11:30 am — Tokyo, day 1 morning

牛角 三ノ輪店

The morning started quite late, around 11 (am) which is expected considering that I hadn’t had a sleep in a bed for two nights.

Today I decided to commit a raid over several hiking gear shops in the central area of Tokyo. Thus I’m walking my way there, stopping near Minowa station in a small restaurant for a breakfast.

They have no English menu and staff speaks very little English. Yet after a few phrases the waiter went to the back room and returned with a tablet with translator there. Convenient and enough to order cheese pasta.

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2:00 pm — Traffic lights

Akihabara Station (秋葉原駅)

They don’t have numbers on traffic lights in Japan. They use progress bars!

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2:30 pm — Accessible Tokyo

Akihabara Station (秋葉原駅)

A lot of sidewalks and other public places in Tokyo have these bright yellow walk markers on them. With lines on the parts to walk straight and dots on crossroads, near stairs, etc.

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4:30 pm — Blocks

Sotobori Park (外濠公園)

It happens to be quite hard for me to estimate distances on the map. Most of the streets I’m walking through today consist of small blocks, sometimes less than 50 meters. And to me the distance of 10 blocks just does not feel like a 5 minute walk. Yet it is…

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8:00 pm — Wrapping the day

Minami-Senju Station (南千住駅)

The first full day in Tokyo is slowly going to its end. The weather was fine despite forecast and somewhat cloudy sky. I had a fun trip around the city and I was able to get all the gear I lacked and /traditionally/ some extra. The only thing I’d like to have before starting the hike is a detailed topo map on my gps. Though it’d be fine even without it. I can use gps for general directions and trek logging while switching to iphone in rare cases when precise navigation is needed (e.g. finding a lodging).

Now I’m going to bathe and to sleep since I’m trying to switch to early bird mode and I’m tired enough to go to sleep right away.