Unfortunately, it’s been a couple of days since I had time to post. That means this is going to be a long one, so pull up a chair…

When last I posted, I’d been wandering Roppongi on Saturday night.

On Sunday morning, we met up with Sachuko, a Tokyo native that Larry (Kristy’s stepdad) had contacted about acting as a guide. Parenthetical–apparently this is such a common thing that websites exist to match visiting tourists with people willing to act as guides for free in exchange for various admissions, meals, etc along the way; wonder if there’s a demand for that sort of thing in Chicago? Anyways. We had breakfast at a large brunch in the hotel, which was mostly western food. There was some Japanese, and some sushi even, but it looked suspect and I fortunately waited a little longer for my first Japanese sushi. More on that later…

After the brunch, we went by subway to Harajuku to see cosplayers, who apparently hang out there en masse certain days. Although it was raining, a few were there, and some, who had come with a massive stuffed frog, agreed to pose with Piggy and with Mike the Dog, who we’ve brought along to build a travelogue with. These in particular were part of the “loligoth” subculture, so they gave their best efforts to look grim, but dissolved in giggles at the idea of a bunch of gaijin hauling stuffed pigs and the like around Tokyo with them.

Very near this spot is the Meiji Shrine, a Shinto site. We visited there next, admiring its torii gate, sake barrels, and exquisite architecture. There was a traditional wedding in progress there, which was quite fascinating. I also paid ¥ 500 for a wooden votive to place on a tree for the monks to pray over (in the link, see “Prayers Left by Visitors”). The mist and rain, while somewhat annoying from a personal standpoint, added greatly to the atmosphere. It was most tranquil.

We had originally planned to visit the Asakusa temple complex next, with Sachuko in tow (or, rather, in the lead) but were stymied because of the weather; with the clouds, it would become too dark to shoot much earlier in the day–in fact, most of my shots from the shrine were 3rd or 4th tries, after messing with the metering, ISO, etc. I am really learning the basics of digital photography on this trip! So instead of going to the Buddhist temple, we went to a temple of commerce–Shibuya! I’m not sure if the sobriquet “Times Square of Tokyo” is better applied elsewhere (perhaps Ginza or Shinjuku?) but Shibuya at Shibuya Station certainly reminded me of Broadway and 42nd. Our mission there was to obtain for Kristy a new pair of contacts, her backup pair having annihilated her primary pair in the strangest redundancy failure I’ve ever encountered. Sachuko earned Kristy’s eternal gratitude by translating for her through a) the failure of her prescription (apparently documents that are faxed, forwarded to an email subsystem, forwarded to gmail, then printed at a hotel are not considered legal); b) the ensuing eye exam; and c) the payment, etc required to obtain said contacts.

After all that, we were tired and hungry. Sachuko pointed us to an izakaya near our hotel (actually at Gaien Nishi Dori and Roppongi Dori, argh) where she said that the nighclub portion of Kill Bill had been filmed. As Kristy says in her post on the evening, we had to concentrate at first to find the resemblance. But due to vagaries of the photographic process, we really see a strong likeness in the pictures we took. We are such tourists! Pictures in the hotel, in the train, in the restaurant, walking down the street… as of this evening (more on the intervening time is coming) I have taken over 2GB of photos and short clips. In any case, the food at the izakaya was quite good, and we parted amiably from Sachuko with plans to meet again next week. We trudged down the Gaien Nishi Dori to our hotel. It was funny to watch other people’s reactions to some of the things I had spotted the night before, for example the Lamborghini dealership, which was a confounding thing to encounter in a random storefront at midnight. As a final aside on this topic, and a final word on the night, which ended, for us, after returning to the hotel, it should be noted that we espied a Beard Papa’s–yes, that Beard Papa’s–in Shibuya near the station. We didn’t have time to stop then, because a bus was coming, but we did eventually get our cream puffs.

