On our first full day in Tokyo, I foolishly decided that Patrick should take the camera to the set with him because I didnt want to lug it all over town. Which means that most of the photos I have for this days report are crappy iPhone pix. Sorry! Fortunately I had the camera with me the rest of the time.
We woke up pretty early and decided to get up and go looking for breakfast. Unfortunately, the only place open at 6am was McDonalds. We figured at least wed get to try their crazy Japanese food but found only Egg McMuffins on the menu.
This could be a McDonalds breakfast anywhere!
The one difference was that the hashbrowns were amazing light and crispy and greaseless. I guess thats only to be expected in the country that invented tempura!
We sat upstairs at a counter under a window with a great view. From there, we spotted our first secret Japanese ad by an American stara coffee vending machine with a giant picture of a bored-looking Tommy Lee Jones.
It makes you wonder if he was the inspiration for Bill Murrays character in
Lost In Translation. Later I saw him in a TV ad for Boss coffee, speaking Japanese! Spotting endorsements by American stars who never shill anything in the States became one of our favorite pastimes.
After breakfast we went back to the room and Patrick fixed up one of the puppets while I read one of my guidebooks and fell back asleep for about an hour. We also took a couple more pix of the hotel room, such as this prize-winning shot of the closet.
I guess I wanted to show the rooms only storage space?
The toiletry collection was pretty impressive, if somewhat random (elastic headbands seem to be a big deal over there, cuz we got one in every room!). I read somewhere that the Japanese dont travel with toiletries and that hotels supply everything you might need. This doesnt really work if youre a beauty-product, um, hooker like I am, but you could prolly get by if you were a guy.
Another Japanese invention (I assume) that I thought was quite nifty your hotel room key card activates the lights. You keep it in this tray while youre in the room, and then when you leave and take it with you, all the lights automatically go out. The only problem is that its quite easy to forget to take your key with you when you leave!
Right before Patrick had to leave for the shoot, we grabbed a bite to eat at 7 Eleven (where I discovered these delicious crabby-eggy rice thingies mmmm!) and ate it on a bench outside the hotel. I know, I know we just ate! But we both found that all we wanted to do those first few days was eat every single food product we saw.
We were there almost three weeks, but I never did get the hang of opening the elaborately wrapped
onigiri (rice trangles stuffed with meat or veggie filling and wrapped in seaweed). The wrappers have all these arrows and numbers all over them
I dont know what I was doing wrong!
Goofus
Gallant
After lunch, Patrick went off to the studio with the camera. Until the ad debuts on April 20, the only photos I can show you from the set are these:
Craft services snack basket
Apparently each group at the shoot got one of these the puppeteers, the execs, the crew. But only the puppeteers basket was perpetually left empty and spinning
Patrick spots a freshly refilled snack basket
I decided Id spend the day checking out all the fabulous shopping areas I was interested in, since that was something Patrick wouldnt be as interested in and wouldnt feel left out of.
I went across the street to the subway station and bought my PASMO subway pass at the office because I was intimidated by the machines. I neednt have worried I used them the next day to buy Patricks pass and had no trouble. I forgot to put a little description of these in my intro, and its one of the best tips I learned for our trip, so here ya go:
PASMO/Suica: These prepaid fare cards can be used on virtually all subways, railways, and buses in Tokyo, public and private, including the Disney Resort Monorail line, and they are also accepted as a form of payment by many merchants in and around train stations. Instead of having to figure out what ticket you need for each journey (and then use the fare adjustment machines at the end of your trip if you didnt pay enough), you charge the card up like a gift card and then just swipe it over the reader at the turnstiles on your way in and out of the station. The turnstiles also display the amount remaining on the card as you walk by.
There are two brands of these cardsPAMSO and Suicabut they are interchangeable. You can use them anywhere either of them is accepted. The one you buy basically just depends on which brand is sold at the station where youre buying the card. When you buy the it, you are charged a ¥500 refundable deposit, which you can get back at any PASMO/Suica machine at the end of your trip. You can recharge the card at the same kind of machine, which is found next to the ticket machines at the station. One thing to note: You can only buy and recharge these cards with cashfor some reason, the machines dont accept credit cards, and you cant even use credit if you buy them from an agent at the station office. You have a choice of buying an anonymous card or linking your name and info to the card. If you do the latter, you can easily replace the card if it is lost or stolen (for a small fee but you retain the stored value on the card).
