I slept late on Sunday, as I knew I would. But the night before I had gone to a convenience store to get some breakfast to keep in the room fridge, this so I could avoid paying the probable high prices in the hotel restaurant. I worked on the computer for a while while it rained pretty steadily outside. Along about noontime, I went down to check out the fitness center. I had corresponded with some folks at the hotel ahead of time, and knew that they had two recumbent bikes there (one of the reasons I picked this hotel from the list that AG-TECH recommended). Unlike Holiday Inns and stuff, the health club was an extra fee; probably because it was actually a membership club, open to folks not staying in the hotel. The fee was more than I would have thought, but not exhorbitant, and I got a week's worth of tickets for about $40, I think it was. I went and changed and then returned to do my 90 minutes on the exercise bike, getting back to my room about two-thirty.

I was pretty tired of just hanging around my room by this point (particularly since there was no English-language television other than a European version of CNN, and they were showing non-stop coverage of some sort of school hostage situation in the Soviet Union. So I thought I might as well take my umbrella and go someplace where the bad weather wouldn't be a factor- the Ginza.

As you can see, the Ginza is about two miles or so southeast of the hotel, and I did some homework to try to figure out which subway lines I needed to use to get there. Armed with this information, my umbrella and my passport, I headed downstairs to the subway platform underneath the hotel. As it turned out, I couldn't quite validate my map with the map in the subway, and I needed to get some help to figure it out (watch the movie at left). But finally I thought I had it laid out and just had to wait for the next train.

As in all subways I've been in, there is lots of advertising all over the place. Unless there were pictures of a product or service, it was impossible to figure out what the sign was telling me. For example, I had NO idea what this sign was all about. But even when there WERE pictures, as in this sign on the opposite wall, some of them were hard to understand. I didn't understand why this sign showed Occidentals rather than Japanese, for example. The only thing that made any sense was perhaps hair restoration (the bald guy seems to be impressed looking down on the top of the head of the guy with hair)- but that's just a bad guess, probably.

I had to change subway trains to a different line on the way to the Ginza, and since it was raining anyway, I went beyond the Ginza station (see the movie with the player below) just for the heck of it.

Then I went back one stop to the Ginza subway station.

When I came up to the station level immediately below street level, I was impressed with just how big the station really was. I've seen big stations in New York, like the area under Grand Central, but this seemed bigger, brighter and much more open. And a heck of a lot cleaner (that being one thing that was continually impressive about a city this size- how neat and clean it was). If you'll use the player at right to look at the movie I made in the Ginza station, you'll see what I mean.

It took a few minutes for me to get my bearings, but eventually I found what I thought was the exit up to the main intersection at the Ginza.

The area was even bigger and more bustling than I remembered it, crowded with Japanese even on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Oddly enough, many of the buildings were as I remembered them. For example, I remember the Fujiya Building in this picture, and the row of huge neon displays beyond it. What seemed to be different were the elevated expressways, a lot less traffic and, of course, the American stores. Back in 1970, the stores I saw this afternoon, like The Gap and Eddie Bauer, either didn't exist or had not expanded overseas. I definitely didn't remember all the fast food places like Wendy's (not in existence then) or McDonald's (purely American at that time).

One of the first things I did was to go to the Sony Building, which had been here in 1970 when I visited. Actually, this decision was made for me, because the exit that I thought would take me up to the street actually took me to the elevator lobby for the Sony Building. So I took the elevator to the top floor, and then did what I'd done in 1970- walked down the circular stairway that is in the center of the building. (You can watch a movie of me doing so with the player at left.)

This stairway leads you from level to level all the way down, and the levels in this building are not "floors" in the traditional sense. The entire building is open in the center, much like a huge spiral staircase, and each step is a display area for one product or another. Sony uses this building for that purpose, and as I stopped on some of the levels, I saw products not yet available in the United States, and some products that were just being researched. I remember that the building had been fun to visit way back then, and it was just the same now- except, of course, that the products were much, much more advanced.

When I got down to the bottom, I went outside and found myself looking diagonally across the main intersection at the office buildings that sit on top of Ginza Station; you can see the elevated expressway as well. Right outside the Sony Building, there was some sort of advertising giveaway going on (as you can see in the movie at right), although I am sure the people manning the display wished the weather had been better.

I went across the street to the west and found myself outside the H3 store, although what goods they sold were not obvious. What was interesting was the little umbrella bag stand outside. Of course, the idea was that if you were going into the store, you should close up your umbrella and put it in one of the bags, this so you don't drip on the floor or on other people or on merchandise. Quite a clever idea, I thought.

I made two movies at this point, one from where I was standing and one showing the activity here in the middle of the Ginza, and you can watch these two movies with the players below:

Where I Was Standing Activity at the Ginza Intersection

The Ginza, and this particular intersection- its center- is more interesting when the weather is good, because there are a lot more people out. And, I remember than on weekends, when there are even more shoppers than usual, not only are the four normal crosswalks used, but the diagonal ones as well, because then, all traffic stops at the same time. The Ginza is also much more impressive at night, when all the neon displays are going.

Anyway, I wandered around for a while, looking in some of the shops and stores and trying to stay dry. Just before I left the Ginza to return to the hotel, I stopped in at one of my favorite Japanese establishments- the bakery. I remember the Fujiya bakery chain from so many years ago, and their goods looked just as enticing as I remembered them. I picked out a selection, and headed back down to the subway for the ride home- safeguarding my dessert all the way back to the hotel.

For dinner, I ate with three people from AG-TECH, who had arranged to meet me at the hotel on Sunday night. By the time I got back and cleaned up, it was time to meet them and, as luck would have it, the rain stopped. We walked down the street about eight blocks to a traditional Japanese restaurant they knew of, and it was a real treat to have someone else do all the food selections. Most businesspeople in Japan speak English- particular in the technical fields. Two of my dinner companions were Japanese, and one was a transplant from America. We had a great dinner, and discussed some of what we needed to cover in the class during the coming week. I also got very specific directions for how to get from the hotel to AG-TECH, directions which were right on the money.

	August 31, 2004: Japan Trip Day 4
	August 28, 2004: Japan Trip Day 1
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