Nakameguro (and some other stuff)

Nakameguro is a section of Tokyo which contains a beautiful little river lined by sakura trees (cherry blossom trees).  As mentioned in the previous post, I met a nice young lady at a burger shop and she showed me a few areas.  Note bene:  She studied English in Toronto and works for a clothing store in Tokyo in HR, doing international recruiting.  I'm pretty sure she just wanted to practice English with a native speaker, but that's cool with me.  She was really nice and it was a great afternoon.

So, after finding Shibuya too crowded, she suggested Nakameguro, which is two stops from Shibuya.  We hopped on the Toyoko line (I think) and headed over.  It was raining, but still nice.  The sakura trees have started losing their cherry blossoms, which is sad.  But such is life!  It was still beautiful.  We hung out at a coffee shop for a couple of hours and after walking along the river, then headed to check out the new flagship Uniqlo store (her employer) in Ginza.  They have branches all over Tokyo, but she wanted to see the new store because she felt she should be able to discuss it with potential recruits.  So, off we went.  Of course, I wanted to see this area in the sun, so this morning I headed over (sadly, by myself.  But soloing is ok!)

I'll post most of these pics without comment.


JR Toyoko line in Shibuya station.  Kinda crowded.  I was actually going to a pretty clear berth to the left, so no worries.  Until the train arrived and emptied.  A stone against the current, I was!

So, here are a bunch of pics from Nakameguro.  A VERY nice walk along the river.  I really wish I knew of this place a week or two ago, when the sakura were in full bloom.  We had a couple of storms lately, so maybe they've been stripped a bit by the wind.  I guess I'll just have to come back in a year or two.

This is a cute little restaurant along the walkway.  I was a bit early, and places were just opening up.

Cherry blossom petals litter the ground.  I saw an adorable little girl picking some up and putting them in a plastic bag.  Very cute.  Not really something I should be taking a picture of, though.

Apropos of nothing, but I loved watching these dogs.  The bigger, lighter one kept flinching back whenever the littler one would make a move.  And a minute later the kid was kneeling down trying to hug the bigger dogs.  No one was bitten, so it all worked out well.

A yes...  Snobbish Babies.  Not sure who thought of that name...  It's evidently a "high-end canine clothing store and cafe."  Whatever, weird dog owners.

 

I'm told this sign says "forbidden for parking"  And rightly so, as it's prime sitting real estate.

The following few pics are away from the river, in a commercial/residential area I wandered around.  Just kind of...  normal, I guess.  Very pleasant.  I can see myself living here.  Of course, getting a job would be impossible, and the rent is likely sky-high, but those are just implementation details.

This is completely unrelated to sakura.  I wanted to show the gap between train and platform.  It's like 4 - 6 inches.  Crazy!  Little kids sometimes literally jump across.  Dangerous.

And here was lunch!  Butadon.  Rice bowl with thinly sliced pork.  Very tastey.  Not a fan of the iced tea, though.  It's not just this tea.  I don't like any iced tea.  Most places give you ice water, so a little surprised here.  It's ok, though.  I had a bottle of water in my bag.  I'm prepared!

So.  This is kind of a common fashion here.  Focus on the boots!  This is a guy wearing a leopard print jacket and leather boots.  The kind heavy metal guys used to wear in the late 80's.  If I still had my shaggy/long hair from a few years ago, I'd buy a pair, but I'm afraid straight-laced, professional-looking Kevin can't rock this look.  Too bad, world.

Rainy Day in Tokyo... So I Walked Around Shinjuku.

Pretty crappy day, so I thought I'd explore the busiest train station in the world.  Maybe that's not the best decision, as it's...  busy.  But it was interesting.  I quickly bored of it, actually, and headed over to Shibuya to find something to eat (Shinjuku has a ton of options, but everything seemed a bit pricey).

