April Adventures Across Japan; Phase 1 in Tokyo: Asakusa, LPs and Beer!

Tokyo Day 2

Cozy capsule life

While the bus ride down south was nice and cheap, there's something to be said about sleeping laying down... especially after a day of walking around and moshing. Capsule hotels are interesting creatures. You essentially get a little tube to sleep in. This one included free TV and had quite a lovely spa on the first floor... which made up for the strange stains on the carpets and the ramshackle state of the bathroom and other decor  It was not without it's charm, but, I'm glad that I wasn't going to spend all my time in that particular place. Anyway, from what I've experienced, the capsule hotels are, for the most part, men-only places, however there are a few (at least in Tokyo) who cater to women. Huzzah. The idea behind them is a cheap place for business men to sleep for a few hours while in town. They have a little TV, a radio, a light (with a dimmer switch, and a little vent (which you should use or you may melt in your little plastic tube). They all have a little privacy curtain at the end and there's no place for you to store you luggage so you get to sleep with it for the night. Works for me. The Kinshichou establishment felt like a hostel with many foreigners relaxing in the common area before heading out for the day. They would even hold your luggage for you behind the counter for free, so we didn't have to try and find a locker at the local station. Bonus!

Chris decided to stay down south for the day so we were going to hang out and see what kinda trouble we could get into. First order of business was to locate my new accommodations... after we located some coffee. It was a beautiful day, and Asakusa is a nice place to walk around in, right near the Skytree. While trying to find the hostel, we stumbled upon some interesting art fixtures that I wanted to revisit (hopefully once they have been completed...) Eventually we arrived at the main office of Asakusa Smile just in the nick of time. I checked in, then we walked to 'the annex' where I would actually be staying. Really glad that I got there when I did so I could leave my stuff in my room, as they have strange check-in times at that place and I would have had to wait about 3 hours to check in later... Don't quite know why. But whatever, it worked out.

Relieved of my burden, we set out in search of record stores in Shimokita. This journey took us to Tokyo station so Chris could get his shinkansen ticket for his trip up north that evening, so we decided to track down some lunchie-munchies. On a whim, we left via the main entrance which is a beautiful brick faced building. We ended up lunching on curry from "Casablanca Silk" in the Marunouchi building on the 5th floor which faced the station and had a great view. Great food and decent prices for a swanky looking place.

mmmmmmmmmmm

The left is a sweet coconut curry with little shrimps on top and the right was chicken. Delish!

Once our bellies were full, it was time to resume our hunt for tunes. Chris had found a building full of shops to check out. After much searching, and even resorting to asking for directions, we managed to locate the proper building and made our way upstairs... They were all ridiculously small, tightly packed and overpriced. I'm afraid I didn't manage to find anything to mark the occasion... most of what they had to offer was classic rock CDs, and standard versions to boot! We did find one vinyl shop with lots of electronica LPs, but they didn't have the mixes or singles I was looking for... I could have bought a couple of different versions of Rozella's "Everybody's Free (to feel good)", but naturally I want the one they used in the Venture Bros season 2 ep 1 opening. One day... one day...

Our next order of business was to drink beer. Lots of beer. During happy hour and get free food while doing so. Our destination was obvious: Bakushu Club Popeye in Ryogoku. Boasting 70 beers on tap (and microbrews, at that) and happy hour from 5-8pm, we got there just in time to get a table. We wanted to sample as many different beers as we could, so we opted for half-pints (plus, you still got free food with a h.p. so why not!) Please refer to the alcohol content on the menu

Here are the ones I made my way through before calling it a night:
- Divine Vamp III IBA
- Brewdog Brewing - Anarchist
- Swanlake - Amber Ale
- Outsider Brewing - Oak Age Plum
- Baird Beer - Black Smoke Stout (actually tasted delightfully smokey, so cool)
- Baird Beer - Raising Sun

Stolen from Facebook

All fuzzy warm and full of pizza (really great pizza, too.) I made my way back to Asakusa to call it a night.

Tokyo Skytree and the weird gold sperm thing atop the Asahi building...