EPT
Day 5
I set off for Shinjuku to grab lunch. fanta[Rn] has been raving about this one restaurant for as long as I can remember, so I figured that I'd try it out. I had pretty good directions to the restaurant written down, and I had scouted out the general area via google Maps before setting off. All for naught, however, because I didn't know Shinjuku had billions of different exits, and I had no idea which one to take. I remember just standing at a busy intersection within the station and staring at a sign that pointed towards like six different exits, then choosing one randomly. Definitely did not work in my favor. My attempts at asking the locals usually ended up in them shaking their heads furiously and going 'No no no, I don't know.' After wandering around for 20 minutes, I finally found a police officer who knew both the area and English well enough to get me to my destination.
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Fucking Shinjuku station.
Lunch was glorious lemon steak and rice with curry. The staff was ridiculously nice and kept bringing me salad (written 'sarad' on their menu) refills while saying 'ok? ok?'
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Lemon steak!
The restaurant was on the east side of the station, which, I think, is better known for its nightlife and the fashionable people walking around. It was still early afternoon, so it wasn't exceptionally interesting. With that I decided to head over to the west side of the station. When I crossed the railroad, I felt like i had stepped into a completely different city. The young men and women dressed in trendy clothing had all disappeared and businessmen and women had replaced them. The shopping malls and outlets were replaced with huge skyscrapers filled with offices.
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West side represent.
Still disoriented with the sudden change in atmosphere, I made my way over to the Pentax Forum, where I got to mess around with fancy cameras and lenses that I will own. Afterwards, I headed over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building's observation decks. Buildings as far a the eye can see. I noted that you could barely make out Mt. Fuji in the labeled panorama diagram, so there was no chance in hell I would be able to make it out.
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I think Mt. Fuji is supposed to be in this frame somewhere.
I headed over to the Shinjuku NS Building next, and as impressed with the internal architecture but disappointed with the views over the town. I was going to head up the Government Building again, but decided against it when I saw the length of the line. Probably for the better, since my camera's battery decided to give out at that time.
On a side note, I'm writing this on paper while sitting at Mister Donut in Akihabara. Second floor, in the seats overlooking the street. There are two girls on the opposite sidewalk: one dressed as a shrine maiden, and another as a schoolgirl with a huge stuffed bunny that's almost as big as the person holding it. They've been standing there for what must be hours now, handing out flyers for their themed cafes. Another schoolgirl just showed up and dismissed the one with the huge stuffed bunny. Seems like a pain-in-the-ass job.
Anyways, after dinner, I met up with Cambium in Ebisu and had a few beers while the two of us reminesced about the older days of Teamliquid. Our drinking session was cut short by the fact that I had to catch the last train home (we ran, and barely made it). Curse the Japanese rail for not running later.
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Enjoy your time there.
