Japan Day 8 (hachi)

Today we were taking it kind of easy. We just wanted to take a trip back to Shinjuku to go to the Tokyu Hands store. My main goal was to pick up some Nintendo plastic playing cards.

We came up out of the subway into an office building. Many subway stations merge into the sub-basements of various office buildings, shopping malls, department stores, etc.


Just one note about the walkways in Tokyo. You see these yellow tiles all over the subway stations and sidewalks. It's to guide blind people around. There are raised bumps on the yellow tile so you can make your way around by touch.


Up an escalator and across a footbridge, we see Takashimaya Times Square, the location of Tokyu Hands. That sign at the top of the stairs looks familiar....


It's true! Krispy Kreme mania is apparently sweeping Japan. The line went back and forth inside ropes like it was the opening of a Disneyland ride. And that's just the front of the line, the rest of it goes around the side of the building.


One more bridge across the Shinjuku Train Station's tracks, and we're at Tokyu Hands! If Yodobashi is where you get your electronics, this is where you get everything else.


The first floor we went into was the travel section. They had backpacks, briefcases, suitcases, and every other travel knicknack that you might ever need. I picked up a bag here because I got sick of carrying around all my gear in my pockets. The next floor was like Target, but filled with cool Japanese alternatives to the stuff that our Target's have. Lot's of kitchenware, (Debbie picked up a sweet ceramic knife, harder than steel, needs to be sharpened with diamond), household goods, that sort of thing. There was a furniture floor, a do-it-yourself floor like a mini-Home Depot, complete with lumber for those wooden projects you have around the house, a tool floor which had every type of tool known to man, from compressed air tools, to power tools, to garden knives that ninjas must trim their hedges with. Then there was the toy floor! Frankly not awe inspiring like Yodobashi, but more like the toy section at Target. A smattering of games, stuffed animals, costumes (Halloween?) This was where the fabled Nintendo cards were supposed to be. Let's see, they had every type of Bicycle card known to man, but no Nintendo cards. WTF? I wound up getting some alternate plastic cards, which actually turned out to be pretty nice.


Well, we returned home somewhat dejected by not finding Nintendo cards, but buoyed by getting a kick-ass kitchen knife and visting another very cool store.

As an addition, here's the 24 hour market that makes life tolerable for us. The crisp blast of arcticly chilled air conditioning that greets you when you step in is just the thing to revive you after a long sweaty day's journeying.



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