LUI LUAU (X_X"): けいたいゲット！

Okay, today was super duper UBER better than yesterday. I actually ate REAL food, (yes, I was merely subsisting before) and I saw 3 major parts of Tokyo today, on foot!

I even managed to score my keitai denwa, even though it set me back by quite a lot. Heck, in my path towards achieving a bank account, I even got a HANKO! What now!? I am JAPAN-ified. Haha, I'm so used to my Toei subway line now that I kind of giggle to myself whenever I make transfers between the lines in Shinjuku.

I have tons of pics which explain how my day has been, and some from before, when my internet was acting up and I couldn't post. ENJOY THE SHOW~

Magical map posted on the back of the chair in front of me. This was taken right as we were nearing Tokyo. The flash is a bit extreme, but you should see the teeny tiny airplane coming in over Tokyo.

Random view from the window. Unfortunately enough, all I saw was wing and blue. Very boring, but at least it was better than something creepy like fire or dead birds.

Natalie, Jen, and Dan right after we got off the airplane, shipped our stuff via Takkyu (the black kitty cat) and hopped on the Keihin (I think) line.

Greg and me, but Greg is mostly covered by his awesome amount of luggage. Yes, I know I look like crap. You try looking decent after a 14 hour flight.

If you rotate this picture 90 degrees counter clockwise, you'll understand that it's a shot of my miniature-sized locker at Ace Inn Shinjuku. The bottom half is host to all my computer crap at the moment. The top half is random junk, and my backpack just eats up space above my computer stuff.

Again, rotate it and you'll see the lovely row of lockers that we're given here at Ace Inn to use to prevent our "important staff" from being stoled. Yes. I said stoled. The "important staff" is straight from one of their warnings strategically placed in the elevator. Singular. It's slow as anything too. No stairs, except for the emergency staircase.

A pretty shot of my top bunk. It's damn roomy in there. And private. I love it. I'm sure my bottom bunk neighbor hates me though.

A close up of the back of the bunk. There's even a little shelf that I use to store my liquid stash. I can't seem to drink enough water here in Tokyo. Weird.

I look majideous (majorly hideous), I know, but this picture is to demonstrate how there's still this like 4-5in gap between my head and the top of the bunk.

My first meal in Tokyo, courtesy of Family Mart. They were yummy nummy and cost me about 200 yen for 2. I love being smartly frugal.

My first morning in Tokyo. A shot from the 6th floor balcony of Ace Inn Shinjuku at about 7am.

Another shot, from like the left handed angle or so.

Yeah, one more from the same angle.

Front shot.

Skyscraper heaven, still from Ace Inn Shinjuku, that's actually in Katamachi, Shinjuku-ku. It's like 20 min walk away from Shinjuku proper. Damn close in my opinion. It costs just 170yen to get to Shinjuku by train. It's like a 5min train ride. Super quick.

The lovely bank that rejected my bid to open a bank account. After this, I was majorly down. >_< Yeah, it was a bad start to my day.

Hopefully, you can see the Softbank store in the background there. That's the first SoftBank store I went into, it's right across from the previously shown bank, and they didn't sell the prepaid cellphone I so desired. It was just another notch in the "Teresa will have an amazingly shitty first day in Japan."

Hmmm... I think this is Shinjuku. I'm not really sure. It looks like Shinjuku to me. Heck, it might even have been Roppongi. Yesterday was a bad day, hence why my memory of it is fantastically blurry. Oh wait!!! NOW I REMEMBER!!! This was the first picture of TODAY! Haha, I hiked from Akebonobashi all the way to Shinjuku, and when I finally made it, I started snapping pictures. So, yes, this is Shinjuku. Lovely isn't it?

A random building, it says Aoyama on it... Wouldn't that be near Shibuya? I don't know. Bah!

