Day 2: Wait, I'm Lost Already
I felt almost human after the deep and dreamless sleep that only 24+ hours awake can provide. However, full consciousness only arrived after a trip to the bland but nourishing breakfast buffet offered by our hotel. Rolls, rice, a bit of cereal, and hard-boiled eggs. Filling, but nothing to write home about. Except I just did.
Full and raring to go, we stepped out into a bright Tokyo morning. I proceeded to rediscover the navigational pit toilet that is Tokyo.
Streets going everywhere at all angles. A severe lack of signage. Maps with landmarks like "where the practice of goods examination began" and each oriented in a completely random direction. A word of advice for visitors: pay attention to where North is on the map you're trying to read, or you will shoot yourself in the foot.
Eventually, we succeeded in finding the Tsujiki fish market. Nothing had changed in the two years since my brother and I first wandered here. It was still just as packed, noisy, smelly, and absolutely as interesting as I remembered it. The girls were enthralled--as Laura observed, it was like "Pike Place market [in Seattle, Washington] on crack!"
After Tsujiki we walked north up to Ginza. First stop: the Sony building, crammed full of interesting electronics unavailable to folks in the US. Of note in the Sony building was the Rolly music robot, a little device that played music and "danced" to the music by rolling around and opening and closing flaps. Absolutely a useless toy, but potentially hours of fun when offered to an unsuspecting pet.
Lunch was at a local "lifestyle store", which we thought would be an interesting place to check out Japanese crafts, but turned out to be more like a Japanese Ikea. They did have a cheap and tasty cafeteria, but no meatballs.
After lunch we wandered down the main drag of Ginza. On Saturdays they close this street to traffic, placing seats and umbrellas in the middle of the road for pedestrians to sit and relax. We were confused to see people sitting in the middle of the street, but it really gave the whole district an almost European feel.
Our final shopping stop was at the Tokyo Toy Factory, a toy store in West Ginza. In terms of inventory, this place rivals an FAO Schwartz: 6 floors of toys, from video games to stuffed animals to novelties. In terms of sheer crazy stuff, however, its off the charts. Mary was completely in her element, picking up among other things a hamburger-shaped lunch box and a calculator that looks like a Hershey bar--and smells like it too. We also saw some of the strangest Lego sets I've ever seen.
After an exhaustive afternoon of shopping, I next proceeded to get us lost walking back to the hotel, overshooting the train station by almost a mile. The girls absolutely loved that. Once we had dropped off our purchases, we headed out for dinner at a recommended local Indian joint, Dhaba India.
The place sounded great on paper, but finding it sucked hard. It was tucked away in a back alley near Akihabara. Once we got out of the train station, we had absolutely no idea where to go. We couldn't even orient ourselves on the map.
So, we walked in to a nearby grocery store to ask for directions, and ended up single-handedly halted employee productivity for the night. The first clerk had no idea where the place was. He called over a second. They puzzled for a while. Then they called over a third. The third clerk seemed to have an idea, and talked to us for a while in Japanese. I think he thought Mary was Japanese--something which happened a lot for us in Japan. However, seeing how she is actually Vietnamese, this didn't really help us much. Finally, he bowed, beckoned, and went on to actually walk us there. The whole way. We got a personalized guide to Dhaba India. We were shocked and embarrassed, but without him we would never have found it.
The food at Dhaba was fairly good--read about in my review blog entry--but the service was completely terrible. We were shoved in a corner and basically ignored. I realize that we were inconvenient customers to have, but English was spoken and I didn't understand what we did wrong. For this reason, I have a hard time recommending this place to other travelers.
Full of food and exhausted from a long day of wandering, we headed back to the hotel and quickly crashed.
Full and raring to go, we stepped out into a bright Tokyo morning. I proceeded to rediscover the navigational pit toilet that is Tokyo.
 |
| And you thought I was kidding. |
 |
| What to buy, what to buy. . . |
After Tsujiki we walked north up to Ginza. First stop: the Sony building, crammed full of interesting electronics unavailable to folks in the US. Of note in the Sony building was the Rolly music robot, a little device that played music and "danced" to the music by rolling around and opening and closing flaps. Absolutely a useless toy, but potentially hours of fun when offered to an unsuspecting pet.
Lunch was at a local "lifestyle store", which we thought would be an interesting place to check out Japanese crafts, but turned out to be more like a Japanese Ikea. They did have a cheap and tasty cafeteria, but no meatballs.
After lunch we wandered down the main drag of Ginza. On Saturdays they close this street to traffic, placing seats and umbrellas in the middle of the road for pedestrians to sit and relax. We were confused to see people sitting in the middle of the street, but it really gave the whole district an almost European feel.
 |
| If you see this man playing with your Legos, call the authorities immediately. |
After an exhaustive afternoon of shopping, I next proceeded to get us lost walking back to the hotel, overshooting the train station by almost a mile. The girls absolutely loved that. Once we had dropped off our purchases, we headed out for dinner at a recommended local Indian joint, Dhaba India.
The place sounded great on paper, but finding it sucked hard. It was tucked away in a back alley near Akihabara. Once we got out of the train station, we had absolutely no idea where to go. We couldn't even orient ourselves on the map.
So, we walked in to a nearby grocery store to ask for directions, and ended up single-handedly halted employee productivity for the night. The first clerk had no idea where the place was. He called over a second. They puzzled for a while. Then they called over a third. The third clerk seemed to have an idea, and talked to us for a while in Japanese. I think he thought Mary was Japanese--something which happened a lot for us in Japan. However, seeing how she is actually Vietnamese, this didn't really help us much. Finally, he bowed, beckoned, and went on to actually walk us there. The whole way. We got a personalized guide to Dhaba India. We were shocked and embarrassed, but without him we would never have found it.
The food at Dhaba was fairly good--read about in my review blog entry--but the service was completely terrible. We were shoved in a corner and basically ignored. I realize that we were inconvenient customers to have, but English was spoken and I didn't understand what we did wrong. For this reason, I have a hard time recommending this place to other travelers.
Full of food and exhausted from a long day of wandering, we headed back to the hotel and quickly crashed.
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