Got up shortly after the alarm went off at 7:30, we needed the rest. For pre-breakfast, Jer got a salmon-mayo-rice-nori triangle (hint, blue on the packaging seems to mean salmon), Jess had her usual belgian waffle, and we split a "fruit pound" — pound cake with random dried fruit bits. Feeling like we didn't want to spend the time, we passed by Mister Donut on the way to the subway. We were sad that the boombox outside didn't shout "Mista Donutu!" at us on the way past.
We took the subway to Ginza, arriving at Matsuya department store at 9:40, far too early for opening time, but too late to grab our second breakfast. We went over to the Apple store to use the net, but they were closed, too. We settled on a slow wander around the block, arriving at 9:56. We waited for opening with a few Japanese folks, watching the more experienced information booth lady explain the opening procedures to the new information booth lady. At 9:58, they opened the doors to the store. Nobody moved. Soon after, church-like bells rang out, announcing 10:00. The information booth ladies took up their positions in the doorways. The instant the bells stopped, the first lady bowed low and welcomed the assembled customers to the store; the second lady then followed suit. As we entered the store, each salesperson we passed bowed and welcomed us — after the third or fourth person, it was hard not to giggle.
We headed down to the basement, which had an amazing array of prepared foods — and no seating! At first, we were the only customers down there, and the chorus of greetings that followed us was a little eerie. Jess was about to eat Jer's head, and we didn't have time to figure out how to consume the food. We headed out to Starbucks, where Jess had a chai tea latte (just the same as home), Jer had a macha (Japanese green tea) latte (yuck), and we split a sausage cheese muffin (opinions varied as to its goodness).
Rejuvenated, we headed back to Matsuya to solve the mystery of the food hall. We wandered around until we found something we wanted to eat — steamed pork buns. The friendly vendor man fed us samples of steamed pork buns (yum), pork shumai (yum), and small circular pork gyoza (YUM!). We tried to ask the vendor man where we could eat his food, even though he spoke almost no English. Jer drew a picture. The man indicated up. We bought four gyoza and headed off in search of sweet things. We found a sweet shop staffed by a friendly vendor lady who spoke no English. There was a lovely red fruit mousse, whose contents we could not divine. We were able to indicate to the saleslady that we wanted to know what it was. She promptly replied "cassis", which Jess recognized as black currant. (French seems to be displacing English as the "cool" language.) Jer ordered one of those, and Jess got something chocolate. Food acquired, we headed "up". We decided to try the 8th floor, which had all the restaurants. Unfortunately, all the seating was attached to one restaurant or another. Frustrated, Jess was about to eat in the chairs in a restaurant waiting area, but Jer wanted to try the next floor up (the "terrace"), which claimed to house a pet store and golf school. Lo, and behold, it was the roof, and it contained a golf school, a pet shop and an open area with tables and chairs (along with a 
shrine). Even though it was a bit cold and windy, we happily munched our gyoza, then attacked the desserts. Jer's had a lemon center and was delicious (even Jess agreed, and she's not so fond of currants). Jess's had a tropical filling (presumably mango), and was also very good, though a bit rich.
After finishing our snack, we quickly viewed the pets, which included an adorable toy poodle, a ¥1,890,000 (nearly $20,000) fish, and birds in impossibly small cages. Then we headed down to the 7th floor to look at the "design exhibit" and kimono. The design exhibit consisted of products that the store considered to be particularly good design, all for sale. By and large, we agreed. High points were a caterpillar toy, a very nice shoulder bag, and a sexy mechanical pencil. Leaving behind 21st century industrial design, we headed over to the kimono department. Jess was wowed by them, particularly the heavily embroidered ones. She was also amazed by the prices, which started at ¥1,990,000 (nearly $20,000) on sale, though most were twice that. We wandered over to the housewares department in search of a microwavable ceramic rice cooker. We didn't find one, but we did buy an exciting sponge for the kitchen.
