It's Saturday...and we didn't have anything planned since we were flying to Sapporo, so we went all casual and improvised that day (like we do).
At the hotel, we finally got to try the Japanese breakfast option (see picture above) and that was quite the experience, and about 60% fish. There were about 12 different little dishes, that included things like miso soup, a little smoked fish (maybe salmon), a soft boiled (aka very raw) egg that you needed to slurp from a bowl, some tofu things, and of course rice. The egg thing was pretty disgusting, but if you mixed it with rice, it wasn't that bad (per Dave; Tsana couldn't stomach the texture).
We were full-ish after eating our mini courses, so we took a walk over to East Garden attached to the imperial palace. I mean, look at this entrance- right? Despite the rain, it was gorgeous, with large fish ponds with carp (not koi), and trees that looked like mini bonzai trees.
We hightailed out of the garden and checked out of the hotel, heading towards another Tokyo neighborhood, Yanaka Ginza. OK this is something that we NEED in the USA: Because we didn't want to carry our luggage all over town, they have short-term storage lockers at most train stations, so we tried it out. We stashed our stuff there for 500 yen (~$3) and headed out. There was a very strange feeling while walking away from your bags, complete with all of your electronics and things that matter, hoping that nothing happens. With the Japanese people being of such upstanding moral ground, we were honestly super confident that our bags would be fine, but we couldn't shake the suspicious American-ness.
Entering into this area, it is a shoutengai, which is a community co-op where all the store owners share some of the profits. We first ate some octopus balls (Takoyaki). They are these round doughballs that were sorta mushy in the center (Japanese love mushy, gelatinous textures, as we keep finding...and pickled things for that matter), and then covered in mayo and some sort of savory soy sauce and scallions; Dave was a fan.
We also ate some long-filled donut things that were shaped like cat tails/sticks/chinese finger traps/something else phallic, and they were delicious. Street food was a check in this area!
After spending some time in Yanaka Ginza and then walking through a very cute artisan market in Akihabara, we headed to the aiport to get to Sapporo. First off, we got into the fancy lounge for all of 15 minutes, but it was worth it for the Japanese candy, and then we got a fancy meal in 1st class for the whole 90 minute flight (can we say discount hunter for tickets? Yes, please!). We got to Sapporo, and had originally thought that it was going to be this "cute little town," but alas, we couldn't be more wrong. Enter mini-New York (or Chicago, more accurately) and while walking to our apartment, we see "entertainment" bar, one after the other. Later, we find out, we are staying right outside of Susukino, the red light district. Perfect. We were pooped when we got in, so off to bed we went.
Next on the agenda: Private tour of Sapporo. And ramen. Lots of ramen.