This isn’t the complete posting for the day. I’m getting dinner with an old co-worker so I thought I’d better get a head start. OK, I’ve added the last part of the day.

Usually Tokyo means I get breakfast at Hoshino Coffee (which we just came from but who needs a picture of just a coffee cup?) but the ones close by this hotel don’t open until 9am so we thought about getting breakfast downstairs. But downstairs is ¥1800 for what we usually pay ¥600-700 for. We went across the street to Pronto, where we both got this little set. The hard boiled egg was good but was the hardest to peel of any egg I can remember in recent history.

Mariko got us tickets to What Museum and it had two different parts. One was a collection of architectural models with no photos allowed. Some were even by Kengo Kuma! The other part was a modern art museum which I enjoy that also had Mariko in stitches at one point. There’s a giant inflated mylar enclosure with a water filled bag you’re supposed to roll around on. There’s a video of me rolling around on the bag but I don’t know how to upload videos here.

I didn’t take any other pictures inside the museum, but the museum café is about a block away and has a free gallery. The food and the coffee were pretty good.

We sat far away from the food window near an interesting display and an arty looking dude with a Ministry hoodie was getting photographed in front of it. Turns out the artist and from LA! Super nice guy, Gil Kuno, www.unsound.com. The dots flip and are from the old bus signs from 20 or so years ago. He had them switching and making sounds like a drum line. He’s also DJing on Sunday, though I won’t be here.

The What Museum is on Tennozu Isle and it was a nice walk to Shinagawa station.

Blah blah pedestrian bridge (I take these pictures quickly because I’m not selling them after all).

Blah blah bridge with train for those of you who like that sort of thing. There’s no driver because this is the back of the train.

We made it to Shinagawa station. Mariko’s friend Jen got me started on this EkiTag thing. Most stations have rubber stamps that you stamp in a “stamp book” but I’m guessing they’re hard to maintain so the EkiTag is a virtual stamp book using NFC technology. I walked around Shinjuku station for a while last night looking for the Shinjuku EkiTag but never found it. I decided just to ask the guy near the tickets at Shinagawa station and he said, “Um, they’re right in front of you.” But he helpfully pointed out that most of the stamps would be at the main ticketing window. When we got back to Shinjuku Station I found the tag right away! Two stamps down, a bazillion to go!

We got back to the hotel and my sister had a light dinner of corn tea, onigiri, and potato chips. I went to see my old co-worker and he bought me a fancy unagi dinner. The biggest problem is that he’s in the suburbs and the train was packed.

I got to Kichijoji Station early to look for the EkiTag and it wasn’t next to the rubber stamps. It was by the manned entrance. While looking for the tag I ended up walking into an automatic door and hit my head. I sure hope my headache wasn’t from that.

The eel place was great and he insisted I get the “special large” unagi. Same amount of rice but 1.5x the unagi. He got the normal size with extra rice.

After that we went to have some tea which really turned into both of us having mikan juice. He had a slice of rare cheesecake as well. The cafe on the 7th floor of the Kichijoji Department Store was a normal cafe but the uniforms were like maid costumes (though longer skirts than in a “maid cafe” and none of the cutesy stuff either).

And then we said goodbye until next year. We both got on “rapid” trains though mine only skipped 2 or 3 stations. I guess it’s the Special Rapid that skips most of them.