So, I never got around to explaining sumo, but that ship has sailed. It was a very interesting experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone who gets a chance to go. I also haven’t gotten around to talking about the rest of my weekend.
After sumo, some of the TUJ girls did a “girls night out,” and that was fun. We went to a really nice restaurant in Harajuku called Sakura. The food was excellent. Even the cheap a la carte stuff that I ended up ordering. :) I still can’t partake of nomikai (all you can drink alcoholic beverages), and I can’t eat the huge amount of food that the courses offer, so it makes sense to just to a la carte when it’s not a special occasion. Before Sakura, we stopped at Kiddy Land, which is a really fun toy store in Harajuku. I almost bought one of these umbrellas, but I decided against it.
I took a video about some of the stuff I saw in Kiddy Land. Eventually, I may make a cute compilation, but I figured I might as well post the raw footage now.
Kiddy Land
On Sunday, I slept really late. I was feeling run down by Sunday, but I didn’t take the hint my body gave me and decided to go out to Shinjuku and visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to stop by the tourist bureau and buy the GRUTT 2007 museum pass, which gets you into 56 different museums around Tokyo for 2,000 yen. Some of the tickets are just discounts, but each museum costs anywhere from 7,000 to 1,500 yen to get into, even with student discounts, so the pass is an excellent deal. Because I slept in late, I ended up arriving at the building around twilight.
On the first floor was the information for tourists, so I purchased my museum tickets and picked up every brochure I could find in English about Tokyo and Japan in general. Now I have to sift through all of them! There is so much to do here!
After that, I went up to the observation deck, but by then, it was dark. So, I have some video footage of the view out of the windows, but it’s not stellar, because there is a lot of glare. What surprised me was the nice lounge up there. I plan to go back with some friends. A cocktail was 1,200 yen, which is pricey, but not even as bad as Roppongi was. And the atmosphere is very chill and pleasant, and the view is spectacular. You can also get gelato (for 800 yen, which is a lot).
Here is a still shot out the window, before the sun had completely set.
I have a crappy video of the view, but it’s taking forever to upload, so I will post it tomorrow, along with the one from the supreme court building.
After I left the TMGB, I just walked around Shinjuku station for a while checking out book stores, etc. Here, I came across the scariest thing I have seen since moving here.
Your eyes do not deceive you… that is in fact a sub sandwich composed of noodles, pork and mayo. I don’t understand why anyone would make and sell a chinese food sandwich, but I’m beginning to realize that you can find anything you want in sandwich form in Tokyo. It was pretty terrifying. Makes me wonder about eating anything from Shinjuku station convenience stores.
Today was the TUJ-organized tour of the Supreme Court building. I had to dress up in a suit, so I wore my pumps. I think that this is mostly what is responsible for the terrible pain I’m feeling in my side right now. The combination of a lot of walking (some of it on stone) with almost no shock absorption in my pumps has me in a lot of pain now. I had been feeling a little run down but otherwise fine until after the tour today. So, now I’ll have to take it easy again. Hopefully, the pain will go away, and this isn’t a resurgence of my earlier problems. I would have just slept the rest of the day, but I had to go to class this evening. Anyway, here are a couple photos from the Supreme Court building. It was an interesting experience, but the building itself is odd and very severe.
Outside the Supreme Court
Entrance Hall
Dome (Giant Skylight) in the Grand Bench Courtroom
Grand Bench Courtroom
So, there you have the rest of my weekend and Monday in a nutshell. I’m probably going to try to take it easy the rest of the week, although I do have to find out why the supposedly international ATMs at 7-11 won’t take either my credit or debit cards (even though the machine says it accepts cards with the plus logo). I’m going to try to go to the JP Bank (Japanese Post office) tomorrow to see if that one will work. If not, I may go talk to Citibank about opening an account here, even though that would be a tremendous pain in the butt. I also have to get to the JTB (travel agency) to see if there are any package deals for visiting Kyoto over spring break, hopefully on Weds. Anyway, I’m going to go lay down now and take it easy, because I’m feeling pretty crappy.
Ja mata!
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