Day 4 (Tuesday!)

I spent an hour and a half online this morning talking to people and checking LJ and never once did I think to check what the weather was going to be like today.  

Today I decided to explore Ikebukuro (which is the city that my hotel is in) and basically take it easy.  I had a small map of the immediate area and had circled a few places I wanted to check out.  I left the hotel around 11:15 and walked to my first destination which was The Tokyo Metropolitan Arts Space, located about a 6 minute walk  from the hotel.  Just as I got there it started raining....from nothing to pouring buckets in about 3 seconds flat!!  I just made it inside without getting soaked. I figured I'd just wait it out and then head back out.  So I started looking around...it turns out the place has three theatre halls, a grand hall, and medium one and a small theatre.  I'm guessing all live performances.  About this time (11:50) it's still raining just as hard and the thunder starts.    I swear the storm must have been right over us because the lighting wasn't even gone yet and the thunder was crashing overhead!  It was so loud! Ear shattering!  

While waiting for the rain to wither stop or slow down I went around the shops on the mail floor and ended up buying a book.  I hope I'll be able to read it one day, right now it's a little above my reading level...and by a little...I mean a lot.  The title translates to Music history as a real language. Sounds right up my ally, talks about Beathoven too.

The humidity is up through the roof now.  I'm not hot at all but I'm sweating bullets! This sucks!  I waited at the Art Space for over an hour!  And I left my book at the hotel thinking I wouldn't need it while sight seeing! HA!  show's how much I know!

                                              NOTE TO SELF!!!
ALWAYS CHECK THE WEATHER BEFORE LEAVING THE HOTEL!!!!

When the rain slowed down enough I decided to get some food.  At this point is was about 1pm... I headed to the train station which was just up the street...I stopped in at Mc'Donalds for lunch...didn't quite finish my chicken burger and didn't even eat half my fries....didn't even finish my drink..and I was hungry.  I think my stomach shrunk with the humidity...

I went into the Tobu department store and went up the the 7th floor (I don't know what it is about the 7th floor...but almost every department store I go to, the 7th floor is kids and toys.  I found 2 puzzles there that I really want to buy. One I want so I can do it with mom, I think she'll love the picture, but I don't know if she's interested so not going to buy it without talking with her first. The other one I want for me. It's called The Earth and is a vew of the sun rising over the earth in space.  You only see part of the earh at the bottom left of the puzzle, the sun is at about the middle and the top right of the puzzle is space.  It's beautiful.  1000 pieces...about $40.  Then I'm thinking that I have to mail them home because they won't fit in my suit case.  So I'll see how much money I have left towards the end of my last week here.

I bought a book too. It's about a 4th grade level or so.  I can read most of it and the stuff I can't read has furigana so it's not a problem.  I'm happy because there are no pictures and the story seems interesting. It's about a girl who suddenly starts to hear voices in her head and weird things are happening.  Sounds like a mistery/ghost story.  From The Secret Library. haha.

So I headed back to the hotel after that...it was still raining but not too bad.  I was still nice and wet when I got to the hotel.  The air conditioner is finally working in our room.  The first few nights were quite warm! Almost hot. Now, my room is FREEZING!! and I'm wishing that I brought my cotton blue PJ bottoms instead of the thin shorts to sleep in.  I'm gonna wear  my black pants that I refuse to wear outside here due to the heat as PJs instead.  It wouldn't normally be a problem, but all I have is a sheep because I'm speeing on top of the duve cover to make the bed a little more comfortable to sleep on.

After asking the hotel staff if there is a cheap/second hand book/CD/DVD shop around here, I was told that there aren't any in Ikebukuro but there is one in the next city over (Mejiro). So at 4:30 I got on a train and went "next door" to Mejiro and went to Book Off.  I bought 8 CDs (3 for $5) and 1 DVD that I've been wanting for the past 6 years (Ashita Ga Aru Sa).  Now all I'm missing are the Chibi Maruko-Chan DVD's. 

So Now I'm in for the evening. Going to go read for a bit and then maybe go to bed early.  Tomorrow I'm going to check the weather before I go anywhere.

have a good day everyone!