tokyo 1st 24 hours recap

Everyday that goes by, we are more convinced that we are just in a parallel universe. We are in New york, except everything is in Japanese! Oh yeah... and its a lot cleaner and the people are lot more calm and, well, kind.

Today's recap...

• We woke up and prayed the Muslim's morning prayer here in the hotel room.
• Got breakfast at the hotel restaurant. The food wasn't too bad, for runny eggs and pancakes. But tomorrow, we're definitely skipping the hotel's breakfast and we're going to try to do a sushi breakfast at Tokyo's famous Tukiji Fish Market.
• Although it was drizzling, it wasn't as cold as Sunday night when we arrived.
• We walked 5 minutes to the Asukusa Kannon Temple also known as the Sensō-ji (金龍山浅草寺) Temple. Besides the shrines to false deities (no offense intended but Buddha never said worship him or any other human) the temple was full of history, traditional Chinese architecture, and a cemetery garden.
• To battle the cold, we stopped at this quaint coffee shop called Sunny Cofee. The owners spoke a couple of words of English. But we were able to communicate that we wanted three hot chocolates. It was perfect from a taste and warmth perspective. It was just enough to chase away the samui (cold).
• Then we followed a different path towards the hotel. I designated Hassan Ibn as the official map-reader and location finder. Soloman is the official language guru. And me... well, I am coordinating :p
• We stumbled upon a department store called ROX. Behind it was mini-caged-soccer field, a bike parking lot, a building size arcade, and a 3-story casino. This, mind you, is within two blocks of the Temple!
• We then went to Akihabara where we marveled at the 6-story department store filled with electronics! They even had a bookstore in there. We didn't venture into the backstreets where, reportedly, the best deals on bootleg gear and anime (Japanese comics with a very adult male audience in mind). I forgot that the area had that stuff too... but fortunately, it wasn't "in your face". I was reminded later that the area has a lot of porn. Well... we didn't see it. Alhamdulillah. We did take our lunch at a Sushi restaurant who atmosphere was like Johnny Rockets.
• Before the day was over, we partook of the Shibuya shopping district, and the Maronuchi center. At the Marunouchi Building, we had dinner a at chic Chinese spot called "So Tired". The foot, ambiance, and service were all great and all of the waiters and waitresses spoke English! I was really impressed with one of the waitresses English... so much so that I concluded that she wasn't Japanese. And wouldn't you know it, she was a Korean student studying to be a translator (Korean, English, and Japanese).

Hopefully, I can get some pics up tomorrow. I guess I will have to go back to the Electronics district to get a new USB cable for my phone since it was liberated earlier (its a long story).
Tomorrow... Insha Allah, we get trained in the way of the Samurai from a the guy who did Kill Bil, Tetsuro Shimaguchi