Kind of out of order, as I renamed things.  Anyway...  Here's my lunch!  A burger at JS Burger Cafe, in Shibuya.  It's a teriyaki burger, with onions, lettuce, cheddar and mayo!  So.  Tastey!  The fries are quite good, too.  Which is not surprising, as everything is awesome over here.  And an O.J., because I'm healthy.  You can see the provided sleeve in the lower right hand side.  You slide the burger in and eat from that.  I know this from watching the girl next to me.  She managed to daintily eat her burger pretty neatly.  I managed to have mine fall apart, and had to empty it onto my plate and eat it the latter half a knife and fork.  Of course, I *did* befriend the girl and spent the afternoon being shown around a few areas of Tokyo (see my later post on Meguro, which I visited again today!)  So, pretty good day.

The next few are random shots in and around Shinjuku station.  It's basically a station / mall below ground, and goes on forever.

Camera shop in Shinjuku Station.  It's very well lit, loud (both aurally and visually), and jam-packed full of merchandise.  They have employees stand at the entrances with megaphones, touting deals inside.  I guess. I can understand like 10% of what they're saying.  Probably less than 10%.

Some More Random Pics!

Mostly just wandering around at this point.  These are just some random pics snapped along the way.  I may have posted a few of these before, but I'm too lazy to check (a common theme).

These first two are just outside...  Ikebukuo Station!

This is the automated train to Odaiba, which is on Tokyo's bay.  It was raining, and nighttime, so not much to see.  But it was an awesome night anyway.  This is from the front seat, where it's like you're on a roller coaster.  A slow-moving roller coaster (not that I like roller coasters).

Here I was just trying to take a picture of all the people out in Shinjuku during the rain.  Just happens to be a cute girl in the center there.  That's just Tokyo.  You can't throw a stone without hitting a cute girl.  I've tried.

This one does confuse me.  Tokyo Teleport Station.  This one went up on FB, for obvious reasons (i.e., it's awesome).   Again, at Odaiba (not sure why it's after the Shinjuku one above).

This was a dinner I cooked myself!  It's nice to have veggies once in a while since I'm usually ordering meat dishes, and it doesn't seem common to get veggie sides.  I'm absolutely LOVING the food here, but once in a while veggies are in order.  This was one of those times.  There was another hotel guest having out in the lobby, and he seemed interested so I asked him to take a piece.  He reacted very well, and gave several compliments.  Cooking win for me.

And here is my signature hot chocolate (hotta cocoa, as we say here in Japan).  The nights are wonderfully cool here.  Perfect for a hotta cocoa.  Fun fact:  I was reading a history of the American Revolutio.

This is the toilet in the lobby of the hotel.  The toilets up near the rooms do have the heated seats, but no control panel.  The lid automatically raises when you enter the stall.  I didn't try and of the controls, even though they've got pictures.  I'm still pretty leery of these things.  You can pry my toilet paper from my cold, dead, likely disease-infested hands.  I do like the heated seats, though, and will be investigating those when I return (though my bathroom doesn't have an outlet.  I'm pretty sure that violates building codes, but whatever).

This is the rail yard at Minami-senju station, where I get off the metro for the hotel.  There is a walkway over the tracks that I take each day.  Interesting view.

Rows of guitars at a shop in Shibuya.  I actually asked to play a couple, because it's been like 2 weeks since I've picked up a guitar.  I played a couple of Ernie Ball Musicman guitars (which are awesome).  Plugged into a Marshall JVM210H with a 2x12, which was frigging amazing!  I only played for a few minutes before the guy came and stood over me.  I think we both knew I wasn't buying, and he wanted me to leave.  Or something.  Made me uncomfortable, so I took off.  At least I could jam for a few minutes, though.  If it was the states, I'd just tell him to leave me alone for a bit to get a feel for the guitar, but I'm trying to be nice over here.

And here's the view from the McDonald's in Shibuya.  One of the McD's, at least.  There are several.  You order on the 1st floor, which is tiny, just a counter for ordering, then you walk up to the 2nd or 3rd floors to sit and eat.  Those floors are also tiny, but that's where you eat.  And people watch!

Shinkuku at night, just out of the train station.  Not sure which one, because there's like 1000 exits.

This is a nice little path I found in Shinjuju, between some buildings.  Kind of out of place, and seemingly a good place to mug or rape someone, but it was a nice walk.

On the way back, stopped by Ueno.  Here's the shrine.  Kind of late, but still a lot of people milling about.