55 Days in Tokyo

February 24th, 2007

Unlike pretty much every other day of my vacation, today got off to an early start. I didn't fall asleep until after 3am last night but my alarm was set for 10:30am and I had to get up and be ready for the day before noon. I was meeting Athena at Ikebukuro station and we were going to take the train to Yokohama. It took me a while to get myself ready and due to some delays on the Saikyo I was a few minutes late to the meeting place. That was alright though since Athena's train was late as well. We finally met up and got onto the Shonan-Shinjuku line bound for Yokohama.

Thankfully we were both able to get seats and we chatted while the train slowly took us to Yokohama. When we arrived at the station we hopped off that line and onto another line that would take us to our first destination: the Curry Museum. The museum is on the top two floors of a building but when we finally arrived and got into the place we were disappointed at what we found. The place isn't so much a museum as it is a collection of resturants and a gift store. Wandered around the gift store for a while and made fun of some of the products. You could get cans of both Bear and Walrus curry but each can was expensive. I finally decided on two little items that will make good novelty gifts and Athena got a few items of her own. We walked around the different places but overall weren't impressed and finally decided to leave. At the exit of the Curry Museum we found this machine that looked interesting and Athena decided to put the 300 yen into it to see what it would do. My theory is that it allows you to make custom stickers using different pictures. After that debacle we headed back to the station and towards our next target.

After sending us past our destination (in Tokyo I'm okay, but outside I'm in trouble) we finally got to the Ramen Museum. This place was closer to being a museum but was still for the most part a gift store with several resturants. At least this place had some videos that explained certain aspects of making Ramen. By this point we were hungry so we headed downstairs to the resturant area. This place had some effort put into it. It looked like a small city block area with one part recessed below the other. Stopped into one place that had the fattiest and tastiest portions of pork rib I've ever had. Even though I had asked for no onion and bean sprouts they put them in anyway. Naturally I picked them out and Athena told me that the staff were watching me during this. Bah, like it bothers me. The ramen was pretty damned tasty. After that meal we got some fried dough covered with sugar. Sadly, this sounds much better than it is. It's basically just bread covered with sugar. Tasty, but nothing special. Athena wanted to try another shop and I initially thought I could just come in and have a beer but after buying my beer ticket they told me that I had to buy a bowl of noodles to come into the place. I randomly picked something and sat down. This ramen had a very distinct flavor and smell. It smelled like the sea. It was exactly as if you were walking along a pier on the ocean. The taste grows on you after a while and I enjoyed it, even if I was full.

We walked around the museum for a little while before heading out. Athena wanted to get to a Lawson's to try and order tickets for the Ghibli museum for next Thursday. We found one and the manager actually came out to help her place the order for the tickets online. The tickets were purchased and we had our plans for next Thursday. By this time it was dark outside and the wind was blowing hard and cold just as it had throughout the day only now there was no sunlight to warm up anything. Got back to the station and headed back towards Tokyo. Athena suggested we hit up Akihabara and thus we headed towards our destination.

When we got to Akihabara our first stop was Gamers. The place is interesting enough and is a bit of a Mecca for anime fans. Wandered through some of the floors and lamented the tendancy for walking through the floors and suddenly finding yourself in the porn section. See, I knew it happened to other people. We left Gamers and headed towards Super Potato, a retro gaming store. Athena wanted to get a few gifts and I always like being in the potato. Didn't find anything I wanted this time though. Also walked down the street and visited Animate and Don Quixote so Athena could get a bunch of Dr Pepper bottles.

It was a little past 9pm at this point and most of the stores had closed. Only things left open were the arcades, porn stores and a few resturants. I suggested we get something to eat and decided on Denny's. Had to wait for a while before we could get a seat and after we finally got to sit down we chatted and got some dinner. Drank far more coke than I usually do. It got close to 11pm and we needed to get to the train station so Athena could get onto a train for home. We hopped onto the Yamanote and when we arrived at Ueno she got off the train and we said our goodbyes for the day. I continued on the Yamanote to Sugamo and walked the last 30 minutes home. The winds were such that I had to get out my hood and put it on my head lest I be frozen by the time I got home. Stopped into the grocery store to get some more water before finally getting home. Relaxed and read a few things online. Also played some poker but towards the end I was fading fast and fell asleep shortly after 3am.

Photos for February 24th, 2007