As my last day I decided to visit the centre of the city to see the imperial gardens. I got up early to ensure I traveled while the weather was still cooler, knowing that a hot day outdoors was not what I was looking for. The trip was different. A lot more business people on the trains and they were also more packed. I made it without issue, and started walking along the outside path, being passed by runners along the way.

The east garden was closed to the public. Since the Emperor’s palace or lodgings are there I would guess that is why. The exterior is very beautiful and I enjoyed looking at the wall structure and the bridges as I wandered. I visited, instead, the public gardens across the street.

The public gardens has a couple of museums on the land but I did not visit them. I wanted a day of simple walking, or at least a morning. I visited a lovely bridge which lead to a series of gates. The gates are part of the original Edo castle it seems. They were beautiful and very large. Good thick wall structure and massive doors. While I was at the gates it started raining some so I stayed under them to remain dry.

Once the rain had mostly passed I continued walking along, seeing more of the greenery and a few bloomed flowers. There were crows all over and you could hear their call constantly. I also saw a number of other people out either walking along the paths or laying in the grass. Some where having a break from work it seemed, based on the business attire and the lunch in their hands. I sat at a bench and had a long conversation with my girlfriend while enjoying the cool breeze, shade, wildlife around me and just a sense of peace. It was a lovely last day.

After lunch time I made my way back to Akihabara for a few last items that I needed as souvenirs. I even found a french bakery that I picked up a gift at. I left that gift with a note of thanks for my hosts, as they had been such lovely people and I wanted to let them both know how much I appreciated the openness in which they received me. I had a chat with Chie before I went to bed and she was apologizing to me for the late nights, which I found funny considering how many nights I was up all night on the phone chatting or unable to sleep and reading. Such a gracious woman.

I finished the last of my shopping and had another liquid vanilla ice cream at Starbucks. While I was there I picked up a wonderful gift for myself as a reminder of all the adventures. I walked around a little more before heading to the train. When I got to the subway station I realized that at some point I had lost my PASMO card, which is used to swipe through the gates of the Tokyo subway system. They have a few systems, PASMO and SUICA are the most popular. I ran back to the last couple of stops I had made but was unable to find the card. I gave up the search, not concerned about the value of the card, more the inconvenience of the ticket system, and got myself home.

At home I finished the last of my packing, grabbed some grocery store supper and ate my last meal not in an airport. I did some last clean up, called it a night and finished my last day of vacation in Japan. Tomorrow I go home. Yay? Boo? A bit of both I guess. I will be back to work on Wednesday, back to a routine I have left behind for more than two weeks. Back to dishes, and laundry, and cooking, and driving in traffic. But my family and friends await so while I will miss Tokyo and the very different world that city encompasses, I am anxious to see the people I left eleven thousand kilometers away.

Good night.

Today I spent some time relaxing and catching up on missing sleep. I also helped my girlfriend with some work so I was not out of the apartment until late. I had a ramen and gyoza supper, which was also lunch and breakfast, and then jumped on the train to the ikebukuro section, specifically Tokyu Hands for presents.

I knew exactly what I wanted to find, found what I wanted and then wandered around to Sunshine City to see what else I could get. The streets were packed with people considering it was nearly seven on a Sunday night. Certainly not typical shopping times for back home.

Also I nearly stepped on a sparrow on my way out of the ramen shop, it was just standing on the steps down and barely moved as I walked by it. Very brave little bird.

Anyway at Sunshine City I looked at a few stores, had some lovely dessert and picked up one last gift as a Christmas thing for a family member. By this point the shops were starting to close and the crowds were heading towards the station so I followed them and headed back to the apartment.

Once I got home I decided to pack all the things I did not need, leaving only a camera and clothes for the last day and my travel day home. This allows me to take full advantage of tomorrow as my last day. And I expect to make a full day of it.

After I finished packing my host family gave me a wonderful present with a card of thanks and appreciation. It was so lovely and I thanked them in both languages a number of times. They really are the sweetest people. I will definitely be giving them the best review I can when I get back. This has been a wonderful experience. Tomorrow is a bittersweet day as I will be enjoying one last foray into the city and enjoying some shopping and park time, but it will also be my last day.

There are things I miss about home, my family and friends, the matching time zone, weather that does not instantly make me uncomfortable, but this city is really wonderful and I will miss being here and on vacation when I leave.

Tomorrow, the imperial gardens, and one last shopping trip.

Today I traveled back to Akihabara with the intention of completing my souvenir shopping. I had three people left to shop for and I was going to shop until I was at zero. So I had a ramen brunch and then headed on over. This time it was an easier trip since I have a better feel for the trains and was able to avoid getting on the wrong ones, or getting out at the wrong station.

