First Night in Kyoto

 Food, Japan, Japanese Language, Photography, Photos, Travel  Comments Off on First Night in Kyoto
Nov 252011
 

Man, I’m tired. I raced back to the apartment after JBPP, frantically packed, tossed out anything I didn’t need, repacked, still had too much, but left anyway. Yuck. Too heavy. I tried to take the bike to the station, but realized instantly that that was a horrible idea. The walk to the station wasn’t much better.

I really want to be one of those dudes who can just travel with a toothbrush and a spare pair of underpants. Seriously, how do they do that?

I managed to get a seat on the train to Nagoya, then grabbed a Nozomi to Kyoto.

PINning Down My Tickets

Here’s a tip: if you want to use a credit card, and you don’t have or remember your PIN number, buy your shinkansen tickets at a smaller station and talk to a human, if you can speak Japanese.

If you can’t, then go to the bigger stations, like Nagoya or Tokyo, and stand in line. The people working the counters there speak excellent English, or can find someone who does. (I learned this in 2007.)

If I had gotten my ticket at Okazaki instead of Nagoya, I would have saved 20-30 minutes of standing in line.

If you have/know your PIN, just use the machines. It’s a LOT faster. But if you’re trying to do something complex, humans are more helpful.

Hello Kyoto

I got to Kyoto at around 6:30, then headed straight to the APA Hotel, which was right outside of JR Kyoto. Fortunately, I had my confirmation number with me, because nobody in either Japan or the US can spell my name to save their lives.

The room was okay, but pricey: 10,000 yen.

I checked in, crashed for a few minutes, then headed over to Bic Camera to finally get a circular polarizer. I’ve been putting off buying one for too long. I looked around a bit, and found one.

Then I headed up to the restaurants on the 11th floor of Isetan, because it was starting to get late.

The Christmas decorations are already up:

Xmas Decorations, Kyoto Station

I found a good okonomiyaki shop, and had a good modern yaki with bacon. That’s good stuff!

After that, I headed down to the second floor of the station, and went to Cafe du Monde for a beignet… only to find out that the Cafe du Monde in Kyoto Station does not serve beignets. What the hell?? It’s Cafe freakin’ du Monde! They do sell hot dogs and coffee. But no beignets? There was a Mister Donut next to it, so I waited for 10 minutes and ordered some donut-looking things from them.

It Has a Hole in the Middle

As I headed out of the station, I took a couple of photos of the Kyoto Tower Hotel, which was very purple tonight:

Kyoto Tower

Kyoto Tower

Then I went to the Lawson outside of the station, and it was jammed full of people. It was a madhouse. I decided to go ahead and get breakfast as well as beverages, because I wanted to save a trip here in the morning. (Seriously, it was nuts.)

I headed back to the room.

My room if full of amenities. See?

The Hotel's Amenities!

Then I ate my donuts. The MisDo (as they call Mister Donut here) donuts were really mediocre, like not very good grocery store donuts that had all of the flavor chased out of them by the bland police. Frankly, Harris-Teeter’s chocolate donuts taste better, and they’re average at best.

Now I understand why the lines at Krispy Kreme are so long here; these people haven’t been eating proper doughnuts! (There’s a difference between donuts and doughnuts, but I don’t want to get into it right now.)

The MisDo chocolate donut just tasted like it was… brown flavored.

I called home to let them know I was still alive, then I sacked out early. Gotta get up early, too. Tomorrow will probably be chaotic on a level I haven’t seen yet.

I’m Only Happy When It Rains

 Japan, Japanese Language, Photos, Travel  Comments Off on I’m Only Happy When It Rains
Nov 192011
 

It was pouring rain, but I decided to go to Nagoya anyway. Since my plans to go to Kyoto this weekend were ruined, I refused to sit in my apartment all day. I was itching to go out and do something.

My pants got soaked twice by the time I rode my bike to the station. I stopped off on the way to the station at the school, and hung out in Aoi Hall for a few minutes while I tried to dry off. Then when I headed back out again, I got soaked almost immediately.

