got off at the wrong stops or went out the wrong side of the station, etc) with no panic. Despite my no sense of direction, I managed to navigate the train systems of Japan without too much trouble. I even found my way to a few places that weren't planned and just on a whim without a hitch.
So this whole experience was very freeing for me. I proved to myself that I can do this. I'm capable of doing things on my own after all. I never felt homesick. I never broke down and cried (ok I did cry but it was due to the heartache of leaving the theaters, etc). I never felt lonely. Basically none of my fears came true. I'm so incredibly glad I did it and it was seriously the best time I've ever had.
Day 1: DC -> San Francisco -> Osaka
Left for Dulles airport waaaay too fucking early in the morning. Dad was concerned about how long it'd take us to get there and get me through everything. Um. We ended up there way earlier than need be. We got there before the check-in counters even opened up. lol The airport was empty. And super eerie. lol Once it did open up, it was pretty fast and easy though my parents were dismayed they couldn't go very far with me. But hey it wasn't that bad. Even if I did have to sit at my rather empty gate area for over an hour...
At least Starbucks was open. Pfft. And of course they wait until like 20 minutes before boarding to tell us our gate had been changed...to like the other freaking side. x_x Long walk was long. But I got on fine and was on my way. First flight was, as predicted, pretty boring. I attempted to stay awake for most of it, trying to get myself on Japan time, knowing I should be waiting on the longer flight to sleep but it was hard. The guy sitting next to me (who was heading or Seoul as his final destination) made for good conversation though. He was very curious about me flying by myself and was even more curious about the fact I was reading Othello, of all things. lol Granted Othello is by far not my favorite Shakespeare play but I wanted to re-read it before Lost Glory and hey it made for a good way to pass the time.
Got to SF with plenty of time and flight got delayed a bit due to the flight attendants getting stuck in traffic. I'd like to note that all the Japanese crew was on time. Only the Americans were late. XD Long flight was long but not horrible. I got an aisle seat in the middle section and turns out there was no one in the seat in the middle so me and the dude on the other side totally took advantage of this, lol, using that seat to put stuff in. I tried to sleep as much as I could during the right hours but boy did they make it difficult, lol. I kept having to wake up for the meals and such and of course, when I WANTED to be awake, they turned the lights off. x_x But I watched X-Men: Days of Future Past and Spider Man 2, both of which I hadn't seen before. I liked X-Men though I'm unsure on the whole direction it went. Spider Man 2 kinda made me angry though. XD I also watched tiny bits of Maleficent near the end just to help wake myself back up considering I've already seen it but do love it. The food wasn't too bad though the one meal they claimed to be "sukiyaki" most definitely wasn't.
I call this part "Day 1.5" since by Japan's time, I pretty much missed most of a day so my arrival time kinda counts as half a day? XD I dunno, in my notes, I counted this as Day 2 but its not really since it hadn't even been 24 hours since my trip started...but anywho...
I was a bit worried when I arrived since I was having a hard time staying awake and not feeling groggy as the plane descended. Was also sad I wasn't near a window as I loved watching Japan come into view when I last went. But luckily Osaka's airport isn't very big and it was pretty quick to go through. There was a cute dog there to sniff for drugs and the sign warning you about it had a cute little cartoon dog face on it. XD No photos were allowed in that area though. Was able to figure out where the limo bus was pretty easily, there was one directly to my hotel, which was the first stop. Yay simplicity!
My hotel~ Which turned out to be pretty fancy in my opinion and I felt a bit out-of-place considering pretty much everyone I came across in the lobby and on the elevator was in a business suit and here I am in jeans. XD I'm still in denial that I paid such a low price or the place though I did notice that some of the floors had nicer hallways than mine so I think there may have been some more expensive rooms. lol Curious what they looked like considering I thought my room was pretty spacious for a Japanese hotel room, all things considered.
My lovely little hotel room. I really really liked staying in this hotel.
Adorable tea cup that I used pretty frequently during my stay here. I tend to abuse the free tea packets Japanese hotel rooms provide. XD But I love having it before bed and in the morning while there, etc.
First thing I did, after putting my stuff down and taking those photos, was figure out how to turn Sky Stage (Takarazuka's on. XD And from that point on, I pretty much always had it on while I was in the room except for when I was sleeping, of course. It made for very nice background noise.