I wandered to a few new places that I had not visited the last time I was here and even wandered further into the smaller streets, finding myself almost lost a couple of times but also seeing some cute stores and homes. Even a small traditional looking building that I am not sure what it is used for.

I still struggled with gift ideas though. Hard to shop when you either cannot find what you want, or have no idea what you want. I did find a McDonald’s next door to a Burger King which I felt was a little American. The line up out the door for the McDonald’s was not though. At one point I found a lot of Pokemon Go players all hanging out. I guess it is still very popular here.

It was a really hot day, very sunny, but I really enjoyed the walk around. I visited a Starbucks for cake and ‘coffee’ which was not really coffee as much as liquid vanilla ice cream. And I visited another coffee shop later for a perrier over fruit and ice. That was delicious.

In the end I was only able to find one of the three gifts I still needed to buy, but I was successful in figuring out what I still needed to get and developed a game plan for tomorrow. So more shopping again. And back to Ikebukuro.

This post is very late, and I am sorry for that. I even questioned writing it because so little happened today. I went shopping, at Ikebukuro, which is a fairly busy shopping centre area. It boasts anime/manga and cosplay, as well as other shopping centres, and I did visit a number of places that had those things but found very little to actually buy. As an area to visit it was very pretty in some spots and very crowded and city like in others.

I started off at Sunshine City which is a four story mall similar to the malls at home. Women’s clothing on the first two levels with a few restaurants and kitchen stores mixed in, men’s clothes and general stores on the third, again with restaurants and the fourth floor was all restaurants. On the third floor was a restaurant call “Restaurant Bambi” which seemed to serve fish.

I also found a Disney store and a store dedicated to Studio Ghibli. Along with some very recognizable brands like Eddy Bower and Columbia. I also saw a Subway restaurant. Also connected to the mall was a exhibition centre which is used to play newly released movies all day. Most of the ones being played today were Anime titles, and while I may have recognized them obviously the language barrier stopped me from getting in line.

After browsing through the mall and finding nothing souvenir like I went outside and found a little hill village along the side of the building. It was very cute and I sat along it and finished my breakfast. It was very windy and I nearly lost my food a few times.

I then visited some of the anime/manga and cosplay stores. There again was nothing really that jumped out at me for souvenirs. I picked up a book at one spot and saw a lot of wigs and other costume pieces in one of the bigger cosplay stores.

After a while I wandered around, slightly lost, just seeing what was there. I found a few back alley restaurants and shops but nothing that piqued my interest. Finally I headed back towards the station and headed home.

Today was a quiet day. I planned to visit a large park in the centre of Tokyo but ended up on the wrong train and by the time I realized it I was a couple of stops from Shinjuku so I decided to go there.

Turns out that the time I arrived was before store opening time so I took a walk over to the park near the station and wandered in the park for a while before sitting down by some turtles to read my book. While I was there I met a couple from Afghanistan who were enjoying their last day before heading back home.

The area I was sitting was behind a water feature and had run off falling into a small pool filled with rocks and a few turtles. The view was wonderful and the air was cool and slightly windy so I was very relaxed and generally at peace.

Afterwards I walked back to the station and did some exploring. I found a little cafe and had a delicious lunch followed up by dessert and then headed back home. Before heading up to the apartment I stopped in the 100 yen shop (dollar store) and picked up a couple of items.

All in all a very quiet and fun day.

Today was my first trip outside of the core area of Tokyo that I am staying in. Also it was a rainy day. I passed a very pleasant hour journey on the train and I saw a lot of interesting scenery, including the museum of modern happiness, which amused me, so I guess it met the criteria. I also saw a lot of small restaurants and shops in what I consider to be traditional Japanese architecture. It was very much a scene from anime,

I arrived at the rail station and rather than take a bus, which was suggested by my GPS app I decided to walk to the museum, which turned out to be a very good idea, since it is nestled in a large forested park and I had a lovely time wandering through the trees for forty minutes. I passed a number of walkers and runners along the way and enjoyed my walk a lot.

When I arrived at the museum it was about eleven and the heat was coming back again. There were a few minor complications but the staff were incredibly helpful and generous with their time and I was able to get in and see this wonderful building.

The many exhibits in the museum are great. If you have seen any of the Ghibli films you will definitely find cells or sketches of memorable scenes. They had a bit of every movie I can think of and it was really amazing seeing the layers they used to build up the scenes, watching how the animation works, seeing the process of building the cells. All of it was fascinating. So many children running around excited and enjoying the place. It was a building filled with joy and laughter.

