Our first stop was one of the many cat cafes in Ikebukuro. Basically, you pay a fee (about $10/hour in this place) and get to hang out and drink tea and coffee and pet the cats. There were several in this place, and they were really fairly inert. They obviously do treat them well and keep people from hassling them, but the cats are so used to being pestered they just kind of lay there. They do have places they can escape to, and the attendants are watchful. The rules specifically prohibit bothering them while they sleep and picking them up. They also regularly hand out packets of snacks, which turns them from furry little carpets into blurs of feigned adoration. Anyway, it was a great place to visit, and I got a little bit of my snuggle impulse worked out.
So far Ikebukuro has been my favorite part of Tokyo. Akihabara was a little overwhelming (and is also where I got spit on), and the part of Shinjuku we saw was beautiful, but a little sterile. Ikebukuro is lively and looks very different from any Western city, but seemed relaxed enough for me to enjoy walking around. I wish I had gotten a shot of the police box shaped like an owl!
Our next stop was the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building,a great place to get a panorama of the city. Going to the 45th floor in either tower is free of charge, and they have a cafe and gift shop in each (thanks, by the way, Keleih!). We were very fortunate, they were running a test of a handheld tour-guide device (check the pictures below) with the amusing title of the "Tokyo Ubiquitous Technology Project". Basically, they gave us these handhelds for free. They interact with various key points around the observation lounge, and display relevant guides and information on the screen. You can touch a building's image and it will give you a little information. Interesting stuff, very user-friendly, multiple-language support, and very good at matching the view.
Unfortunately the cloud cover prevented us from getting a view of the mountains, but the view was amazing nonetheless. I actually learned quite a bit from the Ubiquitous Guide. I cannot express how vast the city looks from up there. It goes out infinitely in every direction, just a sea of buildings. The only spots of green I could see from that height (the streets are nicely manicured, but from that height you can't see it) were the area around the Meiji Shrine, and the grounds of the temple right at the base of the Municipal Building.
I did look up Ubiquitous Technology when I got home, since we spent a bunch of time chuckling over the name (mostly because we didn't know exactly what it meant). This Wikipedia article gives an explanation and is worth a read. I'd say the guide they were testing does a good job of striving towards the goals of ubiquitous technology, but I can't help feeling sad about how quickly those would be wrecked at a US tourist site. After living here for a while, I'm not sure I buy that the Japanese are more polite than Americans overall, but they do have much more collective respect for other people's things, and I would hope we as a society could learn to strive towards achieving a similar attitude.
We finished out the day with board games and sushi. It really is nice having people around with similar taste in table games. And, well, sushi. I like sushi. Rather a lot.
I'll finish out with some shots of Oyama, mostly flowers. This is pretty much a part of my daily life, walking to the stores down at the train station and back. It's about 40 minutes by foot from my dorm, and a pleasant walk except for the sweat. In the rain it's pretty miserable. But pretty much, this is where I go for everything. There are better stores, but I can actually get here on foot easily.
That's all for now, folks. Maybe my next post will be less than a week behind what I am up to...
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