Tokyo - Day 4 - November 3rd

Note: this post has few pictures. I think the pain of my feet was affecting my brain function.
Monday! Culture day. Everywhere we went on this day was sure to be as packed and crazy as the last few days. Coupled with the national holiday, the weather continued to be beautiful. A perfect time for sightseeing, if only we could ditch some of these crowds.

Our agenda for the day started with Ueno Park, and within it, the Tokyo National Museum. For 2 hours or so, we walked through the exhibits、upsetting serious Japanese tourists with our oblivious photo-taking in spite of the posted signage. I also spent a good deal of time trying to work out the meanings of the Japanese descriptions when the English description amounted to 'Maki-e Laquer Box' and the Japanese description trailed on for a paragraph. There were beautiful objects preserved since even the oldest periods of Japanese history, such as the Jomon (pre-400 BC), Yayoi (400 BC to 250 AD) and Kofun (250-583 AD) periods, to the most recent, Showa (1926-1989). We only managed to see the Honkan (main exhibit hall) before we needed to move on to our next destination, Akihabara.

Akihabara is known as a center for all things electronic, and also all things geeky. We met my unapologetically geeky friend Lenku there to explore the locale and hunt for imported American games. Of course, Lenku being a resident of Yokosuka naval base...he could get any of this stuff shipped to him and the healthily subsidized postage rates and bypass any and all of this...but still we hunted. We wandered by maid cafes and shops selling any manner of electronics. Eventually, we stopped in at an action-figure shop where they were trying to sell vintage (HIDEOUS) monster figures (think Godzilla done in cheap hideous pink plastic) for thousands of dollars.

I know you think I am the type of person who would in fact kid you, but I promise in this case, I kid you not.

We ended up picking out a few lower-end plastic figures that were much more attractive and making our leave without investing in a piece of Japanese monster movie history. Lenku proceeded to search for a RPG shop (think, table and dice, not electronic) and buy some mad amount of dice so he can set up his own game on base.


It was starting to get dark, as happens so frequently, so we said our goodbyes and traded our hugs and set out on our separate ways. Chris and I returned to our hostel for a regroup, then feasted that evening on Wagyuu (Kobe-style) beef yakiniku (Korean barbecue) and Korean food, and following that, delicious Baskin Robbins ice cream.

Oh, our feet also were hurting.

See also: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3