tokyo, day two

On 4/26/07, Leo wrote:

It’s after day 2, it’s 5:25am, and I have a sniffly nose. We left the window open for fresh air, but the air made the room cooler than comfortable. So now I am up, burning some energy, and trying to tire myself into bed for another two hours.

After waking up at 5am yesterday, we played cards, watched television, and fell asleep again.

After waking up, we ate breakfast at Yoshinoya (pork on rice, and beef on rice), and caught the train to Shinjuku. Shinjuku is the business district of Japan. It is mostly populated with high class department stores. We walked through an alley that focused on pachinko parlors and porn theatres, and saw people lining up to starting playing pachinko. We walked through 8 floors of the Times Square department store, and I bought a nice pen from Tokyo Hands. I relaxed by using the foot-massager.

I bought some t-shirts and an umbrella at Uniqlo. These are t-shirts with interesting designs. I wish I brought less t-shirts of my own.

We walked upstairs and ate lunch at a ricebowl restaurant in Shinjuku. Jennie had salmon on rice, and I had beef and octopus on rice. After Shinjuku, we went to Harajuku, the place where young people dress up in different costumes. We didn’t see many interesting clothes for guys, as the Harajuku section that we visited was mostly clothes for women. Jennie bought clothes and jewelry.

After Harajuku, we traveled to Shibuya, which is a huge shopping district. We were looking for somewhere to sit down after walking for so long, and we stumbled upon Wired Cafe, which is the 7th floor on a video rental store. I had a Ginger Soda, which tasted like Koala Springs with shredded ginger, and Jennie had a berry ice drink.

At Shibuya, we went shopping for Jennie`s shoes and clothes. We spent an hour at Shibuya 109 but found nothing, because everything is interesting and overpriced. There is a Shibuya 109-2 for guys, but we didn’t have a chance to see it. I doubt it that the clothes would be within my price range, but it’d be interesting to see what the fashion trends are in Tokyo. I hope to find another Uniqlo type store.

We ate dinner at a tapas place in Shibuya. The food was unique and tasted good, but loud Japanese smokers marred the ambience. Another negative was the fact that the restaurant billed us for appetizers that we didn’t even eat. Apart from that, I want to give the place a positive review, because the food was flavorful, and I was happily eating even though I wasn’t hungry at the time.

Thus ended day 2 of our Tokyo trip.

Today we are planning to visit Asakusa and Roppongi. Maybe today we will do less shopping and see more cultural sights, but it’s tough to find the cultural sights because the roads seldom have names.

Amidst all this activity, I appreciate being blessed with a chance to travel, and with everything that is happening. Every little event helps me learn about my environment and myself.