You might have noticed I haven't updated this site for days, it was because I went to Tokyo with my sister! Just like last year, I'm going to share some of the fun bits about my trip.
Around 4 months ago, my sister sent me a link of a flight ticket giveaway, and for whatever reason, I felt like trying it. Because of how many people wanting it, the queue was quite long. I opened the link in my phone, Ipad and laptop, the waiting time was over an hour for my Ipad and laptop, but for some reason, the waiting time on my phone was only 15 minutes, oh shit a miracle. When it was my turn, I quickly wrote down my info and my destination, which is Tokyo because I heard you can buy a lot of stuff there. I kinda had to rush typing the stuff in because I was worried if they will run out of tickets if I'm not fast enough, and I picked a flight time that is a bit awkward (The flight to Tokyo arrives to the destination at 12am). At the end, I was lucky enough to get a free ticket*. I also had to think about the problem of going there alone, because when I try to get another free ticket, all the tickets to Tokyo had sold out. My sister volunteered to spend her own money to accompany there, which was nice of her. However, she accidentally bought a ticket to the wrong airport, which is still in Tokyo, but it takes a bit longer to meet me, oh whatever.
*Additional fees were reqiured to pay
First day(?)
Fast forward to 5 days ago, my sister went to the airport hours before me because her flight is earlier. I was supposed to have lunch, but because I was too worried about forgetting to bring something important, I barely have any apetite. I had a bit of snacks, and a cup noodle, then my clumsy ass spilt the soup all over the floor. Good thing I still have a lot of time, I cleaned up before going out, hoping I cleaned the house enough to not attract bugs. As I was riding the bus, the plane decides to delay the departure time by one hour and ten minutes, I was quite pissed, it's not even enough time for the insurance. So for a couple hours, I kinda just walked about the airport mindlessly.
Then fucking finally, the plane arrived. Unlike my previous flight experience, because the ticket is quite cheap, the service isn't really the same. There are no plane food unless you spend extra money, and I feel a bit more motion sickness, which didn't really happen to me before. After ages of waiting, I got out of the plane and met up with my sister. Despite being midnight, I still wanted to eat ramen. I finally got the opportunity to eat in Ichiran, which so many people said it is worth a try. It is somewhat expensive, but the smell is very nice, also customers have minimal interaction with the waiters if you have heard of it, so it is very good for introverts (like me).
Second day
We went out at 11am to the Ueno Park. It is very fun looking at any birbs, probably because I have a friend who really loves birbs, and that interest has spread to me. But I think the cutest are the prairie dogs, I only knew this animal through memes, but they are shockingly small, and adorable. There were so many of them, and the babies look so smol, and the way they eat looks so much like hamsters, it melted my heart. I also heard this zoo might have capybaras, but we couldn't find where they are, and many parts of the zoo was closing, so we gave up 
When we were walking to the park, we noticed the nearby stores sell nice clothes, so we went back to check them out. I usually have not much interest in clothings, it takes too much time to find one I really like, and they tend to not have my size, pains of being tall. But shockingly, there is a really pretty dress, AND it actually fits me comfortably, fuck yeah.
This next thing we did is something I wished to do in Okinawa, but didn't because I couldn't find anyone to go together. It's maid cafe. My sister said she gets embarrassed very quickly in the maid cafe, but I still wanted to give it a try. It turned out the vibes were quite nice, I get why people might get embarrassed from trying to go with the moe moe energy, but it seems I have left my cringe, and truly enjoyed the moe. Both of us ordered a drink and curry rice. The maid asked to draw something on our drinks, I kinda wanted to ask for a hamster, but it is not really a common thing to draw, so I asked for a cat instead. When it was my sister's turn, she actually asked for a hamster. While the maid struggled a bit drawing the hamster, I think she did a good job capturing the rotundness of a hampter.
The curry I ordered is a bit special, you will need to cast a special spell to turn the curry pink. They gave us a wand and we followed what the maid said, which was difficult because it is a bit long and felt like a tongue twister lol. As for the taste, I was surprised a curry rice from a maid cafe would make me feel like the guy who had a flashback from Ratatouille. There is this restaurant chain that used to sell really tasty omurice curry, but over the years, the quality slowly dropped. And recently when I tried it again, it just taste like rice with flavourless sauce. The maid cafe curry is ridiculously good (or curry in Hong Kong just sucked), I felt kinda heartbroken knowing I wouldn't be able to eat something like this when I get back home. I told a maid that the meal was very tasty... wait did the tasty curry make me overcome my social anxiety? That was a magical experience.
Third day
Despite not having much sleep last night, we had to wake up early for DisneySea. I believe majority of the time we spent there was just standing and waiting, it is normal, but man I could feel my legs and ankles breaking. Going on the rides, I realised I have mostly overcome my fear of rollercoasters and fast rides, the parts I still struggled with are gravity, and especially going upside down, that is way out of my comfort zone. I could tell I'm not that afraid anymore because I ranted that one of the rides is too boring and it only contains fast turns and too many pure darkness moments. I think the most memorable ride is the mansion, whose owner got cursed by a statue. We went on the esculator, which was the ride. We expected it to be story-oriented and less movement, so my sister just placed her bag and phone in front of her. but I held onto my backpack strap, just in case. In front of us, it showed a few scenes about the owner and the statue, then we were quickly sent upwards, and there was a window, showing the view of the park. I was like, "Oh that's a nice view..."
