I have always relied on the kindness of strangers

We "finished up" Tokyo yesterday. A good thing about this "two days in lots of places" approach is that you're under no belief that you can possibly see everything ("ah, if only we had planned better!"), so you just roll with it, and, if you miss something, you leave it for next time.

Akihibara did not disappoint. It's sort of like what would happen if Fry's became a citystate. The official term here is "Electric Town", which sometimes shows through, with great big power cords on display in the street. As is usually the case, much of the cool stuff is in the back alleys and smaller streets off the main drag -- T-zone and Sofmap are the big retailers who can afford the prime real estate, but they tend to have the same, more predictable stuff. The only radically different things I've seen are  little crosses betweeen a Palm and a full laptop with a full (but tiny) keyboard, kinda like the Sharp Zaurus. Probably run a small version of Linux. $200 - $500; cool, but I'm not sure I'd use it, so we passed.

Akihibara is sort of like what would happen if Fry's became a citystate.

Game places abound -- sort of like DisneyQuest, but they're somehow able to be both smaller and more intense at the same time. Got a good picture (to be posted later, maybe) of a huge "quarter-eating" claw machine where, for 200 yen (about $1.75 or so) you have the chance to win a huge bag of Cheetos. Hee.

We made it down to the Ginza (Rodeo Drive) for a bit. Found the Apple Store, all seven (small) stories of it. Looks like an Apple Store, which is either boring or interesting.

Dinner was in Shinjuku, another youth-oriented sound-and-light frenzy. Everything you've heard about it being hard to find places in Tokyo is true -- small streets abound and are poorly marked (at least in English (the nerve!)), and your tourist map almost certainly doesn't have enough detail.  We only found the place by asking a girl in a shop where it was -- she didn't know either, but took us out on a 10-minute jaunt through Shinjuku to where she thought it might be, asked a few other people, and finallly got us there. It's not completely impossible that this might have happened in the states, but it's a stretch.

Bullet train to Kyoyo yesterday, and temple touring today. Kyoto's been a little surprising: the story you hear is how it's this quiet, peaceful town with temples everywhere. True enough, but the city (yes, it's really a city) strikes me as about as frenzied as Tokyo. Maybe it's just where we've been.

Random notes:

• Tokyo metro stations are BIG, and have lots of exits. Tour books will tell you how to get someplace via the station and the exit from the station. The exit really does matter -- pay attention to it.
• Or, it doesn't matter, because you're going to get lost anyway (see above). This is where the kindness of strangers part kicks in. It's part of the experience; enjoy it.
• The RIGHT way to get to Akihibara is by the JR Line train, NOT the Metro. We learned this the hard way, There is a metro stop called Akihibara, but it's nowhere near where you want to be.
• Favorite bottled water variety: Pocari Sweat. (Yum!) Suntori also offers diet water, with extra fiber. Haven't figured that out yet.
• So far, WiFi is not as widely available as I had probably thought. Am kicking myself for not having brought my Airport Remote. Maybe the Starbucks across the street will help. Ah, American culture....