City Lights

It wasn't in the plan to go see the lights of Tokyo today. You would think a girl who has been interested in Japan for six or so years would know where the big city, reminiscent of Times Square, lights are. Nope. I asked one of my dorm mates where they were located a few days ago. Then he started rattling on about a island made of trash. I got confused and dropped it. I'm here for a year. I figured, eventually I would know where the lights were.

But, what I really need is a phone. What I need even more is a cell phone store that speaks English. Luckily another dorm mate knew where just such a place could be found. Shibuya. Which, sadly, meant very little to me. I knew it was a more well known area of Tokyo. And that was it. Period. Because, if I expected to see lights anywhere, it would be in the area of Tokyo called, you know, Tokyo. Clearly, I have been misinformed. And, on the train ride down, my dorm mate said we would have to exit through the Hachiko gate. Well that's pretty cool. I love the story of Hachiko- it would be super neat to see his statue. Except it ended up being more of a wall than a statue. I don't know. There may have been a statue too, but the packs of people at the station entrance prevented me from seeing it. Still, the wall was super cool.

 

I'm certainly the tourist, snapping pictures all the time. But, I was extremely satisfied with Hachiko and was ready to embark on a journey to the local cell phone shop. Except then I turned around and saw this.

Did you know that Japanese crosswalks are not always at ninety degree angles? And that if you are not extremely careful while crossing the road in Shibuya, you will be swept away in a crowd of people and end up on the completely different sidewalk then the one you orignally intended to hit. True story, I swear. Also, if you ever want a good laugh/ gap like a tourist moment, go to Shibuya and wait near a main road for the singing trucks. I swear- they sing pop songs as they go by. The ones we saw had neon colored ladies dressed up as robots on the sides of it. Maybe it was their hit single, I wouldn't know. I never claimed to be a fount of Japanes musical knowledge. Or any knowledge related to Japan really.

So, then me and my dorm mates proceeded to get lost (again) but in the process we saw some really fun light displays (that were so bright I couldn't take pictures of them- I swear I tried). But eventually, we headed back to the station and found the police booth. If you ever get lost in Japan, find the police booth. It is those policemen's job to help you find where you want to go. So, he pointed us in the right direction and we finally found the cell phone store. Called SoftBank. Isn't nice how all the big stores in Japan have English names- it makes finding the store signs really easy. Then we waited for (maybe) 10 minutes and were seen by and English speaking employee. Which was great- because she threw so many terms at us that I'm sure I wouldn't have understood her in Japanese. But, what it comes down to; phones in Japan are expensive. And now, I have even more paperwork to go through so that I can figure out which contract or prepaid plan I want.

And, as luck would have it, when we finally exited SoftBank (think three story Apple store) it was already seven o'clock. Maybe I'm not as adjusted to this time zone as I thought. I'll get this schedule thing down eventually. Plus, my stove top kind of intimidates me. So, I went back to the convenience store and got a Nikku-man. Which is a steamed bun stuffed with meat- it was delicious. And inexpensive.

 

I swear I'm eating breakfast in my room! 

And today, it's pouring buckets. Which means it's a great day for going over paperwork. Which really needs to be done... even if I really don't want to do it.