UPDATED

It takes me a surprisingly long time to sort the photos from two sources and to remember whatever the hell I did in the heat of day, wandering around Tokyo, and I just got back from meeting my old co-worker Suzuki-san (whose picture I forgot to take) and it’s 11:13PM. Comments are coming tomorrow. Pictures are below if you want to make up your own captions. They should be updated by Thursday evening (if I’m getting my time zone corrections right).

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I’m going to write this like it was last night, so the timing is going to sound funny. Or not, we’ll see.

OK, here we go. I was trying to decide where to go and since Kevin my scary black belt next door neighbor asked me to check out the main headquarters of his branch of Aikido. If you’ve ever met Kevin, you’ll know I’m kidding as he’s a super friendly and nice guy. Honestly I was trying to figure out what to do for the day and the headquarters was only 1.3 miles away according to Google Maps.

I should go on a rant about effing Google maps on my iPhone which is only slightly less crappy than the Maps application on the iPhone, but I won’t. I’m glad I’m in Japan and have generally known where I was going otherwise I’d be lost and dead by now.

Anyway, for some reason I thought I’d take pictures of the 1.3 miles to the Aikido HQ since it was very near where Five-0 was hassling me the other day.

First is heading out of the hotel, towards the rail station, through Korea town. That green bridge is actually the JR train overpass.

Things get a little more busy between the two train stations, Okubo and Shin-Okubo. Once again, you can see the train overpass in the distance, painted in green.

But Korea Town doesn’t get interesting until you get past Shin-Okubo station. It’s really busy, I don’t recognize much of the food, and a lot of the time people aren’t speaking a language I understand.

Past Korea Town is East Shinjuku, where my mom’s friend lived and where the 44.6m high “mountain” is located. I’ve been here a few times if you remember all the pictures. The hill is to the left and the path to my mom’s friend’s old house is right by that brick building on the right.

The directions looked pretty clear, but you veered off the main street into the neighborhood.

Up some steep slopes only to go back down.

I think the green painted sides mean this is a heavily travelled street and that’s what passes for a sidewalk.

Time for a side-trip to another temple.

Just as an aside, most of the Korean people I know are really Christian and Korea Town is full of Christian churches.

I think most of the reason for all the temples is the graveyards. With so many people living in Tokyo, there have to be a lot of graveyards.

Like this.

Back on the path to the Aikido HQ and I had to take a detour past an apartment building.

I’m almost there.

And here it is! At first I had misgivings because that gold car is a bedazzled Mercedes-Benz. Rhinestones all over as accents. I only thing gangsters can pull that off.

A view from the other side.

I really didn’t have any business there, so I went in, looked at the books they had for sale in the lobby, and bought Kevin a t-shirt. Kevin’s not a tiny guy so I’m not sure a Japanese XL is going to fit him, but I had to try.

After all that, I figured instead of the direct route, I’d see if there was a “easy route” that didn’t take me through all the twists and turns of the neighborhood. Looking down the road opposed the way I came, it looked like there was a busy road. When I got to the busy road you can see a sign on the pole for “Aikido Hombu Dojo”.

And here’s a view of the road.

Unsurprisingly, the busy road lead to a BUSIER road.

Where I saw but didn’t get hassled by the Man. (Seriously, there were several riot buses going by. I’m not sure what was going on.)

It was actually hot as balls so I headed back to the hotel to change into shorts. It was lunch time so I got some rice balls and karaage chicken from the Tesco and I’m sure it has to be awful for me because it was tasty.

I headed back to the last section of Shinjuku that I hadn’t been to.

Every night I’ve heard fire engines and ambulances go by and I wondered why. Turns out the main Shinjuku fire station is only three or four blocks down the road.

And it’s not a tiny fire station.

I got the tourist map of Ochiai out and the first shrine I saw was closed!

It’s also used as a pre-school and the kids wet out playing in the courtyard.

No matter, onto the Some-no Sato Futaba-en, a Shinjuku mini-museum of fabric dyeing.

The main window is to the left of the path.

From another angle, here’s the brushes and bottles for dye.

I snuck some pictures of the inside shop.

There’s even an area where you can sit and have coffee.

Onto a real museum, the Hayashi Fumiko Memorial Hall.

I don’t know who she is, so I didn’t go in.

I also passed the Mejiro Gakuen ruins, because they’re on the grounds of a college and the museum was about to close.

This is a shrine that I don’t remember seeing on the map.

The shrine itself.

But I did finally take a picture of the inside of a shrine.

Nakai Shusse Fudo do is on the map and has an old statue that’s only on display once a month. I couldn’t see a thing.

I got more and more into commercial areas with stores and shops and found Jisho-In

The temple itself didn’t look all that interesting.

But it’s the place where the beckoning cat (maneki neko) you see a lot of stores was first seen. According to the guide map, “… Ota Dokan lost his way in the midst of the battle but made a narrow escape for death beckoned by a black cat.”

It was getting close to 5PM and I was meeting my friend and old co-worker Suzuki-san for dinner. But Hobby Center Kato beckoned me and was only a short distance away. It turned out to be a model railroad company’s showroom. I didn’t want to take pictures inside (though I could have asked) but there were hundreds and hundreds of model trains. Not just all the variants of the trains seen throughout Japan, but American locomotives as well! BN, BNSF, SF, UP, if you’re from the west coast you know what those mean.

It was a bit of a hike back to the hotel, but very close to “home” I found the Metropolitan Central Wholesale Yodobashi Market. Funny how you don’t see things that are close by if you only go one direction.

I met Suzuki-san at Nakano Station since we figured it would be easier than trying to find each other at Shinjuku again. As we usually do, we wandered around looking for a place to eat. We finally settled on a fish restaurant that looked good. There’s a giant grill in the middle of the room with seats around it.

Katsuo sashimi.

Hairy crab.

Some kind of teriyaki.

I forgot to take pictures of the grilled sanma I devoured.

And here’s the final GIANT rice ball, tea and miso soup.

We had coffee at a family restaurant before heading off.

