my trip to japan

i just wanted to write about my trip to japan. well as most of you know i
went to japan with shinchan, meek, lise and others from
their church to tenri (it's near nara). we stayed for a little
less than a week. i wished i could have stayed longer!!!

we participated in their church activities which i thought was an
interesting experience. tenri is really nice!! on the first night we
went out to look for any open stores. there were some convenience stores
(like 7-11) open and another place was a little stationary shop. i bought
a bunch of magazines that night like myojo, junon, and a bunch of tv
mags with takuya, kamisen, and goro on the cover. they are all in new
dramas this month. and cute stationary which what looked like a
teruteruboozu design which me and shinchan loved cause for those of you
that watched with love with takenouchi yutaka, a teruteruboozu was an
symbol of the show. that same night we saw ad posters of takeshi
kaneshiro (which was near a rubbish can), nakai and tsuyoshi (NTT?), and
my fave takuya's suntory whisky ad which i really wanted to steal but it
was hanging up in a shop. shucks. i should have took the takeshi one
though. lol! j/k. well me and shinchan took pics next to these postersthough. lol! j/k.

well me and shinchan took pics next to these posters
and my how embarassing it was. the takeshi one was near a trash can and
there were people in cars by the traffic light (shingoo, lol sorry for my
stupidity i couldn't resist adding that in).

for those of you that know me well. we had to wake up early in the
morning each day (around 5am). ya should know how hard that is
considering my normal wake up time on weekends average around 1 in the
afternoon. oh and on school days varies from like 8:45-9:10am. oh and
another surprising event...get this guys... I ATE FISH!!!...can you
believe it. me, the girl who really really hates seafood with a vengence
ate fish. and i must admit that fried one we ate tasted pretty good. now
don't tell my mom now cause i don't want her bringing home all the fish
her customers give her and make me eat it (btw, for those that don't
know my mommie owns a fishing supply store)!!!

the food was the second best part about japan (second to the fact that
japan's smappyland and has the johnny's store!!). we ate stuff like katsu
curry and very yummy/interesting pizza!! we also went to nara and shopped
so we didn't have time to go into todaji temple (name?). we did get to
see the deers though, but i didn't take any pics. i got those the last
time i went to japan. which imo wasn't as fun considering my smap/V6
hasn't started yet. hee hee. but anyways... nara was cool. there was
this store that had another takuya whisky poster up and i took pictures
by. that was even more embarassing because there was a bunch of people in
open daylight looking at me like i was crazy. i bet i was so red!!
meekers even brought that up. well shinchan took a pic of shingo's nudy
(beauty products?) poster and this girl asked her if she liked smap. that
was funny/cool. at least the girl didn't look at her like she was crazy!
lol! oh there was this stalls along the street (kinda seemed like swap
meet stalls.) anyways... this one guy was selling rock/idol star stickers
and pins. i bought some pins of takuya and kamisen. and a few stickers,
one of takeshi kaneshiro. oh ya i forgot there was a big ad board of
nakai (i think for hops or something.) on the way to nara. we also bought
a smap mirror where the girl engraved takuya for me and shingo for shinchan in hiragana. it's so cute!

oh and we got those id braclets for
free. i also bought a bunch of used smap/V6 cds. oh the V6 ones still
had some of the 1st press stuff inside. there was a bunch of stores
selling american clothes like stussy brand and stuff. hee hee oh and i'll
leave shin chan to tell whoever about her embarassing situation involving
a changing room. oh and near the temple we took pics in the phone booth
(gosh people must have really thought we were nuts taking pics in stupid
places). near the temple there was also a lot of vendors selling
rock/idol stuff like keychains, fake purikuras, rulers, t-shirts... oh and
there was this guy that looked a hell of a lot like tsuyoshi kusanagi when
he was younger.

another highlight of the trip was going to osaka! me, meek, lise, and
shinchan rode on the train (kitetsu?) from tenri to saidaiji to namba.
then on the subway to near the johnny's osaka store. it took us forever
to find it cause we went in the wrong direction and the map was a little
confusing. wow osaka looked so cool. it was an interesting experience to
be in a city like that! well we found the johnny's store. first we went
to the part that has the purikura machines. there was like 10 machines
and i took purikuras with kamisen, ken, jun, and 2 w/takuya. shinchan
took with kamisen, ken, jun, go, and 2 w/shingo. i'm sooooooo happy!!
that was one of my main reasons i wanted to go to japan. they sold those
fans (uchiwa) there too. i bought of ken and jun and some masayuki ones
for sakamoto jen. i already have takuya's viva amigos concert uchiwa
and the su one was sold out! =o( then we went across the street to the
johnny's store which had pictures, posters, concert books, V6 stuff
(stickers, purikura frames, nail stickers, towels, those papers to wipe
the oil from your face... and to clean the pads of the flute right meek?,
notebooks, shitajiki...the plastic thingy you put under the paper when you
write, shampoo...), smap stuff (spoons, rings, braclets w/members name,
coffee cup with goro's pic i think, smap stickers with member names, moremember stuff...

