Where to start? From the beginning I suppose. If you haven’t noticed already, I’m a big fan of chronological writing. By now you know I’ll note the disclaimer: this is one side of a two sided story. Please refer to Spark’s blog for his version of events (which may or may not differ slightly.)
Friday after classes I scooted home and waited for Sparks to call. Unlike last time where the plan (which sort of failed) was to show up in the same station at the same, we though it through a bit more. When Sparks got on the train he called me on his cell and told me where he was arriving. I showed up around the arrival time and called his cell using a payphone and we figured out where each other was. This was a good tactic because the station he arrived at this time is about twice as large as last time.
Once we met up we decided to check out the area surrounding Shinagawa station. Since it was about dinner time we talked and walked as we looked for someplace to eat. After several (literal) dead ends we found a wonderful Thai restaurant. Aside from tasty pad-tai the restaurant also has a fully tri-lingual wait-staff (English, Japanese, and Thai.) After dinner we rode the train back to Shimotakaido and dropped Spark’s bags off at my place. Next we headed off (across the street) to the little bar we visited last time. The same three guys were working behind the counter and I think they even remembered us. We decided to go nomi-hodai (all you can drink for 2 hours) with some yakitori (grilled meat on a stick) both of which were tasty. At the end of our two hours we wandered back across the street and played video games until the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday morning came way too early with the day-star streaming in the window. Being awake but needing further motivation to move we decided to hit up McD’s for breakfast. After some Egg McMuffins and Hotcakes were had we boarded the train to Shinjuku.
The day’s over all plan was to show Sparks the big “have to see” sights in Tokyo while seeing them again myself before I leave.
The first stop was the Tokyo Government building. Before going up (while taking pictures from the ground floor) we met a very nice guy from California. We chit-chatted for a bit while we rode the elevator to the top floor. Unfortunately Saturday was particularly smoggy/foggy/hazy making it hard to see much of anything (let alone Mt. Fuji.)
Leaving the Metro building we walked through Shinjuku central park to the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel. This hotel was made famous (well, more famous) by the movie “Lost in Translation”. Filmed on location in the hotel, the staff seen in the movie are actually employees from the hotel. We rode up to the upper floors looking for the bar from the movie but with no luck. After a bit of looking around we headed onwards.
The next stop on the grand tour was Jimbo-cho. Those of you who know Sparks know that I couldn’t NOT show him this district. We wandered around for a while looking in a few shops. Pressing onward we decided to walk to the Imperial palace.
On the way we decided to grab a quick lunch. After some searching we found a collection of restaurants in the basement of the Mainichi Shinbun newspaper agency. Since all the restaurants were out of the price range we were looking for we opted instead for a light snack at a coffee shop.
The Mainichi building is right next to the Imperial palace, but the wrong side for what I wanted to show Sparks. While we were walking around the outside of the palace (you can go “through” because of how it’s set up) we were battered by runners. Evidently there was some sort of marathon going on that day.
We finally got to the side of the palace with the famous view. It was a little more packed with tourists than last time (as last time it was raining.) After taking a few photos we moved on to the National Diet building.
While looking at the cool lion fountain (from the last time I was in the area) Sparks asked what the cool art-deco building behind it was. Not knowing Sparks asked some locals who said it was the Supreme Court building. I have to say, Japan’s Supreme Court building looks a hundred times cooler than America’s.
After some more walking around in the Imperial palace area we took a subway to Asakusa. We walked around there for a while and saw some oddly dressed people evidently there for some sort of festival party.
Unfortunately they left before we could ask where the party was.
Seeing the Baskin Robins (31 flavors) shop in Asakusa brought forth the craving for ice-cream. As such there was only one real place to go: Roppongi.
We decided when we got to Roppongi to have dinner first. We walked up and down the main Roppongi drag until we came upon a nice little place that looked good. It turned out we were not only the only foreigners eating, but the only customers for most of the meal. Once we finished dinner we walked around a shopping complex that’s part of the Roppongi re-development project before heading to Coldstone.
Next, we waited. And waited. And waited. For 45 minutes we waited in line (which was a lot shorter than on opening day.) But I have to say, that was THE best cup of ice-cream I have ever tasted. Perhaps it’s because I’ve gotten used to Japanese tastes (which tend not to be too sweet) but the ice-cream part (discounting the Snickers and Caramel) was tastier than the ice-cream from Coldstone in the states. We sat and savored our tiny dishes of happiness for a while (our legs being tired from standing in line for nearly an hour.)
Not having anywhere better to go, our next stop was a stroll around the American embassy. After that we headed back to the train station.
At this point we ended up doing something that we thought never would while in Japan. The conversation went the way of, “What do you want to do?” “I don’t know what do you want to do?”
A quick brainstorming session reminded me of a place we could check out. Keeping it a mystery for Sparks I only named the station we needed to end up at so he could help me find it. Checking the maps at the station turned up no such stations on the JR or subway lines. I was pretty sure it wasn’t on the Keio line either. Once again, Sparks asking some locals saved the day.
One step better than just telling us where to go, the group of young women actually came with us to Shinjuku station, showed us where to buy tickets (on the Odayaku line it turns out), and got on the train with us. It seems we got lucky and asked a three sisters and their mother who all spoke some degree of good English where a station they were headed by on the way home was.
I head from a classmate that Shimokizawa is the place to go if you’re looking for a Live House. A Live House is basically a bar with live music every day. It’s a place where small bands looking to get a start or big name bands wanting a small venue can play. Unfortunately we arrived a little too late and most all of the Live Houses had closed up shop for the evening. Slightly defeated we decided to head home and get some sleep.
After a half an hour and two trains we arrived back in Shimotakaido. I realized where Shimokizawa in relation to Shimotakaido… we could have walked home quicker.
Sunday, after a bit of sleeping in to make up for the previous day’s early rise, we headed first to my favorite bagel shop in Shinjuku then onwards to Harajuku. We shopped around in Harajuku for a while but, not finding anything too wonderful in the section we visited last time, we began to wander. After several minutes of walking I realized where we had walked to: Akasaka.
We walked to the ring road around the central baseball diamonds, which was closed to auto traffic. Wondering why there were hordes of people walking around, we investigated. Even after reading some flyers, and out best reasoning, all we could come up with was there was some sort of festival going on. Moving around the ring road to the baseball diamonds we stopped and watched what must have been a “B-team” game. It seemed to be pink-haired players vs. normal colored hair players. Each team had player with the “other team’s” colors. It was very weird. Also the pitchers seemed to purposely try to bean the batters.
After seeing all that was to be seen at whatever festival we saw, and being close, we walked over to the secondary palace. On the way we found the Canadian (*cough Galbanian (inside joke) cough*) embassy and the Sony Computer Entertainment building. The SCE building was closed (I may go back this Saturday). We snapped some pictures before heading to look for dinner.
A couple tasty plates of Japanese curry later we figured that we could walk from where we were to Shinjuku. We stopped at a Mos burger so Sparks could taste the weirdness. Moving on we headed to the electronics part of Shinjuku to look for cheap videogames. Once we were done shopping around we boarded a train for Shinagawa. At the Shinkansen transfer gate we parted ways and I went home to do the weekend’s home work.
