Part I - More travel: I was ready for this day to go better, Nikko was just not the way I wanted it to be at all and actually I look back on it as a nearly complete failure of a day. Hopefully Day 11 will be better! Starting to fight the cold a little better, now with a throat that was no longer sore at least, we head off bright and early so not to run late for the day. I was still nervous, however, since we were on a tight schedule for the day and it took an extremely long amount of time to get out to Nikko compared to what I had originally planned for. Trying to push those fears aside, we move on and get out of the Ryokan and into taxi's that would take us straight to Nikko Station at 6:30am.
Part II - Apartment Adventure: So, did I mention that by this time I still had no concrete information on our apartment for the final 4 days? No address and no place to meet the apartment manager as of yet, so I was also extremely nervous about this (our payment had been made in full). I had a cell phone number and e-mail address, but without cell phone signals (not to mention the $2/min charges), they were of no use to me now. While on the Shinkansen back we formulate the best plan possible, I will go to Nakano to meet the apartment manager and get into the apartment (which was the last plan mention by him through e-mail) and the rest of the group will head to Odaiba to retrieve the rest of our luggage. With both of our smaller bags in hand, I change at the tranfer point around 9:30am and arrive in Nakano.
Now, I have the thought of "why are we meeting in Nakano when the apartment is in Nishi-Ogikubo?", but dismiss it as the apt. manager knowing better then myself. I get off in Nakano, call the apt. manager from a phone booth (which I finally figured out how to use, go me!) that was located by actually speaking Japanese to the train station workers. It seemed I was doing better in Japan by myself then I was with people! haha ...I confirm our meeting place of the nearby KFC and then also call Sirena to confirm meeting her at the station leading to the Ghibli Museum at 12pm.
I kinda sorta get into the KFC, by that I mean I am an idoit and couldn't locate the odd looking front door, so I went into the side-hallway and took the elevator up. This was actually a good point since I decide to walk back downstairs to the first level to get a good view of anyone who came in. Struggling with two rolling bags, a nice gentleman actually offers to carry them down for me. It is amusing looking back on it, because without hesitation I said "onegaishimasu" (please), where in America I would've said "uh... I got it" in fear someone would run off with said bags. I didn't even realize this point at the time. Finally downstairs with luggage in the corner I realize I am STARVING. KFC for breakfast, eh? Why not, it's Japan, ne? After some struggling to order (again!) due to my original selection being sold out, I end up with a chicken sandwhich with egg on it. Reminded me of something Chick-fil-a would have here in the States, it was a bit salter, but actually really good! After eating I continue to wait around for this apt. manager until 10:30 arrives. He is late! Finally arriving just a few minute short of 11am, he proceeds to apologize profusely as we should've been in Nishi-Ogikubo! *facepalm* ...I should've went with my gut instinct here. Long story short, we take the train two more stops West and end up at the apartment where he proceeds to hold me up (explaining things about the place) until 11:30am. I literally end up running back to Nakano where the others had been waiting for about 15minutes so we can go back to the apartment with the luggage and FINALLY head off to the museum. With no way to contant Sirena, I once again feel horrible for leaving her in the dark.
Part III - Ghibli Museum: With the rest of the group hating me by this point (though it wasn't my fault) because believe Ghibli will not let you in past the ticketed time, we all head to the Ghibili Museum anyway to see what can be done. By this time it is already 12pm, the time stated on the ticket. With a 15 minute or so train ride, we get off and see no sign of Sirena (it was now 12:15 or so), which was no surprise. Walking to the museum took another 15 minutes (Matt and myself were taking a different route, one stop past the rest of the group to look for Sirena) to walk to the museum from there, along the way we see this awesome antique car/truck and get this picture. 
