I am currently writing this in a café in Tokyo Station, where there is free Wifi, and I am sipping an orange mojito. Mmm. Life is good. Tokyo makes me feel classy.
I’m sad that I have to leave. There’s still so much to do and see. Five days wasn’t enough. Well, it might have been, if I hadn’t been kinda lazy. But if I’d wanted to do all the outer-Tokyo stuff too, like Disneyland all that, then two weeks would have been more the ticket. Oh well, this just gives me an excuse to come again.
Tokyo was wonderful. An exciting city, with so much to do and see, though of course too many people, and lines were delayed due to people jumping in front of trains, which affected me twice while I was here. Yikes.
I got a little too excited every time I rode the Yamanote line. Brings back nostalgic Death Note memories, hehe.
So, what did I do today? Well first off, I woke up a little late (meant to get up at 8am, got up more like 10am, and so I was in a mad rush to pack all my luggage away and leap in the bath before 12, which is when I had to check out the hotel. I’d accumulated a lot of stuff, so much so that I couldn’t stuff my broken packpack in there, so I was carrying THREE pieces of heavy luggage around with me. I had my laptop in my new bag, on my back, because I couldn’t fit it in my suitcase or my old bag without worrying about it popping free or something. Waddling out the hotel proved extremely difficult, and I looked even more ridiculous every time I had to reach for my wallet, inside my new backpack.
I got the JR from Kinshicho to Tokyo, and then I went to look for a coin locker. There were literally over 1,000 coin lockers in this one big space near the Narita line, and ALL of them, I kid you not (or at least the ones big enough to fit a suitcase), were fucking full. Of course they were. This is Tokyo. It was now nearly 1pm. I should have gotten up at the crack of dawn if I’d wanted to get there in time to reserve a locker.
I was wondering what the fuck to do at that point. First of all, I tried putting one of my bags into a smaller locker, so that at least I would just have my suitcase, which wouldn’t be SO bad as it rolls along without much effort, though it takes up a lot of space. But then I realized I’d accidentally put my wallet back in my old backpack, so I wasted ¥300 putting it in that locker for less than five minutes.
I was saved when I saw there was a manually guarded luggage area, and I had to pay ¥500 per item. So at long last, I was able to dump my suitcase and my broken backpack.
First, I went to Akihabara so I could go to the Internet café again and figure out where I was going and what to do. I got a bigger booth this time, a nice big private one, so I was able to use my laptop and I also refreshed my make up and brushed my hair, because I’d kind of tumbled out of the capsule hotel in a rush and I was a wreck. I didn’t have much time until I’d have to go back to Tokyo Station to collect my stuff (which they keep until 20:00pm, annoying as my bus isn’t until 22:30pm). So I only selected two things to do.
Okay, I’m both embarrassed and proud of what I did first. (Depends on who’s reading this.)
I went to the Boys’ Love café in Ikebukuro. YES THAT IS A THING.
My week in Tokyo quickly went from innocent tourism to full-out fujoshi, to quote Layla. It may or may not have been her influence, hehe. Well I thank her, because it brought out my inner otaku that has lain dormant within me for about three years.
But I have no regrets, because it was ah-may-zing. Well, looking back I think my memory of it kind of embellishes what happened in reality, but at least my memory of it is happy.
I got to Ikebukuro fine, despite having never been there before. I headed in the right direction fine, too. My inner compass has sharpened considerably since I dropped my smartphone in the toilet. But then as I was heading in the right direction, I was due to turn right, but then I saw a road up ahead of me that looked similar to what I’d seen on Google Maps, so I changed my mind and went that way, but I should have trusted my first instinct because I wasted about 20 minutes walking up and down the same road, wondering if I’d missed it, before retracing my steps and going the way I was originally going to go. And I found it.
I saw the sign outside, and I wondered if I was going to lose my nerve, but I decided fuck it, YOLO, carpe diem, all that jazz, and went up. I’m so glad I did.
It was a high school theme. Of course. Red ties for freshmen, blue ties for second-years, and black ties for seniors. I was greeted by a senior, and then introduced me to the a boy in a red jumper, with a red tie. He was wearing colour contacts, and his light brown hair and hair style made him look like a cuter version of Light Yagami. We’ll call him Y-kun. He wasn’t the “cute” type, but he did look pretty adorable, as his red jumper was a little oversized. And he had the nicest smile. He asked where I was from, I said the UK, and he replied, uwaaa! So cool!
