Traversing Tokyo

• Walked to takanawadai metro stop (the JR Yamanote line had been taking was not included in my 24-hour pass I had bought at the airport when I arrived.
• Rode to Ginza stop
• Popped up to see the famous high-end shopping area & architecture, but didn't stay long.
• Rode to Tsukiji stop
• Walked the wrong way while trying to find the market, but my GPS eventually updated to show me that so I was able to correct it.
• Saw the Tsukiji Hongan Temple as I walked to the market and thought the building looked cool. I saw some people going in/out so I decided to try.
• This was a buddhist temple that had tons of incense smoke floating around when you walked in. There was a monk at the front facing the Buddha and chanting, but most of the audience seemed to be tourists.
• There was a guy standing at the back who asked where I wS from as I entered, then handed me an English brochure and welcomed me in.
• Left and saw fish market. I walked around and tried a few more samples, but I pretty much already knew what I wanted to buy.
• Left and rode to Abilhabara
• Was a little confused when I exited, because the metro exit was to the east of the JR station and electric city was on the west, but I found a tunnel that let me pass through to the other side.
• Walked along a couple streets, passing several SEGA arcades, electronic stores, and a maid café
• The maid cafe sounded like it would be funny to visit with a friend, but awkward and uncomfortable alone. Basically you pay 2000 yen for some young girls dressed as maids to dote on you for an hour (play games with you, spoon feed you, sing to you, etc.)
• Walked through sof___ (an electronics store)*******. It had 7 floors of any kind of electronic you can think of! I didn't think the prices were all that different from the US, but it was kinda cool to see everything in one place.
• Walked back through the tunnel get on the subway to Ueno
• Walked down Ameyayokocho street, which Levin had suggested for street food when we drove by.
• The rain started up again while I was walking through, and eventually I just picked some place based on the prices so I could get out of the rain and under their awning.
• The waitress didn't speak any English, but I ordered bubble tea and hot pot and we used charades to make sure the food wouldn't be too spicy.
• When it came out, it was too hot to touch, but I started trying to slurp some of the soup down (in Japan it is considered rude to eat silently, which as some of you know, kills me).
• I think the waitress thought I was hesitating because I didn't know how to eat it, so she came over and helped me hold chopsticks.
• When I finished I had 167 yen remaining, so I bought a 150 duck wing to try it (and stay out of the rain, which had gotten harder).
• Tried to walk through Ueno park, but the rain was still coming down, Some of you already know my relationship with rain...it was pretty unpleasant so I gave up after about 20 minutes
• Rode subway to Asakusa, which is near the sensoji shrine.
• I had come to go to the Asahi Brewery, which Levin had pointed out and said we could go there for free tastings. He said the short building was for tastings and the tall one was for business. When I got to the short building, I walked in and found a host who didn't speak much English in a fancy restaurant. I said I was looking for Asahi and they pointed to the building next door. So I went there and found the lobby of an office building with no indication of there being s tasting room somewhere upstairs.
• There was a small exhibit abut Asahi's environmental measures that I strolled through briefly.
• Left and went to Tawaramachi, which was just one stop over, but I had an unlimited pass so I figured "why not?"
• Coming out of the subway, I made the mistake of using the posted sign to help me figure out where to go. Apparently they do this thing here where they rotate maps so that what's 'forward' is up. I had assumed when I read the map that north was up, so I ended up walking all the way back to Asakusa *facepalm*
• Walked back and went to Kappabashi Street to window-shop. This area is known for selling restaurant supplies (everything but the food), including specialization in fake food used for displays. I found a few things I liked, but nothing I couldn't find in America (some nice bowls, cutting boards, etc.)
• Had trouble finding tawaramachi station on the way back. Aapparently it's only accessible on one side of the street, which I thought was kinda dumb.
• Rode about 45 mins to Harajuku, napping on the way.
• As I waked into the Meji Shrine grounds, a recording said they were closing soon and wanted all visitors to leave. But I swam upstream because Google has said they shouldn't close until 6, so I thought it must be an early warning (it was 5:08)
• Made it all the way to the main shrine, where something was going on (a bunch of monks chanting).
• Soon, a guard came up and asked all the people watch in to leave because the park was closing.
• Guard made me go out a different exit from where I had entered (apparently it closed at 5:20/5:30 instead of 6), so I got a little lost finding my way back to the station, but GPS bailed me out yet again.
• Stopped on Takeshita to get a sweet crepe, which seemed to be really popular when I had walked along the street a couple days before. It was basically a big crepe with a slice of cheesecake and whipped cream and nuts inside (I got the salted caramel one). Yum!
• Rode to Shibuya
• Found the Haichikō statue, which I had read about before. Basically Professor Ueno had this Akita dog that would always meet him at the station to walk him home, but one day the professor died and didn't come back. Even still, Haichikō continued to return every day and wait in the same spot for his master, so after he died the city built this monument to honor his loyalty
• Went to Tokyu Hands, a DIY store that I thought might have some small horn decor thing. There were 24 floors but not all the floors led to consecutive ones. The map was a little confusing at first, but after awhile it made a little more sense. Basically each of the 8 floors had an A, B, and C, but As and Cs could only be reached by Bs.
• Went to the Don Quixote at Shibuya, which had similar options, but the snack selections at this one seemed better. Their sex area was much smaller (and actually separated off with in 18+ symbol), so maybe this one just had different priorities.
• Went back to the Starbucks at Shibuya Crossing and got a sakura (cherry blossom) frappachino. This place had the best people watching of the whole trip! I managed to get a reasonable spot pretty quickly because someone happened to be leaving (the best ones take hours to open up). I spent an hour here
• Took metro back to hotel (ended up at Shinagawa station instead of takanawadai somehow. Apparently some of the trains take one fork and others take the other, and mine happened to be bound for Haneda Airport but I'm not sure how I would have known. Like the other time  when I tried to leave the subway hate it closed and gave me an X, but I was able to push through and hero walking.
• Packed and posted pictures and worked on bullets. I was 3 days behind because there was always something I wanted to go do! In the other places I always got to a saturation point where I was willing to (often reluctantly) sit in my hotel and write bullets instead of ping out and doing things, but this was not so in Tokyo.
• Went to sleep at 3:30am (trying to reset my circadian rhythm)