Rain, Trains, and Automatic Suica Cards

I'll begin today's entry with an apology. If there are typos or grammar errors, blame it on the fact that Calvin and I woke up bright and early today at 6:00am. Sorry correction, Calvin woke up at 5:00am. You'd think that at least a coffee shop or bakery would be open to satisfy our caffeine addiction, but to no avail. We were stuck hungry and helpless looking for a simple butter croissant to tide us over but found out quickly that this suburban city begins it's day at 10:00am sharp. What was a guy and girl supposed to do? You called it! We shuffled over to Shibuya around 9:00am and finally got ourselves some Starbucks. The rain wasn't gonna keep us down! (Neither was the semi-confusing railways of Tokyo.) This Starbucks may have had one of the coolest views ever. Not to mention the even cooler BTS pop-up shop happening right underneath.

We had a quite a bit of time to kill before lunch so we stopped at Shibuya 109. A shopping mall specifically for girls and women. Not a single thing for Calvin could've been found in that building. I was also very humbled by the fact that their clothing sizes were labeled small and medium ONLY. You can guess that I wasn't able to fit into anything. We had much better luck at UNIQLO. It is one of Calvin's favorite clothing stores because of their stylish yet cheap options. Basic but classic.

Once we had wandered Shibuya for a while, we decided to eat lunch at Uobei. A sushi train restaurant I had been to way back in 2019. Still delicious as ever! But that could've also been because two pieces of salmon nigiri went for under a buck rather than five in the states.

After a much needed meal, we met up with Skylar, Micah, Emma, and Rachel in Roppongi. I had reserved a private onsen for just Calvin and I awhile back but was ecstatic to have friends from home with us! I'm not allowed in most Japanese public onsens (bathhouses) since I have a plethora of ink on me. Tattoos are strictly prohibited in most public baths. Back in the day, Japanese gang members (Yakuza) used to be tattooed to symbolize their gang affiliations. Some bathhouses are coming around to allowing tattoos but most require them to be at least bandaged over.

We finished our day with some sweet treats from Louange Tokyo and yet another Starbucks order. This time, from the local reserve. Calvin said he had the best coffee from the reserve, a strawberry sakura espresso latte. I think my eclairs and macrons beat it though. You be the judge! 😉

P.S. Calvin has informed me he is very quickly falling in love with Japan... maybe even more than he'd like to let on. I'm not one to say "I told you so," but... I actually definitely am the one to say "I told you so!!"