Welcome to The Darkness...

(cue dramatic music)

I can officially say I experienced the darkest moment in my life so far. In a good way though!

I had couple things I was planning to do today but before that I had to take a shower. Nothing weird in that but while waiting for my turn spent time looking outside for morning life here. And was welcomed with rather familiar sight from last time. Veritable army of elementary school kids going to school nearby. As I live almost next door to elementary school this has come very familiar sight for me.

New thing though was old guy with sign saying ”見守り隣”. I would translate that best as roughly ”neighbour watcher” so I presume he's doing voluntary service keeping eye things go smoothly. Seeing he left quickly after 8AM and when no more school kids were on sight I presume he was specifically looking out for the school kids well being. And every kid knew him on sight and were doing high fives. Haha that was nice piece of life to see. Even if reason for it is not so funny(all the creepy stalkers and kidnappers. Thankfully few but still time to time that too happens)

Next up. As said network was awful so next plan: Network cable. Next door person mentioned he's using cable connection so let's join the club. He said pretty much any big shop in sangensaya should have them so that was next stop. I went there and even found one but...Opens about 1 hour later. Ah well, no big deal. I decided I would then go to Harajuku to see if what's the status with Yoyogi park(my favourite park) and go see if I could get any concert tickets. I opted to walk from Shibuya where you get easily from Sangensaya. This way I a) could check if I still remember my way in Shibuya(yep! Not a problem) b) save few coins c) the way store is short anyway and takes me past the Yoyogi park.

Unfortunately situation at the Yoyogi park was still not good. Late summer/early autum case of Dengen fever(like Malaria though not as dangerous. Though still potentially life threatening though out of dozens of victims here now none has died as far as I know) and despite pumping in tons of poison gas there seems it's not fully safe either as the park was flat out prohibited entrance. Oddly enough nearby Meiji shrine area seemed to be open though. Weird. They are same green area so one would assume mosquitos were issue there as well.

Anyway getting to the Takeshita doori which is popular among younger generation in Japan(it's also good place if you want to see the infamous Harajuku Girls. Ie girls wearing about as crazy fashion style as you can think of. Though famous they aren't actually THAT numerous and I have heard of foreign girl who wanted to see those and ”blend in” and so took quite flashy and colourful outfit only to be disapointed when she realized she did anything but blend in as most girls in Japan too wear quite normal black/white/grey/red/brown solid colour clothes, if not in their school uniforms, so her clothing was very stand out! Though I did see couple who could fit to that term including one that had pink hair and such a riot of colour dress that her white/pink striped legs looked plane dull! Kyaa! My eyes my eyes! I never can understand teenage fashion sense. Particularly when they want to shock people).

Anyway the ticket store was also closed until 10AM so with 15 minutes to spare I walked around and found among numerous stores this:

Couple passengers looked at me when I suddenly burst out laughing. I wonder if owner of that women clothing store is Finnish person or married to one or just how he/she came up with that name? Didn't bother to check since that store opens at 11.00. Not waiting for an hour for that information though if I'm ever there when that's open might do that.

(Btw for non-finnish speakers sign in label means "maybe cute" or "possibly cute").

But anyway did get myself one concert ticket apart from ticket to Kalafina which I had already bought before even leaving the country(that ticket sure travels the world going first from Japan to Finland and then back again). I had 4 possibilities of bands I know(including the ones I had seen already) and which would have concert on date/location I could even BE in and to one of those there was even tickets available in various prices(didn't settle for priciest one. 50,000 yen(close to 400e...) is not something I'm willing to pay for so settled for more modest price. Luckily this was the one I actually wanted most(apart from my favourite Kalafina) as this is in the Budokan. In case you haven't heard of that one it's big stadium(capacity 16,000 or so) built for 1964 olympics(and I think will also be used in 2020 ones) and nowadays also in popular use for concerts. Made famous even in western countries when the Beatles performed there.

If voice level with 3000 or so crazy fans chanting was high I wonder what it will be when 5 times the number chant?

Anyway moving on to next part of days plans. Back to station and before going to main goal of the day stopped midroute on Sangensaya(again) for that cable. No problem finding the item in question. Ability to read Japanese can be helpful. Next back to station(god I was doing lots of back and fort walking) and continuing on same direction as last I headed to Futako-tamagawa which I read was closest station. I had map with me but as usual for me I got lost. God damn. I actually overshot the target which I noticed from map that I ran into. Thankfully that map proved to be easy to follow and so continuing to my target I ran first into another small temple:

 

No real idea what temple that is. Not on maps that I have seen and as I said I ran into this by accident. I was supposed to enter my target from south, now was coming from north. But then I got to the Real Target which was called Tamagawa Taishi. Another temple. Not even particularly unusual looking.

 So what's the catch? Why go through this to see just another temple? Haven't I seen already lots of temples? Well yes but this one has interesting little underground tunnel. After walking around I finally realized it must be inside(I have some reluctance to enter interior of temples. Not always sure if it's allowed or not them being temples and all) I went in, paid 500yen, read leaflet(in english. They are precisely so that non-Japanese tourists will know rules) which basically says "keep your hand on right wall, walk slowly and don't take photographs". Last part unfortunately means I can't show you what was there. But anyway I went down the stairways and turned right and was in TOTAL DARKNESS. This tunnel is in...well under ground! So no sunlight. There's also no artificial light sources except in few select places and the tunnel is twisting left and right and going up and down(gentle slopes though) so you see NOTHING for large part of the trip.