I have a pair of North Face hiking pants that are supposed to dry quickly, and they do, but they also get wet quickly in a downpour, umbrella or no umbrella. Oh well.

Nothing Is More Refreshing Than the Rain

Meanwhile, at the station, JR Tokai was having its “Sawayaka Walking Tour,” or “Refreshing Walking Tour” of Okazaki event going on today. They are holding the event all over the Tokai region on various days.

I suppose it’s refreshing today, in the same way a cold shower while being fully clothed is refreshing.

I grabbed a train to Nagoya, and headed to the Mermaid Cafe for a quick bite because I skipped breakfast. Then I went to the information booth at the station to find the fastest way to get to the Tokugawa Art Museum. I started asking in Japanese, but she forced me into English.

I didn’t think my Japanese was that bad. Maybe her desire to use English was just stronger than my desire to use Japanese.

She showed me the city bus lines and the tourist bus lines. I decided on the city line, because it was cheaper, and because I thought it would be faster.

Back out in the soaking rain, the bus shows up at 2:35 instead of 2:20, and doesn’t get to the stop I want until 3:10.

Maybe the tourist buses would have been faster.

Also, every time the bus stopped, the engine cut off. Every time it got ready to move, the engine started up, and the driver announced that he’s going to move the bus.

That’s one major difference between Japan and the US.

The Tokugawa Art Museum

I got off at my stop and started trying to find the museum, and it was still pouring rain. I got soaked for the fourth time by now, I think. I found it eventually.

Here it is!

Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya 2

The museum had some really neat exhibits. There were swords from the 12th century on display, and a special exhibition of a lot of material from the Tale of Genji— manuscripts, etc., and they had a lot of tea ceremony stuff and incense burners on display, too. Actually, they had quite a lot of those on display.

If you like cultural stuff, then I’d recommend it.

The gardens are supposed to be really nice, but since it was late Fall and pouring rain, I can’t say one way or another.

You be the judge:

Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya 3

More Book Shopping!

At 4:30, I headed out and grabbed a cab to go to Ozone station. The driver was a nice guy. We had a nice talk about politics, in Japanese, of course.

Once again, I must reiterate the importance of speaking the language, wherever you go. You don’t have to be great at it, but people will generally appreciate it if you try to speak their language. I find I get a whole lot more out of living here by speaking Japanese. I can’t imagine living here longer than a few weeks without speaking it.

Also, talking to everyone in Japanese is great practice. And fun, too! I learn a whole lot more about Japan by talking to people than by reading books or watching TV. Maybe it’s my reporter background kicking in.

From Ozone, I took a JR line train to Chi-something, then grabbed the subway to Sakae to look at a couple of calligraphy supply shops. The first one was pretty good. It’s in one of the municipal buildings, and has a really good selection.

The second shop one was more of an art supply shop, and didn’t have what I was looking for, but it still had some nice stuff if you’re into brush painting more so than calligraphy.

After that, I headed to Osu again. I found a couple of used games, and did a little shopping at a book store where the music was so loud, I thought my ears were going to bleed. I stopped by Mandarake, because they have used games as well as interesting old toys, too. (Like old Godzillas and stuff like that. All ungodly expensive, but it sure takes me back!)

Then I went back to JR Nagoya, to check out Sanseido on the 11th floor. They have a nice collection of books for Japanese language learners, but it took me a few minutes to find it.

After that, I picked up some more doughnuts at Krispy Kreme, then stopped at Mokumoku for dinner.

I got home around 10:30 pm, by which time the rain had stopped, so my bike ride home wasn’t so bad. I got a full day in in spite of the rain.

I win!

Shopping in Nagoya. In the Rain. Again.

