Thursday (2/28)

After I got situated this morning, I walked around Shinjuku from 8am to 2pm, with almost no stopping. This trip is going to be a pretty good workout.

Since I was out so early in the morning, most places were closed. One store was about to open around 10am and a bunch of employees were standing in two rows facing each other, and they were yelling "ohayou gozaimasu" or "good morning" back and forth at one another. I'd heard that employees have a kind of pep rally before the day starts, but that was just strange.

Then I saw a Mister Donut, and had to stop in to try it out (I'd heard of them before).



I had a sandwich that was some shredded chicken and cream cheese on a croissant-like roll, a bacon quiche and some hot tea. It was really good. It was nice and warm, which was a must, since it was 6 degrees Celsius outside (42.8 F), and I'd already been walking around for 2 and a half hours.

Then I saw a huge Yodobashi camera, which is actually a general electronics store with all the different sections stacked up on different floors (there were 8 of them), and I got a cheap wrist watch and a 3-prong-to-2-prong converter so that I could plug in my laptop.

Then I kept walking around with the intent of getting thoroughly lost .. and it worked. There are areas where the streets are really narrow, and cars end up avoiding them almost entirely. These areas have lots of little shops in them. I also walked through some neighboring residential area. Occasionally there were temples right in the middle of otherwise exclusively urban surroundings. It was weird to suddenly see something like that.



Then I came back and took a LONG nap. I was so exhausted. But now, it's 5:30 and I need some dinner. So I'm going back out to the streets.

Random pictures of the streets of Shinjuku:





The residential area:





Again, I seem to just get pictures of uninteresting things. When I see something interesting I don't think about taking a picture until later, when it's too late.

Random note:
I just looked in my wallet and it seemed like there was too little money left. But then I remembered the coins I've been collecting, and there are a few 500 yen coins .. which is effectively $5 in a single coin. I need to break my habit of not using coins.