I slept in as much as I could in the morning. I then headed off to Mitaka, a small suburb of Tokyo. I walked past the Ghibli Museum and through Inokashira Park. Then to the Ogikubo district of Tokyo. I ate lunch at my first restaurant in Japan. I liked the fact that it had a ticket ordering machine. You put your money in, press a button for what you want, and a ticket comes out and you hand it to the workers. I then visited the Suginami Animation Museum.
Then on to the Shinjuku district. I went up to the free 25th floor observatory of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Got some good views of the city. Nearby I found Canon Digital House, which is a store where you can try out all the latest Canon products. Pentax had a similar place. Apparently the area is the place for photography equipment. I’m planning on visiting other company showrooms here in Japan as I go along.
It has been hot and humid here. Maybe I got here a few days too early since these are probably the last really hot days of the year. Good thing my hotel room has an air conditioner unit. I have a Japanese style room, which means I have a futon bed, no chairs, and air conditioner on the floor (keeps the bottom part of the room cool; how efficient since you spend your time near the floor). There is also a TV in the room with a few local channels and a refrigerator. Everything is on three Tatami mats. Have a nice internet connection here too. I heard Japan is well connected, but finally got to see for myself. I think the biggest limitation is the wireless, so I plugged into a wireless access point directly and measured 19Mbps download and 5.5Mbps upload. That’s a world record for me.
It gets dark at 6PM here and light at 5AM. I went to sleep at 7PM again.