20070901-1428

I just walked around Tokyo, and boy are my feet tired!

Hmm... the joke doesn't really work that way, but in this case, it's actually true. I've been walking almost continuously since about 4:30. The day started out with a walk to the Ueno station, as the local metro stop was closed. Granted, none of the metro stations open until close to 5, but we didn't know that, so we decided to head to Ueno. Faced with a closed station, we wandered for about 10 minutes, waiting for it to open.

During these wanderings, we had our first adventure with vending machines. I put in JPY120, and was rewarded with a beverage called "300", which was sweet, and rather tasty. My dad put in JPY120, and was rewarded with "Sweat". It's basically lemon water. Goody, together we have a movie.

Eventually, we hopped on the train to Tsujika (SP?), the fish market. It's almost but not quite entirely unlike Pike's market, which is what I had expected. For starters, there is a lot more seafood. A lot. I have pictures of the tuna auction area, where they will auction off huge fish. Everyone there drives these interesting carts, which remind me a bit of bumper boats, in that it's basically an engine on a shaft, with the entire apparatus being rotateable, so it's like a very manoeuvrable shopping cart. These things were everywhere! I'm sure if they switched to electric power rather than petrol, people would die, because they wouldn't hear them coming.

Afterwards, more wandering occurred. Eventually we ended up in Ginza, which, while impressive, is not really what I came to see. So, very shortly, we hopped on a metro and came back for the umbrellas, to perhaps mitigate the nagging sprinkling rain. On our way back we ate breakfast at a Yoshinoya, which went satisfactorily.

Armed with protection from the elements, we headed off for Tokyo Station, and ultimately to the Imperial Palace Gardens.

The Metro station near Tokyo Station is massive, and happens to be the sub-sub basement of a block of buildings. Very confusing. It took some amount of guessing to figure out how to get out. Once out, we noticed Tokyo Station, which is a large brick building. I'm sure I'll have more interactions with it soon, but for now I just saw it from afar.

The Imperial Palace Gardens are impressive, partly because they're nice and green -- quite a departure from the brown of San Diego -- but also because they are a large, calming park located in the middle of a major metropolis. It's easy to forget the surroundings in this place. By this point in our journey, we were making liberal use of park benches, having walked a large distance already.

Upon having taken our fill of greenery, we decided to for the polar opposite, and head to Akihabara. I'm not sure I can properly articulate the splendors that lie within, and I'm fairly certain it warrants a second look, owing mostly to our exhaustion during our tour. I did meet some nice people from Taiwan, though, who suggested I try a Pineapple Taiwanese Biscuit from this one shop, rather than the Cherry one.

So, for now, my feet hurt. I very much suspect the hostel computers are spyware-ridden, and I need to change my passwords. I haven't been able to find wireless Internet that is (a) free, and (b) in a location where I can sit -- i.e. an Internet cafﾃｩ of some sort. Perhaps soon I'll discover such a beast.