We had no real plans on this Sunday. We had a breakfast in the small downstairs restaurant. I chose a Japanese styled breakfast of salmon, egg, rice, and miso. It was tasty and a good way to start the day.
We started off by wandering around the immediate area of the hotel. We went the direction away from Roppongi and instead wandered over to look at the palace of the Prince from outside the gates. It was our first real taste of Japan. Everything was interesting to me from the tiny police stations at some corners, to the vending machines, right down to the atmosphere the various streets had. While walking in the area, we even saw two younger women in kimonos with their hair dressed up. I figured we'd only see older women dressed that way.
After a while we took the time to brave the subway. It was far better to learn the system on a day less busy than a normal workday would be. Honestly, there wasn't really anything to worry about. We had maps of our own which helped to translate in some of the stations which lacked any romaji on the wall maps. It's a simple system to use, and it was very clean. We took a trip out to Ginza. We had a good lunch there and I got my first chance to try some Japanese.
sore wa unagi desu ka?
Well, the window sample was anago instead of unagi, but I was close AND she understood me! yay! I began to feel a little odd as I ate. I was still tired and was feeling tense for some reason. It was all subdued tension, though, and left me feeling less hungry and more tired as the day went on. We wandered into some stores to look around, but Ginza is all about expensive stores .. large, expensive department stores. There are some big corporate stores there that are a lot of fun too, though. We wandered into the Sony building and looked at their new technology. I considered bringing a Japanese PS2 back home with me, but the only game that I figured I would play much was a drum game. We wandered into some music stores which had animation in them too. Of course I was quickly reminded that 'anime' is Japanese for animation and NOT just Japanese. When I asked for an anime-ya, they pointed us to a Warner Brothers store. Feh.
Eventually we came to the hotel and did some resting. I didn't want to go out again as I was still feeling tense and so I just slept. And slept. And slept. I think this is the night that the other three went into Roppongi and had a meal at a delicious Italian place. It's apparently a hotspot for gaijin to visit, and I've heard from other sources it might have been a hotspot for underworld activity too. Roppongi is apparently a ripe target for the yakuza.