Yesterday I ventured out to Ueno (only a few minutes from my hotel, the location for this post) to see the Ameyoko market and get some of the good cheap food I was told about there. I went into a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant close by and waited for a while to be seated, but the sushi was delicious and cheap (photo below).

From there I walked through the market and then into the park area where several museums are located. I spent a few hours walking through some very good exhibits of Egyptian, Chinese and Japanese art in the Tokyo National Museum.

I finally met up with Kiyomi last night. She brought her friend Megumi along and we all went to Ginza to join another friend Kazu. Last night near the Tokyo station there was a huge festival going on (Illumination festival?) which involved a series of huge gates made of lights set up all the way down a main street. We all went to see it and took some photos, then walked to a restaurant.

I wish I could remember the name (Wataki? Watami?) - as Kiyomi promised, it was nothing like I’ve experienced at home. The food was excellent and we all had plenty of sake and biru. Tonight I have plans to meet up with Mayu’s friend Shige and Kazu in Shibuya for drinking and karaoke.

Yesterday afternoon I spent walking around Ebisu (Shibuya area, the location for this post) aimlessly, just stopping in random shops and restaurants mostly. I did have one objective while I was there, though: ramen. I read about a place there called Ippudo Ramen which is supposed to serve a fantastic bowl of chashu (roast pork) ramen. It was easy to find, and with some difficulty I ordered a bowl of ramen and some gyoza. My ramen senses were tingling when the bowl landed in front of me - it took all of my willpower to pause for a moment and take a photo. Easily my best chashu ramen experience to date.

Later on I found an English bookshop and finally got myself a copy of the Japan lonely planet and Microserfs by Douglas Coupland (a recommendation from Adam). I was rung up by a very nice but cynical New Zealander and we talked about traveling for a bit. He pretty much told me not to go to any of the places on my list, except New Zealand of course.

Shige took me out in Shinjuku last night and I had a great time!
We had agreed to meet at the Shinjuku station’s east exit ticket gate at 6pm. I got there at 6:05 after mistakenly stopping at Shibuya (1 stop too early on the Yamanote line) and walked around for a bit looking for Shige. Shinjuku station is the largest and busiest train station in Tokyo (the world?). I did finally make it to the east gate after finding the east south gate… Even standing right there at the gate, it took me another 30 minutes to finally spot Shige, who had been waiting for me the whole time.

He took me to a great (and cheap!) restaurant and we enjoyed a light dinner and several drinks before he took me to this tiny bar a few blocks away. His friends were working the bar and there was only a small handful of people inside including a belligerent (but entertaining) woman. We enjoyed many more drinks, sang some karaoke, and I met some great people. I really wish I could have stayed longer, but my hotel requires that I be in by 1am every day. Shige walked me back to the station and I made it home just in time - 1am exactly.

Today Shige and I took a day trip to Kamakura, a quiet town about an hour outside of Tokyo that is home to many temples and shrines, including the famous Daibatsu statue (13.5 meter tall bronze buddha). I woke up early and met Shige at a train station and we rode out to Kita-Kamakura to start walking south through town, visiting a bunch of temples along the way.

It was fantastic to have Shige as a guide - he pointed out a lot of things I would never have noticed and explained a bit about buddhist and shinto practices. Inbetween temple visiting we stopped for lunch (kaiten-zushi-ya!) and looked at souveneir shops. It was a really nice day.

Afterwards we went out in Shinjuku with some of Shige’s friends (Keiko, Nozomi and Sean) to an Irish pub. It was nice to be out with a group of people who can speak English!