Day 1 - Locals-Only Repair Centre
Wake up around 5am, still probably a bit jet lagged, at least happy I managed to snap my first few photos last night, that you can now view on one of the pages on this blog.
As it's early in here, and in London, time to catchup on some previous tasks and plan the rest of the day, pick a direction from a hotel, 4 hours journey, ideally with a train back... and away we go.
Grab a nice and simple breakfast, £2.40 of toast + coffee + egg. The egg was worth at least 5 times that.
Pass again by the Hie Shrine next door, as it just calls to you, standing with it's massive gate midst all the office buildings. Walk up towards the National Diet and all the government buildings, then national library, really modern, clean and not much else... as you can't get close to these buildings.
Walking through the Imperial Garden's, starting to get hot but still pleasant, towards the Tokyo station, I decide to jump into some of the mazes of malls, underground and I understand it's still too early for most things to be open to experience any kind of shopping.
Take a few snaps and head to the Nihonbashi bridge, some impressive construction work going around it, huge train bridges being replaced, but otherwise the Nihombashi brige itself is small bridge with big history, it serves me towards Akihabara region.
In the middle of global companies, you still see beautifully kept shrines and temples that people stop everyday to bow and shake the bells, donate money and go towards their job.
As you approach a phone store , you decide to check if they have a better SIM deal for you. They can't help me in this store...not for tourists.
Next stop: Akihabara
Towards Akihabara, through anime shops and electronics I decided to check if one of my lenses could be replaced with some rubber pieces falling off.
From one amazing shop I get sent to the official Sony repair centre... They unfortunately have a sign.. if you're a tourist and staying here for less than 2 weeks we can't guarantee anything,
I asked if I can purchase the piece separately and replace myself.. they say it doesn't work that way. I understand, I could leave the lense for a bit. But I'm afraid it will take too much time...
Leaving the shop I'm getting hungry and decide to grab a small pastry as I feel it's too hot to continue walking towards one of the main parks and shrines...
Grab a train, grab some food from the local supermarket and head to check in with teammates in London.
A few hours of work go fast and the first meetup of Tokyo approaches. Being a short 30min walk , I don't rush and still see a few spots on the way for later reference, food wise mostly. And maybe pictures later.
The meetup isn't very organised, as it's mostly a meet and greet with some artists who have their art hanging around Tokyo , some great pictures, and illustrations.
Meeting a lot of people comes with ease as we're talking cameras, photography, and Tokyo, a lot of them give me tips on what places are good and not so much, even the usual Japanese card thing... I did come prepared but my cards prove to be more popular than I expected, I run out pretty quickly.
Event goes on until we head to the local pub, pub is named Little Gang. 2 tiny tables outside, 2 inside, some choice of beer and even a few local Japanese salarymen decided to join us, i manage to understand with ease, but talking is still a challange, a lot of other foreigners do help translate, we even take pictures of them as they continue engaging us.
Through the meetups a lot of good answers came in form of, what do you like about Tokyo, what are some best spots, what should be avoided, some people even reccomended shooting together, and suggested a next meetup happening tommorow.
As the first day is getting pretty close to an end, I decide to leave the rest of the "little Gang" and head towards, apparently trains do finish around midnight in Tokyo, which was a surprise to me, but I do a short walk towards my hotel, and manage to capture at least one more shot of Tokyo Tower through my slightly peeling off rubber lense.