like takuya photo album, pens... gosh i can't remember) there
was a lot of junior stuff but i'm not really a jrs fan. i don't quite
remember the tokio and kinki stuff either. i spent way too much money
there! i bought posters of takuya, smap, V6, kamisen, jun and
ken...pictures of takuya and of kamisen in new york (pics of events in the
question vid), concert books and a bunch of other little goodies that add
up!! sorry meek and lise for draging you there and taking so much time in
that one store! gomen ne!

laters we ate lunch at shakey's pizza. then we went shopping some more.
there was this store with a bunch of music instruments and sheet music. i
think they had smap music books. i think there was this guy asking us for
money or something. luckily my japanese is bad. lol. we went to this
sony building/tower. they had some cool computer stuff and this portable
cd player that cost around 32000 yen. gosh it was blue and very nice. i
ended up buying a blue panasonic one for 9800 yen. about 3x cheaper!! i
was contemplating buying a mini disk player/recorder but those are really
expensive and i might end up getting a cd burner if i'm lucky. still
wanna get me a scanner. i also bought a baby g watch band. gosh that was
a long day and our feet really hurt!! we went to a few huge department
stores with those elevator ladies (like the one in the smasma skit) that
tell about what's on each floor and stuff. i wanted to get a picture but
i felt too stupid. it's cool cause i think the subway/train station is
on the basement level of these department stores. we also searched high
and low for a anime shop for meek. the store was already closing but
those guys were really nice and let her shop. oh ya the workers in japan
are really really nice!! and i like they way that at every food place ya
go to gives you those towels to wipe your hands. and it's kind of strangenot leaving tip.

oh and don't you think japan has a distinct smell?? i
like it. on the way back we didn't know where the train station was so we
took a taxi (those are so cool cause the backdoor opens by itself) to the
station. we took an express train to nara and it was around 8pm and i
guess that's the time most business men return home cause it was
crowded!!! i was so mad cause i thought i was gonna smash my posters i've
been lugging around all day and more worst i was smashing shinchan so much
i think she was practically in another passengers lap! i was so afraid
that someone was gonna steal something from my bag or more worse some
pervert were to touch my butt or something. i was so irritated that all
these people were pushing me so much that i was practically embracing lise
i swore. meek guys said people kinda had a shocked looked or something.
well i guess they're used to it. well on the other train we were on we
missed our stop and had to go back. luckily meek and lise understand
japanese cause if it was just me and shin chan i know we'll get lost since
we've actually gotten lost on our way to ala moana from UH. and also that
time we're were on the air force base and on our way back to the softball
field we ended up in some restricted take off/landing site. lol!!
well we got back and rode a taxi back to 38 moya. we picked up food at
some store on the way back just in time for the 10 curfew.

hmm... what else happened... oh one day we had to wake up at like 4:30am
to help clean the floors. that was cool but my knees really hurt
afterward. oh we went shopping at the hondori (is that right, meek?) i
bought some sweaky shoes and balls for my nieces, manju, mochi, cakes,
iso peanuts, and some kind of kakimochi mix for omiyage. i bought a cute
little doraemon clock. i bought a pokemon/pikachu backpack. i bought
takuya iron on patches. lol! oh ya i forgot that i bought more cds
earier which had more 1st press V6 singles new. and i bought V6's space,
kamisen's ? and sky. oh i got film clips and more used for only 1200 yen
i think. oh i'm also happy i got smap's sumairu senshi oto ranger. but i
think it says otomatsu or something as the artist. can someone explain
this? i even brought back some sodas. i love that kirin apple and grape
sodas. they're not as fizzy as the sodas in america. i like that. oh
and i like that cc lemon drink but you can buy that at the daiei here. oh
and not to mention the calpis stuff. lol!

sadly i didn't get to go in the furo! argh! my feet were so sore i could
have used it. argh and i didn't see too many cute guys. i was to busy
looking for smap ads and stuff at those stores. ya know there are a lot
of little stores that sell smap/idol/rock stuff. i bought a V6 mini
calender at this one store and a smap calender at another. and they have
those photos everywhere and a bunch of other little junks. it's cool.

the plane ride back i swear i slept as soon as we got up in the air and
didn't wake up till around an hour before we landed and we recieve those
hot towels before we get the snack. btw on our way there, on the jpop
station there was another lady singing yozora no mukou. anyone know who
she's supposed to be?? oh and there was a drink called uki uku which i
think shingo says in alohawaii.

home