 Japan, Travel  Comments Off on Shopping in Nagoya. In the Rain. Again.
Nov 052011
 

It’s never a good idea to go to Nagoya without a plan. At least it’s not a good idea for me. But I went anyway, because the idea of sitting around all day on a weekend just gnawed at me. And yes, once again, this weekend it’s raining. Argh!

Every week I’ve been in Okazaki, it seems like the weather pattern has been the same. It’s sunny and beautiful all week when I’m in class, it turns cloudy on Friday, and then it rains all day Saturday and Sunday. Expletive expletive weather. This has been going on for about 5 weeks now, and everybody is sick of it.

By everybody I mean me. Although I’m sure I’m not the only person who hates this pattern.

I slept in a bit this morning, and lazed around a little bit while trying to form a plan. What to do in the rain… what to do…

At around 2 p.m., I decided to just go out and do something in Nagoya, so I grabbed the 2:30 train out of Okazaki, and got to Nagoya around 3 p.m. Part of the plan was to get some of the money I spent on my new electronic dictionary back from Bic Camera, because the day I bought it, I found it for 10,000 yen cheaper, and it turns out that Bic slashed the price by 10,000 yen as well. So I decided to follow V-san’s advice and get that 10,000 yen back!

Flick My Bic

I headed over, and sure enough, after a bit of waiting and some shuffling of papers, I got my 10,000 yen back. They had to “sell” me a new one, and I “returned” my old one, and I lost a few points in the process, but I don’t really care. Cash is cash, and with the yen as hideously expensive as it is these days, I’ll take cash any day over points. 10,000 yen is about $120 these days!

Thanks, V-san! You saved me a ton of money!

And Bic, that was awesome.

In Japan, Skippy is in the Imported Food Store, Next to the Caviar

I did some strolling, and found a 5-story drugstore nearby… it looked impressive on the outside, but it was really cramped on the inside. I kind of got wrapped up in a quest to find Pepto Bismol, just in case… yeah, that was a total failure. Not gonna find that outside of Tokyo, I think. Maybe not at all.

Then I wandered around some more, and went to the back of the station, back around, and found a neat International grocery store, called Seijoishii. It’s kind of wedged in back behind the station, behind the Marriott. If you’re craving some goodies from home (i.e. not Japan), they may have what you want. I picked up some Ricola lemon-mint cough drops, because my throat has been killing me on-and-off since I had that cold a month ago.

This is Now a Blog About Me Buying Books… Or Trying to, Anyway.

Then I headed off to see if I could find Sanseido. It shows up in Google Maps, but after walking around the target building and not seeing anything, I gave up and went to Junkudou instead. I found some nice manly-looking cloth book covers there. I’ve been looking for some of those. When you buy books here, they always offer you the paper book covers, but I don’t like them. I wanted the cloth ones for a long time. Sort of like cloth vs. paper grocery bags.

After that, it was off to Sakae, to look around at the Book-Off there, because it’s big. Book-Off sells not just books, but all kinds of second-hand stuff, like jewelry, clothes, sporting goods, electronics… but mostly used books.

I found a bunch of used books on sale for cheap, so I nabbed them.

Then I headed up a stop to Hisayaodori to pick up a few more books. There’s this sci-fi novel series I want to read, and all of the books are about as big a phone books, density-wise. The nice thing about buying them at the store there is that I get freebies for buying them there, but they weigh a freakin’ ton.

Bagging It

I crossed the street to the Tokyu Hands in Hisayaodori to get a cloth shopping bag. I’ve been meaning to do this for a couple of weeks, anyway. The 25 pounds of books that are making my hands go numb have absolutely nothing to do with it.

Okay, it has everything to do with it.

I went up about 5 flights to the floor marked “bags.” No luck. Wrong bags. Up 2 more flights, to “kitchenwares.” All I see are bags that are very much not for me. Then I saw a Trader Joe’s bag.”Well, at least it’s a brand I know…” Then I look over and saw a Whole Foods Market bag, and just laughed, because I shop there in the US. The Whole Foods in Chapel Hill is one of the oldest stores in the chain. It’s been there forever, and before that, it was an independent store called Wellspring, and it was pretty popular even then.

