Monday
By Monday morning two things were happening: our feet were breaking down, and we began to really acclimate to the time zone changes.  We had hit most of the major agenda items for the trip in the first three days, so mentally the initial excitement from the first day was beginning to wane, and we just started running out of steam.  There was still much to see and do.  We just needed to accept a slower pace.

We decided to hit up a new breakfast option in our hotel, Top of Shinagawa, which was a restaurant on the 39th floor of one of the towers.  What this venue lacked in food variety it more than made up for in views.  We spent a long time admiring the city after we ate; it was a really great moment in reflection on Tokyo (some of which I'll expand upon in a post-trip entry).

On recommendation from Suzuki-san from the cafe the day before, we headed to the shrine in Akasura.  The area is a completely different environment from that of more central and western Tokyo.  It seems to have preserved much more of Old Tokyo; from what (unfortunately) minimal history of Tokyo I know, it would make sense that more fringe areas we less subjected to destruction in the fires.  Though the buildings had old charm, the area is flush with new capitalism: it's basically a huge flea market of souvenir goods.  Fortunately, we still had some shopping to do, so this worked out nicely.  After the usual walking and browsing, we made it to the temple, admired, and went scouring for food and a break.

The next stop was Omotesando station on the other side of town.  This afforded us the opportunity to take the subway for the first time, which was an interestingly familiar experience, and certainly a convenient one as the Ginza line cuts directly through Tokyo from our A to our B.  When we got out at Omotesando, we realized we didn't really know why it made our list.  We had written down two notes about things to see there, one of which was the station itself.  But after poking around a little bit, we saw all we needed to see.

When we hit the street level, we noticed we were in the middle of our journeys path from the first day and were treading old ground.  This was a good thing as everything had been closed the first time - Tokyo generally opens at 11am, oddly - so now, at about 2pm, we could actually go into shops.  And only about 30 or 45 minutes after the long and restful subway ride, our feet were breaking again and we needed another stop.  (For the record, while we are both admittedly out of shape, our poor display of endurance on the last 2 days was due entirely to overreaching for the first 3.  Our feet just plain broke.)  Another long coffee later, we headed for another new area, Shinjuku, just one shop away from the Shibuya / Harajuku area.

Shinjuku is interesting to say the least.  If Tokyo has its own Times Square, Shibuya is the fun and glitzy half, and Shinjuku owns the seedy half.  It's clearly the cities red light district, that's am clear immediately upon leaving whatever train you rode in on.  But at dusk it felt a little too shady for us, so we made way for some sites away from the center.  We did get to see Yakuza before we left though, which was kind of unnerving.

We were looking for a recommended bookstore, Kinokuniya, which allegedly had a large English section.  What a great bookstore for an American traveler.  They had exactly what I had been hoping to find: a section not just with English books (I wasn't looking for a new fiction book, but they definitely had them), but a section dedicated to Japanese and Tokyo culture, broken out into sections like Business / Economy, and Literature.  I was elated.  By the end of the first day of our trip, having been thrown in the middle of it all, I was starving to learn about the city.  I could have read up ahead of time - and I had hoped to - but it was far more exciting to be experiencing it in the moment, and reading up as we went.

At this point, I had already generated a lengthy list of "to-research" items for when we got home, but I had still wanted to pick something up to hold and consume in the remaining 2 days.  I very much wanted to assimilate myself in the culture by reading a book on the train with commuters.  So after a long, long perusal, I settled not on a book on culture, but on a cultural artifact itself: an anime 'pocketbook', in English, Ooku.  (There turned out to be a separate section in the store, of 3 bookcases of all English anime, which was also very exciting.)

Ooku is apparently a huge hit in Japan; I almost finished in before we left, and I'm dying to get book 2.  It's great both as a graphic novel in and of itself, but also because its printed from right-to-left, so reading it is 100% backwards and a very interesting experience.  It's also an amazing look into how Japanese comics differ from our own - for example, their gonzo, over-the-top expressions we see commonly in their kids works.  Simply put, this book really helped me understand a lot of different Japanese nuances.

Amber too found a really cool Japanese fashion magazine that she was very excited about.  So after our literary gold mines, we used the remains of our new found energy to hunt down a recommended Shibuya dinner spot, Toriyoshi, for some skewers.  The food was very good, but the sake was astounding.  We now have 4 sake names jotted down and rated for when we get home.  I'm much more interested in this world of rice wine than I am of that of the grape, and I think I've found a suitable replacement for beer if I'm ever so inclined.