Greetings from Tokyo.. .. an amazing city.. I got here around noon. after only sleeping an hour on the 11 hour flight. Got lots of work done on the flight and watched two movies.. Little Miss Sunshine (one of my favorites) ..  and a great, great film called ‘Looking for Sugarman’.. its a documentary about this singer named Rodriguez who was virtually unknown in the US.. . nut somehow became a cult star.in South Africa during apartheid. The strange thing is .. he never knew he was a star.   I won’t give away the whole  story.. but its definitely worth watching !

I staggered off the flight in a sleep deprived haze and took an hour train ride downtown. I was all set to take a nap.. but then realized if I did I’d really be completely jetlagged tomorrow.. SO instead of sleeping, I went back  out into the city ..

 

I hopped on the JR train and took it up to Akihabara.. the electronics center of Tokyo…

 

On the way I grabbed two of my favorite triangly things.. but its a crap shoot since i cant read whats in them.. 1 turned out to be meat inside, so I just ate the sea weed,. very yummy..

 

i love looking at the weird translations on things here..im sure our names are amusing to the Japanese as well. but here is beard papa.. gotta love it !

 

and soem great product names !

 

the trains were pretty empty today.. so getting over cross town wqas pretty easy. I did notice that the skinkosen (the bullet train) was delayed due to earthquake !

Akihabara was as geeky as ever.. its a sprawling multi block area where you can find anything from transistors to TVs.. the streets are full of people trying to politely sell you stuff. I stress politely.. its not high pressure or in your face..

 

 

 

 

 

I walked the streets for several hours.. looing at shows that just sold LEFDSS, or switches, or vacuum tubes.. it was geek heaven.. even better, I didn’t buy a single thing 🙂

 

here were a couple of unusual sites, like this guy walking his pet duck.

 

i saw buildings full of manga and action figures.. and the buidligns were packed.. not just with kids.. but grownups too !

 

I even caught a short sumo match on a tv outside.. wow !

 

around 5L30 i was starving.. so i ducked into a whhole in tha wall sushi place.. it was one that you sjsut took the plates and they tallied up what you owed by the number and color of plates. It was execlent…

 

I even had Nato.. aka rotten soybeens that taste like old docks.. but in a good way !

 

I thenb made my sleepy way back to the hotel.. past full meal vending machines like this

 

past 24 hour pachinko parlors

and through the ginza night club  resturant  district.

 

now I’m home.. and barley able to stay concious.. ust got off a nice long tlak with diane.. I miss my family so much !

gotta sleep now .. gotta wake early ..

more from the road tomorrow

 

nite all, nite sam

-me