tfw u woke up in america
Well I was putting this off for a bit but I should get this done at some point… Not that I’m doing anything important anyway… Probably abbreviated at this point since I put it off for so long lol
january 8, 2026
had a nice breakfast
Not sure how you’re supposed to eat the grated yam. I kinda put some in my rice and added soy sauce… probably not correct? I know it’s been put in kishimen in Nagoya but here…? IDK i think there was enough stuff in the miso soup.
Took the bus down to Togendai Station to take the pirate ship to Motohakone. When I mentioned pirate ship my friend was imagining something a little more… ragged? lol but it’s a full fledged transport ship. I did note that the Hakone peace shrine didn’t have a line for it… the reason being…
It’s closed to visitors! On fucking New Year’s! Couldn’t you people choose a better time to fix the bridge? Maybe it wasn’t planned… but this is the best we could do for our instagram shot.
Prayed at Hakone Shrine. I think the hatsumode crowd has died down at this point.
hOw MaNy PiCtUreS oF mOuNt FuJi Do YoU nEeD
Took the ship back to Togendai Station to take the ropeway up to Owakudani. Unfrotauntely it’s really windy and really cold up here, so we didn’t want to stay for too long… but we got the prize…!
yes it’s just a god damn egg get over myself
On the ride back to the hotel we passed by the grass fields. It’s a landmark, apparently, so I think we’re just in the wrong season… probably looks better than a field of brown lol
And… dinner! I missed the plate of raw shrimp and uni and fish… sorry…
and the next day’s breakfast
It was nice. Overall for the ryokan trip… I enjoyed it, but I don’t think I’d shell out all this money again for it. Worth crossing off the bucket list, but real talk… just stay at a Dormy Inn. I do appreciate that they have a low room count, so apart from dinner time, it really feels like you’re the only person at the resort. I think maybe if I think more highly of kaiseki dinners, or if it was out of the world I could see it being worth it, but it’s just very good and we can better deploy the funds used elsewhere.
thank you hoshino resorts i hope you find my feedback useful and actionable
january 9, 2026
After getting our last baths in and packing up, we took the bus back to Hakone-Yumoto station. We got on relatively early on the bus route so we didn’t have trouble with luggage, but it got a little ギリギリ towards the end after everyone else on the route got on…
Since we had some time to kill until our reservation for the Romancecar, ate some street food in the area! The hakone stamped manjuu is only 80￥ and is really cute. I also picked this mentai mayonaise fish cake and some black sesame dango. While walking further I noticed a sign that said Hakone Pizza and we hadn’t had lunch yet… so why not?
I would note however that this place specifically tries to recreate Italian pizzas faithfully with a wooden oven and therefore is NOT an actual representation of traditional “Japanese” pizza as we know it (a la Domino’s, Pizza-la, etc.) It was a nice change in pace from all the Japanese food we ate.
And in the station, a hakone pudding milkshake! There were these nice and thick gooey bits in the shake (presumably, pudding) that go well with the drink, though I got some on my jacket trying to shake the drink to make it more easily able to drink from.
After touching down in our hotel in Ikebukuro, I had to dash on back to Akiba to pick up some figgies. Amiami resumed international shipping to the USA for their stuff, except for R-18 stuff… so I had to cancel my existing pre-order for Fraise and take matters into my own hands.
The luggage suitcase itself costs about 6000￥, and the additional luggage fee flying on ANA is 20000￥, so ~$170 in total. I think after paying for the figgies tax free and dodging 15% “tariffs” I come out a little ahead vs shipping it through proxy, so if I miss pre-orders going forward it’s not the end of the world, assuming I come back to Japan annually for Comiket. Plus, I can still pack in other things with the suitcase… which will save my ass later…
shigure will be on the left… soon… one of these days…
For dinner we had Sushiro. I had kaiten sushi on my list for before I left… so here we are…
I didn’t take a picture of it, but at other Sushiro’s I’ve been to so far, they’ve only had a little tablet for you to place orders from. The one in Ikebukuro had big ass full screen touch TVs at the side to order off of now – These things are amazing for getting you to order more as they scroll their entire menu by you as you’re eating. How can Kura sushi compete? Not that I’d ever eat Kura in Nippon since we have Kura at home…
January 10, 2026
with my partner sleeping in I head over to Sunshine City to buy tea from Lupicia!