Like I said, I forgot to take a picture of Suzuki-san. His hair is shorter, but he looks like he always did. 🙂

Now I’m off (the next day) to see a friend from high school who seems to write “how to get rich” books in Japan. I think how you get rich is to write the books and have people pay for your seminars. I’ll have to ask him.

Today was supposed to be a rainy day (another Typhoon is on its way) and I really wanted to just sit in my room. My cough is mostly gone but it comes back at inopportune times, like when I’m trying to sleep. I had to get up and sleep sitting up on the couch for a while again. I had to drag myself out of bed again.

But it’s Wednesday and even thought I’d really like to spend a day sitting on my ass, it was time to get out of the room and let the cleaning crew do their weekly thing. So I decided to go to a neighborhood that looked a bit boring in the “Welcome to Tokyo Handy Guide” and that my mom told me was kind of in the middle of nowhere, at least historically. Since the Japanese tend to do things in a group, maybe everyone thinks Ikebukuro is boring. Even the guy at the front desk had a funny look on his face when I asked about Ikebukuro. But the aquarium is new and he did think it looked better than the one in Shinagawa, at least when he checked on the intarwebs. There’s a building complex called Sunshine City with theaters and shops and the newly rebuilt aquarium.

When I first got there I noticed Ikebukuro was full of tall buildings but wasn’t very crowded.

I figured I’d try heading away front the station and Sunshine City and should try finding the Zohshigaya Kishimojindo temple while it wasn’t raining. Getting off the main roads got me away from the big buildings and it was temple time again.

First there was the usual construction. There’s always a guard on the sidewalk keeping things safe. There’s one on the other side as well.

This temple was on the other side of the construction and I’m not even sure which one this is.

But just around the corder was Zohshigaya Kinshimojindo and it was giant compared to all the rest of the temples I’ve seen the past two days.

On the grounds of the temple is also a shrine with lots of gates.

Looking from the shrine itself, you can see how many gates there are.

The shrine itself was small compared to the temple and I didn’t take a picture. Oddly enough, the Tokyo Government listed this tree as a Natural Monument and the sign mentions this without saying much about the temple or shrine.

Here’s the temple that is said to bring luck for fertility and childbearing. I could swear I had a better picture than this. I try not to take pictures of the insides of temples, just because.

Walking back towards Sunshine City, I saw this shrine just around the corner.

And right next to it, another temple.

And, the Tokyo College of Music.

And while it looks far away, Sunshine City isn’t that far away. That smaller looking building to the left with the funny top is the Toyota showroom.

The tram line from yesterday runs right through this area.

 

Not real sure why I took this picture. I just liked the huge sign.

I wandered around Sunshine City and saw something called Namco Namjatown, but it didn’t look that interesting from the outside. There was also a planetarium that I didn’t go to next to the aquarium.

I only spent an hour in the aquarium but I really enjoyed myself. All sorts of things I’ve never seen. They had a sunfish and tiny jellyfish and all sorts of fish from large sharks to tiny transparent fish and weird ghost/angel-like jellyfish. I didn’t take any pictures because there are much better pictures on the intarwebs. But I did take a picture of a very Japanese looking set of sea anemones and corals that looked like underwater bonsai.

I definitely think the aquarium was worth ¥1,800 and if I liked sea lions and otters more I would have stayed for the show.

I was finally able to get soba because I found a restaurant at the bottom of Sunshine City that actually let you pay for things without having to buy tickets.

Afterwards I went to the post office to see if I could get money from my US account. Turns out I just got a slip of paper that says YOU HAVE EXCEED YOUR WITHDRAWAL LIMITS and the post office guy said that meant I didn’t have enough money in my account. I’ll have to figure out what the hell that’s about.

It was rainy and it’s Wednesday so I figured I’d let my intarweb friend bully me into trying Steak House Sato. Turns out it wasn’t that hard to find. The stairs were narrow and steep and sure enough, the tables only seat ten and there’s a counter with six more seats. But it turns out it isn’t that busy during the week. I think they get a lot of foreigners because the menu is in Japanese and English.

When I got there there was only one other couple. Then another single came in, and afterwards three women on vacation from the Philippines.

They show you the meat before they cook it and he asked if I wanted to take a picture. There is no connective tissue in that cut. There was nothing that wasn’t easy to chew.

The kitchen is tiny, and sometimes there are four chefs working back there.

See? Four. My steak is cooking under the copper lid.

I wish I could have taken a better picture of the steak, but I was just ready to try it. OH MY GOD IT WAS WORTH EVERY BIT OF THE ¥10,000 I PAID FOR IT. Like I said, there was no connective tissue so there was nothing that got stuck in my teeth. That must have been one lazy-ass cow to have all that fat and boy it was tasty. Every piece had a little chewiness at the same time was almost creamy in its texture.

The carrot looks woody but it wasn’t woody nor overcooked. The little brown things to the left were fried garlic and were perfectly crisp. Seriously, there was a lot of attention paid to all parts of my steak dinner which also came with miso soup and rice.

So, my intarweb bully friend, thanks for making me go. Man was that tasty. There’s no way that there’s anything like this in the States. The fake US wagyu can’t compare.

Turns out I’m not doing a very good job of blending in. For the first time in my life I had a cop ask me for my ID. I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when I saw two cops on the sidewalk. One of them started to ask me questions and as long as he seemed to be helpful, I thought I’d just ask him if I was at the right place on my map. He just asked if I had any ID on me. I handed him my passport and he said something like, “I guess you are from America,” and sent me on my way. Really, how many tourists with maps get asked for their ID on the street? Not only has FaceTime showed me that I’m not as pretty as I thought I was, I must also look fairly unsavory as well.

This was the second time someone thought I was speaking funny, and both times I had a cough drop in my mouth. I think it makes my tongue numb. I had another bad night of sleep with the coughing and woke up tired as hell. It may have been the exercising contributing to both the fatigue and the coughing so I may just lay off until I get home and just resign myself to being a butterball.

I didn’t get an early start, but I figured I’d check out another corner of Shinjuku city that had a lot of literary areas, or so it looked on the map. I started out going by that hill by my mom’s friends old apartment, and found the actual Hill.

