72 hours of niceness

technically we only spent one and a half days being out and about in tokyo. on the first day we couldn't check in till 2pm so we spent the morning in the hotel lobby and being in the nearby malls in shinjuku. we slept the noon away and at night, was just in the vicinity for dinner - ramen. we went into a gourmet bottle shop/grocer and the cashier saw us looking at some beer mugs. he came up to us and said it was a gift for us - not knowing at first we were tourists/or afraid of another quake? - and the nice thing about them is that they're very attentive - he gave us a set of 2 instead of just one.

on day two we knew we only had that one day because we had already booked our flights back which were to be the next day and we were unsure about the next day's situation so we didn't want to venture far. so in the morning we found a st. cousier shop nearby in keio mall just by the train station and bought our precious bottles of wine. the cashier kindly gave us a st. couseir cork coaster when he saw us pondering over it. another kind act out of nowhere. then we took the train to shibuya - the trains were running normal; the crowds of yesterday weren't there. the platforms were a little crowded but it was probably normal peak hour crowds. at shibuya we found the brass shop where mingyao tested mouthpieces for his trumpet. we didn't buy them cos they only ordered into tokyo and didn't have them on sale in the shop but at least he got to try them.

then we walked towards another shop which i wanted to go to - the claksa hotel's satellite shop in parco mall but the mall was closed. so we took a walk, about half hour to jingumae. along the way we stopped at a small shop that sold things made in japan. i got a ring and we spoke to the lady i the shop who spoke excellent english. at the few shops we went to, the staff were surprised we were tourists visiting at that time - the streets were literally quite empty of tourists. at omotesando we found kagure - i featured them in my article last year. the second floor was closed. all the beautiful ceramics we had seen were not there - maybe they were destroyed in the quake? i handed them a copy of the magazine with their shop featured in it and they were so grateful. the lady at the counter gave us 2 packets of biscuits before we left. this is the third time i've been in this shop, three years in a row when they've given us something when we haven't bought anything.

tower records was opened and we went in - mingyao has a soft spot for this cd shop. he bought a jack johnson cd and i bought the latest belle and sebastian ones that has two extra tracks for the made in japan cd. at the counter they gave us a free sample cd of songs from random artists.

we found the renowned maisen tonkatsu shop - a reputable old shop at the back of omotesando hills. inside the traditional interiors it felt like another world. in the calmness and with a backdrop of lighthearted japanese music, the only thing that mattered was the black pork tonkatsu.

we walked on to the franc franc shop in aoyama which had the monocle shop inside, and then to cibone, after which we took the train to ginza and into the original meiji shop which was opened and still fully stocked. we had tea at a cafe near the yakisoba shop we intended to go - there was no point walking the streets. even if some shops were not closed, most closed at about five or six to conserve electricity. and yes, like omotesando, the flagship stores were closed too. not that i go into them but it just gives you a sense of ennui when the streets of tokyo are so quiet. when we went into the yakisoba shop - it was opened! - the owner recognised us. we gave him the pack of bak kwa we brought from singapore and a framed picture we took last year with him in the shop. fortunately his helper was chinese so he was our translator. we exchanged emails and the owner refused to charge us for dinner. the only pity was that his helper made the yakisoba instead of him and i could observe the skill difference. he gave us some extra dishes too. we found out alot more about him through the translator, that his shop used to be so popular during his younger days it had queues. we were delighted that we had found this gem. after dinner we went back home.

the next day we left right in the morning for the airport.