Day 2

What the hell did we do on day 2? I'm pretty sure that was the day we went to Ginza for the first time (well, first time this trip), and Shibuya.

Ginza was awesome once we managed to get there. We had to re-learn how to navigate the Tokyo subway system. It can be kind of arcane -- there are at least two different rail companies, and then within those, many different lines. We figured it out, and got to Ginza ... and then we had to find Itoya. Itoya is an amazing 8-story stationery and art supply store. I was sure I knew how to find it from Ginza Station. I got us to the right area, but it turns out my seven-year-old memory of the district wasn't as good as I thought, and we promptly got lost. Eventually we found it (I spotted the giant orange paper clip on its sign). Ah, Itoya. We spent about an hour in the main store and the new, six-story annex. I bought a cool new pencil, some awesome teacher rubber stamps (for my Math 20 classes), and other neat stuff.

Shibuya was crowded as hell. The main thing that happened there is that we went to the Shibuya Tokyu Hands, which is even bigger and more confusing than the one in Shinjuku. At the Shibuya store, each floor is divided into three sub-floors, so you have Fifth Floor center, Fifth Floor south, and Fifth Floor north (not what they call them, but close enough). North is half a floor above center, and south is half a floor below it.

Somehow Charlie and I got separated at Tokyu Hands. I couldn't find him at all in the area I had last seen him. I went all the way upstairs and then went all the way down, trying to check all of the floors (this was made very difficult by the weird layout, and the fact that there's more than one staircase). Finally I went back to the entrance where we had come in, and waited there. And waited. And waited. I stood there about 15 minutes, getting increasingly scared (not like there was really anything bad that could happen to Charlie in the afternoon in Shibuya). Finally I asked a clerk if an announcement could be made over the store's loudspeaker. They got me an English speaker, and the announcement was made ... but Charlie still didn't show up until about 10 minutes later.

It turned out he had gone to the restroom, and then when he came out, I had already gone (looking for him). So he was looking for me. Did I mention this particular store has THREE DIFFERENT ENTRANCES? Yeah. It does. And he had forgotten about the one we came in, so he didn't check it. He caught the tail end of the announcement, and assumed it was for him since it was in English and he was searching for me ... but he couldn't understand where it was telling him to go.

Anyway, he came to where I was standing. As soon as I saw him, I burst into tears. Silly, really. Tokyo is a very safe city, and the odds of Charlie's having met with foul play in Tokyu Hands are so small as to be ridiculous. Oh well. What can I say.

We also headed to Nippori, where Fabric Street is. Except, we took the wrong subway line to get there, and we couldn't find Fabric Street (where there are many fabric stores) at all from the station where we arrived. But we didn't know there was another station, so we were just frustrated. The upside is that we found a tiny little noodle house where a Japanese grandmother who looks like a character from a Miyazaki film served us steaming bowls of delicious soba (buckwheat noodles). It was so good. Other than that, Nippori was a bust, but it turns out that nothing there would've been open on a Sunday anyway, so it's OK.