After checking out I offered the hosts a tin of Christmas cookies and they were so kind and grateful, sort of made me wish I brought more for them.
I went back to the town to explore it during daylight, visited the shrine, had more ice cream (this time from a cafe!) and bought some things at a cute souvenir store. Here is where I had my first baka gaijin moment, knocked over a shelf with my too giant backpack but fortunately managed to catch it and there was no damage, but embarrassing😅😅
Now the main reason I was here, anime! One of my new favorites Dandadan has a few episodes set in this town and wanted to take some animation/real life comparison pics (mostly thanks to animepilgrimage.com !) I'll have to set up some separate blog posts for this.
It slowly became time to leave (that actually made me really sad) and take the bus back to Shibukawa. It became much colder with the clouds in front of the sun so I hid in a waiting room with some hot coffee. After arriving to Shibukawa I took the train to Maebashi (did have to switch somewhere on the way). The city immediately had a very hipster vibe, but I didn't dislike it, there was a lot to take pictures of. The only thing that annoyed me was that there were so many cars, and the pedestrian and bike lane were right next to each other and switched sides every few streets😶
I ended up doing a lot of walking and running from place to place instead of relying on buses as usual. It was exhausting made it made me feel alive. Writing this as I returned to being a blob shape behind my desk.
Too much happened today to condense it into one post, so number two! It became super dark so I headed back to the station and took the train back to Takasaki, and from there to Saitama Oomiya, slept almost the entire way... But here's where the real adventure started! Between here and Saitama Urawa is where another favorite anime Yofukashi no Uta / Call of the Night was set, and so I had to do some night photography and a looot more walking that I prepared for (great thing Japan has vending machines with warm coffee wherever you go).
On the way I took a break on a terrace above a mall that was beautifully lit by the blue decorations. For a moment I started thinking, and became a bit sad and lonely, like what even is the point of all this if I can't experience it with another person. As if he could sense it a kind elderly man approached me to ask if I'm okay. He could speak a bit of English too. He talked about his family and the neighborhood, and the history between Japan and the Netherlands, he said my ancestors brought them a lot of science and medical knowledge, aside of the colonization I don't remember much of our history so that was neato🙏
Then it was looots more walking, sometimes it was a bit monotonous, but now and then things would catch my eye, like traffic lights reflecting on the road, a path's unique tiling patterns or a park with a beautiful lake so still you could see all the reflections in the water. This was a good time to take a break, also cause they had a toilet 👁️👁️
My accommodation for tonight was somewhat of a gamble, I decided to try one of these famous 24/7 net/manga cafes. At one of them they couldn't help me cause Japanese isn't fluent. I felt very rejected but then tried another and they actually took the time for me and I understood, it was an extremely long registration process and it was more complicated with a foreign passport too. But I got an assumably lifelong Kaikatsu Club pass now, and will definitely make use of it next year! I slept surprisingly comfortably even if it was on an unfolded desk chair, no wonder after all the walking.
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