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VoShadow
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Name: Steve
Country: United States
State: California
Gender: Male
Interests: Viet, and Chinese foods
Go clubbing
Listen to music
play piano
spend time with my buddies
Occupation: Student
Industry: Other
Message: message me
AIM:  maivoshadow
Member Since:
6/7/2004
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| So I'm back again haha or (kakkaka)! It's Tet and to some of you, Tet might not mean anything, but it means alot to me. I remembere the Tet flower market that I was brought to, and it wasn't the kind of market that you have in mind. It is the market that was set up right on the main streets (they blocked those streets for a couple days), and all the best artists in the country came together to showcase their works. There, you could find cars, ships, dragons that were made of flowers. Tet is when people buy new clothes, cars, new things or to start fresh all over again. Tet is when people give away money and gifts to others. Tet is also when people want to gain money from others if you know what I mean. Yes, people gamble a lot during the first 3 days of the new year. As for me Tet means a new beginning and a brand new me. I am so glad the bad things were over and may God be with us through out this year, the year of the RAT.
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| So I got back to the States safely. I didn't miss Japan as much as Vietnam, but I did have a good time
there. The day before my last day in Japan, I met these two Vietnamese
Australian girls at the guest house, and they asked me to join them the next
day. Anna is an international student at an university in Fuji Mt.
area, and Amy is a marketing major in Australia. They do not speak
Vietnamese and wish to come back to Vietnam sometimes.
So we started our day in Akihabara, and it was my second time there. The last
time I went there was pretty late at night, so I couldn't see or explore
anything but this giant electronic store. We were looking around for computer
stuffs, anime figures and a maid cafe. The only one thing I liked about
Akihabara was its huge anime figure stores. Each store has up to 6 floors
and they had nothing but anime figures, from Power Rangers to Bleach and
Naruto. I wanted to buy them all, but I could only afford a few so I got 3
anime figures from Bleach and some other anime.
Then, we headed to a
maid cafe, and it was pretty disappointing. The maids were dressed in
cute costume, but they didn't even know what we ordered on the menu when we
were pointing at the exact pictures. They had to run back and forward about 3
times to the kitchen. Water was leaking down from the ceiling next to
where we sat, and this Maid Cafe was the one I saw on some travel
channels. They were out of the good drinks, and only had a few from the
menu, so we just had to order whatever was there.
After Akihabara, we went straight to Harajuku, and it was also my second time
there. We first went to the contemporary museum called Watareum. Everything there is very interesting. 
This time around, I decided to buy some clothes for myself since I still
had some money left. I went back to Laforte, where Thu Van used to work
and got a hat there, then 2 shirts from some other stores. Clothes there
were super expensive especially at the main stores in Omotesando Hills where
there are Louie Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and many other name brands
   
I looked back at the Harajuku Bridge and did not find any of the Harajuku girls at night
After a meal at Harajuku, we headed to a karaoke place
 
I didn't know Australian girls were so into karaoke, by the way, karaoke in Japan is AWESOME!!!
Nest morning which is also the day I left Japan, we wanted to go out for one last time, and it's my pick so I chose to go to a best sushi place in Tsukigi, where there is a well known fish market, and everything there is extremely fresh. I never had any sushi that was as great as these. The restaurant had so much variety that makes sushi restaurants in the States look bad.
 
Sushi that I never saw at any of the restaurant in the states were snow crab, crab paste, squid legs, sea urchin roe, ark shell, horse clam, flounder's fin, shima-aji, aoyagi, horse mackerel, squilla, super fatty tuna, rock sea weed, sardine, okura, herring row on kelp, gizzard shad, top quality sea eel, and Japanese beef sushi. They also had live sushi but it was too expensive for me since i had to buy the whole fish if I wanted it live.
From left to right: crab paste, salmon roe, amberjack, salmon
From left to right: Super Fatty Tuna (my favorite), scallop (these are different kind from the one in the states), and salmon
From left to right: squilla, salmon row (again), scallop (again), abalone (also my favorite), and medium fatty tuna
Then the ultimate JAPANESE BEEF SUSHI!!!!!
 