The laugh was on me, though. 1200 yen for a $4 bag. Yeah, I felt like an idiot, but the Trader Joe’s bag was 1600 yen. And all of the other bags had stuff written on it in French, and were too small. No thanks. Give me that American size bag that I can stuff a car or a whole cow into!

It’s Even Carolina Blue!

I’m hungry. On my way to the bookstore in Hisayaodori, I had spotted a nice little restaurant called The Sun Room, in the underground passageway called Cenrtal Park at the Hisayaodori subway station. They serve a lot of organic food there, and some vegetables, I think. Turns out it’s a chain, but it’s fine by me. The spaghetti with mozzarella and asparagus in pesto was good, and cheap.

One thing about restaurants here that’s different from restaurants in the US, and that’s ordering. In Japan, you order everything through dessert up front, then your server never comes back. In the US, the server keeps coming back to make sure you don’t want to order another cow, or another giant tub of ice cream, or whatever. (Now I’m getting hungry again.) It’s something small that I need to remember to adjust to every now and then.

Now it’s 7:30, and I had to rush to Takashimaya at Nagoya Station in a hurry, before it closed, to buy a decent blanket. It’s getting cold, and I can’t run the heater at night without wrecking my throat. So I caught the subway, got to the station, hustled up 9 flights of escalators, and made it to bedding by 7:50. (Hey, I was impressed.) The store clerks helped me find a blanket on sale that would fit my bed that I could wash and hang up to dry without having to wait a month. (Woot.) It’s even Carolina Blue.

And it’s warm and fluffy.

And I did it all in Japanese. Pardon me while I hurt myself patting myself on the back.

Ow.

After that, the store started closing, so the “Get Out!” music started gently playing, to gently tell us to “Get the hell out so we can clean up after you, then get a beer and go home before the trains stop running!”

But in a gentle way.

My Fellow Americans Make Me Want to Facepalm Sometimes. Okay, Frequently.

I decided to go get some Krispy Kremes on the way out. Hey, I had seen them in Sakae already, and I know there’s a Krispy Kreme at Takashimaya here in the station. Sure enough, there it is, and there’s the line. And there was an obnoxious American guy behind me, convinced that this line was just for Japanese people, and didn’t apply to him. He even got out of the line, walked to the counter, and tried to order.

Please dear God, when you go to Japan, don’t be that guy. The lines apply to you, too. You are not special because you’re an American. Get in line with everyone else and have some manners. I really wanted to give him a dope slap with my menu, not that it would make a difference. This is the same kind of guy who goes to a restaurant, orders off the menu, then gives them a bad review online when they can’t get it the way he wants it.

I hate that kind of guy.

Of course, by the time I got to the front of the line, they were out of the good doughnuts, so I got 2 chocolate crullers. I’ll take what I can get.

Then I went back to the international grocery to pick up the last few things. By now, I resemble a pack mule, carrying tons and tons of crap. But I managed to get some peanut butter (Skippy: sadly no JIF available), some more Ricolas, and some chocolate… the good stuff.

I just managed to make the 8:26 train back to Okazaki. The train ride was uneventful, but the bike ride home was… interesting. Juggling all that stuff was not an exercise I wish to repeat. The blanket was very big.

I have to keep unlearning shopping habits learned behind the wheel. If I want it, that means I have to schlep it home; there’s no trunk except my backpack.

Oh well. I have a big bag to carry it all in now!

Paddington Bares All

 Great Britain, Technology, Travel  Comments Off on Paddington Bares All
Jun 302011
 

First a word about where I’m staying. It’s a hotel called Base2Stay in Kensington, about 5 minutes’ walk from the Earls Court Tube station. London hotels are ungodly expensive, and when researching a place to stay, I came upon horror story after horror story about cheap hotels that had terrible service, or no air conditioning, or smelled funny, or were in crummy locations, or whatever hotel horror you want to imagine.

