My hostel had no open bunks for the next night, so I booked a bed at another place in Shinjuku and hit the road.
Tokyo's subway system is huge and complex, but after a steep but short learning curve it's actually very easy and efficient. There are two main groupings of lines, the city metro and a private set of trains and lines called the JR lines. The metro has a handful of independent lines that all use the same stations, but run everywhere in the city. The JR lines sometimes use the same stations but mostly felt like a whole other system with separate entrances, ticket counters and signage. I mostly used the city metro for convenience, but as the JR lines run all throughout Japan it's actually better to pre-purchase a JR pass before coming to Japan for longer stays.
Anyway, I jumped on the subway and took it to what I thought was the nearest station to my new hostel. This stop was about two miles north, and I later found out there is a stop (Akebonobashi) about two blocks from the hostel, but at least Japan is fun to walk around. I took the wrong street and went West instead of South, but got to see houses off the main road and still eventually made it.
The hostel again wouldn't let me check in until later, so I went upstairs to ask about a place to eat. Some people in the lounge (2 American guys and one German guy) were about to do the same thing so I joined and we walked south a bit toward Shinjuku. The food was good, not especially awesome, but very cheap.
They went back to Ace Inn and I kept going on into Shinjuku proper. First I wanted to visit the Meiji temple and on my way I walked down Takeshita street in a place called Harajuku - wow. The street was filled with girls dressed up in all J-Pop style clothing, floor-length pink and purple hair, 3-ft huge fuzzy and colorful boots, and some dressed up like dolls. The shops were overwhelmingly pink and purple, and filled with furry animals and little cutesy things. There were also crépe stores selling diabetes-inducing piles of ice cream, syrups, pudding and all kinds of toppings. Quite a sight!
Past Harajuku was Yoyogi Park where the Meiji temple sits. This was cool - it reminded me of Central Park in Manhattan but less intense. Right off the start of the trail to the temple was a way-out-of-the-way alternate path that looked very empty. Of course I took that one.
I really enjoyed walking down this path. My cold made me feel slightly delirious and irritable, and my nose was constantly running, so this moment of peace was very welcome. I saw lots of squirrels and big spiders, and unfortunately lots of mosquitoes.
There was a group of people somewhere close by practicing singing, or at least I think; to me it sounded like they were trying to imitate a police siren.
Eventually I made it to the temple, and coming in the back door there were very few tourists. I liked the aesthetics, even if they were touristy. There was a well where you are supposed to rinse your hands and mouth before approaching the shrine:
The shrine itself looked very empty, but in a way that makes sense. People are invited to throw money in an altar and do a small ritual involving bowing and clapping your hands twice slowly. I politely watched - I don't understand Shintoism well at all and don't want to either participate in something I don't believe in or botch up what might be sacred.
I walked back from the temple and jumped on a train for Shinjuku central. My goal here was to find the biggest skyscrapers in Tokyo and go to the top of the largest - the Metropolitan Government Building, or as I will remember it, the most intimidating government building in the world.
Admission to the top of TMGB was thankfully free. Unlike the Khalifa, you do pretty much go to the top. The view was similarly heartbreaking, but in a totally different way:
Outside of each window of the building, in 360° and for as far as you can see, was city. And not just city, big buildings. I've never seen a city like this, though Bangkok does come to mind. I was hit with an odd mix of amazement, fear and loneliness. It's incredible to think of all of these people doing all they must be doing, but you could walk for days inside the city and still never leave. Come to think of it, that's what I'm doing, and on purpose, but leave that alone for the time being!
There was a café/bar on one side, and because I wanted the view I bought a glass of sake so I could come in. The sake was actually a more rewarding experience than the view, which essentially I could have got from any of the windows. The (big) sake glass was placed in a small, shallow box, and the bartender started pouring. When he got to the top he smiled and just kept pouring (actually this looked very funny, but I stayed polite). Apparently this is Japanese custom to show you aren't getting jipped with an under-poured drink. I really like that tradition, clever, a bit fun, and very effective.
The sun started to set so I left and headed back to the hostel. When I checked in I discovered this was actually a capsule hotel in disguise. The "capsules" were simply wooden boxes with a pallet as the floor, a thin mattress on top of the pallet, and then linen. No power, no TV, no WiFi and it was always hot and a little damp. Because it is a male & female mixed "dorm" there were actual showers. More privacy, yes, but the onsen pools were admittedly very nice in comparison. But hey, for the price and location it wasn't too bad.
The rest of the night was fairly boring but nice. I took a short nap, then went out to find some food. There was a crowd of Japanese people outside a little sushi stand, so I checked it out. The crowd was because the place was closing and all the sushi was half price. Yoink! I bought a good mix and took it back to the hostel - not half bad!
After dinner I bought a couple "local brews", meaning Asahi and Sapporo, and went upstairs to be social. The guys from before were there plus a couple others, and we had a good conversation as well as green tea Kit-Kat, green tea ice cream, and chocolate-stuffed frozen waffle things (from Harajuku?). Right before bed. As Yoann would say, I am such a Fattypouf!
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