i forgot to show on the map where exactly we are right now (tokyo still) so you can see where it's located in the country in case you dont know :)
the little sakura flower shows where we are!
well, today was WAY more productive than we thought it would be. first of all, it said rain all day. secondly, i still felt crappy this morning from being sick. well, a few hours after we woke up and a couple advil later, i felt ready to go! so off we went to the meiji jingu shrine :)
gorgeous. this is located in that giant park from the first day, so it was another familiar and pretty walk
and we were SO excited to see this...
...but then...
we actually got to see a WEDDING HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
they take about 20 minutes making sure EVERY fold is perfect for the big family portrait.
and here it is!
afterwards, we walked to harajuku, known for it's fashion
it was...packed. haha
these shirts cracked us up
"i want to go to there" haha
this was crazy! suddenly, we see a band (literally musical) of protestors making as MUCH noise as they possibly could, heading towards the Nike building. we couldn't really figure out what was going on, or what they wanted/hated, but one of the signs said (that a ghost was holding), "is there life in the NIKE PARK?" and on the back it said, "R.I.P. the Nike Park" with the Nike swoosh on it haha...it was so weird, but when they got to be in front of the Nike building, they got SUPER loud with their instruments/yelling (yet still staying peaceful haha) and then they moved on. it was interesting to see...
one of the ghosts
a super creepy looking guy!
afterwards we headed to the bridge because we were going to try and catch the kids in their costumes. unfortunately i think we were maybe too early (noon)? or it was too cold (it was freezing/windy)? but i managed to get a few
although, i think this guy might have been promoting a restaurant haha...either way, he was standing there, so i took his picture! and then there were these guys!!!
so obviously i had to hug them haha
so fun :)
next on the list of things to do this day (since it was still surprising to us that it wasn't raining) was to head over to the studio ghibli museum!!!
here is the bus you can take from the station, but we chose to walk because we like seeing stuff and stopping to take pictures instead. but, the bus looked awesome haha
it was a beautiful walk. the sakura are blooming more and more!
these signs kept telling us we were on the right path
and these haha...so cute
we arrived!
now, the museum doesn't allow you to take pictures inside, but we SOOO wish we could have. it was AMAZING in there. cool animation stuff, things around every corner, it was way cooler than we thought it would be. and these tickets they gave us at the front desk got us into a 15 minute movie that was made JUST for the museum this year!!! it was about sumo rats, and it was adorable :)
also, it was really cool sitting in a theater filled with japanese people and seeing when they laugh at things. it was just a really fun experience. oh, and the movie wasn't subtitled for us, but that's okay because it was an easy enough story that we didn't need them. and again, it was super cute. but what else would you expect from studio ghibli???
here are some pics i took from the outisde:
the entrance
sprites crammed into a window!
us with totoro :)
more of the outside
a giant awesome robot soldier from Laputa: Castle in the Sky
then we went into the Straw Hat Cafe (which was connected) for the CUTEST food we will ever eat. yes, i said CUTEST
i got the "fruit sandwich of your dreams" (it truly was haha), and erik got the pork cutlet sandwich. oh, and we both got the coffee!!!
WHO DOES THIS?!?! the studio ghibli museum does, that's who haha...LOVED it.
it was getting dark by this point, so we started to head home
everything is so very pretty and completely safe at night
we stopped at a grocery store on the way home too :)
baby squids...
so. much. delicious. candy. everywhere!!!
we're home now after a long day of walking, but it was a great day, and i'm glad i'm feeling better already!!! i'm going to get a lot of rest again tonight so hopefully this will be COMPLETELY gone soon :)
that coffee design is insane!! sooo awesome!!! :)
ReplyDeleteso awesome about the wedding too..its a sign! hehe
the wedding was so cool. they didnt mind you just walking up and taking pictures?
ReplyDeletetheres some fancypants places in america that do coffee art, but most places everyone works for minimum wage, so they dont care lol. i like how it was a hat for the restaurant.
boo i wish i could see the art. but i trust your word that it was cool.
omg i love when people do free hugs! my friend ryan did that once dressed as a carebear. it really makes people happy.
Loved the wedding, the bride looked so pretty! And the coffee design! Everything seems to be even more amazing than you would expect it to be! I'm glad you're feeling better, too! XO
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that coffee thing! I don't know if I'd be able to drink it.
ReplyDelete@laur - i know what you mean about the wedding! i thought the same thing as it was happening! hehe :)
ReplyDelete@jenn - nope! they didn't mind about the pictures :) there were a ton of people there, so i think it's expected :)
@mom - yeah! everything is just so amazing over here! we are really loving it :)
@andrea - we got the coffee first, and i didn't drink it until the end! haha we didn't want to ruin it either! but it was also super yummy LOL
Awe, that wedding is so awesome!
ReplyDeleteAnd who doesn't love Pocky???
You know what, when you started the blog and I was thinking about you being there and going to all these amazing places I wondered if you were going to run into a wedding. It looke so beautiful too!
ReplyDeleteOkay now this is bothering me. I KNOW I have seen and watched totoro before when I was younger, but I don't know where or why or what it even is, but I remember it..it sparked a memory. Fill me in though because it'll bug me til I figure it out. =)
And that coffee is AMAZING..wow, just wow!
ah!! >.< i was supposed to go there with my sister, but the tickets were sold out already =( NOOOOOOOOO! >.< XD
ReplyDelete@ida - that's so cool you've seen totoro before! yeah, he's in a movie called "my neighbor totoro" and it's super cute :) these 2 girls find him in the forest by their new house in japan :) it's a great movie!
ReplyDelete@chrissie - i'm SO sorry!!! :'( yeah, we had to buy the tickets in advance in america through a travel agent. and the "tickets" werent even tickets haha...it was a sheet of paper that we showed the people at the museum, and the actual tickets are the film strip things :) i'm sorry it was sold out!!! :(
hahaha! nah it's ok. =P we didn't really think at that time. i knew better than my sister. we should have bought them in advanced, too. =P but we didn't. so yeah. hahahaha XD
ReplyDeleteI agree with LilLar, I love the wedding and the coffee! I know there are upscale places (in the US) that do the coffee like that but they are few and far between
ReplyDeletehi there!
ReplyDeletevery nice blog on your japan adventures.
Im very interested to visit Ghibili museum. May I know the directions to this museum from Shinjuku and how did you purchase tickets to the museum?I heard that there is a limit in sales of tickets to the museum each day. Hope you can advise me on this!Thank you.
email: rnsh85@yahoo.com
The band protest thing was because Nike bought a big city park in Tokyo that a lot of homeless people had been living in. They had built a sort of tent city. Well, the city sold a city park..yes a CITY PARK, like a park that belonged to the public of Tokyo, to Nike. They're going to make it into a big Nike theme park and charge admissions and stuff. So they are having the homeless people kicked out. It has been a big deal in Tokyo and on the International news as how can you sell a great big city park to be a theme park like that and because Tokyo apparently hasn't much in the way of social services for homeless people.
ReplyDeleteohhhh, i see. thank you so much for explaining it to me because it was very interesting to watch, but we weren't sure exactly what was going on! so thank you!!! :)
ReplyDelete