I awoke a little after 7:30, after nearly 9 hours of delicious sleep, except I felt the nerve pain again. I didn’t have it last night, so it must be the bed. The mattress is similar to the one in Amed in that it feels firm but there must be something about it that my back doesn’t like, which is a bummer given I have three more nights here.

I had just started to put together a final Facebook photo post of Ubud when the wifi died. I contacted Tamio via both Airbnb and WhatsApp and just kind of paused, unsure what to do with myself. Just as I had disrobed and put on my shower cap (yes, really), a staff member from the salon rang the doorbell. I dressed again quickly and let him in. He spoke zero English but we were both prepared with Google Translate and managed to communicate with gestures and showing sentences to each other.

Of course he led me through typing in the password but eventually established that his phone could not connect either. He went back to the salon. He came over again with the pocket wifi that the host charges ¥500 per day for (about $4.50 USD), and it still wasn’t working. Tamio called him, and he went back to the salon as he took the call, which didn’t give me a chance to say I wanted to shower while they were working this out. He came back a third time (I really appreciated his diligence.. no wifi is not an option) to try something that didn’t work. I pointed to the shower without pointing to myself first, and he peeked inside the shower.. adventures in language.. and then typed out that I would come to the salon on my way out.

I showered and dressed and grabbed my laptop. At the salon, I said that I would be back in a couple hours and asked about the progress on determining a fix for the wifi, and the staff member said it should be working by then.

I walked up the quiet and narrow residential street with an occasional restaurant or shop to the side (interesting mixed use) and turned left onto a busier but still narrow road. There weren’t so much sidewalks as walking lanes.

I had looked up the nearest ATM and found that there was a bank next door to a cafe. As I approached, I saw a Familymart (along with 7-11, also many locations here) with an ATM in the window and forgot I was looking for a bank. This had two consequences as I withdrew cash. One, there was a fee assessed by the ATM company, and two, despite informing me on the screen that it was counting out ¥1,000 bills, it dispensed a single ¥10,000 bill! This is pretty much the exact equivalent of getting 1 $100 instead of 5 $20. The fee was very small but I just prefer when my travel fu is on point.

I looked at the menu at the cafe and decided to also check out the cafe across the street, the name Blu Jam on a sign out front of the open-air building housing multiple businesses. Blu Jam is two floors below street level and looked like my… jam.

Both the hostess and my server spoke perfect American English, and the menu had boatloads of American breakfast items. Over the next 10 days, I would have plenty of authentic Japanese experiences and struggle with the language barrier. This morning, I was happy to have a salmon scramble and strong wifi to update Facebook and catch up on blog entries. This table also had a little basket to put my shoulder bag in. I love this and want this in the States.

It was already 13:00 when I got back to the listing to drop off my laptop and go explore Tokyo. I went to the salon and found Tamio at the reception. I asked him about the progress on fixing the wifi, and he looked at me like, “What are you talking about?” He had already forgotten it was an issue, and I realized he didn’t believe it was an actual issue but that I was doing something wrong. He took my phone and saw the error messages upon entering the password, and I asked him to try connecting his own phone.

He was surprised when it didn’t work and finally checked the Apple AirPort Extreme router and found the problem, something like it had been inadvertently turned off or a switch flipped. In any case, he was hugely apologetic and offered me the use of the pocket wifi for free – sweet! I didn’t think ¥500 per day was a lot of money, but I’m naturally resistant to extra charges for things and somehow I didn’t realize what a difference having wifi on the go would make.

He walked out with me and also offered to give me a ride to the train station. Since it was an 8-minute walk and he had already sufficiently apologized by giving me use of the pocket wifi, I replied, “No, that’s OK,” as I emerged out of the salon door to see the vehicle in which he was offering a ride: a Harley that was reminiscent of a carriage as it had a bench seat for two behind the driver. I thought, “No, wait, YES, I want a ride in THAT!” but I didn’t catch the thought in time and in the rhythm of our conversation to be able to back up and say so. I really wish I had.

