Autumn leaves & window shopping

Smoke protection

This morning, I noticed that the inside of my hotel room door had a plastic bag attached to it.  Instructions suggested that it is to be used over the had, puffed out with air, during fire evacuation as protection from smoke.  It really goes against all the things we’ve been taught with plastic bags over the head, especially in the case of children.

Japan has always had a strong fire-safety culture.  Some hotel rooms are provided with slings and winches as a means of fire escape.

Plastic bag over the had as protection against smoke inhalation during fire evacuation.

Autumn leaves

I woke around 0100 due to still being on New Zealand time.  But I dozed off and suddenly my alarm was going off at 0700.

We had our self-catered breakfasts separately in our room before leaving at 1000.

Alice, who is somewhat familiar with Tokyo and had done some research for the day, took charge.

First up, we took the metro to Kudanshita where she expected we would see autumn leaves on the side of the palace moat.  Unfortunately, some trees were bare and others were green.  I think she may have been misled by the site being great for cherry blossoms but not necessarily good for the fall colours at this particular time.

We continued by metro and foot to ginko avenue (officially Meiji Jingu Gaien) around midday.  Here, we were met by gorgeous yellow leaves on both sides of the avenue.

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Lobster lunch and window-shopping

We spent some time taking photos before continuing by foot through the Shibuya to find Luke’s Lobster.  As it was already around 1330, I was starving.  My patience was rewarded by numerous lobster claws of garlicky stuffed into a small soft roll. It was pricey but absolutely worth it!

Continuing our walk, we made it to Miyashita Park, a multi-storey mall with a difference.  It had a very atmospheric indoor and outdoor area.  As it was too early to eat, we moved on to Shibuya Scramble crossing around 1600.  Sunset was only about half hour away and the city was starting to come alive with lights.

We killed time in the food halls of posh department stores, some of which had gorgeous cakes and other sweet delights.

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Around 1700, we found Ichiran, a famous ramen chain from Fukuoka and joined the queue.  We sat in little cubicles but the partitions came down.  We indicated on paper how cooked we wanted our noodles, how rich and how spicy we wanted our soup.  All elements inside the bowl were delicious!

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We window-shopped before heading back around 2000.  The lesson from the after-dinner browsing highlighted the importance of comparison shopping.

At the posh department store called Loft, a set of several plastic pouches cost JPY1700 whereas they would probably be JPY500 at Daiso.  A USB cable at Bic Camera was around JPY1100 but JPY100 at Daiso.

It had been a slow day with a late start with lots of shopping and window-shopping.  However, wandering the urban areas of Tokyo is part and parcel of getting the city’s vibe.