Day 2: Tokyo; Institute for Nature Study, Meiji Ginju, Shibuya

 In the evening I walked about a minute mile to the next suburb over to get dinner with my mom’s friend’s daughter Sarah. We’d never met before, but she lives and works here, and has for a number of years now. She was so gracious to share with me a ton of great ideas before coming over and is such a lovely person. We went to a little pay as you go sushi bar and got a few plates of dinner. We did get in trouble at one point, we think for talking too loudly, lol. We were disturbing the peace. I’ve noticed a lot of restaurants here seem to be catered to single diners, not large groups. She told me about getting stamps at all the train stations, there are digital versions and physical stamps at all the stations! I decided that was a fun idea so she took me to the 100 yen store ($.62) and I got a little notebook. 

100 yen store. Wow. What a deal. Honestly, it’s kinda crazy how good of deals the 100 yen stores are. The one we went to was 3 stories tall, and had everything you could want. Ceramic flatware? Got it. Need an egg container for camping? Got it. Make up? Got it. Snacks? Got it. Stationary, rain coat, chargers, sunglasses, gardening supplies, shovels, car supplies, appliances, everything. They’ve got it and it’s nearly all 100 yen, and way better quality than the stuff you get at our $1 (now $1.25) stores. We were talking and you could certainly stock your entire kitchen/home with it, and it wouldn’t just be plastic junk, it’s actually quite nice. I picked up snacks, sunglasses, and a notebook. We parted ways after that, as everything was closing at 8pm lol. Hopefully we will be able to meet up again before I leave, she was lovely. 

Once again I woke up bright and early, 4am. It’s not so bad though, I lay in bed for an hour then walk to Family Mart grab brekkie and a coffee and head back to my hostel to work for a few hours. 

My work day ends as people start getting up around me and I chat a bit with the other hostel guests. Everyone has been nice and friendly and interesting. 

First on my agenda was the “Institute for Field Study”. A conservation area in Tokyo with lots of birds and plants. It’s so interesting how similar some plants are across the world. I saw so many plants that looked just like a successional upland mixed woodland or slope forest in North Florida. A canopy of oaks that don’t look like the oaks I’m used to, Maples with tiny leaves, cypress that aren’t in swamps, and many other beautiful trees. It was like I stepped into a different dimension, everything was vaguely familiar, but not quite ‘right’. I took sooooooo many photos and videos of plants and bugs and a snake! I think I’ll do a separate post just about the place and the animals. Otherwise this will get quite long, and it may take me a while to figure any of them out. The best thing about solo travel is I don’t feel bad making someone wait while I take my five million photos of plants for hours and hours. 

On my way out I stopped in a restaurant that looked good. How I pick my restaurants: look inside, the tables should be 3/4 full, enough seats I won’t have to wait, but not empty. It’s worked pretty well so far. I ended up at a ramen place, and lucky me they had an English menu! I got udon noodles with shredded yams and quail egg. I had a perfect view into the kitchen and I watched as one cook made fresh noodles, while the others prepared the toppings. The noodles and soup were delicious, although the texture of the shredded yams wasn’t my favorite. 

Next I went to the Shibuya to see the scramble. The Shibuya scramble is the intersection at Shibuya station where the train lets out onto a large intersection. Like if the main subway, that everyone took let out all the passengers right into the middle of time square. It’s pure insanity. In fact it’s such a mess it’s famous for being a mess. Anyway, as a person without much affinity for large crowds of tourist nor shopping, Shibuya was not really for me. Not particularly surprising, I was there for 5 minutes and continued onto someone more to my taste. 

The next station is Yoyogi, with Meiji Jingu. Meiji Jingu is a Shinto shrine dedicated to Empror Meiji and Empress Shōken. It’s 170 acres containing shrines and large swatches of forest. I walked a loop around it viewing many gorgeous shrines and trees, listening to the many birds that call it home. 

Around 5 I headed back to my hostel to rest a bit, before heading back out for dinner, looking for a place near my hostel. Similarly, I went and looked for a busy spot and went in. It was a small, locals bar that also served food cooked over a grill. Unfortunately, they did not have an English menu, but with google translate, I asked the guy next to me if he would recommend something. He ordered me 5 small plates. A soy marinated pork skewer. Potatoes with cheese and salmon eggs. Grilled chicken thigh skewer. A soft boiled egg wrapped in bacon and grilled. And a different pork skewer. He explained (over google translate) that they are “Tokyo cuisine” and the method of cooking over the grill is unique to Tokyo. It was all sooooo delicious. Him and I and another local ended up chatting for a while. They gave me a bunch of cool ideas of places to go in Japan if I can find time. They both live locally, one was in his 60s and the other was closer to my age. They told me they go to this restaurant multiple times a week and they knew everyone else at the bar with us. They were super kind and it was nice to meet them and chat. They had so many questions and it was fun trying to explain things to them. One works in movies and is involved in making a Japanese interpretation of Night of the Living Dead which sounded like a lot of fun, and the other is a city planner. Talking with strangers is always really great, but I try to be careful with explaining what I’m doing. I don’t love people knowing I’m traveling alone, so I usually tell them I’m meeting my aunt and uncle in the afternoon or tomorrow, and just say they got here later than I did. I don’t enjoy, nor am I very skilled at, lying, but it’s just a bit safer that way. I also tell people where I’m going, but I’ll change the order of where I’m going. It’s a small thing, but it lets me share and get info and chat without compromising my security. 

I headed back to my hostel and did a quick load of laundry (there is no drier so it’s hang drying so I wanted to give it time to dry before I head out in a couple days) and now it’s time for a nice sleep. I’ll write some more on the nature if I’m up to it in the morning. 

Here’s the stations, I came and went from (not transfers) today