Tokyo looks nice at night because you can't see the ugly mish-mash of buildings

August 11, 2019・6 min read (876 words)

I got out of bed at 1330 and studied some Japanese, before having a tomato ramen breakfast at 1600 with Elbert in Ootsuka. We went home and I figured out how to use my gimbal properly, although I’ve realised that I don’t really have an appropriate bag for it to protect the lens, although the lens is somewhat recessed into the housing anyway.

Home, Ootsuka: playing around with my gimbal and action cam. The gimbal really
does make videos so stable, it's a night and day difference. — Home, Ootsuka: playing around with my gimbal and action cam. The gimbal really does make videos so stable, it's a night and day difference.

Protecting my lens using a glasses case so that I could stuff it in my backpack.

At night I headed to the Tokyo Government Metropolitan Building to go to the observation deck, taking my action cam and gimbal with me like a good tourist. My expectations weren’t particularly high because it wasn’t one of the paid towers like Tokyo Tower/Skytree and I’ve never really been amazed at an observation deck before¹, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the view. The high density of the city lights extending as far as the eye can see, with skyscrapers twinkling in the distance, is an awesome sight.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Shinjuku: The internal lighting and
double glazed glass made it difficult to take good pictures. This view looks
southeast; the big dark spot on the right is Yoyogi Park. — Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Shinjuku: The internal lighting and double glazed glass made it difficult to take good pictures. This view looks southeast; the big dark spot on the right is Yoyogi Park.

Looking south-southeast towards Yokohama.

By comparing to the previous picture, you can see how some of the red lights
on the skyscrapers are pulsing, which made the view even cooler. — By comparing to the previous picture, you can see how some of the red lights on the skyscrapers are pulsing, which made the view even cooler.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Shinjuku: I definitely considered
getting these from the merch shop to help me survive the next month... — Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Shinjuku: I definitely considered getting these from the merch shop to help me survive the next month...

The top left stitched Maneki-Neko (beckoning cats) were so detailed that I
wanted one just for the sake of it. There was also plenty of Tokyo 2020 Olympics
merch. — The top left stitched Maneki-Neko (beckoning cats) were so detailed that I wanted one just for the sake of it. There was also plenty of Tokyo 2020 Olympics merch.

Tokyo Metropolitan Governnment Building, Shinjuku: The view of the north and
south towers from the east. — Tokyo Metropolitan Governnment Building, Shinjuku: The view of the north and south towers from the east.

After that I went to Ichiran Ramen in Shinjuku, but not before crossing through Shinjuku station and being charged 140 yen for it (I suspected I might get charged, but I didn’t have the energy to walk around trying to find the west-east underpass which had plenty of signage up until the point where you actually got close to the underpass, where the signage disappears for some reason…) since it turns out that you can’t get your tap on reversed like you can with an Opal card. My IC card wouldn’t even let me exit since I had just tapped in, so I prepared a translated sentence to explain to the man staffing the ticket barrier, but he understood right away and had decent English, so it was for naught.

Ichiran, Shinjuku: me probably looking silly taking this photo.

Ichiran ramen. You put that strange metal plate over the button behind the
bowl when you want your noodle refill. You pay for the refill, of course. — Ichiran ramen. You put that strange metal plate over the button behind the bowl when you want your noodle refill. You pay for the refill, of course.

Same thing except now I've peeled the egg.

And now I've asked for a noodle refill. Damn that ramen was tasty.

And now I've eaten the noodle refill and drank some of that unhealthily salty
but tasty soup. — And now I've eaten the noodle refill and drank some of that unhealthily salty but tasty soup.

Home, Ootsuka: I picked up this peach alcopop from FamilyMart on the way home.
It pretty much tasted like peach tea from a bubble tea shop except I assume it
gets you drunk if you consume enough. — Home, Ootsuka: I picked up this peach alcopop from FamilyMart on the way home. It pretty much tasted like peach tea from a bubble tea shop except I assume it gets you drunk if you consume enough.

Going solo with the gimbal was actually really annoying. There’s no one to hold it for you when you need to go to the bathroom or get stuff out of your bag, and I didn’t have a pouch or loop to store it - I had to put it into my backpack carefully whenever I wasn’t filming, or else just hold onto it awkwardly. I might just take it out for cool things in the future rather than trying to record everything like a vlog or a streamer would, since it’s not like I’m going to do much with the content anyway. I also don’t have the bravery to just record everyone and everything, for example I turned it off on the train, in the observation deck lift, and at the cashier at FamilyMart. I don’t mind looking silly myself but it also requires being okay with making strangers somewhat uncomfortable, even though it’s probably not a big deal to them.

I still haven’t washed any clothes except for the t-shirt that I wore on the plane (since I had been wearing that for a while back in Sydney). They don’t smell and I’ve been changing out of them and airing them out every time I get home (merino socks, merino undies, Uniqlo dry-ex t-shirt², normal cotton shorts (but who changes shorts every day right?). Hooray for the environment. I’ll probably change my undies though, because eww.

Waking hours

1200–2700

not that I’ve been to many, only Rockefeller, Eureka Tower, Victoria Peak, and the Queenstown one (although I did love that one)
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I don’t know how much is just marketing, but it really does seem to do what it says on the box with feeling dry and being anti-odor/anti-microbial
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Written by Daniel Tam