Posts from 2017
Nagoya
Let’s continue Firework Friday with more pictures from the Gamagori Firework Display.
That day, we arrived at the station around 10:30 am. A coworker, the person who organized this outing, lives in Gamagori, while the rest of us live along the Tokaido Line.
We made sure to reserve our spot early by putting down tarps, weighed down with plastic water bottles filled with tap water and an insane amount of duct tape.
I get lost a lot. On my way to a cat cafe, I got lost in east Shinjuku.
What should have been a ten minute walk turned into a half an hour of google maps telling me to try and walk through buildings.
Every time I thought I was finally going the right way, my phone would ping-pong and tell me to go in a different direction.
As I often tell my mom, my sense of adventure is strong but my sense of direction is not.
I can get lost walking home to a place I lived for thirty years. In fact I have, several times.
Regardless, I found it eventually. Now, how do I get back to the station? The answer eludes me.
Did you know that I’m a huge video game nerd? Well, now you do.
Yesterday was overcast and a bit rainy, but didn’t stop us from waking up early to explore. I woke up around six, but didn’t get out of bed until nearly six thirty. That’s also something my body has forgotten all about: a legit bed. I’ve been sleeping on futons, in chairs, standing on packed trains, people’s floors, uncomfortable highway bus seats, and the occasional internet cafe recliner for the past year. Needless to say, I was out as soon as my body hit the bed.
After going to a few temples, eating shaved ices, and saying hello to the local yam-man (who now also serves corn), I headed back to Tokyo to see if the Square Enix cafe was open.
I’ve been a huge fan of their games since I was in middle school and have been to their shop when I visited Japan five years ago.
Well, of course I got lost in the station. I had to take the Oedo Line one stop and walk a couple of minutes. I found it eventually and added my name to the long waiting list for access to the cafe. I planned to try their smoked salmon salad and a cup of tea, but I had to wait so long that I had to order from the dinner menu. I ordered a smoked salmon salad and an apple juice for about ¥850. They were…okay.
The store itself was pretty small and focused on selling overpriced merch, which I did end up buying. I am now the proud owner if a small plastic Laguna Loire keyfob. Set me back a little over ¥700.
Firework Fridays are an annual event on this blog which started a couple of years ago.
My friends and I go to a fireworks show, I take a ton of pictures, and the best pictures get displayed here.
This year we have a selection from Gamagori’s famous display at the end of July.
So, I arrived in Tachikawa yesterday and today was the first day I had some time to explore. Yesterday was super hot and muggy so I spent most of the day indoors, sitting under the air conditioner.
Today, I spent some time with my friends from New York, at the biggest ear of corn I’ve ever seen, and talked about my plans concerbing the future.
Tomorrow I will be seeing a few other friends before heading back to Tokyo proper for some sightseeing. I’ve been West of the Yamanote line a few times before, so I’m going to check out the Eastern bits. Around 11:30 pm, I’ll catch a bus back to Nagoya.
It’s Obonyasumi, so I’m traveling to Tachikawa to see my friends again.
I decided to take an early morning highway bus to Shinjuku station, from where I will take a train to Tachikawa. The train ride is about an hour.
The bus ride is about six hours. We left at eight twenty and didn’t arrive until after two. There were two short stop offs at reststops to use the bathrooms and grab snacks. I couldn’t really find anything I wanted so I snacked on mochi and grapes.
I will be in Tachikawa for three days before I go back to Nagoya and Anjo.
I went to a fireworks show in Gamagori with some friends last weekend. It was terribly hot, but the show was definitely worth it.
