When Japanese people have umbrellas, you should always take an umbrella, even if the weather seems fine. Corollary: if you don’t see any clear convenience store umbrellas, it’s probably just going to be a sunny day, and you can forego the umbrella. Today, it was just the latter – many ladies with umbrellas. Foolishly I left my sunhat at home. I would regret this.
The news people have been very excited over the start of the rainy season and the approach of the typhoon. I learned from the extremely dedicated weather lady that the rainy season is triggered by hot air from the Philippines charging up and adding moisture to the air as it moves north to Japan. Before typhoons approach, it gets hot. Really hot. Minnesota summers have nothing on the sauna of oppression that is Japanese summer. And this isn’t even the worst of it yet!
I meant to go to Shinjuku Garden this morning, which google told me was open all the time. Somehow I forgot it was a gated garden with operating hours (and you have to pay to get in), so when I left for my 630 AM early morning walk to do something that was not being in my room, I disappointedly found it was closed. Should have gone to Ueno instead! I wanted some serious hydrangeas.
From my long walk to Shinjuku along the garden path, I was at least able to see a few hydrangeas, and it was shaded from the inferno that was the 7am sun.
From Shinjuku, I went over to Ueno park, which would definitely be open before 9 am as it has no gates. When I arrived, it was already getting crowded with people who were eager to get in to the zoo, which opened at 10. It’s the panda’s first birthday soon and panda mania is beginning to take over! I, however, did not have panda mania, and while Shan shan is very cute, I am not gonna be in the hot sun more than necessary.
Instead, I explored the park’s various shrines and numerous hydrangeas.
From Ueno, I went to Asakusa for food and Sensoji shrine. Asakusa is always crowded with people – there are many covered streets with Japanese souvenir shops – artsy and traditional alike. The street food is tasty and numerous. Really, most people come to see the big shrine and go shopping. Despite the oppressive heat, it was packed.
After nearly melting and dying in the heat, I went to Akihabara, home of electronics and a veritable nerd’s paradise, to finish shopping and hit up some of my favorite stores.
Akiba on the weekends is packed with people there to see the sights and to browse wares, from secondhand electronics to figures and memorabilia from games, shows, and anything else people geek out over. I really enjoy browsing the figure and comic shops in particular.
I became extremely burdened with very large bags towards the end of my shopping run. I awkwardly bonked many people on my way to the station, and nearly sat on a small child on the train who darted around the bags to steal one of the only seats that popped up. He was admonished by his mother. There is justice in this world.
And last but not least…rounded out the day with some extremely good yakiniku with a former coworker! For dessert, we had gyoza from a gyoza place in Shinjuku called Shibuya gyoza, which was delicious and cheap, despite its very confusing name.
