After recovering, we walked back to Shinjuku station and got lost in its underground maze trying to find the correct line. Once we finally got there, it was a relatively short and easy trip to Akabanebashi station. I wanted to go to a place called Zojo-ji Temple. As a temple, it wasn't anything special, but I knew it was close to the Tokyo Tower and I liked the prospect of getting old and new in one image. The lighting wasn't ideal, but at least we were able to see one of Tokyo's landmarks up closer and from a new vantage point.
When we came in last night, the streets of Shinjuku were quiet and dead compared to the subway we rode to get there. Due to Shinjuku Station's 5,000 entrances and exits, each time we walked between our hotel and the station was different. Nicole just wanted to see all the neon city lights she had seen in guidebooks, and up to this point, we had been striking out. Fortunately, we eventually found a strip that had lots of flashing and flickering that Nicole was seeking. We got dinner first to allow the sun to go down. Nicole had found a place on Tripadvisor.
It entailed ordering through a machine. This was not quite like ordering at a WaWa for numerous reasons. One, the machine was set up like an old-timey vending machine. There were giant buttons with pictures of the items. We had no idea what we were ordering or how the process worked. We were seated between some businessmen. When our food arrived, I had some kind of pork, egg, and noodle soup and Nicole got some soup with soba noodles. They were very strongly flavored broths perhaps because of the giant pieces of pork (a food I typically don't eat unless it's pulled and kalua'd). After leaving the restaurant, Nicole and I discussed the importance of eating a "more familiar" meal for lunch tomorrow as our dinner is going to consist of very unusual Japanese items during our stay at a traditional Japanese ryokan. I am in Japan and therefore feel obligated to eat Japanese food, but the tastes are just . . . different. Clearly, these things are working for the Japanese, who have the longest life expectancy in the world, but sometimes one craves a burger.
We went toward the lights and I caught Nicole trying to blend in with the Japanese by using an extender for her GoPro. Earlier today we caught two people with TWO selfie sticks taking two selfies together simultaneously. Why?! In the future, their children are going to wonder 1) why everyone's pictures from our generation are terrible and 2) what are these sticks that keep ruining everyone's pictures? Evidently it has become such a problem that there are little illustrations at the subway stations showing people using selfie sticks getting hit by the train because they are distracted.
Unlike selfie sticks with cellphones, I was enjoying playing around with my new camera in the night environment. Here I stopped down the F-stop in an attempt to capture the constant activity and movement of people throughout the area. Nicole and I were beginning to drag, however. And while the sun sets early here at 6:45, we felt ready for bed by 8:00. Tomorrow we leave Tokyo and we haven't fully decided what we will do tomorrow morning before we leave, but rest assured you shall find out soon enough.
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