For my first full day in Japan I slept in and then sauntered downstairs to the café area to get some food. Specifically egg-rice, mmm. I filled up a bowl of rice, cracked the egg in it, stirred it real good so everything became fluffy and yellow, added soy sauce, pickles, and crunchy things, and there you have it, a simple Japanese breakfast! Of course there are lots of different Japanese breakfasts, but this would be my first one – and 2nd and 3rd, as I was there for three nights and will not say no to free food. And it’s not bad! I mean I wouldn’t got out of my way to eat it, but it was reasonably tasty. I did google the raw egg situation in Japan first to investigate if it’s totally normal to eat raw eggs, and I guess they’re rated to that higher standard by the health inspectors or whatever, so good enough for me!
After a hop in the artificial hot spring and shower I was ready for my first walk around in the daylight. It was pretty gloomy weather, cloudy, a bit drizzly, reminded me of the winter in China, where the sun never came out, just a penetrating white fog that always felt colder than it really was. Nonetheless, I had places to be – I figured I’d start a few blocks away at a famous park in the city, the Shinjuku gardens, which used to be specifically for the imperial family. Now open to the for 500 yen or about $3.50. I certainly have no qualms paying for a park as stylish as this, they do an amazing job with the plants and keeping everything very well kept an impeccably manicured. It was one of the last days of November and my timing was just a little late, I had missed most of the peak autumn foliage, rats! But there were still some maple trees, unhurried to lose their leaves, which boasted some fiery oranges and reds, stealing the show from the more lackluster surroundings.
It’s tough to not take a ton of photos in Japan!
It had stopped drizzling, so it ended up being a very enjoyable place for a stroll, beautiful landscaping with few people around. Nice. After two hours of walking plus a matcha latte stop, it was off to the train station and a very quick ride to the world’s busiest intersection, Shibuya crossing. I hopped off the train with the horde and found my way to street level, where I quickly remembered I was umbrella-less, total rookie move. The rain had picked up again and everyone, I mean everyone had one. In my luggage all I had packed was a poncho, but wearing a crumply bag over your body would be just too boorish American compared to the sharply dressed Japanese. Nobody dresses down in Tokyo. Athletic gear? I don’t think so. I felt like a bum wearing hiking pants, trail runners, and a hoody. I couldn’t possibly know, but were the locals silently judging me? The answer is yes, yes they were.
I arrived at the six-way intersection behind the crowd and watched the digital advertisements on the screen. Louis Vitton had teamed up with a famous red wig wearing Japanese contemporary artist who is somehow 93 years old and she’s still going strong! The ads were synchronized on multiple huge screens. Then the lights all turned green and started gently beeping, a soothing beeping, that slowly picked up pace as it got closer to the red light. All the pedestrians crossed through the intersection at once in all directions. Organized chaos. So many umbrellas! On the other side I was hoping to visit a particular rooftop deck for viewing, but it was closed in the rain, so I went to the next best thing, Starbucks! It had a shop right in the heart of the intersection and the 2nd floor had huge glass windows for viewing. Those were some hot seats to get! I ordered a cappuccino and looked for any place to sit, but that wasn’t happening. But I was able to fire off some shots of the intersection which looked pretty neat with the sea of umbrellas around. Although not quite as jam packed as I was expecting!
Eventually the rain slowed to barely a drizzle and I was able to walk around Shibuya. Normally I would hate being in a cold drizzle, but when you’ve got bright city lights everywhere, reflections, well-dressed people with their stylish clear umbrellas, it makes for some pretty cool street photography! So I was just kinda standing off in the distance creeping around with my telephoto lens trying to get some interesting shots. The nice thing about photography as a hobby is I can keep myself entertained very easily if I’ve got the right shooting conditions. And when the neon lights turn on in Tokyo you’ll always have great shooting conditions!
After I had gotten wet enough it was back on the the train and only a few minutes to Shinjuku. You literally never have to wait more than a few minutes for these trains, it’s marvelous. Moving this many people, especially through the major train stations, is a work of art. Shinjuku station is basically a mini-mall with a myriad of restaurants and I couldn’t help but follow my nose to a French patisserie and grab a coffee and toasty golden brown mushroom and onion toasty thing, mmm. The quality of the food at train stations, and even convenience stores is very solid!
I went back to the hotel, swapped into my PJs and was off to the spa area to relax after a solid tourist day. Naked in the hot spring with a bunch of Japanese guys. I could get used to this! I meant hitting the spa immediately after a full day of touristy escapades, not seeing all the ballsacks flopping around! Next it was up to the cafe to indulge in the free booze. I was kinda liking this capsule hotel setup. The downside was it’s not a very social place, so meeting other foreigners to hang out with was probably not going to happen, as it was 95% Japanese.
It ended up raining the whole night, so I stayed in, still annoyed by the fact I didn’t have a stupid umbrella. Although eventually I did have to make a run two blocks away to a late night ramen place for dinner, as I was not eating egg rice for dinner. Ramen just really hits the spot in a chilly rainy Tokyo evening. Fantastic. When I was leaving they offered me an umbrella, which I thought was weird because do they expect me to return it to them the next day? Keep it?! I politely declined and made the jog back to the hotel in the rain, but it would have been nice to have that umbrella! I did find out the next day that if you ask reception they’re happy to give you one, haha.
