i went to japan

i was in japan from 23rd march to 4th april. basically it was fucking awesome and now i am having withdrawal, as if anyone didn't expect that.

(using a cut for the first time on this blog bc the post has a lot of picture and is really fucking long

first i went to nagoya with mike. we were supposed wot fly with everyone else but then sexy zone's concert got announced and we decided to fly early. and then it turned out that flight prices got hiked up for the days immediately before the concerts so we had to fly even earlier. hence the 23rd.

then our plane got overbooked so we got switched to all nippon (we were originally on japan airlines) and after experiencing both, all nippon airways is way better. japan airlines was a little more generous with the seats tho. 

we stayed at the mont blanc fushimi, which was fucking tiny but rly cheap and decent quality. two stops away from the nagoya station via the higashiyama line. we got a suica but surprise! you need a manaca in nagoya. so we got one of those. 

lugging our suitcases around in the middle of the night was fun but not fun, by the way. we reached at like. almost 1am. 

of course we didn't follow the itinerary. we walked a lot and wandered around generally and visited the cat cafe lots. i'll show pics of cats when i find the sd card.

nagoya in general is super chill (also colder than tokyo, pun not intended). beware that eating places have specific dinner and lunch times and might not serve food outside of those times. also everything closes by 8pm good luck. i mean, things like coco ichibanya are still open, so it's not like you'll starve tho.

went to the johnny's shop in nagoya, it was a little busy. i almost bankrupted myself (im only exaggerating a little)

we went to watch the kurosaki-kun movie and omG. the entire theatre was filled with girls. when kento did anything cool you could hear faint cries of "kyaa" and "kakkoii" and general squealing. damn but japanese girls sure know how to enjoy a movie. but during tense moments i swear you couldn't even hear anyone breathing. it's a little scary.

btw at the same time we were watching the movie, a nishino kana concert was happening next to the theatre at zepp nagoya. we totally didn't know until we saw the queue for the goods. i wannnnt :(

anyway we went for the sexy zone concert.

we queued for the goods the day before the con. we went over like... maybe 2-3 hours before the goods started selling? but there was already a long queue, it was like halfway around the outside of nippon gaishi hall. we were dressed kinda warm but the wind was woah. the japanese girls were all dressed super light like it was already mid-spring, amazing, but they were still talking about how cold it was.

but like, not in a "fuck, it's cold, i wish i'd worn something warmer" way, but more like, "it's cold" for the sake of saying it? they were like "samui ne.." ......... amazing

nippon gaishi sports hall is actually pretty tiny and despite having standing tickets, it was an ok view. should've gotten binoculars tho. u need binoculars. we blew lots of money on the merch which i will show!! and also i will pic the ticket and venue (which is illegal).

needless to say everyone is hotter and cuter irl. the crowning achievement of that night was realising that marius is rEALLY still an adorable kid, and that marius sings fucking great live, also sou became really sexy and flashed us all his abs. they are perfect. no other opinions accepted.

and because we underbooked the hotel by a night, so we went back to tokyo after the concert. there were also other girls who had travelled from tokyo to nagoya for the con. 

for the shinkansen we got unreserved seats both times and managed to get seats with no problem. but our shinkansen was the 10+pm train, both times, so idk what would happen if you got unreserved tickets for other times.

we reached tokyo around midnight and were planning to spend some time in a manga cafe or something. unfortunately for dumb us, it was saturday night. aka every single person went out to party and missed their last train and ALSO went to crash at internet cafes/manga cafes/karaoke places. or maybe they never planned to go home idek.

our airbnb was two stops away from ikebukuro on the tobu tojo line so we went to ikebukuro and got stuck there bc the trains stopped running. boyyyy ikebukuro is actually kinda iffy at night. we saw lots of pairs of people. always the one sober friend and the one drunk friend staggering and puking occasionally. no kidding. also lots of people advertising semi-aggressively for places and groups of friends out to have fun. u can always find food and entertainment at ikebu at any time of the night.

mike and i were trying to go over the train tracks(via an underground tunnel) when this japanese dude accosted us. he was wearing a suit, so probably a normal office guy. some mangled english/japanese later, it turns out that he's a quarter italian (? whatever) and he also missed his last train.

then he started trying to wheel our suitcases for us and go with us to the manga cafe. he was nice, but was vERY insistently helpful and kept throwing around keywords like "nomi?" (drink) "alcohol?" "karaoke?" which was like... #no

we just went to a concert and sat on the shinkansen and wheeled our suitcases around so we just wanted to sleeeeeep.

also i didn't know he had also missed his last train and was trying to crash somewhere until a lot later sO the whole time i was wondering why this guy was following us around and trying to wheel our suitcases.

