18 June 2009

This morning I slept in until my alarm went off at 11:30am. It felt nice to sleep in and not have to worry about doing anything during the day. I Skyped with my parents briefly, then planned out the rest of my day. I left the hotel a little after noon, and my first stop was Ginza. Ginza is located directly adjacent to the area I am staying at, so it was a short 15 minute walk. I stopped at the Tokyo International Forum to photograph the interior, but since there was a convention going on, I was limited in the areas I was able to access and photograph. Next, I did some final shopping at UniQlo, and many things were surprisingly on sale, which was a nice surprise. After Ginza, I caught two subway lines to Jimbocho, where I returned to the Nanyodo Architectural Bookstore. I took my time browsing through the vast array of books, and I ultimately decided on two more books to purchase. It is really hard to decide which books to buy since most of them cannot be purchased in the U.S., nor can they be mailed to the U.S. if purchased online. And the books that can be purchased online usually cost about double the list price, which is no good either. Oh well. Size and weight of the books also played a major role in my decisions since I am tight on space and weight with my luggage. It will be very interesting to see how well everything fits when I pack to leave.
By the time I finished shopping in Jimbocho, my skin was really sticky from the humidity. I returned to the Pearl Hotel to cool off a bit before grabbing dinner. During that time, I was able to Skype with Jenna and hear about what she had been up to recently. For dinner, I was craving tonkatsu over curry rice. I had seen a small vending machine restaurant yesterday, so I was determined to find it again for tonight’s dinner. This task turned out to be much harder than I imagined since there were numerous levels of restaurants and shops underneath Tokyo Station. During my journey to find dinner, I stumbled upon a section of shops that only sold [cute] character goods. It was the perfect section for me, but also very dangerous. I surprisingly didn’t buy anything, but I may return there later when I’m not starving for dinner. I ended up finding the place after wandering around for a good chunk of time. I ordered exactly what I was craving, and it hit the spot. Eating alone in Japan is always a bit strange to me since almost everyone eating alone is a businessman in a black suit. I must stand out immediately as a tourist! There was only one other woman in the restaurant that ate at tonight, but at least I wasn’t the only one!
Once I was ready to leave the station, I could not find the exit. It was so weird! I kept following signs, but the signs never seemed to lead to an exit. It was really confusing, and I kept going from floor to floor trying to find an exit. Eventually I found one, and it was such a relief! Geez, I must seriously be dumb! On the walk back to the hotel, I wandered around the surrounding area to see what was there. Most places were closed since it was past business hours, but I found a 7-11 to buy my evening snacks at. Once back at the hotel, I showered and worked on my travel journal until eventually going to sleep.