Saturday, December 30th

Yuka and I left together from Okazaki (her hometown) on the 8:33 Local. She had bought a special ticket that allows for 5 days of unlimited travel on the regular trains (no Shinkansen) for about 11,000 yen ($110). We got to Tokyo around 2pm and went to our hotel to drop off our bags. First stop was Akihabara for the freaks. Everyone tells me that the reason you go to Akihabara is for the freaks and the maid cafes, so I was ready for some freaks of the 'I dress like my favorite anime character everyday and only answer to Doraemon' kind of freaks, not the 'I love technical gadgets and can't believe you don't have a Hydrogen-powered PS24-35a Beta 100 TB harddrive yet' kind of freaks. The latter variety are much less fun to watch and the only kind that we saw there.
We stopped in Ikebukuro next, which is again, just a giant, busy, crowded section of Tokyo where you can walk around and bump into people. It was much better than Akihabara but it didn't really stand out for any reason. At least Akihabara had the body odor and sexual frustation. We passed a British pub heavily advertising its fish and chip dinner special, and Yuka, ever the Anglophile, wanted to stop. It was pretty good. In the pub I saw this foreign guy sitting alone for the entire time we were there, nursing some drink and looking off into the distance. I was a well-oiled machine by then (we had been picking up beers and chuhi from convenience stores and walking around with them for hours) but didn't ask him what I couldn't figure out: what the fuck was he doing? He made me feel sorry for him but it looked like the most natural thing in the world for him to sit still and stare at the bar for over an hour and a half, saying nothing to no one. Maybe thats just what you look like when you travel alone.

We went back to the train station and got to Hamamatsu-cho to see the Tokyo Tower by 8ish. We hadn't decided where to go or what to do for New Year's but found out that there was a big event on that spot the following night. For the first 3,000 people, the temple nearby, Zojoji, would provide balloons and cards on which to print your wish for the new year. At midnight, those people would all release their balloons and then participate in a massive orgy fueled by violence and free heroin.

We got back to our hotel pretty early, maybe by 11.