Breakfast to go at the World’s Busiest Train Station: Shinjuku. But it was Sunday after all –not so crowded. And it looks like every other station in Japan, of course.
Dwarfed in this district of salarymen-stocked skyscrapers, government buildings, and business hotels, we located what should have been the Pentax Forum, a showroom of the sweetest new camera equipment to play around with, open Sundays. The place was now, however, a Canon conference center, and closed. We moved along to Harajuku, which guaranteed some Sunday liveliness.
Harajuku Station’s exit was packed with a crowd similar to Shibuya’s night scene. Narrow alleys buzzed with cafes and crepe stands, and clothing-store racks with uber-flashy garments and accessories spilled out onto the streets. Shop clerks with electric-blue hair and face paint backoned customers; off-the-clock costumed kids stood grouped as passers-by snapped pics.
Juxtaposed with the cosplay kids was Meiji-jingu shrine, just a quick wooded walk from Harajuku’s shopping-mecca heart.
No purchases made in Harajuku…museums were on the afternoon agenda and it was time to move along. In the Ebisu district, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography offered three extensive exhibits: a general exhibit of Japanese photographers viewing foreign countries; Kitajima Keizo's photos of the 1980's in Tokyo, New York, Eastern Europe, and the U.S.S.R.; and Koichi Inakoshi's photos of China, Africa, and elsewhere, up until his recent death. Next door, there was brew to be sampled at the Yebisu Beer Museum.
Monday in Tokyo took us to dizzying tourist heights, but not literally this time. Green, expansive Ueno Park was Tokyo’s first public park and is home to the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, the National Science Museum, the Ueno Royal Museum, the Shitamachi Folklife Museum, Ueno Zoo, Shinobazu Pond, two temples…plus numerous statues, fountains, cafes, and wooded walkways. (And a large portion of Tokyo’s homeless population.)
Temple sketchin'...
Police box or Transformer?
I’d had my swan boat fix in Fujieda, so we continued on through a fun little installation…
Then, even when presented with multiple museum options in Ueno, we eventually decided to return to Tokyo’s central station and visit the Museum of Modern Art, located near the Imperial Palace. The museum was between special exhibitions, but the permanent collection was all right. The complex was also home to the National Film Center, but we didn't get to view anything before the place closed for the day.
The real reason Davin voted for this museum, I believe, was because it brought us back to the Palace area, an easy walk north from which is the Omotesando Sporting Goods District—it’s even denoted on maps—a dense cluster of multi-level megastores selling equipment for every endeavor imaginable. My roommate is running the Tokyo Marathon in February, you see, so he was all for picking up a few needed items.
We were coaxed by coupons into a tiny Indian restaurant for curry, garlic naan, and mango lassis—a fine finale. Shizuoka seemed especially small that night, as we walked home in the quiet dark.
We were quite the tourists on this trip (yes, I took a photo of a train station). But it is hard to pass up a skyscraper skydeck, especially on a clear night, and even more so if the overlook features a contemporary art museum as well. The Mori Art Museum was on the 53rd floor of the Mori Tower—the building must have a massive freight elevator to transport oversized exhibition pieces—and the current show was by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, with pieces ranging from photographs of Beijing Olympic Games construction projects to massive sculptures from tree trunks and bicycles to video installations involving prank phone calls. 
The 54th floor was the glass-walled skydeck, with a separate corridor displaying a fun photo exhibit. 
Walking out of Tokyo Station and straight into the gated gardens of the Imperial Palace, we acquainted ourselves quietly. 
But a walk south to the Ginza Shopping district (Tokyo’s answer to New York’s 5th Avenue) gave a clearer feel of the density and bustle, with a constant stream of people flowing through jumbotron-bedecked intersections and upscale boutiques: Prada, Tiffany, Gucci, Coach.
We perused Ginza’s Sony Building, displaying five floors of electronics set out for visitors to try, then made our winding way to the Tokyo Tower, the city’s taller (by 8.5m) yet tackier (painted red and white) version of the Eiffel Tower.
After a muted sunset from the skydeck, we visited the second-floor Statistics Museum (a stop in honor of Corey James), which was a couple rooms displaying data on the tower and the country at large. Lots of graphs and such.
Next, we located our hostel in the Asakusa district, near the Asahi beer headquarters (designed to look like a flame atop the building, the illuminated blob is more commonly known as “the golden turd”) and Senso-ji temple.
In an underground, little-traveled walkway of the Asakusa subway station, we found a dirty, delicious Thai café, then left sleepy Asakusa for a prime-time visit to Shibuya.
Groups of twenty- and thirty-somethings packed the broad cement skirt outside the subway station. Some carried instruments, most sported hair gel and skinny jeans. As the traffic lights of Shibuya Crossing changed from green to yellow to red and back to green, pedestrians piled up, a lake forming behind a dam, then proceeded in giant waves as the cars were halted in turn, in the giant confluence of crosswalks and multi-lane roadways crammed with taxis.
This is where the city refuses to rest, with so much wilding to be had. But Tokyo’s subways do shut down overnight; we left Shibuya on the last cross-town train.