Pretty pretty Shinjuku, I got lost here for like 3 hours today. Spent a lot of time walking back and forth, first looking for the Tokyo Metropolitan Building and then trying to look for Kinokuniya. I didn't find it until I ran into Tokyu Hands, walked down the street in front of it that connects to Shinjuku-eki, and was hit by the memory of 3 years ago when I had crossed that same street so long ago. Now, I know how to get to Kinokuniya. I just have nothing I want there because, heck, my bag is already loaded with books.

Another random pretty building in Shinjuku.

What's this!? SHINJUKU! Haha, I just liked the whole ATOMU thing. I think. *shrug*

This picture was taken from one of the many pedestrian crossings I used to help me get lost and reach where I needed to go. In that order, too.

Oh yeah! There's this weird network of staircases in Shinjuku, near the Odakyu line that reminded me very seriously of a dream I once had. In this dream, I go down through a network of trains and staircases with friends into this mad world of shopping and craziness. To me, it seemed very deja vu-ish.

More pictures of the funky network of staircases that triggered deja vu in me.

Oh yeah, this was near the Odakyu lines. I just saw a number of massive circles randomly placed below me and thought them fascinating, so I photographed them. I still have no clue what on earth they're used for.

A shot of another randomly massive circle towards the back of the photo. This was taken off of a pedestrian bridge near the Odakyu mall.

Now, I'm going down the pedestrian bridge to join the massive crowds that are practically omnipresent in Shinjuku.

I just thought this was randomly amusing. It was an entire row of vending machines that filled an entire corner. Seriously, do Japanese need that many?

Odakyu! That's the mall I was walking forwards and backwards on. Yeah, I got lost a lot today in my search of free maps and Kinokuniya.

Oooh, I just thought this building was really pretty. Still in Shinjuku. See the network of white bands? They criss-cross the entire building and I thought that really made it stand out from the crowd.

My first REAL meal in Japan. It set me back 1,600 yen but was worth every single damn yen of it. Muchos delicious. Also, because I was the only okyaku-san there, I was left to slurp it up in true peace.

This amazing toilet was found right across from the restaurant where I ate that lovely nabe bowl of udon at. The toilet also helped to make that 1,600 worth it. It was heated, played a flushing sound while I went, and had butt washing/bidet functions. I still can't tell the difference between the listed latter 2, but heck, they're both super fun. They even had a sanitation wipe down area. I loved it.

Hahaha, omg, I just loved the warning they had for the child seat. Don't leave your kid behind to do your makeup, watch after them!

