We woke up around 7am and got our showers. The shower was nice, and even had a “gutter” just outside the tub to direct any overspill to a drain. Something I so wish our upstairs tub had! Also, the shower head was adjustable and went high enough for me so yay. One really cool thing was the mirror had a square that was permanently defogged. Really handy!
Went down for breakfast around 8am. We ate at the hotel’s buffet. Like my trip to India a decade ago (yikes, that long ago?!) it had a Western offering and a traditional Japanese offering. I had an odd mix of chocolate Danishes, little sausages, potato salad with fired onion topping, broccoli (don’t judge — it was healthy!), eggs, bacon, cold cuts, cheese, and hot tea. Michelle and Genetta had similar, though Genetta added some Japanese food like miso soup and Michelle a hard-boiled egg. The view, though! Up on the 27th floor it overlooked Tokyo Station and all of the trains coming and going as well as the harbor and, beyond the skyscrapers, the mountains beyond. Sadly no Mt. Fuji, though it would’ve probably been visible as the skies were very clear and visibility was amazing.
Went back to the room to grab Genetta’s coat and picked up a paper along the way as a souvenir (as I can’t read a word of it!) while Michelle and Genetta waited in the lobby. Took a couple of pictures of the awesome miniature trainset in the lobby then we all headed out to Tokyo Station. It wasn’t so crowded at this hour. We briefly went downstairs to Character Street — a long corridor lined by stores dedicated to various properties like Sanrio, NHK (the angry chicken nugget thingie), Detective Conan, One Piece, and even Lego. Most didn’t open until 10am, though, and as we had about 30 minutes to kill we went upstairs and started figuring out how the trains and metros of Japan worked.
We first went to a JR East ticket office and bought Shinkansen (their high-speed train) tickets to Kyoto for the next day. Originally I chose three seats on the left side of the train (ABC) but then realized “oh crap, we need the right so we’ll see Mt. Fuji!” and switched to two windows and an aisle (DEE). Whew! It was about 40,000 yen, or $200, for the three. Not bad, all things considered, for what you get. Only two-ish hours by bullet train versus nearly ten hours if we drove (which we wouldn’t, as they drive on the left and we can’t read the signs, so that’d be baaaaad). Then we went looking for a machine for the Suica card but as we wanted the “Welcome” one with pretty cherry blossoms we had to go to the JR Rail Cafe, where there were very helpful agents. We got three Suica cards (think a pre-paid card, we chose 4,000 yen for each, used for riding the metro, for instance) and two badge holders (mine had an extra pocket for holding Michelle’s). The agent told Genetta that hers looked kawaii, or cute, which made me smile. Genetta and I also bought stamp books for stamping at various stations and other neat places we encounter.
After that was done I visited Michelle briefly just outside — she’d found a wonderful bench and with the sun and pleasant breeze was living her best life — while Genetta went downstairs to Character Street. I joined her and we shopped a bit. She bought some packs with random stuff in it from one of her favorite animes (Apothecary Diaries) and I checked out a really cool fan with the famous The Great Wave washing dudes out of a boat with Godzilla scooping them up to eat. Soooo tempted! I also checked out the NHK store but they didn’t have anything I wanted, as well as the Detective Conan store. At the Sanrio store we bought Addison and Nicole some limited edition (that ended that day, in fact) keychain in a cross-stitch style after consulting with Addison via text. I then went to the Lego store where I got a 2×4 brick keychain engraved with my name in English on one side and Japanese on the other. They also had packaging for an Animal Crossing set with Celeste that was exclusive to Japan but I just couldn’t justify the luggage space and was worried the box would be crushed in transit.
Genetta and I rejoined Michelle at the outside bench and we headed back in to figure out how to get to Akihabara via the metro. It wasn’t too hard — especially after consulting a friendly (everyone here is super friendly and helpful) metro agent — used the Suica pass to gain entry to the metro area, got up to the correct platform and rode the Yamanote green line north two stops to Akihabara station. The metro was clean and really quiet as people on public transport are expected to whisper and not make much noise.
Just outside the station were several restaurant options but scones made the decision for us. We went to R. C. Arms, kind of a Japanese take on a British pub. It wasn’t bad though there was some confusion on how the ordering process went. That resolved, Genetta had the special plate (pork, some mystery meat) and iced coffee latte, Michelle had an iced tea and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam, and I had an iced tea with Hamburg stew — basically a tasty hamburger patty atop mashed potatoes and swimming in a dark brown mushroom sauce. There was something else a little chewy afoot which I didn’t care for but I isolated it.