I think it looks better when I’m not taking a picture into the sky.

It’s a little hard to see the inscription on the rock but the hill is 44.6m or about 146ft above sea level. That isn’t even as high as where I live in Portland.

There was a view through the trees of Shinjuku.

Then it was off to my meeting with the police. There are shrines and temples all long the road and I don’t think I’m going to be able to keep them straight. This is the one where I must have offended the gods because right after this they set the cops on me.

I don’t know much of my Japanese history, but here’s the grave of the Hayashi family. Hayashi is not an uncommon name, and there must be thousands of famous Hayashi’s in Japanese history. There was a placard, but I can’t read Japanese that well. Especially not the Japanese they put on placards.

I thought this might be the grave of Seki Takakazu (a famous mathemetician) or maybe a famous actress Matsui Sumako. The name on the sign is neither of theirs.

The first of the many temple pictures from today of Tamon-in Temple.

The actual temple at Tamon-in.

While there is a graveyard beyond the parking lot, there appear to be graves lining the right side of the parking lot as well.

I wandered around the neighborhood and found where Natsume Sōseki died. There’s a park where his house was. He was one of the foremost novelists of the Meiji era, used to be on the ¥1,000 bill, and I think his granddaughter taught at University of Oregon.

I had no idea I’d be seeing so many temples and they started to blend together, especially since I can’t read the signs for crap. I think this is Raiko-ji Temple.

And the temple of Raiko-ji.

The gate to the graveyard.

I didn’t take pictures of every temple I saw today, by the way.

Since the cop hassled me for being a foreigner today, I figured I should eat at Mickey D’s. Yeah, that’s right, since someone else treated me like crap, I should also treat myself like crap. America, F*ck Yeah!

The hamburger was a tsukimi (autumn moon viewing) special and had an egg on it.

As you can imagine, it wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great either. At least it was cheap. The signs along that part of the street were really unassuming and I had to walk by the Mickey D’s before I noticed it. After I left, I found a Mos Burger two doors down. I should have eaten there.

I backtracked to find the birthplace of Natsume Sōseki. I didn’t realize that what was marked on the map was going to just be an obelisk and a placard in front of a Japanese fast food store.

Across the intersection was the Ana-hachimangu shrine. There’s a police box to the left and I gave it a wide berth.

A closer look at the stairs.

Here’s the front of the gate and the annual used-book sale was going on in the courtyard to the left.

When the map said there were old book stores (it actually said, “Antiquarian Booksellers”) I didn’t realize there would be so many stores. I was impressed. It was much better than the sporting goods stores and the musical instrument stores I saw yesterday.

And the actual shrine.

I walked through the campus of Waseda University, which was the largest campus I’ve seen in Japan. I didn’t take any pictures because there were yoots everywhere and I needed to get away from them. There were statues of scholars on campus, but they were unhappy looking guys wearing robes and mortarboards.

Also on campus was the Tsubouchi Memorial theatre museum.

I thought about taking a picture of Okuma Garden, whatever significance that has, but it was full of yoots. The whole area was crawling with yoots.

As I escaped from Waseda University and it’s yoots, I found the terminus of the Toden Arakawa line trolley which still uses old replicas of the original trolleys.

Near the trolley terminus is Kansen-en park that has a spring they used to brew green tea.

It also had a cat that wanted to eat the koi that were much bigger than the cat.

Here’s where the koi live.

Across the Kandagawa river is the Tokyo Somemonogatari Museum. Or at least that’s what I think it is. I just wandered in and took some pictures because no one was around.

I think youc an take lessons in Japanese traditional dyeing techniques as well (if you could find someone).

On my wanderings I saw a two-level garage. I guess this is why they really make sure that cars don’t leak oil in Japan and I have no idea how they get the top cars out.

Next stop was Ryocho-in Temple which had two gates side-by-side. Here’s the one to the right.

And the temple to the right.

 

Here’s the left gate.

And the temple to the left.

I looked all over for the site of Takadanobaba but I couldn’t find a thing though the map clearly marked the spot I was searching. I did finally find one of the two placard that the map indicated was “Explanation board of Remains of Takadanobaba,” but they were a ways from the actual site.

I was finally done with my explorations and headed for the Takadanobaba train station, but I went by the Suwa-jinja.

Which is ned to Genkoku-ji Temple.

Which is next to Taue-jizo.

I got back safely without any more interaction with the police. There were a few Korean people checking into the hotel who were yelling at each other and who either couldn’t figure out an automatic door or just enjoyed bashing the baggage cart into both doors on the way to the lobby.

I gave up on trying to find an restaurant for dinner and bought food at the Tesco and you know what? It was cheap and it was pretty good.

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, but it’s cleaning day and I have to be out of my room from 10AM to 2PM. I wonder where I should go.

The typhoon passed in the middle of the night and I woke up to a beautiful morning. I had another clear view of Mt. Fuji. But like the day before the typhoon, it was also ended up being kind of hot and humid.

I thought it would be a good day to hit the laundry room again, since I saw so many people leaving yesterday. Sure enough, it was completely empty when I first went down and I was able to hit the road around 10:30AM. I decided to start with Tokyo Station.

Today was the grand re-opening of the Tokyo Station. I expected it to be a bit crowded, and it was, but I’m not sure if it’s any more or less crowded than I remember Tokyo Station being in the past.

With the grand re-opening there were news crews from most of the Tokyo stations.

Lots of people were taking pictures of the newly rebuilt parts of the of the old station, inside and out.

And, of course, there were lots of signs that are easily read (hah). As a rail terminus, there are lots of trains.

I have to say it is pretty.

The outside is also well done.

   

I didn’t explore the whole station because, well, it is a rail station and it’s probably just full of rail offices.

 

I think these guys are mascots of the station and not just crazy people.

And yet another news team.

Some panorama pictures that looked better when I was taking them.

I have to figure out how to get a good panorama out of the iPhone.

