Today we were lucky enough to have two great Japanese hosts give us a personalized tour of the city. The first was Yuko, who is a family friend of the Plaut's, and Aki, who is a 3M co-worker and friend of Yuko. It was so great not to have to consult a map all day.
We wandered around the Ginza shopping district again, where David was able to spend some time in the Apple Store. It was pretty much the same as the US store (staff attire, Genius Bar and everything), just bigger. Six floors of Mac computers, iPods and accessories!
Here's a shot of one of the main intersections in Ginza:
We headed to the fish market area, which was pretty quiet for a Sunday afternoon (most of the action happens at 5am), and had lunch at one of those conveyor belt sushi places:
David's favorite part (other than trying sea urchin for the first time), was that not only could you tell the price by what color plate the sushi was on:
But each plate had a little RF ID tag on the bottom. So the waitresses didn't even have to see the plates, they just came by with a little scanner - beep beep - and our bill was tallied. Viola!
Aki, Yuko and David bought some oysters to slurp down at a nearby fish stall. They were huge! $10 for 3, a pretty good deal for the size:
On the way out, we hit a BIC store (an electronics mega-store - apparently Michael Jackson shops there when he is in town. Tom Hanks, too, but we heard about Michael more) and found my Sony camera I wanted for the same price! It's a Sony HX1, and has some sweet features you'll see in the coming days.
We then took the train up to the Asakusa Shrine, where the Sanja Matsuri Festival was in full swing. "Over 100 Miko-shi (portable shrines) march in procession through the streets of the Asakusa district." Note how some of the people are enjoying it a bit more than others.
The people wear a distinctive style of clothing, most apparent of which is the distinct lack of pants for the men:
It's also a great place to buy souviners, and apparently it's always this crowded even when there's no festival going on:
Dinner consisted of some great sake and fresh udon noodles. Our hosts were fantastic!
The Roppongi Hills neighborhood was the last stop for the day, where there is another tall building with a great observation deck. Remember the Tokyo Tower from yesterday? Here's what it looks like at night:
Here's a picture fo the city using my older camera:
And here's one using my new camera:
I love it already. Tomorrow, work. And Harajuku Girls.
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