From several emails forwarded by friends with Japan suggestions, I had put together a bullet point list of places to go, but I didn’t have a solid plan. Knowing that basically everything happens 1-3 Yamanote line stops north of where I was, I just headed to Harajuku to see some crazy-ass teen fashion and/or visit a hedgehog or owl cafe.

My heart sank a bit when I realized as soon as I arrived that Harajuku borders Yoyogi Park, where I did have a plan to go tomorrow. Sunday is the day everyone in Japan has off of work and is good for people-watching in the park, particularly if you catch the greasers, dressed in 1950s rockabilly outfits and dancing to Elvis, which I surely wanted to see. With only three full days to explore Tokyo and one of those designated for a day trip, I couldn’t believe I was doubling up on destinations 😦

I had mixed feelings about supporting animal cafes but I thought I would go check one out to get a feel for it and maybe take a photo from outside (though I imagined the owners being smarter than that). I walked round and round and could not find the one I was looking for. I did find a tourist information office that said the one I was looking for seats all of 6 people and requires reservations anyway. I gave up on that bullet point.

Takeshita-dori is a pedestrian street lined with shops full of colorful clothes and accessories and kawaii (Japanese cute stuff). It’s kind of a must-see in Harajuku and where I would be most likely to see some wild outfits. It was craaaaaaazy packed with people, and I’m not much of a shopper, even the window variety, so I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing there. Apparently, crêpes are the thing to eat in Harajuku, so I picked a stand and picked a crêpe, from the hundred or so options, that didn’t have whipped cream, which would be way too much sugar for me. The custard banana chocolate crêpe was good, particularly the crêpe itself, but I still wondered WTF I was doing.

I had a loose plan to meet up tonight with Cindy, a member of the Payments team in Dublin (the EMEA counterpart to my own team in North America) that had just left Airbnb to move to Japan two months ago. It had been a dream of hers since childhood to visit Japan, which she did for the first time in 2015 and then just kept going, for longer stays each time, until she decided to move.

While eating my crêpe, Cindy messaged me on WhatsApp to ask where I wanted to meet, and I requested that she please choose a spot she likes and tell me when to be there. I was overwhelmed by all that Tokyo has to offer to the point of analysis paralysis and figured she would have an idea for something local that I would like.

As I reached the end of Takeshita, I sat down to figure out where to next and saw that my phone battery was at 40%. I got out my Anker pack and realized that I hadn’t brought the charger cable too. First time this trip that I’d done that. Fuckity fuck fuck. I had planned to stay out until after meeting up with Cindy, but I would have to go back to the listing.

I had one more stop first. I have found Tokyo Cheapo to be a very helpful guide to Japan, not necessarily for free and low-cost suggestions, just in general. In this Harajuku post, they mention a bar and grill called Two Rooms with a fifth-floor terrace and skyline views. I love that!

I walked from Harajuku to nearby Omotesando and went up to Two Rooms. At the reception desk, I tried out the literal translation of “Do you speak English?” and the staff looked at me confused before saying yes she speaks English (I must not have said it right but close enough).

She escorted me out to the terrace and I chose a cushioned love seat in front of a coffee table with a view through the glass wall. She handed me food, drink, and cigar menus. A guy one seat over was smoking a cigar, and I noped on out of there.

I chose instead a four-top seat under an umbrella and ordered a kiwi and lychee martini. As soon as the server walked away, I spotted the real seat for me. A stool and bar table right up against the glass wall, so you couldn’t have a more perfect view. I decided not to care what the servers would think about me switching seats twice and moved.

A female server brought my drink (sorry, guy whose section I moved out of) and I was a bit peckish so I asked her to leave the food menu. I’m not an oyster person, but I was curious enough to order a salmon roe oyster to go with my “martini” (I don’t think it had any gin). The view was nice, and it’s fun to do posh things once in a while, but I was still wondering WTF I was doing. The pass I gave myself this morning to have an American breakfast had worn off, and I was struck that there was nothing particularly Japanese about this skyline experience, not even the skyline itself.