After that I went walking through the business district. I felt like I didn’t belong, mainly because I didn’t belong. Everyone was way richer than I am and the stores weren’t anywhere I’d shop.

Looks like Mitsubishi was having some sort of press event.

And another news crew.

And the old mansion of the guy who started the Mitsubishi conglomerate. It’s a museum and there’s a nice courtyard inside.

On the other side of the financial district from Tokyo station is the Imperial residence. That meant lots of walking in the direct sun, but it was pretty once you got off the streets.

 

I sat down on a bench in the park and had my lunch, more Calorie Mate.

The actual view wasn’t just an empty parking lot and trees, but a bunch of unmarked police cars as well. I was in the shade with a nice breeze, but it was so bright I was getting a headache.

After you pass the guard houses of the Imperial residence, you reach another business district in Chiyoda-ku.

But it also had a Starbucks and I had yet to get my obligatory Matcha Latte. This was the other half of my lunch and I hope it counts as hydration.

I also took a picture of a dessert shop for my sister (under construction, or destruction).

After that I went to the various shopping areas of Chiyoda City. There is the Second-hand books area and, according to the city map signs, a sporting goods area (which just looked like several of the same golf store), a musical instruments area (lots of guitar stores full of guitars), and Nicholai-do built by St. Nicholai of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Nicholai-do is very close to the Ochanomizu station.

The city maps that sent me to the boring sporting good area also mentioned some “old established stores” and I think it may be some of these.

Or maybe this old-looking soba shop.

        

Across from the soba shop was a large post office, and my sister wanted me to buy her some postcard stamps. There are post offices everywhere because they also have bank accounts and sell insurance.

After that I went to Akihabara again and bought another iPhone charger. I don’t think it works the way I thought it did. Ah well. I’ll experiment with it after I get home.

Afterwards I walked to the Kanda Myojin Shrine and saw some of the famous Tokyo stairs.

Kanda Myojin Shrine was quite colorful and was supposed to be established in 730.

The back of the gate. I take pictures of the backs of the gates because they always seem to be lit better by the sunlight.

Here’s a picture of the shrine on the right.

For some reason there was a tiny horse there, too.

I headed back and hit the workout room for the first time since I got here. I’m still coughing and so it wasn’t the most fun. My sister keeps reminding me to properly hydrate and I may not be doing a good job because I was cramping up in my warmup. I kept it short.

Then it was time for dinner. My sister sent me the names of two places I asked about, Daiwa Sushi at Tsukiji and  Steak House Satou in Kichijoji. The reviews for Daiwa sushi suggest that you start lining up at 7:30AM and I’m not that kind of guy. Steak house Satou is only a few stops away from my hotel on the Chuo line but the steak dinner starts at  ¥10,000. For ¥10,000 I think I can wait for a steak at Ringside.

I thought it might be back down to Tesco for a prepared dinner but somehow I finally found my way to Freshness Burger. Fatz’s is closed on Mondays or I would have gone there. I had a blue cheese burger, onion rings, karaage chicken, and limeade. The limeade was freshly made and was the best part of dinner. The burger was OK, but not great. I was craving karaage chicken and that wasn’t that great either.

I ended up buying potato chips (since I was also craving more salt) and a beer on the way home, so in total dinner was ¥2,000. At least it wasn’t ¥10,000. In comparison, my dinner last night was ¥300.

I just watched a show where a bunch of actors tried to figure out what the top 10 items at two restaurants were. One team (who lost) were at a sushi restaurant. The other team was at a family restaurant called Bikkuri Donkey that had hamburger steaks. They had to order the item and eat it before they were able to ask if it was in the top 10. The sushi guys were hosed from the beginning because there were way more items on their menu, including sushi combinations.

Man, after watching that show I’m craving Bikkuri Donkey.

Typhoon day!

Typhoon 17, or as they say outside of Japan, Typhoon Jelawat, arrives today. I’ve dealt with typhoons in the past and they’re a mess. The one today is expected to bring several inches of rain per hour with 80mph winds with a foot of rain expected in Tokyo. I usually just do what most Japanese people do, which is hole up and watch the TV coverage of the approach and arrival. It’s not that you can’t go out, but the stores close, the trains (and planes) stop, and 80mph winds aren’t anything to sneeze at. So far, I’ve heard reports of a guy drowning while fishing, a tree falling on an Australian tourist in Osaka and hitting her in the head, and elderly people falling and breaking major bones. For some reason, the male weather reporters are in the city hiding from the wind amongst the buildings while the female reporters are sent out into the seaside where the wind is pulling their helmets and they’re not looking happy at all. I’m a big jerk for watching the female reporters and thinking it’s so funny.

A typhoon isn’t something that moves at a completely unpredictable rate so you can see it coming. The big rains were supposed to arrive here around 6PM, so I figured I could stay out until about 3PM. The first thing was to try to find my mom’s friend’s apartment. My mom would get several letters a week from her friend who she used to work with and lately we haven’t been seeing any correspondence at all. The addresses in Japan are hard to decipher and I went by where google maps told me to go. Her address was in the middle of a busy area but down a narrow path.

According to Google Maps, it was in this older apartment building.

I couldn’t just knock on the door in Japan, so I took a picture of the names on the mailboxes and emailed them to my mom.  I saw a lot of weird signs that I didn’t really figure out until I got home. They just say, “no salesmen.”

I did meet someone who lived there, but she looked Thai to me and didn’t speak much Japanese. Since I never saw an address placard on the building, I went a police box and asked to see their map to make sure I was at the right building. Looks like she’s moved on.

My mom told me about the park that her friend would walk in. It also has a hill listed on one of my tourist maps, but I only saw this path leading down from where I was standing which didn’t look higher than anything other than this valley.

I continued walking around that part of Shinjuku looking for some of the last places that Lafcadio Hearn lived.

Before I arrived, around 11AM, it was getting dark. By 11:15, I started feeling raindrops. And by 11:30, it was pouring down rain. I headed for the closest ¥100 store to buy another umbrella. By the time I got out, the rain was letting up. I headed back to the hotel for a rest. My sister suggested a nap, and I fell asleep sitting in front of my computer.