The area where I spotted Tokyu Hands and enjoyed a bit of a light stroll after my first meal. I was in a light mood and decided to look for a hair dryer, because I'm seriously smart enough to invest in one rather than rent the one at Ace Inn Shinjuku. Not that there's anything wrong with renting one. Nope. Not at all. Haha.
Oh, while I was strolling about, I kept seeing these tiny Japanese women carry HUGE boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts and was majorly confused until I got HERE. See the people lining up to get some frosty goodness? Krispy Kreme is seriously cleaning up in Japan. They are making BEACOUP BUCKS. Yup yup. It also smelled pretty darn amazing. I just really didn't want to wait. At all.
This is a picture of the lovely mashup that makes up Shinjuku-eki. It was taken off the pedestrian bridge that links My Lord (I forgot the building's name but it was on its 8th floor that I had that awesome bowl of udon) and the Tokyu Hands building.
TOKYU HANDS! WAIIII~ I love this place because it has a mashup of EVERYTHING. Also, it's just plain nifty. It can be a bit pricy here though, that's the only downside.
A pretty clocktower in Shinjuku. It says about 12ish, making it about 3 hours since I'd left my hotel and hiked it all the way there. Damn, I am sooo proud of myself for walking so much today. Majorly so. My feet are a bit angry at me though.
This is a picture of the road that triggered my memory. I walked down this same road 3 years ago. If I had kept going straight down this road, I would have hit Kinokuniya. But, I quickly realized that I needed nothing there, so I turned around and headed to Roppongi to buy my prepaid cellphone.
This is a shot of the other side of the street from the previous picture. I headed down this road to get to the Station.
There's like major construction all over Shinjuku now, it's pretty weird. So many areas were closed off and many new buildings were being raised all around. It's even more skyscrape-ry than before.
This is ROPPONGI! Actually, the picture is a shot of the tv asahi building as I was strolling about Roppongi Hills after having picked up my CELLPHONE. I finally got it! YES! I'll post my keitai e-mail at the bottom of this thing to make it easier on people who really don't want to read through all the details of my day.
Pretty pretty sakura trees right near tv asahi. The previous picture was taken from a gap. This one is through glass. See the reflection?
Welcome to the chaos that is Roppongi Hills! Tons of shops. Ridiculous amounts of tourists. Gotta love it. I was so out of things to do today I actually considered shelling out 2,000 yen to watch a movie here, but they had nothing good out and all the movies I was even remotely interested in had already begun. Luckily.
A pretty shot of the Roppongi Hills Arena. People just randomly sat, chatted, and played around here. It was very at ease.
A better picture of the tv asahi park/front lawn area. Super pretty, no?
Looking allllllllll the way up at the top of the Mori Building/Roppongi Hills. I was too cheap to shell out money for a ticket to see a wide view of the city and the art gallery that's up there. *shrug* Today was cloudy anyways, I highly doubt I would've seen anything special.
Random water in the West something or another of Roppongi Hills. I thought it was zen of them to have it. Good fengshui too.
There's this random park in Roppongi Hills that I kept getting lost in. This was it. See that spider in the back? I feel like it was freaking taunting me about the 4th time I passed by it, lost in the grandeur that is Roppongi Hills.
Yup, another upwards shot. It's a seriously tall building.
Uhhh, yeah, I kept seeing this 425-Shibuya sign and read in Frommer's that one can walk from Roppongi to Shibuya, no problem. So me, being the eager beaver that I am, decided to walk to Shibuya from Roppongi. It took me a while because I was lugging a 2L bottle of green tea and my bag of keitai stuff from SoftBank. Good sweating. Good fun. Damn deceitful signs. Bah! I'd do it again though, just because it was kind of fun to randomly hike around Tokyo.
When I finally made it nearer to Shibuya than I thought possible!
Sexy schexy little vixen of a car that called out to me. It was practically screaming at me to ride it. ^^ It was the most beautiful thing I've seen in Japan thus far. I do so love my Audi's.
I FINALLY MADE IT TO SHIBUYA!!!!
The road that I walked along to get there.
Random graffiti. You really wouldn't think Japan would have so much graffiti, but it does. Most of it is in random English to. *looks below*
Neck face!? No, really? NECK FACE? What the heck does that mean? Also, why on earth is there a hairy arm under it? This just confused the bee out of me, so I snapped it.
SHIBUYA!!! Right after I passed the tunnel of darkness.
La la la. Huge pedestrian walkway that branched out every which way.
*wink* I made it here in one piece. Good times.
Welcome to SHIBUYA! Craziness. I didn't see Hachiko, then again, I saw him last time. I have no need to see him again.
More Shibuya prettiness.
Vamoose! SHIBUYA!
Big CAMERA! That's where I bought my hair dryer at. Heck, I even signed up for a members card there. Damn nice.
After I got lost again, I snapped this picture. Pretty building.
Haha, the normal sighed of Shibuya. People just coming and going.
My SECOND meal of the day. It was only 750yen and was totally delicious. Mighty filling as well.
Shibuya as I was leaving. Pretty ward.
MY CELLPHONE! It set me back quite a bit but was worth every damn yen.
Haha. Uhm, this is my hanko. I couldn't use it because I don't have my official Gaikokujin card and thus I can't do it, yet. At least I still have a hanko all ready for when I do. Mizuho bank, WATCH OUT! I WILL SIGN UP WITH YOU!!!