Izakaya

 

Izakaya are probably the loudest restaurants you might find in Japan (if we don’t consider the maid cafe – but even those have their share of Japanese composure).

We can consider Izakaya the equivalent of pubs. It’s there the majority of salary men go after the long day in work. 

The food isn’t top quality, although I found it super delicious anyway. 

It’s the relaxed way they have in there that surprised me. Orders were shouted, the service was more relaxed and after a while you kinda blend into the place, strictly Japanese style. 

I loved it so much. Should I go and work in Japan in my next lifetime I’ll want to work in one izakaya. 

In this place as well, they had the menu in English with picture so, even if you didn’t know a word of Japanese, you’d be fine. 

つづく

Ice Lollies

I challenge you, my dear readers!

If you watch anime and manga, have you ever seen the blue ice lollies? 

You must have. 

When we saw them in the conbini ice cream section, we just had to try it. 

The taste isn’t strong, but it’s good…it tastes nerd!

See you next week!

 

つづく

Jump Shop!

The reason why we went to the Tokyo Dome was because we wanted to visit the Jump Shop.

As you well know I love manga and anime. In the past few years I had to drop manga simply because I had no time or even space to store them. So my big source of info are the anime. 

Also, despite having a romantic and happy ending supporting side, I love very very very much and most of the time prefer shonen anime/manga. The shonen are the ones, by definition, made for the boys. 

Shonen Jump is a very famous magazine dedicated to this kind of manga and this shop is full of gadget dedicated to them. If something is in the Shonen Jump you can  be sure it’s awesome. 

For example, Once Piece (which is my favourite ever), Haikyuu and Shokugeki no Soma are among my top ten ever. 

Of course I left the shop with much less than I wanted but it was actually very expensive. (aka my partner dragged me out of there before too much damage was done!)

I’ll see you all tomorrow. 

 

つづく

Tokyo Dome

Among the places I was most eager to go to there was the Jump Shop.

No worries I’ll get back to that tomorrow. 

Said shop is inside this huge construction called Tokyo Dome which is a very famous venue where the biggest matches and concerts take place. 

It is surrounded by buildings, shops, malls and hear hear, an amusement park. 

Since the program for Tokyo was very relaxed we decided to dedicate as much as possibile to this park. It was a bit expensive so we decided to get a daily ticket for Maya and pay on the go for us, depending on what we wanted to do. 

Maya had the time of her life!

I have to admit they were also very organized, since every attraction had some notebooks with translation in English, Chinese and Korean. You could find there the rules and the preferred behavior on the attractions, along with the explanation on the functioning. 

Maya didn’t want to go back home and leave the park…neither we did, but we had to play the adults! 

It was a very nice alternative day, after the heavy walking we made in the previous week. 

See you tomorrow then. 

つづく

 

Yakiniku!

After walking all day, our muscles were crying for meat!

We found this little alley full of restaurants, ten minutes walking from our place, looking for something that might make everybody happy. 

Eventually we went into this place. 

When we got in they approached us with a notebook in which the stated that they were sorry but the staff didn’t speak English.

It was funny and challenging trying with my wobbly Japanese to communicate but the English menu was a big advantage and we managed. 

Eventually we got out of there as full as after a wedding lunch, everything was super delicious. 

I’ll see you tomorrow!

 

つづく

Even Lego is better!

 

After admiring the Gundam statue we went inside the shopping centre immediately behind it. On the top level you find the Gundam base, full of models and statures and gadgets.

For the rest of the afternoon then we enjoyed a very Japanese shopping centre. It can be very similar to the rest of the world and very different at the same time.

The best thing I’ve seen it was in the Lego shop, and it deserves a mention. I don’t know you, my dear readers, but when I was a child I was in love with King GoLion known abroad as Voltron (among the other things). 

When we entered the shop we would have never imagined to see a big one made of lego. 

So I’ve decided, in Japan even lego is better!

I’ll see you next week! 

つづく

Gundam!

After the statue search done in the morning, where I even got sunburned, we decided to go to Odaiba for the afternoon. 

Odaiba is one of the areas on the sea and it’s an amazing place. 

See? My issue is that this trip was too short. For each and every part of Tokyo you should  dedicate at least 2 days to say you’ve seen them almost properly. 

So we cherry picked, in a very nerdy way, the things we wanted to see. 

I’ve never seen Gundam as anime, but this I had to see. It’s 1:1 scale and it’s cool. 

We were lucky enough to see an idol mini-concert too happening under the robot but we were stopped when we attempted to film them. 

It’s everything so much alike the reality we’ve always seen in anime and manga, it’s almost shocking. 

The rest of the day we spent in the shopping centre behind the Gundam. 

つづく

Captain Tsubasa – statues.

 

As promised in my previous post, I’m showing you the nine statues dedicated to this incredible and famous manga/anime. 

I have to admit, with a pinch of embarrassment, that I had a huge crush on Tsubasa, the main character, when I was eight. 

It’s anyway still a nice memory! And I wanted to share. 

And then, please just admire them!

つづく

Yotsugi station.

 

The day after, we left home in the morning to go and visit the area around Yotsugi station. 

Why? you might ask. Well, it is in that area that we knew Captain Tsubasa statues were built. 

Both me and my partner used to watch this anime when we were kids. They’ve recently made a remake and Maya is watching it with us, and she loves it too. 

There is a whole area decorated and dedicated to this anime and manga, of course. 

And here is the concept. Manga and anime in Japan aren’t just for kids, they’re intertwined in their everyday life. You’ll see manga characters in supermarket adds, on medicine boxes, etc. 

And when one is very popular, they dedicate tributes, from an exhibition to a statue. 

Captain Tsubasa was very popular and many kids grew up with them, learning the meaning of training and focus to reach your goals. 

It’s only fair to me they’ve dedicated this neighborhood to them. 

Tomorrow I’m going to show you the statues!

 

If you had any doubt you got off the right station! 

つづく

Let’s show!

So the first night in Tokyo we went to the Robot Restaurant as we booked some ticket. 

As previously mentioned the Tokyo part of our travel had been a bit nerdy, so I hope you’re ready for what you’re going to see. 

Said that, this show was even beyond that, it was probably a waste of time and money, but we had fun all the same. 

Clearly this is a tourist trap, I hadn’t seen a single Japanese customer in there, but it was too late. 

The reason why we booked in the there was to cheer Maya up while planning the trip. 

She really wanted to go to this Sailor Moon cafe, but it was closed -sometimes in Japan you have temporary themed cafes- and she was sad. So we started to look for funny things on maps and we landed on this website. 

She saw all the colors and lights and loud music and asked us to see the show. 

Considering that the fist half of the trip was among temples and the second one would be looking for anime and manga she barely knows, we decided to accomodate it. 

At the end of the day we-adults enjoyed the show as well and spent a nice evening. 

Following I uploaded a short video to show you what it was like. Just consider that the event was divided in three parts, but my favorite was the first one as it was referring heavily to the traditional Japanese culture. 

 

つづく