Day 6
My last full day in Tokyo was overcast but the rain held off. It was very muggy as usual.
After breakfast, checking e-mails and a few other online things, I decided to head into the Ginza.
But first I needed to book tickets to get to Takayama, up in hills NW of Tokyo, and North of Nagoya. There are two ways (aside from driving oneself) of getting there, train via Nagoya (~4.5 hours), or direct by bus (~5.5 hrs).
The interrupted preparation to the trip was in evidence again (I would have had this sorted prior to trip commencement given the time). I agonised over this one for a while. The bus was lots cheaper, with no changes or connections to be made. So I chose the train.
I was concerned about the comfort levels on the bus should it be chockers...an hour or two of packed bus is ok, 5.5 hours of same is not so ok. There was one more decision...to reserve a seat or not on the train (this nearly doubles the train fare). Again, with no pre-knowledge I wasn't prepared to risk 4.5 hours standing on the train(s), and was here for a good time, so I reserved a seat also.
These tickets:
Shinjuku-Tokyo on 'local' train
Tokyo-Nagoya on Shinkansen 'Nozomi'
Nagoya-Takayama on Hida limited express
..and return, with Tokyo-Narita on the Narita Express replacing Tokyo-Shinjuku, were all purchased at Shinjuku station with minimum fuss, and maximum expense.
Once done I bought my subway ticket at Nisshi-Shinjuku station (subway station near Shinjuku) and eventually emerged from Ginza station at a large intersection not far from Hibiya Park. Wandered up the street a bit, past a bunch of high-end fashion and accessory label shops, noting there were a
lot of people in here on a Saturday. Then strolled into Hibiya park, saw wedding reception preparations underway (sucker!) and headed back into town. A couple of very big hotels abut this park..The Imperial and The Peninsula to wit.
I was looking for the Sony Building but despite it being listed on one of the big billboard maps, I could not see it. Just temporary blindness on my part as on my third pass of the street, there it was. To be fair it does not have 'Sony' particularly prominently emblazoned upon it.
I was looking for it for two reasons. The second one was to check out the electronics. The first was a call of nature (western style please
)! The new electronics, including 3D TV, were mildly interesting, the pitstop a major relief.
After heading towards the grounds of the Imperial Palace I abandone the idea as 1) I had been there before and 2) there wasn't much to see. I headed back around the Ginza streets a while until I had had enough then into the station and back to Shinjuku.
I opted to eat at the ramen place I'd used a couple of nights ago (was fine, a different dish, and no slurpers present
). This time the waitress made me do all the work with the vending machine, but I made her pantomime each step for me. She probably thought I was a complete cretin, and at that moment I would have conceded the fact.
All the western type places are around Shinjuku by the way - Mister Donut, KFC, Macca's etc.
It was still relatively early so I decided to check the 'nightclub' area at Roppongi (not that I'm much of a nightclubber) so trained it over there. It was packed but not as bad as Shinjuku. More
gaijin on the streets, and I was surprisingly touted for a stripclub by an (white) American.Wandered a bit, saw a Hub Pub, and believe I may have copped a Japanese doorbitching (polite refusal, no reservation). I guess it
was Saturday night after all, and I was dressed very much for comfort.
So, underwhelmed with Roppongi, I headed back to Shinjuku. The local Hub there had a private function or something (signposted in Japanese, but obvious, so I didn't even try). This time I went home via a sort of dark path/laneway that ran behind my hotel (plenty of ordinary Japanese people using it, so it was safe enough) and this enabled me to not be harassed by Nigerians (or Ghanians). Had I only known this a night or two earlier.
Once in the room (5th floor) I could see a large crowd of people gathered in the street wathing a TV in a store/club window - Japan was playing a game in the world cup (they lost).
I also put considerable time into researching my connections to Takayama, and back to Narita aiprort a few days later, as there were 2 connections each way, and Japanese railways stations are rather big.
Packed most stuff, watched the socceroos versus Ghana (robbed) and off to bed with the alarm set for way too early.
)