Though having this on made it very hard to leave the hotel. XD But I knew if I stayed there, I'd fall asleep and I had read the best way to combat jet-lag is to not go to bed until actual bed time and to keep yourself active upon arrival. That and I knew this was really my only time to explore and get familiar with the area. So I headed out and got all sorts of confused and lost a few times. XD Umeda Station is huuuuuge and there's lots of stuff in it. Hell I never even got to going into the actual Department Store. Just the underground mall was overwhelming. @_@ There were lots of tv screens around the station and most of them had zuka ads playing pretty frequently, which made sense since this was like the central station for the Hankyu train line, which owns Takarazuka Kagekidan. My main purpose was to try to figure out where I needed to go for my train travels but every time I thought I was going towards the tracks, I somehow found myself in another store instead. XD And it was so easy to get distracted. My favorite little section of the mall was the part called "Kiddy Land". Obviously by the title this area was intended for children but I of course saw mostly teenagers and people my age in there. XD I think people had just gotten off from school and work too because it suddenly started getting crowded. The Kinokuniya I found was swarmed with people looking at magazines and manga. Boy I thought the kids here in the US were bad with just sitting in Barnes and Noble reading entire manga without buying. EVERYONE seemed to be doing that in Kino. Pfft.
I browsed briefly through Kino but soon realized that there really wasn't anything I was interested in there. Strange to think that a few years ago, this would have been one of my main shopping places and it was last time I was in Japan. But manga just doesn't hold as much interest to me now. The anime shops and toy shops were fun though. The Disney one had a lot of really cute stuff and a whole huge section for Japanese Frozen merchandise. Kinda regret not getting any but I kept thinking I'd come back since this place was close to my hotel and all. Lots of Attack on Titan stuff too, of course. And I was a bit terrified to see an ENTIRE STORE just for Pretty Cure. O_O;; It was so...pink.
Ugh they had the Rose of Versailles Pullips. I've been lusting after Oscar and Andre since they first came out. But boy I did not expect them to be so huge! They tempted me but I told myself no, I had bigger fish to catch this week and that would take up way too much room in my luggage.
The large amount of people everywhere was starting to get to me though and I was tired and hungry and feeling a bit faint so I eventually found my way out (after getting a bit confused a few times) and found a combini (convenient store) and got some onigiri. This is pretty much how I lived the whole time I was in Japan, lol. The onigiri was kinda like playing Russian Roulette for me though because I don't know how to read Japanese so I never knew what flavor I was getting. Just picked a color at random and hoped I didn't get one that was spicey, ume, or wasabi. XD For the most part I did pretty good. The spicey ones I did get were still doable. I really liked the Umeda area though because everything had signs telling you which direction to go for pretty much everything, even though sometimes it got confusing as to where exactly the arrows were going. XD But made it back to my hotel to relax for a little, made some tea, ate, and watched some Wao and Hana on my TV. I think I took a shower too to wash all the sweat off and then went back out in my 2nd attempt to try to figure out the train line. There was a lot less people as things were getting close to closing time but it was still pretty active and I was still pretty lost on where to go but at least I got a better sense and I saw that there was in fact a tourist center but it was closed so took note of when it would open the next day.
Wandered around outside the mall for a bit, mostly cause Chibi had mentioned there being a QR (Quatre Reves, the official Takarazuka store) somewhere in this area and even though she said in the department store, taka-wiki said it was next to Umeda theater, so I ventured over there because hell, was semi curious to see the Umeda Theater too even though I wasn't seeing any shows there (I almost got tickets for Ifi but it would have been for the Tokyo showing if I had gone). Found it easily enough and grabbed a bunch of chirashi from the mini mall thing next to it. No sign of any of a QR though now I think I just read it wrong on the site. lol But there's no way I would have not gotten lost in one of those crazy big Department Stores. XD On the way back I did see a used book store with some old zuka in the window though and made a mental note to check it out when it was opened...I never did. ^^;; But I think I found enough stuff in the next few days anywho.
Spent a few hours trying to watch Sky Stage though my mind was kinda all over the place at this time and I had already given up on trying to follow what was going on in the WaoHana show. But I did very much enjoy the Sky Reports (even if I did see a lot of them repeated throughout the few days there) and seeing Mikki deliver the "news" a lot. XD I also got really giddy any time they started talking about Elisabeth, knowing I'd be seeing it in less than 24 hours. I was dead tired so going to bed wasn't very hard. I seemed to have just kinda adjusted automatically. Last time I was in Japan, I pretty much passed out at like 9pm every night and woke up around 4am. But this time I went to bed mostly between 10:30-midnight and woke up pretty much at 6am, groaning like I would at home. lol
I was going to include Day 2 with Day 1 but then realized I did waaaay too much that day, it really needs its own entry. XD
~Lyn
So this whole experience was very freeing for me. I proved to myself that I can do this. I'm capable of doing things on my own after all. I never felt homesick. I never broke down and cried (ok I did cry but it was due to the heartache of leaving the theaters, etc). I never felt lonely. Basically none of my fears came true. I'm so incredibly glad I did it and it was seriously the best time I've ever had.
