Silver Week- Tokyo- Post #1- Itinerary

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, of this week were all national holidays, granting those of us with jobs here an extended, 5-day weekend. The week itself is officially called Silver Week, and the holidays (in order): Respect for the Aged Day, National Holiday (I think a filler), and Autumnal Equinox Day. People use these days for various things (moving, visting family, etc.)- we JETs, as is typical to us, used them for travel. I spent 4 full days (Sat. morning-Tues night) in Tokyo, and in a couple of different posts I'll try talk about the highlights of my trip.

I will try to order posts in this way: Itinerary (1), Food (2), Night life (3), Shopping (4), Otaku/Nerd Culture (and other counter-cultures) (5), Tokyo vs. Tokushima (OR Why I Prefer the Country life- at least for now) (6)

First post- Itinerary Overview- hopefully this will give context to the post(s) after this- sorry if it turns a little long, was just orienting myself by remembering which order things happened in which order:

Friday, September 18- Night bus from Tokushima Stn.-Tokyo's Shinagawa Station
Tokushima-Tokyo is approximately an 8 1/2 bus ride, if you do it at night. Chris, B, Celia, Henry, and I decided on this, because it was 2 fewer nights of accomodation and was pretty convenient. In all, it cost 18,000 yen ($180) for the round-trip. We left Tokushima at 9:30 pm and arrived at 7 am- too early to check into the hotel, but we could drop our stuff off there. Stayed at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel- a really nice place right next to Tokyo's Yamanote Circle train line, which hits all of the major places that we tourists would want to go.

Saturday, September 19-
1.) Shibuya Starbucks- 2-story Starbucks with huge windows onto Tokyo's version of Times Square- some of the best people watching in the world, hands-down
2.) Ikebukuro- great district for bars/restaurants- we went to an American-style pizza buffet (Shakeys)
3.) Akihabara- Brief visit to Akihabara Electric Town- Tokyo's (and nerds') consumer electronics and anime Mecca- blocks and blocks of stores
4.) Nap- no matter how much we slept on the night bus, the afternoon still called for a nap
5.) Ebisu beer festival with Celia, B, & Henry- we met up with fellow Tokushima JET Maggie and her friend Michael for a few pints of beers and pub grub, Japanese-style- great way to spend a cool evening outdoors
6.) Lockup- a prison/horror-themed bar located (fittingly) in a multi-story basement. Think haunted house with themed drinks, waitresses dressed like guards, and periodic visits by "monsters" in gas/hockey masks
7.) Pure- a club in Shibuya with the largest percentage of foreigners of anywhere we went

Sunday, September 20-
1.) Harajuku (w/Celia, Henry, B, & Nick- another JET from DC)- shopping district also famous for its counter-culture stores, people dressed like dolls, etc.
2.) Odaiba (w/CHB, Nick, and Zach (another DC JET))- an island with massive malls, one of which is ostensibly modeled after the mall in Las Vegas with the ceiling painted as the sky
3.) Shimbashi- went exploring a bit with Nick in Shimbashi- huge, modern buildings and lots of shops
4.) Ikebukuro-Dinner w/Ayaka, Masae- two of my good friends from when I studied here sophomore year of high school. We went to a Yakitori place, and the food was amazing.
5.) Ikebukuro- went to Hub, and English-style pub w/Ayaka, Masae, HBC
6.) Shibuya w/Nick, Sumner, etc., Harlem- after HBC went to bed, met up with Nick, Sumner, and some other JETs and went out in Shibuya to a club called Harlem

Monday, September 21-
1.) Late wake-up
2.) Akihabara Electric Town with Nick, Sumner, and host-brother Ari while B etc went Harajuku shopping again
3.) Shinagawa- Dinner at a health-nabe place with Aya, Hina, and Andrew- all former St. Stephen's (my HS) students; Aya was the exchange student at my school for 1 year, Hina spent 4 years as a boarder from Tokyo, and Andrew did the same exchange program as I did, is now a Georgetown junior in the SFS, and is currently studying abroad for the year in Tokyo at Waseda University.
4.) Shibuya- Camelot night club with Chris, Celia, B, Henry, Nick, Sumner, and Andrew

Tuesday, September 22-
Ari & Mika day- Ari is my host brother from my time in Japan before- I lived with his family for 11 months, and he spent the subsequent year as an exchange student at my high school. His girlfriend, Mika, is an awesome girl who spent a year at Lewis & Clark in Portland, OR, ironically one of the college visits that Ari and I did when he was in the US (it was jr. year of HS, so we did a few coll. visits)
1.) Harajuku- Ramen, Meiji Jingu (Meiji emperor's shrine), Yoyogi Park
2.) Shinjuku- huge restaurant/bar/electronics district where we stayed for Tokyo Orientation- went to a book store with books in English (only bought 4), then bought a Playstation 3
3.) Waseda U- strolled a little around the campus of Ari's university, one of the two best private schools in Japan- he studies basically what I did- International politics, government, economics
4.) Ari's apartment- he pays almost 3 times as much for an apartment less than half the size of mine- but he lives within walking distance of Waseda, in the middle of Tokyo
5.) Korean BBQ- one of my favorite meals I've had so far in Japan, yum
6.) Bus ride home