A couple steps into Relaxation.

My mind won't stop racing. I keep feeling like I need I must I need to be appreciating this city just constantly. But there isn't anything open at 5am, and there isn't anything for me to do when I'm sick and it's raining. Yesterday was obviously Monday, which means that most of the museums in this city are closed. I met these really interesting Canadian guys, one of which asked me if I liked museums. Of course I like museums! He told me about this GRUTT pass where you pay 2000Y and you get essentially admission into 70 museums. That's pretty dope. You purchase it at the Tokyo Tourists office in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Awesome!
I ate my meager mochi breakfast and headed out. I planned on heading to the Ooeda Onsen Monogatari in Odaiba. The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo currently has an exhibit on the work of Hussein Chalayan, a fashion designer I have a lot of respect for. I planned on heading to that as well, but museums are closed on Mondays. Instead I would just have to take my time and head to this weird Edo style hot spring. I wandered over to the Yoyogi station, closest Yamanote line stop to my current location. On my way there I stopped to pick up a bit of protein in my diet at one of these weird little shops where you pay a vending machine and select the time you'd like before entering the store. The machine gives you a ticket, which you present to the guy behind the counter. He asks if you'd like soba or udon and in about 15 minutes ta-da!

My breakfast supplement consisted of egg on pork croquettes on rice and a basic udon soup. I wasn't paying attention and accidentally ordered the set.
I headed to Shinjuku station which is full of interesting shops and such. I avoided those (take that shops!) and headed straight to the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. I don't know why I thought that it would take me an hour or so to get all this done because it wasn't even 9:30 by the time I got there. Unfortunate. I saw this pretty cool art thing in the station on my way there.

I bought my GRUTT pass and headed up to the free 45th floor observation deck. I wasn't thinking, like the giant horde of Japanese tourists with me, about the rain. We got up to the 45th floor... and experienced a hell of a view?

ha ha ha.
I headed out to the Shimbashi station where I would transfer to the Yurikamome line that heads to Odaiba. The Shimbashi station was a little confusing and I wasn't in a hurry at all but I happened upon something that was definitely really funny to me.

Oh, Doughnut Planet! I forgot I was in New York! I laughed at the green tea flavored everything and thought back to eating at Doughnut Planet with friends and family. Oh geez, Japan, what don't you have?
I noticed this little market like thing outside the station. I did have to walk out of the station to transfer lines and I figured I would look for an international ATM in the meanwhile. It turned out to be a book market.

I found these really awesome Panzer magazines for tank enthusiasts in Japan. They were really cheap so I picked up a couple for my father. The guys at the stand were looking at me really funny given that I was buying tank magazines for made for and by military otaku. I was also clearly very excited about them. I had also found these other tank books that were published in the US but are super rare so I had about 8 or so tank books in my hands. They didn't say anything but I could tell they were really wondering so I said " Watashi no Otoosan ga daisukidesu" They were all "oh yeaaaah, sure...." except in Japanese.
I boarded the Yurikamome line to head to Odaiba and I flipped through my new GRUTT pass. There was an admission coupon for the Maritime Museum. Awesome! I'll head there first, and it wasn't far from the hot spring. D'oh! It was closed.
Instead I headed to the Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation also known as Miraikan. I'm glad that it was part of this package deal I purchased that already had 2000Y worth of museums I was planning on going to because it wasn't super interesting. I did get lost in it though, but I found these really cool ultra hot water crabs.

3:< is his most accurate face.
That was definitely the highlight of the museum for me. The rest was essentially information I'd covered in my science classes. There was this awesome exhibit of art-technology that had an example of optical camouflage that you could test. I don't have pictures but it was cool, trust me. They did have this huge globe made of of screens that I could have stood and watched over for wayyy too long, but I was sneezing and coughing so a soak was in order.


I left and walked over to the Onsen. I ran into this cat, who was trying to tell me to cross the street because the road was blocked, but I wasn't paying attention.

I said "neko-chan" and the cat who was disgruntled from being wet said "mraaaah"
I knew it would be a little awkward for me, being very obviously foreign, to enter a giant pool full of naked Japanese women, but they couldn't have cared less. The Ooeda Onsen is very touristy. I was not the only foreigner there, nor was I even noticeable. But it certainly was enjoyable. They didn't allow pictures, but it was really neat in there and their English website is fairly good. They start you off by choosing a yukata that you get to wear while inside the main area. You then strip down to your underwear, put on the Yukata and obi and wear it while in the common areas. If you'd like to go to the hot spring, you wander into the changing room for your sex for the hot spring, derobe and wash yourself. They have a bunch of different kinds of hot springs, one of which is rich in mineral deposits and awesome which turns it this weird brownish color. The temperatures are maintained at 30 degrees Celsius and up. There is also a sauna and outdor baths. The out door baths are quite enjoyable.
My favorite part was by far the "Dr. Fish" section of the foot-oriented outdoor unisex spring. There is an underwater walking bath where all these really horrifyingly painful stones have been embedded into the ground. I tried walking on them and this old lady got a huge kick out of when I fell over from how horrifyingly painful it was. Thanks, lady. The Dr. Fish section consisted of these tiny turkish fish (garra rufa in my case)that enjoy eating dead skin cells. They express this by swarming your feet (the only thing you are allowed to place in the bath) and slowly nipping at all of your dead skin cells. I must've been really unclean because the second I put my legs in I got a HUGE SWARM of essentially all the fish in the tank on my feet. Im really ticklish so I couldn't stop laughing but after awhile I got used to the sensation and just enjoyed the fishes feeding frenzy on my feet. It was really bizarre, but totally worth it. I do really mean the whole tank because there were four other people in the tank with me and they only had four or five fish feeding on them when I arrived. These fish were intense. There had to have been over 50 on my feet during the five minutes I chilled out in this pool. It was ridiculous. After the bath I headed back to my room quite exhausted. I feel asleep while trying to read this English tourist magazine I'd picked up.

My eyelids are droopy this morning but I am definitely going to head to the Museum of Contemporary Art today and check out this no doubt epic exhibit. I'm also going to check out some other museums in that area (shibuya). This pass is awesome.