"Wait a fucking se-"
And just like a classic drop tower ride, right after showing you the brilliant view, it drops you at high speeds. Being unprepared, my mind immediately went blank, my feet held onto the back of the seat in front of me, my hand held my backpack straps tight, and my mind just barely had the thought of worrying if my sister's phone is ok. After the ride ended, we laughed, and my sister said during the fall, she saw her phone floating in zero gravity before she rushed to hold it back in the hands. That was terrifying, but it was the funniest thing of that day.
Oh and also, my sister uses Cosmos as an excuse to have me take more pictures. The conversations often goes like this:
Sister: "Hey wanna take a pic here?"
Me: "Nah don't wanna"
Sister: "What about Cosmos? :3"
Me: ""
Me: "Sure :3"
My legs were extremely sore that day, and it was distressing when I knew that we had to wait in a queue for a popular restaurant. While the roast beef bowl is very tasty, I don't think I would want to spend so much time standing after walking for a whole day.
Fourth day
We rented Yukata for our visit to Kaminarimon. I wanted to look for a pink yukata at first, but there wasn't much options that I enjoy. I tried the purple ones because they looked quite pretty, but when I wore them, it felt kinda off, as if I look older when I tried them on... I picked yellow yukata next, and despite my doubts, it looked wonderful on me, I could feel my inner child smiling upon me. For my sister, purple or black yukatas match her really nicely, and even the purple one which doesn't match looked good on her. Perhaps there is some reasoning that some colors might or might not match someone? I must do some research on fashion later.
The next stop is going around the streets near Kaminarimon. I must say, this might be the most stressful event of this trip. One, I am not very fond of taking pictures. Yes, we look splendid that day, but I have associated photo-taking time with endless purgatory after the many school trips I had, seriously they always take so long I hate it. Secondly, we have to focus on not dirtying our clothings, eating chocolate ice cream under hot weather is very difficult if you are trying to keep your yukata clean. Pretty sure I was a bit irritated the whole time, but a nice thing is I bought a good health charm, because lately my stomach feels off, maybe it can protect my health a bit (maybe my mental health as well?). Also we found a Kaminarimon exclusive Chigiri keychain!
We went shopping near Tokyo station. Although many stores were almost closing, there were still a lot of things to buy. We found a Kirby store and Rilakuma store. My sister really loves Kiiroitori, and often complains about the lack of Kiiroitori products. Luckily, there are plenty of Kiiroitori stuff in the store, but she's still reluctant on buying too many stuff, as she already owns many of them, she bought a Kiiroitori shirt though. And for me, I wouldn't say I love Kirby as my favourite character, but Kirb has a special place in my heart, especially after watching this video essay. There are plenty of cute plushies and other stuff, but I decided to just buy a Kirby pudding, and I kept the jar, I have it in my home now. We also went to a anime store, and got a chigiri plushie, but that wouldn't be the last time we see Blue Lock merch.
We went to spa at the end of the day, thank god my legs can finally heal. It is really nice to soak myself in hot water, there is no bathtubs at home. However, it feels kinda weird being naked within the vicinity of other people.
Fifth day
After checking out, we went to Shibuya for lunch. We had to queue again, but it wasn't that bad since I had much more energy. The food was fried steak, and the meat is SOOOOO GOOD. The meat is tender and there are many sauce you can choose. Also one thing I noticed in this trip is that the wasabi here is sweeter than the ones I normally taste. I find wasabi's spicyness very addicting, and the fact it's sweeter here is even better.
We then went to Ikubukuro for anime merch. What shocks me the most is the amount of Blue Lock products there, AND the Blue Lock statue is there too!!! I thought I would never see this in person!!!!!! It is such an honour to meet Barou the GOAT. And of course, I bought Chigiri and Barou plushies. I also bought a transparent acrylic bag for Cosmos plushie, now I can carry her around without hiding her in my bag.
In Harajuku, there are plenty of stores and stalls. We visited an small animal zoo, my favourite animal there must be the ferrets. Most of the ones we held are quite sleepy, but one of them seems to be quite active, and keeps walking towards the gate, kinda reminds me of my hamster.
My sister had to leave early because she had different flight schedule than me, so I kinda walked around without much planning. I went back to Shibuya to check out the Hachiko statue, it's story still make me sad.
While people may think it is important to have special meals during trips, I think it is better to have meals from convenience stores, it just hits different, especially when the convenience stores in your homeland doesn't have much tasty food. I bought fami-chiki, a corn dog, and a few sweets. SERIOUSLY, fami-chiki is soo good, as I'm typing this, my mouth is drooling from missing fami-chiki. If it weren't the fact I couldn't find a seat, I would've bought cold noodles as well, those were bangers.
When it was time to go to the airport, I have to drag my heavy ass luggage. With my legs being painful, it was so hard carrying the luggage down stairs and squeeze into the busy train. The train trip was painful, but eventually I got there. After checking in, I refilled my water, and finally had time to rest.
When I got into the plane, I was terrified to learn there is a moaning toddler in the plane. I was quite worried about not being able to sleep under such loud noise. I guess I underestimated my exhaustion, because I fell asleep soundly with my jacket on my neck and my head on the table.
There isn't anything really remarkable after I returned to Hong Kong, except for the fact it started raining after I got on the bus. I was planning on sleeping on my bed right after I get home, but since my clothes were half-drenched, I guess I had to go shower, sigh.
And with that, my trip to Tokyo has officially ended. I feel like trips like this might not suit me very well, even if the schedule was relatively loose, it still caused me a lot of stress. I think I enjoy the times I go to convenience stores for food or restaurants with very little people more. If there are ways to reduce waiting time, perhaps travelling would be a lot more relaxing?
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