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.

Laundry and Shinjuku

Today was mellow. I hadn't really planned anything and my feet were tired of walking. took a long time waking up then did some laundry. I was seriously planning on spending the whole day in my sweet little apartment, but, by about 9am I knew that wasn't going to happen.
   Here is my washing machine on my balcony. And those are my shorts, socks, and underwear in Japan. Also pictured and my laundry shoes.

So, after getting bored of sitting still I got my self to Shinjuku. (If you are following on my instagram of Facebook this is gonna be old news as most of these pics are on there already.)

I had lunch on the 13th floor "White Garden" overlooking Tokyo. This is the 13th floor of a department store just outside of Shinjuku station.

 I saw this Porsche in person yesterday!

 Turns out this is an energy drink. I am pretty sure it is cough syrup flavored.

 This main street of Shinjuku was closed for a Fall solstice celebration day. Good timing by me.

  Dinner.

 This shrine is amazingly quite and peaceful less than half a block from a main street. It was a nice break.

 Shrine entrance.

I am off to an early bed. Tomorrow I am going to try and get to the fish market. cross your fingers for me.

Tsukuba Circuit

Tsukuba Circuit. Yep, THAT Tsukuba. And it was worth it. Even with a 2 1/2 hour train ride and a $30 cab ride to get there. Anyway, I'm sleepy, I have too many pictures, and the bandwidth on my wifi here is a negitive number.  I will put up a few pics here tonight. Next week when I get home I will upload all of them to my picasa account and post the link.

 Then I walked back to the train station foregoing the $30 cab ride and seeing some nice big Japanese landscapes and houses.

 First Square lamps! Now triangles!

 I did stop in Akihabara on the way home tonight too. Akihabara is the electronics district. It is bright and loud and full of everything from electronics to toy stores, to adult toy stores, to arcades, to Octopus balls (not the name of an adult toy store).