10 May 2009

I stayed up fairly late last night, so I decided to sleep-in a bit this morning. Don had an optional trip to Ginza planned for 10am, but Derrick, Seth, and I decided to meet there at 1pm instead. Seth is Mormon, so he went to the morning service from 9am-noon, then met us at 1pm. It was another really hot and humid day, which makes outdoor sightseeing really uncomfortable. We didn’t have a set itinerary of things to see, so we just walked along the main streets of Ginza and wandered down smaller streets that seemingly had interesting buildings too. There were a lot more modern and well-known structures in Ginza than I had previously realized, and I was able to see many buildings that I never would’ve dreamed of seeing while in Japan. It was so cool! We walked around for about four hours, and we were able to see everything that we wanted to during that time. Derrick and Seth needed to get back to the NOMYC to Skype, but I opted to stay a little while longer and explore some of the stores. I wasn’t intending to buy anything; I was merely curious to see how American stores are in Japan. I went into Uni Qlo first, since they were having a sale, then I went into H&M. H&M is one of my favorite stores in the U.S. so it was interesting to visit one while in Japan. The store façade was much more elaborate than those in the U.S., but the merchandise inside was pretty much the same. That seems to be the case with most American stores I find here. After that, I wandered around Muji then headed back before it got dark.
For dinner, Derrick, Seth, and I went to Matsuya as usual. Seth and I split the cheese hamburger set, which came with a cheese-filled hamburger, salad, miso soup, and rice for 630 yen. It was so good, and since we split the order, it was only 315 yen each! Tomorrow we have to move out of the NOMYC by 9am, since they are closed on Monday and Tuesday for reasons I am unaware of. Once back in our rooms, Seth, Derrick, and I made reservations at a Toyoko Inn in Yokohama. After visiting that area with Norio and his dad last night, we really want to explore it further. The three of us will share a two bed room, since Seth is willing to sleep on the floor. It costs 8,300 yen a night, so for two nights, that totals out to 16,600 yen, or 5,533 yen each. We are each allotted 10,000 yen for the two days, so the remaining money can be spent on food, transportation, etc. I think all three of us are really glad we’ll be able to save that much money and divert it to other areas. With 1,600 yen of my 10,000 yen, I bought the architectural guide book for Yokohama, and Derrick bought a bilingual atlas of Tokyo for when we return. We figure we can all share the books, so hopefully they will both be very helpful.
The rest of the night I spent cleaning my room. The users of the rooms are required to clean the rooms thoroughly before leaving because I don’t think anyone actually comes into the rooms to clean them before new people move it. That probably explains why they are so gross to begin with, but oh well. I also packed my smaller bag with necessities for two days of travel, along with my laundry and detergent. My large rolling luggage will be stored at the NOMYC for 300 yen per day. That is a way better deal than having to lug the huge and heavy bag around. So tomorrow should be very interesting, and I’m really excited to stay in Yokohama. I will additionally have “free” internet access there, so I think we are all looking forward to that as well.