Today was the wettest it had been so far, so we didn’t feel bad for having slept in late recovering from Tokyo Disney. Still, we decided to brave the weather and visit Shinjuku, a big commercial district in Tokyo.
After arriving at the Shinjuku train station we picked up some food and went to find somewhere to sit down and eat (because apparently it’s impolite to walk and eat). The station was huge but we couldn’t find anywhere to sit down so after a lot of fruitless searching we eventually found our way out into the wind and rain. After an epic journey that took us over platforms, into department stores then eventually down onto the city streets we eventually sought refuge in a Starbucks. I bought a coffee so we could sit down and dry off, but after actually buying it we couldn’t find any seats, so our quest continued, now with a scalding hot coffee in one hand, and food and umbrella in the other. Finally we spotted a café in the distance and successfully managed to secure seats and ate and dried off.
After having eaten we all felt much better so we wandered around the streets until we stopped for David Z to have some teppenyaki (octopus). Then we noticed we were standing next to a karaoke place, and it wasn’t much longer before we found ourselves belting out classic rock anthems in a small room with two microphones and tambourines.
We came out of that slightly perplexed as to what had exactly just happened, but then we saw a familiar sight: a 7 floor electronics department store. After having a look through there we decided to head home and dry off.
The weather had improved a bit later that night so we decided to head back into Akihabara for dinner. We found a sushi train where I proceeded to spill soy sauce all over my pants. We then went on a quest to find new pants, but then realised we were just going to head back home anyway so it didn’t really matter.
Once we got back to our hotel, the weather was still so nice we decided to go for hot tomato soup in a can from a vending machine that David W said he had seen a few days earlier. We searched for ages and found everything except tomato soup, including sweet corn soup, curry and rice, and even a can with pancakes on the label (maple-syrup flavoured milk, but I like to think it was pancake juice.) Just as we were about to give up hope, there it was: Tomato and Basil soup in a vending machine, just around the corner from our hotel.
There was also a typhoon warning today for tonight and tomorrow, so I could be writing from Kansas tomorrow.
Arriving in rainy Shinjuku
Our quest to find somewhere to eat begins
So many shops yet so few places to sit
Some of us got impatient
Somehow we found ourselves in a karaoke bar!
"Hands up who wants Stairway to Heaven?"
Star Power!
Oops how did we get into an electronics store again?
One of everything, please
Must have been in the shop a while
Just walking around, looking around
One of the many casinos we came across
Leigh wearing his new purchase
The crazy train station at Shinjuku
Sometimes Japan can be a bit on the nose (not really)
Curry and rice, and sweet-corn soup
Pancakes :)
Finally, tomato soup!
2 comments:
Stuart! You make me so proud hearing about your soy-sauce pants!!! Japan are seeing the real you! =P
Haha thanks! Yep, I tried to make them think that it was the fashion to wear soy-sauce on your pants in Australia.
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