Day 1: DC -> San Francisco -> Osaka
Left for Dulles airport waaaay too fucking early in the morning. Dad was concerned about how long it'd take us to get there and get me through everything. Um. We ended up there way earlier than need be. We got there before the check-in counters even opened up. lol The airport was empty. And super eerie. lol Once it did open up, it was pretty fast and easy though my parents were dismayed they couldn't go very far with me. But hey it wasn't that bad. Even if I did have to sit at my rather empty gate area for over an hour...
At least Starbucks was open. Pfft. And of course they wait until like 20 minutes before boarding to tell us our gate had been changed...to like the other freaking side. x_x Long walk was long. But I got on fine and was on my way. First flight was, as predicted, pretty boring. I attempted to stay awake for most of it, trying to get myself on Japan time, knowing I should be waiting on the longer flight to sleep but it was hard. The guy sitting next to me (who was heading or Seoul as his final destination) made for good conversation though. He was very curious about me flying by myself and was even more curious about the fact I was reading Othello, of all things. lol Granted Othello is by far not my favorite Shakespeare play but I wanted to re-read it before Lost Glory and hey it made for a good way to pass the time.
Got to SF with plenty of time and flight got delayed a bit due to the flight attendants getting stuck in traffic. I'd like to note that all the Japanese crew was on time. Only the Americans were late. XD Long flight was long but not horrible. I got an aisle seat in the middle section and turns out there was no one in the seat in the middle so me and the dude on the other side totally took advantage of this, lol, using that seat to put stuff in. I tried to sleep as much as I could during the right hours but boy did they make it difficult, lol. I kept having to wake up for the meals and such and of course, when I WANTED to be awake, they turned the lights off. x_x But I watched X-Men: Days of Future Past and Spider Man 2, both of which I hadn't seen before. I liked X-Men though I'm unsure on the whole direction it went. Spider Man 2 kinda made me angry though. XD I also watched tiny bits of Maleficent near the end just to help wake myself back up considering I've already seen it but do love it. The food wasn't too bad though the one meal they claimed to be "sukiyaki" most definitely wasn't.
I call this part "Day 1.5" since by Japan's time, I pretty much missed most of a day so my arrival time kinda counts as half a day? XD I dunno, in my notes, I counted this as Day 2 but its not really since it hadn't even been 24 hours since my trip started...but anywho...
I was a bit worried when I arrived since I was having a hard time staying awake and not feeling groggy as the plane descended. Was also sad I wasn't near a window as I loved watching Japan come into view when I last went. But luckily Osaka's airport isn't very big and it was pretty quick to go through. There was a cute dog there to sniff for drugs and the sign warning you about it had a cute little cartoon dog face on it. XD No photos were allowed in that area though. Was able to figure out where the limo bus was pretty easily, there was one directly to my hotel, which was the first stop. Yay simplicity!
My hotel~ Which turned out to be pretty fancy in my opinion and I felt a bit out-of-place considering pretty much everyone I came across in the lobby and on the elevator was in a business suit and here I am in jeans. XD I'm still in denial that I paid such a low price or the place though I did notice that some of the floors had nicer hallways than mine so I think there may have been some more expensive rooms. lol Curious what they looked like considering I thought my room was pretty spacious for a Japanese hotel room, all things considered.
My lovely little hotel room. I really really liked staying in this hotel.
Adorable tea cup that I used pretty frequently during my stay here. I tend to abuse the free tea packets Japanese hotel rooms provide. XD But I love having it before bed and in the morning while there, etc.
First thing I did, after putting my stuff down and taking those photos, was figure out how to turn Sky Stage (Takarazuka's on. XD And from that point on, I pretty much always had it on while I was in the room except for when I was sleeping, of course. It made for very nice background noise.
