55 Days in Tokyo

January 31st, 2007

Had another excellent night of sleep. I think that the eye cover is really what's doing it. The only problem is that when I finally wake up I'm still tired. Maybe my body is finally getting the rest it needs instead of being in deprivation mode all the time and is trying to catch up. Spoke online with my girlfriend before settling back down and taking another hour long nap. Dragged myself out of bed to my shower and to cook my last little bit of chicken before heading out for the day. I didn't really know where I was going so I started wandering towards Otsuka to get onto the Yamanote. By the time I got there I had decided to go back to Ueno and wander around there some more.

I got to the park with about 40 minutes of real sunlight left and walked around for a little bit before getting to the other side of the park (the side opposite the train tracks). Found a map that said there was a massive cemetary nearby where the shrine to one of the Tokugawa was and I figured that might be kind of interesting. By the time I finally found the cemetary it was almost dark but I went into it anyways and started walking around. Place was kinda eerie in the dark but that feeling went away pretty quickly.

The place was very nice to walk through, a place of almost complete calm in a city that only has such calm in hidden away corners. One of the oddest things I found there was the large number of cats that were just wandering about or sleeping on someone's burial stone. None of the cats were willing to approach me since they were likely feral. Either that or I didn't have food so they weren't interested. I saw a few other people walking through the park but for the most part it was just me. Finally found my way out of the cemetary through this walkway that went over a large set of train tracks. I just sorta of stood on the walkway and looked at the trains coming and going for close to twenty minutes before finally going to the other side.

My wandering had taken me all the way back to Nippori station so I started the long walk back to Ueno. Mostly passed a few shops and several love hotels before walking down what I think was Motocycle row. Saw many motorcycle dealerships selling all kinds of bikes, from harleys to vespa-looking hondas. Took me about 40 minutes but I finally got back into Ueno. I wandered around for a little while before heading down towards Akihabara. After I finally got back to Akiba I went towards one of the large skyscrapers to get a bite to eat. I had remembered seeing a resturant that offered a gorganzola topped pizza that was pretty affordable so I went to the place which was called "American Diner Bar and Grill". True to form, some of the booths were setup like an old diner and they constantly played nothing but oldies. My pizza was pretty tasty and my seat gave me a nice little view down towards the main street of Akihabara.

After I finished my meal I headed down towards the main strip and went into an arcade to try out the Gundam card game. Watched some people playing to get a better idea of how to play and when enough seats were open (I wasn't going to try to play when lots of people could see me struggle) I sat down and started playing. The tutorial was actually pretty decent and gave me a pretty good idea of how to play. Still clumsy when it comes to controlling my characters but I can probably figure out how to play this game. My primary annoyance with the game is that after each round the machine gives you what is essentially a booster pack with a single card in it. However, this card can be for the other side and my first card was for the EFSF (Sieg Zeon?) which meant it was worthless. Some arcades I've found have had a little box where people could put useless cards and sometimes find a card that they wanted but this place didn't have that. Oh well. We shall see.

After I played my game I wandered around for a while, playing a few other games before finally leaving shortly after 10pm. I started walking back towards Ueno and stopped off at a small coffee shop to get some tea and cake. I sat there for the better part of an half hour before finally continuing on my walk to Ueno. Got to the train station and took the train to Sugemo. Found a grocery store next to the station and got something to drink and one of those little squeeze box drinks with an entire day's worth of vitamins. Made the long walk back home and fell asleep not too long after.

Photos for January 31st, 2007