dtam

A lazy start

August 10, 2019・4 min read (710 words)

It’s amazing to just wake up and not do much…

Last time I was in Japan it was winter and both my sweat pants and down jacket had many zipped pockets. It was amazing being able to carry my passport, JR pass, wallet, phone, and coins (you end up with so many here) and not fretting over things falling out. This time, I also need to carry keys because our apartment doesn’t use keyless entry, which is also annoying because there’s only one set of keys so we need to work out who’s coming home first, and the unit door (there’s also a building door) doesn’t lock without a key, so sometimes we just have to leave our door unlocked. Ideally I’d like to stuff the pocket wifi in my… pocket, too. However, none of my shorts have zipped pockets, and my t-shirt certainly doesn’t. Looks like I need to buy a tiny backpack or bumbag of some sort.

I got 8 hours of sleep and woke up at 10, sitting on my laptop learning Japanese until 12. We left the house at around 1.30 after Elbert woke up, having decided to get food at an udon chain named Hanamura, in Ikebukuro—apparently one of the busier Tokyo districts, and only one stop away.

Bic Camera, Ikebukuro: unintentional Windows 7 pun.
Bic Camera, Ikebukuro: unintentional Windows 7 pun.

Hanamaru, Ikebukuro: cold udon with onsen egg (buried underneath my garlic) + crab and eggplant tempura.
Hanamaru, Ikebukuro: cold udon with onsen egg (buried underneath my garlic) + crab and eggplant tempura.

Hanamaru, Ikebukuro: a very happy high chair.
Hanamaru, Ikebukuro: a very happy high chair.

We walked aimlessly around Sunshine City, Ikebukuro’s main mall which famously has a Pokemon Center, and walked around the streets to check out a few anime stores for Neon Genesis Evangelion (an anime I like) merchandise but couldn’t find any.

Sunshine City, Ikebukuro: Weathering With You promo that I saw.
Sunshine City, Ikebukuro: Weathering With You promo that I saw.

Pokemon Center, Ikebukuro: I assume it's eternally busy here, like the crowd of people at the Disneyland merch store after all the rides close.
Pokemon Center, Ikebukuro: I assume it's eternally busy here, like the crowd of people at the Disneyland merch store after all the rides close.

It’s so unbearably hot and humid in the Tokyo summer climate (you feel moist and receive a blast of hot air as soon as you walk out of an air conditioned environment) right now. On this particular day it was 33C with 65% humidity, so we went to a 7-111 where I got milk pudding and milk tea.

7/11, Ikebukuro: seeing this dessert aisle again brought back memories.
7/11, Ikebukuro: seeing this dessert aisle again brought back memories.

7/11, Ikebukuro: yep, missed the taste of conbini pudding.
7/11, Ikebukuro: yep, missed the taste of conbini pudding.

It was about 6 by the time that we got home; Elbert played Fire Emblem on his Switch while I started preparing to write this blog and learnt kanji on WaniKani. Since we got up and ate lunch so late, we only went out for dinner at 10.30. We walked around the neighbourhood and settled on Yoshinoya—a chain known for dons—since it was surprisingly dead in the area; I had a large gyuudon (beef don) with shallots and raw (or almost raw??) egg.

Yoshinoya, Ootsuka: gyuudon where the toppings were served deconstructed for whatever reason. The sieve on the bottom left is to pour the egg through to separate out the yolk. Seems like a lot of washing up to do!
Yoshinoya, Ootsuka: gyuudon where the toppings were served deconstructed for whatever reason. The sieve on the bottom left is to pour the egg through to separate out the yolk. Seems like a lot of washing up to do!

Post egg pour. Perfectly on centre.
Post egg pour. Perfectly on centre.

We stopped at the local Lawson on the way home and I got a warabimochi2 cream roll (it wasn’t great, the mochi tasted more like cake and it was all a bit heavy) and a cheap Kirin beer to finish off most of my remaining coins. I spent the rest of the night chilling out on my laptop (i.e. checking OzBargain and doing WaniKani) and finally starting to write yesterday’s blog rather than just making notes or fixing little website engineering issues.

Home: warabimochi roll.
Home: warabimochi roll.

The only beer that I could buy with my remaining coins.
The only beer that I could buy with my remaining coins.

It’s amazing to just wake up and not do much instead of waking up early and rushing to go somewhere because you want to make the most out of your holiday day. It’s pretty much like sleeping in on a free day during the uni semester.

Waking hours

1000–2800 (I’ve seen a few shop opening hours here that are written like this).

  1. damn, didn’t last 24 hours without going to a conbini (convenience store)

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  2. according to Wikipedia it’s made from bracket starch rather than glutinous rice

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Written by Daniel Tam