Hooray! Absolutely NOTHING like some retail therapy to cure what ails you. I was feeling a bit down (everything is in a different language, my laptop died, I had to take a big test on my first full day here. Basically the Jet-Lag was waaaaaay bad.) But I'm cured now!
This morning I decided to take the same trains I use to get to school and walk around that part of town for a while. I can use the two trains I take to get to school as much as I like because I bought a pass. The downside of this pass is that I can only use it on those two trains. The upside? Well it was cheap, the first train takes me into Shinjuku (a major center in town), and the second train takes me to the part of town where the Imperial palace and several museums are located.
First, I took both trains to the school stop so I could use the ATM at the post office near there. The post national office in Japan is also the national bank, so the ATM's give good exchange rates. After picking up some cash I walked down what I assume is the main drag where I was (one of the few 5 lane non-freeway roads I've seen) for maybe 2 miles, just checking out the sights. Mostly there were the typical 8-10 story buildings with shops on the first floor. After a while I passed a park/shrine/"I don't know what" thing on my left. I read a sign (in English) that said it was in the area where the Emperor's retainers used to live. I'm still not sure on customs about important sites (like temples) so I didn't enter and kept walking. After I passed the park I turned down a side street and headed back towards the station along the other side of the park thing. I came to a bridge which spans the old castle moat that still exits near school, seeing a McD's on the other side and thinking it was about breakfast time, I crossed. McD's Japan pancakes are REALLY sweet. More cake than pan, but they were tasty anyways.
After breakfast I walked back towards the main drag and another park I was on my walk down. I should have figured by the HUGE doors and the moat surrounding a high stone wall, but this park was actually part of the Imperial palaces' grounds. The north end to be exact. It was refreshing to see some green in a city of grey and tan. It was weird, but even away from the busy-ness of the roads, the park was still quite noisy. Not people noisy though... Insects... making sounds which were... weird. I wanted to see what bugs could make this sound... but at the same time I really didn't want to know. I walked around in the park for a while, even taking a few pictures (this is a photo-blog after all.) Afterwards I headed back to the train station.
I took the train back to Shinjuku station. Shinjuku station spread out under a large section on Shinjuku's shopping district and is connected to several shopping malls. Unlike most malls in the U.S. which are flat, these malls are set up vertically in sky-scraper type buildings. I first went in two (Lumine 1&2) which were both 6 stories. Both of these turned out to be mostly fashion malls, but one did have a book store with a Starbucks (at which I has the WORST hot-chocolate ever.) Next I went through the station again to a mall further down the way. This mall was 16 stories tall! And we're not talking tiny floors here... this place was big. Here, I found several of the things I was looking for. 1.)A plug adapter for my laptop. 2.)A couple PSP games which will never, unfortunately make it to the U.S. 3.)The Japanese version of "RENT" (it's only 3 tracks, but it's in Japanese.)
This morning I decided to take the same trains I use to get to school and walk around that part of town for a while. I can use the two trains I take to get to school as much as I like because I bought a pass. The downside of this pass is that I can only use it on those two trains. The upside? Well it was cheap, the first train takes me into Shinjuku (a major center in town), and the second train takes me to the part of town where the Imperial palace and several museums are located.
First, I took both trains to the school stop so I could use the ATM at the post office near there. The post national office in Japan is also the national bank, so the ATM's give good exchange rates. After picking up some cash I walked down what I assume is the main drag where I was (one of the few 5 lane non-freeway roads I've seen) for maybe 2 miles, just checking out the sights. Mostly there were the typical 8-10 story buildings with shops on the first floor. After a while I passed a park/shrine/"I don't know what" thing on my left. I read a sign (in English) that said it was in the area where the Emperor's retainers used to live. I'm still not sure on customs about important sites (like temples) so I didn't enter and kept walking. After I passed the park I turned down a side street and headed back towards the station along the other side of the park thing. I came to a bridge which spans the old castle moat that still exits near school, seeing a McD's on the other side and thinking it was about breakfast time, I crossed. McD's Japan pancakes are REALLY sweet. More cake than pan, but they were tasty anyways.
After breakfast I walked back towards the main drag and another park I was on my walk down. I should have figured by the HUGE doors and the moat surrounding a high stone wall, but this park was actually part of the Imperial palaces' grounds. The north end to be exact. It was refreshing to see some green in a city of grey and tan. It was weird, but even away from the busy-ness of the roads, the park was still quite noisy. Not people noisy though... Insects... making sounds which were... weird. I wanted to see what bugs could make this sound... but at the same time I really didn't want to know. I walked around in the park for a while, even taking a few pictures (this is a photo-blog after all.) Afterwards I headed back to the train station.
I took the train back to Shinjuku station. Shinjuku station spread out under a large section on Shinjuku's shopping district and is connected to several shopping malls. Unlike most malls in the U.S. which are flat, these malls are set up vertically in sky-scraper type buildings. I first went in two (Lumine 1&2) which were both 6 stories. Both of these turned out to be mostly fashion malls, but one did have a book store with a Starbucks (at which I has the WORST hot-chocolate ever.) Next I went through the station again to a mall further down the way. This mall was 16 stories tall! And we're not talking tiny floors here... this place was big. Here, I found several of the things I was looking for. 1.)A plug adapter for my laptop. 2.)A couple PSP games which will never, unfortunately make it to the U.S. 3.)The Japanese version of "RENT" (it's only 3 tracks, but it's in Japanese.)
After blowing a couple yen I hopped back on the train and came home. I stopped quick into the 7-11 down stairs to get something to drink and a notebook for school (I realised too late that I didn't pack any.)
Later I need to go out to get dinner and head supermarket to pick up food for this next week. I think tomorrow I might go to Ueno park (a reallt famous park.) We'll see...
Ja Mata Ne.
posted by Dockett at 3:30 PM
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