55 Days in Tokyo

January 29th, 2007

Had a poor night of sleeping due to those damned cats. They were really at it last night making more noise than I've ever heard before. I think I finally realized what makes my sleeping so poor and difficult. The sun rises at 5am and one entire wall of my room is made up of sliding doors with paper at the main cover. This lets in a huge amount of light and is probably what wakes me up in the morning. I decided to go out and try to find some eye covers that many travelers have and see if it would help any.

Got off to a late start after talking to my girlfriend online. Took my shower but then returned to my bed to nap for an hour. Finally got up and cooked some chicken and made my cream sauce before doing some writing and heading out. Due to the amount of money I spent the day before I wanted it to be a somewhat less expensive day to even things out. I started walking down the street to find Otsuka station, a station on the Yamanote line that also is supposed to have an ATM that can be used with foreign cards. This would be nice to confirm since at some point I will have to get money from my account. Wandered around for a while until I finally figured out where the station was and headed towards it. Unfortunately, having the address of the place was no help as no one around me knew where it was (Japan's street address system is somewhat insane) so I gave up and just took the train to Akihabara.

Wandered around for a while, taking my time to go through a few more of the stores and see what was available for purchase. Around 7pm I finally got hungry enough to go eat some Ramen and then hit the arcades. On my way down to one of the arcades I passed a large line that was forming for some damned thing. I think it was either Vista or the new version of Office. Stopped in at a Don Quixote and found some eye covers to wear to bed. Played my Gundam pod game and reinforced my perception that I utterly suck at the game. Tried out the new Afterburner game at HEY since they're in the midst of doing some kind of special where all the more expensive games are only 100 yen for this week. The game was alright but nothing overly special. Finally started to get tired close to 10pm and took the train back to Otsuka for another shot to find the ATM and to see if it was a quicker walk home than Sugamo. Didn't find the ATM and somehow managed to wander down one small street too many until I was completely unsure of where I was. Eventually, although I've no idea how, I found myself directly at Itabashi station. Very confusing.

Got home and, after wandering through the internet for an hour or two, put on my eye cover and fell asleep.

Photos for January 29th, 2007