Because it was my first time, I got a special discount, though I also received a points card so I could come back and use it. I would take a picture of my points card but there’s now an older couple sitting next to me in the café and I feel too awkward. Maybe another time.
With my set it was ¥1000 for one hour, which came with a drink. I chose grapefruit juice. Then a “second-year” came up to me and asked me to order from the, ahem, “Boys’ Love” menu. You choose a scenario for them to act out, and they act it out right in front of you. Not only that, but you, oh God, you choose which of the boys is the “seme” and which is the “uke”. Hearing those words in real life made me let out an unintentional nervous giggle.
I chose the “pocky” scenario. I chose Y-kun to be the “seme” (though I saw him acting as the “uke” with another one of the guys in someone else’s scenario, and I think it made him far cuter), but that was okay, because he was still the kind of cool type, and I chose a smaller, more “kawaii” type of boy to be the “uke”. We’ll call him S-san. They both came up to me, and went “thank you for choosing me for the pocky scene~”, which made me blush. Because they looked like they were genuinely happy to do it. They didn’t make me feel like a punter or anything, which is what I was afraid of feeling.
They both sat in front of me, with a champagne flute full of pocky and a little plate with whipped cream. They started the scenario, which was them in an empty classroom. I didn’t technically understand all the dialogue, though I felt like I did. I gather Y-kun was trying to kiss S-kun, who was all like, “Noooo, not here~~”, but then Y-kun lifts a finger under his jaw, puts a pocky stick in his mouth, then kind of Lady & The Tramp style, they lean in… KABOOM. I was no longer Bethan, I was a tomato.
And then after it was over, they both innocently turned to me and said brightly, “How was that?” And I stuttered something along the lines of, “Yep! It was good…”
Aahhhhh. *cradles face*
It’s a pity the café was so crowded, because I was mainly left alone for the rest of the hour, but at least it meant I could gaze at the “schoolboys” (they were all so beautiful. At long last, my attraction for androgynous guys has returned) and watch other customers ordering the “pocky” scene. The other option was “onigiri”, and I think on other days there are special other scenes, but the pocky one is the most popular, I think.
After that, one of the boys who worked there (who wasn’t wearing a uniform), came up to me and started speaking in English. (I will interject here and say while it is blissfully adorable, it’s not foreigner-friendly – by that I mean, it’s Japanese-only. But this guy just happened to speak English.) His father was half-Russian, so he was mixed. He was pretty beautiful, too. I’ll call him Natsu.
We switched from English to Japanese again at some point. I don’t think he was fluent, though he had really good pronunciation. And then the rest of them came up to me and made conversation. Y-kun stole Natsu’s hat, and they had a fight in front of us (I don’t know if this was part of the BL service or not, but I enjoyed it), and Natsu said English phrases, such as, “No! Stop it! Go away! Shut up!”, which was adorable and hilarious.
Because the café was so busy, I didn’t feel so attended to, but the boys were all really cute, and Y-kun looked particularly sad when I had to leave. Probably only acting, of course, but all part of a great service. Another boy, I’ll call him Z-kun, spoke broken English to me towards the end, and then saw me to the door, where he was all like, “Have a good year! Bye bye!” until I left, which made me feel very happy.
Ahhhhh it was a lovely experience. I wasn’t actually that embarrassed this time. Maybe because the butler café was a little out of my comfort zone by turning me into a princess, and I tend to do everything myself so having someone do everything for me felt like a little too much, but here, I was a “first year student” along with the boys, so I felt more in my element, and they talked and joked with me. It was lovely.
After that, I made a super-quick dash to Tsukijji market, which I think is the biggest fish market in Japan, if not the world. There, I saw fish heads the size of backpacks, crabs the size of bicycle wheels, tons upon tons of octopus… it was glorious. But I only hung out there for about ten minutes before I had to rush back to Tokyo station and collect my things.
Because a body was on the tracks of the Chuo Line, I panicked and thought I might not get to Tokyo on time, but I managed it by leaping back on the Yamanote line from Akihabara. I got my stuff, came to the information centre (which luckily hadn’t closed yet), got the Wifi password, and now I’m here. I just had a cheesecake with hot berry sauce, and a pot of hot tea. Heavenly.
My bus should be coming in about forty-five minutes so I need to stop now so I can find the carpark.
Bye bye, Tokyo! You were wonderful. I’ll miss you!
♥
naiveinnippon 