Steven Chew: Master of the Tokyo Metro

....well sorta. Its really not that difficult after all. Today was a fantabulous day. Brace yourself. I was a major tourist today.
My host family went to visit their grandparents today, so I explored Tokyo on my own. First I went to Koishikawa Karakoen Garden. The oldest park of its kind in Japan. Beautiful....though all the signs were in Japanese and my English map didn't have much to offer. The garden was also really close to the Tokyo Dome, and the Tokyo Giants had a game, but I opted to skip it.
Next I went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which had history about Tokyo starting from the Edo Period during the time of Daimyo and Samurai, up until around World War II. The above picture is me in a replica of one of those box things that they used to carry the Shogun around in. It was pretty baller. After not fully understanding the significance of things at the garden, I decided to use one of those audio tours. It cost me 1000 Yen, which is a little more than 10 dollars. But when I get to the exhibit, I realize that everything is translated to English anyway. So I got kinda upset because I felt like I just wasted a ten bucks that could have been used on a good ramen lunch. But it turns out the $10 is just a deposit. Which means....
After the museum I was really hungry so I went to a ramen-ya. At many ramen restaurants in Japan, there is a little machine where you order your food. It prints you a ticket, and then you give it to the waiter or waitress. Its very convenient since it has pictures and you don't have to embarrass yourself if you're Japanese is sub-par. At any rate, I still got a bit confused because the lady asked me if I wanted a small, medium or large ramen. I had already paid, so I didn't really understand, but when she said it wasn't any more expensive I went for the large. Also, I love Japanese beer. A lot.
After this I went to the Imperial Palace in Hibiya. Well...sort of. I didn't really realize that there was so little to see. This is the residence of the Emperor of Japan, who isn't really a political figure so much as the face of Japan and an ambassador. Real government power lies in the hands of the Prime Minister. Anyway, but the time I went to the palace it was raining pretty hard. Not only that, you can really only look from outside the gates. It looked like a pretty sweet place to live...from what I saw..haha

Finally, I thought this was really cool. Its a big statue of Kasunoke Masushige. To tell you the truth I didn't really know who he was until I read the wikipedia link above...but he sounds like a bad ass.

After that I went to a book store in Otemachi and considered by Harry Potter in Japanese so I could practice my reading, but decided to wait it out because my host little brother bought a used copy for only a dollar somewhere.

Short anecdote-
Every time I was walking to my respective destinations or riding the train, I was listening to Michael Jackson (the story of his death was all over Japanese news...it was rather surprising). Anyway, we all know how much I enjoy music and sometimes drift off into my own world. I was on a relatively empty train this morning and listening to some Jackson 5 and started bobbing my head and dancing a bit in my seat. An old lady next to me started laughing, so we had a short conversation about how I come from Los Angeles and love Michael Jackson.

In fact, everywhere I went today, if I was listening to MJ it was a bit of a struggle not to dance.

I know...sad.