Day 7 - Tokyo [part 1]

"Woke up" at around 6am which is the approximate arrival time (6.30) and watched the outside scenery as the bus kept advancing. Our stop wasn't the last one so we had to pay attention. We got at Tokyo station which is situated in the heart of the city, one of the most important office areas of Tokyo.

We took our small back pack and headed over to the train station entrance. On the way we found an opened dinner, one of those 24/7 open shops (Nakau) that mainly offer Gyudon which is exactly what I had. T prefered the typical japanese breakfast set.
Outside the shop everything was extreme propaganda (as if at that time of day they really needed it -_-;): the super bright lights, the million ads for special prices and menus, the absolutely annoying music that was put on repeat!!!
When you get into these fast food joints in Japan 30% of the time (not sure if you're aware) you don't go to the employee and order, you just pick the dish you want from a machine, press the button, insert the cash and then you get a ticket that you then can hand over to the person at the counter. A lot faster and a lot more efficient. Of course it might be a problem when you don't understand what it says on each button.

That's my Gyudon, it was so good, i was really happy but then again i was starving. They also served hot tea and you can ask for a refil, even when your dish only cost around 2.5 euros.
Another thing thaqt really makes me happy when I'm in Japan is the free Beni Shoga and Gari. They just have it around in small containers and you just take as much as you want and I love that stuff in a very unhealthy manner actually. I can be home watching a movie while eating it and nothing else. Yes I do realize i'm an oddball.

This is what the sky looked like when we arrived, it was super early and that is also what pretty much every building in the area looks like, tall, modern, businessy.

After eating we were a bit confused as to what we should do to kill some time, so we went to Shinjuku again because it was on the way to our final destination which was Harajuku.

Time for the JR train adventure again.
We got some special tickets that lasted the entire day so we had to only use JR trains to get to where we wanted.

We got there and it was just so windy and cold outside! We tried looking for a cyber café because someone handed us a flyer with some decent discount and we could chill out online for a bit and even rest a while but we couldn't find it anywhere.
So there we were freezing and lost and without having a place to go.

While walking around I took pictures of some interesting (for me at least).
This is the lid for their underground systems, a man hole which for some reason sounds like a very funny thing to me which made T perplex. :P

It was cold, empty with only some people wearing their salary man outfits (but they are far more stylish than the portuguese type, I assure you) and heading out to work. Some people were really sleep walking and I felt really sorry for them for a while until I remembered that i'll be on the same routine from the 10th January onwards.
Since we could not find the internet café and I was really sleepy I asked for some machine bought strong coffee, asked for the strongest and was expecting something super sour and heavy but ended up with a very mild sugary café late instead. These machines are very interesting and conveniente. Not only they are everywhere, from the busy city centers to the small regional localities, in some temple site (i mean everywhere) but also very easy to use.
Only focusing on the ones that sell drinks they usually offer water, tea, juice and a wide variety of coffee. They are divided in lines and each line has a color. The red colored lines offer hot drinks and the blue colored lines offer cold ones. Just like any other machine all you have to do is put in the cash, choose the product and get it in a sec. For tobacco and maybe liquor you do need to have a special card you can buy, like a permit, or use your cellphone. Super handy except for smokers :P.
After this we got back to the JR station and headed over to Shinjuku, another tall building, commerce and business areas, one of my favorites because its where my favorite Maruione and Closet Child stores are located.
I didn't go there to shop though as I had been there on my very first day but to spend a bit more time sight seeing as it was still very early in the morning and nothing was open yet.
On the right side you can see me giving a perspective of just how tall buildings are there, that one being one of the tallest: Tokyo Metropolitan Governmental Building. You can climb up to the top to have a city view which I highly recommend and have done in the past. It's actually free of charge and they have some souvenier shops up there with some cute things as well.

We saw a lot of people going to work at this time, it must have been the busiest hour to be honest, so many... just so many... its incredible how many citizens this city has.

T found this ridiculous thing that apparently can't be new as he knew exactly how to make it work. A Christmas Gazebo that can be used for pictures and also works as a "happiness bell". You get in, step on a green circle and then a bell will ring giving you happiness o.o? Anyway its really pretty at night I guess.
Of course I fond it to be quite tacky and took pictures of it while laughing a lot. Just felt a bit silly in the middle of all those serious business buildings and people when absolutely nothing else even remotly linked to Christmas was to be found. Because we were cold and bored and also pretty sleepy we looked for a nearby Doutor Coffee shop which we found very soon. It's a shop you can find in many locations and their cofee is actually quite good so I love it there. It also usually has a room for smokers which i find to be very convenient especially since its practically impossible to find a place to smoke in the streets of Tokyo.
After chatting and resting it was finally nearly 10 in the morning and we decided to head over our destination.

On the way there nature called and I excused myself and went to the bathroom. I remembered some of you might never used one of those fancy japanese toilets and decided to take a quick snap of the buttons and break it down for you.
Well even though you can find a ton of different types of toilets in public bathrooms I'll only be focusing on this one. I first saw one when I was staying in Shanghai and it took me some time to understand how to operate it but its actually quite simple as all you have to do is look at the pictures, really.
The music button is just that, it'll play sounds while you do your business, what sounds? Usually flushing noises or noises of running water. Why? Because its considered a bit embarassing to pee while there's someone else in the next toilet. I totally love this concept.
The pink button is the bidet button. It'll basically throw clean warm water at the front zone of your private parts.
The blue button with those sexy buttocks is for sending the same type of jet to your rear end in order to get you clean after you know what.
The stop button is, obviously, for you to stop whatever function you had activated before.
The seat can and will probably be warm in the winter and there are other functions depending of how high tech this toilet is. Fabulous hein? Yes no wonder Madonna and other international celebrities have been reported to have bought one to take home when they came to visit. I want one too one day.

Well after I was ready to go we finally started walking the long way back to the station. Shinjuku station is huge and I think anyone will feel very lost if alone there for the first time. There was this American couple there who said (and I clearly heard this) "I don't even know if this is JR!" as in *We're super lost!* - and mind you the only reason I didn't ask T to wait and help them was because he was ahead of me and I didn't want to get lost during morning hours when its madness.
Anyway I saw this add and fell in love, I think key makers need to copy this in Portugal right now. I fell in love with the cross and crown keys in a sec, even if they do cost like 20 euros to make :X

Anyway stay tuned for [part 2]. This post is taking forever to make due to me being kinda weak right now. I'm sorry for that. <3

Love,
Jo