ASIA TRIP 2024 - JAPAN PT.5 - TOKYO DAY 3
July 2
I really should have taken the time to write this while I was traveling because now (October 2) I’ve forgotten so many of the day’s details.
I woke up and immediately checked my legs, ankles and feet to see how much the swelling had gone down, if at all. The swelling had gone down but as it turned out, that wasn’t going to last. The more I started walking, the worse it got, however, it wasn’t as bad as when I had no medicine.
By this time my son and I had our morning routine. For breakfast he always wanted to go to Cafe Gusto, a western style restaurant with good food and where you would rarely see any employees. This ended up being our routine for the entire time we were in Japan. The restaurant happened to be within walking distance at both Fujikawaguchiko and Tokyo. The only difference is that it was much warmer and more humid in Tokyo. Even during an early morning walk I was already sweating by the time we arrived. I remember visiting the restaurant during the first morning in Tokyo and their air conditioning wasn’t working. A fun way to start out the morning.
After walking into the restaurant we’d find an empty seat and use a tablet computer for ordering. After placing our order, we’d go get our drinks from the machine of our choice. For me it was the coffee machine that could make regular American style coffee, lattes, espressos, and cappuccinos with the touch of a button. Just place the mug underneath and in less than a minute you’d have your drink. While it wasn’t amazing, it was good. There was also a juice machine with various juices, a tea machine with various teas, and of course a soft drink machine.
Not long after returning to our table the waiter, waitress, waitbot would bring us our food. Being Japan, I wasn’t at all surprised to see a robot bring us our food. I was however, impressed with just how good it was. It would roll up to the table and then rotate into a position that made it easy to grab our plates. After taking our plates with press the top of the robot to send it on its way. It a monitor on the front that had an animated face that resembled emoji expressions. I really should have taken photos.
After breakfast I decided to take my son back to Akihabara while my wife went out with her mom and brother. I felt bad that my allergic reaction to the insect bites were preventing my son from spending more time doing the things he wanted to do. The medicine helped enough to allow us to spend more time walking than the previous day. Back in Akihabara we visited some different arcades. We played some video games but mostly we spent time on the claw machines. My son won some interesting prizes such as fake French fries that you could put on a keychain or backpack. They looked surprisingly real.
The day went by very quickly. We grabbed some lunch at MOS Burger, my son’s favorite fast food place in Japan. Later I was able to make it to Tower Records in Shinjuku although I didn’t have much time to make the most of it. The store was pretty big, two floors, and I spent most of my time in the video game/anime soundtrack section since buying that kind of stuff in the US is typically much more expensive. Also a lot of the albums I’m interested in are more difficult to find in the US.
After the record store we headed back to Sumida to meet with everyone and have dinner. The day went by way too fast and was bittersweet overall.
