JAPAN TRIP - DAY 2 (May 19, 2003):

Woke up a little tired today (and to the sound of pouring rain), as I was unable to get enough sleep probably due to the jet lag. Since all of us were up, and we had a couple hours to kill before we headed over to Taeko's parents' house, we decided to play some big 2. We decided that we might want to keep score, in case we wanted to play throughout the trip. So, we adopted the scoring system as follows: 1-9 cards remaining, 1pt/card; 10-12, 2pts/card; 13, 3pts/card. For some reason, I was doing really well, and ended up being in the lead, about 20 pts ahead. Eiichi then drove us over to Taeko's parents' place, where we had some breakfast. I remember breakfast was really good, though I don't remember what we ate. I do remember that Taeko made it for us.

After breakfast, we took a bus to Fujimino station, and hopped on a train to Ikebukuro. There, Taeko led us to probably the best ramen place I have ever been. I got the tonkatsu ramen, which was excellent. It basically had ramen noodles, a katsu based soup, and chunks of pork. Hot soup is probably the best thing you can get on a gloomy, rainy day. Mmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.



The first image shows us chillin and waiting for us to be seated at the ramen place. The "restaurant" was very narrow, and thus we had to line up against the back wall until a spot opened up at the counter. From left to right you have Tony, Chris, Taeko, and me. The second image is a picture of the cooks making the ramen. This was taken from our seats at the counter. (images courtesy of Shawn)

After lunch, we took the Yamanote line from Ikebukuro to Harajuku. There, we walked around, and checked out some stores, and then walked to Shibuya. In Shibuya, we hung out at a Starbucks, talked, and people watched. It was a good break from all the walking we did. We then decided to check out the Sapporo Beer Museum, so we walked over to Ebisu, where I proceeded to fall flat on my ass on some stairs. Sure, I am some big, oafish, clumsy, white guy, but I like to think that I fell because the stairs were really slippery due to the rain. And, to top it all off, it turns out that the Beer Museum is closed on Mondays. So, we walked all that way in the rain (and I fell on my ass) for no reason. So, we decided to chill on some benches that were shielded from the rain and people watch some more. Then, we jumped on the Yamanote line and took it to Daikanyama, which is a nice residential area of Tokyo. We walked around a little as Taeko showed us a couple of stores she liked to shop at. Then we walked back to Shibuya and jumped on the Yamanote line again and headed back to Ikebukuro. Taeko took us to one of her favorite restaurants where we had hamburger steak. I have to admit, the hamburger steak was very tender, moist, and really good. After dinner, we took the train back to Fujimino where Eiichi picked us up and we went back to Taeko's parents' house. We just hung out and talked for a while, and it came out that I was a big fan of HEY! HEY! HEY! Music Champ. They happened to have a tape of the previous episode, so we ended up watching that. After hanging out for a while, we went back to Eiichi's place, and crashed.

Although the weather sucked, and I fell on my ass, it was a really fun (and tiring) day. We got to see a lot of Tokyo, eat some great food, and experience Japan's mass transit system. Day 3 entry to follow soon.

Posted 5:37 PM by MZ

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