First morning in Tokyo.

So I woke up early, as expected, walked around Chuo, where my hostel is, and familiarized myself with the surroundings. 

By the time I ventured out, it was 7:30 am and raining steadily. When I'm in a new place and I don't know what to do, I wander around. This time, I'm wandering around with the ancillary purpose of documenting the trip a bit. 

I found a 7-11(oh thank heaven- what? Is that no longer their slogan??) and grabbed some snacks for today: rice balls in nori and tofu skin. I checked them out to make sure that they didn't have meat. (I'm trying to remain strict veg on this trip, but let's face it, I will probably inadvertently eat a fish byproduct - I'm okay with that as long as I'm ignorant of this information). 

I just needed something in case I started feeling famished. I had the tofu skin wrapped one. It was delicious. 

I walked over to a little coffee shop that sold little coffee and grabbed a small cup.

(A la peewee's playhouse: The secret word is COFFEE. Aaaaaaaaaaughh!!)

Everything here is very small, compact, and I find everything cute. 

I just tried out the panorama feature on my camera phone on the coffee shop. See. Cute. 

I chilled out here for an hour, not really looking forward to walking back in the rain (haha!! too bad! The rain isn't going to stop anytime soon!!)

Dooodlehdooo, dooodlehdooo (say that out loud and think of Wayne's world- scoot scene): back at the hostel, I check out the common room and the cool wall art that's plastered everywhere. 

And then have my tofu skin rice ball at this lovely dining table. 

Tangential moment: I think I really like the toilets here. 

I had the opportunity to talk to other fellow English speaking travelers, but I pretty much declined. The hostel front desk speaks English - I caught myself speaking in short phrases, which is pretty dumb, because I'm sure that they're there to practice their English. I'm an idiot. 

Next up, Akihabara station to meet up with my friend!!