I arrived at my first stop in early dawn. My warm welcome to Tokyo was being run down a bicycle right outside Shinagawa bus station. It was an adventure navigating through Tokyo's complex rail and subway system, then finding my hostel in the depths of Asakusa. Quick stop at Mister Donut, and off I go.
A pie & drink for 320￥, can't find that up north.
Stopped by the big temple (Senso-ji) near the station first. I've been here half a dozen times before, but there're always something new to see. It's a little before 9am, however it's already bustling with people from all over the world. In the past hour, I've heard Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin & Canto), Thai, Korean, English/American, and various European tongues. Pretty sure I've seen some Filipinos or Malays too. I threw some money in the big wooden box, offered a hearty prayer for safe travels, and out.
To my surprise, I saw the new Skytree not far away, so that's my next stop (there was no plan for today whatsoever). Half an hour of queue and 2000￥ later, I had an unobstructed view of the Tokyo skyline, including the now tiny orange Tokyo Tower. And just my luck, the clouds cleared right before that. For another 1000￥, I can go up even higher. It was already a pricey trip up, so I may as well commit. At least I can say, "Tokyo Skytree, I climb that... But I'm not a rapper".
Then something sad happened: dropped my camera yet again. Not only did I drop it, it got thrown. Somehow, the strap got snagged and yanked the camera out of my hand, and slingshot it onto the pavement. Fuck the strap.
Skytree is essentially a comms tower, so all the TV stations have merchandise stores below it. After going a little nuts, I settled on some Doraemon stickers (for school; kids love stickers here).
For the afternoon, I met up with a few other ALTs (Tim & Bug) in Shinjuku. By coincidence, a bunch of Iwate ALTs are in Tokyo this week. Of course, we would pick the busiest station to meet, and involved 3 train changes from Skytree, so I was 20 mins late. Besides the two, Tim's Japanese friend was there too.
And we got a new meme - "I think I'm gonna call it a night." Apparently, beard James is also in town and was supposed to meet up with them last night, but ditched them and let them know much later on FB, with that exact phrase. Hence, it's the joke of the day.
Little did I know that we're gonna get our Gundam on today. First stop: Akihabara. Went to the Gundam café and dropped 1500￥ on a watered-down beer. But I got to keep the Gundam mug. And I got to use the Gundam bathroom with the awesome blue button.
By now, my phone's dead, and I wasted 1000￥ earlier on a useless battery charger. So Tim's just rubbing it in with all the check-ins on FourSquare. This would continue all day.
Spur-of-the-moment second stop: Odaiba. We're going to see the big Gundam. You know, the one that doesn't do shit (another story from last time in Tokyo). We got there just in time for the dramatic motion sequence, and for me to relive my hate - 10 mins for sounds, flashing lights, moving head, and the gay mist. Tim and Bug had a good time though.
Last stop of the day: Yoyogi Park. A lot of interesting people and weirdos congregate here, but that's more during daylight. Four dudes walking in a giant park in the dark with nothing to see was a fail. As we're leaving, a tall girl with nice legs was walking in front of us. Two black dudes were coming towards her. Just as I predicted, once they passed her, one of them walked behind her and spun around to check out her ass. Not one bit of subtlety.
Off to a good start on this trip. Not a lot of pictures, saw some new stuff, spent time with friends old and new, and most importantly, got my Gundam fix that I didn't even know I had. Let's see what I can pull off tomorrow.
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