Day 10 - Moving to Ginza

My days still start pretty early, I lay in bed writing a similar post to this one.
I decide to visit a few nearby things to Roppongi, notice there is a free Fujifilm photo museum, with all the camera history, why not... opens at 10AM though, still have some time to kill. Decide to wander around without a map.

Confidence about Tokyo directions is now pretty good, I recognise a few high buildings easily, and where north is, so to get to Roppongi or back is a walk in the park. But today is the day things really start connecting.

The museum is as tiny as they get, you don't need a lot of space for photography, but still, 4 expositions, about Fish, about Sakhalin and more generic ones, winners of some competition, including a few photos of London and buses going to Euston.

It reminds me how simple photography can be, everyday life that I have in London, is enough to win a prize here in Tokyo, of the simplest bus going to Euston. It encourages me to take more photos of simpler things... the real street photography.

The rest of the museum is pure collection of every Fujifilm ever, and then there's a printing service that might be useful to print a small present for someone, in case I need.

I head backwards, again without a map and stumble upon a dog I saw a few days before, I guess walk long enough in the same area, things start repeating.
I grab my stuff and check out fully.

Onto the tube, a short ride to Ginza and a few minutes walk to the hotel.
Ginza is equivalent to Oxford Street, shops as far as the eye can see, department stores, connecting from one to the other to another 10 in a row, and on Sundays it's all pedestrianised, so everyone is in the middle of the street taking the usual picture in front of this or that luxury brand.

I arrive at my hotel around 10ish and want to drop the bags until 3pm the official check-in time... there is no one at the reception, the hotel works with code entry. I find a code that unlocks the first door, but I have no clue where to drop the bags.
I decide to explore a bit more, get inside, find my room but that doesn't work either, too early for the code, as I go down I stumble on a cleaner and she helps me store my stuff away at the reception. I have to sign a full paper document, just to store my bag...

Time to head back again, and either see more of Ginza for a while, circling the area, understanding where is the nearest supermarket, and orient myself to the surrounding metro stations.

I pass a few photo opportunities, and think if I should actually go to a shop on a busy Sunday, probably not, as I have plenty of days ahead, and I don't really know what to buy.

Exploring more and more, leaves me a bit hungry, and I enter a few arches that seem familiar from a meetup I was before, but it could not be, I guess all under the train arches look a bit similar. I was wrong, but only realised later.

As I enter one of the restaurants, I notice they have a nice picture of a poke bowl, but as I ask for the english menu, this item is nowhere to be found. The staff takes pity of me, and decides to take a few photos of the outside posters and shows it to me. I said, yes that's the one...

As I finish the meal, the staff asks more questions, of where I'm from, and such.
Still early to check-in so I continue walking around, and realise the pub called Little Gang from a few days ago, on my first meetup is right here. In my mind, like a whole set of puzzles just connected and I see a clearer picture of Tokyo, how this connects to my previous hotel area and now to this. I also notice the national diet building on the horizon.

Tokyo becomes smaller each passing day.

Checking in, there's finally staff at the hotel, the room is on the 10th floor, not much of a view, but more desk space, less bathroom space, but at least some version of a bath tub.

I decide to lay down for an hour, recharge batteries, and get some photos processed from the days before.

Closer to 6pm I start going out again into the main roads, full of lights and trains passing by, I try a few settings on the camera I have seen from the fuji film museum and hope for the best. As my street sense grows, I decide to put some music on my earphones and just go with the flow, don't need to listen to the traffic noises or anything, let the music guide me.

After a few hours walking and getting more and more pictures, I knew I was around something called Ramen Street, so choosing a few choices with chat-gpt i head for the second one, as it seems the closest and not seafood related.

The wait is about 30 minutes, but gives me time to do my Japanese lessons. I grab the special tsukemen set and an extra egg, and finish it all. Learning that you need to add hot water later to the soup, as you finish all noodles but not the saucy broth.
I thought of getting a small lemon kit kat, but the shop that was selling it closed, but as there's a lot of combini around I grab a simple icecream and head towards my hotel.