A Sunday 14.5

Sunday was our only day with no scheduled activities on the itinerary, so we decided to go exploring on foot. In hindsight it's something we wish we could have done the first day.  We were so confused driving around the first 4 days that we felt the need to just go out and find things on foot.  And it was a real eye opener.  We realized that many of the apartments we were considering were much closer than we had thought.  Since we drove everywhere, and oftentimes had to take crazy routes because of all the  one way streets, things felt a lot further than they actually were.

We started out from the Westin in Ebisu and attempted to walk to our apartment in Roppongi, a short walk that should have taken about 10 minutes. However, the lack of street names caused us to get a bit side tracked and we took an alternate route that took over an hour.  

We passed multiple exotic car dealerships with lots of crazy cars that would be no fun to drive on these streets.  

After walking around our new neighborhood for a bit we were feeling even more happy about our apartment choice.

Fun ride on toys at Robot Park

Our (nameless) street

Walking 

Our buildling and ASIJ ELC

Nation Azabu Supermarket. Sells imported Western foods. Most of the things are pretty expensive so it probably won't be our main grocery store, but comforting to know that familiar food items are within walking distance 

After we finished exploring our neighborhood and taking a quick break at the Grand Hyatt, we walked north to see the Imperial Palace, but not before stopping at a Starbucks for a quick hotter-upper.  On our way, we saw our first street skirmish.  There were 8 or 9 large non-Japanese people yelling and pushing each other outside on the sidewalk and it was getting very heated.  After about 30 seconds 3 police men came running down the street blowing whistles and getting into the middle of the action.  We left before it got any more heated but I hope those police officers called for backup because they didn't stand a chance with that group.

There is a really nice running/walking path that goes all the way around the palace and we noted the abundance of runners.  We later realized it was in fact an organized race.

At the Imperial Palace

From the Imperial Palace we walked east through a really fancy neighborhood with a Four Seasons and some high end shops.  We then headed south to the Ginza area and back down toward our apartment, stopping for lunch and shopping in Azabujuban.  Azabujuban is a neighborhood adjacent to Roppongi and about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. It has really cute streets with an abundance of shops and restaurants.  Some of them mainly cater to Westerners and almost all the restaurants at least offer a menu in English.

Too nervous to try a Japanese restaurant without our translator, we got lunch at this Chipotle knock off in Azabujuban

Verdict - Frijoles has a lot to learn from Chipotle. The rice and beans were just plain with no seasoning, and it was just a little bland overall. It was also super expensive ($17 for a burrito and a drink). That being said, I'm sure I will eat here every once in a while if we get desperate for a burrito

After lunch we stopped into a few 100 yen shops where I picked up some gifts for the girls.  A 100 yen shop is Japan's equivalent of our Dollar Stores (99 cent stores in LA) and as you probably have guessed, all of the items cost 100 yen (actually 105 yen).  There are lots of small household items, stationary, stickers, small toys, snacks, etc.  

Presents for the girls in hand, we began the walk back to the Westin.  We had been walking for about 8 hours so we were tired! We spent the rest of the afternoon doing some work in the hotel room.  Joe ran out and got a cheese pizza (1,200 yen) from the local Pizza Hut for dinner and we started watching Skyfall but were so tired from our day that we were ready for bed around 6:30pm.