Feet on the ground

I finally arrived Sunday morning ... and it kind of freaked me out.  For the first day that I was in Tokyo, I really didn't leave the apartment.  The concept of going outside, into an environment where I would be totally lost and unable to talk to anyone was a little but overwhelming.  Moving to Sydney was a lark, but this is a real foreign country and it does not cater to English speakers.  Other than the subway system and some of the most major streets, there is no English signage, which means taking that interesting looking turn down a smaller street can realistically lead to being completely and totally lost.

Finally, after hiding in a video game for a few hours and some gentle chiding from the wife, I wandered out on to the street.  I went out the backdoor of our apartment complex (ours is the one with the little red dot on it, in the middle of the map, and our apartment is at the far left hand side of the building) on to a little 1.5 lane alley.

This is a pretty boring video of it since I tend to leave a bit earlier than the average salaryman, apparently, so the street is deserted at this time in the morning.  This also means that I have not yet experienced the Japanese subway crush, but it's coming.  When I stepped out on to the street, there were a ton of people streaming along, moving to the side if a car or van drove past.  I'm not sure where they were all going since it was a Sunday, but I hopped in to the flow and just followed them down the street.

That took me out, after a turn that I carefully tried to remember so that if I needed to come back the other direction I wouldn't miss it, to Aoyama-dori.  From there, I basically just picked a direction and wandered around for a while.

For some reason, I am fascinated by intersections in Japan.  This one isn't even that exciting, although if you were to walk in this direction for a kilometer or so you would eventually arrive at Shibuya station and then the office.

The Prada building which, once again, I found less interesting than the street.  There was a snooty party going on there that evening, with massive sumo bodyguards out front that I decided probably did not want to be filmed.

After making this stunning contribution to the world of urban filming, I wandered around for a little bit looking for something to eat.  I will admit, ashamedly, that I chickened out and went for McDonalds, where I could point and order by number.  But, I at least ate there instead of scurrying back to my apartment, enjoying the smoke filled atmosphere while all the Japanese people inside laughed at the white guy who travels half way across the globe to a land of intensely great food ... to eat at McDonalds.