View Workout (Ben Yavitt)
Tokyo - Tokyo Station, Akhiabara, Ginza
August 15, 2016 (Morning)
Exercise Type: Other
Comments:
Woke up and went for a little walk in the morning while Olli-ville caught up on some Olympics. I wanted to check out Roppongi Hills, the city in the city and it was just down the street, so I strolled over there and wandered around. It wasnt what I was expecting, but still it was pretty cool. It was still early so people were wandering around. There were some cool Doraemon statues set up and little kids playing on them. It was pretty Japanese, and that amused me. I just wandered around as an observer, and eventually walked over to the Tokyo Midtown garden, which was also super Japanese but a pleasant break from the thick dense city. I felt so out of place walking around by myself, wondering what it would be like to actually live there and be a part of the city, rather than a little white boy sticking out like a grain of white rice in a bowl of brown rice... Anyways after my stroll we packed up and went down to Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace. People said its kinda boring, but we wanted to still check it out. Thats kinda "downtown" Tokyo, but it doesnt feel like downtown since the city is so fucking huge. Anyways we got some good ramen, checked out the palace, and melted in the hot summer sun. Next step was to make it over to Akhiabara, the anime capital of the world. I was really excited to see this, as its about as Asian as you can get. As soon as we walked out of the train station, you could tell where we were. Music, posters, people walking on the street, the sound of videogames coming out of the shops. It was crazy, and crazy cool. Olli-ville followed me around for a while then split off to go find his friend, so I ended up wandering around for a few hours alone, just poking my head into video arcades, figurine and manga shops. It was so overwhelming I didnt really know what the hell was going on, again I felt so out of place, but it was just really cool to observe and absorb it all in. It felt like a different world of sorts. After seeing most of Akhiabara, made my way to Ginza and stopped there. Ginza is another high end shopping district with all the fashion stores. I just wanted to see what was up and walked around for a while without much to do. I ended up just sitting on the steps of a big office building to rest, watching people walk by, wondering to myself how the fuck did I get all the way here... never would have imagined that, and kinda weird to thing about. It started to rain, so I made my way back to the Subway and back to Roppongi. We ended the night with some Korean BBQ, which filled me up from all the walking. Got to see a lot of the city today, and very different parts which really showcases how cool Tokyo is.