Day 3 Tokyo fire station and Shibuya nightlife

Today it's all about the early bird catches the worm. I wake up before the alarm clock, the fear of oversleeping is too great.

The first mission is to find a hot coffee, which is quite easy. Just 7 hours ago I bought water from the vending machine at home and now a hot coffee. With approximately 75 cents, it's an affordable price. Just very sweet like many Japanese treats.

For today, the program includes Sunshine City with its Pokémon Center, hundreds of capsule vending machines, and the One Piece store. Of course, there's much more, but there's no room for extra stuff.

We accidentally stumble upon the Bandai Store, the largest capsule toy store in Japan. Also in the world. For those who don't know what the machines are, they are comparable to gum vending machines with coin slots, but instead of a short chewing pleasure, you get collectible objects for anime enthusiasts or general collectors of various things.

From 12-12:30, the Tokyo fire station offers an earthquake simulator experience without reservation, to see what the earthquake of 7 magnitude from 2011 felt like. With broken Japanese and English phrases, we manage to explain our request to the ladies at the reception. Very nice ladies for whom the walk from our Airbnb (2km) seems very far. At least that's how their reaction in the conversation feels. Apparently, the Japanese don't like walking as much as the Germans do.

To better understand us, one of the two women fetches a translation device, which works surprisingly well, so we have no problems talking about the rest of our vacation.

After a short wait, it's time and we are handed over to another staff member. She explains to us what to pay attention to and what to expect.

After a really brief briefing, it starts. We are shaken for 30 seconds. It's more exhausting than expected. The heart rate goes up significantly. I'm glad I'm not in an earthquake hazard zone in Germany. An experience under controlled conditions to be prepared in case of an emergency.

But slowly, the stomach starts to rumble, which means we need to have something quick. We meet a bartender from London who recommends visiting Myashita Park and grabbing something quick.

For us, that means fast food, today it's Panda Express. And what can I say, the rice tastes much better here than any rice we get in the convenient section in Germany. In general, the rice is much better. Short-grain rice cooked to perfection. You can feel and enjoy every single grain of rice on your tongue.

The digestion walk takes us to numerous shops. Carhartt, Supreme, or high-quality Nike shoes are easy to find here. But far beyond our vacation budget. So for now, we can only look and not touch. We keep comparing if it's not cheaper for us. Typical penny-pinchers.

The bartender from London recommends a bar in Shibuya where we can experience Tokyo nightlife at least to some extent. Baia.bar in Shibuya is easy to find and well-visited. At 9 pm, the club is packed, and the resident DJs show what they can do. Not comparable to the standard clubs we know from Düsseldorf. Here we get everything: techno, hip hop, pop, old school, and unknown Japanese songs.

Enough opportunities to let loose and show what we're made of on the dance floor.

But since the last train for us leaves at half past 11, we won't stay out too late in Shibuya and we leave in good time. Just in time to see lowriders and highly motorized motorcycles.

Luckily, we have a seat on the train. We stand in the same spot for 15 minutes, waiting for it to finally continue. After an unusually long journey home, we finally arrive at our Airbnb at half past 12. We still have to pack to leave for Nagano tomorrow and enjoy our first visit to a real ryokan. You'll find out what a ryokan is exactly and why Nagano is one of our destinations tomorrow.

With a hot green tea, we get ready for bed and say goodbye for today.