Life is just different here. A walk to the combini(convenience store) at 3am with $1000 cash in your wallet just isn't a big deal. Neither is walking by the police box where you greet each other with a cordial good morning. The cold is about the most adversarial thing you encounter in the early morning hours in Tokyo.
One of the nice things about jetlag is getting out very early in the morning for a brisk walk to the combini, or two as was the case this morning.
Yesterday I had gone to 711 which is about a 1km walk from my house.
I had to go there because the 711 across the street from my house decided this year to close from 1am to 6am. Life constantly throw curve balls and opportunities at you.
I've taken the closing of my 711 across the street as an opportunity to walk off some of the Christmas feast we had. For the next few days I am planning on walking to different combinis because there just isn't a lot to do at 3am other than walk.
Today I went to Lawson, which I believe is Japan's 3rd largest convenience store chain. I used to love Lawson. They had delicious curry man(steamed bun filled with curry) and karage kun(chicken nuggets). However when I went in this morning I was kind of shocked. No hot foods, no hot coffee, no breakfast sandwiches, and just an all around inferior selection of foods. So I put my shopping basket back and decided to go to the Family Mart about a block away.
As I crossed a small creek I realized it was another opportunity to enjoy the beautiful night sky.
The moon is full right now and Orion sits just below it and to the south, low on the horizon. As I gazed up I wondered when Betelgeuse will go supernova?
We've been having great weather in Tokyo and the night sky is no exception.
Arriving at the Family Mart they had just about everything, hot foods, good pastries, but the coffee machine wasn't working! However, Japan has hot drinks in the cooler section of the store, so I picked up a new Boss espresso! Same as the old Boss coffee unfortunately which is lots of milk, lots of sugar and coffee in there somewhere. If you happen to visit Japan understand all the can coffee's taste similar, except for the Tully's Espresso. That is a decent tasting coffee for can coffee and it will wake you up and send you to the bathroom!
After 2km and an hour of walking I made it back home to enjoy 1st breakfast.
Second breakfast will come when the family wakes up and I cook something for them. Then morning snack around 10am and lunch. It's insane how fun it is to eat here compared to the USA. With that in mind I think I better start planning some 10km city walks to be able to still fit into my clothes and keep the wife happy.
That's it for today. Here are a couple of other pictures I took along the walk.
Frozen laundry.
The elevated train, full moon and clouds.
See ya next time. Thanks for reading!
