Wandering

Today, I had very few plans for what I wanted to see and where I wanted to go. I set out for Ikebukuro to return some ping pong balls I had bought to teach the Italians how to play beer pong. We had played and the balls were still in good shape, so I cleaned them and returned them. I had thought that I might want to walk around Ikebukuro a bit or eat lunch there, but once I was done my errand I decided to leave.

The taste of last weekend's döner was still fresh in my mind and the weather was so much clearer today that I decided to give Harajuku another shot. I figured I'd get lunch and see if I could find some cos play people or greasers (there are legit greasers who hang out in Yoyogi park on Sundays).

So I got my döner and headed back to the park. I saw more cos play people than last weekend, but ended up walking into the wrong part of the park. I just kept walking farther into the park and was hoping that I could make a loop back to where I had entered, but alas I never made it back there. No, after entering the park, I embarked on what would be a 3 hour journey walking around Tokyo.

Further into the park, I caught sight of Takashimaya Times Square, a giant building in Shinjuku. Harajuku is just two stops south of Shinjuku, so I figured I'd start heading north again and see where it would take me. I contemplated trying to walk the whole way back to Komagome and probably would have done it if it hadn't started raining around 5 pm.

I set out from the park with a vague idea of where I was headed and set the plan to just walk towards the tall buildings of Shinjuku. The plan ended up being a good one because soon enough I was back near the Krispy Kreme in Shinjuku. Luckily for me there are area maps all over Tokyo near train stations. Once I reached Shinjuku, I reassessed the lay of the land and looked on the map for streets that might lead me home. I saw a few that looked like maybe they would work, but I wasn't sure. Instead, I just started walking towards a river that was on the map.

I wandered through parts of Shinjuku I hadn't seen yet. I saw a bunch of cool sky scrapers and Shinjuku Chuo Park (which is just Shinjuku Central Park, since chuo means central). I saw a bunch of skaters and watched a dude juggle a soccer ball while jumping rope. I was mega impressed. I continued through the park to the river and decided to follow the river since there was a path along either side of it. I followed the river for a few kilometers and checked the maps posted along side the path. I saw that the paths led to Takadanobaba, which I knew was a stop on the Yamanote line. I figured I should head there and then decide where to go.

Along the river path, there were a few public bathrooms. The men's room of one of these bathrooms had completely open urinals. I mean, people walking down the path could look right in on the urinals.

So needless to say, I totally used this urinal and enjoyed the fresh air. I wandered the path and kept going towards Takadanobaba. I relied on the area maps and my sense of direction. In Tokyo you're never too far away from some type of public transportation. A few weeks ago I was able to get the Tokyo subway map onto my iPod, so that was my back up plan. If I got utterly lost, I'd just look for a subway or train station and head back to the nearest large station. It never came to that though.

I made it all the way to Takadanobaba and was prepared to press on, but it started drizzling. I jumped on the JR line and headed home. I took the photo below from Takadanobaba. You can see the cocoon building, which I had walked right by in Shinjuku.