Shinagawa Aquarium and Shibuya
January 19, 2004

 Monday. After going to the bank to change Eleanor's money, we went to Shinagawa Aquarium. We transferred to the Keihin Kyuukou Line and got off at the Oomori-Kaigan station. Then we descended the stairs into Shinagawa. 

Behind us on the stairs were a very young girl and her father. On every step, she would chant, "abunai kara yukkuri," which means, "it's dangerous, so take it slowly." It was really cute! She couldn't have been more than three years old. ^-^

At the bottom of the stairs, I got out my map book and started figuring out where we were... then Eleanor pointed to the sign. It had an arrow and said, "Shinagawa Aquarium, 5 minute walk." So we followed the sign. Then just to make sure people knew the right way, there were sign tiles all over in the sidewalk too! 

Heh, heh. Eleanor here. Mom was so busy looking in the maps she didn't notice the really big sign in front of us. The moment felt pretty classic, so we had to capture it again by taking a picture of my pointing it out to her.

Outside the entrance of the aquarium, we went through a really nice public park with ponds and paths. When we got to the aquarium itself, everyone was buying entry tickets from a machine. I didn't know the procedure, so I let a family go ahead of me and watched how they did it. It worked, and in no time we were inside enjoying the aquarium.

We walked in just in time for the dolphin show to start. We watched that, then took in the rest of the displays including the really cool tunnel. Here's a few pictures...

There were other places in the aquarium that I really hoped we'd be able to take a picture of, but Mom hadn't figured out at the time that we could turn off the flash on the camera, and there were signs saying 'No Flash Photography.'

One of those things was this long tube with this school of fish that seemed to be eternally rotating. It was very amusing to watch, and it was poetic in a way... I'm not sure why.

Another thing I really had hoped we'd take a picture of was the Moon Jellyfish. In the Zoo at Point Defiance, they had always been my favorite exhibit since I was a little kid. However, a few years ago, they removed them, and they're still gone.
They're smaller in Japan, but just the fact that they were there to began with sort of meant something to me. 

 

"abunai kara yukkuri" girl and her father

We really enjoyed the aquarium, although our visit was marred somewhat by the fact that our cell phone fell out of Eleanor's pocket and into the starfish petting tank. Cell phones and water don't mix. We pulled it out immediately and shut it off to minimize damage, but Eleanor especially was concerned that it was broken. It was my fault, really, that it had happened. I was expecting an important email and didn't think she could feel the thing vibrate in her backpack, so she moved it to her jacket pocket...

From now on, the cell phone will stay in PanTan when we go places. (Especially places with open tanks.)

After spending time at the aquarium and the surrounding park, we headed for Shibuya. Shibuya can pretty much be summed up by Eleanor's label, "Mall City". If you like shopping malls, you'll love Shibuya. We looked for a vodafone store to take the phone to, but it was already closed... so we went looking for a manga cafe. We'd heard that there was a pretty big one in Shibuya, but most of the people we met knew nothing about it. Finally, we met up with a high school girl who knew where it was. It was a ways away, but she walked there with us to make sure we could find it. We were grateful! I was amazed by the number of really nice people like her that we met in Japan. ^-^

I gave her a pack of Men's Pocky and thanks her for her trouble.

Shibuya's manga cafe was bigger and had newer and better equipment than the one we visited in Akihabara, but everyone was assigned to these private enclosed two-person booths with huge chairs that made moving around a bit cramped. Eleanor had to climb over me to get anything... this one was nice, but for our purposes, the manga cafe in Akihabara worked out better, I think.

The one in Akihabara was a lot better. Including the manga. The Shoujo manga was only one shelf, and there was an over-abundance of sports and Shounen. The seats were cramped, as mom said, and it didn't have a very 'Sit back leisurely and read' feel. 

It was about 11pm before we finished and headed back to Asagaya. We discovered that that was the time all the businessmen returned home from their after work socializing... dead drunk. They boarded in Shibuya and Shinjuku, reeking of alcohol. It was interesting to watch.

It may have been interesting to watch them babble on the Densha. 
It was NOT interesting to watch them puke, or see their piles of puke all over the station. (Yuck!)

We pulled in to Yadoya around midnight and promptly fell asleep.
peace

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