09:35:20
Presumably somewhere en route from Haneda to Shinjuku, I found this poster amusing.09:55:16
Robot in my hotel lobby. Wouldn't flinch on giving me a room earlier.09:55:24
09:58:58
The lobby at the Hyatt Regency Shinjuku.
10:17:59
A much needed coffee at Paul Bassett, a place I must have starred on Google Maps on a previous trip but hadn't actually got round to going to, and conveniently was only a short walk from my hotel this time. Very much appreciated!11:18:18
At Al Dente, an old favourite pasta place in Shinjuku. I'm usually a real stickler for meal times, and the thought of eating lunch before midday generally apalls me, but I thought I would make an exception in this instance as (A) I was still on UK time (so... err... this was 3am for me) and (B) I know this place gets really busy.11:31:29
My old favourite, their tomato and Japanese mushroom spaghetti.11:49:26
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
12:00:08
As I still had half an hour to wait before my hotel room would be ready I decided to try and kill time by going and looking at the view from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, where there's a free observation floor at the top. I could actually just about see Mount Fuji, although it's hard to make out here.12:01:13
12:01:17
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12:04:09
12:07:41
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12:08:12
15:00:33
Have now met up with Andrew in Akihabara, and took him to a maid cafe (where you are asked not to take pictures with the actual maids in shot) and he looks appropriately embarassed and uncomfortable.15:00:37
Andrew presumably trying to think happy thoughts of better times.16:18:24
Next stop Asakusa, where we had about 30 seconds of culture (looked at the famous lantern of Sensoji)...
16:22:12
...before heading over the bridge to the Asahi HQ, with its famous golden turd.16:23:00
16:23:28
17:16:05
The views from Asahi HQ.
17:25:25
Interior shot of the bar at the top of the Asahi HQ.18:12:01
More views from Asahi HQ.18:12:14
18:19:26
Oh dear, my phone mangled this one.
18:24:36
From the top, Andrew had spotted a beer garden atop a shopping centre on the other side of the river, so we decided to head there next.18:42:05
Now at the beer garden above Ekimise shopping centre. Nice effect of the setting sun reflected in the Asahi HQ across the river.18:42:16
Andrew likes this sort of thing.18:48:42
18:57:33
The golden turd bathed in golden light.19:05:21
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19:06:39
19:09:30
The sunset was really happening in the other direction, but the skyline wasn't as interesting.19:09:40
Although can see a bit of the Sensoji pagoda here.19:29:02
We were both delighted at the prospect of being able to serve ourselves beer.21:07:45
For a final stop we moved on to my old favourite Bar Kamiya. Here's some beer and the always rather bracing Denki-Buran.
21:12:18
Here we made friends with the people we were sharing our table with.22:12:44
Our new friends modelling the display case.22:13:20
...me and Andrew doing the same.23:28:57
I was very much ready to call it a night after Kamiya as Andrew did, but Watanabe-san had informed me he wouldn't be working tomorrow night, and as I only had two nights in Tokyo this was my only chance to go and say hello. So here I am at Quercus with Watanabe-san, and I'm quite impressed that I'm still going at this point.
23:29:04