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Published: March 13th 2008
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Updated: The last, well only, day in Tokyo was spent running around frantically searching out my new camera and trying to get in some sites as well. I started off at BIC Camera and got there about 30 mins before they open and they already had a line up to get in! The place was in sane...it was electronic overload...as I'm stumbling thought the isles marveling and drooling over all the gadgets i stood there memorized...behold the largest HD television I've ever seen...it was 110" yes, 110"...after about five minutes of standing in the middle of the isle in awe I asked the price...well, asked in hand gestures, don't ask how I did it, but the thing cost $64,000 CDN!!! OK, moving on.
Hit the digital cameras and was really disappointed in the prices...they were 100 bucks less than NYC if that. Time check...2.5 hours before I have to catch my flight to Bangkok, darn I got movie it! I hop back on the JR metro and boot it over to Tokyo station hoping to find something cool to see...nawda, it was the financial district...I got to a local police office and asked where is the single most busiest
intersection in Tokyo...Shibuya station! Get back on the metro and busy is an understatement...mayhem is more like it...when the light turns green EVERYONE walks in all directions at once. Take some pics...keep moving. By now I'm a metro expert and actually gave someone directions, woohoo. Now for the best part...Yashimasa, my god send from the plane was dead on in where to go for my camera...Akihabara...otherwise known as Electronic Town...this place was a sea of BIC Camera stores, everywhere...and I was the only foreigner to be seen...made my way to Yodobashi Camera and this store was 3 times the size of BIC Camera! Before entering I check the time...30 mins before I have to leave to go to he airport, not good. Blow past all the sales people bowing as I walk by and find the digital cameras and after about 1 hour of broken English and haggling my first digital SLR is purchased and saved me $400. Time check -30 minutes before having to leave, crap!!!
Time to sprint...now I haven't mentioned I decided to checkout of my hotel in the morning and have been lugging my full 65L backpack 8 books (yah I know, I couldn't decide
which ones to take and only read through half of one) and a honking new camera...muscle straining? um, yes!
Long story short made it on time for my flight, barely...but I have to say having Elite status made my day...I got access to the ANA lounge which is beyond luxury...had a shower, eat at the complimentary noodle bar, and had sushi for the first time in Japan. The food, everything was amazing. Even throughout the day I ate at some places where I was the only non-local, had no clue what I was eating just pointed at the food in front of the guy beside me and it all tasted great. I have no doubt I'll be paying for it in the next couple of days! 😞 (now I'm jumping ahead, but YES I REALLY REALLY paid for it in a couple of days)
Thai airlines is phenomenal...service was amazing, food was good and they offered a full comp bar in economy class, put me out like a light!
From original post: Well not really...surprisingly almost everything is in English and its true what people say...Tokyo is a beefed up NYC. I mean I pride myself
as being a professional NYC walker, you know determined, get out of my way stride, but man, the Japanese put me to shame...I felt like I got let loose with a hurdle of cattle barreling towards me...just a sea of black hair and giggling women. Its odd yet cool being the outsider, with ever so often looks of fascination and intrigue.
But I'm jumping ahead. So traveling for 4 years back and forth from NYC and Toronto has made me a very patient traveler...the 13 hour flight to Tokyo flew by in a heart beat even though my seat was right beside the washroom leading to some interesting sounds and oh not so pleasant smells! Luckily, me and my first seat mate, an extremely polite Japanese local named Yakimasa who was in Montreal interviewing the government on some electrical engineering projects, entertained ourselves by attempting to communicate in broken English, hand gestures, and charades (mental note, I need to really practice my charades!). Yakimasa was awesome since he completely gave me the perfect directions on how to get from the airport to my hotel, and an even better camera store to check out other than BIC camera. For those not
in the know, BIC camera is an 8 floor behemoth electronic store that supposedly has ridiculous prices...my goal is to pickup a Digital SLR if the price is right to take some awesome pics on this trip.
The train ride into Tokyo was interesting as, little did I know, you get assigned a specific seat and car. It wasn't until the person who's seat I was sitting in arrived and looked at me with a confused expression resulting in shared expressed confusion and me sprinting 5 cars to catch my seat as the doors were closing. But on the train I met an Aussie expat (Jason who's a creative director for a textile company) who goes to the technology conventions I'm interested in checking out in Hong Kong and told me about the largest import/export fair in China in Guangzhou called the Canton Fair (http://www.cantonfair.org/) going on in April...sweet!
After finally checking into my hotel, drooping all my stuff, I sought out food. Its funny how people warned me that its not that easy to find sushi in Japan...I ended up in this little restaurant that looked right out of the movie Fifth Element, complete with
glass electronic sliding doors (which are everywhere) and ordered me their house special of beef stew and noodles. I ended up having a pretty long conversation with a Japanese professor from Tennessee visiting Japan for a convention and we debated American politics (which by the way I don't know much about, but hey I can play along 😉
Interesting tidbits of Japan, people stand on the right and pass on the left on escalators, toilets have built in seat warmers, spray strength settings, and a bunch of other buttons that I have no clue what they do. At least 1 in 5 people wear the SARS masks everywhere which I thought was a little odd until this morning after getting 5 hours of jet lagged sleep, waking up at 6am (they are 14 hours a head here) doing some morning calestetics and weezing like crazy while I look out my window and see the dark brown smog hoovering over the city. It could also be that I'm old and out of shape but I'll go with smog. 😉
Time know is 8:30am, after having one of the fastest served breakfasts ever (literally ordered, he walked away
and came back with food. No, I'm not going to think how long it might have been sitting there and going to go with they have instant breakfast making technology here), and am heading out to get lost in the city before my 5:15 flight to Bangkok.
Had some problems uploading pics so I only got a few...will get the rest on my next Internet stop
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