It was getting nicer and nicer, though it was still really humid out. I figured I’d better find somewhere to go and I decided I’d walk to Mister Donut which only turned out to be about a mile away.

I’m not a big fan of lines, so I just headed back. I’m not sure what the line was about, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t have anything to do with guys wanting one doughnut like me.

I got back to the hotel and bought some food at the Tesco, including some rice balls. I think they’ve figured out how to keep the seaweed nice and dry for days. This is a tunafish and mayonnaise rice ball.

First you open the plastic.

x

Then you pull the plastic to the side. It’s hard to see, but there are two pieces of plastic here. An outer wrapper, then the seaweed, an inner wrapper for the rice to keep the seaweed dry. After pulling both sides, it’s ready to eat.

 

I also bought dinner. ¥297 is a lot less than what I’ve been spending.

I got back around 2PM and spent the rest of the afternoon watching it get dark and watching the approaching typhoon on TV. Looks like it’s going to be cooler this week and I’m probably not bright enough to stop my weird walking tours. I still haven’t really seen Ueno or the area near Tokyo station or Shinagawa. There’s plenty more to see.

The wind died down today but the air was still fairly clear. In the morning I was able to see something that isn’t that obvious in the picture but really stuck out in real life. On the right side of the buildings in the middle of the picture is Mount Fuji! I even started up a video chat with my sister to show her the view.

Today I decided to go on a walk though the park close to Shinjuku: Yoyogi Park and Meiji Jingu. Instead I found some of the closest things to hell I could think of. I started out the walk in Harajuku. I remember listening to Aisha Tyler complaining on her podcast about how much she hated all the Harajuku style and I now know what she means. Takeshita Dori is a street lined with that cutesy Harajuku crap where girls had so much crap going on that I wasn’t sure if they were trannies (though I did see an old queen walking through with her hair in curlers). You can google “Harajuku style” to see it, but they look like dolls. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

I’m not sure what all was going on there.

No idea at all.

But oddly enough that whole area is filled with rich people. I’ve seen two Maseratis driven around as family cars with baby seats in the past two days.

So at the end of the Harajuku weirdness is the rich part of Harajuku. I’m not sure what all the store names mean since I’m sure I can’t afford anything in any of them, but in the panorama are Beluga, Ralph Lauren, Dior, Chanel, Bulgari.

But at the very end, next to the Bulgari store, is a Shakey’s pizza!

There’s more of a hipster feel down “Cat Street”. In fact, there’s more of a Portland feel with the galleries and sportswear stores including Columbia on the left and (if you can see it) Keen on the right. Adidas is right around the corner.

I followed the street down to Shibuya, where I found the sign of the day.

Back north towards Yoyogi park was the NHK Broadcasting Center. One thing I didn’t take pictures of were the huge lines forming in front of stores that were just opening or were having sales. I didn’t recognize any of them but I guess they were popular with the yoots.

The weather was “hot as balls” today. The thermometer said it was only 80°F or so but with the humidity and the direct sunlight it felt a lot hotter. I didn’t even make it into Yoyogi park and headed straight to Meiji Jingu, a huge shrine sacred to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. 100,000 trees were added at the time of Emperor Meiji’s enshrinement so that should tell you how large the grounds are.

The Japanese people aren’t that tiny; these gates are huge.

Here’s the entrance to the actual shrine.

And the final gate before the shrine. A cpu;le getting married are coming through the opening to the right of the gate.

And the actual shrine.

A view from the back of the last gate that shows some of the eaves.

I took the side exit to get out to Yoyogi station.

Even the short walk to the side exit was long.

My sister just sent me an email about a coffee shop and it was only around noon by this time, so I went back to find it. I could have sworn it was near Yoyogi station, but it was actually near Yoyogi-Hachiman which is all the way around the park close to NHK. So off I went, back around this huge-ass park and shrine.

It was way further than I thought it would be, and the roads don’t make that much sense. And I’m not sure I should have been wandering around where there were so many rich people. Hell, there was even a dressage facility with horses!

Anyway, I finally made it to the coffee shop and it was run by someone who had lived in Vancouver, B.C. I guess it’s been on a bunch of hipster blogs and that’s how my sister found out about it. It’s tiny and only seats about half-a-dozen at the most.

The coffee was what I expected from a Canadian (though she’s really Japanese). It was good but kind of bland.

I walked back to Shinjuku past the tonkatsu place that’s near the Nishi-Shinjuku Hotel. This picture is for my sister, mainly, because the picture on google maps is so different.

And here’s what’s in Google maps.

I took a couple of detours along the way to try to find some air conditioning and some more tourist maps, and finally got back to the hotel around 5:30PM, covered in sweat. You can see some of the salt rings on my shirt.

I wanted to know what the guys were eating a the Indian/Nepalese restaurant last week so I went back. It wasn’t as good as the first time and I don’t think I need to go back. What I thought were shumai with spicy sauce was shumai with spicy sauce. And the samosas came with ketchup. Ah well, at least I found the answer to the mystery.

The typhoon is coming tomorrow so I may not get out at all. It’ll start raining in the middle of the day and they’re saying when it really hits (expected around 6PM) the rain will exceed 80mm/hour. That’s more than 3″ every hour!

I am feeling better but did not get to sleep very well last night. My cough went away until I tried to go to sleep and my cough came back so I tried to sleep sitting up on the couch for a while. Fortunately the cough went away soon enough.

And the wind didn’t help much. Just before my alarm went off, I had a dream that I locked the door on my mom as a joke and I could hear her outside. It was actually the sound of the wind whistling in the vents.

The wind didn’t let up all day and I figured I might as well through caution to the wind and go to the harbor district. In fact, I went to Odaiba where I’ve heard all Japanese people visiting Tokyo go because it’s where Fuji TV has relocated.

I found Odaiba to be a depressing place it had faceless malls with stores I didn’t want to see.

Instead of being part of the bustling metropolis of Tokyo, there were expressways separating the faceless malls from a bleak looking amusement park.

