Chasing the Sun

So I had this great plan to go spend the day in Ikebukuro shopping and whatnot and then catch the sunset from the top of the Sunshine 60 building, but the electric company had other plans for my day.

I went around the corner to a small bento place, bought my sushi lunch, turned around, came home, maybe spent 15min total, returned, flipped on the light, and nothing happened. How is it possible that of all the 15mins there are everyday, the electric company sends in their sneaky little worker right when I'm out?! 15min!!!!

So I called up my landlord and he fixed it. I'm not sure exactly why they switched off my electricity, but I think it has something to do with the mail that I was receiving addressed to a Onodera Teruo. I'm thinking maybe he was the person living in my apartment before me and didn't pay his electricity bill and they decided to turn off my electricity to make him pay. I don't know. I haven't received a bill yet, so I'm cool.

Anyways, my landlord got it all sorted out and in the afternoon a cute, little man with a happy smile came by and turned on my electricity. It took him about 8mins. I'm guessing it took about 8min to turn it off too, right? So some sneaky guy timed it just right so that he would be in and out in 8min with 7min to spare before I returned. I think he was watching from around the corner waiting for me to leave. This was a premeditated and well executed conspiracy. I'm sure of it.

Anywho, that's where my day went. The electric company stole it. They told me they would be right there to turn my power back on and subsequently made me sit in my apartment for an hour and a half with no air conditioning and no internet waiting for them. Very boring and sweaty. I was not amused.

After everything was all fixed, I decided to go to Ikebukuro anyways just to see the sunset from the Sunshine 60 building and do the shopping later, but when I got to the train platform at Nakano, the sun was already beginning to set!

Oh no! So I got on the special super fast Chuo line, ran through Shinjuku station to make my connection, and booked it out of Ikebukuro Station. I had never been to Ikebukuro before, but google maps is really handy. They have this street view feature that lets to virtually walk from point A to B so I knew exactly where I was going and got to Sunshine 60 pretty quickly, but the sun looked pretty low.

Then you have to take an elevator up 60 floors. Note: make sure to swallow a few times to pop your ears otherwise your head will hurt. The elevators in the Sunshine 60 building are really cool though. They turn the lights way down and then the walls start to glow with constellations and sea creatures. I know it sounds odd, but it's really cool I promise.

I finally get to the top and what do I find?

Waaaaaaaaa!!!!! Sunset isn't until 7 pm, but tomorrow's rain clouds are blocking my sunset view!! Even though I ran and actually made it on time, the sun escaped me...

So sad...

But it was still an incredible view! I really liked watching the sky get darker and darker and the ground get more and more twinkly. Would have liked the sunset better though...

There is a nice little cafe at one end. I just got a melon soda. It had a really nice atmosphere up there though.

The stars are on the wrong side of the horizon.^^

Then the moon came out and made up for the lost sunset. None of these pictures are even half as pretty as the real thing. I don't know why, but my camera was having difficulties. Maybe it was just too spectacular. Couldn't handle the spectacularness. tisk, tisk.