Google tours, day 1

Ahoy,

We needed to get to google hq by 11:30, so we figured we'd walk from h's place to his work. According to google maps, it takes a little more than an hour directly, so if we stopped at places it would work out perfectly. It seems like our vacation goals are always to walk across the entire city and back in a day. Some of my friends may be all too familiar with this habit. We set off in a general direction after waking up earlier than we anticipated. Jet lag won't get the best of me. We wandered to the imperial castle. Every time we turned a corner, we questioned what direction we were going in because it's not quite grid structured. It's really a great way to travel. Eventually we looked up and it was before us. This will happen more than once on this trip. The grounds are incredibly spacious, but not as fortified as I would think is necessary. A and I contemplated how easy it would be to invade. So easy. 

This imperial park was huge, which is not something you usually say when describing Japanese things in general. We didn't have enough time, so we went on. There was a bunch of municipal government buildings next up which was rather dreary, but we came upon tokyo tower, and skipped into some residential streets to weave our way into roppongi hills. Roppongi was super exciting and more vibrant, not dreary. H was waiting for us in the lobby and we went up to google to have lunch. It was some of the best Japanese food we've had thus far. Google has all the good stuff. It was high up on the 26-30th floors and the view was stellar for lunch. After our tour, we made our way to shibuya. There was shopping and a lot of Japanese school girls. They fuel the economy, and could probably make the world go round if you let them. 

We wandered up to Meiji shrine, overshot it looking for a way to get across the tracks, but ended up in just the right place. This park was beautiful and tranquil, like you are nowhere near the city. Until you hear the park announcements, then it's like you're at a theme park. It started raining on our way out so we picked up an umbrella. We watched lost in translation on the plane, and I had become enamored with the clear umbrella used in the film. Clear umbrellas were incredibly common, and so useful now that I remember the sideways wind I endured in NYC. I used to have my umbrella down in front of me and not be able to see what was ahead. 

O and h, our friends from Seattle, were arriving soon, so we went to meet them in their hotel. Their flight was delayed so we waited anxiously, thinking of all the ways things might have gone wrong. They arrived to fanfare. 

We wandered over to meet a's friend and get dinner. We all finally sat down at a tonkatsu restaurant in a tower connected to Tokyo Station. It was the best tonkatsu A has ever had, he says. O & H were probably too sleepy to be hungry.

Apparently it was the coldest day Tokyo had seen all year. It was a breeze for me, but A had to get a down jacket from uniqlo to add to his layers (after I disapproved his proposal at north face). Boys would make smarter choices if they let girls make them.

haltingly flat,
jt