3 Parts of Tokyo and a too heavy bag

Sunday – September 16^th 2012

After an exhausting and very long Saturday the day ended with Skype an 5 hours of sleep.

My plans for this day were Kichijoji with a Bookoff and the corry restaurant, whrer we ate 2 years ago. I got up that early, because I couldn't go on sleeping since 3 o'clock and also because I wanted to use as many hours of the day as possible.

Kichijoji is only 3 stations after Higashi-Koganei (Higashi Koganei – Musashi-Sakai – Mitaka – Kichijoji), so I was there very fast at round about 8:20AM, I remembered the Bookoff to be close to the JR station, so I went around the station, but couldn't find any Bookoff, the place it was before was different because it was without the wanted store – I was confused.

After that I started from scratch, going back to the JR station and the JR exit/entrance that leads to the famous shopping street and there I saw a sign with an arrow directing to the street, so I went in, but it was kinda weird there, because... the hole street was almost empty – 2 years ago it was very crowded, so I was wondering – and I got the clue almost instantly after I noticed the empty street – the shops opened at 10:00AM and at 8:35 or so there were all closed, the same with the Bookoff which I found very easily, they opened within the week at 9:00AM and on Sundays, well I guess u got it. So, it's more than 1 hour to go until any store opens, it was hot, my bag was heavy, my mood was down so quickly, that my day was almost over before it just began..., I noticed a Yodobashi store right next to the Bookoff, but that couldn't help a bit, at this part of the day, it also didn't change for the morning.

I had to waste,eto pass time and so I started to go for a walk – hard to imagine I was walking – I also found the shrine we saw the last time, the Capcom Plaza (Open at 10:00AM, too) and many other things, I also saw a German store Lind's Backwaren, then there was a 2^nd shrine with very loud insects, a ModeOff, seems to be a kinda Bookoff for clothing stuff.

After all that I ended up at Starbucks, taking a grande Caramel something something unknown name something something, I went up the stairs and took out my netbook to write some notes, but I was unable to get it going good, so I let it go, also the free Wifi, that should have been provided didn't work, so I had no chance to browse my wanted places at Kichijoji, so I was just relaxing with my 3DS getting all the met Miis into my Mii-Lobby and also thinking about the following day and about the mistake of taking my netbook, which had only one effect, getting my bag heavier...

It was finally 10:00AM, but I wasn't yet finished with my coffee, so I went out, because I didn't want to wast any more time. My first target was the Bookoff, it was right next to the Starbucks.

At this store I beat my old record of "tortured" bookoff workers, it needed 2 to find Monster Hunter Comics, she also had to use a kinda headset to communicate with others to find my searched stuff – 2 years ago in Kichijoji they asked for help over the speaker – in the end they found something right for me, but then there was my 2^nd request, I should have searched and asked the 1^st worker, because she understood enought english, to get what I was talking about, but another poor little guy went right into my asking arms: "I have to buy some Yotsuba mangas, please tell me, what it is about in general and for sure where it is..." - these 2 questions were followed by silence combined with eyes that starred at my mindless..., after this he just skipped the fact of asking in english and answered in japanese – I don't know, weather he knew what I wanted or understood anything or weather something of the eto, eto answer belonged to the question.

We ended up in a deadend, so he hushed away and got someone else, I had in mind, that the 1^st worker will come – me wrong – a smaller guy came, who looked somehow ill, but he didn't speak any english, neither – the only thing I got was eto, eto, when he was explaining some whatever, I had to stop myself etoing back – I also had told my laughter back – but both ran away searching for a third guy, he spoke english and could help me with the where, at this point, I didn't want to know anything more of the "WHAT", the ironic thing about this 10-15 min of no communication, the Yotsuba manga were just 1 meter away..., if I don't count the cashier, I only took the will of 5 workers, who cursed the bothering MonHun/Yotsuba guy and were glad, when he was finally gone.