I didn't like it too much tho! It was very different.
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| As I told some of you yesterday that I was heading to Hakone, a city
located 2hrs by train from Tokyo. I woke up around 10am yesterday, and
was determined to go to Hakone, so I started to go online to look for
an available hotel, hostel or guesthouse. Calvin told me the night
before that he couldn`t find any and the reason being was that this
week is a national holiday week, thereofore, people were going back to
their hometowns as well as going on trips since they`re off of work. I
was a bit worried when the guy who works at the guesthouse confirmed to
me that all hotels and hostels were booked up, and there`s almost no
chance for me to find a place to stay if I still wanted to go then. I
really wanted to go to Hakone because I needed a retreat from Tokyo. I
needed sometime for myself, just myself and the nature. Moreover, I
wanted to see the calm, peaceful side of Japan where there are old
historical architectures. At noon, I was hopeless after almost 2 hrs
of searching online, calling the hotels and found out that no hotel or
hostels or anywhere had a room for me to stay. Knowing that there was
a chance that I might have to sleep on the street for a night in
Hakone, I made up my mind and started to leave Tokyo, praying that God
would somehow provide a safe place for me to get through the night.
On my way to Hakone, I was asking this one Japanese lady about Odawara,
a station before Hakone. We had a little chat, then she asked me I if I
already booked a place in Hakone because it's hard to find any in
Hakone at this time which was around 5. I told her that I couldn't find
any available hotel, yet I still wanted to go regardless. She looked
at me with a shocked face, "what? you did not book a hotel?", then she
looked worried, "where are you going to stay?" I told her I might have
to sleep on a street or a station if I couldn't find any place. "You
can stay at my second house if you can't find a place." Right at that
moment I knew why I wasn't afraid to go on this trip because God was
with me and I know he would find a way to shelter me. She then asked
me about what univeristy I'm attending, I told her about Fullerton and
she told me that she know about UCLA because it's well known here in
Japan. She lives a Yokahama and goes back go her home town on the
weekends. After walking me to the Info. Service at Hakone Yumoto, she
said good bye and good luck to me. What a nice lady she was!!! The
girl there told me that all hotels and hostels in town were absolutely
booked up. Then I told her "I really need a place to stay tonight,
where am I supposed to stay?" (with a sorry face). She then told me to
walk across the street to the Hakone Tourist Information Center in
hoping that I could find a place.
If you didn't know, Hakone is a very very small place, so if a
knowledgable person told you there's no available hotel, you'd find it
impossible to find a vacancy on your own. As I was crossing the street
from the station, I saw many people happily shopping around the town.
When I got to the Tourist Info. Center, this Japanese girl was busy
helping many other tourists infont of the line to find their booked
hotels. Yeah, they were safe. When it was my turn, i had this sad face
on to make it seem super urgent, and asked her if she could find a
hotel for me. She asked me about the possible price that I was willing
pay for a room so she could call all these 5star hotels if she had to.
I told her I'd pay any price, I seriously didn't want to sleep on the
street in a small town, what if I got arrested??? After more than 20
min of calling around for me, she then told me the good news that there
is ONLY ONE room available at a hotel located 2 mins walking from
there, and it cost about $82. What a miracle!!! What a miracle!!! I
was relieved and thanking God. I told her that I wated to stay there,
so she called the hotel back to book the room for me in case someone
take it away. Then, I noticed the sad look on her face, and She was
saying something "Steve Vo -　san .....American.....", my nightmare came
true, they had a right to not accept a non Japanese speaking person,
and that's exactly what they told her. Yet, she was still begging for
me...after another 5 min, she hung up, told me the story, and said that
she finally convinced them tolet me stay. She said they were very busy
in these days, and that's why they didn't want to take in any non
Japanese speaker since they don't speak Japanese. She was sweating and
talking with her shaky voice, I knew she was working so hard to got me
in, so I told her that I really appreciate her help. It was around 6,
and I haven't eaten anything for the whole day.
The hotel was actually very nice for that price, I got my own room that has a bathroom. The receptionist also told me that I could use the osen on the 6th floor if I wanted to. Of course I wanted to, osen isa term for japanese hot spring, and it was super HOT but relaxing. After the bath, I went out for a restaurant a trip around the town. I got back to the hotel and slept to 10am. Guess what I was supposed to do at 10am? CHECK OUT TIME!!!! Yes, my arlarm went off at 7 as I wished to, I then turn it off and went back to sleep. For some reason, I woke up exactly at 10am without any help of the arlarm. I quickly packed my stuff and checked out at 10:02, phew....thanks God that they didn't charge me for another day.
I went back to the tourist center and asked for about the trip around Hakone province. The whole tripo took me 7 hrs and it was hekka fun.
Popular landmark in Lake Ashi
Ancient Cedar Ave. whic was built in 1618
Owakudani (The Hell Valley) where there have been volcanic eruptions in the past. People here eat black eggs which are boiled from the hot spring.
It cost me $5
Mt. Fuji view from Hakone. The mountain was surprisingly huge.
At night, I called Thu Van to tell her that I won't be able to meet her, her husband and her newborn baby tonight...
One more interesting fact about Thu Van is that she was in "Van Son In Tokyo" . She was the runner up in the beauty pageant on that show.
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| There was only one group of Harajuku girls hanging out on the bridge, and I didn`t waste any minute to take a picture with one of the girls.
Before heading home, Masami spotted a popular street artist of Harajuku and he told us that he will perform at 7pm
I said good bye to Thu Van, her brother, Masami and her friend (for got what her name was), then headed back to the guesthouse.
After a long nap, Calvin woke me up around 11pm and said that I needed to get ready if I wanted to catch the last train to Roppongi for clubbing. Roppingi is said to be the hottest spot for clubs and bars and well known to both foreigners and natives. When I got to Roppongi, everything was overwhelmed. Foreigners were everywhere at nidnight, and the streets were packed with people walking around with beer on their hands. I met up with Masami and her friend, Tokone, a very good looking girl. We had a lil` chat and Tokone said that she`ll be moving to Hollywood next year. Then, as we were heading to a popular club called ALIFE, there were at least 7 fire trucks parked right in front of the club. Something happened in there, the bouncer told us that the club was closed. We were walking around to find another hot spot in town, and we got to this club where I ran into Calvin and Whitney again for the 3rd time
Clubbing in Japan is so crazy, people hit the club aroubd midnight and won`t leave until 5am to catch the first train home. We had lots of fun at the club. Everyone there danced and was so into it. The DJ played good music then he jumped on the bar counter and started to spray smoke at the guests. People screamed and jumped up and down. Girls got on top of the bar counter and started to dance...it`s pretty wild. People in Tokyo truly know how to party.
We left the club around 4:45 to a restaurant where Tokone used to work at. Masami said it`s one of the best restaurant around there. Everthing comes in a huge bowl or plate, yes, they were HUGE, but the food was in a regular size. The waiter dressed in suite with their PDA to take order, the ted ladies were in kimono. I ordered curry udon which I never had before and it was GREAT!!!!
Althoug it`t already 6:30 when we fisnished eating, it`s still too early to go home to I decided to hit the Tsikiji Fish Market
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