UT Tubes

I love how the T-shirts are packaged in tubes. Here is my collection. :)

Yokohama

Today we went to Yokohama. The weather forecast said that it was gonna rain a lot today. Sure it was a little bit cloudy in the morning but we decided to go anyway. The express train took us to Yokohama in 18 minutes. From there we took another train to the Minatomirai station.





We went up the Yokohama Landmark Tower. The observatory deck is on 69th floor and the world's second fastest elevator with an impressive max speed of 750 meters per minute took us there. Here are some views from the observatory deck.









The tower itself to the left.



The Akarenga Sōko





China Town



After China Town we took the train back to Minatomirai for some shopping. When we were done with the mall we continued the evening with some more shopping in Shibuya.

Dolphins From My Window

I see dolphins from my hotel window. :)

Fugu Dinner

Two of us left Tokyo for Sweden this morning. Alex and I were left. We said good-bye to our Japanese colleagues around 5:30 PM today and went straight to Ginza for some shopping. I bought some very cute pink chino shorts. :)

We were recommended a Fugu restaurant near the Ginza area, so we went to that place for a late dinner. It was fun to have tried it, but it really is nothing special with the taste. It taste like chicken.

Here is the menu and the different courses.

Top Of Shinagawa

Work, work, work...

After our yakiniku dinner we got an e-mail from a Japanese colleague that he got the thing that we have been working on the whole week running. Great!

We continued the night going to the bar at 39th floor of the hotel. We sat there till quite late - maybe 1:30 AM.

Shinagawa Station from Top Of Shinagawa.

Ninja Food And Karaoke

Matcha icecream in the afternoon. :)



After work some Japanese colleagues took us to a ninja themed restaurant. To go to our room in the restaurant we had to go through som "ninja training". A ninja jumped out from the wall and led us through a very narrow and dark aisle with different difficulties along the way.

The food was good - 10 courses. Here are some of the dishes.









I really didn't want to eat this little ninja. Kawaii!





Ninja chef.



Trained ninjas.




Afterwards we went to sing Karaoke - singing AKB48.

Having Dinner With Hiromi

Mostly work today as well. The others left the office at around 6 PM. I stayed and worked a little bit more because I had planned to meet an old colleague for late dinner.

Turned out the others went to Shibuya and had dinner at
The Lockup, a "haunted" prison/dungeon restaurant with loud music and darkness and a lot of monsters coming in to scare the guests. I heard they put handcuffs on Alex at the entrance. :)

I had matcha three times today - matcha latte in the morning at Starbuck's, matcha cake in the afternoon and matcha dessert at dinner.

Akihabara

Didn't do anything special today. Came to the office quite early, but my computer over here didn't work, so we had to reinstall Linux on it.

The others arrived after lunch and were quite tired after the long ride.

We left the office at around 6 PM and went to Akihabara.
Some of us were looking for AKB48 things and it wasn't me. ;)

It's Dark In Tokyo

Well, I'm here in Tokyo again. :)

Landed around 9.30 this morning. Took the airport limousine (i.e., bus) to Shinagawa Prince Hotel. The sky was very cloudy today and the risk of rain was hanging over us the whole evening, but luckily the rain never came.

I came to the hotel around 12.30 and wasn't allowed to check-in yet, so I left my bags and wandered around Shinagawa Station. I bought some green tea, had lunch and took it very slowly. I bumped into a colleague, Mattias, on the way back to the hotel. He was on his way to job. :(

The view from my hotel room at 22nd floor.




People queueing for something. Don't know what. Maybe the dolphin show they have at the hotel.




I skipped my usual afternoon nap, which I always take the first day in Tokyo in order to be human and alive again. I didn't feel so sleepy today after all. I guess I slept a few hours on the plane because all of a sudden it was time for second serving.

After a quick shower I took the train to Harajuku for some shopping. The clock was after 15 by that time, so I figured I had around 3 hours' shopping. And this is the art of spending three days' travel allowance in 3 hours. :-D

In Tokyo, they hand out the BIG shopping bags. :)




And if you notice the Lilo & Stitch bag, no, I wasn't at the Disney Store. I just
desperately needed a bag for all the stuff I bought at the Daiso 100 Yen store, most of it just candy and useless things I guess I will never use once at home.

Shopping T-shirts at UT store is always mandatory - I bought 11 for myself. Good quality, cool prints for affordable price. :)

In case you are reading, Jazze. Here is your shirt:




I wandered to Shibuya and took the train back to Shinagawa.

Yeah right, almost forgot to explain the title of this post. It is indeed very dark in Tokyo because they have to save electric power. Buildings and neon signs that usually are lit up are now turned off. At first I thought that they were celebrating something today and the shops were closed. Even the big crossing in Shibuya is not as lit up as before. I think only about 1/3 of the lights and signs are on.

Sharing Some Photos

It was quite cloudy that day. :-(


Spotted this guy by Rockefeller Center. Is it Christer Sandelin? How would I know?


Hm... What does it look like?


Alice in Central Park.


The red steps by Times Square. Empty because it is closed after 1 AM.


The night O.B.L. died.


Building in Ground Zero.


Looks like a spiderweb.


Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn. There was a bicycle thing going on that day.


Some Japanese ladies making matcha in Brooklyn Botanic Garden.


The result from Woodbury Premium Outlet. The bags to the left half belong to me. :-D