Day 7 & 8

It rained! On Sunday, we met with Kai in Shinjuku (after a short stop in Shibuya because I got confused about which train station we were supposed to get off at) for lunch and to see the view of Tokyo from the Metropolitan Government Building.

Jermaine and I were hungry, so we asked if we could eat before visiting the Building. Kai agreed and we were off to find a restaurant she liked, OOtoya. It’s a chain restaurant, but oh so good!

My Lunch (like a Yaki Tori dish) and Side Salad (with Kimchee!):

Jermaine’s Lunch (like a Korean style fried chicken dish):

Kai’s Lunch (roasted vegetables and chicken in a thick, sweet sauce):

After lunch, who could resist dessert?

My Dessert, a pumpkin mousse with frozen milk cream and red beans. It also had some, like, rice crispy things in it to add a crunch, very nice!

Kai got the Black Bean Mousse with frozen milk cream and two, little mochi balls:

Jermaine got fried chicken with a sweet, vinegar sauce:

Everything was awesome!

After that, Metropolitan Government Building! It was 45 stories up to the observation deck, which provided an amazing view of Tokyo’s vastness. On a clear day, which today was not, you can see Mt. Fuji from the observation deck. Even without the mountain view, it was a pretty awesome place to hang out. No pictures, because it was dark and the glass would’ve just made a reflection.

Jermaine and I were pretty tired after lunch, and it was pouring, so we went back to our apartment, did laundry and read, played PSP and watched TV. We called it a night pretty early.

It rained again on Monday, but we were planning on going out anyway. That is, until after we’d eaten at Johnathan, the cafeteria style restaurant across the street from the apartment. The food was filling, and the tea was warm. After eating, we decided to can our plans, go home and sleep all day instead. Good choice as it started to POUR not much later.

In the evening, I took a bath in our tiny tub before we decided to brave the dark and try to get some dim sum in Shinjuku. Once we got to Shinjuku, however, it took us a while to gain our bearings, and we decided to can the dim sum in favor of a Niku (meat) restaurant where you cook your food in a barbecue on your table. Our waiter helped us to order 2 portions of Calby beef, and then seeing that we were new to this “make your own food” restaurant concept very graciously helped us cook our meat on our grill. It was amazing.

Meat:

The beer on tap at this place was really good, too, and I had two large glasses myself! I was feeling pretty good as we set out to return to the train station. We took the alleyway across from the restaurant and found ourselves in the red light district in Shinjuku. Oops. First, we walked past all the clubs where men were on display, and then we walked past the clubs where the women were the attraction. Interesting.

Once we got off the train back in safe, quiet Komagome we were stopped just outside the station by the police. There’s a “Police box” right on the corner next to the train, that I’ve noticed each time we’ve gotten on or off the train, but never really thought much about. Sure, there are police there, but what would they want with us? Well, turns out, if you take one of the last trains home, they do their job and ask to see your papers. Thank goodness drinking seems to improve my Japanese, because we didn’t have our “papers.” They were at home, in our passports, which neither of us wanted to lose, so we stored safe in a pouch in our apartment. I never in a million years thought someone in JAPAN would stop me and ask to see my papers, so I didn’t see the hurt in leaving them at home. Thank goodness they were nice enough to accompany us back to our apartment, which is fairly close to the train station, to examine (and I mean it was a thorough examination) our visas. The police were very nice, but made it clear we were to carry our papers from now on. They also seemed surprised to find out that there was a foreigner guest house in their area, and asked me about the other people staying at the guest house. I don’t know anything about the other guests, though, and so was not very helpful.

When the police left, we were tired and so we watched tv, playes PSP and went to bed. Tomorrow: all the things we meant to do Monday, but didn’t because we were tired.