I awoke early (before 5 am!) but read for awhile and slept in some more. Breakfast was at McDonald's as the hotel's brunch is over $20! Since I was too late to book a morning tour, I decided to see what I could do on my own.
Thank goodness for Google Maps again. But when there is construction and renovations, its hard to go where the map tells you to. I eventually found the first station but had no idea how to use the machine to buy a ticket. Fortunately there was someone in a ticket office nearby. Unfortunately he didn't speak any English. Fortunately a lady came by who did speak English and helped me a bit. Unfortunately I still couldn't figure out the machine. Fortunately the non-English speaking man came over and completed my transaction for me.
When you are from a small place and never get the chance to use subways, it is a bit of a challenge. Eventually I was on the right side of the tracks and the train came along quickly.
My first stop was the Tokyo Tower. It was a 10 minute walk to the tower and a few minutes before I could even see it. When it finally came into view I was a happy camper. It looks a bit like the Eiffel Tower but it is painted a nice bright red. After buying a ticket, the wait for the elevator wasn't too awfully long. Due to construction/renovations? you could only go halfway up. But still, the views of the city were pretty good. Wow! 13+ million people!
There are rows of buildings with tiny stalls, some selling dried fish, fruits and vegetables, ceramics, knives, and cooking utensils. There are also many small restaurants and most of them had long lines. Some of the eateries had a sign saying "sorry, we are out of food for the day". I wasn't particularly interested in fish, even though it is fresh. I just wanted to see this famous Fish market for myself. There was an interesting shrine there which I photographed.
After that, I made my way back to Shibuya station via two subways. It was much easier coming back than getting there with some 'experience' under my belt. I was quite hungry by then and was going to eat Italian. But the Italian restaurants I saw really didn't appeal to me. I walked along and saw a picture advertising chicken and dumplings. There was a tiny little restaurant down two flights of stairs. The food was delicious and very reasonably priced. Also, it came very fast.
My afternoon agenda was to check out stationery, pens, and craft supplies at some stores I had researched before hand. Tokyu Hands was about a 10 minute walk away. Again I used Google as the streets are not straight and don't seem to follow a logical pattern (in my mind anyway).
The store is absolutely huge. I took the elevator up to the sixth floor which advertised crafts. There were three subfloors on each level, 6a, 6b and 6c, each with their own specialty. I wanted to find something interesting and useful but there really was nothing I needed. Levels 5a, 5b and 5c had journals and pens etc. The variety was absolutely unbelievable! I can't believe that many people use planners. There had to be more than 100 different kinds to choose from. Unreal! After careful consideration, I bought some brush pens and different widths. I was hoping to get some coloured ones but they didn't come in sets and they were quite pricey individually.
I had several stores on my list but only went to one more. Same thing, unbelievable variety, but nothing I had to have. By that time it was 4 PM and I wanted something sweet to eat. Yesterday I kept seeing ice cream stores everywhere. Today not. I ended up going to the top floor of some kind of mall and had some yoghurt with chocolate cookies etc. inside. The place was small, seating was at a premium, and the music was annoyingly loud and definitely not to my liking. But my feet were so sore, I sat and ate my treat, then got out of there quickly. I am astounded at the junky ugly things that are sold in these stores.
On my way back to the hotel I was able to finally find an inexpensive watch to replace the one I brought that fell apart (yet again). Back in my room I put my feet up until our group meeting for the tour I am taking.
Our guide's name is Susie and she is Japanese. There are 10 of us altogether in the group which is a nice size. She went over details of the trip then took us out to show us a few places we might need. Thank goodness she gave us her cell number as I got lost while taking a picture. Duh! That gets me into more trouble!
Supper was and a small restaurant at the top of a building. Buildings tend to be narrow and tall, with many businesses on the various floors. I ordered a chicken, vegetables and rice with soup and dessert. The soup was cold and tasted terrible. Apparently I was supposed to pour it over my bowl of rice but I didn't want to spoil the good rice, ha ha!
After supper, Susie took us over to the Shibuya station to see if we can get tickets for Mount Fuji tomorrow. My plan was to visit there on Monday but the weather will be better tomorrow... Fingers crossed.
We have to meet in the lobby at 7 AM and it is 11:30 PM now. Yikes!
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