I've also asked, if there are 2 stores in Kichijoji or if this one had moved – they moved.

Next I went to Yodobashi right next to the Bookoff, found something very soon, some Monster Hunter trophy heads – it was hard to describe, that I wanted a complete sealed box to ensure no figure doubled. Next was the Capcom Plaza – many arcades, winning games and also prize games.

The strangest thing was a prize winning game of Monster Hunter, doing a quest and winning the jackpot, if the quest is cleared, I don't know how tho do this, but somehow an elderly woman won the jackpot of 1600~ coins (maybe 1 coin~100Yen(?)).

There was also someone playing a Taiko drum game, he managed to get a combo of 511, I didn't notice any fault, so it seems to have been a perfect run...

When I went out, I was very sad about not finding the curry restaurant and about my empty tummy, but I hoped that I will find something tasty in Shibuya.

I started with the Hachiko statue, Hachiko was a dog, that came every day to the Shibuya station for his holder and even after the death of his holder he came there every day, so one exit/entrance of the JR station was named after that dog – also honored with a statue.

Shibuya is the part of Tokyo the boutiques and huge shopping areas like Shibuya 109, nothing for me, only girly something whatever stuff.

At the streets around the Shibuya 109 some people were jelling around transporting some kind of devine looking box. They had they same way I had, so I heard them a long time. After a while it started to rain, so I rushed under a bridge, but this bridge was also the finish of the festival contest transportation, where also another group in green has arrived. I asked them what event this was and they got me an english speaking man, who seemed to be exhausted because of carrieing that box.

It was a festival, that was for a Kami (Goddess) to go for sure the the rice(?) harvest will be good, at least that's all he could explain. When finished this Q and A I found myself somewhere I didn't know where I was, I ended up disorientated, because I used the wrong street, so going back to Hachiko. Then I went right and found the next Bookoff, but didn't find anything in there, so the Mandarake was my next aim, also nothing found. My shoulder started to hurt more and more and my tummy had a big black hole inside so I decided to walk into a interesting looking restaurant, there I got my Curry, which I wanted some hours ago, japanese curry is totally different to all the other curries.

The next part of Tokyo was the Yojogi Park, it needed to be this day, because every Sunday the Tokyo Rockabillies meet there, 2 years ago we couldn't find them, so hopefully it will work this year...it did, but not at the beginning, at first I went into the park to relax from the noisy city.

I had to stop almost every 50 meter, because it was so hot, I had to carrie so much and I was sweating all over, I was looking forward to the cleaning procedure in front of the temple to meet the Gods, so I cleaned myself and went in, at the entrance I also bought 3 new charms, because they lose their powers after 1 year – one for luck, victory and against evil – as two years ago, I saw a marriage again, once again a dejà vu, even if I didn't notice a black cat.

When I got out, I didn't go to the Takeshita-Dori, which is famous for their special mode style, but it doesn't meet my interest, it's kinda gothic or visual kei style.

As the last time I noticed loud music near to the entrance of the park but not at the bridge, the last time we went wrong and couldn't find the source of the sound, but this year I accomplished this mission finding a second blue bridge, where there was a place right next to it, and there I saw them dancing, the Tokyo Rock & Rollers or Rockabillies, after their dancing I asked one of them what, why and when they are doing what they are doing. They like the music of the 50s, especially Elvis and so on, they meet every Sunday afternoon and dance and talk and just enjoy hanging out together – I think that's a short summary of what they're doing.

After a long day I finally went home, asked at the JR station in Higashi-Koganei, how to get a Suica Card, so I needn't always look how much I have to pay to get back, when the maps are not in english, and also bought some food and something to drink and tried to start sleeping, it worked, but I woke up at 1:00AM or so and then I was unable to sleep again instantly, because of the hot weather in and outside of my room, so I used Skype and contacted good old Germany.

That's for Sunday... and Monday morning, after sleeping it will go on with Shinjuku.