Around one I stopped by the cafe and decided to have lunch,. There was a bit of a line and while I was seated the woman beside me asked if she could get an English menu. Turns out she is visiting from Hong Kong with her family and we chatted for a few minutes. One of her family members even helped me with an issue I was having with my phone. After about a half hour wait I was seated and ordered my food which consisted of soup, gingerale and dessert. Afterwards there was a short movie that is only shown at the museum. I caught the movie just as it was about to show and it was rather amusing. Much laughter again.

Finally I walked back to the station and made my way back home. And I did not even get lost, so I was very proud. I spend my afternoon reading, which helped with the heat of the day and made for a good way to spend my evening as well.

Tomorrow will be souvenir shopping finally. I think.

So today I took a lovely subway ride to Ueno and visited the park. Ueno park is a very large place, holding a number of statues and buildings. I only saw about half of it while I was there. My original intention was to find a quiet place to sit with some food and read a book, but there was so much to see while I was there I never pulled my book out.

The entrance to the park is beautiful with a couple of water features, some mature trees with sitting areas and lockers for valuables if you do not want to carry them throughout the park. The way sitting areas are done in Japan is very interesting. On a flat surface, like the stone work around a tree, there are a number of evenly spaced raised dividers creating separated seats without actually making purpose built benches or seats. It blends wonderfully with the environment.

Once I climbed the stone steps into the park proper it was a total isolation from the city around me. Trees and grass areas everywhere, stone work, older buildings and apparently four museums, although only three were open. There is also a lake area with boat rental and a zoo, but I did not visit those. I took a quiet stroll visiting a shrine building, a number of statues and finally ended up at the first museum. The museum of western art.

This museum had a very long line outside of it, and was the only line I waited in all day. The entrance cost was very reasonable, and I decided to just see the fixed collection. It was definitely much smaller than the art gallery back home, and I was able to look through everything in about forty five minutes or so. A lot of the pieces were similar to European art I have seen dating between 1600 and 1900 and portrayed very Christian themes. There were also some still life and portrait paintings, but a lot fewer of those. I really enjoyed the works, and it is a fine collection to walk through. The history of the building and the collections is really fascinating as well. On my way out I stopped by the cafe for lunch and had a wonderful salad, pasta and dessert meal.

Next up was the Natural History museum. They had an exhibit room of traditional craftsmen doing work using traditional tools. One man was hand carving wood plaques, another was making copper cups, and a third was doing wood block prints. There were a bunch of other stations as well but about half were not occupied at the time I was there. The rest of the exhibits were similar to what I have seen at other museums like this one, but specific to Japan, including ancient and current animal life, early man, a mineral area, and ancient tools and earthen ware.

After that I took a long walk over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum. This one is more about recent past Japan. There were some displays of Buddha statues, all of which were specified no photography, which I think is very important, katana blades, scrolls, traditional samurai armor and my favourite, long wall paintings in the Japanese style. I walked through for about two hours, looking at the many items and really enjoyed seeing everything they had displayed.

As the museum was closing down I walked back out and headed back toward the entrance along the other side of the park. There was a free outdoor festival of Japan & Pakistan peace which was currently doing an idol show so I stayed a few minutes to listen. There were also a lot of craft and food booths set up, some of which were very pretty, but it was getting late and the sun was starting to go down so I wanted to head back home.

On my way to the subway station I stopped at a sushi restaurant and ordered a combination plate of sushi. It was very good. I enjoyed it a lot. Watching the chef was amazing too. He was so fast and everything looked so wonderful as he was putting the pieces on the dishes. Such a good meal.

Finally I made it home, although I did get out at the wrong exit gate and had to cross a few streets to get home. Anyway made it in after a full day. So nice, peaceful and I highly recommend the park for anyone coming to Japan.

Tomorrow is entirely unplanned at this point. Maybe souvenir shopping, not sure yet.

Today I took a walk over to the Teamlab Borderless art installation. This is a beautiful contemporary art exhibit designed by Epson. The walk over was about an hour, each way, and on the way there it was a drizzle like rain, which was actually rather refreshing considering how hot and humid it has been since I arrived. I got to the line waiting to go in and had numerous little dots of water on my camera and phone, but nothing concerning. The line waiting to go in was very long, but it moved rather quickly and soon I was inside.

Once I got inside I was amazed at the show I was seeing. There are some amazing displays on the walls and floor, the music fills the space wonderfully without being loud, there are people everywhere and yet at times I felt almost alone with the colours, motion and sounds. The place is almost maze like with a number of different rooms, each with their own animations. I think I visited all of the rooms.

