Thursday, 25th December! Christmas!

Today is our last full day in Japan. We got up and ate the hotel breakfast which was Japanese food only. It was okay, but not great. As usual Chucky was anti. I think he just wants weeties.
I HATE WEETIES.
Despite feeling jibbly, we went out on the train to Akihabara Electric Town. We took the Yamanote line because it is JR and as such we get free travel on our passes. Isn't Chucky clever to book us a hotel on the Yamanote line? Clever boy.
Electric Town is just full of electric parts shops, anime shops, computer and other electrical appliance shops, and maid cafes. We saw a beautiful Lolita and followed her discreetly. She went into a maid cafe where she probably works.
We looked at headphones all morning trying to find some nice noise-cancelling ones for the plane. It was great. I got some pink ones and Chucky got some extremely nice ones. The morning was not spoiled at all, even when I had an upset stomach.
Next we took the train to Ebisu, because I wanted to see what it was like. The train took about half an hour. On the train there were two girls who were totally goth-loli and looked amazing. One had blue hair! Yebisu Garden Place is a place visited a lot in my favourite J-drama, so we went there and took photos of us being like film stars. I can't believe I stood where Matsumoto Jun and Inoue Mao stood!
Lunch was a McDonald's affair, which was surprisingly awesome. I think people take their jobs very seriously in Japan, whatever their job is. It makes for good burgers.
We took the train another stop to Shibuya, where there is a famous pedestrian crossing. It was amazingly busy and was packed with beautiful people. I followed another Lolita for a while until she got boring. Shibuya has lots of big video screens and neon signs, very exciting. I was mainly astounded by the beautiful people. We went to a few shops but didn't buy anything. We were starting to feel tired.
We walked to Harajuku. I love Harajuku. First we went to the Laforet building basement where there are many awesome fashion shops, including Metamorphose, Angelic Pretty, and Putamayo. I bought a ring and some earrings, all with deer on them. They were from different shops but go together well. I still didn't buy anything from Metamorphose. I'm beginning to dislike their thing of having everything stupidly overpriced just because it's a name brand that people want to show. We also saw two guys who were the most incredible goths - white makeup and long straight hair with blonde streaks.
We walked down the famous pedestrian street in Harajuku and had fun looking at people and shops. At Harajuku station we took the train back to our hotel and collapsed.
We got dinner at a don restaurant. I got Buta-don (pork rice bowl) which was better than usual. There was only one guy working at the shop. He was doing the cooking and the serving and was incredible. I felt sorry for him, because people kept coming in and saying "Sumimasen!" while he was cooking.
Got two desserts at am/pm - one cream and cake dessert and one creme broulee. The creme broulee was the best ever.

Wednesday, 10th of December

Chrissy: Today we moved into a different room within this Hotel. It's a bigger room and has an ensuite bathroom, which means we don't have to use the communal toilet and shower or go to the public baths. They were scary. Everything about this room is nicer: nicer curtains, nicer cups, nicer saucers, nicer kettle, nicer futons, nicer table, nicer cupboard, nicer light. However, Chucky noted with disappointment that the toilet is not heated and doesn't have a bidet. He says he's going to use the communal toilet anyway. I think he should start a blog about Bidets of Japan.
We took a bus around 9:30 to get to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion. It's woderful to enter this temple's grounds to see such a visage. Up close it was beautiful too. It has a rooster weather vein on top of the roof, and the thatched roof was steaming in the sun.
The gardens were not as amazing as Ginkakuji, but I really enjoyed looking at the pond and the little islands in it. It was a clear still morning, just perfect for viewing reflections in the water.
Next we thought we'd go to Ryoanji, which is supposed to be famous for its Zen garden. We walked about 500m in A Direction when we realised it was also the Wrong Direction. Then we decided to go somewhere else instead.
We went to a bakery and got some Meron bread and a pastry called a Curry France. I liked it mostly because it sounds more like our percussion teacher than a food. It was curry. The meron bread was delicious. It is a bun-shaped bread with a crisp layer of sugar on the outside.
We took the bus to Nijo-jo (Nijo Castle). At the bus stop, some schoolgirls wanted photos with us for some reason, and they had to take one with each of their 3 cameras. They could only say "Excuse me! Camera!" and gesticulate. So we posed with them in our usual punch pose which they enjoyed a lot.
Nijo Castle is most famous for its Nightingale squeaking floors. These were made so that ninjas couldn't creep up on the Shogun. I tried sneaking and I ended up squeaking. It's amazing! It's done by putting metal wedges under the floorboards so that they rub together. Then we walked the grournds of the castle. It has two moats! And a garden with 300 Special Rocks from All Over Japan!
We were pretty tired then. So we took the bus back to our hotel, bought some foods from the 7-11 and ate and rested.
Later, we went out again and I finally got to see my shop, Metamorphose. The first and second nights we couldn't find it, and then yesterday we found it but it was closed. It was a great shop! Pretty big for a Lolita shop. It had a couple of beautiful dresses and some lovely accessories and socks and things. The petticoats were... 10,100 yen... so I didn't buy one. I didn't buy anything actually, but I had a great time looking.
Then we went down a road with lots of electronics shops for Charles. We found a shop with lots of cool headphones so he was happy for a while.

Charles: The electronics shop was great, but they had the most headphones I've ever seen ANYWHERE. Sony, Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Denon, Bose and even Stax. They had some Stax electrostatic earspeakers on display which I tried out. Ridiculously cool.

Chrissy: We ate dinner at an Okonomiyaki shop which was amazingly delicious. We walked all the way home, which was quite a way. At a convenience store I bought a dessert which was creamy and cakey and chocolatey yum.
Tomorrow we're going to go to the Kyoto Costume institute, despite its website saying that it has 3 dresses and 4 undergarments on display. I'm hoping that it's more like 400 dresses and it was lost in translation.