Day 2: Tokyo
Day 2. Well... done one was action packed... too much for my liking. I don't think I should write as much Day 1, even though we did heaps in Day 2. Let's see how we go.
The day started with a trip to Ikebukuro station and picking up a one-day subway ticket. Our first stop, Ginza and the Sony store there. It was our first taste of everyone bowing at us entering a store. That felt sweet. haha. Hmm... I took a liking to a handycam that was quite small and well... I can't remember much else about it, including the model - though I do remember the Japanese person explaining it to me had a very American accent. Cherie took a liking to the AIBO's.
We lost Cheech @ Sony, so we made our way to the Kabuki theatre in Higashi-Ginza (East Ginza?). We just took photos around the building, and of the elderly who were all hanging out to watch whatever was the next show (see photo below).
Asakusa was the next port of call. To get there, we tried to use our day-pass ticket but it didn't work. Had a train guard try to explain to us why it didn't work. After deciphering his hand signals and tone, we worked out our ticket didn't let us go on the Toei lines (incl. the one to Asakusa). Bummer. Walked to another subway and after getting directions from another guard, we found our way there.
Cherie had a walking tour map thing which we followed. It took us to this massive lantern thing. There were some stalls selling snacks and touristy things there. I tried this red-bean cake thing that had massive queues in it. It wasn't that great - I think I bought too much of it.
Got to the end, found a temple. Our first temple, wicked. It was pretty. But not very eventful - but I guess I wasn't expecting Bruce Willis to come busting out behind a donation bin.
Started to get hungry, and Cherie's walking guide thing took us to some pretty dodgey places without food :P. There was hardly anyone along those streets at all. There was an amusement park in an alley ... about the size of Luna Park with maybe... no visitors inside. Pretty eeeeerie. We did find a guy making tatami mats in his shop. Stood there staring at him for about 2mins.. the moved along :D
Found another small temple (below), took more photos and moved on to the riverside. There were some homeless with some sweet housing along the river (photo below). Maybe they were fishermen.
Still starving (approx 2pm by now), and our next stop was Jimbocho. Supposedly, a great place to buy snowboard gear. Wicked! Off we went on the subway again, and found an english speaking information desk who helped us catch all the right trains. I loved travelling the subways. It's so cool having a train every few minutes or waiting for you each time you're there.
When we got out of Jimbocho, we were at the main intersection and couldn't see a single shop that sold snowboard stuff. We had nooo idea which direction to go, so we took a punt, and went.... the wrong way. We did find a nice noodle restaurant. I say nice because the food was nice, but the waitress was nice too. She could speak a little english. I didn't get her name - doh! Though when we were asking for direction to find snowboard shops, Mak did his simulated 'ski' gestures which ended up looking like he was asking if she wanted a hump. Thanks Mak. Blew our chance of getting her details.
After walking around for another hour without luck, we asked a pamphlet giver-outer on the street for directions. He pointed us the right way and weren't we happy to find it! Woohoo. It was dark by then, and we saw cheech again shopping there. They'd practically finished and were heading off somewhere (can't remember - dinner i think). We continued shopping : Cherie scored glove liners, wrist warmers, snowboard bra. Mak got a snowboard bra too - it looks great on you man. I got thermals for mi-self.
After shopping, off to Akihabara - or Electric Town. Supposedly lots of electronics. I was hoping that when we get there, finding electronic stores would be easier than finding snowboard stores. We got there, and it wasn't too hard as this time they had signs to point you to Electric Town. Cool! Did a bit of shopping. Cherie scored earphones. The shops were closing by then (9pm?), and hunger started to kick in. As were were walking down the main street, we smelt something really good. We followed our noses to this alley, and there was a little restaurant there. Cherie read the sign as Okinomiyaki - but we weren't sure the place was still open. We peered in and there was no one else in the restaurant, but we went in anyway (hungry remember!!).
We had this hot plate in front of us, then they gave us our menu's. Great, Jap menu's! The lady that was serving us wasn't very good with english, so she brought out the owner/chef who explained the ingredients in english. The "Special!! SPecial!!" one sounded good so we got that, along with 2 other pancakes. I think coz we were foreigners, they helped us cook it. That was really cool!
