'Cause Shibuya Crossing don't stop. Seriously. The above pic is just one direction (of about five) that are waiting for the light to change at one of the world's most famous scramble crossings. And when the light does change, you're moving – into a mass of people coming the opposite direction. It's amazing it works at all.
So, I'm falling woefully behind on my bloggin on this trip. I think it may be because Tokyo – and by extension one's time spent here – is so densely packed. I may have to circle back and do a big recap (or a few) at the end of the trip.
Off to dinner at Ten-Ichi Deux. Number 7 on this list from the Guardian.
UPDATE: We can now unequivocally tell you that it is hard to find sh*t in Tokyo. Particularly smaller shops, restaurants, etc. Now that we've got the metro down, we were thinking we're cool and we'd ride back to Ginza tonight, hop off the metro and walk right to Ten-Ichi Deux. Well, between getting on the metro and getting off, we somehow realized we weren't really sure of a. which exit (of about 10) to take out of the Ginza metro stop or b. which way to walk once we got out. So, after consulting a couple of maps (we usually have at least two different maps on us), to no avail and I ready to give up and eat somewhere else and Hol ready to just give up walking and take a cab, Hol took charge and flagged us a cab. We got in. The cab driver did the Tokyo cab driver thing. Drove us in what amounted to about a six block semi-circle and dumped us roughly four blocks from where we'd been and told us to ask the cop on the corner (Either that or consult the large map. There was one of each on the corner.) So, we first consulted the large map. Again to no avail – almost every map of Tokyo is different enough from another that you've got to cross-reference at least two. But, still no luck in pin-pointing Ten-Ichi Deux. Okay, Hol asks the cop. He goes into the open-faced mini-station on the corner grabs us a map and basically tells us "good luck" (With a smile, of course. Everyone in Tokyo is unfailingly polite and smiling.) So, assuming we've got to be close, we walk up to the mini-mallish (Stores that are essentially a collection of boutiques are big in Tokyo) building on the corner right behind the police outpost and what do we see on the sign? Ten-Ichi Deux! On the ground floor! We're on the ground floor! This is great! So, we walk in and walk through the whole ground floor... No TI2 anywhere. We walk back to the door we came in, notice the mall map by the elevators and... the restaurant in on the other side of the mall with only an outside entrance. You know it's hard to find sh*t when the cab drivers and the cops (standing right in front of the building!) don't know where sh*t is. Dinner was great.
Police sub-station on left with peaked roof. Mall out of frame at left. Also worth noting, while it's not anything I'd call a trend, a relatively large number of people wear face masks (relative to "none" in the US). We're not sure if it's because they are sick or don't want to get sick.
No comments:
Post a Comment