:3

Two days ago we went to the Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi. It was a nice rural 2-and-a-half-hours train ride that involved a lot of sitting and waiting because I miscalculated our departure time and we got there a half hour before the first train. I could have slept in...

The park was pretty and had lots of nice flowers in it. Or so I heard, because I didn't go in. I was feeling disgruntled about the expensive train fare and my entire lower body ached for some reason so I sat outside and did some origami and listened to music.
Here's some pictures anyways.







After that we waited another half hour for the next train and made it back to Akihabara for what was intended to be a late lunch but ended up being the first meal of the day at 4pm.



Tonkatsu ochazuke. It's pretty good but I prefer it crispy.



The Toranoana has an entire floor dedicated to Touken Ranbu, most of which is saucy boys love. But they had some pretty stands.









^For Reiu.

I can't believe they show these in public

(Artfully censored for your convenience, unless you choose to look closely at the unblurry parts.)

Fate section:



(I didn't buy this)



Another fate section sandwiched unfortunately between more gay comics.



A very large chunk of PVC.



An ass.



My loot from the gacha hall. Only some of it is mine, three are my friend's. Somehow we managed to get half of them with no repeats at all. After this it was raining harder and harder so I stopped by a few stores to find their game prices and left.


The next day we went to Shinjuku. It was boring.



There was a love sign like in NYC.



Tentacles for sale in the basement of a department store. They had free samples of smoked salmon, iced tea and chiffon cake.



Hanazono shrine, right in the middle of the city.



A cute bakery we passed by to eat some lunch at. They had turtle melonpan and it was super cute but I didn't buy any. Instead, I had a quiche.



Kumano shrine, also in the middle of the city. We sat there for a few hours and watched office workers in their suits come to pray.



We went to a cake buffet by the station. For about $15, you can eat all the cake you want, plus pasta and rice, for 70 minutes.





I think I ate too fast, because I could barely get through 2 plates without starting to retch at the idea of putting more sweet things in my mouth. Instead, I voraciously consumed 2 plates of pasta and a plate of rice before finishing my remaining cake and swallowing my friend's pudding when her stamina also ran out.

I'd go again, because the pasta was quite good and I didn't get the chance to try their made-to-order items. But I feel like then the point of going has been lost...


Yesterday we went to Hakone. It was drizzling while we were on the train (I love the naming of the express train, one of them is called the Romancecar Super Hakone 13), and as we rose into the mountains the rain gradually became heavier.
We checked into our ryokan by Gora station and decided to go eat lunch first because official check-in wasn't until later. Kyokushi recommended this one restaurant so we decided to brave the rain, which by this point had become an umbrella-ripping monster complete with all the necessary bursts of wind.



As you go west from the Gora station, you have to climb the mountain up roads whose slopes average about 45 degrees. We walked up halfway there, realized that we couldn't cross the train tracks, walked back down a quarter way, crossed the train tracks, and kept going up to the top. At this point no part of my body was dry except for, oddly enough, my upper torso.

After getting closer to our destination, we ambled around leisurely, clutching our umbrellas for dear life every time a gust of wind threatened to tear them from our hands (or just rip them apart). Somehow my phone and its GPS were still functional, and we finally found it.

A sign by the entrance noted that it was closed for lunch that day.

So we walked back, trying not to run too fast down the 45-degree slopes, as my friend imagined what foul words she could say to Kyokushi when we returned to civilization and wi-fi.



We found a cute little shrine, where we prayed for the safety of the paper documents stuck in our bags, such as our passports and money and hotel reservation confirmations and rail passes.

At least dinner at the ryokan was good. It was super awkward since it was in a restaurant instead of our own room, and we were waiting with a bunch of old grannies and got called in with awkward English and I am never sure when to tell people that Japanese is OK.









The plum liquor at the beginning and the dessert were the best part of the meal by far.

At this point we explored the baths and I will leave this part out unless someone is really interested.

They also had free popsicles and yogurt drinks by the bath and free ramen at 10:30 and snacks in the room.



The 夜鳴きそば。The soup was very salty.



Breakfast the next day. I ate too much. We then rushed to catch the bullet train.



Another ass, this time in Nagoya.