Earth Shaking, Typhoon-ating, Tokyo!

The next two nights I stayed in yet another section of Tokyo - this time it was Ebisu. I arrived at Kenji's place in the evening. We stopped at a couple markets to grab food and spent the night talking about couch surfing experiences and whatever else came to mind. I stayed here for 2 nights. Kenji would make me breakfast, then I would go off the spend the day discovering more of Tokyo. At night, he made me dinner. His was the smallest home I stayed in. He lived and worked out of his studio apartment. Kenji didn't have much space, but he happily shared with me what he had and made me feel completely at home. You never know when the generosity of strangers will overwhelm you. I have been very fortunate experience this many times and it never ceases to warm my heart - my stay with Kenji was no exception.

For my excursion, I headed to Ginza. I had't seen this part of town yet, but my real motivation was to go check out the Kabuki theater - I'm not gonna see that in Philly! There were no photos allowed during the performance, so I can only show you the outside, and inside before the action got started, but it was cool to get to see it. The show wasn't exactly riveting, but it did get pretty fun when a couple dozen actors started mock-swordfighting all over the stage.

I should mention that while in Ebisu, I experienced not only my second typhoon since getting to Japan, but it was also the second time I was woken up by an earthquake! The first one occurred right after I arrived. I had never been shaken out of sleep by the earth shifting before, so the first time I wasn't sure that's what it was until it was mentioned to me the next day. This time I knew exactly what was happening! It lasted a long time. I was definitely freaked out, but I figured if I didn't hear Kenji screaming, then everything was ok!

Kabakuzi Theatre

More of the outside

A view from my seat. Kabuki theater goes on all day, but
you can buy a 1 hour ticket for about $10. These seats of
course have a bird's eye view (aka nosebleed), but here
really isn't a bad seat in the house

Heading out into typhoon #2!

Checking out a weekly flea market

A marvelous system I wish we would implement in the 

states. Some places, like here, you enter then leave your 

umbrella in a slot and take the number - like a locker. 

Most other places you just leave arrive with an umbrella, 

leave it in the bin, then take an umbrella when you leave 

- no worries!