Last weekend: Saturday

Saturday was not terribly exciting last weekend. We went to Asakusa and to the Asahi Sky Room and to Senso-ji temple (all stops I got to make as tour guide on my 3rd time to Asakusa). This time however we did see a guy with a monkey that he trained to do tricks. I was pretty conflicted about it because it seems like a crappy life for the monkey, but it was still entertaining.

The point of going to Asakusa was to take a boat cruise down the Sumida River to Odaiba, which is a man-made island in Tokyo Bay where a bunch of people from the lab live. Sadly we weren't able to get the boat that was fashioned to look like it was a spaceship from the future. That future boat is what people would think of or expect to see in Tokyo. We just got the regular boat and cruised on down the river. The boat went under at least a dozen bridges over the river, each of which had its own character, most of which were painted bright colors. We even went by the backside of the Tsukiji fish market.

When we got to Odaiba we had to take a monorail across to yet another island. We didn't meet up with any of our friends, but we at least got to see where they live and take the monorail that they have to take every day to leave the island to go to campus.

In Odaiba there was some type of festival going on. There are some really ridiculous buildings. I think I have some photos up of them. We wandered around and ended up getting in to a line, which we found out was a line to enter a toy store. Once inside said toy store, we basically stood in a line to snake our way through the store. It was surreal. We basically wandered around and took in the sights, which included a miniature Statue of Liberty.

We went into a mall and I bought some strange flavored Pringles at a Toys R Us. We then found the food court, where Laura and I both got Cinnabon. Steve and Matteo weren't quite as excited for the Cinnabon and got some tempura instead.

More wandering ensued and we eventually took the monorail back out of Odaiba and headed back to Akihabara. We grabbed some Becker's burger and looked for a place to get some sake, which was quickly accomplished down the street from Laura's new apartment. We had some sake, which was served in the ever popular bamboo shaped carafe and cups. I've encountered this style carafe before. It's made to look like it's just a piece of bamboo that's been cut and has a natural cap on the bottom to keep drinks in. I have no idea if it actually was bamboo or not, but it seemed more likely that it was plastic.

It was after this evening in Akihabara that I decided it would fun to walk back to my apartment using my newfound knowledge that I lived on a road that lead directly between the two places. It was raining slightly, but I had nowhere important to be.

If I hadn't walked I might never have noticed the temple I passed on the way back. Or I might not have been lucky enough to follow a completely drunk guy for a few blocks, watching him stagger and stop on the sidewalk a half dozen times, before I had to just pass him and keep going. I walked Hongo-dori the whole way home.