Gonzo Travels

Off the cuff writing about the travels of a guy who people expect to be married, have kids, work the 9-5 and do all the other status quo nonsense.

Ginza

Japan Day 3: Ginza & Shibuya

Still not getting much sleep, but I’m determined as ever to push myself through each day. My hostel friend still has his jetlag, the sleeping pills aren’t working so he took a bike ride around the city at 3am. I hope it doesn’t get to that stage for me!

I gout out early and went to Bakery & Cafe Yamazaki where I chose some kind of Hotdog, a pastry and black coffee (¥823) to get the day going. While wandering back, I noticed a queue of people waiting outside a place that appeared to be closed – of course they were waiting for pancakes and had actually got tickets. I’ll never understand these hipsters! I then was off to Ginza to check out old cameras. As a photographer who recently got back into film, I wanted to check out an old Fuji GL690 and actually found one in the second of the stores I walked in to – Katsumido Camera. It’s only on sight that you realise the thing is an utter behemoth and there’s no way you could carry that around for the next month with all your other stuff. Perhaps I’ll consider it on the way back. Please don’t buy it before I do.

Having satisfied the camera itch, I wandered Ginza which was full of people enjoying to bright sunday and the main road being closed. Lots of expensive shops for those who want, but not for me. I decided to go and check out the Shibuya area, the crossing no longer as exciting as it was the first time I saw it in 2017, but still impressive to see the volumes of people. I wandeed the hilly area a little, chuckling to myself at excited young boys snapping photographs and getting autographs of what was obviously a girl band meet and greet, times have changed since the Beetles!

Hunger kicking in I headed into a kebab place for a tasty beef shawarma, small fries and a coke (¥1,000), then returned to Asakusa to bide my time before my next attempt at sleep.