Gather ’round, boys and girls and let me tell you a story.

It sounds a lot like stories I’ve told before, involving new shoes, and poor decisions, and the incontrovertible pull of the aging process.

Actually, that’s all you need to know.

Anyhoo, had a lovely day today at Mt Takao. Its 90 minutes from my hostel and with the partly cloudy conditions it was a great day for a hike.

Really it’s just uphill walking but I’m going to call it hiking to sound more athletic lol. Nonetheless I was passed by every. single. old person on the way up AND down. Allisa will appreciate that.

So I’m just having a great old time but I forget the most important thing. SNACKS.

Everyone else has brought food, drinks, camp stoves, a skillet I shit you not to make hot food. I’ve got….a can of beer from the snack bar and pringles.

At least I’m the only person drinking beer at 10 am lol. So I’ve got that going for me

An older gal called Kyoko took pity on me and shared an apple and talked about traveling the world. It was cool.

On a clearer day and with different eyes you can see Fuji

On the way down I make a terrible decision not to take the chairlift.

Friends, take the chairlift. That’s all you need to know.

I went back to town for lunch. I accidentally had some curry at a famous tourist attraction. I’m looking at pics online and I see that the street is casually called Piss Alley!!

It was way too early to head back, so I lost myself in the Shinjuku neighborhood.

So I’m walking along this street and the real estate looks more and more expensive, but the folks look like hobos. I’ve managed to find Daikanyama. The people and hotel guests are SO rich they’re rocking socks and Crocs. With panache.

Love this place!!

I went to the Shibuya scramble and walked around a little bit, but it wasn’t fun anymore so now I’m home and eating cheese.

Life is good

But it all worked out well.

I tried hard to stay in until 10 but I was up soooooo early. Jet lag or something. So I checked out Tokyo station. It’s been rebuilt and is amazing. It has a good wikipedia page.

I thought that with rain in the forecast, I should probably find a way to be inside a lot….hahahaja.

But then 10 minutes later (that is my maximum attention span) I just walked towards the palace grounds to try again to see what I could see.

So anyway I found myself on an outdoor walking tour during the rainiest time of the day, of course. Totally worth it. We saw as much of the palace complex as anyone ever does. None is in any way original of course bc WWII. Still neat.

After an adequate lunch, a museum. The museums in Japan are very moderately priced so that’s nice. It was ok.

Then I was thinking of going to this neat old shrine and park that I’d seen before, and then promptly subway’d it to the wrong station. Oops. TripAdvisor told me that there’s this free observation deck nearby and it was cool! A snack bar, and a piano, and other neat stuff.

On the way back I walked through a park and saw an old shinto shrine. It still had a semi-original wooden pagoda and priests that drive Mercedes Benzes lol.

Thus my day ended. Dinner was some random stuff from the 7-11.

Night!

It was almost 60 degrees today! So grateful for a lovely day.

Met a fellow traveler at the breakfast and we walked over to the local temple together for a short walk.

http://www.senso-ji.jp/

This is a busy, busy place. So neat to see it again. It’s one of the great things about Japan, that this place isn’t a tourist trap. It surely could be.

I totally just showed up at the thing I was gonna do today, and of course it was closed lol. So since it was only 11, I just moved on to something else. Luckily, this is a city of 28 million people….so there’s lots of something else.

I was looking for some lunch and saw these locals waiting in line for ramen. It was delicious. So worth waiting for.

The procedure for seeing a for-real, all -day kabuki theater production is kinda complicated for visitors. It’s made simpler by the theater owners selling standing room only tickets that you can only buy the same day, and you can just buy a ticket for one act of the play.

It was enough to just see a bit. Not speaking Japanese, you know, makes it a little harder to follow the plot. I’ve always wanted to do this kind of thing and it was cool, so….winning!

I walked up and down the fancy shopping street that was nearby. Let’s just say that I let my opportunity go by to purchase a $35,000 purse.

Fun, though, to see all the dressed up shoppers. So many cool clothes and handbags.

My feet hurt so I called it a day after that.

To my disbelief I watched an episode of Little House on the Prairie, dubbed in Japanese.

Goodnight lovelies

And it feels pretty good.

My hostel is in an alley, off an alley, off an alley.

Anyway, after a fun time finding my way…..wait, it wasn’t fun. Just a little frustrating…I’m checked in now and drinking a beer.

The flight with JAL was great. 2 solid meals, lots of movies, a great seat mate. Also I found out where the snacks were.

The neighborhood is interesting. It’s simultaneously quiet and lively, if that’s possible.

I’m looking forward tomorrow to finding the best ramen in the area. Nearby there’s a halal ramen shop. Intriguing!

Anyway, I’m exhausted and my beer is gone.

Shower and bed, finally

TTFN