anyway, long story short. we went to lots of places, they were all full, we went to dice, they had a waiting area, mike and i were like #yes #please and sat down to sleep at the waiting area because we were so damned tired. by which i mean mike was sleeping sitting up and i was staring at the suitcases and the guy in case anyone tried anything funny.

then the dude asked for my number, which i gave to him, and then he dialed it. like, ha, it's an overseas number. anyway he saved my number, and saved his number in my phone (turns out he's called akiyoshi) and was like "if u need anything u can call me" which was never going to happen but ok. i nodded, he went off. probably to find some more exciting people.

at 5am our queue number was called and mike and i staggered into a room at the internet cafe to sleep for 3 hours lol. the place looks really good, really sleek and clean and just generally awesome and not sleazy at all. tots recommend. (pic u the card we got later)

in the morning we stuffed our luggage in a coin locker and went to watch assassination classroom. (pic u the coin locker receipt. it's cool)

at the movie theatre we realised again how japanese people REALLY know how to enjoy movies. not to give away spoilers but when yama-chan cried, everyone also started crying. i heard sniffs and the lady next to me was dabbing her eyes. side note movie tickets in japan are expensive at 1,800yen.

we wandered around ikebu and then went to our airbnb.

our airbnb was gREAT it's huge and can easily fit >10 people and it had tatami mats and everything. (here) there were also fairy lights outside. it's in a quiet residential local place called shimo-itabashi and it's reaaaally pretty and the food is way cheaper than in ikebu and it is vERY chill. there is also a 24hr don quijote (how do u spell it) literally five minutes away. the only minus is only one shower area (but! huge bathtub) and it's kinda easy to get confused on the small streets in shimo-itabashi.

after that the other 5 people arrived and we had lots of fun yadda yadda. i also want to recommend the loveliner mascara bc it's super awesome and the packaging is pretty lol. btw bring more money than you think u need. for real.

we went to hanami a lot because im fucking obsessed with sakura they are VERY very pretty.

inokashira park on the 3rd of april

meguro river the night before, maybe 2 nights before

i think this was ueno park. it was fullll bloom.

and really crowded

a temple/grave site thing we stumbled upon. it was near shinjuku i think 

yoyogi park. we had a picnic

i climbed a tree. so did gab/tam/phoebe

the hanami pictures are in reverse order bc i couldn't be bothered.

the rest are mostly chronological

on the plane! super pretty view, the moon was fucking huge tbh. i watched grasshopper and the perfume 3rd world tour documentary on the plane

in the nagoya hotel

we went to tsuruma park and it was like, 1/8 flowering but there were still people picnicking 

cold drinks when i was cold

cat cafe

we went to the johnnys shop in nagoya. should've guessed this would happen. we also found the harajuku shop but the queue was so long that they CLOSED THE QUEUE

waiting outside nippon gaishi

illegal photo of the venue

first day of all 7 of us being in japan

another cat cafe. this one is at ikebu, on the 8th floor of the tokyu hands building. they're having some anniversary thing so it's cheaper than normal

we found the wall at yoyogi where all the odorites are always at

went up the tokyo metropolitan building

went to akiba on the day of their last live

ate this at akiba

tots recommend

went to the arcade, saw this dude (actually a few dudes) being gods of maimai. we also played some shooting game with four of us and discovered that i have a hidden talent. my hidden talent is violently shooting at everything. i was the last man standing

took some purikura. we also took some with all 7 of us but as expected it was a squeeze

heading to narita airport :( got addicted to suits on the plane. 

we also went to the batting centre and i got a lot of muscle ache

thanks to wanqi for my cute new profile pictures lmao

this post is very messy, i can't be bothered to fix it.

i've been working 12-hour shifts every single day since i got back. we touched down on the 5th of april at 1am and i got home at 3am....... i had work later that day...... death.....

but this is how i will afford my next trip to japan



p.s. i forgot to mention that i actually ran into kiriyama akito and nakama junta filming

i was waiting outside a store in harajuku (beside the wego shop) and they filmed down that street. everyone else was cleared away but they didn't bother w me since by some lucky coincidence, i was in a corner where the camera wouldn't catch me

so. unobstructed, very clear view of two johnny's idols. i posted a video on my twitter (sry about protecting idols' privacy and those things, but they were filming for work so it's not like i stalked them on their private time)

+ we went to the pablo mini in akiba, there was zero queue, also there was a female model/idol shooting something pablo-related. she was cute. i don't have a picture

++ went to tower records in shibuya, there was some meet and greet going on for a male band, i think they were korean. i hovered for a bit hoping to recognise someone or find out their name, but there were too many girls. also one of them gave a fan a backhug, wow. i don't have a picture bc i was intimidated lol.

im very amazed at coincidentally being in the same place as various famous people