Tuesday, May 16

Definitely woke up at 530 545 555 600 and 610 today. at 630 i decided to just get up and take a walk. mister donut wasn't open yet so i got some oj and donuts at the 99 yen store. by the time i got back more people were moving around and at about 8 we left for the Imperial Palace and stopped at ... Mister Donut, which conveniently opened at 8. at the imperial palace it was drizzling and cloudy and I tried to ask some British lady for directions but she basically had the boo-nastiest stink and didn't know anything. We walked over to the main gate where a bunch of paparazzi was waiting for the Japanese soccer team. They finally pulled up as we were walking away. Go Japan World Cup 2006!

Some of the next 30 mins ... most of it ... was devoted to finding out how to get IN to the imperial palace since we had only been walking around from outside the moat. we did get in (admission: free) and walked around, but it started raining more heavily so we left in search of an ATM. We found one in a hotel, in a complex where we would be spending the next hour or so. It was a really cool area with shops and restaurants. Most too expensive for our tastes. After taking a jaunt by Tiffany and Co, Chanel, etc, we went to eat at a traditional Japanese place. I ate teriyaki chicken with misu soup. It was really tasty, and a good deal at 900 yen until i decided to order a coke. Ended up costing an extra 368 yen ... and no refills. C'est la vie, I suppose. Next we went to a post office to exchange money since the ATM we'd found earlier didn't take foreign cards.

Across the street from the post office was Tokyo station so we decided to duck in to that to catch the subway. Lo and behold, we got lost in the tunnels and when we came i[ we were at the restaurant building from earlier. Hmph. Anyway, we hoppped on the Metro (I had bought a child's day pass for only 360 yen -- half price) and went to Shibuya -- fashion central for young girls. There was an 8 floor mall and the only stores there were girls' clothing stores. I mean for 12 or 13 year olds too. Craziness. Then Chris, Veronica, Erin, and Jodi left to go back to Senshu. I had to meet my frisbee friend.

Instead of meeting Hisa at 1600, her friend was there -- Hisa was sick -- and this other girl didn't speak any English. We threw at Yoyogi Park for a bit before I had to leave. It was fun but not as fun as it could've been because we couldn't really communicate. With not enough time to go all the way back to Senshu, I walked extensively through various areas of Tokyo ... just exploring. I had arranged to meet everyone at Hard Rock at 1900 and when I got there at 1830 they weren't there yet. I was just about to leave an hour later when they showed up and we ate there. Ridiculously expensive! I was glad to have found them though ... it's really hard to split up without cell phones and definitely very scary in a city of 33 million.

After dinner we found out that our metro tickets were only good on one line. There are actually 2 separate subway companies that operate in Tokyo, each requiring its own ticket. When we tried to get on the train, then, we were rejected at the turnstile. So we jumped over the little gate. Whoops! Getting back we basically crashed. Twas a lovely day. Tomorrow: Tokyo Disneyland!