There were a couple of fancy hotels (probably for the actors working at Fuji TV) but they were bleak and concrete with very little signs of life outside.

But there was Fuji TV. I went to see the stores and the floor where you could see into some of the studios but for the most part it was a kind of a disappointment all around.

I decided to walk back towards Tokyo across the Rainbow bridge. Back when I lived in Japan it was a romantic date destination for the youth of Tokyo to park somewhere and look at the rainbow bridge. That was twenty years ago and I think the bridge is just a bridge now though it is a big-ass bridge that spans the harbor.

I wasn’t sure if there was a way to walk across the bridge so plan B was to take the boat back across. There are several train lines and monorail lines as well, but I wanted to do something different.

I walked along the beach, which wasn’t all that populated and saw some people passing the time fishing. I finally came across a beach volleyball tournament.

As I went past, I realized that the main event was hidden behind curtains and the public didn’t appear to be invited. There wasn’t even an obvious way to buy tickets.

Looking back at Fuji TV, you can see several of the faceless malls in front, and the secret beach volleyball tournament as well.

Turns out the bridge walkway is a couple thousand meters long and you’re not allowed to ride a bike across. You can walk your bike and they had a strange contraption they bolted to your tire to keep you from riding. I only saw two bicyclists as I got onto the bridge and one other person walking across.

Here’s another view of Odiaba from the bridge.

And a view of Minato-ku from the bridge. If you look hard enough you can see the Tokyo tower and the Sky Tree.

While the bridge on the Odaiba end has a normal ramp access, it just abruptly ends at an elevator on the Minato-ku end and dumps you into the harbor district. I was kind of lost for a bit until I realized there’s always people and crowds in Tokyo.

So I headed towards a JR train station and lunch. I have this weird aversion to buying food where I have to buy a ticket from a vending machine before I eat, and that means that I’m excluded from most of the cheap food in Tokyo. I was even willing to just eat at McDonalds if it looked properly air conditioned, but I just started heading further and further in towards area that looked like I could find a restaurant. But I never did. I did see the Tokyo Tower getting closer and closer.

I randomly ran into Keio University (where all the “playboys” go).

Close by I found the sign of the day describing a well for a samurai worrier.

I finally made it to the Tokyo Tower and I think the trip was about 7 miles on the map (probably further because I made a bunch of side excursions).

Of course I didn’t go up, but I knew there would be ice cream at a tourist attraction. Even better, there were crêpes!

After that I had the energy to make it back to my hotel.

Finally, for dinner, I went to the expensive-looking tonkatsu place across the street. I’m not sure how they got the pork so tender, but it was tasty.

I got up fairly early today, still with the cough but feeling much, much better. I went downstairs to do my laundry and what I found out was that after THREE-AND-A-HALF FRIGGING HOURS the magic washer/dryer still hadn’t finished. I started at 7:30 and at 11AM my shirts were still damp. Now I know better than to wait for it to finish.

I still figured I’m on the mend and it was windy as so I thought I’d go to see the Sky Tree, or, at the very least, Solamachi (sky city).

Solamachi is a giant mall at the base of the Sky Tree and it’s popular as hell. It’s just Thursday, not a holiday, and there were long lines in front of the popular restaurants which were most of the restaurants. I could have gotten into some of the chains, like Mickey D’s, KFC, or Starbucks but where would the fun be there?

The only longer line was to go up the Sky Tree itself. The sign said it was about a half-hour wait, but I didn’t wait.

I remembered that one of the few things someone wanted was a postcard from Japan. I found out last year that post cards pre pretty hard to find in Japan unless you hit a tourist spot. Since I was close to Asakusa, I headed back to find a postcard. I went through a lot of tourist shops before I found any. The picture is pretty funny and has cars that are older than the person who is getting the card.

I think this is the same view from a few days ago, but I didn’t realize how close the Sky Tree really was. No more pictures of the gate today. Instead of stopping at a restaurant, I ended up buying rice balls at the Lawson convenience store and ate them by the river. I took a random walk back through Asakusa to get to the train I’d rode in a few days back. On the way I think I saw a celebrity (but I’m not sure).

These two next guys are definitely celebrities and are located just outside the Bandai headquarters.

I also saw some firemen practicing outside of their firehouse.

When I got to the subway I found the sign of the day:

I’ve been eating kind of cheaply because I seem to spend money on weird things. Lunch yesterday was half a box of Calorie Mate (the driest biscuits on the planet) and a bottle of tea from a vending machine plus an afternoon scone at Dream Pocket. Dinner was a cheap pre-made bento from the supermarket downstairs. Today lunch was the other half of the box of Calorie Mate and the rice balls from Lawson. I figured I should go out to dinner and not just to one of the same two places downstairs. There’s an expensive looking tonkatsu place across the street, and lots of Italian-ish food, but I found a place with an inviting-looking sign that had a couple of people inside. I’m not sure if it was the best soba I’ve had, but it was definitely worth the ¥800 and better than what I can get in the US.

Now I’m back in my room listening to the wind rattle the vents and wondering why my cough is back. If the wind is this bad today, the typhoons are probably getting fairly close. I may be stuck in the hotel again!

I’m still not the picture of health and woke up coughing a lot. I knew I shouldn’t overdo things like I did earlier this week at least until I feel better. But it was my weekly cleaning day in my hotel room so I knew I had to be out from 10 to 2 at a minimum. I puttered around my room until it was close to 10, calling home and basically trying to figure out where to go today without coughing up a lung. I decided go somewhere odd, Kokubunji.

Kokubunji is listed in my my guide book as “A Journey to History and Nature,” but surprisingly is also where my mom worked in an orphanage and where my old co-worker Suzuki-san lives. My mom also said my Aunt Yoshiko’s brother has a house in Kokubunji. But, as my mom says, there’s a surprising amount of greenery in Tokyo and it would be a nice quiet place to spend a restful day. That, and the cough drops I finally bought (rather than the throat candy I had) were pretty much what I needed.

I got to Kokubunji without much problem but there wasn’t any sign of a “phone” or a “house right next to the phone” on the south side of the station, where my Aunt Yoshiko’s brother’s house was supposed to be.