We headed through Akihabara Electric Town, a district known for lots of electronics stores, collectible stuff, anime and cosplay good, and vintage games. There were billboards all over and more than a few maid cafes.
We walked west past all that and up a moderate hill to Kanda Shrine (Kanda Myojin), a Shinto shrine moved to its current location in 1616. What a beautiful complex of building, painted vermillion and gold with lots of neat details like dragon dogs and turtles and owls. Going through the main gate the main shrine was across a courtyard. To the left was a store that sold the shrine stamp (think a sheet of paper pre-stamped) in a neat full color fold for 500 yen (about $3.25). Genetta and I each got one and Genetta also bought a book to hold that stamp and future ones we would visit.
There was a small stable with a donkey, sadly MIA. We’d learn later, though, that it was being walked around the courtyard — Michelle saw it from her bench but Genetta and I missed it. Genetta and I paid our respects then checked out the rest of the grounds. There was a beautiful bonsai tree and an impressive fountain as well as a more secluded shrine in back.
Leaving the shrine we briefly considered getting some soft-serve before deciding against and going into 7-11 looking for Tylenol. We didn’t find any. However, we bought some bottled water and Genetta got an iced tea. A short distance from the Shinto shrine was Yushima Seido, a Confucian temple also from the 17th century. It was in stark contrast to the Shinto shrine in that it was mostly black and tucked into a more wild environment with plenty of overgrown vegetation and such. I found some free postcards for Genetta and I and we headed out. Genetta wanted to check out another part of the temple and I’m so glad she did as there was a giant bronze statue of Confucius.
Leaving the temple we headed back toward Electric Town. We passed a really cool building tucked under a rail bridge. Some of the signage was pretty wild! We stopped by Super Potato, a vintage store specializing in retro gaming spread over three tiny floors (third, fourth, and fifth). It was a bit cramped for my taste but they did have some neat stuff. I’d hoped to see some old school Ultima stuff (as that was very popular in Japan) but no luck — and I wasn’t going to spend hours looking. Genetta found a cool Katamari Damacy thing, though.
Next we headed to Animate, a four story store with lots of video game artbooks, collectibles, music, etc. Genetta spent quite a bit of time there and bought something, I bought a small envelope with a DragonQuest slime and a chest which I thought was cute. While Genetta finished up in Animate I tried to find Don Quijote, a five story store specializing in… everything nerdish. Gaming stuff, cosplay stuff, tourist tuff, you name it. I say tried to find because the entrance wasn’t super easy to find and I wandered into a Pachinko parlor first by accident. Having found Don Quijote I went up to the fifth floor where some of the cosplay stuff was, including costumes, maid uniforms, accessories, etc. I saw some Genshin Impact stuff that I thought Genetta might like as well. I navigated the narrow escalators down and out of the store and met up with Michelle. We waited for Genetta to get out of Animate then I took her to see the Genshin Impact stuff. It turns out that she wasn’t interested so we didn’t buy anything but it was still nice of her to see that fairly popular store.
We headed back to Akihabara station and took the metro south back to Tokyo Station, whereupon we found ourselves in the west entrance, an older structure with an impressive dome. Michelle and Genetta decided to eat at the Tokyo Station Cafe (North Dome). We had a bit of a wait but eventually got seated. Michelle and I ordered Wagyu beef with wasabi sauce and lettuce sandwiches which was quite excellent. They came with a bit of tangerine (which was wonderful), pear (blech), and some kind of melon. Genetta had the Omurice with tomato sauce (rice in an omelet with a tomato-based sauce on the side). Genetta ordered a teapot for herself and Michelle but Michelle didn’t care for it so I got a cup and Genetta two. It was definitely an interesting taste, a bit fruity. I also had a ginger ale. For dessert Michelle had a grape tart and I a strawberry tart and both were massive and excellent. Oh, our entrees came with an amuse bouche of a small arugula salad with some salmon tartar (pass!).
It now past dark we headed across the street hoping to find a pharmacy (for Tylenol) and failed. Turns out it was underground and we just couldn’t muster the energy. Michelle and Genetta went back to the hotel while I went to the convenience store to get another iced latte. Back at the hotel we slept a bit until almost 10p then I offloaded pictures and started blogging. Genetta and Michelle sorted through the day’s purchases then Genetta watched some anime. All the menus were in Japanese but using Google Translate we were able to just hover the camera over the screen and it superimposed the English translation on top. Sometimes I step back and realize we’re living in the future! Headed to bed around midnight after an amazing first day of getting some “chores” done — buying tickets, getting Suica passes, learning how transit works — and experiencing a range of sensory experiences from gorgeously painted temples to crowded stations to the cacophony of the gaming stores.