All at a price I could not afford.

Base2Stay is pretty nice so far.

For £105 a night, I’m getting a clean room with a personal A/C / heater, a mini-kitchen, which few hotels can boast in the £100 range, and a nice bathroom with a towel heater, which is really handy for drying clothes. And the people here are nice in the “go way out of their way” sort of nice, plus they’ll shower you with restaurant coupons, should you so desire.

Room 114 is tiny. Microscopically so. It’s smaller than just about any hotel room I stayed in when I did my grand tour of Japan, and if you’ve read my Japan trip entries, you know I stayed in some tiny hotel rooms.

So I was a bit surprised when I saw what my £105 was getting me.

But in spite of that, it’s a nice little room with all the amenities I need– even a decent-sized shower. (But the shower head is too low, and the water can’t make up its mind if it wants to freeze or scald me on a regular basis.)

Is it perfect? No, but it’s a really good little place to crash that’s cheap for London, and expensive for most of America.

Like Elvis, Krispy Kreme is Everywhere

Anyway, on to the day’s activities… what excitement awaits? Well, today I got the phone straightened out. It wasn’t using the Internet properly, so I had to take it by Car Phone Warehouse to have them fiddle with it for a few minutes to get it to use the 3G properly.

Then I decided to head to Paddington Station to see about some lunch. Nothing really grabbed me inside the station as a lunch source, so I went outside and started wandering.

I found a nice little deli outside of the station, and had a chicken salad baguette and a coke for £3.50. Not bad for London. I went back to the station and did some grocery shopping at the Sainsbury’s there, and discovered that my U.S. credit card doesn’t work there.

I’m not even going to bother with it, I think. If I pay cash, it’s more painful, so I’ll spend less, and I will know when I’m spending money, because I will experience it in a more visceral fashion.

Spotted in Paddington Station, two things: 1. A statue of Paddington Bear. (Of course.) 2. A Krispy Kreme. (They really ARE everywhere.)

I went back to the room to study for the test after that.

Of course I bought doughnuts.

Okonomiyaki!

In the evening, I decided to go out for dinner for a break. First, I stopped by Boots’, the chemist’s shop, to pick up some liquid shower soap. Nivea for Men for £1. Inexpensive, and I’ll smell manly in a Euro way.

Then I headed on to Tokyo Spicy, a relatively new Japanese restaurant a few stores down from the Italian place I ate at the other day. The food was very good. I had okonomiyaki, which I haven’t had since I was in Osaka in 2007. I had it with pork this time. Yum. Wasn’t a big fan of the ginger beer, though. I prefer American ginger ale. The ginger beer was too sweet, and wasn’t very spicy. Give me Blenheim’s Ginger Ale any time. Mmmmm.

After that, I headed to Cafe del Coin, because the sign said they had crepes. They did not. They did have this chocolate caramel thing however, that was crunchy and went well with a cappuccino. Good enough for me. (I would have really liked a chocolate and whipped cream crepe, though.)

I haven’t had a good crepe since I was in Osaka in 2007.

Then back to the room to study. I love the room, but good lord, it’s tiny. It has just about everything I need, except a real desk and chair. It would be nice to sit on something besides the bed for a change of pace.

Last Day In Japan. ;_;

 Japan, Photos, Travel  Comments Off on Last Day In Japan. ;_;
Nov 142007
 

I managed to get packed last night, but I was up late doing it. No surprise there.

First thing this morning I backed up all of my photos to DVD. I just had this horrible image of a security guy ruining my laptop, all 3,000 photos, with no backup… *shudder*

Then it was off to Shinjuku Station to reserve a seat on the Narita Express. This time I did get the Green Car, because I wanted the extra room for my luggage.

Yeah, that’s it. My luggage.

While I was there, I decided to make a very quick trip to Shibuya to get a photo of 109 and Hachiko. Gotta have a photo of Hachiko, right?

