chocolate_chip

So, sometime between cherry blossoms and Golden Week, yhibiki and I went to the Monkey Park. Basically, it's a place where you pay money to climb up a mountain and get attacked by wild monkeys. We also found an amazingly good ice cream shop that had strawberry cookies 'n' cream. :9

( have some monkey pictures )

Then rkold came for Golden Week, and we went to Kurama and Kibune. There were lots of stairs, but it was nice, because they still had cherry trees in bloom at Kurama-dera.

( Kurama and Kibune )

Then we went up to Tokyo for the long weekend. At first I tried to do Important Cultural Things, but after half a day of that, I finally accepted that Tokyo really is only good for shopping and seeing the places that were in X. The National Museum of Western Art has lots of Rodin sculptures, though, and since Rodin is one of my favorite sculptors, that was cool. I went there and to Ueno Park to find a cherry tree in bloom on Saturday while Rachel was at Super Comic City, and then I went to the Diet Building and the Imperial Palace for a little bit.

( Ueno Park, home to pshychopaths and stray cats )

Sunday, I decided to go to SCC with Rachel, and I actually made a lot of good finds. I got a bunch of really good FMA books (both Elricest and Roy/Ed), some more S/N from Pitophuii, some HikaGo, and I found a circle that does Yuuta-centric St. Rudolph doujinshi in which Kaneda has a huge crush on Yuuta and Yuuta is completely oblivious. XD I also learned to stay far far away from Kuroshitsuji doujinshi. :P

After that, we went to Meiji Jingu and Harajuku. We went to Volks, which is decorated with very cute and very slashy Tony/Hewitt and Lucas/Chris comics (Black Cat Lucas and White Cat Chris ordering an FCS together is a metaphor for them having a baby, y/y?), and went shopping at the used punk and loli stores. And we ate dinner at a place that had REAL pepperoni on their pizza! T^T I was sooooo happy.

( most of the places we went didn't allow photos, so there aren't many pictures under this cut )

On Monday, we headed over to Asakusa to see Senso-ji. And it was packed. We forced our way through the crowds to the main hall, and as we were exiting it, we noticed that there was something coming through the crowd towards us. And that's when we realized it was Children's Day, and we'd crashed the festival. There was a boat-shaped float pulled by a bunch of kids, and kids playing instruments were riding on it. It went right past us, so we ended up being in the perfect spot without even trying. Then we took a look at the grounds and the festival stands, and Rachel got her cock-on-a-stick. And we found a gelato place! Soooo good~ And then we went to Nakano and Ikebukuro for more shopping. XD

( Senso-ji )

Rachel had to leave early on Tuesday, so I went to Tokyo Tower by myself. And the stuff that everyone says about the Tokyo Tower mascots? They're even worse. @_@ I got there in time to just barely make out Mt. Fuji through the haze, but by the time I made it through the line for the special observation deck, it had disappeared. After Tokyo Tower, I went to the Pokémon Center, lol, and then to Sunshine 60, where you really can have your love fortune told at the top, but it's a palm reader, not an astrologer.

( I can feel the destiny! )

@_@ I'm so far behind now that I can't even remember what the next update is supposed to be. Fuji, I think?

Also, fuck you, photobucket.

So, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I decided that I wanted to go to Chion-in to see them ring the bell for New Year's. It's the biggest bell in Japan, and weighs about 80 tons. It takes 17 monks to swing the ramrod hard enough to ring the bell. So obviously, the New Year's ringing is a pretty big deal. ^^

I left my place around 9:00, and I was surprised that the subway was so empty. There weren't many people on the way to the temple, either, but once I got there, it was packed. There were lots of foreigners there as well, so I didn't feel so out-of-place. This creepy American/Canadian guy tried to play tour guide for me though, coming up out of nowhere all like, "This is called Chion-in Temple," and not even pronouncing it right. And I'm like, yeah, I don't make it a habit of wandering around the city at midnight, so I know where I am, thanks. There was of course a huge line winding around the temple grounds to see the bell. I didn't know what was going to happen, so I just stood there with everyone else. Then, when the bell started ringing, everyone shoved forward, and the line slowly filed up to the belfry and past the bell. It was really cool; the monks had this special chant, and when the bell rung, you could feel it through your whole body. There were also monks praying right underneath the bell. >.o I think they must be deaf now.

After I saw the bell, it wasn't midnight yet, and I didn't feel like going home, so I went to Yasaka-jinja for hatsu-mode. I didn't realize it at the time, but that's the most popular shrine in Kyoto to go to for hatsu-mode, and once it opens, there is a LOT of shoving. As in, your only choices are keep up with the crowd or get trampled. It was kind of scary. But once we got to the main hall, it let up a bit. I stayed away from the main shrine and instead found a nice Inari shrine that was quiet and all lit up. After that, I got some hamu-katsu from one of the million food stands/tiny shops/shooting galleries all around the shrine, and enjoyed my walk along the willow-lined river back to the subway station.

My flickr page is all updated now, for anyone who wants to see more photos. ^^ I waited two weeks to be able to upload again, and then they were all like, "Oh, we can't actually SHOW your pictures to anyone unless you give us monies." So I ended up buying a paid account anyway. >.>