I did see a sign right near the station that made me think this would be a good day.

The Tonogayato Gardens, a Metropolitan Garden, was right near the station and a nice pleasant place that made me do something I said I’d never do: take pictures of a bunch of trees like my dad always did.

The gardens had a nice green lawn that they were trimming with Weed Eaters which seemed like a lot of trouble, but I realized I’ve never seen a lawn mower in Japan. The Weed Eaters were incredibly quiet as well.

I’m going to post some more embarrassing pictures of nature, just because. There were bamboo gardens and streams and lots of trees.

 There were supposed to be historic sights to see so I started looking for Otaka’s Path and Masugata Pond Springs and also the ruins of the old Kokubunji temple. I didn’t find a map until a long ways into the trip so I had to follow all the neighborhood maps and I even stumbled upon some markers for the path that would have been nice to find earlier on.

I did find a bunch of signs that took a bit to read that didn’t make the trip any easier. I was getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes at the gardens and even saw a giant wood spider so the signs warning me about nature didn’t make me feel any better. Like this first one that says there are big snakes and to leave them alone.

Or the one warning me about suzumebachi, or “sparrow bee” which is the Japanese name for the Asian Giant Hornet which may or may not cause a lot of deaths per year in Japan (the intarwebs aren’t quite clear on this).

Or the one about the regular honey bees you shouldn’t annoy. You can’t see them flying around in this picture, but they were there.

In any case, I wandered around Kokubunji finding a nature preserve (with more nature), the ruins of the old temple (which often was just open fields with old faded signs) but also some old gates.

It would have been nice to find the map for all of this before this point, but this is the part of the story where I actually found a tourist map of the town.

Then, after this gate, I found the ruins or empty fields or whatever you want to call them. I wandered back and forth around the same area and must have passed the Masugata springs at least four times.

The water comes out of the rock wall at the bottom of a hill.

With the map in hand I wanted to see the final rock bridge but it was a disappointment.  

It wasn’t a complete loss because I stopped into the coffee shop next to the bridge and had an ice coffee and scones which were tiny but tasty. If you can’t tell, the red thing in the middle is a mini Hershey’s krackel and that should tell you how tiny the things on the table are.

I’d say Dream Pocket is worth the stop if you’re by that silly bridge.

I had a confusing trip back home that took some backtracking because there are a bunch of different express lines which include the “Rapid”, “Chūō Special Rapid”, “Ōme Special Rapid”, “Commuter Rapid”, and “Commuter Special Rapid” which are all written in Japanese of some sort on the outside of the train. Somehow I don’t think I’m going to be here long enough to figure it out.

The rest of the day I spent in the room taking it easy. I was watching Anthony Bordain on Discovery last night and I realized one of the things I wanted to do was sit around watching Japanese TV. I finally figure out how to get some local channels and that’s what I did this evening. I even got a ¥300 bento from the Tesco Express so I could spend more time watching the weird mysteries that were on. Yet another weird success.

I thought I was getting better and I slept pretty darn well last night, but I knew something just felt off. It was the first time this trip that I slept in until my alarm. I got up and sent some messages to my sister and I just went back to sleep. When I finally made it down for the “continental breakfast”, I tried to talk to one of the other guests and found out that I didn’t have a voice. That came back pretty quickly, but I knew I should take it easy, again, and I was coughing up lots of phlegm for the fun of it as well.

Unfortunately I found a stream of the Monday Night football game and had something to do all morning. I say UNfortunately because every game I watch this season I think, now THAT was the WORST officiating I’ve seen so far. They’re getting worse and worse.

When I finally left around 12:30-ish, I took part of the “promenading course” on the tourist map. It took me to various neighborhoods as well as the trash collection area for the special ward of Shinjuku. Basically, it was a weird walk around parts of the city.

About the time I popped back out into “city” and not “community” there was another Shinto ceremony about to begin that I’m guessing is asking for auspicious tidings for the new building. I remember this happening in the past, but I’m guessing.

There were ceremonial heads of some sort as well.

And portalbe shrines.

But I just kept pushing on. I just barely made it to a Hawaiian restaurant before they shut down between lunch and dinner, and had some taco rice. They also had loco moco on the menu and it looked like the portions were as large as I expect to see in a Hawaiian restaurant.

I finally ended up in Shinjuku where I did some shopping for things that may or may not work for me: a small battery-powered toothbrush that doesn’t seem to have much oomph and a battery that you charge so you can charge your iPhone when the battery dies. Sounds convoluted to me. In any case, that was my day. I came back to the hotel, passed out again for a bit, and then went downstairs for yet more udon. It’s not exciting, but it’s fun and different for me.

I’m not sure if I’m overdoing it, but I still don’t feel 100% and I stayed out over 8 hours wandering around Tokyo. It was a great day when I left but the air here is probably not as good as it is in Oregon. On top of all the industrial effluent in the air, Oregon has a nice ocean to clean the air before we get it. Japan has the deserts of China. I’m not quite sure of the weather here either. Portland takes a while to heat up or cool down and there’s none of that here.

The weather meant it sounded like a good day to head to Asakusa and the first picture, at least the dark part underneath the gate, probably is a familiar view to anyone who has seen pictures of Japan. It’s the Grand Kaminarimon Gate with the huge lantern that’s in all the guide books.

Monday was the day to go, too. Lots of tourists and lots of them from the US and Europe from their accents but it looked like some where using the area for more traditional purposes as well.

The streets to Sensoji Temple and Akasaka Jinja are lined by traditional festival shops but I passed by all the sweets and trinkets that they offered. I saw a lot of the sorts of things I took to Goodwill the past two weeks.

There’s another gate and then the approach to the temple.

 I got the temple confused with the shrine which was smaller and next to it.

I wandered around the neighborhood for a while before I went to for a river boat ride. I thought I might be on one of the traditional boats.

But the one for the river boat rides are a bit nicer.

Lots more views of the Sky Tree, the tallest tower something-something-Japanese-I-couldn’t-understand.

