Dear readers,
Arcades
Japan! We are in Japan! The country that my parents met in, home of arcades, robots, anything high tech and much more! Japan is so different from most of China, and the change was a bit overwhelming at first. Clean sidewalks and high end fashion stores fill the streets of Tokyo. As well as arcade, after arcade, after arcade. To get my brothers more excited about the trip, my mom gave all the countries little nicknames. China was the country were we would be famous, (because the locals wanted to take pictures with us,) and Japan is Arcade country! My brothers
listened in awe as my parents recounted their memories of the arcades. So after hearing so many stories about the arcades my brothers wanted to go first thing the day we arrived, we pushed it of until the next morning. My brothers sped through their school work, and at 10 am we were standing inside an arcade in Shibuya, Tokyo. Our eyes were the size of saucers when we saw how many games there were. The noise coming from all the machines was overwhelming, and we stumbled our way through the the games till we each found one we wanted to play. I settled on a music game. I can't really explain exactly what it was, there was a circular touch screen in the center with a ring of buttons surrounding it. And you had to tap the buttons or the screen to get the right combination of notes. I played three times, it was so much fun! We left the arcade eyes glazed to tour more if Shibuya and go Halloween shopping. That was our first experience in a Japanese arcade, but it definitely won't be our last.
Cat Cafe
For my friends who have seen the Katy Perry movie, you might now that she visited a cat cafe in Tokyo, well so did we. The first cafe we want to only had two cats, one of which wasn't very friendly. But the second cat cafe we went to had 18 cats! When we arrived at the door of the cat cafe, we were greeted by a lovely Japanese lady. She let us I'm and introduced us to all the cats. White, black, orange, grey, and brown cats lunged around the room. We pet them all, and played with a particularly playful kitten. Almost all the cats at the cat cafe are rescues for adoption. My favorite cat not including the kitten, was an orange cat with brown speckles. If you started to pet it, s/he would stay on your lap and not try to run away, like the other cats. In that way s/he reminded me of my cat, Cookie. Cookie could stay on your lap for hours and not budge, and I am sure this cat could to. Thinking of Cookie I felt a pang of homesickness, but it was soon soothed by the soft purring of the orange cat. I showed the Cat Lady a picture of Cookie.
"You're leaving your cute cat for a whole year!" She exclaimed surprised. "How you can you do that?"
"I don't know, I miss him so much," I admitted.
After an hour or so of petting, and occasionally playing, with the cats, it was time to go. We said goodbye to all the cats, and the
Cat Lady, and began to roll some cat hairs of our clothing. We were just about to leave when a grey cat jumped up onto the Cat Lady and held onto her chest like a baby. We looked at the lady and the cat, astonished.
"Did you teach him to do that?" My brother asked her.
"No," She replied. "S/he started doing that on he/r own when she was about 3 years old."
Then she added a bit defensively, "I love this cat. S/he is mine, s/he is not for adoption."
We chuckled and said goodbye one more time to the Cat Lady and her Jumping Cat.
"Japan is FULL of quirky things like Cat Cafes." My mom told me on our way out.
If any of you ever find yourselves in the Tokyo area, I highly suggest you visit Asakusa Nekoen Cat Cafe.
Here is there website: http://asakusanekoen.com
So far, I love Japan and all its quirkiness, and I am excited to see more.
さようなら Sayōnara,
Liv the Explorer
Arcades
Japan! We are in Japan! The country that my parents met in, home of arcades, robots, anything high tech and much more! Japan is so different from most of China, and the change was a bit overwhelming at first. Clean sidewalks and high end fashion stores fill the streets of Tokyo. As well as arcade, after arcade, after arcade. To get my brothers more excited about the trip, my mom gave all the countries little nicknames. China was the country were we would be famous, (because the locals wanted to take pictures with us,) and Japan is Arcade country! My brothers
listened in awe as my parents recounted their memories of the arcades. So after hearing so many stories about the arcades my brothers wanted to go first thing the day we arrived, we pushed it of until the next morning. My brothers sped through their school work, and at 10 am we were standing inside an arcade in Shibuya, Tokyo. Our eyes were the size of saucers when we saw how many games there were. The noise coming from all the machines was overwhelming, and we stumbled our way through the the games till we each found one we wanted to play. I settled on a music game. I can't really explain exactly what it was, there was a circular touch screen in the center with a ring of buttons surrounding it. And you had to tap the buttons or the screen to get the right combination of notes. I played three times, it was so much fun! We left the arcade eyes glazed to tour more if Shibuya and go Halloween shopping. That was our first experience in a Japanese arcade, but it definitely won't be our last.
Cat Cafe
For my friends who have seen the Katy Perry movie, you might now that she visited a cat cafe in Tokyo, well so did we. The first cafe we want to only had two cats, one of which wasn't very friendly. But the second cat cafe we went to had 18 cats! When we arrived at the door of the cat cafe, we were greeted by a lovely Japanese lady. She let us I'm and introduced us to all the cats. White, black, orange, grey, and brown cats lunged around the room. We pet them all, and played with a particularly playful kitten. Almost all the cats at the cat cafe are rescues for adoption. My favorite cat not including the kitten, was an orange cat with brown speckles. If you started to pet it, s/he would stay on your lap and not try to run away, like the other cats. In that way s/he reminded me of my cat, Cookie. Cookie could stay on your lap for hours and not budge, and I am sure this cat could to. Thinking of Cookie I felt a pang of homesickness, but it was soon soothed by the soft purring of the orange cat. I showed the Cat Lady a picture of Cookie.
"You're leaving your cute cat for a whole year!" She exclaimed surprised. "How you can you do that?"
"I don't know, I miss him so much," I admitted.
After an hour or so of petting, and occasionally playing, with the cats, it was time to go. We said goodbye to all the cats, and the
Cat Lady, and began to roll some cat hairs of our clothing. We were just about to leave when a grey cat jumped up onto the Cat Lady and held onto her chest like a baby. We looked at the lady and the cat, astonished.
"Did you teach him to do that?" My brother asked her.
"No," She replied. "S/he started doing that on he/r own when she was about 3 years old."
Then she added a bit defensively, "I love this cat. S/he is mine, s/he is not for adoption."
We chuckled and said goodbye one more time to the Cat Lady and her Jumping Cat.
"Japan is FULL of quirky things like Cat Cafes." My mom told me on our way out.
If any of you ever find yourselves in the Tokyo area, I highly suggest you visit Asakusa Nekoen Cat Cafe.
Here is there website: http://asakusanekoen.com
So far, I love Japan and all its quirkiness, and I am excited to see more.
さようなら Sayōnara,
Liv the Explorer