Stuff we did

This is going to be a miscellany of stuff we did, that I don't necessarily remember what day we did it.

- Went roller skating at the new rink at Tokyo Dome (baseball stadium). It was fun but the rental skates absolutely sucked ass. For starters, the boots had a 1-inch heel. Then, the rear wheels were a larger diameter than the front wheels. I am used to skating with Bont boots, which have no heel elevation -- and, needless to say, all of my wheels are the same diameter. So this was a huge adjustment. Also, the toe stops were set so high that when I tried to do a turn-around toe stop, I felt like I was going to pitch forward and go ass-over-teakettle. Oh, and they were too narrow for my wide-ass feet, even though I went up a size.

That said, it was still a cool experience. I got to meet the captain of a Japanese men's roller derby team and talk derby with him (he speaks some English). He was a very nice guy. I got someone to take a picture of me with him, but it's on my phone so it will have to wait until I get somewhere with free wi-fi.

What else? We tried twice to go up the Tokyo Sky Tree but it was soooooo crowded. We will probably try one more time tomorrow. There is a cool mall there, too, and I did have some fun shopping there.

Today we went to Harajuku. You've probably heard about it. Everything you have heard is true. It was crowded today, and the rain was steadily worsening, but it was still fun.

Tonight, we ate dinner at the hotel (it was still pouring, and our coats were still very wet). Later on this evening, the rain slowed down to hardly anything, and we walked to Disk Union and bought a bunch of used J-pop CDs.

I can hardly believe tomorrow is our last day here. Ten days can go by really fast, sometimes.