Busy ass day (Ginza, Shinjuku, Roppongi Hills, Omiya)

Like I said in my previous entry, I had to get up early because he had work. I ended up waking up at 6:30am. We got ready and started to head to Yurakucho Station. From there me and AHda parted ways. He told me to go walk around Ginza, it's one of the biggest shopping districts in Tokyo. The problem was it was 7:30am. Nothing opened till 11am because it was a Saturday. So imagine how bored I was. I walked up and down all the streets. I bought breakfast at a FamilyMart, which consisted of rice balls and some Japanese chips. I walked over to Hibiya Park to enjoy it. But it was HOT. I saw another film crew making a commercial. It wasn't that large scale so I couldn't figure out which brand it was. I know it was for orange juice since they had so many bottles around. The star was a little boy, so I don't think he was that famous. I even took a nap at the park because my feet were killing me and I didn't get much sleep.

When I woke up I got an e-mail on my cell phone from MiTa informing me that one of my friends was going to be in Tokyo and that I should meet up with her if I had time. Since I didn't have anything to do till 7pm, I decided to give her a call. We discussed that we would meet at Shinjyuku station at 1:30pm, which was still a few hours away. But after I finished my nap, I headed over there. I spend about 1.5 hours just walking around the station to kill time. I asked the information lady a few times for a few different things because I had nothing else to do. All she did was give me different maps.

at 1:30pm we met and walked around Shinjyuku. We were looking for a place to eat, but we could never agree to anything. So we stopped at a Lotteria, which is a Japanese version of McDonalds. Just as we were walking in, a lady around us said "dorobou" which means Thief. That was the first time I heard about a crime in Japan. Shinjyuku is actually known for it's non-safe environment, so it shouldn't come as a surprise. My friend CFri was kinda shaken up because that was her first experience too. The power went out at the Lotteria too. We walked around Shinjyuku more and then we both got bored and didn't know what to do. I asked her if she had been to Roppongi Hills, and she said no, so that's where we went.

Roppongi Hills is a brand new Tower in the city of Roppongi. It has quickly gained fame because the area is known for the people being rich. The building itself looks big from the outside, but walking around inside wasn't that big. They only allowed us to go up to 6 floors, but the design was so weird that it didn't seem like it had much to offer. I'm not sure what the other floors above the 6th floor were, but it looked pretty important since there was a lot of security.
We went outside to TV Asahi and in the building there was games and shops. Me and CFri played a game and won back to back, they gave us battery powered personal fans that say TV Asahi on them. It was cool. Then we went back to Shinjyuku and parted ways at Tokyo Station.

From there I went to Ueno station to switch lines to get to Omiya.
When I got there I was welcomed by my friend CNto and her entourage of friends. At this time I was about to die because I was exhausted. But seeing my friend and her friends made me feel really good. They are all nice people and we went to a bar type of place to eat dinner and drink. At first I didn't drink, but I did later because it helps me understand Japanese better. They were fascinating. There was a guy who was a computer systems engineer, another who loved computers..apple. Another comedian type, then the girls. They seemed nice but were kinda in their own world.

I had to rely on a friend to translate for me, which I really hate. I know they start to hate it too. I need to study more, but don't really have the time to. It makes it difficult, but we are all still able to communicate. Its kinda weird since their English should be perfect. They have all studied English since Junior High School, but everyone has so much trouble. They don't even speak a word of it. It's worse than my Japanese. They seem good, so I will make friends with them. It never hits me that I won't see some of my friends anymore. I will miss CNto when she's gone. She's always a great person to talk to. She understands me and we joke a lot. She always hopes that I have a good life in Japan. She's always so helpful too. I told her that night that when She went to my Farewell party, I felt REALLY special. Well because she's not the social type, by that I mean parties and such. Yeah, it's still weird that I'm in Japan. I hope to make friends still, so I will steal CNto's friends from her. I would really like to get to know a few of them better. Some of them are weird though, but anyone will do now.

I jumped on the train at 9:30pm and didn't get back to my station till 12am. Then I had to walk home which was another 32 minutes. It was such a weird feeling as I was walking home. I really missed being at my house, but the one in Yokohama, not in San Diego. I mean I should have missed being in San Diego, but I haven't yet. I just miss the weather. Anyways, I got home and ate some bread and slept.

Finishing up the day

After I cleaned up a bit around my apartment, I headed off for Ueno Station. I took the Tokaido line from Totsuka to Tokyo, then switched to the Yamanote line to get to Ueno. I thought that I left a little late, but I got there right on time. I was surprised. I found AHda, he looked much skinnier from the last time I saw him which was about 1.5 years ago. He was all dressed up because he just got off of work. So we headed to the red light district of the Ueno area because he had heard that there was a good restaurant there. He couldn't find it so we just settled into any place, he was starving. I had what I thought was Chicken katsu-don. It was pretty good. The restaurant was kinda interesting. You had to order and pay before you sat down. I don't think I've ever ran into that in Japan except for maybe McDonalds.

Then after dinner we went to go play pool. Sometimes the people in the red light district are so annoying. They always come up to you and ask if you want a massage, or want to have a drink with someone. I think its funny sometimes, but this time, the hookers on the street were saying that. There are a grip of business guys in the area, so obviously business is booming. It's kinda weird, but at least one of them was helpful. We couldn't find a pool hall, but one of the people told us where it was, even though at first we thought he was lying to us. Once we went in, they put us on a waiting list. We were the 4th name on the list. Which would probably take a few hours, and it did.

Meanwhile, we walked around a little and he took me to Ueno park. It's a very famous park and they were getting ready for a festival the next day. It was nice at night, kinda. It was very dark and creepy, but there was this big lake in the middle with plants growing all over. There were a lot of homeless people living there too. He told me something that I never knew and it might be dangerous to be putting on my xanga. But I noticed something about vendors with the booths at the festivals have an amazing similarity and certain traits which would lead me to believe that they are part of an "organization" that is quite famous in Japan. The story AHda told me made sense and had logic behind it, so I'm convinced.

After that we went to have drinks at a bar/ cafe next to the pool hall. We played 6 games of 9-ball in a span of one hour. I won 4 games and lost 2. The 2 that I lost was because I made the mistake at the wrong time. I could have swept him, I was playing incredibly good that night. So good that we were both surprised. I was making super amazing shots, of course out of luck. But a win is a win.After that we needed to rush to the train station to get to his house before the last train left.

We made it on time. He lived by the Yurakucho Line, kind of near Odaiba. Which is made on artificial land, built on top of an old landfill...sounds spendid doesn't it? The area looked great, with all the developments and such, but the smell wasn't that good. His apartment was messy, but what should I expect from two brothers. We watched some TV and drank a little before he went to sleep. TV was interesting because the shows that were on. He had an Indian opera channel, and there was another program in Japanese spoken and hosted by foreigners. That's really rare in this country so I was surprised, since no one on the show was Japanese. I couldn't sleep until 5am because it was SOOOO DAMN HOT! It was bad because he had work the next day and needed to leave the house by 7:10am.