Day 4: Sapporo

Honestly, a lot of things happened on the second day that I wanted to write about (when it was happening), but by the time we got back to the dorm we were staying at I was just too tired. And by now, a week later, the memory of the two days have kind of blurred together ^^;

Second day, our view.

Read more...

Day 3 - Sapporo!

 

Sapporo Dome!

 

The first day of Sapporo Dome! Kelly and I arrived in Sapporo at around 9:30 in the morning, and by the time we reached our hostel we were ready to just crash into our beds and sleep til noon. Instead, we went back out and slogged through the snow to get to Sapporo Dome, to buy goods! Luckily, there wasn't really a queue for goods today. One of the girls at our hostel told us that the earphone jacks (which are red for Sapporo, by the way. Yay!) sold out the day before. Thanks to the lack of queue, we got all our goods pretty quickly. This also meant that we had extra hours to kill, and all the nearby restaurants and cafes were completely full (with Arashi fans, of course). There was a display of Nino's Pocky ads at a supermarket we passed. The entire area was crowded with fans buying Pocky, because they had a special where if you bought two boxes, you get a devil horns headband. I bought a couple, to give to my sister, who's a Nino fan.

Read more...

Day 2 - Keikarou

 

 

 

 

 

Read more...

Day 1 - Harajuku/Shibuya

On our first day we were going to wander around a few places, but ended up mostly just in the Harajuku and Shibuya area. We started out late, and headed straight to the Johnny's Shop (I didn't go on my last trip) for Popcorn shop photos. I also got a couple of Eito pics, but not as many as I would like to. Still ended up spending more than I thought >_<

Read more...

Japan - Day 1: Goods

I'm going to sleep now, so... lets just say, I spent about seven hours in the goods queue today. >.<

When we were near the stadium we heard bits of One Love, Love Rainbow and Step and Go. Seeing the set list from today's concert reports, we saw that yes, the songs are included. Also, apparently at today's concert Arashi reported their Dome tour! (Also an album, but that's another story for another time) Which would be called Popcorn, lol. Well, I didn't go to today's concert and haven't read full reports, so I'm not sure why the name, and what makes it different from Arafes. But now I'm wondering, do I save up like crazy to catch the ending of the Popcorn tour, or do I wait for the next Arafes, for 2013? Questions, questions.

Guess I'd better be used to the super-limited budget I set for my food/expenses when saving for this trip.

I also went to Mandarake in Ikebukuro. I was going to go to at least one of the other branches, but in the end I was to tired to do so. Found a lot of interesting things, anyway :)

Read more...

Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 13: Odaiba/Fuji TV

We met up with Kishiko, Ono-chan and Siti for a trip to Odaiba ~ I didn't get to go  on my last trip, so I decided that I had to fit it in this time, despite the fact that it cost quite a lot and we were running on a tight budget :p It was fun, anyway, because it's my first time in Odaiba as an Arashian, so the kinds of stuff we did/looked at this time were completely different from all my previous trips.

In the evening Salwa and I went on to meet her friend, another Arashian for a quick dinner and trip to Mandarake. The day after would be our last (technically speaking), which we spent in Ikebukuro and Meiji-jingu with Kishiko and Siti. On our actual last day we spent the whole day at Haneda, so this actually concludes our trip. Until next time, I guess? ^^

Read more...

Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 12, Part 3

The best part of the Keikarou trip, for me, was Aiba's mom, of course. She's still really kakkoii, and she talked to us for a bit when we were paying for our food and some of the new phone straps (Salwa and I both got a strap for ourselves, and I got an extra for Illy). We told her that we've been to Keikarou before, separately, and when she asked why we're in Japan this time we told her that it was for Arashi's concert. She asked if it was the Fukuoka con.

US:　Yeah, it was.
HER: Sho-kun's birthday?
US: Yes! We were really lucky to catch that. It was fun.
HER: *gesturing, indicating a miniskirt while grinning* Cosplay?
US: *laughing and nodding* That, too.

I was wondering what she thought of Aiba's cosplay, so I suppose the fact that she seemed so very amused is the answer XD. She asked where we were from, and when we answered, she commented that we must be so unused to the cold, since Malaysia's so hot. They had pictures of Langkawi (with notes scribbled on them) hung in the restaurant, so we suspect that she, or another member of the Aiba family, have vacationed here before!

Read more...

Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 12, Part 2

I ordered the gyoza, and Salwa ordered an omelette and rice, so that we could share. We also ordered the goma-dango because Steph recommended it when I told her we're going to Keikarou. Once we were done with our orders, we (and everyone at the other tables) started taking photos of everything we could, haha.

The gyoza wasn't bad - my favourite would still be Tenkaichi's, but Keikarou's gyoza are huge and satisfying ^^. We saw someone at a nearby table with chilli prawns, which had Salwa salivating, so we ordered that as well. I think I enjoyed the food a lot more this time, compared to my previous trip to Keikarou!

Read more...

Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 12, Part 1

The plan for Monday (23rd January) was a visit to Keikarou!

Salwa and I met at Makuhari-Hongo Station at around 10am (the plan was to meet at 9am, but she was late due to taking the wrong train) - I was coming from Asakusa while Salwa was only just coming back from her host family's place, if I remember it right. Anyway, we wanted to go early because the last time I went with Shida, we arrived at 11am and lined up all noon, just to be told that we had to come back for dinner ^^;

This time the crowd wasn't so bad when we arrived, though, and we ended up being among the first to be let in once they opened for lunch.

Read more...

Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 11

(On Day 10, I went to Yokohama and hung out with Kishiko, Iman and Salwa, before going to ONE OK ROCK's Yokohama Final live. So, besides purchasing the Pikanchi box at the end of this post, that day had nothing to do with Arashi fangirling).

Day 11 - Met Steph in Shibuya in the morning, before heading to Yokohama together! It was great because I finally got to meet her in person (one of my favourite fic writers!) and while I love Yokohama, I've never gone there as a fangirl ^^;

Read more...

Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 9

Day 9 (Jan 19th) really wasn't supposed to be about Arashi at all, but instead about the other great love of my life - books. Met up with Ono-chan to see the buildings of some of my favourite publishers, and browse through many, many antiquarian bookstores.

And then, of course, I found out that even when I don't go looking for Arashi, they'll still appear in front of me. In the form of back issues of magazines. I actually found magazines and newspapers from/about their debut, but photos weren't allowed and the mags were too expensive (of course) to buy, so I treated the whole thing like a wonderful museum experience, stared at all the old mags, calendars, chirashis, movie pamphlets, and shop photos in awe (not to mention J-Rock memorabilia! But that's another story to be told in another blog/time), and moved on. These are some of the not-so-valuable items, displayed outside the store -

Read more...

Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 8 (Cont.)

The rest of the pictures from Day 8. I don't know the usefulness of posting these as I posted JFC photos back in 2010, too, I think, but never mind that ^^;

Read more...

Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 6 - 8

The day after the concert Salwa and I left Fukuoka very early in the morning, stopping at Shin-Kobe just around lunch time. In Kobe we met with an old friend of mine, who recently moved there from Osaka. He and his wife took us to lunch and around town, which was really nice of them, and I'm really glad I got to see them, because usually I only go to Tokyo and never get to see my friends who live elsewhere. Anyway, besides picking up lots of Hitachi and AU pamphlets, we didn't see or do anything Arashi-related, but I did find this place that sold unofficial phone straps:

Read more...

Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 5

I don't think I can say anything about this day again, so I'm putting in the entry I wrote on Dreamwidth, with pics I hadn't put in there :D

Read more...

Long Overdue Trip Post! - Day 4

The 14th was a really exciting day ^^ - we had agreed to go line up for goods with the four Arashians we met at our hostel, so we left very early in the morning for Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome. The thing was, we thought we were super early; there were literally no one in the streets when we walked out and it was still very dark out, and even the bus only had one or two other passengers in it. But almost every stop had more and more Arashians coming in - people with Arashi totes, phone straps, etc., people dressed up in their ichiban's colours, and all that. We ran up the stairs to the Dome, stopping only to take a picture of it, and noticed that the queue for goods already went halfway around the Dome.

Read more...

Long Overdue Trip Post! - Days 0-3

The last time I went to Japan, I used an iPhone, which had a Typepad app. Last January I was using (and still am!) Sony's Xperia Arc, and there's no Typepad app on Android that I could find, so I kind of got lazy about updating. Now it's May... and I think I should post these before the year is over ^^;

The first day isn't really a "day"; Salwa and I arrived very late at night, and even managed to miss the last train to our hostel. The next couple of days were spent meeting friends and randomly walking about, so it wasn't really Arashi-oriented at all, but we did manage to spot some stuff :D

Read more...