Though having this on made it very hard to leave the hotel. XD But I knew if I stayed there, I'd fall asleep and I had read the best way to combat jet-lag is to not go to bed until actual bed time and to keep yourself active upon arrival. That and I knew this was really my only time to explore and get familiar with the area. So I headed out and got all sorts of confused and lost a few times. XD Umeda Station is huuuuuge and there's lots of stuff in it. Hell I never even got to going into the actual Department Store. Just the underground mall was overwhelming. @_@ There were lots of tv screens around the station and most of them had zuka ads playing pretty frequently, which made sense since this was like the central station for the Hankyu train line, which owns Takarazuka Kagekidan. My main purpose was to try to figure out where I needed to go for my train travels but every time I thought I was going towards the tracks, I somehow found myself in another store instead. XD And it was so easy to get distracted. My favorite little section of the mall was the part called "Kiddy Land". Obviously by the title this area was intended for children but I of course saw mostly teenagers and people my age in there. XD I think people had just gotten off from school and work too because it suddenly started getting crowded. The Kinokuniya I found was swarmed with people looking at magazines and manga. Boy I thought the kids here in the US were bad with just sitting in Barnes and Noble reading entire manga without buying. EVERYONE seemed to be doing that in Kino. Pfft.
I browsed briefly through Kino but soon realized that there really wasn't anything I was interested in there. Strange to think that a few years ago, this would have been one of my main shopping places and it was last time I was in Japan. But manga just doesn't hold as much interest to me now. The anime shops and toy shops were fun though. The Disney one had a lot of really cute stuff and a whole huge section for Japanese Frozen merchandise. Kinda regret not getting any but I kept thinking I'd come back since this place was close to my hotel and all. Lots of Attack on Titan stuff too, of course. And I was a bit terrified to see an ENTIRE STORE just for Pretty Cure. O_O;; It was so...pink.
Ugh they had the Rose of Versailles Pullips. I've been lusting after Oscar and Andre since they first came out. But boy I did not expect them to be so huge! They tempted me but I told myself no, I had bigger fish to catch this week and that would take up way too much room in my luggage.
The large amount of people everywhere was starting to get to me though and I was tired and hungry and feeling a bit faint so I eventually found my way out (after getting a bit confused a few times) and found a combini (convenient store) and got some onigiri. This is pretty much how I lived the whole time I was in Japan, lol. The onigiri was kinda like playing Russian Roulette for me though because I don't know how to read Japanese so I never knew what flavor I was getting. Just picked a color at random and hoped I didn't get one that was spicey, ume, or wasabi. XD For the most part I did pretty good. The spicey ones I did get were still doable. I really liked the Umeda area though because everything had signs telling you which direction to go for pretty much everything, even though sometimes it got confusing as to where exactly the arrows were going. XD But made it back to my hotel to relax for a little, made some tea, ate, and watched some Wao and Hana on my TV. I think I took a shower too to wash all the sweat off and then went back out in my 2nd attempt to try to figure out the train line. There was a lot less people as things were getting close to closing time but it was still pretty active and I was still pretty lost on where to go but at least I got a better sense and I saw that there was in fact a tourist center but it was closed so took note of when it would open the next day.
Wandered around outside the mall for a bit, mostly cause Chibi had mentioned there being a QR (Quatre Reves, the official Takarazuka store) somewhere in this area and even though she said in the department store, taka-wiki said it was next to Umeda theater, so I ventured over there because hell, was semi curious to see the Umeda Theater too even though I wasn't seeing any shows there (I almost got tickets for Ifi but it would have been for the Tokyo showing if I had gone). Found it easily enough and grabbed a bunch of chirashi from the mini mall thing next to it. No sign of any of a QR though now I think I just read it wrong on the site. lol But there's no way I would have not gotten lost in one of those crazy big Department Stores. XD On the way back I did see a used book store with some old zuka in the window though and made a mental note to check it out when it was opened...I never did. ^^;; But I think I found enough stuff in the next few days anywho.
Spent a few hours trying to watch Sky Stage though my mind was kinda all over the place at this time and I had already given up on trying to follow what was going on in the WaoHana show. But I did very much enjoy the Sky Reports (even if I did see a lot of them repeated throughout the few days there) and seeing Mikki deliver the "news" a lot. XD I also got really giddy any time they started talking about Elisabeth, knowing I'd be seeing it in less than 24 hours. I was dead tired so going to bed wasn't very hard. I seemed to have just kinda adjusted automatically. Last time I was in Japan, I pretty much passed out at like 9pm every night and woke up around 4am. But this time I went to bed mostly between 10:30-midnight and woke up pretty much at 6am, groaning like I would at home. lol
I was going to include Day 2 with Day 1 but then realized I did waaaay too much that day, it really needs its own entry. XD
~Lyn