The main area is a series of rooms with random mirrored sections and a pattern that moves across the walls shifting from place to place. In one area is a series of angled platforms that make a rock like structure under a waterfall type presentation. It was beautiful watching the patterns shift and flow.

There are three second floor regions. The athletic area, which is really designed for children with more running and bouncing activities present. Also in that area is a tea house. The tea was wonderful, I had a chamomile green tea latte, and the presentation was really neat. They place your bowl under a projector lens and it displays a vivid pattern on your tea. When you pick up your tea to drink that pattern reacts and animates away from your tea until you put it down again.

The second area is a lantern area, with mirrored floor and walls. The reflections are intense and it feels like you are in an infinite area of lanterns, above and below you as far as you can see. This area was a line up of about an hour, and it is limited in viewing time because of the line. I still got some great pictures.

The last upstairs area was a nest. Again there was a line of about an hour. When you climb inside the nest you are actually on a netted floor above mirrors again. You are expected to lay down, as it give you the best viewing angle. There was a lot of animated creatures and spiral patterns, almost lifelike across the walls and ceiling. Also this was a timed viewing. You arrive at the start of the patterns and leave when they finish. Some of the fun was just watching people climb along the netting in and out.

My favourite place was a room with a few beanbags in the centre and a rotating series of waves that moved around the room, It was a very calming room and I even saw one person asleep on one of the bean bags. I returned to that room a number of times.

Other than the lantern room I think the most impressive for me was the LED light room. The lights could be controlled by an app on your phone to create different preset feels. Rain, fire, earth, moon, sun, and a bunch of others. I did not bother to download the app since there were so many people in the room anyway. Again mirrored floor and walls, and the effects were incredible. Especially the rain effect.

After visiting for a number of hours I walked across the walkway and had Wendy’s for lunch/supper. It was just after four. I ordered a very typical american meal of double burger with cheese and a pop. The food was messy but very good, tasting slightly better than back home and definitely better presented. I would have liked to try a local specialty but the lines were long and I had a hard time figuring out what they were without asking a lot of questions. Then I had my hour walk back home. All in all a very good day.

Tomorrow will be Ueno park, the museum and maybe the Zoo.

So for those who do not know Akihabara was originally the tech centre for Tokyo. It was where you went for gadgets, electronics and general maker type project pieces. And that element still exists, but the majority of the space is now dedicated to the ‘otaku’ fandom space. Anime, manga and video games. I went there for souvenir shopping, and just to see how crazy the collector market can get. And it can get crazy.

So I start my day off taking the subway without direction for the first time. And I did it. Score one for me being able to look at pictures on a map and plot a route. Actually the subway was wonderful. Full phone reception underground, clean trains, clear loading/unloading zones for doors. Very well organized. Any way I popped out a block away and walked into a book store. It was really interesting and set the stage for almost every store I would visit all day. The building was very small, about the size of a god sized coffee shop, but it help nine floors the same size, each one filled with books. I walked through the levels and each level was dedicated to a different type of book. They had half a floor just for trains, with books, gifts, and collectibles. There was a section of books for women. I assume that actually, not being able to read Japanese, by the barbie like pink air that I walked through. Maybe it was a section for adult men, but I doubt it. There were sections for computer skills books, learning languages. Everything you would expect to see in a chapters, except each section was a floor instead of just a few shelves with a text label above. I did not buy any books.

Next I visited a Starbucks for a delicious, if unhealthy breakfast of chiffon cake and liquid ice cream called the Vanilla Cream Frapachino. While eating I had a chance to chat online a little, which was nice. My day was very pleasant, and the breakfast of champions was a good start.

After coffee, I had the most amazing video call with my girlfriend. I probably kept her from her work for way too long, but it was important. Also she was as bad as me for hanging up, so I am not completely to blame. We finally stopped chatting when I was told I was not supposed to be where I was. But I did get a chance to show her around what I was seeing myself, for a few minutes before the crowds made it impossible to chat and walk.

I headed over to where the crowds were thickest and ended up in a ten story collectible building. Each floor was one or more shop(s) dedicated to a certain type of collectible. There were figurines, trading cards, board games and RPGs, video games, craft stuff. Dolls. The dolls were a bit much. So I had to take a few pictures. Once I got to the top I headed back down for my next adventure.

I entered a lot of different buildings, some small, some bigger. A lot of repeat after a while. Video games, mostly new but I did find a retro video game store. I had thought about buying am old console but they wanted over $600 for it and I would not want to spend that much. Lots of collectible cards and figurines. The other thing that was there, which I did not look at was pachinko machines. These are a form of gambling in Japan, where you buy a bucket of metal ball bearings and run them through a slot machine like thing which either keeps them or gives them back, sometimes with more. At the end you have a bunch left over, maybe more, maybe less and you can trade them in for stuff. I have watched a video that explains it better, but since I do not enjoy gambling I did not partake. Lots of lights and noise though and certainly a lot of people.

