I went to Japan earlier this summer at the end of June/beginning of July! (✿ ♥‿♥) My husband had the honor of his art being displayed in the national art museum there as part of an international ink painting exhibition. We decided to go during this specific week so that we could make the awards dinner!
I'm going to share the photos of the first day with you! I don't think all of the posts will be this long but I took a ton of photos on the first day because that's when we visited the museum that had my husband's art displayed (▰˘◡˘▰)
It was over a day of travel time to Japan from where we are in the US, so the actual "first" day was pretty much just us going to donki and going to bed since it was already around 6 pm. Our longest plane ride was about 13 hours ●‿● I was super super nervous about it since the longest plane ride I was on before that was... like ONE hour, plus I'd never left the country before. My one saving grace was that I knew Sam and 109 were waiting for me on the other side xD. And that Sam speaks Japanese and wouldn't let anything bad happen to us. I was pleasantly surprised that the plane didn't make me sick at all, and it was really just like being on a long car trip as long as i didn't too deeply consider that I was so high up in the air over an ocean (O∆O)
This is probably not what you care about, but I was sort of amused by how large some of the airports were, and when we went through texas I was counting cowboy hats. I think I counted 9. hahaha. I had to calm myself somehow before getting on that insane flight. I feel bulletproof now, I can travel pretty much anywhere I want to go and it's way less time on a plane than that.
The first full day we woke up early and decided to wander around Shibuya where we were staying. We actually stayed super close to 109 so ofc I was constantly taking photos of it. I think I almost cried the first time I saw it hahaha. I couldn't believe it was really real and I was actually seeing it in front of me. My dad got to see 109 a few years before me because he visited Tokyo on a work trip, which was absolutely NOT fair (◡︿◡✿) He sent me photos and asked if this was "my mall". So seeing it in real life was like a religious experience, I got to make the gal pilgrimage. I still can't believe I got to see it and shop there and everything. I actually thought that the entire thing was the cylinder, I was a little shocked when I found out it has a rectangle part xD I just thought it was a really wide circular building LOL.
As usual if you wanna see a better photo you can click on them!!
Our hotel had a mini donki inside xD
the shibuya mega don hahaha I bought about 10000 pairs of lashes here immediately after checking into the hotel and we kept going back to wander and buy drinks. The availability of alcohol in Japan shocked me since it's kind of taboo in the US? I don't know about where you live, but it seems the alcohol laws in the US are quite strict compared to other places. In my state it has to even be in it's own special state owned store, so seeing it in this random stuff store just out and about was so interesting.
Also it had this enormous screen outside with some kpop boy group we kept calling the lobotomy boys because they had such vacant stares xD
I was very enamored with Shibuya, Japanese cities are so much different than where I'm from :0 I was honestly really entertained just walking around and not even going inside anywhere. One thing I noticed was that holy cow this city has ads. Every spare space has an ad and a lot of them are also playing music? I wasn't really bothered by it, it was more just fascinating to me since it's not something I've ever seen before. And it was true what I heard about Japan... it's so clean. Even for being the partying area, we walked past bars where someone had lined up the empty beer cans/bottles. It was such an interesting experience for me since I love cities and had never been to another country before. It was all so overwhelming but peaceful.
A bit later we met up with our friend Sam in Roppongi to see the art museum (✿◠‿◠) We hadn't seen her in such a long time so we were really looking forward to spending time with her on this trip!
I had to really narrow down the pictures I'm putting on this post because i took SO many at the art museum.
The two above are my husband's paintings (this pic is better if u click to make it bigger) ≧◡≦ I'm so proud of him! He also carved the large stamp on the dragon painting. It's still amazing to think that his art was displayed in a museum in another country... especially the country where this art form is from. And to think we just randomly met our painting teacher at an art festival at home because she liked my nails! It really was fate.
Below are some more photos from the gallery!
These were some of the paintings that I really enjoyed. There must have been over a hundred, from all over the world! It was beautiful to see how people from different places used the ink painting style to portray their native animals, plants, and landscapes. The point of the exhibit was to encourage people all around the world to love and participate in ink painting since the art is declining in popularity in Japan and the ink painting society wants to save it for future generations. It was also amazing to be able to see ink paintings in real life, because museums in the US don't tend to have them.
Then we got lunch at this random little restaurant in what is I guess normally a bar? It sounded like they were renting it out during the day. I had beef and it was really good, and I'm always craving miso soup. I'm kinda hungry thinking about it... I haven't eaten very well since returning.
Okay so this next part is kinda foggy lol. I am wearing the same outfit, so this must've been the same day xD Anyways we're just gonna pretend it is even if I'm wrong.
We ended up going to Kabukicho and we got to go to the Ma*rs store ≧◡≦
okay look how funny this photo is. You may have to click to make it larger. Sam accidentally took the photo so that we are in some weird spotlight, and it looks like we are photoshopped in.
I'm fairly certain this was also the day where some random (definitely tourist) white guy pulled out a camera and took a photo of me??? I don't understand because I don't even look that interesting especially not to another tourist? And I'm 100% sure it was a photo of me too. It was so bizarre lol. Hope you got a glamour shot. xD
Ma*rs was so cute!! I ended up buying an outfit here. I don't normally wear Jirai like on a daily basis, but I do enjoy it from time to time and Ma*rs/Princess Melody is my favorite brand so I was very excited to splurge here. I didn't take a photo on this day but I did wear it later in Harajuku! I felt very trendy ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ
At some point during this day we also went to a wine bar, so japanese I know xD. We all had summer sangrias that were super good and Sam was very excited to see bread again like we have at home.
I look bizarre here but we ended the day by eating taco bell because we thought it was funny xD I think they also sold alcohol here?! Japan was certainly a party ﾍ(￣▽￣*)ﾉ
See you soon for more!! These posts will probably get interrupted by your regularly scheduled Rae posting, but look out for them sometime soon! We were there 2 weeks so I gotta consolidate.
