So, I am currently in Tokyo. I remember why I love this place so much. The atmosphere and the lifestyle it exudes is awesome. I love being able to go just about anywhere via train and all the things around. I love the food, I have already had tempura, sushi, curry, katsu, and yakitori. It is all so delicious. I love not having to worry about things getting stolen. It is such a wonderful place to be and would be such a wonderful place to live.
We arrived on the 25th around 5 and got to the hotel around 8. We are staying in Shinjuku about 10 minutes walking away from the station. There is a really neat nest of shops right next to the station that has all sorts of things to eat and do. The night we arrived, we had dinner at an izakaya with Kim’s friends Lily and Ken and Lily’s boyfriend, Bryce. An izakaya is a sort of bar that serves small appetizer like dishes. We split 6 pitchers and some large number of dishes. It was a fun night, joking around and drinking. We all then went back and crashed. On Monday, we went to Asakusa and looked around. We walked down the shopping street to the shrine at the end, I got a fortune that was “Excellent Good”. I will try and scan it when I get home. We then ventured down to Kappadashi, aka Kitchen Town, where most of the nice kitchen supplies are bought. A friend of ours wanted Devin to buy her some fake food. There is a big culture of fake foods used for window displays throughout the country, so they sell them in this area. I got a small set of fake sushi, which looks really cool. We then came back to Shinjuku for lunch and I crashed for a long nap in the hotel room. We then went and got tempura and checked out Ginza for dinner.
On Tuesday, we went to Akihabara. It is called electronic town and has an insane number of electronics stores that sell anything electronics based you can think of. I was eyeing some nice headphones for work, since my earbuds suck something hard. I also saw a Wii game, albeit in Japanese, of this arcade game that Kim loves. It is called Taito Drum Master, and I am pretty sure I will buy it so she can play, and maybe I can try to suck less at it. I didn’t buy anything while there, but I may see if the Yodobashi Camera next to the station has any of these things. After checking out Akihabara, we went back to Shinjuku and I went and got ready for some Ultimate pickup. I played with a group that plays competitively as Iku, they were in Prague a few weeks back for Worlds. It was refreshing to play with such a talented group. They played fluidly and with a lot of strategy. They kept a priority of getting the disc off the line and liked to switch the force mid point. The count rarely climbed above 4 and they spread the field amazingly. I wish I could play with a group like this more often. It seems they play more with the philosophy I always think of, but which seems to get ignored. shrug When I got back, Kim had been sleeping almost the whole time I was gone and didn’t feel like getting dinner. So Karim, Devin, and I went and roughed it at an izakaya. It was interesting trying to eat with no Japanese knowledge available. Usually Kim can help cover the barrier with her knowledge, but without her, it became painful. It was enjoyable with a nice server though. We tried some different dishes and just talked for a while. Eventually we went back and I got Kim some ramen to eat for dinner.
Yesterday, we went to Shibuya and hung around the area all day. We found Devin the giant Tower Records store to explore and he bought some Japan only releases. We eventually decided to see Inception there but found the next showing wasn’t for another two hours, so we bought tickets for the next showing and then chilled out around Shibuya. I got some great pictures of the famous crossing that floods with people once it gives the green. We then had some cheesecake and waited until the showing. It was a good movie, with lots of little twists that kept it fresh. After the movie, we went back to Shinjuku and had dinner, then walked back to the hotel. I crashed immediately, even though I was supposed to play Dominion with Devin. Oh well, I guess that will have to happen tonight or tomorrow night… Back to Japan!