So Quiet

July 31

Tokyo, Japan

The quiet calmness of this city of over 13 million is unreal. Coming from SE Asia, where quiet rarely existed (except Laos), we constantly comment on the near silence. Standing on the balcony of our apartment and walking down our laneway is as quiet as that of our home in Carman. We have heard two horns honk (or hoot as is it is called in South Africa) over the past two days. The sidewalks are not littered with garbage, food stands or mopeds. It is no life-threatening to cross the street. Japan is the perfect ending to our adventure!

The thrill of buying something from vending machines.

We made good use of the JR train route in Tokyo today. The train system is extensive and does not include the subway system. First stop, Ikebukuro. Known as a laid back version of Akihabara, it is just as focused on anime. I discovered that is a language and culture onto itself.

There is so much stuff and I was in search of specific Sailor Moon memorabilia for Stella. I almost needed a personal guide to help lead me through the floors of never ending products. I felt illiterate. In the end, we found that Sailor Moon is not too popular in Japan, but there were very few items in the stores we checked here as well as Akihabara.

The boys were not into anime cafes were the girls are in costume and role play different characters. At this point we were a bit done with the anime and moved onto the Ginza district.

Ginza is the posh neighborhood of Tokyo.

Nate sized up his future wheels.

With very tired feet, and Nate not being able to afford the car, we needed to catch the train back to the apartment. This time of day the trains are busy and Levi saw the men in the station with white gloves whose job it is to push people into the train cars from the platform. Necessary when many people need to be moved around this large city. Personal space means nothing this time of day.

A supper eaten in.
A restless night. Perhaps the aircon was not working right, or bed too uncomfortable, but not a good sleep.