We were up and about fairly early today since we crashed out early last night. Dissident finally crumbled under the stress of Internet deprivation and popped for 24 hours of access in our room. Fueled by soda, energy drink, Excedrin and cigarettes, Dissident set up a Skype account so that we could make cheap (.02/minute) phone calls over our Internet connection. We made a few calls, but everyone was busy or didn’t answer. Where is the love?

While Dissident used the computer, I had a traditional Japanese breakfast – stroopwafels and a gelatinous energy drink. Actually, I dare say that no other human has ever put those two food items together and called it a meal before.

I also played with the color-swap feature of my camera.

We then made our way back to Akihabara to pick up a compact flash card reader for Dissident, which he never got. He did, however, get a 2.5in hard drive and a USB case so he could have more storage for his eee PC. The place he bought it at was just awesome. 90% of it was used computers and parts, the other 10% was new computer stuff at low, low prices. We also went in a little shop that had computer parts, stun guns, and porn. Nice place. We had only made it two blocks from the subway before our brains went pop and we had to run away before we spent our entire savings on computer parts, stun guns, and porn. Before we left, we ate lunch at a new place, Burger King. Dissident actually got a big enough meal to fill him up for the first time since our arrival in Japan.

When we had set out for Akihabara we thought we were being clever by trying a different route that would save us from the long, long walk through our station. Instead, we had a long, long walk through a connecting station and we had to pay twice as much. Oops. Going back, we took our traditional route.

During our long journey through the subway I noticed a few signs that struck me as interesting. The first one was in the actual car. It read something like, “If you notice any suspicious unattended packages or people, please report them immediately.” Not only was this funny because it implies there may be suspicious unattended people slouching about, but it was also interesting because it was only in English. My thought is that Japanese people know that they would do this instinctively, so the sign is there for foreigners to read and interpret more as a very subtle hint that they are being watched. Another sign in the subway, again only in English, reinforced this idea in my head. It read, “This subway station is monitored by camera.”

When we got back to the hotel, Dissident realized that we had to check out and back in again because our last day at this hotel was an add-on under a separate reservation. The check-in clerk lady was confused, but finally checked us out then back into the same room. The unforeseen upshot of this is that we scored two more free drink passes, so I see the Manhattan Lounge in our futures.

After farting around on our computers some more (surfing the net, watching Japanese game show clips on youtube, and watching an episode of Dilbert from back in the day), we moseyed over to the swank office building next door to get some food. We looked around for a good restaurant and settled on a diner – an upscale diner though. I had a nice fillet, and Dissident had salmon. We then went to the top of our hotel building to cash in on our free drink coupons. We discussed societal differences between Japan and the US and scoffed at NY City as we stared out over the megalopolis that is Tokyo. Dissident ordered a gin and tonic and I red wine. We then moved on to discussing the importance of adoption of alternate energy sources and how some good ideas get left behind because one key piece of knowledge or engineering is missing. Then by the time the technology is there to bring the good idea to light, people have too much time and effort invested in an inferior idea to switch over to, or spend money on, research of the older, better idea.

We got back to the hotel room and noticed that Storm had just posted, so we give her a ring and caught up with her for about an hour. At least Storm loves us!

Well, it’s time for the snore-fest to begin. Tomorrow we are switching hotels. We will be spending a night at arguably the nicest hotel in Tokyo. Certainly it is the most famous now thanks to “Lost in Translation.” Hopefully Dissident and I can score some hot actresses! Wish us luck.