At the train station
At the train station
I was able to see my friend Hideyuki that night, and he met me at Sangubashi Station where the Yoyogi Youth Hostel is. I met a Taiwanese girl named Cathy who was sitting nearby on the train, and I could tell that she was on her way to the youth hostel because of her heavy bags. She asked me if I was going there, and she asked if she could accompany me because she wasn't sure where it was. When I exited the familiar little train station, Hide was there waiting for me. He was there to help Cathy with her bags. The Yoyogi Youth Hostel isn't too far from the station at all, but the north gate was closed due to construction! Not good! Good thing Hide was there, him being Japanese and all, because he was able to use the intercom and ask where the entrance was. We had to go way down to the lower entrance and then back up the other side to get to the youth hostel that I was able to see from the north gate.
After I was checked in, I took a quick shower and went out with Hide. I learned that although the Yoyogi Youth Hostel has an official curfew, you can return at any time of the night as long as you're quiet, because the lower gate always has an officer on duty. Hide took me a few stops down the Odakyu Line to a place called Shimokitazawa. This place is cool! Hide told me that many people consider it to be a miniature Shibuya, and I can believe it. He took me to a cool Korean BBQ restaurant. In Japan, this kind of food is called "yakiniku," not "Korean BBQ." I've done this before, but it was at people's houses and not in a restaurant. You order what you want, and they bring it out to your table raw. In the center of the table is a grill where you cook your own food. We ordered pork, beef, even ox tongue, as well as vegetables such as zucchini, onions, and mushrooms. We ordered way too much food and I was completely stuffed. After we said goodbye, I took the Odakyu line back up to Sangubashi to return to my youth hostel. Because of the construction, I thought that I would take a short cut. Consequently, I got lost in the Yoyogi neighborhood. I felt so stupid. At least it wasn't too cold that night, since I only had a thick shirt pulled over my regular shirt. I learned that Japan was having a mild winter just like we were having a mild winter in the American Southwest where I'm from. I didn't get back to my room until 1 am. I woke up around 5:30 am because I was so excited to experience my next day in Japan.
Actually, the main reason I woke up so early was because of the early bird travellers who woke up so early. Since my hostel room was right next to the bathroom, I was woken up by the noises everybody was making. My second day in Tokyo wasn't very eventful. I just took it easy. In the morning I went to Shinjuku to find a bank to use my credit card for obtaining yen. I first went to Sakura Bank, but they told me to go to Citibank because I have a Sony Citibank Visa card. Like it matters. Sheesh. Fortunately, Citibank was right next door. I poked around in a video game arcade in Shinjuku for awhile before heading out to Shibuya. I must admit, I'm crazy for video games. And I was dying to play the games that hadn't been released in America yet. I called Hide from Shibuya Station to see if he wanted to go out for lunch. He works for Honda, and I met him at his work near Aoyama Itchome subway station. He took me to a sushi restaurant. I learned that during the day, such sushi restaurants are very inexpensive to eat at. But in the evening, the prices go way up. Hide told me that this is because the groups of business men who go there after work don't care about the prices because their meals are covered by their company's expense accounts.
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 After lunch, Hide had to return to work so I went back to Shibuya to look for an Internet Cafe. I couldn't find one, so I headed up to Ikebukuro. I went there mainly to visit the Sakura Taisen store there. In case you don't know, Sakura Taisen was an incredibly popular video game for the Sega Saturn. It was located in the Sega Gigo amuzement center and it was pretty cool. After that, I spent 3-4 hours in Akihabara, mainly shopping for video games. What can I say? I'm crazy for video games. And it's much cheaper to buy them in Akihabara than it is to buy them imported in America. And something else I must say is that Japanese gamers take much, much better care of their games than Americans do. The quality of used games is by far superior in Japan.On the Odakyu Line back to Sangubashi Station where the youth hostel is, I saw the girl Cathy again. She'd just spent the day in Ueno and Asakusa. I'd planned on going to those places that day too, but I decided not to because the museums in Ueno aren't open on Mondays. We were both planning to visit the waterfront complexes the next day, so we decided to go together. So the next morning at 8am, I met Cathy in the lobby area of the youth hostel. It was snowing that morning and the snow lasted into the afternoon. The first place we visited was a wild bird park. Bird watching is a favorite hobby of hers, so although it wasn't really my thing, I went along with it. I'd hoped that she'd be willing to go with me to the Tokyo aquarium in exchange. Our next stop was Odaiba, the artificial island waterfront created in Tokyo Harbor. My Japan tour guide book describes this place as looking like it's out of a scene in Blade Runner. And anytime Blade Runner is mentioned, my interest is piqued. "My nerd sense is tingling!" So we took the Yurikamome monorail to the island that runs parallel to traffic over the bridge. The island felt a bit empty, so there was a lot of spare real estate for developing later on. But the buildings that were there had very futuristic architecture and I was very impressed. Not very Blade Runner-ish, but the place did have a real SF feel to it. The first building I noticed was the Decks building, a shopping mall overlooking the artificial beach. This mall also has a Sega Joypolis, just as the Takashimaya building in Shinjuku does. It's an okay place, I guess. Cathy was much more interested in clothing and brand names than I'll ever be, that's for sure. So she enjoyed this place much more than I did. I'm just not big on shopping for clothing and such. We had lunch at a ramen shop there. A woman who works there was from the Canton area of China, but she could speak Mandarin with Cathy. |
See? Pretty cool architecture. The picture on the right shows the Yurikamome monorail that can take you to the island and around.
At night, the sphere is brilliantly lit with multi-colored lights. To the right, I am posing in front of the entrance to the Fuji TV building. There were posters of several actors and actresses featured on the Fuji TV Network, and she identified several who were from Taiwan. She says that Taiwan and Japan exchange famous celebrities quite often and that the two countries share several aspects of their pop culture together.
I don't know what the building in the left picture is, but to the right is Tokyo Big Sight, where Comic Market ("Comiket") is held twice a year. The Tokyo Game Show used to be held here too, but after that it is held in the Makuhari Messe in Chiba.
Cathy wanted to visit the maritime museum. It was okay, I guess. But it was getting late in the day, so my plans to visit the Tokyo Sealife Park were postponed. The sun was starting to go down, so we took the Yurikamome back to the main land. That evening, we went to Shimokitazawa and had okonomiyaki. I was hoping that I would've been introducing Cathy to something new, but she says that she'd had it before.
Go on to Part 3 of my Vacation in Tokyo and read the exciting tale of how I defeated a Baltan Seijin at Matsuzakaya. Or not.
Go back to the "Greg's Life" Table of Contents
I brake for tailgaters!