Getting Out And About
23rd April 2006 – 19:30
After getting up at around 1pm today (jet lag is crap, isn’t it?) I decided to head out and do a bit more exploring. The only other place I’d heard of was Shinjuku as this is where the other guys had stayed when they were here, so I thought I’d take a look. The guide book said Shinjuku is “without doubt the most vigorous part of Tokyo” and they weren’t wrong. Even for a wet (yes it’s been raining and guess who forgot to bring an umbrella?), dark sunday afternoon the place was rammed! Millions of people, hundreds of shops, people pushing past you at 100mph, loads of people trying to push flyers, bags with catalogues, and anything else that you can carry into your hands every 10 yards, it’s just like Oxford Street. Kind of! Except the flyers aren’t for learning English! In fact they could be. I can’t read them!
It looked like all of the shops in the big mall were clothes shops (I found Gap!) and all of the shops that weren’t in the mall were selling electrical items. I noticed lots of calculators for sale, they must be trying to promote numeracy! I even managed to buy something! A USB hub for my laptop so that I can have my mouse, bluetooth dongle, usb dongle, and anything else I want to plug into it all at once. Managed to get by with a typically English shrug of the shoulders when asked a question by the girl behind the counter. It seemed to work as she didn’t ask me anything else!
I amused myself in Tower Records for quite a while but only because when I got to the floor selling DVD’s and Soundtracks they had the Blues Brother soundtrack playing so when I closed my eyes I could have been in the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street!
Eventually found my way back to the metro station and headed back home (I called it home not ‘the apartment’, that’s wrong!) wet and tired out from dodging people for such a long time! Called in at the local shop to buy some toilet paper, washing up liquid and washing powder. Cost: £10!!
The weather has been rainy and very humid which isn’t very pleasant but hopefully the rain will come down a bit tonight and clear the air. Well here’s hoping anyway!