I walked to Shibuya Station, rode one stop to Ebisu, and walked home. One of my bullet points was checking out the Nakameguro neighborhood just south of Daikanyama, including walking along the Meguro River. It was 17:00, so kind of late in the day but I decided dusk wasn’t too late, particularly because I didn’t think I’d fit it in tomorrow if I was going north again.

The river walk (really more of a canal) was peaceful and pretty, but I kept thinking how much nicer it would have been in the sun. I was really wishing I had planned a little better what I would do today and had committed to exploring the neighborhoods local to my listing.

After 30 to 45 minutes of walking, my back was starting to ache. Ruh-roh… I still had an evening ahead.

I messaged Cindy from Meguro Station as planned, and she said she would meet me at Shinjuku Station. Remember that I mentioned Shinjuku is the busiest station in the world? That’s in terms of passenger throughput, which measures 3.64 million per day. Per day. There are over 200 exits. It took Cindy a while to find me.

We’d agreed on the West exit (not Central West..), and she was waiting outside somewhere. Once out of the gates I didn’t know where to go, so I just stopped and she had to come to me!

It was 19:00 when we spotted each other, and she walked us less than 10 minutes away to an obscure bar/restaurant on three or four floors, all of which allow smoking. Crazy. The proliferation of non-smoking spaces in the States, even in places like casinos, hasn’t reached Japan.

Cindy is taking Japanese 5 hours a day, so she handled the interaction with the host and also the ordering on the touch screen that did not include an English option. I chose a pretty looking plate of sushi. She doesn’t eat fish, so the whole thing was alllll mine. I ordered a hoppy beer that was not only not hoppy but it arrived with a glass mug partially filled with sake. I asked Cindy is the beer really meant to be poured over the sake, and she wasn’t sure but thought so. When in Japan….

We chatted about Airbnb life and she helped me with some useful Japanese phrases. Rather than the literal translation for “Do you speak English?”, the way to ask is “Eigo OK des”, which means, “Is English OK?” Simple enough. I had found two different words for “please”, one of which was long and intimidating and I didn’t know in which situations each should be used. The long one is more polite and appropriate when asking a favor of someone I do not know (please help me) and wasn’t so bad once Cindy explained how to say it. The “u” at the end of “Onegaishimasu” is silent.

After dinner, I wanted to have a drink at Golden Gai, a post-war-era set of narrow alleyways with teeny-tiny bars and eateries, some of which have signs that welcome locals only and exclude foreign visitors who are only going to have one drink and linger for the experience (fair). The one alley we walked seemed to primarily serve food, and Cindy said you have to order food if you want to drink.

We exited and she suggested we visit the Metropolitan Government Building observation deck 45 floors up. I realized later that I wish I’d said I wanted to see more of Golden Gai and maybe find a visitor-friendly spot to have one drink, but I was keen on her idea as well.

It was 10 minutes away, and we arrived to find a line to get on the elevator. My back was barking at me, but the line seemed to be moving quickly. Also, Cindy had never done this particular attraction and was excited to check it out, and her enthusiasm was contagious. While we were in line, she pulled out a small gift for me. As a welcome to Japan, she’d bought me a fan with colorful shave ice on it. Cute and very sweet of her.

We rode the elevator to the observation deck and walked around the perimeter. Night viewing wasn’t the greatest but the moon above made for a nice scene and the view did convey a sense of just how massive Tokyo is.

We walked back to Shinjuku Station, where Cindy had parked her bike, and said our goodbyes. It was super fun to see her and be shown around a little. I thanked her for the gift and the Japanese lessons 🙂

I rode the JR line home, very much looking forward to laying down.

For disc/nerve pain, press-ups are where it’s at. For I’ve-been-on-my-feet-longer-than-my-back-can-tolerate achiness, I do what my PT calls pelvic corrections. Laying supine, I bring one knee up and back toward the shoulder on the same side and hold it for at least 10 seconds. Repeat on the other side and do 4 times each side total.

I did both pelvic corrections and press-ups and checked Fitbit. No wonder my back ached.. I’d walked 23,500 steps, or almost 11 miles!

At 23:30, it was too late for blog writing or photo posting, and I was knackered anyway. Nighty night.