Hachiko:

Shibuya-- Hachiko

109 (a famous fashion mall, I think):

Shibuya-- 109 Building

The World’s Busiest Crosswalk:

Shibuya-- World's Busiest Crosswalk

Shibuya-- World's Busiest Crosswalk

Then back to Shinjuku, and a last stab at Kinokuniya, and this time, score! I found all of the novels I was looking for. Woot! Too bad I’m too illiterate to read them yet, but I’ll get to it.

On the way back, I saw a one-hour long line at the Krispy Kreme. Oh well. No time for that.

Shinjuku-- Krispy Kreme

Now it’s just time to put the novels in a suitcase, and get out of here by 1:30 or so so I can make my train, and then my plane.

All packed!

Shinjuku-- My Hotel Room

The last photo!

Shinjuku-- My Hotel Room-- The View

Leaving Japan

(time skip)

So I’m on the Narita Express, heading to the airport, and I have to say it’s a very nice train. For 4700 yen, I get a big comfy seat all to myself, and there’s plenty of baggage room in the front of the car… since I got on in Shinjuku. If you get on in Tokyo, you’re going to have to improvise.

But anyway, I’m on the train, and I get my first taste of America in a while. Sitting in front of me is some random American Guy, who had to have heard the several announcements saying not to speak on cell phones in the middle of the car, but to move to the area between cars instead. Because really, nobody gives a crap about your parts supply issues, and we don’t want to hear them.

But this bonehead didn’t care. He decided to regale the entire car for 30 minutes about his supply issues, and how he doesn’t want to be here. Well, I’ve got news for him. None of us wanted to be there hearing him blather, either. And unless he’s just deaf or stupid, he couldn’t have been in Japan for 10 days without hearing this announcement in English at least 100 times.

Seriously, guy, they’re saying it just for your sake.

So if you travel, please, please, I’m begging you– don’t be that guy!

I jokingly call this blog “The Stupid American Tourist,” but I don’t mean that I’m “The Stupid Rude Inconsiderate American Tourist Who Annoys the Crap Out of People.”

Hot Doughnuts Now! Shinjuku, Takashimaya Times Square, Krispy Kreme!

 Japan, Photos, Travel  Comments Off on Hot Doughnuts Now! Shinjuku, Takashimaya Times Square, Krispy Kreme!
Nov 132007
 

Busy day today, with ups, downs, and a Krispy Kreme sighting.

I started off at 9:30 by running to Ikebukuro to buy a suitcase. Ugh. But I did find one. It’s not the best one I could find, but it was the right mix of cheap and not too shabby.

Then breakfast, which was more department store food. I love the depachika. (Depachika is Japanese for the basement, or bottom, so chika, of the department store, or depaato. So depachika.)

After that, I ran to Akasaka to meet up with Peter Galante, the host of japanesepod101.com’s many podcasts. I really like the podcasts, and it helped me a lot in getting ready for my trip here. I highly recommend the survival lessons. Especially the ones about trains and buses. Seriously. Don’t underestimate the importance of understanding the mass transit system here, because otherwise you’ll wind up like that poor lost Norwegian guy, adrift in Shinjuku.

You’ll probably feel overwhelmed and confused the first time you get here, anyway. No need to add to it.

It was fun meeting Peter, and I appreciate his listening to me ramble for 40 minutes. Sorry about that, Peter. I’m not always that talkative.

No, really, I’m not.

After that, it was back to Akihabara to raid some more shops. If you’re a nerd, you need to go to Akihabara, and be prepared to spend money. Of course, spending money implies buying things, and buying things implies carrying them around with you. If you live somewhere like New York City, you know this already. If you’re like me, and you live in the suburbs, then you need to consider it. I’m used to buying things, and putting them into my car. So I can buy a lot of heavy stuff without much thought. (Not that I do it often, but I do it.)

