Full Day 2 and the Return Home

Sunday. We're actually very tired but we somehow get up anyways. (Very slowly). A trip to the bakery (we each got a couple things) was enough to give us some energy for the day. Maciej, David and I hopped on the bus and off we went to the Shibuya Station, and took the JR Sobu Line from Ryogoku.

We were headed to the Edo Tokyo Museum. Out in front was a statue of a man. On a turtle. I don't know why that's important but it was a cool statue.

We stopped by a 100 yen shop. Those places are awesome. I picked up a couple binders and some other things I needed, and paid with the change in my pocket. Let's go find more of those.

The Edo Tokyo Museum was much much more interesting than the Tokyo National Museum. Instead of a bunch of random artifacts, this museum was there to walk us through Japan's history, all the way from 1590. I think it's safe to say we learned a lot. The Westernization of Tokyo and the times of war were the most interesting sections. We learn about WWII always from our side. It was good to hear the story from theirs.


The entire place was filled with replicas like the above picture. And there were artifacts too. Perhaps not as rare or pricey, but much more interesting (an old early car, WWII weapons, etc).

This hot air balloon, for example, was one of the weapons used to bomb the states. One even reached Michigan!


Next door was the Kokugikan, Japan's most famous sumo wrestling arena. Unfortunately there weren't any tournaments going on, so we just explored the building. We were thoroughly creeped out when we went in to find the basement filled with odd merchants selling salon products of sorts... in a sumo wrestling ring. We left quickly.

After taking the long long route back to the station (thanks David...) we took a couple train stops to Akihabara Electric Town, the center of Japan's technology selling everything you can think of (electronically that is). Oh rite, but first we stopped for lunch in the train station. What did we eat? Ramen!!! I was too hungry to take the picture when the food first came, so this has already been picked at (you can see a few dumplings missing). But it was goooood. Oh btw, most ramen places work like this. You put money in a vending machine, it gives you a ticket, you give the ticket to pretty much anyone, and they bring you your food. Welcome to Japan, minimizing social interactions and increasing efficiency since... well forever.


I don't think David was ready for this picture. Plus I think he wasn't as hungry as Maciej and I.

Okay, Akihabara. Nice eh? It was FILLED with electronics places; we were so tired we barely saw half of it. The streets were filled with cosplay merchants and ravenous salesmen. We went into Laox (one of the international stores) and well... took a break. We were tired.

There was this massage chair that (to quote Maciej) was "the most amazing thing he's ever sat on." It was good, better than the Brookstone ones. You could adjust EVERYTHING. Leg length, back support, laying down completely flat or sitting up, etc. Oh and it had a calf massager (Ahhh..). The best part was, it was only 270000 yen (under 2700 dollars). If only it were marketed to the states. These stores, btw are all built up. So like seven stories. Anyways, after hanging out in that one section watching a baseball game and .. well napping, we visited a nearby gaming arcade.

When I said they sell everything, I meant everything. The video below is indeed a video of a USB gadget that does one thing, humps your computer. Your USB port powers a little dog that looks like it's humping your computer. Oh, Japan.



A picture in case the video doesn't work.

We're messing with one of the Macs... Don't worry we took a funny picture with the computer and left our mark on Japan.


David found a tablet pad where he was supposed to color it in... apparently we don't know how to color within the lines...


Okay, back to the gaming arcade. It's not like your typical American arcades complete with DDR, skee ball, and Time Crisis 4. This was a hardcore gaming place. Most games cost 8 dollars a game and you played against everyone else on the floor. They were all strategy games. You bought cards at a machine (kind of like pokemon cards, but more advanced) and placed them on your playing field in front of you. There must be some kind of chip in each of the cards because the big screen in front of everyone had a player corresponding to each card, how it was turned, it's skill level, etc. David's favorite was the soccer one. It was fun watching Japanese men move their cards in an almost dance like way to dribble the soccer ball down the field. Meh, this is hard to describe. You'll just have to come to Japan.


After Akihabara, we went to Harajuku, regarded as the home of the "teeny-boppers" (according to our guidebook). They weren't wrong either. It was filled with fashions only hormone-filled teens would go for and had enough Hello-kitty to suffocate even the most tolerant of men. The entrance to the main street in Harajuku is pictured above. And yes, it does look like "Take a ..." street. But I promise, it's Takeshita Street.

Now here is where we were supposed to go to a Bazaar and Museum of Art. Yeah... we skipped that.

We went to one of the biggest shrines in Japan, the Meiji Shrine. At the "cleansing water", we did the ritual and went on in.

Okay so the shrine wasn't that exciting. It was a very pretty park that we had to walk through to get there though (Yoyogi Park). On Sunday's only (wow... we were so lucky, and yes I'm being sarcastic), there is a freak show described as a place "you can catch punks, gothic lolitas, bloodspattered surgeons and other bizarre subcultures showing off to each other and the gaggle of photographers." And that's really what it was. A bunch of scarily dressed people standing around while tourists constantly shot photos. There actually was a group of caucasian "gothic lolitas" grouping to their own clique on the side, maybe they were tourists trying to fit it?

Away from Harajuku we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. it has an observatory on both towers from which you can see Mt. Fuji on clear days (of course, the smog barely let us see half a mile away, but still). It was a long walk from the Shinjuku station, but it was worth it.

Tall...



A video I took of the surrounding area.

The view from the top of the building. Shinjuku during the night. Nice eh?

Okay here is where we were supposed to go to see some Kabuku theatre... but I don't think any of us had any more interest in following the rest of the recommended spots. So... we played Pachinko. When in Japan, right?


Okay so while we waited to figure out how to play Pachinko, we hit up the slots instead. Maciej and I both lost 1000 yen pretty quickly. (Yes I'm not of legal age here, but believe it or not people here think I'm around 24, 25). By the time David somewhat figured out how to play Pachinko, he had little money left in the machine. We figured out that this is how you play. Put in money. And lose. Yay... I don't think I'll ever understand why gambling in machines is fun.

David also wanted to see Takashimata Time Square, so we went looking. We're all imagining something equivalent to the bright lights of the NY equivalent but were soon disappointed. It seems it's just the name of the department store. Apparently they figured since all of Japan resembles NY's Time Square in terms of light wattage, they didn't need to make their own. Ah well, all's well that ends well.

The rest of the night was spent exploring Shinjuku (one of the biggest cities in the Tokyo area). There was a lot to see. (And some we don't need to see anymore, but it's probably not so appropriate for this blog).

We headed home.

David's departure the next day left him with only one thing he hadn't done. Sake. On the way to the bus stop we picked him up a 200 yen cup of sake and he drank away. (About half a sip, rest went to Maciej... he's Polish :D ).

The end of our adventures.

Who knows, I might have forgotten something that I'll write about later. But as of now, it's 8:30 PM and I'm still at work taking advantage of the internet. Time for sleep. Mata ashita.