This is Shibuya. I think. Kinda hard to tell one part of Tokyo from another from my pics -_-”

Day 2 of my End of Summer (WRRY???) weeaboo travels brought me from Nagoya to Tokyo in less than 8 hours! (Total time spent in trains should’ve amounted to about 6 hours. the rest was stopping at Shizuoka along the way to grab a bentou lunch, and deciding that the weather was too bad for my planned stop to gaze at Mt Fuji). And after arriving in Tokyo sometime in the afternoon and being subjected to the mind bogglingly disorientating mass of coloured lines (exaggerated much?) that is supposed to represent Tokyo’s train system, I decided it’d be safest for me to just stick to the light green Yamanote line for the rest of the day (and perhaps the rest of my time in Tokyo) since it’s basically a round trip around the city.

First stop, Shibuya (I know I have this picture right. Ignore the finger) where… I really had nothing better to do than to be swamped by the early evening crowd and wander about looking for Hachiko(’s statue) because of NANA… well seriously, I couldn’t really think of that many things to do while in Tokyo off the top of my head after all :P

Don’t ask, I just couldn’t help puking a little LOL-ing at this one.

After wandering about around the Hachiko exit of Shibuya station, I finally realized I had been circling around and around the famed monument for a quite a while without realizing it -_-” So, tah-dah, Hachiko, probably the most famous (?) waiting spot in all of Shibuya in memory of the loyalty displayed by one fine specimen of man’s best friend… (I’m trying to remember if cute-sy semi-annoying Nana from NANA lived up to this nickname)

Speaking of NANA…

Those who’ve watched the anime/read the manga probably recognize the name of this place, and I’m pretty sure this is the place the Jackson Hole in NANA is based on. After reading the volume of the manga where they were pimping out the actual place out at the end (they did it in the anime too I think, but that would be giving Shizue Nana some form of credit), I decided it should be worth a visit. Well, I only had some odd information in moonrunes I googled to go upon (which was probably outdated), and after getting off at Choufu (調布) station and ‘reaching’ the spot indicated by the rough online map I had (I actually passed it several times before -_-”), I realized that the place has either shut down or moved… Since the building where it was supposedly housed in was err, gone.

Jackson Burger. Tastes a whole lot better than it looks from the pic. Or I was just really hungry then.

Phoned the place up to confrm that Jackson Burger Hole still exists (I accidentally messed up and asked if it was Jackson ‘Burger‘, since dinner was all on my mind at that time -_-” The guy who picked up the call didn’t sound too amused to have the place made to sound liek a fast food joint…), and was now on the other side of the station. Had the ‘famed’ Jackson Burger for dinner supper (place was packed the first time I reached there). Too add to the fail experience, not only did my backpack-toting otaku self look sorely out of place in the cowboy bar setting of the place (I didn’t dare take any pictures after the burger. Pretty cool interior I have to say, albeit a little cramped), since I’m ‘underaged’ by Japanese law (20), I had to order an cup of oolong tea just to sit at the bar ORZ At least I got some was (salty) nachos…

After the rather sad interesting experience at Jackson Hole, and ascertaining that the hotels in Choufu were way beyond my budget (and I didn’t se a single capsule hotel/internet cafe), I decided to go back to the Yamanote line and do a little Tokyo night roaming. Not that I could do much since it was drizzling the entire time…

This is what Shinjuku looks like at night, in the rain, and through the shoddy lens of a n00b phoographer.

I had more pictures of Shinjuku and its skyscrapers from that night, but they all turned out like crap. And I didn’t really walk too far because fo the rain (and I forgot to research which buildings CLAMP last destroyed in X).

Harhar, Sunshine City… At night. Gettit? (OTL)

Got to Ikebukuro, and though I knew it was way late, I still wanted to at least know where Otome Road was for the next day. The cop I asked sent me Sunshine City way when I asked how to get to the Animate store (that’s as much research as I probably did), though he did ask me if I knew the place was obviously closed for the night…

Assuming you got off at the correct side of Ikebukuro station, it really shouldn’t be a problem getting to Sunshine City – at night at least, since all you have to do is follow the blue glow of this building next to it. And basking under its glow…

Otome Road. At night. When all the stores are closed and the streets are mostly deserted and it was slightly creepy. Nothing much of interest to do at that time of night (and all the stores close at about 8:30 or something), so I tracked back to one of the many internet cafes I passed along the way…

That’s all for today. Coming up next post: The dullest post on Akihabara, ever!