day 57! shinjuku, takadanobaba

Oh dear. For the first time every in travel blog history, I have no pictures for today!! :( :( I'm really sorry, I know you guys are all here just for the food pics. ><

My way of apologizing.

disclaimer: No I did not actually eat this burger. and I am sad. :(

So again, not much of a plan for today. Edwin arrived in Japan today, and since he is staying in the same housing complex that we stayed in, I agreed to meet him at the station to show him the way. He'd visited Japan once or twice with his family, but he said that they went on a tour, with a tour bus, both times so he hadn't experienced the train system before. :) And it would be just cruel to abandon him in the maze of Shinjuku station now wouldn't it?

I didn't go as far as the airport since it takes a long time to get there, and it's quite expensive, but I provided instructions for how to get from the airplane to Shinjuku station (via the Narita Express train), and since he is a smart cookie I figured he would be fine.

His flight was scheduled to land at 2pm, and fortunately for once I actually checked the flight status before trying to meet him, and found out it got delayed an hour. So once again I played the waiting game....

In the end, he rented a phone at the airport so I was able to get a call with an approximate ETA. I was kind of worried though because, due to the delay, the train he got on wouldn't get in til around 5:15, and the front desk at our housing closes at 6. After 6, I think it gets more complicated and I think it would cause some trouble so I was pushing real hard to get in by 6.

There were a few wrinkles along the way, though, like we thought he'd lost his ticket, which might mean that he'd have to buy another one (which would be another $40), or try to gaijin smash his way out of the station. :p And then MY card had errors, since I didn't actually exit the station at Shinjuku so it wouldn't let me back out.

We ended up arriving about 5 minutes before 6, score! Got him all checked in and settled in and felt kinda relieved. Cuz you know, when you're responsible for someone, if anything happens then it's sort of on you, so anyway it was a relief that everything went smoothly.

He said he wasn't too tired so we went back out to walk around. Took him to eat some sushi at my new favorite sushi place. Also dropped by Don Quixote again, which I realized I didn't explain, in the last post. Don Quixote is sort of like the Tokyo equivalent of a Walmart or a Target, with TONS of different kinds of merchandise (electronics, toiletries, jewelry, food) all crammed into one, usually multi-level building. You can pretty much find anything you need there, even costumes and suitcases. People usually get a kick out of browsing around cuz you always end up finding some weird little thing you forgot you needed, and it's also a good way to kill time (just like Target at home)!

After that we went to the big building near the station, got a honey latte (if everyone is addicted to it, then they'll never take it off the menu now will they), and then checked out the arcade while we were at it. Saw people playing all sorts of versions of the JuBeat game, the one that's like DDR for your hands. Each one got more and more complicated, with spinning discs you have to press, or ones that you have to make the same actions with both of your hands. Crazy!

Oh wait! I forget, I do have a picture for today. :D I made Edwin take purikura with me even though I knew he'd hate it kekeke.

Ahahahahha the eyes!! Look at the eyes XD I'm still bummed that the smart-detect software doesn't seem to pick up on my eyes. Damned beady little asian eyes........

But look at Edwin all prettay. ahhahaha.

After purikura, I couldn't think of anything else to do near Takadanobaba and there wasn't enough time to head out somewhere, so we headed back for the apartments and that was the end of the day.

My bad for the lack of pictures, and not much adventuring today. :3 I'm gettin' lazy!