Interesting how the internet becomes somehow unusable when Google is down. I can’t post this update, I can’t see my personalized homepage, I can’t IM Sparks and complain about how Google is down (as I use GoogleTalk), I can’t search for random stuff or news (I know, I could use yahoo…), and I can’t read the cool article on Howstuffworks.com about how the Death Star works (because hsw uses a Google database). I suppose if you’re reading this Google is back up and running.

Any-hoo, today was a lot of fun. It was “Bunka no hi” or Culture Day which is yet another national holiday. As such we got the day off school. After getting up and sitting around a bit I planed my route for the day. I wanted to go to Asakusa, Roppongi, and Suidobashi. The problem is that all 3 of those places are in the 3 corners of Tokyo where I don’t live. Asakusa is in the Northeast, Roppongi is in the Southwest, and Suidobashi is, well actually, kind of in the center of the city. As no JR trains go to Asakusa I decided to use the subway exclusively today.

I got to Asakusa about 11:00am and decided to have lunch at… McD’s… again. (What can I say… it’s “safe”- read “known” food.) After lunch I walked around town for a while. The last time I came I only walked the run-up to the temple, today I explored more of the town proper. I discovered there are many shotengai (covered shopping streets) in the Asakusa area. I also noticed that, if you want to buy a kimono or kimono accessory, you go to Asakusa. There were also quite a few suit shops and nice shoe shops. I get the feeling that this is the “fine dress” shopping district. Being purposefully vague, I had a hard time finding what I was looking for because it is “out of season” now, but I did eventually find it. I also FINALLY found some Ramune. Ramune is Japanese “cider”. It’s kind of like… Sprite, but not so lemon-lime. Evidently, it’s only really sold during holidays.

After a while of shopping and taking pictures I decided to head for Roppongi. When I got near the station entrance I noticed a large police presence. I next noticed a large concentration of people lined up on the side on the street. Putting two and two together, I figures out that, because it was culture day, there was going to be a parade. I walked across the street and got a good position from which to watch. Soon after the police closed off the street of auto traffic strips of red vinyl were laid down next to the curb. “Odd,” I thought, “they’re rolling out the red carpet, but for whom?” As if to answer my question a police man said “Go ahead” and everyone waiting of t he curb moved foreword and sat on the vinyl. Yes, they sat IN the street. Sitting culture BANZAI. A curious side note, when walking or sitting on the vinyl, everyone took off their shoes.

Next an announcer came on over a loud speaker system and gave a speech about Tokyo’s founding. Thanks to all the museum trips and history lessons I’ve been getting I was able to follow what was being said. A short time later, the first parade cart came along. I say parade cart instead of float because it was a 4 wheeled cart with a set of Taiko drummers on it. The announcer said these were elementary school kids from the Asakusa elementary school. Maybe 5 minutes later the second cart came by. Again, Taiko drummers. After that, another 5 minutes went buy. At this point my American attention span snapped and I decided to head to my next stop. Unlike American parades, there’s nothing in-between the floats, except waiting for the next float.

A quick subway ride later and I was in Roppongi. If Tokyo has a “seedy underside” I suppose Roppongi would be it. There are rumors of shady night clubs and drug deals. From what I saw the buildings and streets didn’t seem to be as well kept up as in other parts of town, but it didn’t seem like altogether a bad place.

The sole reason for my stop in Roppongi was to try out the new Coldstone Creamery there. For those of you checking this blog from under a rock, Coldstone is a widely popular ice-cream joint in the states. The attraction, I suppose, being that you can get candy mixed in with your ice-cream. I managed to find it okay, but… there was a bit of a 2 hour wait to get in. It’s popular in the states, but no where near THIS popular.

Abandoning my hopes of ice-cream I noticed on the map in the station that the U.S. embassy was nearby. I wandered over and took a few pictures. There were lot and lots of (oddly, Japanese) guards around. Not having any particular need to enter, I decided to just walk around the outside before heading to the subway station.

My stop in Suidobashi was strictly search and destroy. I wanted to get a Kendo uniform so that I can stop practicing in street clothes and liking and feeling like a fool. I went to the store recommended by my teacher. The staff there was a very nice elderly couple. I walked in and politely asked if they had any uniforms for a giant like me and they said it wouldn’t be a problem. Sure enough they had a set in my size. They even embroidered my name free of charge.

On the way out of the shop I spied with my super-fast-food-vision a Subway across the street from the train station and stopped in for dinner. It wasn’t quite as tasty as last time, but it was still enjoyable. After dinner I came home, laden down with bags from the days shopping.

Tomorrow I have class, but I may, afterwards, go to the Tokyo auto show. I meant to go a few weeks back but it got preempted by other plans. It seems it ends this Sunday so I’ll defiantly do it in the next few days. Sunday, after Kendo, I’m going with a few (different) students to the Ghibli museum.

Ja Mata Ne.

Edit: It seems today was the opening day for Coldstone (hence the looong line and the news crew I saw while I was there.)