Tokyo Second Trip - Day 1

So I took a second trip to Tokyo recently (the first being some months back for TGS), and was there for more than just one day, this time. 😉 For the sake of readability and sanity (both mine and yours), it will be split up into multiple posts.

We left on Saturday night (Dec. 26th) after checking into Seminar House 2. (Yes, Seminar House 3 was closed for the break, so they made us move.) I went with my friend Taylor, who I mentioned in my previous post about Yodobashi Camera. The header pic for this post is a lovely bit of Engrish we found along the way during our night bus trip to Tokyo. Since my camera's time and date were incorrect at that point, I had to guess and put it on the 27th. Please make sure to throw your trush into the proper bin, okay? 😆

The Tokyo Metro subway system has this lovely series of PSA posters, most of which say "Please do it at home" or the like at the top of them. Basically they're to inform and remind passengers of expected manners while in the stations and on the trains. Checkout this Gizmodo article on the signs for more of them and hilarious commentary and comments. 😉 (Note: Images are now missing from that Gizmodo article, so please check them out on this blog post from copyranter.) The first time I read that article, I had tears in my eyes, I was laughing so hard. XD (Sorry for the blurry photo, my camera has a manual focus setting and it wasn't set to the right one to get this picture correctly. However, I didn't find this out until I got back to Hirakata. Ah well…)

(Edit: Here's a less blurry version of that same sign I got from Copyranter's blog post)

After we got to our hotel, we met up with Juan, another friend I met at the same time as Taylor. The two of them had been hanging out together most of the semester. He was in Tokyo as well, showing his Dad around. His dad was visiting Japan for a few weeks. We got some food at a Ramen place in Shinjuku where you pick your meal at a ticket machine. You put your money in the machine, push a button corresponding to the dish you want, and then give the ticket you get from the machine to the staff. A very efficient way to handle paying for meals and it means that the cooking and serving staff doesn't have to handle the money directly. Unfortunately, I was still somewhat tired from the night bus trip and didn't have the presence of mind to take any pictures at this point. D'oh!

Anyway, not really much of interest happened on Sunday besides that meal and a trip to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku. As well as checking out the arcades in that area. From what I recall, we headed back to the hotel and crashed, as we were again, tired from the overnight trip and the restless sleep on the bus.

If you want to see more pictures from this day, you can visit the December 27th gallery.

(Note: The above-mentioned photos are now on my Flickr gallery.)