The ads in Japan are certainly different.
Although it makes the text-based ones easier to ignore as they're not in English.
Even the real estate agents, which you'd think would be somewhat professional, have cartoon ads.
Lots of laundry hanging outside to dry.
All of the kids at this school are wearing the same hat.
Waiting for the train.
It will take an hour and two different trains to get to our destination via public transportation.
You can buy other things with the Pasmo card, not just use it for transit tickets.
Our first station.
Our cards work.
It took 500 out of the 3000.
On the train.
Kids out doing morning exercises at school.
Parks and buildings.
Everyone has their laundry drying in their balconies.
Another school with kids out running around.
The train stops have specific enter and exit locations.
Everyone getting on is supposed to stand to the sides.
Transferring to the other line.
There are many shops in the rail stations.
A map of the system.
Info on which car you are on.
Upcoming stations and estimated arrival times.
We gt off at Shibuya and there was a huge crowd.
To see the Hachiko memorial statue.
Us with it.
This wall has a memorial to the dog, too.
The crossing again.
People in the Starbucks watching the crossing.
Us.
Google Translate is very helpful.
A firetruck coming through.
Checking out the fashion of the other pedestrians.
Lots of vegetation on the bottom of this building.
A cat statue.
Apple and Anker.
Fun logo.
A huge goose.
A girl in a kimono.
Time to shop at some secondhand stores.
This one had a nice big couch seat for me to rest on while the women shopped.
Tiers of goods.
A fun logo.
That's a weird sign.
Ah, it's right outside a smoking enclosure. So you're not supposed to smoke outside.
Tower Records.
Cool building with a Disney castle at the bottom.
Checking out lunch options.
Lots of meat.
We decided to try Barbacoa Churrascaria.
Info on where each cut of meat comes from.
Salad bar.
Desserts.
Ice cream.
The meat cooking.
First round.
Second.
Third.
Ogii getting some.
Oyunaa's turn.
With her slice.
The servers also cut some pieces on a side plate before serving.
Another.
Serving.
And another.
Dessert: cooked pineapple.
And an ice cream cone.
Another neat picture.
Oops. We're supposed to be going south, but I led everyone onto the north-bound subway.
Not too big of a problem; we just hopped off at the next station and got onto the correct direction.
Now we're down to 1700 of 3000 on the transit cards.
The huge Musashi-Koyama Shopping Street, also called Palm, which is multiple blocks long.
Checking out some coats.
Not quite what they wanted.
Real estate ads.
77,000 yen to around $500 USD. Although I have no idea of that's good or bad.
A secondhand store.
Cool pants.
While the women shopped for clothes, I ran to Daiso.
I wanted a computer screwdriver set to open the fans on my laptop and blow the dust off.
This is the only one they have; I'll see if it will work.
In and out before the women are done.
They headed to another store, Mode Off.
Which also has upscale, second-hand goods.
I walked the rest of the mall. Glasses and contact lenses.
Looking down one of the side streets.
To the other side.
Down the line.
And to the other side.
There were a few pet stores.
This one had cute kittens.
Puppies.
ABC store, but they sell shoes here.
I had heard there were contact lens vending machines in Japan, so I was hoping to find one.
But I didn't see any. This looks like a professional refraction like would be performed in the US.
I walked all the way to the end of the mall and back, and they're still in the same store.
There was a pet store nearby with puppies.
A cute sweater.
More in the back.
Playing with his toy.
Playing with each other.
A pharmacy.
With many different colored contact lenses.
They had bagged up all of Oyunaa's stuff, but then had to re-scan each item and re-charge it as she's not from Japan.
Now back to our hotel.
About an hour via subways and buses.
On the first subway.
Google Maps is very good with the mass transit instructions.
Another train.
Food in the station.
And lockers.
Just a short walk to the bus stop.
They only have a few seats to wait.
The stops.
Google Translate to the rescue.
Here's the bus.
The two major transit cards, Pasmo and Suica. It says you can use them on your phone, too.
Down to around 1300.
On the bus.
Me and Oyunaa.
The woman had a Whole Foods bag from Kahala in Honolulu.
Upcoming stops.
We stopped by the convenience store across from our hotel for some snacks. I don't think I'll be getting the almonds and dried fish.
In some of their new outfits.
And goodbye drinks.