All quiet in Shinjuku? What the...

We woke up bright and early Sunday morning at 9 am--well, some of us woke up brighter and earlier than others, namely the Korean girls. They always woke up hours before the rest of us, to complete their morning rituals of applying multiple lotions and make up to their faces. Me, I just rolled out of bed, washed my face, got dressed and made sure my camera bag was packed. See, we had to be out of the hostel from 11 am until 4 pm. It was weird; kind of like a reverse curfew.

We first walked around in Shinjuku, the epitome of "modern" Tokyo: business, government, commercial and entertainment center all in one. First we saw the endless camera shops, then wandered through skyscrapers and skyscrapers. Some very interesting architecture to be found here.

 

And here is where they keep the nuclear wessels

After a while, people started showing up, but before then...pretty quiet Sunday morning on the streets of Shinjuku, Tokyo

A very convenient maneki neko. Usually they're actual paper mache, ceramic, or plastic statuettes...

 Here is Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building #1. I think. In any case, we took the elevator up to the 40-something-th floor to the observatory in the left tower. Very nice round view of the city--the only obstruction being the other tower.

 

The wooded area is Meiji Jinguu shrine and Yoyogi-kouen park are--we shall see in closer detail soon

On really clear days it's said that you can see Mt. Fuji from this view.

This is where it was supposed to be, but...too smoggy, so I had to draw it in.

A Walk in the Park and Fake Yakitori

Buy a random book from ye olde jidouhanbaiki so you won't be bored on the subway! =D

After a short rest at the guesthouse--which was really more like a hostel, bunks and everything--we went out to Ueno-kouen and the Ameyoko area for an evening meander. Ueno Park was Japan's first public park.

A view of the Ameyoko area from Ueno Hill

This is the Saigou Takamori statue in Ueno-kouen...He was a samurai who supported the Meiji Restoration at first, and then changed his loyalties when the government took away the powers of the samurai class. He's the guy Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) is supposed to be in The Last Samurai. In fact, Ueno Hill was where the 1868 last stand of the Tokugawa Loyalists took place, a little over 10 years before the last battle of the Satsuma Rebellion--the Battle of Shiroyama--led by Saigou Takamori.

Here is Kiyomizu Kannon-do temple, which is modeled after Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto. (Kannon is the Japanese name for Kuan Yin or Guanyin, the goddess of mercy in the Buddhist pantheon. 

The main image in this temple is the seated Senju-Kannon (one-thousand-armed Kannon who is protector of those born in the year of the rat), but there is also an image of the "child-growing" Kosodate Kannon. People who wish for good child-bearing and sound child-growing offer dolls as substitues for their children. There's a well-known memorial service for dolls held in September as well.

There are lots of signs up around and nearby the temple rallying for it to be included as a World Cultural Heritage Sight as well...

In the park, we found this totem pole belonging to the Tokyo chapter of Lions Club International, a volunteer organization. Definitely an odd-looking piece: kind of a mix between Asian and Northwestern Native American styles.

After sunset, we wandered around the Ameyayokochou Arcade, a kind of shabby but brightly lit market. We meandered through some shops, and I tried out the new rhythm-game fad in Japan: Taiko no Tatsujin. It's pretty much the same idea as Rock Band, Guitar Hero, DDR, etc. Beat the drum with the appropriate strikes in the correct rhythm to popular songs, J-pop, anime, classical, traditional Japanese. (It's funny, the drum sounds--the dum, ka, and teks--are almost the same translated into Japanese.) We ate a little bit at this dingy side-street place, but they didn't really serve us the yakitori we wanted...it was various parts of the chicken on kabobs. Now, it's normal for the yakitori selection to include liver, heart, skin, white meat, wing meat, even small intestines, but those kabobs remaing on the plate in the below picture--that was pretty much pure fat. Eugh. Literally fat on a stick.

We ended up eating at McDonald's...again. McDonald's here are a lot nicer than those in America, although I do hear that they've improved back home. I wouldn't really know, I haven't eaten at a McDonald's in the US since I was in elementary school. Some of the Mickey D's in Tokyo had traditional Chicken McNuggets, but most of the ones I've been to have this delightful thing called Shaka Shaka Chicken instead. It's fried chicken patty they give you in a bag. You pick a seasoning, lemon or pepper for example, and pour it into the top of the bag, and, guess what? Shaka shaka! You open the bag at the tear near the bottom and you have seasoned fried chicken patty. Some other items on the Japanese menu are: Teriyaki McBurger, Ebi Filet-O, and sometimes they have things like Chicken Katsu Burger, Ume Nuggets, and Tamago Double Mac.
During our last walk before we returned to the guesthouse for the night, we were pretty sure we saw some prostitutes down this one street. One of my teachers said that you can't tell by the way women dress if they're prostitutes...But I'm pretty sure. They didn't look exactly skanky or anything. But it wasn't just the fact they were wearing short coats over short dresses and stilettos, or the way they were made-up. It was the way they were waiting expectantly at the sides of the street, with large men lurking around here and there...

On a completely different and adorable note:
Engrish of the Day:

A gift bag I found at a 7/11 near the guesthouse...The most pitiful and adorable Engrish I've seen yet. I ended the bag buying it for me mum. =P

We're not lost; we're just taking the scenic route.

 Well, we spent quite a few hours in the Ginza area, wandering around taking pictures. It's quite a beautiful area to wander around in, and not too busy or crowded fairly early in the day. Not outside the main streets anyhow.

The manholes in Japan are always entertaining.
At first there was a vague notion to find the Pokemon Center, but after a rather long walk, we started asking for directions. We were starting to get hungry too.

 

A first glimpse of Tokyo Tower, and...I'm not entirely sure what to make of this restroom, surrounded by quaint greenery and set into the ground from the sidewalk...

Eventually we discovered the Pokemon Center: I was clever and saw a lady with her child carrying a Pokemon shopping bag, but the guys ahead of us technically found it first, by sheer walking power. The Pokemon Center is...less of a center, and more of a shop: lots of Pokemon merchandise, and those little marble lottery draws, but not a museum or anything at all. I guess the word "Center" usually brings to mind some sort of informational/museum-like place, with a shop on the side. Doesn't seem be the case so much here, as we will see later with the Tokyo Anime Center.
Then there were goofy photo shoots outside. Then on with the wandering!

(Maxim, Elliot, and Guillaume)

Tokyo's very layered like this (with walkways going above streets, and trains above that,etc):

A nifty thing in which to clean one's glasses--just on a street corner

We did check out part of the Sony Building (above)--mainly the floor where they show off their 3D video technology. I kind of fell asleep during the demonstration. Not because it wasn't interesting, but because I hadn't really had good rest the night before, the lights were dimmed, and  I was starting to get really hungry. I can report that the part of the 3D demonstrations I was awake for were actually very impressive. But it was definitely time to go hunting for food.