yesterday i wandered around this one section of a suburb of tokyo i had read that the gainax store was in… unfortunately since i only knew the approximate whereabouts, i wandered around town and never found it. i did, find (megatokyo readers, take note) an anna miller’s restaurant where i had not been expecting to find one. so, after wandering around for ages, and having already eaten food in another restaurant, i stopped in anna miller’s for some cherry pie and coffee. ^_^

then i went back into tokyo proper and went to akihabara to poke around since it was getting dark and i wanted to see the electronics neighborhood all lit up. they really ought to have a street there named “electric avenue”, i say. anyway, akihabara is like an electrical engineer’s amusement park – yeah, they’ve got computer and gadget and appliance stores, and they’ve even got the occasional anime store (like gamers, which i also stopped in), they’ve got these stores and booths and kiosks with all sorts of bits and pieces and whatnots and doodads for making electrical stuff. it’s like a giant maze on the inside where some of these kiosks are…

when the shops there started to close, i went to my ryokan (japanese inn) where i was going to stay for the night. the place was small and bare-bones, but the manager was cool and spoke english, and he told me that there was a sento (public bath with really hot water) about 2 minutes away that i could try if i wanted to. so, after settling in, i found my way there and soaked up. when people or tourist guides say that sento are hot, they are NOT kidding. first you soap up and shower, and once you’re all cleaned up you soak in this big tub with scalding hot water, and when you can’t stand it anymore you get out and fill up a bucket with water and wash yourself off. it was rather nice, but left me feeling rather warm, lightheaded, and “rubbery” (i guess you could call it that – it was a little hard to walk when i was done since i was shaking).

today since i got up i’ve gone just straight back to the tokyo international forum for the free use of internet. it snowed along the way here, but it seems that now it’s turned to rain (which sucks, since i don’t have an umbrella or my indiana jones hat to keep me dry). the manager said that it’s very rare for it to snow in tokyo, too.

one thing that i like about tokyo so far is that each day i’ve been wandering around i’ve seen something interesting – the other day i saw someone (some famous japanese guy) signing autographs for some fans in ginza, and right now they’re doing a photo shoot for some ad in the plaza under the overhang right across from me… i think it’s probably an ad for audi cars, because they had a lady (sexy redhead) pose next to one car, and then they bundled her off before i could take a picture from inside the building here. now they’re bringing in another car (can’t tell what company makes it, though, but the first one i can clearly see is an audi) for another picture.

today my plans are to go back to akihabara (probably later in the day so it’s dark outside and it’ll be all lit up), so maybe before then during the day i’ll stop by shinjuku (what some are saying is becoming the next akihabara), and maybe around 2 – 4 pm i might stop by the sumo stadium (standing room only tickets are only about 500 yen, and 2-4 pm is when the higher-ranking wrestlers compete). i really wish it would stop raining… maybe i’ll have to look for an umbrella instead… ^^;;