If you fall asleep taking the Toyoko line southbound, this is where you end up. Sakuragicho station.
One of the first things that you will see is this huge ferris wheel. It's super slow, probably takes about 20 minutes to cycle once. I wanted to go on it, but Emily said that she would be too cold (since the cars didn't look fully enclosed).
One thing about Japan that really strikes me is the contrast between things you see on the street. For instance, there is this big huge escalator and right behind it is a Tacoyaki stand (octopus balls). It's so weird, like the urban planner mixed up two different projects he was working on.
Emily was fascinated by that glowing circle at the top of the picture. I was personally more fascinated by the fact that someone could actually be fascinated by a glowing circle.
After a bit of teasing, we went into a brief discussion about dolphins. She likes dolphins. I told her that the military uses dolphins as organic torpedoes. They strap explosives to the back of the dolphin and train it to seek out and swim into enemy ships. She wasn't impressed.
This is at the foot of the big ferris wheel. These are perhaps the best Christmas decorations I have seen so far. It's strange how much I miss all the Christmas hype. Even little things like a string of coloured lights (or illuminations, as they call them here) makes me feel good.
Another example of my horrible photography skills ruining a perfectly nice scene. Behind this is a mall of some sort and a Hard Rock Cafe. We return here later in the night.
If you click on the picture, you can see a short clip I took of him. It was freezing night, but he was wearing a white g-string juggling chainsaws. Now that's entertainment.
Whoa momma! That is one big bun!
Here I am with my favourite military officer-turned-fast food guru. They have one of these hideous statues in front of every KFC here. And all of them are wearing a ridiculously large Twister around their neck.
Here is my buddy, Ronald. He's much taller in person.
Welcome to Square One shopping centre. What's with this place? I swear this looks like Mississauga. That's Emily at the bottom right in the grey sweater, preparing to eat some octopus balls.
I have never met anyone so passionate about food before. She gaped in wonder as we stalked through the supermarket. It was incredible just watching her.
After eating, we walked back to the mall I mentioned a few pictures back and walked around inside. It was closed already, but it still looked better than anything I have seen in Toronto.
This store is called Comme Ci Comme Ca. They were filming a commercial or something here that night. I thought this window display was something to write home about. So here I am doing just that.
This shot was taken in an arcade, in the same mall. I got asked to put away my camera and leave because you can't take pictures in here apparently. Lots of places have that policy here, it's not the first place I have been kicked out of.
Anyway, I wanted to take a photo of this because it's not like anything I have seen back home. It had keyboards instead of guns (a letter flashes on the screen and you have to type it), but the game was the same. I didn't get a chance to take any more pics though. The game room monitor was on me like glue after I had only snapped one pic. I dont know where he came from, as I made sure no one was around me first. It was scary how fast he showed up, it was like I took a shot at Regan or something.
We went into a store that reminded me a whole lot of the Hallmark stores we have back home. I was hapy to see this Dancing Santa, just like the one from Frasier. I would have liked to have taken a better pic, but didn't want a repeat of what happened in the arcade, so I used my phone instead.
If I were a halfway decent photgrapher, this would have made a cool photo.
Ditto for this shot. I think that it looks like a painting I saw somewhere in a gallery, long ago.
Cheap coffee and uncomfortable seats. Just like cafes home.
So, we were sitting here for a while, having a conversation and all of a sudden, we hear a glass slam down on a table. I turned to look behind me to see who had made all that racket. It was a some guy with tattoos all down the sides of his neck. Pretty rough-looking. I slowly turned my head back to my coffee and Emily smiled.
Yes Em, that's fear you smell.
Well, Auld Lang Syne is playing, which is the Japanese way of saying, "Get the hell out."