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monday -- hanging out
Yesterday I fell asleep before 11pm. I mean I was awake for the first half of SMAPxSMAP at 10pm where Harrison Ford was the bistro guest, but I was half asleep for the second part, and then Ainori came on at 11 and it was OH GOD MORE OF THAT ZOMAHOUN GUY so I just sort of tuned out. Next thing I knew, it was a news show and they were showing more on Akihabara, and I went to sleep.
I guess I had a good reason though, I'd woken up at 8:30am, which is pretty early for me (and all weekend was on a weird sleep schedule). I met up with Andy at Ueno Park at like... 11am... we wandered around Ameyayokocho for a while, then decided to walk to Asakusa. Well, not really Asakusa. We walked to Kappabashidori, the kitchen supply district, which is actually pretty damn cool and I might have to go back there sometime. Andy wanted to get plastic food as a souvenir for a friend, so I helped him find a plastic food sample shop and we looked around at stuff. It's super-expensive! But not unexpected if you think about it -- the market is probably not great for it, it's not like restaurants have to buy a ton of plastic food over and over again, I don't think.
Then we walked further towards Tawaramachi station and I found an Anrakutei and we got yakiniku for lunch which made me happy because I think of yakiniku as my "yay, I'm getting to hang out with people" food.
After that we took the Ginza line to Ginza. First we stopped at Kimuraya, which is NOT crowded on a grey, rainy Monday, but on the other hand didn't have quite as many interesting anpan types as I expected. I got some cheese-cream anpan, some shiro, and some uguisu. I wanted yuzu, but alas.
We went to Hakuhinkan and looked around at all the crazy toys for a while, and the board games, and the puzzles, and so on and so forth. I got to use up my coupons finally, some of which had been sitting around since Kat and Jesse were here in October. I gave some to Andy for his puzzles, and then used a few myself to buy strawberry soaps.
After that I guess we just wandered around. Went to a coffee shop, then went up to the Shinjuku Metropolitan buildings' observation decks (45th floor) and tried not to be afraid of heights. I showed him around Nishi-Shinjuku a bit after that -- the Yellow Submarine store, and Yodobashi Camera, where I finally did buy a webcam, so my dad will be happy to hear that (but I haven't tried it out yet). And then Andy had to go home, so we parted ways at the Keio Shinjuku station, and I wandered through the rain a little bit more.
(I had thought of going to Jingu originally -- it was still nice and clear at 5:50pm and the game was at 6:20pm -- but then the skies opened up while we were walking around Shinjuku. They still apparently DID play a whole game, but I'm glad I wasn't there.)
Went to Ikebukuro and my favorite kaitensushi place there. It was really fucking weird. They didn't have anything on the belt, you had to order everything. Mysteriously, all of a sudden, they filled up the belt completely within a matter of a minute or two. I don't know why exactly, or who came in that spurred it, but I was already up to like 7 plates by then and was sort of sad. Then, despite that I'd ordered in Japanese, asked questions in Japanese, etc, I got gaijinned on the way out. The cashier told me the total in Japanese and I repeated it in Japanese to make sure I had it right, started rooting through my wallet, and then he suddenly noticed my skin and was like "Oh! Thank you very much." I was just like "Ehhhh?" He mimicked, "Ehhhh?" I told him (in Japanese) that the English surprised me, he asked what country I live in, I told him Japan, so he asked what country I was FROM, and I told him America. I realize now that the better option was to just pay and reply "gochisosama" and leave, but it was just very jarring.
I pretty much wasted the evening after that, because I was mentally braindead after the entire weekend. I cleaned up my apartment a little, but it still looks pretty bad. It's like a neverending battle.
I guess I had a good reason though, I'd woken up at 8:30am, which is pretty early for me (and all weekend was on a weird sleep schedule). I met up with Andy at Ueno Park at like... 11am... we wandered around Ameyayokocho for a while, then decided to walk to Asakusa. Well, not really Asakusa. We walked to Kappabashidori, the kitchen supply district, which is actually pretty damn cool and I might have to go back there sometime. Andy wanted to get plastic food as a souvenir for a friend, so I helped him find a plastic food sample shop and we looked around at stuff. It's super-expensive! But not unexpected if you think about it -- the market is probably not great for it, it's not like restaurants have to buy a ton of plastic food over and over again, I don't think.
Then we walked further towards Tawaramachi station and I found an Anrakutei and we got yakiniku for lunch which made me happy because I think of yakiniku as my "yay, I'm getting to hang out with people" food.
After that we took the Ginza line to Ginza. First we stopped at Kimuraya, which is NOT crowded on a grey, rainy Monday, but on the other hand didn't have quite as many interesting anpan types as I expected. I got some cheese-cream anpan, some shiro, and some uguisu. I wanted yuzu, but alas.
We went to Hakuhinkan and looked around at all the crazy toys for a while, and the board games, and the puzzles, and so on and so forth. I got to use up my coupons finally, some of which had been sitting around since Kat and Jesse were here in October. I gave some to Andy for his puzzles, and then used a few myself to buy strawberry soaps.
After that I guess we just wandered around. Went to a coffee shop, then went up to the Shinjuku Metropolitan buildings' observation decks (45th floor) and tried not to be afraid of heights. I showed him around Nishi-Shinjuku a bit after that -- the Yellow Submarine store, and Yodobashi Camera, where I finally did buy a webcam, so my dad will be happy to hear that (but I haven't tried it out yet). And then Andy had to go home, so we parted ways at the Keio Shinjuku station, and I wandered through the rain a little bit more.
(I had thought of going to Jingu originally -- it was still nice and clear at 5:50pm and the game was at 6:20pm -- but then the skies opened up while we were walking around Shinjuku. They still apparently DID play a whole game, but I'm glad I wasn't there.)
Went to Ikebukuro and my favorite kaitensushi place there. It was really fucking weird. They didn't have anything on the belt, you had to order everything. Mysteriously, all of a sudden, they filled up the belt completely within a matter of a minute or two. I don't know why exactly, or who came in that spurred it, but I was already up to like 7 plates by then and was sort of sad. Then, despite that I'd ordered in Japanese, asked questions in Japanese, etc, I got gaijinned on the way out. The cashier told me the total in Japanese and I repeated it in Japanese to make sure I had it right, started rooting through my wallet, and then he suddenly noticed my skin and was like "Oh! Thank you very much." I was just like "Ehhhh?" He mimicked, "Ehhhh?" I told him (in Japanese) that the English surprised me, he asked what country I live in, I told him Japan, so he asked what country I was FROM, and I told him America. I realize now that the better option was to just pay and reply "gochisosama" and leave, but it was just very jarring.
I pretty much wasted the evening after that, because I was mentally braindead after the entire weekend. I cleaned up my apartment a little, but it still looks pretty bad. It's like a neverending battle.
no subject
i think we went to every store on one side of the street in the kappabashi, but didn't end up buying a single piece of kitchenware.