andyhwaiting

When I woke up this morning, it was the first time since I got to Tokyo where I actually got a good night's rest! So it took about 5 days for me to get over the time difference (compare that with the 2 weeks it took to readjust when I got back!) I was pretty excited because I had two things planned today that perhaps I had been looking forward to the most. That is going to the Ghibli Museum and having dinner at the New York Bar and Grill (the restaurant where they shot Lost in Translation ). For those who don't know, the Ghibli is a museum dedicated to the work of Hayao Miyazaki , famed animator/film maker whose movies include My Neighbour Totoro , Princess Mononoke and the Oscar winning Spirited Away . I like anime but have more of a passing interest than being an Otaku Comic-con costume wearing geek. Knowing that I was going to be visiting the Ghibli is what actually inspired me to finally watch some of Miyazaki's movies as I have to admit I hadn't seen any befo...

I woke up at the usual early time and ventured out to my new morning hangout at Caffe Veloce. I hung out in my hotel room for a while, reading the English newspaper and watching Japanese television, waiting for the tail end of rush hour before leaving. I took a couple of connecting subways to get to the Edo Tokyo Museum . The architecture of the museum is a funky fusion of old and new. It's in the general shape of a sumo wrestling auditorium but built with a contemporary eye and modern materials. This museum was all about displaying the history of Tokyo. Upon entering the museum, I found signs offering tours in various languages. I decided to take them up on their offer and inquired about a tour in English and a nice older lady was available. Her English was good but she had trouble with certain vocabulary words. She was a sweet lady who had a funny laugh that was exactly the same every time. It was kind of like the tail end of Woody Woodpecker's laugh. We talked abou...

I ventured out this morning looking for a new cafe and found one called Caffe Veloce just a minute from my hotel. I ended up spending the rest of the week having my breakfast here. I'd usually get the same thing everything morning, an apple flaky like thing and a cup of hot chocolate or cocoa latte. Once in a while, they decorated the froth with a heart. They once gave me just a latte which was fine even though I don't drink coffee. View Larger Map This morning was going to be my first real taste of the Tokyo Subway/Rail during the rush hour period. I got on the subway around 9:00AM to head to Ueno. It was crazy. Even the most packed subway ride in Toronto I've been on doesn't come close to how tightly packed people were. Just when you think the subway is full (but still tolerable) and no more people can get on, it gets worse. That's when people then start to push in and those few inches of body space you had between you and the next person...

Due to the whole chafing situation caused by the day before, wearing jeans was out of the question. As a result, I wore my dress pants and shirt and shoes today. I hardly got any sleep the night before either, just a few hours. I went out for breakfast at my usual time around 6:30-7:00AM. I went in search of another cafe instead of Starbucks and found that there were many in the area. I got another taste of Japanese neat and cleanliness this morning. I went to this cafe where they had a number of items on display such as danishes and croissants that you would pick up yourself and then bring to the cashier. The lady in front of me picked up a croissant with a pair of tongs and then proceeded to the cashier, with tongs in hand. I was like what the hell!? Why are you taking the tongs? So I followed her and pointed to the tongs and asked for them. She kind of look at me weird and then gave them to me. I picked up a croissant myself. When I went to set the tongs down, that'...