Day 3

Monday (Christmas Eve) was an interesting day.

First, we were both up at 5 a.m. This is incredibly unusual for me. We got up and headed out, because there wasn't anything to do in the room. I would guess it was 6:30 or so when we left. Turns out, there's not much to do in Shinjuku at that hour. We found a little cafe that opened at 7:30, and had breakfast. We found the craft store (Okadayu) that we wanted to visit. It didn't open until 10 a.m., but at least now we knew we could find it. And then we wandered around killing time.

We tried to go to Citibank and use the ATM to get some more yen. The ATM rejected our cards, but didn't say why. That was scary. By this time, it was almost 9, and the Citibank branch's sign said it opened at 9. We waited. Nine o'clock came and went, and the bank didn't open. There was a security guard in the ATM lobby. I asked him if the bank was going to open. The poor man didn't speak English, but he gamely tried to explain to us in Japanese that the bank wasn't going to open that day, because it was a bank holiday (Sunday had been the Emperor's birthday). We didn't get that from him -- we didn't understand what he was saying, except that it was clear that the bank wasn't going to open.

We went to Okadayu, which was awesome. Six stories of craft supplies (including a wig floor for some reason). One whole floor of yarn. I wanted to roll around in it. I got some awesome Japanese craft books, and some cute little needle felting kits. I also bought a new needle felting needle. Adorably, one of the clerks before ringing up my purchases went over and got one of those foam blocks for needle felting -- if I was buying the kits and the needle, I would certainly need it! I explained that I had one at home. But it was really sweet of her to want to help me with that!

Next we went to the Okadayu annex -- four stories of fabric. FOUR. STORIES. OF. FABRIC. There was some amazing stuff. They had a great selection of stretchy shiny spandex (I didn't buy any, though -- it was pretty spendy). I was only interested in cool stuff that I couldn't get at home. I bought a little fabric. It was cool buying it by the meter.

After that, we went back to the hotel to see if we could get some help with our ATM cards. The desk clerks speak beautiful English, and they explained about the bank holiday. (Ironically, the banks would be wide open on Christmas day.) We made an international call to our credit union, and let them know we were in Japan. We thought that was the problem, that we had not done that. It turns out the only problem was that we were trying to withdraw more than our daily limit. Duh!!

We spent this day just wandering around Shinjuku (which really is a huge and fascinating district ... there is a lot to do and see here).

One weird thing we saw was a cabaret/bar with giant robots. Here's an article about them. It was absolutely bizarre. I don't think we will actually go in -- the cover charge is about 3500 yen (approximately $50) and it's just not worth that, to us.