W got off to a late start this day. Stephen doesn’t travel the same way I do, heck not many people do. I like to get up early and get going to see the sights, because I never know if I’ll be back so this might be my only chance to see what I do. My pace yesterday was putting a strain on Stephen, so I decided to not push it this day. We had both woken up, gotten pretty much ready, and he went to rest for a few minutes and read his book. He wound up falling asleep again for a while. I sat there having breakfast, feeling rather uncomfortable and self-conscious.You know how you’re at somebody’s house that you don’t know, and really don’t have anything in common, but you’re forced together so you need to make the best of it? Well, add a language barrier, and it just complicates things. Our hosts (Stephen’s in-laws) are very gracious and nice and do their best to put me at ease.
I won’t go into just how confusing the Subway system is, because it is simply something that has to be experienced. There are multiple levels a gargantuan number of lines, some are operated by different companies, and a fare structure based on distance. Trying to find where you want to go on the subway map can be daunting enough when trying to figure out how much to pay, let alone trying to actually figure out which track to head towards. Fortunately, everybody we have come across has been very nice and helped out either pointing us in the right direction or confirming that we were indeed on the right train.
I have been on the subway in Beijing and Hong Kong (as well as a few other major cities of the Western persuasion) but nothing is like the Tokyo subway system. Once you get the hang of it, it is relatively simple to use and gets you where you want to go because it is such a sprawling system throughout all of Tokyo. Really, why do you think Godzilla keeps eating all those subway cars? There’s just so many of them.
After Stephen got up and had his breakfast, we headed out for the subway. I absolutely needed to stop for coffee. I’m horribly addicted to the substance, and while I manage to get a couple of cups here before heading out for the day, they are small and does not constitute nearly enough caffeine for me to stave off withdrawals. Before getting on the subway we stopped off at Mister Donut and picked up some delectable treats, then next door for a coffee. We sat, had our coffee and donuts, and consulted the maps and directions for the day.
It should be noted that what we think of donuts is not what was purchased at Mister Donut. Sure, it may look like a donut, but somehow it is chewy and has a very different consistency that what I was used to. Having partaken of Asian variants of familiar foods before, this didn’t come as a big shock, but still very different. And fun.
After map consultation, coffee intake and donut ingestion, we set off for Ueno Park and Senso-ji (a temple over 1000 years old).