I left the office and decided to check out the Sunkus to see what they offer that might be different from 7-11. It turns out they have a few things that are different. I found Pepsi Blue Hawaii, which tastes like pineapple and lemon. Not the best combination in my opinion, but I promised my brother I would be on the lookout for things like it and try them.
I wandered around near the Sakura house office for a while, saw a VW dealer and found a few record shops, but saw that they didn't open until the afternoon. So I figured I'd wander around some more to kill time until they opened. I headed back towards the train station. I made a few turns and ended up in another outdoor shopping area. I was most surprised to find a sewing machine store. I didn't realize dedicated stores for sewing machines still existed, but I guess they do. I also came across, what might be one of my favorite parts of being in Tokyo, an all way crossing. All the traffic lights for cars turn red and pedestrians can just go where ever they want in the intersection, across, diagonal, you name it.
I found a bunch of movie theaters and restaurants. I even found some "soaplands". Then I stumbled upon what looked to be an ice carving competition. I stood around for a while to see what was going on, but nothing was too clear. There were tables set up all around this raised platform area. There were also people wearing numbers milling about. I saw a cute blond girl also wandering around taking pictures of the tables, so I asked her if she spoke English. It turns out she was Canadian, on her way back to school in Australia. She was killing time on a long lay over. She figured it looked like an ice sculpting competition. We chatted a bit about exchanging money and I told her what I could. In retrospect I should have talked to her longer or offered to take her to lunch if she was short on cash, but I didn't.
I decided that since I had nothing at all better to do, I would stick around and see what happened with the competition. I found a spot in the shade and waited. Workers began unloading blocks of ice from a truck. I watched this proceed for a bit and then realized that there were at least 100 competitors and it was going to take a while. I walked around a bit more. I went to a 7-11 to check to see if my debit card would work at the ATM there.
After learning that I would be able to get money out for the next two months, I headed back to the competition, which was now much closer to beginning. I'd like to take this time to comment about McDonalds in Tokyo. If people think there are too many Starbucks too close together in the US, they should check out McDonalds here. Within half a block of each other there are 24/7 McDonalds. I mean they're everywhere. I also found a Burger King and a Wendy's today. I had already seen several KFCs. Now if only I could find a Taco Bell...
The competition began with a whistle. Only half the competitors started (the half whose ice was in the sun). I watched them work and took a ton of pictures. I only stayed until the first set of carvers were done. They had worked for about an hour or so and by that time the record stores had opened.
I stopped at Mos Burger to see what they served and ended up with a Teriyaki burger. It was decent, but I'll probably try something else next time. This pickle guy seems to be their mascot. In the store, there were ads with this guy putting himself onto sandwiches, which seems a little odd really, but he is a pickle.I checked out the record shops looking for any Naiad I could find. I didn't find any, but I did find some pretty cool record shops. Disk Union was probably the best, but the Tower was actually pretty good as well. Disk Union took up 8 floors and Tower was about 4 floors. But the floors that Tower was on were a lot bigger. It's deceiving here when you see a multiple floor store because you don't really know how big those floors are. I've also had to get used to going to a store on a random floor in a building. You have to pay attention to the signs outside, otherwise you'd never know a store existed.
I walked through Shinjuku some more. I passed a lot of high end stores and some really nice areas. I found an area map on the street and figured from it that I wasn't too far from Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. I headed over and paid my 200 yen admission fee and went in.
I had been trying to go to the gardens closer to my apartment, but they were always closed by the time I got there, so I was glad for the opportunity to check out these gardens. I have a lot of pictures of the gardens, but it was very similar to some parks I had been to in Germany. In Potsdam and Munich there are public parks right in the city where people head to lay out or have some open space to play sports. I love Fairmount park and all, but I don't think we have many comparable places in Philadelphia, maybe Lemon Hill or somewhere near the Mann, maybe.
I hung around the park for an hour or so taking photos and enjoying the sights. I did notice one thing that has been bothering me a bit about Tokyo so far. While there are crows, or ravens (I don't know) I haven't seen any type of ground animals. I guess I haven't seen any rodents of any type, but the lack of squirrels just seems weird to me.
Back in Komagome, I decided to check out a few shops I had seen but not gone into. I went into the international food store. I found Skippy peanut butter and a few friends from home (Hershey's bars, Snyder's of Hanover snacks, and Campbell's soup). There were a few other things, like I now know where to buy taco mix and cherry Coke. Of course the items in this store were a bit more expensive than a regular store, so I only got a few things. Then I went to the regular store. I also passed the bike shop and saw that I could get a single speed for somewhere between $200-300. I don't think I can drop that much on a bike here, so hopefully I can get some help finding a used bike from people in the lab.
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