Greeted by a life-size (I presume) Totora outside, we arrive at the museum and attempt to call to the others over walkie, but were briskly swept inside by staff, who assured us out tickets were still good and forced us inside (literally) without the chance to go back outside (no re-immittance). It was a little odd, to say the least. We end up meeting back up with them inside, but somehow Matt lost his ticket to the short film, so we stayed separated from the group for just about all of the museum. It was an interesting place to say the least. Some of the highlights were seeing the case full of all the cels used to make Ponyo, I believe there were over 700,000 if I read the plaque correctly. They were all nicely bound and organized, stacked on top of each other. There was also a room where models, that varied slightly from each other, were arranged on a turntable. Once the turntable started spinning quickly the light would start to strobe and you could see how they were now appearing to be animated, it was really awesome.
We finish up by heading to the store, where I bought some very cool unique items and finally headed to the cafe to eat some sort of weird chicken/rice bowl for lunch (I didn't like it much), but the ice cream for dessert was yummy.
Part V - Shinjuku and Kinokuniya: Not being far from Shinjuku at this point, we decide to just walk. Frustrated at how most of the day gone up to this point, we really just wanted to take a long walk alone anyway. After 20 minutes or so, it was clear we were in the thick of Shinjuku, after entering and finally exiting the station. Once again, my maps were not clear enough and we couldn't figure out just what side of the station we exited on and what side street Kinokuniya was located on. I didn't care much at this point though as Shinjuku looked a lot like Shibuya to me, which I loved. The tall buildings, arcades by the dozen and bright lights, I was just enjoying the moment.
After stopping in a few arcades and walking the streets for awhile, we finally figure it's time to find this place and stop in a drug store to ask. Luckily the clerk was able to figure out what we were asking and pointed us in the correct direction. It must have taken another 20 minutes, but we finally arrived! Much to my surprise, I was less impressed then the Book-off's stores we had previously visited by this main branch of Kinokuniya though. I was disappointed by the selection and how difficult it was to find anything in the six story building without speaking Japanese fluently or being able to read Kanji. It took us forever to find them, but we did locate our JBP volume 2 books for the upcoming Japanese Intermediate class we were taking. Other then that, I don't recall even buying anything here, it was just like a large Borders or Barnes and Noble, but everything was in Japanese and nearly impossible to navigate. Not to mention, by this time, I was spoiled by Book-off prices.
Part VI - Ending the Night: Somehow I don't recall what we really did for the rest of the night. I think we returned to the apartment shortly after leaving Kinokuniya as our feet were really tired from all of the walking. I think we also stopped by a few arcades spotted on the way back, but never saw anything memorable. It was a very exhausting day and I was happy to be in an apartment with a bed. This one was a much more modern place (as to be expected in Tokyo). Located on the 2nd floor of a seven story building. There were two separate bedrooms, a normal size bathroom (set up Japanese style), kitchen and large living room area with pull-out bed. Just enough room for all 5 of us and some place I would easily think about returning to on future trips to Tokyo. It was a pleasant experience. The only downside was I was informed not to have more then 2 heaters on at a time because we could blow a fuse... so we kinda froze the first night. Come the 2nd night, the apt. manager said "try 3 and see" so we were fine after that.
Prices:
- ¥500 - Breakfast (KFC).
- ¥2,400 - Ghibli museum tickets (two).
- ¥4,000 - Misc. merchandise at museum.
- ¥1,600 - Misc. food at museum.
- ¥6,400 - JBP books from Kinokuniya.
- ¥2,000 - Various games at arcades.
- Have a plan on how to meet up with the apt. manager BEFORE leaving for Japan, even if they don't want to 2 weeks in advance.
- How to use a pay-phone!
- State the obvious to apt. manager, like "we're not staying in Nakano".
- Don't count on apt. manager to be on time.
- KFC in Japan, like most places, is better then the States.
- Don't go near Ghibli unless you are prepared to be swept inside Ghibli.
- Tokyo Metro Building is not easy to navigate by sight.
- Shinjuku is as huge as the station makes it out to be.
- Kinokuniya is not easy to locate.
- Kinokuniya really is no better then a Book-off, I actually enjoyed Book-off stores more.
- Pay attention when the apartment manager mentions something about one room having to freeze-to-death. Even when in a rush, this part is important.
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