Still getting our bearings (thank you GPS)

The train shot here taken on our way to Shibuya does not depict a very busy time of day...this is normal mid-day traffic on the trains. I'll have to head back to Shibuya soon, so I can get some pictures of the crossing. I have to time it out right to get maximum chaos. But we (my friend Nick and I) went to Shibuya yesterday to try and get phones. On Saturdays, Tanaka-San (Mr. Tanaka) works at AU, the phone dealership. He's the only one who speaks English. Trust me, getting a phone would be near impossible without some help in the language department. Tanaka-San set us up right. I got a sweet Casio Exilim phone. It has a 5.1 mega pixel camera with movie capability. My package is a bit different than one would find in the states. I only get 25min of talk time, but I get unlimited text on a scaled pricing system. My bill can be as little as $30 a month and at most $65. It has GPS loaded to it, which only costs 200 yen (less than $2) per month. The beauty here is that now my friends and I can bike everywhere and anywhere in Tokyo and never get lost (the train stations that we loaded encompass the city, and my home is loaded too). One catch, the GPS system and menus are all in Kanji (Japanese character set). So, Tanaka-San was kind enough to pre-load all the places we want to be able to get to in Tokyo and also taught us to use the GPS - he will definitely be getting a customary thank you gift. We memorized about 20 steps and we're in business. The GPS even does 3-D (above), and I can watch my digital self walk down the streets. After getting phones it was time to get some good eats...so we found a restaurant, chose from life-like samples, matched up the letters, and got our grub on for about 500 yen (less than $5). On the way to lunch we saw one of Tokyo's most famous faces - he is nearly everywhere: Tommy Lee Jones. That's right, he's selling a coffee drink. I'm not sure Tommy Lee could sell anything in the U.S.





No picture for this story, but it's pretty interesting nonetheless. It poured rain all day yesterday - just like in Seattle (Tokyo's weather is about the same as Seattle). Being a good Seatte-ite, I ignored the complimentary bumber in my house and wore my gore-tex coat. Once getting outside, I noticed that everyone in Tokyo is carrying an umbrella. And when we arrived in Shibuya and went to a store, we felt a little embarrassed. Everyone else was putting their umbrella into this "auto-plastic wrapping" device: (1) insert umbrella; (2) twist; (3) pull out, and voila your umbrella will not drip in the store. Notably, no one gave us dirty looks about our dripping coat. On the contrary, they smiled, said good day, and asked if they could help us with anything -very accommodating people and extraordinarily kind. Next point of business is to get a bike. Everyone in Minato-ku, where I live, has a bike (the bicycle picture here is a pretty common scene on the street.