So I bought my PASMO and picked up an English language subway map. Then I took the subway to Tokyo Midtown, a newish office/mall/hotel complex thats prolly the most beautiful mall Ive ever seen. And I have no pictures for you, except of the art installation out front.
However, Ive put together a gallery of images on Flickr check it out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85907592@N00/galleries/72157623884512556/
And heres a heisted Flickr pic from user TokyoViews
My first stop was Muji, a housewares store that was my absolute favorite place to shop when I lived in London. No pictures here either (theres one in the Flickr set) but basically they specialize in well designed, well priced basics and sell everything from clothes and beauty products to office supplies and cleaning products. Now that good design has become more widely available in the States, my reaction to Muji this time was kinda like,
So what was my big deal with this place?
Tokyo Midtown is also jam-packed with these gorgeous, jewel box-like confectioners patisseries, chocolatiers, and fabulous bread bakeries. They seem to love their French food in Tokyo. Almost all of the shops had signs on the display cases that said No Photography, but I found a shot from Flickr user chaxiubao for ya, and theres a picture of one of the most beautiful patisseries in my Flickr set.
Until a few weeks ago, Tokyo Midtown was home to the tallest *building* in Tokyo (the tallest *structure* being Tokyo Tower apparently theres a difference), Midtown Tower. While we were in town, both were surpassed by a new skyscraper, Tokyo Sky Tree, which will actually be nearly twice as tall as Tokyo Tower when its done. Crazy! I briefly considered going up to the restaurant in the Ritz inside Midtown Tower to see the view, but I didnt want to have to pay $40 for tea. Plus, Patrick woulda killed me if Id gone without him!
Next I hoofed it over to Roppongi Hills, another glamorous mall complex and home to Tokyo City View (10th no wait, 11th now
? tallest building in Tokyo, for those of you playing along at home). One of its most famous sites is the ginormous spider sculpture, called Maman.
I couldnt get one good shot of it, so Ill give you two bad ones
And I thought somebody might be interested in this
Maybe I was starting to get mall-ed out, but I was kinda underwhelmedits more about monolithic slabs of concrete and labyrinthine levels and half levels that make it impossible to get anyplace that looks fun to explore.
Thank you Flikr user peter_r
I took a break in the lobby of the Hyatt to read my guidebook. I was bored and tired, so I decided to catch the subway to Ginza and go looking for a place mentioned in the book, 100% Chocolate Café. What could be bad? When I got up, a guy ran after me waving the bookmark I dropped, which made me love Tokyo even more.
So this is when I learned never to exit the subway without looking at the map and figuring out where Id end up. When I got out there, everything looked the same, and nothing looked like the map in my book. I was wandering around, neck craned, mouth agape, guidebook clutched to my chest, when a stranger walked up to me and asked if I needed help just like the guidebook said would happen! I pointed to 100% Chocolate Café in my book, and he motioned for me to follow him around the corner and right up to it. Fabulous!
The cafe is very chic and very tiny. I figured out later that its owned by Meiji, which is sort of the Néstle of Japan, and is like the flagship boutique for their chocolate division.
The back wall is lined with cases containing tubs of the various different kinds of chocolate they makewhich may or may not have been real. Japan is the birthplace of the fake food display, after all
They sell 56 varieties of chocolate bar, but they only have about three things on their menu! I guess I thought it would be, like, the Cheesecake Factory of chocolate. I got a small slice of cake with whipped chocolate frosting, which was OK. However, the hot chocolate was the best Ive ever had (made from melted chocolate, not powder), and frankly it was just fun to be there, in 100% Chocolate Cafe.
My Japanese wasnt good enough to learn any of this from the girls at the counter, but I later read on the Internets that the chocolates are numbered in a particular order. 122 are single-bean chocolate from the cacao of one country. 23 and 24 are bitter chocolate with small pieces of cacao beans. 2428 use different kinds of sweeteners (I tried the maple one), while 2636 are the variations of milk. 3751 are variations of flavors including fruits and herbs (they gave me a sample of lavender, and yep! It tasted like lavender!) 5254 are the healthy ones, and 55 and 56 are the historical flavors. I liked the one from 1926!
I was just like you on my first night in Tokyo, its so hard to believe you are finally there. Dreaming about it for years and its finally here. Its a lot to take in all at once. 
Looking forward to reading more.
(This is what I do while I anxiously await)
