Week 2
Compared to last week's hectic schedule, this week was the opposite. This is because May 3-5th are national holidays in Japan. Particularly, May 3rd is a celebration of the Japanese constitution which came into effect in May 3rd, 1947. May 5th is Children's Day in Japan, dating back to ancient times and becoming a national holiday in 1948. Since having these two days off with a day in the middle is awkward, in 2007 the Japanese government moved a nearby national holiday on April 29th, celebrating the birthday of the influential Emperor Shōwa, to May 4th to fill the gap and called it Greenery Day as attributed to the Emperor's love of plants. For me, it meant having a 2 day work week and a 5 day weekend.
During those 2 work days, I was able to plan what I would do over the weekend and to try some sushi that my boss recommended. Although the layout of the sushi was familiar, there were many pieces I had not tried before and one that was extra delicious. I don't know the name of it, but I'm going back to have it again and find its name next week.
I also realized that there is a brewery right behind my apartment. I haven't tried any of it yet but it's on my list.
Getting ready Wednesday morning, I was about to set out for the day when I, on a whim, decided to empty my flyer-filled mailbox in the lobby. It turned out I had mail! Normally I would be excited for snail-mail, but this was intimidating because it looked official. It was in Japanese and had dates written on it.
Using the offline Japanese translation from Google Translate (which I highly recommend to anyone going to Japan without knowing much Japanese), I saw that it was from a post office but couldn't discern the address in order to go and ask about it. Being both too lazy to take the elevator back up to my apartment (I was already all the way downstairs) and wanting to go out for a walk, I decided to try asking for directions. I left my apartment building and walked until I got to a busy street and asked the first person I saw, who was an 81 year-old man named Sato-san. Sato-san was slowly on his way to find a nice restaurant but very kindly called the post office for me, found which post office I should be going to, pointed me in the right direction, and wished me good luck.
After walking a few blocks in the direction Sato-san recommended, I found the post office and showed my slip to the clerk who then asked me, "Is this your address?". I was confused at this, how else could I get a slip with my name on it if it wasn't my address? I said "yes" and then he directed me to make a check mark in one of the squares and give it to him. I did so and then left confused yet satisfied in my accomplishment and resumed my original plan of going to Akihabara.
Akihabara is a famous tourist area in Tokyo which features many attractions for anime (Japanese cartoons) and electronics fans. When I got off at the station, it was more crowded than any area I had seen during the previous work week. Also, unlike the crowds I normally see during the work week, which are Japanese business people going to work and Japanese children off to school, this crowd was very diverse. I walked out of the station and into the streets and looked around.
For those readers who have been to anime conventions or the like, multiply that experience by 9000. Many buildings had the SEGA brand name on them and had up to 5 floors filled with arcade games like, Luigi's Mansion, or claw game machines where one could attempt to win a plushy, poster, wallet, or some other trinket of anime memorabilia, none of which I recognized. Most street level shops sold tourist trinkets with "I ❤ Japan" and similar stuff, or food and ice cream. Also lol at the 6 legged man in the panorama.
I also found an entire floor dedicated to the same video game which involved players fighting with giant robots.
Besides anime, Akihabara is also famous for its electronics. In fact the nickname of the area is Akihabara Electric Town because it became a major shopping center for electronic goods after World War II. Today, it has many computer stores similar to future shop, one of which contained the smiling robot. It also has countless mini-shops selling electronics (see video) that a tinkerer in Canada would have to order off of the internet and pay some stupid amount for shipping.
After walking around for a few hours and buying a few things, I set out for my second tourist spot and the world's second tallest structure, the Tokyo Skytree.
In order to get to the tower I would need to take a train from Akihabara and make a transfer. Since the distance the second train traveled was very small, I decided to just walk from the first station. How hard could it be? When I got off at the first station though, I had a short bit of panic of how I would be able to find the tower. Fortunately, the Skytree is incredibly easy to find. So I started walking... and walking.... and walking... turns out a building that big (634 meters tall) can be deceptively far away.
I got to the Skytree at about 3pm and was very tired by this point. I wanted to go to the top so found a line up for the elevator and was given a voucher. The voucher wasn't a ticket but rather a voucher to stand in line at a certain time for the opportunity to buy a $20 ticket to go to up part way and a $10 ticket at that point to go all the way to the top. The time given to me was in 5 hours but after browsing around the base of the tower I found that one could buy "express" tickets for $40 which could get one to the top within 2 hours. What a deal! Lol. In the end, because Sarah would be joining me in Tokyo for 2 weeks of vacation after my internship, I decided to hold off on going up the tower so that we could enjoy the view together - how romantic and whatnot.
On Thursday, following advice from Sarah, I joined a couple of groups in Tokyo. One which joined English speakers with Japanese speakers to make friends and talk and another to talk about robots and artificial intelligence. The English-Japanese group was meeting on Thursday evening so I went out to find it and talk to some people. The meet up was at Mulligan's, an Irish pub which I thought was ironic since it was Japanese Greenery day. This observation of mine was met with chuckles with the new friends I made. I met some interesting people and we had good conversations about a wide range of things.
After the pub, I went grocery shopping and found a cute mistranslation on the back of some vitamin supplements.
"This jelly beverage that can quickly replenish energy. It is the best for life in a busy contemporary. Please before it does sports."
On Friday, I cleaned and chilled at home. It was nice to just lounge around, even though I lacked a chair to lounge in despite my blue stool thing that I made last week. That is why, after having a great time playing the Sims with Sarah over Skype, I was determined to buy a chair. I looked up IKEA and was that there was one but that it would cost $30 to get there and back and it would take 4 hours of my day. I also saw that there was another mall I hadn't gone to before and headed there.
On the first floor of the mall, I found many shoe, clothing, and accessory stores but no chairs. I climbed some escalators to the 2nd floor and found a similar layout and some elevators which went all the way to the 13th floor. I decided to start my search from the top down instead of the bottom up. When the doors opened, I found myself in a mall which was a cross between Value Village, Costco, and a farmers market, several tables were setup with families selling bento boxes with homemade sushi. Although the selection for women's pants was impressive, I still wasn't able to find a chair so I went down a floor.
Floor 12 had furniture. In fact, floor 12 was almost all furniture stores. I even found a taunting office chair with lights under it. Browsing through a few stores I realized something: Furniture is very expensive in Japan.
I finally settled on a bar stool with a back rest as it was on sale from $245 to $96. This would give me versatility with my cabinet-turned-standing desk. I paid then took the stool and walked back home. I was getting some looks from people I was passing as I walked, which I found pretty funny.
Today (Sunday) I have a meeting with someone from the robots and artificial intelligence group. They messaged me and wanted to know what stuff I have been working on at the University of Alberta. I'm looking forward to it and afterwards relaxing the rest of my weekend away.