The Special was the best okinomiyaki ever. Like ever! (Even better than ones we've had later on). Great find, and I remember as we were leaving, I was bowing like about 30 times and getting hit by Cherie "stop bowing!". For me, that was the highlight of the day. Great food :D Great service :D
The day started with a trip to Ikebukuro station and picking up a one-day subway ticket. Our first stop, Ginza and the Sony store there. It was our first taste of everyone bowing at us entering a store. That felt sweet. haha. Hmm... I took a liking to a handycam that was quite small and well... I can't remember much else about it, including the model - though I do remember the Japanese person explaining it to me had a very American accent. Cherie took a liking to the AIBO's.
We lost Cheech @ Sony, so we made our way to the Kabuki theatre in Higashi-Ginza (East Ginza?). We just took photos around the building, and of the elderly who were all hanging out to watch whatever was the next show (see photo below).
Asakusa was the next port of call. To get there, we tried to use our day-pass ticket but it didn't work. Had a train guard try to explain to us why it didn't work. After deciphering his hand signals and tone, we worked out our ticket didn't let us go on the Toei lines (incl. the one to Asakusa). Bummer. Walked to another subway and after getting directions from another guard, we found our way there.
Cherie had a walking tour map thing which we followed. It took us to this massive lantern thing. There were some stalls selling snacks and touristy things there. I tried this red-bean cake thing that had massive queues in it. It wasn't that great - I think I bought too much of it.
Got to the end, found a temple. Our first temple, wicked. It was pretty. But not very eventful - but I guess I wasn't expecting Bruce Willis to come busting out behind a donation bin.
Started to get hungry, and Cherie's walking guide thing took us to some pretty dodgey places without food :P. There was hardly anyone along those streets at all. There was an amusement park in an alley ... about the size of Luna Park with maybe... no visitors inside. Pretty eeeeerie. We did find a guy making tatami mats in his shop. Stood there staring at him for about 2mins.. the moved along :D
Found another small temple (below), took more photos and moved on to the riverside. There were some homeless with some sweet housing along the river (photo below). Maybe they were fishermen.
Still starving (approx 2pm by now), and our next stop was Jimbocho. Supposedly, a great place to buy snowboard gear. Wicked! Off we went on the subway again, and found an english speaking information desk who helped us catch all the right trains. I loved travelling the subways. It's so cool having a train every few minutes or waiting for you each time you're there.
When we got out of Jimbocho, we were at the main intersection and couldn't see a single shop that sold snowboard stuff. We had nooo idea which direction to go, so we took a punt, and went.... the wrong way. We did find a nice noodle restaurant. I say nice because the food was nice, but the waitress was nice too. She could speak a little english. I didn't get her name - doh! Though when we were asking for direction to find snowboard shops, Mak did his simulated 'ski' gestures which ended up looking like he was asking if she wanted a hump. Thanks Mak. Blew our chance of getting her details.
After walking around for another hour without luck, we asked a pamphlet giver-outer on the street for directions. He pointed us the right way and weren't we happy to find it! Woohoo. It was dark by then, and we saw cheech again shopping there. They'd practically finished and were heading off somewhere (can't remember - dinner i think). We continued shopping : Cherie scored glove liners, wrist warmers, snowboard bra. Mak got a snowboard bra too - it looks great on you man. I got thermals for mi-self.
After shopping, off to Akihabara - or Electric Town. Supposedly lots of electronics. I was hoping that when we get there, finding electronic stores would be easier than finding snowboard stores. We got there, and it wasn't too hard as this time they had signs to point you to Electric Town. Cool! Did a bit of shopping. Cherie scored earphones. The shops were closing by then (9pm?), and hunger started to kick in. As were were walking down the main street, we smelt something really good. We followed our noses to this alley, and there was a little restaurant there. Cherie read the sign as Okinomiyaki - but we weren't sure the place was still open. We peered in and there was no one else in the restaurant, but we went in anyway (hungry remember!!).
We had this hot plate in front of us, then they gave us our menu's. Great, Jap menu's! The lady that was serving us wasn't very good with english, so she brought out the owner/chef who explained the ingredients in english. The "Special!! SPecial!!" one sounded good so we got that, along with 2 other pancakes. I think coz we were foreigners, they helped us cook it. That was really cool!
The Special was the best okinomiyaki ever. Like ever! (Even better than ones we've had later on). Great find, and I remember as we were leaving, I was bowing like about 30 times and getting hit by Cherie "stop bowing!". For me, that was the highlight of the day. Great food :D Great service :D
posted by The Skumbag @ 9:56 PM
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