I went with my trusty backpack, which my girlfriend gave me before I went off to grad school. It has a lot of nice memories attached to it, but it has one little problem. Not to gross people out, but it makes my back sweat. And back sweat is probably one of the least appealing things you can show when wearing a charcoal gray shirt.

If you’re buying crap, consider your carrying strategies.

I raided Yodobashi Camera’s big store in Akihabara again. I found some nice game-related books there… so much data, it makes me want to cry when I look at the U.S. books.

After that, I went to Gamers’, and bought more manga there. There are sooo many good series over here that either haven’t or won’t come to the U.S. anytime soon. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering in and out of various stores, browsing. If I did live here, I’d have a serious space problem, because I’d have a house full of gadgets and books.

But no Hello Kitty robots.

Probably.

Hot Doughnuts, Hot Doughnuts!

By around 4 or so, I was exhausted. So I headed back to Shinjuku before the crowds on the trains got out of hand. I took a break, rested up, started going through all of my receipts for Customs (ugh), and then decided to go to Tokyo Cityview in Roppongi for evening fun.

On the way there, I decided to stop at Kinokuniya to try to hunt down a few novels again. (Last time was a miserable failure.) So I got there at 7:50…. just as they were about to close at 8.

Seriously, can’t I get a break?

I did see something interesting on the way– a Krispy Kreme. In Shinjuku. Not 100 meters from my hotel. And the Hot Doughnuts Now sign was lit. But the line was not only out the door, it wrapped all over itself about 5 times. No hot doughnuts for me. But I did have a nice warm fuzzy feeling seeing it, and the thought of Krispy Kreme in Japan just made me laugh out loud. People looked at me funny, but I’m used to it.

Photos:

Is that… a Krispy Kreme?

Takashimaya Times Square

OMG It IS! Look at that line! And the Hot Doughnuts Now sign is lit!

Takashimaya Times Square--Krispy Kreme???

Mmm… Hot Doughnuts… sadly, no time to stand in line!

Hot Doughnuts NOW!

Some shots of JR Shinjuku from the bridge to Takashimaya and Kinokunia:

Takashimaya Times Square--View of JR Shinjuku

Takashimaya Times Square--View of JR Shinjuku

Christmas Lights at Tahashimaya:

Takashimaya Times Square--Christmas Lights

Takashimaya Times Square--Christmas Lights

Takashimaya Times Square--Christmas Lights

Takashimaya Times Square--Christmas Lights

Takashimaya Times Square--Christmas Lights

Takashimaya Times Square--Christmas Lights

Roppongi

Then it was off to Roppongi. And I finally figured out what made my headache on Sunday worse– the Oedo line. Seriously, it’s the loudest subway line in the world. It screams and groans like an angry rusted giant robot who hasn’t been oiled in 1,000 years trying to run across Tokyo.

By the time I got to Roppongi, I was feeling icky again, so I looked around a little, and wisely cut my trip short. It’s not going anywhere. I’ll catch it next time.

I took a few photos.

Roppongi Hills:

Roppongi Hills

Roppongi Hills

Tokyo Tower from Roppongi Hills:

Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Tower

Back to Shinjuku

Then it was back to the conbini, then the hotel. Now I need to finish packing and get ready to head home tomorrow.

I’ve had a great time in Japan. It hasn’t always been easy. In fact, there were some frustrating times, some hard times, and some times I just wanted to go home. But those times tended to pass, and the more I stayed here, the more I loved it here.

When I travel, I like to have “Wow!” experiences. I usually consider myself lucky if I have one or two. I had so many on this trip, I lost count.

I highly recommend coming to Japan, but not just planting your butt in Tokyo. Yes, Tokyo is great, but Tokyo isn’t Japan. Japan is a big country with a wide range of regional variation, and a lot of interesting cities, both big and small. Just going to Tokyo to judge Japan is like just going to NYC to judge the U.S. What about the Grand Canyon? Or … well, there’s a lot of other stuff out there. I’m tired.

When I get back home, I’ll sort out my thoughts properly, and post them on the blog.

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