This experience is supposed to take you closer to spiritual enlightenment. Well I don't know about that but I did wonder what I had got myself into :D Not a good time to get a panic attack.

As I said at select places there WERE light sources and there you could see Buddha statues by scores. Lots of them. Lots and lots of them. Also candles and smoking sticks visitors leave behind(it IS temple after all). Some can be seen somehow on below photo that comes from leaflet you could pick from the temple.

 Certainly was interesting experience. And if you want to also see Kinuta park then easy place to visit as they are very close. As a matter of fact I had decided to revisit the Kinuta park since it WAS so close. I had two possible routes there and as usual I got lost with the primary route but thankfully secondary was easily found so got there in the end.

Hello old friend. Well actually less of a friend. First time I got here was one of my most painful experiences last time. I had been here 4 days and trip to here on foot was long as hell(hadn't realized of the train to futako tamagawa station yet) and my legs were by the time I got here in pain due to blisters. Aaah. Well legs were starting to feel bit tired but was in lot better status this time than last time so onward to walk the park again!

 

Though Tokyo is still quite warm(actually it was quite hot for me. T-shirt+long sleeve shirt+jacket=way too much. I took off the jacket early and even opened the shirt which works as decent jacket on itself) the trees were starting to show some early sign of fall colours but full colours not here yet. Bit more of red&yellow on western and northern Japan I hear.

 Plenty of Japanese were visible(though I avoided taking photos of other people when possible). Popular way to spend time was to sit in a blanket on places like above eating, chatting and watching their kids play around.

Overall was very pleasant weather for such an activity.

Bridge is actually hanging one and when you walk over it you can feel it go up and down as you move. After going over it couple times(looking for good angles for photos of small waterfall) when I got down I still felt like I was going up and down, up and down.

 

After walking most of the park(apart from bird sanctuary area which was on other side of another river and path there would require going out of park and walk around it. Wonder why there's no shorter route to that side) I decided I would go to the art museum here. First time my legs were by then in such a pain I just wanted to get home. Second time I was running low on cash and no photographing allowed so decided against it. This time...

Place was closed. You got to be kidding me! The whole trip has been one major deja vu including having to buy stuff for my computer to be able to use it(last year power cable, this year network cable) and now seems I continued my habit of going to some locations on the very weekday it is closed. Oh boy oh boy.

Well not much to do but go back. I had noticed on map yet another station and after asking local if the Den-en-toshi line goes through that station(it does) I headed there. That was closer to Kinuta park than the station I had come from(which is closer to Tamagawa Taishi according to site I found it but I think Youga station is better) so was able to cut down bit on walking. Seeing it was still early I opted to go to Shinjuku next for some book shopping since the close by book off had been closed. 

At the Youga station along with me embarked army of kindergarden kids. At least I think they were kindergarden aged all with same kind of yellow hat. I suppose those are handy for the adults to quickly locate all the kids under them? I counted by quick look 3 adults handling couple dozen young kids. Unsurprisingly lots of boys were engaged in running and generally fooling around. Activity boys are bound to do ;) Girls meanwhile were waiting patiently.

So back to Shibuya, then switch to JR line and to the Shinjuku. Stepping off train I literally breathed in deep suspecting this could be trouble. I just hate navigating Shinjuku station. Getting to one train line to other isn't problem. Getting out of that man-trap is! I always have trouble getting out of there and trend continued. Finally found out exit to bus station. Except there seemed to be no access to street! One women simply ran over the street but me being more cautious took next stairway down and first stairway back up and was finally on the streets. Success!

Well not quite. I could not for love of god find out where I was related to Shinjuku station. Didn't see any familiar sights at first. Eventually I found those though. And realized to my horror I'm on the south-west corner. I'm supposed to go to north-east where was Kinokuniya(BIG book store) and if memory serves correctly another book off(used cheaper than new and quality is pretty much same). So I'm about as far away from target as possible. Didn't even THINK about going through station which would likely be shorter but for me impossible to navigate so simply walked around. Bleah.

Thankfully memory was correct and Book off was where it was supposed to be so updated my collection of "Basketball that Kuroko plays" manga along with starting couple new ones. Something to read when I travel by Shinkansen. Book store itself was pretty much same as before. Narrow lanes between shelves, lots of people reading books in there. Hard to get through, hard for me to find what I'm looking for. And as always lots of teenage girls in the BL section(which also is quite a large section. Might be largest genre as it is...). Seriously I still can't fathom why on earth that genre is so bloody popular. In particular with teenage girls. Boys obsession with action doesn't seem to compare with girls obsession with BL!

With this I started to feel like getting back home finally. Overall day had been getting already bit on the expensive side and my legs were starting to be tired(and I'm planning on going to Mount Mitake tomorrow) and it was starting to get dark. So back to the Shinjuku station(DEEP breath...) and after oomphing and aamphing found back to the always safe Keiou line.

I hate Shinjuku station. I think I have said that a few times :D I like going to Shinjuku but I could do without having to navigate that man-trap!