Well, I stayed up the entire night. Not on purpose, of course! The whole night I just laid there, waiting for sleep to come that never did. By the time Mike's alarm went off at 6:30, I was exhausted, but still couldn't turn my brain off long enough to sleep. There's so much I want to do! And I need to sleep in order to do it! After Mike left I sprawled out and was able to sleep for 4 hours (not that I'm saying it's his fault!). While I was sleeping I had a dream that there was an earthquake while I was alone in the apartment, and that I called Mike to tell him about it. I was woken up by the cleaning guy (yes, a guy!), who was startled that he had woken me up at 11 AM (can you blame him?), and (I think) he was extremely apologetic. I asked him to come back, and quickly got dressed and ready for the day. I was so sleepy, but I knew that I couldn't go back to bed, or I would have zero hope of getting sleep tonight!
As I was doing my morning ritual of checking facebook and my e-mail, the ground started to shake and the sliding glass door started to make loud banging noises. I looked over at the flowers Mike got me for my birthday (still beautiful!) and the petals were shaking, with bits of pollen from the center of the lilies falling off onto the desk. Earthquake! I'd been through this last week, and it was over in a second then, so I held onto the desk to wait it out. It kept going! I felt like I was on a roller coaster, some moments the chair was swaying so much I thought it would break. As I started to push myself under the desk to seek shelter in case things started falling on me, everything stopped shaking and was back to normal. I quickly checked the Japan earthquake site, and saw that it hadn't been reported yet. Then the TV cut to a special report and announced the earthquake, and as I shot off an e-mail to Mike about it, he sent one to me! Great minds think alike. It turned out that the epicenter was right off of the bay in Tokyo, near Yokohama, which was much closer to Mike at the factory. He said that people at the factory mentioned it, but weren't nearly as jarred by it as we were. It ended up being a 5.4 on the Richter scale, which is the biggest one we've felt yet. I'd be perfectly happy if they didn't get any bigger! Crazy about my dream, right? Mike said it was just a coincidence and that I should settle down, but I don't know...maybe I have a really strong intuition!
Something about being alone after that happened didn't seem right, so I forced myself out into the pouring rain to go to Doutor, a coffee chain a lot like Starbucks, but more common in our neighborhood. I paid 460 yen for a size L cup of coffee (easily a size S in America), and my favorite new treat: a sweet potato. I drank the coffee slowly and tried to force myself to wake up and think about what I wanted to do for the day, and hoped that there weren't any more earthquakes.
I stopped to get some groceries on my way back, and decided that I was going to go to the NTT Intercommunication Center, which was one subway stop away at Tokyo Opera City. I also wanted to buy a GRUTT Pass, which for 2000 yen (24 bucks or so), gets you entrance or heavy discounts to 75 places in Tokyo. I found the center, got my pass, and headed in. It was REALLY cool, but they wouldn't let you take pictures. Sorry!
The entire center was an exhibit gallery for artists that incorporated technology into their pieces. There was a display where you started at the first gaming system made, then your character went through all of them made since, and ended up at a XBOX with Kinect. Pretty cool, right? Unfortunately, I didn't have any of these games as a kid, so my natural gaming skills are seriously lacking. I lost twice, and after the people working there tried to help me, I got embarrassed and moved on. I had already needed help figuring out the umbrella locks (yes, there is such a thing), so I didn't want to attract even more attention.
Then there were even more rooms, with different displays. The best part about the whole exhibit is that it was free! One of the rooms was a "silence" room, with sound absorbing materials on all of the surfaces. It was crazy. You could hear your heartbeat, and it seemed deafening. I spent about an hour here, wandering through the various rooms and exhibits, and then decided to start heading home so I could be home when Mike got home from work. I'll definitely be back, and hopefully be able to bring someone with me who can help me beat that game (Mike!).
A fun fact: I've been on the search for Kona beer since we got here. It's definitely my favorite beer on earth, and the places that I've found it have charged 900 yen (12 bucks!) for a bottle. Unreal. I looked on their website and found a chain of grocery stores that were supposed to carry it...and have since been to two of these stores, where they were both sold out. Booo!!
In a random twist of fate, I stumbled across a hotel that had a 24 hour cafe which served Kona beer for 700 yen a bottle...still pricey but slightly better. Plus it was closer to us. So Mike and I headed there for dinner, and ordered some Yakisoba- Japanese noodles and vegetables. It was only ok, but the beer was like sunshine in a bottle! I can't wait to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon and have easy access to it! Those of you who are reading on the West Coast or in Arizona also have easy access to it, and it makes me want to move there. So there's that.
Anyways, that's about all I've got for today. No pictures, but it was definitely an interesting day. I'm hoping that tonight I will be able to sleep, since I only slept 4 hours last night. Keep your fingers crossed for me! If it all works out and the rain holds off (it's been pouring all day), I'm going to head to the Ueno Zoo with my new Grutt Pass tomorrow, and possibly head to the Tokyo National Museum as well, since they're right next to each other. I promise pictures then!
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