I’m coming down with my usual Tokyo headache that I think has two causes. One is the pollution here. It’s not that noticeable but I’m sure it’s here. I’m also running into more smokers and that can’t help.

My mom asked how fancy my current hotel is and it’s different fancy than the Mitsui Garden Hotel Premier Osaka. It’s like flashy fancy. The lobby has 3m tall ceilings and a balcony with a giant godzilla head.

I mean seriously, WTF? Giant godzilla head? (I was taking that picture amongst a group of Russians and like my sister said, don’t f*ck with the Russians. It’s my estimation that any one of them, the Eurotrash kind or the gangster kind, can have a person killed without much trouble.)

I got a slower start overall because I was tired and it’s not a surprise. It’s hot and cold here and I also got a lousy night’s sleep the night before. I finally dragged myself to Paul Bassett and had two cups of coffee and a croissant. It went well with my morning medicine and three Advil.

I honestly can’t remember the order of crap I did today. I think I tried knocking off what I thought was the LAST ITEM on my mom & sister’s wish lists – an item for my mom that I actually put on the list myself. A gift for my mom, not a wishlist item. But then I realized my sister had an ADDITIONAL item that I needed to take care of. So that’s it, I headed the southside of Shinjuku station where I went to Tokyu Hands. Then it was off to Ginza to the used camera (and watch) store. I spent an hour drooling at watches and keeping myself from spending hundreds or even thousands on a used watch that may or may not work. Actually, I think I also was in Keio Department store looking at Grand Seikos. They’re making Hi Beats again and they’re almost as much as the watch I have now.

Anyway, I left the used watch store with nothing more than when I arrived except a desire for more watches.

I realized I was pretty hungry and that wasn’t going to help with my headaches. Ginza is a weird place (full of high-end stores) and I wasn’t finding any normal-sounding restaurants. So I went to the first place that was on the way to the Apple Store (and the world’s biggest Uniqlo) which turned out to be a Spanish place. The lunch set ended up costing around ¥2000 even though I swear it was only about ¥1000 in the display outside. But it came with a decent sized salad.

And some appetizers.

And finally the dish that reminded me of taco rice, actually. There’s crumbled ground beef under that egg.

I said no more selfies, but I had to prove that I went to the Ginza Apple store.

After that it was off to the Uniqlo to buy my sister’s shirt. And a souvenir t-shirt for me. And some more underwear. And a pair of sweatpants. Uniqlo has that kind of effect on anyone and this one had TWELVE FLOORS.

I’m not a fan of carrying around shopping bags so I went back to the hotel room.

I realized I had receipts from Tokyu Hands that totaled more that ¥10,000 (about $80 now) so I went to get my sales tax money back. I’m kind of a communist so I don’t really mind paying the tax but, hey, they’re offering it. I’m also a poor planner so I spend more than ¥10,000 at places like Uniqlo and Yodobashi Camera, but never on the same day. So I end up paying the consumption tax of 8% and liking it.

On the way back I went to the soup restaurant that we’ve been going to every year for a while now. Here’s the “anniversary special”. They’ve been in the Mylord building since 1985! Keep in mind it looks like a lot but all the portions are tiny.

So I went to the other “traditional” place to go: the parfait shop. Because everyone needs a parfait glass full of soft ice cream topped with vanilla ice cream and a slice of tiramisu. Keep in mind this is the small parfait and there were giant ones topped with a vanilla cone (imagine this one with a cone of vanilla ice cream stuck into the top.)

After that it was time to buy my train ticket out of town (not waiting until the last minute) and then bought a clock for my mom and headed back to the hotel. I was only off by two blocks and I had all sorts of creepy people coming up to me asking if I wanted this or that (pr0n DVDs, time with some questionable women, etc). I knew my hotel was on the edge of the seedy area of Tokyo but it’s really on the very edge of it. Not that it’s that dangerous in Japan. Just don’t f*ck with the guys who look like they shouldn’t be f*cked with. And don’t f*ck with the Russians.