Ujano has no posse

Walking back from the station I did a double take because I thought Andre's posse had made it to Japan. FYI if you don't get that reference, the artist who created that phenomenon also happened to do a rather iconic poster of our President. Poor Ujano, he has no posse.

Tsukiji's (築地市場)

Not being used to the time change, it was pretty easy getting up at 4:30AM and heading out to go be a tourist at Tsukiji's market. This market handles >$5B of seafood related business every year and is a bustling complex filled with industry folks, some tourists, and anyone wanting to eat the freshest sushi in the world in the tiniest restaurants...While bustling off the not-crowded train in the morning I ran into some guy from Puget Sound, heard some Americans who seemed to be really good at speaking Chinese, and ran into a Japanese tourist as lost as we were who helpfully asked for directions. She ran into me again in the subway leaving the market and we actually "conversed" a little. She was from Nara, was at Tsukiji's for the 2nd time, went there for sushi, and bought some Azuki Dango to bring back.

Yes, yes we are.

If you need McDonald's any hour of the day Shinjuku has them. You could see standard golden arches signage from a ways away but as you got close to it they had a nice sign telling you that just as your will was about to run out, you only had 0m to go before reaching it...Their newest burger is the "Big America" California burger. I passed and found a sushi place that was both good and for what I had, was maybe half the price you would pay at a mid level sushi place in SD.

We need a Sofmap...

Ok so this is the computer geek in me talking but Sofmap is a cool store. It's like a corporate mom and pop computer shop with a ton of inventory. You can actually pick up and handle almost everything except memory/flash and CPUs but even with those you can see them and they mark the stepping so you can be extra picky if you want. Prices seem a bit higher on systems here than in the US even taking into account the exchange rate but they have a great selection. They stock every component needed to build a PC, and even some, er, creative things. For instance, they had a very specific plush bacon and lettuce cheeseburger thing that you kind of sandwich dirty CD/DVDs in to clean them. The manufacturer makes several different burger versions. Oh, and a Lucky Star Konata flash drive. Buffalo makes them, along with a lot of questionable NASes.

Ueno park...

Ueno park and the Tokyo National Museum was on the list for today. As I arrived there it was hard to tell if the hordes of Japanese heading towards the TNM was normal or not. I followed and ended up seeing a great exhibit commemorating the 400 years that have passed since the death of Hasegawa Tohaku. The Pine Trees work and the >30ft. tall Death of Buddha painting were amazing. After checking out the rest of the musem (found the first groups of American tourists since coming here), checking out the park, the homeless people, and watching some baseball practice it was time to head to Akihabara...

新宿

After getting some dinner it was time to head back and check out Shinjuku at night. I know I said earlier that Shinjuku station sees around 4M passengers daily but it's hard to describe just how big the place is underground and how many different exits and entrances there are. As Wikipedia says, there are over 200(!) exits to the station! My hotel's near the new south exit but last night after walking underground for probably 15 minutes inside the station trying to figure out where to go I ended up out the west exit. It probably took another 15 minutes to wrap back around the plazas and skyscrapers to get to the original area I was aiming for...

らーめん！

One of the reasons for coming to Japan was to find good ramen. In researching this important topic I came across Go Ramen! a few months ago. At the time I only paid attention to the Thai green curry ramen review and thought, wow this sounds good. So last night, besides learning why it's important to pay attention to whether a train is special express or limited special express (or any other type) I headed out to Bassanova ramen somewhere to try some. Little did I know that Keizo, the author of goramen is now working there full time and came from LA (and a UC) to learn the art of making ramen and bring it back to LA. It was great talking with him and the ramen was awesome. Check it out if you're ever in the area.