I didn’t have any late-night adventures Sunday night, because I needed my rest–we were getting up early the next morning to visit the Tsukiji fish market in time to see tuna auctioned off. This was entirely fascinating, as was the trip to the actual location of the auction–constantly dodging forklifts full of fish and small trucks as we were, we probably observed the area more carefully than any thus far! The auctioneers were quite animated, which was interesting inasmuch as the Nihon-jin we’ve encountered so far have been quite reserved. I have some video clips taken with my camera that are destined for my gallery eventually. We actually arrived just for the tail end of the auction (har har) and afterwards headed out in search of a sushi breakfast, probably the freshest in the world. We found our destination in a small storefront-only sushi restaurant with a bar in the front long enough to seat 6 and with 7 chairs to put in front of it. After all of the tuna we’d seen being auctioned, I had eyes only for the maguro sashimi. It was served with by far the best miso I’ve ever had (or probably will have) and was, itself, the best fish I’ve tasted. All consumed under an awning, in the grey dawn light of 6:30 or 7:00am, accompanied by the sounds, everywhere, of morning rain falling, dripping, and running. A sublime moment.

After Tsukiji, we had some business to transact. Kristy’s stepsister Cassie headed back to the hotel for some class-related work, and Kristy also had homework. We also needed to pick up our JR (Japan Railway) passes in time for our move to Nagoya (more on that later). We explored Tokyo Station for some time in pursuit of this goal, and were eventually triumphant. Kristy and I also were able to finally satisfy our Beard Papa’s craving at a kiosk we found inside Tokyo Station. This time we were able to stammer out an order in Japanese before enjoying the call-and-response routine. “Rohk-yo banira, onegai shimas?” This caused us to split away from Kristy’s mom and stepdad, and so we had to find our way home on the subway ourselves. Thanks to our map-reading skills and the fact that the trip could be accomplished with a single transfer, this really wasn’t as hard as it sounds. The english-language signage in the subway is quite extensive.

On our way back into the hotel, we encountered Kristy’s stepbrother Lawrence and his friend Zac([hk])? (a little regular expression humor there) who were about to go out for ramen to kill time before picking up their rail passes. We walked over most of Azubu looking for a ramen place they’d allegedly seen but couldn’t find. Although this was slightly tiring, we also found a really interesting shopping area across the Meiji Dori which sought to combine an alleyway with a pedestrian mall with a Chinatown sort of decorative scheme. Very cool place, and full of many local shops (¥ 100 stores, dry cleaners, florists) but no ramen. After a long consultation, we headed back to Hiro-o where we knew there were many restaurants. We finally settled on one and had approximately the best ramen that man has yet conceived. Mine was some sort of pork ramen and had an outstanding savory broth. We have eaten so well here–and quite cheaply so far. In our time to date, I have not even spent the initial “landing money” ¥ 30,000 (about $300 USD) I withdrew from the Chase headquarters in Chicago.

After lunch, Kristy needed time to do her homework, and Lawrence and Zack needed someone to ride with him to get his rail pass. Once they offered to pay my bus fare to Shinagawa station, where they intended to make the exchange, I did the math and decided that I was pretty interested in seeing Shinagawa. The bus ride took me through several areas I hadn’t seen before, which was good for me and provided a few photo opportunites, which was good for me; and it was good for them that I had come because, unlike in Tokyo Station, there was no english-language signage to explain the process, indicate which forms should be filled, etc. The rail passes we got are sweet–available only to foreigners, they provide, for a cool ¥ 38.000, unlimited rides on all JR trains for a week. We struggled, briefly, to find a return bus after picking up the passes, but were ultimately successful.

After spotting what looked like a gyoza joint during our lengthy ramen search earlier, I had developed quite a taste for the little buggers. After returning from the station, we persuaded Kristy to abandon her studies to join us for some gyoza and some biru (a loan word from English that is not hard to translate). We had an excellent dinner! Of course, after dinner Kristy had to get back to work, but the three of us, Lawrence, Zack, and I, set out in the mist and cold rain to see Tokyo Tower, which they had visited but I had only glimpsed. It was the kind of night that would be excellent to watch from inside, but I was determined not to waste any time indoors, despite the weather. The walk, which took us through slightly more varied terrain than had most of our others, took about an hour or so each way. We travelled through some diplomatic areas (Embassy of Australia, represent) and some neighborhood alleyways (even in the most remote of alleys in Tokyo, you are never more than 100ft from a brightly-glowing vending machine) and eventually, on the way home, to a tiny but jam-packed “recycle book” store. I gave its inventory at most a cursory inspection, being footsore and also illiterate in Kanji, but it was a neat little place.

Upon our return home, we began making our plans for the next day, which I will tell you about soon. But not today, because it’s already midnight local, and the aforementioned plans brought us our wake-up call at 4am. Good night, everyone! More pictures and posts will be coming soon.