They also have a few toy stores that have the turn style capsule toys. This was a thing when I was a child but I have not really seen them back home in a long while, and they were always targeted at under eight I would say. The ones here are targeted at people. All people. I saw kids and adults alike in the stores, different ages, both genders. My guess is due to a lack of space, and the kinder egg like nature of some of the toys inside the capsules, people like to use them as decorations for offices and homes without buying large ornate home decor items. Again this was not something I partook in myself. It was fascinating though.

Also fascinating was the amount of foreigners. There were times when I thought the tourist population exceeded the local population. I am sure that was never true, I just noticed them more, but it was definitely a greater number than I have seen so far. It was also interesting to hear bits of conversations that were not in Japanese. I definitely heard Spanish, English and German. I may have heard other languages but I was not sensitive enough to it to recognize them.

After a number of hours walking in and out of shops I decided to get some food and head home. I went to a place that seemed to advertise sushi according to the map in the lobby, but was actually a french bakery. So I stayed for dessert instead. Nutritious meal number two. I had a lemonade that I was sure was alcoholic but turned out to just contained fermented additives so it had an alcoholic taste without it being alcoholic. And I had a shaved strawberry ice thing. It was all super tasty, and helpful in getting my body temperature down after being in the hot all day long.

Finally I challenged myself to get back home by subway and failed. Instead of thirty minutes and three trains I hoped a wrong line and it took me just over an hour and five trains. I was also nearly asleep on the last train, it was half the journey at least. When I entered the first station it was light out. When I finally emerged from the last station it was night. I felt like the subway station had stolen an entire day from me, transported me through time to this dark and tired place. So I went home (half a block from the station) and slept. The sleep was nice. After a few hours I woke up, bought yogurt and a drink and now this. Overall a very good day. I spent most of the money today on sugared goodness but I had fun.

Tomorrow I will be visiting a contemporary art exhibit. I am really looking forward to it. Until tomorrow.

So today was a day off for me. The amount of sun I got on Friday was so bad that I feared aggravating by going outdoors for any length of time. I got up and out relatively early to have breakfast. Picked up some onigiri at the 7-eleven a few buildings down and saw in a park eating and enjoying the morning breeze. As a lovely Saturday morning I saw several fathers out with children playing in the park. One was playing catch with his daughter, another was teaching his daughter to ride a bike. Others watched as sons and daughters climbed on the gym sets. It made me miss the younger park days with my own daughters. After a couple of hours watching people, taking pictures of pigeons and enjoying a cooler morning I headed back and did some reading.

I was reading a book lent to me called Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. Very enjoyable read. He looks at the issues of getting old, how the main character perceives age. Also he has a very different view of interstellar war with alien races that I have never read in any other title. I do not want to spoil anything because I definitely recommend reading the book, but the idea that each alien race is motivated by different things, and fights in a different way, not understood by us is something that is unusual in the Science Fiction writing that I have read.

After reading for a while I slept, still dealing with the sun and temperature change I think. I woke up, read some more and then decided dinner was in order. I went across the street to a wonderful ramen place and had pork belly ramen. Very tasty. The restaurant people were very helpful with my lack of understanding. Also the system was very neat. There is an order and pay system beside the door. You order your food, pay for your food and get a ticket. The ticket is handed off to the staff, you take a seat and wait for food. There are glasses and pitchers of ice water all over so you can serve yourself water. Something I wish all restaurants back home did. The food was excellent, the staff friendly and when you are done you just walk out and they say goodbye. It was a lovely dining experience, even solo.

Afterwards I took a walk around the neighborhood, enjoying the night sky. I confirmed that the moon looks the same in Tokyo as it does back home, which was cool. I saw a couple of dining boats on the water, serving dinner and a show. I saw people walking dogs and I saw drink vending machines everywhere. Nearly every corner. Also convenience stores are all over. There are four on the next block from me, two on each side. I believe that is because no one has a fridge large enough to hold more than two days worth of meals. On that note the apartment I am staying in is wonderful. I have mentioned previously that it is not big, but to give you an idea of how small there is a bulk head between the main section and the entrance/bathroom. If I do not duck I take my head out on it. The hallway would not fit two of me side by side. The bed I am sleeping on is a slightly large single. A little wider and longer, and there is about three feet between it and the door and the same to the closet at the end. It is in the corner.

Well off on another adventure tomorrow. I think Akihabara.