{"id":103,"date":"2015-06-18T18:43:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T18:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whereami.org\/?p=103"},"modified":"2021-08-24T04:57:25","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T04:57:25","slug":"old-friends-returning-to-tokyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whereami.org\/?p=103","title":{"rendered":"Old Friends – Returning to Tokyo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tokyo. Wake up. 8:30 AM.<\/p>\n

Got in the night before, delayed flight. Got Yen. Crashed at 3AM.<\/p>\n

Shower. Breakfast. Out the door.<\/p>\n

The mission:<\/p>\n

Visit old friends: Places I’ve been missing since 1999, when I left here. Two of my favorite restaurants in the world. Akihabara Denkimachi (Lightning-Town). Find an otaku shop: See if I can connect with Tokyo board-game culture.\u00a0Visit the Kinokunia bookstore: See if the toilets there are still lit up with more glowing controls than a science fiction set.<\/p>\n

First stop: Akihabara. Not finding the electronics parts stores of old, where folks would stand over racks and racks of specialized components. Did I miss the right turn off the main street, or has that moved to Huachangbei in Shenzhen?<\/p>\n

Well, here’s an arcade, let’s get a game in at a sit-down machine.<\/p>\n

Nerd stores: Well, this is awesome. Look at all these mecha kits. Look at all these random parts in baggies, so you can kit-bash your mecha.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I think this miniature giant robot would defeat alien invaders much better with just a few changes.<\/p><\/div>\n

Mission: Find boardgames in Tokyo: Failed.<\/p>\n

Lunch: Find my favorite old soba stand. That was 14 years ago. The guy who ran it was old. Can it still be there? It was at the corner of a tiny alley out of an exit from a train station that defies the laws of geometry.<\/p>\n

Yes, my feet still know the way.<\/p>\n

(2021 Update: Apparently the alley is named “Omoide Yokocho”!)<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

Found the right exit from Shinjuku station, found the right alley<\/a>… my feet still know the way. It should be ahead, on the left…<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s still there. Two young guys are running it tonight.<\/p>\n

It’s just like I remember. The best soba in the world. 380 yen for a bowl, tempura and an egg on top.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The one change is, more people know about it now. There was never a line to get a seat before.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tokyo. Wake up. 8:30 AM. Got in the night before, delayed flight. Got Yen. Crashed at 3AM. Shower. Breakfast. Out the door. The mission: Visit old friends: Places I’ve been missing since 1999, when I left here. Two of my favorite restaurants in the world. Akihabara Denkimachi (Lightning-Town). Find an otaku shop: See if I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whereami.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whereami.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whereami.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whereami.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whereami.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/whereami.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"https:\/\/whereami.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whereami.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whereami.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whereami.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}