Travel Agent

At the same time that T-company sent me to Tokyo for a business trip in 2004, my classmate in college and a college friend’s then-boyfriend-now-husband were also sent by their Manila-based company to their headquarter in Ibaraki Prefecture. It happened more than six years ago so I already forgot how the plan went through. I just met them one weekend somewhere in Hamamatsu, near the very tall Tokyo World Trade Center Building, walked a few minutes to the nearest water bus station, passed a few bridges, camwhored inside the ferry and arrived at Asakusa water bus station.

Click on the links for more details and photos.

That’s Carlo, the college classmate, on the left and the college friend’s then-boyfriend-now-husband, Ody, on the right.

From there we walked to the Kaminarimon, the outer gate to the Sensoji Temple.

It was the first huge temple I saw in Japan and outside the Philippines so you could just imagine the awe and excitement it brought me only to find out years after how it was nothing compared to the towering temples at the top of the mountains in China.

Past after the Kaminarimon gate (yeah, “Kaminarimon gate” is redundant if you would just know what the “mon” in “Hanarimon” means) is a series of souvenir shops called Nakamise-dori where I bought a few items for omiyage or pasalubong later.

From there you’ll pass through another huge gate before you could finally arrive at the Sensoji Temple.

A few sights seen and tons of photos taken, we left the temple and went to the nearest subway station to take a train to Akihabara, Tokyo’s home for cheap brand new and used electronic products. I got myself a CASIO men’s wrist watch for just 2,000 Yen from a sidewalk street vendor.

Unlike the other one, these two promo girls were dressed in full Cosplay attire and were both willing to have our photos taken with them.

There were so many great electronics products being sold in Akihabara for very low prices everywhere. If I only had enough money with me then, perhaps I had bought myself a ton of electronic loots. Sad!

But aside from electronic products, we also found other interesting merchandise being sold at specialty shops such as a life-sized nude doll made from soft silicon alloy. I believe sex toys are a fad among Japanese men. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Our next stop was Shibuya. It was already becoming dark when we reached the famous shopping district but the place remained so crowded. Watching people move from one side of the street to the other during traffic lights changes was like watching military platoons marching at the command of their officer.

Things there are still expensive for a third-world citizen like me so I didn’t do any shopping. I just enjoyed the lights coming from huge screens mounted on almost every building.

This is a Tower Records shop where I bought, guess what, nothing!

We saw a big red bike parked on the street so we all took turns at camwhoring. Look! A promo girl. HAHAHA!

Two train rides and a very long walk and we reached the Tokyo Tower. It was already late so we wasn’t stayed for long. We just went to the floor where you could see the entirety of Tokyo in full 360-degree view. We weren’t even had the chance to visit the wax museum so we just took photos at one Madonna was model and the miniature Tokyo Tower on the ground floor.

Then we walked a few more minutes to our last stop in Roppongi, Tokyo’s “United Nations” District. The place is a popular hang-out for expats because of the series of pubs, night clubs and disco houses. We saw a lot of couples doing their drunk scenes.

The sun has already started started to shine when we parted.

I walked towards random directions to find a subway station for hours. The sun has already set completely before I saw a station going to Shinjuku station where I would take another train to Tachikawa where I would sleep at my sister’s place for one whole day. HAHAHA!