I bought like 22 bags of tea. The lady probably thinks I’m weird cause I wanted 8 bags of a certain flavor but all I said was 八 of x flavor instead of 八つ of x flavor. I don’t know anything after 一つ or 二つ or 三つ ok? sheesh
As a bonus have a picture of some fujos lining up for animate and k-books
It’s like me lining up for melonbooks… I get it…
After beating my partner’s ass awake (not literally) we stop by Shinjuku melonbooks and Osaka Osho for lunch
After getting a few books, a short ride to Nakano to visit Mandarake Honten. They do have a lot of stuff, but I only end up picking up 4 tankoubons I don’t really need. The soft serve store in the basement is popping off like I expected and I get imo and milk tea flavored soft serve:
They make a very big deal about not choosing the order your flavor is in. Given the high volume of people they deal with… Good move!
We goofed off a little more in Akiba before heading back to Ikebukuro. Here’s a pic of my stats in MFG that I took:
sex with grim aloe
Since MFG just queues you on wheover’s trying to queue at the time, rather than by rank/skill… I’d say on average the player base is at a silver-gold room level, since I’m overperforming pretty hard. I do like the game though since the hand win cut-ins and model animations are top notch, so I can see myself playing this a lot along with IIDX when I need time to kill in the future.
Mitsuyado Seimen for dinner! Apparently this is the first time my friend had tsukemen and he seems to like it!
January 11, 2026
Last day in Japan… I initially planned to ride Thunder Dolphin at Tokyo Dome City but it ended up being closed for the whole day due to strong winds… lol
So we get to ride Tokyo Dome City’s other roller coaster, Back Daaan. There’s a Love Live event going on at Tokyo Dome City, so instead of the normal pv and music, we get to listen to Snow halation instead! (I noted that the h is lower case per the image)
I think if you like Love Live you’ll probably like this more, but they had to disable the rest of the ride’s music and animations since they don’t go with Snow halation. Overall I’d say the original is better, but if you like Snow halation then this is for you!
Ate some pasta at the nearby Food Stadium while waiting to see if Thunder Dolphin would re-open. It didn’t.
And lastly, a walk through Korakuen nearby while waiting to see if Thunder Dolphin would re-open. It didn’t.
Lo and behold, I go to Akiba again… I saw on some X (formerly Twitter) posts that there’s a newly stocked section at the Yostar official store… and I manage to pick it up what I’ve been looking for this entire trip!
Along the way I also ran into a youtuber I happened to watch. I was really excited too, as I heard his voice in passing while he was talking for his video and I was like wait I know who that is lol.
Lotteria is having a strawberry fair, so I pick up a sukiyaki burger and the strawberry items. It’s… alright? Not amazing, but good. We have a strawberry pie, strawberry parfait, and strawberry churros. My friend noted at this point that I really like strawberries.
80 kilograms of cunny goods
Checked in at Haneda with my goodies. I learned that if you’re flying ANA, you can actually check in at any point after their check in counter opens (at about 06:45), rather than the 3 hours before your flight that I’m used to. I take advantage of this to use the Haneda Airport onsen, which is a little pricy at 4800￥, but it’s nice to be able to relax and be fresh for your flight…!
Looking for dinner I find a Torikai Sohonke in the airport garden, so I opt to get the chicken side dishes this time, rather than the cochin chicken oyakodon. It’s nice!
Starting to think ANA airline food isn’t as good as I remember my last flight’s food to be… Or I’m just spoiled by real Japanese food at this point.
and the last boss of my cunny trip is… US CBP! I pass through without paying any additional fees and mention God Bless America to my agent, to which he responds positively. God Bless America
closing thoughts as this will no longer be a travel blog
I’d like to come back again next year with my friend. Having a teammate for Comiket is overpowered…!
actually need to work on how to speak and listen to Japanese, rather than just reading it… If it’s a line I’m not expecting or haven’t heard before having to go すみません、もう一度？feels bad or worse play the ENGLISH PLEASE card
After perusing several arcades and their game selections, IIDX and MFG are the only arcade games for me. Might as well get better at those in my off-time, no matter how much I actually hate them sometimes… I wish I could like Ongeki more but the whole card gacha system feels bad on paper and I don’t wanna spend more money rolling on stuff than I need to
yeah right he hates rolling lmao
actually work out so your back doesn’t hurt and you can carry luggage suitcases more easily. lifting 23 kg shouldn’t be difficult for a man