Want to know what happened for the tour that you can’t tell from just the photos? Here’s the report of the trip.

AKADOT Tour 2009
7/15-7/23/2009

7/15

Meet up with people at 8 AM at LAX.  Departed around 11 AM.

7/16

Arrived 30 min behind schedule at Narita Airport but it didn’t cause any problems with our plans since we got to Shinagawa Prince Hotel before 7 PM.

We gathered people up for the first option of our tour, the Mitama Matsuri at Yasukuni Shrine.  Luckily Akadot Tour is during the summer so we were able to experience a summer festival in japan.  When we got there, the area was crammed with young people with food vendors and game vendors off on both sides.  There were so many choices between takoyaki, yakisoba, shaved ice, skewers, and other delicious foods that it was hard to decide what to eat.  There was even a haunted house off towards the side.  As you walk towards the shrine, there were dancers all dancing in unison as the two taiko drummer beat their drum to the festival music.  Some of the bystanders, both foreigners and Japanese joined in.  At the end was the shrine where people dropped in some coins and made a wish.  People were probably tired from just arriving in Japan, but I think they all forgot about their fatigue when they got to the Mitama Matsuri.

7/17

Woke up at 4 AM to get ready for the Tsukiji Option Tour.  Everyone was on time and we were able to leave the hotel at 5 AM.  Getting to Tsukiji was no problem but there was the issue with the crowdedness of the actual market.  There were so many foreigners that it seemed like we were hindering the fishermans’ job.  We were able to see the auctioning of tuna.  Afterwards, we indulged in some sushi for breakfast.  What better way to finish up a Tsukiji tour but by eating some raw fish that was just freshly caught that day.

We back to the hotel to get everyone else.  This will be the first time the group would be together.  We started the toy shopping section of our tour.  First stop was Akihabara.  Everyone was given 2 hrs of free time but it didn’t seem to be enough.  Everyone had at least 3 bags of goods from different shops.  Our next stop was Ginza where we took them to Sanrio Store, the Sony Building, and the Hakuhinkan Store.  It was an extension of the toy shopping section.  We ended the day with two areas of Tokyo.  Some of the participants decided to go back to Akihabara for more fun that night.

7/18

It was the International Toy Show at Tokyo Big Sight.  The place was filled with different types of toys and lots of kids.  We left the show around noon and headed towards the biggest attraction this summer in Odaiba: the life size Gundam.  Everyone was excited to see it.  Some of them waited in line be able to touch the foot of the Gundam.  Right when we decided to leave, the Gundam started to move.  Everyone started cheering.  Steam came out of the jet propeller, around the legs, arms, and neck.  There was music in the background that as the head of the Gundam moved left and right as its eyes flickered.  It was a great surprise.  Nobody was expecting that show.

Since we were all at Odaiba, everyone had free time to roam around.  There seemed to be a festival at the Fuji Television Building.  There were tents up and a throng of people moving through them.  As some of the people shopped, we took half of them to their Onsen Optional Tour.  They were able to pick their own yukata to wear as they moved from one bath to another.

7/19

Another shopping section of the tour.  We took everyone to Harajuku where we walked through Takeshita Doori right when everything was opening.  It wasn’t too crowded yet.  Then we walked to Kiddyland where they sold different types of Japanese toys and accessories.  Everyone was given some free time to look in the store and roam around Harajuku.

Next portion of the tour was Nakano Broadway.  This was much more crowded because the stores are very small and compact.  It was a 5 or 6 store shopping district in which 3 of the floors were all anime/manga related.  It had a homey feeling than Akihabara.

The last portion of the main tour was the Nakano Matsuri.  There happened to be a matsuri on the day we went to Nakano so we checked it out.  It was a smaller gathering compared to the Mitama Matsuri but this one seemed to be a celebration of Okinawan culture.  There was some dance and drum performances that we watched before we called it a day.

That night, we had a few people who selected the Kingyo Drag Show.  They didn’t know what to expect but when they came out of the show, they were in lost of words.  The show must have been that interesting and new.

7/20

Everyone gathered at 8 AM at the lobby for the Ghibli Museum. Everyone was talking about Miyazaki and his movies until we got there.  We took the “ghibli cat bus” back to the station and went to Shinjuku for the rest of the day.  At Shinjuku, we took them to Hanazono Shrine.  It’s a shrine the houses the entertainment deity.  Then we went to OIOI department store as a meeting spot.  Half of the people went to watch the new movie Evangelion 2.0 while the rest had free time around Shinjuku.

That night was the Tokyo Tower Option.  We walked to the tower and went up the elevator.  You can see the Tokyo city lights clearly.  You can even see the building Godzilla attacked!!

7/21

This was the end for 3 of our tour members’ trips.  We parted ways and headed towards Yokohama.  First stop was Chinatown.  We arrived there around noon and gave everyone free time.  Most people when for lunch.  After about 2 hours, we headed to Minato Mirai.  It was one of those modern shopping centers and other shopping centers around it.  In the distance, you can see an amusement park with a large ferris wheel.  Part of the group wanted to go to the amusement park while the others stayed around the shopping area.

7/22

It was a traditional tour day at Kamakura.  We took a train to Kamakura and walked to Tsuruoka Hachimangu Shrine.  Right when we arrived, the solar eclipse started.  Although it was cloudy, you could still see the sun slowly getting covered by the moon.  Everyone around us were staring and taking pictures of the sky.  Everyone had 1 hour walk around the shrine and we left back to the station to go to our next destination.

Our next stop was Yugahama beach.  It was a short walk from the station.  Although it was the ideal weather for the beach, everyone still seemed excited.  We decided to have a group lunch at one of the “umi no ie” (beach house that serves food/beverages).  Some of the people ate their lunch rather quickly and ran into the ocean to play.  In the distance you could see a large group of people playing “suika wari” (watermelon smashing) on the sand.  Everyone was chanting while one blindfolded person tried to hit a watermelon on the ground.  Before we left the beach, we took a picture with the employee of the beach house and finished our day with other traditional sites in Kamakura: Hase Temple and Daibutsu.

7/23

It was a sad day for everyone.  We had to go back to America.

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