Several times they repeated that the Sky Tree was the tallest something-something-something-in-Japanese.

We went under several bridges and I wasn’t enough of a bridge otaku to take pictures of all of them.

It was lunchtime, so I had what they were selling: ice cream with the view of another bridge.

I guess Gozilla hasn’t been around for a while because I saw the Tokyo Tower as well.

After that I went for a disappointing visit to the Asahi Breweries headquarters. It’s in all the guidebooks as having several restaurants but there really isn’t anything interesting. I saw a lot of disappointed-looking (and thirsty-looking) foreigners, and I include myself in that group.

The building on the left is supposed to look like it has head on it (like a proper beer) and the gold thing on the right is a mystery to me. After that I walked all the way across the neighborhood to Kappabashi Dougai which is a street that sells kitchenware for restaurants as far as you can see in the panorama shot. There were plates and glassware as well and a couple of shops selling the food models you see in front of a lot of Japanese restaurants. I also saw a store with a giant dinosaur head in it but I didn’t want to stop to ask. There was a Coca-Cola memorabilia store with a working 1940’s Coke machine modernized for ¥150 Cokes.

What there wasn’t was a lot of real restaurants. Every time I saw an Italian menu sign, it was just in front of a store selling menu signs. Every time I saw plastic food it was just for a store selling plastic food. I ended up at Mos Burger because, well, I LIKE Mos Burger and sometimes I just need to be number 1.

It was only a couple of miles to Ueno, so I decided it was time to go on another cross-Tokyo trek. What I found was that the street I was on between Asakusa and Ueno sells a lot of home Buddhist shrines that people have when someone dies. I also found another shrine so of course I visited it. I wasn’t the only one though it was pretty deserted.

I finally made it to Ueno Station but I didn’t feel like visiting the park or the zoo quite so late in the day.

I guess I wasn’t through walking because I started off towards Akihabara. There are a lot of weird jewelry shops between Ueno and Akihabara, selling necklaces, including several stores with what I would consider odd looking south Asian necklaces. But those weren’t for me.

I just kept going and kept asking deliverymen if I was still going the right way and I finally made it. I saw a lot of iffy iPhone accessories, went to my usual mecca of small parts, and generally wandered around until I got tired and got on the train for the hotel. I finally got off the train about 6:15PM and it was POURING. I went inside to get my bearings, my umbrella, and look for the key card I lost in the morning. (I wasn’t the only one who lost his key this morning. There was a “kid” in his underwear at the front desk this morning asking to be let back in his room.)

It was still POURING when I left for dinner and so I just went downstairs to the udon shop. It was raining so hard I didn’t even want to go across the street.

Of course it wasn’t raining much at all by the time I was done and I felt a little foolish for going out to dinner when I did. If I just waited I could have gone wherever I wanted. I like udon, so it wasn’t that big a deal. I wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow.

The weather was miserable today and even though I spent a lot of time and money getting myself to Japan, I figured I might just hole up again and stay inside. But really, where would the fun be if I did that? I could have gone to an underground shopping arcade, but on a rainy Sunday that just means a hot, humid, packed-with-damp-people experience that I didn’t want to deal with. But I did wake up early so I puttered around on my computer, did some laundry, and tried to debug my mom’s computer remotely. None of it went very well.

After sitting in front of the only free washing machine – one that I was quite familiar with – and looking at the other three (one was running, and two were sitting with someone’s clean clothes inside) I realized that I was using the only washing machine that didn’t have a built-in dryer. My first thought was, “Holy crap! These washing machines look like they have built-in dryers!” which was quickly replaced by, “Why the hell won’t these people come get their laundry so I can use one of the cool washing machines?” My bathroom is now strewn with my damp and hopefully drying clothes and my malevolent feelings towards those who can’t be bothered to properly time their laundry.

I didn’t want to spend the whole day sitting around hoping that my grumbling would dry my clothes more quickly so I headed to one of the Japanese food places that my sister keeps emailing me about. For Tokyo she’s sent me articles on one curry place, two burger places (probably in deference to my tastes), and two coffee shops. I’ve only been to one coffee shop and found where they relocated the curry place, so a burger place was an obvious next choice.

Even better, Fatz’s Burger was in Koenji, or about a hour’s walk away. It was too nasty to walk, so I took a quick 10-minute train ride there. The Koenji neighborhood was a big surprise to me as it had a thriving shopping district unlike many spots in outlying areas. For most of Japan, shopping arcades are just a series of shuttered stores and people go to malls to do all their shopping. I guess not in Koenji.

 Not only were there outdoor stores, but also covered shopping streets as well.

I got to Fatz’s Burger an hour early and had to kill some time walking around looking at the shopping district. I was getting hungry wandering around in the rain, so I went to floresta nature doughnuts. I guess they’re a chain, but they make uniquely Japanese doughnuts.

I had a green tea doughnut at a table outside. You can’t see it, but the seat was wet as is the street outside.

I finally made it to Fatz’s Burger and I was the first customer of the day. They told me that it wouldn’t be very busy. They even had a supply of Leinenkugel’s and I guess I know enough Wisconsonites to have heard of it. The beer was pretty good.

Now onto the burger. I had their monthly special, the “ABQ” with Tillamook pepperjack cheese (from home!) and fresh mango salsa. I can honestly say that it was one of the best hamburgers I’ve had. And I ate the burger before I even ordered the beer so that wasn’t coloring my judgement.

I sat and talked with another customer for a couple of hours, Andy from Wisconsin, a translator who has lived in Japan for seven years. After I finally left, I wandered around in the rain looking for the Koenji Temple that the neighborhood is named after. I found it but it looked pretty closed up and the weather still wasn’t any better, so I just headed back to the train and my hotel.

The tall building in the picture is the Hundred Stay Shinjuku where I’m staying. I took it from the closest train station.

I mostly sat around the rest of the afternoon and had dinner at Saizeria again. It’s convenient and easy and is unique being Japanesey Italian food. I was pretty tired and according to Andy there’s a cold going around. Hopefully I’ll be rested up for the good weather they’re predicting for tomorrow.