No fish market. No Imperial Palace. No Zoo. No Museum.

First: all my pics from Tsukuba Circuit are uploaded here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/117074737029121426723/albums/5926446699629443649

I woke up late....
That's how the rest of this post is going to go so you might want to stop reading here.
I woke up late... 6:30am. I have a 1 1/2 hour train ride to get to the fish market and all the guidebooks I have say it slows way down after 8. So I weigh my options. While they are being weighed I fell back to sleep. Choice made. No fish market today. I was still planning to go to the Mobara Twin Circuit, another race track, as they were having a drift event today. I check the train schedule and the express was not running today. That would turn my 2 hour ride to the track into a 4 1/2 hour one. No drifting today.
I decided to go to the imperial palace instead. As we found out earlier, it is closed on Monday and friday. Today being a tuesday, it is neither monday or friday. Hopped a train, Jumped off at Tokyo station, walked 4 blocks. Palace closed....   Yesterday, monday, was a holiday. And if monday or friday is a holiday then the palace will be closed the following day as well.... It's like they don't want people to see it.

I walked back to the train station and took myself to Ueno station. Ueno station is just outside of Ueno park. This is a big park surrounded by a zoo, a few art galleries and several museums. It even has its own Starbucks.
Here is the National History Museum. Closed.

 Here is the Zoo. Closed.

 Giant Raven. Open for business.

 Creepy amusement park. Closed.

 Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Closed.

 Giant whale. Closed.

So I set myself wandering. Just outside of Ueno station there is a pretty good market. With a lot of Japanese guys yelling at me like I understand what they are telling me about their stuff.

 I am not going to lie. It does not smell awesome.

 "Some samurai  wear cowboy boots. These are the hard truths we must embrace if we are to truly know ourselves." - Not an Old Japanese saying.

Then I had yet another awesome crepe and took the train back home.
Once home I grabbed my tiny bicycle and went for a ride down river.
I definitely ate this donut.

 I like it here.

 Here is a Panoramic from my roof.

Feats of Strength

     Today I transferred from the center of Tokyo to the southernmost end of Tokyo, Tsurukawa. If you straight line it, there are 15 miles in between the two. That's right, Half of Tokyo is 15 miles across. That is a large city. And if you go the fastest route, J-rail, it only takes 45 mins and 3 transfers.
     The feats of strength started right away. I had to drag my bags for 10 blocks because the 2 stations close to my hotel didn't intersect with the station I needed to take to get to Shinjuku. Once I reached the correct station I quickly realized there were no elevators (or several very hidden ones) and 5 floors with millions of stairs in between. Me being painfully not Japanese means that I had to scale several sets of stairs several times before I got my suit case heaving self to the right platform.
     Fear not intrepid reader! I did make it. and with hours and days to spare. Here are pictures to prove it.

When you can't go up anymore you go down... and sideways... in all directions. Under the Tokyo streets is a maze of shops and tasty food.

 Just a dude chillin' sketching Tokyo Station. There was 20-25 people out there sketching it up.

 Some shots from my train window.

 Yep, they still have pay phones in the future. Crazy.

 I dont always use soft AC. but, when I do I know it means I will be sweaty.

This is my new home for the next 9 days.

 It even came with the cutest set of keys ever!

Here is my final room. This is actually an apartment that you can rent by the day. It is twice the size of my 3-star hotel and 1/3 the price. 15 miles away isn't looking so bad now is it.

Don't lettest thou's eyes deceiveth thou. That bath tub is 1/2 the average tub size and 1/2 again the height. 

 That sneaky couch is actually my queens sized bed.

8" wide Full length mirror, just as I requested. I like to look at 1/2 of all of me at once. 

My first order of business was buying this creepy guy from a vending machine. Job done.

Then I wandered around and enjoyed Japan's super manhole covers and my purple shorts.

 This is a trail. I wandered on it.

 They like bikes.

 This statue likes tomatoes? 

The bugs here are too big.

 

 

 Scooters are nearly as loved as bikes.

  Surprisingly the store still had plenty of $40 grapes.

And now, the cars I saw today.

 Lifted on Ray's wheels no less.

 I know it's not Japanese but it truely is the most beautiful car ever,

 Oh so many minis here.

Finally a short time lapse I made of the light fading at sunset. I stuck my camera out the window and forced it to take a picture every minute for 2 hours.