“Silver Week Adventures” (or, “Hannah has a fish massage?”)

Next week is bunkasai (school festival) at my school, so prepare for a school-centered blog post next time. This week is about Silver Week adventures!

Silver Week is a special occurrence in Japan when several public holidays (Respect for the Aged Day, Citizens’ Day and Autumnal Equinox Day) happen all in a row next to a weekend, leading to a five day break. The last time this happened was 2009, and the next time isn’t until 2026. So – very lucky to be here in 2015.

To provide blog-reading ambience, please play the below song in the background! The music video isn’t anything special but the song is currently very popular in Japan and whenever I hear it it always puts me in a good mood!

SILVER WEEK (andmaybetheweekendbefore) ADVENTUUUUURES

In no particular order.
Nikko

On the last day of Silver Week I woke up early and took a train by myself waaay up north to Tochigi prefecture, to Nikko, an area famed for its Edo period World Heritage sites.

It’s difficult to explain the effect Nikko had on me. Maybe it was being surrounded by nature after so long in Tokyo, or maybe it was the historical gravity of the area. Anyway, it was amazing, and I definitely want to go back. It’s the kind of place best explored over a weekend, and I did a jogging tour in half a day. I managed to get to 4 world heritage sites, but there are more than that to see.

On the way to the world heritage area. Notice the yukata!

Taiyaki truck on the way. Chokoreto o onegaishimaaaaasu!

When I went inside it was only lit by candlelight and I thought it was empty. Had a big fright when I saw several meditating monks in the darkness!

How’s the serenity

The ORIGINAL Hear no Speak no See no Evil Monkeys. They adorn the old stable of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s horses

As close as I could get to the tomb of Tokugawa Iemitsu, third Tokugawa shogun, responsible for the isolation of Japan starting in 1639

So many beautiful buildings ahhh

As close as I could get to the famous sleeping cat, who is above the entrance to the stairway to Tokugawa Ieyasu’s resting place

The resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s soul (the first Tokugawa shogun, who united Japan after the Warring States period and began the Edo period). He died in 1616. I had to climb sooo many stairs to get up here. There was a vending machine at the top and I didn’t even care that it was out of place!

The realllyyy spooky tree stump right next to the tomb. There was a little prayer box right next to it so I gave it 5yen.. and immediately afterwards felt compelled to buy a protection charm from the nearby shrine shop. Tokugawa Ieyasu, master salesman from beyond the grave

5-story pagoda. Because no important shrine area is complete without one

Out of everywhere I have been in Japan so far, Nikko is number 1 on my recommendation list. I was in awe the entire time. Definitely worth the trip through the middle of nowhere!

EDIT: Extras for experts in the link below. I also went to the Crying Dragon (my favourite building of the lot) but wasn’t allowed to take photos, so please check the link below instead!

Sailor Moon Musical

So uhhhhhh some of you may remember this from my 21st back in the day..

Guess who went to the Sailor Moon live stage musical!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos at the show, but here’s the poster of what we saw! Note the extra frilly-sparkleyness of the stage outfits 😀

SUCH a good decision. My squad is also really into Sailor Moon so we went along and fangirled. The show was an example of the 100-year-old tradition of Takarazuka – where women play all roles, both genders. The women playing the male roles are hugely popular – sex icons of a sort. The woman playing Tuxedo Mask was a particularly popular actress, and the audience was very excited whenever she appeared.

Yamato Yuuga as Tuxedo Mask

Tokyo Tower

We went to Tokyo Tower and ate karaage on the viewing platform immediately after the show, because you know, that episode where Sailor Moon goes to Tokyo Tower:

Me in real life

Pretty close anyway

View from the middle

View from the bottom

Akihabara

I finally went to Akihabara!! For those who don’t know, Akihabara is great for nerd-shopping (ie. super otaku). The amount of commercialism was intense – billboards, flashing lights, figurines, merchandise just everywhere. I also stumbled on the Anime Center by complete chance, so that was cool. I had a serious headache by the end of the day, but it worth it!

Loot! Kero-chan from Cardcaptors, kitty I won in a UFO-catcher, Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service. I bought Jiji when I first moved to Ikebukuro but thought he deserved time in the spotlight also

Otaku-land (Akihabara)

Tokyo Game Show

Not a game show in  the “Price is Right” sense of the word, but a Japanese E3 where game developers show off their new offerings. Soooo many people, sooo much jostling going on.

I think the highlight for me was the gender-reversed version of the booth babe. One company was promoting a romance game for girls, and had hired attractive men to dress as the characters and pose for photos with attendees. Before each photo, a guy would come out from behind a curtain, dramatically saunter down red-carpeted stairs, take a girl by the chin and whisper sweet nothings before posing for a photo. I didn’t take part but giggled furiously from afar.

The main event in my eyes – very cool to see this demoed!

Jostling for Attack on Titan

From another viewpoint

Kagurazaka

Some time before Silver Week, one of our awesome co-workers invited my fellow JET-teacher and I out for dinner with his friends to a place whose name translates to “Squid Center”. This was just after the typhoon however so the Squid Center had no squid – they had all been washed away! Out of the frying pan and into the typhoon for those poor little guys. The place specialized in raw fish and it was actually DELICIOUS. And impressive looking:

Before dinner we looked around the shrines and temples in the Kagurazaka area, including one famous for girls who want luck in relationships. I bought a fortune (from a real shrine maiden, eeeee!) and it said something about needing to wait for love (my man has booked tickets for Christmas, no need to tell me to wait!). Another of the temples had an area where you could write your wish on a piece of wood and hang it up. 100s of them were praying that they would be able to get tickets to the Arashi concert (an incredibly popular boyband here). Priorities!

I also have a confession to make. I love Japanese food and have been eating it exclusively most days.. but that same evening we went to a wine bar and had New Zealand wine and French cheese and OLIVES and I was so happy *drools at the memory* Forgive me Japan! Anyway, I had a great night. I don’t like to name names on the blog but thank you new friends 😀

Yokohama

I suppose at this point you’re wondering about the fish massage thing in the title. So uh, we went to Yokohama, a city south of Tokyo, to its very famous Chinatown. We then proceeded to have tiny fish eat the dead skin off our feet.

It only tickled. A lot!

Yokohama was really cool actually. We went to an all you can eat Chinese food restaurant in Chinatown (as one should do). After a few faux pas as to the proper way to eat Peking duck the waiters hovered over us worriedly, but we had a great time anyway.

We also went to a theme park in the middle of town with a rollercoaster, ferris-wheel and a haunted house ride:

Yokohama is also famous for in the past being an internationally-focused port city

Outside the haunted house ride

That’s probably as many unflattering photos of me as I can handle in one day, so I’ll leave it there. I promise next week I’ll write about school! Thanks to those who made it through the entire post, I realise it is twice as long as my usual ones. Any comments appreciated; they warm my heart 😛