After leaving Matsuya, we wandered over to a few other department stores, still in search of the rice cooker. (This is a difficult item to describe using a phrasebook, but we settled on "ceramic" "rice" "cooker" "microwave oven" as the right set of words, and it seemed to be understood.) Sadly, Hankyu and Seibu both sold only clothes and accessories. We got close in Matsuzakaya, but the ceramic rice cooker was for stovetop use only. We did get some lunch from the food halls, though. Jer got an asparagus and bacon roll (with mayo) and a sesame cylinder filled with red bean paste. Jess got a potato and bacon roll (also with mayo) and a raspberry-apricot tart. We ate them on the platform while waiting for the train, and all were tasty, but hard to eat.
We took the train to Yoyogi Park, which is lovely and wooded and doesn't feel like it's in the middle of Tokyo. At various points along the paths, great wooden torii (symbolic gates) announce the approach to a shrine. At the center of the park is Meiji Jingu, a Shinto shrine to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken (he's the emperor who reopened Japan to the outside world in 1868). The shrine itself is impressive, but the best part is that there was a wedding while we were there. The bridal party were dressed in elaborate kimono (ladies) and haori and trousers (gents), and there was even a baby in an infant kimono! We watched them process around the shrine, then settle into chairs for their formal portraits. Jer was greatly amused at the amount of preparation involved, as the photographer's assistant asked each person stand up in turn so that he could smooth their garments, properly arrange the folds, etc. He even decoratively arranged the baby's kimono in its father's arms. The whole thing was pretty funny to watch.
When we finished at Meiji Jingu, we excited the park and walked into Harajuku, a trendy neighborhood for the high school set. Our aim was Oriental Bazaar, a shop selling all manner of Asian crafts. It had a wide selection of items, but the most notable were the furniture (carved and gilded cabinets for $1,500), the screens (beautifully carved wooden screens for $420), and the used kimono (starting at $10). We didn't buy much, but it was fun to browse.
In need of a sit-down, we walked to Choco-Cro, a shop selling tea, ice cream and warm chocolate croissants. While Jer got our beverages and a croissant, Jess staked out primo seats overlooking Omotesando-dori, Harajuku's main drag, in the second floor dining area. We greatly enjoyed watching the crowds, and were most amused by a gothic lolita couple (we'd seen a number of girls in similar getups, but this was the first guy).
After our snack, we called Jess's friend Ben, a former colleague now working in Tokyo, and firmed up our dinner plans with him. Having a bit over an hour before we were due to meet him, we took the train to Kabuki-cho, the red-light district. Having been to Amsterdam, Jess was nervous, but it turned out that Tokyo's sex district was extremely discreet. The adult toy and movie shops have opaque windows, the gentlemen's clubs are all upstairs (with posters of scantily-clad "dancers" at street level), the massage parlors had pretty tame ads, and there weren't any obvious prostitutes on the streets. We were much amused at the love hotels, which we could identify by their two-tiered prices (with a "rest" being a bit more than half of a "stay").
Having satisfied our (well, mostly Jer's) curiosity, we took the train to Iidabashi to meet up with Ben. He took us to a very cool little bar with a fantastic collection of booze. We ordered three Japanese whiskies (a Nikka, a Suntory and one whose name Jess didn't catch — of course, that was her favorite!), which were quite drinkable. From there, we headed over to a little Japanese restaurant that Ben knew, and we let him order for us. The food, which came as a cavalcade of small portions, was delicious. We had a bacon-spinach salad, a seared beef salad, age-dashi (battered and fried) mozzarella, a small garlic-onion pizza, a tiny pork dish, some sort of grilled fish bits (perhaps shark fin), tofu with nori, salmon roe, and grated daikon. For dessert, they brought a tray of tiny cakes. Despite the fact that there were only two of each cake type, we managed to stay friends. The sake probably helped. During dinner, Ben told us about a yen store in New York. It's located on the west side of 8th somewhere around 40th.
Ben invited us to meet up with a friend of his who was visiting from Seattle, but it was getting late, and we were pretty exhausted. We had our picture taken in front of a pachinko parlor, and headed back to the ryokan. As usual, we were amazed that some subway lines were packed in as tight as the most popular NYC subway lines at rush hour, whereas others didn't even have all the seats filled. We got back and crawled into bed at midnight.