Because today was Labor Thanksgiving Day here, I once again had the day off from classes. So as to not waste a perfectly good holiday I decided to go out and about.

My first stop was the Transportation Museum in Akihabara. I hadn't previously visited, as I only recently found it (it's in a part of town I hadn't been to yet.) I suppose as transportation museums go, this one was pretty nice. I was reminded a lot of the transportation museum in Detroit. The main difference being that this museum focused on Japanese transportation (go figure). Also, there seemed to be a heavy bias towards trains. It might have something to do with the large chunk of funding from the JR rail company the museum gets, or it might not. The place was filled with kids (due to the holiday.) The exhibits were all in Japanese but still interesting and informative.

After the museum I headed into the heart of Akihabara. (Culture note: Akihabara means field of fall leaves). Because today was a holiday the main street was closed to auto traffic and Akihabara became one big walking mall. Walking along I came upon a couple of guys rocking out:

These guys were pretty good.

More interesting was this gentleman watching.

What made him interesting you ask?

1.)Not what you'd say... young 2.)Wearing a business suit 3.)Also wearing a short sleeve hoodie 4.)Nice cane 5.)Sneakers

There were also some suped up cars parked on the side of the road. This one had some awesome "Martian Successor Nadesico" (an older anime) artwork.

After checking out the festivities I took the subway to Asakusa. Like most places today, it was filled with people who had the day off.

In my walking around I ran into two Japanese students who were doing a survey of foreigners in Asakusa. They approached and asked in English if I wanted to take part. I wasn't in a hurry and decided "Why not?". The survey was written in English (nicely written too). "Why are you in Japan: Study/Work/Vacation, etc." About half way down the question "Where are you staying in Tokyo?" was asked. I answered "Shimotakaido" and as I was about to write "near Shinjuku" next to it when one of the students stopped me and said, "Shimotakaido? On the Keio train line?" "Yes." I answered. "I live near there," he said, "I'm a Nihon Daigaku student" (NiDai has a campus near Shimotakaido). It took me a minute to click before I said "Hey, I'm a NiDai student too!" I finished the survey and we chit chatted for a minute before I resumed my wandering.

Aside from the festival atmosphere, there was something else a bit different in Asakusa from what I have gotten used to. Then I realized the roof was gone.

Before and after pictures of the Asakusa promenade.

After I got what I had came for I headed home. It's sort of a shame to have a holiday in the middle of the week. Tomorrow's Thursday (ooh, Thanksgiving) but it seems like ("Monday" to today's "Sunday".) But on the bright side two days of class then Sparks rolls into town and it's party time.

Ja Mata Ne.