May 16

Search for Denny`s
For months now, Cathy has been prepping me for Denny`s in Japan. She raved about the toast, which is basically one inch thick white bread. We walked around Shinjuku, and dinally had to head to Shibuya to find one. I ordered a breakfast plate that came with eggs, salad, sausage (which isn`t like ours, rather little mini links of polska kielbasa), bacon (A+) and the thick toast and coffee.

Their cream, like the bread, is nice and thick. The breakfast was nice, but even more memorable may have been the heated toilet seat in the bathroom.


Shopping Day 1
After Denny`s we went to Loft, a stationary, pen and other office type supplies store. As Emilia always says, I must have died and gone to heaven, the one for geeks and nerds.

I spent over $200 on post-its, stickers, .25 point pens, and ???. I had a time limit and Cathy stuck to it. She knew if she didn`t I may have never left. I imagined myself working in an office, taking messages and writing notes with all my new stuff. I managed to pass on the donut shaped tape dispenser- so far...

We walked through Shibuya and eventually ended up on Takeshita Street in Harajuku to check out all the Little Bo Peeps and the sock store.


I had seen a book in Little Tokyo called Gothic Lolita, but hadn't really realized that there were so many of those girls walking out at all times of the day, living their lives like that. I tried to get some pics but the stores had signs that said you couldn't take pictures of their wares. Hip hop fashion is popular too. I saw a t-shirts that said, "It's all good in da hood."


The crepes looked amazing, but my stomach was kind of hurting so I had to pass.

We headed back to Shibuya to have lunch with Pat`s sister and her girlfriend.

I ate avocado and shrimp pasta.


This is when I noticed that I eat really slow... We hung out in Shibuya, and shopped for awhile. Cathy got some new glasses. Here you can get an eye exam and new glasses for as little as $55 and 25 minutes. What`s up with the US lagging on this? I may be picking up a couple of pair on my way out. We got back to our hotel around 7pm.

Salsa Dancing at Caribe in Roppongi

Cathy and I met up with her old friends Asako and Aminta for dancing. Caribe is supposed to be one of the best places to dance in Tokyo,
but there were too many English cover salsa songs. And the dance floor is dangerous. Earlier, while we were on the train getting bumped around, Cathy warned that there is no such thing as personal space here in Japan. This is especially true on the salsa dance floor. One guy asked me if I danced on 1 or 2 (I think). When I shrugged and said it didn't matter, he defaulted to 1. I wanted to ask him to dance again, but he left before I got up the nerve. The guy in this picture is one of the regulars at Caribe and Asako said he's one of the best. She had wanted to dance with him for a long time but he had a girlfriend. This night, he was single and we all ot to dance with him. He was good. He likes to do all kinds of wacky hand tricks and well, I mess that kind of stuff up.

Cathy was a good sport and danced merengue and bachata.



We left the club late and went to the nearest ramen place. It didn`t smell good so I had a little bit of fried rice and edamame; all the while wishing I had my customary after salsa snack of cocoa puffs.